Humanism is a simple word, but it is not so simple in medicine. Medicine and humanism have always been inseparable words. Medicine needs to pay attention to humanistic spirit, which plays a people-oriented role in medicine. Here are humanities and medical papers. Let's have a look!
In humanities and medical papers, there is no unified definition of the term medical humanities. But there is no doubt that it is a discipline group rather than a discipline. Medical humanities is an interdisciplinary research field. It goes from humanities to philosophy, history, literature, religion, anthropology, culturology, psychology, sociology and other social sciences, drama, movies, visual arts, etc. It discusses the value of health, disease, life, death, pain and happiness to human society, investigates the value of medicine and health care to human society, and studies and pays attention to how these disciplines are applied to medical education.
The word "human nature" has different opinions from ancient times to the present. In Modern Chinese Dictionary, it refers to various cultural phenomena in human society, which has at least four academic meanings. First, it refers to humanism, which is a cultural tradition (oriental tradition and western tradition) and ideological trend. Secondly, it is the abbreviation of humanism, including philosophical, religious and ethical explanations of humanity, humanism and humanism. Third, it refers to the humanities. Fourthly, it refers to the humanistic value, a super-(non-) utilitarian cultural vision, and resists utilitarianism and instrumentalism. Talking about the concept of "medical humanism", the "humanism" here mainly emphasizes: first, the ultimate concern for people and the promotion of human nature; Another meaning refers to "humane" medicine, such as the ethical value in medical research and clinical treatment. The following mainly aims at these two meanings to make a comparative analysis of medical humanities and medical humanities.
1. Ultimate care and universal care
The value expression of ultimate care is very rich, including the humanistic medical traditions such as organic theory, natural history, ecology and humanism in biology, humanitarian care, the perfection of religious feelings, and the personification of virtue models in medical history.
The difference between medical humanities and medical humanities lies in that the former opposes the value hegemony of technicalism with ultimate care, while the latter temporarily abandons the highest idealized way (ultimate care) and seeks public rationality and universal care under the premise.
The ultimate concern focuses on the cultivation and promotion of individual natural taste and moral and ethical sentiments, the natural experience of aesthetic dimension and the natural understanding and reflection of philosophical dimension. As the moral pursuit and spiritual core of most literati and intellectuals, "ultimate concern" has its justice and truth, but it also has a profound cultural origin and inheritance (whether in the East or the West, there are traditions of humanism, humanitarianism and natural history; China has the Confucian concept of "benevolence"), but as a rational voice, ultimate concern is difficult to spread to medical practice and real life because of its own idealization and poeticization. Although there are many flashing words, thoughts and criticisms, more occasions have become an angry and rebellious gesture, and the actual strength is very thin and delicate. There is no root to talk about, which will inevitably become the narcissism of scholars.
It is more realistic for medical humanities to be based on public rationality and universal concern. Professor Tsinghua University Wan Junren explained the universal ethics in Seeking Universal Ethics, which is "an integrated ethical concept based on the value order enjoyed by human beings and their basic moral life, especially the secular moral issues related to their basic survival and development", that is, "a bottom line ethics of secular life with universal binding force".
Generally speaking, universal concern is no longer the maximization of the highest moral standards, but the maximization of the lowest value of secular morality. It is generally concerned about examining moral life from different angles, describing the complexity of human activities and the psychological and social aspects of moral behavior, and organically linking the internal morality of medicine with the external morality of social, cultural and religious traditions in medical practice.
2. Narrow or wide
The ultimate concern of medical humanities mainly focuses on the cultivation and promotion of individual qualities and moral sentiments. In this process, the critical reflection of medical humanities on medicine mainly focuses on ethical values. This ethical tendency of medical humanities, that is, medical humanities completely turn to ethical issues and no longer pay attention to medical epistemology, methodology and other issues, which makes their situation more and more cramped and narrow, and finally becomes the yardstick of moral internalization. There is neither a clear academic outlook nor a camp for conceptual analysis, boundary determination and system construction.
The two major drawbacks of medical humanities amplify the above shortcomings of medical humanities. One of the main shortcomings is the "pre-modern" humanistic tradition; The second is to adhere to the subversive post-modern tendency. The former takes modern humanistic values and humanistic spirit (whether China Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism or Western Catholicism) as the yardstick to measure contemporary medicine and medical practice, and pays little attention to the humanistic resources of modern and contemporary medicine, which lacks the opening significance for the humanistic construction of contemporary medicine. In the latter's eyes, the value of medical humanities is to constantly challenge the loss of medical technology, the panic of medical system and the decline of doctors' morality. The value game between medical humanities and medical science and technology and medical system is the normal academic ecology. Medical humanities cannot and should not become the accomplice and accomplice of contemporary medical science and technology, system hegemony, human nature and human nature degeneration, but should become the nemesis of utilitarianism and technicalism. The deficiency of the latter lies in more destruction than construction, more blind resistance than rational reconstruction and combing, and it is impossible to go deeper and deeper on the academic road.
On the contrary, the value reflection in medical humanities documents is broader, involving many values in modern medicine or health care, such as social value, political value, spiritual value, aesthetic value, cognitive value, gender value and so on. Although these values are closely related to medicine, they are rarely valued and concerned by "medical humanities". The medical humanities, because it is not a single research field, tries to explain and solve the problems faced by medicine by applying the viewpoints and research methods of humanities. The research methods are more diverse, and the scope and perspective of research are broader. It not only reflects on the inherent problems of traditional medicine, but also reflects on all medical science, medical practice and medical humanities. Medical humanities advocate dialogue with literature, anthropology, philosophy, history and other humanities to avoid the ethical tendency of "medical humanities". These subjects examine moral life from different angles, describe the complexity of human activities and the psychological and social aspects of moral behavior, and organically link the internal morality of medicine with the external morality of social, cultural and religious traditions in medical practice. Different and even contradictory views constantly broaden and deepen our understanding of the problem in the atmosphere of medical humanities seeking tolerance and cooperation.
References:
[1] Zhang Daqing. From multidisciplinary to interdisciplinary. China Medical Humanities Review, 2008,2:1.
[2] Wang. Concept and boundary of medical humanities. Fifteen lectures on medical humanities. Beijing: Peking University Publishing House, 2006. 3- 15
[3] Wang. Questioning the essence and value of medicine: from bioethics to medical humanities. Fifteen lectures on medical history. Beijing: Published by Peking University.
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