Medical Humanics Reflected in the Mirror of the History of Medicine

Abstract

The main aim of the Medical Humanics course, as well as that of this university, is to educate students so that they will continue philosophizing for themselves throughout their lives. Dr. Hisayoshi Omodaka, the founder of Japanese Medical Humanics (or Igaku Gairon), claimed that this discipline must be the philosophy of medicine. Medical Humanics should be the philosophy for physicians, researchers and all other health-related professionals. This philosophy is different from the philosophy which is taught independently to freshmen in the university. Thus the philosophy of medicine should embody those concrete materials which are harvested directly from the hot spots of medical practice. This paper is based on the author's series of lectures in medical humanics with the title: "Man and Medicine", given between October and December of 1982 to the 5th-year undergraduates. In this series the author attempted to express his own views, along with the philosophical thinking of many great physicians and thinkers, so far as they are reflected in the mirror of the history of medicine. The outline is as follows: (1) Usefulness of the history of medicine for medical students. (2) Origin of medicine and the occult sciences. (3) Western classic medicine: from Hipocrates to the Renaissance. (4) Chinese classic medicine. (5) Brief sketch of Japanese medicine: from ancient to Meiji period. There is a general tendency among both medical students and teachers to make little of the history of medicine. However, as William Hazlitt wrote in his poem, "By despising all that has preceded us, we teach others to despise ourselves".