Course Syllabus

Phil 173 Philosophy of Medicine

Instructor Colleen Hanson (she/her)

crhanson@humnet.ucla.edu

Course Description: 

As an institution, medicine provides a remarkable and crucial role in our ability to live well. It seems, however, that medicine’s capacity to help us live well depends on how we conceive of what it means to be in an optimal state of well being. What does it mean to be healthy? What does it mean to be ill? 

This course is an intensive introduction to some key ideas and arguments in the philosophy of medicine. We begin with some readings about how to define health and disease. We will study various concepts of health and disease, including naturalistic, normative, and phenomenological theories. We will evaluate these health and disease theories using mental health, addiction, and pregnancy, about which there are controversies whether they can be regarded as diseases. Finally, we will turn to readings that will help us consider how various theories of health and disease might frame our decisions about enhancement and disability. Throughout the course we will be attending to the ways in which our discussions have an impact on minority populations. 

 

Course aims: 

As a result of this class, students should gain a deeper insight into some important issues in the philosophy of medicine, while sharpening their abilities to discuss difficult problems, analyze arguments, and write philosophical papers. Students will also gain the ability to apply these philosophical skills of argumentation and critical thinking to broader issues beyond academic settings. 

 

Texts:

All texts for this course will be made available on the course website.

 

Assignments and grading: 

Your grade for the course will be determined as follows:

Reading responses 20%
Paper 1 (3–4 pages) 25%
Paper 2 (4–5 pages) 35%
Participation 20%

 

Participation: 

The best way to do philosophy is by actively engaging, and so participation is very important! Active engagement is encouraged and expected through weekly reading responses, papers, and participation in section, lecture, and office hours.

 

Papers:

You will write two papers for this class. Prompts will be assigned for each paper, with at least two possible topics for you to write on per paper. Both papers should be submitted through the course website.

Any paper submitted late, without an extension granted by the instructor or teaching assistant, will be penalized 1/3 of a letter grade for each twenty-four-hour period after the deadline. (So, if the deadline were at 3:00 pm on Monday, then you would be penalized 1/3 of a letter grade if you submitted the paper between 3:00 pm on Monday and 3:00 pm on Tuesday; you would be penalized an additional 1/3 of a letter grade if you submitted the paper between 3:00 pm on Tuesday and 3:00 pm on Wednesday; and so on.)

General advice for extensions: extensions requested several days in advance of the paper deadline are more likely to be granted. Your request must also include a new proposed deadline for your submission. If you request an extension within 24 hours of a paper deadline, we will need to have a conversation in order for me to grant approval. It is always best to talk to me sooner rather than later. 

Reading responses: 

Reading responses must be submitted each week, due by 11:59 pm on Friday of that week, via the appropriate link on the course website. (So, your response for Week 2’s reading, for instance, must be turned in by 11:59 pm on Friday of Week 2.) The responses will be graded on a full-credit/half-credit/no-credit basis. Responses submitted after their deadline will receive no credit, and there are no makeup reading responses. There will be 6 reading responses in total, but your response with the lowest grade will be dropped: only your 5 best reading responses will count towards your final course grade.

If you are satisfied with your grade for your first 5 reading responses, you don’t have to submit the 6th one. Each of those 5 best responses is worth 4% of your course grade; collectively, they comprise 20% of that grade.

Your responses should be 1–1.5 double-spaced pages in length and should critically engage with (rather than recap or summarize) the reading–e.g. making a criticism of an argument in the reading, offering further reasons in support of an argument in the reading, posing a question about the reading, etc. Responses that do not involve critical engagement will receive no credit. 

 

Email policy:

Having a philosophical discussion via email is much more inefficient and time consuming than most students realize. So, I don’t provide a substantive response to emails asking me to explain something or to evaluate a start on a paper. If you have a substantive question (i.e., about some course content or an idea you have), it’s much better to ask me or your TA in lecture or office hours. Email is fine for administrative questions that require only a brief answer.

 

Academic Misconduct: 

Students are expected to know and to follow the University's guidelines for academic honesty. Academic misconduct can occur in a variety of ways, including (but not limited to) cheating, fabrication, and plagiarism. When in doubt about whether some academic practice is acceptable, ask your TA or the instructor for assistance. Always err on the side of avoiding academic misconduct. Any suspected violation of university policy regarding academic conduct will be reported directly to the Office of the Dean of Students. There are no exceptions.

Resources:

• Here is a direct link to The University's Guide to Academic Integrity: https://www.deanofstudents.ucla.edu/portals/16/documents/studentguide.pdf
• Here is a link to the UCLA Writing Programs: http://www.wp.ucla.edu/
• Students needing academic accommodations based on a disability should contact the Center for Accessible Education (CAE): http://www.cae.ucla.edu/
• The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a great resource for providing helpful overviews of topics related to the course (or philosophy in general). You can find the SEP at plato.stanford.edu 
• UCLA Title IX: https://sexualharassment.ucla.edu/ 
• Please note that I am a mandated reporter

Class schedule:

WEEK 1: Health and Disease: Naturalism  

Readings: 

• Boorse, C. (1977), “Health as a theoretical concept” 
• Kingma, E. (2007), “What is it to be Healthy?” 

 

WEEK 2: Health and Disease: Normativism 

Readings: 

• Cooper, R. (2002), "Disease" 
• Nordenfelt, L. (1995) On the Nature of Health. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Chapters 3 & 4.

 

WEEK 3: Health and Disease: Phenomenology

Readings: 

• Carel, H. (2007), “Can I be Ill and Happy?”

 

WEEK 4: Controversial Diseases: Mental Illness 

Readings: 

• Szasz, T. S. (1960), “The Myth of Mental Illness”
• Wakefield, J. (2007), “The concept of mental disorder: diagnostic implications of the harmful dysfunction analysis”

 

WEEK 5: Controversial Diseases: Addiction, Pregnancy 

Readings: 

• Holton, R. and Berridge, K. (2013), “Addiction Between Compulsion and Choice”
• Smajdor, A. and Räsänen, J. (forthcoming), “Is pregnancy a disease? A normative approach”

 

WEEK 6: Enhancement

Readings: 

• Whitehouse, Peter J., et al. (1997), "Enhancing cognition in the intellectually intact." 
• Quigley, M. and Harris, J. (2010), “To Fail to Enhance is to Disable”