The place of surgery in the philosophy of medicine

Abstract

Although surgery is a fundamental part of medicine and of great relevance in today's society, it has not been taken into account by the philosophy of medicine. Due to the eminently practical nature of surgery, a systematic investigation will allow us, among other aspects, to elucidate general features of scientific practices in which tacit knowledge is essential. Therefore, to integrate surgery within the general framework of the philosophy of medicine, a first tentative corpus of problems on which the philosophy of surgery can focus is proposed, which include: epistemic issues about learning surgical skills and their transformation; the evidence used in surgery, as well as how surgeons validate their interventions against other medical specialties and whether the lack of randomized clinical trials is epistemically justified; Finally, the form of approval of medical devices that are widely used in surgery is examined. This will show that the philosophy of surgery has the potential to establish itself as an autonomous area within the philosophy of medicine.