Editors' introduction

Abstract

Due to the current boom in medicine and biomedical and pharmaceutical research, the philosophy of medicine has quickly positioned itself among the most relevant and influential philosophical branches in the world. The innovations in treatments and techniques that have been developed have opened new theoretical and ethical questions. While the former comprises issues related to the metaphysics and epistemology of health sciences, the latter concerns medical ethics. Although independent of each other, there is an inevitable rapprochement between both perspectives due to the social impact that health implies. Medical practice is inherently imbued with normative issues that make an epistemological and metaphysical analysis impossible without attending to moral questions that inevitably arise in the course of research. Conversely, moral reflection on medical issues is often fruitless without an analysis of the crucial concepts involved in health sciences and a detailed reflection on medical practice. This mutual dependence between epistemological, metaphysical, and moral issues is, we believe, clearly illustrated in the articles and discussions contained in this special issue of the journal Euphyía.