Medicine and the Humanities

  • Michael Gordon Department of Medicine & Joint Centre for Bioethics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5198-7077
Keywords: medical humanities, education, medical students
Language(s): English

Abstract

In the earliest writing of stories, physicians and illnesses often played an important role. Some of the renowned scholars in the Jewish tradition, like Moses Maimonides was a philosopher, a prolific writer, and a physician. A few of the world-famous authors include: François Rabelais (1483-1553), Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), Oliver Sacks (1933-2015) and the contemporary Abraham Verghese (1955-), to name just a few. The connection between medicine and the humanities appears to have diminished in some domains due partially to the focus on the scientific advances in medicine and the diminished focus on the humanities, especially in higher education. This I suggest, is a problem for medicine.

Published
2023-06-27
How to Cite
[1]
Gordon M. Medicine and the Humanities. Can. J. Bioeth. 2023;6:149-51. https://doi.org/10.7202/1101138ar.
Section
Perspectives