Quality of Life: A Post-Pandemic Philosophy of Medicine 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated the need for a new perspective on health and healthcare. This book offers a philosophical critique of medicine as an applied science, but emphasises more positively the social causes of disease and argues for greater equity in the distribution of resources and the benefits of a broader evidence base for medical treatment. The proposed approach calls for a new direction in medical ethics that draws on the arts and humanities and leads to a revised conception of medical education and medical professionalism. The proposed approach implies a shift away from an individualistic philosophy of medicine towards a new goal of community-based quality of life. Achieving this goal certainly requires an expansion of public health medicine and health promotion, but it also requires medical collaboration with the many arts agencies and other community organisations concerned with our health and wellbeing.