Medicine and morals in the enlightenment : : John Gregory, Thomas Percival and Benjamin Rush / / Lisbeth Haakonssen.

• Superior document: Clio Medica ; 44
• VerfasserIn: Haakonssen, Lisbeth,
• Place / Publishing House: Amsterdam ;, Atlanta, Georgia : : Rodopi,, [1997]; 1997
• Year of Publication: 1997
• Language: English
• Series: Clio Medica ; 44.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource.

Modern medical ethics in the English-speaking world is commonly thought to derive from the medical philosophy of the Scotsman John Gregory (1725-1773) and his younger associates, the English Dissenter Thomas Percival (1740-1804) and the American Benjamin Rush (1745-1813). This book is the first extensive study of this suggestion. Dr Haakonssen shows how the three thinkers combined Francis Bacon's and the Scottish Enlightenment's ideas of the science of morals and the morals of science. She demonstrates how their medical ethics was a successful adaptation of traditional moral ideas to the dramatically changing medical world especially the voluntary hospital. In accounting for the dynamics of this process, she rejects the anachronism that modern medical ethics was a new paradigm.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements -- 1. Interpreting Eighteenth-Century Medical Ethics -- Etiquette and Monopoly -- Sympathy and Contract -- A New Interpretation -- 2. John Gregory: Medical Ethics and Common Sense -- Personality and Profession -- The Art and Science of Medicine -- Duties of a Polite Profession -- 3. Thomas Percival: The Duty of Public Office -- Character and Context -- Medical Ethics and Medical Practice -- 4. Benjamin Rush: Medical Ethics for a New Republic -- Character and Connections -- Medical Science -- Medicalized Ethics -- Epilogue -- Index.