Hisayuki Omodaka (1904-1995), a philosopher in Japan, started a lecture on Philosophy of Medicine in a medical school in 1941. Philosophy of Medicine is often interchanged with Introduction of Medicine, but Omodaka clearly declared that both fields were quite different from each other and that his Philosophy of Medicine comprised three crucial and closely-related philosophies: the philosophy of science, the philosophy of life and the philosophy of medicine.
However, his doctrine does not seem to have yet been understood fully. One reason is that his three-volume doctrine is about 740 pages long and it might be difficult to read them through. Therefore, in this paper, I will now summarize Omodaka's doctrine briefly, which may enable people to have an overview of his study and understand the purpose of Philosophy of Medicine and the significance of this field.
Omodaka attempted to accomplish two tasks. One was to establish Philosophy or Medicine as a doctrine, and the other was to set up a department for this study, for it is quite difficult to develop it without such research faculty. He could accomplish the former job successfully, but he could not realize the latter task. He claimed that all medical universities should have such department, but even now, only one medical university has such in Japan.
Now, Medicine faces many significant and complicated problems, and I believe that
Philosophical approaches as well as scientific ones are required to help address such issues. Philosophy of Medicine clarifies the principles of medicine, and aims to create a better medicine in the future.
