RESUMO
The knowledge of the history of Medicine does not seem to add "utility" to the activities of a physician. Nevertheless, for a doctor eager to get good intellectual information -or the spiritual perfection called "culture"- the autor gives some reasons on why being acquainted with the history of medicine has some "utility" through the following items: Intellectual dignity: by deliberately and gratefully assuming the best of those who introduced technical devices or methods, as auscultation, or intellectual elaborations, like the etiologic model of Galen. Moral clarity: to perform as if they were his own, great deeds of the personages whose discoveries built the concepts and procedures used nowadays. Intellectual clarity: assuming the reason for being and the sense of what is being done. Intellectual liberty: knowing history in a comprehensive way, frees a doctor from the temptation of considering scientific notions as unmistakably true and definite. A possible option to originality: stimulated by a will of emulation, to search for less insecure or more rewarding knowledge, tending to "complete" what is at present accepted.
Assuntos
Cultura , História da Medicina , Virtudes , História do Século XIX , História do Século XX , HumanosRESUMO
Resumen El conocimiento de la historia de la Medicina no parece aportar "utilidad" a la ejecución de las acciones del médico. No obstante, para el médico deseoso de buena información intelectual -o perfección del espíritu llamada "cultura"- el autor da algunas razones de por qué estar familiarizado con la historia de la Medicina tiene cierta "utilidad", mediante los siguientes ítems: Dignidad intelectual: por asumir deliberada y agradecidamente lo mejor de quienes aportaron elementos técnicos, como la auscultación, o elaboraciones intelectuales, como el esquema etiológico de Galeno. Claridad moral: ejecutar, viéndolas como propias, hazañas de la sucesión de personajes cuyos hallazgos construyeron los conceptos y procedimientos actualmente en uso. Claridad intelectual: poseer la razón de ser y el sentido de aquello que se hace. Libertad intelectual: conocer la historia, de un modo comprensivo, libera de la tentación de considerar las nociones científicas como incuestionablemente ciertas y definitivas. Cierta opción a la originalidad: estimulado por una voluntad de emulación, emprender la búsqueda de saberes menos inseguros o más satisfactorios, que tiendan a "completar" lo actualmente aceptado.
The knowledge of the history of Medicine does not seem to add "utility" to the activities of a physician. Nevertheless, for a doctor eager to get good intellectual information -or the spiritual perfection called "culture"- the autor gives some reasons on why being acquainted with the history of medicine has some "utility" through the following items: Intellectual dignity: by deliberately and gratefully assuming the best of those who introduced technical devices or methods, as auscultation, or intellectual elaborations, like the etiologic model of Galen. Moral clarity: to perform as if they were his own, great deeds of the personages whose discoveries built the concepts and procedures used nowadays. Intellectual clarity: assuming the reason for being and the sense of what is being done. Intellectual liberty: knowing history in a comprehensive way, frees a doctor from the temptation of considering scientific notions as unmistakably true and definite. A possible option to originality: stimulated by a will of emulation, to search for less insecure or more rewarding knowledge, tending to "complete" what is at present accepted.
