| William Pulteney Alison, the Scottish philosophy, and the making of a political medicine. | |
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MedLine Citation:
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PMID: 16377755 Owner: NLM Status: MEDLINE |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
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This article considers the public health and social-reform agitations of Dr. William Pulteney Alison (1790-1858), professor of medicine at Edinburgh University and leader of the Scottish medical profession, in the context of Scottish moral philosophy. Throughout his career, Alison reflected on what has come to be recognized as a central problem of social medicine: where did its domain end? At what point did the medical mission of identifying and eliminating factors that harm health pass into a non-medical domain-the provinces of political economy, individual liberty, participatory politics, or acceptance of nature's dictates? On these issues Alison was an expansionist, relentlessly pushing back the borders of medicine. Drawing on Alison's writings on such disparate topics as the philosophy of mind, the epidemiology of infectious diseases, and modes of agrarian organization, the article argues that the trajectory of much of Alison's work was to discover the structural implications of a comprehensive biological reading of human capacity and behavior. It is therefore appropriate to see him as a promulgator of a "political medicine," which he presented as a critical alternative to the classical political economy of the Scottish Malthusians. The article concludes by suggesting that Alison's work (and influence) have been under-recognized and remain pertinent to modern social epidemiology, public health, and medicine more broadly. |
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Authors:
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Christopher Hamlin |
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Publication Detail:
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Type: Biography; Historical Article; Journal Article Date: 2005-12-23 |
Journal Detail:
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Title: Journal of the history of medicine and allied sciences Volume: 61 ISSN: 0022-5045 ISO Abbreviation: J Hist Med Allied Sci Publication Date: 2006 Apr |
Date Detail:
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Created Date: 2006-03-03 Completed Date: 2006-05-23 Revised Date: - |
Medline Journal Info:
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Nlm Unique ID: 0413415 Medline TA: J Hist Med Allied Sci Country: England |
Other Details:
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Languages: eng Pagination: 144-86 Citation Subset: IM; Q |
Affiliation:
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Department of History, University of Notre Dame, 219 O'Shaughnessy Hall, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556-0368, USA. hamlin.1@nd.edu |
Export Citation:
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| MeSH Terms | |
Descriptor/Qualifier:
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Epidemiology
/
economics,
ethics,
history* History, 19th Century Humans Morals* Philosophy, Medical / history* Politics* Public Health / economics, ethics, history* Scotland Social Medicine / ethics, history* |
| Personal Name Subject | |
Personal Name Subject:
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William Pulteney Alison |
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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