Making Medical Progress

A compelling study of how the cultural idea of progress has shaped the history and practice of medicine since antiquity.

From ancient Greece to debates on AI, answers to the question 'what is medical progress?' have always been contested. Vanessa Rampton sheds light on the idea and politics of medical progress, who it currently benefits, and how it can be made more meaningful in future. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.Answers to the question 'what is medical progress?' have always been contested, and any one response is always bound up with contextual ideas of personhood, society, and health. However, the widely held enthusiasm for medical progress escapes more general critiques of progress as a conceptual category. From the intersection of intellectual history, philosophy, and the medical humanities, Vanessa Rampton sheds light on the politics of medical progress and how they have downplayed the tensions between individual and social goods. She examines how a shared consensus about its value gives medical progress vast political and economic capital, revealing who benefits, who is left out, and who is harmed by this narrative. From ancient Greece to artificial intelligence, exploring the origins and ethics of different visions of progress offers valuable insight into how we can make them more meaningful in future. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.