ZIP : Medicine and the temporal structure of the good life – theory and method of an empirically and hermeneutically-informed ethics

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The research group’s focus on interrelations between medicine and the temporal structure of the good life requires a systematic combination of philosophical-bioethical and empirical-hemeneutical research perspectives. Only this multi-perspective approach reveals overarching connections between seemingly disparate questions of dealing with chronic diseases, planning reproduction, and healthcare provision in old age that are usually considered in completely different medical and biographical contexts. A fundamental theoretical and methodological discussion of disciplinary approaches, questions, and methods, including the perspectives of relevant social actors, is crucial for the development of a comprehensive and detailed understanding of temporal conditions of the good life in the context of modern medicine. Against this backdrop, the Zentral- und Integrationsprojekt (ZIP) pursues three main objectives. First, it outlines conceptual connections between philosophical perspectives on the good life and similar conceptions in medicine, the health sciences, and social and cultural research. Secondly, it aims for a diachronic synthesis of the different biographical phases and medical specialities in view of the life course as a whole. Thirdly, it contributes to a theoretically and methodologically reflected combination of philosophical and bioethical discussions on the temporality of the good life and corresponding empirical social and cultural analyses of everyday life orientations and media narratives in order to make them productive for the different disciplines and for medicine in particular. The synopsis of the respective medical and biographical contexts of psychocardiology, reproductive medicine, and geriatric care will provide comprehensive conceptual, theoretical, and methodological perspectives on the temporal structure of the good life in the context of modern medicine. The reflection of the ongoing research process will also help to identify theoretical-methodological requirements of this kind of interdisciplinary cooperation at the intersection of ethics and social, cultural and health research. Finally, the ZIP also promotes public deliberation on the temporal conditions of a good life in the context of medical options and possibilities.