Abstract
Translator's summary and notes: Karl Jaspers (1883–1969) argues that modern advances in the natural sciences and in technology have exerted transforming influence on the art of clinical medicine and on its ancient Hippocratic ideal, even though Plato's classical argument about slave physicians and free physicians retains essential relevance for the physician of today.
Medicine should be rooted not only in science and technology, but in the humanity of the physician as well. Jaspers thus shows how, within the mind of every medical person, the researcher contests with the physician and the technician with the humanist.
Jaspers therefore opposes all modern tendencies that regard men as abstractions. As a creative existentialist influenced by Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Husserl, he reasons that clinical medicine should always treat patients as irreducable individuals, and his thinking on psychotherapy argues for a realm of interiority, freedom, intelligibility, and existential communication that transcends the reach of the causal thinking of natural science.
This essay, written in 1959, reflects Jaspers' lifelong preoccupation with the philosophical meaning of medicine (he received his MD degree in 1909) and the totality of the human person. It should significantly enhance our own comprehension of medical power, dangers, reasoning, and accomplishments.
Key words have been added by the translator.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Additional information
This article was originally published under the title: Der Arzt im technischen Zeitalter. Universitas: Zeitschrift für Wissenschaft, Kunst und Literatur 1959;14(4):337–54. English translation by Arthur A. Grugan, Holy Family College, Philadelphia, USA.
The translation is made with the written authorization of Professor Hans Saner, the executor of Karl Jaspers' literary estate, in Basel, Switzerland. In a letter of 13 July 1985, Saner grants the translator permission to publish his translation. The translator expresses warm gratitude to Saner for his gracious letter and authorization.
Furthermore, the editorial office of Springer Verlag, publisher of Universitas, in Heidelberg, also grants the translator permission to publish his translation. The translator thanks Springer for that permission.
Since Jaspers' language is often exceptionally difficult, translating it is often arduous. The translator wishes to acknowledge Professor Bernhardt G. Blumenthal, Chairman, Foreign Language Department, LaSalle College, in Philadelphia, PA for allowing him to spend concentrated periods of time in his home, receiving invaluable assistance on the translation. Blumenthal's help was crucial, and the translator thanks him for his generous, fastidious work.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jaspers, K. The physician in the technological age. Theor Med Bioeth 10, 251–267 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00489443
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00489443