The Health Thoughts and Contemporary Enlightenment of Aristotle / 中国医学伦理学

ABSTRACT

In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle expounded his thoughts on health by analogy. Through summarizing Aristotle’s main thoughts on health, which including clarifying that the purpose of medicine is health, thinking that only moderation can create, promote and maintain health, emphasizing active-passive doctor-patient relationship, and generally respecting medical discipline and healthy life, this paper founded that his thoughts on health have obvious limitations. The limitations included: ignored the purpose of medicine also included group health; the "moderation" theory lacked accuracy and scientificity; weakened the patient’s right to speak in the doctor-patient relationship and did not give a clear guide to "how to live a healthy life". And then explored the enlightenment of Aristotle’s health thoughts to the development of contemporary society.