Short History of the Evolutionary Medicine

History of the Evolutionary Medicine and Its Applicability To Medical Education

Choi, Jongduck

It is matter to review the possibility of integration between historical epistemology of the evolutionary medicine and functionalistic methodology of clinical medicine. The history of evolutionary thinking which has been emerged in the first half of the 19th century had influenced the Darwin's evolutionary theory. Furthermore the evolutionary theory which has been established by Charles Darwin yielded the new viewpoints of the medical affairs. Unfortunately the Darwin’s evolutionary theory had been distorted in socially and medically eugenics during the early 20th century. The evolutionary theory had been falsely represented in the name of ‘medical Darwinism’, which called by Zampieri. Duration of medical Darwinism could have lasted for the 60 years just before WW II. In the 90s evolutionary medicine in the modern sense has been developed. In this manner the epistemological base and etiology of the evolutionary medicine have been changed and modified. Even though Darwin's evolutionism became to be a normal science, the evolutionary medicine still has been almost excluded in the clinical medicine nowadays. It would be needed for the evolutionary medicine to enter into current curriculum of medical education as well. This justifiability could be realized through the illuminate the difference between the ultimate medical cause and proximate clinical cause.

Keywords : Evolution, Evolutionary Medicine, Vulnerability to Disease, View of Body, Medical Education, Human Medicine

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