Medical Imaging and Philosophy: Challenges, reflections and actions

Medical Imaging plays a prominent role in contemporary medical research and practice. At the same time imaging in its broadest sense, including illustration, diagramming, model-making, photography and other forms of image rendering, has a long tradition in medicine. Imaging has served different purposes ranging from depicting to backing concepts or creating convincing evidence. Thus, imaging the human body has different aspects not only related to techniques or current interpretations of visual representations through medical imaging technologies. The way the human body was and is displayed in medicine also reflects a range of cultural, historical, artistic and scientific concerns. Therefore, the editors of this book organized an international interdisciplinary conference in 2010 to bring together perspectives on Medical Imaging from medicine, philosophy, history and arts. This book summarizes the results of this interdisciplinary conference including representative examples of what was presented and discussed. It offers stimulating papers addressing readers interested in the status of medical images and their interpretation by different disciplines.