Glimpse

Volume 13, 2011

Phenomenology and the "Science of Medical Imaging"

In this article I will bring phenomenological analysis to medicine, but differently from many "humane" approaches to various medical issues, I will explore from the standpoint of Husserlian phenomenological philosophy one "empirical" method of medical diagnostics, i.e. medical imaging, which in turn belongs to the celebrated tradition of scientific imaging. Hence I will relate three major Husserlian projects, that is Categorial intuition. Image Consciousness and Constitution of the Other (phenomenological aspect) to radiological diagnostics, based on various modes of medical imaging (media aspect), for example, stages of radiological diagnosis and the structure of Image Consciousness. This perspective opens up the way to distil transcendental conditions of the "radiologist at work" (identity aspect), to see the importance of mediating intentionalities, discovered by Husserl, for any theoretical enterprise and to speculate about the possible improvement of diagnostics performed by human being and/or computer.