René Dubos, his new Hippocratic medicine, and the theology of the Earth

Abstract

In the article I first present a sketch of René Dubos’ academic career. Then I reconstruct his philosophy of medicine and present the foundations of his ecologism, his theology of the Earth. I show that Dubos’ philosophy of medicine includes the following elements: 1. A dynamic and adaptational notion of health and illness, according to which health is the ability of an individual to act in a modified environment, and illness, which is a disturbance of systemic equilibrium, is the beginning of a return to health, that is, the establishment of a new homeostasis. 2. A model of human nature treated as a product of genetic and cultural adaptation to the environment, which combines a dynamic Promethean element with a proneness to injury. 3. An anti-reductionist model of health care that is adapted to man’s nature and to the dynamic and adaptational vision of health, which Dubos usually calls new Hippocratic medicine. In the last part of the article I justify the thesis that the theology of the Earth constitutes an extension of the new Hippocratic medicine to the whole living supersystem of our planet.