8th FY Khoo Memorial Lecture 2012--Why radiologists need philosophy.

1Discipline of Medical Imaging, University of Sydney Address for Correspondence: Dr Shih Chang Wang, Department of Radiology, Westmead Hospital, Darcy Road, Westmead NSW 2145, Australia. †Delivered on 11 February 2012 at the 21st Annual Scientifi c Meeting 2012 of the Singapore Radiological Society and the College of Radiologists, Singapore Introduction Firstly, I wish to thank the Singapore Radiological Society and the College of Radiologists, Singapore for deeply honouring me with the invitation to give the FY Khoo Memorial Lecture for this year’s Annual Scientifi c Meeting. Today, I will present you an argument that radiologists should be conscious of philosophy as an integral part of our training and clinical practice. This lecture explores the 5 main branches of philosophy as they apply to radiology. In doing so, I will show that we use these philosophical themes in our work constantly, and hopefully this will highlight the need for some appreciation of philosophy in medical imaging today. As I go through each of these branches, I will highlight how they pertain to medical imaging. And fi nally, I will conclude (and hopefully you will agree) that we need a more philosophical approach to our learning and practice. Of course, I should make a disclaimer fi rst —as you know, I am not a philosopher, so I am learning as well. Nevertheless, despite my credentials as an amateur student of philosophy, I hope to at least raise the curtain on some philosophical concepts, and along the way show that all the key domains of philosophy are highly relevant to medical imaging. Dictionaries defi ne philosophy as the study of the nature of knowledge, reality, and existence. It involves critical thinking, through a systematic approach and rational argument, and is aimed at generalisability. Western philosophical thought can be traced back to the Athenian Greek philosopher Socrates (469 BC – 399 BC), over 2400 years ago. Although hugely infl uential and the originator of the Socratic method of ‘dialectic’ (using questions to explore the nature of truth, ethics and logic), Socrates never wrote or published anything. Despite achieving great fame during his lifetime, he was famously condemned to death by his fellow Athenians for, in effect, asking too many questions! It was Socrates’ student, Plato (423 – 347 BC), who immortalised him in writing. Without Plato, and other Socratic students such as Xenophon, we would have no surviving records of Socratic thought. A classical Greek philosopher and mathematician, writer of dialogues, and founder of the Academy of Athens, Plato explored through his ‘Dialogues’ a vast range of concepts and ideas, to elicit the critical thinking that ultimately led to the scientifi c method and the Western approach to knowledge. These contributions are so profound and fundamental to Western philosophy that it has even been claimed that: “European philosophical tradition... consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.” AN Whitehead (1861 – 1947)