Comparative Study Of Philosophy Of Chinese And Western Medicine

Along with the introduction of western medicine into China, it gradually becomesthe mainstream while traditional Chinese medicine loses its leading role in theirconstant conflicts. Based on different theories, though, they both pay top priority toefficacy and effectiveness. Therefore, it is imperative that we realize and reflect ontheir relationship and figure out approaches to balance the two. The past century failedto witness the real unity of the two concepts even though seemingly they are combinedin a certain way. Due attention, thus, should be given to the future of modern medicine,especially the development of western medicine.The conflicts between the two indicate their intrinsic difference which, from theperspective of philosophy, lies in ontology. Specifically, Chinese medicine considersvigor as the foundation of bodies; one can hardly survive without it. In addition, itillustrates humans’ life system base on the theory of “yin, yang and the five elements”,which constructs a practical medical theoretical system macroscopically. On thecontrary, Western medicine believes that human bodies are made up of matter whosemovement maintains our lives microscopically. In terms of methodology, they alsoshow remarkable divergence. Chinese medicine takes the function of human activitiesas its study subject. The researches on the variation of human body function form aunique system characterized by applying systematical ways to explain life activity.Western medicine, however, dividing human body into parts, makes inquiry into thechanges in shape or function which reflect human pathology process. It sees lifephenomenon as commonplace physical and chemical reactions in our daily life. What’smore, they also have different study subjects. Western medicine experiences the wholeprocess of interpreting human life, anatomizing to make clear the morphological structure of human body as well as simulating the physiological and pathologicalchanges, whereas the researches of Chinese medicine has constantly confined to lifeactivity. Form the above-mentioned three aspects, western medicine and Chinesemedicine have fundamental differences.These two concepts coexist in contemporary China. In philosophical term s, chinahas two different medical paradigms and there is hardly any possibility for them tomerge with each other from the historicist perspective. Therefore, Chinese medicineand western medicine will undergo long-term coexistence as well as conflicts.However, these two concepts are not completely opposite to each other. Indeed,possibilities of their integration are immense because they also have thoughts incommon.Finally, the thesis analyzes the future trend of Chinese and western medicineintegration. On the basis of unified truth, the author maintains that these two theorieswill merge with each other and be replaced by a new medical theory. The developmentof both Chinese medicine and western medicine depends on the advent of new medicalparadigm, which inherits the latter and embraces the former, explains all aspects of thetwo theories and paves a new way for medical development. It takes time, but we haveseemingly caught sight of the sign of success.