Pathophysiology as the Foundation of Medical Knowledge
Pathophysiology as the Foundation of Medical Knowledge: A Rehabilitation of Theoretical Reasoning in Medicine Claus D. Volko (Independent Scholar, Vienna, Austria) Abstract Pathophysiology, understood as the study of the mechanisms underlying disease, constitutes the true foundation of medical knowledge, yet it is often sidelined in contemporary medical systems in favor of diagnostic routines and evidence-based classification schemes. This essay argues that pathophysiology is more than a subdivision of theoretical medicine: it is the epistemological core of medical reasoning. Pathophysiology is a paradigm of medical thought. It enables an understanding of the dynamic processes that link health and disease, thereby fundamentally differing from diagnostic medicine, which primarily classifies and labels symptoms. Based on an analysis of current structures in teaching and clinical practice, the essay shows that medicine often operates nominalistically: it names disease entities instead of ...