Posted on March 22, 2004 at 1:37 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Philosophers, sociologists and other scholars from around the nation will gather at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) this spring to examine a range of health-related issues through the lens of philosophy, metaphysics, epistemology and other disciplines.

The conference, “Philosophical Issues in Medical Science,” will be held noon to 6 p.m. Thursday, May 13; 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, May 14; and 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, May 15, at the Bevill Biomedical Research Building, Rooms 170 and 263, 845 19th Street South. The event is sponsored by the UAB Center for Ethics and Values in the Sciences.

Topics will include: the objective reality of medical concepts, the nature of disease, the social process in producing medical knowledge, the nature of mental health and illness, the role of values in medical research and practice, the role of medicine in a liberal democracy and the role of clinical trials in medical research.

Conference organizers are accepting submissions for additional speakers. For more details, contact the UAB Department of Philosophy at (205) 934-4805.