One of my long-term writing goals is to write a treatise on the ethics of AI in healthcare.
But to pursue this I realized I had to first clarify what I meant by healthcare, which then led me to consider the definition of health, and finally, so I can recognize a good definition of health when I see it, to figure out what I even mean by a good definition.
So, that’s where I am now. Trying to define definition—an intellectual exercise deep in an ant hole of a mole hole of a rabbit hole.
So is it worth it—spending the next year or longer crawling out of these philosophical holes I have dug for myself?
I’m not sure, but as a look around at all of the difficult discussions going on within healthcare, I often see people talking past each other, and I suspect part of this is because they haven’t even taken the time to agree on the definitions of the words and concepts they are discussing.
So, my time spent thinking about the philosophy of definitions may not be able to solve any of the problems within healthcare, but just perhaps it will help a few people agree on what the definitions of the words are surrounding these problems.