[Medicine with a human face--a scientific philosophic reflection]

The essay deals with the relationship between the scientific and humanistic social scientific aspects of medical concept formation and science. The first part focuses on methodological differences associated with the two forms of knowledge, emphasizing the distinction between quantitative and qualitative methods. The differences are traced back to type of phenomenon or object researched. On the basis of the special character of human beings and their illnesses it is then argued that scientific medicine necessarily will have to transcend the divide between the natural sciences on the one hand and the humanities and social sciences (the "human sciences") on the other. The unity in medicine is tied to its practice--the art of medicine as carried on in the clinical meeting between doctor and patient.