Commentary
Reflective thinking and medical students: some thoughtful distillations regarding John Dewey and Hannah Arendt
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Correspondence: Thomas J Papadimos thomas.papadimos@utoledo.edu
University of Toledo College of Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, 3000 Arlington Avenue, Toledo, Ohio 43614, USA
University of Michigan, School of Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, 1500 East Medical Center Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine 2009, 4:5 doi:10.1186/1747-5341-4-5
Published: 16 April 2009Abstract
Reflective thought (critical thinking) is essential to the medical student who hopes to become an effective physician. John Dewey, one of America's foremost educators in the early twentieth century, revolutionized critical thinking and its role in education. In the mid twentieth century Hannah Arendt provided profound insights into the problem of diminishing human agency and political freedom. Taken together, Dewey's insight regarding reflective thought, and Arendt's view of action, speech, and power in the public realm, provide mentors and teachers of medical students guidance in the training of thought and the need for its effective projection at the patient's bedside and in the community.