Is Value Based Practice Possible without Metaphysics? Contribution to Further Research

Preview: Value Based Practice (VBP) is the position (both practical and theoretical, philosophical and medical), which was derived by Bill Kenneth Fulford from the Natural Language Philosophy. Fulford and his collaborators are interested in the language spoken by all the parties involved in medical care and social work. This language, they claim, is filled with different and inconsistent values. Different values guide the actions of a doctor, a patient, the patient’s family, the employer of doctors, the employer of patients, etc. The aim of VBP is to arrange a situation in which all stakeholders can find their own values and negotiate with other parties in order to help the experts make the most appropriate clinical decisions. What all contributors of VBP have in common is the notion that there is no place for metaphysical or anthropological concerns in the aims of their project. In this short paper I will formulate the basics of the thesis that there are some non-verbalised premises at the heart of VBP theory, which are in opposition to this declaration. First I would like to provide some basic information about VBP and then to suggest some sketches of possible arguments.