Newell and Gabrielson¹ have suggested that what distinguishes the humanities is their concern with “the human”. Evans, however,² has suggested that all modalities of inquiry are concerned with the human, in the sense that in seeking to understand and control the world about us we are seeking to understand and affirm our place within it. In this sense medicine appears to be an exemplar par excellence of an inquiry and practice that is concerned with the human. It is this idea that underpins for the author the need for the interdisciplinary conversation that has come to be called “medical humanities”. Of the humanities disciplines philosophy has been associated with medicine since antiquity and applied moral philosophy (medical ethics) is still the humanities discipline that is accepted as an important part of the practice of medicine in modern times. Evidence that this is the case can be seen in the inclusion of the study of medical ethics in undergraduate medical education. Is there a case for a place for a wider philosophical …