Interdisciplinary approach to studying environmental medicine as a science

The paper deals with the current theoretical issues of environmental medicine and the possibility of taking an interdisciplinary approach in this regard. As environmental medicine is a new science with a complex subject matter, it is necessary to study the subject matter and the target of modern environmental medicine in detail. To define them is a key problem of logical and methodological analysis of scientific knowledge. The paper notes the importance of the theoretical synthesis of knowledge at the interface between medicine and ecology and the creation of a new discipline, i.e. environmental philosophy, which leads to a greater theoretical emphasis on the subject matter of environmental medicine as a science. The analysis of theoretical emphasis shows that it is necessary to use the principles of modern theories of knowledge and logic, and research should be based on the synthesis of a dialectic between nature and society, empirical and theoretical, biological and social items. It is still relevant to provide a rationale for solving the problems of the subject matter and the target of environmental medicine and apply such categories as historicism, causality, empirical and theoretical notions, integrity, and structure to them. The specific feature of the study lies in the cross-sectoral nature of problems. The author draws attention to the fact that environmental medical knowledge is socially conditioned; it is an integral part of a certain era and fits into its context. The place of environmental medicine among other sciences can be revealed in the context of not only the relationship between nature and society, social and biological items but also a reliable theoretical foundation to be established.