Virtue and the Practice of Medicine

Read deeply, lead thoughtful conversations, and explore what it means to care well for another person.

From our curriculum: A Physician Examining the Children of a Poor Italian Family — after Edouard de Jans.

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New Chapter Leaders: Start Here

Use the Chapter Leadership Guide to work through these steps with your team.

  1. Get Oriented Begin with New Chapter Leaders: Start Here to choose your pathway and contact the National Team early. Register for free to begin the guide.
  2. Build Your Team Recruit at least two student leaders and two faculty sponsors. Follow your pathway’s launch guide and submit the proposed inaugural team to the National Team for approval.
  3. Watch the Masterclass Explore the Society’s foundational ideals and practices, including narrative, art, virtue ethics, and flourishing, in the HippSoc Masterclass as a leadership team. Facilitators must complete it before leading a discussion.
  4. Plan Your First Gathering Choose readings from the curriculum and use the leadership guide’s planning and facilitation resources.

Resources

Leadership Masterclass artwork

Leadership Masterclass

Explore virtue, flourishing, and practical wisdom in medicine. Learn to lead thoughtful discussions through video lessons and guided reflection.

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Chapter Leadership Guide artwork

Chapter Leadership Guide

Start and sustain your chapter. Find launch guides, planning checklists, and practical advice for leading meetings.

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Undergraduate Curriculum artwork

Undergraduate Curriculum

Explore five enduring questions about medicine and the human person. Use readings, clinical cases, and discussion outlines with your chapter.

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Access the Courses

Course overviews and outlines are open to everyone. Register for free to study the Leadership Masterclass, Chapter Leadership Guide, or Virtue Curriculum. Full lessons and resources in the Undergraduate Curriculum, Fundamental Concept Curriculum, and Chapter Speaker Directory require approval. Open a course page to request access. Not a chapter leader? Submit an exemption request. For these three restricted courses, approval is required before lessons unlock. Already enrolled? Sign in and select My in the Course Library.

Five questions. A deeper understanding of medicine.

THE UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM

Begin with the human person

Explore five enduring questions:

01 · What Is a Human Being, and What Is Its End?
02 · What Is the End of Medicine?
03 · What Is the Meaning of Suffering?
04 · What Is Death and How Do We Die Well?
05 · What Does It Mean to Flourish?

Across 31 lessons, read classic and contemporary texts, discuss their implications, and apply them to clinical cases. Each module includes readings, discussion questions, a clinical case, and an outline.
READ & REFLECT

Great texts, enduring questions

Encounter Cicero, Sophocles, Seneca, Tolstoy, Auden, and other voices that illuminate human experience.

Read closely, examine assumptions, and bring your questions to the discussion.
DISCUSS & APPLY

From reading to clinical practice

Explore a clinical case in every module and consider what the readings reveal about patients, clinicians, and the aims of care.

Use the discussion questions and module outlines to connect ideas with the practice of medicine.

A community shaped by thoughtful conversation

Create your account and enroll for free. Explore the human questions at the heart of medicine with The Hippocratic Society.