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Academic Degree

Academic degree

This article is about academic degrees. For other degrees, see Degree (disambiguation) A degree is any of a wide range of awards made by institutions of higher education, such as universities, normally as the result of successfully completing a program of study.

History

The first universities were founded in Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries. As with other professions, teaching in universities was only carried out by people who were properly qualified. In the same way that a carpenter would attain the status of master carpenter when fully qualified by his guild, a teacher would become a master when he had been licensed by his profession, the teaching guild. Candidates who had completed three or four years of study in the prescribed texts of the trivium (grammar, rhetoric and logic), and who had successfully passed examinations held by their masters, would be awarded a bachelor's degree. Thus a degree was only a step on the way to becoming a fully-qualified master – hence the English word graduate, which is based on the Latin gradus ("step"). Today the terms master, doctor and professor signify different levels of academic achievement, but initially they were equivalent terms. The University of Bologna in Italy, regarded as the oldest university in Europe, was the first institution to award the degree of Doctor in Civil Law in the late 12th century; it also awarded similar degrees in other subjects including medicine. Note that medicine is now the only field in which the term doctor is applied to students who have only obtained their first academic qualification. The University of Paris used the term master for its graduates, a practice adopted by the English universities of Oxford and Cambridge as well as the "ancient" Scottish universities of St Andrew's, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. The naming of degrees eventually became linked with the subjects studied. Scholars in the faculties of arts or grammar became known as masters, but those in philosophy, medicine and law were known as doctor. As study in the arts or in grammar was a necessary prerequisite to study in subjects such as philosophy, medicine and law, the degree of doctor assumed a higher status than the master's degree. This led to the modern hierarchy in which the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) is a more advanced degree than the Master of Arts (M.A.). The practice of using the term doctor for all advanced degrees developed within German universities and spread across the academic world. The French terminology is tied closely to the original meanings of the terms. The baccalauréat (cf. bachelor) is conferred upon French students who have successfully completed their secondary education and admits the student to university. When students graduate from university, they are awarded licence, much as the medieval teaching guilds would have done, and they are qualified to teach in secondary schools or proceed to higher-level studies. In Europe, degrees are being harmonised through the Bologna process, which is based on the three-level hierarchy of degrees (Bachelor (Licence in France), Master, Doctor). This system is currently in use in the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This system is gradually replacing the two-stage system now in use in some countries.

Types of academic degrees

Some examples of specific degrees follow each general term. For more information, see the article about the general term.
- Associate's degrees (U.S.): AA, ABS, AS
- Foundation degrees (U.K.): FdA, FdEd, FdEng, FdMus, FdSc, FdTech
- Bachelor's degrees: AB, BA, BComm, BE, BS, BSc, BFA, BCL, LLB, BM, BBA, BChir, BEng, MBChB, SB, BSSc
- Master's degrees: MA, MS, MSc, JD
- , MALD, MApol, MPhil, MRes, MFA, MTh, M.T.S., M.Div., MBA, MPA, MSW, MPAff, MLIS, MLitt, MPM, MPP, MPT, MRE, LLM, MEng, MSci, MChem, MPhys, MMath, MMus, MESci, MGeol, MTCM, MSSc, BCL (Oxon)#, BPhil (Oxon)#.
- Specialist degrees: EdS, B.Acc., C.A.S.,
- Doctorate degrees: PhD, EdD
- , EngD, DNursSci, DBA, DD, DSc, DLitt, DA, DMA, DMus, DCL, ThD, PharmD, DPT, DPhil, DOM, OMD, PsyD, DSW, LL.D, J.S.D. and S.J.D.
- Note: In the U.S., despite its name, the J.D. degree is not a doctoral level degree. It is a first professional degree and does not confer the title of doctor. While normally taken after a bachelors-level degree, neither is the J.D. a masters-level degree. The LL.M., which is earned after the J.D., is a masters-level law degree. The S.J.D. (Doctor of Juridical Science) is considered a doctoral-level degree and is the highest degree one can attain in law. Also, in the U.S., holders of the EdD (doctor of education) are considered "doctorally prepared" only within the field of education (see, for example, [http://www.aacsb.edu/ AACSB] rules for accreditation)[http://www.academicforum.co.uk .] #Note: Despite their names, the Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) and the Bachelor of Philosophy (BPhil) offered at Oxford University are both advanced master's degrees (in law and philosophy respectively). In some countries, such as Australia, a diploma is a specific academic award of lower rank than an academic degree. Australia has several different types of diplomas: Diplomas, Advanced Diplomas, Graduate Diplomas and Postgraduate Diplomas. A diploma can also be an additional course taken after a standard bachelor's degree giving specilisation in a particular field. For example, Australian schoolteachers often study a bachelor's degree in Arts or Science (with a significant education component) for the first three years, then in their final year complete a Diploma of Education (DipEd), which qualifies them as school teachers. In Ireland a National Diploma is below the standard of the honours bachelor degree, whilst the Higher Diploma is taken after the bachelor degree. In Germany, there are several academic degrees. The lowest degree is the Bachelor (equivalent to a English Bachelor (hons.)), the (equivalent) Diplom (FH) or Diplom I. After that follows the Diplom II, Diplom (University), the Magister (in humanities) or the Master. After a Diplom II, Diplom (University), a Magister or a Master students can proceed to a doctorate. The highest academic degree in Germany is the Habilitation. The situation in Austria is similar to the situation in Germany: The students get a Diploma as well, but they graduate either with a Magister degree or with a Diploma. This depends on the faculty: arts, sciences and fine arts earn a Magister degree, while technical sciences get a Diploma in engineering. So the degree that, for example, an Information Technology student earns is "Diplom-Ingenieur".

Degree (disambiguation)

The word degree may refer to:

Law

- the severity of similar crimes — for example, first degree murder

Medicine

- the intensity of a burn (from first degree to third degree)

Grammar

- the comparative degree and the superlative degree

Family

- the level of kinahip or Family relationship - see Consanguinity

Intellectual property

- the Degree of inventiveness

Fraternal organizations

- Freemasonry
- Knights of Columbus

Commerce

- A specific antiperspirant Degree (deodorant)

External links

- A company / domain name http://www.degree.com ja:度 simple:Degree

University

A university is an institution of higher education and of research, which grants academic degrees. A university provides both tertiary and quaternary education. University is derived from the Latin universitas, meaning corporation (since the first medieval European universities were simply groups of scholars). medieval European universities]

History

Because of the above definition, the oldest universities in the world were all European, as the awarding of academic degrees was not a custom of older institutions of learning in Asia and Africa. However, institutions of higher learning considerably older than the most ancient European universities existed in countries such as China, Egypt and India. The Academy, founded in 387 BC by the Greek philosopher Plato in the grove of Academos near Athens, taught its students philosophy, mathematics, and gymnastics, and is sometimes considered a forerunner of modern European universities. Other Greek cities with notable educational institutions include Kos (the home of Hippocrates), which had a medical school, and Rhodes, which had philosophical schools. Another famous classical university was the Museum and Library of Alexandria. About a thousand years after Plato, institutions bearing a resemblance to the modern university existed in Persia and the Islamic world, notably the Academy of Gundishapur and later also al-Azhar University in Cairo. In Asia, there were a number of institutions of higher learning that vaguely resembled universities in the Western sense of the word. In general, these are of considerable antiquity, predating western institutions of higher learning by centuries. In China, it's recorded that the education system had been established during the Yu period (2257 BC - 2208 BC) and the imperial central academy was named Shangyang (Shang means higher and Yang means school) at the time. The higher learning institution - imperial central academy, was called Piyong in Zhou Dynasty (1046 BC - 249 BC), Taixue in Han Dynasty (202 - 220) and Guozijian in Sui dynasty. For example, Nanjing University traces its source back to the imperial central academy at Nanking founded in 258 by the Kingdom of Wu. The early Chinese state depended upon literate, educated officials for operation of the empire, and an imperial examination was established in the Sui Dynasty (581 -618) for evaluating and selecting officials from the general populace. The ancient cities of Nalanda, Vikramasila, Kanchipura and Takshasila were greatly reputed centres of learning in the east, with students from all over Asia. In particular, Nalanda was a famous center of Buddhist scholarship, and as such it attracted a vast number of Buddhist scholars from China, central Asia and Southeast Asia. In the Carolingian period, a famous academy was created by Charlemagne for the purpose of educating the children of aristocrats to help train the professionals needed to run an empire. It was a foreshadow of the rise of the University in the 11th century. The first European medieval university was the University of Magnaura in Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey), founded in 849 by the emperor Bardas, followed by the University of Salerno (9th century)University of Bologna (1088) in Bologna, Italy, and the University of Paris (c. 1100) in Paris, France. Many of the medieval universities in Western Europe were born under the aegis of the Catholic Church, usually as cathedral schools or by papal bull as Studia Generali. In the early medieval period, most new universities were founded from pre-existing schools, usually when these schools were deemed to have become primarly sites of higher education. Many historians state that universities and cathedral schools were a continuation of the interest in learning promoted by monasteries. In Europe, young men proceeded to the university when they had completed the study of the trivium–the preparatory arts of grammar, rhetoric, and logic–and the quadrivium: arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. (See degrees of Oxford University for the history of how the trivium and quadrivium developed in relation to degrees, especially in anglophone universities). Universities are generally established by statute or charter. In the United Kingdom, for instance, a university is instituted by Act of Parliament or Royal Charter; in either case generally with the approval of Privy Council, and only such recognized bodies can award degrees of any kind.

Universities around the world

The funding and organisation of Universities is very different in different countries around the world. In some countries Universities are predominantly funded by the state, while in others funding may come from donors or from fees which students attending the University must pay. In some countries the vast majority of students attend University in their local town, while in other countries Universities attract students from all over the world, and may provide University accommodation for their students.

Universities and student life in different countries

- British universities
- Dutch universities
- French universities
- Irish universities
- Italian universities
- Spanish universities
- US universities
- Egyptian universities

Selective admissions

Unlike community colleges, enrollment at a university is generally not available to all. However, admission systems vary widely around the world, as discussed in the article college admissions.

Colloquial usage

Colloquially, the term university is used around the world for a phase in one's life: "when I was at university…"; in the United States, college is often used: "when I was in college…". See college, §3, for further discussion. In the United Kingdom and Australia "University" is often contracted to simply "Uni". The usual practice in the United States today is to call an institution made up of several faculties and granting a range of higher degrees a "university" while a smaller institution only granting bachelor's or associate's degrees is called a "college". (See liberal arts colleges, community college). Nevertheless, a few of America's oldest and most prestigious universities, such as Boston College, Dartmouth College and the College of William and Mary, have retained the term "college" in their names for historical reasons though they offer a wide range of higher degrees.

Related terms

: academia - academic rank - academy - admission - alumnus - aula - [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/brain_farm Brain farm ]-Bologna process - business schools - Grandes écoles - campus - college - college and university rankings - dean - degree - diploma - discipline - [http://wiktionary.org/wiki/Dissertation dissertation] - faculty - fraternities and sororities - graduate student - graduation - lecturer - medieval university - medieval university (Asia) - mega university - perpetual student - professor - provost - rector - research - scholar - senioritis - student - tenure - tuition - undergraduate - universal access - university administration

References

- Walter Ruegg (ed), A History of the University in Europe, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (3 vols) ISBN 0521361079 (vol 3 reviewed by Laurence Brockliss in the Times Literary Supplement, no 5332, 10 June 2005, pages 3-4). Category:Educational stages ko:대학교 ms:Universiti ja:大学 simple:University th:มหาวิทยาลัย

12th century

As a means of recording the passage of time, the 12th century was that century which lasted from 1101 to 1200. In the history of European culture, this period is considered part of the High Middle Ages. See also: Renaissance of the 12th century

Events

- The Song dynasty loses power over Northern China.
- The Kamakura Shogunate deprives the Emperor of Japan of political power.
- First, Second, and Third Crusades of western European kingdoms against Islam.
- Pope Adrian IV grants overlordship of Ireland to Henry II of England.
- Suger rebuilds the abbey church at St Denis north of Paris, regarded as the first major Gothic building.
- King Coloman unites Hungary and Croatia under the Hungarian Crown (1102)
- Portugal gains independence from the kingdom of León in 1128 (recognised by León in 1143).
- Nalanda, the great Indian Buddhist educational centre, is destroyed.
- Thomas Becket is murdered in 1170.
- The Toltec Empire collapses.
- Founding of the cathedral school (Katedralskolan) in Lund, Sweden, 1185. The school is the oldest in northern Europe, and one of the oldest in Europe as a whole.
- The medieval Serbian state formed by Stefan Nemanja and continued by the Nemanjić dynasty.

Significant people

- Genghis Khan, Great Khan of the Mongol Empire.
- Pierre Abélard, one of the first scholastic philosophers; author of "Historia calamitatum mearum", a description of his love affair with Héloïse.
- Bernard of Clairvaux, French abbot influential in church politics.
- Saladin, ruler of Egypt and Syria who resisted the Crusaders.
- Hugh of St. Victor, French scholar.
- Richard of St. Victor, theologian.
- Alfonso I Henriques, first King of Portugal.
- Maimonides, leading Jewish philosopher.
- Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury.
- Minamoto no Yoritomo, first shogun of Japan.
- Omar Khayyám, Persian poet and astronomer
- Eleanor of Aquitaine, queen consort of France and later England.
- Hildegard of Bingen, first Western musical composer known by name.

Inventions, discoveries and introductions

- Beginning of the Gothic architecture style.
- First European universities founded.
- Christian humanism becomes a self-conscious philosophical tendency in Europe.
- Earliest record of a miracle play, in Dunstable, England.
- Beginning of troubador and trouvère music in France.
- Earliest account of a mariner's compass, by Alexander Neckam is "De utensilibus".
- First fire and plague insurance (in Iceland).
- First authenticated influenza epidemics.
- Start of Middle English

Decades and years

Category:12th century Category:Centuries ko:12세기 ja:12世紀 simple:12th century th:คริสต์ศตวรรษที่ 12

13th century

As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. In the history of European culture, this period is considered part of the High Middle Ages. High Middle Ages, overran most of Asia, thus creating the world's largest empire to ever exist. They achieved this success in large part due to their amazing horse archers.]]

Events

- Genghis Khan, Temujin by birth is claimed "Khan of Khans" by the Mongol tribes.
- Mongols under Genghis Khan conquer and rule over most of Asia and Eastern Europe by establishing Mongol Empire
- Ogedei Khan establish Mongolian dynasty in China. Some Mongol leaders convert from Tantric Buddhism to Islam.
- 1204 - Fourth Crusade sacks Byzantine Constantinople and creates the Latin Empire.
- Fifth through eighth crusades of western European kingdoms against Islam
- King John of England forced to sign Magna Carta at Runnymede
- Fall of the Hohenstaufen dynasty of Holy Roman Emperors
- Marco Polo and his family reach China
- James I of Aragon takes control of Balearic Islands and Valencia.
- Andrew II of Hungary signs the Golden Bull which afferms the privileges of Hungarian nobility.
- Theravada overtakes Mahayana as the dominant form of Buddhism in Cambodia.
- Persian historian Rashid al-Din records eleven Buddhist texts circulating in Arabic translation.
- The Thai Kingdom of Sukhothai is established, with Theravada Buddhism as the state religion. Later in the century it vassalises significant parts of modern Thailand, Laos, Burma, and Malaysia.
- Norway cedes the Isle of Man to Scotland.
- First European universities founded.
- The Utiguri Bulgar state on the Volga vanishes from history.
- Bantu-speaking peoples arrive in modern Angola, partially displacing the original Khoisan inhabitants.
- The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 in Spain sees the beginning of a rapid Christian reconquest of the southern half of the Iberian peninsula, with the defeat of Moorish forces.

Significant people

- Genghis Khan, founder of Mongol Empire
- Alexander of Hales, philosopher and theologian
- Albertus Magnus, German philosopher and theologian
- Thomas Aquinas, theologian
- Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan order
- Robert Grosseteste, English statesman, teologian, and scientist
- Roger Bacon, Franciscan, philosopher, and scientist
- Bonaventure, Franciscan theologian
- Petrus Peregrinus, scientist
- Louis IX of France, St. Louis, French king and crusader
- Frederick II, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
- Dante Alighieri, Italian writer
- Ramon Llull, Majorcan philosopher
- Kublai Khan, Khan ruler, founder of Yuan Dynasty in China
- Alexander Nevsky, Grand Prince of Novgorod and Vladimir
- Snorri Sturluson, historian and saga-writer
- William Wallace, Scottish national leader
- Béla IV of Hungary rebuilder of Hungary after the devastating Mongol invasion

Inventions, discoveries, introductions

- List of 13th century inventions

Decades and years

External links

- [http://www.nd.edu/Departments/Maritain/etext/walsh.htm The Thirteenth: Greatest of Centuries] by James J. Walsh, 1907 Category:13th century Category:Centuries ko:13세기 ja:13世紀 simple:13th century th:คริสต์ศตวรรษที่ 13

Guild

A guild is an association of people of the same trade or pursuits, formed to protect mutual interests and maintain standards of morality or conduct. Historically they were formed to benefit societies or small business associations, also referred to as a trade union of sorts, since each crafter was a self-employed individual artisan or part of a small craft shop or co-operative. They exist in modern and medieval incarnations, both of which are discussed in this article. One's view of guilds tends to be heavily colored by one's view of political economy, since the whole history of trade, technology, intellectual property, regulated professions, social security, and professional ethics are entwined with the history of the guilds in Europe.

Early history

Regulated professions were a feature of the ancient and classical world. The Code of Hammurabi specified a death penalty for builders, or masons, whose buildings fell on the inhabitants. Hammurabi himself had been a stonemason, so this could be considered an early example of self-regulation. The Hippocratic Oath applies to this day as the basis of the modern physicians' ethical code. All known legal codes include some limits on the practices or powers of jurists, e.g. the Rules of Civil Procedure, or politicians, e.g. the rules of parliamentary debate. It has generally been recognized that those in a position of special knowledge or trust were to be held accountable to the public for their advice and services. Islamic civilization extended this to a degree to the artisan as well - most notably to the warraqeen, "those who work with paper". Early Muslims were heavily engaged in translating and absorbing all ilm ("knowledge") from all other known civilizations, "as far as China." Critically analyzing, accepting, rejecting, improving and codifying knowledge from other cultures became a key activity, and a knowledge industry as presently understood began to evolve. By the beginning of the 9th century, paper had become the standard medium of written communication, and most warraqeen were engaged in paper-making, book-selling, and taking the dictation of authors, to whom they were obliged to pay royalties on works, and who had final discretion on the contents. As the standard means of presentation of a new work was its public dictation in the mosque or madrassah, in front of many scholars and students, a high degree of professional respect was required to ensure that other warraqeen did not simply make and sell copies, or that authors did not lose faith in the warraqeen or this system of publication. This was an early guild. This publication industry that spanned the Muslim empire from the first works under this system in 874 to the 15th century, gave rise to all concerns a modern intellectual property lawyer would recognize: by means of the tens of thousands of books per year so published, instructional capital from one group of artisans admired for their work could be spread to other artisans elsewhere who could copy it and perhaps "pass it off" as the original, exploiting the social capital built up at great expense by the originators of techniques. Artisans began to take various ways to protect their proprietary interests, restrict access to techniques, materials, and to markets.

European history

In the Early Middle Ages most of the Roman craft organizations, formed as religious confraternities, had disappeared with the apparent exceptions of stonecutters and perhaps glassmakers. Gregory of Tours tells a miraculous tale of a builder whose art and techniques suddenly left him, but were restored by an apparition of the Virgin Mary in a dream. Michel Rouche (1987 pp431ff) remarks that the story speaks for the importance of practically transmitted journeymanship. The early egalitarian communities called "guilds" (for the gold deposited in their common funds) were denounced by Catholic clergy for their "conjurations"—the binding oaths sworn among artisans to support one another in adversity and back one another in feuds or in business ventures. The occasion for the drunken banquets at which these oaths were made was December 26, the pagan feast of Jul: Bishop Hincmar, in 858 sought vainly to Christianize them (Rouche 1987 p 432). By about 1100 European guilds (or gilds) and livery companies had evolved into an approximate equivalent to modern-day business organisations such as institutes or consortiums. They had strong controls over instructional capital, and the modern concepts of a lifetime progression of apprentice to craftsman, journeyer, and eventually to widely-recognized master and grandmaster began to emerge. The appearance of the European guilds is believed to be tied to the emergent money economy, and to urbanization. Before this time it was not possible to run a money-driven organization, as commodity money was the normal way of doing business. The guild was at the center of European handicraft organization. The guild system reached a mature state in Germany in the Middle Ages, circa 1300. The guilds were identified with organizations enjoying certain privileges (letters patent), usually issued by the king or state and overseen by local town business authorities (some kind of chamber of commerce). These were the predecessors of the modern patent and trademark system. Like their Muslim predecessors, European guilds imposed long periods of apprenticeship, and made it difficult or impossible for those lacking the approval of their peers to gain access to materials or knowledge, or sell into certain markets. These are defining characteristics of mercantilism in economics, which dominated most European thinking about political economy until the rise of classical economics. States applied this thinking, for instance, to restrict the flow of gold and silver to military opponents, as gold was useful to buy weapons and hire mercenaries. The guilds also maintained funds in order to support infirm or elderly members, as well as widows and orphans of guild members, funeral benefits, and a 'tramping' allowance for those needing to travel to find work.

Organization

The guild was made up by experienced and confirmed experts in their field of handicraft. They were called master craftsmen. Before a new employee could rise to the level of mastery, he had to go through a schooling period during which he was first called an apprentice. After this period he could rise to the level of journeyman. Apprentices would typically not learn more than the most basic techniques until they were trusted by their peers to keep the guild's or company's secrets. Some argue that the title 'journeyman' is derived from the itinerant nature of the position. However, it is more likely that the title derives from the French word for 'day' (jour) from which came the middle English word journei. Journeymen were generally paid by the day and were thus day laborers. After being employed by a master for several years, and after producing a qualifying piece of work, the apprentice attained the rank of journeyman and was given a letter which entitled him to travel to other towns and countries to learn the art from other masters. These journeys could span large parts of Europe and were an unofficial way of communicating new methods and techniques. After this journey and several years of experience, a journeyman could be elected to become a master craftsman. This would require the approval of all masters of a guild, a donation of money and other goods, and in many practical handicrafts the production of a so-called masterpiece, which would illustrate the abilities of the aspiring master craftsman. The medieval guild was offered a letters patent (usually from the king) and held an oligopoly on its trade in the town in which it operated: handicraft workers were forbidden by law to run any business if they were not members of a guild, and only masters were allowed to be members of a guild. Before these privileges were legislated, these groups of handicraft workers were simply called 'handicraft associations'. The town authorities were represented in the guild meetings and thus had a means of controlling the handicraft activities. This was important since towns very often depended on a good reputation for export of a narrow range of products, on which not only the guild's, but the town's, reputation depended. Controls on the association of physical locations to well-known exported products, e.g. wine from the Champagne and Bordeaux regions of France, fine china from certain cities in Holland, lace from Chantilly, etc., helped to establish a town's place in global commerce - this led to modern trademarks. In many German towns, the more powerful guilds attempted to influence or even control town authorities. In the 14th century, this led to numerous bloody uprisings, during which the guilds dissolved town councils and detained patricians in an attempt to increase their influence.

Fall of the guilds

Despite its advantages for agricultural and artisan producers, the guild became a target of much criticism towards the end of the 1700s and the beginning of the 1800s. They were believed to oppose free trade and hinder technological innovation, technology transfer and business development. According to several accounts of this time, guilds became increasingly involved in simple territorial struggles against each other and against free practitioners of their arts, but the neutrality of these claims is doubted. It may be propaganda. Two of the most outspoken critics of the guild system were Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Adam Smith, and all over Europe a tendency to oppose government control over trades in favour of laissez-faire free market systems was growing rapidly and making its way into the political and legal system. Even Karl Marx (not normally in league with Adam Smith) in his Communist Manifesto criticized the guild system for its rigid gradation of social rank and the relation of opressor/opressed entailed by this system. From this time comes the low regard in which some people hold the guilds to this day. For example, Smith writes in The Wealth of Nations (Book I, Chapter X, paragraph 72): :It is to prevent this reduction of price, and consequently of wages and profit, by restraining that free competition which would most certainly occasion it, that all corporations, and the greater part of corporation laws, have been established. (...) and when any particular class of artificers or traders thought proper to act as a corporation without a charter, such adulterine guilds, as they were called, were not always disfranchised upon that account, but obliged to fine annually to the king for permission to exercise their usurped privileges. In part due to their own inability to control unruly corporate behavior, the tide turned against the guilds. Because of industrialization and modernization of the trade and industry, and the rise of powerful nation-states that could directly issue patent and copyright protections — often revealing the trade secrets — the guilds' power faded. After the French Revolution they fell in most European nations through the 1800s, as the guild system was disbanded and replaced by free trade laws. By that time, many former handicraft workers had been forced to seek employment in the emerging manufacturing industries, using not closely-guarded techniques but standardized methods controlled by corporations. This was not uniformly viewed as a public good: Karl Marx criticized the alienation of the worker from the products of work that this created, and the exploitation possible since materials and hours of work were closely controlled by the owners of the new, large scale means of production.

Influence of guilds

Guilds are sometimes said to be the precursors of modern trade unions, and also, paradoxically, of some aspects of the modern corporation. Guilds, however, were groups of self-employed skilled craftsmen with ownership and control over the materials and tools they needed to produce their goods. Guilds were, in other words, small business associations and thus had very little in common with trade unions. However, the journeymen organizations, which were at the time illegal, may have been influential. The exclusive privilege of a guild to produce certain goods or provide certain services was similar in spirit and character with the original patent systems that surfaced in England in 1624. These systems played a role in ending the guilds' dominance, as trade secret methods were superseded by modern firms directly revealing their techniques, and counting on the state to enforce their legal monopoly. Some guild traditions still remain in a few handicrafts, in Europe especially among shoemakers and barbers. Some of the ritual traditions of the guilds were conserved in order organizations such as the Freemasons. These are, however, not very important economically except as reminders of the responsibilities of some trades toward the public. Modern antitrust law could be said to be derived in some ways from the original statutes by which the guilds were abolished in Europe.

Modern guilds

Modern guilds exist in different forms around the world. In many European countries guilds have had a revival as local organisations for craftsmen, primarily in traditional skills. They may function as fora for developing competence and are often the local units of a national employers organization. In the United States guilds tend to exist in fields where, like the medieval warraqeen, a very strong and rigid system of intellectual property respect exists in one industry: the Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild of America, for instance, are capable of exercising very strong control in Hollywood, and excluding other actors and writers who do not abide by the strict rules for competing within the film and television industry in America. Scholars from the history of ideas have noticed that consultants play a part similar to that of the journeymen of the guild systems: they often travel a lot, work at many different companies and spread new practices and knowledge between companies and corporations. Thomas Malone of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology champions a modern variant of the guild structure for modern "e-lancers", professionals who do mostly telework for multiple employers. Insurance including any professional liability, intellectual capital protections, an ethical code perhaps enforced by peer pressure and software, and other benefits of a strong association of producers of knowledge, benefit from economies of scale, and may prevent cut-throat competition that leads to inferior services undercutting prices. And, as with historical guilds, resist foreign competition. The free software community has from time to time explored a guild-like structure to unite against competition from Microsoft, e.g. Advogato assigns journeyer and master ranks to those committing to work only or mostly on free software. Debian also publishes a list of what constitutes free software. In the City of London, the ancient guilds survive as Livery Companies, most of which play a ceremonial role. In online computer games players form groups called Player guilds who perform some of the functions of ancient guilds. They organize group activities, regulate member behavior, exclude non-conforming individuals, and react as a group when member safety or some aspect of guild life is threatened. In games where fictional "building" is possible they may cooperate on projects in their online world. The practice was taken the Guilds in the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, which encourages players to recreate all facets of medieval life. The first computer implementation was in the first graphical online RPG, Neverwinter Nights, which ran 1991-1997 on AOL.

References

- Dolven, Arne S.: Vocational Education in Europe in Dolven, Arne S. and Gunnar Pedersen (eds): Fagopplaeringsboka 2004, Oslo: Kommuneforlaget 2004 (in Norwegian)
- Eggerer, Elmar W.: Sworn Brethren and Sistren - Britische Gilden und Zünfte von der normannischen Eroberung bis 1603, München 1993 (in German)
- Söderlund, Ernst: Den svenska arbetarklassens historia - Hantverkarna II frihetstiden och den gustavianska tiden Stockholm 1949 (in Swedish)
- Rouche, Michel, "Private life conquers state and society," in A History of Private Life vol I, Paul Veyne, editor, Harvard University Press 1987 ISBN 0-674-39974-9
- [http://www.takver.com/history/benefit/ctormys.htm Craft, Trade or Mystery: Part One - Britain from Gothic Cathedrals to the Tolpuddle Conspirators] By Dr Bob James (revised 2002)

External links

- [http://eh.net/encyclopedia/?article=richardson.guilds Medieval guilds] (EH.Net Encyclopedia of Economic History)
- [http://www.public.iastate.edu/~gbetcher/373/guilds.htm Medieval guilds] (Medieval guilds) Category:Economic history Category:Labor ja:ギルド

Bachelor's degree

:For other degrees, see Academic degree or Degree (disambiguation) A bachelor's degree is usually an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course or major that generally lasts three or four years. (Note that some postgraduate degrees are entitled Bachelor of ..., e.g. the University of Oxford's Bachelor of Civil Law and Bachelor of Philosophy.)

Honours degrees and academic distinctions

Under the British system, and those influenced by it such as the Irish, Indian, Singaporean, and Hong Kong systems, undergraduate degrees are differentiated either as pass degrees or as honours degrees, the latter denoted by the appearance of "(Hons)" after the degree abbreviation. An honours degree generally requires a higher academic standard than a pass degree, and in Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa, and Canada an extra year of study.

Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees

Today, the most common undergraduate degrees given are the Bachelor of Arts (B.A. or A.B.) and the Bachelor of Science (B.Sc. in Commonwealth usage or B.S. in U.S. usage). Originally, in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge all undergraduate degrees were in the Faculty of Arts, hence the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Since the late 19th century, most universities in the English-speaking world have followed the practice of the University of London in dividing undergraduate degree subjects into the two broad categories of arts and sciences, awarding the degree of Bachelor of Science to students of the latter category of subjects.

Bachelors of Medicine and Surgery

In countries following British tradition, medical graduates receive a Bachelors of Medicine and Surgery (MB BChir or MB ChB or MBBS) and is equivalent to an M.D. in US Usage. Although in theory it is two degrees, they must be taken together, and entitle the bearer to use the title of Doctor.

New bachelor's degrees

The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge are perhaps alone today in awarding the B.A. for all undergraduate degrees. However, in most universities over the last hundred years the range of bachelor's degrees has expanded enormously, especially in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, where the B.A. degree is becoming increasingly uncommon. Some of these new degrees and their abbreviations include:
- A.L.B. — Bachelor of Liberal Arts
- B.A.S. — Bachelor of Architectural Studies
- B.A.Sc. — Bachelor of Applied Science
- B.As. — Bachelor of Asian Studies
- B.A.Econ. — Bachelor of Economics
- B.Arch. — Bachelor of Architecture
- B.B.A. — Bachelor of Business Administration
- B.Ch. — Bachelor of Surgery (also the name of a postgraduate degree in some universities)
- B.Comm. or B.Com. — Bachelor of Commerce
- B.Comp. — Bachelor of Computing
- B.CompSc. or B.CS. — Bachelor of Computer Science
- B.D. — Bachelor of Divinity (also the name of a postgraduate degree in some universities)
- B.Des. — Bachelor of Design (Visual design discipline)
- B.Ec. — Bachelor of Economics
- B.Ed. — Bachelor of Education
- B.E.S. — Bachelor of Environmental Studies
- B.Eng. or B.E. — Bachelor of Engineering
- B.F.A. — Bachelor of Fine Arts
- B.G.S. — Bachelor of General Studies
- B.InfTech. — Bachelor of Information Technology
- B.InfSci. — Bachelor of Information Science
- B.J. — Bachelor of Journalism (see the University of Missouri-Columbia)
- B.Lang. — Bachelor of Languages
- B.M. or M.B. — Bachelor of Medicine (also the name of a postgraduate degree in some universities)
- B.Math. — Bachelor of Mathematics (also the name of a postgraduate degree in some universities)
- B.Mus. or Mus.B. — Bachelor of Music (also the name of a postgraduate degree in some universities)
- B.Ost — Bachelor of Osteopathy
- B.P.Ed. or B.P.E. — Bachelor of Physical Education
- B.Pharm. — Bachelor of Pharmacy
- B.Phil. — Bachelor of Philosophy (originally a postgraduate degree, but now often used as the name of an undergraduate degree)
- B.Psych — Bachelor of Psychology (Commonwealth Usage, Particuarly Australia)
- B.R.E. — Bachelor of Religious Education
- B.S. — Bachelor of Surgery (Commonwealth usage, usually as part of a MB BS)
- B.S.E. — Bachelor of Science in Engineering (may also refer to a Bachelor of Software Engineering, as used at McGill University)
- B.S.B. — Bachelor of Science in Business
- B.S.E.E. — Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering
- B.S.F. — Bachelor of Science in Forestry
- B.S.S.E. — Bachelor of Science in Science Education
- B.S.W. — Bachelor of Social Work
- B.Tech. — Bachelor of Technology
- B.Theol — Bachelor of Theology
- B.Tour. — Bachelor of Tourism
- LL.B. (or Ll.B.) — Bachelor of Laws (also the name of a postgraduate degree in some universities) A full list of British degree abbreviations is also available.

Latin

Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. It gained great importance as the formal language of the Roman Empire. All Romance languages, those being most notably Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian, are descended from Latin, and many words based on Latin are found in other modern languages such as English. The Latin alphabet, derived from the Greek, remains the most widely-used alphabet in the world. It is said that 80 percent of scholarly English words are derived from Latin (in a large number of cases by way of French). Moreover, in the Western world, Latin was a lingua franca, the learned language for scientific and political affairs, for more than a thousand years, being eventually replaced by French in the 18th century and English in the late 19th. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the formal language of the Roman Catholic Church to this day, and thus the official national language of the Vatican. The Church used Latin as its primary liturgical language until the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. Latin is also still used (drawing heavily on Greek roots) to furnish the names used in the scientific classification of living things. The modern study of Latin, along with Greek, is known as Classics.

Main features

Latin is a synthetic inflectional language: affixes (which usually encode more than one grammatical category) are attached to fixed stems to express gender, number, and case in adjectives, nouns, and pronouns, which is called declension; and person, number, tense, voice, mood, and aspect in verbs, which is called conjugation. There are five declensions (declinationes) of nouns and four conjugations of verbs. There are six noun cases: #nominative (used as the subject of the verb or the predicate nominative), #genitive (used to indicate relation or possession, often represented by the English of or the addition of s to a noun), #dative (used of the indirect object of the verb, often represented by the English to or for), #accusative (used of the direct object of the verb, or object of the preposition in some cases), #ablative (separation, source, cause, or instrument, often represented by the English by, with, from), #vocative (used of the person or thing being addressed). In addition, some nouns have a locative case used to express location (otherwise expressed by the ablative with a preposition such as in), but this survival from Proto-Indo-European is found only in the names of lakes, cities, towns, small islands, and a few other words related to locations, such as "house", "ground", and "countryside". Latin itself, being a very old language, is far closer to Proto-Indo-European than are most modern Western European languages; it has, in fact, about the same relationship with PIE as modern Italian or French has to Latin. There are six general tenses in Latin (technically they are tense/aspect/mood complexes). The indicative mood can be used with all of them. The subjunctive mood, however, has only present, imperfect, perfect, and pluperfect tenses. These tenses in the subjunctive mood do not completely correlate in meaning to the tenses in the indicative. The following examples are of the first conjugation verb "laudare" ("to praise") in the indicative mood and the active voice:
Primary sequence tenses
# present (laudo, "I praise") # imperfect (laudabam, "I was praising") # future (laudabo, "I shall praise," "I will praise")
Secondary sequence tenses
# perfect (laudavi, "I praised", "I have praised") # pluperfect (laudaveram, "I had praised") # future perfect (laudavero, "I shall have praised," "I will have praised") The future perfect tense can also imply a normal future idea (like in "When I will have run...") and so may also sometimes be included in the primary sequence.
Latin and Romance
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Latin evolved into the various Romance languages. These were for many centuries only spoken languages, Latin still being used for writing. For example, Latin was the official language of Portugal until 1296 when it was replaced by Portuguese. The Romance languages evolved from Vulgar Latin, the spoken language of common usage, which in turn evolved from an older speech which also produced the formal classical standard. Latin and Romance differ (for example) in that Romance had distinctive stress, whereas Latin had distinctive length of vowels. In Italian and Sardo logudorese, there is distinctive length of consonants and stress, in Spanish only distinctive stress, and in French even stress is no longer distinctive. Another major distinction between Romance and Latin is that all Romance languages, excluding Romanian, have lost their case endings in most words except for some pronouns. Romanian retains a direct case (nominative/accusative), an indirect case (dative/genitive), and vocative. In Italy, Latin is still compulsory in secondary schools as Liceo Classico and Liceo Scientifico which are usually attended by people who aim to the highest level of education. In Liceo Classico Ancient Greek is a compulsory subject.
Latin and English
See Latin influence in English for a more complete exposition. English grammar is independent of Latin grammar, though prescriptive grammarians in English have been heavily influenced by Latin. Attempts to make English grammar follow Latin rules — such as the prohibition against the split infinitive — have not worked successfully in regular usage. However, as many as half the words in English were derived from Latin, including many words of Greek origin first adopted by the Romans, not to mention the thousands of French, hundreds of Spanish, Portuguese and Italian words of Latin origin that have also enriched English. During the 16th and on through the 18th century English writers created huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek roots. These words were dubbed "inkhorn" or "inkpot" words (as if they had spilled from a pot of ink). Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, but some remain. Imbibe, extrapolate, dormant and inebriation are all inkhorn terms carved from Latin words. In fact, the word etymology is derived from the Greek word etymologia, meaning "true sense of the word." Latin was once taught in many of the schools in Britain with academic leanings - perhaps 25% of the total [http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/T/teachem2/thennow/]. However, the requirement for it was gradually abandoned in the professions such as the law and medicine, and then, from around the late 1960s, for admission to university. After the introduction of the Modern Language GCSE in the 1980s, it was gradually replaced by other languages, although it is now being taught by more schools along with other classical languages.
Latin education
The linguistic element of Latin courses offered in high schools or secondary schools, and in universities, is primarily geared toward an ability to translate Latin texts into modern languages, rather than using it in oral communication. As such, the skill of reading is heavily emphasized, whereas speaking and listening skills are barely touched upon. However, there is a growing movement, sometimes known as the Living Latin movement, whose supporters believe that Latin can, or should, be taught in the same way that modern "living" languages are taught, that is, as a means of both spoken and written communication. One of the most interesting aspects of such an approach is that it assists speculative insight into how many of the ancient authors spoke and incorporated sounds of the language stylistically; without understanding how the language is meant to be heard it is very difficult to identify patterns in Latin poetry. Institutions offering Living Latin instruction include the Vatican and the University of Kentucky. In Britain the Classical Association encourages this approach, and there has been something of a vogue for books describing the adventures of a mouse called Minimus. In the United States there is a thriving competitive organization for high school Latin students, the National Junior Classical League (the second-largest youth organization in the world after the Boy Scouts), backed up by the Senior Classical League for college students. Many would-be international auxiliary languages have been heavily influenced by Latin, and the moderately successful Interlingua considers itself to be the modernized and simplified version of the language (le latino moderne international e simplificate). Latin translations of modern literature such as Paddington Bear, Winnie the Pooh, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Le Petit Prince, Max und Moritz, and The Cat in the Hat have also helped boost interest in the language.
See also

About the Latin language

- Latin grammar
- Latin spelling and pronunciation
- Latin declension
- Latin conjugation
- Latin alphabet
- List of Latin words with English derivatives
- Latin verbs with English derivatives
- Latin nouns with English derivatives
- ablative absolute
- Word order in Latin
About the Latin literary heritage

- Latin literature
- Romance languages
- Loeb Classical Library
- List of Latin phrases
- List of Latin proverbs
- Brocard
- List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names
- List of Latin place names in Europe
- Carmen Possum
Other related topics

- Roman Empire
- Internationalism
References

- Bennett, Charles E. Latin Grammar (Allyn and Bacon, Chicago, 1908)
- N. Vincent: "Latin", in The Romance Languages, M. Harris and N. Vincent, eds., (Oxford Univ. Press. 1990), ISBN 0195208293
- Waquet, Françoise, Latin, or the Empire of a Sign: From the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Centuries (Verso, 2003) ISBN 1859844022; translated from the French by John Howe.
- Wheelock, Frederic. Latin: An Introduction (Collins, 6th ed., 2005) ISBN 0060784237
External links

- [http://www.jambell.com/latin.html Latin Phrases for after dinner conversation (Thanks to Elaine Poole)]
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=lat Ethnologue report for Latin]
- [http://forumromanum.org/literature/index.html Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum] is a comprehensive webography of Latin texts and their translations.
- [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ The Perseus Project] has many useful pages for the study of classical languages and literatures, including [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/resolveform?lang=Latin an interactive Latin dictionary].
- [http://lysy2.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/words.exe words by William whitaker] is a dictionary program online capable of looking up various word forms.
- [http://retiarius.org/ Retiarius.Org] includes a Latin text search engine.
- [http://www.nd.edu/~archives/latgramm.htm Latin-English dictionary and Latin grammar from U of Notre Dame]
- [http://latin-language.co.uk/ Latin language] History of Latin language, Latin texts with English translation and a collection of dictionaries.
- [http://augustinus.eresmas.net/scl/ Societas Circulorum Latinorum] gathers together Latin Circles all over the world.
- [http://www.learnlatin.tk LearnLatin.tk] - Free online course in Latin
- [http://www.latintests.net/ LatinTests.net] - Lets Latin learners test their grammar and vocabulary with self-checking quizzes.
- [http://thelatinlibrary.com/ The Latin Library] contains many Latin etexts
- [http://www.textkit.com/ Textkit] has Latin textbooks and etexts.
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Latin-english/ Latin–English Dictionary]: from Webster's Rosetta Edition.
- [http://www.language-reference.com/ Language reference] Cross-foreign-language lexicon powered by its own search engine. All cross combinations between Latin and French, German, Italian, Spanish.
- [http://comp.uark.edu/~mreynold/rhetor.html Rhetor by Gabriel Harvey] was originally published in 1577 and never again reprinted.
- [http://freewebs.com/omniamundamundis omniamundamundis] Latin hypertexts from fourteen ancient Roman authors.
- [http://www.saltspring.com/capewest/pron.htm Pronunciation of Biological Latin, Including Taxonomic Names of Plants and Animals]
- [http://www.yleradio1.fi/nuntii Nuntii Latini (News in Latin)], written and spoken (RealAudio) news in latin. Weekly review of world news in Classical Latin, the only international broadcast of its kind in the world, produced by YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company.
- [http://www.tranexp.com:2000/InterTran?url=http%3A%2F%2F&type=text&text=Replace%20Me&from=eng&to=ltt InterTran Latin], Translate from Latin to ENGLISH or vice versa.
- [http://www.latinvulgate.com Latin Vulgate] The Latin and English of the Old & New Testaments in parallel, along with the Complete Sayings of Jesus in parallel Latin and English. Category:Classical languages Category:Ancient languages Category:Fusional languages Category:Languages of Italy Category:Languages of Vatican City als:Latein zh-min-nan:Latin-gí ko:라틴어 ja:ラテン語 simple:Latin language th:ภาษาละติน

University of Bologna

right The University of Bologna (Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is the university of Bologna, in Italy. Its new name, since 2000, is Alma mater studiorum (Latin for "fostering mother of studies"), to remember it as the first university in Europe. The university received a charter from Frederick I Barbarossa in 1158, but in the 19th century, a committee of historians led by Giosuè Carducci traced the birth of the University back to 1088. The University celebrated its 900th anniversary in 1988, making it arguably the longest-lived university in the Western world. The University of Bologna is historically notable for its teaching of canon and civil law.

Notable Members of the University of Bologna

- 13th Century
- William of Saliceto
- 16th Century
- Girolamo Cardano
- 17th Century
- Giovanni Cassini
- Ulisse Aldrovandi
- 18th Century
- Laura Bassi
- Maria Gaetana Agnesi
- Luigi Galvani
- 19th Century
- Giosuè Carducci
- Giacomo Ciamician
- Camillo Golgi
- Giovanni Pascoli
- 20th Century
- Umberto Eco
- Vincenzo Balzani
- Pier Paolo Pasolini
- Romano Prodi

External links

- [http://www.eng.unibo.it/ University of Bologna]

Medicine

Medicine is a branch of health science concerned with maintaining human health and restoring it by treating disease and injury; it is both an area of knowledge, a science of body systems and diseases and their treatment, and the applied practice of that knowledge. The practice of medical care is shared between the medical profession—physicians or doctors—and other groups of professionals, such as nurses or pharmacists (sometimes called allied health professions). Historically, only members of the medical profession proper have been considered to actually practice medicine in the strictest sense, in contrast to the allied fields of health care professionals. Clinicians can be physicians, nurses, or physician assistants -- those who provide health care or otherwise tend to their patients. The medical profession is the social and occupational structure of the group of people formally trained and authorized to apply medical knowledge. Many countries and legal jurisdictions have legal limitations on who may practice medicine or the allied medical fields. Medicine is typically seen as composed of various specialized sub-branches, such as pediatrics, gynecology, neurology, dealing with particular body systems, diseases, or areas of health. Systems of medical and healthcare practices have existed among human societies since at least the dawn of recorded history. These systems have developed in various ways in different cultures and regions. Medicine as understood in the modern period has historically been considered to be the mainstream tradition which developed in the Western world since the early modern age. Many other traditions of medicine and healthcare are still widely practiced throughout the world, most of which are still considered to be separate and distinct from Western medicine, also called biomedicine or the Hippocratic tradition. The most highly developed systems of medicine outside the Western system are the Ayurvedic tradition of India and traditional Chinese medicine. Various non-mainstream traditions of health care have also developed in the Western world distinct from mainstream medicine. The various other systems practiced among various cultures are sometimes practiced alongside or in cooperation with Western medicine, while sometimes being seen as competing traditions. Medicine is also often used amongst medical professionals as shorthand for Internal Medicine. Veterinary medicine is the practice of health care specialized for other animal species.

History of medicine

Medicine as it is practiced now is rooted in various traditions, but developed mainly in the late 18th and early 19th century in Germany (Rudolf Virchow) and France (Jean-Martin Charcot, Claude Bernard and others). The new, "scientific" medicine replaced earlier Western traditions of medicine, mostly based on the "four humours" and other pre-modern theories. The focal points of development of clinical medicine shifted to the United Kingdom and the USA by the early 1900s (Sir William Osler, Harvey Cushing). Evidence-based medicine is the recent movement to link the practice and the science of medicine more closely through the use of the scientific method and modern information science. Genomics and knowledge of human genetics is already having a large influence on medicine, as the causative genes of most monogenic genetic disorders have now identified, and the development of techniques in molecular biology and genetics are influencing medical practice and decision-making.

Practice of medicine

The practice of medicine combines both science and art. Science and technology are the evidence base for many clinical problems for the general population at large. The art of medicine is the application of this medical knowledge in combination with intuition and clinical judgment to determine the proper diagnoses and treatment plan for this unique patient and to treat the patient accordingly. Central to medicine is the patient-doctor relationship established when a person with a health concern or problem seeks the help of a physician (i.e. the medical encounter). Other health professionals similarly establish a relationship with a patient and may perform interventions from their perspective, e.g. nurses, radiographers and therapists. As part of the medical encounter, the doctor needs to:
- develop a relationship with the patient
- gather data (medical history and physical examination combined with laboratory or imaging studies)
- analyze and synthesize that data (assessment and/or differential diagnosis), and then
- develop a treatment plan (further testing, therapy, watchful observation, referral and follow-up)
- treat the patient accordingly
- assess the progress of treatment and alter the plan as necessary. The medical encounter is documented in a medical record, which is a legal document in many jurisdictions. One method that is used is called the problem-oriented medical record (POMR), which includes a problem list of diagnoses and a "SOAP" method of documentation for each visit:
- S - Subjective, the medical history of the problem from the point-of-view of the patient.
- O - Objective, the physical examination and any laboratory or imaging studies.
- A - Assessment, is the medical decision-making process including the differential diagnoses and most probable diagnoses.
- P - Plan, the way resolve the problem and monitor progress

Medical systems

Medicine is practiced within the medical system of a particular culture or government. Leaving aside tribal cultures, the most significant divide in developed countries is that between universal health care and the market based health care (such as practiced in the U.S.).

Patient-doctor relationship

The doctor-patient relationship and interaction is a central process in the practice of medicine. There are many perspectives from which to understand and describe it. An idealized physician's perspective, such as is taught in medical school, sees the core aspects of the process as the physician learning from the patient his symptoms, concerns and values; in response the physician examines the patient, interprets the symptoms, and formulates a diagnosis to explain the symptoms and their cause to the patient and to propose a treatment. In more detail, the patient presents a set of complaints or concerns about his health to the doctor, who then obtains further information about the patient's symptoms, previous state of health, living conditions, and so forth, and then formulates a diagnosis and enlists the patient's agreement to a treatment plan. Importantly, during this process the doctor educates the patient about the causes, progression, outcomes, and possible treatments of his ailments, as well as often providing advice for maintaining health. This teaching relationship is the basis of calling the physician doctor, which originally meant "teacher" in Latin. The patient-doctor relationship is additionally complicated by the patient's suffering (patient derives from the Latin patiens, "suffering") and limited ability to relieve it on his own. The doctor's expertise comes from his knowledge about, or experience with, other people who have suffered similar symptoms, and his presumed ability to relieve it with medicines or other therapies about which the patient may initially have little knowledge. The doctor-patient relationship can be analyzed from the perspective of ethical concerns, in terms of how well the goals of non-maleficence, beneficence, autonomy, and justice are achieved. Many other values and ethical issues can be added to these. In different societies, periods, and cultures, different values may be assigned different priorities. For example, in the last 30 years medical care in the Western World has increasingly emphasized patient autonomy in decision making. The relationship and process can also be analyzed in terms of social power relationships (e.g., by Michel Foucault), or economic transactions. Physicians have been accorded gradually higher status and respect over the last century, and they have been entrusted with control of access to prescription medicines as a public health measure. This represents a concentration of power and carries both advantages and disadvantages to particular kinds of patients with particular kinds of conditions. A further twist has occurred in the last 25 years as costs of medical care have risen, and a third party (an insurance company or government agency) now often insists upon a share of decision-making power for a variety of reasons, reducing freedom of choice of both doctors and patients in many ways. The quality of the patient-doctor relationship is important to both parties. The better the relationship in terms of mutual respect, knowledge, trust, shared values and perspectives about disease and life, and time available, the better will be the amount and quality of information about the patient's disease transferred in both directions, enhancing accuracy of diagnosis and increasing the patient's knowledge about the disease. In some settings, e.g. the hospital ward, the patient-doctor relationship is much more complex, and many other people are involved when somebody is ill: relatives, neighbors, rescue specialists, nurses, technical personnel, social workers and others.

Clinical skills

Main articles: Medical history, Physical examination. A complete medical evaluation includes a medical history, a physical examination, appropriate laboratory or imaging studies, analysis of data and medical decision making to obtain diagnoses, and treatment plan. The components of the medical history are:
- Chief complaint (CC) - the reason for the current medical visit.
- History of present illness (HPI) - the chronological order of events of symptoms. A mnemonic PQRST is sometimes helpful in obtaining the history:
- Provocative-palliative factors - what makes a symptom worse or better.
- Quality - description of the symptom
- Region - which part of the body is affected
- Severity - what is the intensity of the symptom; using a scale of 0-10 (10 worst)
- Timing - what is the course of the symptom
- Current activity - occupation, hobbies, what the patient actually does.
- Medications - what drugs including OTCs, and home remedies, as well as herbal remedies such as St. John's Wort. Allergies are recorded.
- Past medical history (PMH/PMHx) - other medical diagnoses, past hospitalizations and operations, injuries, past infectious diseases and/or vaccinations, history of known allergies.
- Review of systems (ROS) - an outline of additional symptoms to ask which may be missed on HPI, generally following the body's main organ systems (heart, lungs, digestive tract, urinary tract, etc).
- Social history (SH) - birthplace, residences, marital history, social and economic status, habits (including diet, medications, tobacco, alcohol).
- Family history (FH) - listing of diseases in the family that may impact the patient. A family tree is sometimes used. The physical examination is the examination of the patient looking for signs of disease. The doctor uses his senses of sight, hearing, touch, and sometimes smell (taste has been made redundant by the availability of modern lab tests). Four chief methods are used: inspection, palpation, percussion, and auscultation; smelling may be useful (e.g. infection, uremia, diabetic ketoacidosis). The clinical examination involves study of:
- Vital signs include height, weight, body temperature, blood pressure, pulse, respiration rate, hemoglobin oxygen saturation
- General appearance of the patient
- Skin
- Head, eye, ear, nose, and throat (HEENT)
- Cardiovascular - heart and blood vessels
- Respiratory - lungs
- Abdomen and rectosigmoid
- Genitalia
- Spine and extremities - musculoskeletal
- Neurological and psychiatric Laboratory and imaging studies results may be obtained, if ncessary. The medical decision-making (MDM) process involves analysis and synthesis of all the above data to come up with a list of possible diagnoses (the differential diagnoses), along with an idea of what needs to be done to obtain a definitive diagnosis that would explain the patient's problem. The treatment plan may include ordering additional laboratory tests and studies, starting therapy, referral to a specialist, or watchful observation. Follow-up may be advised. This process is used by primary care providers as well as specialists. It may take only a few minutes if the problem is simple and straightforward. On the other hand, it may take weeks in a patient who has been hospitalized with multi-system problems, with involvement by several specialists. On subsequent visits, the process may be repeated in an abbreviated manner to obtain any new history, symptoms, physical findings, and lab or imaging results or specialist consultations.

Settings where medical care is delivered

See also clinic, hospital, and hospice Medicine is a diverse field and the provision of medical care is therefore provided in a variety of locations. Primary care medical services are provided