Socrates and Early Buddhist Medical Ethics: Foundations of Moral Reasoning in the Care of Body and Mind

While Buddhist traditions articulate a parallel moral vision in the early discourses of the Pāli Canon, Western traditions usually locate the roots of ethical reasoning in Socratic inquiry. Especially in their approaches to bodily care, spiritual well - being, and moral responsibility, this article contends that both Socratic and Early Buddhist ideas converge on fundamental principles in medical ethics. Through a comparative textual and philosophical study, the paper examines how Socratic dialectics and the Buddha's diagnostic approach to dissatisfa ction/ suffering (dukkha) both produce frameworks for ethical healthcare anchored in the development of virtue, wisdom, and care for the integrity of life. A more comprehensive understanding of cross-cultural medical humanities is facilitated by the comparison, which offers complementary insights into patient autonomy, ethical intervention, and the moral character of the physician. This comparative perspective expands our understanding of cross-cultural medical humanities, displaying how classical traditions provide complementary insights for revisiting both personal caregiving practices and larger systems in places like the Philippines where the politics of policy and institutional form also shape the very meaning of what it means to “care.”