Helping a Field See Itself

Helping a Field See Itself PDF

Author: Mario Veen

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2023-08-22

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 1000923150

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The perceived value of philosophy to medical education is increasing. But beyond the occasional application of philosophical concepts, what does it mean to be philosophical about medical education and to do philosophy—to create new concepts and ways of thinking about what medical education is? The complex and dynamic nature of academic medicine requires medical educators to reflect on their practices, to question assumptions, and to embrace the ambiguity of a world that cannot be captured by any one model or theory. This volume explores philosophy as a practice in medical education. We use persistent problems that vex medical educators as a starting point to do philosophy, asking fundamental questions to probe them: How are teaching and learning related? How do we educate the value of personal experience relative to scientific evidence? We also challenge the assumptions underlying these problems with alternatives: What if teaching does not cause learning? What if we cannot divide our inner and outer world? We then explore ways forward: If we cannot cause learning, how do we reconceptualize the educational process? How do we help physician trainees critically reflect on medical epistemology throughout their professional development? Each chapter explores one theme in medical education (e.g., education, science, inequality, technology, mortality) from a philosophical perspective, opening it up to fundamental re-examination and inviting readers to continue exploration beyond the printed words. This book is a step towards enabling medical educators to practice philosophy themselves at appropriate moments in their work. In this way, it aims to establish medical education as a mature field with its own philosophy. The chapters in this book were originally published in the journal Teaching and Learning in Medicine.

Creative Healing

Creative Healing PDF

Author: Michael Samuels MD

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2011-02-01

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1725229323

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All across the country, a groundbreaking movement is forming in the field of health care: art and medicine are becoming one, with remarkable results. In major medical centers such as the University of Florida, Duke, University of California, and Harvard Medical School, patients confronting life-threatening illness and depression are using art, writing, music, and Dance to heal body and soul. -A woman with breast cancer who has never made art before finds healing and empowerment by creating sculpture. -A man with AIDS uses journaling to overcome feelings of despair and helplessness. -A woman suffering from depression following her divorce learns to dance for the first time in her life--and in he body's movement she rediscovers a sense of play and joy. -A musician gives meaning to his art by helping people with illness transform their life through music. -Physicians and nurses are beginning to use creativity to complement and enhance their medical practice. Creative Healing presents readers with the inspiring ways in which the arts (painting, writing, music, and dance) can free the spirit to heal. In one volume, the authors detail the transformative power of a diverse range of artistic activity. Michael Samuels, MD, has over twenty-five years of experience working with cancer patients and is the best-selling author of Seeing with the Mind's Eye and The Well Baby Book. He teams up with fellow pioneer Mary Rockwood Lane, RN, PhD, to share their extraordinary findings on the healing powers of the arts. Through guided imagery, personal stories, and practical exercises, they teach you how to find your "inner artist-healer," enabling you to improve your health, attitude, and sense of well being by immersing yourself in creative activity. Both Samuels and Lane offer invaluable insight through their personal journeys and extensive groundbreaking research, noting that "prayer, art, and healing come from the same source--the human soul." Because there lies an artist and healer within each of us, Creative Healing is an invaluable resource for anyone wishing to discover the beauty of music, dance, writing or art and connect with a deeper part of oneself. Filled with inspiration and guidance, it will help you make changes in your life and the lives of others and gain access to the sacred place where inner peace exists.

The Self Beyond Itself

The Self Beyond Itself PDF

Author: Heidi M. Ravven

Publisher: New Press, The

Published: 2014-09-16

Total Pages: 437

ISBN-13: 1595588000

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“Intertwines history, philosophy, and science . . . A powerful challenge to conventional notions of individual responsibility” (Publishers Weekly). Few concepts are more unshakable in our culture than free will, the idea that individuals are fundamentally in control of the decisions they make, good or bad. And yet the latest research about how the brain functions seems to point in the opposite direction . . . In a work of breathtaking intellectual sweep and erudition, Heidi M. Ravven offers a riveting and accessible review of cutting-edge neuroscientific research into the brain’s capacity for decision-making—from “mirror” neurons and “self-mapping” to surprising new understandings of group psychology. The Self Beyond Itself also introduces readers to a rich, alternative philosophical tradition of ethics, rooted in the writing of Baruch Spinoza, that finds uncanny confirmation in modern science. Illustrating the results of today’s research with real-life examples, taking readers from elementary school classrooms to Nazi concentration camps, Ravven demonstrates that it is possible to build a theory of ethics that doesn’t rely on free will yet still holds both individuals and groups responsible for the decisions that help create a good society. The Self Beyond Itself is that rare book that injects new ideas into an old debate—and “an important contribution to the development of our thinking about morality” (Washington Independent Review of Books). “An intellectual hand-grenade . . . A magisterial survey of how contemporary neuroscience supports a vision of human morality which puts it squarely on the same plane as other natural phenomena.” —William D. Casebeer, author of Natural Ethical Facts

Making Sense of Evolution

Making Sense of Evolution PDF

Author: Massimo Pigliucci

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2010-02-15

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 0226668355

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Making Sense of Evolution explores contemporary evolutionary biology, focusing on the elements of theories—selection, adaptation, and species—that are complex and open to multiple possible interpretations, many of which are incompatible with one another and with other accepted practices in the discipline. Particular experimental methods, for example, may demand one understanding of “selection,” while the application of the same concept to another area of evolutionary biology could necessitate a very different definition. Spotlighting these conceptual difficulties and presenting alternate theoretical interpretations that alleviate this incompatibility, Massimo Pigliucci and Jonathan Kaplan intertwine scientific and philosophical analysis to produce a coherent picture of evolutionary biology. Innovative and controversial, Making Sense of Evolution encourages further development of the Modern Synthesis and outlines what might be necessary for the continued refinement of this evolving field.