In Confessions of a Medicine Man: An Essay in Popular Philosophy (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2000, pp. 109-110) Alfred I. Tauber writes: Health care providers have to listen, respond, and generally account for the subjective experience of a patient’s complaint. So much of our discontent can be traced to the too little time the physician spendsContinue reading “The Doctor And The Silenced Patient”
Monthly Archives: June 2016
The Convenient Construction Of The Public-Private Distinction
Revolutions are public affairs; revolutionaries bring them about. They fight in the streets, they ‘man’ the barricades, they push back the forces of reaction. And then, they go home for the night, to a meal and a warm bed. There, they rest and recuperate, recharging the batteries of uprising, ready to battle again the nextContinue reading “The Convenient Construction Of The Public-Private Distinction”
RIP Muhammad Ali: Once And Always, The Greatest
Muhammad Ali was the first Black Muslim American I heard of. Before his name entered my immature consciousness, I did not know Americans could be Black or Muslim. (This revelation came to me during a classroom trivia quiz; ‘Muhammad Ali’ was the answer to the question ‘Who is the world heavyweight champion?’) It is hardContinue reading “RIP Muhammad Ali: Once And Always, The Greatest”
The ‘Ideal Marriage’ And Its Painful Sexual Ignorance
In Making Love: An Erotic Odyssey (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1992, pp. 32-33), Richard Rhodes writes: Somehow I acquired a copy of Dutch physician T. H. van de Velde‘s Ideal Marriage, published in the United States in 1926, the most popular marriage manual in American until The Joy of Sex came along. Ideal MarriageContinue reading “The ‘Ideal Marriage’ And Its Painful Sexual Ignorance”
India’s IIT Graduates Go Mainstream: Via Campus Shooting, The American Way
Graduates of the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) are part of American life: professors, technology officers, and scientists at Ivy League universities, Silicon Valley start-ups, and industrial research and development laboratories. But these are rarefied environs, exclusive precincts for the technocratic elite; the IIT graduate’s presence here places his cultural achievements in a fringeContinue reading “India’s IIT Graduates Go Mainstream: Via Campus Shooting, The American Way”
Does Donald Trump’s ‘Pragmatism’ Mean Pragmatism Is Incoherent?
A devastating accusation is making the rounds in America: Donald Trump is a pragmatist; therefore pragmatism is an incoherent ethical and political philosophy. This breathtakingly simple argument establishes its solitary premise by making note of Trump’s assertions that he will do what it takes to fix America’s problems. His supposed inconstancy–his curious admixture of populism,Continue reading “Does Donald Trump’s ‘Pragmatism’ Mean Pragmatism Is Incoherent?”
Samir Chopra 