SOSA 2502 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Whig History, Diminishing Returns, Cardiology

• School: Dalhousie University
• Department: Soc & Social Anthropology
• Course: SOSA 2502
• Professor: Emma Whelan

Document Summary

The technological imperative: restoring health requires the use of medical technology and advanced scientific procedures. The doctrine of specific etiology: the belief that each disease is caused by a specific, potentially identifiable agent. Curative orientation: co(cid:373)pare data; (cid:374)or(cid:373)al to patie(cid:374)t(cid:859)s s(cid:272)a(cid:374)s a(cid:374)d tests, focused on the goal of cure, contingent on effective diagnosis and treatment, data and test results over other types of unverifiable information, and subjective patient self-reports, and. Health as (cid:858)(cid:374)or(cid:373)ality(cid:859: quantitatively normal: relies on statistical measures to define the norm, qualitatively normal: points of equilibrium as the norm. Atomism: looking at pieces independently, disease has identity separate from host separate entity, state of disease into parts, body in bits parts autonomous from one another, departments built around this ideal (ent, cardiology) Objectivity vs subjectivity: signs (vs. symptoms): things physicians measure measurable and therefore objective (someone outside patient reads signs); ex. Temperature: symptoms: subjective, something patient experiences and reports (ex.