History of Science 2220 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Gout, Vitus, Pathos

• School: Western University
• Department: History of Science
• Course: History of Science 2220
• Professor: Lawrence Burns

Document Summary

Illness is personal (an a iction: about how we feel and think. Pathos = su ering (greek: has subjective dimension a ecting: Psychological state (sense of self, relationships to others, broader life-plan) Today"s pathology tends to dissociate itself from psychological and social dimensions of illness to focus on the organic disease (ex. the lesion) 5 interrelated aims of pathology: causation explain why we get sick, diagnosis explain what is wrong, as part of prognosis predict outcome, to justify treatment type, evidence proof (ex. lawsuits or forensics) Organismic: disease is bad, discontinuous, a ects the individual, and has to be eliminated, organism doesn"t feel bad until the disease enters. Ecological: disease is tolerable, natural, and population-based, being sick isn"t so bad, may be bene cial in some way, ex. aging as discussed in aubrey de grey talk. Ontological: external cause, di erent species (ex. virus) or entity (ex. radiation) and exists separately, what we have (i have the chickenpox)