A Philosophical Approach To Medicine and Diabetes
To tell you the truth, I’ve been pulling out my hair with this – what the hell am I suppose to worry about…but the more stuff I read, the more interesting it was and the more fun I had with it. Some of the ideas I read about were absolute garbage, but others really made me think of illness and health in a new light. So here are a few of these ideas of health, illness and the body. There was actually nothing specific on diabetes, but then again, did I expect they’re to be, but I will as I write this try to relate it back to the pros and jabs (no pun intended! HA!) of I.D.D.M.
In general, the Buddhists believe that ‘Suffering is part of life’ however, Christianity seeks to ask ‘ Why is their suffering, is this corollary for those in pain?’ Western philosophy aims to recognise the crucial role of the body in the context of perception, ie Merleau-Pointy a western philosophy explains this in terns of a ‘subject body’. I interpret this to mean that we do not experience our bodies by touching or looking at them like we do with objects and situations, instead we experience our bodies in ‘movement’, so we don’t HAVE a body, rather ‘one is one’s body’. This in turn means we have our own bodily way of knowing and responding to its surroundings – this being a purely involuntary action. The body, therefore is not an object of knowledge but a means by which the body learns about the world. Now, putting diabetes in a positive perspective we have an acquired sensation of perceiving the world. Diabetes permeates our perception and is resumed through communicating with the world. I also found this nice, philosophical analogy: ‘language is ultimately a bodily expression, in truth we can say that the body is the condition for thought.’ Put simply - state of health, more so, changes in state of health within my body have developed by personal state of though. My body has been conditioned to respond to other worldly matters – what I see as a response from diabetes, totally cognitive and spiritual, rather than a physical response.
With the endeavours of human development diabetes has become more manageable with the help of chemical concoctions, hence Western medicine views the body as a machine, one that can be modified and repaired. The doctor diagnoses health. What do you all think of this, has the scientific revolution gone to far? More importantly, are you inclined to to believe that your doctor or any other medical expert can ever be wrong? What are some alternatives?
In contrast, Christian thinking, as (Mike??) our Reality Check official priest reminds us is about ‘love and compassion and the belief that we are created in God’s image’…therefore we are made in the shadow of God, and to me as a Christian that gives me great [next page]