|
Samar
Farage
Biography/Bibliography/Contact
Samar
Farage was born and
grew up in Lebanon,
in a tradition where
the figure of the hakim
(both a philosopher
and a physician) was
still alive. She studied
political theory, philosophy
and classical Arabic,
a language and literature
that still reflects
the twinning of philosophy
and medicine, a correspondence
between microcosm-macrocosm
and hence, a radically
different notion of
health (or being in
the world) than the
one she learned during
her graduate studies
in France and the United
States. From almost
a decade of Ivan Illich's
lectures and conversations
in Pennsylvania and
Bremen, Farage now explores
the fundamental reasons
for and implications
of the divergence between
the hakim and the doctor.
Farage
studies the transformation
of the Galenic felt
body and the complex
notion of krasis (as
the balance of humors)
when it passes from
the Greek to the Latinized
West, through Arabic
medieval translations
and interpretations.
She asks the following
question: What are the
linguistic, cultural
and professional elements
that led to the bifurcation
into scientific medicine
in the West and the
survival of the Galenic
tradition, best embodied
in the figure of the
hakim in the East?
This
inquiry reveals an intimate
relation between philosophy
and medicine in antiquity
at the ethical level.
The aim of philososphy
was virtue and that
of medicine, health.
Both implied a notion
of proportion and demanded
rigorous discipline.
Samar looks at two significant
moments in the Latin
West that have altered
the felt body of the
Galenic tradition. A
first moment occurred
with the transformation
of the Greek cardinal
virtues into the moral
virtues of Christianity.
With the moralization
of virtues, the way
is paved for the disembodiment
of the humors. A second
shift occured in the
twelfth century with
the separation of philosophy
and theology. As a result,
the union of philosophy
and medicine itself
slowly dissolved. Medicine
was institutionalized
in universities and
academies as a practical
science and later as
modern medicine.
With
the loss of a cosmology,
medicine also lost its
telos and its ethical
foundation. The relatedness
of physician and patient
was rooted in a mimetic
understanding of the
patient's condition
through word, gesture,
tone, stance and rhythm.
Judgement was based
on common sense and
interpreted through
the logical deductive
tradition in which the
physician stood. Sense
knowledge ensured that
each physician knew
the particular nature
of the patient and his
habits in order to assist
nature in correcting
its imbalances. In modern
medicine, knowledge
becomes verifiable,
repeatable and standardized;
whence, nature it-self
can no longer be consulted.
The senses become receptive
organs. Diagnosis and
prognosis of the Galenic
physician are today
dictated by the hollow
reflections of diagrams,
charts and the sense-less
numbers of risk analysis.
Anamnesis
and mimetic understanding
have been replaced with
the statistical assemblage
of profiles--outcomes
of tests and instrumentation.
Health, a continuous
"becoming"
for the Galenic patient,
turns into a a purely
engineered state. One's
being in the world is
radically altered. Such
a historical investigation
does not aim at a nostalgic
revelling in the past,
but offers a disciplined
reflection for an alternative
to "health".
Contact
sxf14@psu.edu
Bibliography
^back
to top^ |