Liked it as short overview of the subject. Touches on various aspects and theories while the author does also make it clear what she sees as more likeLiked it as short overview of the subject. Touches on various aspects and theories while the author does also make it clear what she sees as more likely to be correct. Really needless to say but probably not that useful if you've already deeply studied the topic. Provides references to many books & articles for diving deeper into particular subjects....more
Kept me interested all the way through. A collection of fascinating biographies that really make you appreciate how much medicine has progressed and hKept me interested all the way through. A collection of fascinating biographies that really make you appreciate how much medicine has progressed and how critical the role of the introduction of the scientific approach has been in getting us anywhere in this and many other endeavors. Unfortunately even now there's still quite a bit of the kind of thinking around that led to treatments like bloodletting catching on in the times before science started to take hold (and indeed even that practice persists to this day in some degree).
It's not entirely Nuland's fault but I want to note the story about John Hunter infecting himself with Syphilis on purpose in order to study it are just that and not based on real historical events, Nuland probably got it from another medical historian named d'Arcy Power who seems to have come up with the idea without much real evidence for it. I assume there's probably some other inaccuracies as well but then most of these people lived hundreds of years ago so it's not all that surprising....more
Interesting course that is a very good starting point for further study of this aspect of the philosophy of science. A couple of things that stuck outInteresting course that is a very good starting point for further study of this aspect of the philosophy of science. A couple of things that stuck out for me was that in my opinion Goldman was a little too apologetic for the church on his discussion of the Copernican revolution and I don't fully buy the idea that scientists like Robert Hooke had good reasons to cling on to the theory of phlogiston.
Based on the opening I was also expecting to hear more about how the historical debate ties into the opposition to science we see in modern times but it felt like not much was said on this subject in the end and the connection felt spurious because of that. Just about the only part touching on it was the discussion of intelligent design which was good but also a very small part of the whole course.
Overall Goldman delivers a pretty balanced survey of the history and arguments surrounding scientific knowledge and ties it well into some significant discoveries in the history of science....more
Another direction that I found myself wanting to explore more was the research and what types of meditation would be beneficial and this was the right book for that. It discussed numerous studies and the state of meditation research at the time the book was written. Like others have mentioned it's also very heavy on the history of the two authors and their research & meditation practices, I too think there could have been a little bit less of that but for the most part it still kept my interest. Some parts like the anecdote about the tibetan monks laughing at them for measuring brain activity during metta meditation and the explanation felt like it went a little overboard but overall the material was interesting and presented in a fairly balanced way.
My main takeaways were that the current research findings focus mainly on mindfulness, vipassana, transcendental meditation and a bit of zen (probably in order of significance of findings). Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) has also been studied quite a bit while my impression was that the evidence on mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) isn't quite at the same level yet. There were also some interesting results cited regarding loving kindness (metta) meditation and how it seems to have unique and fast effects.
The suggested importance of retreats has also gotten me more interested in attending those. What was a bit demotivating is how the research seems to suggest short daily meditation might have limited effects and that the most profound changes come after tens of thousands of lifetime hours meditating. On the other hand I'm already finding the practice beneficial for myself so I can also see it as motivating that even more awaits......more
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