History and Philosophy of Medicine II Class Time: T, Th 10:00-11:15; 11:30-12:45Professor: Daniel Vandersommers, Ph.D.

Contact: davandersomm@bsu.eduRoom: BU 131

Office Hours: Thursday, 1:00-9:00, or by appointment on Tue. and Wed.Office: Elliot B027

“Declare the past, diagnose the present, foretell the future.”

-- Hippocrates

“The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.”-- Voltaire

““I'm a fountain of blood. In the shape of a girl.”-- Björk

“The shadow escapes from the body like an animal we had been sheltering.”-- Gilles Deleuze

Course DescriptionThis class will survey the history and philosophy of medicine from the Renaissance to the bacteriological revolution and beyond into the professionalizing, standardizing, and globalizing of medicine after the Second World War. This class will study medical thought, human bodies, and societies in equal measure. While this course will primarily focus on “Western Medicine” (though always challenging this Eurocentric construct), it will also take us on forays into Chinese, Indian, and Near Eastern medical thought, while, at the same time, interrogating African and indigenous knowledges. Most important, this class will historicize and theorize our bodies as sites ever-changing intellectual pursuits entangled with all sorts of diverse cultural projects. This course will examine topics like: the co-creation of bodies and personhood, infectious disease and epidemics, non-communicable diseases, mental illness, environmental health, therapeutics, institutions like hospitals and asylums, gender and power, technology and diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, surgical practices, medical education, medical subjects, and public health. It will look at the history of these and will simultaneously critique these histories within the frameworks of social constructivism, global-historical studies, postcolonialism, feminism, and the ecological humanities. Ultimately, this course will show how the history of medicine still lays embedded within the contemporary medicine that we call "modern."

Learning Objectives1) To get you to better understand the processes of historical inquiry.2) Develop your critical thinking skills.3) Improve your ability to express yourself, verbally and in writing.4) Expand your historical body of knowledge.5) Learn to apply said historical body of knowledge to the world around you.6) Encourage you to (re)cultivate a passion for reading about diverse topics.7) Practice ‘experiencing’ the past through empathy and humility rather than treating history as fixed “information” and “data” to “learn.”

GradingGrades will be a composite of short reading quizzes, participation, a super-quiz, and a final research project based on the exploration of a specific topic of interest in the history of medicine. Quizzes will take place immediately at the beginning of each class. They will be short “reading checks” of 5 to 10 questions. If you do not read carefully, actively, and consistently, these reading quizzes will prove difficult. Up to 40% of the questions on these quizzes may also derive from previous lectures, discussions, and classes. The quizzes account for 69% of your grade. They are “the glue” of the course. They are designed to 1) provide incentive to read 2) reward those who do read 3) provide incentive to be engaged in class 4) reward those who are engaged in class, and 5) provide me with a method of evaluating students that is consistent with a discussion- and reading-based introductory course while, at the same time, sidestepping the need to administer the stressful and gargantuan exams, midterms, and finals commonplace in overly-hierarchical high school and undergraduate education. Your lowest two quiz grades of the semester will be dropped. These drops function solely as “sick leaves,” allowing you to drop quiz-grades from days you are absent due to official, excused, illness (with a doctor’s note). However, if you happen to be completely well and in good-health during the semester, these two grades will still be dropped. If you happen to have more than two “sick days” (meaning that you have two official notes of excused health-related or Academy-related leaves), I am indeed able to provide make-up quizzes beginning with your third excused absence. If and when you are sick and not able to come to class, you are responsible for class content: please connect with a colleague or inquire with me about material you may have missed.

The class participation component of the grade is based on my assessment of the consistency and quality of your engagement in class. The final super-quiz, which we as a class will jointly co-construct the curriculum for, will be worth 6% of your grade. Participation is worth 10% of your grade. Lastly, a final research project represents 15% of your grade.

Final grade scale: 94-100 = A; 88-93 = A- ; 80-88 = B ; 70-79 = C ; 60-69 = D; <60 = D*

ReadingsYou will be assigned a good deal of reading each week, and you will need to develop critical reading skills. A verbatim scrutiny is not always necessary, but you should closely consult all the materials, comprehend them and be able to articulate the substantive content of the pieces (what topics/events they cover), the theoretical content (what the authors are arguing) and discuss any points of interest that may have struck you as significant, bizarre, profound &c.

This course is divided into four sections that will serve as four different windows into the history of philosophy of medicine, examining individuals, cultures, places, and events that have influenced large amounts of time and space. For each section we will read (excerpts from) one corresponding monograph, sometimes accompanied by an article or two. If needed, I will provide PDF-scans of all the readings for the course, as the course unfolds. However, if you prefer to have a hard-copy of the book, you may feel free to either purchase the books on your own (most of them are quite cheap on Amazon) or order them through the Ball State University Library. The appropriate books for each section are as follows:

1. Shigehisa Kuriyama’s The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine

2. Richard Hollingham’s Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery

3. Steven Johnson’s The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World

4. Nancy Langton’s Toxic Bodies: Hormone Disruptors and the Legacy of DES

Some suggestions to guide your reading:

Read Actively: Preview each chapter to figure out what it is about, and formulate questions to guide your reading. Read the introductory and concluding paragraphs and note major headings to get a sense of where the author is taking you. Keep in mind the author is being selective here. She or he cannot possibly tell you everything you need to know. What the author chooses to include will tell you a lot about what she or he considers important.

Write In Your Books: Write in the margins.Flag critically important points, and summarize the author’s arguments. Note stream of consciousness connections or anything else that will help you go back through all the readings and make sense of them. Everyone reads differently. Find what works for you.

Get Away: We are an increasingly connected society in which many people feel uncomfortable being “away” or unavailable for any length of time. I advise you to leave those places where friends or family can distract you, turn your cell phones off and be “away.” Coffeehouses, public libraries, or shady trees rarely if ever ask engaged patrons to move along. Spend time with yourself and your readings. I promise you will soon realize the worth of your education, and begin to truly benefit from it.

General Notes Regarding Conduct

This class is expected to be a positive learning experience based on open communication and respect. You are expected to be collegial and to respect the rights of the other seminar participants.

You should not use laptops, tablets, I-Pads, or other types of electronic technology in the classroom unless I specifically say that we will utilize them for an activity.

Under no circumstance should cell phones be visible in the classrooms. They must be stowed away or kept in pockets, with ringers and sounds turned off. Texting in class can result in a loss of quiz or participation points.

I encourage you to visit my office hours to ask questions, raise concerns, continue discussion, talk about the readings, etc. Please don’t hesitate to stop by. Also, due to high volume, please be aware that it could take me 48 hours to respond to emails.

Diversity and Inclusion Policy

Ball State University aspires to be a university that attracts and retains a diverse faculty, staff, and student body. We are committed to ensuring that all members of the community are welcome, through valuing the various experiences and worldviews represented at Ball State and among those we serve. We promote a culture of

respect and civil discourse as expressed in our Beneficence Pledge and through university resources found at http://cms.bsu.edu/campuslife/multiculturalcenter.

Academic Dishonesty:

Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated and will be subject to the Academy’s policies on academic dishonesty. For a full discussion of this process and possible sanctions, please refer to the student handbook.

Attendance and Tardies

Attendance is required, per Academy policy. Unexcused absences may result in a grade deduction in participation. Late arrivals may be counted tardy, with late arrivals of more than ten minutes subject to be

counted absent for the day.

Disclaimer

I reserve the right to make changes to this syllabus at my discretion. I will give notice to the class as soon as possible after making any change.

Reading and Assignment Schedule

Please note that reading assignments are subject to change. As Dwight D. Eisenhower once said: “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” The same is true for my courses, which are often exercises in lateral thinking, improvisation, headlong advances and scurrilous retreats. I don’t follow a divine script; I don’t have a strict agenda regarding what I expect you to get out of this course. The end result will ultimately be what you make of it.

P.S. In accordance with my belief that we, knowingly or not, engage history every single day, I may occasionally send links to stories, articles, and audio or video related to the readings for the week. You will be responsible for reading and/or watching/listening to them, so our class discussions will be pertinent and dynamic. That said, I will never bombard you with last minute manifestos of biblical proportions. Most news stories are relatively short, and the audio links can be listened to while you’re reading your email. They’ll simply be things to consider while you read for class.

The class will not be bound to a single timeline. The lectures for the course are organized thematically. Each lecture will outline broad themes between 1500 and the mid-twentieth century, focusing on key events, important people, and (most importantly) big conceptual-theoretical-historical debates within the field.

The readings, on the other hand, will operate on their own timelines. As the course unfolds, we will see the themes and chronologies of the lectures popping up in the readings, as well as the themes and chronologies of the readings overlapping with the lectures. Tracking and assembling the timelines will be one of the adventures tackled in this course. I will give you some tools by which to keep track of people and events.

1.7 – Lecture: “What is the History and Philosophy of Medicine”?

1.9 – Lecture: “Disease, Illness,, and Society”Kuriyama – Preface and Chapter 1

1.14 – Lecture: “Medicine and Religion”Kuriyama – Chapter 2

1.16 – Lecture: “Medical Self-Help and the Market for Medicine”Kuriyama – Chapter 3

Week Lecture Topic: “Women, Health, and Medicine”1.21 – Kuriyama – Chapter 4

1.23 – Kuriyama – Chapter 5

1.28 – NO CLASS (Dr. Vandersommers will be gone for a speaking obligation in Pittsburgh.)

1.30 – Lecture: “Anatomy and Medicine”Kuriyama – Chapter 6 and Epilogue

2.4 – LONG WEEKEND

2.6 – Lecture: “Anatomy and Medicine,” Part IIHollingham – Foreward, Preface, and Chapter 1

Week Lecture Topic: “Surgery”2.11 – Hollingham – Chapter 2

2.13 – (Yay! Reading is overrated! No reading today, just come to class!)

Week Lecture Topic: “Hospitals”2.18 – Hollingham – Chapter 3

2.20 – Hollingham – Chapter 4

Week Lecture Topic: “Practitioners and Professionalization”

2.25 – Animal Excursion: Woods – “Introduction: Centring Animals Within Medical History” in Animals and the Shaping of Modern Medicine (2018).

Vandersommers – “The Zoonotic Nature of Tuberculosis” forthcoming in Humanism Encaged (2021).

2.27 – Hollingham – Chapter 5

3.3 – SPRING BREAK!

3.5 – SPRING BREAK!

Week Lecture Topic: “Science and the Practice of Medicine”3.10 – Johnson – Preface and “Monday, August 28”

3.12 – Johnson – “Saturday, September 2”

Week Lecture Topic: “Nursing”3.17 – Johnson – “Sunday, September 3” and “Monday, September 4”

3.19 – Johnson – “Tuesday, September 5”

3.24 – Lecture: “Public Health”Johnson – “Wednesday, September 6”

3.26 – Johnson – “Friday, September 8” (Dr. Vandersommers will be away in Ottawa, Ontario.)

Week Lecture Topic: “Healthcare and the State”3.31 – Johnson – Conclusion and Epilogue

4.2 – Langston – Preface and Chapter 1

Week Lecture Topic: “Medicine, Empire, and Indigenous Knowledges”

4.7 – Langston – Chapters 2-3

4.9 – ** Readings for Final Research Project Must Be Chosen By Today **Indigenous Excursion: Excerpt of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,

Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (2013)Parrish: “Indian Sagacity” in American Curiosity: Cultures of Natural History

in the Colonial British Atlantic World (2006)

Week Lecture Topic: “Medicine and Warfare”4.14 – Langston – Chapter 4-5

4.16 – Langston – Chapter 6-7

Week Lecture Topic: “The Rise of the Asylum”4.21 – Philosophy Excursion: Foucault – Excerpt from “The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of

Medical Perception”

4.23 – Langston – Chapter 8-9

4.28 – Lecture: “Brain Science(s), Neurology, and Living in an Expanding/Disintegrating Multiverse”

4.30 – Lecture: “New Directions in the History and Philosophy of Medicine”

Final Exams: 5.4 – 5.8