Philosophy and illness
I was going to ask for peoples thoughts on the impact of illness on philosophy but then I found this quote that I agree with.
The Philosophical role of illness:
"It suggests that illness modifies, and thus sheds light on, normal experience, revealing its ordinary and therefore overlooked structure. Illness also provides an opportunity for reflection by performing a kind of suspension (epoché) of previously held beliefs, including tacit beliefs."
https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199669653.001.0001/acprof-9780199669653-chapter-10
I agree with this.
To me illness (which I am currently experiencing) reminds me that I have a body and that body is fallible and finite. I have to try and cope with this finitude. I am not sure how finitude squares with beliefs looking for eternal truths.
The Philosophical role of illness:
"It suggests that illness modifies, and thus sheds light on, normal experience, revealing its ordinary and therefore overlooked structure. Illness also provides an opportunity for reflection by performing a kind of suspension (epoché) of previously held beliefs, including tacit beliefs."
https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199669653.001.0001/acprof-9780199669653-chapter-10
I agree with this.
To me illness (which I am currently experiencing) reminds me that I have a body and that body is fallible and finite. I have to try and cope with this finitude. I am not sure how finitude squares with beliefs looking for eternal truths.
Comments (10)
It’s true that disease, illness and pain are keen reminders of our mortality, but to push it a little further, they should remind you that you are a body, as fragile as you are finite.
by which we measure our
ill-being[/i]
No doubt Gautama or Epicurus or Spinoza or ... would agree.
Quoting Andrew4Handel
:death: Memento mori, memento vivare. :flower:
[quote=Andrew4Handel]I am not sure how finitude squares with beliefs looking for eternal truths[/quote]
Amor fati.
I am not sure whether I am just a body or a body and a mind. But physical illness does make the body dominate the mind.
Ironically though strong bodily sensations are strong mental sensations. For example you can have a leg cut of under anesthetic and feel nothing. You have to be conscious to be aware of a body.
But if all we are is a finite body then what is the point of philosophy If we can't transcend our body and finitude? Questions will end temporally.
I think knowledge and concepts are mental representations not external things. Symbolic? So I think they must die with us if our mind dies with our body and we can no longer symbolise reality.
The role of illness in creativity is hard to assess. Most people experience some illness and adversity in their life. How can we prove or disprove that it was influential in their creativity?
When thing that illness disease and hardship creates is innovation to overcome these things. I don't know how much academia/philosophy/science/art etc would exist if we were content all the time?
I have not come across a cure for depression and similar conditions that suggests we should think more in depths as opposed to things like altering thoughts, mindfulness meditation and looking for positives/CBT.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havi_Carel
I found out she has an incurable but slow acting illness that influenced her choice of philosophy topic.
But there are lots of different illnesses and also disabilities some of which are illnesses that give people different perceptions of reality.
Cognitive neuroscience has been heavily based on neurological disorders, brain lesions and brain injures. Disorder and absence can show what constitutes normality.
Imagine a computer science based on what happens when you hit the buggers with a hammer...
That is not how it works. A person with brain problems can provide feedback whilst in that state.