Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: nihilism

  • Pierre Charles Louis of the numerical method

    Pierre Charles Alexandre Louis (1787–1872) was a physician and epidemiologist who made significant contributions to medicine. He worked on the transmission of infectious diseases and developed the concept of “therapeutic nihilism” in the treatment of disease. Louis grew up during the French Revolution, studied medicine in Reims and Paris, and received his medical degree in…

  • Melville’s Bartleby: An absurd casualty

    Simon WeinPetach Tikvah, Israel Albert Camus (1913-1960) was a French writer and philosopher. He did not want to be pinned down as an existentialist or an absurdist, or indeed a nihilist. Nevertheless, he is well known for coining the expression ‘the absurd hero’. Camus used the Greek myth of Sisyphus to illustrate this idea. Sisyphus’s…