Tag Archives: Socrates

The other Timothy Leary

January 19, 2021

Saty Satya-Murti Santa Maria, California, United States   Figure-1: Timothy Leary at work, circa 1920. Credit: Digital Collections and Archives, Tufts University. Source Most people know the name of Timothy Leary as an American counterculture guru and psychologist who had a massive following in the mid-twentieth century. He invoked the names of Gandhi, Jesus, and […]

Where philosophy and medicine overlap

May 3, 2019

Mariami Shanshashvili Tbilisi, Georgia   Achilles bandaging Patroclus’s wounded arm. Ink drawing after an Attic cup by the potter Sosias, c.500 B.C. Achilles bandaging Patroclus’s wounded arm. Ink drawing after an Attic cup by the potter Sosias, c. 500 B.C. Credit: Wellcome Collection. CC BY In Plato’s Charmides there is a remark by Socrates that is neither […]

A happy individual knows nothing

January 30, 2017

Basil Brooke Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa   Socrates and his students. Seljuk manuscript, early 13th century. Mubashshir ibn Fātik. Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul It seems that most people, most of the time, tend to avoid the really big questions, the hows and whys of existence, preferring to wait and see what happens when they die. […]

In defense of good pimping: the Socratic method

January 29, 2017

Gregory M Marcus San Francisco, California, USA   Socrates was executed for berating ancient Athenians with questions in order to test their knowledge. I try to keep this in mind when badgering trainees for the same purpose. Of course, questioning to the point of what is maybe best described as “learner discomfort” is no longer […]

Socrates on clinical excellence

January 29, 2017

George Dunea Chicago, IL   Originally published in The Lancet, September 1, 1973, pp. 493–494   The year is 410 B.C. Socrates and the physician Democedes are walking in a shady grove on the road to Megara. Dem: Can you tell me, Socrates, how does one achieve excellence in clinical medicine? Can excellence be taught, […]