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Nov 20, 2021Liked by Lee Trepanier

First, it is always mind-boggling, but in a good kind of way, to start off my early morning hours with stimulating thought after reading another episode of Then Again. I have come to the conclusion that this is part and parcel of the writing of Prof. Trepanier, and any discussion emanating from his writing leads to and requires philosophical thinking. To examine any concept is to delve into one of the facets of, and about, life. I, for one, cannot imagine anyone leading an unexamined life.

As a healthcare practitioner, I firmly believe and have fulfilled my duties in the real profession of medicine-- not the phony machinations of an educated scribe, copying and pasting into an electronic health record, and simply perpetuating a fellow human's ills, while not fulfilling the actual mandate of the profession to resolve, heal, get better, and thus improve the quality and quantity of another life. I have realized, through contemplation which examines the nature of life (bios), critically important concepts that have been my guides to healing. And this healing extends to not solely H. sapiens, but to the entire bios. It is a theory of everything.

So, today's "Then Again" raises red flags of alarm if our current classroom curriculum does not explore "What's it all about Alfie?" I am not sure if there is a major booboo in the opening paragraph where Trepanier lists Steel's explanation of why philosophy is neglected. For example, "the state requirements of demanding critical and analytical thinking" would be in my view tied intimately into a love of philosophy, and not the opposite. I would argue that the "American disgrace" we see portrayed by the conduct of our Congress and former president Trump, and by as much as one-third of the populace, is a reflection of a lack of critical thinking.

Another but related part of human nature that seems to me to be endangered is that of the love of understanding, the desire to explore, to bring together in order to solve the great Alfie puzzle. I broach the chasm between "everyday" life and medicine by an understanding of concepts that tie one into the other, and with further "delving" the boundaries are erased, and integration of the two is realized. This ability to see the interconnectivity of all things is a product of curiosity. And the curiosity is one that probes the depths; not a glib enterprise that skims the surface. As a teacher, I view education as a Christmas tree. At its most superficial level it is a gift that brings enlightenment. The tree of life has roots or base concepts, a trunk of major concepts to guide me, and ornaments that relate to details, data, or endpoints of what the concepts bring forth. I use the acronym SAIN (Systems Analysis & Integrity Networking) to reinforce this concept. It is graphically described and portrayed in the book Prostate Cancer. Essential Concepts for Survival (http://tinyurl.com/blot2zm)

In my almost 80 years, I find that acronyms, if cleverly concocted, will convey deep thinking that always have a philosophical element. Try this acronym on for size: "CONCEPT."

Concatenate Our Notions, Create Enlightenment, Provide Tactic

*concatenate: To make into a whole by joining a system of parts

*notion: That which exists in the mind as the product of careful mental activity

When teaching patients (a class of students so to speak) about the importance of concepts in medicine, exploring this acronym should provide insight, as does the very meaning provide insight. To bring together (coordinate, synthesize, harmonize) a series of parts (each aspect of health and how it has been relegated to specialized components) is to gain a greater understanding of how any "organism" thrives. It should bring home why the current super-specialization in medicine fails so many patients. And these notions or mental thoughts/cognition that require work/effort, lead us to a deeper understanding that optimizes life, literally and figuratively. Working the mind is part of philosophical growth. Our society has become lazy, and this is reflected in the pandemic of obesity and the resulting 50% of the health problems of Western society. We don't work our bodies nor our minds. It's easier to sit on a couch and have pizza and beer than to discuss something that may stress our cognitive processes and lead to effects that range from the somatic to the spiritual.

What we have is not an Alfie scenario but a Cool Hand Luke one:

"What we've got here is failure to communicate" —Strother Martin & Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke (1967)

And part of that failure to communicate is not simply failing to communicate with one another, but with a failure to communicate with ourselves (i.e., know thyself, examine who you are and what you are; ask about the meaning of your life). So with the probability that there was a typo in that first paragraph and that Steel meant that our school system neglects philosophy because it does NOT require critical and analytical thinking (delving into concepts), I would opine that what we see here and now in America is the result of such neglect. What we've got here for about one-third of our citizenry is a Failure to Understand Critical Thinking. Now go ahead and create an acronym from that and you have an accurate assessment of the state of health of our society. Clearly, the mess we are in reflects a horrible failure in our "system" of education.

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