'Death and Doctor Hornbook' by Robert Burns: A view from medical history

Robert Burns's poem, Death and Doctor Hornbook, 1785, tells of the drunken narrator's late night encounter with Death. The Grim Reaper is annoyed that ‘Dr Hornbook’, a local schoolteacher who has taken to selling medications and giving medical advice, is successfully thwarting his efforts to gather victims. The poet fears that the local gravedigger will be unemployed but Death reassures him that this will not be the case since Hornbook kills more than he cures. Previous commentators have regarded the poem as a simple satire on amateur doctoring. However, it is here argued that, if interpreted in the light of the exoteric and inclusive character of 18th century medical knowledge and practice, the poem is revealed to have a much broader reference as well as being more subtle and morally ambiguous. It is a satire on 18th century medicine as a whole

Derrida and the Danger of Religion

This paper argues that Jacques Derrida provides a compelling rebuttal to a secularism that seeks to exclude religion from the public sphere. Political theorists such as Mark Lilla claim that religion is a source of violence, and so they conclude that religion and politics should be strictly separated. In my reading, Derrida’s work entails that a secularism of this kind is both impossible (because religion remains influential in the wake of secularization) and unnecessary (because religious traditions are diverse and multivalent). Some attempt to contain the disruptive force of religion by excluding it from the public sphere, but Derrida argues that one may endure instability for the sake of something more important than safety. Although Derrida admits that religion is dangerous, he demonstrates that it is nevertheless an indispensable resource for political reflection

Punishment in Pre-Colonial Indigenous Societies in North America [original paper]

A revised version of this paper was published in the "proceedings" volume for this conference: Conn, Stephen. (1991). "Punishment in Pre-Colonial Indigenous Societies in North America." La peine, Quatrième partie. Mondes non européens [Punishment – Fourth Part. Non-European worlds], pp. 97–107. Recueils de la Société Jean Bodin pour l'histoire comparative des institutions [Transactions of the Jean Bodin Society for Comparative Institutional History] #58. Brussels: De Boeck Université. (http://hdl.handle.net/11122/9753).Using northern Athabascan villages as examples, the author discusses how punishment in indigenous societies was traditionally interwoven with other societal functions. The influence of alcohol and the western legal process changed post-colonial societies and their methods of punishment because punishment decisions in indigenous societies were traditionally arrived at through group deliberation, whereas the western legal system works in a hierarchical fashion. The author concludes that imposition of western-style decision-making disrupted tradtional law ways in post-colonial society

Punishment in Pre-Colonial Indigenous Societies in North America [chapter]

This paper was originally presented at the Conference on Punishment of the Jean Bodin Society for the Comparative History of Institutions, Barcelona, Spain, May 1987. The paper as originally presented can be found at http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8276.Using northern Athabascan villages as examples, the author discusses how punishment in indigenous societies was traditionally interwoven with other societal functions. The influence of alcohol and the western legal process changed post-colonial societies and their methods of punishment because punishment decisions in indigenous societies were traditionally arrived at through group deliberation, whereas the western legal system works in a hierarchical fashion. The author concludes that imposition of western-style decision-making disrupted tradtional law ways in post-colonial society

Creation's Persistent Voice: Critiquing the Secondary Status

Christianity struggles with the concept that nature/creation is truly revelatory of God, and not merely confirmatory of theological conclusions derived from special revelation or deduced from rational reflection. The result is a stilted and narrow conversation between theology and the natural sciences, with the contribution of creation to knowledge of God being limited to certain well-worn paths. If theology is willing to hold a full-fledged conversation with the natural sciences, it may just find that new metaphors and conceptions of God arise that illuminate our understanding of God in ways that scripture alone cannot. Such conversations must be characterized (on both sides) as serious and tentative, with conclusions never considered to be final, but always open to further conversation as new paradigms emerge

The four elements in Robert Grosseteste's De Impressionibus Elementorum

In De Impressionibus Elementorum, a treatise written by Grosseteste shortly after 1220, we can find a discussion of some phenomena involving the four classical elements (air, water, fire and earth), in the framework of an Aristotelian physics of the atmosphere. However this treatise strongly differentiates from similar works of the twelfth century for its referring to experiments. In fact, it contains some descriptions of phase transitions which are rather interesting, in particular when Grosseteste is discussing of bubbles.Comment: Robert Grosseteste, Classical elements as states matter. Aristotl

Keeping company with hope and despair. Family therapists' reflections and experience of working with childhood depression

The BIOMED international outcome study on childhood depression offered a unique opportunity for the systematic treatment of children and families with major depression using systemic psychotherapy. This paper describes the experiences of clinicians working with the families referred and the theoretical and clinical models that evolved during the treatment process. The concept of 'keeping company with hope and despair' emerged as an overarching framework for thinking about the quality of the therapeutic relationship in this developing area of clinical practice. We illustrate our systemically informed interventions with case examples and discuss the role played by therapists' 'use of self' in engaging and fostering change in families gripped by depression