- Nov 2017
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engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu
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To know his rights; to exercise with order & justice those he retains; to choose with discretion the fiduciaries of those he delegates; and to notice their conduct with diligence with candor & judgment.
The idea of educating students on their own rights is interesting when considering the unequal rights of individuals of different race, class, and gender. While students may come to know their own democratic rights as upper class white males of the time, they might fail to gain exposure to the lack of rights of others around them. This most likely perpetuated a system of inequality in which the most educated elite who likely assumed powerful roles were allowed to continue institutional discrimination. However, it is very possible that if there were progressive professors in the University at the time that may have been honorable enough to teach students about the universal rights of all humans.
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By him the elements of medical science may be taught, with a history & explanations of all it’s successive theories from Hippocrates to the present day: and anatomy may be fully treated.
From being in a Medicine and Culture class, I have come to discuss the many nuisances of what a doctor's education and life is like. We have discussed repeatedly and in great depth of the need for doctors to obtain a comprehensive education, both among different medical fields but also not just limited to the math and sciences. Philosophy, morality, history, humanities, among other subjects can all have a positive effect on the quality of a doctor and his performance and happiness. It prevents the idea of medicalization in which doctors are taught to be like robots and reminds them that they are first and foremost caretakers meant to heal people physically but also mentally and emotionally.
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- Oct 2017
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engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu engagements2017-18.as.virginia.edu
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Ethics
I would be curious to see how the founders would have pictured and wanted an 'ethics' class to be like. It would be interesting to compare how they would be taught today and see concepts like democracy that are held equally but human rights and equality possibly have a large discrepancy.
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Education, in like manner engrafts a new man on the native stock, & improves what in his nature was vicious & perverse
This section reminded me of the philosophy of Thomas Hobbes who believed the nature of man is inherently bad and the purpose of government and education is to control man's selfish desires. In my opinion, I side more with John Locke's philosophy that the nature of man is inherently good but society is corrupted by certain negative people. Education's purpose should be to remind people of their virtuous nature and not become distracted by the inequalities and failures of society.
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- Sep 2017
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www.history.org www.history.org
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This degree of medical information is such as the mass of scientific students would wish to possess, as enabling them in their course through life, to estimate with satisfaction the extent and limits of the aid to human life and health, which they may understandingly expect from that art; and it constitutes such a foundation for those intended for the profession, that the finishing course of practice at the bed-sides of the sick, and at the operations of surgery in a hospital, can neither be long nor expensive. To seek this finishing elsewhere, must therefore be submitted to for a while.
It is interesting to see how limited the resources given to medical section of education are considering its importance in society. However, in stressing this weakness, they at least recognize the need for a communicative and functioning medical system in order to give students the necessary understanding in this profession. This reminds me of a TedTalk by Dr. Brian Goldman, who stressed the importance of communication of mistakes and experiences while treating the human body (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUbfRzxNy20). Because the profession involves such a unique relationship between social, physical and mental skills, it requires a vast array of knowledge shared between many different people to make strides forward in the field.
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And it cannot be but that each generation succeeding to the knowledge acquired by all those who preceded it, adding to it their own acquisitions and discoveries, and handing the mass down for successive and constant accumulation, must advance the knowledge and well-being of mankind, not infinitely, as some have said, but indefinitely, and to a term which no one can fix and foresee.
Through the study of death in the Ethical Engagement 'Mortality and Morality', we come to see how the nature of human life is based upon constant growth. The fear of death reminds us that our achievements and experiences have an end, so not only do we give meaning to the things we do knowing we will not be around one day, but we also are motivated to leave our lasting mark so that our memory will not die. This idea has an interesting relation to education and the passing on of knowledge, in which the process of science and discovery exists as a perennial and infinite series of communication in thought that is unbound by the limit of human life. Because humans feel a profound fundamental need to grow not only as individuals, but also a society, education is the tool which gives us potential to fulfill our fundamental purpose. Furthermore, the syntax between education and teaching is the machine which drives this purpose to reality.
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