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Why do we Know something?
Knowledge is interesting. But what is it, exactly? What does it mean to say you know something? Plato defined it as being justified true belief, but is it? Take Bertrand Russel’s famous thought experiment: the ‘stopped clock case’, for example. Alice looks at a clock and says it is two o’clock. Well, because the clock…
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Risk Perception
Risk is something we all need to assess from time to time. The problem lies in how we do it. If there are factors we fail to take into account that affect our risk perception then our evaluation may as likely be wildly unrealistic, as appropriate. Emotion tends to skew things in one direction or…
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The Skirt’s the Thing
Skirts are back in the news –this time in France… for being too long… You’re kidding! A skirt’s a skirt, right? They’ve been around for thousands of years it would seem, albeit of multiple lengths and designs that accorded with local customs and –perhaps- fashions. The wearers were, of course, were no doubt sometimes tempted…
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The Empathy of Age
I am intrigued by the concept of empathy. Variously defined as caring, psychological identification, or even sharing another person’s feelings, it is nevertheless a quality incumbent upon those of us in the health profession in whatever capacity. Empathy is a word that has, in some minds, become synonymous with other altruistic traits such as sympathy,…
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Speak up, eh?
In the often dull Gestalt of Canadian politics, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish background from foreground, but every so often a light goes on and shadows spring to life. Shadows we would fain deny, yet dare not, to paraphrase Macbeth as he waits for battle. It is, perhaps, an apt example given that it…
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Kegel Exercises in Pregnancy
Okay, okay, I was wrong! It happens. Sometimes the brain gets in the way of scientific studies –prejudges them. Alters them in little ways so they do not conflict with its own opinions. Or, worse still, is influenced by a confirmation bias that precludes even the perusal of any information that makes it uncomfortable. The…
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The Manopause
The menopause can be a mysterious time, although the mechanism is easily enough defined: the cessation of menses because of the lack of estrogen production by the ovary. The concept may be simple, but the ramifications and folklore that surround it less so. It has always worn its myths like a hood, obscuring the face…
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To Have, or not to Have
There are two worlds out there, two Magisteria. Two contrasting inclinations that pass each other on the street without a wave. Strangers who sometimes know each other well. They sit, unwittingly close to each other, in the waiting room of my office. They chat and smile obligingly, trusting that their ignorance of the other is…
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