Sophiology, vaccinology, and the healing professions - a warning from ancient Greece?

To the ancient Greeks, whose thinking, philosophy, government, nd art has influenced nearly every aspect of Western civilization; ruth and the ability to think clearly and to articulate and share such nowledge (and therefore wisdom), were conceived of as god-like ualities. Evidence for this is the Greek development of a goddess f wisdom, whom they named Sophia; and the study and philosphy of wisdom, sophiology. Philosophy in turn has been defined s “the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those onnected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and anguage. It is distinguished from other ways of addressing such roblems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance n rational argument.” (my emphasis)[1]. This definition of philosophy, and its congruence with sophilogy, are foundations vital to science, and for our purposes, the tudy of vaccines and public policy surrounding the use of vaccines defined, to use the formal definition above – as “a critical, generlly systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument”. To ur detriment, and that of our patients and public, the ramparts of knowledge, values, reason, mind and language” and wisdom that ollectively guard Truth, have been threatened – alarmingly, from ithin, and less surprisingly, from outside the healing professions. What do I mean? Gradually, since the late 1970s and early 1980s, t has become increasingly clear that there are many within the ealing professions (and this derives from a more general maniestation of our aggregate cultural scientific illiteracy) who have bandoned the careful metrics and wisdom of the scientific method, or empiricism and an embracement of “individual voice and opinon.” This is, in essence a type of post-modern, post-intellectualism haracterized by the loss of ‘transcendent scientific reference points seful for clear thinking and choosing wisely as a matter of habit’ paraphrase borrowed from George Weigel [2]). Evidence for this laim comes in myriad forms whose current and past apparitions aunt us still – the Wakefield debacle, the French Health authorities temporarily) suspending hepatitis B vaccination among adolesent females because of fear of inducing demylineating disorders, he “Dr. Bob Sears” advocacy of unorthodox vaccination schedles, the poor state of knowledge among physicians and nurses n regards to vaccines (as evidenced recently by their fears and ubsequent poor uptake of monovalent H1N1 vaccine in the midst f an influenza pandemic), health care providers who illogically ccepted a variety of medical hoaxes including MMR and autism, ercury and autism, SIDS and vaccines, antigenic overload, multile vaccines and induction of “autoimmune disorders” and many