Rhetoric, Comedy, or Shock? Bruce Gilley’s Case of Anachronism

The medical chaperone: outdated anachronism or modern necessity?

The word “chaperone” derives figuratively from the French word chaperon meaning “hood” and later a kind of hat. The term was first borrowed into English in the 1700s and came to refer to an “escort,” commonly an older woman who accompanied a young, unmarried woman in public to provide protection. While the use of these social chaperones now seems quaint and has fallen out of practice, the use o...

The politics of pain: rhetoric or reform?

Rolling back malaria: action or rhetoric?

The Roll Back Malaria Initiative (RBM) is a partnership of countries with endemic malaria, United Nations agencies, bilateral development agencies, the research community, the private sector, nongovernmental organizations, foundations, and the media. The participants see it as the beginning of a societal movement to bring malaria under control. The RBM partnership was formed in response to the ...

1. Care manager: rhetoric or reality

When Griffiths presented his report ‘Community Care Agenda for Action’ to the Secretary of State, directors of social services heaved sighs of relief as it appeared to be some kind of confirmation that those of us responsible for delivery of a complex range of services were in reality performing an impossible set of tasks. Griffiths lent support to our view that we were being asked ‘to make bri...

The Complex Systems Approach: Rhetoric or Revolution

The complex systems approach (CSA) to characterizing cognitive function is purported to underlie a conceptual and methodological revolution by its proponents. I examine one central claim from each of the contributed papers and argue that the provided examples do not justify calls for radical change in how we do cognitive science. Instead, I note how currently available approaches in ''standard'...

Aristotle's Theory of Comedy

<193>Aristotle, in his Poetics, claimed that tragedy, “through pity and fear, accomplishes the catharsis of such emotions (di j ejlevou kai; fovbou peraivnousa th;n tw'n toiouvtwn paqhmavtwn kavqarsin) (Poet. 1449b27f.) .” It has been argued that the medical purgation theory of the musical catharsis in Politics is the key phrase for the interpretation of tragic catharsis, where he says, those w...