When Voltaire, the French philosopher and writer, was on his death-bed in 1778, he was asked by his priest if he renounced Satan, he replied "Now, my good man, this is no time to be making enemies." I heard the quote again the other day when I was talking to a friend about the way that the greatest enemies of progress are often one's own colleagues and friends. The subject came up because of two instances in nursing that had shown how unstable some professional ideologies can be when exposed to critical scrutiny. The first instance was the debate surrounding the publication of David Thompson and Philip Darbyshire's paper Is academic nursing being sabotaged by its own killer … [Read more...] about Making enemies of friends
Is physiotherapy linked to the birth of modern writing?
Here's a thought. On Stephen Downes' ever reliable site, Downes recently reviewed an essay on Aeon by William Eamon, titled 'Six centuries of secularism: When the first ‘how-to’ books began to explain the way the world worked, they paved the way for science and secularism' (link). Now before you close the blog and think "what on earth did that have to do with physiotherapy", consider this argument from Downes, who summarises Eamon's ideas as an; [i]nteresting thesis: "by elaborating mechanical processes and spelling out how things worked – in striking contrast to the well-documented secrecy of the guilds – writers began to transform the mechanical arts from personal know-how into … [Read more...] about Is physiotherapy linked to the birth of modern writing?
Happy birthday CPN
Next Monday 27th June marks 2 years since we formed the Critical Physiotherapy Network. It's hard to believe quite how much has happened in that time, but here's a brief snapshot. Created two fully functioning website (the new one being significantly better than the old one!) Formed an Executive that's met every month without fail, across 16 time zones and seven countries Written our first collaborative peer-reviewed paper (pdf) Collaborated on our first edited book, with 16 chapters, for open source publication by Cappelen Damm in 2017 Created a constitution and objectives and translated it into a dozen languages Created international collaborations and exchanges … [Read more...] about Happy birthday CPN