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?
Neuroscience and a radical view of consciousness (Spanish)
Here is another Spanish translation by Alma Viviana Silva of an earlier blogpost. Again, huge thanks to Viviana for this amazing work. Neurociencia y una visión radical de la consciencia Uno de los mayores retos en la filosofía y la ciencia siempre ha sido definir lo que significa ser consciente. Para algo tan fundamental como nuestras creencias sobre lo que es real y qué es ficción, lo que es real o verdadero y lo que es falso, se podría pensar que los fundamentos básicos de nuestra creencia de que - de una conciencia biológica - sería un hecho científico. No lo es tanto asi. Los científicos y los filósofos no estan realmente más cerca de la comprensión de la naturaleza de la … [Read more...] about Neuroscience and a radical view of consciousness (Spanish)
Neuroscience and a radical view of consciousness
One of the biggest challenges in philosophy and science has always been to define what it means to be conscious. For something so fundamental as our beliefs about what is fact and what is fiction, what is real or true and what is false, one might think that the basic foundations of our beliefs - that of a biological consciousness - would be a scientific fact. Not so. Scientists and philosophers are really no nearer to understanding the nature of consciousness than Descartes was in the 17th century when he argued that because our dreams are so vividly real, we had no way of proving that this very moment wasn't part of a dream. While some biological scientists are still trying to locate … [Read more...] about Neuroscience and a radical view of consciousness
Closed boxes
This blogpost was first published by Dave Nicholls on 26 July 2011 via www.crticalphysio.me. Since 2007 I've been involved in a comprehensive curriculum review project. We've delivered the first year of the programme once now and this year (2011) we've moved on to year 2. Naturally, we're arrived at the point where we need to think about some of the minutiae of what is being taught. Some of the staff in our team are concerned that some of the content of the old curriculum could have been lost or postponed in the move to the new curriculum; leaving us with an excessively heavy third year or worse still, a curriculum that doesn't 'train' physiotherapists fit-for-practice. So, on the … [Read more...] about Closed boxes
Posts worth reading – update on interesting posts and ideas from around the web
Here is an update on some recent posts from around the Internet that may be of interest: What scientific idea is ready for retirement? From Brian Christian at Edge.com Scientific Knowledge Should Be Structured as "Literature" In my view, what's most outmoded within science, most badly in need of retirement, is the way we structure and organize scientific knowledge itself. Academic literature, even as it moves online, is a relic of the era of typesetting, modeled on static, irrevocable, toothpaste-out-of-the-tube publication. Just as the software industry has moved from a "waterfall" process to an "agile" process—from monolithic releases shipped from warehouses of mass-produced disks to … [Read more...] about Posts worth reading – update on interesting posts and ideas from around the web
Is qualitative research in decline just as physiotherapy ‘gets’ it?
Over the last few months I've been reading more and more about the demise of qualitative research. This isn't coming from clinical scientists and quantitative researchers, but from people who have been invested in the field since its inception in the late 1980s. The argument they make is that qualitative research has now become too formulaic, systematized and too heavily methodological. It's lost its critical power and forgotten what qualitative inquiry was meant to be able to do. One of the people who explains this best is probably Elizabeth St Pierre Adams, and in this recent video from last year's Australasian Association for Research in Education (AARE) conference, she explains … [Read more...] about Is qualitative research in decline just as physiotherapy ‘gets’ it?
Wrong-doing in physiotherapy is not where you think it is
It's been interesting this week to hear from physiotherapists who share my concern for the kinds of objective, detached, depersonalised ways that physiotherapists often project their professional practice identities. I think, as a profession, we're starting to understand some of the important reasons why we do this (we want to be considered professional, scientific, evidence-based, etc.), but it would be nice if we could also see more of the barriers to progress that these discourses are creating, and discuss whether there might be some value in thinking otherwise. I've developed, led and taught a 1st year UG paper called Therapeutic Touch for over a decade at AUT, and in the paper we … [Read more...] about Wrong-doing in physiotherapy is not where you think it is