Traditional Chinese Medicine, Economic Health

After reading "Discourse on Regulating the Spirit" from Huang Di's Inner Classic and the Introduction from Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, comment here with an idea you had while reading, an explanation that helps us better understand the reading, a response to a question below, or a continuation of the conversation started by another student.

Some questions to think about:

• The writing in the Inner Classic is more like poetry than prose. How does this style and arrangement enhance the argument?
• The Inner Classic (a huge body of writing on human health) is from around the same time as the Hippocratic Corpus (a huge body of writing on human health) though they are from different parts of the world (China and Greece). What are the interesting similarities/differences in the arguments they make in the excerpts we have read?
• Adam Smith is commonly considered the father of economics. What does "economic health" mean in today's political conversations and debates? What does that definition have to do with the "health" of individual people?

Hippocrates' Medicine, Plato's Republic

After reading Hippocrates' treatise on the "Sacred Disease" of epilepsy and an excerpt from Plato's discussion of justice in Book II of The Republic, comment here—with an idea you had while reading, an explanation that helps us better understand the reading, a response to a question below, or a continuation of the conversation started by another student.

Some questions to get you thinking:

• What is the role of "balance" in Hippocrates' theory of disease and health, and in Plato's theory of justice?
• What is the role of god, the gods, or the divine, as opposed to the human or the natural in these two texts? How are they similar or different on this point?
• Compare the rhetorical strategies used in these two texts, and comment on which one is more convincing for you.

Why 'Against Health'?

Comment below with an idea you had while reading, an explanation that helps us better understand the reading, a response to a question below, or a continuation of the conversation started by another student.

Some questions to get you thinking:

• Both Metzl and Klein are arguing "against health," but do they take the same position? Describe the similarities and differences in their positions.
• Metzl spends a lot of time summarizing other people's positions in his article. How do these summaries contribute to his own argument?
• In writing your summary, did you find any of Metzl's claims or phrases difficult to understand? Why? How did you deal with this difficulty?
• The word "rhetoric" shows up in Metzl's article a few times. What definition of rhetoric does he provide or presume? What is the relationship between "health" and "rhetoric" in his article?

Against Health?

Comment here with your thoughts on the first assigned readings: Richard Klein's article "The Case Against Health" and Trish Roberts-Miller's "Short and Highly Idiosyncratic History of Rhetoric." Your comment can be an idea you had while reading, an explanation that helps us better understand the reading, a response to a question below, or a continuation of the conversation started by another student.

Some questions to get you thinking:

• Klein describes the relationships between health and pleasure, health and morality, and health and philosophy. Are these descriptions accurate? Convincing? Is Klein using the same definition of "health" in each case?
• Klein talks a lot about eating, and many of you said you think about "food" or "nutrition" when you think about "health." Why do "eating" and "health" always show up in the same arguments?
• Based on Roberts-Miller's history of rhetoric, and what you already know about the history of "health," what do "rhetoric" and "health" have in common? Why might it be interesting to study them together?

NOTE: You are required to write at least one comment each week, so you may choose to wait and comment on Wednesday's readings instead. Each weekly comment is worth 0.5 points towards your final grade, and you can only receive credit for one comment per week.

Can You Comment?

Welcome to the Health Rhetoric Blog. You'll be commenting here once a week, and posting a few times over the semester. Please leave a comment on this post just to test that everything is working. Next time you comment, it will be on our first week's reading.