| biohistoriography |
| --- the genealogy of embodied epistemology |
| biohistoriography essays |
| Essay 1 |
| RENE DESCARTES AND HIS MYALGIC ENCEPHALOMYELITIS: IMPLICATIONS FOR MODERN PHILOSOPHY, ITS HISTORY AND HISTORIOGRAPHY |
| Essay 2 |
| DESCARTES NEWTON EINSTEIN: A GENEALOGY OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY |
| ABSTRACT: The "father" of Modern philosophy, Rene Descartes (1596-1650), was a delicate and sickly baby and this has historically diverted attention away from any investigation into the biographical feature of his life-long chronic poor health. In this essay I want to propose that Descartes was actually a near life-long moderate case of an acquired chronic disabling disease known as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) and that it was the pathophysiology of his ME which actually dictated his mode of living, thinking and dying; and, that it has been impossible to understand Descartes life and work without reference to his ME. Accordingly, I propose that the history of Modern philosophy is actually the development of an idea (the Cartesian soul) which is literally "pathological" to the normal healthy human. More bluntly, Modern philosophy would simply not exist without the prior existence of ME. This new history generates two completely new and opposing historiographical approaches to the existence of Modern philosophy. |
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| ABSTRACT: Rene Descartes (1596-1650), Isaac Newton (1642-1727) and Albert Einstein (1879-1955) are the most important natural philosophers ever to have lived. The epistemological term, �genealogy�, is applied to their historiographical relationship. Their natural philosophy forms a "lineage" on many historical levels. Primarily, they form a genealogy because they each shared the same disease, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME), and it is this historical fact that actually made the genealogical relationship, and the development of Modern physics itself, possible. Overwhelming evidence is presented that Descartes, Newton and Einstein belong to the same �family� of ME sufferers. That, ME is the only possible explanation for their identical behaviour and way of living. And that, ME was the creative basis for their natural philosophy. The genealogy and its relationship to the history and historiography of Modern physics reveals far-reaching theoretical and practical implications |
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| Essay 3 |
| DESCARTES KANT NIETZSCHE: THE RISE AND FALL OF DIS-EMBODIED PHILOSOPHY |
| ABSTRACT: Rene Descartes (1596-1650), Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) and Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) are the epistemological "breaks" which punctuate the history of Modern "dis-embodied" philosophy. Its foundations were laid by Descartes, the pinnacle was reached by Kant, and Nietzsche turned it back on itself to destroy it. They form a "genealogy" chronologically, historically and epistemologically. But, the key feature of this genealogy is that all three belonged to the same "family" - with the same chronic disease, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME). The biographical features of their lives, their similar behaviours and modes of living, are directly attributable to ME. All three created their work on the foundation of a "dis-embodied" philosophy which is directly attributable to ME. Their "genealogy" offers a powerful historiographical explanation for why the history of Modern philosophy developed in the manner which it did. |
| Full text unavailable - this essay is "work in progress". |
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| Copyright: Jed Gallagher 2001. No copying of this website, in any media, without permission of the author. |