About the talk:

Psychiatrist and anthropologist Arthur Kleinman has argued that medicine has become ’soulless’ (Lancet 394, no. 10199 [2019]: pp. 630-631). While Professor Moyse might agree with the content of his analysis, he argues that Kleinman’s conclusion is wrong. Rather, medicine has become preoccupied with the soul, which has been put to work through the determinative production and consumption of information. Franco Berardi might agree while arguing that contemporary labor in our increasingly digitized world has harnessed the soul as it exploits the mind, language, and emotion for the purposes of cognitive capital. Philosopher Richard Kearney also laments the advance of digital technologies has impaired our sense of touch and, therefore, our grip on reality. In such a digitized world that prioritizes the trafficking of information at ‘the speed of thought’, our bodies are divested of flesh while we lose touch with touch itself. The November lecture in the Columbia Center for Clinical Medical Ethics autumn lecture series will explore the figures noted above while thinking about the material of hopeful practice and the carnal purpose(s) of medicine.

About the speaker:

Ashley Moyse, PhD, is the Assistant Professor of Medical Ethics and McDonald Scholar. He is also the Director of the Columbia Character Cooperatives, an initiative of the CCME, and a Research Fellow at Harris Manchester College, University of Oxford. Ashley was educated in the applied sciences, bioethics and health policy, and moral philosophy and theology with an interest in medical ethics and humanities. His essays can be found in Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, Christian Bioethics, Religions, Journal of Population Ageing, and Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy. He has also co-edited several volumes, including Treating the Body in Medicine and Religion (Routledge 2019), and has authored three books, including Resourcing Hope for Ageing and Dying in a Broken World (Anthem 2022). His research interests and scholarly expertise concern philosophies of health and illness, medical ethics and moral formation, philosophies of technology, and the existential and ethical dimensions of aging and dying. Ashley joined the Center in 2022.

Please email [email protected] with any questions or concerns.

Time: 1:00-2:00 pm EDT

Free!

Registration