A detailed brazening out of big questions via a discourse on sickness and heath, mind and body, and human society and the environment.
For Sikorski (Sacrificial Rituals, 2011, etc.) the distinctions between mind and body, society and the environment indicate a politics of difference, of self and other, that perpetuates disease and “dis/ease” in the modern world. According to Sikorski, dis/ease is conditional and unique to the individual, evolving “from an ecopolitics of situation.” The modern view of the body is too simple, and Sikorski successfully complicates it for us, first with a vigorous account of immune system functioning with textbook-like precision, showing that the incidence of disease is less about good human T-cells and bad germ invaders than it is a fluid balancing act between genes, trauma, antigens and the body’s acute response to these and other stressors; the body is a complex community of cells, an “ecopolity built of different identities.” This is the book’s strongest argument; from biological context, in the language of politics, Sikorski exposes the anthropocentrism of modern science, the limitations of medical diagnoses and the askew power dynamic between patient and healer. The book’s primary concern, a weighty one, is to deconstruct the myopias of modern science, revealing new, potentially healing truths and offering practical and metaphysical alternatives. Prone to summary and overexplanation of nonessential ideas, Sikorski’s intellectual touchstones—Cartesian dualism, psychoneuroimmunology, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, Christianity’s creation myth—are used to greater or lesser effect. Still, Sikorski is equally unsparing of any ideology that obstructs or represses truth, and he asks and answers big questions: Why are we here? What is beyond science and language? Why do we fall ill? Why is there good and evil? In the end, Sikorski substitutes his emphatic deconstructionism for a tone of acceptance and forgiveness, concluding that sickness is “just part of life’s struggles.” An erudite look at disease from within and without, digressive but ultimately a convincing argument for a paradigm shift in the way we treat what ails us and position ourselves in our eco-political communities.
Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2011
ISBN: 978-1460926802
Page Count: 237
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
