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This book examines the history of medicine as a sub-discipline within the medical humanities and its possible contributions to dealing with medical uncertainty. It investigates how the history of medicine reduced intolerance for ambiguity among medical students in the past, and can continue to do so today. Using several case studies, the second part of this volume illustrates the long-term and varied nature of questions of uncertainty in the history of medical practice. Starting with concrete examples, it explores the extent to which physicians have openly discussed such issues or, alternatively, attempted to hide them under a cloak of expertise. Contributors are: Sari Aalto, Rolf Ahlzén, Niels De Nutte, Pieter Dhondt, Jolien Gijbels, Rachel Irwin, Saara-Maija Kontturi, Virginia Langum, Måns Lindén, Suvi Rytty, Petr Svobodný, Evelina Wilson, and Jonatan Wistrand.
This book offers an analysis of the wide range of attitudes that communist movements and regimes adopted towards atheism during the 20th century. Despite the well-known violent fight of the Bolsheviks against believers, for example, and religious persecution in communist regimes at different times, being a communist did not always go hand in hand with being an atheist oneself or with the will to actively spread atheism. The reasons for the changing links between communism and atheism, ranging from militant atheists to communists presenting themselves as defenders of the authentic religion, deserved precise, in-depth investigation. The book’s case studies on Greece, Albania, Italy, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Slovenia, Afghanistan, and Vietnam and its common focus on the causes of atheism will be of interest to scholars of these areas but also of atheism and secularism, religion, and politics. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons-Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
The story of how prominent liberal intellectuals reshaped American religious and secular institutions to promote a more democratic, science-centered society. Winner of the Morris D. Forkosch Award for Best Book by the Center for Inquiry Recent polls show that a quarter of Americans claim to have no religious affiliation, identifying instead as atheists, agnostics, or "nothing in particular." A century ago, a small group of American intellectuals who dubbed themselves humanists tread this same path, turning to science as a major source of spiritual sustenance. In The Scientific Spirit of American Humanism, Stephen P. Weldon tells the fascinating story of this group as it developed over the tw...
This book offers an in-depth, archive-based analysis of “scientific atheism”, focused on the development of the field in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Scientific atheism was established as a Soviet import in 1963 at Jena University, with a presence in East German universities, propaganda and politics for nearly 30 years. The chapters explore the sociological work done by scientific atheists such as Olof Klohr, how they defined religion and atheism, and their role as actors of atheisation in various fields. As well as reflecting on the specific religious and political context in East Germany, the author makes comparison with other communist-ruled countries. Drawing on extensive and unique documentation, this book will be of interest to scholars of atheism and secularism, religion and politics, religious history, German history and East European studies. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
As a system of thought that values human needs and experiences over supernatural concerns, humanism has gained greater attention amid the rapidly shifting demographics of religious communities. This outlook has taken on global dimensions, with activists, artists, and thinkers forming a humanistic response not only to religion, but to the pressing social and political issues of the 21st century. The Oxford Handbook of Humanism aims to explore the subject by analyzing its history, its philosophical development, and its influence on culture. It will also discuss humanism as a global phenomenon-an approach that has often been neglected in more Western-focused works.
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The number of secular people has increased substantially over the past several decades, and research on secularism and non-religion has been on the rise these past years. Yet, until today, no publication had examined the evolution of organised freethought and subsequent secular humanism as it emerged in different Western countries in a comparative perspective. In this book, a team of historians brings together the histories of secular humanism in some pioneer countries. They examine how organised freethought evolved in the Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain and the United States, in the aftermath of World War II. As secular humanist organisations in these countries are some of the cofounders and long-lasting members of Humanists International (formerly International Humanist and Ethical Union), this book reveals how Western humanism developed in different circumstances.