HUMS 2900: Medicine and the Humanities

Meeting: Tuesdays 3:30p-5:20p

Sherwin Nuland often referred to medicine as “the Uncertain Art.” In this course, we address the role of uncertainty in medicine, and the role that narrative plays in capturing that uncertainty. We focus our efforts on major authors and texts that define the modern medical humanities, with primary readings by Mikhail Bulgakov, Henry Marsh, Atul Gawande, and Lisa Sanders. Other topics include the philosophy of science (with a focus on Karl Popper), rationalism and romanticism (William James), and epistemology and scientism (Wittgenstein). Events permitting, field trips will take us to the Yale Medical Historical Library, the Yale Center for British Art, the Peabody Museum, and the Marsh Botanical Garden.