Redefining Reality - The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science

Knowing that the use of certain amphetamines allows those with
shorter attention spans to concentrate better alleviates potential
social harm in many cases. The combination of the cultural
disadvantage and its ability to be treated has caused us to classify
ADD as a recognized disorder requiring a medical response.
However, there is a great deal of disagreement about ADD.
of a disease an objective feature of reality, and in what ways is
it determined by cultural and historical factors?
Another example of this question of objective reality versus a
cultural or political matter is the removal of homosexuality from
the .
change in beliefs among the community at large, but it was also
and human sexuality. The shift from Freudian and behaviorist
views to a more neurologically based picture was a factor.
Whether a given person is homosexual is a feature of reality,
disorder is a matter of politics.
to live what we think of as a normal life. We create a notion of
what it is to be healthy—to have the physiological conditions for
disorder is something that interferes with the conditions for human
Protestant work ethic. In The Protestant Work Ethic and the
, Weber shows that deeply entrenched in
Western thought is the idea that human goodness is equated
with the willingness to work hard and to suffer.
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