University Lectures on Religion Series
"Religion, Science, and the Ethical in the History of Tibetan Medicine"
The intellectual history of Tibetan medicine provides a rich site for exploring both the interpenetration of -- and the differences between -- “science” and “religion.” This talk will reflect upon a few historical debates about the nature and the ethics of authoritative knowledge in medicine from the 13th through 17th centuries, in a tradition with no discernible influence from the West but with considerable imprint from Buddhism. It will contemplate the value of certain critical analytic categories that help us discern the potential reach of religion into human life, as well as the grounds upon which important distinctions allow a medical fidelity to reality.
