Profound Science and Elegant Literature

Browner, Stephanie P.

doi:10.9783/9780812201482

Cited by 24 publications

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“…4 And whereas Gawande has inspired a series of articles on how checklists have helped various areas of medical practice, 5 Hawthorne has been read as evidence of deep skepticism about scientific hubris, particularly as it pertains to caring for the human body. 6 Both have incited reflection (or self-reflection, as it were) on morality. But again, whereas Hawthorne raises the subjects of "moral responsibility" or "moral law," 7 Gawande (while being interviewed about writing) sees his own work as thinking about "how we really make moral decisions" (Flynn and Gawande, 2012: 20).…”

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confidence: 99%

Pragmatic Secularism; Or, WhatThe Scarlet LetterCan Teach Us about Modern Medicine

Bezio

2018

Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses

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This article argues that The Scarlet Letter (1850) offers a unique insight into American secularism’s inherent pragmatism—a pragmatism that attempts to provide a resolution for the healing arts’ struggle to be knowledgeable and moral at the same time. A “pragmatic secularism” continues to inform a particular brand of modern biomedicine, which can be seen in Atul Gawande’s medical reform text The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right (2009). Simply put, the pragmatic secularism found in these two very different books is a system of ascertaining right from wrong that relies on nothing more than someone’s work proving effective within the larger community. This article elaborates how these texts have a shared project in which a significant formation of the secular arises from situations that privilege practical applications—especially when urgent circumstances dictate immediate action as the only viable option. Inflected by the concerns of their respective historical moments, Hawthorne’s novel foregrounds the transformation of fringe knowledge into mainstream doing, whereas Gawande’s manifesto focuses on the limits of any kind of knowledge, privileging instead work as an end unto itself. However, the “power to do” exemplified by The Scarlet Letter as the core of the pragmatic secularist’s vocation finds its modern expression in The Checklist Manifesto’s fetishizing of medical work in a deliberate move to ideologically dismantle the pervasive epistemic fetishism undergirding health research and praxis.

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confidence: 99%