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SUMMARY:Heaven and Earth are within one's grasp: the healer's body-as-tech
 nology in classical Chinese medicine - Marta Hanson (Johns Hopkins Univers
 ity)
DTSTART:20190117T160000Z
DTEND:20190117T173000Z
UID:TALK112810@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dániel Margócsy
DESCRIPTION:Some 16th to 17th-century Chinese medical scholars used the ph
 rase 'Understanding is within one's grasp' (_liaoran zaiwo_ 燎然在握) 
 to emphasize how their readers could use 'hand mnemonics' (_zhangjue_ 掌
 訣) to master the cosmic patterns relevant for medical care. These author
 s included instructions for potential healers to use their hands to think 
 with\, for example\, by prognosticating based on seasonal cycles\, predict
 ing epidemic periods\, and differentiating aberrant from normal pulses. To
  have something 'within one's grasp' (_zaiwo_ 在握)\, in Chinese as well
  as in English\, metaphorically meant to understand (_liaoran_ 暸然). Ea
 rly modern Chinese healers instrumentalized their bodies in complex ways a
 s diagnostic instruments and measuring units as well as time-keeping\, mne
 monic\, and calculating devices. Understanding how classical Chinese medic
 al texts recorded the healers' body-as-technology illuminates the range of
  knowledge about Heaven and Earth early modern healers were expected to us
 e their hands as well as their minds to master. This lecture will use sele
 ct examples of the healer's body-as-technology in classical Chinese medici
 ne and suggest that the field of extended cognition within cognitive scien
 ce offers some productive insights into this historical phenomenon.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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