The big, sprawling “Four Humors” theory of health, but smaller theories have been much more helpful

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⛲ Humorism or fluid mechanics in ancient medicine

Roses are red, blood is hot, and phlegm, in all its cold, moist glory, reigns supreme.

bonesandscrolls.substack.com

Well, it certainly is a colorful theory.

And it purported to explain almost everything about health, but actually . . . it explained very little. I think the goal was to “balance” the 4 humors, but it practice, that just meant whatever idea the healer pulled off the top of his or her head. And it’s a shame that all the human thought and effort put into this . . . didn’t amount to much.

We were better served by smaller theories of health and healing, more closely connected with observation.

And I’m going to draw an analogy and say the same is probably true on ethics —

the “big” theories on how to lead our lives are not all that much help,

but smaller sets of skills probably are.

 

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Immanuel Kant - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Okay, this is the philosopher Immanuel Kant who lived from 1724 to 1804. And this is a fine attempt at global efforts. I think it’s somewhat similar to the Golden Rule.

But I’m not sure how it’s going to help us with a difficult interpersonal situation or a difficult situation at work. For that, I think we’d be better served by sets of skills.

 

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”Remember the Titans,” from the year 2000

The one guy says, “That’s the worst attitude I’ve ever heard!”

It worked.

In part, because it’s a criticism about something temporary. Plus, they have an ongoing relationship. All the same, in this kind of situation, maybe even your best effort only has a 30% chance of working.

 

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Somehow people expect ethics to be like geometry.

You take premises which are “self-evident” and from these, you derive conclusions with 100% certainly.

 

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Whereas . . .

life is more like baseball. It’s a matter of trying to get the odds working in your favor. And you’re dealing with a variety of different personalities, and this very much matters, too.

Both the people and the tasks matter.

And you adjust to changing circumstances. In fact, this is what we humans are really good — “winging it,” “seat of the pants,” “off the cuff,” “fake it till you make it,” “spur of the moment,” “ad-libbing,” “jazz improv,” etc, etc.

Some workplaces try to incorporate this into their formal structure, probably with pretty mixed results because this is tricky to pull off!

And life is also streaky . . . just like baseball.

 

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The Lessons of ValuJet 592 (Part Three)

Atlantic Unbound: The Atlantic Monthly Magazine Online

www.theatlantic.com

“ . . . The two unfortunate mechanics who signed off on the nonexistent safety caps just happened to be the slowest to slip away when the supervisors needed signatures. The other mechanics almost certainly would have signed too, as did the inspectors. Their good old-fashioned pencil-whipping is perhaps the most widespread form of Vaughan's "normalization of deviance." The falsification they committed was part of a larger deception -- the creation of an entire pretend reality that includes unworkable chains of command, unlearnable training programs, unreadable manuals, and the fiction of regulations, checks, and controls. Such pretend realities extend even into the most self-consciously progressive large organizations, with their attempts to formalize informality, to deregulate the workplace, to share profits and responsibilities, to respect the integrity and initiative of the individual. The systems work in principle, and usually in practice as well, but the two may have little to do with each other. Paperwork floats free of the ground and obscures the murky workplaces where, in the confusion of real life, system accidents are born. . . ”

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Dear reader, if you want a bit of a deep dive, here it is.

This guy’s writing about the ValuJet crash in the Florida Everglades in 1996. By the way, the company later changed their name to AirTran for which they were roundly criticized.

And a “system accident” is one in which complexity itself is the main contributing factor.

And it’s often hard to find that sweet spot between freedom and control. For organizations. And I’d add, for individual persons, too!

 

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What I’m trying to say—

There’s a lot of room for improvement is getting more healthy interplay between theory and practice!

“more healthy” in both its ways