To a new site

At the beginning of the year 2016, having finished my student life in Paris, I felt like writing in a new space from the different perspectives. The new site is "A view from the two interfaces: Science-Philosophy & Japan-France". Please visit it.

The defense is over

The jury members

(from right) Prof. Geoff Butcher (UK), Prof. Anne Marie Moulin, 

Prof. Alain Leplège, Prof. Anne Fagot-Largeault, Dr. Thomas Pradeu

The defense of my thesis is over. I have attended two defenses in the field of logics and oriental history to see how they are operated. The first time I saw it, I was surprised at the length of the process. It lasted four hours. The jury was composed of seven members. I don't know how it is operated in the field of science in France, but I now understand it is normal in humanities. Honestly speaking, I simply could not imagine myself in the position of the thesis defender at the time.

As usual, I had to prepare for this occasion until the last moment. The discussion session was intense and extremely stimulating. Many interesting points to be discussed in the thesis were raised. These points should be helpful to my future reflections. In this sense, the defense has become another point of departure. It is indeed the commencement.

This was not my original purpose in France. But now that I finished this process, I feel as if I renewed myself and can see a different future ahead of me. I would like to thank all members of jury, last but not least my thesis advisor.

Je reçus la convocation de soutenance

Aujourd'hui, je reçus la convocation de soutenance. 

Officiellement, je ne suis pas admissible à parler de mon travail sans ce document. 

Il est intéressant de connaître l'ensemble du système de ce qu'un doctorat doit traverser.

Il me reste encore 4 jours pour s'y préparer. 

Nous verrons ce qui se passera lundi prochain en croisant les doigts !

Soutenance de ma thèse

 

Chers toutes et tous,

J'ai le plaisir de vous annoncer la soutenance de ma thèse, qui a été dirigée par Professeur Alain Leplège, Département d’Histoire et de Philosophie des Sciences, Université Paris Diderot. 

Vous êtes cordialement invités à assister à la soutenance et à partager le pot qui suivra.  

Bien amicalement,
Hidetaka Yakura

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Lundi 7 décembre 2015,  à partir de 9h30

Philosophical and Metaphysical Problems Posed by Immunology

Problématiques philosophiques et métaphysiques posées par l’immunologie

 MEMBRES DU JURY :  

Pr Alain Leplège, Directeur de thèse, Professeur, Université Paris Diderot  

Pr Geoffrey Butcher, Chef de groupe, Institut Babraham, Cambridge, U.K.

Pr Anne Marie Moulin, Directeur de recherche CNRS, UMR SPHERE CNRS/Université de Paris   

Pr Anne Fagot-Largeault, Professeur, Collège de France

Dr Thomas Pradeu, Chargé de recherche au CNRS, UMRD5164

Salle 264 E, Halle aux Farines

Paris Université Paris Diderot

plan

16 rue Françoise Dolto 75013 Paris

Accès : Métro 14, Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand

Knowledge and Practice in Medicine: From a workshop at IASPM

Last June, I participated in the meeting, The International Advanced Seminar in the Philosophy of Medicine (IASPM) that was held at the Patheon Center in Paris. To be exact, I had to participate in it because I was nominated as a junior chair of one of the three workshops. Our workshop was entitled "Knowledge and practice in medicine". Because I am not in this field, I first turned it down but my proposal was turned down. The following is my compt-rendu of the workshop.

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The problem of ‘knowledge and practice in medicine’ probably started at the time of Hippocrates who introduced a theory or a system of thought into traditional healing practice. Thus this problem is necessarily inherent to medicine and has been with us ever since. The followings are the points discussed, to name just a few: 

1) Certainty and uncertainty in diagnosis and medical practice in general:  Uncertainty is inherent in clinical medicine. Because there is always variability in the biological world and clinical manifestations of a disease are the results of dysregulation of mechanisms and complex interactions in systems, we have to cope with uncertainty in diagnosis and in treatment choice. In the event, we rely on the use of statistics, either frequentist or Bayesian or others, to have a statistical certainty or a kind of knowledge, but the relationship between cause and effect is probabilistic. Although the probability can be improved, how to control a variety of situations in uncertainty or the problem of risk remains to be solved. As William Osler (1849-1919) rightly pointed out a century ago, “medicine is a science of uncertainty and an art of probability” and thus “errors in judgment must occur in the practice of an art which consists largely of balancing probabilities”. We’ll have to deal with the problem of uncertainty and probability for many years to come.

2) Evidence-based medicine (EBM), personalized medicine (PM) vs. person-centered medicine/care (PCM/PCC), person-centered therapy (PCT):  EBM is a rationalist approach to patients primarily by applying best available evidence or mathematical estimates of risk, derived from studies on the population level, to an individual. PM is a refined form of EBM, so to speak, that puts heavy emphasis on the genetic information. First of all, we have to ask what evidence is and how to deal with evidence hierarchies that are basically determined by methodologies used, such as case studies, cohort studies or randomized controlled trials. At this juncture, the notion of ‘bias’ was discussed. A bias is a systematic error that can distort scientific investigation and occur at various levels such as design, selection, and detection. There is also a cognitive bias in decision-making that is not based on evidence. When there is not enough time or information, people often use heuristics, experience-based shortcut techniques, to make judgment, as widely discussed by Amos Tversky (1937-1996) and Daniel Kahneman (1934-). This approach is naturally criticized by EBM, but is very effective in certain situations. How to reconcile this dilemma remains to be debated.

These two styles of medicine heavily rely on the physical, chemical or mathematical evidence, and pay little attention to the history and culture of patients. To fill this gap, there is an alternative movement called PCM and PCC to treat patients with more holistic and humanistic eyes by incorporating historical or cultural aspects of patients. In the same vein, PCT was developed by American psychologist Carl Rogers (1902-1987) as a humanistic psychotherapy. This approach has an influence not only on psychology but also on education, counseling and rehabilitation. However, it is important to discuss as to what “person-centeredness” signifies and whether medical practice should be person-centered. Although the journal such as Journal of Person-centered Medicine has been launched, this branch of medicine does not yet seem to gain a momentum to become a major movement. One of the reasons may be that as in science, most practitioners of today’s medicine try to pursue their work in well-established, main-stream fields, and tend to neglect newly-developed, minor areas.

Since EBM or PM does not cover all the aspects required for satisfactory treatment of patients, we need more humanistic and holistic considerations for better medical care. My provisional conclusion after the workshop was that on the one hand, EBM- or PM-type approach has to be further refined in a rationalistic direction, but on the other hand, humanistic, historical, and cultural aspects have to be incorporated in the treatment of patients. How these apparently disparate efforts are harmonized and synthesized will be a future task for philosophers of medicine as well as medical practitioners. I hope the problem of ‘knowledge and practice’ will continue to be discussed in the future workshop.

J'ai beaucoup aimé "Swinging Bach" à Leipzig

Un jour nuageux et pluvieux à Paris

J'ai trouvé par hasard ce vidéo du concert à Leipzig

Il s'est avéré être un merveilleux concert

Je me sens être maintenant en Europe

 

Je l'ai beaucoup aimé

The seminar by Prof. Du Pasquier

Pr. Louis Du Pasquier

（Institut de Zoologie, Université de Bâle, Suisse）

Yesterday, I went to the opening seminar of Philosophy & Immunology for 2012-2013. The speaker was Prof. Louis Du Pasquier of University of Basel. The title of his seminar was "Evolution des systèmes immunitaires chez les Métazoaires : analogies et homologies".

 

This seminar series was initiated by young philosophers and scientists to promote interactions between philosophers and scientists or philosophically-minded scientists. Now it enters into the third year. I always enjoy discussions among participants, probably because I myself look for a global view of the immune system and its functioning. 

La problématique, c'est la science de poser les problèmes

Bouquet (200)

Gerhard Richter (1932-)

J'ai mal compris le mot problématique. Selon le Grand Robert, la problématique, c'est l'art, la science de poser les problèmes (d'après l'allemand, Problematik). Ce n'est donc pas la même chose que le problème, mais l'ensemble des problèmes dont les éléments sont liés. Pour commencer à rédiger une thèse, j'avais besoin d'un problématique. Cependant, c'était impossible tout simplement parce que je ne savais pas le vrai sens de ce mot.

Poème de Zéno Bianu dédié à John Coltrane

 

Dans une librairie, un livre a attiré mon attention.

C'était John Coltrane (Méditation) de Zéno Bianu (né à Paris en 1950).

Dans un café, j'ai lu à voix basse ce poème. 

Mon âme s'envole vers l'éternité.

 

---------------------------------

aller au-delà

au-delà de tout

au-delà du 

par-delà au-delà

de toutes les règles au-delà

de tous les genres toujours

plus loin faire jouer tous

les contraires dans une luminosité

éveillante en quête d'un point

toujours plus aigu avancer

plus loin

vers la fin de la souffrance

pourquoi les flocons de neige

sont-ils tous différents

 ---------------------------------

Deux nouveaux mondes apparaissent

Ce matin j'ai lu l'article du boson de Higgs et vu quelques vidéos sur ce thème. Il s'agit de l'origine du matière et donc du monde. C'est fascinant parce que ce problème est au carrefour des sciences, de la philosophie et de la théologie. J'ai reçu d'Amazon le livre de Justin Smith Divine Machines: Leibniz and the Science of Life (Princeton UP). J'ai lu l'introduction dans un café près de chez moi. C'est aussi un nouveau monde pour moi.