Donnerstag, 28. April 2016, 09:00 - 18:00 iCal

Lifestyle and Health

A Multi-Disciplinary Approach

Sigmund Freud Privat Universität Wien
Sigmund-Freud-Platz 1, 1020 Wien

Tagung, Konferenz, Kongress, Symposium


Weitere Termine

Dienstag, 26. April 2016, 09:00 - 20:00

Mittwoch, 27. April 2016, 09:00 - 20:00

Freitag, 29. April 2016, 14:00 - 16:00

Modern medicine has become increasingly aware of the vast influence of our lifestyle on our health and the steady rise of connected diseases affecting large amounts of our societies.

Different medical systems also differ greatly in their respective possibilities to deal with the challenge posed by lifestyle related diseases.

For Western medicine, there is a conceptual division between healthy and unhealthy lifestyles. Accordingly, it approaches the issue by trying to compartmentalize the influences that are associated with an unhealthy lifestyle and then deal with these issues one by one.

One often noted disadvantage of this approach to dealing with lifestyle-related health issues is that it disconnects the general forms of lifestyle from the significance they have for the individual and the larger cultural context they are embedded in.

A holistic system like the Traditional Chinese Medicine, on the other hand, approaches the lifestyle of each individual as a singular case. This and similar approaches to a healthy life are not only often underestimated in Western culture, they are hardly ever understood. Holism, as practiced by TCM, often has a reputation as trivial that neither appreciates its elaborately systematic construction and the depth of its inner connections, nor the phenomenological clarity and linguistic sophistication that make this kind of system possible.

Thus, rather than comparing the practical advantages of different medical systems, which has been done often enough, our symposium aims at providing a deeper understanding of these perspectives themselves, to make them, ultimately, more accessible to Western thinkers.

First and foremost, the objective is to explain the thought systems in which the particular (and to Westerners often peculiar-seeming) conceptions of lifestyle and health are situated. An emphasis regarding this point will be given to Traditional Chinese Medicine and Buddhist Life Sciences. The second point of focus is on the conditions and circumstances, both historical and culturally that gave to such diverse systems of thought.

Our Symposium will feature a carefully selected panel of international guests that allows for a focused setting and productive work atmosphere. In order to reflect the scope of our central questions, our choice of experts spans over eight nations and four continents. It includes high-ranking scholars from discipline as diverse as Philosophy of Science, Buddhist Life Science and History; renown and active practitioners of TCM and Western medicine, and even scholars of design and lifestyle.

Zur Webseite der Veranstaltung


Veranstalter

Universität Wien und Sigmund Freud Privat Universität


Kontakt

Christian Neitzel
Christian Neitzel
0650 6310002
christian.neitzel@univie.ac.at