tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4008006782907969381.post7738540700526517690..comments2024-01-01T01:47:59.449+02:00Comments on Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations: On UncertaintyYaacovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12835192312242961481noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4008006782907969381.post-83842376284321345552008-04-02T19:16:00.000+03:002008-04-02T19:16:00.000+03:00My wife, a former member of the Summer Institute a...My wife, a former member of the Summer Institute and an admirer of yours has asked me to blog on your blog titled Uncertainty. Where you are with a loved one, I have been with my wife on three separate occasions within the last twenty years. She thinks I have something to say. Ergo: Indeed the uncertainty of making a decision regarding medical treatment does tend to preoccupy. Which professional's advice does one follow? However,this is not the uncertainty that causes the anxiety,the fear, even the terror. It is the uncertainty of life or death that brings up overwhelming emotions. If the worst happens: How will I go on without her? Religion, as you say,may provide a certain solace and a certain framework to understand what is happening. But even the most religious must experience the anxiety of uncertainty and potential loss that faces the problem of dealing with cancer.<BR/><BR/>Regardless of which professional's advice you choose, I can assure you, you will have your complaints and regrets. Hopefully, tbe outcome will be a positive one and the regrets minor ones.<BR/><BR/>I wish you and your loved one the same positive outcome that occured for me and my wife. I also wish you peace, serenity and a long healthy life.Herman I. Levinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08104256268613668362noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4008006782907969381.post-50901791612323872502008-04-02T03:43:00.000+03:002008-04-02T03:43:00.000+03:00"Probability is indeed the very guide of life."Bis..."Probability is indeed the very guide of life."<BR/><BR/>Bishop Butler<BR/><BR/>Not that that helps very much. But I think the good Bishop's point was that it is possible to be rational even in circumstances of incomplete information, which is of course almost all circumstances.<BR/><BR/>The difficulty is that in a situation like the one you're describing, there are always the two different things: 1) The probability that such-and-such is going to happen. This part concerns empirical facts, data. If we do X, what is the likelihood that Y will occur--whether Y is a desired effect or a side effect. 2) What philosophers call your "utilities," meaning *how important it is to you* that Y happen or not happen, that you avoid Z, and so forth.<BR/><BR/>The reason the doctor can't make the decision is because he can be an expert on #1, but he isn't an "expert" on #2. The patient and his family have to decide what their utilities are. How important is it to them to live this long, to avoid these side effects, to give it the best try, etc., etc.? The doctor's expertise in medicine gives him no special right to substitute his utilities for the patient's. This is not to say that some versions of #2 aren't more or less reasonable than others but merely to say that doctors don't have any special line on the most reasonable ways of looking at what's most important.<BR/><BR/>Very probably the differences among the experts arise from their having different utilities. Which just throws the decision back on the patient and family, I'm afraid.<BR/><BR/>This person is in my prayers.Lydia McGrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00423567323116960820noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4008006782907969381.post-28877699153684747892008-04-02T00:43:00.001+03:002008-04-02T00:43:00.001+03:00The opposite of certainty is fear.We are scared by...The opposite of certainty is fear.We are scared by any kind of uncertainty,tho it might be a chance to get another perspective, a change.<BR/>It's not uncertainty that makes us human.It's the one situation that offers a chance, and it takes a mensh to see, and react. There's no certainty but us.We do know,we do feel.We are to trust ourselves - that's the heart of religion.And life, and literature.Go ahead!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4008006782907969381.post-8655440988644698862008-04-02T00:43:00.000+03:002008-04-02T00:43:00.000+03:00The opposite of certainty is fear.We are scared by...The opposite of certainty is fear.We are scared by any kind of uncertainty,tho it might be a chance to get another perspective, a change.<BR/>It's not uncertainty that makes us human.It's the one situation that offers a chance, and it takes a mensh to see, and react. There's no certainty but us.We do know,we do feel.We are to trust ourselves - that's the heart of religion.And life, and literature.Go ahead!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4008006782907969381.post-55959532352222336822008-04-01T21:34:00.000+03:002008-04-01T21:34:00.000+03:00All of our big decisions are made with less than c...All of our big decisions are made with less than complete information. It is maddening and painful and real.Arnold Kramerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11234837903367223040noreply@blogger.com