Virtual Program
From 7:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m.
The alternative system of medicine known as homeopathy, was founded by Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843) more than 200 years ago and was based on several theories, two of which include: “like cures like,” (the notion that disease can be cured by a substance that produces similar symptoms in healthy persons); and the “law of minimum dose” (the notion that the lower the dose, the greater its effectiveness). Although critics argue its effects are largely due to placebo, therapeutic context, or natural healing, not the remedies themselves, an estimated 200 million people practice homeopathy worldwide, including 5 million adults and 1 million children in the United States. In the history of homeopathy, the American form of homeopathy is unique.
Dr. John Haller, emeritus professor of medical humanities and the history of ideas, has authored more than thirty books on subjects ranging from race and sexuality, to medicine, pharmacy, biography, religion, spirituality, war, and philosophy. He is a former editor of Caduceus and served as vice president for academic affairs for twenty years at Southern Illinois University. His most recent books include Fictions of Certitude: Science Faith, and the Search for Meaning, 1840-1920; Swedenborgs’Principles of Usefulness: Social Reform Thought from the Enlightenment to American Pragmatism; Michael A. Musmanno: Lawyer, Legislator, Judge, and Showman; and Religion after the Gods: Edwin H. Wilson and the American Humanist Association (forthcoming).