On the Way to Reflection: A Conversation on a Country Path

Abstract

Ways of exploring the related acts of thinking and reflection are not just confined to expository prose. Following Heidegger's (1966) model of a conversation that gradually reveals deeper meanings of the concept of thinking, the following is a record of a conversation during a walk in the country on a summer's evening. Three individuals, a Doctor, a Philosopher, and a Poet, revisit the topic of reflection from a variety of different perspectives in hopes of understanding its place in the practice of medicine. In particular, they explore an area of reflection where medicine is often silent: during times of great suffering and loss. Along this country path, as night gradually falls, they attempt to capture the complex meanings of reflection that culminate in that intimate "open space" where medicine is practiced and where fundamentally important human events occur.