am 28. Mai 1992
.PP
One may, at the risk of caricature,
compare the intellectual style
of Plato with that of Aristotle.
Whereas in Platos writing we encounter everywhere idealizations,
hypotheses of what the world is "really",
intuitive apperceptions of ideals,
Aristotle confronts us with inconclusive arguments and accounts 
which do not purport to define any reality,
but instead to describe the actual problems that
face individuals charged with responsibilities for action.
.PP
It is by no means accidental that medicine,
from the days of Hippocrates to the present,
has largely adopted the intellectual processes,
the aporetic techniques exemplified by Aristotle,
and has more or less consciously avoided the theorization
which is the hallmark of Platos thought.
.PP
Inherent in the willingness to confront unsolved problems
is the willingness to forego judgment,
to forego the definition and description of a perfect world,
of a world as it should be, 
and by the same token to attach a moral stigma
to the imperfections of the present. 
This is a great and seldom recognized achievement of medicine.
.PP
The characteristic of