Small correction: not brain parasites, but specifically prions (misfolded protein that fascinatingly self-replicate). Kuru[1] (closely related to Creutzfeldt–Ja

Small correction: not brain parasites, but specifically prions (misfolded protein that fascinatingly self-replicate). Kuru[1] (closely related to Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease and Alzheimer's) was extensively studied last century in the Fore people of Papua New Guinea (which were practicing cannibalism as a funerary rite), culminating in the awarding of the 1997 Nobel Prize[2] for the discovery of the prion, a completely new kind of pathogen. It's a fascinating story! NPR has a great podcast on it. And for what it's worth, I completely agree. I was given two key pieces of advice by two brilliant professors in my undergraduate philosophy career: - Always be as charitable as possible with your opponents' arguments: always assume they are taking the best possible position. - And this goes hand in hand with the above: always be ready for the best possible counter to your own argument, making sure you have an appropriate response. Few arguments are air-tight, especially for controversial issues. [1] http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/09/06/482952588/when-people-ate-people-a-strange-disease-emerged http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/09/06/482952588/whe... [2] https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1997/press.html https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1...