ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that there are two basic attitudes of mind which one can bring to bear on the question, and which shift in and out of favour with each swing of the pendulum. There is the urge to atomize and the urge to be holistic that oscillate between the worlds, as of the commissar and the connoisseur. The chapter talks about 'displaying virtue' or about 'performing sincerity' in the context of clinical communication. Commissars go for reliability, and they do so by attempting to increase the Smartness of what is measured, or by trying to make it more transparent by splitting it into greater and greater detail. The connoisseur will have the ability to observe with wisdom to 'note' in the Shakespearean sense and also the background knowledge, the understanding of context, and the knowledge of tradition, of values which have stood the test of time.
