PHIL 203 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: On Ancient Medicine, Natural Philosophy, Human Body
3 May 2018
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Department
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History of Ancient Philosophy
12.05.17 Lecture Notes – Ancient Medicine
- Early Greek science – early Greek medicine, people who consider themselves to be
doctors
- Beginning of scientific medicine – when Greek natural philosophy begins to incorporate
biological and medical problems (6th-5th centuries BC)
- Cos (Kos)
o Hippocrates is from Cos
o One of the first centers of medical learning
o A lot of medical literature written
o Kind of mystery why so much of what was written were gathered and all
attributed to Hippocrates
o On the Sacred Disease – wrote about epilepsy
- 500 BC – 200 AD: first dissections of human cadavers
o Refinements of medical instruments and surgical procedures
o Increasing focus on methodology
o Different sects arising in response to different needs and theoretical viewpoints,
mainly epistemological
o Early sects
▪ Dogmatists (aka rationalists): we ought to be thinking of the causes of
diseases
▪ Empiricists: we should only make observations and not speculating about
underlying causes
▪ Methodists
- Galen is the first to try to systematize and synthesis different views
- For some reason, they stopped dissecting cadavers because of Christianity (ritual
prohibitions)
Hippocrates is from Kos:
- Flourishes around 425 BC
- We have very little information about the life of Hippocrates
- What we attribute to Hippocrates is just a collection of medical writing that was added
on (not clear whether the historical Hippocrates actually wrote it)
- These texts are inherited by Galen, who sees himself as the heir of Hippocrates
- Galen writes a lot of commentaries on the works of Hippocrates
- These commentaries and texts become extremely influential until even the 1700s
Humor theory
- Humor (greek: Chumos, which means juice)
- Humor theory – we have 4 substances that we must balance within us
- Health, wellness, disease – balances and imbalances of humor (certain liquids within the
body)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Early greek science early greek medicine, people who consider themselves to be doctors. Beginning of scientific medicine when greek natural philosophy begins to incorporate biological and medical problems (6th-5th centuries bc) 500 bc 200 ad: first dissections of human cadavers: refinements of medical instruments and surgical procedures. Galen is the first to try to systematize and synthesis different views. For some reason, they stopped dissecting cadavers because of christianity (ritual prohibitions) We have very little information about the life of hippocrates. What we attribute to hippocrates is just a collection of medical writing that was added on (not clear whether the historical hippocrates actually wrote it) These texts are inherited by galen, who sees himself as the heir of hippocrates. Galen writes a lot of commentaries on the works of hippocrates. These commentaries and texts become extremely influential until even the 1700s. Humor theory we have 4 substances that we must balance within us.
