Greek Rational Medicine: Philosophy and Medicine from Alcmaeon to the Alexandrians

ISBN-13: 9780415025942 / Angielski / Twarda / 1993 / 308 str.

James Longrigg;Longrigg James

Opis

The Greeks were the first to evolve rational systems of medicine almost entirely free from magical and religious elements and based upon natural causes. The importance of this revolutionary innovation for the subsequent history of medicine cannot be overstressed. In this book, James Longrigg describes the origin and development of this rational medicine in ancient Greece and examines its complex relationship with philosophy down to the 3rd century BC. He assimilates the latest material discoveries and scholarship. The emancipation of medicine from superstition was the outcome of the same attitude of mind which actuated the Ionian Natural Philosophers. Just as these philosphers had sought to explain in purely natural terms phenomena such as earthquakes, thunder and lightening, which had previously been regarded as manifestations of supernatural powers, the medical authors of the Hippocratic treatises examined in natural terms epilepsy, apoplexy, delusions and madness. Focusing on rational attitudes, procedures and modes of explanation, the new medicine eschewed theories of arbitrary, supernatural interference. Greek rational medicine reached its climax in 3rd century Alexandria.

Spis treści

Introduction Chapter I. Pre-rational and Irrational Medicine in Greece and Neigbouring Cultures Chapter II. The Origin and Development of Rational Medicine in Classical Greece Chapter III. Philosophy and Medicine in the Fifth Century I: Almaeon and the Presocratic Philosophers Chapter IV. Philosophy and Medicine in the Fifth Century II: Presocratic Philosophy and the Hippocratic Corpus Chapter V. Post-Hippocratic Medicine I: Medicine and the Academy Chapter VI. Post Hippocratic Medicine II: Medicine from Lyceum to Museum Chapter VI. Early Alexandrian Medical Science Appendix

O autorze

James Longrigg