Galen's Critique of Rationalist and Empiricist Anatomy

Journal of the History of Biology

Volumn 30, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 35-54

  Cosans, Christopher E ^a  

^a GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ANATOMY; ARTICLE; CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY; HISTORY; PHILOSOPHY;

ANATOMY; GREEK WORLD; HISTORY, ANCIENT; PHILOSOPHY; ROMAN WORLD;

EID: 0031089161     PISSN: 00225010     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1023/A:1004266427468     Document Type: Article

References (88)

1. Adolf Portman, A Zoologist Looks at Humankind, trans. J. Schaefer (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), p. 37.
2. For more on the importance of the Timaeus in the early history of anatomy see Christopher E. Cosans, "The Platonic Origins of Anatomy," Perspect. Biog. Med., 38 (1995), pp. 581-596. The present paper is part of a larger inquiry into how anatomy began. Other papers from this study include, in addition to the paper just cited, Christopher E. Cosans, "The Experimental Foundation of Galen's Teleology," Stud. Hist. Phil. Sci. (forthcoming).
3. For more on the importance of the Timaeus in the early history of anatomy see Christopher E. Cosans, "The Platonic Origins of Anatomy," Perspect. Biog. Med., 38 (1995), pp. 581-596. The present paper is part of a larger inquiry into how anatomy began. Other papers from this study include, in addition to the paper just cited, Christopher E. Cosans, "The Experimental Foundation of Galen's Teleology," Stud. Hist. Phil. Sci. (forthcoming).
4. In Historia animalium, Aristotle argues that in order to observe that all vessels originate from the heart, contrary tot the reports of Syennesis, Diogenes, and Polybus, one must first starve and then strangle the subject so that all vessels will still contain blood and be visible amidst the fat (Aristotle: Historia animalium, ed. and A. L. Peck [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979], pp. 511b-515a). In On Respiration, he reports that "all blooded animals that are not very lively live a long time after the heart has been excised, for example tortoises even move be their feet if the shells are left on" (Aristotle: On the Soul, Parva Naturalia, and On Breath, ed. and trans. W. S. Hett [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1975], p. 479a). Given the difficulty of removing enough shell to cut out the heart without disturbing the part of the plastron to which the legs attach, this procedure shows Aristotle as a quite sophisticated vivisectionist. (In order to ensure consistent terminology, all translations from Greek in this paper will be my own.)
5. In Historia animalium, Aristotle argues that in order to observe that all vessels originate from the heart, contrary tot the reports of Syennesis, Diogenes, and Polybus, one must first starve and then strangle the subject so that all vessels will still contain blood and be visible amidst the fat (Aristotle: Historia animalium, ed. and A. L. Peck [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979], pp. 511b-515a). In On Respiration, he reports that "all blooded animals that are not very lively live a long time after the heart has been excised, for example tortoises even move be their feet if the shells are left on" (Aristotle: On the Soul, Parva Naturalia, and On Breath, ed. and trans. W. S. Hett [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1975], p. 479a). Given the difficulty of removing enough shell to cut out the heart without disturbing the part of the plastron to which the legs attach, this procedure shows Aristotle as a quite sophisticated vivisectionist. (In order to ensure consistent terminology, all translations from Greek in this paper will be my own.)
6. In On coming-to-be and Passing-away, Aristotle thus argues that all changing things, like organisms, are made up of the Hot-cold and Wet-Dry, which we perceive by touch (see the edition of H. H. Joachim [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1922]).
7. Many scholars of ancient medicine view "Rationalist" not as the name of a specific sect, but as a general term for a diverse group of physicians. I will use the term to refer to those physicians whom Galen calls Rationalists (λογικοί) or Dogmatists (δογματικοί). In addition to some of his contemporaries, Galen would also apply this term to the Hellenistic biologist Erasistratus, who shares much of the approach to the body that Galen characterizes as "Rationalist" in his works on sects.
8. Mohan Matthen argues that "the Rationalists think that medicine is primarily concerned with reality not appearance," while the Empiricists hold that "medicine must take appearance to be its distinctive domain of investigation, not reality" ("Empiricism and Ontology in Ancient Medicine," in Method, Medicine and Metaphysics [Apeiron, 21:2], ed. R. J. Hankinson [Edmonton: Academic Printing and Publishing, 1988] p. 119). He concludes that the Rationalists would be more dogmatic about sticking with theoretically established treatments even if they appear not to work.
9. Vivian Nutton, in "The Patient's Choice: A New Treatise by Galen," Class. Quart., 40 (1990), 236-257, explains that Galen rejects the approaches of technical historians and etymologists, both of whom ignore the deeper meanings one can discover in classic texts. Instead of reading the Ancients to find out how things were, Galen studies them to learn how things are.
10. Michael Frede, "On Galen's Epistemology," in Galen: Problems and Prospects, ed. V. Nutton (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1981), pp. 65-86, argues that Galen is a Rationalist insofar as he embraces the rational method. Unlike the other Rationalists of his time, however, Galen believes that physicians and philosophers also need the empirical method to understand nature fully, and "if a theory does not accord with the phenomena, it is not the phenomena, but the theory which has to be rejected" (p. 82). I will argue below that Galen's stance involves a significant break with both his Rationalist and Empiricist contemporaries. In his account of anatomy, Galen ridicules Rationalists for their overly theoretical emphasis and rejects their effort at reducing life processes to mechanical abstractions. He advocates an experimental biology that gives greater weight to phenomenological experience and considers man's organic nature.
11. Celsus, DeMedicina, trans. W. G. Spencer (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1935), pp. 23-24. Ludwig Edelstein, Ancient Medicine, ed. Owsei Temkin, trans. C. Lilian Temkin (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987), pp. 247-301, exhaustively considers the reports of human dissection and vivisection in Hellenistic Alexandria. He persuasively argues that we should accept the nonpolemic reports, such as that of Celsus, at face value, and he offers a cultural explanation of why experimentation on humans might have occurred in Alexandria. Heinrich Von Staden, "The Discovery of the Body," Yale J. Biog. Med., 65 (1992), 223-241, has more recently argued for acceptance of these reports, and has offered further analysis of the cultural factors involved.
12. Celsus, DeMedicina, trans. W. G. Spencer (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1935), pp. 23-24. Ludwig Edelstein, Ancient Medicine, ed. Owsei Temkin, trans. C. Lilian Temkin (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987), pp. 247-301, exhaustively considers the reports of human dissection and vivisection in Hellenistic Alexandria. He persuasively argues that we should accept the nonpolemic reports, such as that of Celsus, at face value, and he offers a cultural explanation of why experimentation on humans might have occurred in Alexandria. Heinrich Von Staden, "The Discovery of the Body," Yale J. Biog. Med., 65 (1992), 223-241, has more recently argued for acceptance of these reports, and has offered further analysis of the cultural factors involved.
13. Celsus, DeMedicina, trans. W. G. Spencer (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1935), pp. 23-24. Ludwig Edelstein, Ancient Medicine, ed. Owsei Temkin, trans. C. Lilian Temkin (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987), pp. 247-301, exhaustively considers the reports of human dissection and vivisection in Hellenistic Alexandria. He persuasively argues that we should accept the nonpolemic reports, such as that of Celsus, at face value, and he offers a cultural explanation of why experimentation on humans might have occurred in Alexandria. Heinrich Von Staden, "The Discovery of the Body," Yale J. Biog. Med., 65 (1992), 223-241, has more recently argued for acceptance of these reports, and has offered further analysis of the cultural factors involved.
14. Peter R. Dear, "Totius in verba: Rhetoric and Authority in the Early Royal Society," Isis, 76 (1985), 145-161.
15. David C. Gooding, Experiment and the Making of Meaning (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1990), provides rich philosophical analysis concerning the nature of experiments. In this paper, we see not only that the Greeks performed vivisection experiments, but also that a Rationalist-Empiricist discussion not unlike the one repeated in the seventeenth century helped ancient anatomists to develop an extremely sophisticated epistemology of experiments.
16. See Galen, Anatomical Procedures, in Galeni Opera Omnia, vol. II, ed. C. G. Kühn (Hildesheim: Olms, 1965), II.648. I. Garofalo, Anatomicarum administrationum (Naples: E. J. Brill Lugduni Batavorum, 1986), has recently edited the Greek and Arabic text for the first four books of this work. Charles Singer, Galen on Anatomical Procedures (London: Oxford University Press, 1956), has provided an English translation of and commentary on the first nine books. For convenience of reference, I will cite the volume and page numbers form the Kühn edition of Galen wherever possible.
17. See Galen, Anatomical Procedures, in Galeni Opera Omnia, vol. II, ed. C. G. Kühn (Hildesheim: Olms, 1965), II.648. I. Garofalo, Anatomicarum administrationum (Naples: E. J. Brill Lugduni Batavorum, 1986), has recently edited the Greek and Arabic text for the first four books of this work. Charles Singer, Galen on Anatomical Procedures (London: Oxford University Press, 1956), has provided an English translation of and commentary on the first nine books. For convenience of reference, I will cite the volume and page numbers form the Kühn edition of Galen wherever possible.
18. See Galen, Anatomical Procedures, in Galeni Opera Omnia, vol. II, ed. C. G. Kühn (Hildesheim: Olms, 1965), II.648. I. Garofalo, Anatomicarum administrationum (Naples: E. J. Brill Lugduni Batavorum, 1986), has recently edited the Greek and Arabic text for the first four books of this work. Charles Singer, Galen on Anatomical Procedures (London: Oxford University Press, 1956), has provided an English translation of and commentary on the first nine books. For convenience of reference, I will cite the volume and page numbers form the Kühn edition of Galen wherever possible.
19. For more on the geometric aspects of anatomical thought, see Cosans, "Platonic Organs of Anatomy" (above, n. 2).
20. Galen, On the Therapeutic Method, in Kühn, Galeni Opera Omnia, vol. X. R. J. Hankinson, Galen On the Therapeutic Method Books I and II (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), provides a translation of and commentary o this work's first two books.
21. Galen, On the Therapeutic Method, in Kühn, Galeni Opera Omnia, vol. X. R. J. Hankinson, Galen On the Therapeutic Method Books I and II (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), provides a translation of and commentary o this work's first two books.
22. Galen, On the Therapeutic Method, in Kühn, Galeni Opera Omnia, vol. X. R. J. Hankinson, Galen On the Therapeutic Method Books I and II (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), provides a translation of and commentary o this work's first two books.
23. Although classicists often translate "νευρά" with its English cognate "nerve," this translation gives the Greek term unwarranted precision. Even in Galen's time some biologists used "νευρά" to refer not only to "nerves" but also to "ligaments" and "tendons."
24. Galen, Therapeutic Method (above, n. 14), X.107. In his rich commentary, (above, n. 14) Hankinson suggests that this passage especially applies to Erasistratus, who argued that all bodily parts are composed form an interweaving of small arteries, veins, and sinews (p. 189).
25. Galen, Therapeutic Method (above, n. 14), X.117.
26. Galen, On Venesection Against Erasistratus, in Kühn, Galeni Opera Omnia (above, n. 12), XI.153. Peter Brain, Galen on Bloodletting (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), translates this and two other bloodletting works.
27. Galen, On Venesection Against Erasistratus, in Kühn, Galeni Opera Omnia (above, n. 12), XI.153. Peter Brain, Galen on Bloodletting (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), translates this and two other bloodletting works.
28. Galen, On Venesection Against Erasistratus, in Kühn, Galeni Opera Omnia (above, n. 12), XI.153. Peter Brain, Galen on Bloodletting (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), translates this and two other bloodletting works.
29. Galen writes a great deal about anastomosis in Whether Blood Is Naturally contained in the Arteries, which has been edited and translated by David Furley and J. S. Willkie in Galen on Respiration and the Arteries (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984).
30. Galen, Against Erasistratus (above, n. 18), XI.154.
31. Ibid., pp. 155-156. I accept Brain's reading of α + (Combining comma above)λλοιου̃ν τι for the Kühn α + (Combining comma above)λλοιου̃ντι (Galen on Bloodletting [above, n. 18], p. 19); he notes that none of the manuscripts have spaces between words.
32. Galen, Therapeutic Method (above, n. 14), X.119-120.
33. Galen, Against Erasistratus (above, n. 18), XI.155-156.
34. R. J. Hankinson, "Saying the Phenomena," Phronesis, 35 (1990), 194-215, uses Von Staden's collection of fragments to argue that Herophilus accepts theoretical entities but "wishes to emphasize, against any rampant rationalism, that everything has to start with the φαινόμενα [phenomena]" (p. 194). If true, this would make the historical Herophilus somewhat of an intermediary figure between Aristotle and the more reductionistic Erasistratus and Rationalists of Galen's time. It may also explain Galen's much more sympathetic attitude toward Herophilus.
35. Galen, Therapeutic Method (above, n. 14), X.101.
36. Galen dismisses out of hand the skepticism of the Methodist sect.
37. Our two major sources of ancient Empiricism are Galen's treatises On Medical Experience and An Outline of Empiricism. In On Medical Experience, he attempts to reproduce the arguments typically used by Empiricists by presenting a debate in which a typical Rationalist attacks Empiricism, thereby setting the grounds for a lengthy defense of Empiricism by a typical Empiricist. It was one of Galen's first works, and was believed lost by him during his lifetime - yet a copy of it survived, and was translated from Greek into Syriac, and then from Syriac into Arabic. The original Greek of Outline of Empiricism was lost after a Latin translation of it was made by Nicolaus of Reggio in 1341. Since Nicolaus's translation technique was extremely literal, K. Deichgräber, Die griechishe Empirikerschule (Berlin: Weidmannsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1964), has attempted to reconstuct the Greek text from the Latin original. I will base all my translations on the Greek of Deichgräber's back-translation. Michael Grede, in Frede and R. Walzer, Three Treatises on the Nature of Science (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1985), pp. 21-45, provides a translation from the Latin, along with translations of On Sects for Beginners and On Medical Experience.
38. Our two major sources of ancient Empiricism are Galen's treatises On Medical Experience and An Outline of Empiricism. In On Medical Experience, he attempts to reproduce the arguments typically used by Empiricists by presenting a debate in which a typical Rationalist attacks Empiricism, thereby setting the grounds for a lengthy defense of Empiricism by a typical Empiricist. It was one of Galen's first works, and was believed lost by him during his lifetime - yet a copy of it survived, and was translated from Greek into Syriac, and then from Syriac into Arabic. The original Greek of Outline of Empiricism was lost after a Latin translation of it was made by Nicolaus of Reggio in 1341. Since Nicolaus's translation technique was extremely literal, K. Deichgräber, Die griechishe Empirikerschule (Berlin: Weidmannsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1964), has attempted to reconstuct the Greek text from the Latin original. I will base all my translations on the Greek of Deichgräber's back-translation. Michael Grede, in Frede and R. Walzer, Three Treatises on the Nature of Science (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1985), pp. 21-45, provides a translation from the Latin, along with translations of On Sects for Beginners and On Medical Experience.
39. Edelstein, Ancient Medicine (above, n. 9), pp. 195-203, provides a pointed analysis of how Empiricist skepticism toward Rationalist medicine ties into Hellenistic skepticism's rejection of the possibility of knowing things that are invisible by their very nature. R. J. Hankinson, "Causes and Empiricism," Phronesis, 32 (1987), 329-348, gives a good account of the extent to which Empiricists shared much common ground with Pyrrhonist skepticism.
40. Edelstein, Ancient Medicine (above, n. 9), pp. 195-203, provides a pointed analysis of how Empiricist skepticism toward Rationalist medicine ties into Hellenistic skepticism's rejection of the possibility of knowing things that are invisible by their very nature. R. J. Hankinson, "Causes and Empiricism," Phronesis, 32 (1987), 329-348, gives a good account of the extent to which Empiricists shared much common ground with Pyrrhonist skepticism.
41. Michael Frede, "The Empiricist Attitude towards Reason and Theory," in Hankinson, Method, Medicine and Metaphysics (above, n. 6), pp. 79-97, provides an extremely detailed account of the historical development of Empiricism.
42. Galen, Therapeutic Method (above, n. 14), X.36.
43. This passage is from On Sects for Beginners, in Claudii Galeni Pergameni Scripta Minora, vol. 3, ed. G. Helmreich (Leipzig, 1893), I.67. Galen complains both here and in his discussion of personal-observation in Outline of Empiricism (above, n. 27), p. 47, that some Empiricists also refer to the accumulation of apprehensions as experience. While personal-observation seems to exemplify what the Empiricists meant by experience, it seems from Galen's reports that the more sophisticated ones used experience in a wider sense.
44. This passage is from On Sects for Beginners, in Claudii Galeni Pergameni Scripta Minora, vol. 3, ed. G. Helmreich (Leipzig, 1893), I.67. Galen complains both here and in his discussion of personal-observation in Outline of Empiricism (above, n. 27), p. 47, that some Empiricists also refer to the accumulation of apprehensions as experience. While personal-observation seems to exemplify what the Empiricists meant by experience, it seems from Galen's reports that the more sophisticated ones used experience in a wider sense.
45. Galen, On Sects, I.67-68.
46. Von Staden, "Discovery of the Body" (above, n. 9), provides a detailed anaylsis of the Greek cultural attitudes toward the skin and why they led to a resistance to invasive anatomical procedures.
47. Galen, On Sects (above, n. 31), I.77.
48. Galen, Anatomical Procedures, Garofalo text (above, n. 12), II.288.
49. Galen, Therapeutic Method (above, n. 14), X.100.
50. Galen, Anatomical Procedures, Garofalo text (above, n. 12), II.225.
51. I offer a case study on the extent to which theory and even values ground anatomy in Christopher E. Cosans, "Anatomy, Metaphysics, and Values: The Ape Brain Debate Reconsidered," Biol. Phil., 9 (1994), 129-165.
52. I explore Plato's contribution to the development of the anatomical approach to the body in "Platonic Anatomy" (above, n. 2).
53. In the Republic, ed. and trans. P. Shorey (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1935), pp. 519-540, Plato's Socrates likewise suggests that the guardians first be educated in practical matters before they are ready to study philosophy.
54. Frede argues that Galen's critical attitude distinguishes him from the other eclectics of his time insofar as Galen (1) believes "it is one's own careful consideration of a matter, rather than the doctrine of a school or an authority which should determine one's views," and (2) "sees himself unable to take a position on a large umber of central philosophical questions, because he does not see how in the light of one's own reason and knowledge one could decide questions, e.g., concerning the nature of the soul" ("Galen's Epistemology" [above, n. 8], p.
55. J. Barnes, "Galen on Logic and Therapy," in Galen's Method of Healing, ed. F. Kudlien and R. Durling (New York: E. J. Brill, 1991), offers an exhaustive account of how Galen grounds medical practice on logic.
56. At Therapeutic Method X.20, (above, n. 14) for example, Galen criticizes Thessalus, the founder of the Methodist sect, for breaking with the Greeks. Given Galen's own use of Greek as his native tongue and Methodism's origins in the Roman Empire, such a charge carries nationalistic connotations.
57. Ibid., X.9. R. J. Hankinson, "Galen's Concept of Scientific Progress," in Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, vol. 37.2, ed. W. Haase and H. Temporini (Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 1994), pp. 1775-1789, provides an excellent anaylsis of how Galen tries to build upon the work of the Ancients.
58. Ibid., X.9. R. J. Hankinson, "Galen's Concept of Scientific Progress," in Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt, vol. 37.2, ed. W. Haase and H. Temporini (Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 1994), pp. 1775-1789, provides an excellent anaylsis of how Galen tries to build upon the work of the Ancients.
59. Nutton, "Patient's Choice" (above, n. 7), pp. 245-246, argues that admiration of the Hippocratic writings was by no means universal in Galen's time, and that the widespread respect these classics attained by the fifth century owes a great deal to Galen's advocacy.
60. Unfortunately, Galen's seed did not fully take root until the translation of his experimental works into Latin and the assimilation of his anatomical methodology by such figures as Vesalius, some thirteen centuries later. Frede characterizes Galen's reverence for the classics as "a somewhat backward-looking rather than a forward-looking independence, which tends to choose from among the old rather than to create the new" (Frede and Walzer, Three Treatises [above, n. 27], p. xvii). Such a perspective shares an assumption common to many twentieth-century thinkers that truth values can be assigned to statements based upon their recency. Yet, the history of Western science has not been a unidirectional march toward truth. Charles Singer, A Short History of Anatomy (New York: Dover, 1957), pp. 62-65, points out that after Galen, biologists replaced experimentation with astrology as a way to study the nature of the body. Luckily for us, "backward-looking" physicians revived Galen's method in the Renaissance. Insofar as classics become classics by addressing timeless questions rather than the fashions of their day, they are often invaluable aids to the search for truth.
61. Unfortunately, Galen's seed did not fully take root until the translation of his experimental works into Latin and the assimilation of his anatomical methodology by such figures as Vesalius, some thirteen centuries later. Frede characterizes Galen's reverence for the classics as "a somewhat backward-looking rather than a forward-looking independence, which tends to choose from among the old rather than to create the new" (Frede and Walzer, Three Treatises [above, n. 27], p. xvii). Such a perspective shares an assumption common to many twentieth-century thinkers that truth values can be assigned to statements based upon their recency. Yet, the history of Western science has not been a unidirectional march toward truth. Charles Singer, A Short History of Anatomy (New York: Dover, 1957), pp. 62-65, points out that after Galen, biologists replaced experimentation with astrology as a way to study the nature of the body. Luckily for us, "backward-looking" physicians revived Galen's method in the Renaissance. Insofar as classics become classics by addressing timeless questions rather than the fashions of their day, they are often invaluable aids to the search for truth.
62. Galen, Anatomical Procedures, Garofalo text (above, n. 12), II.224.
63. This criticism goes right to the heart of Empiricist epistemology. Frede, "Empiricist Attitude" (above, n. 29), pp. 87-88, notes that the Empiricists used "memory [μνήμη]" and other terms derived from it to refer to the processes by which one can properly connect experiences.
64. Galen, Anatomical Procedures, Garofalo text (above, n. 12), II.224.
65. Ibid.
66. Ibid., II.225-226.
67. Galen, Therapeutic Method (above, n. 14), X.122-123.
68. At Therapeutic Method X.123, Galen argues that one should study Empirical medicine in its entirety before attempting to synthesize it with the knowledge acquired through reason. In On Sects for Beginners (above, n. 31), I.74, he calls for a reconciliation of Rationalism and Empiricism through the acknowledgment that "both are true ways of discovery."
69. At Therapeutic Method X.123, Galen argues that one should study Empirical medicine in its entirety before attempting to synthesize it with the knowledge acquired through reason. In On Sects for Beginners (above, n. 31), I.74, he calls for a reconciliation of Rationalism and Empiricism through the acknowledgment that "both are true ways of discovery."
70. Barnes, "Galen on Logic" (above, n. 41), pp. 93-102, argues that since many Greeks view physics as a branch of philosophy, Galen's exhortation that physicians should study philosophy involves physicians' being able to derive medical treatments form the principles of the basic sciences. In considering the problems faced by twentieth-century medicine, E. Pellegrino and D. Thomasma, A Philosophical Basis of Medical Practice (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981), think a liberal education is no less valuable for physicians today. They note that we need "the cultivation of the humanities and philosophy in the medical and health care setting with something like the vigor we dedicate to the basic sciences" (p. 37). Since medicine deals with man as both object and subject, it goes beyond scientific knowledge and "is also governed in its methodology by unique patient care needs that call for empirical-inductive thinking about individuals; intuitive, aesthetic, and rational forms of thought; history taking and dialogue; the pressure to decide; and an almost ancient respect for the search for causes, most often abandoned by modern science" (p. 93).
71. Barnes, "Galen on Logic" (above, n. 41), pp. 93-102, argues that since many Greeks view physics as a branch of philosophy, Galen's exhortation that physicians should study philosophy involves physicians' being able to derive medical treatments form the principles of the basic sciences. In considering the problems faced by twentieth-century medicine, E. Pellegrino and D. Thomasma, A Philosophical Basis of Medical Practice (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981), think a liberal education is no less valuable for physicians today. They note that we need "the cultivation of the humanities and philosophy in the medical and health care setting with something like the vigor we dedicate to the basic sciences" (p. 37). Since medicine deals with man as both object and subject, it goes beyond scientific knowledge and "is also governed in its methodology by unique patient care needs that call for empirical-inductive thinking about individuals; intuitive, aesthetic, and rational forms of thought; history taking and dialogue; the pressure to decide; and an almost ancient respect for the search for causes, most often abandoned by modern science" (p. 93).
72. Galen, concerning the Order of My Books for Eugenianos, in Claudii Galeni Pergameni Scripta Minora, vol. 2, ed. Iwanis Mueller (Amsterdam: Adolf Hakkert, 1967), XIX.59.
73. Galen, That the Best Physician Is Also a Philosopher, in ibid., I.60-61. Peter Brain, "Galen on the Ideal of the Physician," So. Afr. Med. J., 52 (1977), 936-938, has published a translation of this work.
74. Galen, That the Best Physician Is Also a Philosopher, in ibid., I.60-61. Peter Brain, "Galen on the Ideal of the Physician," So. Afr. Med. J., 52 (1977), 936-938, has published a translation of this work.
75. See, for example, Nicomachean Ethics, ed. H. Rackham (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990), pp. 1177b-1178a.
76. Galen, Therapeutic Method (above, n. 14), X.16.
77. Ibid., X.107. While Barnes, "Galen on Logic" (above, n.41), p. 98, interprets Galen as criticizing Rationalists for stopping short of first principles, it is possible that Galen views them as committing the even greater folly of using the wrong first principles. Insofar as sinews, arteries, and veins are structures connecting two points in the organism, the Rationalist grounding of anatomical explanations in invisible ones reduces the body to geometric abstractions. By contrast, Galen's use of the Hot- cold and Wet-Dry anchors his accounts of bodily activity in qualitative experience.
78. Ibid., X.107. While Barnes, "Galen on Logic" (above, n.41), p. 98, interprets Galen as criticizing Rationalists for stopping short of first principles, it is possible that Galen views them as committing the even greater folly of using the wrong first principles. Insofar as sinews, arteries, and veins are structures connecting two points in the organism, the Rationalist grounding of anatomical explanations in invisible ones reduces the body to geometric abstractions. By contrast, Galen's use of the Hot- cold and Wet-Dry anchors his accounts of bodily activity in qualitative experience.
79. Galen, Anatomical Procedures, Garofalo text (above, n. 12), II.286. Edelstein, Ancient Medicine (above, n. 9), pp. 264-265, argues that the first two kinds of inquiry refer to science, which studies anatomy for itself, and philosophy, which studies anatomy to prove teleology. However, this distinction imposes a twentieth-century dichotomy upon the text. Since Greeks considered the study of nature (φύσις) to be a branch of philosophy, they would regard all the activities of the sciences as philosophy.
80. Galen, Anatomical Procedures, Garofalo text (above, n. 12), II.286. Edelstein, Ancient Medicine (above, n. 9), pp. 264-265, argues that the first two kinds of inquiry refer to science, which studies anatomy for itself, and philosophy, which studies anatomy to prove teleology. However, this distinction imposes a twentieth-century dichotomy upon the text. Since Greeks considered the study of nature (φύσις) to be a branch of philosophy, they would regard all the activities of the sciences as philosophy.
81. Galen, Anatomical Procedures, Garofalo text (above, n. 12), II.419. I. Garofalo dubs this approach to the body " 'academical' anatomy" ("The Six Classes of Animals in Galen," in Galeno: Obra, pensamiento e influencia, ed. J. A. López Férez [Madrid: Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, 1988], p. 85).
82. Galen, Anatomical Procedures, Garofalo text (above, n. 12), II.419. I. Garofalo dubs this approach to the body " 'academical' anatomy" ("The Six Classes of Animals in Galen," in Galeno: Obra, pensamiento e influencia, ed. J. A. López Férez [Madrid: Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, 1988], p. 85).
83. For example, at Anatomical Procedures II.287-288 Galen notes that from observing the position of the gracilis and pulling on it in dissection, one can learn that it does not play an essential role in walking. In his account of the biceps femoris (II.298-299), he reports how an athlete who had torn and lost it was able to build up other muscles and eventually win races again.
84. Since opening up the structure that twentieth-century biologists call the coelum would have caused massive infections in Galen's time of preantiseptic medicine, it makes sense that he considers the parts within it to be less accessible in the clinic. Interestingly enough, Galen has the student spend a tremendous amount of time peeling back the peritoneum, pleura, and pericardium from the body wall; such a procedure would help the student learn where not to cut in surgery.
85. Once he has covered practical anatomy, Galen does reward the student's curiosity with more-theoretical experiments on the internal organs in the later books. See especially Galen, On Anatomical Procedures, the Latter Books, trans. W. Duckworth, ed. M. Lyons and B. Towers (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962). Garofalo argues that Galen originally planned to "confine himself to strictly medical anatomy" ("Six Classes of Animals" [above, n. 60], p. 85), but expanded the scope of this work during a twenty-year period of composition. However, Galen's latter treatment of theoretical anatomy does not abrogate his earlier account. In the first book of Anatomical Procedures he explicitly states that anatomical study can naturally progress from bones and muscles, to arteries, veins, and sinews, and finally to internal organs (Garofalo text, II.226).
86. dτατός.
87. Galen, Anatomical Procedures, Kühn and Garofalo texts (above, n. 12), II.290.
88. Plato, Republic (above, n. 40), p. 520c.