the iĄaculty oÍ' Graduate Ątudies April, L96[ - MSpace at the ...

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the acquisiùÍon of knowledge \.Ías of littte or no value
urrless it v¡as translated into action" Keeoing faith
witìr his rnotto t,hat one must alr.iays be true to oners
narure, this meant for him founding his tife upon the
i¡our Pirlars of ivledicine: ltPhirosophia, Á.stronomi-a,
Alchinrie, Heilkunst oder Virtusrr, I/+' These were the
four realms in which Nature 1¡Iove its urrity and murti-
plicity. An examinaLion of each of these disci-olines
will give a broader understandins of the man and his
thoughù.
The terrn PhÍlosophia corresÐoncis rnore to the
crliscipline of natu.ral history than to philosophy¡ yet
as neiiher of' these four disciprines can be considered_
nutually excrusi-ve, 'ühey ea-ch seem 'co malce j-ncursions
into f oreign ground, "å.s Paracelsus understood and
practised it, Philo_qpph:þ meant none other than that a
physician should see through man as through disl,ilted
dew; it was in essence the knolvledge (u,lissen und.
Er'kenntnis) of Nature seen in the reflection of a
mirror. L5 ' fts basis lay in lntuitive perception.
Although Àqtronomia is related as a science Eo
that practised by Galileo and CoÞernicus, the implica-
tion of knowledge concerning the s'bars and planeLs in
theÍr rno'oile relationship to the earth evokes the
concepts i{acrocosm and iv.[j-crocosrn. Philosophic overbones