Body and Soul in Ancient Philosophy

Galen and the Stoics: What each could learn from the other 417
lems arise from Galen’s attempt to reconcile the brain-centred psychophysiology
he adopts from the Ptolemaic doctors with the tripartite psychological
picture he adopts from Plato. But there are indications in Galen’s
thought in general – and even within PHP- that he had the materials
for forming a different and more unified psychological view, one
more like the Stoic view, which would have resolved these difficulties.
So I think that Galen had, in terms of his own theory, powerful reasons
for adopting a more Stoic and less Platonic psychological theory.
What exactly was the theory Galen advanced in PHP? Two of his
own summaries give slightly different impressions:
I claim to have proofs that the forms of the psyche are more than one, that
they are located in three different places, that one of them is divine, by
which we reason, and the other two have to do with the feelings – with
the one we are angry; with the other, which plants have too, we desire
the pleasures that come through the body – and, further that one of
these parts is situated in the brain, one in the heart, and one in the liver.
These facts admit of scientific demonstration … 29
I did not decide … whether the psyche (anima) was mortal or immortal,
corporeal or incorporeal. That it was the source of three movements,
one coming from the brain, one from the heart and one from the liver, I
proved also by my proofs … I showed in that same book that I had to
put forward proofs of the type of reason and memory by which is perceived
whatever is included in the science of logic. Now from this part (of the
body) voluntary motion goes to every other part, and our perception of
all sensible things … I also proved that the heart is the source of the movement
of pulsation … 30
The first passage is from PHP, the second from a much later work, On
My Own Opinions (Prop. Plac.). Though they describe what is broadly
the same theory, there are some slight differences of emphasis noted
later that may be significant. 31 In essence, the theory of PHP is a combination
of the brain-centred account of embodied psychology that is
based on Galen’s anatomical investigations and a tripartite psychology
(and physiology) derived from Plato’s Republic and Timaeus (and syn-
29 Gal. PHP V.793, 9.9,7, p. 598.28 –600.5, tr. De Lacy, slightly modified. For
other such summaries in PHP see V.454 – 5, 5.4.2 –3 and V.660 – 1, 7.3.2 – 3.
30 Gal. Prop. Plac. 3.2 –4, p. 61.10 – 19 Nutton 1999, tr. Nutton, slightly modified.
Despite some rather strange phraseology (esp. in the sentence including “put
forward proofs … science of logic”, on which see Nutton 1999, 145 – 146),
the overall meaning is clear.
31 See text to n. 51 below.