Body and Soul in Ancient Philosophy

Galen and the Stoics: What each could learn from the other 419
basis for the necessary interaction between the three parts … This problem
seems to subvert his whole enterprise.” 36
A related difficulty is that of correlating the physiological character
of the two lower organs with their supposed psychological roles. Galen
establishes, by various observations, that the heart is the source of pulsation
and that this pulsation does not depend on the operation of the
brain. He infers from this that the psychological functions he associates
with the heart, such as being angry, are also independent of the reasoning
part, located in the brain. 37 But he provides no detailed account of
the nature of this linkage, nor does he prove that one can draw inferences
from the fact that we have an automatic heart-beat to the claim
that emotions are independent of reason. 38 In the case of the liver,
the supposed seat of the third, appetitive part, the difficulties are still
more acute. One problem is that, as Galen himself concedes, we cannot
establish its functions by ligature in the way we can with the brain and
heart. 39 Secondly, it is quite unclear how Galen proposes to bridge the
gap between the liver’s physiological role (that of producing blood and
so nourishing the body) and its alleged psychological role, as the source
of sensual appetites and desires in general. 40
As suggested earlier, these problems all stem from the attempt to
match the picture of the workings of the internal organs of the body
derived from Galen’s anatomical investigations with the idea of three
separate and independent sources of motivation. The anatomical account
implies a unitary source of psychological agency and motivation,
exercised through the body as a whole, by contrast with the three-centre
psycho-physiological model presented in PHP. The difficulties that
arise in linking physiological characteristics and psychological role in the
36 Tieleman 2003, 155.
37 PHP V.239, 2.4.48 – 9, V.277 – 8, 2.8.23–5, and V.655, 8.1.22 – 4.
38 Cf. Tieleman 2002, 265: “It is one thing to show experimentally that the heart
is the source of the pulse; it is another to prove that the heart is the dwelling
place of emotions like fear and anger”.
39 “But in the case of the liver we are unable to make any such demonstration,
whether by exposing it and applying pressure, or by ligating the veins. For it
is not the source of obvious motion, as the heart is of pulsation and the brain
of sensation and volition.”, PHP V.520, 6.2.5, p. 372.32 – 374.2. See also
V.519, 6.2.2. See further Hankinson 1991, 223 – 237, who takes a relatively
positive view of the coherence of Galen’s thinking on this topic.
40 For an attempt to bridge this gap, see PHP V.580 – 83, 6.8.67 – 76, arguing for
the compatibility of Platonic and Hippocratic (or psychological and physiological)
analyses; see also Hankinson 1991, 229 – 231.