Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

122 Hippocratic Corpus and Diocles of CarystusAurelianus is referring concerns the so-called hēgemonikon or regale. Thisterm is probably of Stoic origin (c. 300 bce) and refers to the ‘leading’principle in the soul (commonly indicated as nous or intellectus, which isusually translated as ‘thought’ or ‘intellect’). The use of this term impliesthe possibility of grading various psychic parts or faculties, some of whichare subordinate to others, and presupposes an anatomical and physiologicalrelationship underlying such a hierarchy. On the one hand such a presentationpresupposes a rather elaborate psychological theory, free from thedifficulties and obscurities that, for instance, Aristotle points out when hediscusses the psychological views of his predecessors in the first book of hisOn the Soul (De anima ). It will be clear that a presentation such as thatby Caelius Aurelianus, in which all doctors and philosophers are called tothe fore to express their views on the matter, puts opinions in their mouthsthat many of them (probably) never phrased in these terms. On the otherhand, such a presentation does not do justice to thinkers such as Aristotleand some authors of the Hippocratic Corpus, as it often obscures thesubtle differences in meaning between the various terms used for psychicfaculties by these thinkers. We will see below that as early as the fifth andfourth centuries bce, doctors and philosophers carefully differentiated betweencognitive faculties such as ‘practical’, ‘theoretical’, and ‘productivethinking’; ‘insight’; ‘understanding’; ‘opinion’; and ‘judgement’. 9 Indeed,the possibility of location was a matter of dispute too. Thus Aristotle wascredited in late antiquity with the view that ‘the soul’, or at least its leadingprinciple (the archē), is seated in the heart. We will see that this is a misrepresentationof Aristotle’s views, which, strictly speaking, leave no roomfor location of the highest psychic faculty, the nous. Similarly, the authorof the Hippocratic work On Regimen (at the start of the fourth centurybce) presupposes a view of the soul that does not specify where exactly it islocated in the body; he even appears to assume that the location may vary.In short, this doxographic distortion attributes to doctors and philosophersanswers to questions which some of them would not even be able or willingto answer as a matter of principle.Finally, Caelius Aurelianus upholds a long tradition of contempt forthe so-called phusiologia. This tradition dates back to the author of theHippocratic writing On Ancient Medicine (c. 400 bce). He was opposedto some of his colleagues’ tendency to build their medical practice ongeneral and theoretical principles or ‘postulates’ (hupotheseis) derived from9 Aristotle lists a range of terms for cognitive faculties (nous, phronēsis, epistēmē, sophia, gnōmē, sunesis,doxa, hupolēpsis) in book 6 of the Nicomachean Ethics; however, it remains uncertain to what extentthe subtle differences in meaning that Aristotle ascribes to these terms are representative for Greeklanguage in general.