Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

Heart, brain, blood, pneuma 127This passage is part of a rather complicated explanation of epilepsy (fordetails on this see the next paragraph). The brain plays a pivotal role inthis explanation as it is the point from where bodily and psychic facultiesare co-ordinated, but also because it is particularly sensitive to harmfulinfluences from the environment, such as climate and season (‘so long asit is healthy’). These influences can therefore be additional factors thatcontribute to the course the disease takes. The author emphasises thiscrucial role of the brain as part of his polemic against two rival factionswhich consider the diaphragm or the heart to be the central organ that is thesource of consciousness. He dismisses the etymological argument of the firstfaction (phrenes – phronēsis) as invalid, and accommodates the empiricalfact that both factions put forward – the heart’s leaping in case of suddengladness or sadness – into his own theory, which is also based on empiricalobservations (namely the delicacy of the diaphragm and the veins goingto the heart). In a previous chapter he employed an empirical argumentto support his conviction that the disease is caused by an accumulation ofphlegm in or around the brain. He claimed that if one were to open theskull of a goat that died as a result of an epileptic fit, one would find a largeamount of fluid (phlegm) around the brain. 16It is striking that a distinction is made here between ‘consciousness’(phronēsis) and ‘understanding’ (sunesis): the latter is apparently related tothe ‘discerning thinking’ (diagnōsis) which is mentioned later in the text,and which requires a certain degree of purity and precision that is adverselyaffected by contact with organs and tissues. In this context phronēsis clearlymeans more than ‘thinking’ or ‘intelligence’, as the word is commonlytranslated. It means ‘having one’s senses together’ and refers to a universalforce by which a living being can focus on its surroundings and can undertakeactivities; it also implies perception and movement. 17 Phronēsis canbe found throughout the body, whereas ‘understanding’ is restricted to thebrain. Another thing that is striking is that the author is of the opinion thatthe brain is also the source of feeling – although he admits that the heartand diaphragm take part in this as well.A text in which mental phenomena are even more clearly classified asa separate category is the Hippocratic writing On Regimen. 18 The author,a particularly ‘philosophically’ inspired mind, presents psuchē (sometimes16 11.3–5 (6.382 L.). As to the question whether this indeed concerns an experiment in the modernsense of the word, see Lloyd (1979) 23–4.17 See Hüffmeier (1961) 58. See too H. W. Miller (1948) 168–83.18 Edition with a translation and commentary by Joly and Byl (1984). There is a dispute about the dateof this work: most scholars date it to the beginning of the fourth century bce, but some argue infavour of a much later date (second half of the fourth century bce).