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Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

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242 Aristotle <strong>and</strong> his schoolalso works in those people ‘whose reasoning is disengaged’ ( ), as is the case with the melancholics. 17The problem, then, might also be put as follows. At first sight thereseems to be a discrepancy between, on the one h<strong>and</strong>, the conclusion ofEth. Eud. 8.2 that eutuchia is ‘divine’ <strong>and</strong> happens ‘through God’, <strong>and</strong>, onthe other h<strong>and</strong>, the statements in On Divination in Sleep, which repeatedlyreject the attribution of divination in sleep 18 to a god. 19 Yet the argumentwhich Aristotle uses in On Divination in Sleep (as in Mag. mor. 2.8) againstthis attribution is the same distribution argument as that used in Eth.Eud. 8.2: in the latter chapter, it is at first sufficient to reject the popularconception of divine guidance or dispensation, but later it no longer formsan impediment to the conclusion that eutuchia is divine (theia). On anyinterpretation it is clear that developmental arguments, such as those used17 See also the discussion in ch. 5 above. On this contrast see Dirlmeier (1962a) 490 <strong>and</strong> 492; Flashar(1966) 60 n. 2. Effe (1970, 84–5), argues that the sentence 1248 a 39–40 is a parenthesis: ‘Die Träumeder Melancholiker werden jedoch nicht in dem Sinn verglichen, daß auch sie auf Gott zurückgeführtwerden, sondern nur insofern, als sie – wie die irrationale Mantik – ohne Verwendung des rationalenElements das Richtige treffen.’ But Effe fails to appreciate the force of (‘this is why’), whichconnects the sentence with 38–9: ‘he well sees both the future <strong>and</strong> the present, also in those peoplein whom this reasoning faculty is disengaged’ ( ), <strong>and</strong> which establishes a causal connection between the clear dreams ofthe melancholics <strong>and</strong> the divine movement, which is stronger in those whose reasoning faculty isdisengaged. It is not correct, therefore, to speak of a comparison: the melancholics are an example.Moreover, given that the clear dreams of the melancholics are mentioned in this particular context,what other cause is there to account for them than God?18 Divination () is closely connected with eutuchia, as is shown by the mention of in1248 a 35 <strong>and</strong> of the ‘clear dreams’ () of the melancholics in 1248 a 39. See Woods (1982)183: ‘The power of prophecy is relevant because of the close connection between the right choice<strong>and</strong> foreknowledge of the future.’19 This discrepancy has been noted by many interpreters, e.g. by Huby (1979) 54–5, 57, 59; Natali (1974)175–7; Dirlmeier (1962a) 483, 490, <strong>and</strong> 492; Effe (1970) 84–5; Bodéüs (1981) 52–3, 55. On the placeof Eth. Eud. 8.2 in Aristotle’s theology see also Pépin (1971) 220–2 <strong>and</strong> 272–6; Aubenque (1963) 71–5;<strong>and</strong> von Arnim (1928) 17ff. Out of all these interpreters, Effe is the only one who tries to account forthe discrepancy on the strength of non-developmental arguments. According to him, the form ofdivination described in Eth. Eud. 8.2, which he calls ‘enthusiastic divination’, is not what is spokenof in On Divination in Sleep: ‘Aristoteles erkennt also die enthusiastische Mantik, bei der Gott direktdurch den Menschen spricht, an. Das steht nicht in Widerspruch zu De div. p. somn., denn dortwird nur die Zurückführung der Träume auf Gott abgelehnt; die enthusiastische Mantik ist nichtthematisiert.’ Apart from being forced, in order to sustain this interpretation, to regard 1248 a 39–40as a parenthesis (on which see n. 17 above), Effe fails to appreciate that the argument which Aristotlehere uses to reject the attribution of prophetic dreams to a god, is the same distribution argumentas that used in 1247 a 28–9 to reject the attribution of eutuchia to a god. Effe does not make it clearwhy this argument is no impediment to Aristotle’s conclusion of a in Eth. Eud. 1248a 32ff. (which he conceives as ‘enthusiastic divination’), whereas it actually is an impediment to thetheory of ‘god-sent dreams’ ( ) inOn Divination in Sleep. Moreover, I do notthink that what Aristotle has in mind in Eth. Eud. 8.2 is the ‘enthusiastic divination’ (‘in which Godspeaks directly through human beings’; cf. Effe’s typology of divination on p. 79): on this see below,especially n. 28.

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