Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

14 Medicine and Philosophy in Classical Antiquityas well as mathematicians and other ‘scientists’, and there is good reasonto believe that disciplinary boundaries, if they existed at all, were fluid andflexible. As we get to the Hellenistic and Imperial periods, the evidenceof specialisation is stronger, but this still did not prevent more ambitiousthinkers such as Galen or John Philoponus from crossing boundaries andbeing engaged in a number of distinct intellectual activities such as logic,linguistics and grammar, medicine and meteorology.3 aristotle and his schoolA case in point here is Aristotle, to whom the middle section of this volumeis dedicated. It is no exaggeration to say that the history of ancientmedicine would have been very different without the tremendous impactof Aristotelian science and philosophy of science throughout antiquity, theMiddle Ages and the early modern period. Aristotle, and Aristotelianism,made and facilitated major discoveries in the field of comparative anatomy,physiology, embryology, pathology, therapeutics and pharmacology. Theyprovided a comprehensive and consistent theoretical framework for researchand understanding of the human body, its structure, workings andfailings and its reactions to foods, drinks, drugs and the environment.They further provided fruitful methods and concepts by means of whichmedical knowledge could be acquired, interpreted, systematised and communicatedto scientific communities and wider audiences. And throughtheir development of historiographical and doxographical discourse, theyplaced medicine in a historical setting and thus made a major contributionto the understanding of how medicine and science originated anddeveloped.Aristotle himself was the son of a distinguished court physician and hada keen interest in medicine and biology, which was further developed bythe members of his school. Aristotle and his followers were well aware ofearlier and contemporary medical thought (Hippocratic Corpus, Dioclesof Carystus) and readily acknowledged the extent to which doctors contributedto the study of nature. This attitude was reflected in the receptionof medical ideas in their own research and in the interest they took in thehistorical development of medicine. It was further reflected in the extent towhich developments in Hellenistic and Imperial medicine (especially theAlexandrian anatomists and Galen) were incorporated in the later historyof Aristotelianism and in the interpretation of Aristotle’s works in late antiquity.Aristotelianism in turn exercised a powerful influence on Hellenisticand Galenic medicine and its subsequent reception in the Middle Ages andearly modern period.