Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

280 Late antiquityindispensable instruments for the acquisition of knowledge and understanding.3 To be sure, he sometimes says that experience merely has toconfirm or check what reason has already expected () or guessed(). 4 At the same time, he repeatedly stresses the relative predominanceof experience over reasoning: experience, he says, is the ‘teacher’() of this subject matter; 5 it is the primary source of knowledgeand the ultimate judge. 6 Yet he also frequently insists that experienceshould be used correctly, that is, with proper qualification. This appliesin particular to one of the central questions the dietician/pharmacologisthas to face: the quest for the ‘powers’ () of foodstuffs or drugs –their powers to bring about certain effects in the body of the organism towhich they are administered. Galen’s point seems to be that when tryingto discover what the power of a particular foodstuff or drug is when it isadministered to a patient, or when making a statement about the power afoodstuff or drug is supposed to have, the pharmacologist should not justrely on a small number of isolated empirical data related to the substancein question, collected at random without any underlying principle guidinghis search. Moreover, when it comes to judging or refuting a theory orgeneral statement about the supposed power of a particular foodstuff, thepharmacologist should not, according to Galen, believe that one randomcounter-example is sufficient to discard the theory or statement in question.Both for heuristic and for critical purposes, Galen stresses, the pharmacologist’suse of experience should not be , that is, ‘unqualified’,‘without distinctions’, or ‘without proper definition’. 7 It is here that Galen’sconcept of ‘qualified experience’ ( ) enters the discussion.3 See, for example, On the Method of Healing (De methodo medendi, De meth. med.) 3.1 (10.159 K.);14.5 (10.962 K.); On the Composition of Drugs according to Places (De compositione medicamentorumsecundum locus, De comp. med. sec. loc.) 8.6 (13.188 K.); On the Mixtures and Powers of Simple Drugs(De simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis ac facultatibus, De simpl. med. fac.) 9.2 (12.192–3 K.).See also Jacques (1997).4 See for example On The Composition of Drugs according to Kinds (De compositione medicamentorumper genera, De comp. med. per gen.) 6.7 (13.887 K.); De meth. med. 5.1 (10.306 K.). An interestingexample of theoretical reasoning about the powers of foodstuffs or drugs is found in De simpl. med.fac. 1.13 (11.401ff. K.); for fallacies in pharmacology cf. 1.25 (11.424–45 K.).5 On the Powers of Foodstuffs (De alimentorum facultatibus, De alim. facult.) 1.1.7 (CMG v4, 2,p.204.3–5Helmreich, 6.457 K.); see also De simpl. med. fac. 1.37 (11.449 K.); 2.1 (11.459–62 K.); De comp. med.sec. gen. 4.5 (13.706f. K.); 6.7 (13.886ff. K.); 6.8 (13.891f. K.). See also Harig (1974) 78–83; Fabricius(1972) 36ff.6 See Frede (1987c) 295, who refers, among others, to De simpl. med. fac. 2.2 (11.462 K.); 1.40 (11.456K.); De meth. med. 2.6 (10.123 K.); 13.16 (10.916 K.); On Mixtures (De temperamentis, De temper.) 1.5(p. 16 Helmreich, 1.534 K.); De alim. facult. 1.1.3 (CMG v4, 2,p.202.14ff. Helmreich, 6.454 K.); Decomp. med. sec. gen. 1.4 (13.376 K.); On Antidotes (De antidotis) 1.2 (14.12 K.).7 Cf. De simpl. med. fac. 1.3 (11.385 K.); 1.4 (11.388 K.); 1.34 (11.441 K.); 6.1 (11.803 K.); De alim. facult.1.1.33 (CMG v4, 2,p.212.3 Helmreich, 6.472 K.); 3.29 (CMG v4, 2,p.370.5 Helmreich, 6.723 K.).I am indebted to Heinrich von Staden for pointing out that Galen’s use of the concept of diorismos