Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

Galen on qualified experience 285to, but occasionally also as supplementary to, inference ()byreason. 17 What does Galen mean by this, and what kind of ‘qualifications’are there to be considered? And how is this concept related to reason andexperience?At some places where he uses the term , Galen saysthat he has explained the notion in greater detail elsewhere, but none ofthese references turned out on checking to point to a really systematic orexhaustive treatment of the concept. 18 The most instructive textual elucidationis provided by the first chapter of On the Powers of Foodstuffs andthe third book of On Mixtures, the latter being a sort of short treatise onelementary pharmacology which, as Galen does not grow tired of stressingrepeatedly, 19 is an indispensable prerequisite for a correct understanding ofall his pharmacological works – a typically Galenic schoolmasterly recommendationto students of his pharmacological works to do their homeworkproperly.In the long introductory chapter of On the Powers of Foodstuffs, which precedeshis actual discussion of the powers of the various foodstuffs, Galenpoints out that an exclusively empirical approach to the subject of the17 See De simpl. med. fac. 4.19 (11.685 K.): ‘That all bitter humours have not only a hot but also a drymixture is shown first of all by qualified experience, which I have discussed many times, and inaddition to experience the same result is also found if one examines it rationally’ ( , ). De alim. facult. 1.12.1 (CMG v4, 2, p.233.2–3 Helmreich,6.508 K.): ‘(On maza.) As to the power of each food, even before subjecting it to qualified experience,you can infer this from its nature. For to any intelligent man the fine, white flour free from anybran-like material would indicate etc.’ ( . .). Cf. De alim. facult. 2.59 (CMG v4, 2, p.323.8–10 Helmreich, 6.647–8 K.), wherequalified experience is presented as supplementary to ‘indication from the structure of the plant’( ), and De simpl. med. fac. 10.1 (12.246 K.): ‘We haveshown that the general power is clearly indicated by one experiential trial, and not any randomtrial, but one that has been carried out with the qualifications mentioned’ ( ). On Galen’s use of see Kudlien (1991)103–11.18 Thus in De alim. facult. 1.1.7 (CMG v4, 2, p.204.3–5 Helmreich, 6.457 K.) he refers to On theMixtures and Powers of Simple Drugs and to the third book of On Mixtures; Helmreich in his apparatusdoes not specify the first reference, but the second is taken to refer to pp. 109–15 of his edition ofOn Mixtures. InDe simpl. med. fac. 3.13 (11.573 K.), Galen says that he has explained the urgencyof deciding pharmacological issues on the basis of qualified experience ‘quite often throughout thepreceding sections of the work’ ( ), whichmay be no more than an overstatement; similarly vague references are given in 4.19 (11.685 K.); 4.23(11.703 K.); 6.1 (11.800 K.); and 7.10 (12.38 K.).19 E.g. in De simpl. med. fac. 1.1 (11.381 K.); 1.3 (11.385 K.); 1.11 (11.400 K.).