Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

24 Medicine and Philosophy in Classical Antiquitytitle of ‘younger Hippocrates’ or deemed ‘second in age and fame to Hippocrates’.He practised in the fourth century bce, and although we knowvery little of his life, we can safely assume that he was one of the most prominentmedical thinkers of antiquity. 29 His interests ranged widely, and he isreported to have written at least twenty works (some of them in at least fourbooks) on a great variety of areas such as anatomy, physiology, digestion,fevers, prognostics, pathology, therapeutics, bandages, gynaecology, embryology,surgery, dietetics, hygiene and regimen in health, foods, wines, herbs,vegetables, olive oil, drugs, poisons, sexuality, and possibly also mineralogyand meteorology. He clearly had a keen interest in ‘the phenomena’ and inthe practical aspects of medical care, and he rated the results of long-termmedical experience very highly. Yet at the same time Diocles was known forhis theoretical and philosophical outlook and for his tendency to build hismedical views on a general theory of nature. There are good reasons to believethat he was well in touch with the medical and philosophical thinkersof his time, that he knew a number of the Hippocratic writings and thathe was familiar with, and to, Aristotle and Theophrastus. Furthermore, heappears to have positioned himself prominently in the intellectual debatesof the fourth century, and to have played a major role in the communicationof medical views and precepts to wider audiences in Greek society bymeans of highly civilised literary writings in the Attic dialect. The basis forhis fame may lie partly in the impressive range of subjects he dealt with,the almost encyclopaedic coverage of the subject of medicine and alliedsciences such as botany, biology, and possibly mineralogy and meteorology,the considerable size of his literary production and the stylistic elegance hiswork displayed. But a further possible reason may have been Diocles’ philosophicaland theoretical orientation and his tendency to relate his medicalviews to more general theoretical views on nature (see frs. 61, 63, 64), 30 justlike the ‘Hippocrates’ referred to by Socrates in the well-known passagein Plato’s Phaedrus (270 c–d). For from the remains of his work Dioclesemerges as a very self-conscious scientist with a keen awareness of questionsof methodology, a fundamental belief that treatment of a particularpart of the body cannot be effective without taking account of the bodyas a whole (fr. 61) and of the essence of disease (fr. 63), and a strong desirefor systematisation of medical knowledge. Diocles’ use of notions such aspneuma, humours and elementary qualities, his use of inference from signs29 For a collection and discussion of the evidence and an account of Diocles’ views and historicalimportance see van der Eijk (2000a) and (2001a), from which the following paragraph is adapted.30 References to Diocles’ fragments are according to the numeration in van der Eijk (2000a).