Edward Abrahams and Mike Silver
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195393804
- eISBN:
- 9780199863495
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195393804.003.0001
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, Disorders of the Nervous System
This chapter examines the historical path that has led to personalized medicine as we know it today, in the hope of gaining a better perspective on where it will take us in the not-too-distant ...
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This chapter examines the historical path that has led to personalized medicine as we know it today, in the hope of gaining a better perspective on where it will take us in the not-too-distant future. The foundations of anatomy, toxicology, histology, and cellular pathology were established in the centuries after Hippocrates, but it was not until the middle of the 20th century, when we began to get a deeper molecular understanding of disease, and then at the turn of the 21st century, with the sequencing of the human genome, that we could develop the tools to truly personalize diagnosis and treatment. This set in motion the transformation of personalized medicine from an intention to a practice.Less
This chapter examines the historical path that has led to personalized medicine as we know it today, in the hope of gaining a better perspective on where it will take us in the not-too-distant future. The foundations of anatomy, toxicology, histology, and cellular pathology were established in the centuries after Hippocrates, but it was not until the middle of the 20th century, when we began to get a deeper molecular understanding of disease, and then at the turn of the 21st century, with the sequencing of the human genome, that we could develop the tools to truly personalize diagnosis and treatment. This set in motion the transformation of personalized medicine from an intention to a practice.
Mark Harrison
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199577736
- eISBN:
- 9780191595196
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199577736.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
The first chapter of Part I begins by taking stock of European theories of fever, and of the importance of the work of the Hippocratic revival, particularly as reflected in the work of Sydenham, ...
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The first chapter of Part I begins by taking stock of European theories of fever, and of the importance of the work of the Hippocratic revival, particularly as reflected in the work of Sydenham, Boerhaave, and Hoffman. The discussion then turns to medical work in the tropical colonies during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, placing British medicine in the context of earlier work by the Portuguese and Dutch. The chapter examines both the East and the West Indies. It shows the growing importance of climate and morbid anatomy in theories of disease and how ideas about disease had a bearing on concepts of race. The strongly natural‐historical orientation of colonial practice is emphasized, along with its connections to the politics of medical reform in Britain.Less
The first chapter of Part I begins by taking stock of European theories of fever, and of the importance of the work of the Hippocratic revival, particularly as reflected in the work of Sydenham, Boerhaave, and Hoffman. The discussion then turns to medical work in the tropical colonies during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, placing British medicine in the context of earlier work by the Portuguese and Dutch. The chapter examines both the East and the West Indies. It shows the growing importance of climate and morbid anatomy in theories of disease and how ideas about disease had a bearing on concepts of race. The strongly natural‐historical orientation of colonial practice is emphasized, along with its connections to the politics of medical reform in Britain.
Stanley Finger
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195181821
- eISBN:
- 9780199865277
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195181821.001.0001
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, History of Neuroscience
This volume presents a series of vibrant profiles that trace the evolution of our knowledge about the brain. Beginning almost 5,000 years ago, with the ancient Egyptian study of “the marrow of the ...
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This volume presents a series of vibrant profiles that trace the evolution of our knowledge about the brain. Beginning almost 5,000 years ago, with the ancient Egyptian study of “the marrow of the skull”, the book takes us on a fascinating journey from the classical world of Hippocrates, to the time of René Descartes and the era of Paul Broca and Santiago Ramón y Cajal, to modern researchers such as Roger W. Sperry. We meet Galen, a man of titanic ego and abrasive disposition, whose teachings dominated medicine for a thousand years; Andreas Vesalius, a contemporary of Nicolaus Copernicus, who pushed our understanding of human anatomy to new heights; Otto Loewi, pioneer in neurotransmitters, who gave the Nazis his Nobel prize money and fled Austria for England; and Rita Levi-Montalcini, discoverer of nerve growth factor, who in war-torn Italy was forced to do her research in her bedroom. For each individual, the philosophy, the tools, the books, and the ideas that brought new insights are examined. The book also looks at broader topics: How dependent are researchers on the work of others? What makes the time ripe for discovery? And what role does chance or serendipity play? Many fascinating background figures are also included, from Leonardo da Vinci and Emanuel Swedenborg to Karl August Weinhold—who claimed to have reanimated a dead cat by filling its skull with silver and zinc—and Mary Shelley, whose Frankenstein was inspired by such experiments.Less
This volume presents a series of vibrant profiles that trace the evolution of our knowledge about the brain. Beginning almost 5,000 years ago, with the ancient Egyptian study of “the marrow of the skull”, the book takes us on a fascinating journey from the classical world of Hippocrates, to the time of René Descartes and the era of Paul Broca and Santiago Ramón y Cajal, to modern researchers such as Roger W. Sperry. We meet Galen, a man of titanic ego and abrasive disposition, whose teachings dominated medicine for a thousand years; Andreas Vesalius, a contemporary of Nicolaus Copernicus, who pushed our understanding of human anatomy to new heights; Otto Loewi, pioneer in neurotransmitters, who gave the Nazis his Nobel prize money and fled Austria for England; and Rita Levi-Montalcini, discoverer of nerve growth factor, who in war-torn Italy was forced to do her research in her bedroom. For each individual, the philosophy, the tools, the books, and the ideas that brought new insights are examined. The book also looks at broader topics: How dependent are researchers on the work of others? What makes the time ripe for discovery? And what role does chance or serendipity play? Many fascinating background figures are also included, from Leonardo da Vinci and Emanuel Swedenborg to Karl August Weinhold—who claimed to have reanimated a dead cat by filling its skull with silver and zinc—and Mary Shelley, whose Frankenstein was inspired by such experiments.
Stanley Finger
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195181821
- eISBN:
- 9780199865277
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195181821.003.0003
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, History of Neuroscience
In order to understand the Hippocratic revolution in medicine and how it led to the perception of the brain as the ruling member of the body, we must think of ancient Greece at three different but ...
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In order to understand the Hippocratic revolution in medicine and how it led to the perception of the brain as the ruling member of the body, we must think of ancient Greece at three different but unequal points in time. These epochs can be designated Early Greece, the Golden Age of Greece, and the Hellenistic Era. Hippocrates lived from approximately 460 to 377 B.C., during the middle period or Golden Age of Greece. The three time periods are very different culturally. In each one, not only are there differences in government, religion, and the arts, but they also provide us with distinctly different views of the mind and the brain. This chapter also discusses the myths and legends surrounding the healing powers of Asklepios, son of Apollo and the nymph Coronis; medicine in Homer's epic poems Odyssey and Iliad; the Hippocratic Collection known as Corpus Hippocraticum, which had references to the brain and brain damage; and dissection, the nervous system, and the association between humor and disease.Less
In order to understand the Hippocratic revolution in medicine and how it led to the perception of the brain as the ruling member of the body, we must think of ancient Greece at three different but unequal points in time. These epochs can be designated Early Greece, the Golden Age of Greece, and the Hellenistic Era. Hippocrates lived from approximately 460 to 377 B.C., during the middle period or Golden Age of Greece. The three time periods are very different culturally. In each one, not only are there differences in government, religion, and the arts, but they also provide us with distinctly different views of the mind and the brain. This chapter also discusses the myths and legends surrounding the healing powers of Asklepios, son of Apollo and the nymph Coronis; medicine in Homer's epic poems Odyssey and Iliad; the Hippocratic Collection known as Corpus Hippocraticum, which had references to the brain and brain damage; and dissection, the nervous system, and the association between humor and disease.
C.U.M. Smith, Eugenio Frixione, Stanley Finger, and William Clower
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199766499
- eISBN:
- 9780199950263
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199766499.001.0001
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, History of Neuroscience
This book examines the history of Western attempts to explain how messages might be sent from the sense organs to the brain and from the brain to the muscles. It focuses on a construct called animal ...
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This book examines the history of Western attempts to explain how messages might be sent from the sense organs to the brain and from the brain to the muscles. It focuses on a construct called animal spirit, which would permeate philosophy and guide physiology and medicine for over two millennia. The book's story opens along the Eastern Mediterranean, where it examines how Pre-Socratic philosophers related the soul to air-wind or pneuma. It then traces what Hippocrates, Plato, and Aristotle wrote about this pneuma, and how Stoic and Epicurean philosophers approached it. It also visits Alexandria, where Hellenistic anatomists provided new thoughts about the nerves and the ventricles. Thereafter the book shows how Galen's pneuma psychikon or spiritus animae would provide an explanation for sensations and movements. Galen's writings would guide science and medicine for well over a thousand years, albeit with some modifications. One change, found in early Christian writers Nemesius and Augustine, involved assigning perception, cognition, and memory to different spirit-filled ventricles. The book then turns to how questions began to be raised about it in the 1500s and 1600s. Here it examines the rise of modern science. Nevertheless, the animal spirit doctrine continued to survive because no adequate replacement for it was immediately forthcoming. The replacement theory stemmed from experiments on electric fishes started in the 1750s. Additional research eventually led scientists to abandon their time-honored ideas. The book traces some of the developments leading to modern electrophysiology and ends with an epilogue centered on what this history teaches us about paradigmatic changes in the life sciences.Less
This book examines the history of Western attempts to explain how messages might be sent from the sense organs to the brain and from the brain to the muscles. It focuses on a construct called animal spirit, which would permeate philosophy and guide physiology and medicine for over two millennia. The book's story opens along the Eastern Mediterranean, where it examines how Pre-Socratic philosophers related the soul to air-wind or pneuma. It then traces what Hippocrates, Plato, and Aristotle wrote about this pneuma, and how Stoic and Epicurean philosophers approached it. It also visits Alexandria, where Hellenistic anatomists provided new thoughts about the nerves and the ventricles. Thereafter the book shows how Galen's pneuma psychikon or spiritus animae would provide an explanation for sensations and movements. Galen's writings would guide science and medicine for well over a thousand years, albeit with some modifications. One change, found in early Christian writers Nemesius and Augustine, involved assigning perception, cognition, and memory to different spirit-filled ventricles. The book then turns to how questions began to be raised about it in the 1500s and 1600s. Here it examines the rise of modern science. Nevertheless, the animal spirit doctrine continued to survive because no adequate replacement for it was immediately forthcoming. The replacement theory stemmed from experiments on electric fishes started in the 1750s. Additional research eventually led scientists to abandon their time-honored ideas. The book traces some of the developments leading to modern electrophysiology and ends with an epilogue centered on what this history teaches us about paradigmatic changes in the life sciences.
Teun Tieleman
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198152484
- eISBN:
- 9780191710049
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198152484.003.0015
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
Galen's vivisection experiments concerned with the nervous system may rank among the most sophisticated known from ancient sources. Galen appears to inaugurate a new era in medicine, and anatomy in ...
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Galen's vivisection experiments concerned with the nervous system may rank among the most sophisticated known from ancient sources. Galen appears to inaugurate a new era in medicine, and anatomy in particular, by systematically working his way along the spinal chord and nerves, making incisions and carefully recording the resultant phenomena of paralysis. This chapter examines the nature and historical significance of Galen's experiments as reported in the first three books of On the Doctrines of Hippocrates and Plato. The main focus is on theoretical aspects, i.e. with the epistemological, or argumentative, status of the experiments as well as with their method. It is a fair assumption that Galen refined the method and technique of the experiments of his predecessors, particularly Herophilus and Erasistratus. His advocacy of the Platonic conception of the soul was destined to become immensely influential. Nevertheless, it would be wrong to suppose that he carried the day.Less
Galen's vivisection experiments concerned with the nervous system may rank among the most sophisticated known from ancient sources. Galen appears to inaugurate a new era in medicine, and anatomy in particular, by systematically working his way along the spinal chord and nerves, making incisions and carefully recording the resultant phenomena of paralysis. This chapter examines the nature and historical significance of Galen's experiments as reported in the first three books of On the Doctrines of Hippocrates and Plato. The main focus is on theoretical aspects, i.e. with the epistemological, or argumentative, status of the experiments as well as with their method. It is a fair assumption that Galen refined the method and technique of the experiments of his predecessors, particularly Herophilus and Erasistratus. His advocacy of the Platonic conception of the soul was destined to become immensely influential. Nevertheless, it would be wrong to suppose that he carried the day.
Nancy Krieger
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195383874
- eISBN:
- 9780199893607
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195383874.003.0002
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
Curiosity about the causes and occurrence of disease is not unique to epidemiologists. After all, who wouldn’t be interested in knowing about how to live a healthy life?—or to predict and ward off ...
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Curiosity about the causes and occurrence of disease is not unique to epidemiologists. After all, who wouldn’t be interested in knowing about how to live a healthy life?—or to predict and ward off sickness, injury and death? As the historical record makes clear, people long have tried to account for disease occurrence: both individual cases and population patterns—and have done so steeped in the ideas of their times. Hence, as prelude to analyzing more familiar post-Renaissance epidemiologic theories, Chapter 2 considers four examples spanning from the ancient classical texts of Greek Hippocratic humoral theory and Chinese medicine to the current oral traditions of the Kallawaya in the Andes and the Ogori in Nigeria. Together, these examples reveal how diverse peoples in ancient and contemporary traditional societies have sought to explain their society's patterns of health and disease, as influenced by both their societal and ecologic context.Less
Curiosity about the causes and occurrence of disease is not unique to epidemiologists. After all, who wouldn’t be interested in knowing about how to live a healthy life?—or to predict and ward off sickness, injury and death? As the historical record makes clear, people long have tried to account for disease occurrence: both individual cases and population patterns—and have done so steeped in the ideas of their times. Hence, as prelude to analyzing more familiar post-Renaissance epidemiologic theories, Chapter 2 considers four examples spanning from the ancient classical texts of Greek Hippocratic humoral theory and Chinese medicine to the current oral traditions of the Kallawaya in the Andes and the Ogori in Nigeria. Together, these examples reveal how diverse peoples in ancient and contemporary traditional societies have sought to explain their society's patterns of health and disease, as influenced by both their societal and ecologic context.
Mervyn Susser and Zena Stein
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195300666
- eISBN:
- 9780199863754
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195300666.003.0003
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health, Epidemiology
This chapter shows that a clear initial conception of the variables to be involved is critical to construct an effective epidemiological study. In the most general sense, this has been an essential ...
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This chapter shows that a clear initial conception of the variables to be involved is critical to construct an effective epidemiological study. In the most general sense, this has been an essential foundation of the major medical and public health advances contributed by epidemiology: each advance attained new clarity in the specification of variables constituting causal models, clarity that in turn depended on new concepts. These advances have followed as investigators specified, either formally or only by implication, the nature of the variables they first attempted to relate to each other and then to elucidate their causal links and time sequences. The chapter presents historical examples from early times to illustrate the process.Less
This chapter shows that a clear initial conception of the variables to be involved is critical to construct an effective epidemiological study. In the most general sense, this has been an essential foundation of the major medical and public health advances contributed by epidemiology: each advance attained new clarity in the specification of variables constituting causal models, clarity that in turn depended on new concepts. These advances have followed as investigators specified, either formally or only by implication, the nature of the variables they first attempted to relate to each other and then to elucidate their causal links and time sequences. The chapter presents historical examples from early times to illustrate the process.
Robert Launay
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780226575254
- eISBN:
- 9780226575421
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226575421.003.0004
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Theory and Practice
Sixteenth century historians and jurists in France elaborated a position of legal relativism as a means of asserting independence from canons of Roman law and the domination of the Roman Catholic ...
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Sixteenth century historians and jurists in France elaborated a position of legal relativism as a means of asserting independence from canons of Roman law and the domination of the Roman Catholic Church. Drawing on the premise that different peoples required different laws and political institutions, Jean Bodin elaborated a comparative scheme, based on Hippocrates, and Aristotle’s theories of the effect of climate upon the body’s humors. Those who lived in hot, cold, and temperate climates had different dispositions, with denizens of temperate climates best suited to rule. Large parts of Europe were outside the temperate zone, which also included Turkey, Persia, and China. Cold climates were associated with the development of the body as opposed to the mind, as opposed to hot climates, including Morocco and Abyssinia, praised for their religiosity. Bodin also wrote a long dialogue between partisans of different religions, promoting an ideal of religious harmony rather than the exclusive domination of any single religion.Less
Sixteenth century historians and jurists in France elaborated a position of legal relativism as a means of asserting independence from canons of Roman law and the domination of the Roman Catholic Church. Drawing on the premise that different peoples required different laws and political institutions, Jean Bodin elaborated a comparative scheme, based on Hippocrates, and Aristotle’s theories of the effect of climate upon the body’s humors. Those who lived in hot, cold, and temperate climates had different dispositions, with denizens of temperate climates best suited to rule. Large parts of Europe were outside the temperate zone, which also included Turkey, Persia, and China. Cold climates were associated with the development of the body as opposed to the mind, as opposed to hot climates, including Morocco and Abyssinia, praised for their religiosity. Bodin also wrote a long dialogue between partisans of different religions, promoting an ideal of religious harmony rather than the exclusive domination of any single religion.
Pierre Brulé and Antonia Nevill
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748616435
- eISBN:
- 9780748651023
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748616435.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
If the quest for the rational defines Greek biology and medicine as ventures in the ‘scientification’ of knowledge, what we read remains most often ‘unscientific’. We see in operation less a ...
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If the quest for the rational defines Greek biology and medicine as ventures in the ‘scientification’ of knowledge, what we read remains most often ‘unscientific’. We see in operation less a reflection delving deeply into observations in vivo, with a gradual adaptation of thought to reality, than just one more product of the imagination; in this instance, the masculine working from an a priori conception of the feminine. Reading Hippocrates or Aristotle, we realise the extraordinary distance that separates them from the customary picture of Greece, homeland of reason and the devastating effects of their ideological interpretation of the body. In the classical era, commonsense, well represented by Xenophon in his Oeconomicus, contrasts men and women in their social functions, in absolute terms. This chapter discusses the female body and sexuality in ancient Greece, focusing on female physiology, reproduction, the embryo, the relative speeds of development of male and female, polysexuality, misogyny, feminisation and feminine ways of making love.Less
If the quest for the rational defines Greek biology and medicine as ventures in the ‘scientification’ of knowledge, what we read remains most often ‘unscientific’. We see in operation less a reflection delving deeply into observations in vivo, with a gradual adaptation of thought to reality, than just one more product of the imagination; in this instance, the masculine working from an a priori conception of the feminine. Reading Hippocrates or Aristotle, we realise the extraordinary distance that separates them from the customary picture of Greece, homeland of reason and the devastating effects of their ideological interpretation of the body. In the classical era, commonsense, well represented by Xenophon in his Oeconomicus, contrasts men and women in their social functions, in absolute terms. This chapter discusses the female body and sexuality in ancient Greece, focusing on female physiology, reproduction, the embryo, the relative speeds of development of male and female, polysexuality, misogyny, feminisation and feminine ways of making love.
Meghan Henning
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190458997
- eISBN:
- 9780190459024
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190458997.003.0014
- Subject:
- Social Work, Health and Mental Health
This chapter draws upon the conceptions of gendered bodily suffering found in the ancient medical corpus (Hippocrates, Galen and inscriptions), martyrdom literature, and the Roman judicial rhetoric ...
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This chapter draws upon the conceptions of gendered bodily suffering found in the ancient medical corpus (Hippocrates, Galen and inscriptions), martyrdom literature, and the Roman judicial rhetoric of punitive suffering to read apocalyptic depictions of bodily suffering as “effeminizing” punishments, which in turn utilized masculinity and bodily normativity to police behavior, and equated early Christian ethical norms with masculinity and bodily “health.” By highlighting the different types of bodies found in these texts, as well as the ways in which Christian norms interacted with Greek and Roman notions of the body, the chapter shows how masculinity and ancient notions of bodily normativity worked in concert to mark sin in early Christian hell, in turn creating an ancient Christian culture of bodily normativity. These early Christian texts expanded the existing frameworks of bodily suffering as a disciplinary performance and focused on the non-normative body as a punitive spectacle and pedagogical object.Less
This chapter draws upon the conceptions of gendered bodily suffering found in the ancient medical corpus (Hippocrates, Galen and inscriptions), martyrdom literature, and the Roman judicial rhetoric of punitive suffering to read apocalyptic depictions of bodily suffering as “effeminizing” punishments, which in turn utilized masculinity and bodily normativity to police behavior, and equated early Christian ethical norms with masculinity and bodily “health.” By highlighting the different types of bodies found in these texts, as well as the ways in which Christian norms interacted with Greek and Roman notions of the body, the chapter shows how masculinity and ancient notions of bodily normativity worked in concert to mark sin in early Christian hell, in turn creating an ancient Christian culture of bodily normativity. These early Christian texts expanded the existing frameworks of bodily suffering as a disciplinary performance and focused on the non-normative body as a punitive spectacle and pedagogical object.
Brooke Holmes
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- June 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190490447
- eISBN:
- 9780190490478
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190490447.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
Much of western philosophy, especially ancient Greek philosophy, addresses the problems posed by embodiment. This chapter argues that to grasp the early history of embodiment is to see the category ...
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Much of western philosophy, especially ancient Greek philosophy, addresses the problems posed by embodiment. This chapter argues that to grasp the early history of embodiment is to see the category of the body itself as historically emergent. Bruno Snell argued that Homer lacked a concept of the body (sōma), but it is the emergence of body in the fifth century BCE rather than the appearance of mind or soul that is most consequential for the shape of ancient dualisms. The body takes shape in Hippocratic medical writing as largely hidden and unconscious interior space governed by impersonal forces. But Plato’s corpus demonstrates that while Plato’s reputation as a somatophobe is well grounded and may arise in part from the way the body takes shape in medical and other physiological writing, the Dialogues represent a more complex position on the relationship between body and soul than Plato’s reputation suggests.Less
Much of western philosophy, especially ancient Greek philosophy, addresses the problems posed by embodiment. This chapter argues that to grasp the early history of embodiment is to see the category of the body itself as historically emergent. Bruno Snell argued that Homer lacked a concept of the body (sōma), but it is the emergence of body in the fifth century BCE rather than the appearance of mind or soul that is most consequential for the shape of ancient dualisms. The body takes shape in Hippocratic medical writing as largely hidden and unconscious interior space governed by impersonal forces. But Plato’s corpus demonstrates that while Plato’s reputation as a somatophobe is well grounded and may arise in part from the way the body takes shape in medical and other physiological writing, the Dialogues represent a more complex position on the relationship between body and soul than Plato’s reputation suggests.
Michael R. Dove
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300198812
- eISBN:
- 9780300213577
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300198812.003.0002
- Subject:
- Environmental Science, Climate
This chapter places contemporary climate change discourse within a context of millennia of human experience with and thinking about the climate. Dove examines five canonical historic texts–works by ...
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This chapter places contemporary climate change discourse within a context of millennia of human experience with and thinking about the climate. Dove examines five canonical historic texts–works by Hippocrates, Theophrastus, Montesquieu, and Ibn Khaldûn, and an exploration of older Vedic teachings by Zimmermann. He traces common concerns through these texts: interest in the epistemology of climate knowledge; a focus on human difference versus similarity; an emphasis on the impact of nature on culture, as opposed to the reverse; the pedagogy of peopled versus unpeopled landscapes; and the removal of climate problems from ourselves. These historic studies seem both familiar and foreign to us today; and reading them helps to decenter, and thereby illuminate, contemporary thinking about climate and society.Less
This chapter places contemporary climate change discourse within a context of millennia of human experience with and thinking about the climate. Dove examines five canonical historic texts–works by Hippocrates, Theophrastus, Montesquieu, and Ibn Khaldûn, and an exploration of older Vedic teachings by Zimmermann. He traces common concerns through these texts: interest in the epistemology of climate knowledge; a focus on human difference versus similarity; an emphasis on the impact of nature on culture, as opposed to the reverse; the pedagogy of peopled versus unpeopled landscapes; and the removal of climate problems from ourselves. These historic studies seem both familiar and foreign to us today; and reading them helps to decenter, and thereby illuminate, contemporary thinking about climate and society.
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9781846312373
- eISBN:
- 9781846316173
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/UPO9781846316173.002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Social Groups
This chapter describes the cultural narratives of epilepsy in the mid-twentieth century. It considers the medical-cultural languages of epilepsy from Hippocrates through to William Shakespeare, ...
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This chapter describes the cultural narratives of epilepsy in the mid-twentieth century. It considers the medical-cultural languages of epilepsy from Hippocrates through to William Shakespeare, William Gowers, and Charles Dickens. It also reviews the textual play between different narrative genres. This chapter suggests an archaeology of those signifying systems and narrative relationships that have come together over time to inscribe epilepsy with meaning within western medical-cultural systems. It argues that ‘the epileptics’ produced through the genealogies presented are not the same epileptics.Less
This chapter describes the cultural narratives of epilepsy in the mid-twentieth century. It considers the medical-cultural languages of epilepsy from Hippocrates through to William Shakespeare, William Gowers, and Charles Dickens. It also reviews the textual play between different narrative genres. This chapter suggests an archaeology of those signifying systems and narrative relationships that have come together over time to inscribe epilepsy with meaning within western medical-cultural systems. It argues that ‘the epileptics’ produced through the genealogies presented are not the same epileptics.
Richard Yeo
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226106564
- eISBN:
- 9780226106731
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226106731.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter argues that thinking about notes clarified some of the challenges and opportunities of the ‘new philosophy,’ or empirical science, in early modern Europe. Francis Bacon called for the ...
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This chapter argues that thinking about notes clarified some of the challenges and opportunities of the ‘new philosophy,’ or empirical science, in early modern Europe. Francis Bacon called for the making of natural histories?that is, huge collections of empirical information on topics ranging from celestial phenomena to technology, thus yielding histories of the air, of heat and cold, of sounds, blood, of life and death. This programme, embraced by Fellows of the Royal Society, required methodical and collaborative note-taking. Robert Boyle presented the modern virtuoso as one who eschewed premature systems and sought detailed information from a wide range of sources. As Secretary, Henry Oldenburg facilitated this programme and communicated about protocols for note-taking and information-sharing. In defending the long-term character of empirical inquiry, the virtuosi found sustenance in Hippocrates's first aphorism about life being short and art (or science) long.Less
This chapter argues that thinking about notes clarified some of the challenges and opportunities of the ‘new philosophy,’ or empirical science, in early modern Europe. Francis Bacon called for the making of natural histories?that is, huge collections of empirical information on topics ranging from celestial phenomena to technology, thus yielding histories of the air, of heat and cold, of sounds, blood, of life and death. This programme, embraced by Fellows of the Royal Society, required methodical and collaborative note-taking. Robert Boyle presented the modern virtuoso as one who eschewed premature systems and sought detailed information from a wide range of sources. As Secretary, Henry Oldenburg facilitated this programme and communicated about protocols for note-taking and information-sharing. In defending the long-term character of empirical inquiry, the virtuosi found sustenance in Hippocrates's first aphorism about life being short and art (or science) long.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226886015
- eISBN:
- 9780226886039
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226886039.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This chapter begins by considering the philosophies of time of Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Theophrastus. It then sets out the book's purpose—to reflect on the nature, essence, and sense of ...
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This chapter begins by considering the philosophies of time of Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Theophrastus. It then sets out the book's purpose—to reflect on the nature, essence, and sense of time—making use of the stimuli of the “Hippocratic method” (Goethe), even if the latter may at first seem, in its aphoristic concision, far inferior to any theoretically formulated doctrine. The discussions then turn to various notions of time by philosopher and poet Seneca, humanist and art theorist Leon Battista Alberti, and Philip Dormer Stanhope, the Earl of Chesterfield.Less
This chapter begins by considering the philosophies of time of Hippocrates, Aristotle, and Theophrastus. It then sets out the book's purpose—to reflect on the nature, essence, and sense of time—making use of the stimuli of the “Hippocratic method” (Goethe), even if the latter may at first seem, in its aphoristic concision, far inferior to any theoretically formulated doctrine. The discussions then turn to various notions of time by philosopher and poet Seneca, humanist and art theorist Leon Battista Alberti, and Philip Dormer Stanhope, the Earl of Chesterfield.
R. J. Hankinson
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190460549
- eISBN:
- 9780190460563
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190460549.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
Ancient doctors knew that laughter, hysterical or otherwise, sometimes presented as a symptom of mental disturbances of various kinds (and indeed of rare physical conditions); equally, they realized ...
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Ancient doctors knew that laughter, hysterical or otherwise, sometimes presented as a symptom of mental disturbances of various kinds (and indeed of rare physical conditions); equally, they realized that there was a role to be played by laughter in treating mental disorders such as depression. This chapter traces this history, with specific focus on certain texts, in particular the pseudo-Hippocratic correspondence concerning the “madness” of Democritus, in which the concerned citizens of Abdera, Democritus’ hometown, ask the great doctor to advise them concerning the philosopher’s apparently pathological, continuous laughter. This premise frames the first topic: when is laughter pathological, and hence a genuine diagnostic tool? This question leads into the chapter’s second concern, namely, what use can laughter be put to in the treatment of disorders such as depression and melancholy? The chapter also briefly examines the question of the relationship between the mental and the physiological presupposed by such therapeutic practices.Less
Ancient doctors knew that laughter, hysterical or otherwise, sometimes presented as a symptom of mental disturbances of various kinds (and indeed of rare physical conditions); equally, they realized that there was a role to be played by laughter in treating mental disorders such as depression. This chapter traces this history, with specific focus on certain texts, in particular the pseudo-Hippocratic correspondence concerning the “madness” of Democritus, in which the concerned citizens of Abdera, Democritus’ hometown, ask the great doctor to advise them concerning the philosopher’s apparently pathological, continuous laughter. This premise frames the first topic: when is laughter pathological, and hence a genuine diagnostic tool? This question leads into the chapter’s second concern, namely, what use can laughter be put to in the treatment of disorders such as depression and melancholy? The chapter also briefly examines the question of the relationship between the mental and the physiological presupposed by such therapeutic practices.
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226677606
- eISBN:
- 9780226677620
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226677620.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter describes the development of Herman Boerhaave's basic approach to medicine and chemistry by reviewing his education as a student at the University of Leiden and then his early program ...
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This chapter describes the development of Herman Boerhaave's basic approach to medicine and chemistry by reviewing his education as a student at the University of Leiden and then his early program for curriculum reform as a lecturer on the Leiden medical faculty. Within the University of Leiden community, Boerhaave's reputation as both a model Calvinist and a Hippocratic physician had a rhetorical role during his medical career. In his “Commentariolus,” he suggested that he was largely self-taught in theology and medicine, and successfully utilized his appointment as lecturer as a gateway for an appointment to a chair on the medical faculty. Boerhaave's strong advocacy of Hippocrates was a means of validating certain modern medical practices. In general, his success as a medical lecturer at Leiden relied on his ability to attain the support of the curators and the students at the university.Less
This chapter describes the development of Herman Boerhaave's basic approach to medicine and chemistry by reviewing his education as a student at the University of Leiden and then his early program for curriculum reform as a lecturer on the Leiden medical faculty. Within the University of Leiden community, Boerhaave's reputation as both a model Calvinist and a Hippocratic physician had a rhetorical role during his medical career. In his “Commentariolus,” he suggested that he was largely self-taught in theology and medicine, and successfully utilized his appointment as lecturer as a gateway for an appointment to a chair on the medical faculty. Boerhaave's strong advocacy of Hippocrates was a means of validating certain modern medical practices. In general, his success as a medical lecturer at Leiden relied on his ability to attain the support of the curators and the students at the university.
J. Donald Boudreau, Eric J. Cassell, and Abraham Fuks
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- March 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780199370818
- eISBN:
- 9780190874377
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199370818.003.0003
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health
This chapter provides an overview of how physicians think about sickness. Since the era of the Hippocratic Corpus, there have been two distinctive intellectual approaches to understanding the ...
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This chapter provides an overview of how physicians think about sickness. Since the era of the Hippocratic Corpus, there have been two distinctive intellectual approaches to understanding the manifestations of sickness presented by patients: empiricism and rationalism. These two terms are defined. Because empiricism is often viewed in a negative light, the differences between “empiricism” and “empiric” are also discussed. It is argued that a physicianship-based curriculum will require a shift away from rationalism toward an intellectual empiricism. The ethos of medicine as well as the curricula of schools of medicine arise from the requirement that physicians, as a collectivity, are devoted to the treatment of sick persons. This chapter goes into more detail regarding how the profession responds to related tasks and responsibilities.Less
This chapter provides an overview of how physicians think about sickness. Since the era of the Hippocratic Corpus, there have been two distinctive intellectual approaches to understanding the manifestations of sickness presented by patients: empiricism and rationalism. These two terms are defined. Because empiricism is often viewed in a negative light, the differences between “empiricism” and “empiric” are also discussed. It is argued that a physicianship-based curriculum will require a shift away from rationalism toward an intellectual empiricism. The ethos of medicine as well as the curricula of schools of medicine arise from the requirement that physicians, as a collectivity, are devoted to the treatment of sick persons. This chapter goes into more detail regarding how the profession responds to related tasks and responsibilities.
Valentin Groebner
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226136806
- eISBN:
- 9780226136820
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226136820.003.0015
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter explores the background and the uses of some Renaissance notions of the nature of individuals and the boundaries they were placed within, with particular attention to the frameworks of ...
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This chapter explores the background and the uses of some Renaissance notions of the nature of individuals and the boundaries they were placed within, with particular attention to the frameworks of visualization that surrounded and shaped these notions. By what outward signs could the “nature” of an individual be recognized, and by what categories were these signs linked to a person's body and its physical qualities, embodied or incorporated in the literal sense? For this, the chapter focuses on the notion Hippocrates uses and describes its journey from the medieval centers of Scholastic learning in Italy and Paris to the sixteenth-century printing presses north of the Alps. Derived from learned Renaissance discourse, it has, to our days, a certain prominence in administrative protocols of a person's outward appearance, a piece of history of science in the identity documents.Less
This chapter explores the background and the uses of some Renaissance notions of the nature of individuals and the boundaries they were placed within, with particular attention to the frameworks of visualization that surrounded and shaped these notions. By what outward signs could the “nature” of an individual be recognized, and by what categories were these signs linked to a person's body and its physical qualities, embodied or incorporated in the literal sense? For this, the chapter focuses on the notion Hippocrates uses and describes its journey from the medieval centers of Scholastic learning in Italy and Paris to the sixteenth-century printing presses north of the Alps. Derived from learned Renaissance discourse, it has, to our days, a certain prominence in administrative protocols of a person's outward appearance, a piece of history of science in the identity documents.
