Galen's Empiricist background: A study of the argument in On Medical Experience

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

Abstract / Description of output

The chapter focuses on the methodological debate between Empiricist and Rationalist schools of medicine, as portrayed in Galen’s early treatise On Medical Experience (Med.Exp.). This dense and philosophically-sophisticated text, preserved for the most part only in an Arabic translation, supposedly presents the substance of a dispute, witnessed by the young Galen, between his Rationalist teacher Pelops and an Empiricist opponent, about the respective roles of experience and reason in medicine. Analysing the arguments on both sides, in particular as they concern the question of inductive generalisation and the nature and validity of the empirical procedure known as epilogimos, the chapter shows how Galen’s presentation of a sequence of responses and counter-responses between the two protagonists serves to prefigure his own complex and hugely influential synthesis of the empirical and rationalist procedures in his own mature methodology.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationGalen's Epistemology
Subtitle of host publication Experience, Reason, and Method in Ancient Medicine
EditorsMatyas Havrda, R James Hankinson
PublisherCambridge University Press
Chapter2
Pages32-78
Number of pages47
ISBN (Electronic)9781009072670
Publication statusPublished - 4 May 2022

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • method
  • reason
  • experience
  • essence
  • treatment

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  • Galen's Theory of Elements

    Kupreeva, I., 7 Jul 2014, Philosophical Themes in Galen: BICS Supplement. Adamson, P., Hansberger, R. & Wilberding, J. (eds.). Wiley-Blackwell, Vol. 114. p. 153-196 43 p.

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)

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