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Galen (AD 129-99), researcher and scholar, surgeon and philosopher, logician, herbalist and personal physician to the emperor Marcus Aurelius, was the most influential and multi-faceted medical author of antiquity. This is the first major selection in English of Galen's work, functioning as an essential introduction to his "medical philosophy" and including the first-ever translations of several major works. A detailed Introduction presents a vivid insight into medical practice as well as intellectual and everyday life in ancient Rome.
- GenresPhilosophyClassics
512 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
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About the author
Galen
570 books34 followersAelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus (AD 129–c. 200/c. 216), better known as Galen of Pergamon (modern-day Bergama, Turkey), was a prominent Roman (of Greek ethnicity) physician, surgeon and philosopher. Arguably the most accomplished of all medical researchers of antiquity, Galen contributed greatly to the understanding of numerous scientific disciplines, including anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, and neurology, as well as philosophy and logic.
The son of Aelius Nicon, a wealthy architect with scholarly interests, Galen received a comprehensive education that prepared him for a successful career as a physician and philosopher. He traveled extensively, exposing himself to a wide variety of medical theories and discoveries before settling in Rome, where he served prominent members of Roman society and eventually was given the position of personal physician to several emperors.
Galen's understanding of anatomy and medicine was principally influenced by the then-current theory of humorism, as advanced by many ancient Greek physicians such as Hippocrates. His theories dominated and influenced Western medical science for more than 1,300 years. His anatomical reports, based mainly on dissection of monkeys, especially the Barbary Macaque, and pigs, remained uncontested until 1543, when printed descriptions and illustrations of human dissections were published in the seminal work De humani corporis fabrica by Andreas Vesalius where Galen's physiological theory was accommodated to these new observations. Galen's theory of the physiology of the circulatory system endured until 1628, when William Harvey published his treatise entitled De motu cordis, in which he established that blood circulates, with the heart acting as a pump. Medical students continued to study Galen's writings until well into the 19th century. Galen conducted many nerve ligation experiments that supported the theory, which is still accepted today, that the brain controls all the motions of the muscles by means of the cranial and peripheral nervous systems.
Galen saw himself as both a physician and a philosopher, as he wrote in his treatise entitled That the Best Physician is also a Philosopher. Galen was very interested in the debate between the rationalist and empiricist medical sects, and his use of direct observation, dissection and vivisection represents a complex middle ground between the extremes of those two viewpoints. Many of his works have been preserved and/or translated from the original Greek, although many were destroyed and some credited to him are believed to be spurious. Although there is some debate over the date of his death, he was no younger than seventy when he died.
The son of Aelius Nicon, a wealthy architect with scholarly interests, Galen received a comprehensive education that prepared him for a successful career as a physician and philosopher. He traveled extensively, exposing himself to a wide variety of medical theories and discoveries before settling in Rome, where he served prominent members of Roman society and eventually was given the position of personal physician to several emperors.
Galen's understanding of anatomy and medicine was principally influenced by the then-current theory of humorism, as advanced by many ancient Greek physicians such as Hippocrates. His theories dominated and influenced Western medical science for more than 1,300 years. His anatomical reports, based mainly on dissection of monkeys, especially the Barbary Macaque, and pigs, remained uncontested until 1543, when printed descriptions and illustrations of human dissections were published in the seminal work De humani corporis fabrica by Andreas Vesalius where Galen's physiological theory was accommodated to these new observations. Galen's theory of the physiology of the circulatory system endured until 1628, when William Harvey published his treatise entitled De motu cordis, in which he established that blood circulates, with the heart acting as a pump. Medical students continued to study Galen's writings until well into the 19th century. Galen conducted many nerve ligation experiments that supported the theory, which is still accepted today, that the brain controls all the motions of the muscles by means of the cranial and peripheral nervous systems.
Galen saw himself as both a physician and a philosopher, as he wrote in his treatise entitled That the Best Physician is also a Philosopher. Galen was very interested in the debate between the rationalist and empiricist medical sects, and his use of direct observation, dissection and vivisection represents a complex middle ground between the extremes of those two viewpoints. Many of his works have been preserved and/or translated from the original Greek, although many were destroyed and some credited to him are believed to be spurious. Although there is some debate over the date of his death, he was no younger than seventy when he died.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 19, 2022
The Soul's Dependence on the Body
In this treatise, Galen describes how the body--through various means, whether from environment, food, age, or general disposition--affects the soul, and how, given the fact that these things do affect the soul, that our soul is therefore (in the very least) a slave to our bodies. Now, Galen seems usually to be agnostic as to whether the soul is or is not immortal, but he seems also to suggest in this book that he does not; that the soul is merely a faculty of the body. These are all agreeable points. Galen, although quite wrong about most of the specifics, is certainly correct in attributing what happens to the body as also what happens to the soul. If one is drunk, one is impaired mentally; there is nothing the soul can do about it. If he believes that it is a mixture of the humors or a mixture of the four elements that cause these bodily changes, he is at least on the right track.
Afterwards, Galen raises the most fundamental moral question when we assume that the soul has no power whatsoever, or very little, over the body--that, for example, dispositions are caused by too much heat or too much cold, too much wet or too much dry. If, he says, we must say that there are no choices (the soul's individual power being quite limited), our teachings and society must be based upon Plato's idea of helping others toward virtue and away from vice, because the environment is the only thing that can control these evils.
In this treatise, Galen describes how the body--through various means, whether from environment, food, age, or general disposition--affects the soul, and how, given the fact that these things do affect the soul, that our soul is therefore (in the very least) a slave to our bodies. Now, Galen seems usually to be agnostic as to whether the soul is or is not immortal, but he seems also to suggest in this book that he does not; that the soul is merely a faculty of the body. These are all agreeable points. Galen, although quite wrong about most of the specifics, is certainly correct in attributing what happens to the body as also what happens to the soul. If one is drunk, one is impaired mentally; there is nothing the soul can do about it. If he believes that it is a mixture of the humors or a mixture of the four elements that cause these bodily changes, he is at least on the right track.
Afterwards, Galen raises the most fundamental moral question when we assume that the soul has no power whatsoever, or very little, over the body--that, for example, dispositions are caused by too much heat or too much cold, too much wet or too much dry. If, he says, we must say that there are no choices (the soul's individual power being quite limited), our teachings and society must be based upon Plato's idea of helping others toward virtue and away from vice, because the environment is the only thing that can control these evils.
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June 22, 2024Greatly enjoyable and full of bitter debates that come to us entirely divorced from their context, making Galen come across as an extreme, needlessly argumentative crank. My favorite work in this collection is Mixtures -- I love humoral theory -- but quite possibly no line is better than "What use could a young man possibly be who was pretty but had no training?" from An Exhortation to Study the Arts
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews