Medicine and Philosophy in Classical Antiquity: Doctors and Philosophers on Nature, Soul, Health and Disease - Softcover

Van Der Eijk, Philip J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0521142970 ISBN 13: 9780521142977

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2010

Synopsis

This work brings together Philip van der Eijk's previously published essays on the close connections that existed between medicine and philosophy throughout antiquity. Medical authors such as the Hippocratic writers, Diocles, Galen, Soranus and Caelius Aurelianus elaborated on philosophical methods such as causal explanation, definition and division and applied key concepts such as the notion of nature to their understanding of the human body. Similarly, philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle were highly valued for their contributions to medicine. This interaction was particularly striking in the study of the human soul in its relation to the body, as illustrated by approaches to specific topics such as intellect, sleep and dreams, and diet and drugs. With a detailed introduction surveying the subject as a whole and an essay on Aristotle's treatment of sleep, this wide-ranging and accessible collection is essential reading for the student of ancient philosophy and science.

About this title

Book Description

The development of medicine and philosophy in antiquity was closely connected. This collection of previously published essays, some of which have been specially translated into English, explores the topic in a wide-ranging and accessible fashion and will interest students of ancient medicine, ancient philosophy and the history of Western thought.

About the Author

Philip J. van der Eijk is Professor of Greek at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He has published widely on ancient philosophy, medicine and science, comparative literature and patristics. He is the author of Aristoteles. De insomniis. De divinatione per somnum (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1994) and of Diocles of Carystus. A Collection of the Fragments with Translation and Commentary (2 Vols., Leiden: Brill, 2000-1). He has edited and co-authored Ancient Histories of Medicine. Essays in Medical Doxography and Historiography in Classical Antiquity (Leiden: Brill, 1999) and co-edited Ancient Medicine in its Socio-Cultural Context (2 Vols., Amsterdam - Atlanta: Rodopi, 1995).

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0521142970
• ISBN 13: 9780521142977
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 420