Is the Conception of the Origins of Medicine in the Hippocratic Treatise De vetere medicina (VM) Original?

• Authors: Danes Jaroslav
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In this article the author attempts to give an answer whether the conception of the origins of medicine in the Hippocratic treatise 'De vetere medicina' (VM) is original or not? If we want to judge the originality of the theory of origins of medicine in VM, we should first investigate whether there were analogous, similar, or identical theories in other fields of human knowledge in 5th century Greece or not. According to the author the concept of the origins of medicine in VM is original. There is no such concept extant in Greek classical literature. However, VM is also a typical product of the 5th century secular thinking about the nature of things and institutions which was predominated by Sophists and draws on speculations into the origins of human culture, especially that of Democritus. An intellectual atmosphere of this kind apparently influenced the author of VM despite his proclaimed hostility to philosophy. Therefore, 'On Ancient Medicine' can not be viewed as a singular and absolutely autonomous product.

Keywords

EN

'DE VETERE MEDICINA'; ANCIENT MEDICINE; HIPPOCRATES

Discipline

• PHILOSOPHY: PHILOSOPHY

• Publisher: Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Listy filologické (Folia philologica)
• Year: 2008
• Volume: 131
• Issue: 1-2
• Pages: 233-239
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Danes Jaroslav

• Jaroslav Danes, Ustav filozofie a spolecenskych ved, Filozoficka fakulta Univerzita Hradec Kralove, Rokitanskeho 62, 500 03 Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

09CZAAAA05658