[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review.]
I must confess to having something of a guilt complex about Dr. Galen. When composing The Middle Platonists, I recognised that he was indeed, to some extent at least, a member of the Platonic tradition, but the prospect of reading through his vast oeuvre in pursuit of evidence of this was simply too much for me, and I relegated him to a small, apologetic, section towards the end of the book (pp. 339-40), mentioning some salient Platonist features of his work, but emphasising his independence of mind.[1] And yet the sources and substance of Galen’s theoretic philosophy is an issue that continues to intrigue me. The present work is an important contribution to that theme, comprising as it does contributions from a number of major authorities on Galen, products of a pair of conferences in Prague in 2017 and 2018, organised by Matyás Havrda, one of the editors of the present volume, on the topic of Galen’s Epistemology.
In fact it must be said that there is not much that is specifically Platonist about the topics that are discussed here. The emphasis is predominantly on the practical, medical, applications of Galen’s epistemology. As emerges from a succession of essays, Galen is more or less equally opposed to dogmatic Rationalism and dogmatic Empiricism in medical diagnosis, and satirises both equally. Like the good doctor that he is, he emphasises the necessity of both close attention to individual symptoms and the rational analysis of those symptoms on the basis of medical theory—his ideal, as highlighted in a number of the contributions here, is peira diôrismenê, which may be rendered as ‘differentiated experience’.
To turn to specifics of the volume, following on an introduction by the editors, we have a series of nine papers on various aspects of Galen’s epistemology and logical theory, followed by two papers on reflections of Galen’s philosophical position in the Arabic commentary tradition. The volume begins with a rambunctious and most entertaining essay by Jonathan Barnes, ‘Do I Wake or Sleep?’, focusing on Galen’s criticism of the favourite Sceptic conundrum on whether we can ever be sure that we are not sleeping (and dreaming) rather than awake. Barnes argues that Galen does not really prove his point, while giving due emphasis to his opposition to scepticism.
This is followed by an essay by Inna Kupreeva (‘Galen’s Empiricist Background: A Study of the Argument in On Medical Experience’) on Galen’s response to the methodological debate between Empiricists and Rationalists, as set out in his treatise On Medical Experience (largely surviving only in Arabic). Kupreeva shows very well here how Galen contrives to present his own synthesis of empirical and rationalist procedures, making good use of his early treatise On Medical Experience.
Jim Hankinson (‘Discovery, Method and Justification: Galen and the Determination of Therapy’) is concerned also with teasing out Galen’s distinctive position on the proper blending of experience and theory, in this case taking his start from Galen’s long discussion of the healing of ‘hollow wounds’ in Book III of The Therapeutic Method. Hankinson takes us through a series of key passages, to illustrate Galen’s striving to attain ‘differentiated experience’—which indeed leaves him close to the modern concept of the ‘controlled experiment’.
Matyás Havrda (‘From Problems to Demonstrations: Two Case Studies of Galen’s Method’) bases himself on two texts in particular, one from The Power of Simple Drugs, dealing with the power and nature of olive oil, the other from the Thrasybulus, concerning the question as to whether hygiene belongs more properly to medicine or to gymnastics, to illustrate Galen’s methods of solving natural and dialectical problems, and this he does very effectively.
Teun Tieleman (‘Galen’s Notion of Dialectic’), in a most valuable contribution, taking up a subject that he has dealt with on a number of previous occasions, turns, chiefly, to The Doctrines of Hippocrates and Plato to illustrate Galen’s adaptation of Aristotle’s theory of dialectic to appropriate medical contexts.
Peter Singer, who has put us in his debt by some useful translations of works of Galen, contributes a paper on ‘The Relationship between Perceptual Experience and Logos: Galen’s Clinical Perspective’, taking as his main topic Galen’s doctrine on the nature of the pulse, how different types of pulse may be distinguished, and what one can learn from them. This constitutes a very good example of Galen’s approach to the various claims of logos and experience.
Orly Lewis (‘Galen against Archigenes on the Pulse and What it Teaches’) is also concerned with Galen on the pulse. She deals with Galen’s attack on the 1st cent. CE Pneumatist doctor Archigenes, and looks at Galen’s reasons for replacing Antigenes’ theory with his own. It is all a question of exactness of method, it would seem, as Lewis discerns very little distinction between Galen’s procedure and that of his opponent.
Katerina Ierodiakonou (‘On Sense-Perception: Galen in Dialogue with Plato and the Stoics’) contributes a most interesting discussion on Galen’s views on sense-perception, and in particular on vision. Historically, the argument is between those who regard vision as a matter of ‘intromission’ of external images, and those who postulate ‘extramission’ of rays from the eye. Galen refines this argument, as she shows, by postulating the extramission, rather, of powers from the ‘ruling element’ in the brain, which can provide an appreciation of such features as the spatial position of objects.
The last of the papers relating to Galen himself, that of David Kaufman (‘Reason and Experience in Galen’s Moral Epistemology’), focuses on two treatises, Freedom from Distress and Affections of the Soul, to illustrate Galen’s approach to popular ethics, and specifically, his efforts to counter the two emotions of grief and anger. This he does most effectively, showing how Galen uses first-person accounts in the acquisition of scientific knowledge to drive home his points.
The volume is rounded off by two papers on the reception of Galen’s epistemology in the Arabic and Persian traditions. Elvira Wakelnig (‘The Arabic Alexandrians’ Summary of Galen’s Moral Epistemology’) examines one of the Alexandrian summaries of Galen’s On the Therapeutic Method that survives only in Arabic, and focuses on the opening chapters, which give an exposition of the first two books, on general scientific method. I rather like the reciprocal definition with which the summary begins: medicine is the philosophy of the body, while philosophy is the medicine of the soul.
Lastly, Pauline Koetschet (‘What Level of Certainty can Medical Sign-Inference Reach? A Discussion of Galen’s Demonstrative Method in the Islamic World’) considers the change in fortune suffered by Galen in the face of Aristotle’s ascension as the supreme ancient authority in the Arabic world, particularly in the works of such an authority as al-Râzi. Both of these papers serve to broaden one’s perspectives considerably.
All in all, then, this is a most valuable volume, incorporating contributions from most of the English-speaking authorities on Galen, on a topic of basic importance to our understanding of Galen as a practical physician as well as a (nominally) Platonic philosopher. It is completed by a comprehensive bibliography and an index of passages quoted.
Authors and Titles
Introduction, R. J. Hankinson and Matyáš Havrda
1. ‘Do I wake or sleep?’ Galen, scepticism, and dreams, Jonathan Barnes
2. Galen’s empiricist background: A study of the argument in On medical experience, Inna Kupreeva
3. Discovery, method, and justification: Galen and the determination of therapy, R. J.Hankinson
4. From problems to demonstrations: Two case studies of Galen’s method, Matyáš Havrda
5. Galen’s notion of dialectic, Teun Tieleman
6. The relationship between perceptual experience and Logos: Galen’s clinical perspective, P. N. Singer
7. Galen against Archigenes on the pulse and what it teaches us about Galen’s method of Diairesis, Orly Lewis
8. On sense perception: Galen in dialogue with Plato and the stoics, Katerina Ierodiakonou
9. Reason and experience in Galen’s moral epistemology, David Kaufman
10. The Arabic Alexandrians’ summary of Galen’s On the therapeutic method, Elvira Wakelnig
11. What level of certainty can medical sign-inference reach? A discussion of Galen’s demonstrative method in the Islamic world, Pauline Koetschet.
Notes
[1] On this topic see now, e.g., Riccardo Chiaradonna, ‘Galen and Middle Platonism’, in Gill, C., Whitmarsh, T., and Wilkins, J. (edd.), Galen and the World of Knowledge, Cambridge, 2009, pp. 243-60.