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The Cosmological Doctors of Classical Greece

The Cosmological Doctors of Classical Greece

The Cosmological Doctors of Classical Greece

First Principles in Early Greek Medicine
David H. Camden, St Paul's School, New Hampshire
May 2023
Hardback
9781009202992
AUD$164.95
inc GST
Hardback
USD
eBook

    Why did some doctors in Classical Greece feel compelled to study the universe as a whole? How could cosmological principles be employed in clinical practice? This book explores the works of the cosmological doctors, such as On Breaths, On Flesh, and On Regimen, and argues that they form part of a much broader reorganization of medical knowledge in the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. These healers used cosmological principles as a supplement to, rather than a replacement of, more traditional approaches to health and disease, creating theories about the cosmos whose obscurities can best be understood as the products of medical thinking. Through fresh readings of many ancient sources, the book revises customary views of the intersections between medicine and cosmology in Classical Greece and advances our understanding of one of the most remarkable periods in the history of ancient thought.

    • Challenges traditional divisions between the history of medicine and Presocratic cosmology
    • Encourages new perspectives on familiar sources
    • Presents the material in clear, non-technical language, making the study accessible to both specialists and non-specialists alike

    Product details

    May 2023
    Hardback
    9781009202992
    348 pages
    235 × 158 × 22 mm
    0.6kg
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • Introduction
    • 1. Three second-hand reports
    • 2. On the nature of the human being
    • 3. On breaths
    • 4. The cosmological impulse
    • 5. On flesh
    • 6. On regimen
    • Conclusion
    • Bibliography.
      Author
    • David H. Camden , St Paul's School, New Hampshire

      DAVID H. CAMDEN holds the Alexander Smith Cochran Chair in Greek Language and Literature at St. Paul's School in Concord, NH. He obtained his doctorate in Classical Philology at Harvard University.