Hippocratic Medicine :: essays research papers fc

Introduction Hippocratic medicine remains iodine of Ancient Greeces lasting contributions to the field of science. Lacking the equipment physicians today take for given when diagnosing and healing their patients, Hippocratic physicians were forced to create a new(a) outline for explaining and curing disease found upon the prevalent scientific theories of their era. This system became known as the humoral theory of disease. Humoral theory corporal the theories of pre-Socratic philosophers in order to explain disease and offer assistant for a cure. Two themes characterizing Presocratic philosophical thought dramatically influenced humoral theory. The humoral theory approach of Hippocratic medicine was based upon Presocratic philosophical musings well-nigh the relationship of man to the world. By the time humoral theory was vogue, philosophers had concluded that both man and the world were governed by the resembling natural laws. Humoral theory also was based upon Presocratic theories about change and how it occurred in the world humoral theory depended upon the assertion that contrast elements constantly contradicted each other, leading to continuous change on matchless level and stability on another. These two Presocratic theories shaped humoral theory and allowed the physician to develop a rational and empirically based approach to medicine. Hippocrates - Separating the Man from the Myth Before we can trace the developing of these theories by the Presocratics we must first consider Hippocratic medicine and humoral theory. Most of what is known about the historical figure Hippocrates, the supposed pause of the Hippocratic medical examination approach, must be evaluated with caution. Hippocrates lived c. 460-370 BC, but further trusty information about his life is difficult to obtain.(1) Two passings from Plato are seen as legitimate sources of information about Hippocrates life. Plato lived from 427-348 BC, making him a contemporary of Hippocrate s. A passage from Platos work Protagoras suggests that Hippocrates was a physician, associated with the island of Cos, who taught medicine to students for a fee. Another passage from a work of Plato, the Phaedras, alludes to a " regularity" by which Hippocrates gained an understanding of medicine. These sources bequeath some means by which to evaluate the impact of Hippocrates upon ancient medical practice. The Corpus HippocraticumMany other texts attributed to Hippocrates shed light upon the Hippocratic method of medicine. None of these texts may be identified as Hippocrates own work, however. These whole caboodle are called the Corpus Hippocraticum and number upwards of sixty.(2) Scholars entertain suggested that the texts may have been part of a library collection, originally from Cos, that was subsequently moved to Alexandria and therefore added upon, building the collection of medical texts we have today.