Reference
- Hippocrates(hĭpŏk'rӘtēz), c.460–c.370 B.C., Greek physician, recognized as the father of medicine. He is believed to have been born on the island of Cos, to have studied under his father, a physician, to have traveled for some time, perhaps studying in Athens, and to have then returned to practice, teach, and write at Cos. The Hippocratic or Coan school that formed around him was of enormous importance in separating medicine from superstition and philosophic speculation, placing it on a strictly scientific plane based on objective observation and critical deductive reasoning.
Although Hippocrates followed the current belief that disease resulted from an imbalance of the four bodily humors, he maintained that the disturbance was influenced by outside forces and that the humors were glandular secretions. He believed that the goal of medicine should be to build the patient's strength through appropriate diet and hygienic measures, resorting to more drastic treatment only when the symptoms showed this to be necessary. This was in contrast to the contemporary Cnidian school, which stressed detailed diagnosis and classification of diseases to the point of ignoring the patient. Hippocrates probably had an inkling of Mendelian and genomic factors in heredity, because he noted not only many of the signs of disease but also that symptoms could appear throughout a family or a community, or even over successive generations.
Of the large collection of writings that derived from the Coan school, only a few are generally ascribed to Hippocrates himself, although his influence is felt throughout. Of these, The Aphorisms, summing up his observations and deductions, and Airs, Waters, and Places, which recognized a link between environment and disease, are considered the most important. The collection has appeared in a number of translations, notably that of Littré.
While the Hippocratic oath cannot be directly credited to him either, it undoubtedly represents his ideals and principles. The oath, which still governs the ethical conduct of physicians today, is often recited at the graduation ceremonies of medical schools. Among other things the oath details codes of patients's right to privacy, asks the physician to pledge to lead an honorable personal and professional life, and requires that he or she prescribe treatments only for curative purposes.
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Online Resources
- Hidden in Plain Sight: The Moral Imperatives of Hippocrates’ First AphorismThis historiographic survey of extant English translations and interpretations of the renowned Hippocratic first aphorism has demonstrated a concerning acceptance and application of ancient deontological principles that have been used to justify a practice of medicine that has been both paternalistic and heteronomous. Such principles reflect an enduring Hippocratism that has perpetuated an insufficient appreciation of the moral nature of the aphorism’s second sentence in the practice of the art of medicine. That oversight has been constrained by a philological discourse that has centred on the meanings of the aphorism’s first sentence, while little consideration has been given to the more important ethical consideration within the second sentence’s imperatives.
- Hippocrates and informed consentWestern medicine's roots are in Ancient Greece where Hippocrates and his followers created an empirical medicine grounded in ethical promises. Most physicians are familiar with the Hippocratic Oath but they are less familiar with the remarkable medical texts of that era. Many modern medical ethicists, however, view the Greek physician–patient relationship as paternalistic, in which the physician concealed diagnostic or prognostic information from the patient. As Robert Veatch put it: “The old Hippocratic ethic saw the patient as a weak, debilitated, childlike victim, incapable of functioning as a real moral agent…The Hippocratic ethic is dead.” If Veatch is correct, a moral chasm separates modern medical ethics from ancient Greece.
- HIPPOCRATES AT PHAEDRUS 270C.Plato's Phaedrus 270c, Socrates asks whether one can know souls without knowing 'the whole.' Phaedrus answers that 'according to Hippocrates' the same demand on knowing the whole applies to bodies. What parallel is intended between soul‐knowledge and body‐knowledge and which medical passages illustrate the analogy have been much debated. Three dominant interpretations read 'the whole' as respectively (1) environment, (2) kosmos, and (3) individual soul or body; and adduce supporting Hippocratic passages. But none of these interpretations accounts for the Phaedrus' rhetorical method. A better reading sees the whole as the genos 'soul,' as the Phaedrus' taxonomies divide that genus.
Streaming Media
- The Dodecanese: Kos, Patmos, and RhodesOn the beautiful island of Kos, reflect on the life and contribution of the physician Hippocrates at the ancient medical sanctuary honoring him. Discover Patmos, where Saint John famously wrote the book of Revelation, and finally Rhodes, renowned for the legendary Colossus and the majestic fortifications of the Knights of Saint John.
- Hippocrates and Holistic MedicineHippocrates separates gods and rituals from healing. He suggests that nature is the great healer of imbalance in the human body. He creates his own theory of the four humors of the body.
Perspectives
Hippocrates on Ancient Medicine
The Hippocratic treatise "On Ancient Medicine," a key text in the history of early Greek thought, mounts a highly coherent attack on the attempt to base medical practice on principles drawn from natural philosophy. This volume presents an up-to-date Greek text of "On Ancient Medicine," a new English translation, and a detailed commentary that focuses on questions of medical and scientific method; the introduction sets out a new approach to the problem of the work's relationship to its intellectual context and addresses the contentious issues of its date, authorship, and reception. The book will be of interest to scholars of ancient medicine and ancient philosophy, as well as anyone concerned with the history of science and scientific method in antiquity.
Hippocrates, on the Art of Medicine
Employing the logical tools of contemporary analytic philosophy, this book places the pseudo-Hippocratic treatise On the Art of Medicine in its proper philosophical, rhetorical, and medical contexts through a new translation and commentary on the Greek text.