The Road to Medical Enlightenment

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THE ROAD TO MEDICAL ENLIGHTENMENT 1650-1695
In the second part of the seventeenth century a whole series of brilliant scientists, born into what was already an atmosphere of innovation, came to the height of their powers. Under attack was the prevailing Galenism, which rested on the Aristotelian philosophy and had reigned supreme since the second century A.D. Many new systems were being put forward. Dr. King selects for special study the ideas of five men: Riverius still clung to Galenism while others rejected it; van Helmont leant on the neoplatonism of Paracelsus; the famous English scientist, Robert Boyle, rested his medical theories on the 'new' atomism. In contrast, the rationalist Sylvius sought a basis for medicine in chemistry rather than in metaphysics, and the empiricist Thomas Sydenham, similarly spurning metaphysics, claimed that his theories derived directly and solely from what was observable. Dr. King goes on to discuss more briefly a number of other figures whose... Tovább

Fülszöveg

THE ROAD TO MEDICAL ENLIGHTENMENT 1650-1695
In the second part of the seventeenth century a whole series of brilliant scientists, born into what was already an atmosphere of innovation, came to the height of their powers. Under attack was the prevailing Galenism, which rested on the Aristotelian philosophy and had reigned supreme since the second century A.D. Many new systems were being put forward. Dr. King selects for special study the ideas of five men: Riverius still clung to Galenism while others rejected it; van Helmont leant on the neoplatonism of Paracelsus; the famous English scientist, Robert Boyle, rested his medical theories on the 'new' atomism. In contrast, the rationalist Sylvius sought a basis for medicine in chemistry rather than in metaphysics, and the empiricist Thomas Sydenham, similarly spurning metaphysics, claimed that his theories derived directly and solely from what was observable. Dr. King goes on to discuss more briefly a number of other figures whose various ideas on medicine show in aggregate how shifting and uncertain were the patterns that ran through the intellectual life of the era. He then deals at length with Friedrich Hoffmann, whose Fundamenta Medicina, published in 1695, is perhaps the best single expression of the new medicine. In it may be seen the beginnings of the synthesis and development of seventeenth-century ideas which mark the true dawn of the medical enlightenment. This is an elegantly written and absorbing book. Dr. King describes with great clarity, and with sympathy, the ideas of the various men with whom he deals. His book gives fascinating insights into the intellectual qualities of men who, even if their methods appear by today's standards inadequate, were in the context of their own times thinkers and practitioners of outstanding stature.
Dr. King is senior editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association and professorial lecturer in the History of Medicine at the University of Chicago. Vissza