Startseite Philosophie Aux limites de l’explication : le rôle de la sympathie chez Galien
Artikel
Lizenziert
Nicht lizenziert Erfordert eine Authentifizierung

Aux limites de l’explication : le rôle de la sympathie chez Galien

  • Julien Devinant EMAIL logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 12. August 2021
Veröffentlichen auch Sie bei De Gruyter Brill
Elenchos
Aus der Zeitschrift Elenchos Band 42 Heft 1

Abstract

This paper aims to assess the epistemological value of the notion of sympathy in Galen’s thought. It first shows that Galen makes use of two different concepts of sympathy: the ambient concept, according to which the human body manifests a harmonious part-whole relationship, and the technical concept, with which one connects two pathologies on the basis of the fact that the cause of the ailment is elsewhere than where it surfaces. Neither of these sympathies constitutes in itself a causal explanation of reality. The first merely acknowledges an obvious interrelationship, the second acts as an epistemic tool to shift the focus of diagnosis away from the place where the condition manifests itself. However, the two concepts are not absolutely unrelated; and they come together when the sympathetic paradigm is used to understand the unifying action of the psychic and natural faculties. Very significantly, Galen then provisionally defines the cause as a power or faculty (δύναμις) not out of theoretical necessity but for practical reasons.


Corresponding author: Julien Devinant, Centre Léon Robin – Sorbonne Université, Paris, France, E-mail:

Remerciements

Je tiens à remercier pour leurs précieuses remarques à divers moments de l’élaboration de ce texte, Ph. van der Eijk, M. Rashed, J.-B. Gourinat, les deux rapporteurs anonymes de l’article, et les participants du colloque d’Oxford sur la causalité médicale de 2016.

Références

Berryman, S. 2002. “Galen and the Mechanical Philosophy.” Apeiron. A Journal for Ancient Philosophy and Science 35 (3) : 235–54 https://doi.org/10.1515/apeiron.2002.35.3.235.Suche in Google Scholar

Boudon-Millot, V. 2001. “Galien face à la ‘peste antonine’ ou comment penser l’invisible.” In Air, miasmes et contagion. Les Épidémies dans l’Antiquité et au Moyen Âge, edited by S. Bazin-Tacchella, D. Quéruel, and É. Samama, 29–54. Langres: Guéniot.Suche in Google Scholar

Brouwer, R. 2015. “Stoic Sympathy.” In Sympathy, edited by E. Schliesser, 15–35. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199928873.003.0002Suche in Google Scholar

Burkert, W. 1961. “Hellenistische Pseudopythagorica.” Philologus. Zeitschrift für Klassische Philologie 105 (1–2): 16–43 et 226–46, https://doi.org/10.1524/phil.1961.105.12.16.Suche in Google Scholar

Chiaradonna, R. 2014. “Galen on What is Persuasive (Pithanon) and What Approximates to Truth.” In Philosophical Themes in Galen, edited by P. Adamson, R. E. Hansberger, and J. Wilberdin (BICS Supplement 114), 61–88. London: Institute of Classical Studies.Suche in Google Scholar

Copenhaver, B. P. 1991. “A Tale of Two Fishes. Magical Objects in Natural History from Antiquity through the Scientific Revolution.” Journal of the History of Ideas 52 (3): 373–98, https://doi.org/10.2307/2710043.Suche in Google Scholar

Corcilius, K. 2015. “Faculties in Ancient Philosophy.” In The Faculties. A History, edited by D. Perler, 19–58. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199935253.003.0002Suche in Google Scholar

Cordonier, V. 2009. “De la transmission à la sympathie. Plotin et la désaffection du milieu perceptif (Enn. iv, 5 [29]).” Philosophie Antique. Problèmes, Renaissances, Usages 9: 35–69. [Néoplatonisme], https://doi.org/10.4000/philosant.2562.Suche in Google Scholar

Debru, A. 1991. “Expérience, plausibilité et certitude chez Galien.” In Galeno. Obra, pensamiento e influencia, edited by J. A. López Férez, 31–40. Madrid: Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia.Suche in Google Scholar

Debru, A. 1996. Le Corps respirant. La pensée physiologique chez Galien (Studies in Ancient Medicine 13). Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004377387Suche in Google Scholar

Delaurenti, B. 2016. La Contagion des émotions. Compassio, une énigme médiévale (Savoirs anciens et médiévaux 4). Paris: Classiques Garnier.Suche in Google Scholar

Diller, H. 1936. “Eine stoisch-pneumatische Schrift im Corpus Hippocraticum.” Sudhoffs Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften 29 (3): 178–95.10.1515/9783110816754.17Suche in Google Scholar

Donini, P. L. 2008. “Psychology.” In The Cambridge Companion to Galen, edited by R. J. Hankinson, 184–209. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CCOL9780521819541.007Suche in Google Scholar

Edelstein, L. 1937. “Greek Medicine in its Relation to Religion and Magic.” Bulletin of the Institute of the History of Medicine 5 (3): 201–46.Suche in Google Scholar

Frazer, J. G. 1922. The Golden Bough. A Study in Magic and Religion, Abridged ed. New York: Macmillan.10.1007/978-1-349-00400-3Suche in Google Scholar

Gaide, F. 2003. “Aspects divers des principes de sympathie et d’antipathie dans les textes thérapeutiques latins.” In Rationnel et irrationnel dans la médecine ancienne et médiévale. Aspects historiques, scientifiques et culturels, edited by N. Palmieri, 129–44. Saint-Étienne: Publications de l’Université de Saint-Étienne.Suche in Google Scholar

Gaillard-Seux, P. 2003. “Sympathie et antipathie dans l’Histoire Naturelle de Pline l’Ancien.” In Rationnel et irrationnel dans la médecine ancienne et médiévale. Aspects historiques, scientifiques et culturels, edited by N. Palmieri, 113–28. Saint-Étienne: Publications de l’Université de Saint-Étienne.Suche in Google Scholar

Grmek, M. D., and D. Gourevitch. 1994. “Aux sources de la doctrine médicale de Galien : l’enseignement de Marinus, Quintus et Numisianus.” Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt II 37/2 [Wissenschaften (Medizin und Biologie [Forts.])]: 1491–528.10.1515/9783110875393-010Suche in Google Scholar

Hankinson, R. J. 1988. “Galien: la médecine et la philosophie antisceptique.” Revue de Philosophie Ancienne 6/2: 229–69.Suche in Google Scholar

Hankinson, R. J. 1995. “Pollution and Infection. An Hypothesis Still-Born.” Apeiron. A Journal for Ancient Philosophy and Science 28 (1): 25–65, https://doi.org/10.1515/apeiron.1995.28.1.25.Suche in Google Scholar

Hankinson, R. J. 2006. “Body and Soul in Galen.” In Common to Body and Soul. Philosophical Approaches to Explaining Living Behaviour in Greco-Roman Antiquity, edited by R. A. H. King, 232–58. Berlin: De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110196511.232Suche in Google Scholar

Hankinson, R. J. 2008. “Philosophy of Nature.” In The Cambridge Companion to Galen, edited by R. J. Hankinson, 210–41. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CCOL9780521819541.008Suche in Google Scholar

Hankinson, R. J. 2009a. “Medicine and the Science of Soul.” Canadian Bulletin of Medical History 26/1: 129–54, https://doi.org/10.3138/cbmh.26.1.129.Suche in Google Scholar

Hankinson, R. J. 2009b. “Galen on the Limitations of Knowledge.” In Galen and the World of Knowledge (Greek Culture in the Roman World), edited by C. Gill, T. Whitmarsh, and J. Wilkins, 206–42. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511770623.013Suche in Google Scholar

Hankinson, R. J. 2014. “Galen and the Ontology of Powers.” British Journal for the History of Philosophy 22 (5): 951–73. [Causing Health and Disease. Medical Powers in Classical and Late Antiquity], https://doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2014.988118.Suche in Google Scholar

Henry, J. 1986. “Occult Qualities and the Experimental Philosophy: Active Principles in Pre-Newtonian Matter Theory.” History of Science 24 (4): 335–81, https://doi.org/10.1177/007327538602400401.Suche in Google Scholar

Holmes, B. 2012. “Sympathy between Hippocrates and Galen: The Case of Galen’s Commentary on Hippocrates’ Epidemics, Book Two.” In Epidemics in Context: Greek Commentaries on Hippocrates in the Arabic Tradition, edited by P. E. Pormann, 49–70. Berlin: De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110259803.49Suche in Google Scholar

Holmes, B. 2013. “Disturbing Connections: Sympathetic Affections, Mental Disorder, and the Elusive Soul in Galen.” In Mental Disorders in the Classical World, edited by W. V. Harris, 147–76. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004249875_009Suche in Google Scholar

Holmes, B. 2014a. “Galen on the Chances of Life.” In Probabilities, Hypotheticals, and Counterfactuals in Ancient Greek Thought, edited by V. Wohl, 230–50. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781107279551.014Suche in Google Scholar

Holmes, B. 2014b. “Proto-Sympathy in the Hippocratic Corpus.” In Hippocrate et les hippocratismes. Médecine, religion, société, edited by J. Jouanna, and M. Zink, 123–38. Paris: Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.10.2307/j.ctvbtzpcn.11Suche in Google Scholar

Holmes, B. 2015. “Galen’s Sympathy.” In Sympathy, edited by E. Schliesser, 61–9. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199928873.003.0004Suche in Google Scholar

Hutchison, K. 1982. “What Happened to Occult Qualities in the Scientific Revolution?” Isis. An International Review devoted to the History of Science and its Cultural Influence 73 (2): 233–53, https://doi.org/10.1086/352971.Suche in Google Scholar

Ierodiakonou, K. 2006. “The Greek Concept of Sympatheia and its Byzantine Appropriation in Michael Psellos.” In The Occult Sciences in Byzantium, edited by P. Magdalino, and M. Mavroudi, 97–117. Genève: La Pomme d’or.Suche in Google Scholar

Joly, R. 1975. “Remarques sur le De Alimento pseudo-hippocratique.” In Le Monde grec, pensée, littérature, histoire, documents, edited by J. Bingen, G. Cambier, and G. Nachtergael, 271–6. Bruxelles: Éditions de l’Université de Bruxelles.Suche in Google Scholar

Jouanna, J. 2001. “Air, miasme et contagion au temps d’Hippocrate et survivance des miasmes dans la médecine posthippocratique (Rufus d’Éphèse, Galien et Palladios).” In Air, miasmes et contagion. Les Épidémies dans l’Antiquité et au Moyen Âge, edited by S. Bazin-Tacchella, D. Quéruel, and É. Samama, 9–28. Langres: Guéniot.Suche in Google Scholar

Jouanna, J. 2003. “La Notion de nature chez Galien.” In Galien et la philosophie, edited by J. Barnes, and J. Jouanna, 229–68. Genève: Fondation Hardt.Suche in Google Scholar

Jouanna, J. 2011. “Médecine rationnelle et magie: le statut des amulettes et des incantations chez Galien.” Revue des Études Grecques 124 (1): 47–77, https://doi.org/10.3406/reg.2011.8041.Suche in Google Scholar

Kazantzidis, G., ed. 2019. Medicine and Paradoxography in the Ancient World (Trends in Classics – Supplementary Volumes 81). Berlin: De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110661774Suche in Google Scholar

Keyser, P. T. 1997. “Science and Magic in Galen’s Recipes (Sympathy and Efficacy).” In Galen on Pharmacology. Philosophy, History and Medicine, edited by A. Debru, 175–98. Leiden: Brill.10.1163/9789004377431_009Suche in Google Scholar

Kupreeva, I. 2004. “Aristotelian Dynamics in the 2nd Century School Debates: Galen and Alexander of Aphrodisias on Organic Powers and Movements.” In Philosophy, Science and Exegesis in Greek, Arabic & Latin Commentaries, Vol. I (BICS Supplement 83.1), edited by P. Adamson, H. Baltussen, and M. W. F. Stone, 71–95. London: Institute of Classical Studies.10.1111/j.2041-5370.2004.tb02296.xSuche in Google Scholar

Laurand, V. 2005. “La Sympathie universelle. Union et séparation.” Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale 48 (4): 517–35. [Les Stoïciens et le monde], https://doi.org/10.3917/rmm.054.0517.Suche in Google Scholar

Leith, D. 2014. “Galen’s Refutation of Atomism.” In Philosophical Themes in Galen (BICS Supplement 114), edited by P. Adamson, R. E. Hansberger, and J. Wilberding, 213–34. London: Institute of Classical Studies.Suche in Google Scholar

Lloyd, G. E. R. 1983. Science, Folklore and Ideology. Studies in the Life Sciences in Ancient Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Martelli, M. 2014. The Four Books of Pseudo-Democritus (Sources of Alchemy and Chemistry 1). Leeds: Maney Publishing.10.1080/00026980.2013.12288743Suche in Google Scholar

Mauss, M., and H. Hubert. 1902–1903. “Esquisse d’une théorie générale de la magie.” L’Année sociologique 7: 1–146.Suche in Google Scholar

Meeusen, M. 2014. “Plutarch and the Wonder of Nature. Preliminaries to Plutarch’s Science of Physical Problems.” Apeiron. A Journal for Ancient Philosophy and Science 47 (3): 310–41, https://doi.org/10.1515/apeiron-2012-0040.Suche in Google Scholar

Moraux, P. 1984. Der Aristotelismus bei den Griechen, von Andronikos bis Alexander von Aphrodisias, Vol. II (Peripatoi 6). Berlin: De Gruyter.Suche in Google Scholar

Nutton, V. 1983. “The Seeds of Disease. An Explanation of Contagion and Infection from the Greeks to the Renaissance.” Medical History. An International Journal for the History of Medicine and Related Sciences 27 (1): 1–34, https://doi.org/10.1017/s0025727300042241.Suche in Google Scholar

Parker, R. C. T. 1983. Miasma. Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion (Clarendon Paperbacks). Oxford: Clarendon Press.Suche in Google Scholar

Pasnau, R. 2011. “Scholastic Qualities, Primary and Secondary.” In Primary and Secondary Qualities. The Historical and Ongoing Debate, edited by L. Nolan, 41–61. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199556151.003.0003Suche in Google Scholar

Poma, R. 2009. Magie et guérison. La rationalité de la médecine magique , XVIe–XVIIe. (Universités – Domaine littéraire). Paris: Orizons.Suche in Google Scholar

Radice, R. 2000. Oikeiôsis. Ricerche sul fondamento del pensiero stoico e sulla sua genesi (Temi metafisici e problemi del pensiero antico 77). Milano: Vita e Pensiero.Suche in Google Scholar

Rapp, C. 2006. “What the Hellenistic Philosophers Saw and Aristotle Avoided.” In Common to Body and Soul. Philosophical Approaches to Explaining Living Behaviour in Greco-Roman Antiquity, edited by R. A. H. King, 187–208. Berlin: De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110196511.187Suche in Google Scholar

Reinhardt, K. 1926. Kosmos und Sympathie. Neue Untersuchungen über Poseidonios. München: C. H. Beck.Suche in Google Scholar

Reinhardt, T. 2011. “Galen on Unsayable Properties.” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 40: 297–317.Suche in Google Scholar

Röhr, J. 1923. Der okkulte Kraftbegriff im Altertum (Philologus Supplementband 17.1). Leipzig: Dieterich’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung.Suche in Google Scholar

Schiefsky, M. J. 2007. “Galen’s Teleology and Functional Explanation.” Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 33: 369–400.10.1093/oso/9780199238019.003.0013Suche in Google Scholar

Siegel, R. E. 1968. Galen’s System of Physiology and Medicine. An Analysis of His Doctrines and Observations on Bloodflow, Respiration, Tumors and Internal Diseases. Basel: Karger.Suche in Google Scholar

Stemplinger, E. 1919. Sympathieglaube und Sympathiekuren in Altertum und Neuzeit. München: Gmelin.Suche in Google Scholar

Sudhoff, K. F. J. 1915. “Vom Pestsamen’ des Galenos.” Mitteilungen zur Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften 14: 227–9.Suche in Google Scholar

Vallance, J. T. 1990. The Lost Theory of Asclepiades of Bithynia. Oxford: Clarendon Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198242482.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar

Weidlich, T. 1894. Die Sympathie in der antiken Literatur. Stuttgart: K. Hofbuchdruckerei C. Liebich.Suche in Google Scholar

Zucker, A. 2000. “Élien et la magie naturelle des animaux.” In La Magie. Vol. II: La Magie dans l’antiquité grecque tardive. Les mythes, edited by A. Moreau, and J.-C. Turpin, 79–94. Montpellier: Publications de l’Université Montpellier III.Suche in Google Scholar

Zucker, A. 2011. “Sympathies et antipathies naturelles. Au-delà du principe.” In Prolongements et renouvellements de la tradition classique, edited by A. Balansard, G. Dorival, and M. Loubet, 93–107. Aix-en-Provence: Publications de l’Université de Provence.Suche in Google Scholar

Published Online: 2021-08-12
Published in Print: 2021-08-26

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Heruntergeladen am 4.2.2026 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/elen-2021-0009/html
Button zum nach oben scrollen