Aristotle on the Debate about the Central Organ of the Human Body in the 5th and 4th Centuries BC (2012)
Imai, Masahiro (Author)
Historia Scientiarum: International Journal of the History of Science Society of Japan
Volume: 22, no. 2
Issue: 2
Pages: 1-21
Aristotle's cardiocentric model of animals, including human beings, which he introduced in his physiological and biological treatises, seems to reflect a history of debate about the central organ of the human body. This paper will make it clear that his arguments for cardiocentrism include a specific criticism of the encephalocentric model of the human being, proposed by the author of the Hippocratic treatise On the Sacred Disease. The Hippocratic author holds that the brain is responsible for our psychic states and activities, which will be affected by some unusual changes that it undergoes in its physical condition. Aristotle, on the other hand, insists that some bodily abnormalities, such as the palpitation of the heart, and all psychic disturbances including mental derangements, which the Hippocratic author ascribes to the abnormal condition of the brain as the central organ of the human body, may be explained within the framework of his cardiocentric model. These facts will indicate that Aristotle targeted the Hippocratic author as one of the proponents of the encephalocentric view in his critical comments on it. It will shed a new light on the relationship of thought between Hippocratic medicine and Aristotelian psychophysiology in view of the historical debate about the central organ of the human body.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Matthews, Gareth B.;
(2011)
Aristotle on the Organ of Touch
(/isis/citation/CBB001211444/)
Article
Macfarlane, Patrick;
(2013)
Aristotle on Fire Animals (Generation of Animals iii 11, 761b16--24)
(/isis/citation/CBB001212324/)
Article
Ducharme, Alain;
(2014)
Aristotle's Mark of Sentience
(/isis/citation/CBB001420142/)
Book
Aristotle, ;
Beullens, Pieter;
Bossier, Fernand;
(2000)
De historia animalium: translatio Guillelmi de Morbeka
(/isis/citation/CBB000600053/)
Book
Zucker, Arnaud;
(2005)
Aristote et les classifications zoologiques
(/isis/citation/CBB000640549/)
Chapter
Lennox, James G.;
(2010)
The Unity and Purpose of On the Parts of Animals I
(/isis/citation/CBB001500201/)
Book
Tipton, Jason A.;
(2014)
Philosophical Biology in Aristotle's Parts of Animals
(/isis/citation/CBB001500574/)
Article
Bos, Abraham P.;
(2007)
Aristotle on the Dissection of Plants and Animals and his Concept of the Instrumental Soul-Body
(/isis/citation/CBB001211431/)
Chapter
Kosman, L. Aryeh;
(2010)
Male and Female in Aristole's Generation of Animals
(/isis/citation/CBB001500202/)
Article
Modell, Stephen;
(2009)
Aristotelian Influence in the Formation of Medical Theory
(/isis/citation/CBB001030463/)
Article
Gregoric, Pavel;
Kuhar, Martin;
(2014)
Aristotle's Physiology of Animal Motion: On Neura and Muscles
(/isis/citation/CBB001321034/)
Book
Gotthelf, Allan;
Leunissen, Mariska;
Beullens, Pieter;
(2012)
Teleology, First Principles and Scientific Method in Aristotle's Biology
(/isis/citation/CBB001250500/)
Article
Lennox, James G.;
(2014)
Aristotle on the Emergence of Material Complexity: Meteorology IV and Aristotle's Biology
(/isis/citation/CBB001421726/)
Article
Stoyles, Byron J.;
(2013)
[Greek transliteration begin]Megista Genc[Greek transliteration end] and Division in Aristotle's Generation of Animals
(/isis/citation/CBB001251907/)
Article
Andrea Falcon;
Klaus Corcilius;
(2022)
Aristotle on Remembering and Memory: Toward an Interpretation of Mem. 1
(/isis/citation/CBB397896023/)
Book
Campbell, Gordon Lindsay;
(2014)
The Oxford Handbook of Animals in Classical Thought and Life
(/isis/citation/CBB001422644/)
Article
Khafiz Kerimov;
(2021)
Καθάπερ ἄνθρωπος φρόνιμος: Prudence in Aristotle’s Ethics and Biology
(/isis/citation/CBB109022079/)
Article
Ignacio De Ribera-Martin;
(2019)
Seed (Sperma) and Kuêma in Aristotle’s Generation of Animals
(/isis/citation/CBB375309519/)
Book
Ciccarese, Maria Pia;
(2002)
Animali simbolici: alle origini del bestiario cristiano, Vol. 1: Agnello-gufo
(/isis/citation/CBB000640556/)
Article
Fernández Nieto, Francisco Javier;
(2004)
Un amuleto defensivo del templo contra los animales: el Basilisco
(/isis/citation/CBB000640289/)
Be the first to comment!