Article
ID: CBB065630394

De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum On the Epistemological Status of Taste Perception in Galen’s Specific Pharmacology (2023)

unapi
Pharmacology History of medicine, as a discipline Ancient Galen

This article examines the role of taste perception in Galen’s research on simple drugs in relation to the acquisition of knowledge. To this end, 1.) I make it plausible through an examination of sources that the sometimes increased, more detailed and divergent indications of taste compared to his predecessors, especially Dioscorides and Sextius Niger, are based on Galen’s own research, 2.) reconstruct Galen’s research practice and 3.) examine the presentation of his results in linguistic and logical terms and explain the differences to traditional pharmacology. I argue that a) gustatory perception has a special significance in Galen’s work that goes far beyond its traditional descriptive function and b) that, starting from the realisation that taste and drug action are interrelated, he assigns to taste qualities an indicator function for a much more fundamental principle that causes drug action and thus c) has prepared the ground for a pharmacognosy that also classifies according to taste principles, which was to reach its climax much later. With a view to a practice of gustatory testing of herbal drugs that is still practised today in pharmacy, which, like any other natural science discipline, has otherwise largely lost the sensory reference to its subject matter, the article would therefore like to provide an encouragement to study the “history of pharmaceutical-medical tasting”.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB065630394/

Similar Citations

Article Matteo Martelli; Caroline Petit; Lucia Raggetti; (2020)
Introduction. New Perspectives on Galen’s Treatise On Simple Drugs and the History of Pharmacology (/isis/citation/CBB924407867/)

Article Elana Osen; (2022)
Marinus of Alexandria: Galen's anatomical forefather, or: How do you solve a problem like Marinus? (/isis/citation/CBB668322531/)

Article John Wilkins; (2020)
Bodily Fluids (‘Humours’) and Flavours in Galen’s Simple Medicines (/isis/citation/CBB497708482/)

Article Peter N. Singer; (2020)
A Change in the Substance: Theory and its Limits in Galen’s Simples (/isis/citation/CBB882062116/)

Article Daniela Fausti; (2022)
Ricordare per prevedere, classificare per ricordare: due aspetti dell’uso della memoria nella medicina antica (/isis/citation/CBB463718574/)

Article Totelin, Laurence M. V.; (2012)
And to End on a Poetic Note: Galen's Authorial Strategies in the Pharmacological Books (/isis/citation/CBB001221688/)

Book Hankinson, R. J.; (2008)
The Cambridge Companion to Galen (/isis/citation/CBB000951088/)

Article Daniela Fausti; (2017)
Farmacologia e medicina popolare: un rapporto complesso (/isis/citation/CBB443502838/)

Article Elizabeth Siegel Watkins; (2020)
Future of the History of Pharmacy and Pharmacy in History: A Response (/isis/citation/CBB488165144/)

Article Axel Helmstädter; (2020)
Future of Pharmaceutical History: Some Remarks (/isis/citation/CBB147644063/)

Article Rafaela Zorzanelli; (2020)
Drug Trajectories: Interviews with Researchers (/isis/citation/CBB431664141/)

Article Stuart Anderson; (2019)
The Post-Pharmaceutical Era (/isis/citation/CBB939178861/)

Article Bickel, Marcel H.; (2001)
Medizingeschichte und Pharmakologie. Aspekte einer Geschichte von Beziehungen (/isis/citation/CBB000502841/)

Article Huijnen, Pim; (2013)
Evert Cornelis van Leersum (1862--1938): pionier van de geschiedenis van de geneeskunde (/isis/citation/CBB001321090/)

Article Stefania Fortuna; (2020)
Niccolò da Reggio and His Latin Translation of Galen’s On Simple Drugs (/isis/citation/CBB763989539/)

Article Fleck, Eliane Cristina Deckmann; Poletto, Roberto; (2012)
Circulação e produção de saberes e práticas científicas na América meridional no século XVIII: uma análise do manuscrito Materia medica misionera de Pedro Montenegro (1710) (/isis/citation/CBB001420608/)

Article Klerk, Saskia; (2014)
The Trouble with Opium. Taste, Reason and Experience in Late Galenic Pharmacology with Special Regard to the University of Leiden (1575--1625) (/isis/citation/CBB001202398/)

Article Iolanda Ventura; (2020)
Galen’s Simple Drugs and Its Medieval Readers: Some Notes on the Reception of Galen’s Pharmacology (/isis/citation/CBB760022904/)

Article Naima Afif; Peter E. Pormann; William I. Sellers; Natalia Smelova; Siam Bhayro; (2020)
The Syriac Text of Book Nine of On Simple Drugs. New Evidence from the Syriac Galen Palimpsest (/isis/citation/CBB993453051/)

Article Lucia Raggetti; (2020)
Simples on the Trees or Medicines on the Table? A Synopsis of Galenic Pharmacology in MS Bodleian Huntington 600 (/isis/citation/CBB283441811/)

Authors & Contributors
Fausti, Daniela
Raggetti, Lucia
Anderson, Stuart
Bhayro, Siam
Bickel, Marcel H.
Fleck, Eliane Cristina Deckmann
Journals
Archives Internationales d'Histoire des Sciences
Pharmacy in History
Medicina nei Secoli - Arte e Scienza
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period
Gesnerus
Publishers
Cambridge University Press
Concepts
Pharmacology
History of medicine, as a discipline
Materia medica
Pharmacy
Translations
Medicine and literature
People
Galen
Niccolò da Reggio
Dioscorides, Pedanios
Gerard of Cremona
Leersum, Evert Cornelis van
Marinus of Alexandria
Time Periods
Ancient
14th century
16th century
17th century
18th century
19th century
Places
Rome (Italy)
Greece
Netherlands
Italy
Naples (Italy)
Leiden (Netherlands)
Institutions
Jesuits (Society of Jesus)
Universiteit Leiden
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment

Creative Commons License REST API