MEDICINE AND PHILOSOPHY IN CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY

Diocles of Carystus on the method of dietetics 91

explanation is impossible, and that there are also cases in which it may be

possible, but unnecessary for practical purposes – and one could imagine

thatin this respectthe author ofOn Ancient Medicinewould not have been

too happy with Diocles’ criticism of claim three, forOn Ancient Medicine

is one of the first among the Hippocratic treatises to proclaim the urgency

of stating the cause in dietetics.^39 However, as sections 10 – 11 of the frag-

ment show, Diocles recognises that there are also cases – albeit perhaps a

minority – in which a causal explanation increases our understanding of

the subject and adds to the plausibility of dietetic prescriptions.

As forOn Regimen, I believe that Fredrich was right in detecting a very

strong, almost indiscriminate application of the search for causes in the

chapters on the powers of foodstuffs of this treatise ( 40 – 56 ). The use of

words indicating causal links such as ‘because’, ‘since’, ‘as a result of ’ (

!
,

I,

,
) in these sections is very frequent indeed. But it is especially the

nature of these explanations which calls for consideration, for the fact is that

many of them suffer from defects that might be interpreted as provoking

the kind of criticism Diocles is expressing, such as circularity – no clear

distinction being made between the level of qualities and that of powers –

shifting the problem, and tautology – explanandum and explanation being

stated in the same terms. Let us consider some of these explanations:

On Regimen 2. 40 (p. 162 , 26 Joly and Byl)::-

[sc. +=] .

:*C 2

H% (‘it [sc. maza] cools because it is moistened with cold water’);^40

2. 42 (p. 164 , 22 – 26 Joly and Byl):

) .) 

...

)

.3 R      

)#

3 $ $   



(‘it passes, because

it is soon digested... it passes because it is mixed with the sweet and laxative part

of the wheat’);

2. 52 (p. 174 , 6 – 8 Joly and Byl):4:#  

  H

  H

T 

0 \

 

*0

 

  


0 H

 0 

 R     !






(‘Boiled-down wine warms, moistens, and sends to stool. It

warms, because it is vinous, moistens because it is nutritious, and sends to stool

because it is sweet and moreover boiled-down’);

2. 54 (p. 174 , 15 Joly and Byl):

) .      (



3 

!(‘It

promotes stools and urine because of the purgative qualities it possesses’);

(^39) ‘Science must therefore be causal or it is not science’, J. Jouanna ( 1999 , 255 ) comments on the well-
known cheese example in ch. 20 ofOn Ancient Medicine. The most prominent instances where the
importance of causal explanation is stated are: 20. 3 – 4 (pp. 146 , 15 – 147 , 10 Jouanna; 1. 622 L.); 21. 2
(p. 148 , 7 – 13 Jouanna; 1. 624 L.); 23. 1 (p. 153 , 5 – 6 Jouanna; 1. 634 L.); 2. 3 (p. 120 , 7 – 11 Jouanna; 1. 572 – 4
L.); 11. 1 (p. 131 , 11 – 12 Jouanna; 1. 594 L.).
(^40) Translations adopted, with slight adaptations, from W. H. S. Jones in the Loeb Classical Library,
Hippocrates, vol.iv.