196 Aristotle and his school
Aristotle also recognises that the latter are often more successful in practical
therapy than the former.
The passage fromOn Respirationfurther mentions differences between
distinguished doctors and distinguished students of nature. These are not
explained by Aristotle, but they probably have to do with the difference
between theoretical and practical sciences mentioned above (differences
of interest, such as the lack of therapeutic details in the account of the
natural scientist, as well as different degrees of accuracy). Moreover, his
remark that the more distinguished natural philosophers ‘endby studying
the principles of health and disease’, whereas distinguished doctors are
praised forstartingwith principles derived from natural science, seems
to imply a certain hierarchy or priority of importance, which is hardly
surprising given Aristotle’s general preference for theoretical knowledge.
This would correspond with the fact that the discussion of health and
disease (Peri hugieias kai nosou) was apparently planned by Aristotle at
the end of the series of treatises which we know as theParva naturalia.
The treatise has not survived, and it is not even certain that it was ever
written.^47 It is at any rate clear that in this treatise medical topics were, or
would have been, discussed from the point of view of the study of nature:
the treatise would probably deal with the principles of physiology, the
causes of disturbances of the equilibrium between warm and cold, and the
formation and the role of the residues (peritt ̄omata). But it would no doubt
refrain from worked-out nosological descriptions and from extended and
detailed prescriptions on prognostics and therapeutics.^48
Thus Aristotle’s views on the relation between natural science and
medicine are quite specific. He obviously approves of doctors who build
their practice on principles of natural science, but he also acknowledges
that more empirically minded doctors often have greater therapeutic suc-
cess. He further praises those liberal-minded students of nature (among
whom he implicitly counts himself ) who deal with the principles of health
and disease. He obviously prefers the study of nature rather than medicine,
because the former is concerned with universals, the latter with particu-
lars, and because the former reaches a higher degree of accuracy, but he
quoted above Aristotle credits the liberal-minded student of politics with a similar awareness of a
limited degree of accuracy in his interest in psychology: one might say that this implies a comparable
awareness with the distinguished doctors with regard to their use of principles derived from the
study of nature.(^47) On this see Marenghi ( 1961 ) 145 ff.; Tracy ( 1969 ) 161 ff.; Strohmaier ( 1983 ); Longrigg ( 1995 ); R. A. H.
King ( 2001 ); see also ch. 9 below.
(^48) It should be stressed that this does not imply that Aristotle did not devote more specialised treatises
to medical questions. See ch. 9 below.