Galen on qualified experience 283
whether all olive oil is irritating to the eyes should be decided on the basis
of experience rather than by improvisation.^11 Here, as elsewhere, he uses
the expression
=
(or
) n, which obviously means
that a statement or belief about the nature, characteristics or power of a
substance has to be checked against, or qualified and sophisticatedby means
ofthe results of empirical research. Here is theinstrumentby which
such a qualification is achieved; as its co-occurrences with words such as
<=
and
=
(‘test’) in these contexts indicate,^12 it is here
adopted as a critical, testing instrument rather than as a heuristic device
aiming at discovering new data.
However, we also find the expression that some issues can, or have to
be settled – discovered, found out, investigated, tested – on the strength
of the
)
# , experience which hasitself been the object of
qualification,^13 and statements to the effect that , ‘experience’, should
(^11) ‘The solutions to all such difficulties are very problematic if one raises them as physical problems,
but if one considers them in relation to the practical execution of the art, all they require is much
experience, and [only] some reasonings that are accurate and qualified, though not many. For,
to begin with, as to the question whether olive oil is irritating to the eyes or not, it is better to
determine this by means of experience, rather than to try it either way, just as rhetoricians do by way
of exercise’ (
.
-) M "
/ -
0 . P
1 <
<
0
0 5 P 3 % # "
0
. 0
. ( 0 "
< .
)
) !
. 0 +
S R
B 015 6
''<
0 (
(
=
0 ? O
$
). See alsoDe dign. puls. 1. 7 ( 8. 803
K.);De comp. med. per gen. 2. 5 ( 13. 502 K.);Commentary on Hippocrates’ Regimen in Acute Diseases
(In Hippocratis De victu acutorum commentarium, In Hipp. Acut. comment). 1. 15 (CMGv9, 1 ,
p. 129. 33 – 130. 3 Helmreich, 15. 444 K.).
(^12) Cf.De comp. med. per gen. 2. 5 ( 13. 502 K.);De comp. med. sec. loc. 5. 5 ( 12. 884 K.);De temper. 3. 5
(p. 113. 20 ff. Helmreich; 1. 691 K.);De simpl. med. fac. 1. 40 ( 11. 456 K.); 4. 7 ( 11. 642 K.).
(^13) See the instances listed in n. 9 above. Although with
=
in the sense of ‘distinguish’, ‘discrim-
inate’, when used in the aorist and the perfect, Greek authors seem to prefer middle rather than
active verb forms (see LSJ s.v., who quote Demosthenes 24. 192 :h %
) [and Arist.
Part. an. 644 b 2 – 3 ]), it is obvious that the participle
)
should be interpreted as passive:
‘experience that has been discriminated/qualified’, i.e. hasundergonediscrimination or qualification
[cf. Arist.Eth. Nic. 1138 b 33 ], not ‘experience that has performed discrimination’ (which would
come very close to the use of was an instrument of qualification discussed in the previous
sentence). This distinction is confused in Beintker and Kahlenberg’s translation ( 1948 ) of the term
inDe alim. facult. 1. 1. 45 (CMGv4, 2 ,p. 216. 4 – 6 Helmreich, 6. 479 K.): they translate8
’
( !)C C $
!
)
# "
- )as ‘Eine sichere Kenntnis derselben erwirbt man sich nur mit Muhe und in ̈
langer Zeit, und zwar auf Grund einer durch scharfe Unterscheidung gewonnenen Erfahrung, der
Beschaffenheit der Ausd ̈unstungen und der S ̈afte’ (which suggests that8
)
# is not
aninstrumentof research but rather the attitude or the state that results from empirical research,
the experience or expertise (
) constituted by the cumulative body of empirical knowledge
one has built up during a process of trial and error and further refining); however, at 1. 1. 46 (CMG
v4, 2 ,p. 216. 16 Helmreich, 6. 479 K.) they translate1 C
)
#C C #Cas ‘wenn
man es nicht mit einer genau unterscheidenden Erfahrung beurteilt’ (the Latin translation printed
by K ̈uhn has ‘ex certa definitaque experientia’ and ‘si experientia definita ipsa exploraris’). Nor is