Introduction 29
versatility. In chapter 10 , I shall consider Galen’s theoretical considerations
about pharmacology, and in particular his views on the relationship between
reason and experience. Although in the field of dietetics and pharmacology
he is particularly indebted to the Empiricists, his highly original notion of
‘qualified experience’ represents a most fortunate combination of reason
and experience; and one of Galen’s particular strengths is his flexibility
in applying theoretical and experiential approaches to different domains
within medical science and practice.
Among Galen’s great rivals were the Methodists, a group of medical
thinkers and practitioners that was founded in the first centurybcebut
came to particular fruition in the first and second centuriesce, especially
under their great leader Soranus. Although their approach to medicine was
emphatically practical, empirical and therapy-oriented, their views present
interesting philosophical aspects, for example in epistemology and in the as-
sumption of some kind of corpuscular theory applied to the human body.
Regrettably, most works written by the Methodists survive only in frag-
ments, and much of the evidence is biased by the hostile filter of Galen’s
perception and rhetorical presentation.^32 It is therefore most fortunate that
we have a direct Methodist voice speaking in the work of Caelius Aure-
lianus, the (presumably) fifth-centuryceauthor of several medical works,
including two major treatises on acute and chronic diseases. Caelius has long
been dismissed as an unoriginal author who simply translated the works of
Soranus into Latin. However, recent scholarship has begun to appreciate
Caelius’ originality and to examine his particular version of Methodism.^33
My discussion (chapter 11 ) of a number of epistemological issues in Caelius’
work such as causal explanation, definition, inference from signs, and rea-
son and experience, ties in with this recent development.
6 the textuality and intertextuality
of medicine and philosophy
We have seen that ancient medicine and ancient philosophy, rather than be-
ing completely separate disciplines, interacted and overlapped in a number
of ways. This overlap not only concerned the ideas, concepts and method-
ologies they entertained, but also the ways and forms in which they ex-
pressed and communicated these ideas, the modalities of dissemination
and persuasion, and the settings in which they had to work and present
(^32) For a collection of the fragments of the Methodists see now Tecusan ( 2004 ).
(^33) SeeMudry( 1999 ).