Medicine before science : the rational and learned doctor from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment
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Bibliographic Information
Medicine before science : the rational and learned doctor from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment
Cambridge University Press, 2003
- : hbk
- : pbk
- Other Title
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Medicine before science : the business of medicine from the Middle Age to the Enlightment
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Note
Bibliography: p. 260-269
Includes index
Some copies have different title: Medicine before science : the business of medicine from the Middle Age to the Enlightment
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This book offers an introduction to the history of university-trained physicians from the middle ages to the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. These were the elite, in reputation and rewards, and they were successful. Yet we can form little idea of their clinical effectiveness, and to modern eyes their theory and practice often seems bizarre. But the historical evidence is that they were judged on other criteria, and the argument of this book is that these physicians helped to construct the expectations of society - and met them accordingly. The main focus is on the European Latin tradition of medicine, reconstructed from ancient sources and relying heavily on natural philosophy for its explanatory power. This philosophy collapsed in the 'scientific revolution', and left the learned and rational doctor in crisis. The book concludes with an examination of how this crisis was met - or avoided - in different parts of Europe during the Enlightenment.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Part I. Sources: 1. Hippocrates and the philosophers
- 2. Galen
- Part II. The Latin Tradition: 3. Medieval schools
- 4. Scholastic medicine
- 5. The weakening of the Latin tradition
- Part III. The Crisis: 6. The crisis of theory
- 7. Resolutions
- 8. Enlightenment, systems and science
- Select bibliography.
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