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The Relationship Between the Doctor and the Patient: The Ancient Conceptions of Philosophy as Medicine

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The Patient as a Person

Part of the book series: New Paradigms in Healthcare ((NPH))

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Abstract

Some philosophers of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds referred to medicine to define the nature of their exercises for self-care. This essay reflects upon some implications of the medical analogy (philosophy as medical science for the mind), starting from Plato, by focusing on the methods a philosopher should employ in order to achieve therapeutic goals and on the way in which the philosopher-doctor should relate to patients. The underlying hypothesis of the chapter is that just as philosophy drew inspiration from medicine, medicine in turn can draw inspiration from philosophy on these issues.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    More in general, “the Hellenistic philosophical schools in Greece and Rome—Epicureans, Skeptics, and Stoics—all conceived of philosophy as a way of addressing the most painful problems of human life. They saw the philosopher as a compassionate physician whose arts could heal many pervasive type of human suffering” ([6], p. 3). Naturally, there are disanalogies between medical practice and physical health on the one hand, and philosophy and psychological health on the other hand: in this regard, see [7].

  2. 2.

    See [9], p. 112: “According to Socrates, vision (ὄψις) is likely to be the only model (παράδειγμα) capable of explaining the Delphic precept and the way in which we can know ourselves (132d3). Just as the eye needs a mirror to see itself, so too does the soul (ψυχή) require another soul in order to know itself”.

  3. 3.

    On the relationship among self, self-knowledge and psyché in Plato, see [11,12,13,14,15,16].

  4. 4.

    More generally, “[…] scholars in ancient philosophy have come to realise that a number of ‘philosophers’ too had their own particular reasons for being interested in areas and themes that we commonly associate with medicine and for pursuing these interests in a variety of forms, theoretical as well as practical—and, in so doing, were interacting with medical writers in the setting of their agendas, the formation of their ideas, concepts and methodologies and in their practical activities” ([18], p. 9). See [19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26].

  5. 5.

    See [28].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere, Pisa University, Pisa, Italy

    Luca Mori

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  1. Luca Mori
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Correspondence to Luca Mori .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Physiology Institute, CNR, Pisa, Italy

    Alessandro Pingitore

  2. Civilisation and Forms of Knowledge Department, Universita di Pisa, Pisa, Italy

    Alfonso Maurizio Iacono

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Mori, L. (2023). The Relationship Between the Doctor and the Patient: The Ancient Conceptions of Philosophy as Medicine. In: Pingitore, A., Iacono, A.M. (eds) The Patient as a Person. New Paradigms in Healthcare. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23852-9_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23852-9_2

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