Essay 4: Shedding Light on the Intellectual Discourse between De Juventute et Senectute, de Vita et Morte, de Respiratione 1–6 and the Hippocratic corpus

Korobili, Giouli

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-99966-7_12

Giouli Korobili¹²

Part of the book series: Studies in the History of Philosophy of Mind ((SHPM,volume 30))

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Abstract

This essay depicts Aristotle’s lively engagement with earlier and contemporary medical ideas by exploring the relevance of the views advanced in JSVMR 1–6 to the thematic agenda of certain Hippocratic writings, such as the Aer., De Nat. Pueri, and De locis in hom. In discussing six cases of thematic affinity, I seek to highlight the main features of this peculiar though clear ‘dialogue’, which takes the form of a reconstruction of knowledge, i.e. an adaptation of examples used by the Hippocratic writers for their own medical purposes into a new natural-philosophical framework. While it is difficult to argue in favour of a catalytic influence exerted upon Aristotle’s text, in this essay it is shown that certain views held by the author of the De Nat. Pueri could constitute the source material upon which Aristotle draws for his own treatment in JSVMR 1–6.

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Notes

1.
See van der Eijk (2017) p. 228.
2.
The Hippocratic texts discussed below were written, according to Craik (2015), either before or contemporaneously with Aristotle.
3.
Craik (2015) p. 118.
4.
See commentary at 3.468b16–28.
5.
Already in De Nat. Pueri 19 the author provides an interesting analogy between the branching of the fingers and toes and the branching of a tree.
6.
See e.g. GA II 4.739b33–740a4; cf. comment on 1.468a4–5 and Connell (2016) pp. 139–141, 147–149. For the Presocratic origins of this theory, see Lonie (1981) pp. 237–239, with further bibliographical references.
7.
Translations of the De Nat. Pueri are taken from Lonie (1981) but in some cases they have been slightly modified. The text is taken from Giorgianni (2006).
8.
See 3.468b18–23. This is not the first time Aristotle has used his sources in such a way; see Althoff (1999) pp. 68, 74–75.
9.
It is not entirely clear with reference to what Aristotle uses the appellation φυτά in JSVMR 3. Is he referring to plants in general, or in particular to trees, as the use of ὄζος and κλάδος perhaps suggests? It seems to me likely that the word φυτόν is used indiscriminately in both senses, given that the purpose of this chapter is not to offer an exhaustive treatment of the subject matter at hand but rather to bring out the common feature in both kinds of plant generation, i.e. that nutrition and growth start from the middle.
10.
For further details on this use, see Lonie (1981) pp. 216–218.
11.
Cf. comment on 1.468a1–4.
12.
See comment on 3.468b16–18.
13.
Cf. Aristotle’s use of the composites ἀπο-φυτεία and ἐν-φυτεία.
14.
See also Case 6 below.
15.
Theophrastus makes use of the term ἐνοφθαλμισμός; see e.g. CP 1.6.1 and cf. 5–5.4.
16.
See comment on 3.468b29–30.
17.
Wilberding (2016) p. 331.
18.
Lonie (1981) p. 155.
19.
Lonie (1981) pp. 115–117, 178, 185; Perilli (2007) pp. 163–167; Wilberding (2016) p. 333.
20.
Lonie (1981) p. 240.
21.
As opposed to the observations he describes elsewhere. Note, for example, the use of εἶδον in 13.1, 24.3 and 29.2, and cf. Lonie (1981) pp. 163 and 241. On the other hand, it can hardly be denied that Aristotle himself performed experiments on chicken eggs; see Lehoux (2017) p. 246.
22.
See Lonie (1981) pp. 158–161.
23.
Cf. Holmes (2010) p. 109: “The analogue becomes an observable instance of a general principle while illuminating the specific process or effect in question, thereby shedding light on the unseen”. Lonie (1981) proposes that the best way to assess the value of the De Nat. Pueri’s report is solely by comparison with Aristotle’s “outstanding description” of the chick’s growth (p. 242).
24.
See comment on 3.469a12–14.
25.
Backhaus (1976) p. 176.
26.
Jouanna (1999) p. 218.
27.
Another very interesting example, used to illustrate the fusion of two parental seeds, is the discussion of lighted coals in Vict. I 29 (= 146.11–16 Joly&Byl). According to this text, two heaps of burning coal stand for the two seeds, each of which consists of fire and water. See Bartoš (2015) pp. 188–189.
28.
As with JSVMR 5, so too here, a common methodological practice involving appeals to empirical observations and appeals to logos seems to be at work, a practice which has as its ultimate aim the supporting of inferences about what happens inside a (still) living body; cf. Lonie (1981) pp. 146–147.
29.
See JSVMR 12 and cf. comments on 5.469b21–31. See also Bartoš (2020) pp. 29–30.
30.
Cf. Lonie (1981) pp. 153–154.
31.
See Essay 1, pp. 127, 140, 142, 146–148, and Essay 2, pp. 157–158.
32.
24B4 DK.
33.
See p. 155.
34.
See JSVMR 27.480b22–24 and Essay 2, pp. 173–181.
35.
Ph. VII 3.246b4–6.
36.
Aer. 1 (= 24.3–26.4 Diller). Similarly in Vict. I 2 (= 124.11–17 Joly&Byl), and the Aphor., especially 3.1–23 (= IV.486–496 L.).
37.
Aer. 2 (= 26.5–13 Diller).
38.
Epid. I (= II.598–614 L.); II 1.1–5 (= V.72–74 L.), 3.1 (= V.100–104 L.); IV 46 (= V.188 L.). De hum. 12–19 (= 170.9–176.4 Overwien).
39.
De nat. hom. 7 (= 182.4–186.12 Jouanna) and 8 (= 186.13–188.2 Jouanna).
40.
Aristotle hints at this issue through the use of the term ἀστρόβλητα. Cf. comment on 6.470a31–32.
41.
Aer. 2 (= 26.13–21 Diller).
42.
See e.g. Aphor. 4.5 (= IV.502 L.); cf. Jouanna (1999) p. 215.
43.
As such, this passage is reminiscent of more elaborate attempts at rationalisation of the causes of diseases found, among others, in Morb. Sacr. 1 (= 1.1–10.3 Jouanna) and Aer. 22 (= 72.10–76.4 Diller); for the interconnections between these two texts and the possibility of common authorship, see van der Eijk (2005) pp. 45–73, with references to further literature.
44.
De morbis II 8 (= 139.1–140.6 Jouanna), II 25 (= 158.10–159.8 Jouanna), De morbis III 3 (= 72.10–19 Potter).
45.
Coac. praenot. 394 (= V.672 L.), Acut. 17 (42.22–43.21 Joly). Unlike De morbis II and III, these texts attempt to explain the appellation βλητός in wholly rationalising terms, according to Mansfeld (1980) p. 377.
46.
Duminil (1992). Duminil concludes that the account of the Coac. praenot. is a compilation of the material presented in these three treatises: “l’auteur a pensé que Mal. II, III et Acut. décrivaient la même maladie et il en a fait une synthèse en éliminant les détails qui pouvaient paraître incompatibles entre eux. Ce traité apparaît donc, dans ce passage du moins, comme une pure compilation, sans valeur médicale” (p. 223).
47.
See Duminil (1992) pp. 220, 223.
48.
See commentary at 6.470a31–32.
49.
Duminil (1992) p. 216.
50.
Mansfeld (1980) pp. 374–375; see similarly Craik (2009) p. 133. Duminil (1992) p. 216 reports a gloss found in the Marcianus graecus 269 which explains βλητός as “‘apoplectique’ et précise qu’il désignait ceux qui meurent soudainement d’une maladie aiguë”.
51.
See Celsus 3.27.1, and Karenberg and Moog (1997) pp. 490–491.
52.
Trans. Craik (2009). Cf. Diocles fr. 95 van der Eijk, and van der Eijk’s (2001) detailed comment ad loc. with secondary literature.
53.
See e.g. Aphor. 7.50 (= IV.592 L.), De morbis II 5 (= 136.7–137.8 Jouanna), De morbis III 4 (= 72.20–28 Potter), and comments by Potter (1980) ad loc.
54.
De fract. 11 (= III.454–458 L.).
55.
Cf. PA III 4.667a34–b10 discussed in Essay 1, pp. 141–142.
56.
Ogle (1897) p. 115, n. 41.
57.
Cf. De hum. 11 (= 170.1–8 Overwien). The idea of thermal inversion is attributed first to Oenopides of Chios by ancient sources, specifically as part of his explanation of the flooding of the Nile. For a detailed commentary, with references to primary and secondary bibliography, see Bodnár (2007) pp. 11–13. I thank István Bodnár for bringing these passages to my attention.
58.
Cf. Hanson (1992) pp. 55–56 and pp. 215–219 above.
59.
27.1. Craik, trans. Potter (1995).
60.
27.1.18–20 Craik; cf. Craik (1998) p. 177.
61.
27.1.30–31 Craik.
62.
See further Craik (1998) pp. 14–17.
63.
Cf., however, EN X 9.1180b8–9: “in general rest and abstinence from food are good for a man in a fever”.
64.
See e.g. De mul. affect. 1.78.61–62 (= VIII.178 L.); 1.91.15 (= VIII.220 L.) and De morbis III 8 (= 76.18–19 Potter).
65.
See e.g. the sharp μὴ νῆστις ἐὼν τὸ φάρμακον πινέτω in De morbis II 43 (= 175.7–8 Jouanna), or the warning ἀσιτέειν δὲ μή in De morbis III 11 (= 80.2 Potter); cf. also VM 10 (= 129.14–131.10 Jouanna), where the author embarks on a discussion of the symptoms that follow abstinence from food, and De flat. 1.4 (= 104.5–10 Jouanna), where we are told that hunger and thirst are diseases inasmuch as they make a man suffer.
66.
Acut. 26.2–27.1 (= 47.8–17 Joly).
67.
Boylan (1982) p. 98.
68.
Cf. De nat. hom. 6 (= 180.8–182.3 Jouanna).
69.
On the use of this term, see Lonie (1981) pp. 266–267, 297 and 368.
70.
For a detailed analysis of the theory of the four humours presented in De morbis IV, according to which there are four bodily reservoirs (the head, the gall-bladder, the heart, and the spleen), each of which draws from the food in the stomach the humour which is akin to it for the purpose of establishing an equilibrium among the humours in the body, see Lonie (1981) pp. 260–266; for the principle of attraction, see ibid. pp. 266–268 and Craik (2015) pp. 116, 121, and 188.
71.
See e.g. Nat.Fac. 2.168–177 K.; cf. Brock (1916) p. 263 n. 2, and Debru (2008), especially pp. 273–275; cf. also the use of εὐρυχωρίη in 2.174 K.
72.
Nat.Fac. 2.168 K.; cf. 2.60–67 K.
73.
2.176 K.; cf. 2.62 K.
74.
Cf. Nat.Fac. 2.176 K.: διὰ μόνης τῆς ἄνωθεν βολῆς, ἐκ τούτου δῆλον; 2.68 K.; Boylan (1982) pp. 98–99 and Powell (2003) p. 15.
75.
I have dealt with this issue in Korobili (Forthcoming).
76.
Ph. VII 2.243a16–18 and 243b12–17.
77.
See Essay 2, pp. 173–181.

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Korobili, G. (2022). Essay 4: Shedding Light on the Intellectual Discourse between De Juventute et Senectute, de Vita et Morte, de Respiratione 1–6 and the Hippocratic corpus. In: Aristotle. On Youth and Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration 1-6. Studies in the History of Philosophy of Mind, vol 30. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99966-7_12

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