Galen's Humanistic Medicine

The present volume offers an edition, updated English translation of, introduction to, and seven multi-authored contributions on Galen's small tract That the Best Doctor is also a Philosopher. The volume seeks to put Galen's text into conversation with recent interrogations of medicine's self-sufficiency – or disciplinary autonomy – in the Medical Humanities. As the title of the ancient work conveys and the essays in this volume unpack, Galen argues for a reenvisioning of medicine by making philosophy constitutive of his profession on the grounds that the latter's methods of reasoning, explanations of the natural world, and ethical directives enable the doctor to understand and treat the body in disease. In so doing, Galen expands medical knowledge at the expanse of instrumentalizing the philosophical.Aileen R. Das: Preface to the Volume
Aileen R. Das: Introduction: The Best Doctor-Philosopher

Text, Translation and Notes
ΓΑΛΗΝΟΥ ΟΤΙ Ο ΑΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΟΣ

Essays
Florian Steger: Galen's Plea for an »Understanding of Medicine«: Ancient Lessons for Today's Practice – Bronwen L. Wickkiser: Galen and Pergamon: The Role of Religion in Framing Medical Authority – Todd Curtis: Galen, Rhetoric, and Philosophical Discourse: A Rhetorical Analysis of Quod optimus medicus sit quoque philosophus – Ralph M. Rosen: »Galen's Hippocrates« in That the Best Doctor is also a Philosopher – Teun Tieleman: Galen between Medicine and Philosophy – Elvira Wakelnig: Galen's Philosopher-Physician from Late Antiquity to the Arabic-Islamic World in ʿAbbāsid Times – Caroline Petit: Humanitas and the Galenic Doctor: Medicine, Philosophy, and Religion in the Renaissance