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Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences Advance Access originally published online on August 30, 2007
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 2008 63(2):217-244; doi:10.1093/jhmas/jrm028
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Rationalizing Medicine and the Social Ambitions of Physicians in Classical Greece

Hui-Hua Chang*

Correspondence: * Assistant Professor, Elon University, Elon, North Carolina 27244; E-mail: hchang{at}elon.edu.


  Abstract

Political and social circumstances in the late Classical period increased upward social mobility in Greece and provided some doctors with an opportunity to improve their social status. By adopting rational medical theories and prescribing an upper-class oriented regimen, these doctors appealed to the elites who favored the teachings of natural philosophers and sophists at that time. These doctors' goal was to be accepted into circles of the social elite as intellectual companions. Their ambitions contributed to the fact that rational medicine in the Classical period did not become an empirical science. Instead, speculative theories were selectively used to explain the causes of health and disease and to guide these doctors' practices, because natural philosophical speculation was considered a "superior" form of knowledge by the Greek elites. Eryximachus provided an illustrative example of this strategy by attaining acceptance into the highest social circle of a Classical Greek city.

Key Words: Aristotle • Eryximachus • Classical Greece • Hippocratic Corpus • Natural philosophy • Rational medicine • Regimen • Social mobility • Sophists


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