Medicine Ancient and Modern

About the Speaker

A classical philosophy scholar, Dr. Hankinson has a special interest in ancient medicine and philosophy of science. He is author of The Sceptics (1995) in the Routledge 'Arguments of the Philosophers' Series, and Cause and Explanation in Ancient Greek Thought (Oxford, 1998). He has edited Method, Medicine, and Metaphysics (1988). His editions and translations, with philosophical commentary, include Galen's On the Therapeutic Method (Oxford, 1991), Galen on Antecedent Causes (Cambridge, 1998), Aristotle's de Caelo (Oxford, forthcoming in two volumes), and Simplicius' Commentary on de Caelo. (Volume I, Simplicius: On Aristotle On the Heavens 1.1-4 (Duckworth/Cornell, 2002) has appeared; two more volumes are forthcoming.) He is the editor of Apeiron.

Streaming Media

Location

Killeen Chair Lecture Series, St. Norbert College

Start Date

12-4-2025 7:00 PM

Description

Modern medicine really is very…modern. Most current practices and their theoretical underpinnings would have been largely unrecognizable two centuries ago, when doctors still practiced in the shadows cast by their Greco-Roman predecessors. But for all that, there are some surprising continuities between modern and ancient medicine. In this lecture, eminent philosopher and historian of science Dr. R.J. Hankinson will sketch both the continuities and (often entertaining discontinuities, between ancient Greco-Roman medical traditions and the practices that underpin modern medicine.

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Dec 4th, 7:00 PM

Medicine Ancient and Modern

Killeen Chair Lecture Series, St. Norbert College

Modern medicine really is very…modern. Most current practices and their theoretical underpinnings would have been largely unrecognizable two centuries ago, when doctors still practiced in the shadows cast by their Greco-Roman predecessors. But for all that, there are some surprising continuities between modern and ancient medicine. In this lecture, eminent philosopher and historian of science Dr. R.J. Hankinson will sketch both the continuities and (often entertaining discontinuities, between ancient Greco-Roman medical traditions and the practices that underpin modern medicine.