“The Best Doctor is also a Philosopher” Medicine and Philosophy in Galen

Medicine and philosophy were very closely related in antiquity. The Pre-Socratics were interested in physiological and pathological aspects of human body. Their interests of human body was a part of interests on nature. Plato and Aristotle were fond of proposing their philosophical arguments using medical analogy. Medicine and philosophy were regarded as two disciplines which play a similar role in human being. Ancient philosophers thought that medicine and philosophy were similar on the ground that while philosophy eliminates passion from human soul, medicine eliminates disease from human body. Here, they regarded the similarity of medicine and philosophy only in terms of analogy. More comprehensive and systematic relationship between medicine and philosophy is realized by Galen. He manifestly declared that “The Best Doctor is also a Philosopher”, which is also the title of one of his treatise. In this treatise, Galen regarded philosophy is a discipline consisted of physics, logic, and ethics according to the views of Stoics. As a result, a good doctor for Galen is one who is well versed in physics, logic, and ethics. Furthermore, He regarded Hippocrates as the ideal model of a doctor-philosopher.restrictio