Ancient Greek ＆ Roman Medicine

Catalog description

This course aims to identify, analyze, and discuss ancient Greek and Roman medical theories, observations, methodologies for diagnosis and treatment, and the philosophical and professional disputes that arose around them. This course is arranged thematically and focuses on common methodologies, such as reasoning from first causes, in contrast to epistemic observation and experience. Other broad themes include the relationship between medicine and natural history, and the connection between medical treatments and the rise of herbals as ostensibly reliable sources of information. By focusing on such general themes and methodologies, and by reading the original Greek and Latin texts in translation, this course will aim to provide an answer to the following questions: in what exactly did ancient Greek and Roman medicine consist and how did the field’s practitioners and theorists perform medical work, in their own words? There are no prerequisites for this course, nor does it require knowledge of Greek or Latin. It is equally suited to premed students, individuals with an interest in medical humanities, and Classics students