Preventative medicine and the dietetics of the soul in Galen’s moral treatises on the passions and errors of the soul
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.ef.13476Keywords:
Galen, Soul, Passions, Error of the Soul, excess, false opinion.Abstract
The vast work of Galen of Pergamus -who was the physician to the Stoic Marcus Aurelius- includes various Treatises of a philosophical nature (especially those in which he analyses the causes of the passions and of the errors of the soul), whose main purpose is to understand human nature at large, and to put forward proper guides for its moral improvement. Galen split his exposition of the questions pertaining to the diagnosis and treatment of the passions and the errors of each one's souls, since his main thesis - that the soul has a threefold structure (reason, intense emotions or passions, and desires)- requires this division. According to Galen, the treatment of the passions diverges from the treatment of cognitive disorders to which the errors of soul refer; which may be caused by immoderate passions or desires, and false opinions on goods and evils; which in the end mediate in the choice of a measured or, otherwise, immoderate life. The thread linking the Treatise on Passions and the Treatise on the Errors of the Soul is precisely that false opinions, which increase the violence exerted by our own passions whenever we have neither considered the causes (our beliefs and desires) of our excessive behavior, nor the value judgments with which we are used to judge daily circumstances of our daily life. The power of opinions lies precisely in increasing emotions' quantum of force, making them immoderate and indomitable, or moderable.
Downloads
References
GALEN. (2005) On the doctrines of Hippocrates and Plato. Third edition. Argumented and revised. Akademie Verlag (3 Vol.). Edition, translation and commentary by Phillip de Lacy. (PHP)
GALENO. (2003) Sobre las facultades naturales-Las facultades del alma siguen los temperamentos del cuerpo (QAM). Introducción, traducción y notas de Juana Zaragoza Gras. Madrid: Gredos.
Ediciones consultadas de Aff. Dig. y Pecc. Dig.:
GALEN. (1963) On the passions and errors of the soul. Translated by P. W. Harkins. With an Introduction and Interpretation by Walther Riese. Ohio State University Press. 1963.
GALEN. (1997) Selected Works. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by P. N. Singer. Oxford-New York: Oxford University Press.
GALIEN. (1995) L ́ âme et ses passions. Les passions et les erreurs de l' âme. Les facultés de l'âme suivent les tempéraments du corps. Preface de Jean Starobinski. Introduction, traduction et notes par Barras, Birchler, Morand. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
DONINI, P. L. (1992) “Galeno e la filosofía”, en: Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt. Teil II: Principat. Band 36.5. Berlin
HANKINSON (2008) The Cambridge Companion to Galen. Cambridge Companions to Philosophy. Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL9780521819541
MANULI, P. E y VEGETTI, M. (eds.) (1988) Le opere psichologiche di Galeno. Atti del terzo colloquio galenico internazionale, Pavia, 10-12 Settembre, 1986. Napoli. Bibliopolis.
SÉNECA, L. A. (2006) Cartas a Lucilio. Barcelona: Editorial Juventud, 2006. Prólogo, traducción directa del latín y notas por Vicente López Soto.
MARCOS, A. y PÉREZ RANSANZ, A. R. (eds.) (2011) número monográ co sobre Producción del conocimiento, en Estudios Filosóficos, vol. LX, no 173.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2012 Liliana Cecilia Molina González
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term "Work" shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher a nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoCommercia-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions: (a) Attribution: Other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;(b) Noncommercial: Other users (including Publisher) may not use this Work for commercial purposes;
4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal;
5. Authors are permitted, and Estudios de Filosofía promotes, to post online the preprint manuscript of the Work in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access). Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work is expected be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Estudios de Filosofía's assigned URL to the Article and its final published version in Estudios de Filosofía.
