Galen on Human Physiology: Taking the Body Apart and Putting it Back Together Again

Author:   Aistė Čelkytė (Universiteit Leiden)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
ISBN:  

9781009435819


Pages:   258
Publication Date:   02 October 2025
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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Galen on Human Physiology: Taking the Body Apart and Putting it Back Together Again


Overview

Galen of Pergamum, known as 'the prince of medicine', is an important figure not only for the history of medicine but also for ancient philosophy, history of ideas and cultural history. In this book, Aistė Čelkytė explores Galenic physiology and examines how this highly influential figure theorised the unity of the multi-part, ever-moving and ever-changing human body. She approaches this question by first studying how Galen 'takes the body apart', that is, the different divisions of the body into parts that he proposes, and then how he 'puts it back together', that is, his use of philosophical tools to posit the vital unity among these parts. She then looks at Galen's theorisation of human nature, his understanding of parthood, the hierarchies between the parts that underpin vital functions, the 'mechanisms' that make the body one, and Galen's understanding of the body as a multifaceted but unified whole.

Full Product Details

Author:   Aistė Čelkytė (Universiteit Leiden)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
Weight:   0.500kg
ISBN:  

9781009435819


ISBN 10:   1009435817
Pages:   258
Publication Date:   02 October 2025
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Galen on parts: taking the body apart; 2. Nutrition, growth, and vegetative capacities; 3. Respiration and transpiration: the cardiac system and pneumatology; 4. Perception and voluntary motion: the nervous systems; 5. Tripartition: putting the body back together; Conclusions; References; General index; Index locorum.

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Author Information

Aistė Čelkytė is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS) at Leiden University and a researcher at Vilnius University. She is the author of The Stoic Theory of Beauty (2020).

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