Experience, observation and experiment in early Greek philosophy and medicine

Abstract

F. M. Cornford thought that the pre-Socratic philosophers were rationalizing myth and originally using the anamnesis method of gaining knowledge, which resembles the inspiration of shamans, "empiricism" being introduced into philosophy from medicine by Alemaeon. The elements which Cornford thought came from myth .may be (i) logical ideas based on insufficient observation or (ii) symptoms of Greek psychological tendencies. Myth differs from philosophy in the way in which it uses (i) logical and mythopoeic thought and (ii) experience and observation. Philosophy took its subject from myth and probably its method from, technology. The Milesians' cosmology was probably, the result of observation, however insufficient. Xenophanes was primarily interested in religion, but favoured the "empirical" method. Heraclitus supported an a priori theory by observation. The method of anamnesis probably originated in Pythagoreanism; but Pythagoras paid attention to reason and sense-perception, unlike the shamans. Some of the Pythagoreans' discoveries were "empirical". Alcmaeon was very "scientific" and originated the "empirical" theory. The Eleatics, while ignoring the evidence of the senses, made use of reason. In the works of Empedocles and Anaxagoras there are examples of observation and experiment. The Atomists gave precedence to rep son over sense-perception. In the works of the Italian doctors there are many theories taken from philosophy, out also some careful observations and experiments; the Cnidians tended to be over-empirical, often drawing no conclusions from their observations and experiments; the Coan doctors, while not accepting the theories of philosophy sometimes went too far beyond the evidence of the senses. Conclusions; the empirical method existed before Alcmaeon; all the Greek philosophers, except the Eleatics, paid some attention to sense-perception; Greek medicine was often no more empirical than philosophy: sense-perception and reasoning were used by both; the most successful systems are these in which reason and sense-percept ion are complementary.