Ancient Medicine and Philosophy
Health and Disease from Hippocrates to Byzantium
Edited by Franco Giorgianni Edited by Andrzej M. Kaniowski Edited by Florian Steger
Hardback (Published)
(August 2026)
ISBN: 9783515134606
6.69 x 9.49 inches
Price: $96.00
In stock
What were the ancient and medieval conceptions of health and disease? How can medical thinking be understood in its broader philosophical, religious, and ethical context?
Rather than treating medicine as a purely technical discipline, the contributions of this edited volume emphasize its deep entanglement with ideas of the good life, the soul, and social order. Drawing on papers from two international conferences, the volume covers a wide chronological and thematic range: from the cult of Asclepius and the interaction between ritual healing and empirical practice, to the intellectual exchange between Sophistic philosophy and Hippocratic medicine. Further chapters address Platonic music therapy, Cynic social critique, the ethical role of emotions in Plutarch, responses to the Antonine Plague, Galen’s medicalization of moral virtue, gnostic paths to happiness, Byzantine gynecology, dietetics, and the transmission of medical knowledge into the Renaissance. Taken together, the volume presents ancient medicine as a pluralistic and dynamic field in which bodily health, moral formation, emotional balance, and cosmic order are inseparably linked, offering a holistic understanding of health that continues to inform modern perspectives.
What were the ancient and medieval conceptions of health and disease? How can medical thinking be understood in its broader philosophical, religious, and ethical context?
Rather than treating medicine as a purely technical discipline, the contributions of this edited volume emphasize its deep entanglement with ideas of the good life, the soul, and social order. Drawing on papers from two international conferences, the volume covers a wide chronological and thematic range: from the cult of Asclepius and the interaction between ritual healing and empirical practice, to the intellectual exchange between Sophistic philosophy and Hippocratic medicine. Further chapters address Platonic music therapy, Cynic social critique, the ethical role of emotions in Plutarch, responses to the Antonine Plague, Galen’s medicalization of moral virtue, gnostic paths to happiness, Byzantine gynecology, dietetics, and the transmission of medical knowledge into the Renaissance. Taken together, the volume presents ancient medicine as a pluralistic and dynamic field in which bodily health, moral formation, emotional balance, and cosmic order are inseparably linked, offering a holistic understanding of health that continues to inform modern perspectives.
- Edited by Franco Giorgianni
- Edited by Andrzej M. Kaniowski
- Edited by Florian Steger
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