갈레노스의 영혼삼분설과 ‘의학적 플라톤주의’

Abstract

This paper aims to explore Galen’s reception of Plato’s philosophy. Particular attention is paid to the theory of the tripartite soul, which emerges as a confluence of philosophy and medicine in Galen’s influential work On the Doctrines of Hippocrates and Plato. Galen defended an up-to-date version of the tripartition and trilocation of the soul preceded by Plato, notably in the Republic and the Timaeus: the rational part of soul resides in the brain, the spirited part in the heart, and the appetitive part in the liver. It is striking that he attempted to prove the Platonic theory by means of anatomical observations and experiments. Above all, on the basis of the anatomical study of the brain as the origin of the nerves, he entered an age-old philosophical debate over the central organ as the seat of the ruling part of the soul and defended Platonic encephalocentrism against Aristotelian and Stoic cardiocentrism. In this paper, I focus on Galen’s defense strategy, while exploring its theoretical premises and limits. It is also shown that Galen embraces Plato’s philosophy insofar as it is useful for promoting health and curing disease of the body and the soul, whereby speculative issues of Plato’s theoretical philosophy are excluded. Galen’s reception of Plato’s philosophy results, I suggest, in a ‘medical Platonism’, which could be characterized as scientific, useful and practical Platonism without speculative theory.