Alexander of Aphrodisias on medicine as a stochastic art

Abstract

Medical practice in antiquity was conspicuous for its failures, which seriously challenged medicine's status as an art. Ancient philosophers and doctors tried to explain how a whole group of arts including medicine, the so-called stochastic arts, was characterised by the fact that even the most competent exercise of the art could not guarantee a successful outcome. This paper focuses on Alexander of Aphrodisias' (second century AD) explanation and compares it to some other ancient views, in particular to Galen's. The central feature of Alexander's suggestion is a distinction between the end of an art and its function. In the case of medicine end and function do not coincide; for the end is to heal the patient, whereas the function consists solely in doing artfully what is possible to attain the end.