Aristotle’s Mixture in its Medical and Philosophical Background: The Hippocratic De victu and the Aristotelian De generatione et corruptione

Claudia Mirrone

doi:10.14746/10.14746/pea.2021.1.8

Abstract

Aristotle’s notion of qualitative interaction ruling both the process of mixture and the process of reciprocal elemental transmutation is based upon the idea of a physical contrariety endowed with two extremes and a wide central area where the opposite forces reach different equilibrium points (i.e., the so-called mixtures) or can be present to the fullest degree (in this case we do not have a mixture, but an element). Differently from previous scholarship which attributes this notion specifically to Aristotle, we have found, in a text which Aristotle seems to have been acquainted with, the Hippocratic De victu, an incipient structure of a contrariety endowed with extremes and a central area where opposite forces meet and yield respective equilibrium points, mixtures, which, as in Aristotle, give an account of the variety of beings existing in the world. In this article, we suggest the possibility that in the development of the Aristotelian thinking about elemental and qualitative dynamics, the Hippocratic De victu may have contributed to suggesting to Aristotle a way of envisioning the structure of his basic physical contrarieties.

Highlights

In the proem to Meteorologica (Mete. 338a20–39a10), Aristotle describes the programme of his study of nature by enumerating a series of works already written or yet to be written, beginning with a reference to his Physics and concluding with a mention of his zoological and botanical treatises.1 This programmatic catalogue refers, remarkably, to *I wish to thank Sabrina Grimaudo for comments, suggestions, and improvements on a previous version of this article
A discussion on corporeal elements, and on generation and corruption in general. These two latter topics have been understood as covered by De caelo III–IV and De generatione et corruptione, in the form in which we read them today
If De caelo III arrives at the conclusion that the primary elements are reciprocally transmutable, and De caelo IV is wholly dedicated to expounding the theory of the natural places of the primary elements, neither of the two books delves deeper into the question of what really happens when the primary elements transform into one another or mix together – processes whose basic principles are laid down in De generatione et corruptione

Summary

Introduction

In the proem to Meteorologica (Mete. 338a20–39a10), Aristotle describes the programme of his study of nature by enumerating a series of works already written or yet to be written, beginning with a reference to his Physics and concluding with a mention of his zoological and botanical treatises. This programmatic catalogue refers, remarkably, to. 338a20–39a10), Aristotle describes the programme of his study of nature by enumerating a series of works already written or yet to be written, beginning with a reference to his Physics and concluding with a mention of his zoological and botanical treatises.. 338a20–39a10), Aristotle describes the programme of his study of nature by enumerating a series of works already written or yet to be written, beginning with a reference to his Physics and concluding with a mention of his zoological and botanical treatises.1 A discussion on corporeal elements (their number, kinds, and mutual transformation), and on generation and corruption in general These two latter topics have been understood as covered by De caelo III–IV and De generatione et corruptione, in the form in which we read them today.. As our goal is to make a contribution which can shed new light on the historical roots of Aristotle’s theory of mixture as ruled by the mechanism of the reciprocal interaction of the elements, our focus here will be Aristotle’s essay De generatione et corruptione, which provides us with the best insight into this topic

Aristotle’s elementary physics in De generatione et corruptione

Two Hippocratic models of mixture

The models of mixture in De generatione et corruptione and De victu

Conclusions

C L AU DI AMIRR ION E