Alkmaion (philosopher)

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The area around Alkmaion's hometown of Croton (Crotone)

Alkmaion (also called Alkmaion of Croton ; Greek  Ἀλκμαίων Alkmaíōn or ( Attic ) Ἀλκμέων Alkméōn , Latinized Alcmaeo ) was an ancient Greek natural philosopher . He lived in the late 6th and early 5th centuries BC. BC in the Greek settled southern Italy and belonged to the pre-Socratics , who strived for a holistic understanding of nature with different approaches. He is also said to have practiced as a doctor. In any case, he dealt with medical and biological questions in the context of his work in natural philosophy. His relationship to the Pythagorean community to which he allegedly belonged is unclear.

Alkmaion emphasized the role of the brain as an organ of perception and knowledge. He interpreted health as a balanced relationship between opposing factors in the body, he attributed illnesses to disturbances of the balance caused by excess. He saw an evil in the one-sided domination of a single factor. When discussing the relationships in the body, he used a terminology derived from political discourse and associated with corresponding evaluations. This was widespread in circles that took a politically and socially balanced position and rejected the principle of autocracy or tyranny .

Life

Alkmaion came from the city of Kroton, today's Crotone in Calabria . Around 530 BC there had BC the philosopher Pythagoras founded a school and community of like-minded people. The followers of his doctrine, the Pythagoreans, exercised considerable cultural and political influence in the Greek settled southern Italy during the time of Alkmaion. According to sources from the Roman Empire , Alkmaion belonged to the Pythagorean community. The doxographer Diogenes Laertios and the late antique philosopher Iamblichos call him a pupil of Pythagoras. In the metaphysics of Aristotle it is written that in Alkmaion's youth Pythagoras was still alive, but already old. The authenticity of this communication is doubtful, since there is a suspicion that it could be an interpolation - an inauthentic insertion - in the text of the metaphysics , but the chronological information is considered credible. If the information is correct, Alkmaion's birth falls in the third quarter of the 6th century BC. BC, because Pythagoras came around 530 BC. To Croton and taught there for around two decades. However, in the specialist literature there is also a late dating of the period of activity - after the middle of the 5th century BC. BC - considered.

According to the report of Aristotle, the natural philosophy of Alkmaion is similar to that of the Pythagoreans or a certain group of Pythagoreans, but does not agree with it in every respect, since he did not commit himself to certain statements as precisely as these thinkers. It is unclear to Aristotle who influenced whom. Whether one can conclude from this that Aristotle did not consider Alkmaion to be a Pythagorean is disputed in research. Although the sources do not allow a more precise definition of Alkmaion's relationship to the Pythagoreans, it can still be seen that he was at least philosophically close to them. Leonid Zhmud pleads for his membership in the community . William KC Guthrie and Andreas Patzer , for example, have a different opinion . Roberta Marrollo emphasizes the independence of Alkmaion.

Alkmaion's hometown of Croton was an important center of Greek medicine in its time; the famous doctor Demokedes lived there at that time . Alkmaion himself is said to have been a practicing doctor, but this is controversial in research because there is a lack of reliable information; only the late antique scholar Calcidius explicitly calls him a doctor.

Works

Alkmaion wrote a book about his natural philosophy, the title of which - possibly not from the author - was about nature (Peri phýseōs) or, according to other tradition, the theory of nature (physikós lógos) . This writing is lost, but its content can partly be deduced from mentions and quotations in later literature. With the work of natural philosophy, Alkmaion turned to three readers named Brotinos, Leon and Bathyllos. The naming of these men at the beginning of the scriptures is usually interpreted as the dedication of the work to them. The intention of the author can also have been a mere admonition or instruction. Brotinos, Leon and Bathyllos were Pythagoreans. They also appear in Iamblichus' Pythagorean lists, sometimes with a slightly different spelling of their names. According to a communication from the imperial writer Favorinus , Alkmaion was considered the first author to write a work on natural philosophy. However, this assumption is erroneous. According to the report of Diogenes Laertios, Alkmaion's writings dealt mainly with medical subjects.

Teaching

The sources show that Alkmaion was particularly interested in medical and biological questions and that anthropological problems were in the foreground in his philosophy . He dealt with physiology including plant physiology and embryology , allegedly anatomy as well. He also commented on astronomical questions.

Epistemology

Alkmaion emphasized the distinction between thinking and perceiving. In thinking he saw the specific peculiarity of humans, which he thus sharply demarcated from the animal kingdom. In epistemology he taught that direct insight into invisible and perishable things is reserved for the gods, while people are dependent on discursively striving for knowledge through conclusions from observations.

It is unclear whether the functional distinction between perception and thinking that Alkmaion made led him to assume a separation between two different processes. The peculiarity of his contribution to ancient epistemology is probably not in considerations of such a separation. Rather, his achievement can be seen in the fact that he created the theoretical prerequisites for characterizing the various levels of cognitive management of the object world that are made possible by the acts of perception and thought, and for describing their differences within the framework of his comprehensive model.

medicine

The oldest known definition of health and illness comes from Alkmaion. He defined health as the state of isonomy and disease as its disturbance. The word isonomía literally means equality . By this Alkmaion meant an equilibrium or a balance of the opposing polar forces in the human body. For him, illness was the result of monarchia, one of two opposing poles . He originally introduced political terms into medical terminology. He was the only ancient thinker who used the pair of terms isonomy / sovereignty in the context of natural philosophy and medicine. In political discourse, isonomy was understood to mean equality and equality of citizens before the law. It was a programmatic term from the vocabulary of the opponents of arbitrary rule.

As examples of medically relevant pairs of opposites, Alkmaion named the damp and the dry, the cold and the warm, the bitter and the sweet; Excessive heat or cold are particularly likely to be the cause of the disease. An outbreak of disease occurs either in the blood or in the marrow or in the brain; Alkmaion cited an excess or a lack of food as an occasion. According to Aristotle's account, he assumed that human life was largely determined by pairs of opposites. By this he meant the inner qualities of the organism. In contrast to the Pythagoreans, he did not commit himself to a certain number of precisely named pairs of opposites as the original principles.

Physiology, Anatomy and Embryology

Alkmaion owes its fame primarily to its role as a neuroscientist; he is considered the founder of scientific brain research. In the brain - not, like other thinkers, in the heart - he saw the central organ of perception and knowledge. According to his teaching, this is made possible by the fact that the brain is connected to the sensory organs through channels. He pointed out that if the brain were shaken and changed its position, sensory perception would be impaired, as this would affect the channels.

Alkmaion explained his concept of perception with regard to the individual senses, but ignored the sense of touch. He explained the process of seeing with the assumption that the eye itself is of a light-like, namely fiery, nature; this can be seen from the fact that it sprays sparks when it is hit by a blow. Smelling takes place with inhalation, in that the breath is drawn to the brain. Hearing is made possible through a cavity in the ears, which itself sounds, just as one speaks through a cavity; the resonating air transmits the sound to the brain. The warmth of the tongue dissolves the taste particles and transfers them to the brain.

Alkmaion attributed falling asleep to the withdrawal of the blood, and waking to a spread of the blood. According to his teaching, death occurs when the blood withdraws completely.

In connection with Alkmaion's theory that the brain is the seat of all sensory impressions, research suggests that he discovered and described the optic nerve . However, this assumption is controversial. Here the general question arises as to whether or to what extent Alkmaion gained his insights as a pioneer on the path of the then completely unusual section. The late antique scholar Calcidius writes in his commentary on Plato's dialogue Timaeus that Alkmaion was the first to demonstrate the connection between the eye and the brain by dissecting. The fact that as a doctor he dared to have an operation on the eye cannot be inferred from the text of Calcidius - as was assumed in older research literature. When it comes to questions as to whether Alkmaion actually dissected and whether he possibly carried out the dissection on humans or only on animals, opinions differ widely in research.

After a remark by Aristotle, Alkmaion wrongly claimed that goats breathe through their ears. From this it was concluded by science historians that he discovered the eustachian tube while dissecting and was thereby led to the wrong conclusion . The theory of ear breathing in goats was widespread in the later zoological literature of antiquity, but its veracity was mostly doubted.

One focus of Alkmaion's natural history activity was in the field of procreation and embryology. In this area the possibilities of gaining knowledge were extremely limited at that time, so one was particularly dependent on speculative assumptions. Like Parmenides , Empedocles and Democritus , Alkmaion represented the "doctrine of two seeds", according to which, in addition to the male seed, a female also plays a role in reproduction. He claimed that the child was given the sex of the parent whose semen was more abundant. Accordingly, one mass of seeds is overwhelmed by the other. This theory, which makes the quantitative predominance and the resulting predominance (epikráteia) of one or the other reproductive material the decisive factor, has been called the epikrateia mechanism since the study by Erna Lesky (1951) . Alkmaion attributed the sterility of the male mule to the thinness and coldness of his sperm.

His belief in the central role of the brain led Alkmaion to hypothesize that the seed originates there. This view was later supplanted in Greek biology by the rival "Pangenesis doctrine " of Leukippus and Democritus, which assumes the origin of the semen from all parts of the body.

Soul teaching

In the soul , Alkmaion saw an independent, immortal being that existed forever independently of birth and death. He found the reason for this claim in his movement concept. According to his teaching, the difference between the ephemeral and the eternal is the presence or absence of the ability to move endlessly. The cause of human mortality is that people are unable to "connect the beginning with the end," that is, to remain in motion indefinitely. This statement relates to the inability of the body to renew itself, which at death is unable to return to the starting point of its existence and to regain the motility of its original state. For Alkmaion, the finiteness of the linear human life cycle contrasts with the endless circular motion of the divine heavenly bodies. In this respect the soul resembles the planetary deities. According to Alkmaion, in contrast to the mortal body, it is by nature in constant motion. From this quality it follows that the soul does not share the fate of the body frozen in death. Rather, like the gods, she must be immortal. In research, Alkmaion's reasoning is almost unanimously applied to the human soul; Christoph Horn believes, however, that the world soul is meant.

According to the prevailing research opinion, it is important for Alkmaion as well as later for Plato that the soul is self- moving . In this it resembles the gods and differs from the body, which cannot move on its own.

astronomy

Alkmaion was familiar with the apparent annual proper motion of the planets, the sun and the moon, with which they traverse the zodiac from west to east, causing a shift towards the fixed star sky. In research it is mostly assumed that he did not discover this movement himself, but owed it to a Pythagorean source. Like numerous other ancient philosophers, he also believed that the stars are animated by divine beings. He is said to have thought the sun was flat.

reception

Plato did not mention Alkmaion by name anywhere in his works, but was obviously influenced by him. In his dialogues Phaedrus and Nomoi he tied his argument for the immortality of the soul to a reflection of Alkmaion and worked it out by deducing immortality from the self-movement of the soul. In the dialogue with Phaedo he referred to Alkmaion's view of the role of the brain.

Aristotle expressed himself in his metaphysics from a philosophical point of view on Alkmaion's teaching. He still had access to his work on natural philosophy. In a list of writings that Aristotle is said to have written, there is the title Against (the teachings) of Alkmaion .

The so-called two-seed doctrine (see above) of reproductive physiology, as it was represented by Alkmaion, among others, was adopted by the doctors of Hippocratic medicine .

In the poem duration Goethe alluded to the Alkmaion fragment about the reason for human mortality: "Let the beginning with the end / draw together into one!"

In modern antiquity, Alkmaion is valued as an original, empirically oriented thinker. It is emphasized that he gave the natural research of the pre-Socratics a new, physiological impulse and, as a pioneer, dealt with questions of life processes and the structure of the human organism. From the point of view of more recent research in the history of science, however, enthusiastic assessments of Alkmaion as the father of anatomy, physiology, embryology or even medicine par excellence are rejected; Reference is made to the unfavorable source situation, which makes such far-reaching claims seem at least premature. After all, Alkmaion seems to have been the first thinker who was at the same time a natural philosopher and physician; therefore Andreas Patzer calls him the founder of philosophical medicine. Patzer states that the reception of early Greek philosophy by ancient medicine was “a first-rate intellectual history”.

Sources and Fragments

  • Wilhelm Capelle : The pre-Socratics. The fragments and source reports . 9th edition, Alfred Kröner, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-520-11909-4 , pp. 73-80 (source texts in German translation)
  • Maria Timpanaro Cardini (Ed.): Pitagorici. Testimonianze e frammenti . Volume 1, La Nuova Italia, Firenze 1958, pp. 118–153 (Greek and Latin source texts with Italian translation and commentary)

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Diogenes Laertios, 8.83; Iamblichos, De vita Pythagorica 104. Cf. Leonid Zhmud: Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans , Oxford 2012, p. 122 f.
  2. ↑ Aristotle, Metaphysics 986a29–30. See William KC Guthrie: A History of Greek Philosophy , Volume 1, Cambridge 1962, p. 232 note 1 and pp. 341–343; Bartel Leendert van der Waerden : Die Pythagoreer , Zurich / Munich 1979, p. 76 f .; Leonid Zhmud: Science, Philosophy and Religion in Early Pythagoreanism , Berlin 1997, p. 70; Leonid Zhmud: Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans , Oxford 2012, p. 123 and note 79.
  3. ^ Jaap Mansfeld : The body politic: Aëtius on Alcmaeon on isonomia and monarchia. In: Verity Harte , Melissa Lane (ed.): Politeia in Greek and Roman philosophy , Cambridge 2013, pp. 78–95, here: p. 78 and note 1.
  4. ↑ Aristotle, Metaphysics 986a22–986b10. See Leonid Zhmud: Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans , Oxford 2012, p. 122 f.
  5. ^ Leonid Zhmud: Science, Philosophy and Religion in Early Pythagoreanism , Berlin 1997, pp. 71, 229; Leonid Zhmud: Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans , Oxford 2012, pp. 121–124.
  6. ^ William KC Guthrie: A History of Greek Philosophy , Volume 1, Cambridge 1962, p. 341.
  7. ^ Andreas Patzer: Wort und Ort , Munich 2006, p. 115.
  8. ↑ Roberta Marrollo: Alcmeone: l'uomo tra osservazione medica e approccio Psicologico . In: Antonio Capizzi, Giovanni Casertano (eds.): Forme del sapere nei presocratici , Rome 1987, pp. 115–135, here: 117 f.
  9. ↑ Jaap Mansfeld speaks out against working as a doctor: Alcmaeon: "Physikos" or Physician? In: Jaap Mansfeld, Lambert M. de Rijk (eds.): Kephalaion , Assen 1975, pp. 26-38. Leonid Zhmud has a different opinion: Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans , Oxford 2012, p. 355 f. See also Roberto Lo Presti: Between distinction and separition: Rethinking the centrality of the brain in Alcmaeon's theory of sense-perception and cognition. In: Ancient Science and its Reception 19, 2009, pp. 9–30, here: p. 9 Note 1.
  10. ^ Iamblichos, De vita Pythagorica 267. Cf. Leonid Zhmud: Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans , Oxford 2012, p. 120.
  11. ^ Favorinus is quoted in Diogenes Laertios 8,83. See Maria Timpanaro Cardini (Ed.): Pitagorici. Testimonianze e frammenti , Volume 1, Firenze 1958, p. 122 f. Note 1.
  12. ↑ Diogenes Laertios 8.83.
  13. ^ Andrei Lebedev: Alcmaeon on Plants . In: La Parola del Passato 48, 1993, pp. 456-460.
  14. ^ Leonid Zhmud: Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans , Oxford 2012, pp. 331 f., 366, 371 f., 374–379.
  15. ^ Documents from Maria Timpanaro Cardini (ed.): Pitagorici. Testimonianze e frammenti , Volume 1, Firenze 1958, pp. 128 f., 146-149.
  16. ^ Roberto Lo Presti: Between distinction and separation: Rethinking the centrality of the brain in Alcmaeon's theory of sense-perception and cognition. In: Ancient Science and its Reception 19, 2009, pp. 9–30, here: 10 f., 25.
  17. ↑ See Stavros Kouloumentas: The Body and the Polis: Alcmaeon on Health and Disease. In: British Journal for the History of Philosophy 22, 2014, pp. 867-887, here: 869-873, 881-885; Jaap Mansfeld: The body politic: Aëtius on Alcmaeon on isonomia and monarchia. In: Verity Harte, Melissa Lane (ed.): Politeia in Greek and Roman philosophy , Cambridge 2013, pp. 78–95, here: 79–82, 84.
  18. ↑ See Dimitri Z. Andriopoulos: Alcmeon's and Hippocrates's Concept of Aetia . In: Pantelis Nicolacopoulos (Ed.): Greek Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science , Dordrecht 1990, pp. 81–90, here: 83 f.
  19. ↑ Aristotle, Metaphysics 986a – b. See Leonid Zhmud: Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans , Oxford 2012, pp. 359–361.
  20. ↑ Erhard Oeser : History of Hirnforschung , 2nd, extended edition, Darmstadt 2010, p. 19.
  21. ^ Maria Timpanaro Cardini (ed.): Pitagorici. Testimonianze e frammenti , Volume 1, Firenze 1958, pp. 132 f .; Leonid Zhmud: Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans , Oxford 2012, p. 366.
  22. ↑ The documents are compiled by Maria Timpanaro Cardini (Ed.): Pitagorici. Testimonianze e frammenti , Volume 1, Firenze 1958, pp. 130-137. See Leonid Zhmud: Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans , Oxford 2012, pp. 366–368.
  23. ^ Maria Timpanaro Cardini (ed.): Pitagorici. Testimonianze e frammenti , Volume 1, Firenze 1958, p. 146 f.
  24. ↑ Erhard Oeser: History of the brain research , Darmstadt 2002, p. 19 f.
  25. ↑ For the research discussion see Lorenzo Perilli: Alcmeone di Crotone tra filosofia e scienza . In: Quaderni Urbinati di Cultura Classica , Nuova Serie 69, 2001, pp. 55–79, here: 60.
  26. ↑ The Latin text of Calcidius offers with Italian translation and commentary Maria Timpanaro Cardini (Ed.): Pitagorici. Testimonianze e frammenti , Volume 1, Firenze 1958, pp. 134-137. See Leonid Zhmud: Science, Philosophy and Religion in Early Pythagoreism , Berlin 1997, pp. 248-251, 254-256; Leonid Zhmud: Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans , Oxford 2012, pp. 368-374; Geoffrey ER Lloyd : Methods and Problems in Greek Science , Cambridge 1991, pp. 164-178. See Roberto Lo Presti: Between distinction and separation: Rethinking the centrality of the brain in Alcmaeon's theory of sense-perception and cognition. In: Ancient Science and Her Reception 19, 2009, pp. 9–30, here: p. 9 and note 2.
  27. ↑ Aristotle, Historia animalium 492a. See Stephan Zierlein (translator and commentator): Aristoteles: Historia animalium. Book I and II , Berlin 2013, p. 278; Leonid Zhmud: Science, Philosophy and Religion in Early Pythagoreanism , Berlin 1997, p. 251 f .; Leonid Zhmud: Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans , Oxford 2012, p. 371.
  28. ↑ Erna Lesky: The generation and inheritance teachings of antiquity and their aftermath , Wiesbaden 1951, p. 24 f. Cf. Leonid Zhmud: Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans , Oxford 2012, p. 377 f.
  29. ↑ Erna Lesky: The teachings of generation and inheritance of antiquity and their aftermath , Wiesbaden 1951, p. 26.
  30. ^ Leonid Zhmud: Science, Philosophy and Religion in Early Pythagoreism , Berlin 1997, p. 256; Leonid Zhmud: Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans , Oxford 2012, p. 375; Erna Lesky: Alkmaion with Aetios and Censorin . In: Hermes 80, 1952, pp. 249-255.
  31. ↑ Erna Lesky: The generation and inheritance teachings of antiquity and their aftermath , Wiesbaden 1951, pp. 15-18, 70 f.
  32. ↑ Adam Drozdek: Alcmaeon and the Immortality of the Soul. In: Maia 64, 2012, pp. 429–437, here: 432, 436.
  33. ↑ Christoph Horn: The concept of self-movement in Alkmaion and Plato . In: Georg Rechenauer (Ed.): Frühgriechisches Denk , Göttingen 2005, pp. 152–173, here: 156–158. See Jaap Mansfeld: Alcmaeon and Plato on Soul. In: Etudes Platoniciennes 11, 2014 ( online ).
  34. ↑ Christoph Horn: The concept of self-movement in Alkmaion and Plato . In: Georg Rechenauer (Ed.): Frühgriechisches Denk , Göttingen 2005, pp. 152–173, here: 154–156. However, Jaap Mansfeld has a different opinion: Alcmaeon and Plato on Soul. In: Etudes Platoniciennes 11, 2014 ( online ).
  35. ^ Leonid Zhmud: Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans , Oxford 2012, p. 331 f.
  36. ↑ The documents are compiled by Maria Timpanaro Cardini (Ed.): Pitagorici. Testimonianze e frammenti , Volume 1, Firenze 1958, pp. 128 f., 140 f.
  37. ↑ On Plato's Alkmaion reception see Christoph Horn: The concept of self-movement in Alkmaion and Platon . In: Georg Rechenauer (Ed.): Frühgriechisches Denk , Göttingen 2005, pp. 152–173, here: 158–162. See Jaap Mansfeld: Alcmaeon and Plato on Soul. In: Etudes Platoniciennes 11, 2014 ( online ).
  38. ↑ Diogenes Laertios 5.25. See Jaap Mansfeld: The body politic: Aëtius on Alcmaeon on isonomia and monarchia. In: Verity Harte, Melissa Lane (ed.): Politeia in Greek and Roman philosophy , Cambridge 2013, pp. 78–95, here: p. 87 and note 49.
  39. ↑ Jutta Kollesch , Diethard Nickel : Ancient healing art. Selected texts from the medical writings of the Greeks and Romans. Philipp Reclam jun., Leipzig 1979 (= Reclams Universal Library. Volume 771); 6th edition ibid 1989, ISBN 3-379-00411-1 , p. 24 f. and 75 f.
  40. ↑ Goethe: Duration alternating. In: Goethe's works (Weimar edition), Volume I 1, Weimar 1887, p. 119 f., Here: 120.
  41. ^ Leonid Zhmud: Pythagoras and the Early Pythagoreans , Oxford 2012, p. 356 f.
  42. ↑ Geoffrey ER Lloyd: Methods and Problems in Greek Science , Cambridge 1991, p. 167 (with a compilation of relevant judgments in the research literature of the 19th and 20th centuries).
  43. ↑ Andreas Patzer: Forms of Expression of Early Greek Philosophy . In: Hellmut Flashar et al. (Ed.): Early Greek Philosophy (= Outline of the History of Philosophy. The Philosophy of Antiquity , Volume 1), Half Volume 1, Basel 2013, pp. 126–149, here: 140.
This article was added to the list of articles worth reading on March 10, 2013 in this version .
personal data
SURNAME Alkmaion
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Alkmaion of Croton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek philosopher (pre-Socratics)
DATE OF BIRTH 6th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 5th century BC Chr.