04462 - History of Science and Technique

Learning outcomes

The history of science is by now a discipline present in almost all Italian universities and part of many degree courses of study, both in the humanities and sciences. The central role this course plays in university education is principally based on two fundamental motivations: 1) the recognition of the history of science as an ideal discipline in order to surpass the problematic fracture between humanist culture and scientific culture 2) the evidence that the development of science and technology is the most decisive and apparent aspect of the contemporary world. The history of science and technique course is therefore firstly characterised by its highly interdisciplinary content and by the possibility to offer outlooks of analysis and study that differ from and are alternative to the traditional approach of fields of knowledge, both in the humanist and scientific worlds.

Course contents

Mental illness, heart and brain in ancient medicine

The class will provide students with a general introduction to the history of ancient medicine, from Hippocrates up to the reception of Galen’s medical system in the Byzantine and Oriental traditions (Syriac and Arabic). Particular attention will be devoted to those medical texts dealing with various kinds of mental illness along with ancient medical-philosophical theories on the brain and its pathologies. We will read and comment on ancient sources, in order to discuss various explanatory models developed in Antiquity, such as the differences between cardiocentrism (theory according to which the heart was the centre of sensation and thought) and encephalocentrism. We will also discuss how various ‘psychopathologies’ such as mania, phrenitis, hallucinations and melancholia were conceptualized.

The main themes covered will be:

Hippocrates and the Hippocratic collection

Plato and Aristotle

Hellenistic Medicine

The medical sects and Celsus

Caelius Aurelianus

Galen of Pergamon

The reception of Galen’s medicine in the Byzantine and Syro-Arabic traditions

Readings/Bibliography

A) Mirko D. Grmek (ed.), Western Medical Thought from Antiquity to the Middle Ages(Cambridge, Mass. - London: Harvard University Press, 1998), pp. 1-169.

Chapters: Introduction (Mirko D. Grmek); The Birth of Western Medical Art (Jacques Jouanna); Between Knowledge and Practice: Hellenistic Medicine (Mario Vegetti); The Paths of Knowledge: Medicine in the Roman World (Danielle Gourevitch); Reception and Tradition: Medicine in the Byzantine and Arab World (Gotthard Strohmaier)

(B) Jackie Pigeaud, La follia nell'antichità classica. La mania e i suoi rimedi, a cura di A. D’Alessandro (Venezia: Marsilio, 1995).

(C) Hippocrates, The Sacred disease (De morbo sacro). Suggested translation: W.H.S. Jones, Hippocrates (London, Cambridge, Mass.: Loeb, 1952), vol 2, pp. 127-183.

(D) Galen, The Capacities of the Body Depend on the Mixtures of the Body (Quod animi mores). Suggested translation: P. Singer (ed.), Galen's Psychological Writings (Cambridge: CUP, 2014), pp. 335-424.

(E) Selection of primary sources read and commented on in class (the texts will be uploaded to IOL)

Students who will not attend classes should also prepare the following text: Giorgio Cosmacini, Martino Menghi, Galeno e il galenismo. Scienza e idee della salute (Milano: Franco Angeli, 2012).

Teaching methods

Traditional lectures about the topics of the course;

Relevant passages of both medical and philosophical ancient sources will be read and commented on during the classes.

Students will be encouraged to deliver short presentations on particular topics (either individually or in groups)

Assessment methods

The exam consists in an oral interview during which the methodological and critical skills acquired by the student will be evaluated . The student will be invited to discuss the texts covered during the course and to contextualise them in their historical epoch. The achievement of a systematic knowlege of the issues addressed during the classes and a critical approach to the sources combined with precision of language will be assessed with marks of excellence (28-30). Mechanical and / or mnemonic knowledge of the texts combined with scholastic exposé will be assessed by good marking (23-27); training gaps and superficial contextualization and knoledge of the texts will be assessed with sufficient markings (18-22). Lacks of any of the above requirements will lead to a negative marking.

Teaching tools

Use of ppt slides and multimedia educational tools.

Office hours

See the website of Matteo Martelli