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Chapter 5 - The Empirical, Art and Science in Hippocrates’ On Joints

from Part II - The Technological Body

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2023

By
Jean De Groot
Edited by
Maria Gerolemou  and
George Kazantzidis
Maria Gerolemou
Affiliation:
Center for Hellenic Studies, Washington
George Kazantzidis
Affiliation:
University of Patras, Greece
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Summary

This chapter presents the several modes of reduction of the shoulder described by Hippocrates in On Joints 2–7 and evaluates them in relation to the phenomenon of leverage and the ancient tool, the lever (mochlos). It argues that Hippocrates’ understanding of leverage is a feature of his expertise as iētros and did not derive from any separate mechanical or scientific knowledge. This is especially interesting, since Hippocrates knew of the lever and some of its uses, but he describes techniques involving the reciprocal forces exerted between the patient’s dislocated bones and the physician’s own body. The chapter makes use of the analytic distinction between ostension and ostensive definition to characterize this expertise. It distinguishes among experience of physical forces, art that arises from such experience, and the physical principles of leverage that emerged a century or more later. There are references to On Fractures and On the Art.

Keywords

Hippocratesleverancient medicineshoulder reduction techniquesostension
Type
Chapter
Information
Body and Machine in Classical Antiquity , pp. 126 - 154
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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