The aim of project D-2-3 was to investigate Stoic and Pneumatist conceptions of mental processes and illnesses and of the psychology of mental events (place, bodily factors involved, exact mechanisms), and to assess their relation to relevant philosophical and medical contexts. The study focused on the Pneumatist physician Athenaeus of Attalia (1st c. BC), whose works have only survived in fragments. Athenaeus was frequently quoted, especially for his doctrine of elementary physics, his theory of reproduction and his conceptual distinction between various types of causes.  A collection of fragments with translation and commentary was a longstanding desideratum fulfilled by this project.

Research

In the psychology of the Stoics, the concept of pneuma occupies a central position. However, the relations between the Stoics and their medical contemporaries and precursors have yet to be clarified, although recent research suggests connections with the physician Praxagoras of Cos (end of the 4th c. BC) and with the early Hellenistic Peripatetics, especially with regard to the concept of psychic pneuma. A long-standing question that has been answered by this project is to what extent the so-called Pneumatist medical school developed within or parallel to the Stoics, and what relations and intellectual influences came into play here. The key to answering this question was a new, in-depth analysis of the extant (fragmentary) source material for the Pneumatist physicians, which was made possible by the edition of fragments produced by this project.

The common aim of the collaborating research projects (D-2-2) Localization of intellectual faculties within the body: Archigenes and Poseidonios and (D-2-3) has been to trace the development of materialist theories on the localization of mental faculties as testified by the most important intellectual movements of the Hellenistic and (early) Imperial periods, with particular emphasis on the following questions:

  • How and to what extent were the results of empirical research, as claimed by the medical schools of the Hellenistic period, received and brought to bear on theoretical discussions about the substance of the soul and the localization of mental faculties within the body? What innovations can be perceived in the history of thinking about these questions and how can these innovations (or the lack of them) be explained?
  • What epistemological and methodological assumptions were made and what arguments were used to defend and justify the positions adopted? What diagnostic and therapeutic methods were developed in order to answer the question about the nature and location of the soul with greater certainty and to treat mental illnesses more successfully?
  • What role did tradition, authority and school identity play in the development of these theories and therapeutic practices? To what extent are the various philosophical schools in which these theories were developed to be regarded as homogeneous or pluralistic? How reliable in this regard are the sources (which often present a schematic or distorted picture as a result of later doxographical and historiographical simplifications) for our understanding of theories that in most cases are transmitted only indirectly and in fragmentary form?

In attempting to answer these questions, research in D-2-2 and D-2-3 has focused on Stoicism and on the medical ‘school’ of Pneumatism. This is because in the psychology of the Stoics, the concept of pneuma occupies a central position in understanding the material and spatial dimensions of the soul and its functions. Moreover, the Stoics had close connections with their medical contemporaries and precursors. Due to the fragmentary nature of the surviving evidence, a new, in-depth analysis of the extant source material was necessary in order to obtain a more detailed picture. This has focused on the two most important representatives of the Pneumatist school, Athenaeus of Attalia (1st century BCE) and Archigenes of Apamea (1st – 2nd century CE) (Sean Coughlin, Orly Lewis). It has become clear that the Stoics had close connections with the physician Praxagoras of Cos (end of the 4th c. BCE), and with the early Hellenistic Peripatetics, especially with regard to the concept of psychic pneuma. At the same time, it has become clear that the so-called Pneumatist medical school developed parallel to rather than within Stoicism and also incorporated Aristotelian ideas and material from other medical traditions (Sean Coughlin), especially in the domain of pulse lore (Heinrich von Staden).

Research in D-2 has also included the relevant ideas of Galen of Pergamum (129-216 CE). While not a materialist in the strict sense, Galen had an elaborate theory of pneuma and its various manifestations, including psychic pneuma (Julius Rocca). But he also considered the psychological significance of other corporeal factors, such as the mixture of the elementary qualities, the humours, and innate heat (Philip van der Eijk), as well as the role of philosophy in the treatment of mental disorder (Christopher Gill). Particular attention has been given to his theory of memory, both in its psychological and in its pathological aspects (Ricardo Juliao).

The results of the research have been presented at conferences, workshops and in a number of publications. In particular, the following should be mentioned:

The results of the research have been presented at conferences, workshops and in a number of publications. In particular, the following should be mentioned:

Philip van der Eijk and Peter N. Singer (Eds.), Galen: Works on Human Nature. Mixtures (De Temperamentis), Cambridge University Press, 2019

Sean Coughlin, “Athenaeus of Attalia on the psychic causes of bodily health”, in: Chiara Thumiger and Peter N. Singer (Eds.), Medical Conceptions of Mental Illness from Celsus to Caelius Aurelianus, Leiden: Brill, 2018

Orly Lewis, “Archigenes of Apamea’s treatment of mental diseases”, in: Chiara Thumiger and Peter N. Singer (Eds.), Medical Conceptions of Mental Illness from Celsus to Caelius Aurelianus, Leiden: Brill, 2018

Orly Lewis, Praxagoras of Cos on Arteries, Pulse and Pneuma. Fragments and Interpretation, Leiden: Brill, 2017

Gerrit Bos and Tzvi Langermann, The Alexandrian Summaries of Galen’s On Critical Days. Editions and Translations of the Two Versions of the JAWAMIʿ, with an Introduction and Notes, Leiden: Brill, 2015

Gerrit Bos, Maimonides, Medical Aphorisms. Treatises 16-21. A parallel Arabic-English edition edited, translated, and annotated, Provo: Brigham Young University, 2015

Orly Lewis, “The practical application of ancient ‘pulse-lore’ and its influence on the patient-doctor interaction”, in: Georgia Petridou and Chiara Thumiger (Eds.), Homo patiens. Approaches to the Patient in the Ancient World, Leiden: Brill, 2015, 345–364

Philip van der Eijk, “Galen on the assessment of bodily mixtures”, in: Brooke Holmes and Klaus-Dietrich Fischer (Eds.), The Frontiers of Ancient Science. Essays in Honor of Heinrich von Staden, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2015, 675–698

Philip van der Eijk and Peter N. Singer (Eds.), Galen. Psychological Writings, Cambridge University Press, 2013

Research in D-2 has been carried out in close collaboration with the project “Galen als Interpret, Vermittler und Vollender der antiken Medizin” at the BBAW (Arbeitsstelle CMG), and with Philip van der Eijk’s Alexander von Humboldt project “Medicine of the Mind, Philosophy of the Body” at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, in particular with Roberto Lo Presti (several publications on ancient medical ideas on the mind-body relationship and their reception in the medieave; and early modern period), Julien Devinant (e.g., his Les troubles de l’âme chez Galien, Diss. HU Berlin – Paris IV Sorbonne 2016), Chiara Thumiger (e.g., her The Life and Health of the Mind in Classical Greek Medical Thought, Habilitationsschrift HU Berlin 2016), Christine Salazar (e.g. her work on Galen’s commentary on the Hippocratic Prognosticon) and Peter N. Singer (e.g. his Galen. Psychological Writings, Cambridge 2013, 537 pp.)