Medicine before science : the rational and learned doctor from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment / Roger French.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

French, R. K. (Roger Kenneth), author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Physicians--Europe--History.

Physicians.

Medicine, Medieval.

Medicine--Europe--History.

Medicine.

Middle Ages.

Enlightenment--Europe.

Enlightenment.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (v, 289 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book offers an introduction to the history of university-trained physicians from the middle ages to the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. These were the elite, in reputation and rewards, and they were successful. Yet we can form little idea of their clinical effectiveness, and to modern eyes their theory and practice often seems bizarre. But the historical evidence is that they were judged on other criteria, and the argument of this book is that these physicians helped to construct the expectations of society - and met them accordingly. The main focus is on the European Latin tradition of medicine, reconstructed from ancient sources and relying heavily on natural philosophy for its explanatory power. This philosophy collapsed in the 'scientific revolution', and left the learned and rational doctor in crisis. The book concludes with an examination of how this crisis was met - or avoided - in different parts of Europe during the Enlightenment.

Contents:

pt. 1. Sources

pt. 2. The Latin tradition

pt. 3. The crisis.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-13202-9

1-280-16283-X

9786610162833

0-511-20270-9

0-511-12001-X

0-511-07807-2

0-511-30565-6

0-511-61498-5

0-511-07650-9

OCLC:

271789057