Philosophy and Medicine in the Islamic World

Many leading philosophers of the Islamic world wrote about medicine or medical topics like anatomy -- al-Kindi, al-Farabi, Avicenna, and Averroes are only the best-known examples. Primarily medical thinkers also drew on the philosophical tradition. This is unsurprising, given that the greatest Greek medical authority, Galen, had said that the best doctor is also a philosopher. This event will explore the interrelation between these two fields, which were tightly interwoven in the tradition but are usually studied separately nowadays, to ask what impact philosophers' medical interests had on their theories concerning such topics as the nature of man, ethics, and the relation of soul to body -- and conversely, what relevance the philosophical tradition had for medical texts.

This event will examine what impact philosophers’ medical interests had on their theories concerning such topics as the nature of man, ethics, and the relation of soul to body - and conversely, what relevance the philosophical tradition had for medical texts.
Organised by: Peter Adamson (Munich) and Peter E. Pormann (Manchester)

Speakers: Peter Adamson (Munich), Hinrich Biesterfeldt (Bochum), Charles Burnett (Warburg Institute), Dimitri Gutas (Yale), Rotraud Hansberger (Kings College, London), Peter Joosse (Leiden), Pauline Koetschet (Institut Française, Cairo), James Montgomery (Cambridge), Peter E. Pormann (Manchester), Marwan Rashed (École Normale Supérieure, Paris) and Gregor Schwarb (Humboldt University, Berlin)

Illustration: Materia Medica of Dioscorides. Iraq, 11th century. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Many leading philosophers of the Islamic world wrote about medicine or medical topics like anatomy – al-Kindī, al-Fārābī, Avicenna, and Averroes are only the best-known examples. Primarily medical thinkers also drew on the philosophical tradition. This is unsurprising, given that the greatest Greek medical authority, Galen, had said that the best doctor is also a philosopher.

This event will explore the interrelation between these two fields, which were tightly interwoven in the tradition but are usually studied separately nowadays, to ask what impact philosophers’ medical interests had on their theories concerning such topics as the nature of man, ethics, and the relation of soul to body – and conversely, what relevance the philosophical tradition had for medical texts.       

Day One: March 1 2013

09:45         Doors open and registration

10-10:30       Welcome

10:30-11:30     Peter E. Pormann - Philosophical Topics in Medieval Arabic Medical Discourse: Problems and Prospects

11:30-12:00     Coffee

12:00-1:00       Peter Adamson - Knowing Health: The Epistemology of Ethics as Medicine

1:00-2:00         Lunch

2:00-3:00         Oliver Overwien - Hippocrates of Cos in Arabic Gnomologia

3:00-4:00         Rotraud Hansberger - The Arabic Aristotle on Length and Shortness of Life

4:00-4:30         Tea

4:30-5:30         Pauline Koetschet - Reconstructing Galen: Abū Bakr al-Rāzī’s Doubts About Galen and a 12th Century Reaction

5:30-6:30         Wine reception

7:00                 Dinner for speakers and invited guests

Day Two: March 2 2013 

09:15               Doors open and registration

9:30-10:30       James Montgomery - Al-Jāḥiẓ and Greek Medicine: Random Imaginings

10:30-11:30     Gregor Schwarb - Basrian Muʿtazilī Kalām and the Medical Tradition: Contact and Demarcation

11:30-12:00     Coffee

12:00-1:00       Hinrich Biesterfeldt - ʿAlī b. Riḍwān on the Philosophical Distinction of Medicine

1:00-2:00         Lunch

2:00-3:00         Charles Burnett - Ibn Riḍwān’s Commentary on Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos: Between Medicine and Astrology

3:00-4:00         Raphaela Veit - The Treatise al-Qanūn al-saghir fī-l-ṭibb Ascribed to Ibn Sina

4:00-4:30         Tea

4:30-5:30         Elvira Wakelnig - Ṭabarī and Ṭabarī: Philosophical Introductions to Medical Compendia 

5:30-6:00         Conclusion

Conference fees

Unless otherwise stated conferences fees (which include coffee/tea, and a sandwich lunch) are as follows:

• One day conferences: £25 (£12.50 concessionary rate for full-time students/retired)
• Two day conferences: £40 (£25 for concessionary rate for full-time students/retired)

Registration timetable 

• Booking now open

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Queries

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