PMID: 11624505Oct 20, 2001Paper

Descartes the doctor: rationalism and its therapies

British Journal for the History of Science
S Shapin

Abstract

During the Scientific Revolution one important gauge of the quality of reformed natural philosophical knowledge was its ability to produce a more effective medical practice. Indeed, it was sometimes thought that philosophers who pretended to possess new and more potent philosophical knowledge might display that possession in personal health and longevity. Rene Descartes repeatedly wrote that a better medical practice was a major aim of his philosophical enterprise. He said that he had made important strides towards achieving that aim, on that basis, he offered practical medical advice to others and advertised the expectation that, taking his own advice, he would live a very long time. This paper describes what Cartesian medicine looked like in practice and what that practice owed to the power of modernist Reason.

Citations

Jul 3, 2002·Aging Clinical and Experimental Research·Bernard Jeune
Aug 27, 2005·Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences·Roger Smith
Apr 14, 2011·Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences·Patricia Easton
Feb 14, 2012·Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences·Nima Bassiri
Aug 27, 2010·Neurología : publicación oficial de la Sociedad Española de Neurología·A González HernándezA Cubero González
May 19, 2016·Cadernos de saúde pública·André Luis de Oliveira Mendonça, Kenneth Rochel de Camargo
Jan 31, 2019·British Journal for the History of Science·Fabrizio Baldassarri
Apr 29, 2006·Medicine, Health Care, and Philosophy·Jennifer Marshall
Dec 6, 2018·Salud colectiva·Hugo Spinelli

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