Between Medicine and Rhetoric

Inspired by Pierre-Jean-Georges Cabanis' claim in 1798 that physicians might learn forms of medical reasoning from les anciens rhéteurs, in this paper I explore intimate associations between medicine and rhetoric over the longue durée. Gravely susceptible to error, medical reasoning relies on s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Early science and medicine 2005, Vol.10 (1), p.36-64
Main Author: Pender, Stephen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aristotelian rhetoric
Aristotelianism
Classical rhetoric
Medical practice
Oratory
Physicians
Political rhetoric
Reasoning
Soul
Symptoms
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Summary:Inspired by Pierre-Jean-Georges Cabanis' claim in 1798 that physicians might learn forms of medical reasoning from les anciens rhéteurs, in this paper I explore intimate associations between medicine and rhetoric over the longue durée. Gravely susceptible to error, medical reasoning relies on signs and examples, both gleaned from experience and both the subject of rhetorical inquiry; like rhetoric, medicine reaches plausible conclusions from probable premises. Here, ranging from Hippocrates and Plato through Aristotle to early modern England, I argue that forms of inference developed and refined in the history of rhetoric offer ancient and early modern philosophers and physicians models and metaphors for their own forays into the probable.
ISSN:1383-7427
1573-3823
DOI:10.1163/1573382053123520