The purpose of this paper is to show the influence of Early greek medicine on Plato's Cosmology. Alcmaeon holds that health depends on proportion (equality; isonomia) or proportioned mixture of opposing factors. This notion dominated nearly all greek medicine, and also influenced Plato's cosmology greatly. Generally early greek doctors believed that man consisted of opposing factors, though these are designated differently. Alcmaeon takes powers - hot and dry, cold and hot, vitter, sweet and the rest as those factors. On the other hand, Philistion of Locri adopts the four element theory of Empedocles. He conceives that human body as a mixture of the four elements, and health consists in proportion of these opposing four element, basically as Alcmaeon. This notion is accepted by Plato. Only Plato differs from Philistion in that he does't consider the four elements as the ultimate factors. In Timaeus Plato explains that the Demiourgos constructed the four elements through introducing 'proportion' into the primitive materials (the oppositives) by means of shapes and mumbers. And Plato thinks that the cosmic body and soul was constructed basically in the same way as the four elements. This is true of the human body and soul. Also Plato explicates diseases from standpoint of proportion or symmetry. Moreover according to Philebus, the good states (i.e. 'health', 'music', 'seasons' etc) in the cosmos arises out of the right mixture of the limit and the unlimited. In other word this mixture is proportioned mixture of the oppositives by aid of ratios. In short Plato believes that both the cosmos itself and the good states is proportioned mixture of the oppositives. Thus Plato' cosmology is fundamentally based upon Alcmaeon's or Philistion's concept of Health.
English Abstract ; Greece ; History of Medicine, Ancient ; *Medicine ; Philosophy/*history

The purpose of this paper is to deal with two questions concerning the relation of philosophy and medicine in ancient greece. (1) Which influences had philosophy on medicine? (2) Whom did attack the author of On the ancient medicine? And (3) was his criticism right? (1) Philosophy's influences was twofold. (a) As early Greek philosophers had explained natural phenomena by natural elements without recourse to any supernatural god so authors of Hippocratic Works also had sought to explain diseases. They had replaced magical and religious medicine with rational medicine by virtue of rational explanation. This seems to have represented medicine's debt to philosophy. (b) Many medical authors primarily had studied the nature of human i.e. the basic constituents of the body since they had thought the very same to be causes of diseases. This aspect shows the conspicuous influence of philosophy. Because it was the nature of cosmos i.e. the source or basic constituent that early Greek philosophers had searched to explain cosmos and all natural phenomena in it. (2) On the other hand the author of On the ancient medicine attacks physicians that are influenced by cosmology of early Greek philosophers. The point of his criticism in Chapter 1 is that 'philosophical physicians' postulate one or two constituents of the body as the primary cause of men's diseases. Then are physicians that postulate various constituents free from the author's criticism? At least according to Chapter 20 it is not so. He seems to criticize physicians in general who proceed by the hypothetical method. He contrasts this method with the method of trial and error and asserts that this is of medicine but that is of philosophy. (3) Although this methodological separation was right in a sense at least the opinion of the author seems to be extreme. Because medicine can't be science if it does not make use of any hypothesis. And philosophical physicians or early Greek philosophers does not seems to be such dogmatic as the author thinks. First of all they did not exclude the method of experience. Their method was both empirical and speculative. They postulated some constituents by speculation based on experience and had a device to avoid danger of dogmatism that their theory might have It is critical thinking. It's obvious evidence is their various thinking concerning the basic constituents. The same is applied to philosophical physicians. Thus the harmonious relation of medicine and philosophy had seemed to be maintained in antiquity even though the author of On the ancient medicine attacked philosophical physicians so severely and attempted to separate medicine from philosophy.