Galen on the Atomists - Anti-Teleologism, Theory of Matter and Medical Corpuscularism

Personal physician of the emperors Marcus Aurelius, Commodus and Septimius Severus, Galen was a multi-faceted intellectual and his extensive writings, constitute, by far, the largest surviving corpus of any ancient author. This immense corpus is still not fully explored and continues to surprise scholars and to offer the possibility of new discoveries.
This volume provides the first comprehensive analysis of his fierce critique of atomism, which is the most emblematic and disputed example of his polemical accounts, and demonstrates his reliability. It offers a close analysis of Galen's account on atomism, contributing to the current debate on his role as a source on previous and contemporary philosophical and scientific thought, shedding new light on the still little-known relationship between Epicureanism and medicine. It additionally offers a new perspective on the debated question of the philosophical background of Asclepiades' medical corpuscularism.
Galen on the Atomists will appeal to students and scholars alike in Ancient Philosophy, Classics and History of Ideas, as well as those studying history of science and medicine.

List of contents

Part One: Galen's Design Argument vs. Epicurean Evolution in De usu partium
Chapter 1
Genesis, Date and Aftermath of Galen's De usu partium
Chapter 2
Galen and anatomy as evidence for Nature-demiurge's provident design
Chapter 3
The Epicurean theory of adaptation and the case of hand tendons in Galen's De usu partium
Chapter 4
Two Notions of Suitability: Lucretius on suitable and monstrous bodies, and their adaptation by extinction
Part Two: Galen on Particles in De elementis secundum Hippocratem
Chapter 5
De elementis, date and contents
Chapter 6
Indivisibility and Immutability of the Atoms in De elementis
6.1 Galen's Use of ¿¿ and his Description of the Democritean Atom as an Eleatic One
6.2 The Properties of the Atoms and the Overlap between Ancient Atomism and Epicureanism in Galen's De elementis
Chapter 7
The Reception of Atomism in the Late Authors. The Case of Galen's De elementis
Chapter 8
Galen against atomic impassibility. The 'needle argument' and its backgro
8.1 Cicero's Account
8.2 Plutarch's Testimony in Adversus Colotem
Part Three: Atoms or Molecules? The Nature of Asclepiades' ¿¿¿¿¿ and the Background of his Flux Theory
Chapter 9
Nature and meaning of Asclepiades' ¿¿¿¿¿
Chapter 10
The ancient testimonies on the nature of Asclepiades' ¿¿¿¿¿
10.1 Galen's account
10.2 Sextus' account
10.3 Caelius Aurelianus' account
10.4 Calcidius' account
Chapter 11
Asclepiades' flux theory and the Epicurean doctrine of emanations
Chapter 12
Asclepiades and Lucretius on Pathology
Conclusions
Bibliography

About the author

Ambra Serangeli is a researcher in classics at Tor Vergata University of Rome, Italy, where she teaches history of ancient scientific thought. In 2020 she obtained her PhD in Philosophy at the University of Oslo and is currently responsible of two research projects in the field of ancient medicine: The Human Body and the Environment: Ancient Medicine and Complex Adaptive Systems and Spaces and Places of Medicine in Imperial Rome (Next Generation EU-PNRR-Young Researchers funded project).

Product details

• Authors: Ambra Serangeli
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 16.12.2025
• EAN: 9781032869087
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3286908-7
• No. of pages: 232
• Series: Global Perspectives on the History of Natural Philosophy
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Antiquity; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Medicine > General; PHILOSOPHY / Mind & Body, PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / Ancient & Classical, HISTORY / Ancient / Greece, HISTORY / Byzantine Empire, Philosophy of Science, History of Medicine, History of Science, Ancient History, Classical history / classical civilisation, Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500, Byzantine Empire