The Galen Project

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Article Robert Vinkesteijn in Phronesis

An article by Robert Vinkesteijn titled ‘Mixing body and soul: Galen on the Substance of Soul in QAM and De Propriis Placitis’ was published in Phronesis. In a late treatise, That the Capacities of the Soul Follow the Mixtures of the Body (QAM), Galen of Pergamum infamously offered the view that the substance of the…

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Fifth Meeting Dutch Society for Ancient Medicine (11th December 2019)

On December 11th 2019, another meeting of the Dutch Society for Ancient Medicine will take place. The meeting will have the same structure and location as last time. There will be two short lectures, with room for questions and discussion. The speakers this edition are:   Dr. Anton van Hooff  “Antieke Geboorteregeling, Medisch en Magisch”…

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Reading Seminar on Galen’s The Capacities of the Soul Follow the Mixtures of the Body (20-21 September 2019).

Each year in September Dutch and Belgian historians of ancient philosophy meet to read a particular text. This year the venue was the beautiful Westmalle abbey, a Cistercian monastery founded in 1794 and famous for its brewery of Trappist beer (in addition, the monks produce their own Trappist cheese in the abbey’s cheese workshop). The…

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Article by Julia Trompeter on voluntary motion in Galen

Dr Julia Trompeter has written an article titled “The Actions of Spirit and Appetite: Voluntary Motion in Galen”, which was published in Phronèsis (philosophical magazine). This article shows the relevance of Galen’s twofold conception of pneuma for his psychophysical adaption of the tripartite soul. In this context, it additionally casts some light on his controversial concept…

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How Galen used doxographical schemas

A recent paper by prof. Tieleman focusses on the way Galen used doxographical schemas, schemas by which Galen collected and analyzed positions of his predecessors. It can be shown that Galen predominantly used the Placita tradition in analyzing the views of his predecessors. In this tradition, (parts of) works are summarized and organized by the…

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