S. B. Levin, Plato’s Rivalry with Medicine. A Struggle and its Dissolution

The identification of a technical model that was epistemologically valuable and could represent the foundations of his philosophical doctrine was among Plato's main concerns.The Platonic production, in fact, often deals with the enquiry about the principles characterising a techne as opposed to the empirical praxis.The confrontation Plato had with the technai of his time, including their epistemological premises and their status, nurtured his production from his early writings until the very last ones.Medicine plays a particularly important role in this framework.This discipline, in fact, frequently represents a term of comparison, and Plato's approach to it has not always been the same.Undoubtedly, the medical inquiries had an important influence on Plato's epistemological and political thought, although his interpretation of the medical tradition was not completely faithful to the doctrines and aims of their authors.Susan B. Levin's new book, Plato's Rivalry with Medicine: A Struggle and its Dissolution belongs to those studies dedicated to the analysis of the relationship standing between Plato's doctrine and the 'technical' models of Antiquity, and aims to define the philosopher's position regarding the medical art.In the introduction, the Author explains how, from her point of view, scholars have very often underestimated the role played by medicine and by its epistemological paradigm in the development of Platonic philosophy.As a consequence, the aim that Levin attributes to her volume is to analyse the relationship between Plato's thought and the medical art according to the different conceptions that appear in the dialogues.Hence, the volume represents the reconstruction of Plato's views on medicine and their evolution, starting from the early dialogues until those composed towards the end of his career.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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