FRE-HIPPOCRATE

Famous even in his lifetime, Hippocrates of Kos, through a body of work that has spanned over twenty centuries and preserved in his name, has had an influence on medical thought similar to that which Aristotle has had on philosophical thought. As recently as in the 19th century, philosophical schools argued the pros and cons of hippocratism and Laennec was still availing himself of Hippocratic thought. Who was Hippocrates? Are we justified in calling him the Father of Medicine? What were the daily lives, careers, activities, and patient relations like for physicians in the century of Pericles? What was their conception of medicine, health and illness? What relationships existed between medicine and philosophy, or between science and religion? Hippocrates’ work, consisting of some sixty medical treatises, is so insightful and diverse that its myriad facets provide answers to such questions, while also shedding light on the multiple interpretations made of this work through the centuries by doctors and philosophers. Jacques Jouanna, who is a professor of Greek Literature and Civilisation at the Sorbonne, Paris IV, formerly directed the CNRS’ Greek Medicine Research Unit (1990–2000). He is also President of École doctorale Mondes anciens et médiévaux and a Member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles lettres (1997) of Institut de France.