Source edition
Hippocrates. Oeuvres complètes d'Hippocrate, Vol. 6. Littré, Émile, editor. Paris: Baillière, 1849
Source data
A Digital Corpus for Graeco-Arabic Studies · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This work is a philosophical and medical treatise that aims to defend medicine (iatrike) as a genuine and robust "art" (techne) against its detractors. The author begins by refuting critics of the art, defining medicine's purpose as relieving the suffering of the sick and refraining from attempting impossible cures. He argues that even self-recoveries are the result of accidental adherence to medical principles, and that treatment failures stem from patients' disobedience or poor physical conditions rather than the art itself, thereby emphasizing cause over chance. For "invisible diseases" within the body, the text explains how physicians must employ reasoning—the "eye of the mind"—using indirect signs like bodily excretions to diagnose and treat. Ultimately, the work demonstrates that medicine possesses both rich therapeutic means and epistemic certainty, defending its validity and intellectual honesty, including the recognition of its own limitations.