Alcmaeon of Croton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alcmaeon of Croton (mid-fifth century B.C.) was an Ancient Greek philosopher and medical theorist.
Alcmaeon was a pupil of Pythagoras. Although he wrote mostly on medical topics there is some suggestion that he was not a physician but a philosopher of science. He also indulged in astrology and meteorology.
He was an early pioneer of dissection and is said to be the first to identify Eustachian tubes. He also was the first to dwell on the internal causes of illnesses. It was he who first suggested that health was a state of equilibrium between opposing humors and that illnesses were because of problems in environment, nutrition and lifestyle.
[edit] References
- "Alcmaeon: 'Physikos' or Physician?", J. Mansfield in Kephalaion: Studies in Greek Philosophy and its Continuation Offered to Professor C. J. de Vogel, (Assen, 1975)
- A History of Greek Philosophy, Vol. I: The Earlier Presocratics and the Pythagoreans, W. K. C. Guthrie, (Cambridge, 1962)
- "The Origin of Experimental Medicine in the School of Alcmaeon from Kroton and the Diffusion of His Philosophy within the Mediterranean Area", A. Foca, Skepsis 13-14: 242-253 (2002).
- "Alcmeon's and Hippocrates's Concept of Aetia", D. Z. Andriopoulos in Greek Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science, Pantelis Nicolacopoulos (ed), (Kluwer : Dordrecht, 1990)
- Alcmaeon of Croton entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- Eric W. Weisstein, Alcmaeon of Croton (ca. 535-unknown BC) at ScienceWorld.ca:Alcmeó
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