Abstract
Throughout this essay it will be my intention to show how current approaches to the concept of medical causality1 derive from man’s historical struggle with disease, the struggle of “human groups” with “pathogenous agents”. It is only within the framework of this historical dialectic that the problem of medical causality attains its true meaning. The question of the cause of an illness is not univocal, but rather possesses different meanings, depending on the social and cultural coordinates in which the question arises. In this sense, it is necessary to distinguish between at least two clearly differentiated periods in the history of the problem of medical causality. The first period, whose paradigm is the “Galenic”, commences with the Hippocratic writings and does not come to an end before the nineteenth century. The other, which slowly developed in medicine during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, derives from Locke’s and especially Hume’s empirical criticism of the Aristotelian doctrine of causality.
The editors wish to thank Michael C. White for the original translation of this essay.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
Ackernecht, E.H.: 1948, ‘Anticontagionism Between 1821 and 1867’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 22, 562–593.
Ackernecht, E.H.: 1971, ‘The End of Greek Diet’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 45, 242–249.
Agassi, J.: 1976, ‘Causality and Medicine’, The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 1, 301–317.
Albarracín-Teulón, A.: 1970, Homero y la Medicina, Prensa Espanola, Madrid.
Allen, P.: 1947, ‘Early American Animalcular Hypotheses’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 21, 734–743.
Bariety, M.: 1972, ‘Louis et la méthode numérique’, Clio Medica 7, 177–183.
Bates, D.G.: 1965, ‘Thomas Willis and the Epidemic Fever of 1661: A Commentary’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 39, 393–414.
Biraben, J.N.: 1975–1976, Les hommes et la peste en France et dans les pays européens et méditerranéens, Mouton, Paris.
Bylebyl, J.J.: 1971, ‘Galen on the Non-natural Causes of Variation in the Pulse’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 45, 482–485.
Dagi, T.F.: 1976, ‘Cause and Culpability’, The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 1, 349–371.
Debus, A.G.: 1972, ‘The Paracelsians and the Chemists: The Chemical Dilemma in Renaissance Medicine’, Clio Medica 7, 185–199.
Doetsch, R.N.: 1962, ‘Early American Experiments on “spontaneous generation” by Jeffries Wyman (1814–1874)’, Journal of the History of Medicine 17, 325–332.
Doetsch, R.N.: 1964, ‘Mitchell on the Cause of Fevers’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 38, 241–259.
Eisenberg, L.: 1976, ‘The Outcome as Cause: Predestination and Human Cloning’, The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 1, 318–331.
Elaut, L.: 1968, ‘Les règles d’une gastronomie hygiénique, exposées par le médecin-humaniste Georgius Pictorius’, Clio Medica 3, 349–359.
Engelhardt, H.T., Jr.: 1974, ‘Explanatory Models in Medicine: Facts, Theories, and Values’, Texas Reports on Biology and Medicine 32, 225–239.
Engelhardt, H.T., Jr.: 1976, ‘Ideology and Etiology’, The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 1, 256–268.
Foster, W.D.: 1965, History of Parasitology, Heinemann, London and Edinburgh.
Foucault, M.: 1963, Naissance de la clinique, P.U.F., Paris.
Gilbert, R.B.: 1965, ‘Health and Politics: The British Physical Deterioration Report of 1904’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 39, 143–153.
Gracia Guillén, D.: 1973, ‘El estatuto de la Medicina en el “Corpus Aristotelicum”’, Asclepio 25, 31–63.
Gracia Guillén, D. and Peset, J.L.: 1972, ‘La medicina en la baja edad media latina’, in P. Lain Entralgo (ed.), Historia universal de la medicina, 3 vols., Salvat, Barcelona, pp. 338–351.
Hatzfeld, H.: 1971, Du pauperisme a la sécurité sociale, A. Colin, Paris.
Holmes, C.: 1966, ‘Benjamin Rush and the Yellow Fever’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 40, 246–263.
Jarcho, S.: 1970, ‘Galen’s Six Non-naturals’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 44, 372.
Jones, M.O.: 1967, ‘Climate and Disease: The Traveler Describes America’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 41, 254–266.
King, L.S.: 1952, ‘Dr. Koch’s Postulates’, Journal of the History of Medicine 7, 350–361.
King, L.S.: 1963, ‘Some Problems of Causality in Eighteenth Century Medicine’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 37, 15–24.
King, L.S.: 1964, ‘Stahl and Hoffmann: Study in Eighteenth Century Animism’, Journal of the History of Medicine 19, 118–130.
King, L.S.: 1969, ‘Medicine in 1695: Friederich Hoffmann’s Fundamenta Medicine’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 43, 17–29.
Kudlien, F.: 1968, ‘Der Arzt des Körpers und der Arzt der Seele’, Clio Medica 3, 1–20.
Lain Entralgo, P.: 1946, Bichat, C.S. I. C., Madrid.
Lain Entralgo, P.: 1947, Claude Bernard, C.S. I. C., Madrid.
Lain Entralgo, P.: 1961, La historia clinica. Historia y teoria del relato patogr~tfico, Salvat, Barcelona.
Lain Entralgo, P.: 1970, La medicina hipocrktica, Revista de Occidente, Madrid.
Lain Entralgo, P. and Albarracin Teulón, A.: 1961, Sydenham, C.S. I. C., Madrid.
Lieber, E.: 1970, ‘Galen on Contaminated Cereals as a Cause of Epidemics’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 44, 332–345.
López Férez, J.A.: 1971, Las ideas médicas de Demócrito y su influencia en el Corpus hippocraticum (thesis unpublished), Madrid.
López Férez, J.A.: 1974–1975, ‘Las ideas de Demócrito sobre salud y enfermedad y su posible influjo en el Corpus hippocraticum’, Asclepio 26–27, 157–165.
Lorch, J.: 1965, ‘Latham on the Etiology of Plague, 1900’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 39, 79–80.
Luria, S.E.: 1976, ‘Biological Aspects of Ethical Principles’, The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 1, 332–336.
Middleton, W.S.: 1964, ‘Felix Pascalis-Ouvière and the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1797’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 38, 497–515.
Moraysik, J.: 1976, ‘Ancient and Modern Conceptions of Health and Medicine’, The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 1, 337–348.
Niebyl, P.H.: 1971, ‘The Non-naturals’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 45, 486–492.
Pagel, W. and Winder, M.: 1968, ‘Harvey and the “Modern” Concept of Disease’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 42, 496–509.
Peset, J.L. and Peset, M.: 1975, Lombroso y la escuela positivista italiana, C.S.I.C.,Madrid.
Peset, M. and Peset, J.L.: 1972, Muerte en Espana, Seminarios y Ediciones, Madrid.
Rather, L.J.: 1968, ‘The “Six Things Non-natural”: A Note on the Origins and Fate of a Doctrine and a Phrase’, Clio Medica 3, 337–347.
Rogers, F.B.: 1965, Shadrach Ricketson (1768–1839): Quaker Hygienist’, Journal of the History of Medicine 20, 140–150.
Rosenberg, C.: 1960, ‘The Cause of Cholera: Aspects of Etiological Thought in Nineteenth Century America’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine 34, 331–354.
Rosenkrantz, B.G.: 1976, ‘Causal Thinking in Erewhon and Elsewhere’, The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 1, 372–384.
Schiller, J.: 1967, Claude Bernard et les problèmes scientifiques de son temps, Les éditions du Cèdre, Paris.
Schmitz-Cliever, E.: 1968, ‘Bevölkerungsstatistische Beobachtungen de Golbery’s im rheinischen Roerdepartment (1804–1809)’, Clio Medica 3, 361–370.
Schipperges, H.: 1962, Lebendige Heilkunde, Walter, Olten.
Schipperges, H.: 1970, Moderne Medizin im Spiegel der Geschichte, G. Thieme, Stuttgart.
Shrewsbury, J.F.D.: 1970, A History of Bubonic Plague in the British Isles, University Press, Cambridge.
Shryock, R.H.: 1972, ‘Germ Theories in Medicine Prior to 1870: Further Comments on Continuity in Science’, Clio Medica 7, 81–109.
Siegfried, A.: 1960, Itineraires de Contagions: Epidemies et Idéologies, A. Colin, Paris.
Stevenson, L.G.: 1965, ‘Putting Disease on the Maps. The Early Use of Maps in the Study of Yellow Fever’, Journal of the History of Medicine 20, 226–261.
Temkin, 0.: 1978, Galenism. Rise and Decline of Medical Philosophy, Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London.
Théodorides, J.: 1966, ‘Les grandes étapes de la parasitologie’, Clio Medica 1, 129–145, 185–208.
Théodorides, J.: 1972, ‘L’ influence de la parasitologie sur le développement de la médecine clinique’, Clio Medica 7, 259–269.
Wartofsky, M. (ed.): 1976, ‘Causality in Medicine’, The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 1, 289–300.
Withington, E.T.: 1964, Medical History from the Earliest Times, The Holland Press, London.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1993 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Peset, J.L. (1993). On the History of Medical Causality. In: Delkeskamp-Hayes, C., Cutter, M.A.G. (eds) Science, Technology, and the Art of Medicine. Philosophy and Medicine, vol 44. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2960-4_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2960-4_5
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-4177-7
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-2960-4
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive