Euthanasia and Brain Death in Ancient Greek Philosophy and Medicine, Shino Kihara, Moralia, 27, 65, 90, 01 Nov. 2020, The Department of Ethics, Tohoku University
Paideia in the Corpus Hippocraticum, Shino Kihara, The Proceedings of Seminar on Greek Philosophy, Vol.17, 31 Mar. 2022, Seminar on Greek Philosophy, In discourses that were part of the ancient Greek παιδεία (education and culture) tradition, Hippocrates considered the schism between the knowledge of amateurs (ἰδιώτης) and experts (δημιουργός), and his medicine reveals a very important historical position. However, it is important to examine the premise behind Hippocrates’s proposition to bridge the gap between general education and expertise, because there has been an improvement in medical expertise since the 5th century BC, even though much medical knowledge has been imparted in the form of general knowledge so that it can be understood by the general public; hence, the medical arts have assumed the status of general education (ἐγκύκλιος παιδεία).
In this paper, I elucidate the concept of παιδεία in the Corpus Hippocraticum and reconsider the essence of medicine. First, I deal with the issue of the technique of words (λόγος) and review Hippocrates’s medical education based on Plato’s text (Chapter 1). I also examine and clarify how medical arts are closely linked to rhetoric (Chapter 2) and how Hippocrates thought that the “narrative” of professionals and amateurs, as well as doctors and patients, should be based on healing the disease (Chapter 3). Further, I approach the problem of the medical narrative and the related ethical issues by clarifying the unique views in Hippocrates’ text on the effects of the word “healing.”
Another purpose of this study is to focus on the nature of technical knowledge shown in the Corpus Hippocraticum. I demonstrate that Hippocrates’s medical theory has been enriched from the friction between specialized knowledge and the liberal arts, in line with Sophistic movements. Words bear the power to move people and to heal them. Therefore, experts can use the power of rhetoric without regard to the knowledge possessed by a layman and attempt to influence people. In medical practice, doctors were often encouraged to use rhetoric to justify their treatment and manipulate words to validate their practice. Physicians’ judgments are not value-neutral from an objective, naturalistic standpoint, but appear to be so through the use of such rhetoric. Patients who do not realize this fact will be taking a significant risk when they entrust their bodies to a doctor. Therefore, the importance of informed consent has been repeatedly emphasized. While Hippocrates’s medical philosophy has often been blamed for neglecting patient rights, the Corpus did provide a perspective on re-examining the power structure in physician-patient dialogue. In other words, doctors instruct patients, in the course of their interactions through dialogue, to submit themselves to healing. The doctor’s words exert significant influence on the patient, based on the rational assumption of the doctor’s expertise; communicating this expertise through dialogue with the doctor are expected to improve the patient’s understanding and enable patients to take care of their own bodies. In this regard, Plato has referred to medical education in connection with “care for the soul”; the transmission of knowledge through this “narration” to foster the patient’s independence was the essence of the original version of παιδεία in Hippocratic medicine.
Women’s Bodies in the Corpus Hippocraticum, Shino Kihara, Methodos : a journal for ancient philosophy, 51, 1, 17, 01 Jun. 2019, The Society of Ancient Philosophy, There are numerous texts of ancient Greek medicine that mention women's bodies. More specifically, it has recently been noted by some commentators that the authors of the Hippocratic texts left behind many sources on gynecological diseases, as well as the role of women in reproduction, pregnancy, and childbirth. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate how ancient medical writers understood women (or women's bodies) in the Corpus Hippocraticum.
In light of present issues in feminism, what can be learned by reviewing ancient Greek medical thought and clarifying its views on women's bodies? Instead of simplifying gender differences between men and women, or criticizing discriminatory views, this study takes a different approach. I demonstrate that it is possible to extract women’s unspoken wisdom from these medical texts, even if indirectly expressed.
First, in considering how ancient medical doctors understood women’s bodies, I demonstrate the danger of using a framework that contrasts men and women on a biological basis, as such a framework is of limited use in gender theory (Chapter 1). I also reassess the presence of women in the ancient medical field as patients, doctors, midwives, and therapists (Chapter 2). In doing so, I identify the voices of women in medical practices, and confirm that the Hippocratic texts not only depict human bodies from a medical and scientific viewpoint objectively, but also describe women's bodies based on the ethics of care (Chapter 3). Through these considerations, I maintain that Hippocratic writers respected women as minorities in medical practice and that they preserved women's wisdom, which is present in the therapeutic relationship in the form of unspoken voices. That is to say, while male doctors carefully listened to the voices of women patients, women patients themselves were able to acquire medical knowledge about their own physical organisms. To clarify this point is as important as to describe the presence of discriminated women.
“The Physiology of Pneuma and the Relationship between Aristotle and Greek Medicine”, Shino Kihara, Journal of Philosophy and Ethics in Health Care and Medicine, 11, 33, 40, 01 Dec. 2017, The Japanese Association for Philosophical and Ethical Researches in Medicine
Vol.117-6, 01 Jun. 2016
33, Mar. 2015
Heraclitus’ Flux Theory, Shino Kihara, METHODOS, a Journal of Ancient Philosophy, 27, 10, 19, 01 May 1995, The Society of Ancient Philosophy
Heraclitus’ Concept of the Logos, Shino Kihara, The Journal of Culturology, the Proceedings of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Osaka Prefectural University, 5, 20, 26, 01 Mar. 1996, the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Osaka Prefectural University
Shino Kihara, 30, 16, 27, 01 May 1998, The Society of Ancient Philosophy
The Physiological Theories of Pneuma, Shino Kihara, Archê, the Annual Review of the Kansai Philosophical Association, 8, 35, 46, 01 Jul. 2000, the Kansai Philosophical Association
On Heraclitus Fr. 85, HYPOTHESIS : The Proceedings of the Department of Ancient Philosophy at Kyoto University, 10, 1, 10, 01 Dec. 2000, Department of Ancient Philosophy at Kyoto University
The Conception of psyche in Heraclitus' Fr.36., Shino Kihara, Journal of classical studies, 50, 12, 23, 01 Mar. 2002, Classical Society of Japan, In this paper, I would like to examine the change of the soul (psyche) in fr 36 and reconsider the significance of Heraclitus explaining the soul in the physical process In fr 36, Heraclitus says that the soul becomes the water, the water becomes the earth and vice versa There is little agreement as to what the changes of the soul should be It is a disputable question whether the reciprocal changes in fr 36 are in macrocosm (that is, the extinction or production of the soul from its relation to the sea and the earth cf fr 30 and 31) or in microcosm (that is, the physiological process of the soul from its relation to the blood and the flesh) Many commentators have interpreted it as being in macrocosm However, I do not share this interpretation First, I will examine the two typical interpretations in which the soul in macrocosm is supposed (Kirk and Kahn) According to Kirk, the soul is equated with cosmic fire and 'the death of the soul' means the death of individuals in an eschatological context However, this interpretation is unsound when Kirk must suppose the relation of two fires, between 'a fiery soul' of individuals and the 'cosmic fire' Although Herachtus indicated 'the soul out of water', Kirk discounted this point and supposed falsely the soul out of cosmic fire through respiration On the other hand, Kahn intended that the soul is equated with the air Inasmuch as Heraclitus described the soul as 'dry' or 'wet', so Kahn considered that 'fire' is not suitable as a substitute for the soul from the expressive viewpoint in the fragments Although Kahn's interpretation is a correct one in view of his insistence that the soul is not fire, he overcomplicated the relation between the 'airy soul' of individuals and (cosmic) fire or water The soul as the fire or the air, which is also macrocosmic, is not suitable for the explanation of 'the death of the soul' The important point is the relationship between life and death We must recognize that, for Helaclitus, the psyche has the fundamental meaning of 'life force' and that his 'life and death' is a unity of opposites Heraclitus did not uncritically accede to antecedent ideas of the soul The traditional problem of immortality is reconsidered by Heraclitus in fr 36 The 'death of the soul' is not the biological death of the individual Rather, his use of the soul enables him to combine these aspects of the life and death of individual I would like to emphasize this point and elucidate that the soul includes death and is incessantly renewed as life by death Heraclitus refused the traditional idea that the soul of individuals continues separate from the body after death For him, the soul is not a transcendental substance separate from the body, but constantly maintains the material aspects of the bodily force So for Heraclitus the soul is not like an airy or fiery element or a cosmic soul, but the constitutive principle of the life force That is the meaning of the physiological process This suggests that the soul in fr 36 is a principle for physiological activity as the subject of the life force Finally, I wish to conclude by referring briefly to two connected contents of the soul, as a subject of this physiological activity and of the cognitive activity in other fragments.
Eryximachus’ Doctrine of Erôs, Shino Kihara, METHODOS: A Journal for Ancient Philosophy (The Kodai Tetsugaku Kenkyu), 34, 29, 41, 01 May 2002, The Society of Ancient Philosophy
Early Greek Medicine and Heraclitus, the Ritsumeikan Tetsugaku, the Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Ritsumeikan University, 14, 77, 96, 01 Mar. 2003, The Philosophical Society of Ritsumeikan University
Euthanasia in Hippocrates’ Oath, Shino Kihara, HYPOTHESIS, the Proceedings of the Department of Ancient Philosophy at Kyoto University, 13, 19, 43, 01 Mar. 2004, The Department of Ancient Philosophy at Kyoto University
Melancholy in Greek Medicine, Shino Kihara, The Journal of Kokugakuin University, 107, 12, 01 Dec. 2006, Kokugakuin University
Melancholy and the intellectual activity of the soul in the Corpus Aristotelicum, Shino Kihara, Methodos : a Journal for ancient philosophy, 40, 23, 44, 01 May 2008, The Society of Ancient Philosophy
Daimōn and Psychē in Heraclitus, Shino Kihara, The Journal of Kokugakuin University, 111, 11, 22 Dec. 2010, Kokugakuin University
27, 150, 160, 01 Jun. 2014