Medicine and Practical Ethics in Galen

Sophia Xenophontos (Aristotle University, Thessaloniki)

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English

Cambridge University Press
07 August 2025

Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500; Ethics & moral philosophy; History of medicine

Galen was notable in the ancient world for his creative intermingling of medicine and practical ethics. This book is the first authoritative analysis of Galen's psychological and ethical works alongside a large number of his technical tracts, both medical and philosophical, and offers a robust framework through which we can comprehend his role as a practical ethicist - an aspect of his intellectual profile that has been little understood until now. Sophia Xenophontos explores a wide range of literature on moralia in the Roman imperial period, as well as topics including the pathology of emotions, the social role of medicine, and character formation and social ethics, to show the sophisticated and complex ways in which moral themes and controversies from antiquity were adapted and reinvigorated by Galen. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

By: Sophia Xenophontos (Aristotle University Thessaloniki)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
ISBN: 9781009247788
ISBN 10: 1009247786
Pages: 316
Publication Date: 07 August 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Introduction: Galen, the Unsuspected Moralist; Part I. Moral themes and types of moralism in Galen: 1. General Protreptic and Suggested Approaches to Life; 2. Practical Ethics in Technical Accounts; 3. Moral Medicine; Part II. Case Studies: 4. Avoiding Distress; 5. Exhortation to the Study of Medicine; 6. Affections and Errors of the Soul; 7. Recognising the Best Physician; 8. Prognosis; Conclusion.

Sophia Xenophontos is Associate Professor of Ancient Greek Literature at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She is the author of Ethical Education in Plutarch: Moralising Agents and Contexts (2016) and Georgios Pachymeres' Commentary on Aristotle's 'Nicomachean Ethics': Critical Edition with Introduction and Translation (2022).

Reviews for Medicine and Practical Ethics in Galen

'Xenophontos' book is an exciting addition to the scholarship on Galen. Her exploration of the practical ethics of antiquity's most voluminous writer—particularly his literary, rhetorical, and argumentative strategies—offers new ways of understanding Galen as a moralist. Medicine and Practical Ethics in Galen will be of profound interest both to readers of Galen and to students of imperial philosophy.' Anna Peterson, Pennsylvania State University 'In this very welcome contribution to Galenic studies Sophia Xenophontos offers a comprehensive and engaging account of the full scope of Galen's involvement with ethical questions, not only in theory but in the lived reality of patient's cases and in the practicality of his activities as physician.' Chiara Thumiger, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel