Men ought to know that from nothing else but the brain comes joy, delights,
laughter, and sports, and sorrows, griefs, despondency, and
lamentations. And by this, in an especial manner, we acquire wisdom and
knowledge, and see and hear and know what are foul and what are fair, what
are bad and what are good, what are sweet, and what are unsavory. … And by
the same organ we become mad and delirious, and fears and terrors assail
us. … All these things we endure from the brain. …In these ways I am of
the opinion that the brain exercises the greatest power in the man.
-- Hippocrates, On the sacred disease (ca. 4th century BCE).
[ In this and other of his writings, Hippocrates shows such an incredible
early sense for rationality and against superstition that was only rarely
seen in the next 2000 after that—and in addition, he was not just a
armchair philosopher, he actually put these things is practice. So, hats off
for Hippocrates, even when his medicine was not without faults of
course...]
I don’t know, to me he’s just stating that the brain is the seat of sensation and reasoning.
Aristotle thought it was the heart. Both had arguments for their respective positions. Aristotle studied animals a lot and over-interpreted the evidence he had accumulated: to the naked eye the brain appears bloodless and unconnected to the organs; it is also insensitive, and can sustain some non-fatal damage; the heart, by contrast, reacts to emotions, is obviously connected to the entire body (through the circulatory system), and any damage to it leads to immediate death.
Also, in embryos the brain is typically formed much later than the heart. This is important if, like Aristotle, you spent too much time thinking about “the soul” (that mysterious folk concept which was at the same time the source of life and of sensation) and thus believed that the source of “life” was also necessarily the source of sensation, since both were functions of “the soul”.
Hippocrates studied people more than animals, did not theorize too much about “the soul”, and got it right. But it would be a bit harsh to cast that as a triumph of rationality against superstition.
-- Hippocrates, On the sacred disease (ca. 4th century BCE).
[ In this and other of his writings, Hippocrates shows such an incredible early sense for rationality and against superstition that was only rarely seen in the next 2000 after that—and in addition, he was not just a armchair philosopher, he actually put these things is practice. So, hats off for Hippocrates, even when his medicine was not without faults of course...]
I don’t know, to me he’s just stating that the brain is the seat of sensation and reasoning.
Aristotle thought it was the heart. Both had arguments for their respective positions. Aristotle studied animals a lot and over-interpreted the evidence he had accumulated: to the naked eye the brain appears bloodless and unconnected to the organs; it is also insensitive, and can sustain some non-fatal damage; the heart, by contrast, reacts to emotions, is obviously connected to the entire body (through the circulatory system), and any damage to it leads to immediate death.
Also, in embryos the brain is typically formed much later than the heart. This is important if, like Aristotle, you spent too much time thinking about “the soul” (that mysterious folk concept which was at the same time the source of life and of sensation) and thus believed that the source of “life” was also necessarily the source of sensation, since both were functions of “the soul”.
Hippocrates studied people more than animals, did not theorize too much about “the soul”, and got it right. But it would be a bit harsh to cast that as a triumph of rationality against superstition.