The Body as Teacher: From Source of Knowledge to Object of Knowledge :: Philosophy

The Body as Teacher From Source of Knowledge to Object of Knowledge arise I look at two shipway of seeing the em trunk during the Renaissance the first, illustrated in the Essais of Montaigne, focuses on the body as a source of fellowship ab out the self the second, illustrated in the developing science of anatomy, focuses on the body as an object of make loveledge that is increasingly available only to specialists. In looking for at the science of anatomy as it developed in the Renaissance, I show that the transformation of the body from a source of knowledge of both body and soul to an object of a mechanical science did not happen easily and reflects contradictory approaches to the self that continue to this day.In his book The Mirage of Health, Ren Dubos refers to the never-ending vibration between two different points of view in medicine those who believe that health results from living in harmony with nature (and thus take it upon themselves to know themselves and live in harmony with their environment) and those who believe that health is the responsibility of a medical expert who brings specialized knowledge and the surgeons knife to conquer disease). He points out that in ancient Greece, doctors worked under the patronage of Asklepios, the god of medicine while healers served Asklepioss daughter Hygeia, goddess of healthFor the worshippers of Hygeia, health is the natural order of things, a positive refer to which men are entitled if they govern their lives wisely. According to them, the most important function of medicine is to discover and teach the natural laws which will ensure a man a healthy mind in a healthy body. More skeptical, or wiser in the ways of the world, the followers of Asklepios believe that the chief office of the physician is to treat disease, to restore health by correcting any imperfections caused by accidents of birth or life. (1)The modern debate between the followers of Hygeia and the followers of Asklepios is more tha n than a debate about the relative merits of medical science it reflects a more fundamental debate about the nature of the self and about the ways in which one can have knowledge of the self. It is a debate about the nature of the body and how we learn about it or from it. It is about the body as teacher.This paper focusses on one