Pneumatism in Seneca: an example of interaction between physics and medicine.

Abstract

The reading of Seneca's works is of the greatest interest for the history of ancient medicine since this Stoic philosopher makes extensive use of medical comparisons and references with regard to ethics and epistemology. Seneca should therefore be considered as an indirect but important witness to the tracing of medical doxography. The study of his Problems in Nature (Naturales Quaestiones), as they are based on a pneumatical etiological system, shows the complexity of the relationship between medical and philosophical schools. It also brings new light on some of the treatises from the Hippocratic Corpus.