Analogical method, experiment and didacticism in the Hippocratic treatises Generation/Nature of the Child/Diseases 4.

Abstract

This essay suggests three different levels at which the text may be analysed. In it, the notion of analogy is used in a strictly technical sense, to refer to the means of parallelism between a known phenomenon and another that must be explained, with the consequent possibility of inferring the latter from the former. The first level of analysis consists in the examination of some important comparisons, which the author treats as verification of the applicability of the analogical method. The second level rests in considering the great attention that is paid to empirical observation from a medical point of view, which produces attempts at experimental research. Finally, there is a didactic aim, since the author presents his observations for those who wish to know the subject and accept the evidence, availing himself of a sound organizational structure (continually referring to what he has already said or what he will later explain) and numerous rhetorical devices.