Book contents
- Frontmatter
- PART I AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART II A CHRONOLOGY OF MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART III DISCOURSES OF MEDICAL ETHICS THROUGH THE LIFE CYCLE
- PART IV THE DISCOURSES OF RELIGION ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART V THE DISCOURSES OF PHILOSOPHY ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART VI THE DISCOURSES OF PRACTITIONERS ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- 19 The Discourses of Practitioners in Africa
- 20 The Discourses of Practitioners in India
- 21 The Discourses of Practitioners in China
- 22 The Discourses of Practitioners in Japan
- 23 The Discourses of Practitioners in Ancient Europe
- 24 The Discourses of European Practitioners in the Tradition of the Hippocratic Texts
- 25 The Discourses of Practitioners in the Ninth- to Fourteenth-Century Middle East
- 26 The Discourses of Practitioners in Medieval and Renaissance Europe
- 27 The Discourses of Practitioners in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Europe
- 28 The Discourses of Practitioners in Eighteenth-Century France and Germany
- 29 The Discourses of Practitioners in Eighteenth-Century Spain
- 30 The Discourses of Practitioners in Eighteenth-Century Britain
- 31 The Discourses of Practitioners in Eighteenth-Century North America
- 32 The Discourses of Practitioners in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century France
- 33 The Discourses of Practitioners in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Spain
- 34 The Discourses of Practitioners in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Germany
- 35 The Discourses of Practitioners in Eighteenth- to Twentieth-Century Russia and Soviet Union
- 36 The Discourses of Practitioners in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Britain and the United States
- 37 The Discourses of Practitioners in the Modern and Contemporary Islamic Middle East
- PART VII THE DISCOURSES OF BIOETHICS
- PART VIII DISCOURSES ON MEDICAL ETHICS AND SOCIETY
- Appendix: Biographies: Who Was Who in the History of Medical Ethics
- Bibliography
- Index
23 - The Discourses of Practitioners in Ancient Europe
from PART VI - THE DISCOURSES OF PRACTITIONERS ON MEDICAL ETHICS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2012
- Frontmatter
- PART I AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART II A CHRONOLOGY OF MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART III DISCOURSES OF MEDICAL ETHICS THROUGH THE LIFE CYCLE
- PART IV THE DISCOURSES OF RELIGION ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART V THE DISCOURSES OF PHILOSOPHY ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- PART VI THE DISCOURSES OF PRACTITIONERS ON MEDICAL ETHICS
- 19 The Discourses of Practitioners in Africa
- 20 The Discourses of Practitioners in India
- 21 The Discourses of Practitioners in China
- 22 The Discourses of Practitioners in Japan
- 23 The Discourses of Practitioners in Ancient Europe
- 24 The Discourses of European Practitioners in the Tradition of the Hippocratic Texts
- 25 The Discourses of Practitioners in the Ninth- to Fourteenth-Century Middle East
- 26 The Discourses of Practitioners in Medieval and Renaissance Europe
- 27 The Discourses of Practitioners in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Europe
- 28 The Discourses of Practitioners in Eighteenth-Century France and Germany
- 29 The Discourses of Practitioners in Eighteenth-Century Spain
- 30 The Discourses of Practitioners in Eighteenth-Century Britain
- 31 The Discourses of Practitioners in Eighteenth-Century North America
- 32 The Discourses of Practitioners in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century France
- 33 The Discourses of Practitioners in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Spain
- 34 The Discourses of Practitioners in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Germany
- 35 The Discourses of Practitioners in Eighteenth- to Twentieth-Century Russia and Soviet Union
- 36 The Discourses of Practitioners in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Britain and the United States
- 37 The Discourses of Practitioners in the Modern and Contemporary Islamic Middle East
- PART VII THE DISCOURSES OF BIOETHICS
- PART VIII DISCOURSES ON MEDICAL ETHICS AND SOCIETY
- Appendix: Biographies: Who Was Who in the History of Medical Ethics
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
From the earliest surviving Greek literary texts – the Iliad and Odyssey – moral value terms appear in characterizations of physicians, of their activities, of their relations to patients, and of their attitudes. As in many spheres of Greek culture, so too in the ancient Greeks’ uses of these value terms a considerable heterogeneity of rival views becomes visible. The absence of centralized control over physicians in Greece, the lack of any licensing and of formal professional sanctions, and the aggressive competitiveness and adversariality that marked much of ancient Greek culture all contributed to the diversity of views held not only by, but also about physicians. Whereas some Greeks, for example, agreed with the Homeric hero Idomeneus that “a healer (iatrós) is a man worth many men, [since he knows how] to cut out arrows and to sprinkle gentle drugs on [wounds]” (Iliad 11. 514–15), others depicted physicians as greedy, unscrupulous charlatans who collected fees by impressing patients and onlookers with ostentatious displays that merely veiled their ignorance and incompetence. It is impossible to do justice to this diversity of ancient views within the scope of this chapter; the reader therefore would be well advised to keep in mind that only a few conspicuous strands in Greek medical ethics are singled out for consideration here.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge World History of Medical Ethics , pp. 352 - 358Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008