Owsei Temkin – författare

Published to commemorate the centennial of the publication of Darwin's "Origin of Species", this volume brings together several important essays on the history of the idea of evolution. Included are discussions of Maupertuis, Buffon, Diderot, Kant, Herder, Lamarck, and Schopenhauer by such leading scholars as Arthur O. Lovejoy, Bentley Glass, Owsei Temkin, C. C. Gillispie, Francis C. Haber, and Jane Oppenheimer.

A classic study of medicine in antiquity, Ancient Medicine brings together much of Ludwig Edelstein's most important work on a subject that occupied him throughout a distinguished career. Included is his widely known translation of and commentary on the Hippocratic Oath, as well as his other writings on the oath which demonstrate how atypical it is of Greek medical thought. The book also explores the influence of empiricism and skepticism on Greek and Roman medicine, the practice of anatomy and dietetics in antiquity, and the relation of ancient medicine to ancient philosophy.

Owsei Temkin presents the history of epilepsy in Western civilization from ancient times to the beginnings of modern neurology. First published in 1945 and thoroughly revised in 1971, this classic work by one of the history of medicine's most eminent scholars now returns to print in a new softcover edition.

In Hippocrates in a World of Pagans and Christians, Temkin shows how the perennial appeal of Hippocratic practice helped establish the relationship between scientific medicine and monotheistic religion. After the first century, Hippocratic medicine competed with powerful beliefs in religious healers from Asclepius to Jesus. Yet the ascendance of Christianity, Temkin explains, did not diminish the stature of Hippocratic science. Hippocrates, after all, saw nature as a divine and orderly power that caused growth and supplied "health." Hippocratic doctors could easily exchange the cult of Asclepius for the worship of Christ. But they could not sacrifice their belief in nature as the basis of health, disease, and therapy without renouncing their science. In compromise, the Church accepted Hippocratic medicine with the proviso that the Christian physician shun all pagan or heretical interpretations of naturalism-he must not, for example, believenature to be divine, the soul a mere function of the brain, or himself the true savior of the sick.

Over the course of a career spanning most of the twentieth century, distinguished historian Owsei Temkin has argued passionately for the necessity of chronicling and analyzing the history of medicine. The essays presented in "On Second Thought" and Other Essays in the History of Medicine and Science span Dr. Temkin's career, bringing together new pieces and many previously unavailable outside the journals in which they were originally published. Here the reader will find new thoughts and ideas that deviate from Dr. Temkin's earlier beliefs and reflect a lifetime of research into the historical and ethical foundations of modern medicine. Dr. Temkin addresses medical ethics, tracing the idea of respect for life through the history of medicine and exploring the moral complications of the concept of disease. The volume opens with "On Second Thought," a new essay reflecting on the author's career. Also new is a previously unpublished translation and interpretation of the Hippocratic Oath which takes a very different point of view from that made famous by the author's friend and colleague Ludwig Edelstein.Other essays reflect on the history of therapy and nutrition, including drug therapy, and comment on the lessons ancient medicine can teach modern medicine. Dr. Temkin also writes on topics in the history of science, including the Age of Copernicus, as well as Gall and the phrenological movement. The final essay in the book brings the volume full circle, reproducing Dr. Temkin's obituary for Edelstein-included, he writes, to atone for his own more recent distancing from Edelstein's views.