Ancient Greek Health Theories: Understanding the Melancholic Mean in Aristotelian Problema XXX.1
ABSTRACT: In ancient Greek theories of health, it was the equal balance or mixing of the humors or elements (i.e., the isonomic mean) that comprised the ideal healthy state. In the Aristotelian Problema XXX.1, however, there is a description of a form of melancholic constitution that is both 1) itself characterized as a mean, and 2) thought to lead to intellectual outstandingness. This is theoretically problematic since the melancholic constitution was by definition a constitution in which there was a natural preponderance of black bile. Thus, there appear to be two incompatible means that are descriptive of the ideal in ancient Greek medicine: the isonomic mean that underlies the ideal healthy state, and the melancholic mean that describes the melancholic who is capable of greatness. This paper attempts to understand the melancholic mean as described in Problema XXX.1 by considering the two different but related models of this mean that are suggested in the text. A reconciliation of the two somatic ideals is argued for on the basis of what else is said in the Problema, as well as ideas found in the Hippocratic work Airs, Waters, Places and other Aristotelian Problemata.
Why is it that all those who have become eminent in philosophy or politics or poetry or the arts are clearly of an atrabilious temperament, and some of them to such an extent as to be affected by diseases caused by black bile, as is said to have happened to Heracles among the heroes? (Problemata XXX.1 953a10-14) (1)
So begins the Aristotelian Problema XXX.1. Why indeed! The atrabilious temperament or melancholia is, according to Aristotle, a natural disposition in which there is a preponderance of black bile over the other humours. The healthy somatic ideal, however, was conceived by Greek medical theorists as the equality of the humours, either with respect to their quantity or their relative strengths (quality); disease was by definition an excess of one of the humours or elements. If the ideal state with respect to the humours was equality or isonomic proportion, but "all those who have become eminent in philosophy or politics or poetry or the arts..." be melancholics, then which state is the ideal — health or melancholia?
The explicit association of melancholia with genius is found for the first time in this Problema. The author was working within a long tradition that linked the ideal state with a mean.
This was called the Little Albert study. The experiment was designed to test the theory that an infant could be conditioned to fear an animal that is shown at the same time that a loud noise is being made. In the beginning of the experiment the rat was shown to Albert with no loud noise. Albert showed no signs of fear. But when there was a loud noise made when the rat was shown he started crying and having avoidance showing signs of fear. The loud noise was made with a hammer and a steel bar. Two months after pretesting Albert with the rat, Watson and Rosalie showed the rat, small animals, and object. Albert showed fear to them. Then they moved Albert to a different room for testing, he had a reaction to the rat, rabbit, and dog. While they tested him in this room they were still making noise while presenting the animal. For example when the dog was shown it would bark in the middle of the session, and when the rat was shown the loud band was still made. According to Ronna f. Dillon, “Albert was said to show fear when touching a mask, a sealskin coat, the rat, a dog, and a rabbit” (2). Watson proved that classical conditioning works on humans with the little Albert
In Book 1 of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, he argues that happiness is the best good, and the goal of an individual and of those leading and governing society. Here, happiness is understood as both living well and doing well, rather than the convention sense of happiness as an emotion. According to Aristotle, happiness is achieved though actions involving reason and in accord with virtue, or the best of the virtues of there are more than one. In this paper, I will provide a brief overview of the work and its author, then proceed to provide an overview of the ideas expressed and the argumentation supporting them, before finally performing an analysis and critique of the ideas expressed.
First, a new vision of human nature and heroic virtue is presented in Vergilius' poetry. He is concerned with the Roman spirit as a whole whereas Homer concentrates on individuals and their destinies. The dooms of Achilles and Hector dominate his design; ...
When he was nine months old, Albert was administered Watson’s standard tests used to determine whether “fear reactions can be called out by other stimuli than sharp noises and the sudden removal of support” (p. 2), and was found to not exhibit any signs of fear in any situation. In keeping with his earlier description as emotionally stable, Albert was said to never have been seen to exhibit fear or rage, and almost never cried. Up until that point Albert had never been tested with loud sounds, and Watson and Rayner tested whether they could elicit a reaction of fear at around that time. On the third stimulation of their test, Albert started
Germany was required to take many steps to rebuild after World War II. After the war, during 1949 to 1958 some people immigrated to the United States. These citizens had many worries, but among the worst, was the Allies and the immigrant's security. In order for Allies to not worry, they arrested many German citizens. This caused these individuals the loss of money, food and created unemployment (Background of Post War World War II) .
Tomlinson, T. (1998). Distance education offers new challenges for many students. Hudson Valley Business Journal, 9, 20.
Aristotle’s work, The Nicomachean Ethics, consists of numerous books pertaining to Aristotle’s Ethics—the ethics of the good life. The first book discloses Aristotle’s belief on moral philosophy and the correlation between virtue and happiness.
In 1920, behaviorist John B. Watson and his graduate student Rosalie Rayner wanted to study classical conditioning in people. Classical conditioning is when two stimuli are paired and produce an effect off of the second stimulus, but eventually produce the same effect with the first stimulus individually. Watson believed they were capable of furthering psychologist Ivan Pavlov’s research on conditioning dogs to conditioning humans. Watson was a professor at John Hopkins University and of course, that was Rayner’s alma mater. Watson wanted to justify that emotions were something learned and not inherently placed in the human mind. According to Alexander Burgemeester, Watson hypothesized that although it was uncommon for a baby to have a phobia of animals, “if one animal succeeds in arousing fear, any moving furry animal thereafter may arouse it” (Burgemeester). Both, Watson and Rayner fed off of scientist Ivan Pavlov’s classical conditioning experiment. On the one hand, I do not support the Little Albert experiment because in my opinion, it was unethical and unreliable. The scientists were focused on proving their point and they paid little attention into unconditioning the baby.
He believed insanity brought on by black bile is “divine madness”; stating different qualities from sacred madness and general madness are influenced under the celestial world. Ficino astrological influences came from being born under the sign of Saturn. Planets reflecting important activity of scholars were determined by finding truth from the guidance of Saturn. “The first celestial, the second nature, and the third human” (Ficino [89]). According to Ficino, Saturn provides men in solitude, whose minds are withdrawn from celestial things and physiological melancholy, and the Saturn a man can embrace his fate to the will of stars. Black bile and phlegm are part of the four humors of Hippocratic medicine in Greek times. Black bile is an element of earth described as dry and cold, and Ficino believed when a learned person is melancholic they become more intelligent[:] ...
The purpose of my paper is to discuss distance education: What is it? What is its effect on education and the world? How will educators be affected? What are the pros and cons surrounding its use?
While it is easy to stand back and scorn the subjectivity of the ancient Greeks’ medical practices and laugh at their notions of human anatomy, it is important to recognize that all “science” has a degree of cultural influence. It is true that their sweet and sour pessaries, cures of sex, and anatomical understanding that was based on “Love” would be ridiculous in the modern western society, but rather than view their methods as “bad science,” we can use them as a rich source for discovering cultural values. Love was at the center of their science of healing, and this shows us that it was not an isolated phenomenon in Greek society, but enveloped all aspects of life – spiritual, emotional and physical.
The Little Albert experiment (Watson and Rayner 1920) was a controlled classical conditioning study on phobias, conducted on a nine months old infant. Little Albert was put through a series of emotional tests to see how he would react to various stimuli. He was presented with a variety of animals, however, on the whole, Little Albert showed no fear. Again, Little Albert was presented with an animal, this time a white rat. As before, Little Albert showed no sign of fear at the initial sight of the rat, however, when a sudden loud noise occurred, Little Albert would become hysterical. This continued as Little Albert got older, this time, he’d repeatedly be presented with a rat followed by a loud noise, by now all it took was for Little Albert
Aristotle once stated that, “But if happiness be the exercise of virtue, it is reasonable to suppose that it will be the exercise of the highest virtue; and that will be the virtue or excellence of the best part of us.” (481) It is through Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics that we are able to gain insight into ancient Greece’s moral and ethical thoughts. Aristotle argues his theory on what happiness and virtue are and how man should achieve them.
Today businesses believe that the sustaining of performance and competitive advantage to becoming a great organization. As an organization’s success depends on their employees’ performance, the value of specific individual employee has played an important role within an organization to be competitive. At that time, the value of each and individual employee and their satisfaction with their jobs are one of the key factors for an organization and organizations need to find ways to improve employee job satisfaction to achieve organizational goals.
Higher education, a pilot school education is now the main body of modern Distance Education, carried out from college, undergraduate to graduate students at different levels of education. Adult and vocational educations are to the form of distance education to carry out a certain advantage, because the time of modern distance education is the characteristics of flexibility for non-full-time adult students. However, efforts in th...