Platonic Craft and Medical Ethics examines the Platonic theory of craft and shows its application to different ethical problems in medicine, both ancient and modern. I begin by elucidating the Platonic use of the term “craft” or “technē”, using especially the paradigmatic craft of medicine, and explicate a number of important principles inherent in his use of the term. I then show how Plato’s framework of crafts can be applied to two ancient debates. First, I show how Plato’s understanding of crafts is used in discussing the definition of medicine, and how he deals with the issue of “bivalence”, that medicine seems to be capable of generating disease as well as curing it. I follow this discussion into Aristotle, who, though he has a different interpretation of bivalence, has a solution in many ways similar to Plato’s. Second, I discuss the relevance of knowledge to persuasion and freedom. Rhetors like Gorgias challenge the traditional connections of persuasion to freedom and force to slavery by characterizing persuasion as a type of force. Plato addresses this be dividing persuasion between sorcerous and didactic persuasion, and sets knowledge as the new criterion for freedom. Finally, I discuss three modern issues in medical ethics using a Platonic understanding of crafts: paternalism, conclusions in meta-analyses and therapeutic misconceptions in research ethics. In discussing paternalism, I argue that tools with multiple excellences, like the body, should not be evaluated independently of the uses to which the patient intends to put them. In discussing meta-analyses, I show how the division of crafts into goal-oriented and causal parts in the Phaedrus exposes the confusion inherent in saying that practical conclusions can follow directly from statistical results. Finally, I argue that authors like Franklin G. Miller and Howard Brody fail to recognize the hierarchical relationship between medical research and medicine when they argue that medical research ethics should be autonomous from medical ethics per se.

This volume brings together twenty-eight papers from an International conference on attitudes towards the past and the creating of identities in Antiquity. The volume addresses many different approaches to these issues, spanning over many centuries, ranging in time from the Prehistoric periods to the Late Antiquity, and covering large areas, from Britain to Greece and Italy and to Asia Minor and Cyprus. The papers deal with several important problems, such as the use of tradition and memory in shaping an individual or a collective identity, continuity and/or change and the efforts to connect the past with the present. Among the topics discussed are the interpretation of literary texts, e.g. a play by Plautus, the Aeneid, a speech by Lykurgos, poems by Claudian and Prudentius, and of historical texts and inscriptions, e.g. funerary epigrams, and the analysis of the iconography of Roman coins, Etruscan reliefs, Pompeian and Etruscan frescoes and Cypriote sculpture, and of architectural remains of houses, tombs and temples. Other topics are religious festivals, such as the Lupercalia, foundation myths, the image of the emperor on coins and in literature, the significance of intra-urban burials, forgeries connected with the Trojan War, Hippocrates and Roman martyrs.

Die vorliegende Dissertation beschäftigt sich mit der antiken hippokratischen Schrift über innere Krankheiten De internis affectionibus (Int.). Empirisch gesammeltes Fachwissen findet sich hier in Form eines praxisorientierten Lehrtextes wieder. Int. ist im Zusammenhang mit den etwa 60 Schriften überliefert, die als Corpus Hippocraticum (CH) zusammengefasst werden. Diese Dissertation fokussiert mit ihren Studien zu Int. sowohl auf philologische Fragestellungen als auch auf medizinhistorische Sachverhalte und untersucht diese bisher kaum erforschte Schrift bezüglich ihres Inhalts und ihrer Strukturierung näher. Die Dissertation arbeitet auf der Textbasis der Int.-Edition mit englischer Übersetzung von P. Potter (1988) und zieht die Teil-Edition von J. Jouanna (2009) in Betracht. Die Dissertation betrachtet die Schrift Int. zunächst aus der Perspektive der Krankheitsgruppen. Die im Rahmen der Studien zu Int. genauer betrachteten Krankheitsgruppen sind: Int. 1-9 Lungenkrankheiten, 14-17 Nierenerkrankungen, 44-46 Ileus, 47-50 Dicke Krankheiten und 52-54 Tetanus. Die Auswahl dieser Gruppen begründet sich einerseits in der Absicht, zusammengehörige Krankheiten einer Gruppe zu betrachten und andererseits, möglichst unterschiedliche Krankheitsgruppen zu untersuchen, um ein Verständnis des Gesamtkonzepts von Int. zu erlangen. Die Dissertation nähert sich dabei den einzelnen Krankheitsgruppen mit unterschiedlichen Methoden, um möglichst verschiedene Blickwinkel zu ermöglichen. Für die erste Krankheitsgruppe, die Lungenkrankheiten, Int. 1-9, erarbeitet die Dissertation exemplarisch eine Übersicht mit den inhaltlichen Hauptlinien. Bereits hier sind typische Charakteristika der Schrift Int. erkennbar. Um ein Gefühl für die prinzipielle inhaltliche Strukturierung von Krankheitsgruppen in Int. zu vermitteln, bietet die Dissertation für die Gruppen 10-12, 13, 18-19, 20-21 und 22-26 eine kurze tabellarische Übersicht. Während für die Gruppen Nierenkrankheiten, Ileus und Tetanus ein medizinhistorischer Kommentar zu ausgewählten Passagen linear am griechischen Text entlang erarbeitet wird, sollen in der Gruppe der Dicken Krankheiten Zusammenhänge und Konzepte in Form eines Essays aufgezeigt werden. Im Anschluss an Studien zu den einzelnen Krankheitsgruppen untersucht die Dissertation übergreifende Aspekte der Schrift Int., wie etwa die allgemeinen medizinischen Vorstellungen und Herangehensweisen des Autors, die Art der Informationssammlung, sprachliche Charakteristika, Ziel der Schrift, geographische Region, Patienten-Zielgruppe, Beziehung zu anderen antiken medizinischen Texten, Datierung u.v.m. Die Dissertation möchte auf Fragen der aktuellen Forschung eingehen, einen neuen Blick auf die Schrift Int. und ein besseres Verständnis ihres Gesamtkonzepts ermöglichen. / This dissertation deals with the ancient Hippocratic treatise on internal diseases De internis affectionibus (Int.). Empirically collected knowledge is gathered here in the form of a practice oriented teaching text, which has been tradited in connection with the about 60 writings that are summarized as the Corpus Hippocraticum (CH). The dissertation on Int. includes studies with focus on philological and medical-historical questions and examines this treatise in terms of its content and structure. The thesis works on the text basis of the Int. Edition with English translation by P. Potter (1988) and considers the partial edition by J. Jouanna (2009). The treatise Int. is researched initially from the perspective of disease groups: Int. 1 9 lung diseases, 14-17 kidney diseases, 44-46 ileus, 47-50 thick diseases and 52-54 tetanus. The selection of these groups is based both on the intention of looking at different diseases that are put together in one group and, on examining as many different groups of diseases as possible in order to gain an understanding of the overall concept of Int. The dissertation approaches the individual groups of diseases using different methods in order to get as many different perspectives as possible. For the first group of diseases, the lung diseases Int. 1-9, the dissertation works out an overview on the main lines of content. Typical characteristics of Int. can already be seen here. In order to get a feeling for the content-related structuring of a disease group in Int., the dissertation offers a short tabular overview for the disease groups 10-12, 13, 18-19, 20 21 and 22-26. While for the groups of kidney diseases, ileus and tetanus, a medical-historical commentary on selected passages is worked out linearly along the greek text, in the group of thick diseases, connections and concepts are to be shown in the form of an essay. Subsequently after individual disease groups, the dissertation examines comprehensive aspects of the treatise Int., such as the author's general medical ideas and approaches, the way of collecting informations, linguistic characteristics, purpose of the treatise, geographical region, patient-target group, relationship to other ancient medical texts, dating of the treatise and more. This dissertation deals with questions of current research and aims to get a new perspective on purpose and concepts of Int.

The first International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) was held in Zurich in 1897, setting the standards for all future ICMs. Whilst giving an overview of the congress itself, this thesis focuses on the Swiss organisers, who were predominantly university professors and secondary school teachers. As this thesis aims to offer some insight into their lives, it includes their biographies, highlighting their individual contributions to the congress. Furthermore, it explains why Zurich was chosen as the first host city and how the committee proceeded with the congress organisation. Two of the main organisers were the Swiss geometers Carl Friedrich Geiser (1843-1934) and Ferdinand Rudio (1856-1929). In addition to the congress, they also made valuable contributions to mathematical education, and in Rudio's case, the history of mathematics. Therefore, this thesis focuses primarily on these two mathematicians. As for Geiser, the relationship to his great-uncle Jakob Steiner is explained in more detail. Furthermore, his contributions to the administration of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology are summarised. Due to the overarching theme of mathematical education and collaborations in this thesis, Geiser's schoolbook "Einleitung in die synthetische Geometrie" is considered in more detail and Geiser's methods are highlighted. A selection of Rudio's contributions to the history of mathematics is studied as well. His book "Archimedes, Huygens, Lambert, Legendre" is analysed and compared to E W Hobson's treatise "Squaring the Circle". Furthermore, Rudio's papers relating to the commentary of Simplicius on quadratures by Antiphon and Hippocrates are considered, focusing on Rudio's translation of the commentary and on "Die Möndchen des Hippokrates". The thesis concludes with an analysis of Rudio's popular lectures "Leonhard Euler" and "Über den Antheil der mathematischen Wissenschaften an der Kultur der Renaissance", which are prime examples of his approach to the history of mathematics.

In broad terms, this thesis is a study of what Protestant theologians in early modern England taught regarding the interdependence between physical health and spirituality. More precisely, it examines the specific and complex doctrines taught regarding health-related issues in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and evaluates the consistency of these messages over time. A component of the controversial Protestant-science hypothesis introduced in the early twentieth century is that advancements in science were driven by the Protestant ethic of needing to control nature and every aspect therein. This thesis challenges this notion. Within the context of health, sickness and death, the doctrine of providence evident in Protestant soteriology emphasised complete submission to God's sovereign will. Rather, this overriding doctrine negated the need to assume any control. Moreover, this thesis affirms that the directives theologians delivered governing physical health remained consistent across this span, despite radical changes taking place in medicine during the same period. This consistency shows the stability and strength of this message. Each chapter offers a comprehensive analysis on what Protestant theologians taught regarding the health of the body as well as the soul. The inclusion of more than one hundred seventy sermons and religious treatises by as many as one hundred twenty different authors spanning more than two hundred years laid a fertile groundwork for this study. The result of this work provides an extensive survey of theological teachings from these religious writers over a large span of time.