Abstract
In the Hippocratic Corpus we find some of our richest, oldest and most interesting evidence about the ancient Greek discussion on human nature in the Classical era. In order to demonstrate certain prominent features of the Hippocratic approach to the topic, in the presented study I am trying to answer two questions that structure the article into two sections.
In the first section I ask "Why should be physician concerned with nature (phusis) and why should he concentrate mainly on the nature of man?" I argue that the Hippocratic concept of human nature serves as a normative state that is basically identical with health. According to the discussed passages it seems clear that for the purposes of the Hippocratic medicine it is necessary to know what is the subject of the medical therapy - and it is obviously the nature of man, and what is the goal of the therapy - and it is health as the optimal human condition.
The art of medicine is also understood as an imitation of the self-healing faculties of the