Galen: On Antecedent Causes

A new edition of Galen's text on causal theory, and the first translation of it into a modern language.

Galen (Author), R. J. Hankinson (Edited by)

9780521622509, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 August 1998

368 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.4 cm, 0.555 kg

'Another excellent edition with commentary in the orange series … the apparatus criticus is substantial and reasonable. The commentary is rich and clear.' Mnemosyne

This book is a new edition of a short but fascinating treatise by Galen on causal theory. This text survives only in a Latin translation of the fourteenth century, and it is this which appears here. The volume also contains the first translation of the treatise into any modern language, and the first philosophical commentary thereon. The commentary ranges widely in Galen's voluminous œuvre, and compares his views with those of other ancient theorists. The introduction deals in detail with Galen's life and work, with the background both philosophical and medieval to his causal theory, and with the history of the text itself.

Introduction
1. Galen's life
2. The ancient concept of causation
3. The medical schools
4. The text of 'De Causis Procatarcticis'
Liber Galieni de Procatarcticis Causis/Galen's book on antecedent causes
Commentary
Appendix: a guide to the editions and abbreviations of the Galenic corpus
Glossary of Latin-Greek equivalences
Bibliography
Indexes.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA]