Philosophy of Health in Renaissance Platonism: Between Theory and Practice

Abstract

This research will attempt to show that the relationship between theory and practice of The Health in Renaissance thought, especially Platonist-oriented one(s), is analogous to what Hans-Georg Gadamer says in his text from 1990 - Philosophy and Practical Medicine. Here, we primarily refer to his view that it is undeniable that “classical medicine on which the research of modern medicine is largely based, is only a small sector compared to the human task that the art of healing as a whole should accomplish”. Almost all the significant thinkers of the Renaissance Platonism, among whom we will highlight - Marsilio Ficino, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Erasmus of Rotterdam and Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim – Paracelsus, although aware of the importance of empirical research, especially for the period of humanism and anticipation of the later birth of a New Science  (1725) never abandoned theory as a guide to practical results when it comes to many fields, including the area of The ​​Health and medicine. This is perhaps best reflected in the words of probably the greatest mystic, naturalist, alchemist, and empiricist in general of all the above thinkers, and that is certainly Paracelsus, who claimed that the source of every disease is in the Nature, and the Healing and the Health lies only in the Spirit.