Abstract

In De alimentorum facultatibus, Book I, Ch. 1, Galen begins his discussion of the powers of foodstuffs by a rough sketch of the opinions of earlier physicians on this subject. He says that according to some of them these powers are only known on the basis of experience, according to others on the basis of a combination of experience and reasoning, whereas a third group gave priority of importance to reasoning. Galen proceeds to say that there is considerable disagreement between these physicians on the topic in question and that, consequently, an unbiased testing of their opinions is necessary; this testing should operate by means of argumentation. Now there are two different starting-points for argumentation, i.e. perception and ‘distinct thinking’. Then the text printed by Helmreich runs as follows: κα μς ναγκαν στιν ἢ θατρ τοτων ἢ μφοτροις χρσασθαι πρς τν το προκειμνου σκμματος ερεσιν: ‘It is necessary for us, too, to use either one of these or both of them in order to find the question under discussion.’