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Selbstdenken and Eclectic Philosophy: Galen in the Late German Enlightenment

2022; Springer Nature (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-3-030-86308-1_11

2215-0307

Tinca Prunea-Bretonnet,

Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought

This chapter examines the reception of Galen’s philosophical methodology in the late German Enlightenment. Its main goal is to show that after decades of relative neglect, if not rejection, Galen replaces more traditional eclectic figures such as Cicero as the embodiment of the ‘free thinker’ par excellence. I argue that it is for doctrinal reasons and due to their shared philosophical aims that enlightened scholars endorse key eclectic principles advanced in Galen’s philosophical works. The chapter focuses on a text from 1794, Kurt Sprengel’s Letters on Galen’s Philosophical System, which offers an original, erudite and nuanced reading of Galen’s commitment to ‘free thinking’ and eclectic methodology. Central to my analysis is the specific art of philosophizing that SprengelSprengel, K. attributes to Galen, which proves to be both relevant for late Enlightenment methodology and confirmed by recent interpretations of Galen’s thought.