John Locke biography & philosophy

John Locke was born in the small Somerset village of Wrington on August 29th 1632. His mother died while he was an infant and his father, a country lawyer, died a few years thereafter. He was educated at the famous Westminster school from 1646 and the University of Oxford from 1652 where his early training was in the classics (Greek, Rhetoric, moral philosophy etc.) and part of his later training was in medicine and experimental science. In 1659 he was elected to a senior studentship (i.e. fellowship) at Christ Church, Oxford. In 1665 he spent some time on the European mainland during a period of employment as secretary to the English ambassador to the Elector of Brandenburg. In 1666 he practiced medicine on the politician Anthony "Ashley" Cooper aka Lord Ashley. In the event this treatment was followed by the beginnings of a deep friendship between the two men. Locke was elected a fellow of the recently established Royal Society (for Improving Natural Knowledge) in 1668. Lord Ashley began to put governmental appointments Locke's way and was in a very powerful position to do so when he was himself created 1st Earl of Shaftesbury and appointed Lord Chancellor of the Realm in 1672. It happened that the Earl of Shaftesbury was deprived of his high office in 1675. Locke suffered from athsma and this together with a heavy work load contributed to his return to Oxford from London in 1675. Later that year he decided to relocate to France where he was variously based in Montpellier and Paris until his return to England in 1679. At this time his former employer the Earl of Shaftesbury, who had been imprisoned in the Tower of London, was back in favour with King Charles II. Shaftesbury's star fell once more before many years had passed, this time dramatically in association with an enduring power struggle over the Royal succession. Locke as a known some-time friend of the fallen Earl now again found it advisable to live abroad, basing himself in the United Provinces of the Netherlands, between 1683-1688. During these years in the United Provinces Locke found time to finalise his "Essay concerning Human Understanding". This essay being a wide-ranging theory of knowledge that constitutes, in terms of academic philosophy, the greater part of his legacy. European geo-politics at this time were greatly distressed by the Glorie seeking expansionary policies of King Louis XIV of France. Several, mainly Germanic, opponents of the Roi Soleil Sun King became involved in a League of Augsburg. This League had William of Orange, the ruler of the Netherlands, as its most prominent statesman and soldier. The League was also supported by the Papacy as the Pope was alienated by King Louis' insisting in 1682 that the Catholic Church in France should enjoy "Gallican Liberties" where Papal authority would be subject to the assent of the Catholic Church in France.

This French assent being fairly open to manipulation by King Louis XIV. As events played out James II, the "Stuart dynastic" King of England and an ally of Louis XIV, persued several policies that were deeply unwelcome to many powerful English interests. Representatives of these interests approached William of Orange, who was married to a daughter of James II by a previous marriage, and who also personally had a hefty dose of the "Stuart" blood royal coursing through his veins. William of Orange and Mary his wife were in fact cousins in the first degree and were jointly offered the British thrones by domestic opponents of James II. In the so-called Glorious Revolution (1688-9) William and Mary replaced James II as monarchs. The change of monarchy led to an alteration of the political climate in England. John Locke was very much in favour with the new order, he even returned to England in February 1689 amongst the party attached to soon to be crowned Mary II. Locke was offered a continental ambassadorship but preferred to take up a more modest domestic post in the Commission of Appeals for health reasons. Whilst Locke had more or less prepared a number of works during his various periods of exile it was only after his return to a more sympathetic England in 1689 that his works began to be published on a significant scale. In February 1690 his Two Treatises of Government appeared and his Essay concerning Human Understanding was published in March of the same year. Several Letters on Toleration (i.e. Religious Toleration) followed shortly thereafter. There were a number of subsequent works, (including his influential Thoughts on Education - 1693), but Locke's reputation as a philosopher today is chiefly based on his Essay concerning Human Understanding. His Two Treatises of Government being perhaps of more interest for their seeming direct impact on practical affairs. Locke was appointed Commissioner of Trade and Plantations in 1696 and held this position until he himself resigned because of ill health in 1700. John Locke died at Oates, the country house of Lady and Lord Masham, in Essex on October 28th, 1704. John Locke had been a long-term house guest at Oates since 1691. Whilst Locke was a friend of the Masham's, he had had particular cause to seek a domicile in the country as the tainted air of London had not suited his asthmatic condition. The Masham's, and more particularly Locke himself, exercised a fair amount of influence of the somewhat radically inclined "Whig" party that sought, in competition with the somewhat conservative "Tory" party, to influence affairs of state. After 1688 Whig influence helped to ensure that the England and wider Britain would be enabled to function as a constitutional monarchy controlled by parliament. There was an enhancement in the way in which persons could enjoy liberty under law including liberty of speech and expression. A limited degree of official religious toleration, in a generally confessionally intolerant Europe, was put in place.

John Locke - Quotes

I have so little Concern in Paying or Receiving of Interest, that were I in no more Danger to be misled by Inability and Ignorance, than I am to be biassed by Interest and Inclination, I might hope to give you a very perfect and clear Account of the Consequences of a Law, to reduce

Interest to Four per Cent. Locke, John. Consequences of Lowering of Interest. 1691. For it is to be Remembred, That no Man borrows Money, or pays Use, out of mere Pleasure... Locke, John. Consequences of Lowering of Interest. 1691. Now I think the Natural Interest of Money is raised two ways: First, When the Money of a Country is but little in proportion to the Debts of the Inhabitants one amongst another. Locke, John. Consequences of Lowering of Interest. 1691.

2.5 Knowledge and Probability

Knowledge involves the seeing of the agreement or disagreement of our ideas. What then is probability and how does it relate to knowledge? Locke writes: The Understanding Faculties being given to Man, not barely for Speculation, but also for the Conduct of his Life, Man would be at a great loss, if he had nothing to direct him, but what has the Certainty of true Knowledge Therefore, as God has set some Things in broad day-light; as he has given us some certain KnowledgeSo in the greater part of our Concernment, he has afforded us only the twilight, as I may say so, of Probability, suitable, I presume, to that State of Mediocrity and Probationership, he has been pleased to place us in here, wherein to check our over-confidence and presumption, we might by every day's Experience be made sensible of our short sightedness and liableness to Error(IV, xiv, 12., p. 652) So, apart from the few important things that we can know for certain, e.g. the existence of ourselves and God, the nature of mathematics and morality broadly construed, for the most part we must lead our lives without knowledge. What then is probability? Locke writes: As Demonstration is the shewing of the agreement or disagreement of two Ideas, by the intervention of one or more Proofs, which have a constant, immutable, and visible connexion one with another: so Probability is nothing but the appearance of such an Agreement or Disagreement, by the intervention of Proofs, whose connection is not constant and immutable, or at least is not perceived to be so, but is or appears, for the most part to be so, and is enough to induce the Mind to judge the Proposition to be true, or false, rather than the contrary. (IV., xv, 1., p. 654) Probable reasoning, on this account, is an argument, similar in certain ways to the demonstrative reasoning that produces knowledge but different also in certain crucial respects. It is an argument that provides evidence that leads the mind to judge a proposition true or false but without a guarantee that the judgment is correct. This kind of probable judgment comes in degrees, ranging from near demonstrations and certainty to unlikeliness and improbability to near the vicinity of impossibility. It is correlated with degrees of assent ranging from full assurance down to conjecture, doubt and distrust. The new science of mathematical probability had come into being on the continent just around the time that Locke was writing the Essay. His account of probability, however, shows little or no awareness of mathematical probability. Rather it reflects an older tradition that treated testimony as probable reasoning. Given that Locke's aim, above all, is to discuss what degree of assent we should give to various religious propositions, the older conception of probability very likely serves his purposes best. Thus, when Locke comes to describe the grounds for probability he cites the conformity of the proposition to our knowledge, observation and experience, and the testimony of others who are reporting their observation and experience. Concerning the latter we must consider the number of witnesses, their integrity, their skill in observation, counter testimony and so on. In judging rationally how much to assent to a probable proposition, these are the relevant considerations that the mind should review. We should, Locke also suggests, be tolerant of differing opinions as we have more reason to retain the opinions we have than to give them up to strangers or adversaries who may well have some interest in our doing so.

Locke distinguishes two sorts of probable propositions. The first of these have to do with particular existences or matters of fact, and the second that are beyond the testimony of the senses. Matters of fact are open to observation and experience, and so all of the tests noted above for determining rational assent to propositions about them are available to us. Things are quite otherwise with matters that are beyond the testimony of the senses. These include the knowledge of finite immaterial spirits such as angels or things such as atoms that are too small to be sensed, or the plants, animals or inhabitants of other planets that are beyond our range of sensation because of their distance from us. Concerning this latter category, Locke says we must depend on analogy as the only help for our reasoning. He writes: Thus the observing that the bare rubbing of two bodies violently one upon the other, produce heat, and very often fire it self, we have reason to think, that what we call Heat and Fire consist of the violent agitation of the imperceptible minute parts of the burning matter (IV. XVI. 12. Pp 6656). We reason about angels by considering the Great Chain of Being; figuring that while we have no experience of angels, the ranks of species above us is likely as numerous as that below of which we do have experience. This reasoning is, however, only probable. Aristotle (Ancient Greek: [aristotls], Aristotls) (384 BC 322 BC)[1] was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology. Together with Plato and Socrates (Plato's teacher), Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy. Aristotle's writings were the first to create a comprehensive system of Western philosophy, encompassing ethics, aesthetics, logic, science, politics, and metaphysics. Aristotle's views on the physical sciences profoundly shaped medieval scholarship, and their influence extended well into the Renaissance, although they were ultimately replaced by Newtonian physics. In the zoological sciences, some of his observations were confirmed to be accurate only in the 19th century. His works contain the earliest known formal study of logic, which was incorporated in the late 19th century into modern formal logic. In metaphysics, Aristotelianism had a profound influence on philosophical and theological thinking in the Islamic and Jewish traditions in the Middle Ages, and it continues to influence Christian theology, especially the scholastic tradition of the Catholic Church. Aristotle was well known among medieval Muslim intellectuals and revered as '" ' The First Teacher". His ethics, though always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics. All aspects of Aristotle's philosophy continue to be the object of active academic study today. Though Aristotle wrote many elegant treatises and dialogues (Cicero described his literary style as "a river of gold"),[2] it is thought that the majority of his writings are now lost and only about one-third of the original works have survived.[3]
Introduction: Aristotles Definition of Happiness

Happiness depends on ourselves. More than anybody else, Aristotle enshrines happiness as a central purpose of human life and a goal in itself. As a result he devotes more space to the topic of happiness than any thinker prior to the modern era. Living during the same period as Mencius, but on the other side of the world, he draws some similar conclusions. That is, happiness depends on the cultivation of virtue, though his virtues are somewhat more individualistic than the essentially social virtues of the Confucians. Yet as we shall see, Aristotle was convinced that a genuinely happy life required the fulfillment of a broad range of conditions, including physical as well as mental well-being. In this way he introduced the idea of a science of happiness in the classical sense, in terms of a new field of knowledge. Essentially, Aristotle argues that virtue is achieved by maintaining the Mean, which is the balance between two excesses. Aristotles doctrine of the Mean is reminiscent of Buddhas Middle Path, but there are intriguing differences. For Aristotle the mean was a method of achieving virtue, but for Buddha the Middle Path referred to a peaceful way of life which

negotiated the extremes of harsh asceticism and sensual pleasure seeking. The Middle Path was a minimal requirement for the meditative life, and not the source of virtue in itself.

Thomas Aquinas
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Thomas Aquinas

Detail from Valle Romita Polyptych by Gentile da Fabriano Thomas Aquinas About 1225[1] Born Roccasecca, Kingdom of Sicily 7 March 1274[1] Died Fossanova, Papal States Occupation Priest, Philosopher, Theologian Order of Saint Benedict Education University of Naples Federico II Scholasticism, Thomism Genres Metaphysics, Logic, Theology, Mind, Subjects Epistemology, Ethics, Politics Summa Theologica Notable Summa contra Gentiles work(s) Relative(s) Landulf of Aquino

Influences[show] Influenced[show]
Thomas Aquinas, O.P. (28 January 1225 7 March 1274), also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian[2][3] Dominican priest and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, within which he is also known as the "Doctor Angelicus", "Doctor Communis", and "Doctor Universalis".[4] "Aquinas" is the demonym of Aquino, his home town. He was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology, and the father of Thomism. His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy was conceived in development or refutation of his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law, metaphysics, and political theory. The works for which he is best known are the Summa Theologica and the Summa contra Gentiles. Thomas is held in the Catholic Church to be the model teacher for those studying for the priesthood, and indeed the highest expression of both natural reason and speculative theology. The study of his works, according to papal and magisterial documents, is a core of the required program of study for those seeking ordination as priests or deacons, as well as for those in religious formation and for other students of the sacred disciplines (Catholic philosophy, theology, history, liturgy, and canon law).[5] One of the 35 Doctors of the Church, he is considered the Church's greatest theologian and philosopher. Pope Benedict XV declared: "This (Dominican) Order ... acquired new luster when the Church declared the teaching of Thomas to be her own and that Doctor, honored with the special praises of the Pontiffs, the master and patron of Catholic schools."[6]

Epicurus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search Roman marble bust of Epicurus

Born Died Nationality Era Region School Main interests Influenced by[show]

4 February 341 BC Samos, Athens 270 BC (aged 72) Athens Greek Ancient philosophy Western philosophy Epicureanism Atomism, Materialism

Influenced[show]
Epicurus (/pkjrs/ or /pkjrs/;[1] Greek: , Epikouros, "ally, comrade"; 341 BC 270 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher as well as the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism. Only a few fragments and letters of Epicurus's 300 written works remain. Much of what is known about Epicurean philosophy derives from later followers and commentators. For Epicurus, the purpose of philosophy was to attain the happy, tranquil life, characterized by ataraxiapeace and freedom from fearand aponiathe absence of painand by living a selfsufficient life surrounded by friends. He taught that pleasure and pain are the measures of what is good and evil; death is the end of both body and soul and should therefore not be feared; the gods do not reward or punish humans; the universe is infinite and eternal; and events in the world are ultimately based on the motions and interactions of atoms moving in empty space.

Contents

1 Biography 2 The school 3 Teachings o 3.1 Prefiguring science and ethics o 3.2 Pleasure as absence of suffering 4 Legacy 5 Works 6 Hero cult 7 In literature and popular media 8 Epicurus and the Epicursim 9 See also 10 Notes 11 Further reading 12 External links

Biography
Part of a series on Hedonism Thinkers[show] Schools of hedonism[show] Key concepts[show]

t e

His parents, Neocles and Chaerestrate, both Athenian-born, and his father a citizen, had emigrated to the Athenian settlement on the Aegean island of Samos about ten years before Epicurus's birth in February 341 BC.[2] As a boy, he studied philosophy for four years under the Platonist teacher Pamphilus. At the age of 18, he went to Athens for his two-year term of military service. The playwright Menander served in the same age-class of the ephebes as Epicurus. After the death of Alexander the Great, Perdiccas expelled the Athenian settlers on Samos to Colophon, on the coast of what is now Turkey. After the completion of his military service, Epicurus joined his family there. He studied under Nausiphanes, who followed the teachings of Democritus. In 311/310 BC Epicurus taught in Mytilene but caused strife and was forced to leave. He then founded a school in Lampsacus before returning to Athens in 306 BC. There he founded The Garden, a school named for the garden he owned that served as the school's meeting place, about halfway between the locations of two other schools of philosophy, the Stoa and the Academy. Even though many of his teachings were heavily influenced by earlier thinkers, especially by Democritus, he differed in a significant way with Democritus on determinism. Epicurus would often deny this influence, denounce other philosophers as confused, and claim to be "selftaught". Epicurus never married and had no known children. He suffered from kidney stones,[3] to which he finally succumbed in 270 BC[4] at the age of 72, and despite the prolonged pain involved, he wrote to Idomeneus: I have written this letter to you on a happy day to me, which is also the last day of my life. For I have been attacked by a painful inability to urinate, and also dysentery, so violent that nothing can be added to the violence of my sufferings. But the cheerfulness of my mind, which comes from the recollection of all my philosophical contemplation, counterbalances all these afflictions. And I beg you to take care of the children of Metrodorus, in a manner worthy of the devotion shown by the young man to me, and to philosophy.[5]

Epicurus

First published Mon Jan 10, 2005; substantive revision Wed Feb 18, 2009 The philosophy of Epicurus (341270 B.C.E.) was a complete and interdependent system, involving a view of the goal of human life (happiness, resulting from absence of physical pain and mental disturbance), an empiricist theory of knowledge (sensations, including the perception of pleasure and pain, are infallible criteria), a description of nature based on atomistic materialism, and a naturalistic account of evolution, from the formation of the world to the emergence of human societies. Epicurus believed that, on the basis of a radical materialism which dispensed with transcendent entities such as the Platonic Ideas or Forms, he could disprove the possibility of the soul's survival after death, and hence the prospect of punishment in the afterlife. He regarded the unacknowledged fear of death and punishment as the primary cause of anxiety among human beings, and anxiety in turn as the source of extreme and irrational desires. The elimination of the fears and corresponding desires would leave people free to pursue the pleasures, both physical and mental, to which they are naturally drawn, and to enjoy the peace of mind that is consequent upon their regularly expected and achieved satisfaction. It remained to explain how irrational fears arose in the first place: hence the importance of an account of social evolution. Epicurus was aware that deeply ingrained habits of thought are not

easily corrected, and thus he proposed various exercises to assist the novice. His system included advice on the proper attitude toward politics (avoid it where possible) and the gods (do not imagine that they concern themselves about human beings and their behavior), the role of sex (dubious), marriage (also dubious) and friendship (essential), reflections on the nature of various meteorological and planetary phenomena, about which it was best to keep an open mind in the absence of decisive verification, and explanations of such processes as gravity and magnetism, which posed considerable challenges to the ingenuity of the earlier atomists. Although the overall structure of Epicureanism was designed to hang together and to serve its principal ethical goals, there was room for a great deal of intriguing philosophical argument concerning every aspect of the system, from the speed of atoms in a void to the origin of optical illusions.

Ren Descartes
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Portrait after Frans Hals, 1648[1] 31 March 1596 La Haye en Touraine, Kingdom of Born France 11 February 1650 (aged 53) Died Stockholm, Swedish Empire French Nationality 17th-century philosophy Era Western Philosophy Region Roman Catholic[2] Religion Cartesianism Rationalism School Foundationalism Founder of Cartesianism Metaphysics, Epistemology, Main interests Mathematics Cogito ergo sum, method of doubt, Cartesian coordinate system, Notable ideas Cartesian dualism, ontological argument for the existence of

Christian God, mathesis universalis; folium of Descartes Influenced by[show]

Influenced[show]
Signature

Part of a series on

Ren Descartes

Cartesianism Rationalism Foundationalism Doubt and certainty Dream argument Cogito ergo sum Trademark argument Mind-body dichotomy Analytic geometry Coordinate system Cartesian circle Folium Rule of signs Cartesian diver Balloonist theory

Works The World Discourse on the Method La Gomtrie Meditations on First Philosophy Principles of Philosophy Passions of the Soul

People

Christina of Sweden Baruch Spinoza Gottfried Leibniz

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Ren Descartes (French: [ne dekat]; Latinized: Renatus Cartesius; adjectival form: "Cartesian";[6] 31 March 1596 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, mathematician, and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings,[7][8] which are studied closely to this day. In particular, his Meditations on First Philosophy continues to be a standard text at most university philosophy departments. Descartes' influence in mathematics is equally apparent; the Cartesian coordinate system allowing reference to a point in space as a set of numbers, and allowing algebraic equations to be expressed as geometric shapes in a two-dimensional coordinate system (and conversely, shapes to be described as equations) was named after him. He is credited as the father of analytical geometry, the bridge between algebra and geometry, crucial to the discovery of infinitesimal calculus and analysis. Descartes was also one of the key figures in the Scientific Revolution and has been described as an example of genius. Descartes frequently sets his views apart from those of his predecessors. In the opening section of the Passions of the Soul, a treatise on the Early Modern version of what are now commonly called emotions, Descartes goes so far as to assert that he will write on this topic "as if no one had written on these matters before". Many elements of his philosophy have precedents in late Aristotelianism, the revived Stoicism of the 16th century, or in earlier philosophers like Augustine. In his natural philosophy, he differs from the schools on two major points: First, he rejects the analysis of corporeal substance into matter and form; second, he rejects any appeal to endsdivine or naturalin explaining natural phenomena.[9] In his theology, he insists on the absolute freedom of God's act of creation. Descartes was a major figure in 17th-century continental rationalism, later advocated by Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz, and opposed by the empiricist school of thought consisting of Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Hume. Leibniz, Spinoza and Descartes were all well versed in mathematics as well as philosophy, and Descartes and Leibniz contributed greatly to science as well. He is perhaps best known for the philosophical statement "Cogito ergo sum" (French: Je pense, donc je suis; English: I think, therefore I am), found in part IV of Discourse on the Method (1637 written in French but with inclusion of "Cogito ergo sum") and 7 of part I of Principles of Philosophy (1644 written in Latin).

Plato
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search For other uses, see Plato (disambiguation) and Platon (disambiguation). Plato

Plato: copy of portrait bust by Silanion c. 428427 BC[1] Born Athens c. 348347 BC (aged c.80) Died Athens Greek Nationality Ancient philosophy Era Western philosophy Region Platonism School Rhetoric, art, literature, Main interests epistemology, justice, virtue, politics, education, family, militarism Theory of Forms, Platonic idealism, Notable ideas Platonic realism, hyperuranion, metaxy, khra Influenced by[show]

Influenced[show]
Plato (/pleto/;[2] Greek: , Pltn, "broad";[3] 428/427 BC[a] 348/347 BC) was a philosopher in Classical Greece. He was also a mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western philosophy and science.[4] In the words of A. N. Whitehead: The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. I do not mean the systematic scheme of thought which scholars have doubtfully extracted from his writings. I allude to the wealth of general ideas scattered through them.[5] Plato's sophistication as a writer is evident in his Socratic dialogues; thirty-six dialogues and thirteen letters have been ascribed to him. Plato's writings have been published in several fashions; this has led to several conventions regarding the naming and referencing of Plato's texts.[6] Plato's dialogues have been used to teach a range of subjects, including philosophy,

logic, ethics, rhetoric, religion and mathematics. Plato is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy.

Avicenna Biography (980-1037)

Nationality Persian Gender Male Occupation physician Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Abd Allah ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna, wasa highly respected Persian physician whose medical treatise, the Canon ofMedicine, influenced medical practice for centuries. He was born near Bukhara, then the capital of the Persian Samanid dynasty and the intellectual center of Islam. Avicenna's father hired tutors to teach him the Koran and literature, and sent him to the greengrocer to learn arithmetic. So bright that his teachers soon had nothing left to impart to him, Avicenna continued his education on his own, instructing himself in astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, and medicine. At 16 he already had a reputation as an authority in legal and medical matters. When the Samanid ruler Nuh ibn Mansur fell ill, Avicenna was asked to consultwith the court doctors. The ruler recovered, and Avicenna was offered a position at court as a physician, which gave him access to the royal library. Avicenna wrote his first book, a work on philosophy, when he was 21. Following the death of his father, Avicenna acquired a government post. But in the wake of impending Samanid defeat at the hands of the Turks, Avicenna left Bukhara. He took up a series of court appointments in a variety of cities,working as a lawyer, physician, and administrator. He treated the Majd al-Dawla for depression, and the Buyid prince Shams al-Dawla for a bowel disorder.Employed by Shams al-Dawla as a physician and vizier, or high executive officer, Avicenna devoted his days to his prince and his nights to discussion sessions with his students that were often also occasions for musical performances and general merriment. Political intrigue shadowed Avicenna. For a time hewas forced into hiding, and once he was jailed. Avicenna began his Canon of Medicine in 1012, and completed it a little more than a decade later, in 1023, in Hamadhan, in west-central Iran. His purpose in writing it was put together a clear, concise compendium of Greco-Roman scientific medicine. The Canon was translated into Latin by Gerardof Cremona (c.1114-1187) between 1150 and 1187. It became the standard European medical textbook for the duration of the Middle Ages. The first part of the Canon defines the nature of the human body, health, illness, and medical treatment, and the causes and symptoms of disease. Disease is caused by humoral imbalance, bodily malformation, or dysfunction such as obstruction. Urine and pulse are a guide to the inner state of the body, and therapies include drugs, bleeding, and cauterization. Part two of the Canon deals with medicinal plants and the conditions they treat. Diseases of individual organs or systems are covered in the third part of the Canon. Part four deals with fevers. It also teachers minor surgery, and treatment of tumors, dislocations, poisons, and skin conditions, among other afflictions. The fifth and final part of the Canon is a guide to preparing medicinal compounds. Critics of the Canon point out that also it was a reliable reference tool for answering certain questions, it did not represent genuine progress. The material on physiology and anatomy was not as well organized as the partson specific treatments and preparation of pharmaceuticals. In writing his compendium, Avicenna hoped to bring together the best of the ancient texts whilecorrecting their shortcomings, and to provide a working manual that would spare practitioners the need to do original research in physical science. But in discouraging

investigation, the Canon held back medical progress. And some consider it outdated even at the time of its composition. All the same, Avicenna distinguished between diseases and their causes -- a major conceptual leap--and he knew that diseases are spread by water and soil, not only by"bad air." The Canon's materia medica (medical remedies) listed over760 drugs. In 1023, the city of Hamadhan was attacked, and Avicenna fled to Isfahan. Lodged and welcomed by the ruler, Ala al-Dawla, Avicenna would spend the last 14years of his life there in relative peace. He continued his research in practice in medicine, noting that ice compresses effectively relieved headaches,and that sugar-rose preserves cured a woman of her tuberculosis. In January 1030, Isfahan fell to the Ghaznavids, and Ala al-Dawla and Avicenna evacuatedthe city. While on a campaign with al-Dawla, Avicenna suffered an acute abdominal attack and died. He was 57 years old.

Read more: http://www.faqs.org/health/bios/7/Avicenna.html#ixzz2aECzNhhT