Galen empiricism & rationalism - drake (jan 1, 129 – jan 1, 216)

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Galen on Empiricism

Promoted dissection, ideally of humans, but he did not have access to human bodies, so much of his dissections came from animals. This promotion of dissection came from his empiricist values. Galen promoted the unification of hand and mind. Strongly believe that you need to observe and practice dissection first hand, and that understanding of concepts must come from your own observations.

Despite these views, Galen also believed that it was possible to create theoretical knowledge on the workings of the human body, as long as these theories were based on one's observations. Thus, this side of Galen’s beliefs would fall under rationalist beliefs, in that knowledge can be derived from reason.

Galen is most hostile towards methodists, who were "possibly a consciously anti-intellectual movement representing a non-elite group in society", and claimed that their theory could be taught in six months. Galen found their minimalist theoretical framework too simple as it reduces the range of both empirical inputs and theoretical distinctions that can be considered relevant

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