Natural philosophy and medicine: the university curriculum

Commentary
Natural philosophy and medicine: the university curriculum

As noted in 'Structures of Learning', from the late medieval period well into the seventeenth century, universities across Europe adopted a more or less uniform curriculum.  At its pinnacle were the three higher faculties: theology, law and medicine.  Below these were the three philosophies: metaphysics, moral philosophy, and natural philosophy.  

Each of the three philosophies was particularly important in preparing students for one of the three higher faculties. 

Metaphysics and theology. Aristotle 'had four names for the branch of philosophy that is the subject-matter of Metaphysics' (a term that he did not himself employ): ‘first philosophy’, ‘first science’, ‘wisdom’, and ‘theology’. Put differently, metaphysics (until the seventeenth century) was commonly regarded as the science of 'being as such', of the first causes of things, and of that which does not change. In most of these respects, metaphysics could be regarded as rational theology, that is, as the kind of knowledge of God which is accessible by human reason (i.e. without the aid of the revelation contained in the Judeo-Christian Bible). As such it was valuable above all to future theologians.

Moral philosophy and law. Moral philosophy studied the principles of human behaviour, typically under two headings: ethics dealt with the principles of individual behaviour, and politics with the principles of collective behaviour.  Moral philosophy was therefore prerequisite especially for the higher faculty of law.

Natural philosophy and medicine. Within this Aristotelian framework, 'natural philosophy is the science of those beings which undergo change [unlike the changeless subject matter of metaphysics] and are independent of human beings [unlike the subject matter of moral philosophy, which depends on human volution].' Embracing all the phenomena of the terrestrial world, natural philosophy was therefore particularly indispensable to those aspiring to the higher faculty of medicine. 

This reliance of the three higher faculties on the three philosophies is nowhere more apparent than in the dependence of the four humours of Galenic medicine on the four elements of Aristotelian physics.  

Further reading.

Peter van Inwagen and Meghan Sullivan, 'Metaphysics', The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2020 Edition), ed. Edward N. Zalta.

Eva del Soldato, 'Natural Philosophy in the Renaissance', The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2020 Edition), ed. Edward N. Zalta.