Ebooks for the Classroom+Faculty

New Philosophy of Human Nature: Neither Known to nor Attained by the Great Ancient Philosophers, Which Will Improve Human Life and Health
ISBN: 9780252092312
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / University of Illinois Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Philosophical anthropology -- Early works to 1800; Philosophy of nature -- Early works to 1800;

This volume is a critical edition of the 1587 treatise by Oliva Sabuco, New Philosophy of Human Nature, written during the Spanish Inquisition. Puzzled by medicine's abject failure to find a cure for the plague, Sabuco developed a new theory of human nature as the foundation for her remarkably modern holistic philosophy of medicine.

Fifty years before Descartes, Sabuco posited a dualism that accounted for mind/body interaction. She was first among the moderns to argue that the brain--not the heart--controls the body. Her account also anticipates the role of cerebrospinal fluid, the relationship between mental and physical health, and the absorption of nutrients through digestion. This extensively annotated translation features an ample introduction demonstrating the work's importance to the history of science, philosophy of medicine, and women's studies.

Mary Ellen Waithe is a professor of philosophy at Cleveland State University and the editor of the four-volume series A History of Women Philosophers. Maria Colomer Vintró completed the master of philosophy degree at Cleveland State University. C. Angel Zorita is a retired professor of Spanish and Latin at Cleveland State University.