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- Title
Empiricism in Sixteenth-Century Medical Practice: The Notebooks of Georg Handsch.
- Authors
Stolberg, Michael
- Abstract
Based on an analysis of some 4.000 pages of manuscript notes on ordinary medical practice which the little-known Bohemian physician Georg Handsch (1529-1578?) wrote from the late 1540s, this article traces the central place which empiricist attitudes and approaches held in mid-sixteenth-century learned medical practice. While explicit epis-temological statements are rare, the very effort which Handsch put into recording thou-sands of observations he and other physicians around him had made, and the value they attributed to the experiences of ordinary lay persons and even "empirics" reflects a profound belief in the value of sensory experience and personal observation. The paper traces the uses of empiricist key terms like "experientia," "historia" and "observa-tion it highlights the epistemic effects of personal observation, from confirming and challenging established notions to the creation of new general knowledge from par-ticulars, and it suggests, in conclusion, that such brief notes on ordinary medical prac-tice played an important role in the history of "facts."
- Subjects
EMPIRICISM; SIXTEENTH century; PHYSICIAN practice patterns; PHYSICIANS; HANDSCH, Georg; THEORY of knowledge
- Publication
Early Science & Medicine, 2013, Vol 18, Issue 6, p487
- ISSN
1383-7427
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1163/15733823-0186P0001