La technicité de la médecine hippocratique et ses limites

The Technicity of the Hippocratic Medicine and Its Limits The study is concerned with the Hippocratic concept of techne which formed a part of the broader debates on techne occurring in 5th century Greece. The concept of techne is anchored in the concept of physis (and it is at the same time in opposition to the concept of tyche); its importance is attested by the fact that – some time ago – H.-G. Gadamer designated the Greek discovery of techne and its application to medicine as a first decisive commitment towards everything that essentially characterizes Western civilization. What is first presented here are the basic features of techne ietrike (as formulated in the treatises of the Corpus Hippocraticum): Medicine is aware of its goal as well as of its methods whose nature it repeatedly reflects on. What belongs to this reflection is an awareness of certain limits on the part of medicine, especially a lack of akribeia that is due to the fact that doctors deal with objects of a different kind than the other arts do, i.e. the unique constitution of each patient. Another particular of the medical techne is the unequal relationship between the specialist-doctor and the object of his art, the patient. This peculiar situation is commented in the treatises of the Corpus Hippocraticum a number of times. The study’s conclusion points out the ethical dimension of dietetic prescriptions and of the medical profession as such; it is something that leads – even in spite of all the limits mentioned above – almost to the deification of both the medical art and the medical life.