Wisdom, melancholy, and happiness: a physiology of Aristotle's ethics 1 (original) (raw)

The following paper is divided in three sections. The first one provides an outline of the " humoral theory, " the ancient doctrine grounded by Hippocrates, which would generally state that both psychological and physical human traits were ruled by four humors flowing inside the body. The second section studies the links between one of these humors, the black bile, and the defense of the madness or frenzy, as developed in Plato's Phaedrus. Finally, in the third section, this relation will be confronted with the Problem XXX, 1, one of the Aristotelian treatises whose authority is still debated. Hence, this will lead us to consider the deep and complex bond between the physiological doctrine and the moral theory inside the Aristotelian ethical project. Humoral doctrine in the Ancient Age In order to discover the sources of humoralism, we should review the general traces of both the Pythagoric doctrine and the ancient philosophy of nature. Although the first thought that the beginnings of the " cosmos " were settled in pure numbers –especially number four–, and the latter stated the existence of the original elements, constitutive principles of matter such as air, water or fire, humoral theory joined the two and assigned particular qualities for each of the elements. This theory brought together the speculations of the first philosophers, pithagorical doctrine, and, as we shall see, the empirical evidences of medicine and physiology.