Christian Wolff’s Mechanization of Galen

Despite his overall negative assessment of ancient, pre-mechanistic science, Christian Wolff held Galen in high esteem and was in several respects influenced by both ancient and modern Galenism. This influence concerns less medicine as such than its philosophical foundations. First, Wolff explicitly linked his teleological account of living bodies to Galen’s doctrine of the use of parts. Both the contents and method of Wolff’s Rational Thoughts on the Use of Parts in Humans, Animals, and Plants (1725) appear to be largely inspired by Galen’s holistic account of physiological functions. Second, Wolff’s later philosophical analysis of the fundamental concepts of medicine features extensive and thought-provoking discussions of Galen’s characterizations of health and disease, which were familiar to him mainly through the works of Daniel Sennert. In this case, too, what is crucial to Wolff’s theory is his basically Galenic account of the relation between organic structures and functions. Third, this Galenic approach to physiological functions also informs Wolff’s analysis of two fundamental concepts of biology, the concepts of life and death. These multiple references to Galen shed light on the real aim and significance of the Wolffian revival of Galenic finalism. Wolff intended the doctrine of the use of parts to play a prominent role in his attempted foundation of the life sciences.