[William Harvey revisited ]

Steinke, Hubert (2015). [William Harvey revisited ]. Therapeutische Umschau, 72(7), pp. 421-427. Huber 10.1024/0040-5930/a000695

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William Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood is often described as a product of the Scientific Revolution of the Seventeenth Century. Modern research has, however, shown thatHarvey followed the Aristotelian research tradition and thus tried to reveal the purpose of the organs through examination of various animals. His publication of 1628 has to be read as an argument of natural philosophy, or, more precisely, as a series of linked observations, experiments and philosophical reasonings from which the existence of circulation has to be deduced as a logical consequence. Harvey did not consider experiments as superior to philosophical reasoning nor intended he to create a new system of medicine. He believed in the vitality of the heart and the blood and rejected Francis Bacon's empirism and the mechanistic rationalism of Descartes. Harvey's contribution and originality lied less in his single observations and experiments but in the manner how he linked them with critical reasoning and how he accepted, presented and defended the ensuing radical findings.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > Pre-clinic Human Medicine > Institute for the History of Medicine

UniBE Contributor:

Steinke, Hubert

Subjects:

600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health
900 History

ISSN:

0040-5930

Publisher:

Huber

Language:

German

Submitter:

Pia-Maria Burkhalter

Date Deposited:

30 Mar 2016 08:50

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:52

Publisher DOI:

10.1024/0040-5930/a000695

PubMed ID:

26111837

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.77467

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/77467

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