The uncertainty of medicine: Galen on the notion of techne stochastike

Abstract

In this article we try to show the Galen’s perspective on the epistemological status of medicine, in particular starting from the conceptual category of τέχνη στοχαστική. Even though the qualification of τέχνη στοχαστική attributed to medicine does not have an explicitly negative connotation in Galen’s Corpus, it does occupy a subordinate position compared with the solidity furnished by the more geometrico method, and is almost a necessary evil that Galen introduces to justify that fallibility of medicine, which at the same time he himself tries in every way to minimize.