In this paper, I show the parallelism between the Galenic concept of “complexion” (complexio,
in Latin) as it was used in the medieval medical and natural-philosophical texts and the current
concept of “personalized medicine”. I this way, I point out to what extent the parallelism between
personalized medicine and the medieval notion of “complexion” is nowadays relevant to
inquire the proprium of the “human” in a bio-medical framework. For, the medieval notion of
“complexion” as “substantial quality” optimally worked as to deal with the problem of reconciling
the “case-by-case” approach of medicine with the need of a unified bio-medical account of
the “human”. Against the background of this reasoning, I further suggest that a mesoscopic perspective
on the living organisms, as the one entailed by the concept of “complexion” and used
in current scenarios of Systems Biology, could be advantageous to the bio-medical investigations
on “what is human”.In this paper, I show the parallelism between the Galenic concept of “complexion” (complexio,
in Latin) as it was used in the medieval medical and natural-philosophical texts and the current
concept of “personalized medicine”. I this way, I point out to what extent the parallelism between
personalized medicine and the medieval notion of “complexion” is nowadays relevant to
inquire the proprium of the “human” in a bio-medical framework. For, the medieval notion of
“complexion” as “substantial quality” optimally worked as to deal with the problem of reconciling
the “case-by-case” approach of medicine with the need of a unified bio-medical account of
the “human”. Against the background of this reasoning, I further suggest that a mesoscopic perspective
on the living organisms, as the one entailed by the concept of “complexion” and used
in current scenarios of Systems Biology, could be advantageous to the bio-medical investigations
on “what is human”.In this paper, I show the parallelism between the Galenic concept of “complexion” (complexio,
in Latin) as it was used in the medieval medical and natural-philosophical texts and the current
concept of “personalized medicine”. I this way, I point out to what extent the parallelism between
personalized medicine and the medieval notion of “complexion” is nowadays relevant to
inquire the proprium of the “human” in a bio-medical framework. For, the medieval notion of
“complexion” as “substantial quality” optimally worked as to deal with the problem of reconciling
the “case-by-case” approach of medicine with the need of a unified bio-medical account of
the “human”. Against the background of this reasoning, I further suggest that a mesoscopic perspective
on the living organisms, as the one entailed by the concept of “complexion” and used
in current scenarios of Systems Biology, could be advantageous to the bio-medical investigations
on “what is human”.
