The physiological experiment as the basis for Galen's arguments in his polemics with opponents (based on his de Placitis Hippocratis et Platonis, book II)

An analysis of the second book of the treatise De placitis Hippocratis et Platonis shows that Galen consistently builds his argument in a polemic with his opponents, empiricist doctors, on the basis of data obtained as a result of systematic anatomical dissections that can be considered the basis of “experiment” in ancient medicine. Galen's unique thinking manifests itself primarily in his synthetic approach to the formation of the theory of medical knowledge: he borrows the techniques necessary for carrying out tasks from different systems of natural philosophy, constantly rechecking their correctness on the help of extensive “experimental” data, such as the results of autopsies as well as anatomical and clinical observations. According to the author, his extensive polemic with the Stoics has an exclusively applied nature, as their philosophical views formed the basis of the empiricist natural philosophy. In the article, I raise the question of the relation between early Stoic ideas about the methods of knowledge with empiricist doctors' medical practice and their views on general pathology.