The Human Body, Its Functioning and Treatment from the Occasionalist Perspective of Arnold Geulincx

Abstract

Arnold Geulincx (1624–1669) is the founder of the theory of occasionalism, which tries to explain the experience of the psychophysical unity of human being on the basis of Cartesian substance dualism. This philosopher, but also a physician by education, addressed the issue of the human body in his works, considering it in various contexts. In Metaphysica vera he presents them as an extended substance, in Ethica he discusses them as part of the human condition, and in Physica vera he presents the body as a microcosm. In addition to works on philosophy, Geulincx is the author of the medical treatise Medicina contracta, which was never published in print, and is included in the seventeenth-century anonymous manuscript containing Geulincx’s works: Arnoldi Geulincx Scholae Academicae ultimae ab auditore anonymo descripta Collegia. In this treatise, apart from descriptions of the organs of the human body, we find considerations about diseases and treatment. This article, based on the aforementioned texts, presents Geulincx’s reflections on the human body and attempts to show that they are determined by the assumptions of the theory of occasionalism.