The Importance of a Good Doctor

Sextus was an empiricist doctor. Galen agreed with Eris Estertus and the rationalists that a good doctor should understand the underlying causes of things. For Galen, this often meant attending to the purposes of nature. He followed Aristotle in believing that natural things like bodily organs have goal-directed functions. When we study the hidden causes of health and disease, he argued, we are uncovering the exquisite design of nature itself.