• R Cruz-Coke.
• Musco Nacional de Medicina, Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad de Chile.
• Rev Med Chil. 1999 May 1;127(5):611-4.

AbstractThe art of medicine was formed in Greece in close relationship to culture and philosophy. During the Christian era, it was projected through the Corpus Hippocraticus, in several ethical and philosophical documents such as The Oath of Medical Science, Medical Law, Decency, Precepts, Antique Medicine, Airs and Aphorisms, Waters and places. The central idea of Hippocratic philosophy is the principle of wholeness, summarized by Plato in the sentence "The certain knowledge of nature is solely possible from medicine and only when it is correctly approached as a whole". Clinical actions, are imbued by Hippocratic ethics; their aim is the ill that is an anthropos, a human being. The physician must take care of the ill with devotion, selflessness, comprehension and compassion. The oath is the supreme deontological code that summarizes the essential concepts of Hippocratic philosophy. Recent studies suggest that there is a great distance between the thinking of Hippocrates and present scientific medicine. Hippocratic philosophy rejects the epistemological principles of modern science. The Hippocratic logic is probabilistic and temporal and rejects the principles of noncontradiction, of identity and therefore the abstract determinism of contemporary science. The present force of the oath is explained because its ethics and epistemology are matters of medicine that understands the real world of the ill, trying to avoid suffering and injustice. Only Hippocrates can defend each ill as a whole with the wisdom of its philosophy.

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