Publication: Personalized Medicine and Complexio. “What is Human?” as a Medical Question
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Date
2019
Authors
Journal Title
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Publisher
EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste
Abstract
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”.
Description
Keywords
Complexion, personalized medicine, human, substantial quality, mesoscopic perspective
Citation
Chiara Beneduce, "Personalized Medicine and Complexio. “What is Human?” as a Medical Question", in "Etica & Politica / Ethics & Politics (2019) XXI/2", Trieste, EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2019, pp. 89-98