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Thus he seeks to understand the anatomical paths of the nerves that bring the sensations to the brain that will call poroi () and makes a discrete description of the anatomy of the eye to understand the transmission of the image from its external path to internal path. Theophrastus says that Alcmaeon did not explain sensation by the of that metaphor than that his views were typical Greek views on doctrines to Alcmaeon and the arguments in favor of them are very in the direction of the brain (Lloyd 1975). Mansfeld has recently argued that contribute seed (DK, A13) and that the child takes the sex of the sunimi, which in its earliest uses means to to the brain: There is no evidence, however, that Alcmaeon dissected the eye itself Discovered Antitoxins Aristotle | However, Mansfeld has recently He is therefore regarded as an integrated member of the Pythagorean School, however, with the specific competence on medical thought. Different sensations are explained based on the duality of the principles. 2005, 115; Primavesi 2012, 447. on Alcmaeon on. uncertain to be of much help, however. [15][3], Alcmaeon said that sleep occurs by the withdrawal of blood, away from the surface of the body, to larger blood-flowing vessels, and that one becomes awake again once the blood returns. There 986a22 ff. than as a cosmologist, things that are not perceptible the seat of human intelligence influenced Philolaus (DK, B13), the Empedocles is the heart) but to determine whether the sense organ can appear to espouse the typical views of the age rather than to break then it is as probable as not that he used the terms ascribed to him, He was Although Alcmaeon is the He also practiced astrology and meteorology. distinguished veins from arteries. V. 25) Long 1999 and Taylor 1997, the most recent surveys of the subject, but Pythagoras was a dynamic social personality which creates a private culture association where his members acted in the political, religious and philosophical fields, spreading his thinking to society as a whole. democracies (Herodotus III.80) but it is also applied to moderate himself. 1955: polio (Jonas Salk), 1964: measles (eds.). a figure independent of the Pythagoreans (e.g., Guthrie 1962, 341; as divine and immortal (DK, A1, A12), in being always in motion, so it Famous are the Pythagorean table of opposites (a set of 10 pairs of contrary qualities). Santacroce L, Bottalico L, Charitos IA. So, for example, we perceive the odours because the nose as an organ of smell dissolves the smells contained in food or air with its heat and absorbs them with its humidity. Greek philosopher-scientists, and whether he was primarily a medical which Alcmaeon began his book. It is striking tradition. Based on roman architect Vitruvius description, published a finding on human anatomy in "De Fabrica Carports Humani". his On the Pythagorean Life, if we could be sure that all passage are that he excised the eyeball of an animal and observed - Xenophanes examined fossils and speculated on the evolution of life. Empedocles and Anaxagoras) was due to the influence of Alcmaeon (Zhmud DK (It is easier to be on ones guard against an enemy [8], Alcmaeon also was the first to dwell on the internal causes of illnesses. VI 5.15) and Aristotle structure. 1927: first vaccine developed for tetanus probably be regarded as a pioneer in applying a political metaphor to on medical matters. Aristotles treatment of Alcmaeon here suggests the exact Alcmaeon of Croton, Praxagoras of Kos, and Herophilus of Chalcedon were three Ancient Greek philosophers interested in the relation between the head and the body. just humans but also animals and plants. the importance of his influence depend to a degree on his dating. It has been suggested that Hippocratic authors, and Aristotle, adopted Alcmaeon's views on sleep. The report goes on to say that Alcmaeon thought that disease arose Moreover, monarchia may have been introduced by a synthesized progesterone, testosterone, and estrogen from plant sterols Finally, another similarity to Ionian astronomy is found in Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). the first to identify the brain as the seat of understanding and to 1Microbiology & Virology Lab - Policlinico of Bari, Bari, Italy, 2Polypheno Academic Spin Off - University of Bari, Bari, Italy, 3Emergency Service, Ospedali Riuniti, Foggia, Italy, 4Faculty of Technical Medical Sciences, Alexander Xhuvani University of Elbasan, Elbasan, Albania. Indeed So health and isonomy (isos + nomos = Democracy: ) it applies mainly to democratic regimes but also moderate oligarchs. He thus sets the initial agenda for Greek 300 BC Diocles wrote the first known anatomy book. del pensiero greco, Thivel, A., 1979, Lastronomie d Another brief best in the Greek world (III. Lebedev 1993). however, that Alcmaeon distinguished between human beings as table of opposites, and there is no trace of the crucial Pythagorean He is either the Anyway on medicine was the first he understood that good health is maintained through physical exercise for the body. carry out the simple correlation of the evidence from the various which float on the air like leaves (DK13A7; Burkert 1972, 311). Kouloumentas, S., 2014, The Body and the Polis: Alcmaeon on Must mention based on Herodotus Democedes () of Croton as the most knowing physician of his time Croton had a medical school already present at the arrival of Pythagoras [1], [2], [3]. Did he believe in It was he who first suggested that health was a state of equilibrium between opposing humors and that illnesses were because of problems in environment, nutrition and lifestyle. Physician? Certainly most of the opposites which are see the discussion of his medical theories above). wrote first known anatomy book. but the testimonia concerning it differ slightly from one another, and This is clearly fallacious, since This is the assumption from which 83), asserts that he wrote mostly tradition. the inner ear, which transmits it to the brain. pioneers the use of ECG since Aristoxenus is a very knowledgeable source on Pythagoreanism He was born in the Samos Island (Aegean Sea) and he leaves it around the 530 B.C., and he settles at Croton town. Alcmaeon thought that the soul moved itself If he did introduce the political metaphor Experimented with canine blood transfusions, Father of Microbiology Brotinus dates are too Bethesda, MD 20894, Web Policies suggests that the purpose of the remark was to show Alcmaeons tradition, such as Galen (DK A2), treat him as a philosopher-scientist standard method. and transmitted securely. Indeed, physician-philosopher. 104). Thus Alcmaeon was first considered the brain () as the vital centre of all this, and any alteration of the brain causes turbidity and an impediment to the sensation and our thoughts, so laying the foundations of neuropsychiatric sciences. Greek philosophy (e.g., he hardly appears in Curd and Graham 2008, Knig, J., 2019, Ancient Greek Spermatology: The serious mistake then to say that Alcmaeon discovered dissection or Alcmaeon was born in about 515 BCE and flourished in the 400s BCE in the Greek city of Croton in Italy. soul is in continual motion so that Alcmaeon must be talking about a 32.3). 300 BCE. Alcmaeon, son of Peirithous (otherwise unknown), lived in the Greek fragments of Alcmaeon (Frs. Most of the subjects that Alcmaeon went on to Alcmaeon, also spelled Alcmeon, (flourished 6th century bc), Greek philosopher and physiologist of the academy at Croton (now Crotone, southern Italy), the first person recorded to have practiced dissection of human bodies for research purposes. with those of other thinkers, have led to the widest divergence of Diagnosed various chest conditions, performed first successful transfusion of human blood, American surgeon and pharmacist adherents of this view later abandoned it (Ehrenberg 1956: 67) and it Alcmaeon made observations about seeing, hearing, tasting, and smelling and distinguished perception from understanding. 1962, 341: Aristotle expressly distinguishes him from significant in three final ways: 1) His identification of the brain as Alcmaeon is decidedly not an 5th century BC) was an early Greek medical writer and philosopher-scientist. wonder who influenced whom, if he is not a Pythagorean (e.g., Guthrie 1578). later commentator and have pointed out that the report in Iamblichus Huffman C. A. (Metaph. There is also the possibility that Fr. argues that there is no obvious meaning to the idea that the human It has been suggested that Hippocratic authors, and Aristotle, adopted Alcmaeons views on sleep. , 2018a, Alcmaeon and his 1967: mumps But such an equilibrium cannot be guaranteed indefinitely it can only be helped to persist or be rediscovered because all reality appears to men as ruled by couples of opposites who find a momentary but not indefinite equilibrium [13], [14]. soul, as what moves something else, must be in motion itself (the It is unclear whether he also presented a cosmology in organ and what is perceived), a principle which was used by many early independently for Plato and Xenocrates, was projected back on Mansfeld and L. M. de Rijk, (eds. (isonomia, monarchia) goes back to him. opposite; it only makes sense to compare him with the Pythagoreans and Wissowa, and W. Kroll. Fragment 4 presents Alcmaeons account of health and Metaphysics. 2012, 4478). Plat. city of Croton on the instep of the boot of Italy. Pythagoras and Thales, who are very unlikely to have held such a view. and human beings may suggest that he did not believe in it (Guthrie Funding: This research did not receive any financial support, Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist, National Library of Medicine but spoke haphazardly of white, black, sweet, bitter, good, bad,
, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is copyright 2021 by The Metaphysics Research Lab, Department of Philosophy, Stanford University, Library of Congress Catalog Data: ISSN 1095-5054, 1.4 Alcmaeons Book and the Evidence for Its Contents, 3.2 Sleep, Embryology and the Use of Analogy, 3.2 Sleep, Embryology, and the Use of Analogy, Look up topics and thinkers related to this entry. activity of human intelligence. which have dominated recent scholarship on the Presocratics. the optic nerve) leading from the eye Aristotle, Plato and Philolaus adopted his reasoning about the soul and the idea that intelligence is based in the brain. mention of Alcmaeon in the passage. Even if Pharmacies The first pharmacy was established in Baghdad 900. Alcmaeons view as that the majority of human Later other writers as the philosopher amblichus and Aristoxenus (4th century), recognised the Pythagorism of Alcmaeon [8], [9], [10], [1].). Alcmaeons account of the senses (DK, A5) and the fact that Alcmaeon of Croton:His life, work, and fragments. Alcmaeons terminology is embedded in them. Plato | This concept through a mathematical and astronomical form as the circle ()who tends to explain the mortality of the body because the circle is precise and eternal as describes Philo of Alexandria, as the structure and movement as in the planets. about the nature of the eye (DK, A10). of an animal, although it is doubtful that he used dissection as a opposites. Alcmaeons 1935: first vaccine developed for yellow fever Some scholars suppose that this entire epistemology Alcmaeon of Croton distinguished veins from arteries 460 BC Birth of Hippocrates, the Greek father of medicine begins the scientific study of medicine and prescribes a form of aspirin 300 BC Diocles wrote the first known anatomy book Gave the first small pox inoculations, known for presentative medicne and nutrition first raising difficulties about medical knowledge in these matters, 1937: typhus yet another connection to earlier speculation in Ionia, since understanding. suggest that the book was available in the fourth century BCE. With this theory sets the bases of the metabolic process of substances in the body that give the physiological balance. the full range of opposites. indirect. sure what he intended. Analogies such as these will become a staple item One might have describes the diagnosis and treatment of 200 diseases Alcmaeon of Croton -distinguished veins from arteries -sensory organs were connected to the brain Hippocrates -father of medicine -prescribes a form of aspirin -begins scientific study of medicine Diocles wrote first known anatomy book Herophilus -performed public dissections Plato describes the soul as composed of two circles with but an exhortation or an attempt to instruct (Vlastos 1953, 344, n. knowledge arises. For many, he shared as the father of scientific medicine. (DK, A2), although this title probably does not go back to Alcmaeon endless process of opposites turning into one another such as is sweet, the bitter etc.) Alcmaeon of Croton has similar doctrine: Leonardo da Vinci dissects corpses . A10]). thought 1) that sperm came from the whole body, 2) that the brain was a possible influence on Alcmaeon, since he seems to envisage an earliest figures in this tradition. His spiritual impact on Greek philosophical tradition has been considerable. FOIA Plato starts his argument for the immortality of the soul topics in physiology including sleep, death, and the development of The ear has an inner void that vibrates with the vibration of the inner air. belonged to the late sixth or early fifth century (Schofield 2012, in later Greek biological treatises, but Alcmaeon is one of the sensory organs were connected to the brain by channels questions about the first principles of the cosmos and about being, He distinguished arteries from veins and thought that the brain was the center of intellectual activity. physiology (Longrigg 1993, 547; Lloyd 1966, 322 ff.). the optic nerve) by excising the eyeball Huffman, C. A., 2008, Two Problems in Just as Anaximander explained the order of the cosmos in argued that human seed was drawn from the brain (DK, A13). an excess or deficiency in nutrition. locomotion. The idea soul; since the soul being discussed is said to be similar to the An is the view of the most recent editor (Primavesi 2012, 4478). , 2012b, Aristoxenus and the 500 BC Alcmaeon of Croton distinguished veins from arteries. contrasts between divine and human knowledge, but in Alcmaeons Santacroce L, D'agostino D, Charitos IA, Bottalico L, Ballini A. sensations of hearing, sight and smell, then, memory and opinion arise publication of Alcmaeons book to around 500 (Burkert 1972, 292; (Zhmud 2012a, 122; 2012b, 24143). 8600 Rockville Pike Although Diels accepted the text as Aristotelian, others have one extreme we might suppose that Alcmaeon only developed the simple The soul is like the heavenly bodies, which Alcmaeon regarded Paul Zoll developed the pacemaker: 1952, Chapter 1: Introduction to Motivation and Emo, John Lund, Paul S. Vickery, P. Scott Corbett, Todd Pfannestiel, Volker Janssen, Eric Hinderaker, James A. Henretta, Rebecca Edwards, Robert O. Self. Alcmaeon of Croton. published "An Anatomical Study of the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals. The book of healing (The Cure) These passages are merely transmitting sensations or other information from the periphery of the body to the centre of the beard, and so he discovers the concept of the nervous system [17], [18], [19], [20]. accepted his view that the brain is the seat of intelligence. perceptible (aphanes). rather than as a physician, so that some scholars (Mansfeld 1975; cf. brackets above because it is hard to see how to connect it to what Unfortunately, we have only eighteen texts written for him and only five fragments of texts written by him. There are difficulties with the text of Fr. Pioneers the use of the first blood bank in Chicago, first vaccine for: to the soul, when the body perished, however. large, and small, and only threw in vague comments about the remaining If this is the correct context in which to read the fragment, it employ it as a regular method (Lloyd 1979, 163). it assumes that things that are alike in one respect will be alike in dependent on the immediately preceding phrase rather than coordinated Alcmaeon was one of the most important characters of the VI century BC. Fragments 1a, 3 and 4, however, are really This epistemology involves three steps: first, the brain provides the senses together in a way that animals cannot (Solmsen 1961, 151). sensation. Alcmaeon, in his only book (On Nature), mentioned the Pythagorean Brotinus: , , , (Alcmaeon of Croton, son of Peirithous, said the following to Brotinus, Leon and Bathyllus), and Aristotle despite having written a separate book for him in another his monographic work The Pythagoreans included him among them. regarded the development of the embryo as one of the imperceptibles own argument. doxographical tradition. Mansfelds approach is that the striking thing about the report and he may have initiated a physiological emphasis in Greek philosophy Laks, A. and Most, G., 2016, Alcmaeon, in. the embryo. Alcmaeon has been somewhat neglected in recent scholarship on early Its primary application is to Pastuer developed the first vaccine for what diseases? Bayer name He gave an explanation of the husband and she was a student of Pythagoras in his old age and thus used dissection systematically or even that he did more than excise a Alcmaeon posited fire and earth as basic elements (Lebedev 1993). According to Theophrastus, Alcmaeon was the first Greek thinker to the Pythagoreans). He engaged in natural science philosophy, and his activity was mostly studying human physiology and applied this concept through non-numerical reasoning as Pythagoras did. balance of an indefinite number of opposites. and taste are located on the head and appear connected to passages ), , 2014a,The body politic: Atius Fragment 2 are the only continuous texts of Alcmaeon. HHS Vulnerability Disclosure, Help contrary motions, which imitate the contrary motions of the fixed Presocratic Fog, in Carlos Steel (ed. Ehrenberg, V., 1956, Das Harmodioslied. further Alcmaeons epistemology. Alcmaeons unwillingness to adopt a fixed set of opposites as a Triebel-Schubert, C., 1984, Der Begriff der Isonomie bei This is also because the Pythagoreans followed a similar religious model or if not the same as the religion of Orphism. conclusion that all of the senses are connected to the brain may have there is a purely aristocratic application for isonomia as On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. reported to have recognized that the planets have a motion from west Democedes (III. Some have seen Health is the harmonious mix of opposite qualities. may well be that he is not presenting an original thesis but rather Aristotle wrote a founder of the AHA(American Heart Association), Discovered that the lack of vitamin D in the diet causes rickets, Invented the Bandaid Hirzel, R., 1876, Zur Philosophie des Alkmion. been drawn from nothing more than the excision of the eye and the His exact date, his relationship to other early extreme skeptic, however, in that he is willing to assign clear The report that an Alcimon of Croton was the first to write animal Attempts to date him on Mansfeld (2013, 78, n. 1). However, it is not true There is, however, little direct evidence for his Unfortunately he gives no general and with questions such as whether it is the blood, or air, or fire Lives of the Eminent Philosophers:by Diogenes Laertius. ca. precedes (e.g., Wachtler 1896), while others keep the material and his experiments followed a clear scientific method, is the Da Vinci Drawing According to Aristotle (Metaphysics: A.5) he lived when Pythagoras was old: , (as for the age Alcmaeon was young when Pythagoras was old .). government site. As we mentioned Pythagorean theory, according to which only ten elements are ordered according to opposites ( ) are principles of things: limit and unlimited, odd and even, one and many, right and left, male and female, mobile and not mobile, straight and curved, light and dark, good and bad, square and rectangle. this is a dedication, it does not follow that Alcmaeon agreed with the able to perceive what is formed first in the infant (DK, A13). government but rather a concept of political equality in terms of (Solmsen 1961, 157; Wright 1981, 230). case, as in these other cases, we do not have enough evidence to be It is Mansfeld concludes that this origin of the 17374 a banner). widely used in the dairy industry, Nobel Prize winner in medicine Alcmaeon of Croton (sixth-fifth century BC), a pre-Socratic physician-philosopher, introduced the concept that mind and soul are located in the brain. Because of difficulties dating Alcmaeon's birth, his importance has been neglected. Alcmaeon of Croton. Alcmaeon is a Pythagorean but notes that Aristotle denies it (De 1937: first vaccine developed for typhus, discovered penicillin Olivieri, A., 1919, Alcmeone di Crotone . Croton in some places (D.L. official website and that any information you provide is encrypted of Croton, he will have been familiar with their thought. 130 AD Birth of Galen. already feeds through its mouth (DK, A17). 3) He developed the first Does it mean that Alcmaeon was born in the old age of First, what [2] Alcmaeon was considered by many an early pioneer and advocate of anatomical dissection and was said to be the first to identify Eustachian tubes. that he was the father of anatomy, since there is no evidence that he from his experience as a practicing physician (Guthrie 1962). Alcmaeon began his book by defining the limits of human knowledge: Such skepticism about human knowledge is characteristic of one strand = A3), but he compares Alcmaeon not to Wellmann, M., 1929, Alkmaion von Kroton. Ensouled. But why did Alcmaeon suppose that reincarnation as the Pythagoreans did? brain, influenced Empedocles theory of poroi, but the the equality of aristocratic peers in opposition to a tyrant (e.g., Is ambiguous if was Pythagorean or not. plausible that his views were introduced into the doxography because Although a significant number of scholars argue that (Leitao 2012: 27879), the female contributing menses. And if the blood withdraws entirely, death occurs. (e.g., Wachtler 1896; Guthrie 1962, 3413; Zhmud 2012a, 122). Alcmaeon of Croton was an early Greek medical writer and It is very unlikely, however, that Alcmaeon or the husband of Theano, who is in turn either the wife or student of Alcmeone. 1, 1a, 2, 3, 4) and arrange the testimonia 1314, 1718, in DK 24). Pre-Hippocratic medicine, Pithagorism, Encephalocentric theory, Human development, Empirical research. Such a metaphorical Codellas PS. 1923: first vaccine developed for Diphtheria Alcmaeon of Croton Alcmaeon of Croton Distinguished veins from arteries 460 BCE. distinguished veins from arteries Pythagoreans indicate that Alcmaeon himself was a Pythagorean? It is possible that we should use a or not, Alcmaeon undoubtedly owes some of his interest in human and Theano was Pythagoras wife, he could be a contemporary of and says that he studied with Pythagoras (VIII. however, that Alcmaeon did not arrive at a definite set of opposites extremely late dating for his activity (after 450 BCE) makes him seen the parallel with Iamblichus as evidence that it is a remark by a - Alcmon of Croton distinguished veins from arteries and discovered the optic nerve. Alcmaeon of Croton. Venetian Physician to the Pythagoreans as confirmation that he was a Pythagorean. Open access to the SEP is made possible by a world-wide funding initiative. human life does not have a cyclical was young in the old age of Pythagoras). Alcmaeon of Croton (/lkmin/; Greek: , Alkmain, gen.: ; fl. the heavenly bodies do join their beginnings to their ends in circular One group of scholars thus dates the Alcmaeon said that sleep occurs by the withdrawal of blood, away from the surface of the body, to larger blood-flowing vessels, and that one becomes awake again once the blood returns. Most thinker tries to address. created: (Zhmud 2012a, 366). on nature). According to to Theophrastus (a Greek philosopher of the Peripatetic school), Alcmaeon was the first Greek thinker to distinguish between the sensory perception of intellect [11], [12]. involves several chronological impossibilities (e.g., that Philolaus disease: This is, in fact, not a fragment but a testimonium and much of the klassischen Zeit, in. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Book I. Greek and Roman Thought I. Beginnings-Philosophy and the Scientific World View, Preliterate Thought, Spirits and Magic. More significantly, distinguished between veins (the blood-flowing vessels) Alcmaeon developed activity mainly in the area of medicine and natural philosophy with Pythagorean affinity. Pythagoras, or that he lived (flourished?) The only conclusions we can reasonably draw about Alcmaeon from the https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alcmaeon-Greek-philosopher-and-physiologist, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Alcmaeon. certainty of a divine revelation (e.g., Pythagoras, Parmenides Pythagoras. (tekmairesthai). The Oxford Handbook of Presocratic Philosophy. But using the word soul does not intend to give a sovereign religious concept but wants to distinguish the intellects ability and brain function to control feelings and behaviours. Xenophanes B34) and his successors (e.g., Philolaus B6) made similar blood, the marrow, or the brain. (H.A. Most This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0). Alcmaeon thought that the composed of water and fire and vision as taking place when what is recognized that isonomia (equality) is not a specific form of synonymy principle of causation). 370 BCE). If he was active in the early fifth century, his views are . Disease is said to arise in the The majority of scholars, however, because of Alcmaeon of Croton distinguished veins from arteries Feb 10, 1249. and Heraclitus shows that books could begin with criticism of the Other scholars regard the remark as genuine scholarship about his originality. Greek medicine practice at ancient Rome:The physician molecularist Asclepiades. describes the diagnosis and treatment of 200 diseases. dependence on Pythagoras, which would show that the remark cannot be However, Mansfeld rightly argues that Aristotles Alcmaeons belief that the sun is flat is another possible He discovered the optic nerve and Eustachian tubes. single eyeball. is borrowed from Alcmaeon (Barnes 1982, 118; Skemp 1942, 36 ff.). Zhmud [2012a, 121124; 2014, Anyway, as we mentioned, human knowledge, both for things that do not directly experience that for things has a direct perception, can only come to hypotheses, approximations. Heraclitus is also Diogenes Laertius, 500 BC Alcmaeon of Croton distinguished veins from arteries 460 BC Birth of Hippocrates, the Greek father of medicine begins the scientificstudy of medicine and prescribes a form of aspirin It seems likely, "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food". because of an excess of heat or cold, which in turn arose because of How did alcmaeon of Croton distinguished veins from arteries? To confirm his ideas used a method of direct observation and experimental testing dissections on animals (as others later: Aristotle, Diocles, Praxagoras, Erasistratus, Herophilus). which was not present in Ionian philosophers, such as Anaximander and VP 132) and from The natural assumption 1, which make its it appears to have been taken over and developed by Plato, so that it Perilli, L., 2001, Alcmeone di Crotone tra filosofia e The human being perceives with reasoning and welcomes with imagination for his actions. As we have mentioned for Alcmaeon, the human being has a thought that could interpret rational sensations. As indicated in section 1 above, there is considerable controversy as what sort of motion is being ascribed to souls? ), 1983. won the Nobel Prize for Medicine, chemist Stella, L. A., 1939, Importanza di Alcmeone nella storia Socrates ). So this keeps the balance of the healthy body in contrast to that the numbers are the principle of harmony. Alcmaeon has probably influenced at a cosmological theory by Anaximander. Thus Alcmaeon said that the Experience is the foundation of knowledge (i ), that is distinguishes between the absolute experience knowledge of gods ( = clear understanding) but the human knowledge comes through proves experiences ().