„Państwo jest jak zwierzę”. Galen i średniowieczna biologia polityczna
“State is like an animal”. Galen and Political Biology in Late Middle Ages

Summary/Abstract: The paper aims to present the influence of Galen’s biology on late medieval political thought (Thomas Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, Jean de Jandun and Marsilius of Padua). The article consists of four parts. In the first part, I present the main points of the medieval reception of Galen’s writings, specifically I focus on the concept of biology beyond morality. In the second, I outline the social and theoretical background in which the categories from Galen’s medicine were translated into political concepts. I try to show, as well, why the Church was so afraid because of the new medicine. In the third, with an example of Thomas Aquinas’ De regno, I show one of the Church’s responses to this new phenomenon. In the last part, I analyze the Defensor pacis of Marsilius of Padua, and I show that the notion of political body used in this work is based on Galen’s medicine. In effect, I argue that this is the reason why Marsilius writes about the political body without hierarchies (without head and feet) and ruling by the multitude.

• Details
• Contents