Chapter 9 - Reason and Experience in Galen’s Moral Epistemology

Summary

The chapter focuses on the central role Galen ascribes to his own first-person ethical and emotional experience in the construction and defense of his ethical theory and therapy of the emotions. I argue that by appreciating the complex role that Galen’s autobiographical episodes play in his moral works, we can better understand both the theory he proposes and his conception of the role that first-person experience and philosophical argument play in moral education and judgment. As I show, Galen’s emphasis on his own first-person ethical experience not only fits well with his more general epistemological view of the importance of experience in the acquisition of scientific knowledge, but also makes a substantive contribution to his account of moral education and emotional therapy.