2012/09/04 by Gastone G. Celesia · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Classical Antiquity Studies #Classical Philosophy and Thought #History of Medicine Studies
paper · doi:10.1080/0964704x.2011.626265
openalex publication_date 2012/09/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Alcmaeon of Croton (sixth-fifth century BC), a pre-Socratic physician-philosopher, introduced the concept that mind and soul are located in the brain. Alcmaeon made observations about seeing, hearing, tasting, and smelling and distinguished perception from understanding. Alcmaeon contributed two major ideas to natural sciences: (1) the brain is the seat of human intelligence, and (2) physicians should draw conclusions from empirical observations, an idea that implicitly rejects the alternative notion that science should depend on "divine revelation." Two thousand and five-hundred years later, these two insights remain true and guarantee Alcmaeon a place in the history of neuroscience.