Berti E
Istituto di Filosofia, Università di Padova, Italia.
Med Secoli. 1997;9(1):23-38.
Padua University was the place of the scientific revolution not only for astronomy and mechanics with Galilei, but also and most of all for medicine. Here the traditional Aristotelianism created the favourable conditions for the discovery of blood circulation by W. Harvey, because of the strict connection established by Aristotle between medicine and philosophy of nature, the importance attributed to empirical observation, carefully and systematically pursuited, the primacy of the heart among other body organs and the attention payed to the function of various organs. The defect of these conditions was the cause of some Descartes' errors concerning blood circulation, which were avoided by Harvey.
帕多瓦大学不仅是伽利略在天文学和力学领域引发科学革命的地方，更是医学领域科学革命的核心。在这里，传统的亚里士多德主义为威廉·哈维发现血液循环创造了有利条件，这得益于亚里士多德在医学与自然哲学之间建立的紧密联系、对经过仔细系统追踪的实证观察的重视、心脏在其他身体器官中的首要地位以及对各种器官功能的关注。这些条件的缺陷导致了笛卡尔在血液循环问题上出现一些错误，而哈维则避免了这些错误。
