Sanchez-Gonzalez M A
Unidad de Historia de la Medicina, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain.
J Med Philos. 1990 Dec;15(6):675-95. doi: 10.1093/jmp/15.6.675.
John Locke's philosophy was deeply affected by medicine of his times. It was specially influenced by the medical thought and practice of Thomas Sydenham. Locke was a personal friend of Sydenham, expressed an avid interest in his work and shared his views and methods. The influence of Sydenham's medicine can be seen in the following areas of Locke's philosophy: his "plain historical method"; the emphasis on observation and sensory experience instead of seeking the essence of things; the rejection of hypotheses and principles; the refusal of research into final causes and inner mechanisms; the ideal of irrefutable evidence and skepticism on the possibilities of certainty in science. The science which for Locke held the highest paradigmatic value in his theory of knowledge was precisely medicine. To a great extent, Locke's Essay on Human Understanding can be understood as an attempt to justify, substantiate, and promote Sydenham's medical method. This method, generalized, was then proposed as an instrument for the elaboration of all natural sciences.
约翰·洛克的哲学深受其所处时代医学的影响。它尤其受到托马斯·西德纳姆的医学思想与实践的影响。洛克是西德纳姆的私人朋友，对其作品表现出浓厚兴趣，并认同他的观点与方法。西德纳姆医学的影响体现在洛克哲学的以下几个方面：他的“朴实历史方法”；强调观察与感官体验而非探寻事物本质；摒弃假设与原则；拒绝探究终极因与内在机制；追求无可辩驳的证据以及对科学确定性可能性的怀疑态度。在洛克的知识理论中，对他而言具有最高范式价值的学科恰恰就是医学。在很大程度上，洛克的《人类理解论》可被视为为证明、充实并推广西德纳姆的医学方法所做的一次尝试。这种方法经概括后，随后被提议作为构建所有自然科学的一种工具。
