Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the six necessary causes from Galen's Ars parva in the work of three important Arabic physicians, namely Hunayn ibn Ishaq, al-Majusi and Ibn Sina. These causes, which play a minimal role in Galen's work, were expanded and elaborated upon in late Alexandrian and in Arabic medicine. Later the causes became the basis of European medicine's "six things non-natural," a concept that was an essential component of medicine in Europe for nearly eight hundred years. Fundamental changes have taken place between the original Arabic works and their Latin translations, most significantly concerning the terminology used by each of the original authors to refer to Galen's necessary causes. Recent quests for the original Galenic citation of the term "non-natural" have come up with several theories, none of which considered the Arabic sources in detail. This dissertation returns to the Arabic texts to determine what changes the necessary causes underwent to become known to Medieval and Renaissance medicine in Europe as the "six non-naturals." A key question raised is the extent to which the philosophical orientation of the author, in particular his relationship to Aristotle's works, played in determining his treatment of the causes