Knowledge On Ones Body example essay topic

European Body and Soul Philosophy and the Body: Health and the Body in the Ancient World The practice of medicine along with rhetoric and philosophy was considered a high form of culture. Philosophy and medicine were considered related. Medicine was not only considered to cure illnesses but also to define knowledge on ones body, what one ate and other activities such as sleeping and wakefulness, medicine was considered to be rational. If Philosophy was for the spiritual, medicine was for the body. In Rome, it was considered to be necessary to know about medicine, so that one can take care if ones self if he or she were struck down by illness or another ailment. Hygiene was considered to be a health practice, something all Romans were obliged to practice, for one could not always seek a physician for ones health, especially if one didn't take care of themselves.

The makeup of ones house was also considered to have an effect on a person, and the way a room was set out could have good or bad effects on a person. Different times of days, seasons and a person's age also affected a person. What one ate and drank was also taken into consideration as certain foods and drinks, such as food that heat the body and drinks that dissolve were considered. Hot baths, strenuous exercises and being able to holds ones breath was also considered to have a good effect on the body and different seasons needed different forms of exercise, food and drinks for one to have a good healthy body. Sexual pleasure centred entirely on the body. Education and habits can cause desire to appear at the wrong time.

The body dictates to the body, yet the soul plays a part in it. Nature also plays a part in the differentiations between the sexes, the attraction a man has to a woman and vice-versa. Food also plays a part in out emotional needs. Those in the upper classes were well feed but physically weak, the lower classes less feed but physically strong, whilst the people in the army and the gladiators would have been the best feed and the physically fit and health, their lifestyle not taken in consideration. A mans anatomy was considered by people such as Galen, to be outward, while a woman's to be inward, although they were both for pleasure and of the same kind. That both woman and man were able to produce sperm, with the exception that it was less perfect in a woman.

Desire and pleasure are considered to interact, with desire being the soul and pleasure being the body. These emotions are human but also divine, as it leads to the continuation of the human race. Sexual union as considered a fact of nature, as it contributes to health, strength, courage and generation and so it should not be considered bad, although it can be dangerous, such as the spread of disease. In ancient times, the human body, sex, health and the philosophies all interacted with one another, although they could be kept separately, they also worked with one another. For a healthy body was considered good for the sex life, just as it is today, while the philosophies dealt with the moral and ethical issues of sex, and they all involved the human body and man and woman's relation with one another.