Hygiene as the ‘Golden Mean’ with respect to the body in natural philosophy commentaries by Walter Burley

Abstract

Walter Burley, an English philosopher active in the first half of the fourteenth century, was a prolific writer interested in logic, philosophy of nature and practical philosophy. His commentaries on Aristotle’s Parva naturalia are dealing with problems lying on the borderland between physiology and psychology but also involving medicine and ethics, two practical disciplines benefiting from theoretical reflection in the field. Although the normative approach is not something that Burley consistently pursues in the commentary, it is possible to identify and analyse fragments, which contain advice concerning good, i.e., healthy life. Burley’s hygienic advice is based, just like the moral one, on the Aristotelian principle of golden mean. The paper discusses the cases of hygienic advice concerning diet, exercise and sleep to show how the principle is applied in this field.