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Where philosophy meets clinical science
Author(s) -
DE SANTO Natale Gaspare,
DE SANTO Rosa Maria,
PERNA Alessandra F.,
BISACCIA Carmela,
PIŠOT Rado,
CIRILLO Massimo
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
hemodialysis international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.658
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1542-4758
pISSN - 1492-7535
DOI - 10.1111/j.1542-4758.2011.00536.x
Subject(s) - logos bible software , earth (classical element) , medicine , epistemology , philosophy , earth science , chemistry , astrobiology , biology , mathematics , geology , theology , mathematical physics
Nowadays, there is a renewed interest in bone changes in experimental and clinical nephrology. However, the need for understanding the peculiarity of bone can be traced back to the 5th century BC, when Empedocles of Acragas put forward a theory of a world made of air, water, fire, and earth governed by love and hate. By observing the various body tissues, he strove to demonstrate that they consisted of 4 elements assembled with different mathematical ratios ( logos ). Blood is considered the most perfect tissue, because the ratio between elements is one. Bone is a very unusual tissue because it is made of 2 parts of earth, 2 parts of water, and 4 parts of fire. This kind of reasoning could be considered the first cry in the birth of quantitative chemistry.