The possibility of a healthy life through education in Athenaeus of Attalia
Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2026 (SSCI, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.1080/00131857.2026.2653158
- Dergi Adı: Educational Philosophy and Theory
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Education Abstracts, Educational research abstracts (ERA), ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Philosopher's Index
- Hacettepe Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Ancient Stoic thought often framed the art of living in therapeutic terms. This paper reconstructs how Athenaeus of Attalia, a late Hellenistic and early Imperial Stoic physician and architect of the Pneumatist school, conceives healthy life as a diaita spanning body and soul from infancy to old age. Reading the fragments preserved by Oribasius, I argue that Athenaeus integrates medical regimen with philosophical paideia, recommending diet, exercise, and habituation as a unified therapy. On this reading his pneumatist physiology, especially the doctrine of the sustaining cause (aition sunektikon), provides the causal-physiological rationale for that integration. I further contend that this education-centered vision of health is compatible with Seneca’s account of oikeiōsis as the staged cultivation of one’s nature. The paper thus brings to light a novel connection between Stoic medicine and ethics in the framework of education: in Athenaeus, education is not merely ancillary to health but its organizing principle, and thus integral to living in accordance with nature.