Plato and Galen on the "Ensouled" Plant: Plat.Tim. 3.2
Plato's Timaeus is a common point of reference in many of the medical and philosophical
works of Galen. The dialogue's discussion of the tripartition of the soul and the four humors
provides the basis in part for Galen's development of his own psychology and humoral pathology in works such as PHP and QAM. Despite this acknowledged influence, Galen's commentary
On the Medical Aspects of Timaeus (Plat.Tim.), his most overt treatment of the dialogue's theories
and themes, has received little modern, scholarly attention. This neglect is most certainly due to
the highly fragmentary state of Plat.Tim., but the commentary reveals at a precise level how
Galen read Timaeus. By focusing on Galen's exegesis of Timaeus' concept of the "ensouled" plant
(77a1-c5), my paper will show that Galen's inclination towards more physical and biologically
based interpretations causes him to mistranslate passage from his Platonic text and thereby create contradictions within the text itself. My paper will also highlight how these contradictions
are resolved, that is not by Galen questioning his reading but rather by his challenging the validity of his manuscript and proposing emendations.