BEYOND THE BORDERS OF EUROPE. ENGELBERT KAEMPFER’S MEDICAL RESEARCH AND TREATMENTS歐洲邊境以外：恩格爾伯特‧肯普費的醫學研究及治療
The article analyzes the "medical" dimension of Engelbert Kaempfer's (1651–1716) intellectual itinerary, arguing that his contribution to European knowledge about Asia surpasses cultural observation by encompassing a clinical practice informed by intercultural encounters. The author contends that, a...
Saved in:
| Published in: | Review of Culture |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Articles |
| Published: |
Instituto Cultural de Macau
January 2007
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40021/3727 |
| Summary: | The article analyzes the "medical" dimension of Engelbert Kaempfer's (1651–1716) intellectual itinerary, arguing that his contribution to European knowledge about Asia surpasses cultural observation by encompassing a clinical practice informed by intercultural encounters. The author contends that, although Kaempfer is chiefly remembered for his description of Japan, his positions and therapeutic decisions reveal a model of knowledge based on experience and on the rejection of superstitions, bringing him closer to local medical traditions without, however, abandoning the criteria of rationality proper to his own milieu.
Methodologically, the study reconstructs this "ecology" of medicine through a critical reading of Kaempfer's writings (including his doctoral thesis, essays, and fragmentary medical notes), confronting them with biographical evidence and academic records produced during his travels through Europe and upon his return.
As results, the article highlights the absence of systematic treatment of medical practice in previous approaches and proposes a reconstruction of how Kaempfer conceived the role of the physician as traveler and intermediary. It concludes that the European "frontier," in Kaempfer, is above all epistemological: contact with the Asian natural and therapeutic world reconfigures his understanding of method, authority, and efficacy, making medicine a decisive axis of his writing about Japan. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1682-1106 |