While it's impossible to pinpoint one person who "started" medicine, Hippocrates, born in 460 BC, is widely credited as the father of modern medicine.
Why Hippocrates?
Hippocrates' significant contributions revolutionized the understanding and practice of healing:
- Natural Causes of Disease: He challenged the prevailing belief that illnesses were caused by supernatural forces. He proposed that diseases had natural causes, a groundbreaking concept for the time. This shift in thinking paved the way for systematic observation and investigation of diseases. This is a quote from the reference: "One of his huge contributions in advancing the field was the insight into the fact that diseases could have natural (rather than supernatural) causes."
The Broader Picture
It's important to acknowledge that medical practices existed long before Hippocrates. Ancient civilizations in Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and China all had their own forms of medicine and healing traditions. However, Hippocrates' emphasis on observation, diagnosis, and prognosis, along with his ethical standards (the Hippocratic Oath), laid the foundation for the systematic and scientific approach to medicine that we recognize today.
