[Relations between the scientific thought and the medicine: the contributions of Plato and Aristotle]

Since the advent of philosophy and rational thought, a question has been raised: Is medicine an art, a science, a technique, or the three of them? In this paper we discuss two monuments of Western thought that have approached this topic: Plato and Aristotle. For Plato, medicine is focused on what is transient and changing and therefore it is a subordinate science. However, he has a positive view because it presupposes knowledge of all and he takes medicine as a dialectical model. Aristotle places medicine in his classification of sciences. He emphasizes the idea that the purpose of medicine is based on what "happens most often" and insists on essential role of experimentation. It is remarkable to notice that these ideas developed 2.500 years ago are still relevant and remain the core of the epistemological conceptions of modern medicine.