[The epistemology of Erasistrate and Hellenistic technology]

Erasistratus tried to build a coherent system of medicine founded on anatomical discoveries from which both physiology and pathology could be consistently derived. In this system, the so-called logôi theôrêta are not merely theoretical constructions, but models (and/or metaphors) transferred to medicine from the two branches of contemporary Hellenistic technology, artillery and pneumatics. However, this system could not stand to the criticism of Empiricist medicine, both because of its oversimplification of pathology and therapy and because of its exceedingly heavy epistemological requirements.