O corpo entre a química e a fisiologia: notas sobre alguns fluidos no século das Luzes

Ronei Mocellin

doi:10.32334/oqnfp.2025n57a1056

PDF (Português (Brasil))

Published: Dec 30, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32334/oqnfp.2025n57a1056

Keywords:

Chemistry, physiology, blood, urine, respiration

Ronei Mocellin

Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR)

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4093-672X

Abstract

During the Age of Enlightenment, bodily fluids became the subject of experimental research. The idea was that the results of these experiments would provide insights into both their production and their function in the human body. Chemical knowledge was primarily responsible for the consolidation of a new medical theory, the physiology. As a result, beyond the controversy between the body-machine and body-organism hypotheses, the body-chemical became a central theme in eighteenth-century medicine. In the notes presented here, we suggest that the results of chemical analysis made it possible to overcome some epistemological obstacles in the transition from Galenic medicine of humours to experimental medicine.

Issue

Vol. 33 No. 57 (2025): Beyond Dualism: Configurations of the Body in Modernity

Section

Articles

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Author Biography

Ronei Mocellin, Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR)

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the Federal University of Paraná (1997), a master’s degree in Philosophy from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (2003), and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Paris X (2009—CAPES Fellowship). He completed postdoctoral research in the Department of Philosophy at the University of São Paulo as part of the Thematic Project “Genesis and Meaning of Technoscience” (2012–2014, FAPESP Fellowship). He has been a professor of the Philosophy of Science course at the Federal University of Paraná at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in Philosophy since 2014. He has been a professor in the Graduate Program in Philosophy at the Federal University of ABC since 2019. He was a visiting professor at the Centre François Viète at the University of Nantes (2019/20—CAPES/PRINT Fellowship). Leader of the research group “Center for the Study of Technical and Scientific Culture” (NECTeC), registered with CNPq and certified by UFPR. He has experience in the field of the philosophy of science and technology, with an emphasis on the philosophy and history of chemistry.

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