iatrophysical school of thought

a 17th-century school of thought that sought to apply the principles of mathematics and mechanics to medicine. Early examples include the development of the thermometer as an instrument of medical diagnosis and the invention of other mechanical and measurement devices to impart knowledge of physiological processes. This concept, at least in its early development, was based on the Cartesian view that the physical body is essentially a machine (see Cartesian dualism). Many early proponents of this school also practiced iatrochemistry (see iatrochemical school of thought). Also called iatromathematics; iatromechanism.

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Psychology term of the day

January 30th 2025

Gödel’s proof

a proof that in any logic system at least as powerful as arithmetic it is possible to state theorems that can be proved to be neither true nor false, using only the proof rules of that system. Published in 1931, this incompleteness result was very challenging to the mathematics of the time. British mathematician Alan Turing (1912–1954), with his proof of the undecidability of the halting problem, extended this result to computation (see Turing machine). [Kurt Gödel (1906–1978), Austrian-born U.S. mathematician]