Pneuma – Sexuality – Sex Difference: from Arabic to European Philosophy and Medical Practice

Pneuma – Sexuality – Sex Difference: From Arabic to European Philosophy and Medical Practice

Jennifer Wynne Hellwarth

Abstract: The theory of pneuma (life force, vital heat), marked largely by Galen’s notion that there were two kinds, pneuma zotikon (life principle, vital spirit) and pneuma psychikon (or spiritus animalis, the mind, or psychic spirit), came to be translated into Arabic start- ing in the ninth century. Many Arabic texts included the addition of an earlier, Greek formulation of a third kind of pneuma, which is called “natural” (spiritus naturalis). The tripartite division between spirits and their functions, which also corresponded to the tripartite division of the soul as articulated in Plato and Aristotle’s works, was largely ac- cepted in the Middle Ages as being crucial to physical and mental function and quality of life – the primary moving cause. This essay seeks to contextualize and historicize the theory of pneuma and how the theory of “vital spirits” was shaped and transmitted from Greek to Arabic, and then into European philosophy and practices. This essay defines the concept of pneuma and its relationship to the soul, sexual desire, sexuality, sex difference, and sperm production. Further, it traces some of these principles to medieval literary examples.

Though the term Lebenskraft, describing the physical, chemical, and mechan- ical forces of organic matter, appears to have been first introduced into medicine (and then into colloquial speech) in about 1774, I would like to suggest that the history of this concept reaches back before the eighteenth- century coining of the term.1 And, while the definition and the development of the term Lebenskraft and its use in German philosophical thought and literary production falls outside my bailiwick – I will leave the development of the concept of Lebenskraft to be carefully defined and explored by the schol- ars contributing to this collection – I would like to suggest that the term brings with it a history embedded with physiological, cosmological, and cul- tural meanings dating back to the ancient, then medieval and early modern concepts of pneuma, or life force or principle. Further, the debate about the relationship between the mind, soul, and body (recalling that the notion of pneuma –or “vital force” – was considered the primary vehicle of the soul) still continues, as we see in the increased studies in neuroscience, cognitive science, and neurophysiology. We also see continued discourses around sexuality and sexual arousal (physiological and psychological) that resonate with those emerging from pneumatology: one only need think of beliefs re- lated to competitive sports or other typically masculine endeavors, and of

1 Thomas H. Broman, The Transformation of German Academic Medicine, 1750-1820 (Cam- bridge: Cambridge UP, 1996), pp.87-89. 54 Jennifer Hellwarth the idea of sperm as a vital or precious fluid that needs to be retained in or- der for a man to preserve his strength for his various endeavors and compe- titions.2 This essay, then, is just one entry point into an historical context of the inquiries into the soul-mind-body connection and vitalism in the long eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; it also seeks to touch upon the ways in which scientific thought and debates intersected and informed literary production in the Middle Ages and beyond. To begin, Aristotle, in his fourth century BCE Peri pneumatos (De spiritu in Latin), extrapolates on the general concept of innate pneuma – its nature, its characteristics, and its relationship to a living creature (animal or human) as a “primary moving cause.” He also explores the connection of the pneuma to the soul, “referring to the unity of the soul and pneuma as its instrument”; that is, pneuma is the primary vehicle of the soul.3 Aristotle’s work, along with Hippocratic theories of humors, is considered to be one of the chief sources of Galen’s (ca. 129-216 CE) work on pneuma. Though Galen dif- fered with Aristotle on the heart as the controlling organ of the body – he argued for a tripartite relationship between heart, liver, and brain – he ad- hered to Aristotle’s notion that mind and body are not separate faculties. Though there was debate about this separation of faculties, most specifically amongst the Stoics, Galen’s concepts of pneuma – pneuma zotikon (or vital pneuma) and pneuma psychikon (or spiritus animalis) – were transmitted in the ninth century through medieval Arabic texts. At this time, the theory devel- oped largely into a tripartite physiological pneumatology that included the recognition of a third pneuma, spiritus naturalis; this tripartite schema was then transmitted to Western medicine, where it prevailed for nearly eight centuries.4 This essay seeks to give a brief overview of some of the key moments in this history to highlight the central concepts and complexities of this the-

2 A couple of popular culture examples from the last fifty years demonstrate this be- lief, including scenes from movies like Dr. Strangelove and Bull Durham in which a man’s sperm is seen as a “precious” fluid that, when “spent,” can reduce his power. In these films, sperm is also represented as being sought after by women. Both of these notions – sperm as a precious fluid that is desired by (heat seeking) women – are deeply embedded in the ancient theory of humors as well as Indian Ayurvedic medicine. 3 Abraham P.Bos and Rein Ferwerda, Aristotle, On the Life-Bearing Spirit (De Spiritu): A Discussion with Plato and his Predecessors on Pneuma as the Instrumental Body of the Soul (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2008), p.2. Aristotle’s work “On pneuma” is “absent in the Greek lists of Aristotle’s writings but it is mentioned in the Arabic catalogue of Ptol- emy el-Garib” (Bos and Ferwerda, p.3). In addition, Pre-Socratic (sixth century BCE) philosopher Anaximenes is held to be one of the key originators of this theory. 4 Danielle Jacquart and Claude Thomasset, Sexuality and Medicine in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1988), pp.48-49.