期刊名称:Limina: A Journal of Historical and Cultural Studies
印刷版ISSN:1324-4558
电子版ISSN:1833-3419
出版年度:1998
卷号:4
页码:24
出版社:University of Western Australia
摘要:In sixteenth-century France, the absolute literary and epistemologicalauthority of the ancients was questioned by new theories of theunderstanding of knowledge. Personal experience, observation andindividual creativity began to be recognised as criteria for determining thevalue and authority of texts and new knowledge. This article seeks toexamine how such contemporary epistemology affected sixteenth-centuryperceptions of gynaecology. In discussion of gynaecology, male humanistintellectuals faced a difficulty. They were forced to rely on the authority ofthe ancients for their knowledge because they could not personallyexperience and observe the internal functions of the female reproductiveorgans.