Republican Bodies: Medicine, Natural Philosophy and Politics

7 Owengate, Durham University, DH1 3HB

18 September 2025, 10:00am-3:00pm

Organisers: Rachel Hammersley (Newcastle), Amanda Herbert (Durham), Lizzie Swann (Durham), Jamie Gianoutsos (Mount St. Mary’s)

The metaphor of the body politic is a longstanding trope in the history of political thought. Since ancient times parallels have been drawn between individual human beings, the societies in which they live, and the cosmos. By the seventeenth century the idea that the human body was a metaphor for the state, and that states - like bodies - experienced sickness and health was deployed by thinkers ranging from James VI/I to Henry Neville. But was this more than just a metaphor? The early modern period witnessed a transformation in medical knowledge and particularly in the understanding of the body, not least through William Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood. How did such changes impact on the understanding of the body politic? The ideas of paracelsians such as Jan Baptist van Helmont have been associated with the writings of various republican authors including James Harrington and Marchamont Nedham. Why did these ideas appeal to those authors and what role did they play in their thought? Many early modern republicans had some medical training, engaged directly with the new discoveries, and wrote medical tracts and works of natural philosophy themselves. This informal workshop seeks to explore what happens if we take seriously their understanding of medicine and natural philosophy and seek to integrate this with their political thought?