Although his position is made clear in the above passage...

Although his position is made clear in the above passage, yet he disassociates himself from either of the two sects, namely the dogma­tists and the empiricists, in the following statement: You must not allow yourself to think that what I am about to say first against empiricism in this book is my own personal opinion, or that the second argument I use in support of empiricism is my own view.

Rather I shall let one of the dogmatists bring forward the first argument, which is similar to Asclepiades' view, and the second argument shall be laid down by a repre­sentative of the empiricists, Menodots if you like, or Serapion, or Theodosius." At the same time as the Greek medical heritage was being trans­mitted into Arabic, arguments concerning the nature of these sects were taking place among Islamic physicians.

Al‑Mas'udi states that at the time of al‑Wathiq, the `Abbasid caliph, a group of philosophers and physicians, among which were Bukhtishu`, Ibn Masuyah, Hunayn and Salmuyah, were asked by the caliph about the origin of medicine and whether it was sense experience, reason or tradition. One of those present spoke about the arguments of each sect on these matters.

When al‑Wathiq asked about the opinion of the major­ity of the physicians, they unanimously declared that they are in favour of the dogmatists. Ishaq ibn Hunayn in "The History of Physicians and Philosophers" quotes John Philoponos as saying that Asclepius, who was the first physician, invented medicine with the help of experience.

And after mentioning the physicians who appeared after Asclepios, Ishiq continues as follows: They considered experience and analogy as the most –correct methods of medicine. Medicine thus continued to be transmitted from those pupils to those members of their families whom they taught and left behind. When Plato appeared and studied the treatises, he realized that experience alone was bad and dangerous and that analogy alone was not correct.

There­fore, he considered the two views together as correct. He burned the books which they had composed and left the old books which contained the two views together. Ishaq mentions that after Plato, Hippocrates the son of Heracleides remained as the unique man of his time, the man of perfect virtue, the one who had become proverbial, the philosopher‑physician.

He strength­ened the art of analogy and experience in a marvellous manner, so that no blame would be able to dissolve it and tear it apart.