Oliva Sabuco facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Oliva Sabuco
Unknown model of Oliva Sabuco ca 1587
Born	Luisa Oliva Sabuco de Nantes Barrera 2 December 1562 Alcaraz, Spain
Died	c. 1646
Spouse(s)	Don Acacio de Buedo
Scientific career
Fields	Philosophy Psychology

Oliva Sabuco de Nantes Barrera (born December 2, 1562, in Alcaraz, Spain; died around 1646) was a Spanish writer. She lived in the late 1500s and early 1600s. Oliva was very interested in how our bodies and minds work together. She wrote books about human nature and how our feelings affect our health. She also looked at old ideas from philosophers and created some early theories that are now part of applied psychology.

Early Life and Education

Luisa Oliva Sabuco de Nantes Barrera was born in Alcaraz, Spain, in 1562. She was baptized on December 2 of that year. Her mother was Francisca de Cozar, and her father was Don Miguel Sabuco y Alvarez.

We don't know much about her school education. However, it seems her father, who was a doctor, taught her a lot about medicine. Oliva knew a lot about both old and new ideas in philosophy. She also understood medical theories very well. When she was 23, on December 26, 1585, she married Don Acacio de Buedo. By the time she was 25, she had already published a book that was very advanced for her time.

Oliva Sabuco's Big Ideas

Oliva Sabuco had many interesting ideas about people and the world. She believed everything was connected.

Mind and Body Working Together

Oliva Sabuco thought that our mind and body are deeply connected. She combined ideas from ancient Greek thinkers and Christian beliefs. She also used ideas from Aristotle, a famous Greek philosopher.

She believed that a human being is a single unit. Our thinking part (rational soul) and our living part (spiritual soul) must exist together. If a person lacked either of these, they would not be truly alive. Oliva agreed with Aristotle that the mind and body work together to make a living human. But she added that a special divine soul or mind also had to be present for a person to exist.

Her ideas about the mind and body were similar to Plato's, another Greek philosopher. She thought the mind makes moral choices and reasons. These choices then make the body react in certain ways. So, the body carries out what the mind decides. Oliva also stressed the importance of knowing yourself. She believed our minds could choose freely. Knowing yourself and making good choices could bring hope, health, and a longer life. Free will helped control our feelings and passions.

Staying Healthy and Balanced

Oliva Sabuco believed our soul had three parts: the sensitive (for senses), the biological (for life functions), and the intellectual (for thinking). She said these three parts needed to be in perfect balance. Also, our bodies needed a balance of four "humors": hot, cold, wet, and dry. If these were in harmony, our body systems would be healthy.

She used a system of temperature and humidity to check health and illnesses. This idea came from Hippocrates, an ancient doctor. But Oliva thought the focus should be more on how severe the temperature and humidity were. For example, illnesses or early death happened when the soul parts or the temperature-humidity balance were off.

Oliva also talked about something called "chilo." This was a white liquid that gave energy. It traveled through channels in the body, keeping the right temperature and humidity. If chilo was out of balance, it could lead to health problems. Chilo also helped organs move and do their jobs.

Goodness and Badness in the World

Oliva Sabuco's ideas about right and wrong were based on traditional ideas of being good. She believed that good and evil were mixed in the world. Something good could have a bit of evil, and something evil could have a bit of good. She didn't think anything was purely good or purely evil.

In her view of human nature, only two bad things truly existed: diseases we could avoid and getting old too soon. She encouraged people to be moderate and control their feelings. This idea came from Plato's concept of sophrosyne, which means self-understanding helps us gain wisdom and goodness. Oliva thought self-knowledge was the most important way to be good. She said being moderate and wise could help us fight evil. These qualities could also bring peace, happiness, and calm feelings.

Understanding the Universe

Oliva Sabuco also wrote about how the universe works. She believed it was important to understand the big world (macrocosm). This is because humans are like a small version of the world (microcosm). Learning how the world came to be could teach us how to live in it.

She thought a person's health was connected to the universe. For example, a person's life cycle could get better or worse, just like the moon's cycle of growing or shrinking. She said the moon was like the "brain of the world," bringing moisture and growth to water. The sun, on the other hand, was like the "heart of the world," giving warmth and life. Oliva thought the brain was more important than the heart, just as the moon was more vital than the sun.

Making the World Better

Oliva Sabuco also suggested ways to improve society. She wanted better laws and more protection for people who didn't have much power. This included farmers, workers, and householders. She believed these people suffered the most from daily struggles, which affected their health. She thought people should avoid being too greedy or having too much, as this was bad for society and individuals.

She argued that laws should be clear and easy to understand. They should be written in simple language so that everyone, especially poor people, could get fair justice. She also disagreed with old legal traditions where power was passed down. She felt this led to unfair decisions because new authorities might not understand current cases. She believed that protection under the law was not equal for most people.

Oliva also said that farmers and peasants needed protection. Their work was vital for the nation's survival. She strongly believed that authorities should not be allowed to take away their land, animals, or crops.

She also criticized universities. She thought they didn't have good ways to choose students. She suggested that examiners should test students' abilities before letting them in. She also thought it was wrong to charge high tuition fees. This meant only rich students could attend, even if they weren't the best learners.

Medicine and Remedies

Oliva Sabuco disagreed with traditional medical ideas of her time. She thought doctors failed because people didn't understand how emotions affected physical health. She believed strong emotions like anger, sadness, or too much joy could upset the body's balance. These emotions could even squeeze "humor" and "humidity" out of the brain, where the soul was located.

She said the only real medicine was something that comforted the brain. It had to create harmony between the body and soul. She named three main ways to stay healthy:

• Using words and actions that bring joy and hope.
• Taking good care of your stomach.

She warned that if people ignored optimism, happiness, and stomach health, it could lead to sadness and gloom. She also mentioned a general remedy: moving bad "humors" out of the body through openings so they wouldn't reach internal organs.

Her Famous Book

Oliva Sabuco's most famous book was published in Madrid in 1587. It was called Nueva Filosofia de la Naturaleza del Hombre, which means New Philosophy of Human Nature. The book had seven parts.

The first five parts were written in Spanish:

• Knowledge of One's Self
• Composition of the World as It Is
• Things That Will Improve This World and Its Nations
• Treatments and Remedies of Proper Medicine
• Proper Medicine Derived from Human Nature

The last two parts were written in Latin:

• Brief Exposition on Human Nature: The Foundations of the Art of Medicine
• Proper Philosophy of the Nature of Composite Things, of Humans, and of the World, Unknown to the Ancients

Oliva dedicated this entire book to Philip II of Spain, the king at the time.

In her book, Oliva Sabuco used a unique way to share her ideas. The first part of New Philosophy of Human Nature features a discussion between three peasants. She called them shepherds. These shepherds talk about and question different ideas. They continue to be the main characters throughout the other six parts of the book. Their discussions cover many topics about human nature.

Oliva chose peasants as characters on purpose. She wanted to show that philosophy and medicine are important for everyone, no matter their social class. She believed her ideas should be helpful to ordinary people. The book also stressed how the soul, body, and universe all depend on each other.

In her book, she compared the human body to an upside-down tree. She said that all diseases start in the brain, like the root of a tree. She believed diseases could be cured in different ways. These included cheerful words, good thoughts, and even listening to music. She called the process of using wise words against strong emotions like anger "Rhetorical Insinuation." This was about persuading someone's will through words.

She also wrote about how emotions affect the body. She explained how we can control these effects by focusing on the brain, which she saw as the body's main organ. Some people believe her research helped doctors later on to develop some of the first ideas about nervous system diseases.

Oliva thought of the brain as a "King." She wrote that during sleep, the brain gets all the nutrients it needs. These nutrients are collected in the stomach during the day. Once the nutrients reach the brain, a special nervous fluid is made. This fluid then travels throughout the body. She mentioned a white fluid that nourishes the body with information. Some people think she might have been talking about something similar to white blood cells.

Fame and Influence

Oliva Sabuco was quite famous in her time. Her work has sometimes been compared to The Passion of the Soul by Descartes, another famous philosopher. Like him, she believed the soul was located in the brain.

We know she was well-known because in 1604, while she was still alive, a doctor and poet named Franciscio Lopez de Uveda mentioned her. He said a character he was creating would become more famous than Oliva Sabuco and Don Quixote. This shows that her name was linked with fame. Also, a famous French doctor named Charles le Pois said Oliva Sabuco influenced his ideas about diseases like hysteria.

Later Life

Sometimes, the credit for Oliva Sabuco's work was given to her father, Don Miguel Sabuco y Alvarez. This happened because he wrote a strong letter claiming the book was his. This letter, along with a note from Oliva's husband and brother, appeared a year after the book was published. The letter said Don Miguel Sabuco was the real author of New Philosophy of Human Nature. It claimed Oliva's name was only included to honor her, and she had no legal rights to the book.

However, more recent studies have shown that Oliva Sabuco was indeed the true writer. Because of the ideas in her book, she caught the attention of the Spanish Inquisition. This was a powerful religious court that sometimes punished people for their beliefs. All her books were burned.

Oliva Sabuco spent her later years in a convent of Dominican nuns in Alcaraz. She became a nun there and eventually died around the year 1646.

Honours

A crater on the planet Venus was named Barrera in her honor. You can see it on the List of craters on Venus.

See also

In Spanish: Oliva Sabuco para niños