[3] In particular, Themison of Laodicea, Asclepiades' most distinguished student, is often credited with founding the Methodic school in the first century BC.
[8] They asserted that the knowledge of the cause of the disease bears no relation to the method of cure, and that it is sufficient to observe some general symptoms of illnesses.
As Sextus Empiricus points out, when a dog is pricked by a thorn, it naturally removes the foreign object ailing its body.
As soon as it is known to which of these diseases an illness belongs, if the body is bound, then it must be opened; if it is loose, then it must be restrained; if it is complicated, then the most urgent malady must be fought first.
One type of treatment is required in acute, another in inveterate illnesses; another when diseases are increasing, another when stable, and another when decreasing.
The Methodic school takes it to be that once a doctor has recognized the disease a patient has for what it is, the treatment that should follow is inherently obvious.
[10] On the other hand, Methodists also reject the Empiricist notion that the connection between a disease and its treatment is a matter of experience.
On this point, the Methodists bear a similarity to Dogmatists, taking reason as a constructive approach to selecting the proper treatment for an ailment.
However, Methodists do not support the Dogmatic concept of employing reason to find hidden causes that underlie the disease manifested.