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andrós , varón. No es exagerado decir que el corazón es la sede de la virtud. Todo esto se halla en la base de nuestra cultura, constituye su sustrato más elemental e indeleble, del que nadie puede prescindir. Pero con él solo no se tiene un saber completo y moderno sobre el corazón. Ello se debe a que en los últimos cuatro siglos los médicos modernos han ido elaborando por encima de él todo un imponen- te edificio intelectual, la denominada cardiología científica. El punto de inflexión entre ambos lo constituye, precisamente, la obra de William Harvey. D IEGO G RACIA Universidad Complutense de Madrid ABSTRACT Western culture, unlike others such as semitic cultures, has been predominantly brain-centred. However, this does not mean that the heart has not had a fundamental role to play in it. The heart and the brain have always been seen as two organs which are antithetical and complimentary at the same time. The brain is the source of “science”, while the heart is the origin of “wisdom” ( sapientia or sapida scientia ). There is the same difference between them as there is between thought and love. One thinks with the head and loves with the heart. The head is cold and the heart warm. Ancient culture always understood the heart as the centre of the spiritual life and the place where the two extreme souls converge, the inferior or concupiscent and the superior or rational. All of this forms part of what underpins our culture; it is its most elementary and indelible substratum, which cannot be ignored. Nevertheless, this alone cannot give us a complete and modern knowledge of the heart. This is due to the fact that, in the last four centuries, modern doctors have built upon it the impressive intellectual construction of scientific cardiology. The point of inflection between both is the work of William Harvey. 392 DIEGO GRACIA