Homoeopathy during one hundred years of LMHI (1925–2025) – Part 1: Philosophical perspectives

Abstract

The celebration of 100 years of “Liga medicorum homoeopathica internationalis” (LMHI) in 2025 gives reason to reflect on the philosophical essence of Homoeopathy as well as its historical development within a dynamic, changing world up to now. From a philosophical perspective, in this first part, it is pointed out that Hahnemann, the founder of Homoeopathy, needs to be understood in his entirety – not only as a keen discoverer, practitioner and thinker, but also in his spiritual shape, i.e. in his ethical, religious and humanitarian attitude and conviction. Only thus may one grasp the significance of the schism pervading Homoeopathy’s history since the split of a major part of his “critical” pupils, adhering to a different, more relativistic and agnostic style of thinking, still during Hahnemann’s own lifetime. What followed was an antagonism in the history of Homoeopathy that still exists today – between so-called “true” “Hahnemannians” and so-called “free” and “scientific-critical” homoeopaths. On this paradigmatic basis, the history of the LMHI may be assessed and studied in a new (proper) light.