Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

42 Medicine and Philosophy in Classical Antiquityhistory of their own subject, which were the product of a sometimes long,possibly distorting and inevitably selective process of transmission, interpretation,‘recycling’ and updating. The modalities of these processes haveturned out to be very complicated indeed, and it has become clear that thesubject of ‘tradition’ in ancient thought comprises much more than justone authoritative thinker exercising ‘influence’ on another.Our understanding of ‘doxography’ and other genres of ancient ‘intellectualhistoriography’ has been significantly enhanced over the last twodecades, and it has contributed to a greater appreciation of the variousdimensions – textual, subtextual and intertextual – of much Greek andRoman philosophical and medical discourse. In particular, it has shedfurther light on the possible reasons behind the ways in which ideas arepresented in texts and the modes in which ancient authors contextualisethemselves, aspects which are of great relevance to the interpretation andevaluation of these ideas.