This new volume, edited by Chiara Thumiger, a ROOTS research associate in the subcluster Knowledge ROOTS (link), aims at exploring the ancient roots of ‘holistic’ approaches in the specific field of medicine and the life sciences, without overlooking larger theoretical implications of these discussions. The project expands the perspective and includes larger cultural discussions and, in a comparative spirit, reaches out to some examples beyond Graeco-Roman medical cultures. As such, it constitutes a fundamental contribution to the history of medicine, the philosophy of medicine, cultural studies, and ancient studies more generally. The wide-ranging selection of chapters offers a comprehensive view encompassing an exciting new field: the interrogation of ancient sources in the light of modern concepts in the philosophy of medicine, as a justification of the claim for their enduring relevance as an object of study as well as a means to enable a more adequate contextualisation of modern debates within a long historical process.

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Thumiger, Chiara (ed.): Holism in Ancient Medicine and its Reception. Brill (2021), 448 pages.
The book can be viewed here (Brill).