The political metaphor is the most striking feature of the report on Alcmaeon, making it more plausible that Alcmaeon's views were introduced into the doxography because of that metaphor.
A compilation of the differing opinions of philosophers, exemplified by Aetius' first-century CE handbook based on Theophrastus' Tenets of the Natural Philosophers.
Political metaphor(the feature being identified as important in understanding Alcmaeon's views)
Using ideas or language about government and power as a way to explain something else, like using a comparison to a ruler or democratic system to describe how something works.
metaphor(Ricoeur's account, contrasted with the substitution-of-names view)
A peculiar predication consisting in the attribution to logical subjects of predicates that are incompossible with them
This is, in fact, not a fragment but a testimonium and much of the language comes from the doxographical tradition rather than Alcmaeon. The report goes on to say that Alcmaeon thought that disease arose because of an excess of heat or cold, which in turn arose because of an excess or deficiency in nutrition. Disease is said to arise in the blood, the marrow, or the brain. It can also be caused by external factors such as the water, the locality, toil, or violence. The idea that health depends o