Presocratics: Natural Philosophers before Socrates

Ancient Philosophies

by James Warren, Steven Gerrard

The earliest phase of philosophy in Europe saw the beginnings of cosmology and rational theology, metaphysics, epistemology, and ethical and political theory. It also saw the development of a wide range of radical and challenging ideas, from Thales' claim that magnets have souls and Parmenides' account of one unchanging existence to the development of an atomist theory of the physical world. This general account of the Presocratics introduces the major Greek philosophical thinkers from the sixth to the middle of the fifth century B.C. It explores how we might reconstruct their views and understand the motivation and context for their work, and it highlights the ongoing philosophical interest of their often surprising claims. Separate chapters are devoted to each of the major Presocratic thinkers, including Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Leucippus, and Democritus. With a chronology and guide to further reading, this book is an ideal introduction for the student and general reader.

Acumen Publishing Limited

Genres: Philosophy, History, Nonfiction, Ancient, Greece

235 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2007

Reviews

[Nicholas Nilsson]

Finished summarizing this in a day. Academic weapon activated

[Sari]

un-hing-ed

[Gylfi]

Las hana samhliða kennslubók; fín, allt í lagi, áhugaverð. Hafði mjög gaman að bókinni sjálfri; falleg kápa (málverk af Empedóklesi frá 14./15. öld) og bandið er mjög spennandi, einhverskonar harðspjalda kilja. Las ekki spjaldanna á milli.

[Nathan Casebolt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are rightly recognized as beacons of ancient Greek philosophy, whose ground-breaking treatises on ethics, politics, and the natural order dominated the Mediterranean for more than a millennium after their deaths. Less well known are the individual sparks who lit the flame these three would fan into a world-changing inferno. The fragments that remain of the Presocratics, the Greek philosophers who thought and spoke and wrote "before Socrates," offer a fractured but tantalizing window into some of the earliest demythologized and rationalistic answers to the questions we still ask today: what is existence, where is it going, and what does it all mean?

I cannot recommend this book highly enough as a brief, one-volume, accessible introduction to the Presocratics. I wouldn't have believed anyone could distill oceans of technical academia into a single drinkable cup, but Warren has somehow pulled off the impossible. Every major interpretative debate and difficulty is here, but woven so subtly into the narrative that the careful reader gains a well-rounded understanding of Presocratic thinking without getting lost in thickets of dry, technical monographs and textbooks. That's not to say that none of the content is challenging, but it is to say you won't find a better popular-level introduction to a universe made entirely of fire, hair that contains gold that contains flesh, and random assemblages of eyeballs and limbs concocted in the eternal struggle between Love and Strife. Welcome to the world of the Presocratics.

[Matteo Fornasier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Piacevole, scorrevole e interessante.
Avrei voluto un po' più di approfondimento ma in compenso ha un buon ritmo.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was looking for the book I read in a college philosophy course on the pre-Socratics and couldn't find it. I stumbled upon this one, which seems as good and readable an introduction as any. Recommended for anyone who wants to know the basic thoughts/systems of these wacky dudes.

[Davide Orsato · Rating 4 out of 5]

C'è un gusto analitico anglosassone in questo volume di storia della filosofia antic(hissima). Sarebbe bello avere a disposizione in italiano l'intera serie. È dal liceo che mi piacerebbe leggere un volume dedicato ai cinici.

[Goo · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fine companion to reading the presocratic fragments found in e.g. Barnes' "Early Greek Philosophy".