The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and the Sophists

Waterfield, Robin (Translated and Edited By)

ISBN 10: 019953909X / ISBN 13: 9780199539093

Published by Oxford University Press, New York, New York, 2009

About this Item

Standard used condition. Reading copy or better.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and the Sophists
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, New York, New York
• Publication Date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 019953909X
• ISBN 13: 9780199539093
• Binding: Trade Paperback
• Edition: Later Edition.
• Condition: Good+
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Book Type: Used Book

About this title

Synopsis

The first philosophers paved the way for the work of Plato and Aristotle - and hence for the whole of Western thought.

Aristotle said that philosophy begins with wonder, and the first Western philosophers developed theories of the world which express simultaneously their sense of wonder and their intuition that the world should be comprehensible. But their enterprise was by no means limited to this proto-scientific task. Through, for instance, Heraclitus' enigmatic sayings, the poetry of Parmenides and Empedocles, and Zeno's paradoxes, the Western world was introduced to metaphysics, rationalist theology, ethics, and logic, by thinkers who often seem to be mystics or shamans as much as philosophers or scientists in the modern mould. And out of the Sophists' reflections on human beings and their place in the world arose and interest in language, and in political, moral, and social philosophy.

This volume contains a translation of all the most important fragments of the Presocratics and Sophists, and of the most informative testimonia from ancient sources, supplemented by lucid commentary.
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