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These first philosophers paved the way for the work of Plato and Aristotle - and hence for the whole of Western thought. This is a unique and invaluable collection of the works of the Presocratics and the Sophists. Waterfield brings together the works of these early thinkers with brilliant new translation and exceptional commentary. This is the ideal anthology for the student of this increasingly appreciated field of classical philosophy.
The earliest phase of philosophy in Europe saw the beginnings of cosmology and rational theology, metaphysics, epistemology, and ethical and political theory. It saw the development of a wide range of radical and challenging ideas: from Thales' claim that magnets have souls and Parmenides' account that there is only one unchanging existent 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 BC. It explores how we might go about reconstructing their views and understanding the motivation and context for their work as well as highlighting 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, and an introductory chapter sets the scene by describing their intellectual world and the tradition through which their philosophy has been transmitted and interpreted. With a useful chronology and guide to further reading, the book is an ideal introduction for the student and general reader.
Author : Giannis Stamatellos Publisher : State University of New York Press Page : 284 pages File Size : 47,9 Mb Release : 2012-02-01 Category : Philosophy ISBN : 9780791480311
Plotinus and the Presocratics by Giannis Stamatellos Pdf
Filling the void in the current scholarship, Giannis Stamatellos provides the first book-length study of the Presocratic influences in Plotinus' Enneads. Widely regarded as the founder of Neoplatonism, Plotinus (204–270 AD) assimilated eight centuries of Greek thought into his work. In this book Stamatellos focuses on eminent Presocratic thinkers who are significant in Plotinus' thought, including Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, the early Pythagoreans, and the early Atomists. The Presocratic references found in the Enneads are studied in connection with Plotinus' fundamental theories of the One and the unity of being, intellect and the structure of the intelligible world, the nature of eternity and time, the formation of the material world, and the nature of the ensouled body. Stamatellos concludes that, contrary to modern scholarship's dismissal of Presocratic influence in the Enneads, Presocratic philosophy is in fact an important source for Plotinus, which he recognized as valuable in its own right and adapted for key topics in his thought.
This comprehensive account of the history of ancient Greek thought circa 600 to 400 B.C. offers an accessible, nontechnical introduction to Presocratic philosophy. Translations of the surviving fragments of Presocratic writings serve as a foundation from which the discussion proceeds. Also included are maps, notes, and an index of names and terms.
The Founders of Western Thought – The Presocratics by Constantine J. Vamvacas Pdf
There can be little doubt that the Greek tradition of philosophical criticism had its main source in Ionia. . . It thus leads the tradition which created the rational or scienti?c attitude, and with it our Western civilization, the only civilization, which is based upon science (though, of course, not upon science alone). Karl Popper, Back to the Presocratics Harvard University physicist and historian of Science, Gerald Holton, coined the term “Ionian Enchantment”, an expression that links the idea back in the 6th c- tury B. C. to the ancient Ionians along the eastern Aegean coast, while capturing its fascination. Approximately within a seventy- ve year period (600–525 B. C. ) -a split second in the history of humanity- the three Milesian thinkers, Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes, without plain evidence, but with an unequalled power of critical abstraction and intuition, had achieved a true intellectual re- lution; they founded and bequeathed to future generations a new, unprecedented way of theorizing the world; it could be summarized in four statements: beneath the apparent disorder and multiplicity of the cosmos, there exists order, unity and stability; unity derives from the fundamental primary substratum from which the cosmos originated; this, and, consequently, the cosmic reality, is one, and is based not on supernatural, but on physical causes; they are such that man can - vestigate them rationally. These four statements are neither self-evident nor se- explanatory.
The Presocratics and the Supernatural by Andrew Gregory Pdf
This book examines the relationship between magic, philosophy and the investigation of nature in presocratic Greece. Did the presocratic thinkers, often praised for their rejection of the supernatural, still believe in gods and the divine and the efficacy of magical practices? Did they use animism, astrology, numerology and mysticism in their explanations of the world? This book analyses the evidence in detail and argues that we need to look at each of these beliefs in context.
Author : David C. Jacobs Publisher : State University of New York Press Page : 324 pages File Size : 53,5 Mb Release : 1999-05-27 Category : Philosophy ISBN : 9781438407708
The Presocratics after Heidegger by David C. Jacobs Pdf
Offering a diversity of strategies and approaches to the philosophical issues involved in reading and thinking about the Presocratics in the wake of Martin Heidegger's thought, the authors explicate the thinking of key figures such as Homer, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Empedocles. The philosophical problems of logos, logic, truth, history, tradition, ethics, and tragedy are presented and re-thought in relation to Heidegger's thinking. Not only is the role of the Presocratics in Heidegger's reading re-thought but also, following a trajectory opened up by Heidegger, questions and readings of the Presocratics that he himself did not broach are pursued. These include: How does logos change in Heidegger's dialogue with the Presocratics? What is the place of the Presocratics in the "other inception" of thinking? How is Heidegger's reading of tragedy also a dialogue with Nietzsche and Ho¬lderlin? How do concealment and disclosure function in Homer's corpus? Do the pronouncements of Anaximander bring us to think the beginning of history and to question the need for ethics and justice? How does Anaximenes come to think and speak all that manifests itself? What is the role of presence in Parmenides' divine pedagogy? How does Heidegger come to remember Heraclitus and what is the disruptive nature of Heraclitus' sayings? Contributors include Walter A. Brogan, Jean-Franc ois Courtine (translated by Kristen Switala and Rebekah Sterling), Parvis Emad, VeŒronique M. FoŒti, Hans-Georg Gadamer (translated by Peter Warnek), Martin Heidegger (translated by Will McNeill), David C. Jacobs, David Farrell Krell, Michael Naas, John Sallis, Dennis J. Schmidt, Charles E. Scott, and Michel Serres (translated by Roxanne Lapidus).
Author : Christian Vassallo Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG Page : 785 pages File Size : 44,6 Mb Release : 2021-09-20 Category : History ISBN : 9783110727661
The Presocratics at Herculaneum by Christian Vassallo Pdf
This volume analyses in depth the reception of early Greek philosophy in the Epicurean tradition and provides for the first time in scholarship a comprehensive edition, with translation and commentary, of all the Herculanean testimonia to the Presocratics. Among the most significant scientific outcomes, it provides elements for the attribution of an earlier date to the attested tradition of Xenophanes’ scepticism; a complete reconstruction of the Epicurean reception of Democritus; a new reconstruction of the testimonia to Nausiphanes’ concept of physiologia, Anaxagoras’ physics and theology, and Empedocles’ epistemology; new texts for better comparing the doxographical sections of Philodemus’ On Piety with those of Cicero’s On the Nature of the Gods, which update H. Diels’ treatment of this subject in his Doxographi Graeci.
Throughout the long centuries of western metaphysics the problem of the infinite has kept surfacing in different but important ways. It had confronted Greek philosophical speculation from earliest times. It appeared in the definition of the divine attributed to Thales in Diogenes Laertius (I, 36) under the description "that which has neither beginning nor end. " It was presented on the scroll of Anaximander with enough precision to allow doxographers to transmit it in the technical terminology of the unlimited (apeiron) and the indeterminate (aoriston). The respective quanti tative and qualitative implications of these terms could hardly avoid causing trouble. The formation of the words, moreover, was clearly negative or privative in bearing. Yet in the philosophical framework the notion in its earliest use meant something highly positive, signifying fruitful content for the first principle of all the things that have positive status in the universe. These tensions could not help but make themselves felt through the course of later Greek thought. In one extreme the notion of the infinite was refined in a way that left it appropriated to the Aristotelian category of quantity. In Aristotle (Phys. III 6-8) it came to appear as essentially re quiring imperfection and lack. It meant the capacity for never-ending increase. It was always potential, never completely actualized.
The Presocratics in the Thought of Martin Heidegger by W. Julian Korab-Karpowicz Pdf
Weniger anzeigen beschränkter Zugriff The Presocratics in the Thought of Martin Heidegger W. Julian Korab-Karpowicz The book focuses on Heidegger’s thoughtful repetition of early Greek thinking, and his receptive attention to the fragments of the Presocratics from our contemporary age. Their thought has a special value for him as the heritage which must be repeated anew in order to bring us back to the question of being and to open before us new avenues for existence. The author raises questions which help us to understand Heidegger as a thinker. He presents a deep analysis of Heidegger’s interpretations of the Presocratics and contributes to a new, insightful understanding of Heideggerian philosophy. «The book deserves a wide reception among scholars who are interested in the Presocratics, Heidegger and contemporary philosophy.» Dr. Katherine Morris (University of Oxford) «Prof. Korab-Karpowicz (…) develops a consistent reading of Heidegger’s historical studies, thereby significantly contributing to a new approach for the study of Heideggerian philosophy.» Dr. Michal Bizoń (Jagiellonian University, Kraków)
The Concept of Presocratic Philosophy by André Laks Pdf
When we talk about Presocratic philosophy, we are speaking about the origins of Greek philosophy and Western rationality itself. But what exactly does it mean to talk about “Presocratic philosophy” in the first place? How did early Greek thinkers come to be considered collectively as Presocratic philosophers? In this brief book, André Laks provides a history of the influential idea of Presocratic philosophy, tracing its historical and philosophical significance and consequences, from its ancient antecedents to its full crystallization in the modern period and its continuing effects today. Laks examines ancient Greek and Roman views about the birth of philosophy before turning to the eighteenth-century emergence of the term “Presocratics” and the debates about it that spanned the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He analyzes the intellectual circumstances that led to the idea of Presocratic philosophy—and what was and is at stake in the construction of the notion. The book closes by comparing two models of the history of philosophy—the phenomenological, represented by Hans-Georg Gadamer, and the rationalist, represented by Ernst Cassirer—and their implications for Presocratic philosophy, as well as other categories of philosophical history. Other figures discussed include Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Diogenes Laertius, Schleiermacher, Hegel, Nietzsche, Max Weber, and J.-P. Vernant. Challenging standard histories of Presocratic philosophy, the book calls for a reconsideration of the conventional story of early Greek philosophy and Western rationality.
Herodotus and the Presocratics by K. Scarlett Kingsley Pdf
Herodotus' Histories was composed well before the genre of Greek historiography emerged as a distinct narrative enterprise. This book explores it within its fifth-century context alongside the extant fragments of Presocratic treatises as well as philosophizing tragedy and comedy. It argues for the Histories' competitive engagement with contemporary intellectual culture and demonstrates its ambition as an experimental prose work, tracing its responses to key debates on relativism, human nature, and epistemology. In addition to expanding the intellectual milieu of which the Histories is a part and restoring its place in Presocratic thought, K. Scarlett Kingsley elucidates fourth-century philosophy's subsequent engagement with the work. In doing so, she contributes to a revision of the sharp separation between the ancient genres of philosophy and history. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.
Theophrastus against the Presocratics and Plato by Han Baltussen Pdf
This study of Theophrastus' much neglected De sensibus offers a new interpretation of the treatment of the Presocratic and Platonic views on sense perception, and provides new insight into Theophrastus' exegetical procedure by using Peripatetic dialectic as a heuristic tool.
Theophrastus Against the Presocratics and Plato by H. Baltussen Pdf
This study of Theophrastus' much neglected "De sensibus" offers a new interpretation of the treatment of the Presocratic and Platonic views on sense perception, and provides new insight into Theophrastus' exegetical procedure by using Peripatetic dialectic as a heuristic tool.