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Title The first philosophers : the presocratics and sophists / translated with commentary by Robin Waterfield
Published Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, [2000]

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Description 1 online resource (xlvi, 354 pages) : illustrations
Series Oxford world's classics
Oxford world's classics (Oxford University Press)
Contents Preface and acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Select bibliography -- Note on the texts -- Timeline -- The Presocratics. The Milesians: Thales of Miletus, Anaximander of Miletus, Anaximenes of Miletus ; Xenophanes of Colophon ; Heraclitus of Ephesus ; Parmenides of Elea ; Zeno of Elea ; Melissus of Samos ; Pythagoras of Croton and fifth-century Pythagoreanism ; Anaxagoras of Clazomenae ; Empedocles of Acragas ; The atomists: Leucippus of Abdera, Democritus of Abdera ; Diogenes of Apollonia -- The Sophists. Protagoras of Abdera ; Gorgias of Leontini ; Prodicus of Ceos ; Hippias of Elis ; Antiphon the Sophist ; Thrasymachus of Chalcedon ; Euthydemus and Dionysodorus of Chios ; Double arguments ; Anonymous and miscellaneous texts -- Explanatory notes -- Textual notes -- Concordance with Diels/Kranz -- Index of translated passages
Summary "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."-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Pre-Socratic philosophers.
Sophists (Greek philosophy)
PHILOSOPHY -- History & Surveys -- Ancient & Classical.
Pre-Socratic philosophers
Sophists (Greek philosophy)
Vorsokratiker
Quelle
Sophistik
Sophistik -- Text.
Vorsokratiker -- Text.
Vorsokratiker -- Einführung.
Sophistik -- Einführung.
Filosofia antiga.
Filosofia grega.
Pré-socráticos.
Sofistas.
Form Electronic book
Author Waterfield, Robin, 1952- translator.
ISBN 9780191592478
0191592471