The First Philosophers

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.

ISBN 019953909X   Pages 400 ISBN13 9780199539093 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher Oxford University Press   Weight (grammes) 272 Imprint Oxford University Press   Published in Oxford Format Paperback   Series title Oxford World's Classics Publication date 26 Mar 2009   Previous ISBN 9780192824547 Translator Waterfield, Robin   Height (mm) 196 Library of Congress 2009294381   Width (mm) 128 DEWEY 182   Spine width (mm) 18 DEWEY edition DC22   Academic level General

* INTRODUCTION * TEXTUAL NOTE * CHRONOLOGY * BIBLIOGRAPHY * EXPLANATORY NOTES * CONCORDANCE * INDEX

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