Early Greek Philosophy

There is not much existing material written by the Presocratic Greek philosophers, but most of it is here, presented in its proper context and without a lot of undue commentary. The book simply presents the material, you can decide what it means. If you are interested in the Presocratics, this is the essential volume. Just be prepared: 99% of what is known about these ancient figures comes from references penned by later Greeks or even Romans two or three centuries after the fact.

Philosophy begins in wonder ' at what is that it is'. The Pre-Socratics at the very beginning of the historical enterprise of philosophy( love of wisdom) contradict each other in presenting total visions of the world. For Parmenides all is one unchanging, and the Real is this Eternal Stasis. For Heraclitus " we step and do not step into the same river, we are and are not" All is change. In this way in these contradictions these philosophers set the stage for the questionings of Socrates and the synthesis of Plato and the explorations of Aristotle.

Our present knowledge of the Presocratic philosophers is all second-hand: it consists of attributions made in later classical literature by a wide variety of authors, from pagans, like Aristotle and Iamblichus, to Christians, like Clement and Hippolytus. This book gives the reader who has been tantalized by these fragmentary citations a chance to view these quotes surrounded by the contexts in which they are preserved. That is both the strength and the bane of this volume. For instance, it is interesting to note how often Heraclitus is referred to as "obscure", but then, how much of what is attributed to him was actually said by him, how much does the citation represent the quoter's bias or training, and in what context or order were the sayings originally delivered? We will never know. So, if you have a passing acquaintance with the sayings of Zeno, Pythagoras, Empedocles et al., this may be the book to draw you deeper into the mysteries. The beginner may be merely mystified by the Presocratic palimpsest.

In a clear and scholarly manner, J. Barnes presents all the writings of the pre-Socratic Greek philosophers. It is a wonderful, well presented, easy to read book that brings the time and the people, with their ideas, alive.