The Presocratics

The present volume offers in English translation a critically full collection of quotations from, and ancient testimonies about, early Greek philosophical writings, principally of the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. It is customary to speak of the philosophers of that period as “Presocratics,” although in fact four οf them—Democritus the atomist, Philolaus the Pythagorean, Gorgias the Sophist, and Hippocrates the physician—were roughly contemporary with Socrates. By “critically full" is meant that the editors judgment has been exercised in attempting to include all such Fragments and Testimonia as are at once adequately authenticated and capable of throwing light on the doctrines in question. The usual groups of philosophers contained in such a study are here supplemented by certain passages, chosen for their philosophical import, from Greek religious and medical writings, in the first and last chapters respectively. In addition to their lively intrinsic interest such materials are likely to be valuable in offering suggestive points of comparison with the more explicitly philosophical doctrines, particularly of Empedocles, the Pythagoreans, and (beyond the scope of the present volume) Plato.