The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy

A Companion to Greek philosophy, invaluable for new readers, and for specialists.

The Western tradition of philosophy began in Greece with a cluster of thinkers often called the Presocratics, whose influence has been incalculable. They include the early Ionian cosmologists, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, the Eleatics (Parmenides, Melissus, and Zeno), Empedocles, Anaxagoras, the atomists and the sophists. All these thinkers are discussed in this 1999 volume both as individuals and collectively in chapters on rational theology, epistemology, psychology, rhetoric and relativism, justice, and poetics. A chapter on causality extends the focus to include historians and medical writers.

1. The scope of early Greek philosophy A. A. Long; 2. Sources Jaap Mansfeld; 3. The beginnings of cosmology Keimpe Algra; 4. The Pythagorean tradition Carl A. Huffman; 5. Heraclitus Edward Hussey; 6. Parmenides and Melissus David Sedley; 7. Zeno Richard D. McKirahan Jr; 8. Empedocles and Anaxagoras: responses to Parmenides Daniel W. Graham; 9. The atomists C. C. W. Taylor; 10. Rational theology Sarah Broadie; 11. Early interest in knowledge J. H. Lesher; 12. Soul, sensation, and thought André Laks; 13. Culpability, responsibility, cause: philosophy, historiography and medicine in the fifth century Mario Vegetti; 14. Rhetoric and relativism: Protagoras and Gorgias Paul Woodruff; 15. Protagoras and Antiphon: Sophistic debates on justice Fernanda DeCleva Caizzi; 16. The poetics of early Greek philosophy Glenn W. Most.

The Western tradition of philosophy began in Greece with the Presocratics, a group whose influence has been incalculable. These thinkers are discussed in this 1999 volume both as individuals and collectively in chapters on rational theology, epistemology, psychology, rhetoric and relativism, justice, and poetics.