The Oxford handbook of presocratic philosophy

Bibliographic Information

The Oxford handbook of presocratic philosophy

edited by Patricia Curd and Daniel W. Graham

Oxford University Press, 2008

Available at  / 22 libraries

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Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

In the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. a new kind of thinker appeared in Greek city-states, dedicated to finding the origins of the world and everything in it, using observation and reason rather than tradition and myth. We call these thinkers Presocratic philosophers, and recognize them as the first philosophers of the Western tradition, as well as the originators of scientific thinking. New textual discoveries and new approaches make a reconsideration of the Presocratics at the beginning of the twenty-first century especially timely. This handbook brings together leading international scholars to study the diverse figures, movements, and approaches that constitute Presocratic philosophy. More than a survey of scholarship, this study presents new interpretations and evaluations of the Presocratics' accomplishments, from Thales to the sophists, from theology to science, and from pre-philosophical background to their influence on later thinkers. Many positions presented here challenge accepted wisdom and offer alternative accounts of Presocratic theories. This handbook includes chapters on the Milesians (Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes), Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Anaxagoras, Empedocles, the Pythagoreans, the atomists, and the sophists. Special studies are devoted to the sources of Presocratic philosophy, oriental influences, Hippocratic medicine, cosmology, explanation, epistemology, theology, and the reception of Presocratic thought in Aristotle and other ancient authors.

Table of Contents

  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. The Sources of Presocratic Philosophy
  • 3. Prehistory of Presocratic Philosophy in an Orientalizing Context
  • 4. Milesian Measures: Time, Space, and Matter
  • 5. The Cloud-Astrophysics of Xenophanes and Ionian Material Monism
  • 6. Heraclitus: Flux, Order, and Knowledge
  • 7. Signs and Arguments in Parmenides B8
  • 8. Anaxagroas and the Theory of Everything
  • 9. Empedocles: Physical Divinity and Allegorical Myth
  • 10. Two Problems in Pythagoreanism
  • 11. Atomism's Eleatic Roots
  • 12. Leuippus's Atomism
  • 13. Speculating about Diogenes of Appolonia
  • 14. The Sophists
  • 15. The Role of Hippocratic Medicine in the Formation of Early Greek Thought
  • 16. Presocratic Cosmologies
  • 17. Reason, Cause, and Explanation in Presocratic Philosophy
  • 18. The Secularizing of Knowledge in Presocratic Thought
  • 19. Presocratic Theology
  • 20. Aristotle's Account of the Origins of Philosophy
  • 21. Classical Representations and Uses of the Presocratics

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