ABSTRACT

The Presocratics were the founding fathers of the Western philosophical tradition, and the first masters of rational thought. This volume provides a comprehensive and precise exposition of their arguments, and offers a rigorous assessment of their contribution to philosophical thought.

part |12 pages

Prologue

chapter I|11 pages

The Springs of Reason

part |107 pages

Eden

chapter II|15 pages

Anaximander on Nature

chapter III|14 pages

Science and Speculation

chapter IV|20 pages

The Natural Philosophy of Heraclitus

chapter V|15 pages

The Divine Philosophy of Xenophanes

chapter VI|17 pages

Pythagoras and the Soul

chapter VII|12 pages

The Moral Law

chapter VIII|13 pages

The Principles of Human Knowledge

part |117 pages

The Serpent

chapter IX|17 pages

Parmenides and the Objects of Inquiry

chapter X|19 pages

Being and Becoming

chapter XI|24 pages

Stability and Change

chapter XII|23 pages

Zeno: Paradox and Plurality

chapter XIII|27 pages

Zeno: Paradox and Progression

chapter XIV|6 pages

The Ports of Knowledge Closed

part |211 pages

Paradise Regained

chapter XV|10 pages

The Ionian Revival

chapter XVI|19 pages

Anaxagoras and the Nature of Stuffs

chapter XVII|29 pages

The Corpuscularian Hypothesis

chapter XVIII|15 pages

Philolaus and the Formal Cause

chapter XIX|24 pages

The Logic of Locomotion

chapter XX|17 pages

The Neo-Ionian World Picture

chapter XXI|20 pages

The Sophists

chapter XXII|29 pages

De Anima

chapter XXIII|24 pages

Conduct Unbecoming

chapter XXIV|23 pages

The Bounds of Knowledge

part |15 pages

Epilogue

chapter XXV|14 pages

The Last of the Line