History                                   Regions                                      Topics

THE PRE-SOCRATICS (c.650 - c.400 BCE)

ASSOCIATIONS

• International Association for Presocratic Studies

CONFERENCES

2009:

2008:

2007:

2006:

2005:

2004:

2003:

2002:

2001:

2000:

Annual:

COURSES

JOURNALS

PERSONS

Milesians:

• Thales (c. 625 - ? BCE)

• Anaximander (c.610 - ? BCE)

• Anaximenes

Pythagoreans:

• Pythagoras (c. 570 - ? BCE)

• Philolaus (470 - 380 BC)

• Archytas (428 - 347 BC)

Eleatics:

• Xenophanes (c. 570 - ? BCE)

• Heraclitus of Ephesus (c.540 - ? BCE)

• Parmenides of Elea (c. 515 - ? BCE)

• Zeno of Elea (c. 490 - ? BCE)

• Melissus of Samos (c.470 - ? BCE)

Pluralists:

• Anaxagoras (c.500 - ? BCE)

• Empedocles (c.492 - ? BCE) )

Atomists:

• Leucippus (5th Century BCE)

• Democritus (c.460 - ? BCE)

• Diogenes of Apollonia (c.460 BCE)

SOURCES: PRIMARY

Off-Line:

• Anthologies:

  • Barnes, Jonathan, ed.  Early Greek Philosophy.  Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1987.  Rev. Ed.  2002.

  • Burnet, John.  Early Greek Philosophy.  1892.  Rpt. New York: Meridian, 1957.

  • Curd, Patricia, and Richard D. McKirahan, eds.  A Presocratics Reader.  Indianapolis: Hackett, 1996.
  • Diels, Hermann, ed.  Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker.  Berlin: Weidmann, 1903.  Rpt. 6 times up to 1952.
    • Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers: a Complete Translation of the Fragments in Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker.  Trans. Kathleen Freeman.  Oxford: Blackwell, 1947.  Rpt. 1983.
  • Gagarin, Michael, and Paul Woodruff, eds.  Early Greek Political Thought from Homer to the Sophists.  1995.

  • Kirk, G. S., and J. E. Raven.  The Presocratic Philosophers: a Critical History with a Selection of Texts.  Cambridge: CUP, 1957.  Rev. ed. by G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven, and Malcolm Schofield.  1983. 

  • McKirahan, Richard D., ed.  Philosophy Before Socrates: an Introduction With Text and Commentary.  Indianapolis: Hackett, 1994.
  • Waterfield, Robin, ed.  The First Philosophers: the Presocratics and the Sophists.  Oxford: OUP, 2000.
  • Wheelwright, Philip, ed.  The Pre-Socratics.  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1966.

• Selected Individual Works:

  •  

On-Line:

• Archives:
  • Burnet, John: Early Greek Philosophy
  • Philoctetes (Texts by Heraclitus, Parmenides, Thales, Anaximander, Zeno)
• Selected Individual Works:

SOURCES: SECONDARY

Off-Line:

• Anthologies:

  • Long, A. A., ed.  Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy.  Cambridge: CUP, 1999.

• Selected Individual Works:

  • Barnes, Jonathan.  The Presocratic Philosophers.  2 Vols. London: Routledge, 1979.  One-volume edition, 1982.

  • Boudoris, K.  Ionian Philosophy.  Athens: International Society for Greek Philosophy, 1989.

  • Cornford, Francis Macdonald.  From Religion to Philosophy.  London: Edwin Arnold, 1912.  Rpt. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1991. 

  • Curd, Patricia, and , eds.  Oxford Handbook of Presocratic Philosophy.  Oxford: OUP, 2008.

  • Desmond, William D.  The Greek Praise of Poverty: Origins of Ancient Cynicism.  Notre Dame: U of Notre Dame P, 2006.

  • Frankfurt, H., et al.  Before Philosophy.  Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1949.

  • Freeman, Kathleen.  A Companion to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers: a Companion to Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker.  Oxford, Blackwell, 1946.

  • Furley, D.  The Greek Cosmologists.  Cambridge: CUP, 1987.

  • Graham, Daniel W.  Explaining the Cosmos: the Ionian Tradition of Scientific Philosophy.  Princeton: Princeton UP, 2006.

  • Guthrie, W. K. C.  The Presocratic Tradition from Parmenides to Democritus.  Vol. 2 of History of Greek Philosophy.  6 Vols.  Cambridge: CUP, 1965.

  • Guthrie, W. K. C.  The Earlier Presocratics and the Pythagoreans.  Vol. 1 of History of Greek Philosophy.  6 Vols.  Cambridge: CUP, 1962.

  • Havelock, Eric A.  "The Linguistic Task of the Presocratics."  Language and Thought in Early Greek Philosophy.  Ed. Kevin Robb.  La Salle, IL: Hegeler Institute, 1983.  7-82.

  • Hussey, Edward.  "Pythagoreans and Eleatics."  From the Beginning to Plato.  Ed. C. C. W. Taylor.  Vol. 1 of Routledge History of Philosophy.  London: Routledge, 1997.  128-174.

  • Hussey, Edward.  The Presocratics.  London: Duckworth, 1972.

  • Janaway, Christopher.  "Ancient Greek Philosophy I: the Pre-Socratics and Plato."  Philosophy: a Guide Through the Subject.  Ed. A. C. Grayling.  Oxford: OUP, 1995.  336-397.

  • Kirk, G. S., and J. E. Raven.  The Presocratic Philosophers: a Critical History with a Selection of Texts.  Cambridge: CUP, 1957.  Rev. ed. by G. S. Kirk, J. E. Raven, and Malcolm Schofield.  1983. 

  • McKirahan, Richard.  "Presocratic Philosophy."  Blackwell Guide to Ancient Philosophy.  Ed. Christopher Shields.  Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.  5-26.
  • McKirahan, Richard D., Jr.  Philosophy before Socrates: an Introduction With Text and Commentary.  Indianapolis: Hackett, 1994.
  • Osborne, Catherine.  Presocratic Philosophy: a Very Short Introduction.  Oxford: OUP, 2004. 
  • Ring, Merrill.  Beginning With the Pre-Socratics.  Mayfield, 1987; Rpt. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1999.

  • Robinson, John Manley.  An Introduction to Early Greek Philosophy.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1968.

  • Schiappa, Edward.  Protagoras and Logos: a Study in Greek Philosophy and Rhetoric.  Columbia: U of SC P, 1991.

  • Schofield, Malcolm.  "The Ionians."  From the Beginning to Plato.  Ed. C. C. W. Taylor.  Vol. 1 of Routledge History of Philosophy.  London: Routledge, 1997.  47-87.

  • Warren, James.  Presocratics: Natural Philosophers before Socrates.  Berkeley: U of California P, 2007.

  • Waterfield, Robin.  Before Eureka: the Presocratics and their Science.  Bristol: Bristol Classic Press, 2000.

On-Line:

• Curd, Patricia: Presocratic Philosophy (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

• Dunkle, Roger: Philosophical Background of the Fifth Century BC

• Wikipedia Encyclopedia:

  • Pre-Socratic Philosophy:

    • Atomism

    • Eleatics

    • Milesian School

    • Pluralist School

    • Pythagoreanism

UNIVERSITY PROGRAMMES / RESEARCH CENTRES / RESEARCH PROJECTS

WWW GATEWAYS

• Adluri, Vishwa: Presocratics

• Mouraviev, Serge: Presocratics Online

PHILWEB was last updated: October 15, 2009

PHILWEB is edited by Richard L. W. Clarke

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This site will always be a work in progress as a result of which pages will be found at various stages of completion.