The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy

A 1999 Companion to Greek philosophy, invaluable for new readers, and for specialists.

A. A. Long (Edited by)

9780521446679, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 28 June 1999

460 pages, 1 map
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.6 cm, 0.67 kg

"The volume is, in overall terms, very succesful, with the chapter on sources by Mansfeld and the Bibliography singled out as outstanding, and likely to prove to be of particular interest and usefulness for a good time into the future." Ancient Philosophy

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.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA]