• The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and Sophists (Oxford World’s Classics)
  • Author: Robin Waterfield 
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
  • Publication Date: September 7, 2000
  • Print Length: 400 Pages
  • Product Description

The first philosophers paved the way for the work of Plato and Aristotle – and hence for the whole of Western thought.

Aristotle said that philosophy begins with wonder, and the first Western philosophers developed theories of the world that express simultaneously their sense of wonder and their intuition that the world should be comprehensible. But their enterprise was by no means limited to this proto-scientific task. Through, for instance, Heraclitus’ enigmatic sayings, the poetry of Parmenides and Empedocles, and Zeno’s paradoxes, the Western world was introduced to metaphysics, rationalist theology, ethics, and logic, by thinkers who often seem to be mystics or shamans as much as philosophers or scientists in the modern mold. And out of the Sophists’ reflections on human beings and their place in the world arose and interest in language, and in political, moral, and social philosophy.

This volume contains a translation of all the most important fragments of the Presocratics and Sophists and of the most informative testimonials from ancient sources, supplemented by lucid commentary.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World’s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford’s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

  • About the Author

Robin Anthony Herschel Waterfield (born 1952) is a British classical scholar, translator, editor, and writer of children’s fiction. Waterfield was born in 1952 and studied Classics at Manchester University, where he achieved a first-class degree in 1974. He went on to research ancient Greek philosophy at King’s College, Cambridge until 1978, after which he became a lecturer at Newcastle University and then St Andrews University. He later became a copy editor and later a commissioning editor for Penguin Books. He is now a self-employed writer, living in southern Greece, where he has Greek citizenship.