James Warren (1)

A helpful introduction to the Greek philosophers known as the "Presocratics," mostly before the time of Socrates, focused primarily on matters of natural philosophy.

The author does well at showing what can be known from the fragments preserved from the Presocratics: Thales, Anaximenes, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno and Melissus, Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Democritus and Leucippus, Philolaus, and Diogenes of Apollonia. He describes what can be known of their philosophies and the questions with which they grappled.

Even though the material can sometimes be challenging, the author does well at explaining the issues in a way most people will be able to understand. One is struck at how the issues discussed within philosophy from the beginning, in many ways, continue to the present day; the same basic issues about our reality and how we perceive that reality are discussed by later Greek philosophers and such discussions continue until now.

Therefore, the book is quite useful and relevant for the modern day reader. Worth consideration.… (mehr)