Presocratic philosophy : a very short introduction / Catherine Osborne.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rowett, Catherine.

Series:

Very short introductions

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pre-Socratic philosophers.

Physical Description:

144 pages : illustrations, map ; 18 cm.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2004.

Summary:

Generations of philosophers, both ancient and modern, have traced their inspiration back to the Presocratics. Part of the fascination stems from the fact that little of what they wrote survives. Here Osborne invites her readers to dip their toes into the fragmentary remains of thinkers from Thales to Pythagoras, Heraclitus to Protagoras, and to try to reconstruct the moves that they were making, to support stories that Western philosophers and historians of philosophy like to tell about their past. This book covers the invention of western philosophy: introducing to us the first thinkers to explore ideas about the nature of reality, time, and the origin of the universe.

Contents:

Lost words, forgotten worlds

Puzzles about first principles

Zeno's tortoise

Reality and appearance : more adventures in metaphysics

Heraclitus

Pythagoras and other mysteries

Spin doctors of the 5th century.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 136-140) and index.

ISBN:

0192840940

OCLC:

54425104