Do any of you guys have any favorite books relating to Presocratic and/or Sophistic Philosophy? I ask because I've been reading about them for a while, mainly through the Oxford World's Classics collection of Presocratic and Sophistic fragments and Hackett's "Philosophy Before Socrates" but have been reading Barnes' "The Presocratic Philosophers", now curious about any good studies on individual philosophers. Post your favorite philosophers from the period and why as well.
Presocratic and Sophist Thread
Anthony Gomez
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Adam Turner
Read anything by Guthrie and Dodds. Anything.
Juan Scott
Check out the Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library. Highly esoteric stuff.
I am a fan of poetic renderings of Heraclitus. Recently read the penguin. Art and Thought looks like an interesting study but is expensive.
Lombardo does a psychedelic zen English rendering of Parmenides and Empedocles I quite like. Kingsley is pretty solid with his case for their shamanic origins. Mystery and Magic... is the place to start. His later books descend into pompous ramblings, unfortunately.
I have the Kirk Presocratic volume for personal use. I like it. Barnes is more of an analytic autist. I used it in a class and sold it after.
Lives of the Eminent Philosophers is a fun read. Heard of it?
Angel Ward
I actually own the Pythagorean Sourcebook, I forgot I had it, I got it in my esoteric phase. What are some of your favorite renderings of Heraclitus? To be frank I prefer the analytic autism of Barnes because I want to be a professor of Ancient Philosophy and write about the Presocratics specifically. I've been meaning to read the Lives since Diogenes is an important source on the Presocratics, remember reading his biography of Xenophon a while back.
Christian Scott
The Presocratic Reader: Collected Fragments and Testomonia is what I was taught from in college and is a great little book. Nietzsche also wrote an excellent book on the Presocratics, but I'm forgetting its name
Joseph Williams
Heraclitus was cringe and bluepilled
Xenophanes was based but bluepilled
Zeno was cringe but redpilled
Thales was based and bluepilled
Jaxon James
Go to b-ok.xyz and search
Patricia Curd and Michael Henn both have good takes on Parmenides (although everyone prefers Henn, Curd has weird theories on Parmenides being)
I haven't cracked open Charles Kahn but I know his Heraclitus is supposed to be good.
Christopher Gomez
thank you very much for the website, will look into Henn and Kahn first
I've heard good things about Nietzsche's work with the Presocratics as well, will look into that as well
Michael Rivera
Read Parmenides’ The Way of Truth it’s great but you’ll probably need some secondary interpretation if you wanna dive in properly
Hudson Reed
Nietzsche is a good secondary source as mentioned. Don't forget Heidegger either.
Noah Howard
Windelband's History of Ancient Philosophy, and then there's this woman (I only remember it was a woman) who did an English translation of the magisterial German collection of Presocratic fragments that everybody uses. Her collection just doesn't have the philological or bibliographical section or something like that. I tried looking for it but can't find it in my apartment.
Kevin Allen
Here, I found it, it's Kathleen Freeman's translation of the Diels collection:
amazon.com
Adrian Sanders
fpbp
Owen Flores
>Sophistic philosophy
angryplato.jpeg
Zachary Mitchell
thank you very much!
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I wish more people would talk about the Sophists, from what I've read they don't seem as bad as what Plato or historians of philosophy have said
Hudson Turner
I'll never forgive Protagoras for this.
Kevin Wood
at least people like aristotle took the time to talk about them instead of simply disregarding anything they said
Dylan Sanders
Any opinions on Waterfield's and Copleston's books on presocratics?
Oliver Perez
Shape of Ancient Thought has some interesting takes...
Xavier Bell
Waterfield's book is a decent introduction, don't know about Copleston though
Ryder Kelly
SEXTUS EMPIRICUS
Aiden Torres
You won't get surpassing depth from Copleston, but he was a good author and his books are worth reading.
Connor Cox
bump for good thread
Michael Lewis
bump
Grayson Foster
what about him?
Blake Lewis
Seconded. Chapters on presocratics are great.
Jaxson Brown
>Nietzsche also wrote an excellent book on the Presocratics, but I'm forgetting its name
Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks. IIRC, he started it after publishing The Birth of Tragedy, but then something with Wagner came up, so he left it unfinished and never published it. Good read though.
Nietzsche expressed preference for the Sophists, especially in his Will to Power notes. He thought they were closer to the early Greeks in spirit than Plato and considered them to be realists like Thucydides.
Carter Sanchez
Democritus and the other Atomists are based and redpilled.
Justin Gomez
This. Guthrie's a must read.