The Presocratics were the founding fathers of the Western philosophical tradition, and the first masters of rational thought. This volume provides a comprehensive and precise exposition of their arguments and offers a rigorous assessment of their contribution to philosophical thought.
While previous writers on the Presocratics have tended to concentrate on historical and philological issues, Jonathan Barnes is more concerned with the philosophical content of Presocratic ideas and arguments. He pays particular attention to Parmenides, Zeno, Anaxagoras and Democritus, but the book does full justice to all the main thinkers from Thales to the Sophists.
Jonathan Barnes is Professor of Ancient Philosophy at Oxford University and Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford; from 1968 to 1978 he was a Fellow of Oriel College. He was educated at the City of London School and at Balliol where he read Mods and Greats. He has taught in the USA, in Switzerland and Italy. He has also been a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and at the Wissenschaftskolle in Berlin. He is the author of numerous books and articles on ancient philosophy.