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Robin Waterfield
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The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and Sophists Paperback – 10 June 2009

by Waterfield (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars 245
Edition: 1st
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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 which 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 mould. 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 testimonia from ancient sources, supplemented by lucid commentary.
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  1. ISBN-10
    9780199539093
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0199539093
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publisher
    Oxford University Press UK
  5. Publication date
    10 June 2009
  6. Language
    English
  7. Dimensions
    19.61 x 1.78 x 12.85 cm
  8. Print length
    400 pages
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 019953909X
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press UK; 1st edition (10 June 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780199539093
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0199539093
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 13 years and up
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 19.61 x 1.78 x 12.85 cm
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 out of 5 stars 245

About the author

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Robin Waterfield

Robin Waterfield

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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.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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Rick Rock
5.0 out of 5 stars It's a handy compendium
Reviewed in the United States on 8 September 2023
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We only have fragments, due to early Christian purges and book burnings, and a general destruction of art and literature, inspired by religious fanaticism and superstitious fear of "demons". The fanatics WERE the demons. At any rate, this volume brings surviving fragments together. One mourns for all that was lost. A LOT was lost.
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Fëanor
2.0 out of 5 stars I read the introduction... It's extremely anachronistic.
Reviewed in Brazil on 26 April 2022
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The author insists on viewing the First Philosophers, I mean, the real ones in a VERY anachronistic perspective, not the Sophists «who were nonetheless free thinkers (in this sense they could, and in theory, be considered Philosophers, but the fact is that they considered themselves wise, thus their name; and since the foundation of Philosophy, it was unwise to consider oneself 'wholly' wise, even if you were a God». He really thinks there just exists, practically speaking, one or just a few definitions of Science «Scientia, Epistémê the Latin and Hellenic words respectively»; this is completely wrong OR one or a few definitions of Philosophy, that is, modelled in Plátôn's view, and this as well, is completely wrong. He really does not understand the scrutiny that Plátôn was basically a tottus theologicus philosophus and his philosophy was preserved because it was the model which would then be corrupted to sustain christian theology.

For instance, there were several christians priests more than 7 hundred years after Herákleitos book was published, or according to Charles Kahn, possibly given to the Artemis Great temple in Halikarnássos, that were still quoting his little VERY famous book «OUT OF MEMEORY or BY HEART», which according to Marcus Aurelius «and other stoics» was the basis of the Stoic philosophy «which would influence christian dogma as well». Why it was NOT preserved if it was so ubiquitous? O rather, was it destroyed «and there is information hundreds of thousands «at least!» of books being burned by the end of Antiquity, by the order of priests, which many times were not even European».

The fact is that it was completely obvious that anyone who was a proponent of a knowledge «Gnosis», or wisdom «Sophia», or the love for knowledge or love for wisdom «mathematiké, philosophía», WAS a PHILOSOPHER. Anyone who denies this is just a mere delusional or alienated academician who will quote more than a hundred sources as IF a ARGUMENTVM AD POPVLVM were really an argument, and as if as many sources one quoted would prove something to be true, which is just an old fallacy regurgitated as a form of validation.

I give it two stars because it is reasonably well written and has extensive research, but his analysis is just STERILE.
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Nick
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book!
Reviewed in Canada on 31 May 2021
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Fantastic book full of deep knowledge!
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars very beauty
Reviewed in India on 2 November 2017
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very beauty
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5.0 out of 5 stars Sophisticated Greece
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 July 2010
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Robin Waterfield has a well earned reputation as an authority on ancient Greece and this discussion of the Presocratic philosophers and the Sophists reinforces that view. Primary sources are limited but Waterfield avoided the temptation to rely on secondary commentaries and has translated many of the actual fragmants and ancient testimona in order to allow the philosophers to speak for themselves. In addition, he makes the point that as there is little consensus on what the ancient philosophers meant readers should think for themselves.

The Presocratic philosophers are so called because they lived before Socrates, although the last of them was his contemporary. The initial period of Presocratic philosophy is from 580 - 430 BC. The Presocratics are considered together but do not, as a whole, form a specific school of thought although Parmenides of Elea did have followers. What we know of them is what was recorded by later writers, known as doxographers. We also know that those records reflect the philosophies of the writers themselves. Hence Aristole, using his four causes analysis, suggests Thales believed everything was made out of water, a suggestion from which Waterfield dissents. Similarly Plato in defending Socrates' memory disparages the Sophists. As Plato is the main source of information about the Sophists the need for critical appraisal is imperative.

The Presocratics were not scientists in the modern sense of the word. They did not carry out experiments to prove theories and where observation and theories clashed they tended to prefer theory. The Presocratics retained a strong degree of mystical thought. At the time of Homer the primary attribute of religion was anthropomorphism. The gods were the projection of human characteristics on to immortal gods who took little interest in the disordered affairs of men. The Presocratics argued that the real world was ordered and because it was ordered it could be comprehended by the human mind. Although they asked the same questions as their predecessors they assigned the functions previously mooted as belonging to the gods to natural phenomena. Thales, generally accredited as the first philosopher, believed the earth rested on water. Anaximander argued that an unseen element, aspeiron (air), held everything together and had ideas regarded as proto-evolutionary in essence.

The first Sophist was Protagoras c.440 BC. He had a good reputation as a teacher although his writings are only known at second hand. He was interested in the correct use of words and appears to have been an agnostic, commenting that "Man is the measure of all things" and opining that "Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing whether they exist or not or of what sort they may be, because of the obscurity of the subject, and the brevity of human life." Most Sophists were itinerant teachers and developed a reputation for charging fees to explain virtue and excellence to up and coming politicians. Rhetoric was important in ancient Greece and, in his portrait of Sophists, Plato tried to present them as expounding deception rather than truth. It is in this sense that the word remains in the English language and it is Plato's teacher, Socrates, whose reputation has remained intact.

Waterfield deals with fourteen Presocratics and eight Sophists. Each chapter is followed by relevant original text and a bibliography of relevant books and articles for further reading.Waterfield, perhaps inadvertantly, makes the case for a revival of Classical studies at secondary school level. The reduction in the teaching of Latin and Greek in the postwar education syllabus has robbed a generation of knowledge of some of the main influences which have created our current modes of thinking. In addition, they have made it more difficult to understand how previous generations, who were schooled in Classics, thought and acted. Unlike the self improvers of the nineteenth century it is hard to imagine students of today making the effort to further their knowledge through additional study. A very impressive introduction to the subject and worth five stars.
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