This handbook brings together leading international scholars to study the diverse figures, movements, and approaches that constitute presocratic philosophy. The study presents interpretations and evaluations of the Presocratics' accomplishments, from Thales to the sophists and from theology to science.

In the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. a new kind of thinker appeared in Greek city-states, dedicated to finding the origins of the world and everything in it, using observation and reason rather than tradition and myth. We call these thinkers Presocratic philosophers, and recognize them as the first philosophers of the Western tradition, as well as the originators of scientific thinking. New textual discoveries and new approaches make a reconsideration of the Presocratics at the beginning of the twenty-first century especially timely. This handbook brings together leading international scholars to study the diverse figures, movements, and approaches that constitute Presocratic philosophy. More than a survey of scholarship, this study presents new interpretations and evaluations of the Presocratics' accomplishments, from Thales to the sophists, from theology to science, and from pre-philosophical background to their influence on later thinkers. Many positions presented here challenge accepted wisdom and offer alternative accounts of Presocratic theories. This handbook includes chapters on the Milesians (Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes), Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Anaxagoras, Empedocles, the Pythagoreans, the atomists, and the sophists. Special studies are devoted to the sources of Presocratic philosophy, oriental influences, Hippocratic medicine, cosmology, explanation, epistemology, theology, and the reception of Presocratic thought in Aristotle and other ancient authors.

This handbook brings together leading international scholars to study the diverse figures, movements, and approaches that constitute Presocratic philosophy.

This is a comprehensive book on philosophical methodology. A team of leading philosophers present original essays on various aspects of how philosophy should be and is done. They explore broad traditions and approaches, topics in philosophical methodology, and the interconnections between philosophy and neighbouring fields.

A team of leading scholars survey the development of philosophy in the period of extraordinary intellectual change from the mid-16th century to the early 18th century. They cover metaphysics and natural philosophy; the mind, the passions, and aesthetics; epistemology, logic, mathematics, and language; ethics and political philosophy; and religion.

Parmenides of Elea is generally considered the most profound and challenging of the Presocratic philosophers. John Palmer develops and defends a fundamentally original interpretation of Parmenides and his place in early Greek thought. An appendix presents a Greek text of the fragments of Parmenides' poem with English translation and textual notes.

Since the middle of the 20th century Ludwig Wittgenstein has been an exceptionally influential and controversial figure wherever philosophy is studied. This is a comprehensive volume on Wittgenstein where 35 scholars explore the whole range of his thought, offering critical engagement and original interpretation.