This survey of the history of Western philosophy, from Thales to Augustine, introduces the central tenets of each philosopher or school within the cultural and historical aspect of the particular time. Topics covered include metaphysics, ethics and politics, and Epicureanism.

This seventh edition of Philosophic Classics, Volume I: Ancient Philosophy includes essential writings of the most important Greek philosophers, along with selections from some of their Roman followers. In updating this edition, editor Forrest E. Baird has continued to follow the same criteria established by the late Walter Kaufmann when the Philosophic Classics series was first established: (1) to use complete works or, where more appropriate, complete sections of works (2) in clear translations (3) of texts central to the thinker’s philosophy or widely accepted as part of the "canon." To make the works more accessible to students, most footnotes treating textual matters (variant readings, etc.) have been omitted and important Greek words have been transliterated and put in angle brackets. In addition, each thinker is introduced by a brief essay composed of three sections: (1) biographical (a glimpse of the life), (2) philosophical (a résumé of the philosopher’s thought), and (3) bibliographical (suggestions for further reading). New to this seventh edition: Changes in translations: New translations of Plato’s Apology and Phaedo and Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics and Politics from the acclaimed Focus Philosophical Library Series. New translations of Plato’s Euthyphro and Crito. New translations of Epicurus’s Letter to Herodotus, Letter to Menoeceus, and Principal Doctrines. New translation of the Parmenides fragments. Additional material: Gorgias’s model oration, Encomium on Helen, which gives a defense of Helen of Troy. A selection from Plato’s Gorgias on nature versus convention or law . Additional material from the opening of Plato’s Symposium to contextualize the dialogue. Additional material from Plato’s Republic (Book IX) on the tri-partite soul. Additional material from Aristotle’s Metaphysics (Book IV, 1-4, 7) on the nature of being and the so-called "three rules of thought." A brief selection from Porphyry’s Life of Plotinus, giving a sense of the person. Updated and reorganized bibliographies. To allow for all these changes, a section of Book V from Plato’s Republic has been dropped. Those who use this first volume in a one-term course in ancient philosophy will find more material here than can easily fit a normal semester. But this embarrassment of riches gives teachers some choice and, for those who offer the same course year after year, an opportunity to change the menu.

First published in 1961, Forrest E. Baird's revision of Philosophic Classics continues the tradition of providing generations of students with high quality course material. Using the complete works, or where appropriate, complete sections of works, this anthology allows philosophers to speak directly to students. Esteemed for providing the best available translations, Philosophic Classics: Ancient Philosophy, features complete works or complete sections of the most important works by the major thinkers, as well as shorter samples from transitional thinkers.

Ancient Greek Cosmogony is the first detailed, comprehensive account of ancient Greek theories of the origins of the world. It covers the period from 800 BC to 600 AD, beginning with myths concerning the creation of the world; the cosmogonies of all the major Greek and Roman thinkers; and the debate between Greek philosophical cosmogony and early Christian views. It argues that Greeks formulated many of the perennial problems of philosophical cosmogony and produced philosophically and scientifically interesting answers. The atomists argued that our world was one among many worlds, and came about by chance. Plato argued that it is unique, and the product of design. Empedocles and the Stoics, in quite different ways, argued that there was an unending cycle whereby the world is generated, destroyed and generated again. Aristotle on the other hand argued that there was no such thing as cosmogony, and the world has always existed. Reactions to, and developments of, these ideas are traced through Hellenistic philosophy and the debates in early Christianity on whether God created the world from nothing or from some pre-existing chaos. The book examines issues of the origins of life and the elements for the ancient Greeks, and how the cosmos will come to an end. It argues that there were several interesting debates between Greek philosophers on the fundamental principles of cosmogony, and that these debates were influential on the development of Greek philosophy and science.

An Introduction to Early Greek Philosophy. The Chief Fragments and Ancient Testimony, with Connecting Commentary. "The selection of primary source materials for the whole sequence from Ionians to Sophists is adequate to generous. [...] Robinson's translations of the fragments are, on the whole, precise and sensitive . . . His introductory and connecting comments are lucid, well-informed, and discreet". Alexander Mourelatos, J. History of Philosophy "[...]this book is so far superior to its rivals that it is hard to imagine how a teacher who uses it once can prefer any other existing text. The style and organization of the book are clear and attractive, the scholarship is sound and up to date, the exposition of philosophic ideas is precise and coherent[...]". Charles H. Kahn, J. of Philosophy

Filling the void in the current scholarship, Giannis Stamatellos provides the first book-length study of the Presocratic influences in Plotinus' Enneads. Widely regarded as the founder of Neoplatonism, Plotinus (204–270 AD) assimilated eight centuries of Greek thought into his work. In this book Stamatellos focuses on eminent Presocratic thinkers who are significant in Plotinus' thought, including Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, the early Pythagoreans, and the early Atomists. The Presocratic references found in the Enneads are studied in connection with Plotinus' fundamental theories of the One and the unity of being, intellect and the structure of the intelligible world, the nature of eternity and time, the formation of the material world, and the nature of the ensouled body. Stamatellos concludes that, contrary to modern scholarship's dismissal of Presocratic influence in the Enneads, Presocratic philosophy is in fact an important source for Plotinus, which he recognized as valuable in its own right and adapted for key topics in his thought.