Early Greek Philosophy by Jonathan Barnes

The world was not a random collection of bits, its history was not an arbitrary jumble of events.” - This is central to their spirit of inquiry, an approach compatible with a modern physicist or chemist. They saw the world as something ordered and intelligible, its history following an explicable course and its different parts arranged in a comprehensible system. They hit upon that special way of looking at the world which is the scientific and rational way. “First and most simply, the Presocratics invented the very idea of science and philosophy.

Below are a few quotes from Jonathan Barnes’s excellent 40 page introduction along with my brief comments: I couldn’t imagine a better introductory book then this one on the subject. ISBN 978-0-19-285408-7.The early Greek philosophers, thinkers like Thales, Anaximander, Pythagoras, Parmenides, Zeno, Empedocles, Leucippus, are foundational for the Western intellectual tradition. The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle (1995).The Modes of Scepticism (1985), with Julia Annas.Presocratic Philosophers 2 Vols., 1979 1 vol.Posterior Analytics (translation and commentary on Aristotle), (1975) (revised edition, 1994).The Complete Works of Aristotle, 2 vols, 1984 reprinted with corrections, 1995 (General Editor).He claims that the 'outrageous' charges against Aristotle were brought by men who did not read Aristotle's own works with sufficient attention and who criticized him for the faults of his successors. He is the brother of the novelist Julian Barnes, and he and his family feature in the latter's memoir Nothing to be Frightened Of (2008).īarnes holds that our modern notion of the scientific method is 'thoroughly Aristotelian.' He emphasizes the point in order to refute empiricists Francis Bacon and John Locke, who thought they were breaking with the Aristotelian tradition.

He married in 1965 and has two daughters. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Humboldt University of Berlin in 2012. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999. He is an expert on ancient Greek philosophy, and has edited the two-volume collection of Aristotle's works as well as a number of commentaries on Aristotle, the pre-Socratics and other areas of Greek thought. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1987.

He taught at the University of Paris-Sorbonne in France, and took his éméritat in 2006. He was Professor of Ancient Philosophy at the University of Geneva 1994–2002.

He was Professor of Ancient Philosophy, Oxford University, 1989–94. He was a Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, 1968–78 a Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, 1978–94, and has been Emeritus Fellow of Balliol College since 1994. He taught for 25 years at Oxford University before moving to the University of Geneva. He was educated at the City of London School and Balliol College, Oxford University.

Early Greek Philosophy by Jonathan Barnes