The First Philosophers Audiobook By Robin Waterfield cover art

The First Philosophers

The Presocratics and Sophists

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The First Philosophers

By: Robin Waterfield
Narrated by: Adrian Hobart
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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's 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 mold. 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.

©2000 Robin Waterfield (P)2023 Tantor Greek & Roman Philosophers Philosophy Professionals & Academics Metaphysical
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This is an an excellent biography about some obscure and not so obscure philosophers As a student of philosophy I learned a boatload from listening to this. Robin Waterfield is a genius. His ability to draw conclusions and make educated inferences from ancient fragments is masterful
I wish that the reader wouldn’t have read all of the source notes during the narrative. It got a bit long. Over all excellent text.

Loads of detail and information about the ancient Philosophers

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The audio version of this book is completely absurd. Because the sources and translations are inportant to note in this book they are included after every quote. If one were reading this book they could easily skim over this. But in the audiobook the every initial and page number (several per quote) is painstakingly read out loud. The result is that approximately half of this audiobook is the performer saying letters and numbers. This is a kind of madness and misleading in terms of duration. Do not purchase this audiobook. Buy the physical copy instead

Good book, bad audiobook

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