Philosophy 520
Presocratic Philosophers

Presocratic Philosophers Discussion (Reactions to current assignment)

A WebBoard for students in Philosophy 520. Questions and comments posted here will be available to all students in the course.

Presocratic Philosophers Web Site

A nice map of relevant sites, plus material on Thales and Heraclitus

Ellen Brundige, Early Greek Astronomy

An illustrated tour of early Greek models of the universe

Fritz Jürß, Das Erkenntnisproblem bei den Vorsokratikern

On interpreting Protagoras

Paul Calter, “Pythagoras and Music of the Spheres”

A nice survey, with illustrations, of the various applications of Pythagorean number theory.

Hippocratic Texts in pageable HTML and downloadable ASCII formats

Here are seventeen Hippocratic treatises in the Abbott translation: the six below and eleven others.

Six Hippocratic texts in ASCII format

On Ancient Medicine; Airs, Waters, Places; On the Sacred Disease; The Law; The Oath; Prognostics

Galen, On the Elements according to Hippocrates

The great first-century medical thinker presents and comments on Hippocrates’s doctrine of the elements.

“Fragments of, & Commentary on, the Presocratics”

Translations of the fragments and ancient commentaries as printed in Arthur Fairbanks, ed. and trans., The First Philosophers of Greece (London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1898).

John Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy

The third edition (1920) of John Burnet's classic interpretation of the Presocratic philosophers.

James Dye, “Explaining Pythagorean Abstinence from Beans”

Were Pythagoreans seriously allergic to fava beans? Or, did they have other reasons for avoiding beans?

Internet Classics Archive

An extensive collection of ancient Greek texts, including the Presocratic philosophers, to which users may contribute their own commentaries.

The Perseus Project

This is a fantastic resource for students of antiquity. Its treasures range from a massive collection of Greek coins, pottery, and architecture to an extensive selection of texts which can be displayed in the original Greek, transliteration, or English translation. The texts include the works most ancient Greek philosophers, as well as much of Greek literature. They may be searched by key words or locations in the standard paginations.

Liddell-Scott-Jones Greek Lexicon

As in the paper edition, you can find definitions and examples of usage of any ancient Greek term. However, this on-line version of the standard Greek lexicon will also search for all occurences of a word in any ancient author, including all the presocratic philosophers.

SPIonic Greek font

A decent quality True Type Greek font for use in Windows or OS/2 word processors. Character encoding mostly follows TLG format. Freeware.

Excellent quality fonts in both Adobe and True Type versions, for use in Windows or OS/2 word processors. The package includes a program for easier entry of characters in Word for Windows documents and a program for converting TLG Greek text to Windows format. Shareware.