Ancient Greek thought is the essential wellspring from which the intellectual, ethical and political civilization of the West draws and to which we repeatedly return. In this volume drawn from the reference work Greek Thought: A Guide to Classical Knowledge, major scholars take up basic topics in philosophy and science, offering an account of the extraordinary explosion of desire for knowledge in the classical Greek world.

The philosophers, historians and scientists of ancient Greece inaugurated and nourished the tradition of Western thought. This volume, drawn from the reference work Greek Thought: A Guide to Classical Knowledge, gives fresh insight into the originality of major figures and the legacy of important currents of thought. Aristotle, Democritus, Empedocles, Epicurus, Euclid, Galen, Heraclitus, Herodotus, Hippocrates, Parmenides, Plato, Plotinus, Plutarch, Polybius, Protagoras, Ptolemy, Pyrrhon, Socrates, Thucydides, Xenophon and Zeno. The currents of thoughts include: the Academy, Aristotelianism,...