The Presocratics were the founding fathers of the Western philosophical tradition, and the first masters of rational thought. This volume provides a comprehensive and precise exposition of their arguments and offers a rigorous assessment of their contribution to philosophical thought. While previous writers on the Presocratics have tended to concentrate on historical and philological issues, Jonathan Barnes is more concerned with the philosophical content of Presocratic ideas and arguments. He pays particular attention to Parmenides, Zeno, Anaxagoras and Democritus, but the book does full justice to all the main thinkers from Thales to the Sophists
