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A celebrated study of the origins of ancient Greek philosophy, now
in English for the first time How can we talk about the beginnings
of philosophy today? How can we avoid the conventional opposition
of mythology and the dawn of reason and instead explore the
multiple styles of thought that emerged between them? In this
acclaimed book, available in English for the first time, Maria
Michela Sassi reconstructs the intellectual world of the early
Greek "Presocratics" to provide a richer understanding of the roots
of what used to be called "the Greek miracle." The beginnings of
the long process leading to philosophy were characterized by
intellectual diversity and geographic polycentrism. In the sixth
and fifth centuries BC, between the Asian shores of Ionia and the
Greek city-states of southern Italy, thinkers started to reflect on
the cosmic order, elaborate doctrines on the soul, write in solemn
Homeric meter, or, later, abandon poetry for an assertive prose.
And yet the Presocratics, whether the Milesian natural thinkers,
the rhapsode Xenophanes, the mathematician and "shaman" Pythagoras,
the naturalist and seer Empedocles, the oracular Heraclitus, or the
inspired Parmenides, all shared an approach to critical thinking
that, by questioning traditional viewpoints, revolutionized
knowledge. A unique study that explores the full range of early
Greek thinkers in the context of their worlds, the book also
features a new introduction to the English edition in which the
author discusses the latest scholarship on the subject.
An acclaimed study of the diverse origins of ancient Greek
philosophy In this acclaimed book, Maria Michela Sassi reconstructs
the intellectual world of the early Greek "Presocratics" to provide
a richer understanding of the roots of what used to be called "the
Greek miracle." This unique study explores the full range of early
Greek thinkers in the context of their worlds-from the Milesian
natural thinkers, the rhapsode Xenophanes, and the mathematician
and "shaman" Pythagoras, to the inspired Parmenides, the oracular
Heraclitus, and the naturalist and seer Empedocles.
Although the ancient Greeks did not have an anthropology as we know
it, they did have an acute interest in human nature, especially
questions of difference. What makes men different from women,
slaves different from free men, barbarians different from Greeks?
Are these differences visible in the body? How can they be
classified and explained?
Maria Michela Sassi reconstructs Greek attempts to answer such
questions from Homer's day to late antiquity, ranging across
physiognomy, ethnography, geography, medicine, and astrology. Sassi
demonstrates that in the Greek science of man, empirical
observations were inextricably bound up with a prejudiced view of
the free Greek male as superior to all others. Thus, because women
were assumed to have pale skin from staying indoors too much, Greek
biology and medicine sought to explain this feature as an
indication of the "cold" nature of women, as opposed to the "hot"
constitution of men.
For this English translation, Sassi has rewritten the introduction
and updated the text and references throughout, and Sir Geoffrey
Lloyd has provided a new foreword. All Greek texts are presented in
translation, and especially important Greek terms have been
transliterated. More than twenty illustrations augment the text.
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