Herodotus and the Presocratics
eBook - PDF

Herodotus and the Presocratics

Inquiry and Intellectual Culture in the Fifth Century BCE

  1. 272 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Herodotus and the Presocratics

Inquiry and Intellectual Culture in the Fifth Century BCE

About this book

Herodotus' Histories was composed well before the genre of Greek historiography emerged as a distinct narrative enterprise. This book explores it within its fifth-century context alongside the extant fragments of Presocratic treatises as well as philosophizing tragedy and comedy. It argues for the Histories' competitive engagement with contemporary intellectual culture and demonstrates its ambition as an experimental prose work, tracing its responses to key debates on relativism, human nature, and epistemology. In addition to expanding the intellectual milieu of which the Histories is a part and restoring its place in Presocratic thought, K. Scarlett Kingsley elucidates fourth-century philosophy's subsequent engagement with the work. In doing so, she contributes to a revision of the sharp separation between the ancient genres of philosophy and history. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available Open Access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

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Yes, you can access Herodotus and the Presocratics by K. Scarlett Kingsley in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & Ancient & Classical Literary Collections. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half-title
  3. Title page
  4. Imprints page
  5. Dedication
  6. Contents
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Note on Texts and Translations
  9. List of Abbreviations
  10. Chapter 1 Introduction: Transtextual Histories: History, Philosophy, and Intellectual Culture
  11. Chapter 2 Relativism, King of All
  12. Chapter 3 The Pull of Tradition: Egoism and Persian Revolution
  13. Chapter 4 History peri physeos
  14. Chapter 5 Physis on the Battlefield
  15. Chapter 6 Historical Inquiry and Presocratic Epistemology
  16. Chapter 7 Herodotean Philosophy
  17. Appendix 1 Tolerance or Relativism?
  18. Appendix 2 ''Strong'' and ''Weak'' Relativism
  19. Appendix 3 Knowledge and the Herodotean Narrator
  20. References
  21. General Index
  22. Index Locorum