The Atomists: Leucippus and Democritus: Fragments (Phoenix Supplementary Volumes)
C.C.W. Taylor | 1999-08-07 00:00:00 | University of Toronto Press | 288 | Greek
It may not be too much to say that all the work Western philosophers have done over the past two thousand years was begun by the Pre-Socratics. The Phoenix Pre-Socratic series has been instrumental in recovering Pre-Socratic texts.
As with earlier works in this important series, this volume aims to make an important portion of Pre-Socratic writings accessible to all those interested in ancient philosophy and the first phase of European natural science. We now have, for the first time in English a translation of the bulk of texts concerning the atomists, with commentary.
The work contains a new presentation of the evidence for the thought of Leucippus and Democritus, based on the original sources. It includes a Greek text of the fragments, in a new selection, with facing English translation. The testimonia (all newly translated) are presented in a new selection, designed to clarify the structure of the atomists thought and to present their texts in their argumentative context as far as possible. The notes and commentary aim to reflect the complexity and diversity of their thought, with particular emphasis on their metaphysical foundations, psychology, epistemology and ethics. Sections on biology, astronomy and theology are also included. Complete indexes, concordances and bibliography are included.
Reviews
This is a very needed book for those of us deeply involved with Democritus. Several translations of these fragments exist, but the Greek text is needed in order to check out various key words that various English versions translate differently.
The book is breathtakingly expensive, but you get what you pay for these days. The scholarship is first class, and the book itself is nicely made.
S. Milligan
Brooklyn, NY
Reviews
[Review by Thomas D. Worthen] In this book CCW Taylor amends an eons-long dearth of information in English about the greatest philosopher-scientist from antiquity. Popular during the Renaissance and Enlightenment as a source of information and wisdom about scientific principles (feeding Bacon's spirit for the writing of his Novum Organum), Democritus has all but been pushed back into obscurity by the triumph of English 19th century Platonism and the concomitant recrudescence of Aristotlian studies. Denied even a word of mention by Plato but acknowledged several times in the Aristotelian corpus as the greatest of his predecessors (but uncredited as the guide for much of what Aristotle observed, thought, and wrote) Democritus (and his follower Epicurus) suffered unmercifully at the hands of Christian authors whose judgments stilled monastic hands from re-copying his texts.
Professor Taylor has taken the pitifully small remnant of fragments from a once voluminous oeuvre, and the few notices about Democritus written by Diogenes Laertius, Galen, the Aristotelians, Roman authors, and Church fathers and arranged them in a sensible order with English translations of the fragments which also appear in Greek and with the notices fully translated (no Greek). There are judiciously written notes on the central issues of atomism, on Democritus's ethical works, and on cruxes in the texts. There is a general index, an annotated index of ancient works from which the citations are taken, an index to the footnotes and commentary on the testimonia, a concordance of Taylor's with other systems of enumerating the fragments and notices (Diels-Kranz, Luria), and a bibliography.
Surely this book is a must reference source for anyone who seriously studies the Pre-Socratic philosophers and is well worth the inflated price that academic presses charge for books whose sales will be limited to libraries and scholars.
The only disappointment I will register is Taylor's cursory treatment of the problem of Leucippus's historicity. Here his judgment is wrong, and he fails fully to discuss the issues and the evidence.
Reviews
In this book CCW Taylor amends an eons-long dearth of information in English about the greatest philosopher-scientist from antiquity. Popular during the Renaissance and Enlightenment as a source of information and wisdom about scientific principles (feeding Bacon's spirit for the writing of his Novum Organum), Democritus has all but been pushed back into obscurity by the triumph of English 19th century Platonism and the concomitant recrudescence of Aristotlian studies. Denied even a word of mention by Plato but acknowledged several times in the Aristotelian corpus as the greatest of his predecessors (but uncredited as the guide for much of what Aristotle observed, thought, and wrote) Democritus (and his follower Epicurus) suffered unmercifully at the hands of Christian authors whose judgments stilled monastic hands from re-copying his texts.
Professor Taylor has taken the pitifully small remnant of fragments from a once voluminous oeuvre, and the few notices about Democritus written by Diogenes Laertius, Galen, the Aristotelians, Roman authors, and Church fathers and arranged them in a sensible order with English translations of the fragments which also appear in Greek and with the notices fully translated (no Greek). There are judiciously written notes on the central issues of atomism, on Democritus's ethical works, and on cruxes in the texts. There is a general index, an annotated index of ancient works from which the citations are taken, an index to the footnotes and commentary on the testimonia, a concordance of Taylor's with other systems of enumerating the fragments and notices (Diels-Kranz, Luria), and a bibliography.
Surely this book is a must reference source for anyone who seriously studies the Pre-Socratic philsophers and is well worth the inflated price that academic presses charge for books whose sales will be limited to libraries and scholars.
The only disappointment I will register is Taylor's cursory treatment of the problem of Leucippus's historicity. Here his judgment is wrong, and he fails fully to discuss the issues and the evidence.
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