This concise, lively introduction to ancient Greek philosophy will help beginning students of both classical studies and philosophy get their bearings within an important yet complex array of names, schools, and ideas. The book illuminates the key period from the sixth to the third century BC, looking at the ideas that engaged the Greeks, in particular those of the Presocratics, the Sophists, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and the earliest Hellenistic philosophers. After chronologically mapping the main figures and their interconnections, Introducing Greek Philosophy focuses on themes especially relevant to philosophy today, including the origins of the universe and its mathematical structures; divine creation versus evolution and natural law; probability theory and the criteria for truth; political debates on democracy, citizen rights, and state obligations; and finally ethics, happiness, and the best way to live.

M. R. Wright, Emeritus Professor of Classics at the University of Wales, Lampeter, is the author of Empedocles: The Extant Fragments, Cosmology in Antiquity, Cicero: On Stoic Good and Evil, and The Presocratics: The Main Fragments in Greek, and the editor of Reason and Necessity: Essays on Plato's Timaeus.

“An excellent introduction to early Greek philosophy by an acknowledged expert in the subject. The volume tells beginning students all they need to know about both the key themes and personalities in Greek philosophy and the historical and religious context in which it developed.”—John Sellars, author of Stoicism

“Ancient philosophy has become very specialized in recent publications and a volume of this kind, with its emphasis on the general and introductory, fills a gap. The presentation is clear and accessible, the selection of topics is well judged and the commentary is accurate and fair.”—J. D. G. Evans, Queen's University of Belfast