Presocratic Sources

Unfortunately not even a single complete work survives from the Presocratic philosophers. Only fragments of their words and testimonies of their theories can be found in later ancient authors such the Neoplatonists and the Aristotelian commentators as well as a network of doxography which includes reports, summaries and paraphrases of the Presocratic accounts.

Modern scholarship aims through ancient sources to reconstruct Presocratic thought. The following authors are the main sources of the Presocratic fragments and testimonies:

• Aristotle (384-322 BC)

•Theophrastus (died 287 BC)

•Plutarch (50-120 AD)

•Aetius (1st-2nd c. AD)

•Clement of Alexandria (1st-2nd c. AD)

Plotinus (3rd c. AD)

•Hippolytus (2nd-3rd c. AD)

•Diogenes Laertius (3rd c. AD)

•Stobaeus (5th c. AD)

•Simplicius (6th c. AD)

Giannis Stamatellos

E-mail: gstamap@yahoo.com