Before and After Socrates

But I do know that I love the writings of F.M. Cornford. He explains the writings of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle in such a way that it becomes entirely relevant to these days in which we live. Why are we the way we are? What were the beliefs of the ancient thinkers? Some of them were so tenacious in their beliefs that they were willing to give their lives for them. As a searcher of truth, this book spoke to me. Explains the "laws of nature" vs. the "laws of state" and why the former is more preferable than the latter. Cornford is a genius.

A pithy and concise review of pre-to-post-Socratic philosphy. Originally a series of lectures. F.M. Cornford read and thought and wrote deeply; I am in his debt.

A classic for a reason, I bought this for a university course and kept it because it is a great read!

This is a very dated (1930s) series of lectures, republished as a book. The language is clear and conversational, Cornford presents a very useful outline of Greek thought and the development of philosophy, and the book is a quick read for a good introduction to the topic. That said, it is a dated work that has a very turn-of-the-century attitude toward social issues and the superiority of "western" culture. I will use this for my students as both a starting point for studies in Greek thought and in history of scholarship.

Great book...I needed it for a class and received an 'B'!

This book starts by talking about Ionian natural philosophy, which Cornford characterizes as cosmogony, i.e., where did things come from? The significance Cornford gives Socrates is talking about ends rather than origins, although it is indeed true that for Socrates this amounted to talking about the ends of a human's life rather than origins of the natural world. Anaximander's explanation that life appeared in the warm mud left after most water had been dried by the heavenly sphere of fire is neither something in which one can have certainty nor an explanation that says why things happened the way they did. Talking about Socrates in the Phaedo, Cornford writes, "Physical speculation, he thought, could be transformed into a significant and intelligible account, if men of science would look in the other direction and consider the world, not as a realm of mechanical necessity, but as a process towards an end- an end that was good, and therefore an object of rational design."Cornford's writing is extraordinarily good. His brief explanations, like characterizing Plato's philosophy as the synthesis of Socrates' philosophy and Pythagoreanism, are probably more educating than chapters by a lesser writer. "From Socrates Plato learnt that the problems of human life were to be solved by the morality of aspiration and the pursuit of an invariable ideal of perfection. From Pythagoras he learnt how this conception could be extended beyond the field of human concerns into a system embracing the whole of Nature and transforming the scope of science as the Socrates of the Phaedo wished to see it transformed."

As someone who taught Christian theology and philosophical theology for almost 25 years, I must say this book remains unsurpassed as an introduction to Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Written by one of the greats of a prior generation, the book began as a series of lectures to non-experts at Cambridge and has since been reprinted about 30 times. Cornford not only describes these classic Greek thinkers but implicitly shows (correctly, in my opinion) that their two great contributions -- that life is teleological (we know who we are by that which we aim our actions at) and that there must somehow be "universals" for there to be talk about things such as the good, the beautiful, and the true -- remain central to human life. (These two points do not, by the way, mark a division between "liberal" and "conservative," or "post-modern" and "traditional," or some such binary. But that's another topic!)

I AM IN LOVE WITH SOCRATES

Cornford is brilliant, concise, and still relevant in an era like ours deeply into necessary modifications of our valuation and application of the triumphs of reason.

I thoroughly enjoy this book

Great little book. Beautifully clear and lively text. Glad to see it available again in a very nicely designed paperback edition.

Excellent book, delivered promptly. Thank you