Reading list

Before Plato

Heraclitus and Parmenides: the first Western philosophers of the one, and their questions about being and change.

Beginning. 6 steps

Orientation

Tradition
Early Greek Philosophy
The thinkers before Socrates, and the questions they set for all later philosophy.

Text
The First Philosophers of Greece
Heraclitus, Parmenides, tr. Arthur Fairbanks, 1898
Read the fragments of Heraclitus and the poem of Parmenides side by side.

Concept
Logos
The order common to all things, which most people fail to understand.
Concept
Coincidence of opposites
The unity of contraries, from Heraclitus to Nicholas of Cusa and beyond.

Text
Early Greek Philosophy
John Burnet, 1892
Burnet’s classic account, for the context of each thinker and fragment.
Text
Symposium
Plato, tr. Benjamin Jowett, 1871
Where the early Greek search for the one leads in Plato: the ascent to beauty.

Cite this entry

Chicago (bibliography): “Before Plato.” Reading list. The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society. Last modified November 7, 2026. https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/before-plato.
Chicago (note): “Before Plato,” reading list, The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, last modified November 7, 2026, https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/before-plato.
MLA: “Before Plato.” The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, 7 Nov. 2026, www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/before-plato.
BibTeX: @misc{reading-lists-before-plato, title = {{Before Plato}}, howpublished = {The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society}, note = {Reading list. Last modified November 7, 2026}, year = {2026}, url = {https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/reading-lists/before-plato} }