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cryo_guy's review against another edition
3.0
So this was a pretty decent overview of the Presocratics. It didn't really suffer from being overly pedantic or dense. And I thought it covered the important figures fairly well, but not exhaustively. Perhaps the best thing was either the attention to the details of how each figure (and their philosophies) were related to their predecessors and successors or the frequent footnotes indicating what ancient sources Burnet was using, but at times the footnotes became a bit cumbersome.
The only other issue with this book is that its sort of out of date. I'm pretty sure the way it talks about Ionian science being some distinct cultural movement is a reduction of a much more complicated picture.
Also nice was translations of many of the fragments of each Presocratic in each section.
The only other issue with this book is that its sort of out of date. I'm pretty sure the way it talks about Ionian science being some distinct cultural movement is a reduction of a much more complicated picture.
Also nice was translations of many of the fragments of each Presocratic in each section.
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