The Greek Philosophers

In this collection of 20 biographies of ancient Greek philosophers, we examine the thoughts and lives of some of the most important thinkers in history. We look at the pre-Socratic philosophers and the titan trio of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, as well as the wizard of numbers Pythagoras, Heraclitus, whose thoughts were so deep they called him the 'dark thinker', and Zeno who posed his enigmatic paradoxes. It wasn't all heavy thinking with Democritus known as the 'laughing philosopher' for his cheerfulness, Epicurus with his emphasis on pleasure and Diogenes who wandered through the streets of Athens with a lamp looking for an honest man. These thinkers puzzled over big questions like who are we, why are we here and where are we going? and they provided some of the most interesting, influential and inspiring answers ever made anywhere.

I will go back to what we have so often spoken of, and begin with the assumption that there exists an absolute beauty, and an absolute good, and an absolute greatness, and so on. If you grant me this, and agree that they exist, I hope to be able to show you what my cause is, and to discover that the soul is immortal.

(Socrates, Plato's Phaedo, 100b)