#000573
Source Book in Ancient Philosophy
Charles M. Bakewell
Bakewell's *Source Book in Ancient Philosophy* is exactly what its title promises: a curated anthology of the surviving fragments and key passages of the Greek and Roman philosophers, from the Presocratics through the Stoics and Neoplatonists, translated into English and stitched together with brief introductions, footnotes, and an index. First published in 1907, it was designed to put students in direct contact with the sources—Heraclitus's riddles, Parmenides's poem, the Epicurean letters—rather than relying on a textbook's paraphrase. It could serve as a companion to any history of philosophy or stand on its own. More than a century on, it remains a useful, compact gateway to the primary texts, even where later scholarship has refined the translations.
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The editor
Charles Montague Bakewell (1867–1957) was an American philosopher who taught at the University of California and then for decades at Yale, where he chaired the philosophy department. He was a scholar of ancient and idealist thought and, briefly, a Connecticut congressman.
The book
The anthology gathers the essential documents of ancient philosophy: Presocratic fragments, selections from Plato and Aristotle, and the Hellenistic and later schools—Epicurean, Stoic, Sceptic, Neoplatonist. Bakewell supplies connective prefaces and notes but lets the ancients speak. It belongs to a wave of early-twentieth-century "source books" meant to democratize primary material for undergraduates.
How it has aged
The selection remains sensible and the book is still reprinted, but the translations are of their era and the Presocratic fragments have since been re-edited definitively by Diels–Kranz and, in English, by Kirk, Raven, and Schofield. Treat Bakewell as a convenient reader, not the last scholarly word.
For more context
Supplement with The Presocratic Philosophers (Kirk, Raven, Schofield) and the Hackett Readings in Ancient Greek Philosophy for up-to-date translations.
Sources
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- Charles M. Bakewell
- Publisher
- Charles Scribner's Sons
- Place of publication
- New York
- Year
- 1907
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Reference
- Location
- Colorado
Places