The Poetry of Being and the Prose of the World in Early Greek Philosophy

By: Victoria Wohl

Write A Review

Paperback | 7 November 2025 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback
252 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8

Paperback

RRP $57.95

$44.75

23%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $11.19 with

In Stock and Ships next day

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program.

The Presocratic philosophers, writing in Greece in the sixth and fifth centuries BCE, invented new ways of thinking about human life, the natural world, and structures of reality. They also developed novel ways of using language to express their thought. In this book, Victoria Wohl examines these innovations and the productive relation between them in the work of five figures: Parmenides, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, and Democritus.

Bringing these thinkers into conversation with modern critical theorists on questions of shared concern, Wohl argues for the poetic sophistication of their work and the inextricable convergence of their aesthetic form and philosophical content. In addition to offering original readings of these fascinating figures and robust strategies for interpreting their fragmentary, rebarbative texts, this book invites readers to communicate across entrenched divisions between literature and philosophy and between antiquity and modernity.

About the Author

Victoria Wohl is Professor of Classics at the University of Toronto and author of Love Among the Ruins: The Erotics of Democracy in Classical Athens, Law's Cosmos: Juridical Discourse in Athenian Forensic Oratory, and Euripides and the Politics of Form.

Shipping

	Standard Shipping	Express Shipping
Metro postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Regional postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Rural postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95

How to return your order

At Booktopia, we offer hassle-free returns in accordance with our returns policy. If you wish to return an item, please get in touch with Booktopia Customer Care.

Additional postage charges may be applicable.