Department of
Philosophy

We are pleased to announce the formation of the International Association for Presocratic Studies, an organization to promote the study of early Greek philosophy and to facilitate interactions among scholars in the field.

Conference and submissions

An inaugural conference will be held at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA, June 23–27, 2008. A preliminary draft of the program is found on this website. For further information, contact .

Scope

We understand the Presocratics to be the figures whose fragments and testimonies are collected in Hermann Diels' Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, edited by Walther Kranz. These figures include cosmologists, anti-cosmologists, sophists, philosophical poets, Pythagoreans, and other intellectuals dedicated to an explanation of the world and human affairs, from Thales down to the time of Socrates (and shortly thereafter, according to Diels' non-chronological understanding of 'Presocratic'). We recognize the need for philosophical, philological, textual, doxographical, historical, literary, and religious studies, as well as studies of the reception of Presocratic thought, to illuminate early Greek philosophy.

Purpose

Because Presocratic Philosophy is rather a rare specialty these days, we have felt a need for an organization dedicated to this field, with open membership and an international domain. At this time no membership or registration fees will be required. Please notify us, however, if you wish to be included in our electronic mailings. At the inaugural meeting we will organize ourselves in a more formal way and make plans for future meetings.