Browse
Works
Full Texts Available
Apology
Plato's account of Socrates' defense at his trial. Not an apology in the modern sense but a defiant argument that the examined life is the only life worth living.
Republic
Plato's most influential dialogue, exploring justice, the ideal state, the allegory of the cave, and the theory of Forms. It remains the founding text of political philosophy.
Fragments
fragmentaryAround 130 fragments survive of a single work, probably called On Nature. Written in deliberately obscure, aphoristic prose. The fragments concern the logos, the unity of opposites, and the image of the cosmos as an ever-living fire.
On Nature
fragmentaryA philosophical poem in two parts: the Way of Truth and the Way of Appearance. Argues that reality is one, unchanging, and indivisible. The most radical metaphysical claim in ancient philosophy.
Letter to Menoeceus
A concise summary of Epicurean ethics. Addresses the fear of death, the nature of pleasure, and the path to a tranquil life. One of the few surviving complete texts by Epicurus.
Fragments, Testimonies & Other Works
Plato
Crito
Socrates sits in prison, awaiting execution. His old friend Crito arrives before dawn to urge him to escape. Socrates refuses, arguing that one must never do wrong, even in return for wrong done to oneself.
Symposium
A dialogue on the nature of love, told through a series of speeches at a drinking party. Socrates recounts the teachings of Diotima on the ascent from physical beauty to the Form of Beauty itself.
Phaedo
The dialogue set on the day of Socrates' execution. Contains arguments for the immortality of the soul and the theory of recollection.
Aristotle
Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle's most important work on ethics. Argues that happiness (eudaimonia) is the highest good, achievable through a life of virtue and the cultivation of practical wisdom.
Politics
A systematic study of the state, citizenship, and constitutions. Famous for declaring that humans are by nature political animals.
Metaphysics
A collection of treatises on first philosophy: the study of being as being, substance, causation, and the unmoved mover.
Poetics
The earliest surviving work of dramatic theory. Defines tragedy, introduces catharsis, and argues that poetry is more philosophical than history.
Thales
Fragments & Testimonies
fragmentaryThales wrote nothing that survives. What we know comes from later authors (Aristotle, Diogenes Laertius, and others) who preserved fragments of his thought on water, the soul, and the divine.
On the Eclipse and Other Predictions
attributedThales is said to have predicted the solar eclipse of 585 BCE and to have measured the height of the pyramids by their shadows. These accounts, preserved by Herodotus and others, made him the first figure where science meets philosophy.
Pythagoras
The Golden Verses
attributedA collection of moral precepts attributed to Pythagoras, though likely composed by later followers. The verses outline a daily practice of self-examination, moderation, and reverence for the cosmic order.
The Life & Doctrines
attributedPythagoras founded a religious community as much as a school. Later sources (Iamblichus, Porphyry, Diogenes Laertius) preserved his teachings on number, music, the transmigration of souls, and the rules of the Pythagorean way of life.
Democritus
Fragments on Atoms and the Void
fragmentaryDemocritus wrote prolifically (over 70 works by some accounts) but only fragments survive. They reveal a thinker concerned equally with physics and ethics, atoms and cheerfulness.
Ethical Fragments
fragmentaryDemocritus was as much a moralist as a physicist. His ethical fragments praise cheerfulness, moderation, and the inner life of the soul over wealth and reputation.
Diogenes
Anecdotes & Sayings
attributedDiogenes wrote nothing that survives. His philosophy lives in stories, told by Diogenes Laertius, Plutarch, and others, of radical freedom, public provocation, and devastating wit.
The Republic of Diogenes
lostDiogenes reportedly wrote a Republic that made Plato's look tame. It abolished currency, borders, and social convention. Only fragments and descriptions survive through later authors.
Zeno of Citium
Fragments & Doctrines
fragmentaryZeno's original writings are lost. His teachings survive through students and commentators (Diogenes Laertius, Cicero, Seneca) who preserved the foundations of Stoic philosophy.
Republic
lostZeno's Republic, written before he fully developed Stoicism, imagined a city governed by the wise, where all citizens live by reason alone. Only fragments survive, but they shaped centuries of political thought.
Pyrrho
Testimonies
attributedPyrrho wrote nothing. His student Timon of Phlius and later Sextus Empiricus preserved his radical teaching: that we should suspend judgment about all things, and in that suspension find peace.
Anecdotes from Diogenes Laertius
attributedStories about Pyrrho told by Diogenes Laertius. They paint a man who lived his philosophy: indifferent to danger, unmoved by circumstance, serene in the face of everything.