This work is a history of philosophy from the 6th century BC. It introduces the outstanding philosophers and their extraordinary ideas. Philosophy is a subject with a long history and a short memory. In retracing that history, Anthony Gottlieb's aim is to approach the story of philosophy as a good journalist ought to: to rely only on primary sources, wherever they still exist; to question everything that has become conventional wisdom; and, above all, to try and explain it all as clearly as possible. The reader engages with both the personalities and the arguments of every major philosopher from ancient Greece to the birth of modern philosophy in the 17th century. The modern era is addressed in a second volume. This volume is an introduction to the puzzling personalities of the philosophers, as well as a sensitive and persuasive presentation of their views.