Francis Cornford (1874–1943)

This collection of four lectures by F. M. Cornford provides a good brief introduction to Greek philosophy of the Socratic period. The first lecture introduces "Ionian Science before Socrates" while the remaining lectures focus on Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, respectively.

_Microcosmographia Academica_ is considered F. W. Cornford's classic, though Cornford wrote much more, of course. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._M._Cornford W.K.C. Guthrie, who follows in Cornford's tradition, wrote the Foreword. As a philosopher Guthrie followed in the tradition of Cornford in believing that ancient philosophers should be read and interpreted against their own historical background, rather than engaged with, as has been the practice of later generations of classical show more philosophers, in the context of the whole canon of philosophy both ancient and modern. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._K._C._Guthrie show less

Peter Keller, president of polling company YouGov, has chosen to discuss F M Cornford's Microcosmographia Academica, on FiveBooks as one of the top five on his subject - British Democracy, saying that:

"This wonderfully elegant Edwardian satire is really a passionate demand for honest politics. Cornford was a Cambridge academic and he wrote this very short book, not much more than a pamphlet, on university politics. In fact it is a wonderful satire on all politics."

The full interview is show more available here: http://five-books.com/interviews/Peter-Kellner show less

2133 Before and After Socrates, by Francis MacDonald Cornford (read 5 Mar 1988) This is a little 1932 book which says some interesting things about Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.