The Beginning of Knowledge

This book brings together nearly all of the authors previously published, but never translated, essays on the Presocratics, in which he elaborates on the profound debt that modern scientific thinking owes to the Greek philosophical tradition.

Hans-Georg Gadamer is considered to have made the single most important contribution to hermeneutics in the twentieth century through his major work, Truth and Method. Born in Marburg on February 11, 1900, he earned his doctorate under Paul Natorp, the Plato scholar, in 1922 and completed his habilitation thesis under Martin Heidegger in 1928. He spent the major portion of his teaching career at the University of Heidelberg, becoming emeritus professor in 1968. In retirement he became widely known in the United States through his regular fall courses at Boston College and his numerous lectures at major universities throughout the country