All volumes of Professor Guthrie's great history of Greek philosophy have won their due acclaim. The most striking merits of Guthrie's work are his mastery of a tremendous range of ancient literature and modern scholarship, his fairness and balance of judgement and the lucidity and precision of his English prose. He has achieved clarity and comprehensiveness.

In the second volume of his History of Greek Philosophy Professor Guthrie completes his study of the Presocratic tradition. He groups together families of philosophers who were interested in the same things, distinguishing particularly between the natural philosopher, with their primary interest in cosmogony and the nature of matter, and the moral philosopher with their absorption in human nature and in problems of individual and social morality.