This seminar will develop a close reading of a broad selection of early Greek philosophers from the 6th to 5th century BCE, including Anaximander, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Parmenides, and Democritus. Specific attention will be paid to archaic Greek conceptions of existence, change, time, life, and the nature of language expressed in the fragments of these thinkers. We will also explore the importance of this period for later Greek thinking in the writings of Plato, Aristotle, and Lucretius.