John Burnet

The Works of John Burnet

John Burnet, FBA was a Scottish classicist. He was born in Edinburgh and died in St Andrews. Burnet is best known for his work on Plato. His interest in philosophy and in Plato in particular seems to have begun during his service as assistant to Lewis Campbell at St. Andrews. Burnet was known for defending novel interpretations of Plato and Socrates, particularly the view that the depiction of Socrates in all of Plato's dialogues is historically accurate, and that the philosophical views peculiar to Plato himself are to be found only in the so-called late dialogues. Burnet also maintained that Socrates was closely connected to the early Greek philosophical tradition, now generally known as Pre-Socratic philosophy; Burnet believed that Socrates had been in his youth the disciple of Archelaus, a member of the Anaxagorean tradition (Burnet 1924, vi). This book contains his works of: Fragments of Anaxagoras
Fragments of Empedocles
Fragments of Heraclitus
Fragments of Xenophanes
Fragments of Parmenides
Fragments of Melissus