 In line with his eclectic approach to philosophy (see  sect. 2),  Sturm surveys and builds upon a wide range of sources. They include pre-Socratic authors, such as Thales, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, and Democritus as well as philosophers of the classical period, such as Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Euclid, and Archimedes. Due to the Aristotelian curriculum dominating the life of early modern academic philosophers, Sturm draws upon Aristotle (in particular his Physics) more often than upon any other author. Furthermore, Sturm avails himself of Roman philosophers both Stoic, such as Cicero, Seneca, Pliny the Elder, and Plutarch, and Sceptic, such as Sextus Empiricus and Aulus Gellius. Other authors of the era include Potamon of Alexandria, whom Sturm takes to be the first eclectic philosopher; Galen, as well as Diogenes Laërtius, an important source for early modern philosophers to study the philosophers of antiquity.