Did you know that philosophy was practiced long before the Greeks developed it?
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World Philosophy Day, which is celebrated on the third Thursday of November every year,
we are having a look at what philosophy is, some of its earliest history,
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The word 'philosophy' comes from the two Greek words 'philo' meaning love and 'sophia' meaning
wisdom, so philosophy literally means the "love of wisdom". Philosophy can be broadly defined as the
study of human existence, and the fundamental nature of existence, reality and knowledge.
The first time somebody asked a question about existence and reality like 'Why was I born?' 'What
is my purpose?' or 'how do I understand my life?' would be considered the beginning of philosophy.
In the ancient world, philosophy was turned to at the times when religion couldn't provide an
answer, which we will see time and time again in the examples throughout the ancient world.
There are five main areas of interest in modern-day philosophy which can be applied
to philosophy in both the east and the west, but the names that they're now known by come from
the Greeks. The first branch is Metaphysics; which is the study of existence and is named
after Aristotle's work on the subject, however the title of Aristotle's book "Metaphysics"
was given by his editor, who placed it after his work "Physics". In Greek, 'meta' simply means
after, and the title was originally only meant to clarify that the one piece came after the
first. Next is Epistemology; which is the study of knowledge and comes from the two Greek words
'episteme' meaning knowledge and 'logos' meaning word. This branch asks 'how do we know what we
know?' 'How can we define knowledge?' And the study of this branch of philosophy didn't begin
until the pre-Socratics - we'll get to that very soon. Next is Ethics from the Greek 'ta ethika'
which translates to on character and is the study of behaviour and action. Ethics is concerned with
the idea of morality and how one should live, and on what basis should one make decisions.
The fourth branch is Politics; which is the study of governance and whose name comes from the Greek
'polis' which means city and 'politicos', meaning that which has to do with the city.
Politics isn't concerned with simply running a government but is concerned with how to be a
good citizen, a good neighbour and a contributor to one's community. The dilemma of how to live
best with one's neighbours, although popularised in the west by Aristotle, is a concept which can
be traced back thousands of years to Mesopotamia, Egypt, Persia and India. Finally, we come to
Aesthetics; which is the study of art, of beauty, and the perception of beauty. This branch of
philosophy strives to answer questions like 'what makes something beautiful or meaningful?' Now that
we've introduced the main concepts of philosophy and how philosophy can be understood, let's have
a look at its development throughout the ancient world starting with Mesopotamia and Egypt.
By circa 4,000 BCE, it seems that philosophy was already established in Egypt, in the form of a
response to the Field of Reeds. The Field of Reeds was believed to be the paradise in the afterlife,
where you get to continue living your life as you did on earth, but better because there's no
sickness, disappointment or, of course, death. The philosophical question that Egyptians were
working with was 'how should a person live in order to ensure they would go to paradise (the
Field of Reeds) after death?' The answers to these questions developed the concept of
Ma'at - harmony and balance, as a central value of Egyptian culture. A good life was one lived
in harmony with oneself, others the gods, and the natural world, as seen from tomb paintings dating
from circa 4,000, which also explained where people came from and how to get into paradise.
Looking to Mesopotamia - the Mesopotamians saw themselves as co-workers with the gods. The
gods created humanity and so the humans owed the gods a debt of gratitude through worship
and proper behaviour. Problems arose when humans kept their part of the bargain,
but it seemed the gods didn't come through with theirs. When someone felt they had done as they
should but did not receive the expected response, they questioned their faith. This sort of crisis;
'why did something bad happen when we have been honouring the gods as we're supposed to,' prompted
philosophical inquiry. This moment of existential crisis is explored in the "Epic of Gilgamesh",
when Gilgamesh's best friend Enkidu dies and Gilgamesh embarks on his quest for meaning
in life. Gilgamesh doesn't question the gods or his relationship with them
until the death of Enkidu, which spurs him on a quest to find and escape from death.
Philosophy developed in India as a response to the Hindu texts known as the "Vedas"
in the form of the "Upanishads", written down between circa 1500 and circa 500 BCE,
but come from an even older oral tradition. The "Vedas" were believed to be the literal words of
God and the "Upanishads" were composed as a way to clarify and explain aspects of the text. In
around 600 BCE, there was a reform of social and religious beliefs which developed other
philosophical systems, which rejected orthodox Hinduism including the school of Charvaka and
the systems of Jainism and Buddhism. Both Jainism and Buddhism would later become religious beliefs,
but before that, they were philosophical schools of thought. It is important to note that at the
time of the development of the new philosophical beliefs in India, as it is today, there was no
distinction between religious and philosophical thought. Philosophy was considered a component
of religion, which anticipated and answered people's questions before they could be asked.
Philosophy in ancient Persia was certainly developed before 1500 BCE, which is known due
to the "Avesta", (Zoroastrian scripture) that was written down between 1500 and 1000 BCE,
and draws on concepts from the polytheistic early Iranian religion.
Zoroastrianism is a religion founded by Zoroaster, which was a monotheistic faith that worshipped the
god Ahura Mazda; both the creator and sustainer of the universe, who worked against Angra
Mainyu - the lord of chaos and darkness, and the source of evil and suffering in the world.
The philosophical school known as Zorvanism developed because of the question about the source
of evil and suffering, since Angra Mainyu was understood as a created being, and Ahura Mazda,
who had no evil in him, as the source of all creation. If Ahura Mazda was all good, where
did evil come from? Zorvanism tried to answer this by claiming that the god of infinite time
Zorvan created both Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu, and Angra Mainyu then introduced evil through his
own free will. These two brothers were locked in an eternal struggle of order and goodness
versus chaos and evil, and humans had to take a side. A person's purpose in life was understood
as exercising one's free will in deciding whether to devote oneself to the cause of good or evil.
During the Zhou Dynasty in China between 1046 and 256 BCE, philosophy was first written down
in the form of the early Confucian texts, and during the Spring and Autumn Period,
between circa 772 and 476 BCE and the Warring States Period between circa 481 to 221 BCE,
these texts were further developed. The Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Periods in
China were times of chaos and it was in response to the disorder that philosophy was developed.
The period of philosophical advancement at the end of the Zhou Dynasty is referred to as the
Hundred Schools of Thought, when many different schools developed including Confucianism,
Taoism and Legalism. These three schools of thought, among others, were very different but all
were focused on attempting to establish order in the chaos, since the traditional belief that Tian,
or heaven, which legitimised a monarch's rule and maintained order seemed to be failing,
since the monarchs of different states were fighting each other for supremacy.
China during this period is among the best examples of philosophy developing after the
traditional religious beliefs failed to explain the world and assure people of a divine plan.
Ancient Greek philosophy began in the 6th century BCE, with Thales of Miletus asking the question
"what is the basic stuff of the universe?" What's interesting about Thales asking this question in
the 6th century BCE, is that there isn't any evidence that the religious beliefs of the
ancient Greeks were being questioned or doubted. The ancient Greeks believed their pantheon of gods
created the world and human beings, and questioning this was neither appreciated
nor encouraged. Thales was clever though, and never actually denied the existence of the gods;
instead he just suggested that the First Cause of Existence was water, which could be interpreted as
including the deities. He ended up establishing a school known as the Milesian School;
which is considered the first philosophical school in the west, and his followers, Anaximander and
Anaximenes, continued his work, although rejecting Thales suggestion of water as the First Cause,
and they suggested their own instead. These three men initiated ancient Greek philosophy which
continued to be developed by other Pre-Socratic philosophers, so-called because they lived and
wrote before Socrates of Athens - considered the "Father of Western Philosophy." What's equally
fascinating and frustrating is that Socrates, who lived between circa 470 or 469 to 399 BCE,
didn't leave a scrap of work that he wrote himself and everything that we know about him, his beliefs
and philosophy, and his death comes from the works of his two students Plato and Xenophon. According
to Plato in his "Apology", Socrates believed that an unexamined life is not worth living and his
focus was on improving individual character and examining your beliefs to see if they are true,
or if you only think them true without good reason. Most of Plato's dialogues feature Socrates
as the central character, but even contemporaries of Plato claimed that his character of Socrates
did not resemble the real person and the Socrates character was only Plato's mouthpiece. This may be
true, but Plato attributes the Concept of the Theory of Forms, which is basically the idea
that what we call reality is just a reflection of a higher and perfect world, to Socrates. The
Theory of Forms claims there are these abstract, unchanging and perfect truths that exist outside
of time and place, which make all things we see on earth what they are. These truths are what make a
statement actually true; "what makes a horse or a person actually beautiful?" "What makes concepts
like justice and right meaningful, instead of just someone's opinion?" The forms made life
meaningful because acknowledging their existence aligned one with truth, instead of merely opinion.
Plato's student Aristotle rejected this theory because it could not be proven and instead
suggested that the purpose of human life was happiness. Everything in life had a purpose,
Aristotle said, and the purpose of a human was to be happy, or as he put it to be possessed of
a good spirit which would then encourage others to do the same. A theory similar to the ancient
Egyptian concept of Ma'at. He didn't concern himself as much with the concept of a First Cause,
instead focusing on how best to live one's life, but he did define the First Cause as
the Prime Mover which set everything in motion, and afterwards, things just stayed in motion.
Aristotle became the tutor of Alexander the Great who would spread Aristotle's philosophy
throughout the known world; through the Near East and as far as India. The development of Greek
thought throughout the ancient world established Greece as the birthplace of philosophy,
but as we have seen, philosophical inquiry began long before Thales started asking his questions,
and most likely when the first person asked why things happened as they did. Who is your
favourite philosopher and what's your favourite philosophy? Let us know in the comments below!
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