Philosphy〽️🔆

 BUMC -- The History of Philosophy

Syeda Filza Haider

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We’re all familiar with the study of philosophy: we’re aware that philosophers like Plato, Confucius, Allama Iqbal, Immanuel Kant, etc. influenced how the world and its societies work today. Philosophers have explored every facet of life that’s affected bythe thoughts and actions of people, from politics and economics to sociology. But how did this start? And when?

 

Pinpointing a particular era as the origin of philosophy isn’t probable, because questions about the universe are as old as time.

 

Pre-Socratic Eastern Philosophy

 

In India, between 800-500 BCE, the written response to the Vedas (scriptures that contained divine messages), was called Upanishads, which explained the messages in the Vedas. (Mark, 2020, October 16)

 

Between c. 563 BCE or c. 480 BCE, Buddhism began. Although it became a religion, it was originally a school of thought. In fact, in Asia, religion and philosophy are not entirely distinguishable from each other. 

 

In the decline of the Zhou Dynasty in China, philosophical texts were written by Confucius around circa 551 to 479 BCE. This was the origin of Confucianism, the school of thought that remained predominant in East Asia for a long time. Confucianism belonged to the Hundred Schools of Thought, in which Taoism and the School of Yin-Yang are also included.(Encyclopædia, 2020)

Illustration: Thales of Miletus(Rubens, 2012) 

 

Pre-Socratic Western Philosophy

 

Philosophy in the West is generally considered to have begun in the 6th century BCE, with Thales of Miletus asking the question: “What is the basic “stuff” of the universe?”. As implied by his question, his study was cosmology and natural philosophy (science). According to Aristotle, Thales of Miletus considered water to be the essence of all matter. 

 

Between c. 582-496 BCE, Pythagoras introduced a more practical aspect of philosophy, seeking to explain that the universe is made of numbers. 

 

Classical Philosophy

 

The philosophy that we know and study today took form with the work of Socrates (circa 470 – 399 BC) and his contemporaries, including Plato and Aristotle. Unlike the Pre-Socratic philosophers, Socrates was concerned with how humans should behave rather than cosmology and metaphysics. He developed the Socratic Method, a process that we see in science and research today, referred to as the scientific method. 

 

What we know about Socrates comes from the writings of his disciples, mainly Plato (Dialogues) and Xenophon. Nevertheless, Socrates is considered the foundation of Western philosophy. After him, philosophy was further developed by Plato, who gave the concepts of Platonic Realism, Idealism, and Existentialism. And his political philosophy is depicted in his work, The Republic, in which he explained his ideal society. (Anon., n.d.)

 

Plato’s student, Aristotle, is the third figure in the trio of important classical philosophers. His studies and works centered around several, comprehensive disciplines: ethics, metaphysics, logic, politics, science, and aesthetics. Aristotle suggested the system of deductive logic, which was the main system of logic until the 9th century. 

 

Medieval Philosophy

 

With Europe entering the Dark Ages in about the 4th or 5th century AD, philosophical thought met a pause in the West. In the meanwhile, Islam hadentered its Golden Ages, and Islamic philosophy bloomed. 

 

Avicenna (11th century AD), who developed Avicennian Logic, connected Islamic theology with Aristotelianism and Neo-Platonism. His empiricist ideas eventually influenced modern philosophers like John Locke. 

 

Renaissance Philosophy

 

The Dark Ages of Europe were brought to a close with the Renaissance, of which philosophers like Machiavelli and Thomas Moore are well-known. Thomas Moore, who suggested “Utopia”, influenced the development of socialism, and Machiavelli, who gave the concept of the nation-state in the 15th-16th centuries AD.

 

Modern Philosophy

 

The 17th-18th centuries saw the Age of Enlightenment, the growth of liberalism, and religious tolerance. Rene Descartes and John Locke are two of the most known names of this era. Descartes developed rationalism, while Locke worked on British empiricism, influenced by Avicenna. Thomas Hobbes, Adam Smith, David Humes, and Voltaire are some of the other thinkers that gave ideas in philosophical thought in this era. 

 

The 19th century saw German Idealism (Immanuel Kant), Transcendentalism (Ralph Waldo Emerson), and Individualism (David Thoreau). Friederich Nietzsche developed nihilism and August Comte influenced positivism. 

 

In the 20th century, the Existentialist movement took place. One of its dominant figures was Jean-Paul Sartre, along with Simone de Beauvoir, and Albert Camus. 

 

The history of philosophy is complex and diverse. The account given above is limited to generalizations and covers only the major movements and developments of philosophical thought. 

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Bibliography

Anon., n.d. A Quick History of Philosophy - General - The Basics of Philosophy. [Online] 
Available at: https://www.philosophybasics.com/general_quick_history.html
[Accessed November