Overview

What we call philosophy began with the pre-Socratics, Greek thinkers from 600 to 400 B.C. who preceded Socrates (469-399 B.C.) and who speculated about the origins of things and the order of the universe. Building on and beyond the practical knowledge gained by their Egyptian and Babylonian neighbors to the east, these philosophers rejected the predominate myth of a cosmos ruled by gods and demons in favor of a rational one governed by universal and discoverable laws. The term pre-Socratic is a little misleading, since Socrates was alive until almost 400 B.C. and around to debate pre-Socratic philosophy, which he considered inferior to questions of politics and individual morality. So pre-Socratic is used not in a literal sense, but loosely to indicate a certain way of looking at things. Pre-Socratic philosophers did not themselves leave a written record. What we know...