The History of Philosophy: Origins of Ancient Philosophy Around the Globe

In honour of World Philosophy Day on November 18th, we are bringing you an introduction to the history of philosophy, and the origins of ancient philosophy from around the world! What is philosophy you may be asking? Well, the word philosophy comes from the two Greek words philos meaning love and sophos 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.

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 came from the Greeks; Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics, Politics and Aesthetics. By c. 4000 BCE it seems that philosophy was already established in Egypt in the form of a response to the Field of Reeds and in Mesopotamia, they 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.

Philosophy developed in India as a response to the Hindu texts known as the Vedas, in the form of the Upanishads and 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. During the Zhou Dynasty in China between 1046 and 256 BCE, philosophy was first written down in the form of the early Confucian texts. Ancient Greek Philosophy began in the 6th century BCE with Thales of Miletus asking the question, what is the basic stuff of the universe? He was the first of the Pre-Socratics (all the philosophers before Socrates), and then after Socrates came Plato, Aristotle and others.

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— CHAPTERS —
0:00​ Introduction
1:00 What is Philosophy?
1:47 The Five Main Branches of Philosophy
4:00 Philosophy in Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt
5:54 Philosophy in Ancient India
7:05 Philosophy in Ancient Persia
8:32 Philosophy in Ancient China
9:58 Philosophy in Ancient Greeks (The Presocratics and beyond!)
14:20 Outro

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— ATTRIBUTIONS —

The music used in this recording is the intellectual copyright of Michael Levy, a prolific composer for the recreated lyres of antiquity, and used with the creator's permission. Michael Levy's music is available to stream at all the major digital music platforms. Find out more on:

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Raphael / Users: Jic / FranksValli / Howcheng / Harpsichord246 / Paul 012
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Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825)
Public Domain

World History Encyclopedia

#philosophy #ancientphilosophy #historyofphilosophy #whatisphilosophy

[WorldHistoryEncyclopedia]

Who is your favorite philosopher and what’s your favorite philosophy?

[FerozKhan-ssnn]

Kelly is introducing the main branches of philosophy in the easiest way. Her clarity and the ability to address the meaning and features of each branch of philosophy is a key part of the philosophy of the ancient times. Her powerful and beautiful voice is inspirational to make one feel as if one were sitting in the middle of the philosophy class room together with the audience listening to her speaking to her students.

[renewable]

Thank you Kelly. My favourite philosopher is Plato. My philosophy of life is that we have only one life and we all should do our best to make this life happy and enjoyable to all of us. We have to create happiness in our surroundings. This demands a lot of sacrifices from each one of us.

[Rico-Suave_]

Great video, thank you very much, note to self(nts) watched all in it 14:06

[Dezzyyx]

Had no idea Philosophy in India started out as a component of religion, and that Buddhism was first a philosophical school. It makes sense as yet again we see philosophy and religion interconnected, and not as polar opposite as we tend to think, which I think is the fault of our black and white labeling psychology. We also see it in how something like Taoism doesn't seem to be clearly defined as Religion or Philosophy, but has components of both and may be seen as both, albeit with their distinctions. You can throw Spirituality in there as well, also a separate term but linked to these other two as well. Science as well, yet it may stand more on its own at least in modern terms. As I understand it science became what was first called Philosophy of Nature, to find answers of how nature works. But I've also heard that the first science was more religion oriented, that the answers they found would always be in the context of God, it's in a book I own.

You also have to wonder what came first, was it the philosophical thoughts, with time forming the idea of a religion, or was it making a religion around something and then philosophies develop around that. Then again if you made a religion, wouldn't you logically already have had the philosophical thoughts? Or it may not have been that black and white, and both could occur almost at the same time.

A final note is that contrary to what you said that Greek philosophy did not come from some questioning of religious beliefs. What I seem to recall is that it came as a polar movement to the dominance of religion, especially Christianity, focusing on asking questions based more on logic and reason.

Let me know your thoughts. Thanks for the nice informative video :)

[noorzanayasmin]

I like Daoism, Stoicism, Deism, Jesus philosophy. I like Jesus figure because he teaches us the value of humbleness. I guess I have always been believer of natural order/higher order.

[SamuelOsborneThoughtLeader]

Great video!
My fav philosophy is axiology.

[danieldilly]

1:33 - "In the ancient world, philosophy was turned to when religion couldn't provide an answer...". The same is true in the modern world.

[anthro]

Aristotle is my favourite philosopher.

[theisheep]

I feel as though you didn't explain indian philosophy in much detail as greek.

[saadabbas]

“is also mentioned by Paul the Silentiary as lying near the ambon in the church of St. Sophia, and its coping is said to have been brought from Samaria.”
The Ancient Coptic Churches of Egypt [vol. 1]
Alfred Joshua Butler

[rishabhthakur]

Metaphysics= Tattva mimansa
Epistemology = Gyan Mimansa
Politics = arth sastra
Aesthetic = saundarya mimansa
Ethics = niti sastra
They are Indian words

[stevenbrown]

That’s a great shirt you’re wearing. Also, a great episode.

[athanpyr]

i love philosophy, thanks for your video, in greek, philosophy means, ' friend of sophia (wisdom) ', but sometimes in ancient greek we used to loooove our friends, or thats what they :D

[jeysonborn]

Good job! Wanna know, what program is used from 2:00 to 3:45 ?

[aieshazandraalbes]

What is Socrates main contribution and principles?

[FerozKhan-ssnn]

This lecture does explain the concept of philosophy in one of the best ways possible…

[AnonymousStranger-uphe]

Why do the British add an "r"-sound to words ending in a vowel and add a vowel-sound to words ending in an "r"?

[forgd]

Love your videos!! They are so informative.

[BishnuKundu-vkvg]

hey kindly can you tell us about medieval?