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Ancient Philosophy Roots
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0:06
As we mentioned in the introduction to this series, philosophy has its roots almost everywhere in the world. Unfortunately, many early writings were lost to time, and even surviving ones are either fragmented, incomplete, or written in dead languages. Additionally, for some, their philosophical status may be questioned for resembling theological or even mythological inquiry within certain religious doctrines,
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more so than purely philosophical endeavor. This includes Confucianism in China, ancient Islamic, Jewish, and Christian philosophies, as well as Hinduism and Buddhism, to name a few. Nevertheless, some have interesting ideas worth mentioning, or have even influenced what philosophy became later, so let’s take a look at some of these to begin the series. Ancient Egypt was famously a land of wisdom and politics, according to even Socrates and
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Aristotle, with one of the first recorded philosophers ever to exist, Ptahhotep, who wrote in the late 25th to early 24th century BCE on early forms of ethics. Possibly the earliest form of logic arose in Babylonian philosophy, which also seemed to later influence the Greek thinkers known as sophists, and even Plato, given the dialogue format and general literary manners of writing. Around the 6th century BCE in Iran, then called Persia,
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a man named Zarathustra, also known as Zoroaster, created Zoroastrianism, one of the world’s oldest existing religions, and also developed a rationally-oriented early form of ethics based around free will. His views on existence and the afterlife inspired many of Plato’s ideas. China had an explosion of philosophical development with the rise of the Hundred Schools of Thought between the 6th and 2nd centuries BCE, creating the foundation
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for most of East Asian thinking. But as it was characterized by itinerant, or wandering thinkers, very few written records remain. Confucius arose during this period, and became one of the most influential Asian philosophers to this day. Recent findings show that rational argumentation was of great concern around the 5th century BCE, centering philosophical issues around language. Its proper use, according to Confucius, is essential for a harmonious society, as it
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directly influences interactions and existence itself. Meaning, thus, is performative, and to be skilled in language means to have knowledge and awareness of the values which render it effective. Ethical dilemmas, in this sense, are largely context-dependent, and this knowledge dictates the best understanding and therefore morally better course of action. Confucius, therefore, placed important weight on ritual and music, as these would shape one’s character in order to
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control desires and enhance moral dispositions. This character-centered ethical perspective is analogous to Aristotle’s virtue theory which he developed a couple centuries later, since one’s habits and practices directly influence one’s character toward or against a virtuous life. This linguistic focus of Confucianism culminated with the Mohists around the 3rd century BCE, followed by Xunzi and the Daoists, who developed it further with logic in order to systematize a
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political and ethical theory of government and citizenship. Although they never approached the later formal, mathematical aspects of logic, as it was indistinguishable from their linguistic theory, they developed early forms of inferences, which are conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning. This was done with rules and principles based on semantic terms and their combinations, instead of the form itself. Their focus on the logical aspects of language was so
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significant that these principles and semantic terms are even prototypically analogous to contemporary operators and overall logical calculus; but given the fragmented and disorganized status of their writings, not much can be said with indisputable certainty. Although it is true that Aristotle anticipated most of their ideas a century earlier, their drive toward a linguistic understanding of the world and human communication, guided by a sophisticated analysis
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on the intricacies of language in order to improve on ethical behavior, went unmatched until the logical positivism movement of the 20th century. India also had many prominent rudimentary schools of philosophical thought. From around the 2nd millennium BCE, two main schools called the Vedic and Sramana gave rise to most of the philosophical endeavors in India. The first attempt to understand the nature of the world was done through the Vedas,
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authorless religious texts of knowledge and one of the oldest bases for Hinduism. The latter, Sramana, which originated Jainism and Buddhism, was more concerned with ethical behavior and existence. In this context, rational public debates and assemblies (pariṣad and sabhā, respectively) occurred commonly in Indian society, as referenced in early Buddhist literature. By the 5th century BCE they permeated most topics from agriculture to architecture, religion, and law. In
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the 3rd century BCE, two important works cemented the foundations for logical thought in India. The first was the Milinda-pañha or Questions of King Milinda, a dialogue between a Buddhist monk and a Greek king involving some argumentation and rhetorical analysis. The second was the Kathā-vatthu or Points of Controversy, which in contrast – although not explicitly identifying logical operators, concepts, or scheme – clearly utilizes an identifiable format of formal logic
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while debating around two hundred propositions. Six orthodox schools of philosophy emerged afterwards: Samkhya, a strong rationalist school of thought focusing on ontology and epistemology; Yoga, its sister school with a focus on mysticism and personal divinity; Mimamsa, emphatic in the normative power of language and linguistics, seeing the references to the gods in the Vedas as mere analogy for rituals and social duties; Vedanta, which focused more on theology and
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knowledge, as well as criticizing Jainism and Buddhism; Nyāya, which dealt with proper logic and epistemology; and Vaiśeṣika, concerned with ontology. The latter two developed on their own and then merged by the 12th century CE as Navya-Nyāya, remaining reasonably active until the 18th century. The Nyāya school itself developed sophisticated logical concepts somewhere between the 6th and 2nd centuries BCE, and thoroughly analyzed early formal inferences in
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a manner that was different in shape but similar in method to that of the Stoics and Aristotle. Unfortunately, either for ignorance, omission, or active neglect, most of Western philosophy developed apart from these other origins. As this series will focus on how philosophy and logic became what they are today, we will inevitably be centered around this Western perspective of philosophy from its Greek roots. This means that as fascinating as these other regions are,
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starting with the next tutorial, we will dive into 7th century BCE Greece and examine the conclusions of the most influential thinkers of that time, so that we may later observe how Western philosophy differed from these other sources to develop into what we have today.
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