Ancient philosophy


This page lists some links to ancient philosophy, namely philosophical thought extending as far as early post-classical history.

Overview

Genuine philosophical thought, depending upon original individual insights, arose in many cultures roughly contemporaneously. Karl Jaspers termed the intense period of philosophical development beginning around the 7th century BCE and concluding around the 3rd century BCE an Axial Age in human thought.
In Western philosophy, the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire marked the ending of Hellenistic philosophy and ushered in the beginnings of medieval philosophy, whereas in the Middle East, the spread of Islam through the Arab Empire marked the end of [|Old Iranian philosophy] and ushered in the beginnings of early Islamic philosophy.

Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy

Philosophers

Pre-Socratic philosophers

See also: Dualism, Dualism
While there are ancient relations between the Indian Vedas and the Iranian Avesta, the two main families of the Indo-Iranian philosophical traditions were characterized by fundamental differences in their implications for the human being's position in society and their view of man's role in the universe. The first charter of human rights by Cyrus the Great as understood in the Cyrus cylinder is often seen as a reflection of the questions and thoughts expressed by Zarathustra and developed in Zoroastrian schools of thought of the Achaemenid Era of Iranian history.

Schools of thought

Ideas and tenets of Zoroastrian schools of Early Persian philosophy are part of many works written in Middle Persian and of the extant scriptures of the Zoroastrian religion in Avestan language. Among these are treatises such as the Shikand-gumanic Vichar by Mardan-Farrux Ohrmazddadan, selections of Denkard, Wizidagīhā-ī Zātspram as well as older passages of the book Avesta, the Gathas which are attributed to Zarathustra himself and regarded as his "direct teachings".

Zoroastrianism

Anacharsis

Pre-Manichaean thought

The ancient Indian philosophy is a fusion of two ancient traditions: the Vedic tradition and the śramaṇa tradition.

Vedic philosophy

Indian philosophy begins with the Vedas wherein questions pertaining to laws of nature, the origin of the universe, and the place of man in it are asked. In the famous Rigvedic Hymn of Creation the poet asks:
In the Vedic view, creation is ascribed to the self-consciousness of the primeval being. This leads to the inquiry into the one being that underlies the diversity of empirical phenomena and the origin of all things. Cosmic order is termed rta and causal law by karma. Nature is taken to have three qualities.
and Buddhism are a continuation of the Sramana school of thought. The Sramanas cultivated a pessimistic worldview of the samsara as full of suffering and advocated renunciation and austerities. They laid stress on philosophical concepts like Ahimsa, Karma, Jnana, Samsara and Moksa. Cārvāka philosophy, also known as Lokāyata, it is a system of Hindu philosophy that assumes various forms of philosophical skepticism and religious indifference. It is named after its founder, Cārvāka, author of the Bārhaspatya-sūtras.

Classical Indian philosophy

In classical times, these inquiries were systematized in six schools of philosophy. Some of the questions asked were:
  • What is the ontological nature of consciousness?
  • How is cognition itself experienced?
  • Is mind intentional or not?
  • Does cognition have its own structure?
The six schools of Indian philosophy are:

1st millennium BCE