The history of philosophy dates back to the first Homo sapien who questioned their existence. The earliest recorded philosophers were the Milesians and Presocratics, followed by Eastern philosophers. The Christian period focused on proving God’s existence, while the modern period promoted rationality and skepticism. Recent movements include nihilism and existentialism.
The history of philosophy is a chronology of great thinkers and the ideas they presented about the nature of the world, thought, ethics, and existence. Philosophy is broad in its definition, and as such the specific beginning of philosophy is difficult to determine. Arguably, the first Homo sapien to question why he was alive could be classified as the first philosopher. The earliest recorded philosophers were the Milesians and Presocratics, who were around the 7th century BC, and the Eastern philosophers of the 6th century BC Philosophy then passed through religious periods, the scientific revolution of thinkers such as Copernicus, and then into modern times with Descartes, Hume , Sartre and Mill.
The seventh century BC is the beginning of the recorded history of philosophy. Thinkers like Heraclitus wondered what the universe was made of and began to shape the scientific method. Early Eastern philosophers such as Lao-Tse began discussing ethics in the 6th century BC Pre-Socratic philosophers such as Pythagoras and Euclid began promoting logic and mathematics between the 7th and 5th centuries BC Many people believe that philosophy really began with the work of Socrates, Aristotle and Plato, who began formalizing the pursuit of knowledge in the 5th and 4th centuries BC
Christian doctrines dominated the history of philosophy in Europe from the 1st century AD until about the 15th century. Philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas, Ockham and Dante addressed religious questions about faith and the nature of God. This period saw further progress towards rationalism, but usually deferred to God as the creator of all knowledge. Many philosophies of this period focus on proving that God exists and that faith is needed to save a soul, not reason.
The 15th century saw the beginning of modern science and a new chapter in the history of philosophy. Copernicus famously claimed that the earth traveled around the sun, and not vice versa, and Galileo promoted scientific experimentation and thought. Francis Bacon formed empiricism during this period, which is the belief that knowledge can only be obtained through experimentation and observation. Machiavelli, a famous amoral political philosopher, also worked in this period.
The “modern” period of the history of philosophy is between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Thinkers like Descartes, Spinoza, Hume and Kant came from this period. Descartes famously reasoned “I think, therefore I am,” as the only way to know that it existed. Philosophers like Descartes and Spinoza promoted the cause of rationality, but they still believed in a rational God. Hume believed that skepticism was the surest way to approach any question of knowledge.
Among the more recent movements in the history of philosophy are nihilism and existentialism. These schools of thought were championed by thinkers such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Sartre. Nietzsche is one of the most famous exponents of nihilism, which is the rejection of meaning or purpose in the world and the idea of right and wrong. Existentialism examines existence and concludes that life has no essential value or meaning. Kierkegaard founded the existentialist school of thought, and thinkers like Sartre and Camus expanded upon it by removing Keirkegaard’s religious elements.
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