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You must know the basics of philosophy. I promise you it's worth it!

Life for a human being is all about philosophy. We are unique among animals in being self-reflective thinkers, capable of abstract thought. OK, that's an assumption - who knows what animals are really thinking? Indeed, who knows what anyone is thinking? Well we know what I am thinking - or at least what I am disclosing - because I can write and you can read. We believe some animals are able to learn signs, but there is doubt about their ability to manipulate symbols to fully express thought. Let's just accept for now that we can fully express ourselves and they can't. What this means is that homo sapiens is able to express itself symbolically and reflect upon what it has expressed. In essence humankind can philosophise.

So let's get on with it.

Before language developed, let's say 1,000,000 years ago but it could as easily have been as recently as 100,000 years ago, our ability to form a philosophy of life was limited by our inability to share thoughts. We may not have had thoughts as we know them today, rather we may have reacted in response to situations or feelings (like fear, hunger or lust). It is difficult to imagine any significant planning taking place before language developed - be it language expressed as grunts or special waves of the hand - because planning for the future involves representation. This is not like a squirrel storing food for the winter. That can be learned and the learning itself can be genetically favoured over time, eventually forming what we call an instinct. Of course we developed instincts as well, but we lurched ahead of the merely instinctual when we gained the ability to represent concepts and objects symbolically.

When we did begin thinking, we started to think about ourselves and the objects around us. We began to philosophise. As hunter-gatherers we may have thought about where our next meal was coming from and how we might catch it, store it and even share it. We would have cooperated and coordinated in order to best know and exploit our environment, simply to survive.

From there we developed such sophisticated representations as the cave paintings at Lascaux, the deliberate, ritualised burial of people with children, dogs, cats, ornaments and tools and, eventually, the many and varied cultures we have today.
  • First up, though, let's look at the early Greeks and Rationalism. Such influential philosophers as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
  • Socrates developed a technique of critical reasoning leading to truth that has been called Socratic dialogue. A fifth-century Athenian, Socrates set the standard for all subsequent Western philosophy. However he left no writings of his own. Rather we rely on contemporary accounts by the likes of Aristophanes and Xenophon. Socrates was a former soldier, having served at Delium and Amphipolis during the Peloponnesian War. Fundamentally he contemplated the notions of moral strength and truth.
  • Plato was a student of Socrates and an Athenian by birth - what we'd now think of as Greek. He was born around 428 BC and died some 80 years later. Contemporaries include Diogenes Laertius; and he was said to have been born the year Pericles died. Plato is of course hugely famous, one of the Western world's most widely read philosophers. He is revered as the teacher of Aristotle and the author of the Republic and of the theory of pure, eternal and unchanging Forms. Plato died in in 347 BC
  • Aristotle, born 384 BC at Stagirus, a Greek colony on the coast of Thrace. Following his father's death he travelled to Athens to complete his education. There he studied under Plato, becoming a lecturer at the Academy and an expert on Rhetoric. Having diverged from Plato's teachings Aristotle moved to Mysia for a time, then onto Mytilene. At the invitation of Philip of Macedonia he became the tutor of his 13 year old son Alexander (later dubbed 'The Great'). Much of current-day Western science and philosophy is owed to the influence and teachings of Aristotle.

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A great time to contemplate philosophy is when you are bike riding...






If you like what we do at this site please show your support by buying a t-shirt, postcard or coffee mug, or perhaps an image. Or even simply search for a book from Amazon! They are good quality items from excellent providers that I use myself. Cheers, Rob.



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