Ancient Philosophy.

Russell has his work cut out; due to the wide scope of history he attempts to tackle in the first chapter. It remains such an important era as it is essentially when the seeds of all later western philosophy were sewn. Yet, admirably, he manages to do it so concisely. This concept of course goes for the entire book, where almost (give or take) 3000 years of history is encompassed in 900 pages.  

The sheer importance of the Greek civilisation can be realised when one considers that if it had been destroyed, almost everything that is considered to be the norm in contemporary society would have been wiped out. This is massively true of our notion of political democracy- the very word is comprised by the Greek language. The foundations of democracy (as it is today) are laid by the Greeks in their notion that there is no one person that all people are bound to obey- not even the king, who according to homer, can be disagreed with by aristocrats. Russell then goes on to question the existence of Homer as a person or just a collection of thoughts. The Greeks considered Gods to be immoral beings that didn’t create the universe, but were just in fact superhuman. They were representative of heroes of past and forces of nature, apathetic of humanity. Later on-“God” as an entity would be transcendent of nature, and singular. This perhaps removes the necessity of evil.  If there was more than one god, they’d eventually have conflicting wills, leading to war, an unstable universe and therefore the existence of evil. When you place God outside (transcendent), the universe can perhaps begin to be harmonious.  The lack of such a God would perhaps also slow down scientific enquiry, as the existence of a chaotic world, which is constantly unstable would not be susceptible to the bedrock of scientific enquiry- the act of repeating tests with similar, if not, identical outcomes.

The Greeks felt Confined within their own civilisation, and sought a certain freedom that would return them to their roots, restore harmony, and return them to a primitive past, when man was closer to nature (God), spontaneous and happier.  

Man sees himself as different, but tends to question why. All Religion rests its foundations on attempts to answer that question. Orpheus stated that man is half divine, and half earthly, and Russell goes onto state that the very notion of “Philosophy as a way of life” is down to Orpheus. We are all called to live a life of adherence to an idea. It should also not be forgotten that the very birth of philosophy can be dated back to the Greeks.

The Romans were not particularly philosophical. One of the only exceptions (that perhaps proved the rule) was Sextus Empiricus who taught that all ideas are of equal value, and that arguments against mathematical thinking is in fact useless. He also stated that the contrary of a statement is equal in value, for example “I think therefore I am”, is exactly the same as “I am, therefore I think”.  He was an empiricist as he believed that the only way anything can be known is through the senses, and that there were no innate ideas.