According to Oxford Dictionary, history is “the study of past events.” It is important that the citizens of a country have knowledge of the important past events that have taken place in the country. In the same vein every student of philosophy is expected not only to have knowledge of the history of philosophy but a first class knowledge of it, if he or she desires to become an outstanding philosopher. As a division of studies, the History of Philosophy tries to investigate the past of men in their rational venture. According to William Turner the History of Philosophy is “the exposition of philosophical opinions and of systems and schools of philosophy.” The History of Philosophy does not only deal with the positions, systems and schools of philosophy, but also gives considerations to the lives of philosophers, the common link of the systems and schools of thought, moreover, it also makes an effort to trace the route of philosophical progression and retrogression.
The general conception, even among professional philosophers, is that Greece is the cradle of philosophy. Therefore, almost all the available histories of philosophy, and philosophers themselves, agree that the so-called Pre-Socratics were the first or earliest philosophers, at least, in the Western world. Unlike the early thinkers of India and China, the Pre-Socratics did not think exegetically out of ancient scriptures or poems, but they spoke “as disrespectfully of the greatest poets they did to each other.” The most excellent reason for this popular conception is that first known philosophers in history lived among the Greeks. According to some authors in history of philosophy, the pre- Socratics were Greeks. Indeed, no one has ever succeeded in writing a complete history of philosophy; for philosophy like the works of arts, are intensely personal things. Our aim is to attempt a justification on why Greece may not necessarily be the cradle of philosophy.
Now, in dealing with ancient philosophy, we are wholly confined to written records, which are usually fragmentary and are often second handed unreliable and doubtful information. Apart from lack of first hand information, the greatest obstacle we have to surmount is the mass of scholastic explanations and dogmas, which favour the Greek origin of philosophy found in the available histories of philosophy. To clear that away is perhaps the greatest service that can be rendered to philosophy. However, all we intend to do is to point out the way, and warn others off tracks that have already been confirmed to lead nowhere.
The aim of this paper therefore is to trace the origin of philosophy. To achieve this aim, we shall proceed first by defining the term philosophy. Then, we shall give a consideration to the origin of civilization and science. After that, we shall highlight the positions of some philosophers who maintained that philosophy began with the Greeks and those who are of the view that that philosophy originated outside Greece. From there, we shall proceed to evaluate our work and finally draw up a conclusion.
The word philosophy is generally believed to be of Greek origin (?), precisely a combination of the two Greek words that goes thus, ‘philo’ meaning love and ‘sophia’ meaning wisdom. Since it is almost generally accepted that the word philosophy is etymologically of Greek origin, then, it is easy for beginners in the study of philosophy to conclude that philosophy has its origin in Greece and it began with the Greeks. In the study of philosophy, the beginners of this study even before knowing what philosophy is all about, are already acquainted with the names of Greek philosophers like Thales, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. While some people maintained that Greece is the cradle of philosophy, others do not.
In the first place philosophy is not mythology. According to Pythagoras (0), whose scientific studies had an enormous influence on the development of philosophy, the word philosophy means the love of wisdom. To philosophize then is to pursue wisdom through a consistent effort of reflection, which in itself entails definite ethical requirements; for indeed no man can philosophize and indulge in such ways of life as are incompatible with philosophical thinking. By the word “philosophy”, we mean a critical science of being in general. This does not only involve the initial knowledge of existent, common to all men and beginning from infancy, but a mature and organic knowledge with a method surpassing those of the other sciences (Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology) in intensity and comprehension. Philosophy is not only limited to the quantity of beings as in mathematics, or to mass and movements of beings as in physics, or to life and nature as in Biological sciences; but a constant effort to acquire wisdom.
Let us try to look at some of the numerous attempts made to define Philosophy. Hence, we shall be looking at Philosophy in the loose sense and philosophy in the strict sense.
Here, philosophy can be said to be an individual’s belief or approach to the issues of life, hence, various people have their various life philosophies depending on the way individuals view things. This definition is very much in line with the etymological conception of the term.
The etymology of the term philosophy belongs to its conception in the loose sense. Most philosophers are of the opinion that the word philosophy is of Greek origin, that is, from the two Greek words that go thus: ‘philo’ which means love, and ‘sophia’ which means wisdom. From this we can infer that philosophy is the love of wisdom. According to its classical definition, “wisdom is the knowledge of the first principles and the first causes. It includes the knowledge of many other things as well. But in so far as one is using his wisdom, a philosopher knows all the rest, or at least, knowledge of things related to the first principles and the first causes. Thus every time one succeeds in substituting some principles and causes of knowledge for knowledge itself, one is already on his way to finding wisdom, at least in part. The earliest known philosophers are philosophers in this sense. Philosophy as love of wisdom is a reflective activity that searches for answers to the basic questions that arise in men’s hearts as they ponder on human experience or reality in general. Philosophy, therefore, as Aristotle conceived it, begins from wonder, for wonder is the feeling of the philosophers. When, for instance, man looks at himself or the world in which he lives, he is filled with wonder and many questions arise in his mind. When he ponders on these questions in an attempt to find rational answers to them, he is said to be philosophizing. To this extent, we can infer that philosophizing begins with and is inherent in our daily activities or experiences such as eating or drinking; birth or growth; and death or decay to mention but a few. An experience like drinking is sufficient enough to make us philosophize. For instance, one may ask the following questions in the course of drinking, what should I drink? What quantity of drink should I take? Irrational beings are incapable of asking such questions. Perhaps, such questions are asked because what we drink and the quantity of drink we take can affect the pleasure we derive from drinking. For instance, if one drinks to the point of getting intoxicated, the purpose of drinking (happiness) will be defeated. Philosophizing as seen in the case of drinking above is not only limited to drinking, it is also true of other realities. From the above illustration we can infer that all human beings are philosophers in the loosed sense of the word and as a matter of fact, there is no age without philosophy even prior to the development of Greek thought, since philosophy began from wonder and man has always wondered about the things around him and human experience.
In the strict sense, philosophy does not have a generally accepted definition. There are as many definitions of the term as there are many philosophers. A novice who may ask the question, “What is philosophy?” for the first time would be struck with astonishment to discover that the definition of philosophy is not even agreed upon by those who are specialist in the discipline. For instance, if one is to pick ten different philosophers from ten different schools of philosophy and ask them what philosophy is, one is likely to have a record of ten different answers. The following definitions are the conceptions of what philosophy is by different philosophers:
Jacques Maritain conceives of philosophy as a wisdom which is characterized with knowing, this knowledge must be known with assurance. Still according to him, one must give reasons why one maintains that something is this and not otherwise. However, these reasons must command the assent of the intellect.
Meanwhile, Aristotle regards philosophy as the awareness of the truth
Epicurus’ view about the term philosophy is that it is an occupation which guarantees happiness through the means of conversation and exchange of views.
Although philosophy does not have a universally accepted definition, it must however be “critical, rigorous, open to criticism and as a truth it must be tentative and acceptable only on the basis of clear evidential support.”Thus, for a philosopher to be critical means that his position must have a rational basis. A philosopher being rigorous means that his position must have being carefully and well thought out. No matter how wonderful a philosophical thought is, such a thought must only be held tentatively and only on the basis of clear evidential proof, that is, it must be held only for as long as there are no contrary evidences negating the position. This particular
