Ebook: Before Philosophy: The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man

Before philosophy, in the strict sense of abstract, critical, and methodical thought, came into being, man’s speculations, when they turned to the perennial problems of self and the universe, were expressed in myths. These myths are not mete stories, nor do they merely disguise an abstract truth. They represent a peculiar form of concrete thought, which should be analysed before the attempt is made to understand the mind of Ancient Man, his moral and religious preoccupations.

The authors, who have concentrated on the two oldest civilizations known — those of Egypt and Mesopotamia — have not shirked the first task. Just because they aimed at a deeper understanding of the Egyptian and Mesopotamian points of view in matters of life and death, the function of the State, and the nature of the phenomenal world, they have taken the problem of myth seriously.

They have discussed the emergence of Greek philosophy in order to stress the gulf which separates the habits of thought of the Greeks from those of their predecessors.