The Emergence of Philosophical Thought
Among the Greeks
Baza El Hadj
Abstract. This article deals with the first beginnings of Greek philosophy and its relation with the Eastern civilizations that preceded it. If Eastern philosophy is characterized as being a religious and ethical practice, it did not liberate itself from the unseen and mythological framework, whereas Greek philosophy was able to transcend that, thus it became an analytical and methodological mentality seeking explanation through proof and rational dialectic not through myth. But this does not negate considering the Eastern civilizations as the first foundation upon which the sciences and the various Greek arts were built, a matter which indicates the factor of civilizational interpenetration in the emergence of the ancient Western civilization.
Keywords: Greek thought, Eastern thought, mythology, mystery religions