Greek Philosophy
How was Greek philosophy different from what came before? Or was it different? Even though "philosophy" is a Greek word, from phileîn, "to love," and sophía, "wisdom," perhaps it was just a continuation of how people had always thought about things anyway. After all, it is not uncommon now for items of Egyptian literature, like the Instruction of Ptah.h.otep, to be listed as Egyptian "philosophy."
So if Greek philosophy is to be thought of as different, there must be ways of specifiying that difference.
Similarly, if Greek philosophy is to be compared with Indian and Chinese philosophy, there must be something that they have in common, and that can be mutually contrasted with pre-philosophical thought.
Happens greek philosophy, and Indian and Chinese, were different from what came before; and we can specify what the differences were.
Pre-philosophical thought can be characterized as "mythopoeic," "mythopoetic," or "mythic" thought. "Mythopoeic" means "making" (poieîn, from which the word "poet" is derived) "myth" (műthos).
There is a large and growing literature about mythology, but here all that is necessary are the points what will serve the purpose of distinguishing philosophical thought from the thought of people about things in earlier Middle Eastern civilizations (Egyptians, Babylonians, etc.). With the identification of the characteristics of mythic forms of human thought, it becomes possible to identify the unique innovations of philosophy. Note that philosophic thought does not replace mythopoeic thought but supplements it.
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