The first philosophers searched for a way to explain the happenings of the world without referring to the supernatural, as traditional thinking did. Traditional thinking believed that gods would cause everything to happen. For example, rain happened because a god was crying, and earthquakes were a god stomping on the earth. But the first philosophers thought of new wyas of explaining these occurances. One believed that earthquakes were caused by a drought or excessive flooding. They believed that everything that happened was caused by a fixed, regular, natural force. One philosopher, Democritus, said up front, these are no gods.
Democritus, however, didn't stop there. He proposed that all things were made up of tiny atoms, solid bits of matter that are unable to be cut. He believed that atoms moved around, collided, fused, and bounced off of one another, similar to a game of billiards. The table is empty space while the balls are atoms, and there are no players, no outside force moving the balls. However, some people were skeptical. They asked Democritus how ideas and thought existed. We can't see or touch ideas or thought. Democritus replied that there were soul atoms as well as regular matter atoms. When a regular atom and a soul atom collided, thought as formed. So in a way, Homer and Democritus did have a similarity in their thinking. They both believed there was a force other than just human, gods and soul atoms, that was controlling our lives.
Socrates became interested in these new ideas and studied them for a time. He then said that they were too fixed and useless. What did it matter what everything was made of? He believed philosophy should focus on the knowledge of one's inner self. He believed that "virtue is knowledge." This means that when someone did something bad, it was because they didn't know it was bad. Socrates would talk in lengthy discussions with people; he would ask them a question and take their answer to the extreme. An oracle once said that Socrates was the wisest of men, and he said that is rediculous. He was merely aware of his own ignorance. He said the oracle must have meant that he was an example of a wise man.
These first steps of philosophy were also the beginning of any scientific thought we know of. It is partly because of these first philosophers that we are where we are today.