Beginning of Philosophy

Since philosophy deals with wisdom, it is, therefore, considered a search for meaning,
i.e., a search for an understanding on the importance of human life. In this case,
philosophers are called philosophers because of their concern in searching for answers
regarding the meaning of their existence. It is a search for understanding one's lived
experience.
In view of the fact that philosophy is a search for meaning, it follows, therefore, that
philosophy is an important part of the human person's life whether he/she knows it or
not. This is because every human person is by nature a rational being. In this sense, it is
the nature of every human person to ask for the meaning of life and to search for the
source of fulfillment and happiness.
Philosophy came about when human beings started to have a sense of wonder in the
world. It all began when people started to have reflections on their everyday experiences
(Hakim 1987, v). The human person's sense of wonder, i.e., his/her curiosity on the
things around him/her has led him/ her to ask the questions "What is the ultimate material
of the universe?" and "how can we explain the process of change in things?"
The Beginning of Philosophy
How did philosophy come about? According to the tradition of Western philosophy, the
birthplace of philosophy was the seaport town of Miletus, located across the Aegean Sea
from Athens, on the western shores of Ionia in Asia Minor. It is for this reason, that the
first philosophers were called either Milesians or Ionians (Stumpf & Fieser 2005, 6).
Why in Miletus? Around 585 BCE (Before the Common Era), Miletus was the center for
commerce. Because of this, the affluence of the people gave them the luxury and time
for thinking and reflection. Later on, the merchants and the rich people traded not only
their merchandise but also their ideas and their beliefs brought about by their own
reflections. This caused arts and philosophy to flourish.
As the Milesians gathered to talk about their curiosity, they started to ask the question
"Where does everything come from?" and "What is the source of the existence of
everything?" In trying to answer these questions, a philosopher, by the name of Thales
(624546 BCE) provided an answer, that everything must have come from water. There is
no record as to how Thales came into the conclusion that the beginning of everything
was water. Aristotle held that perhaps he might have taken his conclusion from the idea
that the seeds of all things have a moist nature, and water is the origin of the nature of
moist things.
Thales (624-546 BCE)- Father of Philosophy
A contemporary and pupil of Thales, Anaximander (c. 550 BCE), agreed with his teacher
that there is a single basic stuff out of which everything comes. However, he disagreed
with Thales in believing that everything comes from water. According to him, if everything
comes from water, then where could this water come from? In this case, everything must
have come from an original stuff, which he calls the indeterminate boundless. Whereas
actual things are specific, their source is indeterminate, and whereas things are finite,
the original stuff is infinite or boundless.
Nevertheless, it was quite difficult on the part of the western thinkers to understand the
idea of Anaximander as regards the boundless. According to them, if everything comes
from the boundless, how did he know that? For them, the idea on the boundless was
simply too vague and intangible. A young associate of Anaximander and the third and
last of the Milesian philosophers by the name of Anaximenes (about 585-528 BCE),
attempted to reconcile the idea of his two predecessors by designating air as the primary
substance from which all things have originated. According to him, "just as our soul, being
air, holds us together, so do breathe and air encompass the whole world." Like water,
Anaximenes held that air is a definite substance and, therefore, providing a solution on
the intangibility of Anaximander's boundless. But just like Anaximander's view, he held
that air is spread everywhere, but unlike the boundless, it is a specific and tangible
material substance that can be identified.
Across Miletus, located in the Aegean Sea, was the small island of Samos, which was the
birthplace of Pythagoras (c. 570 c. 497 BCE). He promulgated the belief that everything
comes from numbers. Although this idea sounds strange, but Pythagoras believed that
since everything is measurable and can be numbered, then everything must have
originated from numbers.
As the philosophers were discussing about the origin of things, they also became curious
of the changes that were happening around them. Consequently, Heraclitus of Ephesus
(c. 540 - c. 480 BCE) focused his attention to the problem of change. He held the belief
that everything is in a constant flux, i.e., everything is in a constant change. He expressed
his concept of change by saying that "no one can step on the same river twice". Heraclitus
held that what is observable in this world is that everything is definitely changing and
that the only thing that is not changing is change itself. But what causes everything to
change?
Pythagoras of Samos (c. 570 c. 497 BCE)
Heraclitus believed that there must be something that will serve as the basis of unity and
the cause of change in everything. He held that since everything that passes through fire
changes, and since what is observable in this world is that everything changes, then it
must be that there is fire in everything. He, therefore, held that everything must have
come from fire. His idea, according to him, is different from that of his predecessors
because he did not only answer the problem regarding the basic stuff out of which
everything is made of. Rather, he was also able to provide an answer regarding the
question about changes in things.
A younger contemporary of Heraclitus, Parmenides of Elea (c. 510 BCE), disagreed with
Heraclitus regarding the concept of change. If Heraclitus would uphold the view that
everything is in constant change, Parmenides would hold the exact opposite view by
saying that change is an illusion. Everything, according to him, is permanent. He believed
that the world consists of one indivisible thing. This One is motionless and in a perfect
sphere. What we perceive as changing is actually not changing at all because we are just
being deceived by our senses. This basic idea of unchangeability influenced Plato so much
that he was led to the idea of the distinction between the intelligible world of forms and
the visible world of opinion.
Empedocles (c. 495-435 BCE), a pluralist from Sicily, who by legend leapt to his death
into the crater of Mt. Etna so that the people would remember him as a godlike figure
and think that he had gone up to heaven by leaving no trace of his body, agreed with
Parmenides that being is uncreated and indestructible and that it simply is. But unlike
Parmenides, he disagreed that existence consists simply of the One because to accept
the notion of the One would require us to deny the reality of motion, which, according to
him, would be too obvious and compelling to deny. According to Empedocles, change
and motion are made possible because objects are composed of many particles, which
are in themselves are changeless. These four changeless elements out of which
everything was made and everything came from are earth, air, fire, and water.
Later on, Leucippus (490-430 BCE), the founder of the atomist school and Democritus of
Abdera (460-360 BCE), who elaborated the idea of Leucippus, held that everything is
made up of atoms moving in empty space. According to them, everything was the product
of the collision of atoms moving in space.
It is noticeable that different philosophers provided different views as regards the
question "where did everything come from?" The question therefore is, "who holds the
right answer?" Pythagoras believed that every human person is incapable of knowing the
whole truth. He claimed that each of these philosophers may be correct in their views,
however, they are only capable of explaining a portion of the truth but not the whole
truth. Pythagoras believed that only God is truly wise and the wisdom of the human
person is only derivative from the wisdom of God (see Gripaldo 2006). Pythagoras held
that God is Wisdom, i.e., the Zopia (Sophia). Human beings, on the other hand, can only
be friends or lovers of wisdom; hence, the term philosophy.
Although it was Pythagoras who coined the term "philosophy," the fatherhood of
philosophy, however, is not attributed to him because the question that he was trying to
answer was the same question Thales had earlier raised. Since it was Thales who first
questioned philosophy, and since he was the one who started it all, Thales then was
considered the father of philosophy.