500 BCE-200 CE

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24 Greek Analects

Much of the work of the early Greek philosophers, orators, and poets exists only as small fragments, or analects. They nevertheless give us a glimpse of events in one of the most important eras in European thought, where some sort of rule-governed unity was sought that could underlie the observed changing physical world. Some attempts were also made to extend such rules to individual human and social behavior. However, such attempts turned attention to more direct consideration of psychology and ethics, leading to a blossoming of humanistic studies.

25 Mo Tzu

Mo Tzu probably lived between 470 and 391 BCE. After a short period as a civil servant he became a traveling philosopher like Confucius, counseling feudal lords on government and personal conduct. Unlike Confucius, he laid stress on the need for universal love, rather than love restricted to the family. He also argued against offensive war and for promoting the talented. He was noteworthy in his stress on the need for a proper methodology in setting up or accepting a doctrine, using this to refute the doctrine of fatalism.

26 Socrates

Socrates is said to have been born in 469 BCE and died in 399 BCE. Whether this information and his whole life are fictional creations or not is unclear. There are experts who argue for a historical Socrates; there are other experts who claim that he was a fictional character created independently by Plato, Aristophanes, and Xenophon—each of whom fashioned a different type of Socrates. In Plato's account, Socrates demonstrated that by subjecting our moral beliefs to logical scrutiny we could gain a better understanding of ourselves and of the proper way of life.

28 Democritus

Democritus was born at Abdera, Thrace, sometime around 458 BCE. He was described as well traveled, probably visiting Babylon, Egypt, and Ethiopia, and perhaps India. He appears to have spent all of his time on scientific and philosophical studies, teaching, and writing. Some 60 of his works have been listed by other writers, but only a few fragments of his ethical theory remain. Nevertheless, these fragments and the descriptions by others of his atomic theory put him among the foremost thinkers of his time. The atomic theory resolved the question of how a world evidently in a state of flux could nevertheless have an underlying nature that was eternal and unchanging. In his ethical theory, Democritus set high standards of personal integrity and social responsibility, without invoking supernatural sanctions.

30 Thucydides

The Greeks were probably the first in the West to draw up histories by inquiring into such information as may lead to the facts concerning the past. It is a process that requires careful collection of information, judgment of sources, and the application of reason. That is, it attempts to develop history from a scientific rather than a mythical basis. From such a basis, Thucydides, born in 460 BCE, rejected the supernatural and composed a history that reveals underlying social pressures and political principles.

31 Hippocrates

Hippocrates is believed to have lived between 460 and 380 BCE. He was born on the Island of Cos, which contained a famous health resort and medical academy. It is not clear how much of the large amount of medical writings attributed to him by Plato and Aristotle came actually from his hand (even the Hippocratic Oath may have been of Pythagorean origin). However, they show that the Greeks had learned to describe the details of a disease and to grasp its whole course.

32 Tamil Love Poems

The Tamil love poems given here may have been composed in southern India during the period 400-300 BCE. Like the Egyptian love poems they include praise and longing as their subjects, but also include poems of mutual joy. In these and other features, there is some similarity between the classic Tamil love poems and the Hebrew Song of Songs. However, where there are some 28 smaller units or poems in the Song of Songs, there are more than 1000 Tamil love poems. These are usually divided into two genres: Akam, or personal and intimate poems, and Puram, or social and exterior poems. A few extracts of Akam poems are presented here.

33 Chuang Tzu

Chuang Tzu is believed to lived in the Fourth or Third Century BCE. His thought is contained in the 33 chapters that remain of the
Chuang Tzu, which describes both his philosophy and his way of life. In it, he enlarges on the teachings of Lao Tzu in a lively discourse that opposes the ideas of Confucius and Mo Tzu. He argues that humanity should seek to live at one with nature and not impose upon it, doing more by doing nothing.

34 Mencius

Mang tsze, known to the West as Mencius, was born about 370 BCE in the principality of Tsau, located in what is now the province of Shantung. Shortly after he was born, his father died, and he was subsequently brought up by his mother alone. Traditional accounts of her provide a rare opportunity to acknowledge the influence of a mother on a famous son.

35 Epicurus

Epicurus (342-270 BCE) was born in Samos. He probably started making his ideas public on the island of Lesbos in about 311 BCE. A few years later he returned to Athens, where he remained for the rest of his life, arguing for a broad-based philosophy linking the life of man and the physical world in a single atomic theory. He put forward his teachings in his garden outside of the city, opening up his school to many people (including slaves) who could not gain access to the more worldly philosophers. Not surprisingly, Epicurus was ridiculed by opposing philosophers and the distortions they applied to some of his ideas have survived to this day.