Before 500 BCE

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10 Sumerian Scribes

Our oldest written records come from the civilization of Sumer in what is now southern Iraq. Documents dating back to 3100 BCE have been found. A flourishing Sumerian literature in the centuries around 2000 BCE contains an extraordinary picture of the humanistic values of the Sumerian civilization. Praise poems reveal the values that kings wish to be remembered by: leadership, good government, public works, fairness, humanity, writing skills, ability with languages, musicianship. Laments for the fall of cities depict the horrors of war. Epics show compassion towards the sick and give insight into individual resourcefulness. Love songs reflect the very human emotions of young lovers.

11 Ptahhotep

The Instruction of Ptahhotep to his son is a collection of maxims dealing with human relations. For the most part, they touch on the humanistic virtues of kindness, justice, truthfulness, moderation and self-control. A man by the name of Ptahhotep was a vizier under King Isesi of the Fifth Dynasty. If he authored the instruction under this name, then it dates from 2450-2300 BCE.

13 Hammurabi

The Babylonian King Hammurabi (1792-1750 BCE) succeeded in conquering neighboring states in Mesopotamia and establishing a stable empire. In part he achieved this stability by means of a set of laws that he drew up. He stated specifically that he wished by these laws that the strong should not oppress the weak and that the widow and orphan should get justice.

14 Sin-leqe-unnini

Sin-leqe-unnini, a scribe living in the seventh century BCE, authored the Standard Babylonian Version of
Gilgamesh. This epic first appeared in the Sumerian oral tradition of the third millennium BCE. It involves two heroes: Gilgamesh, a city king, and Enkidu, a strong man born in the wild. In search of fame, Gilgamesh persuades Enkidu to join him in a perilous battle to seize trees in a foreign land. Enkidu dies some time afterwards, possibly from injuries received when rescuing Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh is so stricken with grief that he laments the rashness of his actions and seeks a cure for death.

15 Egyptian Love Poems

Egyptian love poems recovered from pieces of papyrus and fragments of a vase date from the period between 1,500 and 1,000 BCE. Those parts that have survived are primarily praise of the lover or poems of longing. The similarities between these poems and those from southeast Asia and India suggests that songs of this type may have been part of the oral culture shared via trade routes between the regions in the second millenium BC.

16 Amenemope

In ancient Egyptian literature Instructions in Wisdom take the form of a letter from a father to his son. They illustrate some of the humanistic values of ancient Egyptian society. The Instruction of Amenemope comes from the period of the Rameses kings, probably around 1100 BC. In the extracts given here, the ideal man is described as tending towards silence and tranquility. He is contrasted to the heated man—a hot-headed agitator who has a lot to say.

17 Chinese Odes

Some of the earliest poetry expressing warm enjoyment of human activities— gathering food, hunting, farming, courtship and marriage, and festivals—is found in the Chinese Book of Odes (sometimes called the Book of Poetry or the Book of Songs). These 305 poems, originating between the 12th and 7th Century BCE., mark the beginning of 3,000 years of Chinese poetry. There is a tradition that they were first compiled by Confucius, who greatly admired them.

18 Homer

Homer lived in the ninth century BCE, according to the Greek historian Herodotus, and is credited with the composition of two epic poems¾the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Iliad covers a period of a few weeks during what is traditionally a ten-year siege of Ilium (Troy) by Achaeans from what we now refer to as Greece. Much of the action in Homer’s Iliad is under the control of the Olympian gods, who whenever a man decides to take some sensible action that might end the conflict, step in to frustrate him.

19 Carvaka

The system of philosophy named after its founder, Carvaka, was put forward in the Brhaspati Sutra in India probably about 600 BCE. This text has not survived and, like similar philosophies in Greece, much of what we know of it comes from attacks by its critics. It put forward a materialism that rules out the supernatural, dismisses the Vedas, and rejects inferential logic, or induction.

20 The Buddha

The founder of Buddhism was the son of a prince of Shakyas, a principality located in the Himalayan foothills. He was born about 563 B.C. with the family name of Gotama and the personal name of Siddhattha. After experiencing both luxury and asceticism, he concluded that the true way of life was between these extremes, and that even this middle way was inevitably characterized by impermanence, imperfection and suffering. He analyzed the origins of these sorrows on the basis of his own experience, and elaborated a prescription for their alleviation— the Eightfold Way.

21 Lao Tzu

Probably at some time in the second or third century B.C. a collection of writings called the Tao Te Ching appeared, attributed to Lao Tzu. There is good reason to suppose that this collection is an anthology of Taoist ideas from various periods in Chinese history. It begins with a theory of the origin of the universe, in which the natural law that sets the universe in motion is referred to as the Tao, or the unvarying way. This law is also seen as governing the biological world as we know it. From this, Lao Tzu is able to develop rules for the conduct of life and government.

22 Confucius

Confucius was born about 551 BCE. with the family name K'ung. The respect he gained for his teachings led to his being referred to as Grand Master K'ung — K'ung Fu-tzu. The Western version of his name comes from this. He said that at fifteen he bent his mind to learning, and he continued to express a deep admiration for learning throughout his life. Confucius married at 19, his son being born a year later. Subsequently he had two daughters, one of whom died when she was quite young.

23 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.