Notes on The History of Western Philosophy

(Originally written June 30, 2006 in Book 2)

The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
1974

Part I - The Pre-Socratics

Chapter 1 - The Rise of Greek Civilization

Prior to Greece, civilization existed in Egypt & Mesopotamia

Greece invented mathematics (deductive reasoning), science and philosophy. They were the first to write history.

They were "writing without being bound in the fetters of any inherited orthodoxy" (Russell, 3).

Linehan: is orthodoxy bad?

Philosophy began in Thales in 585 B.C. Philosophy and science were the same in the beginning.

Writing was invented in Egypt around 4,000 BC.

Civilization occurred in Egypt due to the Nile and in Mesopotamia because of the Tigris & the Euphrates. These rivers made agriculture easier.

Egypt saw a sovereign king who owned all then land and polytheism. This religion had a supreme god with a special relationship with the king. There was both a military aristocracy and a priestly aristocracy.

Egyptian theology focused on death, the afterlife and the eventual reunification of soul and body, hence the mummification. Egypt's culture was rendered stagnant because "religious conservatism made progress impossible".

Egyptian culture spread to Syria and Palestine via the Hyksos reign, circa 1800 BC - 1600 BC.

Babylonia was a more warlike civilization than Egypt.

Sumeria was the original rulers of Mesopotamia. Their origin is unknown. Sumeria invented cuneiform.

Semites then conquered the Sumerians and city-states and gods of those city-states developed religions.

Babylon then conquered the region and its supreme god, Marduk subverted all the other city-state gods.

Zeus of the Greek religion is similar to Marduk.

Ancient religions originated as fertility cults - female earth and male sun.

Bull-gods were symbols of male fertility.

Ishtar, the Babylonian earth-goddess was the supreme deity. Earth-goddesses developed all over the ancient world. Greece assimilated Ishtar as Artemis; Diana of the Ephesisans was Ephesus' Ishtar. The Virgin Mary is Christianity's Ishtar.

Gods became associated with fertility, then the state. Gods had to bring the harvest and victory in war. Through the association with the government, gods became associated with morality. Lawmakers received moral codes via the god. The Hammurabi code came to Hammurabi via Marduk.

Egypt's religion focused on happiness in the next world; whereas Babylonian religion was focused on prosperity in life.

Babylonian religion developed astrology, magic and divination more than other cultures.

Babylon invented (discovered) scientific data like 24-hour days, 360 degree circles and eclipse cycles.

Egypt, Mesopotamian and nearby cultures were agricultural. Commerce developed via maritime nations later on.

Crete seems to be the pioneer of commerce.

Minoan culture existed on Crete from 2500 BC -1400 BC. Minoan culture was very artistic and much more cheerful than the gloomy Egyptian art.

Crete worshipped goddesses, especially the huntress: the "Mistress of Animals", a source of the classical Artemis.

Cretans seemed to have believed in an afterlife based on the deeds of the earthly life, but were not oppressed by gloomy superstitions like the Egyptians.

Minoan culture seems to have been peaceful, as there were no walls on their cities, but undoubtedly possessed strong sea defenses.

It was destroyed by Greek invasions, but survived on mainland Greece in varying forms from 1600 BC - 900 BC. This Minoan culture on the mainland is called Mycenaean.

Mycenaean civilization is seen in Homer's works, though embellished as legend.

The Greeks came to Greece in three waves: Ionians, Achaeans, Dorians.

The Ionians seem to have assimilated the Mycenaean civilization into their own as Rome later did to the Greek.

The Achaeans seem to have had a strong civilization in the 14th century BC.

The Mycenaean civilization was weakened by wars with the Ionians and Achaeans and then obliterated by the Dorians.

While the Ionians and Achaeans adopted Mycenaean religion and culture, the Dorians retained their Indo-European religion. Lower classes kept the Mycenaean religion and eventually the two blended into the Classical Greek Religion.

The Dorian invaders settled in Greece and started agricultural cities in the fertile valleys. The mountainous terrain isolated the cities. Some invaders continued on into Asia Minor, Sicily, and southern Italy.

The social systems in Greek cities varied greatly due to the lack of communication on the mainland.

Sparta had a small aristocracy which enslaved a different race.

In commercial cities, free citizens grew rich by acquiring slaves, which were acquired in warfare.

Wealth brought the isolation of respectable women in Greece, except in Sparta.

Greece did not have absolute kings like Egypt and Babylon. They developed from monarchy to aristocracy to tyranny/democracy alternations.

Tyranny is power of one man in a non-hereditary succession.

Democracy was government by all people other than women and slaves.