Greek Philosophy: Origin of Philosophy or Stolen Legacy

INTRODUCTION

It is commonly accepted that Greek philosophy is the first attempt in human history to think of things philosophically, however blurry this word means. Is there something born out from what is called Greek Miracle and what had distinguished them from other people? In this paper we try to re-examine the originality of Greek philosophy. To ask whether its originality was based on their distinguished talent so they could innovate something new altogether or they merely continue what they inherited from civilizations before them or even worse they stole knowledge without acknowledging those to whom they was deeply indebted.

In first chapter we seek to describe pre-philosophical thought as known—or more exactly written—by Western historians, historical and sociological background around Greek environment in brief, and some thinkers generally considered as earliest philosophers. In the second chapter, we attempt to ask the originality of Greek philosophy in which there are—at least—two perspectives, i.e., conservative and revisionist. We try to use both two views contradictive each other, first of which says that the Greek philosophy is the origin of philosophical thinking and that it occurred because their special talent not being indebted to any other civilization.
The second viewpoint is critical to this conventional opinion. One of which says that Greek philosophy is no more than continuation from human thought prior to them, and even more dramatic some revisionist says that Greek had stolen philosophy from ancient Egypt without admitting their indebtedness to them, then there was nothing to be regarded as Greek philosophy other than Stolen Egyptian Philosophy.
We do hope that this paper will be useful and constructive, especially not to idolize Greek philosophers—and thus Western—as the only models of intellectual greatness without considering contributions of other civilizations. Since, we know that almost every discussion of philosophy, in IAIN particularly, starts with history of Greek philosophy while ironically forgetting Islamic philosophical discourses.
Citing sources from the internet is unavoidable in this paper, for we know that satisfying sources for pre-philosophical and early Greek philosophy are hardly found in our library. And some sources are cited from the book excerpted from the internet.

THE BEGINNING OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY

Human ‘thought’ in pre-philosophical can be characterized from what would then come as “mythopoeic,” “mythopoetic,” or “mythic” thought. “Mythopoeic” means “making” (poieîn, from which the word “poet” is derived) “myth”. It differs from philosophical thinking in, at least, five characteristics. First, myths are stories about person, where they may be gods, heroes, or ordinary persons. Things—including natural events—were associated with persons whether they be gods or not. In philosophical thought, so to speak, there was change in way of explanation of, for instance, natural disaster. Thales explained that earthquakes are just when a wave in the cosmic ocean rocks the earth. This explanation eliminated the actions or intentions of the gods. But this does not mean a complete departure from thought of gods’ role even in the so-called philosophical age. Thales, to give an example, was to be said that everything is full of gods.
Secondly, myths possible multiplicity of explanation which are not logically exclusive (can contradict each other) and are often humorous. The theories of the earliest Greeks philosophers, especially those about whom we know the most, like Anaximander and Heraclites, are systematic and internally coherent. Thirdly, mythic traditions are conservative; they hardly change their view and do not accept drastic divergence. On the contrary, philosophical thought, notably Greek philosophy as recorded in Western philosophical history, allow rapid and essential differences. Thales’ view on water had been superseded by several theories only within 80 years. Fourthly, myths are self-justifying. There was no other explanation for creativity of poets, seers, and prophets than inspiration of the gods. Consequently myths are not argumentative. On the other hand, Parmenides offers substantive arguments for his views written in his The Way of Truth. Fifthly, myths are morally ambivalent. The gods and heroes in mythical stories do not always do what is admirable and thus their stories do not teach moral lessons, as to be found in the story of Achilles. As reaction to this moral ambivalence, Xenophanes criticizes the poets for ascribing shameful acts to the gods.

There were many civilizations known to history before Greek. One of the most ancient civilizations known is Egypt civilization. It is said that Egyptian people has recognized art of writing for about 4000 B.C. It also invented what is known afterward as the Mysteries, a very complex religious system, which later some identify it as the genuine origin of Greek philosophy, as to be discussed in next part of this paper. The other big civilization is Babylonia. The oldest law code known to this day is that of Hammurabi, king of Babylon, about 2100 B.C. The others are Phoenician and Lydia from whom Greek had learned their alphabet and using of money. These civilizations around Greek, in one and another way, had influenced Greek civilization and thus their so-called philosophy—to use revisionist’s term.

The environment in which Greek philosophy is said to be born had hot dry summers and cool rainy winters, and hence Greece could not possibly be as agriculturally productive as Egypt or Mesopotamia. Agriculture is the vital aspect in traditional livelihood. To have a good agricultural environment means to be wealth nation. However, at that time Cities like Miletus and Athens were wealthy. They achieve it with other mean; trade. This puts Greek in an open dialogue with other civilization to do what we may call it now as cultural exchange. Trade and wealthy are not a complete explanation as to why did philosophy emerge in cities like Athens and Miletus, for Phoenician preceded Greek in trade and Egypt and Babylon are wealthy as well. The added reason for that as proposed by Kelley Rose is the fall of kingship institution in cities such as Athens and Miletus. In 510 B.C. Cleisthenes led Athens into essentially pure democracy.

SOME EARLY GREEK THINKERS

In this part we would like to sketch three early philosophers, who, we consider, can represent others and have important role in early development of philosophy. The first to be called as philosopher is Thales of Miletus. He lived between ca. 624-546 B.C. He is known so because his attempt in explanation events happening to this world naturalistically, as noted earlier. His famous dictum is that all things originate from water. Many philosophers followed Thales's lead in searching for explanations in nature rather than in the supernatural; others returned to supernatural explanations, but couched them in the language of philosophy rather than myth or religion. He learned from Babylon and Egypt. He had predicted sun eclipse occurring in 585 B.C., as Herodotus cites. He was said to have been of Phoenician ancestry.

The other important philosopher is Pythagoras. According to Diogenes Laertius, “Pythagoras was the first person who invented the term philosophy, and called himself a philosopher”. He was born in Samos island in ca. 580 B.C. and died in 500 B.C. According to Aristotle and others' accounts, some ancients believed that he had the ability to travel through space and time, and to communicate with animals and plants. He is best known for the Pythagorean Theorem which bears his name. He is often revered as a great mathematician. However, he is also known as the founder of religious movement, called Pythagoreanism.

The philosopher who is considered to be the turning point in development of Greek thought is Parmenides. He was born in Elea, Hellenic city on the southern coast of Italy, in ca. 510 B.C. and died in ca. 450 B.C. He was remembered for his two major innovations; dialectics and metaphysics. To the Greeks, the first word simply meant logical argumentation. It ended the domination of mythical thought within Greek philosophical thinkers. The second word did not have the same meaning as it has now, it is rather to be understood as “After the Physics” relating Aristotle’s book of physics (On the Heavens, On the Soul, The Parts of Animals, etc). Therefore, in this context metaphysics must be understood as whatever contained in Aristotle’s Metaphysics. It is more appropriate in modern context to alter word metaphysics, in Parmenides thought, with ontology, i.e., the theory of what is real, since he talked being qua being. These two innovations are recorded in his only work remaining to this day the Way of Truth.

ORIGIN OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY

Bertrand Russell, who is considered as one of authoritative author so far as Western Philosophy is concerned, starts first chapter of his History of Western Philosophy by noting that nothing is the most astonishing and unexplainable other than the emergence of Greek philosophy. He, while not denying existence of other civilizations, argues that it was the Greek who arrange the legacy of those civilizations in a ‘perfect’ manner.
Such notion is common to the Western historians writing history of philosophy. They emphasize the Greek internal capacity to introduce something that radically changes the history of humanity. Like Julian Marias notes that “This new perspective emerged in Greece for the first time in history, and since then appear something totally new in the world; something that had produced philosophy”. Some scholars call this viewpoint as Eurocentric or even Hellenocentric. The other scholar who holds this opinion is Frederick Coplestone. He is convinced that Greek has no idea about other civilization, say Egypt or Babylon. Greek philosophy originally comes from their extraordinary intelligence, stressing their internal superiority.
This view impacts widely on scholarship and discourses on philosophy—IAIN is not an exception—and consequently reveals the superiority of Western people. In many writings of history of philosophy, Greek philosophy is considered as the first philosophy, denying the fact it is only a continuation of human thought throughout history. And in the IAIN case it is very strange to see many discussions on philosophy talking much about Western philosophy while disregarding Islamic philosophy. They simply follow western syllabus which judges golden era of Islamic philosophy as dark ages.

REVISIONIST VIEWPOINT ON EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHY

In tracing the origin of philosophy, some scholars, in various disciplines, criticize the mainstream tendency to highly stress the internal factors within Greek civilization. Some have read this tendency as a consequence from European imperialism. Scholars regarded as revisionist use many approaches to prove that Hellenic ability is not the only reason for emergence of the so-called Greek philosophy. Instead, to describe what has mistakenly been considered as Euro-Greek legacy, they generally propose a new explanation; intercontinental influences. This in general suggests that Greek is just one chain of human thought history among other civilizations.
Here are some of their arguments and approaches excerpted from ISLAMIA, Islamic quarterly journal:
1. Arguments based on ancient sources. George G. M James in his outstanding book Stolen Legacy: Greek Philosophy is stolen Egyptian Philosophy summarizes his view in opening statement of his book. He writes: “The term Greek philosophy, to begin with, is a misnomer, for there is no such philosophy in existence.” By analyzing ancient Greek texts, such as Phaedo and Timaeus of Plato, Life of Eminent Philosophers of Diogenes Laertius, and Histories of Herodotus, he suggests that Greek philosopher; Thales, Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato—to name some—had learned or borrowed thought from Egyptian priest. And then they re-write what they learned from Egypt without citing sources from which they got. It can also be proved by examining Egyptian ancient inscriptions. They show that some ancient Egypt believes are that water is origin of everything; that nature creation was planned within Ptah’s (highest god in Egypt belief) reason; that basic elements of nature are fire, water, earth, and air; and so on. There is clear conceptual affinity between Egyptian believes and theories to come in Greek philosophy age.
2. Archeological and socio-intellectual history arguments. Martin Bernal shows that there was firm link culturally and intellectually between Semite (Jews), Greek, and Egypt civilizations. This connection gave birth to parallels and similarities between those. “No man ever lives in a social vacuum”, George Sarton say in his Ancient Science and Modern Civilization. Furthermore, Bernal is successful to prove that Greek had much been influenced by Phoenicia and Egypt who had occupied Greece ca. 1500 B.C. This explanation, called Ancient Model, was broadly accepted in Europe academically and has no internal weakness scientifically. But it is then replaced by Aryan Model, in mid-nineteenth century during which European countries started colonizing non-European countries, which instead proposes the superiority of Greco-based-Euro civilization.
3. Historical arguments. In comparative study of history of world philosophy, it is found that rationalism in other ancient civilization, like Egypt, Babylon, India, and China, preceded far before the time of Greek. In this context it is not surprising to find that what Heraclites and Ephesus said, that “Wisdom is to know thought that determine position of all things”, had been written in Memphis theology thousand years before Heraclites born. Benjamin Schwartz writes “Comparative world history approach will show that, in first millennium B.C., the emergence of creative groups, who think deeply and critically to their own civilizations…like many historical changes, there is no absolute beginning for these progress”.

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

It is no longer useful to refer Greek philosophy as the first and origin of philosophy, for:
1. Many people, who are conventionally regarded as earliest Greek philosopher, have been proven to be taught, or at least get lessons from ‘outsider’, notably Egypt civilization.
2. The emphasis to the unique genius of the Greeks and other internal factors sounds like racism more than as result of scientific study, since it highlights the superiority of Aryan race, as noted in point two.
3. If we use the first meaning of philosophy, which entails what is today understood as science, we should not refer only to the Greek as the first to invent that, because it has been proven that long before them, other civilizations had the same or even more sophisticated system.
4. If we understand philosophy as understood today, that is to think of things rationally, systematically, and abstractly, we would refer more appropriately to ancient civilizations like Egypt, Babylon, India, and China, since they preceded Greek and they already had systematic thought far before Greek did.
5. It is intellectually inevitable to assume that all human thought, including that of Greek, is a continuation of human thinking from all human civilization, it does not belong exclusively to one civilization; the West or Greek. All has its role in human history.


REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS:

The list below is references cited in this paper directly or through other references. However, it is strongly recommended to read books mainly relating with revisionist viewpoint.
Bernal, Martin. Black Athena: the Afro-Asiatic Roots of Classical Civilization. 1987. (Trenton, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press).
Coplestone, Frederick. A History of Philosophy. 1946. (London: Search Press).
Huffman, Carl. Pythagoras (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoras.
James, George G. M. Stolen Legacy: Greek Philosophy is Stolen Egyptian Philosophy. 1992. (Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press).
Karam, Yusuf. Tarikh Al-Falsafah Al-Yunaniyah, Fifth Print. 1970. (Cairo: Mathba’ah Lajnah al-Ta’lif wa al-Tarjamah wa al-Nashr).
Marias, Julian. History of Philosophy. 1967. (New York: Dover Publications).
Rose, Kelley L. 2007. Parmenides of Elea and the Way of Truth, (Online), http://www.friesian.com/greek.htm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmenides.
Rose, Kelly L. 2007. The Origin of Philosophy: The Attributes of Mythic/Mythopoeic Thought, (Online), http://www.friesian.com/greek.htm.
Rose, Kelly L. 2007. The Origin of Philosophy: Why the Greeks?, (Online), http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Philosophy:Origins_of _Philosophy.
Russell, Bertrand. Sejarah Filsafat Barat dan Kaitannya dengan Kondisi Sosio-Politik dari Zaman Kuno Hingga Sekarang. Trans. Sigit Jatmiko, et, all. Second Print. 2004 (Jogjakarta: PUSTAKA PELAJAR).
Sarton, George. Ancient Science and Modern Civilization. 1959. (New York: Harper Torchbook).
Schwartz, Benjamin. the World of Thought in Ancient China. 1985. (Cambridge, New Jersey: Harvard University Press).
Setia, Adi. 2006. Melacak Asal Usul Filsafat dan Sains Yunani. ISLAMIA. Volume III, Number 1.

ENDNOTES:

Kelley L. Rose in http://www.friesian.com/greek.htm
Ibid.
Bertrand Russell, Sejarah Filsafat Barat, trans. by Sigit Jatmiko et. all., p. 33.
Kelley L. Rose, op. cit.
Bertrand Russell, op. cit, p. 4.
George James, Stolen Legacy: Greek Philosophy is Stolen Egyptian Philosophy, p.1.
Kelley L. Rose, op. cit.
Kelley L. Rose, ibid.
Yusuf Karam, Tarikh al-Falsafah al-Yunaniyah, pp. 12-4 and Kelley L. Rose, op. cit., http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Introduction_to_Philosophy:Origins_of_Philosophy
Diogenes Laertius, Vitae Philosophorum VIII (Lives of Eminent Philosophers), c. 200 AD, which in turn reference the lost work Successions of Philosophers by Alexander Polyhistor) — Pythagoras, Translation by C.D. Yonge, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoras
Carl Huffman, Pythagoras (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagoras
Kelley L. Ross Parmenides of Elea and the Way of Truth in http://www.friesian.com/greek.htm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parmenides.
Bertrand Russell, op. cit , p. 3
In his “History of Philosophy”, ms. 4.
Frederick Coplestone, a History of Philosophy, I/11.
ISLAMIA, Islamic quarterly journal, pp. 105-15
From George James’ book review by Femi Akomolafe in http://yeyeolade.wordpress.com/2007/09/17/the-greeks-stoled-greek-philosophy-from-black-egypt/
In his book Black Athena: the Afro-Asiatic Roots of Classical Civilization.
P. 4.
In his book the World of Thought in Ancient China, pp. 2-3.