000			a
999			_c33230 _d33230
008			240428b xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020			_a9781108499552 _chbk
082			_a180 _bSEA
100			_aSeaford, Richard
245			_aThe origins of philosophy in ancient Greece and ancient India : a historical comparison
260			_bCambridge University Press, _c2020 _aCambridge :
300			_axv,369 p. ; _bill., _c23 cm
365			_b32.99 _c£ _d110.10
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
520			_aWhy did Greek philosophy begin in the sixth century BCE? Why did Indian philosophy begin at about the same time? Why did the earliest philosophy take the form that it did? Why was this form so similar in Greece and India? And how do we explain the differences between them? These questions can only be answered by locating the philosophical intellect within its entire societal context, ignoring neither ritual nor economy. The cities of Greece and northern India were in this period distinctive also by virtue of being pervasively monetised. The metaphysics of both cultures is marked by the projection (onto the cosmos) and the introjection (into the inner self) of the abstract, all-pervasive, quasi-omnipotent, impersonal substance embodied in money (especially coinage). And in both cultures this development accompanied the interiorisation of the cosmic rite of passage (in India sacrifice, in Greece mystic initiation). "I define 'philosophy' as the attempt to explain systematically, and without relying on superhuman agency, the fundamental features of the universe and the place of human beings in it. This is not the only possible definition, but is the most revealing one for our period, in which we find the advent of 'philosophy' (or something very like it) in Greece, India, and China, and nowhere else"
650			_aIndic History
650			_aCoinage
650			_aMystic initiation
650			_aSacrifice
650			_aQuasi-omnipotent
650			_aAll-pervasive
650			_aInner self
650			_aMonoism
650			_aKshatriya
650			_aUpanishad
650			_aHomer
650			_aRig veda
650			_aPhilosophy
650			_aAncient
942			_2ddc _cBK