2. Philosophy is the pursuit of knowledge
about nature and humanity
• philo– = love of < Gr. philia, lo
• sophy– = wisdom < Gr. sophia, wisdom
3. Like history, philosophy was a new
alternative to mythological thinking
• Where history is a type of knowledge about
past events, philosophy is a type of
knowledge about
– The natural world (nature)
– The human world (humanity or culture)
– The rational world (mathematics, logic)
• Just as Herodotus is considered the father of
history, the father of philosophy is Socrates