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Articles

Who Started All This Philosophy Business?

Carl Murray reports on a heated argument in Hades.

We are in the Underworld – in the Philosophers’ Corner. Some of the early Greek philosophers (or rather their shades) have been earnestly debating such profound problems as ‘What is the world made of?’ and ‘Is there an underlying unity?’ On this occasion however they have strayed onto the question of who was the first philosopher. So far, the one thing on which they are agreed is that whoever it was, it certainly was not Socrates – he was far too obsessed with ethics. Thales, Pythagoras, Parmenides and Heraclitus among others are demanding the right to assert their claim. King Minos, one of the judges in the Underworld, intervenes to establish some control over the proceedings.

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