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Philosophy, according to the Cambridge dictionary, is “the use of reason in understanding such things as the nature of the real world and existence, the use and limits of knowledge, and the principles of moral judgment.” It is a subject that has held the interest of millions around the world and is studied widely. The very fact that you are reading this article, means that in some way it interests you too. Have you ever wondered about the origin of something? Everything has to have started somewhere, right? We started by wondering about the origin philosophy.
The advent of philosophical questions began, way back in the 7th century B.C., with the Milesians of Greek Ionia asking,“Is there something that does not change that underlies the ever-changing appearances of things? And is that something one thing or many things?”
The Milesian school of philosophy consisted of the ancient Greek philosophers Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes, all of whom belonged to Miletus. They were the first to wonder out loud about dimensions that contained realities that were never-changing and whether those realities were singular or plural.
This question would now be placed in the philosophical branch of Metaphysics that takes into account the existence and nature of things that already exist. It also concerns the first principle of things and includes abstract concepts. But at the time when the question was posed, the word ‘metaphysics’ had not even been coined. So, we can say that this specific question laid down the foundation of metaphysics for all philosophers to come.
But wait, how do we know that the beginning we know is actually the beginning. There is a slight twist here. We understand this question because we know the language it was shaped in. So, according to philosophers, the first question should be regarding the logic of the language. The question that would be prior to the first question we posed would be, “How is language with meaning distinguished from language without meaning when discussing philosophical questions?”
It is said that the only tool philosophy has is language. But what makes a language what it is? How do you differentiate between what is language and what is nonsense? Who makes that distinction? Socrates tried to provide the answers to these questions but well, we’ll cover that in another article. Coming back to the question that the Milesians brought up, many philosophers derived paths of thought from it, such as, “Why is there something instead of nothing? Was there a beginning to the universe? If so, how did it begin? Was there a Creator? If so, who is he or what is it? Does God exist and what are his attributes?”
There are so many more questions which make this list endless. There are so many answers yet the subjectivity of their nature means that there can not be definitive answers for those who seek them. With all the knowledge we have gained since 7th century B.C., we are still stuck at the first question ever that philosophy had, because no one has yet found the answer. Think about it and maybe you could come up with your own solution.
Sources
Philosphy. (n.d.). Cambridge Dictionary. Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/philosophy
Philosophy’s First Question. (2020). Retrieved from https://www.roangelo.net/logwitt/first-question-philosophy.html
https://philosophy.redzambala.com/milesian-school/milesian-school-of-philosophy-intro.html
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