Talk:Ancient philosophy/Archive 1

I've added an incomplete list of philosophers. Obviously we need more text describing the ideas of the various schools of thought and how they related to one another. -- Mark Christensen

Also, I would like to see some support for this claim: "many of the early Greek Philosophers are widely believed to have been heavily influenced by earlier Egyptian thinkers who's names and writings have since been lost." What I want support for is (1) that this is widely believed (how can it be, if this is the first I've heard of it), and (2) that it's true at all. --LMS

You are right, as it stands, the phrase "Many philosophers" is too strong, I do think it is common belief that there are Egyptian influences on the pre-Socratics. It's certainly true that most scholars attribute several aspects of Pythagoras's thought to his contact with Egyptian sources. if I remember correctly, there are also many who believe that Parmenides shows Egyptian influences. There are ancient sources which claim that Thales visited egypt, and though these are somewhat doubtfull, the claim that Thales recomended travel to Egypt to those who would study the order of things is widely accepted as true. In particular the mathematics of the Egyptians is considered influential on several of the early Greek Philosophers. I will support these things, this is just a rough draft, I'll keep working on it.