The forefathers of philosophy and the minds that established the substratum for this school of thought belonged to ancient Greece during the 6th century BCE. The phenomenon was initiated when thinkers began to question conventional explanations regarding the universe, society, and the human race. Clearly, civilizations were becoming more refined and gracefully developed, and hence the nonpareils began seeking reasons based on rationality rather than embracing tradition and religion. This revolution was followed by a series of questions that they confronted, which later became the basis of several philosophical debates and the branches of the subject.
The very first of these questions was about ‘What do we call reality?’ – the concepts based around knowing, being, time, space, and our identity as creatures – the branch of philosophy now known as Metaphysics.
Serving as a stepping stone to probe further, thinkers began to question how we can be so sure of our reality as we know it – the branch of epistemology;
And the nature of human existence – the branch of ontology.
Later, as they continued to make progress, they carved out a meticulous path to analysis, logical functions, and methods of addressing rudimentary ideas presented through religious scriptures such as justice, happiness, and virtue – leading to the creation of a newfound branch of moral philosophy and ethics.
In the end, many philosophers started indulging in reasoning about the kind of society we, as humans, should live in – extending to another branch known as political philosophy.
