DescriptionThe history of ancient Western philosophy includes a geographic area stretching roughly from the Persian Gulf to the Atlantic and from North Africa to the Alps. The temporal extension embraces more than a millennium, from the seventh century before Christ until 529 A.D., when Emperor Justinian decreed the closing of the Neo-Platonic school of Athens.This philosophy was not born in Greece, but in the earthen colonies of Ionia or Anatolia; later it developed in the eastern colonies of Magna Graecia in southern Italy. Only later in Athens did this philosophy find terrain for its extraordinary development; and in this period it exercised a decisive influence not only on the ancients but also on Christian and Islamic philosophy. The duration of this philosophy and its expansion as far as India in the seventh through twelfth centuries made it a universal philosophy. This universality is even more evident today if we consider the fact that modern European philosophy, the descendant of its ancient European counterpart tends to place itself above regional philosophies, even the illustrious and ancient ones of India and China. Therefore, the names “Western philosophy”, “Greek” or “Mediterranean philosophy” are equivalent but improper expressions with a variety of meanings. It is necessary to approach this philosophy by outlining: (1) the sources, or the documents allowing us to establish its origins and development; (2) the cultural causes which provoked the beginnings of philosophical reflection; and (3) the historical periods, or the partitioning of periods throughout its history. Indeed, the historical design of ancient Western philosophy is rather an overturned painting where a certain thread or unitary movement is visible with various colorations.
