Greece (Hellas) was nothing more than a set of city-states (polis) that developed on the Balkan Peninsula in southern Europe. Because of its mountainous relief, it allowed groups of people (demos) were formed in isolation within which each polis developed its autonomy.
Consisting of a portion of continental land and another portion of several islands, as well as due to the low fertility of its soils, Greece had to develop the business as the main economic activity. Thus, and taking advantage of its very jagged coastline and natural ports, it also developed the navigation to expand the business, as well as later its political influence in the so-called colonies.
Greek society was organized according to the traditional aristocratic model, based on the myths (fabulous narratives about the origin and order of the universe), in which affiliation to the homeland (owners) determined power (king).
This way of structuring society and thinking about the world is commonly classified as the Homeric period (due to Homer, a poet who narrates the emergence of Greece from the Trojan War). But over time, some contradictions were noticed and required new explanations. Then comes the
Philosophy. Here are the main factors that contributed to its appearance:- sea voyages, as the expansionist impulse forced the merchants to face the legends and then verify the fantasy of the mythical discourse, providing the demystification of the world (for example, the monsters that the poets told to exist in certain places where, visited by navigators, nothing there found);
- The construction of the calendar that allowed the measurement of time according to the seasons of the year and the alternation between day and night. This favored the ability of the Greeks to abstract time naturally rather than as divine power;
- the use of currency for the commercial exchanges that were previously carried out between products. This also favored abstract thinking, as the value added to products depended on a certain analysis of valuation;
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- the invention of the alphabetand the use of the word it is also a peculiar event. In a society accustomed to the orality of poets, the use of images to represent the real and appears, as a substitute, the alphabetic/phonetic writing, providing, like the items above, a greater power of abstraction.
The word is no longer used as in esoteric rituals (closed to initiates into the sacred mysteries and that unveiled the oracles of the gods), not by poets inspired by the gods, but in the public square (Now), in the daily confrontation between citizens;
- urban growth it is also registered due to all this movement, as well as the promotion of craft techniques and internal trade, arts and other services, typical characteristics of cities;
- The creation of the Policy who uses the floor for the deliberations of the people (demo) on each polis (hence, Democracy or the government of the people), as well as it demands that the laws be published for the knowledge of all, so that they reflect, criticize and modify them according to their interests.
Discussions in assemblies (which was where the people gathered to vote) stimulated critical-reflective thinking, the expression of collective will and evidenced man's ability to recognize capable of envisioning the order and organization of the world from its own rationality and no longer in magic-religious words based on the authority of poets inspired. With that, it was possible, from the systematic investigation, from the contradictions, from the requirement of logical rigor, to emerge Philosophy.
By João Francisco P. Cabral
Brazil School Collaborator
Graduated in Philosophy from the Federal University of Uberlândia - UFU
Master's student in Philosophy at the State University of Campinas - UNICAMP
Philosophy - Brazil School
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
CABRAL, João Francisco Pereira. "Conditions for the emergence of Philosophy"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/filosofia/condicoes-historicas-surgimento-filosofia.htm. Accessed on June 29, 2021.