PHIL 1010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Gautama Buddha, Axial Age, Analects

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHIL 1010
• Professor: hecker

Document Summary

Western philosophy starts in ancient greece with socrates and plato. The second half of the first millennium bce has therefore been called the axial age it was a revolutionary period in human thinking, when a number of core ideas were formulated. This was a time in which literate, urban, agrarian societies were reaching new innovations in technology allowed for many people to do things other than grow food; so there were different roles and classes. These societies were hierarchical, with rulers who certainly did not engage in manual labor. Rulers certainly would wage wars to better their position, and sometimes would exercise power ruthlessly to attain their ends. Their questions address issues facing the societies of their time: dealing with warfare and tyranny. What is remarkable about these developments, what is new, is that people are for the first time stepping back from what is the case, and formulating views about what ought to be the case.