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Philosophy Then

Eastern Promises

Peter Adamson spots some similarities between ancient Greek and ancient Indian philosophies.

When you launch a podcast and book series promising to cover the history of philosophy ‘without any gaps’ as I did about five years ago, you’re asking for trouble. Aside from the intrinsic challenges of the task, it practically invites critics to complain about things you’ve left out. And I’ve had my fair share of complaints along these lines – usually justified. The most common one, which I started to hear almost as soon as the project began, was that I shouldn’t leave out the ‘Eastern’ philosophical traditions of India and China. My feeling was initially that I had a good excuse for not covering them – namely, my total ignorance.

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