Triggered by the recent workshop on the Epistemology and Ontology of Academic Knowledge organized by the Kerala State Higher Education Council, I started reading up on Indian philosophy. The endeavor resulted in reading up several other philosophies including Zoroastrianism, Judaism, etc. In this, I present a summary of the various civilizations and philosophical pursuits/status of each of these, which I managed to learn using ChatGPT 5.2 and using it to summarize it in the form of a table.
Period (approx.) | Region | Civilization / Tradition | What exists | Philosophical status |
3200–2000 BCE | Mesopotamia | Sumerian civilization | Cuneiform, law, myth, kingship | No reflective philosophy |
3100–2000 BCE | Nile Valley | Ancient Egypt | Hieroglyphs, maʿa, afterlife texts | Didactic ethics, not critical philosophy |
2600–1900 BCE | South Asia | Indus Valley civilization | Urbanism, undeciphered script | Worldview unknown (script unreadable) |
3000–1100 BCE | Aegean | Mycenaean Greece (incl. Minoan) | Palaces, Linear scripts, mythic order | Pre-philosophical |
1600 BCE | China | Shang dynasty | Oracle bones, ritual divination | Recorded ritual order |
from 300 BCE | Mesoamerica | Maya civilization | Writing, calendars, astronomy | Ritual–cosmic order |
1500–1200 BCE | South Asia | Rigveda (Early Vedic) | ṛta, ritual + questioning | Earliest known reflective tradition |
1400–1000 BCE | Iranian world | Zoroastrianism (Gāthās) | Truth vs lie, moral choice | Earliest known ethical philosophy |
1100–800 BCE | Greece | Greek Dark Age | Oral epics, social reorg. | Pre-philosophical |
800–500 BCE | India | Upaniṣads | Self, ultimate reality | Axial philosophy |
800–500 BCE | West Asia | Judaism (classical) | Law, covenant, history | Axial moral–legal philosophy |
600–300 BCE | Greece | Greek philosophy (Archaic → Classical) | logos, nature, ethics | Axial philosophy |
600 BCE | India | Jainism | Non-violence, karma | Axial ethical philosophy |
500 BCE | India | Buddhism | Suffering, no-self | Axial soteriology |
600–300 BCE | China | Confucianism; Daoism | Role-ethics; natural order | Axial philosophy |
600 BCE–300 CE | South India | Keeladi | Iron Age urbanism, literacy | Civilizational substrate |
300 BCE–300 CE | South India | Tamil Sangam philosophy | Ecology, virtue, social life | World-affirming ethics |
1st c. CE | Mediterranean | Christianity | Salvation theology | Theological philosophy |
7th c. CE | Arabia | Islam | Law, monotheism | Theological–legal system |
200 BCE–300 CE | India | Proto-Śaiva/Vaiṣṇava | Temple/ascetic devotion | Pre-Bhakti |
600–1200 CE | India | Bhakti movement | Vernacular devotion | Devotional synthesis |
Early CE onward | Korea/Japan | Confucianism & Buddhism | Imported philosophies | Derivative traditions |
Timeless (oral) | Australia | Aboriginal traditions | Dreaming cosmologies | Oral ethics/metaphysics |
What his tells us is that the Vedic and Zoroastrian philosophies are the earliest known
Below are the core ideas attributed to each philosophical tradition (again with the help of ChatGPT5.2)
- Vedic → ṛta, ritual maintenance of order
- Zoroastrian → aša vs druj, ethical dualism
- Greek (early) → nature explained via logos, not myth
- Greek (Plato/Aristotle) → forms, causation, virtue ethics
- Judaism → covenant, law, historical time
- Jainism → non-theism, karma as binding constraint, ahimsa
- Buddhism → suffering, impermanence, no-self
- Tamil Sangam → akam/puram, tiṇai, aram–poruḷ–inbam
- Christianity → salvation, incarnation, theology
- Islam → law, obedience, prophetic continuity
I will continue to write my understanding of some of these philosophical traditions in more detail.
