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1.0. INTRODUCTION

According to Oxford Dictionary, history is “the study of past events.” It is important that the citizens of a country have knowledge of the important past events that have taken place in the country. In the same vein every student of philosophy is expected not only to have knowledge of the history of philosophy but a first class knowledge of it, if he or she desires to become an outstanding philosopher. As a division of studies, the History of Philosophy tries to investigate the past of men in their rational venture. According to William Turner the History of Philosophy is “the exposition of philosophical opinions and of systems and schools of philosophy.” The History of Philosophy does not only deal with the positions, systems and schools of philosophy, but also gives considerations to the lives of philosophers, the common link of the systems and schools of thought, moreover, it also makes an effort to trace the route of philosophical progression and retrogression.

The general conception, even among professional philosophers, is that Greece is the cradle of philosophy. Therefore, almost all the available histories of philosophy, and philosophers themselves, agree that the so-called Pre-Socratics were the first or earliest philosophers, at least, in the Western world. Unlike the early thinkers of India and China, the Pre-Socratics did not think exegetically out of ancient scriptures or poems, but they spoke “as disrespectfully of the greatest poets they did to each other.” The most excellent reason for this popular conception is that first known philosophers in history lived among the Greeks. According to some authors in history of philosophy, the pre- Socratics were Greeks. Indeed, no one has ever succeeded in writing a complete history of philosophy; for philosophy like the works of arts, are intensely personal things. Our aim is to attempt a justification on why Greece may not necessarily be the cradle of philosophy.