Another thing I can say about philosophy generally is that philosophy at its core is the most low-level operating thought of knowledge. Theological knowledge, which is where most philosophical inquiry began as a thing humans did in institutions, did not arise by Reason, but because of a necessity for this knowledge if humans (or any other animal) were to navigate the world and respond to it with any deliberation. Theology doesn't go into the rational details of its process. A fully developed religion can rationalize its claims, but at a basic level, religion's claims about anything are not about having a theory or rational explanation, but about something the theologian believes to be imminent, eternal, and very important if they are to speak of the world. Philosophy as an answer to "big questions" all on its own is not very useful. Where the classical philosophers start is their examination of society, human beings, based at first on their religious knowledge that was adopted out of necessity and perpetuated for many generations. There are of course new cults and new religions that come about every so often, and this was more common in the ancient world than it is today. The "one big religion" idea didn't take off until the classical period, and it only got really big with Christianity. Buddhism was also sort of this, where Buddha's message was a singular one, but the way Buddhism adapted is that its spiritual leaders establish their school, and another leader establishes a different school, and their concept of the spiritual grows and adapts with the times.
Philosophy proper has always had a troubled relationship with anything religious, because many of the people writing philosophy were doing so in explicit opposition to the spiritual authority of their day. This was especially pronounced in Greece, and really really pronounced in Plato whose whole thing is that he hates democracy and the masses. Then the Romans came along and became administrators, lawyers, and most of what we think of as standard law was set in place. There's a bigger reason why this happened than saying it was because of some thought leaders declaring it so, but at a basic level, humans are deliberate actors in the world. They couldn't be otherwise if their existence was a real one.
So my thing, the thing I do really well, is get into the weeds of the most basic germs of philosophical thought. I had to, out of necessity, think about how I think, and how thought coul
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