Has anybody actually read this?

yes. wish i bought it honestly. this book will change your life. i'm not sure how you found it, but i love you.

>>9745219
Oh, I can give it to you if you wish.

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>>9745232
wow really? i love you. my throwaway is [email protected]

or you can upload it anywhere else. finding that book in college was the most refreshing feeling in the world. i drew parallels between eastern + western motifs/philosophy but this book was one of the first which addressed the topic. all i have is this random page floating around on my computer.

comparing ancient beliefs and tracing history with geography is a must. everything didn't begin with hellenistic philosophy. western civilization isn't isolated.

ex: buddhism - stoicism - hinduism

people like to compare within, but not across. they are missing out on something very big.

however there is a lot more research to be done on the subject. definitely understated topic.

>>9745287
You can easily get it online: http://libgen.io/search.php?req=The+Shape+Of+Ancient+Thought&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def

>>9745299
Thank you.

>>9745303
You are welcome.

i laugh when i think of the youtube vids that are like "CHRISTIANITY DEBUNKED!! NOT ORIGINAL!!! JESUS = HORUS!!! SUN SYMBOLISM PARALLELS!! 3 DAYS! 12 NIGHTS!" etc

but actually

if it weren't for the illuminati kangs aesthetic, more people would probably pay attention.


(something along the lines of https://youtu.be/2g8Jlx8ibUE - i can't find the actual videos atm but you get what i mean lmao)

have you read the book?

i remember going through martin litchfield west - early greek philosophy and the orient and edward arnold's roman stoicism.


>According to Aristotle, “The Magi taught the Persians philosophy; the Chaldaeans taught it to the Babylonians and Assyrians; the Gymnosophists to the Indians; the Druids and the Semnothei to the Gauls and Celts.”
>Thus, Greece was not just the birthplace of philosophy; ... it can be seen as simply a “halting-place in the movement of philosophy.”
>“The cumulative heritage of seven hundred years of Greek dialectic was summed up in handbooks in and before the times of Sextus [Empiricus], and the contents of such a handbook, may all be found in the Madhyamika texts.”

>>9745348
Thanks for the books references.

>>9745348
what do you think then?

Check out Uzdavinys. He references that book quite often in his work.

>>9747531
Hadot and Kingsley also have works in a similar vein. Restoring the practices of the ancients and showing their similarity to other traditions which are often derided as mystical and non-philosophical.

>>9747531
Thank you, I might look into him.

>>9747581
Orpheus and the Roots of Platonism is his most concise work. I would suggest that to start. It can be somewhat difficult to find Philosophy as a Rite of Rebirth.

>>9747620
Oh, a friend gave it to me.
https://libgen.pw/view.php?id=932366

>>9747640
Thankee sai

Shape of Ancient Thought is a masterpiece. McEvilley's ideas were controversial in 2002 when it was published, but they've become way more mainstream as they've been corroborated by more exhaustive comparative studies as well as archeological evidence. The field of Gandharan studies basically didn't exist when McEvilley was doing this stuff. Now it's one of the faster growing sub-fields in buddhology.

Some thinkers like Peter Kingsley and Chris Beckwith are going even further with the same big historiography mentality McEvilley brings to the table, pushing diffusionist models of intellectual history to their limits.

I'd recommend McEvilley's other works too. His knowledge of the history of philosophy and history art is simply unparalleled. The first 70 pages of Sculpture in the Age of Doubt is a wonderful history of skepticism and Platonism. His essays, Art&Discontent and Art&Otherness are both really fun, easy reads.

Good resourceful thread.

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"... shared by Eastern religions and Hellenistic philosophy alike. From the beginning of its time, Buddhism was a missionary religion; and its emissaries must often have appeared in the Hellenistic world. There is evidence from modern Indian inscriptions that show us proof of “missionaries sent out by Acoka, the first great Buddhist king of India,” with a bag of healing herbs and doctrines sent to “Ptolemy II King of Egypt, Antiochus of Syria, and others; and this mission can have been but out of one of many.”

so why wouldn't they hit up greece ?!?!?!?!

not #startwiththegreeks but #startwiththecommonsource

is it this genre again?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Friedrich_Creuzer

Last bump.