The document summarizes the development of Greek philosophy from the pre-Socratic philosophers to the Hellenistic period. It traces the emergence of philosophical questioning of myths and the search for consistent rational explanations. Major philosophers like Thales, Anaximander, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, and Democritus established early philosophical traditions. Socrates and his students Plato and Aristotle developed new systematic approaches. The spread of Greek culture under Alexander and the Hellenistic kingdoms prompted both the diffusion of philosophy and new schools of thought addressing individualism and cosmopolitanism in the changing world.

1. Greek Philosophy and the Hellenistic World

14. The Hellenistic Kingdoms