This is written for Cat – a promising young lady in China – with whom I correspond. She has taken on the arduous task of reading the history of Sociology beginning with Plato – a book that is written in English. Such a task would be very difficult even if her native language was English, but since her native language is Chinese, the task is monumental.

Cat, in the western culture – when we begin to trace back various areas of knowledge – Sociology, Physics, Ethics, and all such areas, we basically are beginning with Plato and Aristotle, and frequently bring in Socrates. These men were Greek philosophers who have a tremendous influence on the development of western philosophy.

Philosophy or the study of the world and of life has been around since man first came on to earth. We look around and try to figure out what it is all about. That is the beginning of philosophy. There were therefore men before Plato and Aristotle who were philosophers, but these two are the ones who encompassed more area and developed more cohesive theories than those who preceded them.

Plato was always searching for what is invariant. For instance if he were thinking about or studying apes – he would look for that which was alike in ALL apes. Looking at people – he would want to find the defining characteristic of all people. He looked for the essence of what he study – and tried to see what was exactly the same in all people – to find that which uniquely defined mankind over centuries and in all situations. He looked for that which did not change – did not vary – in everything he examined.

Aristotle developed rules of logic. He wrote rules about how we must examine the world which all science still adheres to. The newest fields in Quantum Physics strongly tests these rules, but up until now we have used the Aristotelian method of thought – called Aristotelian Logic.

Socrates was a teacher of these two but there is scarcely anything surviving that was written by him. He questioned life and thought. His goal was to ask questions which got the person he questioned to think out the answer, and to reexamine or examine whatever they said or thought. An unexamined life is not worth living would be a phrase which might bring out his beliefs.

I hope this brief summary of that portion of western philosophy helps you to understand the book your are reading.