2. Greek Philosophy and Mysticism

An intellectual search for Ultimate Reality Thus mythology overreached itself and discredited the very existence of a spiritual world. Science drew the conclusion, not that the spiritual world had been misconceived, but that there was no such thing: nothing was real except tangible body composed of atoms. . . . The Socratic philosophy is a reaction against this materialistic drift of physical science. —F. M. Cornford, Before and After Socrates [p 62] [p 63] Ancient relevance Still seeking answers to our questions about the nature of Ultimate Reality, and how we are related to it, we now leave the East and journey to the West, from Indian pantheistic monism to Greek philosophy and mysticism.28 Greek philosophy has proved to be one of the most important and influential movements of thought in the history of Western civilisation. The movement is traditionally held to have begun with Thales of Miletus in Ionia (c.600 BC). In the course of the following centuries it eventually developed into a formal system of education with its colleges and professors in various cities of the ancient world. As a pagan system of organised education it came to an end in AD 529, for in that year the emper...