HISTORY OF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHYAncient philosophy, the basis of Western thought and science, evolved in the course of almost one thousand years. In the sixth century BC that process was begun in which we still find ourselves: the attempt at a rational explanation of the world and of man's place in the world. The earliest period until just past the middle of the fifth century BC was economically, socially and politically a period of crises, but at the same time a period which opened