Philosophy is one of the ancient most disciplines of knowledge and learning, which seeks its roots in old logic, psychology, rationalism, and intellect. It is the in-depth and systematic study of soul and mind. In other words, the subject discusses the Nature and emotions of the human mind. The subject has observed a long historical development process and elaborated various aspects of the human soul and mind as well. Throughout human history, man has been eager to explore the mysteries of the soul as well as thoughts prevailing in the mind concealed from the eyes and hidden under the pile of spirituality and mysticism. Though Nature has revealed its beauties in every one of its objects and many subjects are determined to acquire one thing or the other for describing natural phenomena, and few disciplines, including Psychology, Philosophy, Metaphysics, Astrology, and Astronomy, etc. have made efforts to discover the secrets of human soul and mind to some extent, yet many aspects are still to get explored in order to accomplish the task of searching out vigilance and wisdom for the guidance and benefit of human beings at large. It is really advisable to find out the contributions of philosophers, theorists, researchers, and psychologists with reference to the timeline and chronology of events in the development of the subject during the course of time.
Philosophy is like a deep ocean containing millions of pearls of knowledge and wisdom in its sway. Newton’s splitting of matter led to the metaphysical understanding of mechanical works. Though the theorists have worked on the different aspects of the discipline, making its shape and discovering its fields, yet there are many things yet to explore and search out. One of the most important fields includes the wonderful world of perception. So much has been written and suggested in this field, but the subject is in utter need of elaboration. Theorists seldom determine its scope and strength. It is a fact beyond doubt that the power of perception identifies both the human soul and mind far better than observation and experimentation.
Perception is a gifted ability that aims at estimating how the human brain imagines and assesses future actions and consequent reactions to human behavior. In the same way, the suppressed feelings like masochism, exhibitionism, and sadism are still in wait for further amplification and specifications. Freud has worked on fear and anxiety, but only a few thoughts reveal the sudden actions of the human soul without any predetermined feelings. The works of many writers, poets, and philosophers are still to be explored to bless the universe with more and more fruitfulness of wisdom. The poems of Emily Bronte, including “No Coward Soul is Mine,” portray a message of unwavering hope on the death door on the one hand and admit the mortality of humans and immortality of the Lord on the other.
Philosophers and thinkers are always the rebels of their contemporary Society. The foundations of their philosophy erect on human welfare. Before the mighty French Revolution, it was philosophers like Voltaire, Rousseau, and others who awoke the sleeping nation and fought for the noble cause of equality and justice by their wonderful writings. The philosophical theme behind the literature of that time paved the way towards equal distribution of power, pelf, possession, and prestige for all strata of French Society. Thus unjust measures enforced by the French laws came to an end. The volume clearly shows the relationship between literature and philosophy. Almost all the works ever produced in history have a philosophical identity. Aristotle’s writings on various subjects signify his philosophical ideas and themes.
Looking into the timeline of the system of Philosophy, it becomes evident that the theories used to be based on rational thoughtfulness, deep observation, and continuous experimentation on which the foundations of philosophy were laid down. Candice Lassiter has divided the history and systems of the discipline into different eras, i.e., ancient, medieval, modern, and post modern ones. She found its roots in about 1120 BC when the first book I-Ching was written by Wen Wang on Astronomy. The book describes the metaphysical elements in the human soul and the relation of the human soul with the objects of Nature. It has also tried to present how the human soul has an access to the supernatural powers existing in the universe.
The renowned Chinese philosopher Confucius states it the greatest of the literature in this particular field. Most of the ancient theorists concentrated on astronomy while portraying human psychological characteristics. The same is the case with Thales of Miletos, who is considered among the seven sages of Athens. Unlike other philosophers of his times, Thales did not link all the maters with myth and metaphysics; rather, being mathematician, he always looked for naturalistic elucidation of Society and the world. He preached moral values and stressed upon the utility of knowledge. All the philosophers and theorists of the ancient times maintained almost the same views and exercised the same values. That is why most of these philosophers including Zarathustra, Anaximander, Lao-tze, Pythagoras, Gautama, Confucius, and others had learnt mathematics and gymnastics on the one hand and advocated morality, charity, love, wisdom, and goodness on the other. They viewed such characteristics highly important for man and very near to human Nature; thus beneficial for the whole mankind. Their study of human Nature revealed before them the behavioral approach of philosophy where only goodness can make balance in the equation of peace and justice in the whole world.
Almighty God, the Creator, has made man out of His own image and bestowed upon him the blessings of knowledge. It is knowledge that distinguishes man from animals, beasts, and even angels too elevating his position superior to all. Socrates, the great philosopher and thinker of ancient Greece, always preached for the significance of knowing oneself. He views that if an individual looks into himself and analyses his mind and personality, he gets acquainted with the favors of his Lord on him. In addition, as soon as he knows his positive points and merits hidden in his personality, he can gird up his loins to make maximum benefit out of it for himself as well as for other human beings.
Furthermore, knowing himself is helpful in overcoming one’s weaknesses and drawbacks he contains in his personality. Knowing oneself is the ladder, a spiritual way to recognize one’s Lord. Making one’s analysis and seeking knowledge are two ways to know one’s own self. Socrates states that man can know himself by thinking about the process of his birth. How he was mere a useless drop of water i.e. semen dropped into another filthy pot i.e. vagina, where he got nourishment out of the menstruation blood for nine months and then at his birth, he was unable to feed, clothe or even clean himself. There are many signs in the objects of Nature too in order to recognize one’s self. Man is unable to make even a bee, but he has been gifted powers to surmount high mountains, vast deserts, and endless oceans. All these objects of Nature teach the individuals and are a way to learn many things about him.
The future philosophers i.e. Heraclitus, Hippocrates, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and others also imitated their forerunners and gave special attention to the same values including goodness, morality and truthfulness on the one hand and taught mathematics, logic, gymnastics and philosophy on the other. Socrates is quoted to be stated that the theme of real knowledge is that one must say that he knows nothing. He maintains that as mathematics shapes intellect and gymnastic shapes body, it is wisdom that shapes the human soul. Pure soul is necessary to make up a pure mind and heart, which consequently forms a neat, clean, sober and pure social set up. Plato and Aristotle displayed almost the same feelings regarding human psychology and contributed to the knowledge of their predecessor philosopher. The Stoic period of Rome also contained depth and universality in its fold, where the spiritual leader Zeno established a new tradition of leading a secluded life in order to gain spiritual and moral satisfaction by living far from the materialistic social set up. Zeno’s teachings got respectable place in ancient Roman cult, culture, and civilization and people imitated his ways for many decades.
The name of the Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (peace be upon him) is the most prominent among the law-makers and psychologists of the coming generations. He is the noble personality who successfully turned the most savage and cruel Arab people into the most learnt and humble members of civil Society by enduring all possible sufferings and tortures during twenty three long years. With the help of Divine revelation in the form of the Holy Quran and highest form of spirituality, he presented a complete code of life before the world. He had great command over the psychology of others and taught them divine messages of honesty, truthfulness, generosity, pardon, gratefulness and love. He skillfully launched his noble campaign keeping in view the psychology of the merciless-most individuals of the world. The people, who used to bury their daughters as soon as they were born, started respecting the women and the concept of veil appeared. Thus, he introduced a comprehensive system of spiritual beliefs as well as of social life; consequently, he successfully completed his mission leaving indelible marks of his noble teachings for ever and ever in the world.
During the modern and post-modern times, Sir Isaac Newton, John Milton, Karl Marx, Emanuel Kant, August Comte, Erasmus Darwin, J. S. Mills, Sigmund Freud, Charles Darwin, Sir George Bernard Shaw and Sir Bertrand Russell influenced and shaped philosophical views and ideas by their theories and works. All of their works have wide opened newer dimensions of thoughtfulness and philosophy. Marx exercised his views by presenting the Conflict theory according to which it is the part of human psychology that there always remains a serious conflict between different social classes. Similarly, Freud articulated theory where dreams represented hidden wishes prevailing in the sub-conscious of mind.
These suppressed and unfulfilled wishes quenched their thirst most in dreams and sometimes in imaginations too. In the same way, Maslow articulated motivational theory that expressed an imperative law related to logic as well as human psychology. Maslow opined that motivation accelerated human performance to a significant extent. Also, different individual sought motivation from different sources of inspiration. Erasmus Darwin and his famous grandson Charles Darwin adopted biology as their field of interest and left influence based on logic by their knowledge based on experiments and deep observation of natural phenomena. Louis Pasteur showed his abilities in the field of medicine and discovered such formulae that supported in the cure and protection of the masses from fatal diseases. On the contrary, Newton, Einstein, and others worked on Physics and Chemistry, and the use of their intellect served the people a lot.
An analytical thinker, as philosophy reveals, takes life differently in comparison with the ordinary people and estimates his surroundings with some different angle. He maintains the habit of reading between the lines rather than having superficial acquaintance of a book understudy or news he is listening to. An analytical thinker concentrates on the relation between cause and effect and interlinks them both in order to get the real and permanent solution of each and every problem. Also, he demands evidence as a proof of news or a statement. While reading a book, he examines whether the contents of the material under study fulfils the intellectual standards or not. Also, he tries to explore the major theme behind such a great effort of writing the book. He successfully extracts the gist of the problem both while reading a book and listening to the news.