Philosophy is a science of the universal laws of being and the thinking of man in the process of knowledge. A fundamental issue of philosophy as a separate science is the problem of the attitude of thinking towards being. Thus any philosophical system represents a specifically developed solution to this question. Western philosophy arises in ancient Greece as a complete system of knowledge of the existing world and man. The founder of philosophy is Thales, who lived at the end of the seventh and early sixth centuries BC. Trying to predict where all things come from, he uses the concept of the root cause. On this basis he accepts the water. Ancient philosophers at Socrates were called physicists or naturalists, and their philosophy was known as "naturophilosophy."

• Nature - for the first philosophers, this is the divine beginning of being and the life of all things;
• Space - according to Pythagorean followers, the numbers are the basis of order;
• Genesis (what exists) - for some philosophers, being is unified, for others - spherical, for others - unborn and indestructible;
• Logos (word, reason, norm, principle, speech);
• Cosmology - this is an area of ​​knowledge that explores the origin and structure of space.

In the course of the development of society and the accumulation of scientific knowledge, a process of separation of the different sciences from philosophy has taken place. Thus it has become an independent science. In its development, different strands emerged, some of them independent, which formed themselves as separate sciences but maintained their connection with philosophy. Such are logic, ethics, aesthetics, psychology, sociology and others.

European philosophy is the oldest systematized knowledge. It has an extremely complex history that is both a history of the development of philosophical ideas and a history of building philosophy as a specific kind of knowledge as a particular phenomenon of spiritual culture. When examining the history of philosophy and the history of science, there is another difference between these two distinct parts of knowledge. After being severed from philosophy, the history of science represents a history of the growing volume of theoretical knowledge. This is a history of the improvement of the methods of research, the history of the deepening and the specialization of the subject of study of science. Three strands have been formed in the methodology and history of science. First, the image of science changes with the change in its subject area. These changes cause changes in the theory and methods of research. The second strand assumes that the changes in the methods of research lead to an increasing specialization of the subject, its subject area. In addition, the change in methods leads to changes in the theory. The third strand gives precedence to the structural changes of the theory, from which it follows also changes in the methods and in the subject area.

The specificity of philosophical history

The history of philosophy is in a radically different way than the history of science. Fundamental leading changes in the development of philosophy are due to the addition of a whole set of problems. The history of philosophy is a history of the construction of its subject matter. The addition of a new problematic system to philosophy plays the role of a revolutionary coup in it. In its history, philosophy has gone through 4 revolutions to enrich its subject to arrive at its final fit. The history of philosophy goes through the following four stages, marked as 4 great philosophical initiatives. Philosophy is shaped as a distinct from the mythology spiritual phenomenon in the 6th century before the New Age. The first interest of philosophy was nature as the existence of absolute integrity, of the cosmos. In the notions of the old Greeks, cosmos is not everything, but the harmonious existence of the absolute whole.

• Ontology - Science of Being. This first philosophical initiative seeks to explain the enormous variety of phenomena in nature.
• Anthropology (science of the essence, the meaning of human life). It is reflected in the sudden change in the interest of philosophers from nature to man. The main person is Socrates.
• The third great initiative is related to the priority interest in knowledge (gnosiology). The initiative was launched by Rene Descartes and Francis Beckham. Until then, the philosophy was interested in the knowledge of being, man, but with this initiative, the main object of knowledge becomes knowledge itself. True knowledge requires interference in nature, practical attitude towards the world.
• Entrepreneurial Initiative - Ends a classical period of philosophy. The post-graduate period starts - it goes through two phases. One - the history of philosophy of the 19th century, the other - the history of 20th century philosophy.

The names of these two phases are conditional. They do not coincide with the calendar boundaries of the two centuries. The philosophy of the 19th century occupies the 40's of the 19th century and ends the 20's of the 20th century. The 20th century philosophy dates back to the 20's of the 20th century and continues to this days.

Image source: 1, 2