Philosophy is not only a sphere of understanding of being, but also a spiritual force that influences world processes.
It is noteworthy that the most ancient philosophies of the eastern and western world arose at about the same time - in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. Moreover, they were completely independent and independent in their judgments, conclusions and vision of the world.
In general, the emergence of philosophy led to the crowding out of mythology from culture, the development of logical thought, and the rethinking of previous attitudes.
The philosophy of the Ancient East is older than the European. It was here that the first worldview concepts developed in which myths and religion were combined with scientific teachings. The most famous and influential philosophical teachings were in China and India.
The common features that were characteristic of the philosophy of the world of the Ancient East are the following. First, they were characterized by an incomplete separation from pre-philosophy. Secondly, ancient Eastern philosophy was characterized by the fact that natural science knowledge was not reflected in a substantial, adequate way in philosophy. Thirdly, traditionalism is characteristic of this philosophy. Unlike the Western, which is characterized by skepticism in its search for truth, the philosophy of the East rejected doubts, based on the continuity of generations and the constancy of traditions.
The first philosophical teachings arose in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Babylon, Assyria. Here at the turn of the 4th-3rd millennium BC. writing has already appeared, which meant the emergence of the beginnings of abstract thought.
The peoples of the Ancient East in this period did not yet have ordered philosophical systems, but the level of development of sciences and art was already very high.
In ancient Egypt, philosophical thought began the path from a religious to a logical, philosophical interpretation of myths
In Ancient Babylon, the emergence of philosophy was associated with the development of scientific knowledge and the formation of a rational attitude towards people and nature.
In the middle of the 1st millennium BC in China and India began to take shape its own original philosophy - the philosophy of the Ancient East. In these countries, in special economic, political, social and spiritual conditions, there was a special spiritual atmosphere that contributed to the birth of philosophical thought.
The philosophy of the Ancient East arose as a resolution of the contradictions that existed between the mythological interpretation of the universe and new thinking and knowledge. However, the philosophy of the Ancient East arose not from mythology, but from worldview transitional forms, which can be interpreted as pre-philosophy. At this level of knowledge development, along with myths, there are special “philosophies”, that is, the undeveloped rudiments of philosophical thought.
The patterns of development of the philosophy of Ancient China and Ancient India have common patterns. First of all, the self-awareness of both ancient peoples was constructed on the basis of generic genetic-substantial relationships. In the first worldview concepts, nature and man were treated as parts of a single whole. The types of cognition in the philosophy of these countries were very similar.
In addition, the genus was the driving force behind the transformation of people's consciousness. Also, the opposition of the spiritual and the physical was characteristic of Indian and Chinese culture. Therefore, myths, taboos and rituals as the basis for the development of philosophy appeared in these countries as pre-philosophical thoughts.
The first philosophy of the Ancient East proper lays the fundamental foundations of cultural traditionalism deep in the human mind. In fact, philosophy begins to serve the interests of the socio-economic system, which in these two countries existed until the twentieth century.
Naturally, the philosophy of China and India had its own individual characteristics. In India, philosophical schools were correlated with Brahmanism and Buddhism, in China - with Confucianism. In India, none of the schools was able to acquire an official priority, while in China, Confucianism achieved the status of the official ideology of the state.