A New Outlook on the Birth of Philosophy in Greece and India. Seaford, R. (2020). The Origins of Philosophy in Ancient Greece and Ancient India. A Historical Comparison. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Abstract

The article provides a brief description of the main theses of Richard Seaford's new book. I criticize some of these theses. In particular, there are doubts that the common characteristics and chronological proximity of the origin of philosophy in ancient Greece and India can be explained by the common process of growth of money circulation in these cultures.

I argue that Seaford de facto uses monetization as a metaphysical category. It is very similar to the Marxist use of the concept of labor. To my mind, the interiorization and the cosmic projection are the main processes of transition between real human actions and their metaphysical perception. The universalization of these processes gives them an ability to transform any phenomena of the external world into mental ones and vice versa, which makes Seaford's arguments excessively reductionist.

Another weakness of Seford's book is the fact that Greek and Indian philosophies are considered in a too general way, in the style of a textbook rather than a research work.