Editorial series · I

The First Questions

There is no single doorway into philosophy. This series begins with several early traditions and asks what kinds of problems made sustained philosophical inquiry necessary.

Early first millennium BCE onward

Indian traditions

What remains when ordinary descriptions of the self are stripped away?

Early Upanishadic thinkers · Jain traditions · Early Buddhist traditions

First millennium BCE onward

Chinese traditions

How should a person live within relationships, institutions, and the larger order of things?

Confucius · Mozi · early Daoist traditions · Mencius

First millennium BCE onward

Greek traditions

What can reason say about change, being, knowledge, and the good life?

Early Ionian thinkers · Heraclitus · Parmenides · Socratic traditions

Method

The series does not treat these traditions as isolated boxes or as stages in one universal sequence. Each reading begins with its own textual and historical setting. Connections are made only when they clarify rather than erase difference.

Readings in this series

THE SELF · Lineage
HOW DO YOU SEARCH FOR WHAT YOU DO NOT KNOW? · Close Reading
THE SELF YOU CANNOT FIND · Dialogue
THE VIEW FROM HERE · Passage
THE ROAD YOU CANNOT TAKE · Close Reading
THIS IS NOT MINE · Close Reading
WHERE DOES PHILOSOPHY BEGIN? · Essay
WHEN DESIRE LEARNS THE MEASURE · Passage
THE SEER CANNOT BE SEEN · Close Reading
DO NOT LISTEN TO ME · Close Reading

Return to the Journal

The First Questions

Indian traditions

Chinese traditions

Greek traditions

Readings in this series

Index.

Questions of self across traditions

Classical Greek philosophy · Platonic philosophy

Early Buddhist thought / Scottish Enlightenment

Classical Chinese thought / Zhuangzi tradition

Early Greek thought · Eleatic philosophy

Early Buddhist thought

Comparative inquiry

Classical Chinese thought

Early Upaniṣadic thought

Early Greek thought

Editorial