For the Love of Wisdom: The Birth of Philosophy

In this episode of "The Secret History of Western Esotericism," Earl Fontainelle discusses the birth of philosophy in the 6th century BCE and its connection to Western esotericism. He defines philosophy as the investigation and theorizing of the world's nature and mankind's place in it through argumentation. The episode highlights the importance of pre-Socratic philosophers, particularly those from Southern Italy, including Pythagoras, Parmenides, and Empedocles, and their unique contributions to esoteric thought. Pythagoras is presented as the founder of a philosophic brotherhood with mystic elements, Parmenides as the father of metaphysics who rejects sensory evidence, and Empedocles as a figure connected to Pythagorean traditions with theories on the four classical elements. The episode emphasizes that early philosophy was diverse, incorporating elements of physics, secret traditions, revelatory knowledge, and myth, setting the stage for later Western esoteric thought.