Epicureanism takes its name from Epicurus, the Greek philosopher from the third and fourth centuries BCE, who argued for "pleasure" as the goal for all human beings to reach transcendence. Epicurus did not strictly advocate seeking unadorned hedonism, but instead saw "pleasure" as best achieved through a moderate approach to life. Epicureanism was very popular in Classical Antiquity, but died out after the rise of Neo-Platonic and Christian thought in the third and fourth centuries CE.

In the Bible, the books of Exodus through Deuteronomy tell of the departure of the Hebrew people from Egypt. The classic moment in this sojourn is their time at Mount Sinai. This is where the so-called Ten Commandments were said to be presented by God to Moses. Whatever might be the historical accuracy of this overall tale, this is an important fact to know, as the experience of the Hebrew people in the desert waspivotalfor their self-identity. This would remain a continuing motif throughout their scriptures as well as in the Christian scriptures as well, which would present Jesus as a kind of second Moses.

对大多数人来说,泰利斯公司两件事而闻名。在the one hand, he is known for his position that all things are made up of water. This thesis was an honest attempt to explain experience by experience alone. Water is involved in many things and processes, so it seemed to him to be a good candidate for what makes up everything in the world—letting one thing change into another.

He is also known for the story of how he was laughed at when he fell into a well. He is presented like this in theTheaetetusof Plato. This makes him seem like an airy philosopher, who was staring at the stars without any awareness of his surroundings—"with his head in the clouds." In hisPolitics, Aristotle does tell at tale about how Thales put his knowledge to use to make a profit, so as to prove to the unbelieving that philosophy can be useful if need be. Be that as it may, the story from theTheaetetusis perhaps the best known story about Thales.

In the course of the discussions of theRepublic柏拉图使用洞穴的寓言解释the nature of education (at least as he believes it is). The general idea is that education is a matter of conversion, turning the soul from false images to the actual reality of the truth. The Allegory tells the tale of prisoners, locked up in an underground cave, unable to move their heads, looking at shadows projected on the wall by others. They learn how to guess about the shadows but never even realize that they are just the projections of objects on sticks.

Then, someone (i.e. a philosopher) comes along and turns a prisoner around, taking of his shackles. Forcefully, the philosopher shows that person that he has not been experiencing reality but instead has only been looking at shadows. He drags that person out of the cave so as show him what things really are. (Hence, the Allegory proposes that the philosopher teaches him about the way to see the ultimate truths of reality.)