Reality is only gradually dawning on us, - piece by piece, development after development. This reality, I think we might reasonably conclude, is that there does exist, in total, a living universe; and we, as thinking men and women, can come to the conclusion that we are part of this universe, we have a place in it.

These developments were brought on by men, philosophers long since dead. Many wrote books, some with formidable titles, ones you might actually recall being on a long forgotten syllabus, one we had in hand during our greener days. If you were, once again, to pick one of these books up, - and perchance to read, perchance to reflect on these eternal thoughts, particularly in the light of our life experiences and in the light of the many social problems we see around us today, - one may join the group and become a philosopher.

Now, it is difficult to know where to begin with our subject. For the best understanding we should start, maybe, with René Descartes (1596-1650), the French philosopher who first formulated the axiom, Cogito ergo sum, "I think therefore I exist." But, I have elected to take a more traditional approach, I will, begin with the Greek philosophers and then slip through several centuries leaving the scholastics behind, and, come, to the times of Descartes.