While Socrates was exposing the grandeur of morality and the beauties of justice and truth, the Buddha was inaugurating in India an era of revolt against the meaningless rites of the Vedas, and exposing the mischievousness of the caste system, preaching equality, mercy, benevolence and freedom of thought. It has been said that Socrates ‘brought down philosophy from the clouds to the earth,’ meaning that he freed the human mind from the fetters of orthodoxy and authority, ushering in a new era of scientific investigation. Discarding the old and no longer suitable authoritarianism of the ancient writers, humanity made reason its sole guide and entered the realm of investigation with an open mind. The sixth century BCE was marked by an unprecedented upheaval in the world of philosophy. An article on the Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu, by Hari Prasad Shastri.
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