ABSTRACT
The fundamental character of Greek science as it originated with Thales is “philosophy,” the systematic consequence of a theoretical interest that is free of all other aims, an interest in truth purely for the sake of truth. The first germination and working out of this conviction, which is so significant for the history of humanity, can be shown in the course of the development taken by Greek philosophy. The first philosophy that was naively directed to the outer world underwent a break in its development due to sophistic skepticism. Plato applied the Socratic principle of a radical giving of accounts to science. Theoretical cognizing, inquiring, and justifying are, after all, initially only a special kind of the striving and acting life. The fundamental character of European culture can most definitely be described as rationalism and its history can be considered from the perspective of the battle for the assertion and development of its proper sense, the struggle for its rationality.
