Since man begins by looking outwards upon the external
world and not inwards upon his own self, this fact too de-
termines the character of the first period of Greek philoso-
phy. It concerns itself solely with nature, with the external
world, and only with man as a part of nature. It demands
an explanation of nature. And this is the same as saying
that it is cosmological. The {24} problems of man, of life,
of human destiny, of ethics, are treated by it scantily, or
not at all. It is not till the time of the Sophists that the
Greek spirit turns inwards upon itself and begins to con-
sider these problems, and with the emergence of that point
of view we have passed from the first to the second period
of Greek philosophy.
Because the Ionic philosophers were all materialists they
are also sometimes called Hylicists, from the Greekhulé
which means matter.