Opening paragraphs..................

There have probably always been philosophers, in some sense of the word.  They were those individuals who did not only ask questions—such as Where did the world come from?  Where did people come from?  and Why are there rainbows?—but more important, went on to ask follow-up questions.  When told, for example, that the world was created by the gods, these proto-philosophers would have realized that this answer didn't get to the bottom of things.  They would have gone on to ask why the gods made the world, how they made it, and—most vexatiously to those trying to answer questions—who made the gods.

-William B. Irvine,  A Guide To The Good Life:  (the ancient art of stoic joy)