The four great revolutions in thought and religion that occurred in the first millennium BCE shaped the subsequent history of the world as the cultural descendents of India, China, the Middle East, and Greece attempted to define the meaning of life and understand humankind's relationship with the cosmos. The philosophical and religious movements of the world's major civilizations contained many common elements as well as significant differences in their attempt to answer the profound questions that arose at this time. The Indian document "Upanishads" and Aristotle's "Nichomachian Ethics" are two such works that show these differences and similarities in thought at this time.
             When examining "Upanishads" (Fourth Adhyaya, on pp. 14-16) we get a sense of a more spiritual outlook on life and the self; as opposed to Aristotle's "Nichomachian Ethics" where the issues that are discussed are more "this world". The chief concern in India's "Upanishads" is the discovery of spiritual enlightenment and/or Brahman. In order to reach and understand Brahman you have to understand the "self". In Brahman the body is just a shell, something to house your spirit. Through self-discipline and the stopping of your natural desires you may reach Brahman/ ultimate reality. In Brahman you must become "one" with everything and put every other thought behind you, making the search for "self" your priority. "And as a caterpillar, after having reached the end of a blade of grass, and after having made another approach (to another blade), draws itself together towards it, thus does this self, after having thrown off this body and dispelled all ignorance, and after making another approach (to another body), draw himself together towards it."(Pp.14 &15).
             This "Brahman" that the Indian's talk about cannot be proven, only per...