PREFACE -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- 1. INTRODUCTION -- 1.1 Religion and myth -- 1.2 Myth and reality: the primal vision -- 1.3 Myth and ritual -- 1.4 Myth, reality and science -- 2. INDIA -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 The religion of the Vedic period -- 2.3 The beginnings of speculation: scepticism and agnosticism -- 2.4 The Upaniṣadic period -- 2.5 The beginnings of Lokāyāta -- 2.6 Some early freethinkers -- 2.7 Philosophical Lokāyāta or Cārvāka -- 2.8 Early Sāṃkhya and Vaiśeṣika naturalism -- 2.9 Jain and Buddhist naturalism -- 3. CHINA -- 3.1 Early Chinese religion -- 3.2 The beginnings of rationalism -- 3.3 Confucius -- 3.4 Early Taoism -- 3.5 Later Confucian naturalism and scepticism: Hsun Tzu and other sceptics -- 3.6 Wang Ch'ung -- 3.7 The later sceptical tradition -- 4. GREECE -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Early Greek religion -- 4.3 Ionian naturalism -- 4.4 Atomism -- 4.5 The Sophists -- 4.6 The classical period of Greek thought -- 4.7 The Hellenistic age -- 4.8 Epicureanism -- 4.9 The Sceptics -- 5. ROME -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 Cicero and Lucretius -- 5.3 The early Empire -- 5.4 Conclusion -- 6. APPENDIX -- 6.1 Israel and the ancient Near East -- 6.2 Babylon -- 6.3 Egypt -- 7. POSTSCRIPT -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- NOTES -- INDEX.