We have thus far discussed philosophy considered as deliberate knowledge. Philosophy as knowledge appears in the great philosophical systems of ancient Greece when it turned its attention to a special object or to a special genus of the object. Philosophy is knowledge of the All. The rise of the concept of the All in the early days of Western philosophy represented the first decisive step in what may be called philosophical abstraction proper. Empirical particulars, not the All, are accidental and fragmentary. Placing them as belonging to reality in its totality, is always a step taken within the sphere of interpretation.