Ancient philosophy (main stages of development, representatives). Periods of ancient philosophy, their features, schools and representatives

It is believed that the term “philosophy” itself was introduced by Pythagoras and meant love, the desire for wisdom, but not wisdom itself, which remained a divine prerogative. It was in ancient Greek philosophy that the main points of Western European philosophizing were formed and explicated:

*problems;
* methodology;
* motivation.

The ancient Greek philosophers first identified, clearly and distinctly, the core of philosophical problems in the questions: “What is reality? How do we know this? Of course, “reality,” as the central concept of philosophical interest, undergoes a certain evolution in the code of development of ancient Greek philosophy associated with the formation of philosophical reflection.

Initially, “reality” was identified with nature and space. Therefore, cosmological problems were important for early Greek philosophy: “How did the cosmos arise? What are the phases of its development? What is the beginning of all things? Parmenides and Plato will discover another “reality”, which, in their opinion, is more important and truer than the sensory one and is intelligible reality, ideal reality (thoughts), knowledge. Addressing it is a sign of real philosophy. The Sophists and Socrates will point to the “reality” of human existence: after all, the meanings of natural cosmological and intelligible existence are presented to man in his human form. He is the “scale”, the “measure” by which being is measured.

Also in ancient Greek philosophy, the formation of a methodological arsenal of philosophizing takes place: the dialectical way of discussing problems (Heraclitus, Plato), formal logical standards (Aristotle), the method of paradoxes (Zeno's aporia, the paths of skeptics), intellectual intuition (Plato). In general, all of the listed methods of comprehension are united by one quality characteristic of philosophy - a rational explanation of the universal. By “rational” we mean an explanation that is oriented to expect and seek regularity, repeating itself both in the meanings of empirical experience and in the meanings of thought.

Ancient Greek philosophy is also notable for the fact that it was the first time that philosophers realized the specifics of their activities and the goals of their activities. They are as follows.

♦ Professional implementation of the human need for philosophizing. All people, as Aristotle argued, by nature strive to know general device peace. Philosophers are those people who can present the results of knowledge in a generally valid form.

♦ In addition to the functional task of presenting general considerations about the world, philosophers also have, so to speak, the internal goal of analyzing their consciousness and their “I” (know yourself).

Ancient philosophizing covers a period of more than a thousand years: starting from the 6th century. BC e. and until 529 AD. BC, when Emperor Justinian closed the last pagan school in Athens (Plato's Academy), dispersing their followers. Geographical scope: Mediterranean, including ancient Greek, Hellenistic, Roman and Middle Eastern philosophies. Let us turn to the characteristics of the main stages in the development of ancient philosophy.

Early Greek philosophy (between the 6th and 5th centuries BC)

Early Greek philosophy (between the 6th and 5th centuries BC), with its problems of “physis” (nature) and the cosmos. The most significant representatives of Ionian philosophy here are the Eleatics and Atomists.

Ionian philosophy refers to the teachings of philosophers from the Greek colony states on the coast of Asia Minor (today's Lebanon and Israel). The first great Greek philosophers from the cities of Miletus and Ephesus appeared here. Three philosophers belong to the Milesian school: Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes. Greek philosophers begin where the ancient Indian sages left off. The Greeks adopted the idea that feelings cannot give us an adequate picture of the world; they are not able to penetrate the esoteric (hidden) level of the universe. There is the primordial basis of the world (primary substance). This is what everything comes from and what everything turns into. To designate this primordial basis, Thales introduced the term “physis,” or nature. Therefore, the first Greek philosophers are also called physicists or naturalists, given their increased attention to the problems of origin.

Thales considered water to be the “physis”; Anaximander considered the boundless, qualityless fundamental principle or apeiron to be such; Anaximenes spoke of air. Moreover, it must be borne in mind that these fundamental principles are by no means identical. physical water and air, but are rather conceptual metaphors, where certain qualities real water and air serve for a rational explanation and visual representation of the properties of the primordial basis: omnipresence, mobility, permeability, variability and transformability.

Another early Greek philosopher is Heraclitus. He was a philosopher who discovered the idea of ​​variability. Until this time, Greek philosophers, under the influence of Eastern ideas, viewed the world as a huge structure for which physical entities served building material. An attitude that was natural even for many of our contemporaries was overturned by the genius of Heraclitus. With it came a new view of the world: there is no structure, no stable structure, no space. “Beautiful space is like an ingot cast haphazardly,” says one of his aphorisms. He considered the world not a structure, but a colossal process, not the sum of all things, but the integrity of all events and changes. All material things, whether solid, liquid or gaseous, are processes and not objects, having all been transformed by fire. The “fiery” universe of Heraclitus, however, is quite rationally comprehensible, for every process in the world, especially fire itself, develops in accordance with a certain law, which is its “measure”. The world is thus chronically unstable, but there are patterns to this instability. This will thereby explain the apparent stability of the world (natural periods: changes of day and night, lunar month, change of seasons, “great cycles”). The content of universal change is the identity of opposites, which is another important position of Heraclitean philosophy, which at one time made a strong impression on contemporaries and subsequent philosophizing.

An even more serious and radical innovation in philosophy is associated with the Eleatics, philosophers whose professional activity connected with the city of Elea, located in Greece itself. They also represented an intergenerational community of thinkers who developed a certain characteristic worldview. We are talking about Xenophanes, Parmenides, Melissa and Zeno.

The famous Parmenidean proposition “to think and to be is one and the same.” means comprehending the fact that “being” is an unconditional prerequisite for all possible philosophical positions. Thought is identical to being: in order to affirm external existence, we must think it, recognize our impressions as “existing.” The identity of thought and being acquires metaphorical features from him: sphere-likeness, immobility, self-identity and integrity. To comprehend the absolute of “thought-being,” of course, is possible only through the mind—intelligence. This is the ultimate truth, the beginning and essence of existence. Other philosophers of the Eleatic school, rather, worked to improve and detail the system of argumentation for the main thesis of Parmenides. Particular attention should be paid to the aporia of Zeno, one of the most observant and witty philosophers in the history of philosophy.

Finally, another great philosophical system of the early period of antiquity, which had a strong influence on the development of the experimental direction in the development of knowledge, was the atomistic teaching of Leucippus-Democritus. The very idea of ​​​​the smallest and indivisible particles that make up bodies was gleaned by the Greeks from reflections on practical everyday life (erasing steps, coins, moistening and drying).
The main ideas of atomism are as follows.

- “Existence is eternal and unchanging. Nothing arises from non-existence, and nothing is destroyed into non-existence.
-> What appears to us as the world is actually the appearance of unstable combinations of the unchanging principles of the universe: atoms and emptiness. Atoms are infinite in size and number.

-> Everything arises out of inevitability. Everything in the world is determined, rigidly linked by unambiguous cause-and-effect relationships.

-> Cognition is sensual and direct: small, we would say microscopic, material “copy structures” of things penetrate through the pores of our body and carry information about things. Therefore, qualities (smell, color, taste) exist only by establishment, but by nature only atoms and emptiness exist.

-> The ultimate goal of human life and philosophy is mental well-being; and it is not identical with pleasure. This is a state in which the soul is in peace and balance, not embarrassed by fear, superstition, or any other passion.

Classical ancient Greek philosophy (late 5th - 4th centuries BC)

This period is the first classic in the history of Western European philosophy, the second took place almost 2.5 thousand years later, at the end of the 17th century. early XIX centuries in the form of classical German philosophy. The main figures of this period connected their lives and philosophical fame mainly with Athens.

The Sophists are now considered the founders of the humanistic period in ancient philosophy, a kind of cultural leaders of their time, figures of the “Greek Enlightenment.” Through their activities and their views, they expressed some of the significant turmoil that was taking place at that time (5th century BC) in ancient Greek society. We are talking about the progressive collapse of traditional communal-clan structures and the individualization of society. A collectivist consciousness, which demanded the unconditionality and inviolability of ideological standards established since ancient times, and a personalizing individuality, actively seeking a spiritual justification for its independence, collided.

The greatness of the sophists (Protagoras, Gorgias, Prodicus, etc.) is that for the first time in the history of philosophy they highlighted and substantiated anthropological problems. To the question: “What is reality?”, they answered: “It coincides with the meanings of human existence, which in principle depend on the positing subject.” This, in fact, is the essence of Protagoras’ famous thesis that “man is the measure of all things that exist in the fact that they exist, non-existent in that they do not exist.” There are as many truths as there are people, and it all depends on the goals that we set for ourselves.

Socrates, in essence, continued the development of the anthropological problems proposed by the Sophists, and was in agreement with them in some essential premises (the autonomy of the individual and his right to self-determination as the highest value of human existence), yet his point of view is significantly different from the Sophists. Thus, if among the Sophists the “dimensionality” of a person in relation to what exists has an arbitrary pluralistic character, i.e., the “objective” exists only thanks to its relation to us, then Socrates, accepting this thesis in principle, at the same time looks for what is necessary in a person. This necessity is what unites all people, it is the essence of man. Socrates agrees that a person himself determines the meanings of things in the objective world, but he does this not arbitrarily and subjectively, depending on individual characteristics, but based on the necessary and sustainable or the nature of his thinking.

Thus, Socrates, for the first time in the history of philosophy, speaks of man as a self-sufficient being, having his own foundations within himself. These foundations, self-organizing human life, there is reason, goodness and freedom.

This knowledge is, in principle, the same for all people, but each person must achieve it himself. It is impossible to teach a person goodness, it is in him, and in order to know it, he must bring it out of himself, explicate it, make his goodness clear to himself. Socrates proposed an understanding of philosophy as the “art of life”; this is not abstract knowledge, but normative and practical. The task of philosophy or maieutics is to help the birth of a soul that is “pregnant” with freedom.

The Socratic teaching method is a complex intellectual-game procedure, which was later called Socratic irony (irony means simulation). Socrates, using a certain targeted methodology of questions and answers, leads the interlocutor to formulate a reflexive attitude towards the content of his consciousness, which is expressed in the interlocutor’s independent comprehension of the basic concepts that organize human existence. The ideas of Socrates served as one of the sources of Plato's philosophy.

Plato's discovery of the intelligible dimension of reality, which he ontologically deduces in the form of a special “world of ideas”, parallel to the material, visible, physical. Plato's immaterial reality is organized according to an ethical principle and is headed by the idea of ​​\u200b\u200b"good." The structure of the world of ideas is hierarchical, ideas are subordinated by gender and type. The relationship between ideas and formations of the phenomenal world (everyday life) is a relationship of coexisting dependence: imitation, assimilation, striving for perfection, introducing things of the material world to “ideas”.

What are "ideas"? Plato's “ideas” or “forms” are not just concepts, that is, purely mental certainties. In Plato's philosophy, they are structural elements of supersensible, intelligible reality and at the same time models for the corresponding elements of parallel material reality.

Aristotle was a student of Plato, one of the most universal minds of mankind, along with two other great encyclopedist philosophers: Thomas Aquinas and Hegel. He synthesized the various knowledge available at that time into a grandiose system, which until modern times was a model scientific research and a compendium of human knowledge. Aristotle gave ontology adequate for philosophical reflection rational view. For the first time in the history of philosophy, philosophical thinking acquired a strict and logical form.

He divided science into three large sections:

♦ theoretical sciences, i.e. those that search for knowledge for its own sake;
♦ practical sciences, which seek knowledge for the sake of achieving moral improvement;
♦ productive sciences, the goal of which is the production of certain objects.

According to the criterion of value and dignity, the theoretical sciences, formed from metaphysics, physics (including psychology) and mathematics, stand above others.

What is metaphysics? It is known that the term “metaphysics” (literally: that which comes after physics) is not Aristotelian. It was introduced either by the Peripatetics, or in connection with the publication of the works of Aristotle by Andronicus of Rhodes in the 1st century BC. Aristotle himself used the expression “first philosophy” or “theology” in contrast to second philosophy as physics. The first philosophy is the science of reality beyond the physical. Actually, the Aristotelian meaning of this concept means any attempt by human thought to go beyond the limits of the empirical world in order to achieve an immaterial, genuine reality.

Aristotle gives four definitions to metaphysics:

- study of causes, first, or higher principles;
- knowledge of “being, insofar as it is being”;
- knowledge of the substance;
- knowledge of God and supersensible substance.

But here’s the question: why is metaphysics needed? Metaphysics is the most sublime of the sciences, says Aristotle; and simply because it is not concerned with material needs, it does not serve empirical or practical purposes. Other sciences are subordinated to these goals, and therefore not one of them is valuable in itself and is significant only insofar as it is justified by the effects to which it leads. Metaphysics has its own goal in itself, and therefore this science highest degree free, because it is valuable in itself. All this means that metaphysics, which is not related to material demands, still responds to spiritual requests, that is, those that manifest themselves when physical needs are satisfied. This is a pure thirst for knowledge, a passion for truth that keeps one from lying. This is the radical necessity of answering every “why” and in a special way the “ultimate why”.

Therefore, Aristotle concludes, all other sciences are more necessary for people, but none of them will surpass metaphysics.

Metaphysics is the study of first causes. Since they relate to the world of becoming, they can be reduced to four:

* the reason is formal,
* the reason is material,
* effective cause
* the reason is final.

The first two causes are nothing other than form and matter, which constitute all things. A reason, according to Aristotle, is a condition and a basis. Matter and form are sufficient conditions for the explanation of reality when viewed statically. A given person, from this point of view, is his matter (meat and bones) and his form (soul). But if we consider it from the point of view of formation, dynamically, then we ask: “How was it born?”, “Who gave birth to it?”, “Why does it develop and grow?” This means that two more reasons are needed: motor (i.e., the parents who gave life to a person) and final (i.e., the goal towards which a person develops).

The philosophy of Plato and Aristotle is called classical because it determined the subsequent, before Descartes, development of both ancient and medieval philosophies: by category, initial settings, issues. Aristotle earned the title "Teacher", Plato - "Divine". These two paradigms of philosophizing, when subsequent philosophers qualified primarily as either “Platonists” or “Aristotelians,” existed until modern European philosophy.

Hellenistic-Roman philosophy (3rd century BC - 3rd century AD)

Represented by the main currents of thought of these centuries: Epicureanism, Stoicism and Skepticism. At this time, a fundamental change in the priorities of philosophical attention occurred; ontology and epistemology were replaced by ethics, problems of personal self-determination and salvation from the hardships of the material and social world. This is associated with a radical change in the socio-spiritual situation, when democracy and the free self-perception of a citizen of the polis was replaced by the attitude of a subject of despotic state structures, a helpless toy of immeasurably superior natural and social forces.

Epicurus was a materialist philosopher and introduced a number of innovations into the atomistic philosophy of his predecessor Democritus. Thus, he formulated an important thesis that atoms have the ability to spontaneously deviate from a rectilinear fall in emptiness. Thus, it was argued that even at the level of matter there is fundamental spontaneity, which means that man has real free will. In the spirit of changing the emphasis of philosophical attention, he brought to the fore the ethical part of the teaching. The only thing that a person has that is positive and that he can count on in life is pleasure, which is a natural positive state that all people strive for. Epicurus especially emphasized the leading role of reason in determining the measure and the very necessity of certain pleasures for a person. Therefore, as Epicurus believed, many pleasures should be abandoned, because for them one must pay an exorbitantly high price - dangerous mental unrest. The flow is about the pleasures of fame, power, luxury. It is also harmful to participate in political and social life: “Hide and lurk,” advises Epicurus.

Skeptics proposed a slightly different way to achieve equanimity of spirit, which has other grounds. The emergence of skepticism is associated with the names of Pyrrho (IV-early 3rd centuries BC), Timon (IV-III centuries BC) and later Aenesidemus (1st century BC), and the latter generalized the argument skeptics against attributing truth status to knowledge in 10 tropes (arguments). However, much more fundamental is later skepticism in the person of Agrippa (1st-2nd centuries AD), who added 5 more tropes to the critical arsenal of skeptics, and Sextus Empiricus (second half of the 2nd century - beginning of the 3rd century AD) , who systematized the views of his predecessors.

Skepticism here is not ordinary everyday doubt or tossing, swinging back and forth between different positions, opinions, when there is no certainty and there is internal fragmentation and anxiety. On the contrary, among skeptics, doubt expresses firmness of spirit, self-confidence in oneself, and a decisive abstinence from one-sidedly defined statements and judgments. It should be expressed as “it seems to me”, “most likely”.

Ancient skeptics (Pyrrho, Timon, Aenesidemus) proceeded from the fact that although facts exist in themselves, opinions about them depend on our states (age, sensory, mental, etc.), and therefore they cannot be considered definitely and unambiguously -true. Thus, doubt concerns not the phenomenon, but what is said about the phenomenon. The 10 tropes of Aenesidemus were a systematization of critical observations regarding sensory cognition and everyday practice. They talk about the relativity of our interpretations of our own perceptions. They talk about the differences in the senses of different living beings, also about the differences between people, between the feelings of the same person, about differences in perceptions depending on distances and the frequency of phenomena.

Late skepticism (represented by Agrippa and Sextus Empiricus) turned its critical gaze to the forms of organization of mental activity, finding here many statements that they rightly questioned. Agrippa's paths reveal the fact that the untruth of knowledge is due not only to the limitations and inconstancy of our perception, not only to prevailing opinions, but also to the fact that the very organization of mental activity is limited and conditional in nature. Unlike the Epicureans, the actual ethics of the skeptics is quite simple and conformist, striving for compliance with existing experience and prevailing behavioral prescriptions. This is because the skeptic's goal is equanimity and moderation.

Another influential movement of this period was Stoicism. In historical and philosophical research, three stages are distinguished in the development of Stoicism.

-> Ancient Stoa (Zeno, Cleanthes, Chrysippus, end of the 4th century - 3rd century BC);
- “The Middle Stoa (Panetius, Posidonius, II-I centuries BC);
- “New Stand (Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, I-II centuries AD).

The basic concepts of ontology (or “physics” in the terminology of that time) of the Stoics can be qualified as eclectic, since they combine very different ideas into one whole: Heraclitean formation, the duality of Aristotle’s principles, Parmenides’ holism. Their ontology is clearly pantheistic in nature, asserting the connection of everything with everything and continuous change. Everything that is in the world is included in God, and in a holistic and organic way; God is the most perfect mind and absolutely everything is subordinate to His Providence. The world is ruled by an inevitable Necessity, which is of a natural nature. General Order rigidly interconnected cause-and-effect networks. Everything that is done is done with inevitable necessity.

What should a person do in the world of universal development, how to preserve his “I”, find the agreement of his spirit with himself? The Stoics developed an ethical teaching that was harmonious with their ontology. It comes from the rationalistically interpreted nature of the world and man, from whom it is required to live properly.

If the Epicureans believed that the desire for pleasure is dominant in man, the Stoics rightfully objected, calling pleasure rather a consequence of man’s natural inclinations. The integral principle of all natural human inclinations is self-preservation, since nature itself tells him to take care and love himself, “for nature is initially dear to itself.” In this sense, a person is similar to all living things. However, there is a very important difference. Man is a rational being, reason is his nature, nature. To live according to nature means to live according to reason. Thus, everything that is reasonable is virtuous, and what is reasonable by nature is reasonable, since it is determined common law, Logos. Next, they defined the criterion of life “by nature,” i.e. virtuous behavior. This is the concept of “ought” or “proper”, which will then become one of the cornerstones of the spiritual culture of the West. A proper thing is a thing that has a reasonable justification. This is an action that is characteristic of the structure of nature, therefore, the proper actions will be those to which reason pushes us: for example, to honor parents, brothers, fatherland, to love friends.

If reason rules the world, just as human reason rules human actions, then all passions and emotions are obstacles or are an undesirable side effect in human communication. Therefore, only the one who comes closest to the ideal of natural virtue or reason is the one who not only limits and restrains his passions, but radically eradicates them from himself, and does not even allow them to be born in his heart. Hence “apathy” as the ideal of the sage, who should be alienated from any manifestations of human emotionality. He is a stranger among his own, performing social, family or personal functions: he must carry them out dispassionately, evenly and correctly. Only this can be an antidote against social alienation and possible cataclysms of fate (death of loved ones, illness, failure, etc.), as well as an approach to the logically correct perfection of the world Logos.

The religious period of ancient pagan thought (III-V centuries AD). Ancient philosophy ends with such a majestic spiritual phenomenon as Neoplatonism. First of all, this is a radical development of Plato’s view of the world, which asserted the existence of a true, intelligible world, on which the world of material things depends. The Neoplatonists not only reproduced these views, but also went further, creating the first system of pure or absolute idealism in the history of philosophy. They abandoned the dualism of their great predecessor, declaring the “one hundred percent” ideal nature of the universe, where matter is only a shadow of thought, or a weakened ideal.

Neoplatonism is associated with the names of Ammonius Sax, Plotinus, Porphyry, Iamblichus and Proclus, who came from the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire and whose philosophical activity began in Egyptian Alexandria. Plotinus (204/205 - 270) formulated the postulates of this philosophical trend.

The fundamental principle of this philosopher: being is a total thought, located in the constancy of its meaningful self-change. The development of the world is based on the development of world thinking. The sensory world is only a distant imitation of it. The absolute beginning of everything and everyone is the One, producing itself. It represents the self-producing activity of thought, creating freedom, the cause of itself, that which exists in itself and for itself. It is incomprehensible and inexpressible.

The second ontological hypostasis of the universe, arising through internal differentiation, self-doubling through self-opposition, as a result of which the “I” arises, Plotinus calls Nous or Spirit. This is an active principle, an active center, which is a subject or formed intellect, thinking the totality of the intelligible world.

The third hypostasis of the world is the Soul. The soul represents the activity of the Spirit, no longer directed to pure thinking, but to the transformation (emanation) of thought objects into material objects or the generation of the physical cosmos. In other words, matter is not a principle coeternal with the spirit, but stems from it, it is the final stage of the process when the productive power of the Spirit is exhausted to the point of exhaustion. Thus, matter becomes a general weakening of the potency of the One, which at the same time is good, its profanation, or Evil (a small fraction of good, weakened good).

Accordingly, for Plotinus, thought and the thinking states of a person are the most authentic and true manifestations of the highest principles in him. The more time a person spends in reflection and the deeper he plunges into thought, the closer he becomes to the world basis and authenticity, he returns at this time to his true homeland. Plotin called the peaks of these mental penetrations “intellectual ecstasy,” moments of the highest possible human happiness. This departure of the soul from the body is accomplished through pure thought. Ecstasy is not just an intoxication of feeling and fantasy, but rather a performance beyond the limits of the content of sensory consciousness. He is pure thinking, located in itself and having its own object. Plotinus often speaks in sensuous images about this state; for example, he says in one place: “Often when I go beyond the limits of the body, I awaken to myself and find myself outside the other” - the external world, “when I am internally with myself, have an amazing contemplation and live a divine life.” life."

On this day:

• Birthdays
• 1825 Count is born Alexey Sergeevich Uvarov- Russian archaeologist, corresponding member (1856), honorary member (1857) of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. One of the founders of the Moscow Archaeological Society, the Historical Museum in Moscow, the initiator of archaeological congresses.
• 1959 Was born Hermann Parzinger- German archaeologist and specialist in Scythian culture.
• Days of death
• 2001 Died Vasily Ivanovich Abaev- an outstanding Soviet and Russian philologist, Iranian linguist, local historian and etymologist, teacher, professor.

BRYANSK 2012

1) Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………3

2) The main stages of the development of ancient philosophy……………………..7

3) Philosophers of “physics”………………………………………………….…9

4) Academies of Plato and Aristotle……………………………………11

5) Hellenic-Roman period in ancient philosophy……………………….15

6) Conclusion……………………………………………………………...28

7) List of references…………………………………….29

Introduction

Ancient philosophy represents a consistently developing philosophical thought and covers a period of over a thousand years - from the end of the 7th century. BC e. up to the 6th century. n. e. Despite all the diversity of views of thinkers of this period, ancient philosophy is at the same time something unified, uniquely original and extremely instructive. It developed, not in isolation - it drew on the wisdom of the Ancient East, a culture that goes back to deeper antiquity, where even before the Greeks the formation of civilization took place: writing was formed, the beginnings of the science of nature and philosophical views themselves developed. This applies to countries such as Libya, Babylon, Egypt and Persia. There was also influence from more distant countries of the East - Ancient China and India. But the various instructive borrowings of Greek thinkers in no way detract from the amazing originality and greatness of ancient thinkers. Thoughts wise people Even from the deep past we still need them now. Anyone who does not know the history of philosophy, including ancient philosophy, cannot truly know it. current state. The study of the history of philosophy speaks of the instructiveness of familiarization with the chronicle of past wisdom. And even the errors of brilliant minds are much more instructive than individual discoveries of simply capable people, and the subtleties and oddities in the reasoning of the sages are richer and more useful for us than just common sense in the judgments of the average person. Philosophy and its history are largely determined by the personal characteristics of a particular thinker. Therefore, we will try, albeit very briefly, in the most general terms, to say something about the personality of the thinker in question. Pre-philosophical forms consciousness: the problem of the sources of philosophy. It is quite firmly established in historical philosophy that the original form of social consciousness or the ideology of the tribal and early slave-owning system was mythology. And usually the formation of science and philosophy, as well as the totality, a certain unified and still undivided form of theoretical exploration of the world, is expressed by a formula. From myth to logos, or, more broadly, from mythological ideas to theoretical thinking. Philosophy arises as a solution to the contradiction between myth and elements of original empirical knowledge about nature and society. In conditions when philosophical thinking is just awakening, and, indeed, throughout the entire period of the formation of philosophy, myth generally dominates in the public consciousness. It should be noted that emerging philosophical thinking finds myth no longer in its original form. It has already been transformed, systematized, and largely rethought in the epic and theogonies presented in Ancient Greece by both Homer and Hesiod. They give us that direct appearance of myth, which precedes philosophy, and is increasingly transformed and decomposed under the influence of art and elementary forms of scientific knowledge characteristic of that era. Myth is a multi-layered and multifunctional formation. Taking shape in the conditions of a primitive communal formation, undivided spontaneous collectivism, which generates a transfer to all reality of the natural relations of the tribal community, directly given to man, appears before us as a description of a certain set of fantastic creatures forming a community connected by blood kinship. Natural space, social , And production functions distributed among these creatures. At the same time, the mythical narrative is accepted by the mythical subject completely uncritically, acting as truth, no matter how implausible it may look. Myth, therefore, appears for this subject as a completely real world, perhaps even more real than the everyday world. But at the same time, this is a detached world, alienated from the everyday world. It is at the same time visual, sensually given and magical, fabulous and individually - sensual - and abstractly generalized and obviously reliable, practically effective - and supernatural. Its main function is the regulation of social life in empirical diversity, and it acts here as life itself, where social, ideological and even physiological aspects are merged. In other words, mythology is a form of practically spiritual exploration of the world. That is why it overcomes, subjugates and transforms the forces of nature in the imagination and with the help of the imagination, it disappears, therefore, along with the onset of real dominance over these forces of nature. In order for these possibilities to be sufficiently realized, a long development of society and the most primitive consciousness was required. It was necessary, in particular, for the gens to be able to rise above the gens, the noble over the vile, and for the individual to sufficiently stand out from the gens, becoming an actual subject of labor, social life and knowledge, of course, to the extent that the level of development of society and the individual allowed this. This development occurs over a huge period of time, when the development of the discontinuous communal formation ends and the era of early slavery opens. (I.T. Frolov Introduction to Philosophy, Moscow, 1989. pp. 41-79) At this time, the transition from collecting and from hunting to production, from stone to metal, and from fetishism to analysis. The process of decomposition of myth and the transition from it to other forms of social consciousness is clearly visible in Greece. The starting point of this process is mythology, presented in the secondary form of the epic, as well as in Hesiod’s Theogony and the adjacent theogonies of other authors, preserved in fragments. The immortal monuments of ancient culture are the works of Homer, Iliad and Odysseus. One can say about Homer's philosophical views that he was entirely based on mythology. He owns the saying: We are all water and earth. He did not ask a philosophical question about the origin of the world. These kinds of questions were first put forward by Hesiod, a peasant poet, author of the famous Works and Days and Theogony. He presented the myths as a whole, describing the genealogy and vicissitudes of the host of the Olympian gods. The genealogy of the gods begins like this: in the beginning there was Chaos. From it the Earth (Gaia) was born. Together with the Earth, Eros and Erebus are born - the beginning of darkness in general and Night as self-defined darkness. From the marriage of Erebus and Night, Ether is born as light in general and Day as a specific light. Gaia gives birth to Heaven - the visible firmament, as well as mountains and the depths of the sea. From the marriage of Gaia and Uranus, that is, Earth and Sky, Ocean and Tethys are born, as well as Cyclops and giant titans, personifying various cosmic forces. From one of the titans, Kronos, a new generation of gods originates: the son of Kronos, Zeus, in the struggle for power, cuts off his father’s manhood, which from a great heavenly height falls into the sea, raising a strong wave, and emerges from the sea foam in all its divine beauty goddess of love Aphrodite. The goddess of justice and necessity is the beginning of every earthly birth - she who sends a woman to mate with a man and vice versa, a man with a woman, she took Cupid as her assistant and gave birth to him as the first of the gods. (“Introduction to Philosophy” by Wundt. Publisher: M ., “CheRo”, “Dobrosvet” Year: 2001. Pages 7-11) The historical period of mythology begins. Hesiod leads us to to the last generation the gods, the descendants of Zeus - the Olympians, and from here - the romantic period of the gods entering into intimate intimacy with earthly women, giving birth to the heroes about whom Homer's poems narrate, this is a delightful fantastic series of love adventures of the gods. At an early stage of history, the mythological way of thinking began to be filled with rational content and corresponding forms of thinking: the power of generalizing and analytical thinking, science and philosophy were born, concepts and categories of the philosophical mind itself arose, the process of transition from myth to logos took place (Logos is the root basis of logic). However, logos does not displace mythology, it is immortal, poetry is filled with it, it captivates children’s imagination, delights the mind and feelings of people of all ages contributes to the development of imagination, which has a beneficial effect on the development of a person’s creative capabilities in all areas of his activity. (“Ancient Philosophy” Bogomolov, 2nd edition, Moscow, 2006 pp. 81-196)

The main stages in the development of ancient philosophy.

Ancient philosophy has its own temporal and spatial boundaries. The time of its existence is from the 6th century. BC and until the 6th century. AD, when Emperor Justinian died in 529 AD. the last philosophical school - Plato's Academy.
Greek philosophical thought has its stages of birth, flourishing and withering. The first stage, which is often called pre-Socratic, is cosmocentric in nature and initially retains the features of mythology. This is a fundamentally important stage in the formation of philosophy as a sphere of rational comprehension of the original foundations of the Cosmos, the desire to penetrate through the visible into the invisible, the beginning of distinguishing between appearance and essence, being and non-being. Thus, the formation of a philosophical categorical system occurs.
At the first stage of the development of Greek thought, the difference between concepts and reality, being and thinking is not always realized, which leads to their implicit or explicit identification. This was reflected in the constructions of the philosophers of the Milesian school, Heraclitus, for whom it is not easy to draw the line between the water of Thapes, the air of Anaximenes, the fire of Heraclitus as universal essences that form the beginning of being, on the one hand, and the corresponding sensory perceptible natural elements, on the other.
At the same time, it is fundamental that for the first time the question of the relationship between sensory data and concepts is raised. The contradiction between sensory universality and the universality of the concept begins to stimulate the development of thought. Opens new world- the world of thought in which concepts of varying degrees of generality “live”. The constructive capabilities of the mind begin to be realized. The latter is reflected in the philosophical systems of Socrates, Democritus, Plato, and Aristotle.
The second stage - the heyday of Greek philosophical thought - differs from the first, firstly, by a significant qualitative expansion of the subject field of philosophy, and secondly, by the development of categorical means of comprehending being and the wealth of thoughts that were ahead of their time; thirdly, the emergence within the framework of general philosophical ideas of the rudiments of scientific knowledge and logic, which subsequently had a significant impact on all spheres of human activity. In particular, the idea of ​​philosophy as an intellectual and spiritual activity to overcome the contradiction between the imperfection of the existing material reality and the perfection of the world of ideas goes back to Plato. (V.F. Asmus “Ancient Philosophy”, Moscow, 1999. pp. 17-54) Such a contradiction - is not external to the thinking subject, but acts as a personal problem, the solution of which leads to improvement. transformation, spiritualization of man.
Aristotle distinguishes two levels of philosophy. The first philosophy deals with questions of being as such, being in general, while the second philosophy, or physics, examines the being of beings involved in movement. The problem of the relationship between first and second philosophy, as a demonstration further history thoughts are not simple. Ancient philosophy in the era of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle received its highest, classical development.
This is the heyday of the Greek type of philosophy, the most complete realization of the constructive capabilities of speculative reason.
The third stage of Greek philosophy - Hellenistic - is characterized by the inclusion of elements oriental culture, a decrease in the level of philosophical research, the collapse of the high philosophical schools of Plato and Aristotle. Thus, the Stoics and Epicureans are more interested in philosophy practically than from the point of view of Truth and Good in their traditional Greek sense. Thus, the emphasis in understanding the subject of philosophy changes, the scope of its interests narrows, skepticism and criticism increase in contrast to the constructive thinking of their predecessors, and eclectic philosophical movements appear.

Philosophers of "physics".

Thales of Miletus from Ionia, with whom Greek philosophy begins, lived approximately in the last decades of the 7th century and the first half of the 6th century. BC In him we have not only a philosopher, but also a scientist and a prudent politician. It is unclear whether he wrote any books. Only his thoughts are known as transmitted through oral tradition.

Being the initiator of the philosophy of "physis", he believed that water was the root cause of everything. Understanding this thesis makes it possible to understand the revolution that originated from Thales and led to the creation of philosophy.

"First cause" (arche) is not Thales's term (it may have been coined by his disciple Anaximander, although some believe it to be even later), but it is nevertheless a term that refers to the concept of quid, that from which all things come. This primordial basis, as can be seen from the Aristotelian exposition of the views of Thales and the first physicists, is both that from which everything that exists flows, and that into which everything is resolved. It is a certain essentiality that remains constant during all transformations.

This primordial basis of the first philosophers was designated by Thales by the term “physis”, physis, which meant nature not in the modern sense of the word, but in the original sense - the first and fundamental reality, that which is “primary and constant, as opposed to that which is secondary, derivative and transitory" (J. Burnet).

“Physicists” or “naturalists” are those philosophers, therefore, whose thought revolves around “physics”. It is possible to enter the spiritual horizon of these first philosophers only by understanding the archaic meaning of this term, which differs from its modern meaning.

However, it is still necessary to clarify the meaning of the coincidence of the first principle with water.

An indirect tradition attributes to Thales the statements that “the nutrition of all things is wet,” that “the seeds and grains of all things are of a wet nature,” and why the drying up of everything is death. Life is connected with moisture, and moisture presupposes water, which means that everything comes from water, finds its life in water and ends in water.

Already in antiquity, there were attempts to find analogues for these statements of Thales among those (Homer, for example) who believed that Ocean and Tethys were the father and mother of everything. In addition, there were attempts to connect the ideas of Thales with the spells of the Gods on the River Styx in the underworld. After all, that on which oaths are pronounced is the beginning, and it is above all. However, the difference between Thales's position and these ideas is obvious. The latter are based on fantasy and myth; Thales expresses his judgments according to reason, basing them on logos. On top of this, Thales' level of rationality was such that, based on his study of celestial phenomena, he was able to predict, to the general amazement of the townspeople, an eclipse of the sun (possibly in 585 BC). One of the theorems of geometry is named after him. (V.F. Asmus “Ancient Philosophy”, Moscow, 1999. pp. 201-219)

But we should not think that the water of Thales is what we drink, that it is one of a number of physico-chemical elements. Thales thought of water as “physis” - liquid, flowing, and what we drink is only one of its states. Thales is a “naturalist” in the ancient sense of the word, but not at all a “materialist” in the modern sense. Its water correlated with the divine principle. “God,” he said, “is something most ancient, for he was not born by anyone,” therefore he is the basis of everything. Thales introduces a new concept of the divine, in which reason dominates, from which all the gods of the fantastic-poetic pantheon can be derived.

When Thales argued that “everything is full of gods,” he only wanted to say that everything is imbued with the first principle. And since life is primary, everything is alive and everything has a soul (panpsychism). The magnet was for Thales an example of the universal animism of things.

With Thales, the human logos confidently set out on the path of conquering reality - both the whole and the parts that became objects of special sciences.

Features of ancient philosophy

The development of ancient philosophy is the most important stage in the historical dynamics of the subject philosophical knowledge. Within the framework of ancient philosophy, ontology and metaphysics, epistemology and logic, anthropology and psychology, philosophy of history and aesthetics, moral and political philosophy are highlighted.

Ancient philosophy(first Greek and then Roman) cover more than a thousand-year period from the 6th century. BC e. to VI century AD e. Ancient philosophy originated in the ancient Greek (city-states) with a democratic orientation and its content, methods and purpose differed from the eastern methods of philosophizing, the mythological explanation of the world, characteristic of the early ancient culture. Formation philosophical view the world was prepared by ancient Greek literature and culture (the works of Homer, Hesiod, gnomic poets), where questions were raised about the place and role of man in the universe, the skills of establishing the motives (reasons) of actions were formed, and artistic images structured according to feelings of harmony, proportion and measure.

Early Greek philosophy uses fantastic imagery and metaphorical language. But if for myth the image of the world and the real world were no different, then philosophy formulates as its main goal the desire for truth, a pure and disinterested desire to get closer to it. Possession of the complete truth, according to ancient tradition, was considered possible only by the gods. Man could not merge with “sophia” because he was mortal, finite and limited in knowledge. Therefore, only an unbridled desire for truth is available to a person, which has never been fully completed, active, active, passionate desire for truth, love for wisdom, what the concept itself expresses "philosophy". Being was associated with a multitude of constantly changing elements, and consciousness was associated with a limited number of concepts that restrained the chaotic manifestation of the elements.

Search for the fundamental principle of the world in the changing circulation of phenomena is the main cognitive goal of ancient Greek philosophy. Therefore, ancient philosophy can be understood as doctrine of "first principles and causes". According to his method, this historical type philosophy seeks to rationally explain existence, reality as a whole. For ancient philosophy, reasonable evidence, logical argumentation, rhetorical-deductive rationality, and logos are significant. The transition “from myth to logos” created a well-known vector of development of both spiritual culture and Europe.

The main stages in the development of ancient philosophy

In the development of ancient philosophy there are four main stages(you can see the detailed division of philosophical schools in the table below).

First stage – 6-5 centuries BC e. "pre-Socratic" . The philosophers who lived before Socrates are called pre-Socratics. These include the sages from Miletus (Miletus school - Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes), Heraclitus from Ephesus, the Eleatic school (Parmenides, Zeno), Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans, atomists (Leucippus and Democritus). Natural philosophers deal with the problem of arche (Greek arhe - beginning) - the unified basis of the universe (senior physicists) and the problems of the integral unity of multiple worlds (junior physicists).

The central subject of knowledge in ancient Greek natural philosophy acts space, and the main form of philosophical teaching is cosmological models. The central question of ontology - the question of the essence and structure of the world - is highlighted from the perspective of the question of its origin.

Second stage – approximately mid 5th – late 4th centuries BC. e. – classical. The emergence of classical philosophy marks a radical turn to logical-epistemological, socio-political, moral-ethical and anthropological issues. This turn is associated with the sophistic tradition and with the figure of Socrates. Within the framework of mature classics, perfect examples of systemic abstract theoretical and philosophical concepts are developed, defining the canon of the Western European philosophical tradition (Plato and Aristotle).

Third stage - end of 4th-2nd centuries. BC e. usually called Hellenistic. In contrast to the previous one, associated with the emergence of significant, deep in content and universal in theme, philosophical systems, various eclectic competing philosophical schools are being formed: peripatetics, academic philosophy (Plato’s Academy, Stoic and Epicurean schools, skepticism). All schools are united by one feature: the transition from commenting on the teachings of Plato and Aristotle to the formation of problems of ethics, moralistic frankness in the era of the decline of Hellenistic culture. Then the works of Theophrastus, Carneades, Epicurus, Pyrrho and others became popular.

Fourth stage – 1st century BC e. – 5-6 centuries on. e. - the period when Rome began to play a decisive role in antiquity, under whose influence Greece also fell. Roman philosophy was formed under the influence of Greek, especially Hellenistic. There are three schools of thought in Roman philosophy: Stoicism (Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius), skepticism (Sextus Empiricus), Epicureanism (Titus Lucretius Carus). In the 3rd-5th centuries. n. e. Neoplatonism arises and develops in Roman philosophy, a famous representative of which is the philosopher Plotinus. Neoplatonism significantly influenced not only early Christian philosophy, but all of it.

Used literature:

1. World Encyclopedia: Philosophy / Main. scientific ed. and comp. A. A. Gritsanov. - M.: AST, Mn.: Harvest, - Modern writer, 2001. - 1312 p.

2. History of philosophy: A handbook for a high school. - Kh.: Prapor, 2003. - 768 p.

philosophy cosmocentrism Milesian ancient

Ancient (Ancient Greek) philosophy appears in the 7th-6th centuries BC. It is formed in certain historical conditions: economic, social, cultural. By that time, Ancient Greece had a fairly developed slave society, with a complex social class structure and forms of division of labor that were already specialized. The role of intellectual and spiritual activity is also increasing, acquiring the features of professionalism. Developed spiritual culture and art created fertile ground for the formation of philosophy and philosophical thinking. Thus, Homer and his work, it is enough to note his “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, had a huge impact on many aspects of the spiritual life of Greek society of that period. One can figuratively say that all “ancient philosophers and thinkers” came out of Homer. And later, many of them turned to Homer and his works as argument and proof.

At first, philosophy appears in the form of philosophizing. Thus, the “seven wise men”: 1) Thales of Miletus, 2) Pytton of Mytilene, 3) Bias of Prisna; 4) Solon from Asia; 5) Cleobulus of Liontia; 6) Mison of Heney; 7) Chilo from Lacedaemonia tried in aphoristic form to comprehend the essential aspects of the existence of the world and man, which have a stable, universal and generally significant character and determine the actions of people. In the form of aphorisms, they developed rules and recommendations for human action that people should follow in order to avoid mistakes: “Honor your father” (Cleobulus), “Know your time” (Pitton); “Hide the bad in your home” (Thales). They were more of a character useful tips, how philosophical statements. Their limited but rational meaning is expressed in utility. Due to this, they are generally applicable. But already in Thales’s statements acquire a truly philosophical character, since they record the universal properties of nature that eternally exist. For example, “space is greatest, because it contains everything,” “Necessity is most powerful, because it has power.” They contain only a hint of philosophical problems, but not a conscious formulation of them.

But already within the framework of the “Miletus School of Philosophers,” a proper philosophical approach to understanding the world is being formed, for they consciously pose and try to answer such fundamental questions: Is the world united and how is its unity expressed? Does the world (in this case nature) have its own fundamental principle and the root cause of its existence? The answer to such questions cannot be obtained on the basis of one’s life experience, but only through thinking in abstract, generalized concepts.

The “Miletus philosophers” designate objectively existing nature with the special concept of “cosmos” (in Greek- universe, world). This is where one of the first theoretical ways of understanding the world appears - cosmologism (cosmos + logos, knowledge). Cosmologism considers the world, the universe as an integral system, which is characterized by unity, stability, integrity and eternity of existence. And philosophy developed in the form of natural philosophy, a philosophical understanding of nature, as a rational form of its description, explanation and understanding. Since scientific knowledge itself did not yet exist, philosophy took upon itself the function of knowledge of the specific properties of nature and its physical laws (phisis - in Greek nature, physics), and at the same time tried to solve purely philosophical problems - what is the primary essence, the first principle nature and what is the essence of its existence.

Within the framework of the “Miletus School of Philosophers”, individual objects and phenomena were taken as the primary essence, the original principle, the “primary substance”, the properties of which were given a universal character. The properties of the individual, the separate, were taken as the basis of all things. Thus, Thales from Miletus (late 7th - first half of the 6th century BC) takes water as the fundamental principle of existence, as the most important primary substance. She is the single source of birth of everything. Undoubtedly, the empirical fact was taken into account - where there is water, there is life. Anaximander (610 - ca. 540 BC), a student of Thales, as a primary substance, first takes apeiron (translated into Greek as limitless), which is eternal and present everywhere and has no boundaries. And therefore the Cosmos is eternal and limitless. And space seems to be a living, breathing “organism”, where the collision of warm and cold air acts as respiration. Anaximenes (6th century BC) believed that the first principle is air, from which all objects and things of the objective world arise. It is also the basis of the cosmos. The “breath of air” (liquefaction and condensation) holds everything and gives birth to everything. Thus, within the framework of the Milesian school, a certain principle of philosophizing is expressed - to consider the existence of the world from the world itself. This principle is called materialism. Sometimes it is called naturalism. This is how the materialist tradition was born in Ancient philosophy, which had a huge influence on the development of philosophical thought throughout Antiquity, but also on European philosophy as a whole. It should be noted that materialism is already a rational way of understanding the world, although still in an undeveloped, naive form.

Heraclitus of Ephesus (from the city of Ephesus) played a special role in the development of ancient philosophy from 544 to 480. BC) Based on the already established tradition, he also takes a separate phenomenon - fire - as the single basis of the world, and the cosmos is a “fire-breathing ball” that exists on its own, was not created by anyone and has always been and will be an “eternally living fire” ”, which has its own rhythms of being (“measures that flare up and measures that fade away”).

To emphasize the unity of the world with all its diversity, Heraclitus introduces the concept of Logos, which is also cosmic in nature. By Logos he means cosmic mind(mind), which through the word gives the Cosmos a certain meaning of existence. Logos, as it were, embraces everything that exists and gives it the quality of unity. Within this unity, all things, bodies, objects flow into each other. Thanks to movement, it (the cosmos) is dynamic, and thanks to Logos it maintains its stability, certainty and harmony. Heraclitus was one of the first to create the doctrine of movement and development of the material world; the source and cause of development and movement are in the world itself. In fact, this is historically the first form of ancient dialectics as a doctrine of the movement and self-movement of the world. And it was materialistic in nature. In his opinion, movement is the universal way of existence of matter. Without movement and without movement, objects of the material world do not manifest their properties. He puts forward the aphoristic formula: “Everything flows and everything changes,” emphasizing the universal nature of movement, understanding by them the fluidity and variability of properties, and not just mechanical movement. The objectivity and naturalness of movement as an attribute of matter (nature) are reinforced by the comparison - it flows like water in a river. But the most important thing in the teachings of Heraclitus is the characteristics of the source, the root cause of movement. This source is the struggle of opposites, which sets everything that exists in motion. In fact, he was the first to formulate the law of unity and struggle of opposites, which is universal and universal. And for that time, Heraclitus gives a detailed description of the content and action of this law. Thus, by unity he understands the identity of opposites, that is, the belonging of various mutually exclusive properties to the same essence, to one object. For example, “day and night, winter and summer” are properties of nature. The struggle of opposites is considered not simply as a collision and destruction of mutually exclusive properties, but as a transition from one to another, as a mutual transition: “Cold becomes warm, warm becomes cold, wet becomes dry, dry becomes wet.” The opposites seem to be in a triune relationship at the same time: 1) they mutually determine each other; 2) they complement each other (harmony of the world) and 3) they are mutually exclusive (struggle). The development of the world as a cosmos presupposes an eternal cycle of phenomena, due to which it remains an eternally living fire. It is worth emphasizing here that all subsequent philosophers and thinkers appealed to Heraclitean dialectics and his teaching on development.

Heraclitus subjects the essence of human cognitive activity to philosophical analysis and puts forward the doctrine of truth. Thus, the universal basis of knowledge is the ability of people to think. (“Thinking is common to all”), the instrument of which is the word (“logos”), and the goal of cognition is the achievement of true knowledge, i.e. one that does not distort the objective properties of things. He distinguishes two levels of knowledge:

sensory knowledge, which he calls "dark" because the senses often distort real picture and record only individual external properties. “People’s eyes and ears are bad witnesses.” He, however, stipulates that only those who “have coarse souls.”

theoretical knowledge that gives thinking, through which a person achieves true knowledge and becomes a true sage.

The most prominent representative of the materialist tradition in Ancient philosophy was Democritus of Abdera (460 - 350 BC). He is the most consistent proponent of materialism as a principle of explanation and understanding of the world. He believed that the primary substance, the “first brick” of everything that exists, are atoms, the smallest, indivisible particles. They are smaller than dust and therefore not visually perceptible. He becomes the creator of the atomic picture of the world.

Democritus also resolves such a complex and difficult question: If everything consists of atoms, then why is the world of objects so diverse in their properties? That is, he was faced with a fundamental philosophical problem - the unity and diversity of the world. And within the framework of philosophy and natural philosophy of that period, he gives its rational solution. Atoms are infinite in number, but differ in 1) size; 2) gravity (heavy and light); 3) geometric shapes(flat, round, hooked, etc.). The endless inexhaustibility of atomic forms. Hence, the infinite variety of properties of objects is associated with what atoms they consist of. In addition, the change in properties depends on the change in the bond order, the relationships between different atoms. The combinations of atoms are endless in their variety. Therefore, the Universe, the cosmos, is moving matter consisting of atoms. By matter he understands everything that consists of atoms. And by movement he understands both the movement of atoms (they rush around like crazy), and their connection and separation. And the movement itself is rhythmic, repeatable and stable. Therefore, he is inclined to recognize the existence of necessity in the world, i.e. the obligation and objectivity of what is happening, the stable ordering of events, and the denial of theology. In this regard, the philosophy of Democritus can be characterized as atheistic. But there are no accidents in the world, but strict necessity reigns. Therefore, the existence of the world is existence in necessity. And non-existence is emptiness, when connections and relationships are destroyed, and objects lose their properties.

Democritus consistently applies the principle of materialism to explain the essence of knowledge, to obtain true knowledge about something. By truth in this case we mean the coincidence, the adequacy of our ideas, images, concepts with the real properties of things. We can say that Democritus was one of the first to create a fairly coherent theory of knowledge, which is based on the principle of reflection, reproduction of the world and its properties in thinking. Typically, Democritus’ theory of knowledge is characterized as a “theory of outflow,” the essence of which is as follows. The atoms are covered with the thinnest film, “eidola” - images. They break off, “flow” from the surface of atoms, affect our senses, are imprinted on them, stored and consolidated in memory. This is a sensory level of cognition, which has a sign of reliability. True, he calls sensory knowledge “dark” due to its incompleteness, fragmentation and superficiality. True knowledge is, although a continuation of sensory knowledge, but already the result of the activity of the mind, which, through concepts, generalizes individual facts, gives complete and undistorted knowledge about the true essence of things hidden from the senses. And this is the result of the activity of thinking, the activity of the mind through concepts. Knowledge, as it were, moves from sensory, empirical knowledge to theoretical, rational, intellectual knowledge, in which the true nature of things is revealed to us.

From the point of view of his atheistic concept, Democritus explains the existence of the spiritual world and the human soul. All living things have a soul consisting of special atoms. The human soul consists of very light and spherical atoms. And since the human body also consists of atoms, we can talk about the unity of Soul and Body. Therefore, when the body dies, the soul leaves the body, dissipating in space. Of course, this is a naive dialectic of soul and body, but still an attempt to explain their relationship.

Democritus also touches on complex moral problems of human existence. IN special work“On an even mood of spirit” (on “euthymia”), he presents the goal of human life as the desire for happiness and good, achieved by calmness and balance in the soul, a state of serene wisdom. Serenity is a mental state when feelings do not rebel against reason. And happiness is understood not as the desire for pleasure, but for justice. From this he concludes that only a moral person is truly happy. He achieves this by following the dictates of conscience and shame, which he characterizes in the form of aphorisms: “Do not say or do anything bad, even if you are alone; learn to be ashamed of yourself much more than of others” (conscience). “Not out of fear, but out of a sense of duty, one must refrain from actions” (shame). “Not only actions, but also intentions can be immoral.” Of course, these postulates are advisory in nature, but may be generally applicable. They still do not lose their significance, attractiveness and inspiring power.

A prominent place in Ancient philosophy of this period is occupied by Pythagoras (570 - 406/97 BC) and the “Pythagorean school” formed by him. He was not only a famous mathematician and geometer, but also an outstanding philosopher. He offers original solution fundamental philosophical problem- what is the basis of the unity of the world and whether there are united, general patterns in this world, and whether we can know them and rationally express them. Based on the already generally accepted idea of ​​the world, space as a living, fiery and breathing spherical body and from astronomical observations, Pythagoras notes in the movement of celestial bodies the geometric correctness of the movement of celestial bodies, rhythm and harmony in the correlation of celestial bodies, which are characterized by constant numerical relationships. So called harmony celestial spheres. He comes to the conclusion that the basis of the unity and harmony of the world, as if its universal fundamental principle, is number. “The Pythagoreans considered numbers to be sensually perceived spatial figures.” Introducing such a principle of understanding and explaining the world, Pythagoras draws attention to the presence of interconnections, dialectics of the finite and infinite, spatial coordinates of the existence of the world. And since numbers “rule the world and permeate everything,” both soul and body have numerical expressions, and numerical proportions are also inherent in moral qualities, beauty, and art, especially music. From here he puts forward the idea of ​​​​transmigration of the human soul after bodily death into the bodies of other beings. In this form, which now seems naive, Pythagoras asserts the existence of universal laws of existence of the world, its unity, infinity and limitlessness, and therefore eternity.

A special trend in the philosophy of Antiquity of this period was sophistry (from the Greek sophistry - the ability to conduct debates wittily). Based on the postulate “Man is the measure of all things” put forward by Protagoras (481 - 413 BC), they direct their efforts not to achieve true knowledge, but to prove through eloquence the correctness of any subjective opinion that meets the principle of utility . This is a kind of “utilitarian philosophy”, which puts forward the ideas of relativity and impermanence of all things, denying truth as generally valid knowledge. Exactly what is useful and beneficial individual. Therefore, they pursued a purely pragmatic and largely selfish goal - to prove the truth of any opinion if it was beneficial. Hence the extreme relativism - there is nothing universally significant, stable and permanent in the world. And to do this, they narrowly used logic as a system of proof for narrow speculative purposes. Everything is relative: good, good, evil, beautiful, and, therefore, there is nothing truly true. Here is an example of the sophists’ technique: “Disease is evil for the sick, but good for doctors.” “Death is evil for those who are dying, but for sellers of things needed for funerals and for funeral workers it is good.” Based on such judgments, it is impossible to understand what true good is and whether it has universal significance; it is impossible to prove whether death is evil. In fact, sophistry and sophistry entered the history of philosophical thought and culture as a conscious substitution of concepts about something in order to obtain benefit and gain. Sophistry has become synonymous with unscientificness and dishonesty both in the thinking and in the actions of people. Sophistry and sophistry become a sign of untruth in actions, in thinking, and in worldview. Sophistry and sophistry are a deliberate justification of evil and self-interest. It should be noted that sophism and sophists were especially popular among politicians of that time. Modern politicians are guilty of the same thing.

3. Now we begin to characterize the most fruitful and positive period in the development of Ancient philosophy, which received the designation of the Ancient Classics, a period of a perfect example of philosophizing, pursuing the only goal - comprehending the truth and creating methods of cognition that lead us to truly true, reliable knowledge. This was the period of the creation of the historically first universal philosophical systems that grasped the world as a single whole and gave it a rational interpretation. We can say that this was a period of a kind of “creative competition” of thinkers-philosophers, although holding different positions, but pursuing one goal - the search for universal truth and the elevation of philosophy as a rational form of description, explanation and understanding of the world.

In socio-economic and political terms, this was the heyday of the ancient slave society, democracy and political life, arts and sciences of that period. Economically, it was an era of prosperity, and spiritually, an elevation of principles high ethics and morality. It seemed to become a model for civilized and cultural development, a model of humanism for all subsequent stages of European and not only European culture and history. Although Greek society of this period also had its own internal contradictions, as indeed for any other. But we can still say that agreement and unity rather prevailed in it than disagreement and disunity.

We can say that the ancestor, the “father” of classical ancient philosophy is Socrates (469 - 399 BC). This was an outstanding personality in all respects: he was not only a great philosopher-thinker, but an outstanding person and citizen. He amazingly combined his philosophical position and practical actions and deeds in harmonious unity. His integrity as a philosopher and as a person has such high charm and authority that he had a huge influence not only on all subsequent stages of philosophy, both European and world, but became a symbol, an example of an authentic, true person for all times. “Socratic man” is the ideal of man, not as God, but as “an earthly being close to all people.” It can be said that the life of Socrates is an example of demonstrative service to truth and humanity.

Socrates, first of all, draws attention to the peculiarity of philosophy and philosophizing, to the specificity philosophical knowledge. It lies in the fact that philosophy, through general concepts about an object, tries to discover a single basis, an essence that is generally valid for a number of phenomena or all phenomena, which is the law of the existence of things. The subject of philosophy, according to Socrates, cannot be nature, since we are not able to change natural phenomena, nor create them. Therefore, the subject of philosophy is man and his actions, and self-knowledge, knowledge of oneself, is the most important task. Socrates raises the question of the goals and practical purpose of philosophical knowledge for man. Thus, philosophy is given an anthropological character. Socratic philosophy is one of the first forms of anthropological philosophy. After Socrates, the problem of man gained importance in philosophy fundamental problem. What is the purpose of philosophy according to Socrates? The goal and task of philosophy is to teach a person the art of life and to be happy in this life. He gives a very simple definition of happiness, which is essentially universal - happiness is a state of a person when he experiences neither mental nor physical suffering. Eudlaimon - this is it happy man. The basis of happiness, according to Socrates, can be true knowledge about the good and the good, i.e., which no one doubts, and which does not lead to mistakes and delusions that are the cause of unhappiness. On this basis, Socrates believes that true knowledge is a genuine good, which is based not so much on benefit as on goodness. By good, Socrates understands bringing benefit to another, without pursuing any selfish gain. But how to achieve and is knowledge of true goodness and goodness achievable, is true knowledge of anything achievable? After all, true knowledge has special feature. It is universally significant and obvious to everyone and therefore no one doubts it. Therefore, Truth reveals the universal, essential foundations of the existence of phenomena in a certain quality.

The only way to achieve true knowledge is the method of dialogue, during which the truth is revealed to the participants in the dialogue. According to Socrates, dialogue is a mutual and voluntary search for true knowledge about something, clothed in a system of general concepts under which we subsume specific phenomena. Dialogue is creative process search for truth. Addressing his interlocutor, Socrates says: “And yet I want to think with you and look for what it is” (true virtue). (See Plato. Meno. Selected dialogues and true good). In the dialogue Laches, Socrates asks the question: “What does it mean to define what virtue is?” and answers: “It means to find out what is one and the same in everything, to find in the virtue in question that one thing that covers all cases of its manifestation.” This means that truth, and especially philosophical truth, is correct knowledge about the essence, which has a universally valid character. In this regard, Socrates emphasizes the rationalistic nature of philosophy, capable of resisting mysticism, prejudice and ignorance. Therefore, Socrates insists on the assertion that philosophy is the only impartial form of self-knowledge by a person of his true essence. Hence his motto-aphorism: “Know yourself.”

In dialogue there is always a dialectic of opinion and knowledge, opinion and truth. Opinion, i.e. a statement about something turns into a true judgment only when it turns into a system of concepts that fix what is generally valid. And the dialectics of thinking consists in the transition from one type of concept to another, from particular to general, more general content, from simpler knowledge to more complex one.

According to Socrates, the goal of philosophy is also for man to gain true freedom, the content of which should be to clarify what depends on man and what does not depend on man, and within these boundaries; Based on true knowledge, a person acts accurately and without error. Therefore, a person is free only to the extent that he knows himself. But according to Socrates, true and genuine freedom also includes a moral and ethical component. Freedom, free-thinking is the path to self-improvement, to the perfect ideal of a person, to a kalokagatic person (i.e., perfect in spiritual and moral terms). Socrates insists: “After all, all I do is go around and convince each of you, both young and old, to take care first and foremost not of the body or money, but of the soul, so that it is as good as possible.”

This is the humanistic and educational character of Socratic philosophy. Socrates is a model not only of genuine philosophizing, but also of a genuine combination of philosophy and practice of action, responsibility as a thinker and as a person. In essence, Socrates conducts a “social experiment” on himself, in which he tests the possibility and achievability of the connection and indissolubility of philosophical truths and principles with direct life manifestation. Which always requires extraordinary courage from a thinker and a person, as demonstrated by Socrates at his trial. Let’s finish our characterization of Socrates’ philosophy with Michel Montaigne’s statement about him: “It is truly easier to speak like Aristotle and live like Caesar than to speak and live like Socrates. This is precisely the limit of difficulty and perfection: no art will add anything here.”

Ancient philosophy arose in the first half of VI BC. e. in the Asia Minor part of what was then Hellas - in Ionia, in the city of Miletus.

It was within the framework of ancient philosophy that the first scientific concepts began to develop. These ideas were greatly influenced by the mathematical knowledge of Babylonia and Egypt. Already in the 7th century. BC Babylonian astronomers used mathematical methods to describe the periodicity of the movements of celestial bodies.

In ancient philosophy, the movement of celestial bodies was described using geometric models. Astronomical research was carried out by the early philosophical thinker of antiquity Thales, who predicted a solar eclipse on May 28, 585. Thales believed that the Earth was a flat disk floating in the ocean.

Anaximander was the first to suggest the infinity of the Universe and the countlessness of its worlds. He believed that the world consisted of three rotating celestial rings filled with fire and surrounding the Earth. The earth, in his opinion, occupies a central place and is a flat cylinder with antipodal continents. Stars are hollow spaces in rotating rings filled with fire.

Scientific judgments about the location of the planets first appeared in the Pythagorean school. The philosopher Philolaus included the Earth in the planetary series, which, as he believed, rotating 24 hours causes the change of day and night. Philolaus suggested that the distance of the planets from each other and from the Earth strictly corresponds to mathematical and musical proportions. In order for the number of cosmic bodies to be perfect (i.e. equal to 10) and to embody the fullness of existence, an invisible Anti-Earth was postulated between the “central fire” and the Earth. On the basis of this postulate, the Pythagoreans and philosophers of Plato’s school developed planetary theories, on the basis of which the heliocentric theory of Aristarchus of Samos subsequently arose (in the 3rd century BC). And although it did not become widespread, since it did not fully agree with the picture of the universe, in the center of which, as Aristarchus assumed, was the motionless Earth, it contributed to further understanding of the philosophical and physical picture of existence.

Presumably Plato, and then Heraclitus of Pontus and other thinkers of antiquity put forward the idea of ​​​​the rotation of the Earth. Around the same time, the Egyptian system was developed about the rotation of Mercury and Venus around the Sun, which, together with other planets, revolved around the Earth.

Aristotle in the 4th century BC built models of concentric spheres. He created 55 crystal spheres and used these models to demonstrate his theory to students of the philosophical school. And already in the Middle Ages, Aristotle’s model was complicated by the teachings of Copernicus, who increased the number of Aristotle’s spheres to 79.

The ancient Greek philosopher and astronomer and one of the founders of astronomical science, Hipparchus (2nd century BC), conducted the first empirical studies of anomalies of the movement of the Sun, using a star catalog compiled a hundred years before him. He significantly improved the method for calculating the apparent motion of the Sun and Moon. He also determined the distance to the Moon and entered geographic coordinates.

Much later (in the Middle Ages), these and other astronomical discoveries of antiquity were inherited by Arab scientists who carried out research in the 12th-13th centuries. astronomical observations.

The development of ancient science was undertaken in Europe. 18 centuries after the research of the philosopher and scientist Ptolemy, N. Copernicus considered his work as a continuation of the ideas contained in Ptolemy’s work “Almagest”.

Ancient philosophy was built on concrete scientific theoretical analysis. At the same time, philosophy itself did not separate itself from science. Philosophy was a complex of scientific ideas about the world.

The first ancient Greek philosophical school was the Milesian school. The philosophers Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes and their students belonged to it. Already in the first philosophical school, the birth of philosophy as a separate discipline took place.

By ancient philosophy we mean philosophical teachings that arose in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.. Philosophy was preceded by the rich mythology of Ancient Greece, which found its expression mainly in the epic works of Homer “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, as well as Hesiod (VIII-VII centuries BC).

The first philosophical ideas of the Milesian school were largely based on the ancient worldview of Homer and Hesiod. At the same time Milesian school was already an attempt at scientific (and not mythological) thinking. To this first stage The development of the philosophy of Ancient Greece also included Heraclitus and the Eleatic school (philosophy of the period VI-V centuries BC). This period in the development of philosophy is associated with the emergence of ancient dialectics, materialism and atomism.

For pre-Socratic philosophy (VII-- 1st half of the 4th centuries BC), represented by the philosophers of the Milesian school (Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus), the school of Pythagoras, the Eleatics (Parmenides, Zeno), the atomists (Leucippus, Democritus ), was characterized by a predominant interest in the development of natural-philosophical cosmological models, in the problem of the unity and plurality of the world, and in the search for a unified basis of the universe (arche).

Second stage The development of ancient Greek philosophy gave the world the greatest thinkers - Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. (IV century BC)

With Socrates, the greatest rationalist of antiquity, the formation of philosophy as a reflexive theoretical discipline begins, the main subject of consideration of which is the system of subject-object relations. In the works of Socrates, ontological themes traditional for natural philosophy are complemented by epistemological ones.

Within the framework of Socratic philosophy in the V - IV centuries. BC e. In the works of Plato and Aristotle, classical examples of philosophical concepts were created, which for many centuries determined the main problem fields and features of the thinking style of European philosophy. Plato, in particular, laid the foundation for the idealistic tradition in European classics.

Aristotle is the great philosopher-encyclopedist of antiquity, who systematized the entire complex of ancient scientific and philosophical knowledge, and was the founder of formal logic and the theory of argumentation.

Third stage, called Hellenism, is associated with the decline of the ancient Greek slave society, the collapse of Greece.

Stoicism, Cynicism, Epicureanism - philosophical schools of the Hellenistic period (IV century BC - early 1st century) - arose during the crisis of ancient democracy and polis values. The predominance of moral and ethical issues in the works of the Cynics, Epicurus, the Roman Stoics Seneca and Marcus Aurelius testifies to the search for new goals and regulations for human life in this historical period.

The final stage in the history of ancient philosophy takes place under the influence of Neoplatonism (Plotinus, Proclus), which became a transitional link on the path to medieval philosophy. Neoplatonism brought philosophical quests beyond the boundaries of Greek rationalism and served as the basis for the theocentrism of medieval philosophy.

Already at the end of the 4th century. BC, e. Signs of the decline of Greek democracy intensified. The crisis led to the loss of political independence by Athens and other Greek city-states. Athens became part of the huge power created by Alexander the Great. The collapse of the power after the death of the conqueror intensified the development of the crisis, which caused profound changes in the spiritual life of society. Three main currents of Hellenistic philosophy emerged: skepticism, epicureanism and stoicism(IV-III centuries BC).

So, the main stages in the development of ancient philosophical thought can be divided into three periods.

The first period is usually called Pre-Socratic. It covers the 6th-5th centuries. BC It includes the Milesian and Eleatic philosophical schools, the teachings of Heraclitus, the Pythagoreans, and the atomists.

The second period is called classical, or Socratic. It developed during the middle of the 5th – 4th centuries. BC This period was prepared by the teaching of the Sophists, and it was at this time that the schools of the great teachers of world philosophy - Socrates, Plato and Aristotle - appeared.

In the third period, Hellenistic and Roman philosophy developed (late IV - II centuries BC and I century BC - V-VI centuries AD). This period marked the beginning of the formation of Christian philosophy.

The distinctive features of the philosophical thought of Ancient Greece were, first of all, ontologism and cosmologism. Ontology (Greek ontos - existing, loqos - teaching) consisted of a stable orientation of philosophical thinking towards comprehending the essence and structure of being as such, as well as (as opposed to the mythological tradition) in the formation of a system of categories as logical means of cognition of being: “substance” , “one-many”, “being-non-existence”, etc. Cosmologism (kosmos - organized world, loqos - teaching), which expressed a stable tendency towards demythologization of the world, consisted in the creation of a number of alternative models of the Cosmos as a structurally organized and ordered whole . In the early stages of the development of ancient philosophy, interest in the origin of the Cosmos, its genesis, prevailed. The classical period is characterized by the development of models of the cosmic process, which emphasize the problems of its essence and structure.

Features of ancient philosophy

The development of ancient philosophy is the most important stage in the historical dynamics of the subject of philosophical knowledge. Within the framework of ancient philosophy, ontology and metaphysics, epistemology and logic, anthropology and psychology, philosophy of history and aesthetics, moral and political philosophy are highlighted.