Abstract: The origin of philosophical knowledge in the ancient world. The importance of ancient philosophy for the emergence and development of science

Ancient philosophy is a complex of ideas and teachings produced by ancient Greek and Roman thinkers in the period from the 8th century. BC. to the 6th century and characterized by a certain problematic content and stylistic unity. Ancient philosophy is a product of a non-traditional type of culture based on dynamic social development and formation critical thinking. What is specific to this type of culture is the formation within it of a special meta-level (meta-culture), focused on a reflexive rethinking of the deep ideological foundations and universals of traditional culture, overcoming mythological stereotypes of thinking and developing on the basis of this new ways of seeing the world, with an attitude characteristic of non-traditional cultures The plurality of knowledge makes possible the parallel coexistence of different versions of the worldview.

Ancient philosophy is the first phenomenon of meta-culture in the history of Europe and not only the first historical type of philosophizing, but also the first form of conceptual thinking in general. Because of this, it contains subject areas that in the future will be constituted as independent theoretical disciplines (mathematics, astronomy, medicine, linguistics, etc.). Development ancient philosophy is the most important stage in the historical dynamics of the subject of philosophical knowledge, playing a fundamental role in the unfolding of the problem fields of philosophy as such. Within the framework of ancient philosophy, ontology and metaphysics, epistemology and logic, anthropology and psychology, philosophy of history and aesthetics, moral and political philosophy began to form.

The philosophical creativity of the Hellenes is an autonomous, independent philosophy that quickly freed itself from the power of the authorities of myth, mysticism and ritual. The scientific knowledge of the Chaldeans and Egyptians, Phoenicians and Persians, in creative Greek adaptation, entered its culture. The forms of Greek life that prepared the birth of philosophy are known: the poems of Homer and gnomic texts, the public Olympian religion and the Orphic mysteries, sociopolitical and economic conditions. Hellenic mythology, repeatedly revised and rethought, tells that the world process begins with Chaos - the formless state of the Universe, then gods are born from it: Gaia - Earth, Uranus - sky, Tartarus - underworld. Eros is a beautiful world, Nyukta is night. Generations of gods in the Universe, replacing each other, represent the kingdom of Zeus the Thunderer, a world that is similar to the Indian one: the similarity of traditions in relation to the gods, who are vain and dependent, not omnipotent, because, like people, they are at the mercy of fate ( Greeks - moira, ananke, moros). The sociomorphic model of the cosmic process emphasizes its regularity, treating space by analogy with a state ordered in accordance with law and on the basis of justice. Such a legal connotation of ancient sociomorphism is associated with the peculiarities of the ancient Greek philosophy’s understanding of the mythologem of fate, which in its semantics combines aspects of necessity, objective regularity, on the one hand, and justice, on the other.

Ancient philosophy served as the foundation for the entire subsequent development of social consciousness in Europe and determined the directions of religious problems in the philosophy of the Middle Ages (nominalism and realism) and the New Age (empiricism and rationalism).

Ancient philosophy arose and lived in a “force field”, the poles of which were, on the one hand, mythology, and on the other, the science that was emerging precisely in Ancient Greece. Thales (c. 625-547 BC) is considered the founder of ancient Greek philosophy, and his successors were Anaximander (c. 610-546 BC) and Anaximenes (c. 585-525 BC). AD).

Ancient Greek philosophy arose not as a field of special philosophical research, but in unbreakable connection with the rudiments of scientific knowledge - mathematical and natural sciences, in connection with the rudiments of political knowledge, as well as in connection with mythology and art. Only in the era of so-called Hellenism, starting from the 3rd century. BC, some sciences, primarily mathematics and medicine, are separated into special areas of research. However, even after this, ancient Greek philosophy continues to develop as a worldview that contains answers not only to philosophical questions proper, but also to questions of the sciences: mathematical, natural and social.

The philosophy of Ancient Rome arose at the end of the Republican period of Rome (II-I centuries BC) and developed in parallel with Greek philosophy - during the Roman Empire until approximately the time of its fall (late 5th - early 6th centuries AD) .

A characteristic feature of ancient Greek philosophy consists primarily in the opposition of philosophical reflection to practical activity, in its unique relationship to mythology. Spiritual development in the 7th-4th centuries. BC e. went from mythology and religion to science and philosophy. An important link and condition for this development was the assimilation by the Greeks of scientific and philosophical concepts developed in the countries of the East - in Babylon, Iran, Egypt, Phenicia. The influence of Babylonian science was especially great - mathematics, astronomy, geography, and the system of measures. Cosmology, the calendar, elements of geometry and algebra were borrowed by the Greeks from their predecessors and neighbors in the east.

Gradually, two main types emerged in ancient philosophy philosophical worldview- materialism and idealism. Their struggle is the main content philosophical development at all subsequent times. At the same time, a contrast arises between two main methods of thinking - dialectics and metaphysics.

According to Roman historians, there were 288 philosophical teachings in Ancient Greece, of which, in addition to the great philosophical schools, the teachings of the Cynics and Cyrene philosophers stand out. There were four great schools in Athens: the Academy of Plato, the Lyceum of Aristotle, the Portico (Stoic school) and the Garden (Epicurean school).

Ionian(or Milesian, according to the place of origin) school is the oldest natural philosophical school. Ionian philosophy is already philosophy in the basic sense of the word, because already its first creators - Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes - sought to understand this or that principle as a substance (water, air, fire, etc.). Thales is the founder of the Milesian, or Ionian school, the first philosophical school. He was one of the founders of philosophy and mathematics, the first to formulate geometric theorems, and studied astronomy and geometry from the Egyptian priests. Thales became the founder of natural philosophy and formulated its two main problems: the beginning and the universal. He considered the beginning to be water in which the earth rests, and he considered the world to be filled with gods and animated. Thales also divided the year into 365 days. Heraclitus said that everything is born from fire through rarefaction and condensation and burns out after certain periods. Heraclitus also introduced the concept of Logos (Word) - the principle of rational unity that orders the world from opposite principles. The origin of the foundations of astronomy, mathematics, geography, physics, biology and other sciences is associated with the Ionian school.

Pythagorean the school was founded by Pythagoras in Crotone (Southern Italy) and existed until the beginning of the 4th century. BC, although persecution began almost immediately after the death of Pythagoras in 500 BC. In essence, it was a religious and philosophical aristocratic brotherhood; it had a great influence on the Greek city-states of Southern Italy and Sicily. The Pythagorean school laid the foundation for the mathematical sciences. Numbers were understood as the essence of everything that exists, they were given mystical meaning. The basis of Pythagorean mathematics is the doctrine of the decade: 1+2+3+4=10. These four numbers describe all the processes occurring in the world. They saw the world order as the rule of numbers; and in this sense they transfer to the world, “as a whole, the concept space, originally meaning order, decoration.” If you ask yourself the question of “the philosophical orientation of Pythagoras,” then, it seems, we can say with complete confidence that it was, first of all, philosophy of numbers, in this it sharply differed from Ionian natural philosophy, which sought to reduce everything that exists to one or another material element, emphasizing its qualitative originality (water, air, fire, earth).”

The Pythagoreans belong to the doctrine of the music of the spheres and the musical scale, reflecting the harmony of the solar system, where each planet corresponds to a certain note, and together they create intervals of the musical scale. They also laid the foundation for musical psychology: music was used as a means of educating and healing the soul and body. Astronomy and medicine began to develop in the Pythagorean school. She created many allegorical commentaries on Homer, as well as a grammar Greek language. Thus, the Pythagoreans can be considered the founders of the humanities, natural, exact and systematic sciences.

Eleatic school is the name given to the ancient Greek philosophical school, the teachings of which developed starting from the end of the 6th century. until the beginning of the second half of the 5th century. BC. with major philosophers - Parmenides, Zeno and Melissus. Since the main teachings of the school were developed by Parmenides and Zeno, citizens from the city of Elea, the school received the name Eleatic. They understand the idea of ​​world unity qualitatively, however, they see world unity not in a single world substance, but in a single ruling world principle, in a single concept that dominates the change of all phenomena. For the Eleatics, such a concept is being, which remains constant no matter how things change.

The appearance of the school sophists was a response to the need of democracy in education and science. Traveling teachers could teach anyone the art of speech for money. Their main goal was to prepare young people for active political life. The activity of the sophists marked the beginning of the search for new forms of reliability of knowledge - ones that could withstand the court of critical reflection. This search was continued by the great Athenian philosopher Socrates (c. 470 - 399 BC), first a student of the Sophists, and then their critic. The difference between Socrates and the Sophists is that the criterion for evaluating actions for him is the consideration of what motives determine the decision of what is useful and what is harmful. Socrates' thoughts served as the basis for the development of most subsequent philosophical schools, which were founded by his students, including Plato's Academy. He explained the essence of his own philosophy in one phrase: “All I know is that I don’t know anything.” In his conversations, Socrates does not answer questions, he poses them, skillfully encouraging his interlocutor to independently search for the truth. And when he seems to be close to her, he finds new arguments and arguments to show the futility of these attempts. Socrates' main philosophical interest focuses on the question of what a person is, what human consciousness is. “Know thyself” is Socrates’ favorite saying.

Plato combined in his teaching the values ​​of his two great predecessors: Pythagoras and Socrates. From the Pythagoreans he adopted the art of mathematics and the idea of ​​​​creating a philosophical school, which he embodied in his Academy in Athens. The famous philosophical school existed until the very end of antiquity, until 529, when the Byzantine emperor Justinian closed it. From Socrates, Plato learned doubt, irony, and the art of conversation. The most significant ideas in Plato's philosophy are ideas about Ideas, Justice and the State. He tried to combine the philosophical and the political. In his school, he trained philosopher rulers capable of ruling fairly, based on the principles of the common good.

In 335 BC. Aristotle, a student of Plato, founded his own school - the Lyceum, or Peripatos, which was distinguished by its exclusively philosophical orientation. However, it is difficult to synthesize Aristotle’s coherent system from his works, which are often collections of lectures and courses. One of the most important results of Aristotle's activities in politics was the education of Alexander the Great. From the ruins of the Great Empire, Hellenistic states and new philosophers arose.

School Stoics, founded by Zeno at the end of the 4th century. BC, existed during the Roman Empire. Philosophy for the Stoics is not just science, but, above all, the path of life, life wisdom. Only philosophy is able to teach a person to maintain self-control and dignity in the difficult situation that arose in the Hellenistic era, especially in the late Roman Empire, where the decay of morals in the first centuries new era reached highest point. The Stoics consider freedom from the power of the external world over a person to be the main virtue of a sage; His strength lies in the fact that he is not a slave to his own passions. A true sage, according to the Stoics, is not even afraid of death; It is from the Stoics that the understanding of philosophy as the science of dying comes. The main idea of ​​stoicism is submission to fate and the fatality of all things.

A complete rejection of social activism in ethics is found in the famous materialist Epicurus (341 - 270 BC). The most famous of the Roman epicureans was Lucretius Carus (c. 99 - 55 AD). Individual person, and not the social whole - this is the starting point of Epicurean ethics. Thus, Epicurus revises the definition of man given by Aristotle. The individual is primary; all social connections, all human relationships depend on individuals, from their subjective desires and rational considerations of benefit and pleasure. The social union, according to Epicurus, is not the highest goal, but only a means for the personal well-being of individuals. Like most Greek sages, he was committed to the ideal of moderation. The highest pleasure, like the Stoics, was considered to be equanimity of spirit (ataraxia), peace of mind and serenity, and such a state can be achieved only if a person learns to moderate his passions and carnal desires, subordinating them to reason. Epicureans pay especially much attention to the fight against superstitions, including traditional Greek religion.

antique philosophy materialism idealism

Introduction

general characteristics ancient philosophy

Ancient materialism: Thales, Heraclitus, Democritus

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

Philosophy is knowledge of the universal, essential meaning about the world, knowledge of true existence.

Ancient philosophy existed for more than a thousand years (from the 6th century BC to the 6th century AD). It was historically the first form of European philosophy and initially included knowledge about the world, from which the tree of modern philosophy and science subsequently grew.

Ancient philosophy is characterized by the presence of many various schools and directions. In antiquity, two main directions emerged: materialistic (the line of Democritus) and idealistic (the line of Plato), the struggle between which becomes one of the internal sources of the development of philosophy.

In ancient philosophy, the doctrine of development arose - dialectics in its first spontaneous form. Already in it, objective dialectics (Heraclitus) and subjective dialectics (Socrates) are distinguished.

Of course, in antiquity the concepts of philosophy and science coincided. Philosophical consciousness extended to knowledge in its entirety, while also claiming to define values ​​and rules of behavior.

1. General characteristics of ancient philosophy

European and a significant part of modern world civilization is directly or indirectly a product of ancient Greek culture, the most important part of which is philosophy. Many prominent philosophers write about the periodization of ancient philosophy, including A.N. Chanyshev. (Course of lectures on ancient philosophy. M., 1981), Smirnov I.N., Titov V.F. ("Philosophy", M., 1996), Asmus V.F. (History of ancient philosophy M., 1965), Bogomolov A.S. ("Ancient Philosophy", Moscow State University, 1985).

For convenience of analysis, we will use a more concise periodization presented by I.N. Smirnov. So he notes that when analyzing Greek philosophy, three periods are distinguished in it: the first ¾ from Thales to Aristotle; the second - the classical ancient Greek philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, the third - Hellenistic philosophy. The object of our attention will be only the first and second periods.

Absolutely all scientist-philosophers note that the first period of development of ancient philosophy was the period of natural philosophy. A peculiar feature of ancient philosophy was the connection of its teachings with the teachings of nature, from which independent sciences subsequently developed: astronomy, physics, biology. In the VI and V centuries. BC. philosophy did not yet exist separately from the knowledge of nature, and knowledge about nature - separately from philosophy. Cosmological speculation of the 7th and 6th centuries BC raises the question of the final foundation of things. Thus, the concept of world unity appears, which opposes the multitude of phenomena and through which they try to explain the connection of this multitude and diversity, as well as the pattern that manifests itself primarily in the most general cosmic processes, in the change of day and night, in the movement of stars.

The second period of Greek philosophy (V - VI centuries BC), in contrast to the one-sided cosmocentric direction of the previous philosophy, also begins one-sidedly, namely with the formulation of anthropological problems. Natural philosophical thinking reached boundaries beyond which it could not go at that time. This period is represented by the Sophists and Socrates and the Socratics. The difference between Socrates and the Sophists is that the criterion for evaluating actions for him is the consideration of what motives determine the decision of what is useful and what is harmful.

In his philosophical activity, Socrates was guided by two principles formulated by the oracles: “the need for everyone to know himself and the fact that no person knows anything for sure and only a true sage knows that he knows nothing.”

Socrates ends the natural philosophical period in the history of ancient Greek philosophy and begins new stage, associated with the activities of Plato and Aristotle.

Plato goes far beyond the boundaries of the Socratic spirit. Plato is a conscious and consistent objective idealist. Plato was the first among philosophers to pose the main question of philosophy, the question of the relationship between spirit and matter. Strictly speaking, one can speak with a significant degree of certainty about philosophy in Ancient Greece only starting with Plato. Plato is the first ancient Greek philosopher whose activities can be judged by his own works.

Our understanding of ancient Greek philosophy will not be complete without an analysis of the philosophical heritage of Aristotle (384 - 322 BC), one of the greatest thinkers in the history of human civilization.

Aristotle is distinguished by his encyclopedic knowledge; he summed up the development of philosophical thought from the beginning of Ancient Greece to Plato.

The third period of ancient philosophy: the age of Hellenism (from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century after AD). This includes the Stoics, Epicureans, and Skeptics. Neoplatonism ends the development of Greek philosophy.

2. Ancient materialism: Thales, Heraclitus, Democritus

Philosophy of Thales

The history of ancient Greek philosophy opens with the name of Thales of Miletus (about 625 - 547 BC). Thales argued that everything in the world consists of water. Water is the beginning and the end of all things.

The following sayings are attributed to him: “God is most ancient of all things, for he is not born.” “The world is most beautiful, for it is the creation of God.” “Time is the wisest thing, for it reveals everything.” He was asked: “What is difficult in the world?” - “Know yourself.” "What's easy?" - “Advise to another.”

The first ancient Greek philosophers were busy searching for the fundamental principle from which the universe consists.

Philosophy of Heraclitus.

Heraclitus of Ephesus made a significant contribution to the formation and development of ancient Greek philosophy. The date of life is dated differently for different philosophers. So Taranov P.S. indicates that Heraclitus was born around 535 BC and died around 475 BC, having lived 60 years. Bogomolov names the date of birth (544, but considers the date of death unknown). Everyone recognizes that the personality of Heraclitus was very controversial. Coming from royal family, he ceded the crown to his brother, and he himself retired to the temple of Artemis of Ephesus, devoting his time to philosophy. At the end of his life, Heraclitus retired to the mountains and lived as a hermit.

Analyzing the philosophical views of Heraclitus, one cannot help but see that, like his predecessors, he, in general, remained in the position of natural philosophy, although some problems, for example, the dialectics of contradiction, development, are analyzed by him at the philosophical level, that is, at the level of concepts and logical conclusions.

A prominent researcher of Heraclitus, M. Markovich, recreates the train of thought of the Ephesian: he (Heraclitus) also says that the judgment of the world and everything that is in it is carried out through fire. For all... the coming fire will judge and condemn. Heraclitus considers fire as the substance-genetic beginning of the Universe.

Heraclitus believes that none of the gods and none of the people created the cosmos, but “it has always been, is and will be an eternally living fire.”

So, Heraclitus considered the first principle of all things to be fire - a subtle and mobile light element. Fire was considered by Heraclitus not only as an essence, as a beginning, but also as a real process, as a result of which, thanks to the flaring up or extinction of fire, all things and bodies appear.

Heraclitus speaks of kinship logosand fire as different aspects of the same being. Fire expresses the qualitative and changeable side of the existing - logos - structural, stable. "Fire is an exchange or exchange, logos is the proportion of this exchange."

So, the Heraclitian logos is the rational necessity of existence, merged with the very concept of existence - fire. The Logos of Heraclitus has several interpretations: logos - word, story, argument, supreme reason, universal law etc. According to Bogomolov, the value is closer logosby the way lawas a universal semantic connection of existence.

The main position of the philosophy of Heraclitus is conveyed by Plato in the dialogue "Cratylus". Plato reports that according to Heraclitus, “everything moves and nothing is at rest... it is impossible to enter the same river.”

Dialectics according to Heraclitus is, first of all, changeof all things and the unity of unconditional opposites. At the same time, change is considered not as a simple movement, but as a process of formation of the universe, the cosmos.

And without exaggeration we can say that of all philosophers of the period of formation of ancient philosophy,Heraclitus most deserves “the title of founder of objective dialectics as the doctrine of opposites, their struggle, their unity and the world process. This is its enduring significance.”

Heraclitus's teaching about flow is closely connected with his teaching about the transition of one opposite to another, about the “exchange” of opposites. “Cold things get warmer, warm things get colder, wet things dry out, dry things get moistened.” By exchanging with each other, opposites become identical. Heraclitus’s statement that everything is an exchange of opposites is complemented by the fact that everything happens through struggle: “you should know that war is universal and true struggle and everything that happens is through struggle and out of necessity.” On the basis of struggle, the harmony of the world is established.

Democritus and his atomic theory

According to most philosophers, Democritus was born in 460 BC and died in 360/370 BC. He lived almost 100 years. Originally from Abdera, he came from a noble family and was rich, but he abandoned his wealth and spent his entire life in poverty, indulging exclusively in philosophy.

Democritus taught that there is something extremely simple, further indivisible and impenetrable, of which everything that exists is composed - the atom. There are countless atoms; Democritus characterizes atoms, just as Parmenides characterizes being. Atoms are eternal, unchanging, indivisible, impenetrable, neither created nor restored. They have absolute density and hardness and differ from each other in their volume and shape. All bodies are made of atoms; the real, genuine properties of things are those that are inherent in atoms. Atoms are separated from each other by emptiness. If the atom is existence, then emptiness is non-existence. On the one hand, if there were no emptiness, then there would be no real multitude and movement. On the other hand, if everything were divisible to infinity, then there would be emptiness in everything, that is, there would be nothing in the world, there would be no world itself. Democritus interpreted the movement as a natural state of the Cosmos, while the movement was interpreted strictly unambiguously as the endless movement of atoms in the void.

Democritus was the first in ancient Greek philosophy to introduce the concept of cause into scientific circulation. He denies chance in the sense of causelessness.

In inorganic nature, everything is not done according to goals and in this sense is accidental, but the student can have both goals and means. Thus, Democritus's view of nature is strictly causal, deterministic.

He preached a consistent materialist position in his doctrine of the nature of the soul and knowledge. “The soul, according to Democritus, consists of spherical atoms, that is, it is like fire.”

Democritus' views on man, society, morality and religion are interesting. He intuitively believed that the first of people led a disordered life. When they learned to make fire, they gradually began to develop various arts. He expressed the version that art originated through imitation (We learned from a spider to weave, from a swallow to build houses, etc.), that laws are created by people. Wrote about bad and good people. “Bad people make oaths to the gods when they find themselves in a hopeless situation. When they get rid of it, they still don’t keep their oaths.”

Democritus rejected divine providence, the afterlife, and posthumous reward for earthly deeds. The ethics of Democritus is permeated with the ideas of humanism. "Democritus' hedonism is not only about pleasure, because... greater good a blissful state of mind and a measure of pleasures."

Ancient idealism: Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle

Pythagoras(IV century BC) and his followers, the Pythagoreans, proceeded from the idea that the universe is infinite in both space and time and that it is ruled by a god who is as eternal and infinite as the world itself. The whole world is dominated by order, which is based on number and measure - they produce a harmony of being, similar to that which we find in music. The number controls both the course of the heavenly sanctuaries and all human relationships. The number controls both the course of the heavenly sanctuaries and all human relationships. Number is a source of rewards and punishments. The human soul is immortal and harmonious, but during its earthly existence it passes through a series of bodies: sometimes higher, sometimes lower - depending on how virtuous it is.

Socrates(469 - 399 BC) He believed: the main thing is to know the general, general principles virtues. Good cannot be taught - it is contained in the nature of the spirit. Everything lies in the spirit of man; he learns something only by appearance. All that exists is contained within man himself. According to Socrates, man as a thinker is the measure of all things. Socrates' demand: know yourself. Socrates was characterized by ethical intellectualism; His moral and scientific knowledge are identical. True knowledge, according to Socrates, includes right action.

He who knows what good is must always act in the spirit of good. An important means achieving philosophical leadership, he considered dialogue. According to Socrates, God is, in essence, Mind, Soul. The human mind and soul are the inner voice (conscience) of divine origin that encourages a person to live virtuously.

Plato is an outstanding objective idealist.

Plato (427-347 BC) - the founder of objective idealism, student of Cratylus and Socrates. Almost all works written in the form of dialogues or dramatic works have reached us: “Apology of Socrates, 23 overheard dialogues, 11th century varying degrees dubious dialogues, 8 works that were not included in the list of Plato’s works even in antiquity, 13 letters, many of which are certainly authentic and definitions.”

Plato early became acquainted with the philosophy of Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno, and the Pythagoreans. Plato is the founder of a school called the Academy. In the dialogue, Timaeus was the first to comprehensively discuss the origin of the first principles and the structure of the cosmos. “We need to consider what the very nature of fire, water, air and earth was before the birth of heaven and what their then state was. For until now no one has explained their birth, but we call them and take them as elements as the letters of the Universe.” For the first time he raised the question of the essence of things and their essences. He laid the foundation for the doctrine of standard prototypes or paradigms. The existence of an idea is more important than non-existence. The field of Plato's ideas is reminiscent of Parmenides' doctrine of being. Plato's world of sensory things is reminiscent of Heraclitus's doctrine of existence - the flow of eternal formation, birth and death.

Plato transferred Heraclitean characterization of being to the world of sensory things.

In the dialogue "Timaeus" he reveals cosmogony and cosmology. He considered the demiurge (god) to be the organizer of the cosmos. So, the principles of the cosmos are as follows: “ideas are the prototypes of existence, matter and the demiurge are God who organizes the world according to ideas. There is being (ideas), there is production and there are three births of the world.”

The emergence of the cosmos is described by Plato as follows. From a mixture of ideas and matter, the demiurge creates a world soul and distributes this mixture throughout the entire space, which is intended for the visible universe, dividing it into elements - fire, air, water and earth. Rotating the cosmos, he rounded it, giving it the most perfect shape - spheres. The result is the cosmos, like a living being, gifted with intelligence. “So, before us is the structure of the world: the divine mind (demiurge), the world soul and the world body (cosmos).

At the center of the teachings of Plato, like his teacher Socrates, are problems of morality. He considered morality to be a virtue of the soul, the soul truly gives the cause of things, the soul is immortal.

In the dialogue "Timaeus" he revealed the picture afterlife and courts. He thought that it was necessary to cleanse the soul from earthly defilement (evil, vices and passions).

In the dialogues “Politician”, “State”, “Laws” Plato revealed the doctrine of government. He advocated the complete subordination of the individual to the state; his ideals were the power of an enlightened king.

He noted that three main forms of government could exist in the state: monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy.

Each form of state, according to Plato, perishes due to internal contradictions. “Plato characterizes government as a royal art, the main thing for which is the presence of true royal knowledge and the ability to manage people. If rulers have such data, then it will no longer matter whether they rule according to laws or without them, voluntarily or against their will, are poor or rich: taking this into account will never and under no circumstances be correct.”

Plato was the founder of not only ancient but also world idealism.

Aristotle is an outstanding philosopher of antiquity.

His student Aristotle, the greatest ancient Greek philosopher, became a decisive opponent of Plato. F. Engels called him “the most universal head” among the ancient Greek philosophers, a thinker who explored the most essential forms of dialectical thinking.

Aristotle was born in 384 BC. in the city of Stagira, in 367 BC. went to Athens, where he joined the Academy - Plato's school, and spent 20 years there until Plato's death. Later he will criticize platonism. He wrote the words: “Plato is my friend, but the truth is more precious.”

Aristotle later founded his own school in Athens, calling it the Lyceum. He owns 146 works, including “Organon”, “Metaphysics”, “Physics”, etc.

Main content philosophical teaching Aristotle is set out in his work Metaphysics. Aristotle preserves the understanding of being, characteristic of the Eleatics and Plato, as something stable, unchanging, immovable. However, Aristotle does not identify being with ideas. He criticizes Plato for ascribing independent existence to ideas, isolating and separating them from the sensory world. As a result, Aristotle gives the concept of being a different interpretation than Plato. Essence is a single being with independence. It answers the question: “What is a thing?” in existence represents what makes objects precisely this, not allowing it to merge with others.

In metaphysics he defines matter. Unlike Socrates and Plato, who did not consider the science of nature to be true wisdom, Aristotle deeply explores nature. Matter turns out to be the first cause of both the emergence and the changeable existence of natural things, “for all nature, one might say, is material.” For Aristotle, matter is the primary material, the potency of things. What gives matter an actual state, that is, transforms it from possibility into reality, is form. Form, according to Aristotle, is an active principle, the beginning of life and activity. He called the highest essences pure forms; in fact, pure forms are nothing more than ideal essences. Aristotle considers the highest essence to be pure, formless matter - the Prime Mover, which serves as the source of life and movement of the entire Cosmos.

It is from the understanding of matter that Aristotle builds his doctrine of 4 Xelements (earth, fire, water, air). If there were no Pre-Socratics in philosophy special term to designate matter, Aristotle was the first to develop this as a philosophical category. AT 3 to herthe book "Physics" he talked about 4 Xtypes of movement. In “metaphysics” and “physics” he convincingly convinced of the dominance of form over content. His thoughts on society, ethics and politics are interesting. The goal of human activity for all ancient Greek philosophy is to achieve bliss. Bliss according to Aristotle is unattainable. In Aristotle's Politics, society and the state are not distinguished. Man, in his opinion, is a political animal. He justified slavery because he believed that slavery exists by nature. A slave has no rights.

Aristotle summarized the development of philosophical thought from its beginnings in Ancient Greece to Plato. It was Aristotle who originated the systematization of knowledge based on two principles - subject and target. He divides the sciences into 3 large groups: theoretical (1 Iphysics, physics, mathematics), practical (ethics, economics, politics) and creative (poetics, rhetoric, art).

Thus, Aristotle completed the classical philosophy of history.

Historical significance of ancient philosophy

The philosophical achievements of Plato and Aristotle are rightly considered to be the pinnacle of ancient Greek philosophical thought. The influence on subsequent philosophical and cultural development of the ideas put forward by Plato and Aristotle many times exceeds the influence of what was created by their predecessors. Without Platonic and Aristotelian approaches and concepts, it is impossible to understand any philosophical system along the entire long path of subsequent evolution, including modernity.

Ancient Greece set a certain model for civilization in general, civilization as such. The model turned out, however, to be complex and contradictory. But it remains and will forever remain attractive, especially in cases where civilization is under threat somewhere or is looking for new impulses to gain fresh breath. The Greek model is static. The most important thing is that, due to this same quality, it can be built into the composition of another civilization. True, in this case it is necessary to solve the most difficult problem about the ways and methods of such embedding. The subsequent development of civilization based on the values ​​of Christianity demonstrated various options solutions to this problem. However, in all options, the value of the intellectual and technical side of ancient Greek thought was recognized. Antiquity owes the achievements of the highest technology of thinking mainly to the work of Plato and Aristotle, who relied on the previous achievements of Greek thought. These achievements together constituted a phenomenon called ancient Greek philosophy. Ancient Greek philosophy is what develops and consolidates universal methods of thinking, not limited by anything external, primarily by faith and sensory experience.

Conclusion

So, summing up the results of the test on the topic “Ancient Philosophy”, I draw the following conclusions:

.Philosophy is one of the most ancient areas of human knowledge.

.The essence of philosophy and its role in society is that it is knowledge of the universal, essential knowledge of the world, knowledge of true existence. Philosophy is the decisive sphere of formation of the spirit.

.Philosophy general connections and relationships, general laws, which operate in nature, society and human thinking.

.European philosophy was formed on the basis of antiquity and Christianity.

.Ancient philosophy played a huge historical role in the spiritual development of mankind, laying the foundations for the subsequent movement of all European and world philosophy.

Bibliography

1. Asmus V.F. History of ancient philosophy. M., 1965.
2. Bogomolov A.S. Ancient philosophy. Moscow State University, 1985.
3. Garanov P.S. 500 steps to wisdom. Book 1., 1996.
4. Losev A.F. Ancient philosophy of history. M., 1977.
5. Losev A.F. Dictionary of Ancient Philosophy. M., 1995.
6. Losev A.F. Plato, Aristotle. M., 1993.
7. Sergeev K.A., Slinin Ya.A. Nature and mind. Ancient paradigm. L., 1991.
8. Smirnov I.N., Titov V.F. Philosophy. AT 2 X book, book 1., M., 1996.
9. Chanyshev A.N. Course of lectures on ancient philosophy. M., 1981.
10. Radugin A.A. Philosophy. Lecture course. Publishing house Center. Moscow. 1997.

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Topic 2. The phenomenon of philosophy in oriental culture. Philosophy in ancient culture.

The problem of “general and special” in the philosophy and culture of East and West

The specifics of the ancient Indian (“world”-denying worldview, mythologism, caste hierarchy), ancient Chinese (“world”-affirming worldview, traditionalism, pragmatism), ancient Greek (“world”-affirming worldview, cosmocentrism, rationalism) cultures.

Ancient Indian philosophy. Veda. The Doctrine of the One. Orthodox and heterodox schools. Anthropocentrism. Ancient Chinese philosophy. U-Jing. The doctrine of the One as the unity of opposites. Ethical and ontological schools. Ancient Greek philosophy. Ionians and Eleatics. Rationalism.

Ancient Greek philosophy: ontological “pictures of the world” of Parmenides, Ionians (Thales), Eleatics (Xenophanes), Atomists (Democrates), “Dalectics” (Heraclitus, Socrates). Ontological principles for constructing a philosophical picture of the world: cosmocentrism, theocentrism, anthropocentrism; monism, dualism, holism.

“Eidos” of Plato, “essences” of Aristotle and their constructive and logical role in the construction of ontological pictures.

Ancient roots of Western culture. Unity and differences of Eastern and Western culture, religion and philosophy.

Myth and mythological consciousness. From myth to logos: the emergence of ancient philosophy. Salvation, surprise and doubt as the three main impulses of philosophizing.

Greek natural philosophy, main directions and concepts. The path of physis (the Milesian sages, Heraclitus, Democritus and Epicurus), the path of theos (Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans), the path of being (Parmenides and Zeno).

Anthropological turn in ancient philosophy. The discovery of subjectivity in the teaching of the Sophists. Indistinguishability of knowledge and opinion. Autonomy of word and speech. Sophists and Socrates. Dialectical method. Reason as a path to understanding life. Reason, happiness and virtue.

Themes of being and knowledge in Plato and Aristotle. Plato's doctrine of being. The world of ideas and the world of things. The doctrine of the soul. Cognition as memory. Parable of the Cave. Criticism of Plato's theory of ideas in the philosophy of Aristotle. Matter and form. The doctrine of four types of causes. Knowledge and opinion. Experience, art and science. The concept of metaphysics.

Man and the state in the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. Ideal project government system in Plato. Philosopher and state. Forms of perverted government. The highest goal of man and the essence of the state in the political teachings of Aristotle. Classification of the main forms of government according to Aristotle. The main causes of the death of states and the means to ensure their stability of power.

Hellenistic-Roman philosophy. Development of anthropological themes in the teachings of the Epicureans, Cynics and Stoics. Ancient skepticism as doubt in the capabilities of the human mind.

When starting to study the philosophy of the ancient East, you need to turn to Ancient Egypt, Sumerians, Babylon, Ancient India, Ancient China and the Ancient World. It is appropriate to recall the history of culture in order to understand the material and sociocultural prerequisites for the emergence of philosophical thought. Appeal to the following sources: Spirkin A.G. Philosophy. M., 2000, Philosophical encyclopedic Dictionary M., 1997 (1989, 1983), Alekseev P.V., Panin A.V. Philosophy. M., 2000, Reader on philosophy / Comp. and ed. A.A. Radugin. M., 1998, Anthology of world philosophy. In 4 vols. M., 1963-1966, History of philosophy in summary. M., 1995 (1991) will help you understand the following issues: the philosophical meaning and content of religious and mythological experience in Egypt and other countries of the Ancient East, ancient Indian philosophy: spiritual comprehension of the Cosmos and Man, philosophy Ancient China.

Books by Asmus V.F., Bogomolov, Cassidy F., Orgish, Losev A.F. (Philosophy. Mythology. Culture. M, 1991) will provide an opportunity to comprehend Greek paideia and philosophy: the cosmocentric nature of ancient Greek philosophy, the middle classics: the “discovery” of man (sophists - “Man is the measure of all things”, Socrates with his call “Know yourself !” and its traditions), horizons of metaphysics: Plato and the ancient Academy, the first systematization of philosophical and scientific knowledge: Aristotle and the Peripatetics.

Comprehension of culture and philosophy Ancient world is possible only by mastering the conceptual and textual foundations of the philosophy of ancient India, the unity and differences of the main orthodox and heterodox schools: an overview of the basic concepts and teachings of ancient India (Vedanta, Vaisheshika, Mimamsa, Samkhya, Nyaya, yoga, Charvakas, Buddhism, Jainism, etc.) . The religious mysticism of ancient Indian philosophy, the social ethics of Ancient Chinese philosophy, especially Confucius, can be considered a counterverse: Confucianism - legalism. Consider the growing attention to the philosophy of Ancient India and Ancient China: The beginnings of philosophical thought: “naturalists” and philosophers of “fusis” (Ionians, Pythagoreans, Eleatics, Atomists). It is important to understand the significance of the democracy of the Greek polis on Greek philosophy, to see the birth in Ancient Greece of “all later types” of philosophizing. The significance of late classical philosophy can be understood from the example of the philosophy of the Hellenistic era (Cynics, Epicureans, Stoics, Skeptics), the teachings of Plotinus and Neoplatonism. It is important to see and understand the reasons for the origin, flourishing and decline of ancient philosophy.

Ancient philosophy is a complex of ideas and teachings produced by ancient Greek and Roman thinkers in the period from the 8th century. BC. to the 6th century and characterized by a certain problematic content and stylistic unity. Ancient philosophy is a product of an unconventional type of culture, based on dynamic social development and the formation of critical thinking. What is specific to this type of culture is the formation within it of a special meta-level (meta-culture), focused on a reflexive rethinking of the deep ideological foundations and universals of traditional culture, overcoming mythological stereotypes of thinking and developing on the basis of this new ways of seeing the world, with an attitude characteristic of non-traditional cultures The plurality of knowledge makes possible the parallel coexistence of different versions of the worldview.

Ancient philosophy is the first phenomenon of meta-culture in the history of Europe and not only the first historical type of philosophizing, but also the first form of conceptual thinking in general. Because of this, it contains subject areas that in the future will be constituted as independent theoretical disciplines (mathematics, astronomy, medicine, linguistics, etc.). The development of ancient philosophy is the most important stage in the historical dynamics of the subject of philosophical knowledge, playing a fundamental role in the development of the problem fields of philosophy as such. Within the framework of ancient philosophy, ontology and metaphysics, epistemology and logic, anthropology and psychology, philosophy of history and aesthetics, moral and political philosophy began to form.

The philosophical creativity of the Hellenes is an autonomous, independent philosophy that quickly freed itself from the power of the authorities of myth, mysticism and ritual. The scientific knowledge of the Chaldeans and Egyptians, Phoenicians and Persians, in creative Greek adaptation, entered its culture. The forms of Greek life that prepared the birth of philosophy are known: the poems of Homer and gnomic texts, the public Olympian religion and the Orphic mysteries, sociopolitical and economic conditions. The mythology of the Hellenes, repeatedly revised and rethought, tells that the world process begins with Chaos - the formless state of the Universe, then gods are born from it: Gaia - the Earth, Uranus - the sky, Tartarus - the underworld. Eros is a beautiful world, Nyukta is night. Generations of gods in the Universe, replacing each other, represent the kingdom of Zeus the Thunderer, a world that is similar to the Indian one: the similarity of traditions in relation to the gods, who are vain and dependent, not omnipotent, because, like people, they are at the mercy of fate ( Greeks - moira, ananke, moros). The sociomorphic model of the cosmic process emphasizes its regularity, treating space by analogy with a state ordered in accordance with law and on the basis of justice. Such a legal connotation of ancient sociomorphism is associated with the peculiarities of the ancient Greek philosophy’s understanding of the mythologem of fate, which in its semantics combines aspects of necessity, objective regularity, on the one hand, and justice, on the other.

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This topic belongs to the section:

The emergence of philosophy. The subject of philosophy and its role in the life of society. Main branches of philosophy

The emergence of philosophy is a long process, therefore it is quite difficult to determine the origins of this science, because all the famous ancient scientists or... sections of philosophy... ontology from the Greek oacute n genus case oacute ntos being and logy is the section of philosophy in which they are considered..

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