Philosophical reflections appeared already in the first works of the ancient Greek historians Thucydides, Herodotus and Homer. In the VI century BC. the philosophy of ancient Greece was born. Around the same time, philosophical currents appeared in India and Egypt.
The formation of ancient Greek philosophy in the VI-V century BC. e.
The first philosophical school in ancient Greece is considered to be the school of the thinker Thales in the city of Miletskut. Hence the name of this school, Milesian. The first school of philosophers was distinguished by the fact that they understood the world as a whole, without separating living substances from non-living ones.
- Thales . This philosopher was the first to discover the Constellation Ursa Major and determined that the light of the moon falling on the earth is its reflection. According to the teachings of Thales, everything that surrounds us consists of water. His thesis is “everything from water and everything into water”. Water is an animated substance, which, like the cosmos, is endowed with animated forces. Thales laid the idea of \u200b\u200bthe unity of command of nature, that is, born from a single whole. Contemporaries call it natural philosophy.
- Anaximander . The earth, according to his teaching, is a weightless body that floats in the air. The modern world has developed from marine sediments on the border between water and shore. According to Anaximander, the universe dies in order to be reborn again.
- Another representative of the Milesian school Anaximenes introduced the concept of appeiron - an indefinite beginning. He understands air as filling everything living and non-living. The human soul also consists of air. If you discharge the air, it will disintegrate into flame and ether, according to the philosopher, while condensing, the air turns first into clouds, then into wind and stones.
- From the philosophers of ancient Greece early period formation stood out from Ephos. He came from an aristocratic family, but left his home and went with his students to the mountains. Heraclitus considered fire to be the foundation of all things. The human soul, eternally burning, also consists of fire. The fate of the sage is to be eternally filled with the fire of the search for truth, the philosopher argued. One of the most famous theses of Heraclitus: “everything flows, everything changes.” Like the philosophers of the Milesian school, Heraclitus believed that the universe dies in order to be reborn again. The main difference of his philosophy is that all living material is born in fire and goes into fire.
Rice. 1. Heraclitus.
Heraclitus created a new concept in philosophy - "Logos" is a kind of code of laws created by divine forces. The Logos, in other words, is the voice of the cosmos, but even having heard it, people do not understand and do not accept it. All living things can change, but the essence of the Logos always remains the same.
- Pythagoras . This ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician founded his school in Croton. The Pythagoreans believed that a person with a noble heart should rule the state. At the heart of all things, the thinker believed, are numbers. The scientist is also known for proving his geometric and mathematical theorems. The Pythagorean table has been used since ancient times to this day.
Elat School
The Elatian school focused on explaining the nature of the world and the existence of man in this world. The main philosophers of this school are Zeno, Xenophanes and Parmenides.
- Xenophanes , philosopher and poet, one of the first to talk about the mobility of the universe. He also criticized the religion of the ancient Greeks. He also ridiculed soothsayers with soothsayers, calling them swindlers.
- Adopted son of Parmenides Zeno developed the theory of the “world of opinion”, in which the main role belongs to movement and number. This thinker tries to cut off everything incomprehensible by the method of elimination.
- Parmenides argued that there is nothing in the world but being. The criterion of everything, the philosopher believed, is the mind, and everything sensual has blurred borders and is not subject to deep understanding.
Democritus
One of the most prominent ideologists of natural philosophy was the thinker Democritus.
- Democritus it was argued that at the foot of the universe lies many worlds. Each such world consists of atoms and emptiness, emptiness fills the space between atoms and the world. Atoms themselves are indivisible, they do not change and are immortal, their number is infinite. The philosopher argued that everything that happens in the world has its own reason, and knowledge of the reasons is the basis of action.
At the first stage of the formation of ancient Greek philosophy, a generalization of knowledge appears. The first philosophers are trying to understand the structure of the world, there are concepts of space and atoms filling space.
TOP 4 articleswho read along with this
The Rise of Ancient Greek Philosophy
In the period of the V-IV centuries BC. Exact sciences and natural sciences developed in ancient Greece. It is noteworthy that this development takes place against the background of mythology and religion.
sophist school
The school of sophists was known for its critical attitude to the polytheistic religion of Ancient Hellas; Protagoras became the founder of this school.
- Protagoras was a philosopher-traveler who traveled all over Greece and was abroad. He met with prominent politicians Hellas: Pericles and Euripides who sought his advice. The basis of the ideology of Protagoras was his thesis: “man is the measure of everything” and “man understands everything as he understands”. His words should be understood as what a person sees and feels, and is in fact. The teachings of the philosopher led to the fact that he was accused of atheism and expelled from Athens.
- Antiphon - one of the younger generation of the sophist school. The thinker believed that man himself must take care of himself, while the essence of nature is inseparable from man. Antiphon, as well as Protagoras, was persecuted by the authorities for marrying a slave and setting all his slaves free.
Socrates
This philosopher, born in 469 BC, loved to walk the streets of the city and have conversations with people. Being a sculptor by profession, Socrates managed to take part in the Peloponnesian War.
- Philosophy Socrates completely different from the ideology of his predecessors. Unlike them, Socrates does not offer to reflect and contemplate, he offers to act in the name of noble goals. To live in the name of good is the main thesis of Socrates. The thinker considers knowledge as a common foundation for self-development of the individual. “Know thyself” is the main thesis of the philosopher. In 399 BC. e. Socrates was accused of blasphemy and corruption of youth. He was sentenced to death. As a free citizen of Hellas, Socrates had to take poison, which he did.
Rice. 2. Socrates. The work of Lysippos.
Plato
After the death of Socrates, Plato became one of the most prominent figures among the philosophers of ancient Greece. In 387 B.C. e. this philosopher formed his own circle of students, which later became his school called the Academy. So it was named after the area in which it was located.
- In general, philosophy Plato incorporated the main theses of Socrates and Pythagoras. The thinker became the founder of the theory of idealism. The highest something, according to his theory, is the Good. Human desires are fickle and resemble a chariot drawn by two horses. Knowledge of the world, according to Plato, is the desire to see the beauty of the soul in every person. And only Love can bring a person closer to the Good.
Aristotle
The culmination of ancient Greek philosophy, its most remarkable milestone, is considered to be the works of the philosopher Aristotle. Aristotle studied at Plato's Academy and created a single complex of science, logic, politics and natural science.
- Matter, according to Aristotle , what our world is made of, by itself it can neither disappear nor be reborn, since it is inert. Aristotle created the concepts of time and space. He substantiated philosophy as a system of knowledge of science. Like Socrates, this thinker was accused of godlessness and forced to leave Athens. The great philosopher died in a foreign land, in the city of Khalkis.
Rice. 3. Bust of Aristotle. The work of Lysippos.
Decline of Ancient Greek Philosophy
classical period philosophical thought Ancient Greece ended with the death of Aristotle. TO 3rd century BC e. the decline of philosophy came, since Hellas fell under the blows of Rome. During this period, the spiritual and moral life ancient Greeks.
The main ideologies during this period are considered to be Epicureanism, skepticism and stoicism.
- Epicurus - a prominent philosopher, was born in 372 BC. e. He argued that the world cannot be changed. According to the thinker's teaching, atoms move in empty space. Epicurus considered pleasure to be the highest principle of man. At the same time, the thinker argued that an immoral person cannot be happy.
- Cleanf - one of the founders of Stoicism argued that the world is living matter ruled by the law of divine powers, the Logos. Man must hear the will of the gods and obey their every command.
- Philosopher Pyrrho introduced the concept of skepticism. Skeptics rejected the accumulated knowledge of people, arguing that a person cannot know a little about the world around him. Therefore, a person cannot judge the nature of things and even more so give it any assessment.
Despite the decline of the philosophical thought of Ancient Greece, it laid fundamental basis human personality formation of moral and moral principles.
What have we learned?
The gradual transition of ancient Greek philosophers from a simple contemplation of natural phenomena to the very essence of man created the foundation for modern moral qualities with the synthesis of science. Briefly, the most important philosophers of Ancient Greece are Aristotle, Plato, Socrates and Democritus: they and some other philosophers and philosophical movements are described in this article.
Topic quiz
Report Evaluation
average rating: 4.5. Total ratings received: 131.
The totality of philosophical teachings that developed in ancient Greek society at the end of the 7th century. BC. - The beginning of the VI century. AD as an integral and original phenomenon, a kind of sample not only of the spiritual culture of ancient Greece, but also of the philosophical thought of mankind as a whole. Features of the emergence and formation of G.f. to a certain extent due to the influence of the philosophical ideas of the peoples of Africa and Western Asia, to a greater extent - Babylon and Egypt, to a lesser extent
Lydia, Persia, etc. The entire period of the existence of G.f. can be roughly divided into three stages. On the first (pre-Socratic) - the end of the 7th century.
Middle of the 5th century BC. - Dominated by natural philosophical issues; in the second (mid-5th century - 4th century BC), starting with the sophists as a transitional link to the second stage, and Socrates, the focus shifts to the person. In addition, G.f. gradually transforms from monocentric to field centric. So, in Plato and Aristotle, philosophy is no longer only human-centric, but also sociocentric and (already on a new level compared to the pre-Socratics and in a different sense) cosmocentric. Finally, at the third stage, which began after Aristotle, in G.f. priority becomes philosophical-historical, anthropological, moral-ethical and religious-spiritual issues. Philosophy does not begin suddenly in different regions of ancient Greece and develops unevenly. It arises in Miletus as a key Ionian city
Asia Minor, and not in the autochthonous Greek agricultural communities of the south of the Balkan Peninsula. The combination of favorable material (then the city of Miletus - a rich industrial and shopping center) and spiritual (proximity to Eastern philosophy and culture in general), the intensity, tension and clarity of the manifestation of social processes also determined the content richness, speed of development, diversity and classical perfection of G.F. . on the periphery - the Milesian school (Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes), people from Ephesus (Heraclitus), Colophon (Xenophanes), Samos (Pythagoras, lemon balm), Elea (Parmenides, Zeno), Klazomen (Anaxagoras). Only from the middle of the 5th c. BC. (as Attica is transformed from a backward agricultural country into an economically powerful and politically advanced country, led by such a powerful economic, socio-political and spiritual center as Athens), the focus of the development of philosophical thought is shifting to its own Greek land, however, and currently outside the Balkans several G.f. cells are saved. - Abdera (Leucippus, Democritus, Protagoras), Sicily (Empedocles, sophistic school), etc.
At this stage, the semantic orientation of the representatives of G.f. Cosmological problems dominate in the pre-Socratics, the thinkers of this period appear in the role of peculiar prophets initiated into the sacred, and philosophy still does not stand out from the syncretic complex of the then human knowledge about yourself and the world around you. The first representatives of G. ph., starting with Thales, who was another of the semi-legendary seven wise men and at the same time the first of the philosophers, concentrated their efforts on the search for that substratum, the persore, from which everything happens and into which everything returns, that is, the origin of origin , existence and change of all things. At the same time, substance was interpreted not only and not so much as motionless, dead matter, but as substance, alive as a whole and in its parts, a kind of organic integrity, endowed with soul and movement, is also divided into the same wholes. Among the representatives of the Milesian school, Thales considered water as such, Anaximander - aleuron (indefinite, limitless, inexhaustible), Anaximenes - air; Heraclitus from Ephesus - fire, Anaxagoras - mind (nus), Empedocles - all four elements: fire, air, water and earth, acquire from him the status of primary elements ("roots of all things"). From the combination of these "roots" in different proportions, thanks to love and enmity, all manifestations of existence occur, including living organisms as the highest level the latter. And, finally, Xenophanes considered the "earth" or the cosmos as a whole, interpreted as a deity, to be the primary source.
Metaphysical monism outlined in in general terms in the monotheistic theology of the pantheistic sense of Xenophanes, found a specific development in the schools of the Eleatics (Parmenides, Zeno of Elea, Meliss), where it was no longer about these or those sensually given dimensions of being (Archit
Tarentsky), but about their own intelligible being, and the Pythagoreans (Pythagoras, Philolaus, Alcmaeon), who laid the foundations of monadology, made one of the first attempts at a systematic analysis of the problems of harmony, measure, number. The atomistics of Leucippus and Democritus, already several years younger than Socrates, can be considered a kind of completion of the boards of the WSC cosmology. At the same time, at the final stage of the first stage, G.f. in the philosophy of the sophists (Protagoras, Hippias, Gorgias, Prodicus, etc.) an anthropological turn took place, put in the center of philosophical attention no longer the first principle, the cosmos and being as such, but man. Programmatic in this sense is the thesis of Protagoras that it is "man is the measure of all things - existing, that they exist, non-existent - that they do not exist." However, creating opportunities for a radical rethinking of the place and role of man in the universe, the nature of the relationship between subject and object in the process of cognition, the sophists have not yet realized these opportunities. Emphasizing the meaning of a person, the sophists focus not on the subjective, but on the subjective characteristics of its sensory-objective and cognitive activity, on the relativity of all ideas and concepts of people about the world of nature and society. The natural consequence of this was the degeneration of the sophianic philosophers into sophistry, into individualism, subjectivism and relativism in all branches human knowledge and culture in general.
Considering (like the sophists) in the meaning of the fundamental problem of philosophy not cosmological, but anthropological, Socrates, unlike the sophists, avoided relativism and individualism, showing exactly what, with all the diversity of people, their statuses, lifestyles, abilities and destinies, unites them can be expressed by the corresponding single and general concept and reflects the objective meaning of this concept. The main efforts of Socrates are focused primarily on finding out "what is pious and what is wicked, beautiful and ugly, fair and unfair" (Xenophon. Memoirs., 11.16). He saw the way to solving these problems in overcoming arbitrary interpretation concepts in the process of comprehending the truth, since it is true knowledge, in his opinion, that is a prerequisite moral behavior and an authentic understanding of the beautiful, that is, the kalokagatiya way of life, to which everyone should strive.
The ethics of Socrates is rationalistic, based on knowledge, and yet, according to Socrates, the title must include a moral component as a constitutive principle, without which they become just a thought. Among the Socratic schools, the Megarian (founded by Euclid) and, to a certain extent, the Elido-Eretrian significant influence Eleatics and Sophists, but sought to overcome relativism. Many supporters also had the Socratic schools of the Cyrenaics (Aristipus, Euhemerus, etc.), who professed hedonism and atheism, and the Cynics (Antisthenes, Diogenes of Sinopsky, Dion Chrysostom), who recognized autarchy, internal independence and self-sufficiency of the individual, neglected the achievements of civilization and often led a miserable existence. Plato, preserving and developing the human-centeredness of philosophizing characteristic of Socrates, for the first time in G. Ph., made on this basis a universal generalizing synthesis of philosophical knowledge, creating their integral system, differentiated by time according to wide range teachings. All of them are distinguished by a clear anthropo-social determinism, which sometimes borders on anthropomorphism. So, even Plato's cosmogony, based to a large extent on his doctrine of the cosmic soul, interprets the latter by analogy with the human soul, although Plato himself, on the contrary, interpreted individual human souls as the personification of the cosmic soul, that is, derivatives of it. The unconditional anthroposociocultural conditioning and direction of Plato's philosophy is also manifested in his teaching about the intelligible world of ideas, the comprehension of which makes it possible to cognize and achieve truth, virtue and beauty, as well as in the first place that the doctrine of society, politics and the state occupies in his system.
Plato's teachings were directly developed by his students and supporters, whom Plato united into a school called the Academy. In addition, the ancient Academy (348-270 BC) is also distinguished as the middle (315-215 BC, the most important representatives are Arkesy-lai and Karnead) and the new one (160 BC - 529 AD). .e., Cicero, Mark Terence Varro) Academy. As a relatively autonomous entity, the "middle" (in contrast to Neoplatonism) Platonism is singled out (representatives - Plutarch of Chaeronea (c. 45-120) and Thrasillus). The sociocultural coloring also determines the originality of philosophy (first a student, and later the ideological opponent of Plato - Aristotle), one of the main subjects of which is the mental and spiritual, primarily diverse cognitive activity human, focused on the development of problems of logic as a general methodology of scientific knowledge.
However, the ontological teaching of Aristotle, primarily his "First Philosophy", "Metaphysics", with substantiation, systematic development and application of the principle of the relationship between form and matter, is permeated and largely determined by the very anthroposocial intentions. After all, the bearer of the active, leading principle, and therefore the creator of all things, arises the subject, which, however, appears in Aristotle not only and not so much in an authentic, but in a transformed form, for example, in the form of the prime mover, the demiurge. In addition, the doctrine of man, where the soul is interpreted as the form of the body, and the mind as the form of the soul, is not the main area for using the principle of the relationship of matter and form. This approach, in turn, forms the foundation of the moral and socio-political theory of Aristotle. After all, his ethics are based on the interpretation of man as a being, rational in nature; the improvement of the latter is considered by him as the only way to achieve happiness - the highest good, main goal human life activity. At the same time, ethical virtues are based on an understanding of action, dianoetic virtues are based on rational thinking, while the realization of both varieties of virtues involves the education of the will. With ethics, according to Aristotle, the doctrine of society, politics and the state is inextricably linked, since a person, being a "political animal", can achieve moral perfection only in a society of his own kind, and organized into a state.
In 455 BC Aristotle organized his followers into a school called the Peripatetic, or Lyceum. Among the first peripatetics are Theophrastus, Dicaearchus, Aristoxenus; among the later ones - Strato, Aristarchus of Samos, Claudius Ptolemy, Galen, Andronicus of Rhodes.
Finally, at the third, final stage, G.f. one of the main subjects of philosophical thinking is already the culture of ancient Greece as a certain integrity with an original spiritual world. Therefore, at this stage, in the foreground in common system philosophical knowledge go out the problems of philosophy of history, spirituality, freedom and morality, after all the unfavorable external conditions become late history ancient Greek society, the attention of people, including philosophers, gradually focuses on their inner, spiritual world. It is this shift that is characteristic, in particular, for the three main directions of Hellenistic philosophy - Epicureanism, Stoicism and skepticism - which are characterized not only by the emergence (with the loss of political independence by Greek, in particular Athenian, policies) of a new, cosmopolitan thinking, but also more noticeable predominance of ethical issues. In the context of the latter, social ethics is gradually being forced out of the center to the periphery, and its place is occupied by individual ethics, addressed directly to the individual. The issue of natural philosophy and logic does not go unnoticed here either, but they, firstly, fade into the background, and secondly, they are also filled with sociocultural content to one degree or another. So, Epicurus, who founded his own school (“The Garden of Epicurus”) and became the founder of the corresponding direction of late G. ph., being a follower of the atomism of Democritus, at the same time not only recognizes free deviation behind the movement of atoms, thus briefly substantiating the freedom of human will, but also fills atomistics, as the young Marx well showed, with social meaning. A similar trend is also observed in another course of the late G.f. - Stoicism. If early Stoicism (Zeno Kitionsky, Cleanthes, Chrysippus, III-II centuries BC) still pays a lot of attention to theoretical philosophy (logic and physics), although even in Chrysippus ethics is the central part of the philosophical system, then at the stage of the middle Stop (Panetius, Posidonius, II-I centuries BC) Panetius emphasizes the practical nature of all philosophy. Representatives of late Stoicism (Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, monsoons Rufus, Hierocles-Stoic - 1-2 centuries AD) the problems of logic and physics in themselves generally bypass quite a bit, since they are increasingly gravitating towards sacralization, religious moralizing, or at least seek to console people by means of worldly wisdom.
The third main direction of writing by Aristotle and G.f. - Skepticism (Pyrrho, Arcesilaus, Carneades, Aenesidemus, Agrippa, Sextus Empiricus - IV centuries BC - II century AD) generally proved the impossibility of true knowledge and on this basis - the need for content (epoch) from any -What judgment, the desire for apathy and ataraxia (equanimity). If a person is forced to act, then they should be based on such "non-strict" grounds as probability, habit and tradition.
Finally, for the final, transitional from the ancient G.f. medieval philosophy is characterized by the dominance of not purely philosophical, but religious-philosophical and, in fact, religious searches.
The first philosopher in history Thales (625-545 BC), who lived on the Ionian coast of Asia Minor, in Miletus. His main idea is “everything is water”. This idea is purely philosophical. He did not rely on any mythological ideas, but proceeded solely from what his mind prompted him to do. (Recall that a philosopher is a person for whom the arguments of reason are main instrument explanation and understanding). In other words, Thales tried to explain the world from natural causes, that is, from himself.
Taking water as a single principle of all things, he was the first to try (within the framework of philosophical, non-mythological thinking) to solve the problem of the one and the many, reducing all the diversity of things to water. With a sense of dialectics, he understood that behind the visible diversity lies the unity of nature.
Thales did not accidentally choose water as the first principle. It can be taken as the center of all opposites. Water can be cold and hot, turn into solid and gaseous state; it does not have a definite standing form (that is, it is something indefinite) and at the same time it is sensually determined (it can be seen, touched, smelled and even heard). In addition, water, or rather one of its two elements - hydrogen - is the most common substance in the universe.
Two legends are known about Thales, showing his strength and weakness as a philosopher. The first is about how he, foreseeing good harvest olives, rented all the oil mills, began to dictate the prices of the products of the oil mills and, thus, became rich. The second legend is about how, looking at the starry sky, he fell into a hole (they say, he is in the clouds, but he does not see what is under his feet).
Thales was a student Anaximander. He put forward the idea of arche, the beginning, and considered apeiron (the infinite) as such. Apeiron Anaximander - something like abstract matter, substance.
Anaximenes, developing the ideas of Thales and Anaximander, considered air as the beginning, which, condensing and rarefying, gives rise to water, earth, fire, i.e., the whole variety of things and phenomena.
The wise men of Miletus lit the fire of philosophical thought in Ancient Greece. The philosophers who followed them put forward doctrines in which principles were developed that were implicitly present in the Milesian philosophers. Thus, the search by the Milesians for a single principle led Xenophanes and Parmenides to the doctrine of universal being, and their attempts to find a rational explanation for the apparent diversity of things led Pythagoras to the doctrine of the numerical regularity underlying all things. Without the Milesians, there would be no Heraclitus.
Heraclitus(544-483 BC) lived on the Ionian coast in Ephesus. From his work “On Nature” 126 scattered fragments have come down to us. They amaze with their philosophy and depth. Heraclitus is the author of the famous thesis: "You cannot enter the same river twice." Subsequently, this thesis was reduced to the formula “Everything flows, everything changes” (panta rei). From this it is clear why Heraclitus considered the beginning of everything that exists the fire, something extremely variable and causing change. This is how he explained the world on the basis of his doctrine of fire-arche: “The world was not created by any of the gods and by any of the people, but was, is and will be an ever-living fire, igniting by measures and fading by measures.”
Heraclitus was the first conscious dialectician in history. (Initially, "dialectics" meant the art of arguing; in the end, this word came to be understood as the doctrine of real contradictions, development, and formation). According to Heraclitus, everything is fraught with opposites or consists of opposites. And these opposites are one, that is, they are a real-life contradiction. He also claimed that universal harmony is expressed in the form of a bow and a lyre. Lyra is the dialectic of preservation and harmony proper. Bow - the dialectic of change, struggle, destruction and creation. Which of them predominates? Until now, the best minds of mankind are struggling with this issue.
Eleatics -With creators of a qualitative concept of being. They lived in Elea (Southern Italy). Their predecessor was Xenophanes . He was one of the first to demythologize the picture of the world, giving natural phenomena natural explanation. He believed that the gods were invented by people in their own image. (While traveling, Xenophanes encountered amazing fact: people imagine their gods in different ways: “The Ethiopians say that their gods are snub-nosed and black; the Thracians represent their gods as blue-eyed and reddish"). He was probably the first critic of religion.
Parmenides(540-480 BC) - the most striking figure among the Eleatics. He argued: “there is no movement, there is no non-existence, only being exists” (compare with Heraclitus: “everything flows, everything changes”). Destruction, movement, change - not in truth, but only in opinion. Being is one, not many. Parmenides imagined it as a ball in which everything is the same essence. He drew a clear line between thinking and sensory experience, cognition and evaluation (the famous opposition of "in truth" and "in opinion").
Zeno, an Elean, is known for his aporias (translated as aporia - difficulty, difficulty) “Achilles and the tortoise”, “Dichotomy”, “Arrow”, “Stages”. If Parmenides proved the existence of the one, then Zeno tried to refute the existence of the many. He argued against the movement, pointing out that it was contradictory and therefore non-existent.
Pythagoras and Pythagoreans - creators of the quantitative concept of being. “Everything is a number,” Pythagoras (circa 580-500 BC) claimed. Everything is quantitatively determined, that is, any object is not only qualitatively, but also quantitatively determined (or otherwise: each quality has its own quantity). This was the greatest discovery. All experimental and observing science rests on this proposition. It is no coincidence that it was the experiment with musical strings (one of the first in the history of science) that led to a discovery that strengthened Pythagoras's belief in the omnipotence of numbers, confirmed the principle of the dependence of quality on quantity.
It is impossible not to note the negative side of the Pythagorean teaching, expressed in the absolutization of quantity, number. On the basis of this absolutization grew Pythagorean mathematical symbolism and mysticism of numbers, full of superstitions, which was combined with the belief in the transmigration of souls.
Pythagoras was the founder of the first community of philosophers-mathematicians-scientists - the Pythagorean Union. This Union became the prototype of the Platonic Academy.
Pythagoras is considered the inventor of the term "philosophy". We can only be lovers of wisdom, not sages (only gods can be). With such an attitude towards wisdom, philosophers, as it were, left an “open door” for the creation of the new (for knowledge and invention).
Empedocles from Agrigentum (O. Sicily, c. 490-430 BC) put forward the doctrine of the four elements, the elements of the world (earth, water, air, fire) and two forces that connect and separate them (friendship and enmity) .
Anaxagoras(c. 500-428 BC) - the first Athenian philosopher. Known for his doctrine of homeomerism, similar to partial - the seeds of the world, which, mixing in different proportions, form the whole variety of things and phenomena. Anaxagoras put forward the thesis: everything from everything (“Everything is in everything and everything stands out from everything”).
Democritus(460-371 BC) - the greatest materialist, the first encyclopedic mind of Ancient Greece. He believed that everything consists of atoms (indivisible particles) and emptiness (the latter is a condition for movement). He even represented thought as a collection of especially thin invisible atoms. Thought, according to Democritus, cannot exist without a material carrier, the spirit cannot exist independently of matter.
From Democritus, many clever thoughts have come down to us. Here are some: "Wisdom bears these three fruits: the gift of thinking well, speaking well, and acting well." "Fools seek the benefits of good fortune, but those who know the value of such benefits seek the benefits of wisdom." "Courage makes the blows of fate insignificant." “Whoever has a well-ordered character, those who have a well-organized life.” " To the wise man the whole earth is open. For a good soul has a fatherland - the whole world.
The life of Democritus is instructive in devotion to the spirit of knowledge. The philosopher declared that he preferred one causal explanation to the possession of the Persian throne.
Sophists. The word "sophist" did not initially have a negative meaning. A sophist was a man, a philosopher, who earned his livelihood by giving young people certain knowledge which, as it was then thought, could be useful to them in practical life.
The most famous sophist - Protagoras . He taught for a fee "anyone who yearned for practical success and a higher spiritual culture" (E. Zeller). Protagoras is famous for his thesis: "Man is the measure of all things that exist, that they exist, and non-existent, that they do not exist." For all its controversy, and perhaps because of it, this thesis played huge role in further understanding of fundamental philosophical problems. Probably, Protagoras himself did not suspect what a wealth of ideas his thesis contains.
Socrates
Socrates (469-399 BC) is one of the brightest figures in the history of philosophy. Many consider him the personification of a philosopher. He did not write down his thoughts, but spoke and talked on the streets and squares of Athens. He had many students. The most famous is Plato.
The teaching of Socrates marks a turn from thinking about the world, space, nature (objectivism of natural philosophers) to thinking exclusively about man and the society in which a person lives (to the subjectivism of anthropology), from materialism to idealism.
From the point of view of Socrates, the structure of the world, the nature of things are unknowable; we can only know ourselves. “Know thyself” is Socrates' favorite motto. The highest task of philosophy is not theoretical, but practical: the art of living. Knowledge, according to Socrates, is thought, the concept of the general. Concepts are revealed through definitions, and generalized through induction. Socrates himself gave examples of the definition and generalization of ethical concepts (for example, valor, justice). The definition of the concept was preceded by a conversation, during which the interlocutor is exposed in contradictions by a series of consecutive questions. The disclosure of contradictions eliminates imaginary knowledge, and the anxiety into which the mind is plunged at the same time prompts thought to search for true truth. Socrates compared his methods of research with the art of a midwife (“maieutics”), and his method of questions, which involves a critical attitude to dogmatic statements, was called Socratic “irony”. Maieutics, literally midwifery, is the art proposed by Socrates to extract knowledge hidden in a person with the help of leading questions.
Socrates put forward a peculiar principle of cognitive modesty: I know that I know nothing” (compare: Olcott: "Being ignorant of one's own ignorance is the disease of the ignorant." J. Bruno: “He is doubly blind who does not see his own blindness; this is the difference between shrewdly diligent people and ignorant sloths.
There is also a saying from Socrates: you need to eat to live, not live to eat. My objection: there is nothing wrong with eating for the sake of eating, and living partly for the sake of eating. In this statement of Socrates - the beginning of idealism and holism. It turns out that the whole is more important than the part; the part must be unambiguously subordinate to the whole. (The whole is life, the part is food). With such an understanding of life, one can go far. Closer to the truth is another formula: "a man is what he eats."
Plato
Plato (427-347 BC) is one of the most famous philosophers of antiquity. In this, only Aristotle, his own student, competed with him. The latter owed much to Plato, although he criticized him. From Aristotle came the expression: "Plato is my friend, but the truth is dearer." Most of Plato's writings are written in the form of a dialogue. Happy was their fate; almost all of them have come down to us.
Plato's real name is Aristocles. The name "Plato" (Platos in Greek means wide) was given to him for his athletic build ( high growth, broad shoulders). He was an excellent gymnast and excelled in sports such as wrestling and horseback riding. There is evidence that for success in the fight he received the first prize at the Isthmian and Pythian games. Plato respected physical culture despite the fact that he was an idealist to the marrow of his bones.
He is best known for his doctrine of ideas and his doctrine of the ideal state.
V doctrine of ideas Plato proceeded from the fact that a person in his creative activity goes from ideas to things (first ideas as samples, then things that embody them), that many ideas arise in a person’s head that do not have a material embodiment, and it is not known whether they will receive it ever incarnation. These facts were interpreted by him as follows: ideas as such exist independently of matter in some special world and are models for things. Things arise on the basis of these ideas. The true, real is the world of ideas, and the world of things is a shadow, something less existing (i.e., ideas have the maximum being, and the world of things is something that does not exist, that is, changing, disappearing). An idea in a person's head is, as it were, an act of remembering the world of ideas.
The followers of Plato, the so-called Neo-Platonists, came up with a whole hierarchy of concepts (from the most abstract-general, having the greatest being, to the most concrete-private-singular, denoting a specific thing, insignificant, vanishingly small in the sense of existence).
V ideal state theory Plato mapped out this mental hierarchy. According to this theory, human society, represented by the state, dominates the individual. The individual is considered something insignificant in relation to the society-state. A thread stretches from Plato to totalitarian ideologies, Nazi and communist, in which a person is considered only as a particle of the whole, as something that must be entirely subordinate to the whole.
To explain his views, Plato cited the following image: we, people, are in a cave and do not see daylight, just as we do not see what is happening outside the cave. But the light is coming from somewhere, reflected on the wall, and shadows walk along this wall. The world of things is the shadows that we directly see, and the world of ideas is that which is outside the cave. This is how Plato explained his theory of ideas. He was right when he separated ideas from things, the spiritual from the material, and even contrasted them. True, he too absolutized this opposition. To some extent, it can be understood early stage development of philosophical and human thought, it was not easy for people to express these contradictions of life - roughly cutting one off, they absolutize the other. For Plato, the general is more important, truer, more real than the particular, the individual. He almost literally understood the community of property, believing that even wives should be common. He also believed that people should live in large groups-communes. All socialists, communists of subsequent centuries drew their main ideas from Plato.
Negative side Platonic idealism: the belittling of the bodily, the physical compared to the spiritual, the presentation of the body as a dungeon of the soul and, ultimately, the belittling of life compared to death.
Criticizing Plato, one cannot but note at the same time that he expressed many precious thoughts and ideas about human behavior, about love, creativity, immortality, in particular, put forward a very promising theory of creativity, comparing it with the birth and upbringing of a person, with love ( see dialogue "Feast"). According to Plato, love and creativity are the beginnings of life; it all comes down to them. They make a person immortal: love - through procreation; creativity - thanks to discoveries, inventions, art, architecture.
Plato founded the first philosophical school, which was called the Academy. It has existed for almost a thousand years.
The philosophy of ancient Greece is the greatest flowering of human genius. The ancient Greeks had the priority of creating philosophy as a science of the universal laws of the development of nature, society and thinking; as a system of ideas that explores the cognitive, value, ethical and aesthetic attitude of man to the world. Philosophers such as Socrates, Aristotle and Plato are the founders of philosophy as such. Originating in ancient Greece, philosophy formed a method that could be used in almost all areas of life.
Greek philosophy cannot be understood without aesthetics - the theory of beauty and harmony. Ancient Greek aesthetics was part of undifferentiated knowledge. The beginnings of many sciences have not yet budded into independent branches from a single tree of human knowledge. Unlike the ancient Egyptians, who developed science in a practical aspect, the ancient Greeks preferred theory. Philosophy and philosophical approaches to the solution of any scientific problem are the basis of ancient Greek science. Therefore, to single out scientists involved in "pure" scientific problems, it is forbidden. In ancient Greece, all scientists were philosophers, thinkers and possessed knowledge of the main philosophical categories.
The idea of the beauty of the world runs through all ancient aesthetics. In the worldview of ancient Greek natural philosophers there is not a shadow of doubt about the objective existence of the world and the reality of its beauty. For the first natural philosophers, beauty is the universal harmony and beauty of the Universe. In their teaching, the aesthetic and cosmological are united. The universe for the ancient Greek natural philosophers is the cosmos (the universe, peace, harmony, decoration, beauty, dress, order). The idea of its harmony and beauty is included in the general picture of the world. Therefore, at first all sciences in ancient Greece were combined into one - cosmology.
Socrates
Socrates is one of the founders of dialectics as a method of searching and knowing the truth. Main principle— “Know thyself and thou shalt know the whole world,” i.e., the conviction that self-knowledge is the path to realizing the true good. In ethics, virtue is equal to knowledge, therefore, reason pushes a person to good deeds. A man who knows will not do wrong. Socrates expounded his teaching orally, passing on knowledge in the form of dialogues to his students, from whose writings we learned about Socrates.
Having created the “Socratic” method of arguing, Socrates argued that truth is born only in a dispute in which the sage, with the help of a series of leading questions, makes his opponents first recognize the incorrectness of their own positions, and then the justice of their opponent’s views. The sage, according to Socrates, comes to the truth by self-knowledge, and then the knowledge of an objectively existing spirit, an objectively existing truth. Of paramount importance in the general political views of Socrates was the idea of professional knowledge, from which it was concluded that a person who does not political activities professionally, has no right to judge her. This was a challenge to the basic principles of Athenian democracy.
Plato
Plato's doctrine is the first classical form of objective idealism. Ideas (among them the highest is the idea of the good) are the eternal and unchanging prototypes of things, of all transient and changeable being. Things are likeness and reflection of ideas. These provisions are set forth in Plato's writings "Feast", "Phaedrus", "State", etc. In Plato's dialogues we find a multifaceted description of beauty. When answering the question: “What is beautiful?” he tried to characterize the very essence of beauty. Ultimately, beauty for Plato is an aesthetically unique idea. A person can know it only when he is in a state of special inspiration. Plato's concept of beauty is idealistic. Rational in his teaching is the idea of the specificity of aesthetic experience.
Aristotle
A student of Plato - Aristotle, was the tutor of Alexander the Great. He is the founder scientific philosophy, trays, teachings about the basic principles of being (possibility and implementation, form and matter, reason and purpose). His main areas of interest are man, ethics, politics, and art. Aristotle is the author of the books "Metaphysics", "Physics", "On the Soul", "Poetics". Unlike Plato, for Aristotle, the beautiful is not an objective idea, but the objective quality of things. Size, proportions, order, symmetry are the properties of beauty.
Beauty, according to Aristotle, lies in the mathematical proportions of things “therefore, to comprehend it, one should study mathematics. Aristotle put forward the principle of proportionality between a person and a beautiful object. Beauty in Aristotle acts as a measure, and the measure of everything is the person himself. In comparison with it, a beautiful object should not be "excessive". In these arguments of Aristotle about the truly beautiful, there is the same humanistic principle that is expressed in ancient art itself. Philosophy answered the need human orientation a man who broke with traditional values and turned to reason as a way of understanding problems.
Pythagoras
In mathematics, the figure of Pythagoras stands out, who created the multiplication table and the theorem that bears his name, who studied the properties of integers and proportions. The Pythagoreans developed the doctrine of the "harmony of the spheres". For them, the world is a harmonious cosmos. They connect the concept of beauty not only with the general picture of the world, but also, in accordance with the moral and religious orientation of their philosophy, with the concept of good. Developing the issues of musical acoustics, the Pythagoreans posed the problem of the ratio of tones and tried to give its mathematical expression: the ratio of the octave to the fundamental tone is 1:2, fifths - 2:3, fourths - 3:4, etc. From this follows the conclusion that beauty is harmonious.
Where the main opposites are in a "proportionate mixture", there is a blessing, human health. Equal and consistent in harmony does not need. Harmony appears where there is inequality, unity and complementarity of the diverse. Musical harmony is a special case of world harmony, its sound expression. "The whole sky is harmony and number", the planets are surrounded by air and attached to transparent spheres. The intervals between the spheres strictly harmonically correlate with each other as the intervals of tones of a musical octave. From these ideas of the Pythagoreans came the expression "Music of the Spheres". The planets move by making sounds, and the pitch of the sound depends on the speed of their movement. However, our ear is not able to catch the world harmony of the spheres. These ideas of the Pythagoreans are important as evidence of their belief that the universe is harmonious.
Democritus
Democritus, who discovered the existence of atoms, also paid attention to the search for an answer to the question: “What is beauty?” He combined the aesthetics of beauty with his ethical views and with the principle of utilitarianism. He believed that a person should strive for bliss and complacency. In his opinion, "one should not strive for any pleasure, but only for that which is associated with the beautiful." In the definition of beauty, Democritus emphasizes such a property as measure, proportionality. To the one who transgresses them, "the most pleasant can become unpleasant."
Heraclitus
In Heraclitus, the understanding of beauty is permeated with dialectics. For him, harmony is not a static balance, as for the Pythagoreans, but a moving, dynamic state. Contradiction is the creator of harmony and the condition for the existence of beauty: what is divergent converges, and the most beautiful harmony comes from opposition, and everything happens due to discord. In this unity of struggling opposites, Heraclitus sees an example of harmony and the essence of beauty. For the first time, Heraclitus raised the question of the nature of the perception of beauty: it is incomprehensible with the help of calculation or abstract thinking, it is known intuitively, through contemplation.
Hippocrates
Known works of Hippocrates in the field of medicine and ethics. He is the founder scientific medicine, the author of the doctrine of the integrity of the human body, the theory of an individual approach to the patient, the tradition of keeping a medical history, works on medical ethics, in which he paid special attention to the high moral character of the doctor, the author of the famous professional oath, which is taken by everyone who receives a medical diploma. His immortal rule for doctors has survived to this day: do no harm to the patient.
With the medicine of Hippocrates, the transition from religious and mystical ideas about all the processes associated with human health and disease to the rational explanation begun by the Ionian natural philosophers was completed. The medicine of the priests was replaced by the medicine of doctors, based on accurate observations. The doctors of the Hippocratic school were also philosophers.
There are many different philosophies and schools in the world. Some praise spiritual values, while others preach a more essential way of life. However, they have one thing in common - they are all invented by man. That is why, before you begin to study the school of thought, you should understand what a philosopher is.
At the same time, it is necessary not only to find out the meaning of this word, but also to look back into the past in order to remember those who stood at the origins of the first schools of philosophy. Because that's the only way to get it true essence the question of who is a philosopher.
People who have devoted themselves to great reflections
So, as always, the story should begin with the main. In this case, who is a philosopher. Indeed, in the future, this word will appear very often in the text, which means that it simply cannot be done without a clear understanding of its meaning.
Well, a philosopher is a person who has devoted himself entirely to thinking about the essence of being. At the same time, his main desire is the desire to understand the essence of what is happening, so to speak, to look behind the scenes of life and death. In fact, such reflections turn common man into a philosopher.
It should be noted that such reflections are not just a passing hobby or fun, this is the meaning of his life or even, if you like, a calling. That is why the great philosophers devoted all their free time to resolving the issues that tormented them.
Differences in philosophical currents
The next step is to realize that all philosophers are different. There is no universal view of the world or the order of things. Even if thinkers adhere to the same idea or worldview, there will always be divergences in their judgments.
This is due to the fact that the views of philosophers on the world depend on their personal experience and ability to analyze facts. That is why hundreds of different philosophical currents have seen the light of day. And all of them are unique in their essence, which makes this science very multifaceted and informative.
And yet everything has its beginning, including philosophy. Therefore, it would be very logical to turn our eyes to the past and talk about those who founded this discipline. Namely, about ancient thinkers.
Socrates - the first of the great minds of antiquity
You should start with the one who is considered a legend in the world of great thinkers - Socrates. He was born and lived in Ancient Greece in 469-399 BC. Unfortunately, this learned man did not keep a record of his thoughts, so most of his sayings have come down to us only thanks to the efforts of his students.
He was the first person to think about what a philosopher is. Socrates believed that life has meaning only when a person lives it meaningfully. He condemned his compatriots for forgetting about morality and mired in their own vices.
Alas, the life of Socrates ended tragically. Local authority called his teaching heresy and sentenced him to death penalty. He did not wait for the execution of the sentence and voluntarily took the poison.
Great Philosophers of Ancient Greece
It is Ancient Greece that is considered the place where the Western school of philosophy originated. Many great minds of antiquity were born in this country. And although some of their teachings were rejected by contemporaries, we must not forget that the first scientists-philosophers appeared here more than 2.5 thousand years ago.
Plato
Of all the disciples of Socrates, Plato was the most successful. After absorbing the teacher's wisdom, he continued to study the world and his laws. Moreover, with the support of the people, he founded the great Academy of Athens. It was here that he taught young students the basics of philosophical ideas and concepts.
Plato was sure that his teachings could give people the wisdom they desperately need. He argued that only an educated and sober-minded person can create an ideal state.
Aristotle
Aristotle did a lot for the development of Western philosophy. This Greek graduated from the Academy of Athens, and one of his teachers was Plato himself. Since Aristotle was distinguished by special erudition, he was soon called to teach in the palace of the steward. According to historical records, he taught Alexander the Great himself.
Roman philosophers and thinkers
The works of Greek thinkers greatly influenced the cultural life in the Roman Empire. Encouraged by the texts of Plato and Pythagoras, the first innovatory Roman philosophers began to appear at the beginning of the second century. And although most of their theories resembled Greek ones, there were still some differences in their teachings. In particular, this was due to the fact that the Romans had their own concepts of what the highest good is.
Mark Terence Varro
One of the first philosophers of Rome was Varro, who was born in the 1st century BC. During his life he wrote many works devoted to moral and spiritual values. He also put forward interesting theory that every nation has four stages of development: childhood, youth, maturity and old age.
Mark Tullius Cicero
This is one of the most ancient rome. Such fame came to Cicero because he was finally able to combine Greek spirituality and Roman love of citizenship into one whole.
Today, he is valued for being one of the first to position philosophy not as an abstract science, but as part of everyday human life. Cicero managed to convey to people the idea that everyone can comprehend if they wish. In particular, that is why he introduced his own dictionary, which explains the essence of many philosophical terms.
Great Philosopher of the Celestial Empire
Many attribute the idea of democracy to the Greeks, but at the other end the globe one great sage was able to put forward the same theory, relying only on his own convictions. It is this ancient philosopher who is considered the pearl of Asia.
Confucius
China has always been considered a country of sages, but among all others, special attention should be paid to Confucius. This great philosopher lived in 551-479. BC e. and was a very famous person. The main task of his teaching was the preaching of the principles of high morality and personal virtues.
Names known to all
As the years passed, more and more people wanted to contribute to the development of philosophical ideas. More and more new schools and movements were born, and lively discussions between their representatives became the usual norm. However, even in such conditions, there were those whose thoughts for the world of philosophers were like a breath of fresh air.
Avicenna
Abu Ali Hussein ibn Abdallah ibn Sina - this is the full name of Avicenna, the great He was born in 980 in the territory Persian Empire. During his life he wrote more than a dozen scientific treatises related to physics and philosophy.
In addition, he founded his own school. In it, he taught gifted young men medicine, in which, by the way, he succeeded very much.
Thomas Aquinas
In 1225, a boy named Thomas was born. His parents could not even imagine that in the future he would become one of the most outstanding minds in the philosophical world. He wrote many works devoted to reflections on the world of Christians.
Moreover, in 1879 Catholic Church recognized his writings and made them the official philosophy for Catholics.
Rene Descartes
He is better known as the father of the modern form of thought. Many people know him popular expression"If I think, then I exist." In his works, he considered the mind as the main weapon of man. The scientist studied the works of philosophers of different eras and conveyed them to his contemporaries.
In addition, Descartes made many new discoveries in other sciences, in particular in mathematics and physics.
