Ancient philosophy is a set of philosophical teachings that existed in ancient Greece and Ancient Rome since the 7th century. BC. to the 6th century AD until the closing of the last philosophical school in Athens by Emperor Justinian in 532 - the Platonic Academy. Ancient philosophy had a huge impact on European culture. It was in antiquity that the central problems of philosophical knowledge were formulated and the main methods for solving them were laid down.
The initial period of development of ancient philosophy can be called redphilosophical or theogonic(VII century BC – VI century BC). It is associated with the transition from myth in its original form to the systematized and rationalized form of the heroic epic (Homer and Hesiod), which tried to answer the fundamental needs of man about the origin of the universe and his place in it, describing the process of the birth of the world as the sequential birth of gods (divine geneology brought system and order to the worldview). The era of anthropomorphic Olympian gods symbolizes the harmonization of the cosmos. This determined the artistic understanding of space as symmetry, harmony, measure, beauty, rhythm.
Actually ancient philosophy goes through the following four stages.
First period– pre-Socratic (natural philosophical, or cosmological), which dates back to the 7th century. BC. – mid-5th century BC. is based on the transition of cosmogony to non-mythological rationalized teachings, which are already associated with interest in the problems of nature (“physis”) and the cosmos as a living and self-moving whole. Philosophers of this time were busy searching for the origin (substance) of all things (Miletus school). The materialistic direction is associated, first of all, with the representatives of atomism - Leucippus and Democritus. The main opposition of this period was the confrontation between the teachings of Heraclitus (objective dialectics) and the philosophers of the Eleatic school Parmenides and Zeno (who argued that movement is unthinkable and impossible). An idealistic direction arose in the teachings of Pythagoras.
Second period– classical (Socratic), which dates from the middle of the 5th century. BC. until the end of the 4th century. BC, when the focus is transferred from space to man, making him the main subject of his research and considering him as a microcosm, trying to determine his essence, and also draws attention to ethical and social problems (sophists, Socrates and Socratic schools). Therefore, this period is sometimes defined as an “anthropological revolution” in ancient philosophy. The first philosophical systems of Plato and Aristotle appear. During this period, two main opposing philosophical systems were formed - the “line of Democritus” (materialism) and the “line of Plato” (idealism).
Third period – Hellenistic, dates back to the end of the 4th century. BC. – II century BC. Initially, this period was associated with the understanding of philosophy, first of all, as a moral teaching that develops norms and rules of human life (Epicureanism, Stoicism, Skepticism) and then the knowledge of the Divine becomes the main object of philosophy (Peripatetism, which in the future became the theoretical basis of Catholicism, and Neoplatonism is the theoretical foundation of Orthodoxy).
The fourth period – Roman (1st century BC – 5th century AD). During this period, the merger of ancient Greek and ancient Roman philosophy into one - ancient philosophy; interest in the philosophical explanation of nature is waning and problems of man, society, and the state are being actively developed; Stoicism flourishes. Prominent representatives of this period are Seneca and Marcus Aurelius. Cicero, Lucretius Carus, Boethius, as well as the Roman Stoics, skeptics, and Epicureans.
ABOUTfeaturesancient philosophy.
1. Cosmocentrism. The theoretical basis of ancient philosophy is the idea of the cosmos as a sensory-material, corporeal, intelligent, beautiful being, which is set in motion by the cosmic soul, controlled by the cosmic mind, and itself is created by a super-intelligent and super-spiritual primal unity and determines the laws of the world and the fate of man. Philosophical concepts of nature are called natural philosophy. The world, as a rule, was considered as a natural integrity in which constant changes and interconversions occur (spontaneous materialism). Due to the lack of specific data, connections and patterns unknown to philosophers were replaced by fictitious, invented ones (speculative in nature).
2. Anthropocentrism. Man was considered as a microcosm (small cosmos), similar to a macrocosm (large cosmos), and therefore as a corporeal and intelligent being. As a result of such attitudes, aestheticism, that is, the desire for beauty in all spheres of life, became characteristic of ancient culture.
3. Rationalism. Most ancient authors were convinced of the knowability of the world. During this period, the idea of two levels of knowledge developed - sensory (sensations, perceptions) and rational (mind, logical reasoning). It was argued that it is rational knowledge that makes it possible to obtain the truth, and attempts at a rationalistic solution to it marked the beginning of the formation of philosophy itself.
The formation of ancient philosophy. Ancient atomism.
The emergence of ancient philosophy is associated with overcoming mythological thinking, the main features of which are:
Explanation of all phenomena by the actions of supernatural forces and their will;
lack of boundary between the real and imaginary world;
assessment of all phenomena as friendly or hostile to humans;
lack of interest in theoretical analysis of phenomena and processes.
The end of the mythological era with its calm stability came in the Axial Age as a result of the struggle of rationality and rationally verified experience against myth. Philosophy originates in Ancient Greece as an attempt to unravel the mystery of the world. An important condition for the victory of the Greek logos over myth was the formation of a polis form of social life, which created the precondition for personal freedom of a person, complete openness of all manifestations of social and spiritual life. It replaced the hierarchical relations of domination and subordination with a new type of social communication, which was based on the equality of citizens, on the rejection of rigid traditional norms of human behavior, and most importantly, on the formation of a rational-theoretical way of thinking.
During the formation of ancient philosophy, special attention was paid to the search for the foundations of being. Representatives of spontaneous-materialistic Milesian school(Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, who lived in the 7th-6th centuries BC in the city of Miletus), looked for the foundations of being: water - from Thales, apeiron (unformed, quality-free matter) - from Anaximander, air - from Anaximenes. According to the teachings of these ancient thinkers, as a result of the combination of elements, that is, their connection and separation in various proportions, all things in the world are formed and destroyed. On this basis, they tried to give a holistic picture of the world. The origin, representatives of the Milesian school, gives rise to all the diversity of existing things and embraces everything that exists.
Pythagoras(approx. 571-497 BC), who created his own philosophical school - the union of the Pythagoreans, and asserted: “I am not a sage, but only a philosopher.” He and his students Philolaus, Alcmaeon, in contrast to the representatives of the materialistic Milesian school, considered the first principle of the world not the corporeal-material, but the ideal-incorporeal, therefore their teachings can be considered as a type of objective idealism. The only basis of existence is number, which can be used to express and quantitatively describe anything. Number is something that is always and invariably present in completely different things, and is their single connecting thread. The whole world is the consistent unfolding of an incorporeal entity - a number, and the number itself is the collapsed unity of the universe, therefore the harmony of the cosmos is determined by mathematical laws. But a number is an idea, not a thing. The things and objects we see are not true reality. The real existence can be revealed to us by the mind, not by sensory perceptions. The Pythagoreans believed in immortality and the transmigration of souls.
Heraclitus (c. 544-480 BC) - the founder of objective dialectics, who believes that the fundamental principle of everything that exists is fire. The choice of fire as the fundamental principle is not accidental: the world, or nature, is in continuous change, and of all natural substances, fire is the most capable of change, the most mobile. So Heraclitus comes to the idea of the universality of changes in the world, about the struggle of opposites as the source of all things, about the hidden harmony of the world as the internal identity of opposites, therefore he argued: “everything flows, everything changes.” Nothing is stable, everything moves and changes and never stops at anything. The world is a process where everything turns into its opposite: cold becomes warm, warm becomes cold, wet becomes dry, dry becomes wet. A world in which there is nothing stable and permanent is chaotic. Chaos (disorder) of the world is the main principle or law (logos). But law is something stable and orderly. It turns out a paradox: the highest order of the world lies in general disorder, or chaos. Two opposite principles - chaos and logos - turn out to be closely related to each other and are equal (identical). Thus, all things are made up of opposites that fight each other. The struggle of opposite principles is the source of eternal movement and change. If there were no opposites, then there would be nothing to change for any thing. But opposites not only exist in struggle, but also form unity. This important pattern of the universe is the main principle of dialectics - the doctrine of universal connection and eternal change of things. The dialectic of Heraclitus is not a dialectic of ideas (that is, not a subjective dialectic), but a dialectic of the Cosmos, which is presented as unified in its inconsistency. Heraclitus places the material principle – fire – at the basis of everything that exists. “Fire lives the earth by the death, and the air lives by the death of fire; water lives on air by death, earth by water (by death).” This process is cyclical. Heraclitus can be considered the founder of the doctrine of knowledge. He writes: “Man has two means of knowing the truth: sensory perception and logos.” However, the mind comprehends the truth, for it cognizes the essence - the logos of the world. Wisdom is “the knowledge of thought, which rules everywhere and everything.” And although “much knowledge does not teach intelligence...”, however, “men-philosophers should know a lot.” The soul is equated by Heraclitus to fiery breath - the basis of life. A person “inhales” the mind, joining with its help to the logos - the object of truth. The highest goal of knowledge is the knowledge of the Logos, and thereby the knowledge of the highest unity of the universe and the achievement of the highest wisdom. People are equal by nature, but they are not equal in fact. Their inequality is a consequence of the inequality of their interests. Happiness does not lie in pleasing the body, but in thinking and being able to act according to nature.
The opposite of the teachings of Heraclitus is Eleatic school. Its representatives - Xenophanes (580-490 BC), Parmenides (540-480 BC), Zeno of Elea (490-430 BC) believe that existence is one , indivisible, motionless; there is no development. This thesis was substantiated using specific reasoning. Instead of the term “One,” which denotes everything that exists, Xenophanes used the concept of “being.” Eternity follows from the very concept of being and is its most essential feature. That which is eternal must necessarily be indivisible. But something absolutely integral cannot move, which means that being is unchangeable. This is the picture of existence that the mind painted for us, while feeling paints a different picture. Thus, the sensory and rational pictures of the world do not coincide. This means that movement and change do not exist. Because they are impossible to think. To prove this position, Zeno developed aporia (paradoxes or insoluble contradictions: “Dichotomy”, “Achilles and the Tortoise”, etc.). With their help, he tried to prove that the movement we observe does not actually exist, because when we begin to think about it, we encounter insurmountable difficulties: the eyes say that movement is possible, but the mind says that it is not possible. And indeed: we see that the Sun moves every day from East to West, but in fact it is motionless in relation to the Earth. Therefore, one should not rush to assert that Zeno is wrong.
Ancient atomism is a holistic teaching that illuminates all the central problems of ancient philosophy. Representatives of this school include thinkers who lived in different historical periods: Leucippus (5th century BC), Democritus (c. 460-370 BC), Epicurus (342-270 BC) .e.).
The Doctrine of Being. The basis of everything that exists is an infinite number of atoms moving in the void, which is nothingness. Atoms (indivisible particles) are qualityless, that is, devoid of color, smell, sound, etc. All these qualities arise due to the interaction of atoms with human senses. Atoms vary in size, shape, and position. As a result of their combination, all things are formed. Moving atoms gather into “vortices”, from which countless worlds are formed, in which life can arise naturally (without the intervention of gods). It follows from this that not a single phenomenon is uncaused, since it is caused by the combination of different atoms. Everything in the world has a cause, is subject to necessity, which means there are no random events. (The idea of the absence of chance is characteristic primarily of Democritus, while Epicurus deviated from this thesis). The philosophical principle according to which all phenomena in the world have natural causes is called the principle of determinism. Consciousness, the soul of a person, is also a collection of atoms of a special variety.
Theory of knowledge. Cognition is a material process of interaction between atoms. The basis of cognition is sensations, which are the transfer of their copies from things, penetrating into a person through the external senses. But if sensory perceptions are the basis of knowledge, then reason allows us to reveal the true essence of things.
The doctrine of man. Man is a unity of soul and body. The soul, like the body, consists of special atoms that are distributed everywhere. They enter the body during the breathing process. After the death of a person, both body and soul disintegrate.
Ideas about society. Society arose naturally - people united because together it was easier for them to satisfy their needs (needs). Imitating swallows, they learned to build houses, imitating spiders - weaving, etc.
The doctrine of morality (ethics). The atomistic ethics of pleasure in its developed form was developed by Epicurus. Man strives for pleasure and avoids suffering. Its goal is bliss, that is, health of the body and serenity of the spirit. The path to bliss is pleasure, but only natural and necessary (excessive pleasures only give rise to new suffering). Everything that gives pleasure is good, and everything that leads to suffering is evil. Philosophy, according to Epicurus, helps a person achieve bliss, because the knowledge it gives frees him from fear of the gods and death. The name of Epicurus has become a household name in world culture: a person who devotes a lot of time to receiving pleasure is called an “Epicurean.”
“Anthropological revolution” in ancient philosophy.
The anthropological or humanistic period in the development of ancient philosophy is associated with the activities of the Sophists, Socrates and Socratic schools.
Sophists. In the 5th century BC. In Greece, a democratic form of government was established and people were not appointed to public positions, but were elected by popular vote, in connection with which oratory and education in general became of great importance. It was primarily philosophers who had extensive knowledge. Therefore, people began to turn to them with requests to teach them how to argue and prove, refute and convince. Some philosophers who took money for teaching were called sophists, that is, paid teachers. But gradually, in the context of the polemics between Plato and Aristotle, the term “sophistry” takes on a negative meaning, denoting reasoning that deliberately misleads a person, and a sophist began to be called a thinker who knew how to prove what was beneficial to him, regardless of the truth of what was being proven, then there is a “false sage”. Sophisms are outwardly correct evidence of obviously false propositions (for example, the sophism “Horned” sounds like this: “You have something that you haven’t lost; you haven’t lost your horns, which means you are horned”). The Sophists argued that any view is as true as it is false. This view is called subjectivism. From these reasoning it followed that everything in the world is relative (the position that everything is relativity is called relativism).
The famous Greek philosopher confronts the sophists Socrates Athenian (469-399 BC), who did not leave a written statement of his views. His philosophy is his life. The main idea of Socrates' philosophy is the assertion that philosophy should not be a doctrine of nature, because a person can only know what is in his power. Nature is inaccessible to man. She is not in his power. Therefore, the main task of philosophy is self-knowledge, following the motto: “Man, know yourself.” Having known himself, a person knows the essence of virtue.
Knowledge is the discovery of the general in objects, and the general is the concept of an object. To know, you need to define a concept. He developed a special method, which he called maieutics (midwifery), identifying the process of learning the truth with the birth of a child, arguing that the philosopher assists in the birth of truth. He argued that truth, just like the Sun in the sky, can only be one. It is the same for everyone and exists outside of us, regardless of our desires. We didn’t invent it, and it’s not up to us to cancel it. The truth was before us and will always be. But the only thing we can say is that there is truth. However, it is impossible to assert that it is found and established once and for all. Therefore, Socrates argued: “I know that I know nothing” (but our ignorance of the truth does not mean that it does not exist). Everyone must seek the truth on their own. This search is always filled with doubts, contradictions and long discussions. A person can, if not find the truth, then at least get closer to it. This method is called heuristic (from the Greek “I find”). A philosopher must assist the seeker in his endeavors: without offering ready-made answers, help him navigate his search for truth. But it must be born itself in the soul and mind of the one who seeks it. the process of cognition of truth is etah, and the general is the concept of the subject. must be a doctrine of nature, because man can
However, knowledge and virtue, according to Socrates, are not identical. It follows from this that the cause of moral evil, that is, unvirtuous human behavior, is ignorance. If a person knows what good is, then his actions will be true and good. Virtue is knowledge of good and action according to this knowledge. Therefore, explaining the essence of virtue becomes a source of moral self-improvement. Hence, dialectics as a method is aimed, first of all, at educating the soul, at man’s awareness of the true meaning of his existence
After the death of Socrates, several groups of philosophers formed, citing him as a teacher. Such groups were called " Socratic schools" Of particular importance among them was school of cynics(Antisthenes, Diogenes). The Cynics believed that social institutions, including moral norms, are not natural, but artificial. A person must follow nature - it was she who determined the minimum that he really needs. Everything else (eg wealth, power) does not matter. Therefore, the only true benefit is inner freedom - independence from the norms imposed by society. The condition for achieving inner freedom is virtuous behavior. It is expressed in abstaining from pleasures and developing insensitivity to suffering.
Founder Cyrenaic schools was Aristippus. The principle of pleasure was the basis of their practical philosophy, hence the name of their ethical concept - hedonism (pleasure). At the same time, the sage, striving for pleasure, will dominate the blessings of life, and not be captured by them. He must be completely free from external goods and the worries of the world. But it is impossible to achieve perfect happiness, therefore life has no meaning (thus the development of the pleasure principle leads to its self-denial, that is, to the denial of hedonism).
Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine
Department of Philosophy
TEST
Course: "Philosophy"
1. Ancient philosophy
2. Cosmocentrism
3. Philosophy of Heraclitus
4. Philosophy of Zeno of Elea
5. Pythagorean Union
6. Atomistic philosophy
7. Sophists
9. Plato's teachings
10. Philosophy of Aristotle
11. Pyrrho's skepticism
12. Philosophy of Epicurus
13. Philosophy of Stoicism
14. Neoplatonism
Conclusion
5th century BC e. in the life of ancient Greece is full of many philosophical discoveries. In addition to the teachings of the sages - the Milesians, Heraclitus and the Eleatics, Pythagoreanism gained sufficient fame. We know about Pythagoras himself, the founder of the Pythagorean Union, from later sources. Plato mentions his name only once, Aristotle twice. Most Greek authors call the island of Samos, which he was forced to leave due to the tyranny of Polycrates, the birthplace of Pythagoras (580-500 BC). On the advice of allegedly Thales, Pythagoras went to Egypt, where he studied with the priests, then as a prisoner (in 525 BC, Egypt was captured by the Persians) he ended up in Babylonia, where he studied with Indian sages. After 34 years of study, Pythagoras returned to Great Hellas, to the city of Croton, where he founded the Pythagorean Union - a scientific, philosophical and ethical-political community of like-minded people. The Pythagorean Union is a closed organization, and its teaching is secret. The way of life of the Pythagoreans was fully consistent with the hierarchy of values: in the first place - the beautiful and decent (which included science), in the second - the profitable and useful, in the third - the pleasant. The Pythagoreans got up before sunrise, did mnemonic (related to the development and strengthening of memory) exercises, then went to the seashore to watch the sunrise. We thought about the upcoming affairs and worked. At the end of the day, after bathing, everyone ate dinner together and made libations to the gods, followed by a general reading. Before going to bed, each Pythagorean gave a report on what he had done during the day.
Is ancient philosophy. Its ancestors are the ancient Greeks and Romans. In the arsenal of thinkers of that time, the “tools” of knowledge were subtle speculation, contemplation and observation. Ancient philosophers were the first to begin to pose eternal questions that concern man: where does everything around us begin, the existence and non-existence of the world, the unity of contradictions, freedom and necessity, birth and death, the purpose of man, moral duty, beauty and sublimity, wisdom, friendship, love, happiness, personal dignity. These problems are still relevant today. It was ancient philosophy that served as the basis for the formation and development of philosophical thought in Europe.
Periods of development of ancient philosophy
Let us consider what main problems ancient philosophy solved and the stages of its development as a science.
In the development of ancient Greek and ancient Roman philosophical thought, four important stages can be roughly distinguished.
The first, pre-Socratic, period falls on the 7th - 5th centuries. BC. It is represented by the activities of the Eleatic and Milesian schools, Heraclitus of Ephesus, Pythagoras and his students, Democritus and Leucipus. They dealt with issues of the laws of nature, the construction of the world and the Cosmos. The importance of the pre-Socratic period is difficult to overestimate, because it was early ancient philosophy that largely influenced the development of culture, social life and Ancient Greece.
A characteristic feature of the second, classical period (V - IV centuries) is the appearance of the sophists. They shifted their attention from the problems of nature and the Cosmos to the problems of man, laid the foundations of logic and contributed to the development of In addition to the sophists, early ancient philosophy in this period is represented by the names of Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Protogoras.At the same time, Roman philosophy began to take shape, in which three main directions were defined - Epicureanism, Stoicism and Skepticism.
For the period from the 4th to the 2nd centuries BC. e. Ancient philosophy goes through the third, Hellenistic, stage of development. At this time, the first philosophical systems emerged, deep in their content, new philosophical schools appeared - Epicurean, Academic, Perepathetics and others. Representatives of the Hellenistic period move on to solving ethical problems and moralizing precisely at a time when Hellenic culture is in decline. The names of Epicurus, Theophrastus and Carneades represent this stage in the development of philosophy.
With the beginning of our era (I - VI centuries), ancient philosophy enters its last period of development. At this time, the leading role belonged to Rome, under whose influence Greece also appeared. The formation of Roman philosophy was greatly influenced by Greek philosophy, in particular its Hellenistic stage. In the philosophy of Rome, three main directions are formed - Epicureanism, Stoicism and Skepticism. This period was characterized by the activities of such philosophers as Aristotle, Socrates, Protogor, and Plato.
The third and fourth centuries were the time of the emergence and development of a new direction in ancient philosophy - Neoplatonism, the founder of which was Plato. His ideas and views largely influenced the philosophy of early Christianity and the philosophy of the Middle Ages.
This is how ancient philosophy arose, the stages of development of which gave rise to interesting ideas: the idea of the universal connection of all phenomena and things existing in the world, and the idea of infinite development.
It was at that time that epistemological trends emerged - Democritus, being, in essence, a materialist, suggested that the atom is the smallest particle of any substance. This idea of his was ahead of centuries and millennia. Plato, adhering to idealistic views, created a dialectical doctrine of individual things and general concepts.
The philosophy of ancient times became one of the most independent. With its help, a holistic picture of the world was formed. Ancient philosophy allows us to trace the entire path of the formation of theoretical thought, full of non-standard and bold ideas. Many questions that ancient Greek and Roman philosophical minds tried to solve have not lost their relevance in our time.
Antiquity is the largest period in the history of European civilization, stretching over 3.5 thousand years. It is based on the history of the development of two civilizations - Greek and Roman. In other words, antiquity is a Greco-Roman culture, but the roots of these two cultures lie in even deeper antiquity. The development of Hellenic culture was greatly influenced (or even were immediate predecessors) by the so-called Aegean (Minoan, Cretan) and Mycenaean (Achaean) cultures. As for the Romans, the formation of Roman culture was greatly influenced by Etruscan culture. Within a given era and two cultures, different stages of development are distinguished.
The following periods are distinguished in the history of ancient Greek culture:
1. Aegean or Creto-MycenaeanIII– IIthousand BC e. The name of this period is associated with the geographical location of the two main centers of proto-Greek culture. One of them is centered on the island of Crete, and the other is Mycenae, a powerful city-state on mainland Greece. The culture of Crete (or Minoan culture) was distinguished by a number of characteristic features. First of all, it was a thalassocratic culture (Greek - “dominant at sea”). Thalassocracy was expressed in the fact that the Cretans, having created a magnificent fleet, controlled with its help both the Aegean Sea and the coast of mainland Greece, making periodic raids on coastal settlements and forcing them to pay tribute to Crete (this aggressive policy of Crete was immortalized in the myth of Theseus and Ariadne ). The fleet also enabled Crete to conduct brisk trade with Egypt and the Middle East, which contributed to the enrichment of not only the treasury, but also the culture of Crete with the achievements of the cultures of Egypt and Mesopotamia. A kind of “calling card” of Crete were the palaces of its rulers, excavated by archaeologists at the end of the 19th century (Knossos, Phaistos, Agia Triada, etc.). They were complexes located over a large area, extremely intricately interconnected buildings and passages, equipped with a ventilation system, sewage system, special light shafts and walls decorated with paintings. We know little about the religion of Crete, but the numerous figurines of female guardian goddesses found indicate that the cult of fertility occupied a significant place in this religion. In addition, there was a ritual practice on Crete "tauromachy"(“battles with bulls”). Frescoes with images of the tauromachy adorned the walls of Cretan palaces and served as a subject for small sculptures.
Mycenae, as well as other cities of mainland Greece, were inhabited by tribes of the Achaeans - a people with a lower cultural level than the Cretans. But the Mycenaean culture was still not devoid of its original originality. In Mycenae, as well as in Crete, palaces were built, but these were monumental structures surrounded by thick walls with the so-called “cyclonic masonry” (Greeks of later times believed that the walls of Mycenae, made of huge stone blocks, were built by the Cyclopes), with a main hall for starting a fire - megaron inside. In addition, the graves of the Mycenaean kings were distinguished by their originality, who were buried surrounded by golden utensils and with a golden mask on their face in deep shafts, covered with stone slabs on top. The Mycenaeans also achieved great art in monumental sculpture (“Lion Gate” of Mycenae).
2. Homeric period (XI- VIIIcenturies BC e.). In the cultural history of Ancient Greece, this is a time, on the one hand, of general cultural degradation, and on the other, the formation of a single Greek nation. By the 8th century, which dates back to the writing of Homer’s poems, the preconditions were created for the emergence of a distinctive Greek culture: social division intensified in society, an aristocracy appeared, life in urban centers revived again. During this era, the anthropomorphic Olympic mythology of the Greeks also took shape.
3. Archaic period (VII– VIBC e.) was marked by the cultural rise of Ancient Greece. This is the time when Greek culture began to flourish: fortified slave-owning cities turned into city-states, writing, medicine, and astronomy emerged. Characteristic features of this period are the Greek maritime colonization of the shores of the Black and Mediterranean Seas, the development of international trade and intercultural contacts, the creation of architectural styles, the appearance of sculpture , literature and poetry (Hesiod, Pindar, Archilochus, Anacreon).
4. Classical period (V– three quartersIVBC e) – This is the heyday of Greek culture. During this period, the Greeks, through joint efforts, were able to resist the eastern conquerors - the Persians, which contributed to the greatest spiritual upsurge in all the far from homogeneous Greek city-states. Athens is confidently emerging as the cultural center of Greece in this era. It was the Athenians who carried out the most radical democratic reforms, and it was to Athens that philosophers, rhetoricians, historians, artists and poets flocked from all over Greece, admiring or criticizing the Athenian polity. Under the leadership of the politician and military commander Pericles, at this time a complete reconstruction of the Athenian Acropolis was carried out, its famous temples were created and, above all, the Parthenon, decorated with sculptures by the master Phidias. Along the streets of Athens in the 5th century. The philosophers Socrates and Plato communicate with the demos, and every year in theaters, on a citywide holiday in honor of the god of wine Dionysus, performances are staged, consisting of tragedies (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides) and comedies (Aristophanes). By the end of the 5th century. Athens is experiencing a political crisis and, having lost to Sparta in the Peloponnesian War, significantly reduces the pace of its cultural development.
Hellenistic period in the history of Greek culture, the cultural era that began in Greece is called after the conquest of all Greek city-states by King Philip of Macedonia and the grandiose campaign of Philip’s son, Alexander the Great, at the head of the combined Greek army to the East. As a result of this campaign, the Greeks subjugated Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Minor and part of Central and Central Asia (Alexander’s troops even entered India, but the death of the young king forced them to retreat). On the territory conquered by Alexander, after his death, a number of states arose, which were headed by his former military leaders - the Diadochi. In the new states, the cultural policy that Alexander initiated during his campaign was carried out: the Greeks became related to the local population, adopted their customs, but they themselves influenced those they conquered, actively organizing their life according to the laws of the city. During the Hellenistic era, many architectural masterpieces were created. Thus, in Alexandria (the capital of the Ptolemaic state, founded by Alexander the Great), the Library of Alexandria and the Lighthouse of Alexandria were built, as well as the sculpture of the Colossus of Rhodes, and the famous mausoleum was erected in Halicarnassus (the last three were considered by the ancients to be among the seven “wonders of the world”). Sculpture, literature and philosophy also developed. The strengthening of the monarchy still could not save the Hellenistic states from being conquered by stronger and more powerful neighbors. On the one hand, Parthia, and on the other, Rome gradually absorbed Hellas.
The culture of Ancient Italy and Ancient Rome includes three main stages: 1) Tsarist period (VII– VIBC e.); 2) Republican period (510 - 31 BC); 3) Imperial period (31 BC – 476 AD)
The founding date of Rome and the beginning of the royal period is considered to be 753 BC. e. According to legend, the city on Palatine Hill was founded by the brothers Romulus and Remus, descendants of the hero Aeneas, who once arrived in Italy after the destruction of Troy. Due to a dispute over the name of the city, Romulus killed Remus, and Rome received its historical name "Roma".
During the Age of Kings, the city expanded, conquering surrounding territories. Thanks to their proximity to the highly developed culture of the Etruscans and Greek colonies, the Romans very rapidly developed their culture. They adopted the “Latin alphabet”, the secret sciences of the priests, the basics of urban planning and metallurgy from the Etruscans, and the polis form of urban structure from the Greeks.
From the very beginning, the Republican period was marked by the struggle of the plebeians with the patricians for civil and property rights. This struggle ended after the establishment of uniform norms for all Roman citizens (“Laws of the XII Tables”).
In the IV–III centuries. BC e. Rome managed to subjugate the entire Apennine Peninsula, conquering Carthage, Greece and the entire Eastern Mediterranean. Having mastered vast territories, the Romans created a powerful military-administrative state and introduced firm order into their life.
The culture of the Republic era was less vibrant than the culture of the Greek city-states during the heyday of democracy. The Romans continued to be strongly influenced by the Greeks, from whom Rome studied architectural and fine arts, poetry, drama, and philosophy. The first Roman writers were Naevius of Campania and Titus Maccius Plautus (comedian). Gladiator fights, which gathered many thousands of residents in huge amphitheaters, became a unique phenomenon of Roman republican life.
The growth of wealth of the nobility (nobles) and the poverty of the plebs led to a series of civil wars and slave uprisings in the 2nd–1st centuries. BC e. As a result of severe civil wars, Rome came to the need to centralize power over the metropolis and provinces in the hands of one person. But the first attempt at such centralization, made by Julius Caesar, ended with his assassination by supporters of the Republic in 44 BC. e., however, 17 years after this, the Roman Republic finally became a thing of the past - the time of the empire had come.
The imperial period in the cultural history of Ancient Rome lasted five centuries, from 27 BC. e. to 476 AD e., beginning with the brilliant era of the reign of the first principle, Octavian Augustus, who managed to stabilize the life of Rome and the provinces. Augustus turned Rome into the capital of a world empire.
The period of the early empire was a time of tremendous cultural upsurge. New temples and baths are being built, a forum is being defended, a giant Colosseum amphitheater is being created, a system of aqueducts supplying cities with clean water. Alexandria, with its famous library, becomes the intellectual center of the empire. In the first two imperial centuries, sciences successfully developed - medicine (Galen), natural science (Pliny the Elder), astronomy (Ptolemy), geography (Strabo).
In the religion of this time, two new phenomena are making themselves known: firstly. a cult of deification of the emperor arises; secondly, starting from the middle of the 1st century. n. e. Throughout the empire, Christianity begins to gradually spread, a religion that originated in provincial Judea, but is cosmopolitan in nature.
The prerequisites for the emergence of ancient philosophy were formed in the 9th – 7th centuries. BC. in the process of formation and strengthening of Iron Age society. This process in the European Mediterranean occurred much more intensively than in the countries of the Ancient East, and its consequences both in the economic and socio-political spheres were more radical. The intensive development of the division of labor, the emergence of new complex spheres of life, the rapid development of trade and trade-monetary relations, navigation and shipbuilding required for their implementation numerous positive knowledge, on the one hand, and revealed the limitations of religious and mythological means of regulating social life, on the other.
The growth of the Greek economy during this period led to an increase in the number of colonies, an increase in population and its concentration in cities, contributed to an increase in the proportion of slavery and slave labor in all spheres of economic life, and to the complication of the social structure and political organization of Greece. The dynamic and democratic polis organization involved the mass of the free population in the sphere of political activity, stimulated the social activity of people, on the one hand demanded, and on the other, inspired the development of knowledge about society and the state, human psychology, the organization of social processes and their management.
All of the above factors together contributed to the intensive growth of positive knowledge, accelerated the process of human intellectual development, and the formation of rational abilities in him. The procedure of proof and justification arose and was widely used in social practice, which the Ancient East did not know and without which science as a specialized form of cognitive activity is impossible. Logically proven and rationally substantiated knowledge acquired the status of social value. These changes destroyed the traditional forms of organizing social life and required from each person a new life position, the formation of which could not be ensured by the old ideological means. There is an urgent need for a new worldview, and the necessary and sufficient prerequisites for its birth are being created. The philosophy that was formed in ancient Greece in the 7th – 6th centuries becomes such a worldview. BC.
Periodization of ancient philosophy
Traditionally, there are three main stages in the history of ancient philosophy. The first stage covers the period from the mid-7th to the mid-5th centuries. BC. and is called natural philosophical or pre-Socratic. The main object of philosophical research at this stage was nature, and the goal of knowledge was the search for the original foundations of the existence of the world and man. This tradition of deducing a diverse world from a single source was started by philosophers Milesian school(Thales, Anaximenes, Anaximander), continued in the works of the famous Greek dialectician Heraclitus of Ephesus and representatives Eleatic school(Xenophanes, Parmenides, Zeno) and reached its natural philosophical completion in the atomistic concept of Democritus. At the end of the VI - beginning of the V centuries. BC. under the influence of contradictions that arise in the process of searching for substance as the basis of all things, the Eleatics reorient philosophy towards a speculative analysis of existence. They revealed the limitations of sensory ideas about the structure of the world and proposed to distinguish and separate judgments based on feelings from the truth, which is achieved through reason. The Eleatics transformed the cosmological orientation of natural philosophy into ontology.
The distinctive features of ancient natural philosophy are cosmocentrism, ontologism, aestheticism, rationalism, archetypicality. The world here appears as an ordered and rationally organized cosmos, to which the universal law-Logos gives unity, symmetry and beauty and thereby turns it into an object of aesthetic pleasure. The purpose of man is seen to be, with the help of reason, to understand the origins of this cosmic beauty and to organize his life in accordance with it.
The second stage lasted from the middle of the 5th to the end of the 4th centuries. BC. and got the name classical antiquity. This stage began sophists, who reoriented philosophy from the study of nature to the knowledge of man. The sophists are the founders of the anthropological tradition in ancient philosophy. The main problem for the sophists is man and the forms of his presence in the world. “Man is the measure of all things” - these words of Protagoras reflect the essence of the mentioned reorientation. You cannot pretend to know the world without first knowing a person. The world always contains those features that a person attributes to it, and only in relation to a person does the world acquire meaning and significance. It is impossible to consider the world outside of man, without taking into account his goals, interests and needs. And since these goals, interests and needs are constantly changing, then, firstly, there is no final, absolute knowledge, and secondly, this knowledge has value only within the framework of practical success and only for the sake of achieving it. The benefit that knowledge can bring to a person becomes the goal of knowledge and the criterion of its truth. The principles of philosophical discussion, the technique of logical argumentation, the rules of eloquence, the ways to achieve political success - these are the sphere of interests of the sophists.
Socrates gives systematicity to this topic. He agrees with the sophists that the essence of man must be sought in the sphere of spirit, but does not recognize their relativism and epistemological pragmatism. The goal of human existence is the public good as a prerequisite for a happy life; it cannot be achieved without reason, without in-depth self-knowledge. After all, only self-knowledge leads to wisdom, only knowledge reveals true values to a person: Goodness, Justice, Truth, Beauty. Socrates created the foundation of moral philosophy; in his work, philosophy begins to take shape as a reflexive theory, in which epistemological issues take pride of place. Evidence of this is Socrates' credo: “Know thyself.”
This Socratic tradition found its continuation not only in the so-called Socratic schools (Megarians, Cynics, Cyrenaics), but primarily in the work of his great followers Plato and Aristotle. Plato's philosophical views were inspired by Socrates' reasoning about ethical concepts and his search for absolute definitions of them. Just as, from the point of view of Socrates, in the sphere of morality a person seeks examples of goodness and justice, so, according to Plato, he seeks all other Ideas for the sake of comprehending the world, those Universals that make the chaos, fluidity and diversity of the empirical world accessible to understanding and which together they form the true world of existence. They are the cause of the objective world, the source of cosmic harmony, the condition for the existence of the mind in the soul and the soul in the body. This is a world of genuine values, an inviolable order, a world independent of human arbitrariness. This makes Plato the founder of objective idealism, a philosophical doctrine according to which thoughts and concepts exist objectively, independently of the will and consciousness of man, and are the cause and condition of the existence of the world.
Ancient philosophy reached its highest flowering in the work of Aristotle. He not only systematized the knowledge accumulated by antiquity, but also developed all the main sections of philosophy. His thinking unfolded in all directions and embraced logic and metaphysics, physics and astronomy, psychology and ethics, he laid the foundations of aesthetics, rhetoric, famous poetics and politics. Aristotle paid great attention to research methodology, methods and means of argumentation and proof. The system of categories that Aristotle developed was used by philosophers throughout the entire historical and philosophical process. It was in the work of this great thinker that philosophy acquired its classical form, and its influence on the European philosophical tradition cannot be overestimated. Aristotle's philosophy, thanks to its depth and systematicity, determined the direction of development of philosophical thinking for many times. It can be said that without Aristotle, all Western philosophy, theology and science would have developed very differently. His encyclopedic philosophical system turned out to be so significant and important that until the 17th century, all scientific searches of the European mind were based precisely on Aristotelian works.
According to Aristotle, the task of philosophy is to comprehend being, but not being as “this” or “that”: a specific person, a specific thing, a specific thought, but being in itself, being as a being. Philosophy must find the immaterial causes of existence and substantiate eternal essences. Existence, as the unity of matter and form, is substance. The formation of substance is a process of transition from matter as “potential being” to form as “actual being,” which is accompanied by a decrease in the potentiality of matter through determination by its form. This actualization of potentiality occurs through the action of four types of causes: material, formal, active and target (final). All four reasons strive for self-realization. This gives grounds to characterize Aristotle's teaching as the concept of dynamic and purposive nature. She not only exists, but strives for something, desires something, she is driven by Eros. The pinnacle of this process is man. His distinctive feature is thinking, with the help of which he connects everything in his mind and gives form and unity to everything and achieves social well-being and general happiness.
Aristotle completed the classical stage in the development of ancient philosophy. Polis democratic Greece entered a period of long and severe systemic crisis, which ended not only with the fall of polis democracy, but also with the collapse of slavery as a system. Incessant wars, economic and political crises made life unbearable, called into question classical ancient values, and demanded new forms of social adaptation in conditions of political instability.
These events are reflected in the philosophy of the third, final stage in the history of ancient philosophy, called Hellenism (endIVArt.. BC –VArt. AD). The protracted socio-political and economic crisis led to a radical reorientation of philosophy. In an era of wars, violence and robberies, people are least interested in questions about the origins of the world and the conditions for its objective knowledge. A state in deep crisis is unable to ensure the well-being and security of people; everyone has to take care of their own existence. That is why philosophy abandons the search for universal principles of existence and turns to a living concrete person, not a representative of the polis integrity, but an individual, offering him a program of salvation. The question of how the world is ordered here gives way to the question of what a person must do in order to survive in this world.
Moral and ethical issues, focus on the individual life of an individual, social pessimism and epistemological skepticism - these are the distinctive features that unite numerous and very different schools into a single phenomenon called Hellenistic philosophy. Epicureans, Stoics, Cynics, Skeptics change the very ideal of philosophy: it is no longer a comprehension of existence, but a search for ways to a happy and calm life . Don't strive for more, because the more you have, the more you will lose. Do not regret what was lost, for it will not return, do not strive for fame and wealth, do not be afraid of poverty, illness and death, for they are beyond your control. Enjoy every moment of life, strive for happiness through moral reasoning and intellectual training. Anyone who is not afraid of any losses in life becomes a sage, a happy and confident person. He is not afraid of the end of the world, or suffering, or death.
The deeper the crisis of ancient (already Roman) society became, the more obvious skepticism and distrust in the rational development of the world became, irrationalism and mysticism grew. The Greco-Roman world came under the influence of various Eastern and Jewish mystical practices. Neoplatonism was the last surge of Greek antiquity. In the works of its most famous and authoritative representatives (Plotinus, Proclus) ideas were developed that, on the one hand, took philosophy beyond the boundaries of the ancient rationalistic tradition, and on the other, served as the intellectual basis for early Christian philosophy and medieval theology.
Thus, ancient philosophy, the history of which spans a whole millennium, is characterized by the following features:
1) cosmocentrism - the world appears as an ordered cosmos, the principles and order of existence of which coincide with the principles of organization of the human mind, thanks to which rational knowledge of it is possible;
2) aestheticism, according to which the world is perceived as the embodiment of order, symmetry and harmony, an example of beauty, to life in accordance with which a person strives;
3) rationalism, according to which the cosmos is filled with an all-encompassing mind, which gives the world purpose and meaning and is accessible to man, provided that he is focused on the knowledge of the cosmos and develops his rational abilities;
4) objectivism, which demanded that knowledge be guided by natural causes and resolutely and consistently exclude anthropomorphic elements as a means of explaining and substantiating the truth;
5) relativism as a recognition of the relativity of existing knowledge, the impossibility of final and final truth and as a requirement for criticism and self-criticism as necessary elements of knowledge.
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