Prerequisites for the occurrence ancient philosophy 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 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 among the Sophists, man and the forms of his presence in the world become. “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 purpose of human existence is public good as a prerequisite 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 form true peace 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 research The European mind relied 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 living things to a specific person, not to a representative of the polis integrity, but to an individual, offering him a salvation program. 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 distinctive features, which unite numerous and very different schools in 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.

Stages of development and main features of ancient philosophy.

Topic 3. “Ancient Greek civilization and features of ancient philosophical traditions.”

Questionnaire:

1. Basic ideological ideas of ancient philosophy.

Stages of development and main features of ancient philosophy.

Despite the presence of various special knowledge in Hellas in pre-philosophical times, ancient Greek science emerged simultaneously with philosophy. However, the ancient tradition is unanimous that the first ancient philosophers underwent preliminary training in Egypt and partly in Babylonia, where they learned the achievements of Middle Eastern protoscience. According to a well-known myth, Europa herself is a Phoenician kidnapped by Zeus. Europe's brother Cadmus, finding himself in Greece in search of his sister, not only founded Thebes, but also brought the Phoenician alphabet to the Greeks.

Already the first ancient philosophers began to process Afro-Asian computational mathematics into deductive science. On this basis, it became possible for the emergence of ancient philosophy as a rationalized worldview seeking the substantial basis of the universe. Philosophy in Hellas originates as spontaneous materialism, as natural philosophy or physical philosophy on the basis of its own ideological and Middle Eastern scientific pre-philosophy in the conditions of an anti-aristocratic social revolution.

Ancient Western, ancient, first only Greek and then Roman philosophy existed for more than a millennium (from the 6th century BC to the 6th century AD). During this time, it went through, like all ancient culture, a closed cycle from origin to prosperity, and through it to decline and death. In accordance with this, the history of ancient philosophy falls into four periods: 1) origin and formation (6th century BC); 2) maturity and flourishing (5th - 4th centuries BC), 3) decline - this Greek philosophy the Hellenistic era and Latin philosophy of the period of the Roman Republic (3rd - 1st centuries BC) and 4) the period of decline and death during the era of the Roman Empire (1st - 5th centuries AD).

Despite the diversity of philosophical schools and traditions, some unifying features can be identified for this period. Ancient philosophy is syncretic, which means that it is characterized by greater unity and indivisibility of problems than subsequent philosophy. In modern philosophy, a detailed division of the world is carried out, for example, into the natural world and the human world. Each of these worlds has its own divisions. A modern philosopher is unlikely to call nature good; for him, only man can be good. The ancient philosopher, as a rule, extended ethical categories to the entire cosmos. Ancient philosophy is cosmocentric: its horizons always cover the entire Cosmos, including the human world. Such universal coverage is not always characteristic of modern philosophy. Ancient philosophy achieved a lot at the conceptual level - Plato's concept of ideas, Aristotle's concept of form, the Stoics' concept of meaning. However, she knows almost nothing about the laws of science.

The ethical teaching of antiquity is primarily an ethics of virtues, and not an ethics of duty or values. Ancient philosophy is truly functional, meaning that it is designed to help people in their lives.

Ancient pre-philosophical mythology existed in three varieties: Homeric, Hesiodian and Orphic. This period is characterized by a mythological approach to the world order and understanding of the world; the Orphics are dominated by a mystical approach to understanding the world.

The next stage in the development of ancient philosophy is Ionian philosophy. If we accept that ancient philosophy is the fruit of the ancient Greek mythological worldview and Middle Eastern scientific pre-philosophy, then the fact of the birth of philosophy in Ionia is not surprising. Ionia is the advanced part of the Aegean world. It was located on the western coast of the Asia Minor peninsula and consisted of twelve independent cities (Miletus, Ephesus, etc.) Ionia is the birthplace of epic poetry and lyric poetry. The Ionians were the first logographers, i.e., “writing words” (meaning prose) and the first historians. Among them are Cadmus of Miletus, the author of the book “The Foundation of Miletus,” the geographer Hecataeus of Miletus with his “Description of the Earth,” and the historian Herodotus.

Ionian philosophy was represented mainly by the Milesian school and the lone philosopher Heraclitus. Ionian philosophy as a whole is spontaneously materialistic and naively dialectical, which does not exclude the presence of elements of idealism in it. Ionian philosophy is proto-philosophy. It is also characterized by the absence of polarization into materialism and idealism, which explains the spontaneity of its materialism and its coexistence with the rudiments of idealism, the presence of many images of mythology, significant elements of anthropomorphism, pantheism, the absence of proper philosophical terminology and the associated allegory, representation physical processes in the context of moral issues, which indicates that ancient philosophy, to a certain extent, was born as ethics.

Representatives of the Milesian school were natural scientists Thales (640-546), Anaximander (610-547), Anaximenes(575-528), who were also interested in deeply ideological issues. They were puzzled by the search for a single foundation and beginning of existence: “What is everything made of?” Thales saw it in the water, Anaximander - in the apeiron, Anaximenes - in the air.

So the Milesian sages, still burdened with mythological views, tried to go beyond immediate visibility and give a natural explanation of the world. This line of Greek philosophy continues Heraclitus from Ephesus (540-480 BC). He also tries to isolate the basis of existence behind the multitude of phenomena, constantly changing and disappearing, and considers fire to be such - material and the most changing of the natural elements.

Heraclitus is also interested in another problem - the state of the world: how does it exist? “Everything that exists,” the philosopher answers, “flows (moves), and nothing remains in place.” To describe the eternal variability and dynamism of the world, Heraclitus uses the images of “fire,” which gives an idea of ​​the rhythmic nature of the world process, and the river, an indomitable stream that “cannot be entered twice.” Going further in his reasoning, he raises the question of the reason for the change and calls it the struggle of opposing forces: cold and hot, wet and dry, etc.

At the end of the 6th century. BC e. the center of emerging European philosophy is moving from Far East The Aegean world to its Far West - from Ionia to “Great Greece” (as the Romans called this part of the Greek world), or “Great Hellas” (as the Hellenes themselves called it). Italian philosophy (Aristotle) ​​was a further step in the formation of ancient philosophy after Ionian philosophy. The Pythagorean League, the Eleatic school and Empedocles belonged to Italian philosophy.

Pythagoras(570-497 BC) creates his own school and substantiates a mathematical approach to the knowledge of reality, the explanation of which comes not from nature, but from number - the mathematical principle. He views the cosmos as an ordered harmonious whole, expressed in numbers. “Number owns things,” “number is the basis of existence,” “the best numerical relationship is harmony and order”—these are the main judgments of Pythagoras and his students, who expounded the doctrine of the numerical structure of the universe. Since the Pythagoreans, philosophy, by the power of reason, transforms myth into theoretical constructions, and transforms images into concepts. There is an emerging trend towards the liberation of philosophy from mythology and the formation of a rational-conceptual worldview.

The Eleatic school, whose representatives were Xenophanes(570-548 BC), Parmenides(520-440 BC), Zeno(490-430 BC). Like their predecessors, the subject of discussion was the problem of the essence of the world and the ways of its existence. The power of reason, according to Parmenides, was that with its help one can move from an infinite number of facts to some internal basis, from variability to stability, subject to certain rules, for example, the law prohibiting contradictions. Only on this path can one identify the basis of the world, abstracting from its diversity, highlight what is common to it and all things, and see the unchangeable behind the changing world. Parmenides believes that this is what being is. Following the law of contradiction, he concludes: “There is existence, but there is no non-existence at all.” Being is endowed with such qualities as: indivisibility, immobility, perfection, timelessness, eternity.

The merit of Parmenides and the Eleatic school is enormous. The concept of being as a fundamental philosophical category was highlighted and thus laid the foundation for the most important branch of philosophy - ontologies. The problem of constant and changing in the world was also identified and preference was given to sustainable relationships.

The pinnacle of philosophical thought of the pre-Socratic period was the idea of ​​ancient atomism, which received elaboration in philosophy Democritus(460-370 BC). In his reasoning, he tries to resolve the contradiction that the Eleatic school came to - the contradiction between the sensory-perceptible picture of the world and its speculative comprehension.

Unlike Parmenides, Democritus allows for non-existence, which “exists no less than being.” By it he means emptiness. At the same time, being is conceived as a collection of tiny particles that interact with each other, enter into various relationships, and move in the void. The single motionless being of the Eleatics is thus opposed to the doctrine of two states of the world: atoms and emptiness, being and non-being, and being turns out to be divisible. Atoms are tiny, indivisible, unchangeable and impenetrable, absolutely dense, infinite in number of first bodies, which, differing from each other in size, shape and position, colliding and intertwining, form bodies.

Classical period- the heyday of ancient Greek society and its culture with polis democracy, which opened up great opportunities for personal improvement, giving a free Greek the right to participate in government public affairs, which means making independent decisions and at the same time demanding responsibility and wisdom. Man recognized himself as a sovereign person. The problem of man, his cognitive and activity capabilities and place in society became acute.

Philosophy recognizes the need to understand these problems. And the first to emerge were the sophists—the ancient enlighteners and teachers of wisdom. Philosophical worldview thought represented by the sophists Ancient Greece put man at the center of worldview research. The Sophists extended their relativism to religious dogmas. In general, relativism has one positive feature- he is anti-dogmatic. In this sense, the sophists played a particularly important role in Hellas. Where they appeared, the dogmatism of tradition was shaken. Regarding the historical sequence, we can talk about “senior” and “younger” sophists. Among the senior sophists stood out Protagoras, Gorgias, Hippias, Prodicus, Antiphon, Xeniades. Of the younger sophists, active already at the end of the 5th - beginning of the 4th century. BC e., the most interesting Alcidamas, Thrasymachus, Critias and Callicles.

Further development ancient philosophy is associated with the names of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle - the titans of ancient philosophy.

In general, this period of ancient philosophy was characterized by a cosmocentric direction of philosophical thought, a spontaneous-materialistic approach to ontological teachings. The moral and epistemological relativism of the sophists, which had a general anti-dogmatic orientation, is of great importance.

2. Philosophy of pre-Sacratics, Sophists, Socrates.

2.Pre-Socratics– philosophers of the ancient period before Socrates (800 – 500 BC).
Presocratics (German Vorsokratiker; French Presocratiques, English Presocratics) is a new European term to refer to the early Greek philosophers of the 6th-5th centuries. BC e The works of the Pre-Socratics are known only from fragments preserved in the form of quotations from later ancient authors (see doxographies). The main philosophical centers of early Greek philosophy were Miletus (in Ionia, the western coast of Asia Minor), Sicily, Elea. The most prominent pre-Socratic philosophers: Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes (Miletus school), Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans, Heraclitus, Parmenides and his followers (Eleatic school), Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Democritus. The focus of the entire philosophy of the Pre-Socratics is the cosmos, its elementary principles, the causes of various natural phenomena, therefore this philosophy is also called cosmological and natural philosophy. In general, the eastern, Ionian tradition (Miletus school) is characterized by empiricism, interest in the diversity of the material and material, while the western (Italian) tradition (Pythagoreanism, the Eleatic school, partly Heraclitus) is characterized by a predominant interest in the formal, numerical and structural aspect of things, the first formulation of epistemological and ontological problems in pure form, often religious and eschatological interests. The sum and result of the development of all early philosophy was the atomistic system of Democritus. In the early period, Greek philosophy formulated two universal theses that allow us to speak of it as an independent school of thought: “out of nothing nothing comes” and “like is known by like,” which were one way or another present in all the constructions of the Pre-Socratics.
The anthropological problems of the early tradition are included in the cosmological one: at first it does not go beyond the framework of narrow physiology and considers man as a material, albeit an animate element of the cosmos, then, in atomistic philosophy, it acquires the features of rationalistic ethics, justifying the rules of behavior in society in connection with the idea of ​​the universal good (happiness).
First time term "pre-Socratics" was introduced in 1903, when the German philologist Hermann Diels (1848-1922) collected in his book Fragments of the Presocratics ("Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker") texts" of philosophers who lived before Socrates. The book included more than 400 names along with fragments of Orphic and other pre-philosophical theocosmogonies.
Ancient philosophy (first Greek and then Roman) covers more than a thousand-year period from the 6th century. BC There is. to the 6th century n. is, it originated in the ancient Greek city-states (city-states) of democratic orientation and in content, methods and purpose differed from the Eastern methods of philosophizing, the mythological explanation of the world inherent in early ancient culture. The formation of a philosophical view of the world was prepared by ancient Greek literature and culture (the works of Homer, Hesiod, gnomic poets), where questions were raised about the place and role of man in the universe, the skills of establishing the motives (reasons) of actions were formed, and artistic images structured according to a sense of harmony, proportion and measure. Early Greek philosophy uses fantastic imagery and the metaphorical language of mythology. But if for myth the image of the world and the real world are separable, no different and, accordingly, comparable, then philosophy formulates as its main goal: the desire for truth, a pure and disinterested desire to get closer to it. Possession of complete and definite truth, according to ancient tradition, was considered possible only for the gods. Man could not merge with “Sophia”, since the mortal, finite, is limited in knowledge. Therefore, a person has only a steady pursuit of truth, never fully completed, an active, active, passionate desire for truth, a love for wisdom, which follows from the very concept of philosophy. The main stages of development for the ancient Greeks who lived during the period of ancient philosophy were the renewal of civilization, the world is a huge collection of various natural and social forces and processes. How to live in such a world? Who rules the world? How to coordinate own capabilities with the secret and powerful forces of nature? What is being and what are its foundations, beginning? Being was associated with a multitude of changing elements, and consciousness was associated with a limited number of concepts that restrained the chaotic manifestation of the elements. The search for a stable beginning in the changing cycle of phenomena of the vast Cosmos is the main cognitive goal of ancient Greek philosophy. Therefore, ancient philosophy can be understood as the doctrine of “First Principles and Causes.” According to its method, this historical type of philosophy seeks to rationally explain existence, reality as a whole. For ancient philosophy, reasonable arguments, logical argumentation, rhetorical-deductive rationality, and logos are significant.

The transition “from myth to logos” created a well-known vector for the development of both the spiritual culture and civilization of Europe.

There are four main stages in the development of ancient philosophy :
First stage– covers the 7th-5th centuries. BC There is. and is called pre-Socratic. The philosophers who lived before Socrates are called pre-Socratics. These include the sages from Miletus (the so-called Milesian school - Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes), Heraclitus from Ephesus, the Eleatics (Parmenides, Zeno), Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans, ato-containers (Leucippus and Democritus). At the center of the early – Pre-Socratic Greek natural philosophy – were the problems of physics and the Cosmos.
Second phase- approximately from the middle of the 5th century. BC There is. - Until the end of the 4th century. BC There is. – Classic. The Sophists and Socrates, who first tried to define the essence of man, carried out an anthropological turn in philosophy. The philosophical heritage of Plato and Aristotle, characterized by the discovery of the supersensible and the organic formulation of the main - classical problems, most fully generalizes and reflects the achievements of the classical era of Greek antiquity.
Third stage in the development of ancient philosophy - the end of the 4th-2nd centuries. BC There is. – Usually called Hellenistic. In contrast to the previous one, associated with the emergence of significant, deep in content and universal in theme, philosophical systems, various eclectic competing philosophical schools are being formed: peripatetics, academic philosophy (Plato’s Academy), Stoic and Epicurean schools, skepticism. All schools are united by one feature: the transition from commenting on the teachings of Plato and Aristotle to the formation of problems of ethics, moralizing frankness in the era of decline and decline of Hellenistic culture. Then popular creativity Theophrastus, Carneades, Epicurus, Pyrrho, etc.

Fourth stage in the development of ancient philosophy (1st century BC-V-VI centuries AD) - the period when decisive role In antiquity, Rome began to play, under whose influence Greece fell. Roman philosophy was formed under the influence of Greek, especially Hellenistic. There are three schools of thought in Roman philosophy: Stoicism (Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius), skepticism (Sextus Empiricus), Epicureanism (Titus Lucretius Carus). In the III-V centuries. n. There is. In Roman philosophy, Neoplatonism arises and develops, the outstanding representative of which is the philosopher Plotinus. Neoplatonism significantly influenced not only early Christian philosophy, but also all medieval religious philosophy.
The main subject of philosophizing among the Pre-Socratics was space. It seemed to them to be composed of ordinary sensory elements: earth, water, air, fire and ether, mutually transforming into each other as a result of condensation and rarefaction. Man and the social sphere, as a rule, were not distinguished by the Pre-Socratics from general cosmic life. The individual, society, and cosmos in the pre-Socratics were subject to the same laws.

The history of Antiquity is an integral part of history ancient world- studies the origin, flourishing and crisis of social and government structures that arose on the territory of Ancient Greece and Rome. It begins at the turn of the 3rd - 2nd millennium BC. - Since the emergence of the first state associations on the island. Crete, and ends in 476 AD. E - The Fall of the Western Roman Empire.

This period in human history takes its name from the Latin term " antiqua"(antiquity) and has its own specific features development in comparison with ancient societies:

1. Ancient society was characterized by a faster pace of communal relations.

2. In classical developed ancient states (Athens, Rome) there was no internal (debt) slavery. Laws 594 It was forbidden to sell one's fellow tribesmen for debts in Athens, and the law Petelia 326 Eliminated debt slavery in Ancient Rome.

3. If ancient states were military-bureaucratic monarchies, then the main type government structure ancient countries had a republic in the form of a polis.

For a long time under the term "policy" historians understood the "city-state". However, not every city was a state and not every state had the appearance of a city. For example, an Attic city Piraeus- the sea gates of Athens - has never been a state, although in its size, number of inhabitants and appearance not inferior Thebes, Megare or Corinth. And vice versa, one of the largest policies of Ancient Greece, Sparta, looked like an ordinary rural settlement.

Therefore, it would be more correct to understand the term “polis” as a civil community, that is, a collective of full-fledged citizens who inhabited a certain territory and had a republican form of government.

4. Specific shape property in ancient policies was communal private property, and the second part was mediated by the first. Namely: the rights of private ownership of land were enjoyed only by full-fledged members of the civil community and deprivation of civil rights led to the loss of ownership of the land.

5. The pace of cultural development of ancient civilization was much faster than the cultural evolution of ancient Eastern societies.

All modern culture grew up on the soil of the culture of antiquity. Without knowledge of ancient history it is impossible to understand many institutions of modern periods, the history of art, architectural styles, theater, modern political and scientific terms, incl. terms “history”, “philosophy”, “culture”, etc. Antiquity in all its diversity appears at every step, both in the public and private life of modern man.

Begins the ancient era in the history of Ancient Greece. Over a period of almost two thousand years, the Greeks created a developed economic system, a classic polis organization with a republican structure, high culture, significantly influenced the development of world civilization.

The entire ancient Greek history is usually divided into 5 large stages:

1. Aegean or Cretan-Mycenaean(III millennium - XII centuries BC) - formation of early state associations on the island. Crete and Achaean Greece.

2. Beforepolisny or Homeric(XI - IX centuries BC) - the dominance of tribal relations in Greece.

3. Archaic(VIII - VI centuries BC) - formation of state associations in the form of policies.

4. Classical(V - first half - IV centuries BC) - the heyday of ancient Greek society, the polis structure, and Greek culture.

5. Hellenistic(second half of the 4th century - 30th pp. 1st century BC) - the formation of new Hellenistic societies based on the interaction and unification of Greek and Eastern principles.

Since the first and last stages of Greek history were decisive, they are usually divided into separate periods.

The Aegean or Cretan-Mycenaean stage has 3 periods depending on the degree of social development, and these periods did not coincide for the history of Crete and the history of mainland Greece. Cretan history (or Minoan, from the name of the legendary king Minos) divided into:

A) early Minoan(XXX - XXIII centuries BC) - dominance of tribal relations;

b) Middle Minoan(XXII - XVIII centuries BC) - the period of old palaces, the formation of the first states, the emergence of the first social groups, writing, unification of Crete;

V) Piznyominoyan(XVII - XII centuries BC) - the period of new palaces, the heyday of the Cretan state and its conquest by the Achaeans.

Chronology of the Mycenaean stage (mainland Greece):

A) early Greek period(XXX - XXI centuries BC) - the dominance of primitive communal relations, the pre-Greek population;

b) Middle Helladic period(XX - XVII centuries BC) - penetration and settlement of the Achaean Greeks in the southern part of Balkan Greece and the beginning of the decomposition of tribal relations;

V) piznyoelladskiy or Mycenaean period (XVI - XII centuries BC) - the emergence of early state associations, the emergence of writing, the flourishing of the Mycenaean civilization and its fall.

The Hellenistic stage of ancient Greek history is also divided into the C period:

A) eastern campaigns of Alexander the Great and the creation of a system of Hellenistic states(30th pp. IV - 80th pp. III century BC);

b) the rise of Hellenistic societies and states(80s pp. III century - mid-II century BC);

V) crisis of the Hellenistic system and the conquest of the Hellenistic states by Rome in the West and Parthia in the East(mid-2nd century - 30th pp. 1st century BC). Interests in Rome in 30 BC The last Hellenistic state of the Egyptian kingdom meant only the end of the long development of ancient Greek civilization and its culture.

In Greek ancient philosophy there are following stages of development:

First stage covers the period from the 7th to the 5th centuries. BC. This period is usually called natural philosophical, pre-Socratic, and the philosophers who lived at this time were characterized as pre-Socratics(Socrates 469-399 BC). This period includes: the Milesian school, Heraclitus of Ephesus, the Eleatic school, Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans, Empedocles and Anaxagoras, the ancient Greek atomists - Leucippus and Democritus.

Second phase covers the period from approximately half of the 5th century. and until the end of the State Administration. BC. It is usually characterized as classical. This period is associated with the activities of outstanding Greek philosophers - Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, whose views were the pinnacle of ancient Greek, and perhaps world philosophy.

Third stage in the development of ancient philosophy - the end of the GU-II centuries. BC. usually denoted as Hellenistic (Hellene is the self-name of the ancient Greeks; Hellenism is a period in the history of the Eastern Mediterranean, Western Asia and the Black Sea region since the campaigns of Alexander the Great 334-324 BC). In contrast to the classical stage, associated with the emergence of philosophical systems that were significant in their content, at the same time a number of philosophical trends appeared: academic philosophy (Platonic Academy), Peripatetics (Aristotelian Lyceum), Stoic and Epicurean schools, skepticism. Prominent philosophers of this period were Theophrastus and Epicurus. However, all schools were characterized by a transition from commentating the teachings of Plato and Aristotle to problems of ethics, preaching skepticism and stoicism.

Epicurus (341-270 BC), was born on the island of Samos in the family of an Athenian settler and teacher. At the age of 14 he began studying science. At 18 years he arrives in Athens, then moves to Asia Minor (modern Türkiye). IN 306 BC returns to Athens and establishes his own school, the Garden of Epicurus. Epicurus divided his teaching into three parts: canonics - the theory of knowledge, physics - the doctrine of nature and ethics. He developed the atomistic doctrine of Democritus, believing that in the Universe there exist only bodies located in space. Bodies are perceived directly by the senses, and the existence of empty space between bodies is explained by the fact that otherwise movement would be impossible. From the works of Epicurus, only a few originals have reached our descendants: “Letter to Herod from y” and “Letter to Pythocles,” which reflect his views on nature; “The letter to Mena “by her” reflects ethical views, and "Main Thoughts" of Epicurus give an idea of ​​his main ideas in an aphoristic form. Epicurus died at the age of 71, seriously ill, he was tormented by bouts of vomiting, stones were coming out of his kidneys, and he was plagued by other ailments. One day he asked to fill a copper bathtub with hot water and lay down in her, drank undiluted wine, wished his friends not to forget his teachings, and so died. The Epicureans continued his teachings, gathering in the garden that belonged to Epicurus and bequeathed to the school. Epicurus was succeeded by Ermarch of Mytilene, who insisted that expediency lies at the basis of all laws The systematizer of Epicurus's ideas was Philodem of Gadara.

Fourth The stage in the development of ancient philosophy covers the period from the 1st century. BC. and until the V-VI centuries, when the decisive role in ancient world Rome began to play, under whose influence Greece also fell. However, in Roman philosophy it is the opposite - it is formed under the influence of the Greek, especially the Hellenistic period, which ended at the beginning of the second quarter of the 1st century. It has three directions: stoicism(Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius), epicureanism(Titus Lucretius Carus) skepticism(Sextus Empiricus).

In the 3rd-5th centuries, Roman philosophy arose and developed Neoplatonism, the most prominent representative of which was Plotinus. Neoplatonism had a huge influence not only on early Christian philosophy, but also on all medieval religious philosophy.

Plotinus(204-270), founder of Neoplatonism, is the last of the major philosophers of antiquity. Soon after his birth, significant political processes took place: military formations acquired real state power and the army command introduced the practice of electing emperors for monetary compensation. Civil strife began, the murder of emperors began in order to divide the empire. This facilitated targeted invasions of the Roman Empire by Germans from the north and Persians from the east. War and epidemic reduced the population of the Roman Empire by almost a third. Cities that were carriers of culture suffered especially hard. Plotinus escapes from the spectacle of ruin and poverty in real world to contemplate the eternal world of goodness and beauty. He interprets Plato's works, trying to build some semblance of a system. New to Plotinus was the doctrine of the first principle of all things - the One, which itself is higher than things. The One, the beginning of all things, like Plato, is called good by Plotinus and is compared to the Sun. It is opposed to dark and formless matter, the principle of evil. The Plotinus universe is static. Every lower level in it is eternally born from the highest, and the highest remains eternally unchanged and, giving birth, does not suffer damage. The One eternally shines in its super-beautiful goodness.

Thus, we can say that ancient Western, ancient, first only Greek and then Roman philosophy, having existed for more than one millennium (from the 6th century BC to the 6th century), went through, like all ancient culture, a closed cycle from origin to prosperity, and through it to decline and death.

Introduction

Ancient philosophy is a consistently developing philosophical thought and covers a period of over a thousand years - from the end of the 7th century. BC. up to the 6th century. n. e. Despite all the diversity of views of thinkers of this period, ancient philosophy is at the same time something unified, uniquely original and extremely instructive. It did not develop in isolation; it drew on the wisdom of the Ancient East, whose culture goes back to deeper antiquity, where even before the Greeks the formation of civilization took place: writing was formed, the beginnings of the science of nature and philosophical views themselves developed. This applies to countries such as Libya, Babylon, Egypt and Persia. There was also influence from more distant countries of the East - Ancient China and India. But the various instructive borrowings of Greek thinkers in no way detract from the amazing originality and greatness of ancient thinkers.

Early period of ancient philosophy

Philosophy originated in Ancient Greece in the 7th-5th centuries. BC e. As in other countries, it arose on the basis of mythology and for a long time maintained a connection with it in the history of ancient philosophy. It is customary to distinguish the following periods

Table 1 - Origin of ancient philosophy

Table 2 - Main periods of development of ancient philosophy

Ancient Greek philosophy, having originated on the basis of mythology, maintained a connection with it for a long time. In particular, throughout the history of ancient philosophy, terminology that came from mythology was largely preserved. Thus, the names of the Gods were used to designate various natural and social forces: called Eros or Aphrodite, wisdom - Athena, etc.

Naturally, a particularly close connection between mythology and philosophy took place in the early period of the development of philosophy. From mythology we inherited the idea of ​​the four main elements from which everything that exists is composed. And most philosophers early period considered one or more elements to be the beginning of existence (for example, Water in Thales).

The origins and first stages of development in ancient Greek philosophy took place in Ionia, an area in Asia Minor where there were many Greek colonies.

The second geographic center for the development of philosophy was the so-called Magna Graecia, where there were also many Greek city-polises.

Currently, all philosophers of the early period are called Pre-Socratics, i.e. the predecessors of Socrates, the first major philosopher of the next, classical period.

School classification

Ionian philosophy

Milesian school

Thales Anaximander Anaximenes

Ephesus school

Heraclitus of Ephesus

Italian philosophy

School of Pythagoras

Pythagoras Pythagoreans

Eleatic school

Xenophanes Parmenides Zeno

Athenian philosophy

Anaxagoras

Milesian school

Thales ( OK. 625-547 BC e.) - ancient Greek sage. The first in Greece to predict a total solar eclipse, introduced a calendar of 365 days, divided into 12 thirty-day months, the remaining five days were placed at the end of the year. He was a mathematician.

Main works. “On Principles”, “On Solstice”, “On Equiaction”, etc.

Philosophical views. ORIGINAL. F. considered the beginning of being water. Everything arose from water, everything began from it, and everything returns to it.

Anaximander(c. 610-546 BC) - ancient Greek sage.

Main works. “About Nature”, “Map of the Earth”, etc.

Philosophical views. Anaximander considered the fundamental principle of the world apeiron-eternal. From it two pairs of opposites stand out: hot and cold, wet and dry; This gives rise to four elements: Air, Water, Fire, Earth.

The origin of life and man. The first living beings were born in water. Man originated and developed inside huge fish, then came out onto land.

Anaximenes(c. 588-525 BC) - ancient Greek philosopher.

Philosophical views. Chose the beginning of existence air. When the air is rarefied, fire is formed, and then ether; when condensed - wind, clouds, water, earth, stones.

Ephesus school

Heraclitus(c. 544-480 BC) - ancient Greek sage.

Philosophical views. Heraclitus believed that the origin of all things was Fire. Fire is the material of everything eternal and living, moreover, it is intelligent. Everything in the world arises from fire, and this is the “path down” and the “lack” of fire:

According to Plutarch (I-II centuries)

The doctrine of the soul. The human soul is a combination of fire and moisture. The more fire in the soul, the better it is. The human mind is fire.

Pythagoreanism

Pythagoreanism is a philosophical movement whose founder was Pythagoras. This movement lasted until the end of the ancient world.

Pythagoras(c. 580 - 500 BC) - ancient Greek philosopher.

Philosophical views. He considers ideal essences to be the origin of existence - numbers.

Cosmology. At the center of the world is the earth, everything celestial bodies moving in the Ether around the Earth. Each planet, when moving, produces a monotonous sound of a certain pitch; together these sounds create a melody that can be heard by people with particularly sensitive hearing, for example, like Pythagoras.

Pythagorean Union

The Pythagorean Union was a scientific, philosophical school and political association. It was a closed organization, and its teaching was secret.

Periods of development

Early VI-IV centuries. BC e. – Hippasus, Alcmaeon

Middle IV – I centuries. BC e. – Philolaus

Late 1st – 3rd centuries. BC e. - Numnius

It was only accepted free people, both women and men. But only those who have undergone many years of testing and training (test of long silence). The Pythagoreans had common property. There were numerous lifestyle requirements, food restrictions, etc.

The fate of the teaching. Through Neoplatonism, Pythagoreanism had a certain influence on all subsequent European philosophy based on Platonism. In addition, the Pythagorean mysticism of numbers influenced Kabbalah, natural philosophy and various mystical movements.

Eleatic school

The school received its name from the city of Elea, where its largest representatives mainly lived and worked: Xenophanes, Parmenides, Zeno.

The Eleatics were the first to try to rationally explain the world using philosophical concepts of ultimate generality, such as “being”, “non-being”, “movement”. And they even tried to prove their ideas.

The fate of the teaching. The teaching of the Eleatics had a significant influence on Plato, Aristotle and all subsequent European philosophy.

Xenophanes(c. 565 - 473 BC) - ancient Greek philosopher.

Philosophical views. Xenosphon can be called a spontaneous materialist. He has the first principle of all things Earth. Water is an accomplice of earth in the generation of life; even souls are composed of earth and water.

The doctrine of the gods. Xenophanes was the first to express the idea that it is not the gods who create people, but the people of the gods, in their own image and likeness.

The true God is not like mortals. He is all-seeing, all-hearing, all-knowing.

Parmenides(c. 504, time of death unknown.) - Ancient Greek philosopher.

Philosophical views. BEING AND NOTHINGING This truth can only be known with the help of reason. He proclaims identity of being and thinking .

Zeno of Elea(c. 490 - 430 BC) - ancient Greek philosopher.

Philosophical views. He defended and defended the doctrine of Parmenides about the One, rejected the reality of sensory existence and the multiplicity of things. Developed by aporia(difficulties) proving the impossibility of movement.

Empedocles(c. 490 - 430 BC) - ancient Greek philosopher.

Philosophical views. Empedocles is a spontaneous materialist – a pluralist. He has everything four traditional elements the beginning of the universe. Everything that happens in the world is explained by the action of two forces - Love and Enmity.*

Changes in the world are the result of the eternal struggle of Love and enmity, in which one or the other force wins. These changes occur in four stages.

Origin of the organic world. The organic world arises at the third stage of cosmogenesis and has four stages: 1) individual parts of animals arise; 2) separate parts of animals are randomly combined and both viable organisms and non-viable monsters arise; 3) viable organisms survive; 4) animals and people appear through reproduction.

Epistemology. The main principle is that like is known by like. Since man also consists of four elements, the earth is outside world is known through earth in the human body, water through water, etc.

The main medium of perception is blood, in which all four elements are most evenly mixed.

Empedocles is a proponent of the theory of transmigration of souls.

Anaxagoras(c. 500 - 428 BC) - ancient Greek philosopher.

Philosophical views. The origin of existence is GEOMETRY. Any thing contains geometries of all kinds.

Geometries themselves are passive. As a driving force, A. introduces the concept Nus(World mind), which not only moves the world but also cognizes it.

Epistemology. Everything is known by its opposite: cold by warm, sweet by bitter, etc. Sensations do not give truth, geometries are known only by the mind.

The fate of the teaching. Anaxagoras's teaching about the Mind was developed in the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. The doctrine of geometries remained unclaimed until the 20th century.