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 decisive role V 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 moves away from the spectacle of ruin and poverty in the real world in order 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.

Subsequently, the ideas of ancient philosophy formed the basis of medieval philosophy and are considered the main sources of the development of European social thought.

In ancient philosophy, there are 4 main periods: Natural philosophical (pre-classical) stage (7-5 ​​centuries BC, Classical stage (5-4 centuries BC), Hellenistic-Roman stage (4 centuries BC .C. - 3rd century AD), the final stage (3-6th centuries AD).

Pre-classical ancient philosophy arose in the ancient Greek city-states (polises): Miletus, Ephesus, Elea, etc. It is a collection of philosophical schools named after the corresponding policies. Natural philosophers (translated as philosophers of nature) considered the problems of the universe in the unity of nature, gods and man; Moreover, the nature of the cosmos determined the nature of man. The main question before classical philosophy there was a question about the fundamental principle of the world.

Early natural philosophers highlighted the problem of cosmic harmony, to which harmony must correspond human life(cosmological approach).

U late natural philosophers the contemplative approach is combined with the use of logical argumentation, and a system of categories emerges.

Natural philosophers include:

Classical stage (5th-4th centuries BC)

The heyday of ancient philosophy. At this stage, the center of philosophical thought was Athens, which is why it is also called Athenian. Main features of the classical stage:

• systematized teachings (original philosophical systems) appear;
• switching the attention of philosophers from the “nature of things” to questions of ethics, morality, problems of society and human thinking;

Most famous philosophers of the classical period are the ancient Greek thinkers Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, as well as the sophistic philosophers.

Sophists (in translation from Greek - “sages, experts”) - a group of ancient Greek enlighteners from the mid-5th to first half. 4th centuries BC. They can be called professional philosophers, since the sophists taught logic, oratory and other disciplines to those who wanted them for a fee. They attached particular importance to the ability to convince and prove any position (even incorrect ones).

Features of the philosophy of the Sophists:

• a turn from natural philosophical problems to man, society and everyday problems;
• denial of old norms and experiences of the past, critical attitude towards religion;
• recognition of man as the “measure of all things”: free and independent of nature;

The Sophists did not create a single philosophical doctrine, but they aroused interest in critical thinking and human personality.

The senior sophists include (2nd half of the 5th century BC): Gorgias, Protagoras, Hippias, Prodicus, Antiphon, Critias.

The younger sophists include: Lycophron, Alcidamont, Thrasymachus.

Socrates (469-399 BC) - considered the founder of classical philosophy. Like the Sophists, he made man and his inner world, however, he considered their teaching sterile and superficial. He questioned the existence of gods and put reason, truth and knowledge at the forefront.

The main ideas of Socrates:

• Self-knowledge is both the search for knowledge and virtue.
• Admitting your ignorance encourages you to expand your knowledge.
• There is a higher Mind, spread throughout the Universe, and the human mind is only an insignificant part of it.

The essence of Socrates' life was his conversations with his students and discussions with his opponents. He believed that the way to comprehend the truth was maieutics (a method he invented, in Greek means midwifery) - the search for truth through dialogue, irony and collective reflection. Socrates is also credited with the invention of the inductive method, leading from the particular to the general.

Since the philosopher preferred to present his teachings orally, its main provisions have come to us in the retellings of Aristophanes, Xenophon and Plato.

Plato (Athenian) real name - Aristocles (427-347 BC). Student and follower of Socrates, preached all his life moral meaning his ideas. He founded his own school, called the Academy, in the suburbs of Athens, and laid the foundation for an idealistic trend in philosophy.

The basis of Plato’s teachings is made up of three concepts: “one” (the basis of all being and reality), mind and soul. Main question his philosophy is the relationship between being and thinking, material and ideal.

According to Plato's idealistic theory, the world is divided into 2 categories:

• world of becoming- a real, material world in which everything is changeable and imperfect. Material objects are secondary and are only a semblance of their ideal images;
• world of ideas, or “eidos” - sensory images that are primary and comprehended by the mind. Each object, thing or phenomenon carries its own idea. The highest idea is the idea of ​​God, the creator of the world order (demiurge).

As part of his philosophy, Plato also developed the doctrine of virtue and created the theory of the ideal state.

Plato presented his ideas mainly in the genre of letters and dialogues (the main character of which is Socrates). His works include 34 dialogues in total. The most famous of them: “The Republic”, “Sophist”, “Parmenides”, “Theaetetus”.

Plato's ideas had a huge influence both on subsequent philosophical schools of antiquity and on thinkers of the Middle Ages and Modern times.

Aristotle (384 – 322 BC). Aristotle was a student of Plato and spent twenty years at his Academy. After the death of Plato, he served as tutor to Alexander the Great for eight years, and in 335-334. BC. founded his own educational institution in the vicinity of Athens, the Lyceum, where he taught together with his followers. He created his own philosophical system based on logic and metaphysics.

Aristotle developed the basic principles of Plato's philosophy, but at the same time criticized many of its aspects. Let’s say he believed that it is not the contemplation of abstract “ideas” that leads to the highest truth, but the observation and study of the real world.

Basic principles of Aristotle's philosophy:

• at the basis of any thing are: matter and form (the material essence and idea of ​​the thing);
• philosophy is the universal science of being, it provides justification for all sciences;
• the basis of science is sensory perception (opinion), but true knowledge can only be achieved with the help of reason;
• the search for the first or final cause is crucial;
• the main reason for life is soul- the essence of being of any thing. There are: lower (vegetative), middle (animal) and higher (reasonable, human) soul, which gives meaning and purpose to human life.

Aristotle rethought and generalized the philosophical knowledge of all previous ancient thinkers. He was the first to systematize the existing sciences, dividing them into three groups: theoretical (physics, mathematics, philosophy), practical (among which one of the main ones was politics) and poetic, regulating the production of various objects). He also developed the theoretical foundations of ethics, aesthetics, social philosophy and basic structure philosophical knowledge. Aristotle is the author of the geocentric system in cosmology, which existed until the heliocentric system of Copernicus.

Aristotle's teaching was the highest achievement of ancient philosophy and completed its classical stage.

Hellenistic-Roman stage (4th century BC – 3rd century AD)

This period takes its name from the Greek state of Hellas, but also includes the philosophy of Roman society. At this time, in ancient philosophy there was a refusal to create fundamental philosophical systems and a transition to problems of ethics, meaning and values ​​of human life.

Final stage (3rd-6th centuries AD)

Period from 3rd to 6th centuries AD includes the philosophy of not only the Greek, but also the Roman world. At this stage, there was a crisis in Roman society, which was reflected in social thought. Interest in rational thinking faded, the popularity of various mystical teachings and the influence of Christianity grew.

The most influential teaching of this period was Neoplatonism, most well-known representative which was Plotinus (205-270 AD).

Representatives of Neoplatonism interpreted Plato's teachings and criticized all subsequent movements. The main ideas of Neoplatonism were:

• Everything lower flows from the Higher. The highest is God, or some kind of philosophical principle. The Supreme cannot be comprehended by reason, only through mystical ecstasy.
• The essence of knowledge is the knowledge of the divine principle, which embodies the authenticity of being.
• Good is spirituality, liberation from the body, asceticism.

Useful sources

1. "Philosophy. Course of lectures” / B.N. Bessonov. – M.-LLC “AST Publishing House”, 2002
2. "Philosophy. Short course» / Moiseeva N.A., Sorokovikova V.I – St. Petersburg-Petersburg, 2004
3. “Philosophy: a textbook for universities” / V.F. Titov, I.N. Smirnov - M. graduate School, 2003
4. "Philosophy: a textbook for higher education students educational institutions» / Yu.M. Khrustalev - M.: Publishing Center "Academy", 2008.
5. “Philosophy: a textbook for higher educational institutions” / executive editor, Ph.D. V.P. Kokhanovsky - Rostov n/a: “Phoenix”, 1998

Ancient philosophy: stages of development, representatives and features updated: October 30, 2017 by: Scientific Articles.Ru

Features of ancient philosophy

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

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

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

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

The main stages in the development of ancient philosophy

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

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

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

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

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

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

References:

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

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

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 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 regulation public life, with another.

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. A 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 psychologists, 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 was expected and 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 middle of the 7th to the middle of the 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 values, 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 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 years. 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 influences. 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 features6

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.

BRYANSK 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Introduction

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

The main stages in the development of ancient philosophy.

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

Philosophers of "physics".

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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