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Ancient (from Latin antiquitas - antiquity, antiquity) philosophy of the ancient Greeks and Romans originated at the end of the 7th century. BC. and lasted until the beginning of the VI century. AD, when Emperor Justian in 529 closed the last Greek philosophical school - the Platonic Academy. Traditionally, Thales is considered the first ancient philosopher, and Boethius the last. Ancient philosophy was formed under the influence and influence of the pre-philosophical Greek tradition, which can be conditionally considered as an early stage of ancient philosophy itself, as well as the views of the sages of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and ancient Eastern countries. Ancient Greek philosophy (teachings, schools) was created by Greek philosophers who lived on the territory of modern Greece, as well as in Greek policies (trade and craft city-states) of Asia Minor, the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and Crimea, in the Hellenistic states of Asia and Africa, in the Roman Empire . Ancient philosophy arose in the first half of the VI BC. e. in the Asia Minor part of the then Hellas - in Ionia, in the city of Miletus. Ancient philosophy is a single and unique, but not an isolated phenomenon in the development of the philosophical consciousness of mankind. It developed on the basis of the rudiments of astronomical, mathematical and other knowledge transferred from the East to the Greek cities, as a result of the processing of ancient mythology in art and poetry, as well as the liberation of philosophical thought from the captivity of mythological ideas about the world and man. (Often the philosophy of Ancient Rome or directly identified with ancient Greek, or united with it under the general name "ancient philosophy").

Ancient philosophy lived for about 1200 years and in its development has four main stages or periods:

I. VII-V centuries. BC. - pre-Socratic period (Heraclitus, Democritus, etc.),

II. 2nd floor V - the end of the IV centuries. BC. -- classical period (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, etc.);

III. End of IV-II centuries. BC. - Hellenistic period (Epicurus and others),

IV. 1st century BC. -- 6th century AD - Roman philosophy.

I. The activities of the so-called "pre-Socratic" philosophers belong to the pre-Socratic period:
1. Milesian school - "physicists" (Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes);
2. Heraclitus of Ephesus;
3. Eleatic school;
4. atomists (Democritus, Leucippe).

Presocratics is a conventional concept introduced in the 20th century. It covers the philosophers and philosophical schools that preceded Socrates. These include philosophers of the Ionian school, Pythagoreans, Eleatics, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, atomists and sophists.
The Ionian (or Milesian, according to the place of origin) school is the oldest school of natural philosophy. It was founded by Thales and included Anaximander, Anaximenes and Heraclitus.
The main issue of the school was the definition of the beginning from which the world arose. Each of the philosophers defined one of the elements as this beginning. Heraclitus said that everything is born from fire by rarefaction and condensation, and burns out after certain periods. Fire symbolizes the struggle of opposites in space and its constant movement. Heraclitus also introduced the concept of the Logos (Word) - the principle of reasonable unity, which orders the world from opposite principles. The Logos governs the world, and the world can only be known through it. Anaxagoras, a student of Anaximenes, introduced the concept of Nus (Mind), organizing the cosmos from a mixture of disorderly elements. The main problems dealt with by the "pre-Socratics" were: the explanation of the phenomena of nature, the essence of the Cosmos, the surrounding world, the search for the origin of everything that exists. The method of philosophizing is the declaration of one's own views, turning them into dogma.

II. The classical (Socratic) period - the heyday of ancient Greek philosophy (which coincided with the heyday of the ancient Greek polis.
This stage includes:
1. philosophical and educational activities of the sophists;
2. philosophy of Socrates;
3. the emergence of "Socratic" schools;
4. philosophy of Plato;
5. philosophy of Aristotle.

The philosophers of the Socratic (classical) period also tried to explain the essence of nature and the Cosmos, but they did it deeper than the “pre-Socratics”:

1. Plato - the author of the doctrine of "pure ideas" that precede the real world and the embodiment of which was the real world;
2. showed interest in the problem of a person, society, states;
3. conducted practical philosophical and educational activities (sophists and Socrates).

The historical significance of Aristotle's philosophy is that he:
1. made significant adjustments to a number of provisions of Plato's philosophy, criticizing the doctrine of "pure ideas";
2. gave a materialistic interpretation of the origin of the world and man;
3. identified 10 philosophical categories;
4. gave a definition of being through categories;
5. determined the essence of matter;
6. singled out six types of state and gave the concept of an ideal type - polity;
7. made a significant contribution to the development of logic (gave the concept of deductive
method - from the particular to the general, substantiated the system of syllogisms - the conclusion from two or more premises of the conclusion).

III. For the Hellenistic period (the period of the crisis of the policy and the formation of large states in Asia and Africa under the rule of the Greeks and led by the associates of Alexander the Great and their descendants), it is characteristic:
1. the spread of the anti-social philosophy of the Cynics;
2. the emergence of the Stoic direction of philosophy;
3. the activity of "Socratic" philosophical schools: Plato's Academy, Aristotle's Lyceum, the Cyrenian school (Cyrenaicists), etc.;
4. the philosophy of Epicurus, etc.

Distinctive features of Hellenistic philosophy:
1. the crisis of ancient moral and philosophical values;
2. reduction of fear of the gods and other supernatural forces of respect for them;
3. denial of former authorities, disregard for the state and its institutions;
4. search for physical and spiritual support in oneself; the desire to renounce reality; the predominance of a materialistic view of the world (Epicurus); recognition as the highest good - the happiness and pleasure of an individual person (physical - Cyrenaic, moral - Epicurus).

Thus, Stoicism, Cynicism, Epicureanism - the philosophical schools of the Hellenistic period (4th century BC - beginning of the 1st century) - arose during the crisis of ancient democracy and polis values. The predominance of moral and ethical issues in the works of the Cynics, Epicurus, the Roman Stoics Seneca and Marcus Aurelius testifies to the search for new goals and regulators of human life in this historical period.

IV. The most famous philosophers of the Roman period were:
1. Seneca;
2. Marcus Aurelius (Emperor of Rome in 161 - 180);
3. Titus Lucretius Car;
4. late Stoics;
5. early Christians.

The philosophy of the Roman period was characterized by:
1. the mutual influence of ancient Greek and ancient Roman philosophies (ancient Greek philosophy developed within the framework of Roman statehood and experienced its influence, while ancient Roman philosophy grew on the ideas and traditions of ancient Greek);
2. the actual merging of ancient Greek and ancient Roman philosophies into one - ancient philosophy;
3. increased attention to the problems of man, society and the state;
4. the flowering of aesthetics (philosophy, the subject of which was the thoughts and behavior of a person);
5. the flourishing of stoic philosophy, whose supporters saw the highest good and the meaning of life in the maximum spiritual development of the individual, learning, withdrawal into oneself, serenity (ataraxia, that is, equanimity);
6. the predominance of idealism over materialism;
7. more and more frequent explanation of the phenomena of the surrounding world by the will of the gods;
8. increased attention to the problem of death and the afterlife;
9. the growth of influence on the philosophy of the ideas of Christianity and early Christian heresies;
10. gradual merging of ancient and Christian philosophies, their transformation into medieval theological philosophy.

It should be noted that the Stoic school, founded by Zeno at the end of the 4th century. BC, existed during the Roman Empire. The main idea of Stoicism is obedience to fate and the fatality of all things. Zeno said this about the Stoic: "To live consistently, i.e. in accordance with a single and harmonious rule of life, for those who live inconsistently are unhappy." The philosophy of skepticism also received its continuation - it is the philosophy of peace, serenity of the soul, refraining from any judgments. A skeptic, speaking about things and events, does not evaluate them, he simply reproduces the facts.

CONCLUSIONS: temporary problems and peculiarities in general.

In fact, the concept of "philosophy" in the periods under review was synonymous with emerging science and theoretical thought in general, cumulative, not divided for the time being into special sections of knowledge, both concrete and generalized. By changing the main problems, the following periods can be distinguished:

1. Natur-philosophical (the main problem is the problem of the structure of the world, the problem of the beginning). Neighborhood-rivalry of several schools;
2. Humanistic (change of problems from nature to man and society). Sophist School, Socrates;
3. Classical (period of great synthesis). The creation of the first philosophical systems is the whole range of philosophical problems. Plato, Aristotle;
4. Hellenistic (the center moves from Greece to Rome). Compete different philosophical schools. The problem of happiness. Schools of Epicurus, skeptics, Stoics;
5. Religious (development of Neoplatonism). The problem of religion is added to the sphere of philosophical problems;
6. The birth of Christian thought, monotheistic religion.

In general, ancient Greek (ancient) philosophy has the following features:
1. The core idea of ancient Greek philosophy was cosmocentrism (fear and worship of the Cosmos, showing interest primarily in the problems of the origin of the material world, explaining the phenomena of the surrounding world);
2. at the later stages - a mixture of cosmocentrism and anthropocentrism (which was based on human problems);
3. two directions were laid in philosophy - idealistic ("Plato's line") and materialistic ("Democritus' line"), and these directions alternately dominated: in the pre-Socratic period - materialistic, in classical - had the same influence, in Hellenistic - materialistic, in Roman - idealistic.

Thus, ancient philosophy arose and developed during the birth and formation of a slave-owning society, when it was divided into classes and a social group of people engaged only in mental labor was isolated. This philosophy owes its appearance to the development of natural science, especially mathematics and astronomy. True, at that distant time, natural science had not yet emerged as an independent field of human knowledge. All knowledge about the world and man was united in philosophy. It is no coincidence that the most ancient philosophy is also called the science of sciences.

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The philosophy of Ancient Greece is a bright period in the history of this science and is the most fascinating and mysterious. That is why this period was called the golden age of civilization. Ancient philosophy played the role of a special philosophical trend that existed and developed from the end of the 7th century BC to the 6th century AD.

It is worth noting that we owe the birth of ancient Greek philosophy to the great thinkers of Greece. In their time, they were not so famous, but in the modern world, we have heard about each of them since the days of school. It was the ancient Greek philosophers who brought their new knowledge into the world, forcing them to take a fresh look at human existence.

Famous and world philosophers of Ancient Greece

When talking about ancient Greek philosophy, Socrates comes to mind, one of the first thinkers who used philosophy as a way of knowing the truth. His main principle was that in order to know the world, a person needs to truly know himself true. In other words, he was sure that with the help of self-knowledge, anyone can achieve real bliss in life. The doctrine said that the human mind pushes people to good deeds, because the thinker will never do bad deeds. Socrates presented his own teaching orally, and his students wrote down his knowledge in their compositions. And because of this, we will be able to read his words in our time.

The “Socratic” way of conducting disputes made it clear that the truth is known only in a dispute. After all, it is with the help of leading questions that one can force both opponents to admit their defeat, and then notice the justice of the words of their opponent. Socrates also believed that a person who does not deal with political affairs has no right to condemn the active work of politics.

The philosopher Plato introduced the first classical form of objective idealism into his teaching. Such ideas, among which was the highest (the idea of the good), were eternal and unchanging models of things, everything. Things, in turn, played the role of reflecting ideas. These thoughts can be found in the writings of Plato, such as "Feast", "State", "Phaedrus" and others. Conducting dialogues with his students, Plato often spoke about beauty. Answering the question “What is beautiful”, the philosopher gave a description of the very essence of beauty. As a result, Plato came to the conclusion that a peculiar idea plays the role of everything beautiful. A person can know this only at the time of inspiration.

The first philosophers of ancient Greece

Aristotle, who was a student of Plato and a pupil of Alexander the Great, also belongs to the philosophers of Ancient Greece. It was he who became the founder of scientific philosophy, teaching about the possibilities and implementation of human abilities, matter and the form of thoughts and ideas. He was mainly interested in people, politics, art, ethnic views. Unlike his teacher, Aristotle saw beauty not in the general idea, but in the objective quality of things. For him, true beauty was magnitude, symmetry, proportions, order, in other words, mathematical quantities. Therefore, Aristotle believed that in order to achieve the beautiful, a person must study mathematics.

Speaking of mathematics, one cannot but recall Pythagoras, who created the multiplication table and his own theorem with his name. This philosopher was sure that the truth lies in the study of whole numbers and proportions. Even the doctrine of the “harmony of the spheres” was developed, in which it was indicated that the whole world is a separate cosmos. Pythagoras and his students asked questions of musical acoustics, which were solved by the ratio of tones. As a result, it was concluded that beauty is a harmonious figure.

Another philosopher who looked for beauty in science was Democritus. He discovered the existence of atoms and devoted his life to finding the answer to the question "What is beauty?". The thinker argued that the true purpose of human existence is his desire for bliss and complacency. He believed that you should not strive for any pleasure, and you need to know only that which keeps beauty in itself. Defining beauty, Democritus pointed out that beauty has its own measure. If you cross it, then even the most real pleasure will turn into torment.

Heraclitus saw beauty impregnated with dialectics. The thinker saw harmony not as a static balance, like Pythagoras, but as a constantly moving state. Heraclitus argued that beauty is possible only with contradiction, which is the creator of harmony and the condition for the existence of all that is beautiful. It was in the struggle between agreement and dispute that Heraclitus saw examples of the true harmony of beauty.

Hippocrates is a philosopher whose writings have become famous in the fields of medicine and ethics. It was he who became the founder of scientific medicine, wrote essays on the integrity of the human body. He taught his students an individual approach to a sick person, to keep a history of diseases, and medical ethics. The students learned from the thinker to pay attention to the high moral character of doctors. It was Hippocrates who became the author of the famous oath that everyone who becomes a doctor takes: do no harm to the patient.

Periodization of ancient Greek philosophy

As ancient Greek philosophers succeeded each other and became representatives of new teachings, in each century scientists find striking differences in the study of science. That is why the periodization of the development of the philosophy of ancient Greece is usually divided into four main stages:

pre-Socratic philosophy (4-5 centuries BC);
classical stage (5-6 centuries BC);
Hellenic stage (6th century BC-2nd century AD);
Roman philosophy (6th century BC-6th century AD).

The pre-Socratic period is the time that was designated in the 20th century. During this period, there were philosophical schools that were led by philosophers before Socrates. One of them was the thinker Heraclitus.

The classical period is a conventional concept that denoted the flowering of philosophy in ancient Greece. It was at this time that the teachings of Socrates, the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle appeared.

The Hellenic period is the time when Alexander the Great formed states in Asia and Africa. It is characterized by the birth of the Stoic philosophical direction, the working activity of the schools of the students of Socrates, the philosophy of the thinker Epicurus.

The Roman period is the time when such famous philosophers as Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Tut Lucretius Carus appeared.

Philosophy in ancient Greece appeared and improved during the period of the emergence of a slave-owning society. Then such people were divided into groups of slaves who were engaged in physical labor, and into a society of people who were engaged in mental labor. Philosophy would not have appeared if the development of natural science, mathematics and astronomy had not taken place in a timely manner. In ancient times, no one singled out natural science as a separate area for human knowledge. Every knowledge about the world or about people was included in philosophy. Therefore, ancient Greek philosophy was called the science of sciences.

Greek philosophy in the 7th - 6th centuries BC and was, in essence, the first attempt at rational comprehension of the surrounding world.

In the development of the philosophy of ancient Greece, there are four main stages:

VII-V centuries BC - pre-Socratic philosophy;

V-IV centuries BC - classical stage (Outstanding philosophers of the classical stage: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. In public life, this stage is characterized as the highest rise of Athenian democracy);

IV-II centuries BC - Hellenistic stage. (The decline of the Greek cities and the establishment of the dominance of Macedonia);

1st century BC - V, VI centuries AD - Roman philosophy.

Natural philosophy. Thales (c. 625-547 BC) is considered the founder of ancient Greek philosophy, and Anaximander (c. 610-546 BC) and Anaximenes (c. 585-525 BC) were his successors. AD). The Milesian philosophers were spontaneous materialists.

Thales considered water to be the beginning of everything, which is in constant motion, the transformations of which create all things, ultimately turning back into water. There was no place for gods in this cycle of states of eternal water. He represented the earth as a flat disk floating on the original water. Thales was also considered the founder of ancient Greek mathematics, astronomy and a number of other natural sciences. He is also credited with a number of specific scientific calculations. He knew how to predict solar eclipses and could give a physical explanation of this process. During his stay in Egypt, Thales first measured the height of the pyramids by measuring their shadow at the time of day when the length of the shadow is equal to the height of the objects casting it.

Anaximander, following the path of further generalization of experience, came to the conclusion that the primary matter is apeiron: indefinite, eternal and boundless matter, which is in constant motion. From it, in the process of movement, its inherent opposites stand out - warm and cold, wet and dry. Their interaction leads to the birth and death of all things and phenomena that, of necessity, arise from the apeiron and return to it. Anaximander is considered the compiler of the first geographical map and the first scheme of the firmament for orientation by the stars, he represented the earth in the form of a rotating cylinder floating in the air.

Anaximenes believed that the beginning of everything is air, which, discharging or condensing, gives rise to the whole variety of things. Everything arises and returns to the ever-moving air, including the gods, who, like all other things, are certain states of the air.

Pythagoras (c.580-500 BC) from the island of Samos. After the establishment of tyranny on the island of Samos, Pythagoras emigrated to southern Italy to the city of Croton, where in the second half of the 6th century. BC. founded from representatives of the local aristocracy a reactionary religious and political union, known as the "Pythagorean". According to the philosophy of the Pythagoreans, not quality, but quantity, not substance, but form determines the essence of things. Everything can be counted and thus the quantitative features and laws of nature can be established. The world consists of quantitative, always unchanging opposites: finite and infinite, even and odd. Their combination is carried out in harmony, which is characteristic of the world.

In the struggle against the idealistic philosophy of Pythagoras, the materialistic philosophy of the Milesian school was improved. At the end of the VI-beginning of the V century. BC. Heraclitus of Ephesus (ca. 530-470 BC) acted as a spontaneous dialectical materialist. In his writings, they found the completion of the search for Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes.

By origin and political convictions, Heraclitus was a supporter of the aristocracy. He sharply collapsed on the "mob". With the victory of slave-owning democracy in his homeland, Heraclitus's pessimistic attitude towards the reality surrounding him is connected. Speaking against the victorious democracy, he wanted to show its transient character. However, in his philosophical constructions, he went far beyond this goal. According to Heraclitus, the highest law of nature is the eternal process of movement and change. the element from which everything arises is fire, representing either a regularly ignited, or a regularly extinguished process of combustion.

Everything in nature consists of opposites in the struggle born from fire, passing into each other and returning to fire. Heraclitus was the first to come to the idea of the dialectical development of the material world as a necessary regularity inherent in matter. Heraclitus expressed the natural necessity with the Greek word "logos", in the philosophical sense denoting "law". We know the saying attributed to Heraclitus: "Panta rey" - everything flows, everything changes, which briefly formulates the essence of his philosophy.

The dialectical unity of opposites is formulated as a constantly emerging harmony of mutually complementary and struggling opposites. The process of self-development of fire was not created by any of the gods or people, it was, is and always will be. Heraclitus ridiculed the religious and mythological worldview of his compatriots.

The philosopher Xenophanes (c. 580-490 BC) and his disciples began to fight against the materialistic dialectics of Heraclitus. Expelled from his native Asia Minor city of Colophon (near Ephesus), Xenophanes settled in Italy, where he led the life of a wandering raspod singer. In his songs, he spoke out against the anthropomorphic polytheism of Hellenic religion. Xenophanes argued that there was no reason to attribute human appearance to the gods and that if bulls and horses could create images of the gods, they would present them in their own image.

Empedocles (c. 483-423 BC from the Sicilian city of Akraganta put forward the position that everything consists of qualitatively different and quantitatively divisible elements or, as he calls them, "roots". These "roots" are: fire, air, water and earth.

His contemporary Anaxogoras(500-428 BC) from Klazomen, who lived in Athens for a long time and was a friend of Pericles, believed that all existing bodies consist of the smallest particles similar to them. Thus Empedocles, and Anaxagoras in particular, tried to study the structure of matter.

Highest Development mechanistic materialism in the classical period reached in the teachings of Leucippus (c. 500-440 BC) from Miletus and Democritus (460-370 BC) from Adbera. Both philosophers were of their time. Leucippus laid the foundations of the atomistic theory, which was later successfully developed by Democritus. According to this theory, everything consists of emptiness and moving atoms, infinitely small, indivisible material particles, different in shape and size. The earth was presented to Democritus as a flat disk, rushing in the air, around which the luminaries revolve. All organic and psychic life is explained by him as purely material processes.

The atomistic materialism of Leucippus and Democritus had an enormous and fruitful influence on the scientific and philosophical thought of subsequent times.

Anthroposophy.

The complication of social relations in connection with the rapid development of slavery and the social stratification of the free forced a significant part of philosophers, starting from the middle of the 5th century. BC, pay attention to the study of human activities. The accumulation of diverse knowledge, on the other hand, required their systematization. Sophist philosophers took up these issues closely (the so-called wandering teachers who taught eloquence and other sciences for a fee).

Their appearance was largely associated with the political development of democratic policies, so that citizens should have mastered the art of oratory. The most famous among the sophists was Protagoras (c. 480-411 BC) from Abdera. He put forward a position about the relativity of all phenomena and perceptions and their inevitable subjectivity. The doubt expressed by him in the existence of the gods was the reason for the condemnation of Protagoras in Athens for godlessness and led the sophist to death. Fleeing from Athens, he drowned in a shipwreck.

The Sophists did not represent any single direction in Greek philosophical thought. Their philosophical constructions were characterized by the denial of the obligatory in knowledge. If the sophists came to the conclusion that it was impossible to give a positive answer to the question they posed about the criterion of truth, then their contemporary, the ideologist of the Athenian oligarchic and aristocratic circles, the idealist philosopher Socrates (471-399 BC) considered this possible and even believed that he had found the criterion of truth. He taught that the truth is known in the dispute. The "Socratic" method of conducting a dispute is known, in which the sage, with the help of leading questions, imperceptibly inspires the arguing with his idea. To establish general concepts, Socrates proceeded from the study of a number of special cases. The goal of a person, according to Socrates, should be virtue, which must be realized.

Socrates taught orally. His philosophy has come down to us in the presentation of his students, mainly Xenophon and Plato.

Philosophy in the period of Hellenism partially changed the content and its main goals. These changes were due to socio-economic and political processes in the developing Hellenistic society. They were also caused by the very fact of separation from philosophy of a number of special sciences. Philosophers of the Hellenistic period turned their main attention to solving the problems of ethics and morality, the problems of the behavior of an individual in the world.

The two old authoritative schools of Plato and Aristotle were gradually losing their face and authority. In parallel with the decline of the old philosophical schools of classical Greece during the Hellenistic period, two new philosophical systems arose and developed - the Stoics and the Epicureans. The founder of Stoic philosophy was a native of the island of Capra, Zeno (c. 336-264 BC). Stoicism was to a certain extent a synthesis of Greek and Eastern views. Creating his philosophy, Zeno in particular used the teachings of Heraclitus, Aristotle, the teachings of the Cynics and Babylonian religious and philosophical ideas. Stoicism was not only the most widespread, but also the most enduring Hellenistic school of thought.

It was an idealistic teaching. The Stoics called everything the body, including thought, word, fire. The soul, according to the Stoics, was a special kind of light body - warm breath. Philosophical schools that arose and developed during the Hellenistic period are characterized by the recognition of their human dignity and even the possibility of them having the highest moral qualities and wisdom. 5th century BC. was a time of further development of Greek science and philosophy, which still remained closely connected. During this period of the further development of ancient society and the state, which took place in the conditions of a fierce class and political struggle, political theories and journalism also arose.

In the 5th century BC. materialistic philosophy in ancient Greece developed exceptionally fruitfully. The most prominent philosopher of the classical phase of the philosophy of Ancient Greece was Plato (427-347 BC). Plato was a representative of the Athenian slave-owning aristocracy. At the age of 20, chance crosses the paths of the lives of Plato and Socrates. So Socrates becomes Aristotle's teacher. After Socrates was convicted, Plato leaves Athens and moves to Megara for a short time, after which he returns to his native city and takes an active part in his political life. Plato creates the academy for the first time.

Information about 35 philosophical works of Plato has reached our time, most of which were presented in the form of a dialogue. He considered ideas to be the pinnacle and foundation of everything. The material world is only a derivative, a shadow of the world of ideas. Only ideas can be eternal. Ideas are true being, and real things are apparent being. Above all other ideas, Plato put the idea of beauty and goodness. Plato recognizes movement, dialectics, which is the result of the conflict of being and non-being, i.e. ideas and matter. Sensual knowledge, the subject of which is the material world, appears in Plato as secondary, insignificant. True knowledge is knowledge penetrating into the world of ideas - rational knowledge. The soul remembers the ideas with which it has met and which it has known at a time when it has not yet united with the body, the soul is immortal.

Another prominent scientist of this period - Aristotle (384-322 BC). He left behind 150 works, which were later systematized and divided into 4 main groups:

1) Ontology (the science of being) "Metaphysics"

2) Works on general philosophy, problems of nature and natural sciences. "Physics", "About the sky", "Meteorology"

3) Political, aesthetic treatises. "Politics", "Rhetoric", "Poetics"

4) Works on logic and methodology. "Organon"

Aristotle considers the first matter to be the basis of all being. It forms a potential prerequisite for existence. And although it is the basis of being, it cannot be identified with being or considered its main part. This is followed by earth, air and fire, which represent an intermediate step between the first matter and the world that we perceive by the senses. All real things are a combination of matter and images or forms, therefore: real being is the unity of matter and form. According to Aristotle, movement is a transition from the possible to reality, i.e. movement is universal. The basis of every phenomenon is a certain cause. Aristotle also touched upon the topics of logic, contradiction, cosmology, issues of society and the state, morality, etc., and also highly valued art.

The two old authoritative schools of Plato and Aristotle were gradually losing their face and authority. In parallel with the decline of the old old philosophical schools of classical Greece during the Hellenistic period, two new philosophical systems arose and developed - the Stoics and the Epicureans. The founder of Stoic philosophy was a native of the island of Capra, Zeno (c. 336-264 BC). Stoicism was to a certain extent a synthesis of Greek and Eastern views. Creating his philosophy, Zeno in particular used the teachings of Heraclitus, Aristotle, the teachings of the Cynics and Babylonian religious and philosophical ideas. Stoicism was not only the most widespread, but also the most enduring Hellenistic school of thought.

For most ancient Greek philosophers, a dualistic opposition of two principles is characteristic: being and non-being by Parmenides, atoms and emptiness by Democritus, ideas and concepts by Plato, form and matter by Aristotle. Ultimately, this is a dualism of the one, indivisible, unchanging on the one hand and infinitely divisible, multiple, changeable - on the other. It was with the help of these two principles that the Greek philosophers tried to explain the existence of the world and man.

In the absence of methods for experimental testing of hypotheses, the number of hypotheses that arose was large. These hypotheses were spontaneously materialistic and naive-dialectical.

And the second important point: the ancient Greek thinkers, both materialists and idealists, with all their differences among themselves, were, so to speak, cosmists. Their gaze was directed primarily to unraveling the mysteries of nature, the cosmos as a whole, which they for the most part - with the exception of the atomists - thought as living. Cosmocentrism for a long time set the main line of consideration of human problems in philosophy - from the angle of its inextricable connection with nature.

It was in connection with the discovery of incommensurable quantities that the concept of infinity entered Greek mathematics. In their search for a common unit of measurement for all quantities, the Greek geometers might have considered infinitely divisible quantities, but the idea of infinity led them into deep confusion. Even if the reasoning about the infinite was successful, the Greeks in their mathematical theories always tried to bypass and exclude it. Their difficulty in explicitly expressing the abstract concepts of the infinite and the continuous, as opposed to the concepts of the finite and the discrete, was clearly manifested in the paradoxes of Zeno of Elea.

Zeno's arguments were "aporia" (dead ends); they were supposed to demonstrate that both assumptions lead to a dead end. These paradoxes are known as Achilles, the Arrow, the Dichotomy (halving) and the Stadium. They are formulated in such a way as to emphasize contradictions in the concepts of motion and time, but this is not at all an attempt to resolve such contradictions.

The aporia "Achilles and the tortoise" opposes the idea of the infinite divisibility of space and time. Swift-footed Achilles competes in running with a tortoise and nobly gives her a head start. As long as he runs the distance separating him from the point of departure of the turtle, the latter will crawl further; the distance between Achilles and the tortoise has shortened, but the tortoise retains the advantage. While Achilles has run the distance separating him from the tortoise, the tortoise will again crawl a little further, and so on. If space is infinitely divisible, Achilles will never be able to catch up with the tortoise. This paradox is built on the difficulty of summing up an infinite number of increasingly small quantities and the impossibility of intuitively imagining that this sum equals a finite value.

This moment becomes even more obvious in the aporia "Dichotomy": before going through a certain segment, a moving body must first go through half of this segment, then half of the half, and so on ad infinitum. Zeno mentally builds a series 1/2 + (1/2)2 + (1/2)3 + ..., the sum of which is equal to 1, but he fails to intuitively comprehend the content of this concept. Modern ideas about the limit and convergence of the series allow us to assert that, starting from a certain moment, the distance between Achilles and the tortoise will become less than any given number, chosen arbitrarily small.

The Arrow paradox is based on the assumption that space and time are made up of indivisible elements, say "points" and "moments". At a certain "moment" of its flight, the arrow is at a certain "point" in space in a stationary state. Since this is true at every moment of its flight, the arrow cannot be in motion at all.

Here the question of instantaneous speed is raised. What value should be given to the ratio x / t of the distance traveled x to the time interval t when the value of t becomes very small? Unable to conceive of a minimum other than zero, the ancients gave it the value of zero. Now, with the help of the concept of a limit, the correct answer is immediately found: the instantaneous speed is the limit of the ratio x / t as t tends to zero

Thus, all these paradoxes are connected with the concept of the limit; it became the central concept of infinitesimal calculus.

Zeno's paradoxes are known to us thanks to Aristotle, who brought them in his "Physics" to criticize. He distinguishes between infinity with respect to addition and infinity with respect to division, and establishes that the continuum is infinitely divisible. Time is also infinitely divisible, and an infinitely divisible distance can be covered in a finite interval of time. The Arrow paradox, which "is a consequence of the assumption that time is made up of moments," becomes absurd if one accepts that time is infinitely divisible.

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Topic: Philosophy of Ancient Greece

Introduction

The philosophy of Ancient Greece occupies a special place in the history of philosophical thought in terms of the diversity of currents, schools and teachings, ideas and creative personalities, the richness of styles and language, and the influence on the subsequent development of the philosophical culture of mankind. Its origin was made possible thanks to the presence of urban democracy and intellectual freedom, the separation of mental from physical labor. In ancient Greek philosophy, distinctly formed two main types philosophical thinking and worldbuilding ( idealism and materialism), the subject field of philosophy was realized, the most important areas of philosophical knowledge were revealed. That was heyday ancient philosophical thought, a stormy surge of intellectual energy of his time.

Greek philosophy began to take shape in the 6th-5th centuries BC. It is customary to single out several important periods in its development. The first- this is the formation, or birth, of ancient Greek philosophy. Nature was in the foreground at that time, therefore this period is sometimes called nuturphilosophical, contemplative. It was an early philosophy, where man was not yet singled out as a separate object of study. Second period - the heyday of ancient Greek philosophy (V - IV centuries BC). At this time, philosophy began to turn from the theme of nature to the theme of man and society. That was classical philosophy, within which original samples of ancient philosophical culture were formed. Third period(III century BC-IV century AD) - this is the decline and even the decline of ancient Greek philosophy, which was caused by the conquest of Greece by Ancient Rome. Epistemological and ethnic, and eventually religious issues in the form of early Christianity came to the fore here.

1. The formation of the philosophy of ancient Greece

Formation period. The first elements of philosophical thinking appeared already in the works of ancient Greek historians - Homer, Herodotus, Hesioid and Thucydides. They raised and comprehended questions about the origin of the world and its development, about man and his fate, the development of society in time.

The very first philosophical school of ancient Greece is considered to be Miletskout. In which the name of the sage most often sounded Thales who is generally recognized as the first ancient Greek philosopher. In the first place was the question of finding harmony in this world. It was nuturphilosophy or philosophy of nature.

Thales proceeded from the assumption that everything that exists in the world arose from water.`Everything from water and everything into water`, this was the basis of the thesis of the philosopher. Water in the philosophical concept of Thales is, as it were, fundamental principle. Thales was also known as a geographer, astronomer, and mathematician.

Among the gentle philosophers was also Anaximander, student and follower of Thales, author of philosophical prose. He raised and resolved questions about the foundation of the world. Apeiron appeared as something infinite and eternal. He does not know old age, is immortal and indestructible, always active and in motion. Apeiron distinguishes from itself opposites - wet and dry, cold and warm. Their combinations result in earth (dry and cold), water (wet and cold), air (wet and hot) and fire (dry and hot). He believed that life originated on the border of sea and land from silt under the influence of heavenly fire .

A follower of Anaximander was the third known representative of the Milesian school - Anaximenes, philosopher, astronomer and metrologist. He considered the beginning of all things air. When rarefied, the air first becomes fire and then ether, and when it condenses, it becomes wind, clouds and water, earth and stone. According to Anaximenes, the human soul also consists of air.

Within the framework of early Greek philosophy, a prominent role was played by the school associated with the name Heraclitus from Ephesus. He connected everything that exists with fire, which was regarded as the most changeable of all the elements of the world - water, earth and others. The world was, is and always will be a living fire. For the Greek philosopher, fire is not only a source, but also a symbol dynamism and the incompleteness of everything. Fire is a reasonable moral force.

The human soul is also fiery, the dry (fiery) soul is the wisest and best. Heraclitus also put forward the idea Logos. In his understanding, logos is a kind of objective and indestructible law of the universe. To be wise means to live according to the Logos.

Heraclitus laid out the basics in the simplest form dialectics as the doctrine of the development of all things. He believed that everything in this world is interconnected, and this makes the world harmonious. Secondly, everything in the universe is contradictory. The collision and struggle of these principles is the main law of the universe. Thirdly, everything is changeable, even the sun shines in a new way every day. The surrounding world is a river that cannot be entered twice. The Logos reveals its secrets only to those who know how to reflect on it.

Pythagoras founded his own philosophical school. He raised the question of the numerical structure of the universe. Pythagoras taught that the basis of the world is the number: `Number owns things`. The Pythagoreans assigned a special role to one, two, three and four. The sum of these numbers gives the number `ten`, which philosophers considered ideal.

At school Eleatics (Xenophanes, Parmenides, Zeno) attention was drawn to the problem of being and its movement. Parmenides argued that being `still lies within the fetters of the greatest`. For Parmenides, being is not a vice, but is frozen ice, something complete.

The idea of the immobility of the world was also expressed by Xenophanes. In his opinion, God resides in the Cosmos surrounding man. The God-cosmos is one, eternal and unchanging.

Zeno of Elea defended the thesis of the unity and immutability of all things. In their aporias he tried to justify the lack of movement.

Early Greek philosophy was also represented by the work Empledocles and Anaxagoras. The first of them put forward the position of the four styles of all things - fire, air, earth and water. He considered the driving forces of the world Love and enmity that connect or separate these elements. The world is uncreatable and indestructible, all things are constantly changing places. Anaxagoras considered certain things to be the basis of all things. homemeria that determine the unity and diversity of the world. The world is driven by someone nous- mind as a source of unity harmony.

Creativity occupied a significant place in early Greek philosophy. atomists (Leucippus, Democritus).

Democritus believed that single things are perishable and disintegrate. The man himself, according to Democritus, occurred naturally, without the participation of the Creator.

Democritus was, according to K. Marx, the first encyclopedic mind among the Greeks. It is not without reason that he is considered to be the ancestor of materialism in the history of philosophy. Philosophy more and more took on the characteristics of a system rational knowledge, supplemented wisdom as an understanding of the life experience of people.

2. The heyday of ancient Greek philosophy

Bloom period. The heyday of ancient Greek philosophy was associated with its turn from the natural world to the world to the theme of man and society. This reorientation could only take place in a democracy where free citizens recognized themselves as sovereign individuals. The transition from nuturphilosophy to anthropology and social philosophy became possible due to the socio-economic and spiritual prerequisites in society. This period is usually associated with school sophists, the first ancient Greek teachers of wisdom ( Protagoras, Gorgias, Antiphon and etc.). They made a great contribution to the development of rhetoric, eristics and logic. Protagoras was a teacher of rhetoric and eristics. He taught that matter is the basis of the world, which is in a changeable state. Protagoras believed that there is nothing stable, including in human knowledge. Therefore, about any thing, two opposite opinions are possible, both claiming to be true. Doesn't it happen that the same wind blows, and someone freezes at the same time, someone does not? And someone not too much, but someone strongly ?. Pythagoras formulated his famous thesis:` Man is the measure of all things`.

Protagoras was also known for his atheistic views. For these judgments, Protagoras was accused of godlessness and fled from Athens.

Unlike Protagoras, Gorgias believed that in knowledge everything is false. He taught that nothing exists, and if it exists, it is incomprehensible. According to this philosopher, it is impossible to prove that being and non-being exist simultaneously. Gorgias touched upon the complex logical problems associated with the knowledge of the world by man. According to Gorgias, speech is able to drive away fear and mourn, to cause positive mental states of people.

Antiphon in the knowledge of man went further than other sophists. He believed that a person should take care of himself first of all, although not forgetting the laws of the outside world. `... The prescriptions of laws are arbitrary, but the dictates of nature are necessary`, the philosopher emphasized. Antiphon set his slaves free, and he himself entered into marriage with his former slave, for which he was declared insane and deprived of civil rights.

Sophists were engaged in logic and mathematics, astronomy, music and poetry. However, they were criticized for relativism and verbal contrivances.

Socrates believed that the main task of his philosophy was to help a person in his knowing oneself. Socrates' method of human research can be called subjective dialectics. The logical art was useful to him in his life, because for independent and atheistic views he was accused of corrupting the youth and appeared before the court, where he needed eloquence for his own defense. Socrates believed that with all the diversity of opinions, the truth is still the only and it is comprehended with the help of reflections.

According to Socrates, to know is to have concept about anything. Self-knowledge is a requirement of the mind, because without it it is impossible self-determination person in this world. With the help of knowledge you can gain restraint, courage, justice. Without the presence of these virtues, it is impossible for a person to fulfill his social and state functions. Socrates considered the main guarantee of achieving true knowledge to be the presence in a person conscience like an 'inner voice'.

Good begins with the idea and knowledge of it. Only knowledge of the essence of courage makes a person courageous. Evil is always the result of ignorance of good.

He highly appreciated the role of agricultural labor in the history of mankind, which, in his opinion, does not destroy people and does not destroy the communal system of life.

The creativity of Socrates lies in the fact that he actively contributed to the transfer of attention of philosophy from the theme of nature to the theme of man. Socrates is rightfully considered one of the "great three" of ancient Greek philosophers, along with Plato and Aristotle. The Russian philosopher N.A. Berdyaev noted that Greek philosophy laid the foundation for European humanism.

After Socrates, there was a school in ancient Greece cynics(Antisthenes, Diogenes). Its representatives considered the basis of human happiness to be the rejection of sensual pleasures, wealth and fame, and the goal of life was to achieve independence. The most notable figure was Diogenes of Sinop. Diogenes, by his personal example (according to legend, he lived in a barrel and walked in rags) demonstrated ascetic Lifestyle. For him, his own way of life was philosophy in action which carried a protest against lies and hypocrisy.

Personality occupies a special place in ancient Greek philosophy. Plato founder of the Academy. He is considered the ancestor objective idealism, whose supporters consider the existence of a certain spiritual principle to be real, which gave rise to this material world from itself.

“Initially, there is a soul, and not fire and not air ... the soul is primary,” the thinker believed. The world in which people exist, according to Plato, is just a pale shadow from a certain world of ideas. Only the world of ideas is something immutable, motionless. It - authentic world, "peace of the eternal". What does he represent?

World of ideas- this is a kind of "heavenly region" that the entity occupies. This world is out of space, it is eternal. An idea is, as it were, a prototype of material things, and things are just an imprint of ideas. For example, the idea of a house corresponds to a real house, the idea of a person corresponds to a real living being. All these items are compound ideas from passive "matter" as a kind of "building material". Here is an idea demirug(creator) of material things.

The world of ideas has its own hierarchy, a kind of pyramid. Supreme among all is the idea of good, in contrast to the idea of evil. Good source of truth. It is the highest virtue. But matter also plays an important role. The world cannot do without her. Developing the original thesis, Plato came to the conclusion about the existence of a certain world soul, the source of all life.

Plato emphasized that the sense organs give us information only about the untrue world. Knowledge is true and reliable reasonable. It is nothing but memory the human soul about the ideas that it met before entering the body. The highest part of the soul is the mind. Souls are immortal, and the human body is their temporary home.

In history, Plato is well known for his socio-political teachings. According to him, there should be three social groups in the state. The first is the wise rulers-philosophers. The second is formed by courageous wars. And the third is farmers and artisans. In his opinion, such a state will be strong, since everyone in it will do his own thing.

Plato had a negative attitude towards democracy. He believed that it represents freedom in its "undiluted form." According to the thinker, the ideal type of state is an aristocratic republic. The able will rule there.

He was the progenitor philosophical idealism. In the works of Plato, ancient Greek idealism appears as outlook, on the basis of which a "single stream of idealism" is subsequently formed.

The pinnacle in the development of ancient Greek philosophy was creativity Aristotle, student and critic of Plato. This very gifted thinker proved himself in logic and aesthetics, in political theory and natural science. Aristotle is "the most versatile head of all the ancient Greeks."

"Being exists, but there is no non-being" - this is the basic law of the thinker. He considered the basis of life first matter. The intermediate step between matter and things are: fire, air, water and earth. According to Aristotle. the real world is a unity of matter and form. The form of all forms is God as a kind of "prime mover". Aristotle criticized his teacher Plato for dividing existence into two realities - the world of ideas and the world of things. Thus, the objects were deprived of their internal source, being lifeless.

Criticizing Plato, Aristotle tried to combine the material and the spiritual. Aristotle Unlike Plato, he restored the rights of things, as it were. According to Aristotle, the development of the world is a chain of transformations of possibility into reality.

The Greek philosopher singled out such categories as "essence", "quantity" and "quality", "time", "place" and others. Aristotle is considered to be the founder logic- sciences about ways, forms, and laws of thinking. Logic is a tool for seeking knowledge about the world.

He tried to explore economic relations in the society of that time. He was a supporter of private property. From animals, man differs primarily in that he has a mind, the ability to think and cognize. Along with this, a person has speech, science and will, which makes him able to know, communicate and make choices. Aristotle advocated the thesis of naturalness slavery. In his view, slaves are barbarians, differing from masters in their adaptability to physical labor.

Forms of government, Aristotle divided into "wrong" and "correct". He believed that the condition for the existence of the state citizen as a full participant in all state affairs.

Aristotle is also known as the founder biology. He owns the definition of life: "... every nutrition, growth and decline of the body, having its foundation in itself." Planet Earth Aristotle considered the center of the universe, and the final and eternal source of all forms of life and movement on it - God.

The multifaceted work of Aristotle completes the classical period in ancient Greek philosophy. The era has come Hellenism associated with the conquest of Greece, the gradual crisis of the foundations of the slave society.

sunset period ancient Greek philosophy coincided with the decline of free political and spiritual life in the cities. Interest in philosophizing has declined significantly. Early Christianity emerged. The most important philosophical currents at that time were epicureanism, stoicism and skepticism.

Eipkur is the largest figure in the philosophy of the Greco-Roman period. He contradicted Democritus in everything.

In his doctrine of nature, Epicurus believed that nothing arises from nothing and does not turn into nothing. The world has always been the way it is now.

The difference between the philosophy of Epicurus and Democritus is that the first introduced the principle deviations atoms as they move through the void. In Democritus, everything is initially rigidly set and does not imply its change. It is not surprising that this philosopher became one of the most revered for the German thinker and revolutionary Karl Marx, who sincerely dreamed of freeing all of humanity from the state of unfreedom.

According to him, it is impossible for the fear of impending death to drown out the craving for well-being in a person. Pleasure is the beginning and end of a happy life. Epicurus was a supporter hedonism , and in this regard, his work can be defined as a "philosophy of happiness." The philosopher has always emphasized that one cannot live happily without living reasonable, moral and fair.

Stoicism("philosophy of salvation") expressed feelings of the world's insecurity and uncertainty. The ideal for the Stoics was a man who obeys fate and the will of the gods.

Everything in this world is governed by necessity and law. Having a beginning in time, the world must have its end.

The main thing in human behavior should be peace, equanimity and patience. In the view of the Stoics, a sage is one who does not desire happiness and does not show any active energy. Obviously, Stoicism is the exact opposite of Epicureanism. If the latter is characterized by installation on optimism and activism then the Stoics are supporters pessimism and apathy.

Skepticism (Pyrrho etc.) as a course of the Hellenistic era rejected the possibility of a person obtaining reliable knowledge about the world around him. Therefore, one should not call things either beautiful or ugly, one should not evaluate people's actions as fair or not fair.

By the 1st century BC. appeared electicism- a mechanical combination of heterogeneous teachings and ideas based on various systems of classical and Hellenistic philosophy. Mythological, religious and mystical motifs sounded in philosophy, reflecting the great social catastrophe.

Conclusion

Ancient Greek philosophy has become one of the brightest pages in the history of world philosophical thought in terms of its ideological content, diversity of schools, types of thinking and ideas. Here the philosophy really stands on its own. In fact, Greek philosophy was a worldview liberating personality, which distinguished itself from the Cosmos and realized its independence and value. Russian researcher of culture A.F. Losev noted that ancient philosophy is "an integral face, ... a single, living and integral historical structure."

Bibliography

1. Chanyshev A.N. Course of lectures on ancient philosophy. M.: Higher school. 1981

2. History of philosophy. Edited by G.F. Alexandrova, B.E. Bykhovsky, M.B. Mitina, P.F. Yudin. M.: Infra-M, 1999

3. Philosophy of ancient and feudal society. Textbook. M.: Avanta, 1998

4. Sokolov V.V. History of ancient and medieval foreign philosophy

5. Anthology of world philosophy. M. 1997

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