Seminar lesson No. 1

Ancient Philosophy

1. Ancient Philosophy

Ancient philosophy, rich and deep in its content, was formed in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. According to the most common concept, ancient philosophy, like the entire culture of antiquity, went through several stages.

First- origin and formation. In the first half of the 6th century. BC e. in the Asia Minor part of Hellas - in Ionia, in the city of Miletus, the first ancient Greek school, called Milesian, was formed. Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes and their students belonged to it.

Second- maturity and flourishing (V-IV centuries BC). This stage in the development of ancient Greek philosophy is associated with the names of such thinkers as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. During the same period, the formation of the school of atomists, the Pythagorean school, and the sophists took place.

Third stage- the decline of Greek philosophy during the era of Hellenism and Latin philosophy during the Roman Republic, and then the decline and end of ancient pagan philosophy. During this period, the most famous currents of Hellenistic philosophy were skepticism, Epicureanism and Stoicism.

Early classics(naturalists, pre-Socratics) The main problems are “Physis” and “Cosmos”, its structure.

Middle classics(Socrates and his school; Sophists). the main problem- the essence of man.

High classics(Plato, Aristotle and their schools). The main problem is the synthesis of philosophical knowledge, its problems and methods, etc.

Hellenism(Epicure, Pyrrho, Stoics, Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, etc.) The main problems are morality and human freedom, knowledge, etc.

Ancient philosophy is characterized by the generality of the rudiments scientific knowledge, observations of natural phenomena, as well as the achievements of scientific thought and culture of the peoples of the ancient East. For this specific historical type philosophical worldview characterized by cosmocentrism. Macrocosmos- this is nature and the main natural elements. Man is a kind of repetition of the surrounding world – microcosm. The highest principle that subordinates all human manifestations is fate.

2. Milesian school:

Search for the origin (foundation) of the world - characteristic ancient, especially early ancient philosophy. The problems of being, non-being, matter and its forms, its main elements, the elements of space, the structure of being, its fluidity and inconsistency worried the representatives of the Milesian school. They are called natural philosophers. Thus, Thales (VII-VI centuries BC) considered water to be the beginning of everything, the primary substance, as a certain element that gives life to everything that exists. Anaximenes considered air to be the basis of the cosmos, Anaximander considered apeiron (an indefinite, eternal, infinite something). The main problem of the Milesians was ontology - the doctrine of the basic forms of being. Representatives of the Milesian school pantheistically identified the natural and the divine.

3. Eleatic school:

The formation of ancient philosophy ends in the school of the Eleatics. Contrasting the problem of multiplicity with the elemental dialectics of Heraclitus, they came up with a number of paradoxes (aporias), which still cause ambiguous attitudes and conclusions among philosophers, mathematicians and physicists. The aporias have come down to us in the presentation of Zeno, which is why they are called the aporia of Zeno (“Moving Bodies”, “Arrow”, “Achilles and the Tortoise”, etc.). According to the Eleatics, the apparent ability of bodies to move in space, i.e. what we see as their movement is actually contrary to multiplicity. This means that it is impossible to get from one point to another, since many other points can be found between them. Any object, moving, must constantly be at some point, and since there are an infinite number of them, it does not move and is at rest. That is why the fleet-footed Achilles cannot catch up with the turtle, and the flying arrow does not fly. Isolating the concept of being, they designate with it a single, eternal, motionless basis of everything that exists. The ideas outlined in the aporia have been refuted many times; their metaphysical nature and absurdity have been proven. At the same time, the attempt to explain movement and change is dialectical in nature. The Eleatics showed their contemporaries that it was important to look for contradictions in the explanation of reality.

4. Atomistic doctrine of Democritus:

The ideas of atomists and supporters of materialist teaching played a major role in the development of ancient philosophy. Leucippus and Democritus ( V – IV centuries BC.). Leucippus argued that the eternal material world consists of indivisible atoms and the void in which these atoms move. The vortices of atomic movement form worlds. It was assumed that matter, space, time cannot be divided indefinitely, because there are the smallest, further indivisible fragments of them - atoms of matter, amers (atoms of space), chrons (atoms of time). These ideas made it possible to partially overcome the crisis caused by Zeno's aporias. Democritus considered the true world to be infinite, objective reality, consisting of atoms and emptiness. Atoms are indivisible, immutable, qualitatively homogeneous and differ from each other only in external, quantitative features: shape, size, order and position. Thanks to perpetual motion, a natural necessity is created for atoms to come closer together, which in turn leads to the appearance of solid bodies. The human soul is also presented in a unique way. Soul atoms have a thin, smooth, round, fiery shape and are more mobile. The naivety of the ideas of the atomists is explained by the underdevelopment of their views. Despite this, the atomistic doctrine had a huge impact on the subsequent development of natural science and the materialist theory of knowledge. A follower of Democritus, Epicurus concretized the teachings of Democritus and, in contrast to him, believed that the senses give absolutely accurate ideas about the properties and characteristics of objects and processes in the surrounding reality.

5. Sophistry:

The second stage in the development of ancient philosophy (middle classics) is associated with the philosophical teaching of the Sophists. (Sophism is a philosophical trend based on the recognition of the ambiguity of concepts, the deliberately false construction of conclusions that formally seem correct, and the snatching of individual aspects of a phenomenon). The Sophists were called wise men, and they called themselves teachers. Their goal was to provide knowledge (and, as a rule, this was done for money) in all possible areas and to develop in students the ability to perform various types of activities. They played a huge role in the development of the technique of philosophical discussion. Their thoughts about the practical significance of philosophy were of practical interest for subsequent generations of thinkers. The sophists were Protagoras, Gorgias, Prodicus, and Hippias. Greek thinkers had a negative attitude towards the sophists. So, “the wisest of the sages” the Athenian Socrates (470-399 BC), Having himself been influenced by the Sophists, he ironized that the Sophists undertake to teach science and wisdom, but they themselves deny the possibility of all knowledge, all wisdom. In contrast, Socrates did not attribute to himself wisdom itself, but only the love of wisdom. Therefore, the word “philosophy” - “love of wisdom” after Socrates became the name of a special area of ​​cognition and worldview. Unfortunately, Socrates did not leave behind written sources, so most of His statements came to us through his students - the historian Xenophon and the philosopher Plato. The philosopher’s desire for self-knowledge, to know himself precisely as a “man in general” through his attitude to objective universally valid truths: good and evil, beauty, goodness, human happiness - contributed to the promotion of the problem of man as a moral being to the center of philosophy. The anthropological turn in philosophy begins with Socrates. Alongside the theme of man in his teaching were problems of life and death, ethics, freedom and responsibility, personality and society.

Ancient philosophy is a set of teachings that developed in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome from the 6th century. BC e. to the 6th century n. e. Typically, ancient philosophy is divided into three periods:

First, the period of natural philosophy (6th century BC) - the problems of the philosophy of nature come to the fore. The first period ends with the emergence of the philosophy of Socrates, which radically changed the nature of ancient philosophy, therefore it is also called the period of the Pre-Socratics.

The second period is the period of classical ancient philosophy (4th – 5th centuries BC), associated with the names of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.

The third period is Hellenistic-Roman philosophy (3rd century BC - 6th century AD), which developed in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, represented by such movements as Epicureanism, skepticism, Stoicism and Neoplatonism.

The main feature of ancient philosophy in the first period was cosmocentrism, based on the traditional Greek ideas about the world as a harmonious unity, reflected in the very concept of “cosmos”. All the efforts of representatives of early ancient philosophy were focused on understanding the causes of the origin of the material world, identifying the source of its harmonious structure, some guiding principle, which was called the first principle (arche).

Answers to the question about the beginning of the world were different. Thus, representatives of the Milesian school of ancient philosophy Thales and his students claimed one of the natural elements as the origin. This position in the history of philosophy is called naive naturalism.

Thales argued that everything comes from water, Anaximenes - from air, Anaximander proposes a version of the ether “apeiron”.

The representative of the city of Ephesus, the great philosopher Heraclitus, who is considered the creator of dialectics - the theory of development, also proposed his own version of the origin - Logos - the fiery origin and at the same time the world order.

The basis of Heraclitus' teaching was the problem of opposites. He discovers that the world consists of struggling opposites and these opposites are correlative (there is no top without bottom, right without left, etc.). Heraclitus uses the image of war to describe the struggle of opposites: “War is universal,” he writes. However, Heraclitus notices not only the struggle, but also the unity of opposites. In his opinion, opposites are the cause of movement, development, and change in the world. He describes the universe as a stream - something eternally becoming, moving, flowing and changing. Heraclitus believed that the struggle of opposites appears as harmony and unity when looking at the world as a whole.

A departure from the ideas of naive naturalism is the philosophy of the famous mathematician and geometer Pythagoras. From his point of view, the first principle of the world is number, as a certain principle of order. Evidence of progress here is that something intangible, abstract is offered as a starting point.

The culmination of the thoughts of the philosophers of the pre-Socratic period should be recognized as the teaching of Parmenides, a representative of the Eleatic school of philosophy. Parmenides is known as the creator of one of the basic concepts of philosophy, the term “Being”. Being is a term that focuses attention on the fact of the existence of objects and phenomena of the world around us. Parmenides reveals the basic properties of being as the origin of the world. It is one, indivisible, infinite and motionless. In this regard, the existence of Parmenides is a set of connections between the phenomena of the world, a certain principle that determines the unity of the world as a whole. Parmenides expresses his understanding of being in the well-known thesis: “Being is, but non-being is not,” meaning by this an expression of the unity of the world. After all, a world without voids (non-existence) is a world where everything is interconnected. It is noteworthy that Parmenides does not distinguish between Being and thinking. For him, “being and the thought of being” are one and the same.

However, the image of Being without voids does not imply movement. Zeno was busy solving this problem. He declared that the movement does not exist and put forward arguments (aporia) in defense of this position that are now striking.

Separately, we should consider the philosophy of the representatives of ancient materialism: Leucippus and Democritus. Very little is known about the life and teachings of Leucippus. His works have not survived, and the glory of the creator of the completed system of atomism is borne by his student Democritus, who completely obscured the figure of the teacher.

Democritus was a representative of ancient materialism. He argued that in the world there are only atoms and the void between them. Atoms (from the Greek “indivisible”) are the smallest particles that make up all bodies. Atoms vary in size and shape (spherical, cubic, hook-shaped, etc.).

The beginning of the classical period of ancient philosophy is associated with a radical change in the subject of philosophical reflection - the so-called anthropological turn. If thinkers of early antiquity were interested in questions of the origin and structure of the universe, then in the classical period there was a turn of interest in the study of problems of man and society. First of all, this applies to the philosophy of the Sophists.

The Sophists are an ancient philosophical school that existed in the 5th–4th centuries. BC. Its most famous representatives, the so-called senior sophists: Protagoras, Gorgias, Hippias. The sophists were known as unsurpassed masters of eloquence. Using clever reasoning, often using errors of logic, they confused their interlocutor and “proved” obviously absurd theses. This kind of reasoning is called sophism.

The sophists also taught those who wished to master the art of public speaking. At the same time, they did not hesitate to charge for their lessons, which caused discontent and reproaches from other thinkers.

The philosophy of the Sophists is based on the principle of relativity. They believed that there are no absolute truths, truths “in themselves.” There are only relative truths. The sophists declared man to be the criterion of these truths. As Protagoras, one of the founders of sophistry, argued: “Man is the measure of all things, those that exist that they exist, and those that do not exist that they do not exist.” This means that it is man who determines what will be considered truth in this moment. Moreover, what is true today may not be true tomorrow, and what is true for me is not necessarily true for another person.

One of the most famous thinkers of antiquity is the Athenian sage Socrates (469 - 399 BC). Socrates did not leave behind any writings and everything that is known about him, we know only in the presentation of his students. Socrates was close to the school of sophists, often using elements of sophistry in his reasoning, although he did not share their philosophical views. In particular, he stated that absolute truths exist, moreover, he believed that they can be found in the mind (soul) of any person.

According to Socrates, knowledge cannot be taught or transmitted, it can only be awakened in the human soul. Socrates called the method of birth of truth from the depths of a person’s soul Maieutics (acoustics). Maieutics was the art of consistent, methodical questioning of a person in such a way that from simple and obvious truths came an understanding of more complex ones.

The basis of Socrates' method of reasoning within the framework of this kind of dialogue was irony. Socrates “suggested” to his interlocutor the correct direction of reasoning, reducing his point of view to absurdity, subjecting it to ridicule, which often led to offense.

Socrates' teaching about truth also had an ethical component. The main problem of ethics, from the point of view of Socrates, is achieving a common point of view regarding universal human truths. Any evil comes from ignorance. In other words, a person does not commit an evil act because wishes to commit evil, but from an incorrect understanding of good. A logical continuation is Socrates’ thesis that any knowledge by definition is good.

Socrates' life ended in tragedy: he was accused of blasphemy by his compatriots and was executed. Socrates left behind many students who later founded their own philosophical schools. The so-called Socratic schools include: the Academy of Plato, the Cynics, the Cyrenaics, and the Megarics.

One of the most famous students of Socrates, the successor of the classical ancient tradition, was Plato (427 - 347 BC). Plato is the creator of a large-scale system of objective idealism. His teaching about the world of ideas became one of the most influential in the history of Western European philosophy. Plato's ideas are expressed in works that take the form of genre scenes and dialogues, the main character of which was his teacher Socrates.

After the death of Socrates, Plato founded his own philosophical school in the suburbs of Athens (named after the local hero Akademos). The basis of his philosophical views is the doctrine of ideas. Ideas (Greek “eidos”) are objectively existing formations, unchanging and eternal, constituting an ideal or model for everything in our world. Ideas are immaterial, they are knowable only with the help of reason and exist independently of man. They are in a special world - the world of ideas, where they form a special kind of hierarchy, at the top of which is the idea of ​​good. The world of things, that is, the world in which man lives, was created, according to Plato, by imposing ideas on formless matter. This explains the fact that groups of things in our world correspond to ideas from the world of ideas. For example, to many people - the idea of ​​a person.

Ideas about the world of ideas underlie Plato's epistemology and social philosophy. Thus, the process of cognition, according to Plato, is nothing more than the recollection of ideas from the world of ideas.

Plato believed that the human soul is immortal and, during its rebirths, contemplates the world of ideas. Therefore, every person, if the method of questioning is applied to him, can remember the ideas that he saw.

The structure of the world of ideas determines the structure of the state. Plato creates a project of the ideal government system in the work "The State". It, according to Plato, should contain three classes: philosophers, guards and artisans. Philosophers must govern the state, guards must ensure public order and protection from external threats, and artisans must produce material goods. IN ideal state Plato envisioned the destruction of the institutions of marriage, family and private property (for representatives of the guardian and philosopher classes).

Another greatest philosopher of antiquity was Plato's student Aristotle (384 - 322 BC). After Plato's death, Aristotle left the academy and founded his own school of philosophy, the Lyceum. Aristotle acted as a systematizer of all ancient knowledge. He was more of a scientist than a philosopher. the main task Aristotle's goal was to get rid of mythologizing and unclear concepts. He divided all knowledge into First Philosophy (philosophy proper) and Second Philosophy (specific sciences). The subject of first philosophy is pure, unalloyed being, which is Plato’s ideas. However, unlike Plato, Aristotle believed that ideas exist in individual things, constitute their essence, and not in a separate world of ideas. And they can be known only by knowing individual things, and not by remembering.

Aristotle identifies four types of causes on the basis of which the movement and development of the world occurs:

- material cause (the presence of matter itself)

- a formal cause is what a thing turns into

- driving cause - source of movement or transformation

- target cause - the final goal of all transformations

Aristotle considers every thing from the point of view of matter and form. Moreover, each thing can act as both matter and form (a block of copper is the matter for a copper ball and the form of copper particles). A kind of staircase is formed, at the top of which is latest form, and below is the first matter. The form of forms is god or the prime mover of the world.

The Hellenistic period was a period of crisis in Greek society, the collapse of the polis, and the capture of Greece by Alexander the Great. However, since the Macedonians did not have a highly developed culture, they completely borrowed the Greek one, that is, they became Hellenized. Moreover, they spread examples of Greek culture throughout the Empire of Alexander the Great, which stretched from the Balkans all the way to the Indus and Ganges. At the same time, the development of Roman culture began, which also borrowed a lot from the Greeks.

At this time, a search is being made for ways of spiritual renewal. Not a single fundamentally new concept has been created. A powerful trend was Neoplatonism, which developed the ideas of Plato. An influential movement of the time was Epicureanism, named after its founder Epicurus. Epicurus what is the rule public life there should be an expression “Live unnoticed” (as opposed to the social activism of classical antiquity). Epicurus declared pleasure to be the goal of human life. He divided pleasures into three groups: 1. Useful and not harmful 2. Useless and not harmful 3. Useless and harmful. Accordingly, he taught to limit the second and avoid the third.

Cynicism - influential philosophical doctrine, whose founder was Antisthenes, but whose spiritual leader was Diogenes of Sinope. The meaning of Diogenes' formulations was to reject and expose the great illusions that motivated human behavior:

1) pursuit of pleasure; 2) fascination with wealth; 3) passionate desire for power; 4) thirst for fame, brilliance and success - all that leads to misfortune. Abstinence from these illusions, apathy and self-sufficiency are the conditions for maturity and wisdom, and ultimately happiness.

Another influential movement was Skepticism, founded in the 4th century. BC e. Pyrrho. Skeptics believed that no human judgment could be true. Therefore, it is necessary to refrain from judgment and achieve complete equanimity (ataraxia).

The Stoics offer a different position. This is the philosophy of duty, the philosophy of fate. He founded this philosophical school in the 6th century. BC e. Zeno. Its prominent representatives are Seneca, Nero’s teacher, and Emperor Marcus Aurelius. The positions of this philosophy are opposite to Epicurus: trust fate, fate leads the obedient, but drags the rebellious.

The result of the reflections of the philosophy of the Hellenistic period is the awareness of the collapse of Greek culture, based on rational thinking.

Ancient philosophy(VI century BC - V century AD). - The emergence and development of philosophy in ancient Greece and Rome are inextricably linked with the development of the slave system, which replaced the primitive communal system. The basis of all life in the ancient world was slave labor. “Without slavery there would have been no Greek state, no Greek art and science...” The collapse of the clan system in ancient Greece was accompanied by the emergence of cities, the development of crafts and trade. The growth of production, the division of labor between agriculture and industry, which became possible only under slavery, colonization and the development of trade relations with other peoples - all this led to the flourishing of ancient Greek culture. Under the influence of the development of production, trade, navigation, as well as social political life Interest in exploring nature is growing.

The old religious-mythological worldview is increasingly giving way to the desire to penetrate into the essence of objective reality and the laws of its development. Ancient Greek philosophy grew out of this soil. It acted as an undivided, comprehensive science, as a science of sciences, which, due to the underdevelopment of scientific thinking, included all areas of knowledge. The history of ancient Greek philosophy is the history of the struggle of original, naive materialism against various idealistic teachings, this is the struggle of the materialistic line of Democritus and the idealistic line of Plato. This struggle was based on the contrast between the worldviews of slave-owning democracy and reactionary aristocracy.

Three periods can be identified in the development of ancient philosophy. First period - VI century. BC e. This is the philosophy of the period of formation of the slave society. The original, naive materialism, which was at the same time a spontaneous-dialectical view of the world, is presented at this stage (q.v.) and (q.v.). The philosophers of the Milesian school - Thales (q.v.), Anaximenes, Anaximander - proceeded from the recognition of a single, ever-moving material principle.

For Thales it is water, for Anaximenes it is air, for Anaximander it is infinite indefinite matter - “apeiron”. Heraclitus also considered the beginning of all things to be the material element - fire, from which all forms of reality arise through the struggle of opposites. He taught about the universal fluidity of things; he reduced the essence of the world process to the natural transformations of eternal matter. The dialectic of Heraclitus was one of the highest levels achieved by ancient Greek philosophy. Materialistic schools - Milesian and Ephesian - fought with the idealistic and anti-dialectical views of the Pythagorean and Eleatic schools. Representatives of the Pythagorean school (founder - Pythagoras) developed the mystical doctrine of number as the essence of all things and the doctrine of “harmony” in nature and in society, excluding the struggle of opposites. The Eleans (Xenophanes, Parmenides, Zeno, Melissus) contrasted the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe variability and diversity of nature with the doctrine of motionless and unchanging being. The Eleans, with their metaphysical thesis about motionless existence, excluding the diversity of phenomena and the variability of nature, opened the door to idealism.

Second period - V century. BC e. This is the philosophy of the heyday of ancient Greek slave democracy. At this stage, the subject of philosophy expanded and deepened. Questions of the structure of matter, the theory of knowledge, and problems of social life came to the fore. The question of the structure of matter became the focus of attention of all three materialistic schools of the 5th century. BC e., associated with the names Anaxagoras, (q.v.) and (q.v.). Anaxagoras took as the basis of existence material particles - “seeds of things” (“homeomerism”), from the combination of which bodies qualitatively similar to them are formed.

To explain movement, Anaxagoras introduces an external force - “nus” (world mind), which he understands as the subtlest and lightest substance. Empedocles taught about the four “roots” of all things (fire, air, water and earth), driven by two material forces - “love” and “hate”. In the atomistic teaching of Democritus, ancient materialism reaches the highest point of its development. Democritus was "the first encyclopedic mind among the Greeks"), the most outstanding representative of a single undivided science ancient world. According to Democritus, the basis of existing things is based on two principles: atoms and emptiness. Atoms, that is, indivisible particles of matter, are eternal and unchanging. The creation and destruction of infinite worlds and all natural things is the result of the combination of atoms moving in the void.

Democritus's doctrine of atoms was mechanistic. For (q.v.), the first professional teachers of “wisdom” and eloquence, the center of philosophical research is man and his relationship to the world. The main group of sophists, in their socio-political views, belonged to the slave-owning democracy, and in their philosophical views, to the materialist camp. Another group of sophists is characterized by reactionary, anti-democratic views. Most bright representative Sophists, materialist Protagoras declares man “the measure of all things”, and sensations. - the only source of knowledge. In contrast to the materialistic teachings of Democritus, the philosophy of Democritus (see) is emerging - the head of the idealistic camp of ancient philosophy, the ideologist of aristocratic reaction. Plato's immediate predecessor was (see), a representative of an idealistic, religious-ethical worldview.

The basis of Plato’s philosophy is the opposition of his invented world of eternal and unchanging ideas to the changeable, imperfect, according to his view, world of things, which is only a shadow of the world of ideas. Fighting against the achievements of ancient science, Plato teaches about the creation of the world by a divine creator, about immortality and the transmigration of souls, and reduces knowledge to the soul’s recollection of the world of ideas that it contemplated before entering the body. Plato's socio-political views, like his philosophical views, were reactionary. The struggle between the materialistic philosophy of Democritus and the idealistic philosophy of Plato is the central point of the entire history of ancient Greek philosophy. Already in this struggle to the fullest The progressive significance of materialism in the history of science and the reactionary role of idealism were reflected. The struggle between the philosophical views of Democritus and Plato was an expression of the political struggle between slave-owning democracy and the aristocracy.

The results of the achievements of ancient Greek philosophy and natural science are summed up by the “encyclopedic science of Aristotle.” (see) made a refutation of Plato's theory of ideas. In resolving the fundamental question of philosophy, Aristotle wavered between materialism and idealism. He considered matter as inert and inert, and the driving and creative principle was recognized as immaterial form. Aristotle played a significant role in the development of dialectics and logic. He explored forms of thinking. The third period is the philosophy of the period of crisis and decline of slave society. During this Hellenistic period, from philosophy, which acted as a comprehensive, undivided science, positive sciences began to branch off, special sciences that developed methods for the precise study of nature. The materialist line of ancient philosophy was continued during this period (q.v.) by his school.

Epicurus - a materialist, atheist and educator - revives the atomistic teaching of Democritus and defends it from the attacks of mystics and theologians. Epicurus introduces a number of modifications to this teaching. Main in them- concept spontaneous (due to internal reasons) deviation of atoms from a straight line, due to which their collision becomes possible. Epicurus considered the goal of philosophy to be human happiness, to achieve which one must free oneself from religious prejudices and acquire knowledge of the laws of nature. Follower and popularizer of the teachings of Epicurus in ancient Rome was (see) (1st century BC). Starting from the III-II centuries. to i. e. As a result of the general crisis and decomposition of the slave system, philosophy declines. Various schools of the Hellenistic and Roman eras (academics, stoics, skeptics, etc.) express a clear degradation of philosophical thought towards idealism and mysticism.

Representatives of the ideology of imperialism resort to falsification of ancient philosophy to combat modern materialism and science. Reactionaries are especially hated by materialist teachings. Democritus, Epicurus and other ancient materialists are declared immoral and not worthy of the name of philosophers. At the same time, attempts are being made to revive Plato’s reactionary teaching about ideas and the “ideal” state, and to adapt this teaching for the propaganda of religious mysticism and the politics of the exploiting classes.

The classics of Marxism-Leninism highly appreciated the representatives of ancient Greek materialism and dialectics. Engels pointed out that the ancient Greek philosophers were “born elemental dialecticians” (“Anti-Dühring,” 20) and viewed nature without idealistic blinders. Lenin, in his summary of Hegel’s Lectures on the History of Philosophy, denounces all attempts by the idealist Hegel to belittle the importance of the materialist ideas of Democritus and Epicurus. In his work "" (see), Lenin contrasts the line of Democritus and the line of Plato in philosophy as exponents of materialism and idealism. J.V. Stalin in his work “On Dialectical and Historical Materialism” notes the importance of ancient Greek dialectics.

Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine

Department of Philosophy

TEST

Course: "Philosophy"

1. Ancient philosophy

2. Cosmocentrism

3. Philosophy of Heraclitus

4. Philosophy of Zeno of Elea

5. Pythagorean Union

6. Atomistic philosophy

7. Sophists

9. Plato's teachings

10. Philosophy of Aristotle

11. Pyrrho's skepticism

12. Philosophy of Epicurus

13. Philosophy of Stoicism

14. Neoplatonism

Conclusion

5th century BC e. in the life of ancient Greece is full of many philosophical discoveries. In addition to the teachings of the sages - the Milesians, Heraclitus and the Eleatics, Pythagoreanism gained sufficient fame. We know about Pythagoras himself, the founder of the Pythagorean Union, from later sources. Plato mentions his name only once, Aristotle twice. Most Greek authors call the island of Samos, which he was forced to leave due to the tyranny of Polycrates, the birthplace of Pythagoras (580-500 BC). On the advice of allegedly Thales, Pythagoras went to Egypt, where he studied with the priests, then as a prisoner (in 525 BC, Egypt was captured by the Persians) he ended up in Babylonia, where he studied with Indian sages. After 34 years of study, Pythagoras returned to Great Hellas, to the city of Croton, where he founded the Pythagorean Union - a scientific, philosophical and ethical-political community of like-minded people. The Pythagorean Union is a closed organization, and its teaching is secret. The way of life of the Pythagoreans was fully consistent with the hierarchy of values: in the first place - the beautiful and decent (which included science), in the second - the profitable and useful, in the third - the pleasant. The Pythagoreans got up before sunrise, did mnemonic (related to the development and strengthening of memory) exercises, then went to the seashore to watch the sunrise. We thought about the upcoming affairs and worked. At the end of the day, after bathing, everyone ate dinner together and made libations to the gods, followed by a general reading. Before going to bed, each Pythagorean gave a report on what he had done during the day.

Philosophy of the ancient world ( a brief description of the most important philosophical doctrines)

Ancient philosophy includes Greek and Roman philosophy. It existed from the 12th-11th century BC to the 5th-6th century AD. it arose in states with a democratic foundation, which differed from the ancient eastern ones in the way of philosophizing. Even at the very beginning, Greek philosophy was closely intertwined with mythology, with figurative language and love images. Almost immediately, this philosophy began to consider the relationship between these love images and the world in principle.

The ancient Greeks imagined the world as one large accumulation of different processes, both natural and social. The most important questions that worried the first philosophers of antiquity were: how to live in this world? Who controls it? How to connect your own capabilities with the supreme forces?

There are several stages in the development of ancient philosophy:

• 1. Ancient pre-philosophy. Period from 8th to 7th century BC. The main philosophers of this period were: Homer Hesiod, Orpheus, Pherecydes and an organization called the “seven wise men”.
• 2. Pre-Socratic stage. Period from 7th to 5th century BC. The very first philosophy began to emerge in Asia Minor, where the founder was Heraclitus, then in Italy - Pythagoras, the Eleatic school and Empedocles; and subsequently in Greece - Anaxagoras. The main theme of the philosophers of this period was to find out how the world works, how it originated and came to be. They were mainly explorers, mathematicians and astronomers. They all looked for how the world began and why the death of various natural things occurs. Different philosophers have found the primary origins of everything on earth in different ways.
• 3. Classic stage. Period from 5th to 4th century BC. In this period, the Pre-Socratics changed to Sophists. These are teachers of virtue, their main goal is close attention to the life of a person and the whole society. Life success they believed that those who knew could acquire smart people. The most important knowledge, in their opinion, was rhetoric, because every person should be fluent in words and the art of persuasion. They began the transition from studying natural events to studying and understanding the inner world of man. The most important famous philosopher of that time was Socrates and his teaching. He believed that the most important thing is good, and devoted a lot of time to studying it, because evil comes from people who do not know how to use goods and goodness. Socrates saw the solution to all problems in self-awareness and improvement of the inner world, in the need to take care of the soul. The body remained in second place. After Socrates, his place was taken by his student - Plato, who was the teacher of Aristotle. All these philosophies of various philosophers boiled down to one thing: you need to study the soul.
• 4. Hellenistic stage. The period is from the end of the 4th century to the 1st century BC. The main teaching of this period was practical life wisdom. The main concept begins to be ethics, which is focused on inner world an individual, not the whole world. It was necessary to develop a concept for achieving permanent happiness.

Stage of ancient philosophy. The period from the 1st century BC to the 5th-6th century AD. Rome took a decisive role in the world, and Greece came under its influence. The most important school in this period of time was the Platonic school. For this period there was a dependence in the study of mysticism, astrology, magic, various religious teachings. The main doctrine was the Neoplatonic system. The details of this system included communication with God, mythology and religion. In ancient philosophy, materialism and idealism are clearly expressed. Thanks to them, there was a further influence on the philosophical concept. Generally speaking, philosophy is a struggle between materialism and idealism. Thinking in Greek and Roman philosophy helps more to understand the essence of philosophy.

philosophical Eleatic antique