Representatives of the pre-Socratic schools, in particular, the Milesians, are rightfully considered the pioneers of ancient Greek philosophy; their teachings went down in history and are best known as a component of Ionian philosophical science. For the first time such a term was introduced by Diogenes Laertius, a historian of the late period of antiquity, and the most prominent representative of the trend, Thales, as well as all his students and followers, was ranked among the Ionians.

The first philosophical school of Ancient Greece

The very philosophical school began to be called Milesian after the name of the city of the same name - Miletus. In ancient times, it was the largest Greek settlement on the western coast of Asia Minor. The Milesian school had a wide range of activities, the importance of which can hardly be overestimated. The accumulated knowledge gave a significant impetus to the development of most types of European sciences, including had a tremendous impact on the formation of mathematics, biology, physics, astronomy and other natural science disciplines. It was the Milesians who created and introduced the first special scientific terminology.

Earlier, abstract-symbolic concepts and ideas, for example, about cosmogony and theology, were superficially present in a distorted form in mythology and had the status of a transmitted tradition. Thanks to the activities of representatives of the Milesian school, many areas of physics and astronomy began to be studied and no longer of cultural and mythological, but of scientific and practical interest.

The fundamental principle of their philosophical worldview was the theory that nothing in the outside world can arise from nothing. Based on this, the Milesians believed that the world and the majority of things and phenomena have a single divine principle, infinite in space and time, which is also the dominant source of the life of the cosmos and of its very existence.

Another feature of the Milesian school is the consideration of the whole world as a whole. Living and nonliving, as well as physical and mental, had an extremely insignificant separation for its representatives. All objects around people were considered animate, the only difference was that some were inherent in to a greater extent, and others less.

The decline of the Milesian school came at the end of the 5th century BC, when Miletus lost its political significance and ceased to be an independent city. This happened thanks to the Achaemenid Persians, who put an end to the development of philosophical thought in these parts. Despite this, in other areas, the Milesians remained followers of their ideas, the most famous were Hippon and Diogenes of Apollonia. The Milesian school not only created a geocentric model, but also had a tremendous influence on the formation and development of the materialist one, although the Milesians themselves are not accepted to be considered materialists.

Features of the philosophy of ancient Greece

The philosophy of Ancient Greece had not only a significant impact on European thought, but also set the direction for the development of world philosophy. Despite the fact that since then has passed great amount time, it still arouses deep interest among most philosophers and historians.

Ancient Greek philosophy is characterized primarily by a generalization of the initial theories of various scientific knowledge, observations of nature and many achievements in culture and science, which were achieved by colleagues from the East. Another characteristic feature cosmocentrism is, therefore, the concepts of microcosm and macrocosm appear. The macrocosm includes all nature and its phenomena, as well as the known elements, while the microcosm is a kind of reflection and repetition of this natural world, that is, man. Also, the ancient Greek philosophers have the concept of fate, to which all manifestations of human activity and its final result are subject.

During the heyday, there is an active development of mathematical and natural science disciplines, and this causes a unique and very interesting synthesis of scientific knowledge and theories with mythology.

The reason why ancient Greek philosophy was so developed and had so many individual characteristics, lies in the absence of a caste of priests, unlike, for example, eastern states... This led to a significant spread of freedom of thought, which favorably affected the formation of the scientific and rational movement. In the East, however, conservative beliefs kept all social phenomena under control, which was alien to Ancient Greece. For this reason, it can be considered that the democratic structure of the ancient city-states had the most significant influence on all the features of ancient Greek philosophical thought.

Periods of philosophy of ancient Greece

For the convenience of studying ancient Greek philosophy, historians have introduced a generally accepted system of its periodization.

So, early Greek philosophy began to develop in the 6th-5th centuries BC. This is the so-called pre-Socratic period, during which Thales of Miletus appeared, recognized as the very first. He belonged to the Milesian school, one of the first that arose at that time, after which the Eleatic school appeared, whose representatives were busy with questions of being. Parallel to her, Pythagoras founded his own school, in which, for the most part, questions of measure, harmony and numbers were subject to study. There is also a large number of lone philosophers who did not adhere to any of the existing schools, among them were Anaxagoras, Democritus and Heraclitus. In addition to the listed philosophers, the first sophists, such as Protagoras, Prodicus, Hippias and others, also appeared in the same period.

In the 5th century BC, one can observe a smooth transition of ancient Greek philosophy to the classical period. Largely thanks to the three giants of thought - Socrates, Aristotle and Plato, it became a real philosophical center of all Greece. For the first time, the concept of personality and the decisions it makes, which are based on conscience and the adopted system of values, are introduced, philosophical science begins to be considered as a political, ethical and logical system, and science is further advanced through research and theoretical methods of studying the world and its phenomena.

The last period is Hellenism, which historians sometimes divide into early and late stages. In general, this is the longest period in the history of ancient Greek philosophy, which began at the very end of the 4th century BC and ended only in the 6th century AD. Hellenistic philosophy also captured a part, at this time many philosophical directions received many opportunities for their development, this happened mostly under the influence of Indian thought. The main directions that arose at this time are:

1. Epicurean school , whose representatives developed the already existing provisions of ethics, recognized the eternity of the world around them, denied the existence of fate and preached the receipt of pleasures on which all their teaching was based.
2. Direction skepticism , whose followers showed distrust of most of the generally accepted knowledge and theories, believing that they should be tested scientifically and cognitively for the truth.
3. The teachings of Zeno of Kiti , called Stoicism, the most famous representatives of which were Marcus Aurelius and Seneca. They preached endurance and courage in the face of life's hardships, which laid the foundation for early Christian moral doctrines.
4. Neoplatonism , which is the most idealistic philosophical direction of antiquity. It is a synthesis of the teachings that Aristotle and Plato created, as well as Eastern traditions. Neo-Platonist thinkers studied the hierarchy and structure of the surrounding world, the beginning, and also created the first practical techniques that contributed to achieving union with God.

The first philosopher in history - Thales (625-545 BC), who lived on the Ionian coast of Asia Minor, in Miletus. His main idea is “everything is water”. This idea is purely philosophical. He did not rely on any mythological ideas, but proceeded solely from what the mind told him. (Recall that a philosopher is a person for whom the arguments of reason are the main instrument of explanation and understanding). In other words, Thales tried to explain the world from natural causes, that is, from itself.

Taking water as the single beginning of all things, he was the first to try (within the framework of philosophical, non-mythological thinking) to solve the problem of the one and the many, reducing all the diversity of things to water. With a sense of dialectic, he understood that the unity of nature is hidden behind the visible diversity.

Thales did not accidentally choose water as the beginning. It can be taken as the center of all opposites. Water can be cold and hot, turn into a solid and gaseous state; it does not have a definite standing form (that is, it is something indefinite) and at the same time it is sensually determined (it can be seen, touched, smell and even heard). In addition, water, or rather one of its two elements - hydrogen - is the most widespread substance in the Universe.

Two legends are known about Thales, showing his strength and weakness as a philosopher. The first is about how he, foreseeing good harvest olives, rented all the oil mills, began to dictate the prices for the products of the oil mills, and thus became rich. The second legend is about how he, having looked at the starry sky, fell into a pit (they say, he is in the clouds, but he does not see what is under his feet).

Thales's disciple was Anaximander. He put forward the idea of ​​arche, the first principle, and as such he considered apeiron (infinite). Apeiron Anaximander is something like abstract matter, substance.

Anaximen, developing the ideas of Thales and Anaximander, considered air as the origin, which, thickening and thinning, generates water, earth, fire, that is, all the variety of things and phenomena.

The wise men of their Miletus kindled the fire of philosophical thought in Ancient Greece. The philosophers who followed them put forward doctrines in which principles were developed that were implicitly present among the Milesian philosophers. So, the search for a single beginning by the Milesians led Xenophanes and Parmenides to the doctrine of the all-unified being, and their attempts to find a rational explanation for the visible variety of things led Pythagoras to the doctrine of the numerical law underlying all things. Without the Milesians, there would be no Heraclitus.

Heraclitus(544-483 BC) lived on the Ionian coast in Ephesus. 126 scattered fragments have come down to us from his work "On Nature". They amaze with their philosophical depth and depth. Heraclitus is the author of the famous thesis: "You cannot enter the same river twice." Subsequently, this thesis was reduced to the formula “Everything flows, everything changes” (panta rei). Hence it is clear why Heraclitus believed that the beginning of everything that exists Fire something extremely changeable and causing change. This is how he explained the world on the basis of his doctrine of fire-arche: "The world was not created by any of the gods or any of the people, but was, is and will be eternally living fire, flammable and extinguishing measures."

Heraclitus was the first conscious dialectician in history. (Initially, "dialectics" meant the art of arguing; ultimately, this word came to be understood as the doctrine of real contradictions, development, formation). According to Heraclitus, everything is fraught with opposites or consists of opposites. And these opposites are one thing, that is, they are a really existing contradiction. He also argued that universal harmony is expressed in the form of a bow and a lyre. Lyre is a dialectic of preservation and harmony proper. The bow is a dialectic of change, struggle, destruction and creation. Which of them prevails? Until now, the best minds of mankind are fighting over this issue.

Eleaty -with Creators of a high-quality concept of being... They lived in Elea (Southern Italy). Their predecessor was Xenophanes . He was one of the first to demythologize the picture of the world, giving natural phenomena natural explanation. He believed that the gods were invented by people in their own image. (Traveling, Xenophanes came across a striking fact: people have different ideas about their gods: "Ethiopians say that their gods are snub-nosed and black; the Thracians imagine their gods as blue-eyed and reddish"). He was probably the first critic of religion.

Parmenides(540-480 BC) - the most prominent figure among the Eleatics. He argued: “there is no movement, there is no nonexistence, there is only being” (compare with Heraclitus: “everything flows, everything changes”). Destruction, movement, change - not in truth, but only in opinion. Being is one, not plural. Parmenides imagined him as a ball in which everything is one essence. He drew a clear line between thinking and sensory experience, cognition and evaluation (the famous opposition "in truth" and "in opinion").

Zeno, eleian, is known for his aporias (translated aporia - difficulty, difficulty) "Achilles and the tortoise", "Dichotomy", "Arrow", "Stages". If Parmenides proved the existence of one, Zeno tried to refute the existence of many. He argued against the movement, indicating that it was contradictory and therefore non-existent.

Pythagoras and pythagoreans - creators of the quantitative concept of being... "Everything is a number" - asserted Pythagoras (about 580-500 BC). Everything is quantitatively determined, that is, any object is not only qualitatively, but also quantitatively determined (or otherwise: each quality has its own quantity). It has become greatest discovery... All experimental and observational science rests on this proposition. It is no coincidence that it was the experiment with musical strings (one of the first in the history of science) that led to the discovery that strengthened Pythagoras' belief in the omnipotence of numbers, and confirmed the principle of the dependence of quality on quantity.

It is impossible not to note the negative side of the Pythagorean teaching, expressed in the absolutization of quantity, number. On the basis of this absolutization, Pythagorean mathematical symbolism and a mysticism of numbers full of superstitions, which was combined with a belief in the transmigration of souls, grew.

Pythagoras was the founder of the first community of philosophers-mathematicians-scientists - the Pythagorean Union. This Union became the prototype of the Platonic Academy.

Pythagoras is considered to be the inventor of the term "philosophy". We can only be lovers of wisdom, not sages (only gods can be such). With such an attitude to wisdom, the philosophers, as it were, left “ open door»For new creativity (for knowledge and invention).

Empedocles from Agrigent (Fr. Sicily, c. 490-430 BC) put forward the doctrine of the four elements, the elements of the world (earth, water, air, fire) and two forces connecting and separating them (friendship and enmity) ...

Anaxagoras(c. 500-428 BC) - the first Athenian philosopher. He is known for his doctrine of homeomerism, like partial - the seeds of the world, which, mixing in different proportions, form the whole variety of things and phenomena. Anaxagoras put forward the thesis: everything from everything (“Everything in everything and everything stands out from everything”).

Democritus(460-371 BC) - the greatest materialist, the first encyclopedic mind of Ancient Greece. I believed that everything consists of atoms (indivisible particles) and emptiness (the latter is a condition of motion). Even thought he presented as a collection of especially thin invisible atoms. Thought, according to Democritus, cannot exist without a material carrier, spirit cannot exist independently of matter.

Many clever thoughts have come down to us from Democritus. Here are some: "Wisdom bears the following three fruits: the gift of thinking well, speaking well, and doing well." "Fools seek the benefits of fortune, while those who know the value of such benefits seek the benefits of wisdom." "Courage makes the blows of fate insignificant." "Those who have an orderly character, those who have a well-ordered life." " To a wise man the whole earth is open. For a good-hearted fatherland is the whole world. "

The life of Democritus is instructive in his devotion to the spirit of knowledge. The philosopher stated that he preferred one causal explanation to the possession of the Persian throne.

Sophists. The word “sophist” did not initially have a negative meaning. A sophist was a man, a philosopher who earned a livelihood, passing on certain knowledge to young people, which, as then they thought, could be useful to them in practical life.

The most famous sophist - Protagoras ... He taught for the reward of “everyone who longed for practical success and a higher spiritual culture” (E. Zeller). Protagoras is known for his thesis: "Man is the measure of all things that exist, that they exist, and that do not exist, that they do not exist." For all its controversy, and perhaps because of it, this thesis played a huge role in the further understanding of fundamental philosophical problems. Probably Protagoras himself did not suspect what a wealth of ideas contained in his thesis.

Socrates

Socrates (469-399 BC) is one of the most prominent figures in the history of philosophy. Many consider him to be the personification of a philosopher. He did not write down his thoughts, but spoke and talked in the streets and squares of Athens. He had many students. The most famous is Plato.

Socrates' doctrine marks a turn from thinking about the world, space, nature (objectivism of natural philosophers) to thinking exclusively about man and the society in which man lives (to the subjectivism of anthropology), from materialism to idealism.

From the point of view of Socrates, the structure of the world, the nature of things are unknowable; we can only know ourselves. “Know thyself” is Socrates' favorite motto. The highest task of philosophy is not theoretical, but practical: the art of living. Knowledge, according to Socrates, is thought, the concept of the general. Concepts are revealed through definitions, and generalized through induction. Socrates himself gave examples of the definition and generalization of ethical concepts (for example, valor, justice). The definition of the concept was preceded by a conversation, during which the interlocutor was exposed to contradictions by a series of consecutive questions. By the disclosure of contradictions, imaginary knowledge is eliminated, and the anxiety into which the mind is plunged into, prompts the thought to search for the true truth. Socrates compared his methods of research with the art of a midwife ("maieutics"), and his method of questioning, involving a critical attitude to dogmatic statements, was called Socratic "irony." Maieutics, literally midwife art, is the Socrates' proposed art of extracting knowledge hidden in a person with the help of leading questions.

Socrates put forward a peculiar principle of cognitive modesty: “ I know that I know nothing”(Compare: Alcott: "To be in the dark about one's own ignorance is the disease of the ignorant." J. Bruno: “He is doubly blind who does not see his own blindness; this is the difference between perspicacious-diligent people and ignorant sloths ”).

The following statement by Socrates is also known: you need to eat in order to live, not live in order to eat... My objection is that there is nothing wrong with eating in order to eat and living partly in order to eat. This statement of Socrates is the beginning of idealism and holism. It turns out that the whole is more important than the part; the part must unambiguously obey the whole. (The whole is life, the part is food). With such an understanding of life, you can go far. Closer to the truth is another formula: "a man is what he eats."

Plato

Plato (427-347 BC) is one of the most famous philosophers of antiquity. In this, only Aristotle, his student, competed with him. The latter owed a lot to Plato, although he criticized him. From Aristotle came the expression: "Plato is my friend, but the truth is dearer." Most of Plato's works are written in the form of a dialogue. Their fate was happy; almost all of them have come down to us.

Plato's real name is Aristocles. The name "Plato" (Platos means wide in Greek) was given to him for his athletic build (tall, broad shoulders). He was a great gymnast and excelled in sports such as wrestling and horse riding. There is evidence that he received the first prize at the Isthmian and Pythian Games for his successes in the struggle. Plato respected physical education besides, he was an idealist to the bone.

He is best known for his doctrine of ideas and the doctrine of the ideal state.

V teaching about ideas Plato proceeded from the fact that a person in his creative activity goes from ideas to things (first ideas as samples, then things that embody them), that many ideas arise in a person's head that do not have material embodiment, and it is not known whether they will receive this incarnation someday. These facts were interpreted by him as follows: ideas as such exist independently of matter in some special world and are models for things. Things arise from these ideas. The world of ideas is true, real, and the world of things is a shadow, something less existing (that is, ideas have maximum being, and the world of things is something that does not exist, that is, it changes, disappears). An idea in a person's head is like an act of remembering the world of ideas.

The followers of Plato, the so-called neoplatonists, invented a whole hierarchy of concepts (from the most abstract-general, possessing the greatest being, to the most concrete-particular-individual, denoting a concrete thing, insignificant, vanishing small in the sense of existence).

V ideal state theory Plato displayed this mental hierarchy. According to this theory, human society, represented by the state, dominates the individual. The individual is considered to be something insignificant in relation to the society-state. A thread stretches from Plato to totalitarian ideologies, Nazi and communist, in which a person is viewed only as a part of the whole, as something that must completely obey the whole.

To explain his views, Plato gave the following image: we, people, are in a cave and do not see daylight just as we do not see what is being done outside the cave. But light comes from somewhere, reflected on the wall and shadows walk along this wall. The world of things is the shadows that we directly see, and the world of ideas is what is outside the cave. This is how Plato explained his theory of ideas. He was right when he separated ideas from things, spiritual from material, and even opposed them. True, he too absolutized this opposition. To some extent, you can understand it: on early stage In the development of philosophical and human thought, it was not easy for people to express these contradictions in life - roughly chopping off one thing, they absolutize the other. For Plato, the general is more important, truer, more real than the particular, the individual. He almost literally understood the commonality of property, believing that even wives should be common. He also believed that people should live in large communal groups. All socialists and communists of subsequent centuries drew their basic ideas from Plato.

Negative side Plato's idealism: belittling the bodily, physical versus spiritual, representing the body as the prison of the soul and, ultimately, belittling life versus death.

Criticizing Plato, one cannot but note that he expressed many precious thoughts and ideas about human behavior, love, creativity, immortality, in particular, put forward a very promising theory of creativity, comparing it with the birth and education of a person, with love ( see the Feast dialogue). According to Plato, love and creativity are the beginning of life; it all comes down to them. They make a person immortal: love - through procreation; creativity - through discoveries, inventions, art, architecture.

Plato founded the first philosophical school called the Academy. It has existed for almost a thousand years.

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Theme: 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, the impact on the subsequent development of the philosophical culture of mankind. Its origin became possible due to the presence of urban democracy and intellectual freedom, the separation of mental from physical labor. In ancient Greek philosophy, two main types philosophical thinking and world structure ( idealism and materialism), the subject field of philosophy was realized, critical areas philosophical knowledge. That was flourishing ancient philosophical thought, a violent surge of intellectual energy of its time.

Greek philosophy began to take shape in the 6th-5th centuries BC. In its development, it is customary to distinguish several most important periods. First- this is the formation, or birth, of ancient Greek philosophy. At this time, nature was in the foreground, therefore this period is sometimes called nuturphilosophical, contemplative. This was an early philosophy, where a person did not yet stand out as a separate object of research. 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 the framework of which the original samples of ancient philosophical culture. Third period(III century BC-IV century AD) - this is the decline and even decline of ancient Greek philosophy, which was caused by the conquest of Greece by Ancient Rome. Gnoseological and ethnic, and eventually religious issues in the form of early Christianity came to the fore.

1. Formation of 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 posed and subjected to understanding 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 Mileskut. In which the name of the sage sounded most often 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", so sounded 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, mathematician.

Among the gracious philosophers was also Anaximander, student and follower of Thales, author of philosophical prose. He posed and decided 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 exudes opposites from itself - 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 ...

The follower of Anaximander was the third famous representative of the Miletus school - Anaximenes, philosopher, astronomer and metrologist. He considered the beginning of all things air... When discharged, the air first becomes fire and then ether, and when it thickens, 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, the school associated with the name Heraclitus from Ephesus. He connected everything that exists with fire, which was considered 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 a fiery soul, a dry (fiery) soul - 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 in simplest form laid out the basics dialectics as a teaching about 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 clash 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 world around us is a river that cannot be entered twice. The Logos reveals its secrets only to those who know how to think about 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 number: "Number owns things." A special role Pythagoreans assigned one, two, three and four. The sum of these numbers gives the number `ten`, which philosophers considered ideal.

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

Xenophanes also expressed the idea of ​​the immobility of the world. In his opinion, God dwells in the Cosmos that surrounds 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 aporia he tried to justify the lack of movement.

Early Greek philosophy was also represented by creativity Empledocla and Anaxagoras. The first of them put forward the provision of 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 cannot be created or destroyed, all things are constantly changing places. Anaxagoras considered certain homerism that determine the unity and diversity of the world. The world is driven by a certain nous- mind as a source of harmony of unity.

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

Democritus believed that single things are perishable and decay. Man himself, as Democritus argued, 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 it is considered to be the ancestor of materialism in the history of philosophy. Philosophy more and more acquired the characteristics of a system rational knowledge supplemented wisdom as a comprehension of the life experience of people.

2. The heyday of ancient Greek philosophy

The heyday. The heyday of ancient Greek philosophy was associated with its turn from the natural world to the world to the topic of man and society. This reorientation could only take place in a democracy, where free citizens perceived themselves as a sovereign individual. The transition from nuturphilosophy to anthropology and social philosophy became possible due to socio-economic and spiritual prerequisites in society. This period is usually associated with the 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. Consequently, 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 is not too much, but someone is strong ?. 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 atheism and fled from Athens.

Unlike Protagoras, Gorgias believed that everything is false in knowledge. He taught that nothing exists, and if it does, it is incomprehensible. According to this philosopher, it is impossible to prove that being and non-being exist at the same time. Gorgias touched upon complex logical problems associated with the knowledge of the world by man. According to Gorgias, speech is able to drive away fear and ward off grief, 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 external world. "... The prescriptions of laws are arbitrary, the directives of nature are necessary," the philosopher emphasized. Antiphon set free his slaves, and he himself entered into marriage with his former slave, for which he was declared insane and deprived civil rights.

The Sophists studied logic and mathematics, astronomy, music and poetry. However, they were criticized for their relativism and verbal contrivances.

Socrates considered the main task of his philosophy to help a person in his knowing yourself... The method of human research by Socrates can be called subjective dialectics... The art of logic was useful to him in his life, because for his independent and atheistic views, he was accused of molesting young people and was brought to trial, where he needed eloquence for his own defense. Socrates believed that with all the diversity of opinions, the truth is still the only one and it is comprehended through reflection.

From the point of view of Socrates, to know is to have concept about anything. Knowledge of oneself is a requirement of the mind, because without this 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 that a person has conscience as a kind of `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.

Socrates' creativity consists in the fact that he actively contributed to the transfer of the attention of philosophy from the theme of nature to the theme of man. Socrates rightfully belongs to 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 rejection of sensual pleasures, wealth and fame as the basis of human happiness, and the goal of life was to achieve independence. The most prominent 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 in itself a protest against lies and hypocrisy.

Special place in ancient Greek philosophy is personality Plato, founder of the Academy. He is considered the ancestor objective idealism, whose supporters believe that the existence of a certain spiritual principle, which gave rise to this material world, is real.

"Originally there is a soul, 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, immovable. It - authentic peace, "the world of the eternal." What is he like?

World of ideas- this is a kind of "heavenly area", which is occupied by the essence. This world is outside 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, a real house corresponds to the idea of ​​a house, a real living being corresponds to the idea of ​​a person. All of these items represent compound ideas with passive "matter" as a kind of " building material". There is an idea here 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, as opposed to the idea of ​​evil. Good is the source of truth. It - highest virtue... But matter also plays an important role. The world cannot do without her. Developing the initial thesis, Plato came to the conclusion about the existence of a certain world soul, the source of all life.

Plato emphasized that the senses give us information only about the inauthentic world. Knowledge is true and reliable reasonable... It is nothing but memory of the human soul about the ideas with which it met before entering the body. The higher part 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 teaching. In his opinion, there should be three social groups in the state. The first is the wise philosopher rulers. The second is formed by courageous wars. And the third is the farmers and artisans. In his opinion, such a state will be strong, since everyone in it will do his own thing.

Plato was negative about democracy. He believed that she was freedom in "undiluted form." According to the thinker, the ideal type of state is an aristocratic republic. Those who are capable will rule there.

He was the ancestor philosophical idealism... In the work of Plato, ancient Greek idealism appears as worldview, 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 showed himself in logic and aesthetics, in political theory and natural science. Aristotle - "the most universal head among all the ancient Greeks. "

“Being exists, but non-being does not” - this is how the main law of the thinker says. He considered the basis of being 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 the God as a kind of "prime mover". Aristotle criticized his teacher Plato for the fact that he divided existence into two realities - the world of ideas and the world of things. Thus, the items were deprived of them. internal source, finding lifeless.

Criticizing Plato, Aristotle tried to combine the material and the spiritual. Aristotle Unlike Plato, he seemed to restore things in their rights. According to Aristotle, the development of the world is a chain of transformations of possibility into reality.

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

He tried to investigate economic relations in the society of that time. He was a supporter of private property. Man differs from animals primarily in that he possesses reason, 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 defended the thesis about naturalness slavery. In his view, slaves are barbarians who differ from masters in their adaptability to physical labor.

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

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

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

Sunset period ancient Greek philosophy coincided with the decline of free political and spiritual life in the cities. Interest in philosophizing has dropped significantly. Arose early christianity... The most important philosophical trends 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 as it is now.

The difference between the philosophy of Epicurus and Democritus is that the first introduced the principle deviations atoms in the course of their movement in the void. In Democritus, everything is initially rigidly set and does not imply its change. It is not surprising that this philosopher has become one of the most revered for the German thinker and revolutionary Karl Marx, who sincerely dreams of freeing all mankind from the state of captivity.

In his opinion, 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 reasonably, morally and fair.

Stoicism("Philosophy of salvation") expressed feelings of the world's precariousness and uncertainty. The ideal for the Stoics has become a man who obeys the fate and will of the gods.

In this world, everything 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 rest, equanimity and patience. According to 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 an installation on optimism and activism, then stoics are supporters pessimism and apathy.

Skepticism (Pyrrho and others) 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, evaluate the actions of people as just or not fair.

By the 1st century BC. manifested electicism- a mechanical combination of heterogeneous teachings and ideas based on various systems of classical and Hellenistic philosophy. In philosophy, mythological, religious and mystical motives sounded, 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, variety of school currents, types of thinking and ideas. Here philosophy is really staa by itself. In fact, Greek philosophy was a worldview a liberating personality, which distinguished itself from the Cosmos and realized its independence and value. Russian culture researcher A.F. Losev noted that ancient philosophy is "an integral face, ... one-piece, living and integral historical structure.»

Bibliography

1. Chanyshev A.N. A 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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The emergence of philosophy in Ancient Greece occurs between the 8th and 6th centuries.In that era, Greece is going through a period of colonization, or apoitization (apoitia is the overseas territory of the Greek polis, practically independent of the metropolis). Huge spaces, such as Graecia Magna (Italy), surpassed their Greek cradle in territory and gave birth to the first philosophers, because Athenian philosophy became the second, subsequent stage in the development of Greek thought. The worldview was strongly influenced by the structure of life in the polis and the classic type of slavery. It was the existence of the latter in ancient Greece that played a huge role in the division of labor, and allowed, as Engels noted, a certain stratum of people to engage exclusively in science and culture.

Therefore, the philosophy of Ancient Greece has a certain specificity in relation to the modern philosophy of the Ancient East. First of all, since the time of Pythagoras, it has been identified as a separate discipline, and since Aristotle it goes hand in hand with science, is distinguished by rationalism and separates itself from religion. During the Hellenistic period, it becomes the basis of such sciences as history, medicine and mathematics. The main "slogan" and the embodiment of the ideal of education in ancient Greek philosophy (as well as culture) is "kalos kai agatos" - the combination of physical beauty and health with spiritual perfection.

Philosophy in Ancient Greece raised two main themes - ontology and epistemology, as a rule, opposing the concepts of reason and activity (the latter was considered an occupation of the second, "lower" grade, in contrast to pure contemplation). Ancient Greek philosophy is also the birthplace of such methodological systems as metaphysical and dialectical. She also assimilated many categories of the philosophy of the Ancient East, especially Egypt, and introduced them into the general European philosophical discourse. Early philosophy Ancient Greece is conventionally divided into two periods - archaic and pre-Socratic.

The philosophy of Ancient Greece is characterized by the cosmocentrism of mythopoetic works, in which epic poets described the emergence of the world and its driving forces in mythological images. Homer systematized myths and sang heroic morality, and Hesiod embodied the history of the origin of the world in the figures of Chaos, Gaia, Eros and other gods. He was one of the first in literary form to present the myth of the "golden age", when justice and labor were valued, and began to mourn the fate of the "Iron Age" of his day, the rule of the kulak, a time where power gives rise to law. Traditionally, it is believed that a huge role in the formation of philosophical thought of that time was played by the so-called "seven wise men" who left behind wise sayings or "gnomes" dedicated to such moral principles as moderation and harmony.

In the pre-Socratic period, the philosophy of Ancient Greece is characterized by the presence of several philosophical natural philosophy was distinguished by pragmatism, the desire to search for a single beginning and the first scientific discoveries, such as astronomical instruments, maps, sundials. Almost all of its representatives came from the merchant class. So, studied solar eclipses and considered the origin of all water, Anaximander is the creator of the map of the Earth and the model of the celestial sphere, and he called the origin "apeiron" - the primary matter devoid of qualities, the contradictions of which gave rise to the emergence of the world, and his disciple Anaximenes believed that the single cause of everything is air. The most famous representative of the Ephesian school is Heraclitus, nicknamed the Weeping One. He put forward the idea that the world was not created by anyone, but in its essence is fire, sometimes flaring up, then extinguishing, and also argued that if we cognize with the help of perception, then the basis of our cognition is the Logos.

The philosophy of Ancient Greece, represented by the Eleatic and Italic schools, is based on slightly different categories. Unlike the Milesians, the Eleats are aristocratic in origin. In theory, they prefer a system to a process, and a measure to infinity.

Xenophanes of the Colophon criticized mythological ideas about the gods and suggested separating the existing and the seeming. Parmenides of Elea developed his ideas and stated that we know the apparent by the senses, and the existent - by logic. Therefore, for a reasonable person, non-being does not exist, because any of our thoughts is a thought about being. His follower Zeno explained the position of his teacher using the famous paradoxes-aporias.

The Italic school is known for such a mysterious thinker as Pythagoras, who proposed the doctrine of numbers and their mystical connection with the world and left behind a secret doctrine. Empedocles from the Sicilian city of Agregent was also an interesting philosopher. He considered the reason for everything that exists four passive elements - water, fire, air and earth, and two active principles - love and hatred, and in his philosophical system he tried to unite Parmenides and Heraclitus. Later classical Greek philosophy largely based its conclusions precisely on the ideas of Italian thinkers.

Ancient Greek philosophy originated in the era of the highest flowering of Greek culture. At first it was an attempt to comprehend the world around us, to understand the meaning and laws of the universe. The origin of the ancient philosophy of Greece most likely takes place in Egypt and Asia Minor - after all, it was there that the Greeks traveled for the secret knowledge of even more ancient civilizations.

Remarkably, the main philosophical ideas and principles were expressed by the philosophers of Greece. The new names added practically nothing new.

The main difference between ancient Greek philosophers and their more modern colleagues is that they did not just “talk” about life, they “lived” that way. Philosophy manifested itself not so much in clever books and treatises as in real life... If one had to suffer for one's personal convictions, then a philosopher who lived in ancient Greece could both suffer and die for his principles.

Ancient Greek philosophy arose when the libraries did not have a variety of books, while the ruler considered it an honor to be called a philosopher.

All European and a significant part of modern world civilization in some way - directly or indirectly, are the product of ancient Greek culture.

It should be borne in mind that the "Ancient Greece" refers to a civilization that included slave states located in the south of the Balkan Peninsula, on the coast of Thrace, on the Aegean islands and on the western coastal strip of Asia Minor (VII-VI centuries). The first Greek philosophers were Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Pythagoras, Xenophanes, Heraclitus. There are three periods in Greek philosophy. First: from Thales to Aristotle. Second: Development of Greek philosophy in the Roman world. Third: Neoplatonic philosophy. If we take the chronology, then these three periods cover more than a millennium (the end of the 7th century BC - the 6th century AD).

Some researchers divide the first period of Greek philosophy into three stages - this more clearly indicates the development of philosophy in nature and in solving the study of problems. The first stage is the activity of the philosophers of the Miletus (from the name of the city of Miletus) school: Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes. The second stage is the activity of the Sophists, Socrates and his followers - sokratkov. The third stage is the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle. The activities of the first ancient Greek philosophers have not reached our days; it can be learned about it only from the works of subsequent thinkers and philosophers of Greece and Rome.

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