Stages of development of Greek ancient philosophy. Ancient philosophy (main stages of development, representatives)

Most researchers distinguish four stages in ancient philosophy:

Pre-classical (natural philosophical, pre-Socratic) stage: VII – 1st half. V centuries BC.
Classical stage: mid-5th – end of 4th centuries. BC.
Hellenistic stage: end of IV - end of I centuries. BC.
Roman stage (philosophy of the era of the Empire): end of the 1st century BC. – VI century AD

Philosophy, which arose from mythological knowledge, explores the world in the process of critically overcoming myth and polemics with it.
The focus of all philosophers is Cosmos (world order) and “fusis” - nature (the inner essence of all things).
Searching for an answer to the question of the origin of the world. The main direction of philosophical thought: the search for the first principle - the unified basis of the whole world; and discussions about what is considered the beginning.
Lack of a clear distinction between the material and the ideal. Man and society are not singled out as independent topics for reflection, but are considered within the framework of the universal laws of the Cosmos.
Active participation of the majority of “pre-Socratic” philosophers in the social and political life of their native city.
The unity of philosophical and scientific knowledge: within the framework of philosophy, mathematics (geometry), physics, geography, astronomy, biology and meteorology originate.

Philosophers of the pre-classical stage: Thales of Miletus, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Pythagoras (of Samos), Xenophanes (Colophonian), Parmenides, Zeno of Elea, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Leucippus, Democritus.

: Milesian school (physicists), Eleatic school (Eleatics), Pythagoreans, atomists.

The classical stage of ancient philosophy

A deeper approach to the question of the essence of nature and the Cosmos. The participation of gods in the creation of the world is allowed.
Philosophical thought moves from an objective explanation of nature to the subjective side of the cognitive process - man and his consciousness.
The contrast between relative (“man is the measure of all things”) and absolute knowledge.
An idealistic version of the origin of existence appears (Plato’s doctrine of “pure ideas”). The beginning of the dispute between materialism and idealism.
Philosophy combines two aspects: scientific (the formation of philosophical concepts - “the fundamental principles of being”) and educational - the education of man. The first philosophical systems and educational institutions were created (Plato's Academy, Aristotle's Lyceum).
Some thinkers carry out philosophical and educational activities (sophists, Socrates).

Philosophers of the classical stage: Sophists (Protagoras, Gorgias, Hypias, Prodicus, Critias, etc.), Socrates, Plato, Aristotle.

Hellenistic stage of ancient philosophy

From theoretical and logical philosophy turns into practical and ethical. In terms of their theoretical achievements, Hellenistic philosophers are significantly inferior to the “classics”; therefore, they actively borrow the ideas of previous thinkers and schools.
Philosophy ceases to be “the basis of all sciences” and is separated from them. Special sciences: such as mathematics, astronomy, optics, etc., are beginning to be developed independently.
The search for a new worldview leads to the emergence of numerous philosophical schools and intense rivalry between them. Most schools are characterized by dogmatism and the unquestioned authority of the teacher.
Questions of the objective world order fade into the background; philosophers and philosophical schools turn primarily to the problems of human private life. Philosophical problems of knowledge and being are considered in order to determine the norms and standards of “correct life”.
Strong influence of Eastern culture and philosophy (with less high demands for a rational justification of the worldview, but more sophisticated in the wisdom of life).
Philosophy is losing its spirit of elitism and is becoming popular among different segments of the population (and not just among a narrow circle of experts). Among the philosophers there appear people of simple birth and barbarians.

Philosophers of the Hellenistic stage: Antisthenes, Diogenes of Sinope, Epicurus, Zeno, Pyrrho, Epictetus, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Sextus Empiricus.

Main philosophical directions (schools): Epicureans, Cynics, Stoics, Skeptics, Empiricists.

Roman stage of ancient philosophy*

Philosophers do not create fundamentally new concepts: they either develop the ideas of individual Greek thinkers of the classical stage, or strive to synthesize and generalize the main thoughts of previous philosophical schools and movements.
The predominance of idealism over materialism.
Distrust in rational thinking is growing, phenomena in the surrounding world are increasingly explained by the will of the gods (God).
Ideas about the Cosmos as a subject continue to develop. This is a kind of return to myth, but already enriched by previous philosophical ideas.
Growing interest in mysticism, Eastern religious cults and deities; strong influence on the philosophy of Christian ideas.
Increased interest in the problems of good and evil, death and the afterlife.

Philosophers of the Roman phase: Plutarch, Atticus, Plotinus.

Main philosophical directions (schools): neo-Pythagoreanism, middle Platonism, neoplatonism, eclecticism.

List of useful literature

“History of Philosophy: Textbook for Universities” / Edited by V.V. Vasilyeva, A.A. Krotova, D.V. Bugaya. – 2nd ed., rev. and additional – M.: Academic project, 2008.
“Philosophy: Textbook for universities” / Edited by prof. V.N. Lavrinenko, prof. V.P. Ratnikova. – M.: UNITY-DANA, 2003
“History of Philosophy: Textbook” / Alekseev P.V. – Moscow: Prospekt, 2013.

“Philosophy (lecture notes).” A guide for preparing for exams / Author-compiler: Yakushev A.V. – M.: PRIOR Publishing House, 2002.
"Philosophy. Short course” / Moiseeva N.A., Sorokovikova V.I. – St. Petersburg-Petersburg, 2004
“Philosophy: a textbook for students of higher educational institutions” / Yu.M. Khrustalev - M.: Publishing Center "Academy", 2008.

Periods of ancient philosophy, their features, schools and representatives updated: November 7, 2017 by: Scientific Articles.Ru

The prerequisites for the emergence of ancient philosophy were formed in the 9th – 7th centuries. BC. in the process of formation and strengthening of Iron Age society. This process in the European Mediterranean occurred much more intensively than in the countries of the Ancient East, and its consequences both in the economic and socio-political spheres were more radical. The intensive development of the division of labor, the emergence of new complex spheres of life, the rapid development of trade and trade-monetary relations, navigation and shipbuilding required for their implementation numerous positive knowledge, on the one hand, and revealed the limitations of religious and mythological means of regulating public life, on the other.

The growth of the Greek economy during this period led to an increase in the number of colonies, an increase in population and its concentration in cities, contributed to an increase in the proportion of slavery and slave labor in all spheres of economic life, and to the complication of the social structure and political organization of Greece. The dynamic and democratic polis organization involved the mass of the free population in the sphere of political activity, stimulated the social activity of people, on the one hand demanded, and on the other, inspired the development of knowledge about society and the state, human psychology, the organization of social processes and their management.

All of the above factors together contributed to the intensive growth of positive knowledge, accelerated the process of human intellectual development, and the formation of rational abilities in him. The procedure of proof and justification arose and was widely used in social practice, which the Ancient East did not know and without which science as a specialized form of cognitive activity is impossible. Logically proven and rationally substantiated knowledge acquired the status of social value. These changes destroyed the traditional forms of organizing social life and required from each person a new life position, the formation of which could not be ensured by the old ideological means. There is an urgent need for a new worldview, and the necessary and sufficient prerequisites for its birth are being created. This is the worldview that was formed in ancient Greece in the 7th – 6th centuries. BC.

Periodization of ancient philosophy

Traditionally, there are three main stages in the history of ancient philosophy. The first stage covers the period from the mid-7th to the mid-5th centuries. BC. and is called natural philosophical or pre-Socratic. The main object of philosophical research at this stage was nature, and the goal of knowledge was the search for the original foundations of the existence of the world and man. This tradition of deducing a diverse world from a single source was started by philosophers Milesian school(Thales, Anaximenes, Anaximander), continued in the works of the famous Greek dialectician Heraclitus of Ephesus and representatives Eleatic school(Xenophanes, Parmenides, Zeno) and reached its natural philosophical completion in the atomistic concept of Democritus. At the end of the 6th - beginning of the 5th centuries. BC. under the influence of contradictions that arise in the process of searching for substance as the basis of all things, the Eleatics reorient philosophy towards a speculative analysis of existence. They revealed the limitations of sensory ideas about the structure of the world and proposed to distinguish and separate judgments based on feelings from the truth, which is achieved through reason. The Eleatics transformed the cosmological orientation of natural philosophy into ontology.

The distinctive features of ancient natural philosophy are cosmocentrism, ontologism, aestheticism, rationalism, archetypicality. The world here appears as an ordered and rationally organized cosmos, to which the universal law-Logos gives unity, symmetry and beauty and thereby turns it into an object of aesthetic pleasure. The purpose of man is seen to be, with the help of reason, to understand the origins of this cosmic beauty and to organize his life in accordance with it.

The second stage lasted from the middle of the 5th to the end of the 4th centuries. BC. and got the name classical antiquity. This stage began sophists, who reoriented philosophy from the study of nature to the knowledge of man. The sophists are the founders of the anthropological tradition in ancient philosophy. The main problem for the sophists is man and the forms of his presence in the world. “Man is the measure of all things” - these words of Protagoras reflect the essence of the mentioned reorientation. You cannot pretend to know the world without first knowing a person. The world always contains those features that a person attributes to it, and only in relation to a person does the world acquire meaning and significance. It is impossible to consider the world outside of a person, without taking into account his goals, interests and needs. And since these goals, interests and needs are constantly changing, then, firstly, there is no final, absolute knowledge, and secondly, this knowledge has value only within the framework of practical success and only for the sake of achieving it. The benefit that knowledge can bring to a person becomes the goal of knowledge and the criterion of its truth. The principles of philosophical discussion, the technique of logical argumentation, the rules of eloquence, the ways to achieve political success - these are the sphere of interests of the sophists.

Socrates gives systematicity to this topic. He agrees with the sophists that the essence of man must be sought in the sphere of spirit, but does not recognize their relativism and epistemological pragmatism. The goal of human existence is the public good as a prerequisite for a happy life; it cannot be achieved without reason, without in-depth self-knowledge. After all, only self-knowledge leads to wisdom, only knowledge reveals true values to a person: Goodness, Justice, Truth, Beauty. Socrates created the foundation of moral philosophy; in his work, philosophy begins to take shape as a reflexive theory, in which epistemological issues take pride of place. Evidence of this is Socrates' credo: “Know thyself.”

This Socratic tradition found its continuation not only in the so-called Socratic schools (Megarians, Cynics, Cyrenaics), but primarily in the work of his great followers Plato and Aristotle. Plato's philosophical views were inspired by Socrates' reasoning about ethical concepts and his search for absolute definitions of them. Just as, from the point of view of Socrates, in the sphere of morality a person seeks examples of goodness and justice, so, according to Plato, he seeks all other Ideas for the sake of comprehending the world, those Universals that make the chaos, fluidity and diversity of the empirical world accessible to understanding and which together they form the true world of existence. They are the cause of the objective world, the source of cosmic harmony, the condition for the existence of the mind in the soul and the soul in the body. This is a world of genuine values, an inviolable order, a world independent of human arbitrariness. This makes Plato the founder of objective idealism, a philosophical doctrine according to which thoughts and concepts exist objectively, independently of the will and consciousness of man, and are the cause and condition of the existence of the world.

Ancient philosophy reached its highest flowering in the work of Aristotle. He not only systematized the knowledge accumulated by antiquity, but also developed all the main sections of philosophy. His thinking unfolded in all directions and embraced logic and metaphysics, physics and astronomy, psychology and ethics, he laid the foundations of aesthetics, rhetoric, famous poetics and politics. Aristotle paid great attention to research methodology, methods and means of argumentation and proof. The system of categories that Aristotle developed was used by philosophers throughout the entire historical and philosophical process. It was in the work of this great thinker that philosophy acquired its classical form, and its influence on the European philosophical tradition cannot be overestimated. Aristotle's philosophy, thanks to its depth and systematicity, determined the direction of development of philosophical thinking for many times. It can be said that without Aristotle, all Western philosophy, theology and science would have developed very differently. His encyclopedic philosophical system turned out to be so significant and important that until the 17th century, all scientific searches of the European mind were based precisely on Aristotelian works.

According to Aristotle, the task of philosophy is to comprehend being, but not being as “this” or “that”: a specific person, a specific thing, a specific thought, but being in itself, being as a being. Philosophy must find the immaterial causes of existence and substantiate eternal essences. Existence, as the unity of matter and form, is substance. The formation of substance is a process of transition from matter as “potential being” to form as “actual being,” which is accompanied by a decrease in the potentiality of matter through determination by its form. This actualization of potentiality occurs through the action of four types of causes: material, formal, active and target (final). All four reasons strive for self-realization. This gives grounds to characterize Aristotle's teaching as the concept of dynamic and purposive nature. She not only exists, but strives for something, desires something, she is driven by Eros. The pinnacle of this process is man. His distinctive feature is thinking, with the help of which he connects everything in his mind and gives form and unity to everything and achieves social well-being and general happiness.

Aristotle completed the classical stage in the development of ancient philosophy. Polis democratic Greece entered a period of long and severe systemic crisis, which ended not only with the fall of polis democracy, but also with the collapse of slavery as a system. Incessant wars, economic and political crises made life unbearable, called into question classical ancient values, and demanded new forms of social adaptation in conditions of political instability.

These events are reflected in the philosophy of the third, final stage in the history of ancient philosophy, called Hellenism (endIVArt.. BC –VArt. AD). The protracted socio-political and economic crisis led to a radical reorientation of philosophy. In an era of wars, violence and robberies, people are least interested in questions about the origins of the world and the conditions for its objective knowledge. A state in deep crisis is unable to ensure the well-being and security of people; everyone has to take care of their own existence. That is why philosophy abandons the search for universal principles of existence and turns to a living concrete person, not a representative of the polis integrity, but an individual, offering him a program of salvation. The question of how the world is ordered here gives way to the question of what a person must do in order to survive in this world.

Moral and ethical issues, focus on the individual life of an individual, social pessimism and epistemological skepticism - these are the distinctive features that unite numerous and very different schools into a single phenomenon called Hellenistic philosophy. Epicureans, Stoics, Cynics, Skeptics change the very ideal of philosophy: it is no longer a comprehension of existence, but a search for ways to a happy and calm life . Don't strive for more, because the more you have, the more you will lose. Do not regret what was lost, for it will not return, do not strive for fame and wealth, do not be afraid of poverty, illness and death, for they are beyond your control. Enjoy every moment of life, strive for happiness through moral reasoning and intellectual training. Anyone who is not afraid of any losses in life becomes a sage, a happy person and confident in his happiness. He is not afraid of the end of the world, or suffering, or death.

The deeper the crisis of ancient (already Roman) society became, the more obvious skepticism and distrust in the rational development of the world became, irrationalism and mysticism grew. The Greco-Roman world came under the influence of various Eastern and Jewish mystical practices. Neoplatonism was the last surge of Greek antiquity. In the works of its most famous and authoritative representatives (Plotinus, Proclus) ideas were developed that, on the one hand, took philosophy beyond the boundaries of the ancient rationalistic tradition, and on the other, served as the intellectual basis for early Christian philosophy and medieval theology.

Thus, ancient philosophy, the history of which spans a whole millennium, is characterized by the following features:

1) cosmocentrism - the world appears as an ordered cosmos, the principles and order of existence of which coincide with the principles of organization of the human mind, thanks to which rational knowledge of it is possible;

2) aestheticism, according to which the world is perceived as the embodiment of order, symmetry and harmony, an example of beauty, to life in accordance with which a person strives;

3) rationalism, according to which the cosmos is filled with an all-encompassing mind, which gives the world purpose and meaning and is accessible to man, provided that he is focused on the knowledge of the cosmos and develops his rational abilities;

4) objectivism, which demanded that knowledge be guided by natural causes and resolutely and consistently exclude anthropomorphic elements as a means of explaining and substantiating the truth;

5) relativism as a recognition of the relativity of existing knowledge, the impossibility of final and final truth and as a requirement for criticism and self-criticism as necessary elements of knowledge.

The growth of the Greek economy during this period led to an increase in the number of colonies, an increase in population and its concentration in cities, contributed to an increase in the proportion of slavery and slave labor in all spheres of economic life, and to the complication of the social structure and political organization of Greece. A dynamic and democratic polis organization involved the mass of the free population in the sphere of political activity, stimulated the social activity of people, on the one hand demanded, and on the other, inspired the development of knowledge about society and the state, human psychologists, the organization of social processes and their management.

All of the above factors together contributed to the intensive growth of positive knowledge, accelerated the process of human intellectual development, and the formation of rational abilities in him. The procedure of proof and justification was expected and widely used in social practice, which the Ancient East did not know and without which science as a specialized form of cognitive activity is impossible. Logically proven and rationally substantiated knowledge acquired the status of social value. These changes destroyed the traditional forms of organizing social life and required from each person a new life position, the formation of which could not be ensured by the old ideological means. There is an urgent need for a new worldview, and the necessary and sufficient prerequisites for its birth are being created. This is the worldview that was formed in ancient Greece in the 7th – 6th centuries. BC.

Periodization of ancient philosophy

Traditionally, there are three main stages in the history of ancient philosophy. The first stage covers the period from the middle of the 7th to the middle of the 5th centuries. BC. and is called natural philosophical or pre-Socratic. The main object of philosophical research at this stage was nature, and the goal of knowledge was the search for the original foundations of the existence of the world and man. This tradition of deducing a diverse world from a single source was started by philosophers Milesian school(Thales, Anaximenes, Anaximander), continued in the works of the famous Greek dialectician Heraclitus of Ephesus and representatives Eleatic school(Xenophanes, Parmenides, Zeno) and reached its natural philosophical completion in the atomistic concept of Democritus. At the end of the 6th - beginning of the 5th centuries. BC. under the influence of contradictions that arise in the process of searching for substance as the basis of all things, the Eleatics reorient philosophy towards a speculative analysis of existence. They revealed the limitations of sensory ideas about the structure of the world and proposed to distinguish and separate judgments based on feelings from the truth, which is achieved through reason. The Eleatics transformed the cosmological orientation of natural philosophy into ontology.

The second stage lasted from the middle of the 5th to the end of the 4th centuries. BC. and got the name classical antiquity. This stage began sophists, who reoriented philosophy from the study of nature to the knowledge of man. The sophists are the founders of the anthropological tradition in ancient philosophy. The main problem for the sophists is man and the forms of his presence in the world. “Man is the measure of all things” - these words of Protagoras reflect the essence of the mentioned reorientation. You cannot pretend to know the world without first knowing a person. The world always contains those features that a person attributes to it, and only in relation to a person does the world acquire meaning and significance. It is impossible to consider the world outside of man, without taking into account his values, interests and needs. And since these goals, interests and needs are constantly changing, then, firstly, there is no final, absolute knowledge, and secondly, this knowledge has value only within the framework of practical success and only for the sake of achieving it. The benefit that knowledge can bring to a person becomes the goal of knowledge and the criterion of its truth. The principles of philosophical discussion, the technique of logical argumentation, the rules of eloquence, the ways to achieve political success - these are the sphere of interests of the sophists.

Ancient philosophy reached its highest flowering in the work of Aristotle. He not only systematized the knowledge accumulated by antiquity, but also developed all the main sections of philosophy. His thinking unfolded in all directions and embraced logic and metaphysics, physics and astronomy, psychology and ethics, he laid the foundations of aesthetics, rhetoric, famous poetics and politics. Aristotle paid great attention to research methodology, methods and means of argumentation and proof. The system of categories that Aristotle developed was used by philosophers throughout the entire historical and philosophical process. It was in the work of this great thinker that philosophy acquired its classical form, and its influence on the European philosophical tradition cannot be overestimated. Aristotle's philosophy, thanks to its depth and systematicity, determined the direction of development of philosophical thinking for many years. It can be said that without Aristotle, all Western philosophy, theology and science would have developed very differently. His encyclopedic philosophical system turned out to be so significant and important that until the 17th century, all scientific searches of the European mind were based precisely on Aristotelian works.

The deeper the crisis of ancient (already Roman) society became, the more obvious skepticism and distrust in the rational development of the world became, irrationalism and mysticism grew. The Greco-Roman world came under the influence of various Eastern and Jewish mystical influences. Neoplatonism was the last surge of Greek antiquity. In the works of its most famous and authoritative representatives (Plotinus, Proclus) ideas were developed that, on the one hand, took philosophy beyond the boundaries of the ancient rationalistic tradition, and on the other, served as the intellectual basis for early Christian philosophy and medieval theology.

Thus, ancient philosophy, the history of whose development spans an entire millennium, is characterized by the following features6

2) aestheticism, according to which the world is perceived as the embodiment of order, symmetry and harmony, an example of beauty, to life in accordance with which a person strives;

4) objectivism, which demanded that knowledge be guided by natural causes and resolutely and consistently exclude anthropomorphic elements as a means of explaining and substantiating the truth;

Ancient Greece is the birthplace of European philosophy. It was here in the 7th-6th centuries. BC. European philosophy was born. Ancient Greek culture gave rise to a democratic form of organization of socio-political life. Polis (city-states) were organized on the principles of independence not only from external, but also from internal rulers, which excluded the deification of power. The development of ancient philosophy followed a rationalistic path, hand in hand with the development of science, rhetoric, and logic. Unlike Eastern philosophy, ancient Greek philosophy is characterized by an understanding of man as a free, independent individual, creative individuality. The priority has become such a characteristic of a person as intelligence .

The main stages in the development of ancient philosophy:

1).Naturphilosophical, or pre-Socratic, period (VII-V centuries BC). The main problems are the explanation of natural phenomena, the essence of the Cosmos, the surrounding world (natural philosophy), the search for the origin of all things.

Philosophical schools representing this period: Milesian school - “physicists” (Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes); Pythagorean school; school of Heraclitus of Ephesus; Eleatic School; atomists (Democritus, Leucippus).

2).Classical (Socratic) period (mid-V-late IV centuries BC)- the heyday of ancient Greek philosophy, coinciding with the heyday of the polis.

Main directions: philosophical and educational activities of the sophists; philosophy of Socrates; the emergence of “Socratic” schools; Plato's philosophy; Aristotle's philosophy. During this period, less attention was paid to the search for the origin; an idealistic version of the origin of existence was put forward (Plato); materialism (Democritus’ doctrine of atoms as the basis of the world) and idealism (Plato’s doctrine of ideas as the basis of the world) arise; interest in the problem of man, society and state; practical philosophical and educational activities (sophists and Socrates).

3).Hellenistic period (late IV-II centuries BC)- the period of crisis of the polis and the formation of large states of Asia and Africa under the rule of the Greeks and led by the comrades-in-arms of A. Macedonian and their descendants.

Main directions: Cynic philosophy; stoicism; the activities of “Socratic” philosophical schools: Plato’s Academy, Aristotle’s Lyceum, the Cyrenaic school, etc.; philosophy of Epicurus.

Features: crisis of ancient moral and philosophical values; denial of previous authorities, disdain for the state and its institutions, search for a physical and spiritual basis in oneself; desire for detachment from reality; the predominance of a materialistic view of the world; recognition of the highest good as the happiness and pleasure of an individual (physical - Cyrenaics, moral - Epicurus).

4).Roman period (I century BC – V century AD).

The most famous philosophers: Seneca; Marcus Aurelius; Titus Lucretius Carus; late Stoics; early Christians.

Features: the actual merging of ancient Greek and ancient Roman philosophy into one - ancient; influence on ancient philosophy of the philosophy of conquered peoples (East, North Africa, etc.); the closeness of philosophy, philosophers and state institutions (Seneca raised the Roman emperor Nero, Marcus Aurelius himself was an emperor); attention to the problems of man, society and the state; the flourishing of the philosophy of stoicism, whose supporters saw the highest good and meaning of life in the maximum spiritual development of the individual, withdrawal into oneself, and serenity); the predominance of idealism over materialism; increased attention to the problem of death and the afterlife; the growing influence on philosophy of the ideas of Christianity and early Christian heresies; the gradual merging of ancient and Christian philosophy, their transformation into medieval Christian philosophy.

SOPHISTS AND SOCRATES

The development of ancient philosophy followed a rationalistic path, hand in hand with the development of rhetoric and logic. In other Greece, such a human characteristic as intelligence with his cognitive ability, activity, criticality, dynamism, creative restlessness. The democratic form of organization of the socio-political life of ancient Greece, the direct participation of citizens in managing the affairs of the state created a favorable atmosphere of free criticism, exchange of opinions, and discussions. This has made the culture of thinking and speech, the ability to logically present, argue and justify one’s point of view in demand.

Sophists(sages, skilled) – teachers of rhetoric and “wisdom”; for a fee they taught the art of eloquence. Their focus is no longer on questions about the origins and structure of the cosmos, but on questions of practical influence on people’s opinions, the ability to prove or disprove them. The sophists argued that laws are established by people themselves, there are no unshakable truths, all knowledge is relative and anything can be proven or disproved. (Protagoras: different, even opposite, opinions can be expressed about any thing, and all of them are equal and true. “Man is the measure of all things...”) The sophists asserted the indistinguishability of good and evil, questioned the existence of gods, the justice of the laws of the state, the rationality decisions made in democratic assemblies.

Socrates(c. 470 – 399 BC) – student of the Sophists; accepted their irony but rejected their relativism and skepticism. A person, according to Socrates, can distinguish more justified and acceptable judgments from less justified, less acceptable ones. This is possible by overcoming the naive belief in the infallibility of one’s opinion when dialogue, discussion, dispute. Socrates called his method “maeutics” (midwifery, obstetrics) and “dialectics” (the ability to conduct a conversation, argument). Socrates' motto is “Know thyself.” Socrates developed “ethical rationalism” (the reason for a person’s bad actions is his ignorance of the truth and good). Socrates was Plato's teacher.

Is ancient philosophy. Its ancestors are the ancient Greeks and Romans. In the arsenal of thinkers of that time, the “tools” of knowledge were subtle speculation, contemplation and observation. Ancient philosophers were the first to begin to pose eternal questions that concern man: where does everything around us begin, the existence and non-existence of the world, the unity of contradictions, freedom and necessity, birth and death, the purpose of man, moral duty, beauty and sublimity, wisdom, friendship, love, happiness, personal dignity. These problems are still relevant today. It was ancient philosophy that served as the basis for the formation and development of philosophical thought in Europe.

Periods of development of ancient philosophy

Let us consider what main problems ancient philosophy solved and the stages of its development as a science.

In the development of ancient Greek and ancient Roman philosophical thought, four important stages can be roughly distinguished.

The first, pre-Socratic, period falls on the 7th - 5th centuries. BC. It is represented by the activities of the Eleatic and Milesian schools, Heraclitus of Ephesus, Pythagoras and his students, Democritus and Leucipus. They dealt with issues of the laws of nature, the construction of the world and the Cosmos. The importance of the pre-Socratic period is difficult to overestimate, because it was early ancient philosophy that largely influenced the development of culture, social life and Ancient Greece.

A characteristic feature of the second, classical period (V - IV centuries) is the appearance of the sophists. They shifted their attention from the problems of nature and the Cosmos to the problems of man, laid the foundations of logic and contributed to the development of In addition to the sophists, early ancient philosophy in this period is represented by the names of Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Protogor. At the same time, Roman philosophy began to take shape, in which three main directions were defined - Epicureanism, Stoicism and Skepticism.

For the period from the 4th to the 2nd centuries BC. e. Ancient philosophy goes through the third, Hellenistic, stage of development. At this time, the first philosophical systems emerged, deep in their content, new philosophical schools appeared - Epicurean, Academic, Perepathetics and others. Representatives of the Hellenistic period move on to solving ethical problems and moralizing precisely at a time when Hellenic culture is in decline. The names of Epicurus, Theophrastus and Carneades represent this stage in the development of philosophy.

With the beginning of our era (I - VI centuries), ancient philosophy enters its last period of development. At this time, the leading role belonged to Rome, under whose influence Greece also appeared. The formation of Roman philosophy was greatly influenced by Greek philosophy, in particular its Hellenistic stage. In the philosophy of Rome, three main directions are formed - Epicureanism, Stoicism and Skepticism. This period was characterized by the activities of such philosophers as Aristotle, Socrates, Protogor, and Plato.

The third and fourth centuries were the time of the emergence and development of a new direction in ancient philosophy - Neoplatonism, the founder of which was Plato. His ideas and views largely influenced the philosophy of early Christianity and the philosophy of the Middle Ages.

This is how ancient philosophy arose, the stages of development of which gave rise to interesting ideas: the idea of the universal connection of all phenomena and things existing in the world, and the idea of infinite development.

It was at those times that epistemological trends emerged - Democritus, being, in essence, a materialist, suggested that the atom is the smallest particle of any substance. This idea of his was ahead of centuries and millennia. Plato, adhering to idealistic views, created a dialectical doctrine of individual things and general concepts.

The philosophy of ancient times became one of the most independent. With its help, a holistic picture of the world was formed. Ancient philosophy allows us to trace the entire path of the formation of theoretical thought, full of non-standard and bold ideas. Many questions that ancient Greek and Roman philosophical minds tried to solve have not lost their relevance in our time.