The importance of ancient philosophy for the emergence and development of science. Features of ancient science. Ancient philosophy

The place of philosophy in the cultural system

Consideration of philosophy as a cultural-historical phenomenon allows us to embrace the entire dynamic complex of its problems, relationships, and functions. The social life of people, when examined culturally, appears as a single, holistic process associated with the formation, functioning, storage, and transmission of cultural and historical values; with a critical overcoming of outdated and the formation of new forms of experience. Being an effective method historical research, the cultural approach can play a significant role in developing the theory of certain social phenomena, since the theory acts as a generalization of them real story. By the time philosophy arose, humanity had accumulated various skills of action, accompanying knowledge and other experience. The emergence of philosophy was the birth of a special, secondary type of social consciousness, aimed at understanding already established forms of culture.

Ancient philosophy, its specific features

Ancient philosophy is a set of philosophical teachings that arose in Ancient Greece and Rome in the period from the 6th century BC. to 6th century AD The conventional time boundaries of this period are considered to be 585 BC. (when the Greek scientist Thales predicted a solar eclipse) and 529 AD. (when the Neoplatonic school in Athens was closed by Emperor Justinian).

Ancient philosophy is a set of philosophical teachings that arose in Ancient Greece and Rome in the period from the 6th century BC. to 6th century AD The conventional time boundaries of this period are considered to be 585 BC. (when the Greek scientist Thales predicted a solar eclipse) and 529 AD. (when the Neoplatonic school in Athens was closed by Emperor Justinian). In the history of ancient philosophy, several periods of its development can be distinguished: (1) Pre-Socratics, or Early natural philosophy; (2) classical period (Sophists, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle); (3) Hellenistic philosophy; (4) turn-of-the-millennium eclecticism; (5) Neoplatonism.

• (1) Pre-Socratics. main topic early Greek philosophy - the principles of the universe, its origin and structure. The philosophers of this period were mainly nature researchers, astronomers, and mathematicians. Believing that the birth and death of natural things does not occur by chance or out of nothing, they looked for a beginning, or a principle that explains the natural variability of the world. The first philosophers considered the beginning to be a single primal substance: water (Thales) or air (Anaximenes), the infinite (Anaximander), the Pythagoreans considered the limit and the infinite to be the beginning, giving rise to an ordered cosmos, cognizable through number. Subsequent authors (Empedocles, Democritus) named not one, but several principles (four elements, an infinite number of atoms). Like Xenophanes, many of the early thinkers criticized traditional mythology and religion. Philosophers have wondered about the causes of order in the world. Heraclitus and Anaxagoras taught about the rational principle ruling the world (Logos, Mind). Parmenides formulated the doctrine of true being, accessible only to thought. All subsequent development of philosophy in Greece (from the pluralistic systems of Empedocles and Democritus, to Platonism) to one degree or another demonstrates a response to the problems posed by Parmenides.
• (2) Classics of ancient Greek thought. The period of the Pre-Socratics is replaced by sophistry. Sophists are traveling paid teachers of virtue, their focus is on the life of man and society. The sophists saw knowledge, first of all, as a means to achieve success in life; they recognized rhetoric as the most valuable - mastery of words, the art of persuasion. The sophists considered relative traditional customs and moral standards. Their criticism and skepticism in their own way contributed to the reorientation of ancient philosophy from knowledge of nature to understanding the inner world of man. A clear expression of this “turn” was the philosophy of Socrates. He believed that the main thing was knowledge of good, because evil, according to Socrates, comes from people’s ignorance of their true good. Socrates saw the path to this knowledge in self-knowledge, in caring for his immortal soul, and not about his body, in comprehending the essence of the main moral values, the conceptual definition of which was the main subject of Socrates' conversations. The philosophy of Socrates gave rise to the so-called. Socratic schools (Cynics, Megarics, Cyrenaics), differing in their understanding of Socratic philosophy. The most outstanding student of Socrates was Plato, the creator of the Academy, the teacher of another major thinker of antiquity - Aristotle, who founded the Peripatetic school (Lyceum). They created complete philosophical teachings, in which they examined almost the entire range of traditional philosophical topics, developed philosophical terminology and a set of concepts, the basis for subsequent ancient and European philosophy. What was common in their teachings was: the distinction between a temporary, sensory-perceptible thing and its eternal, indestructible, comprehended by the mind essence; the doctrine of matter as an analogue of non-existence, the cause of the variability of things; an idea of ​​the rational structure of the universe, where everything has its purpose; understanding of philosophy as a science about the highest principles and purpose of all existence; recognition that the first truths are not proven, but are directly comprehended by the mind. Both of them recognized the state as the most important form of human existence, designed to serve his moral improvement. At the same time, Platonism and Aristotelianism had their own characteristic features, as well as differences. The uniqueness of Platonism was the so-called theory of ideas. According to it, visible objects are only similarities of eternal essences (ideas), forming a special world of true existence, perfection and beauty. Continuing the Orphic-Pythagorean tradition, Plato recognized the soul as immortal, called to contemplate the world of ideas and life in it, for which a person should turn away from everything material and corporeal, in which the Platonists saw the source of evil. Plato put forward a doctrine atypical for Greek philosophy about the creator of the visible cosmos - the demiurge god. Aristotle criticized Plato's theory of ideas for the “doubling” of the world it produced. He himself proposed a metaphysical doctrine of the divine Mind, the primary source of the movement of the eternally existing visible cosmos. Aristotle laid the foundation for logic as a special doctrine of forms of thinking and principles scientific knowledge, developed a style of philosophical treatise that has become exemplary, in which first the history of the issue is examined, then the argument for and against the main thesis by putting forward aporia, and in conclusion the solution to the problem is given.
• (3) Hellenistic philosophy. During the Hellenistic era, the most significant along with with the Platonists and Peripatetics became the schools of the Stoics, Epicureans and Skeptics. During this period, the main purpose of philosophy is seen in practical life wisdom. Ethics, oriented not at social life, but at the inner world of the individual, acquires paramount importance. The theories of the universe and logic serve ethical purposes: developing the correct attitude towards reality to achieve happiness. The Stoics represented the world as a divine organism, permeated and completely controlled by a fiery rational principle, the Epicureans - as various formations of atoms, skeptics called for refraining from making any statements about the world. Having different understandings of the paths to happiness, they all similarly saw human bliss in a serene state of mind, achieved by getting rid of false opinions, fears, and internal passions that lead to suffering.
• (4) Turn of the millennium. During late antiquity, polemics between schools gave way to a search for common grounds, borrowings and mutual influence. There is a developing tendency to “follow the ancients,” to systematize and study the heritage of past thinkers. Biographical, doxographic, and educational philosophical literature is becoming widespread. The genre of commentary on authoritative texts (primarily the “divine” Plato and Aristotle) ​​is especially developing. This was largely due to new editions of Aristotle's works in the 1st century. BC. Andronicus of Rhodes and Plato in the 1st century. AD Thrasyllus. In the Roman Empire, starting from the end of the 2nd century, philosophy became the subject of official teaching, funded by the state. Stoicism was very popular among Roman society (Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius), but Aristotelianism (most bright representative- commentator Alexander of Aphrodisias) and Platonism (Plutarch of Chaeronea, Apuleius, Albinus, Atticus, Numenius).
• (5) Neoplatonism. IN last centuries During its existence, the dominant school of antiquity was Platonic, which took on the influences of Pythagoreanism, Aristotelianism and partly Stoicism. The period as a whole is characterized by interest in mysticism, astrology, magic (neopythagoreanism), various syncretic religious and philosophical texts and teachings (Chaldean oracles, Gnosticism, Hermeticism). A feature of the Neoplatonic system was the doctrine of the origin of all things - the One, which is above being and thought and is understandable only in unity with it (ecstasy). As a philosophical movement, Neoplatonism was distinguished by a high level of school organization and a developed commentary and pedagogical tradition. Its centers were Rome (Plotinus, Porphyry), Apamea (Syria), where there was a school of Iamblichus, Pergamum, where Iamblichus' student Aedesius founded the school, Alexandria (main representatives - Olympiodorus, John Philoponus, Simplicius, Aelius, David), Athens (Plutarch of Athens , Syrian, Proclus, Damascus). A detailed logical development of a philosophical system describing the hierarchy of the world born from the beginning was combined in Neoplatonism with the magical practice of “communication with the gods” (theurgy), and an appeal to pagan mythology and religion.

In general, ancient philosophy was characterized by considering man primarily within the framework of the system of the universe as one of its subordinate elements, highlighting the rational principle in man as the main and most valuable thing, recognizing the contemplative activity of the mind as the most perfect form of true activity. Wide variety and richness of antique philosophical thought determined its consistently high significance and enormous influence not only on medieval (Christian, Muslim), but also on all subsequent European philosophy and science.

1. THE ORIGINS OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE IN THE ANCIENT WORLD. PHILOSOPHY AND MYTHOLOGY.

Ancient philosophy is a consistently developing philosophical thought and covers the period from the end of the 7th century. BC. up to the 6th century. AD Despite all the diversity of views of thinkers of this period, ancient philosophy is at the same time something unified, uniquely original and extremely instructive. It developed, not in isolation - it drew on the wisdom of the Ancient East, a culture that goes back to deeper antiquity, where even before the Greeks the formation of civilization took place: writing was formed, the beginnings of the science of nature and philosophical views themselves developed. There was also influence from more distant countries of the East - Ancient China and India. Ancient philosophy, which contained the rudiments of the main types of philosophical worldview developed in all subsequent centuries, is not a “museum of antiquities”, but a living picture of the formation of theoretical thought, full of bold, original ideas. This is a great triumph of reason. That is why it will never lose its high significance in the eyes of thinking humanity. She was a real social force of the ancient world, and then of the world-historical development of philosophical culture and each new generation, receiving higher education, is called upon to plunge into this ever-fresh stream of young, self-identified philosophical thought for the first time. Ancient philosophy arouses keen interest in every inquisitive person who is concerned about philosophical issues. Many of the problems that ancient philosophers pondered have not lost their relevance to this day. The study of ancient philosophy not only enriches us with valuable information about the results of the thoughts of outstanding thinkers, but also contributes to the development of more refined philosophical thinking in those who delve into their creations with love and zeal.

Philosophy is a system of ideas about the world and a person’s place in it; it serves as a guideline by which human behavior is built.

The formation of ancient philosophy: A characteristic feature of ancient Greek philosophy. F. consists primarily of contrasting phil. reflections on practical activity, in its unique relationship to mythology. Spiritual development went from mythology and religion to science and philosophy. An important link and condition for this development was the assimilation by the Greeks of scientific and philosophical concepts developed in the countries of the East - Babylon, Iran, Egypt. Many gr. F-s received their education there. The main schools: Milenian: the main one was Thales, he assumed that water was the beginning of everything, i.e. liquid, fluidity. Heraclitus (“book of nature”) discovers opposites and concludes that only the alternation of opposites gives a specific meaning. But he also understands that opposites are harmonious: “everything is one, and from one everything comes.” He believed that the beginning of everything was fire, and everything else was the transformation of fire. Pythagorean school: for the Pythagoreans, the beginning of everything was number, which was understood as the beginning that forms things. Philolaus, a representative of Pythogoras, combined the first 4 elements: earth-cube, fire-pyramid, water-hexohedron, air-actahedron. They tried to describe the whole world numerically. The Elleian school (Leucippus and his student Dimocritus) began with the beginning of the phenomenon. atom i.e. indivisibility. Gradually, 2 main types of phylum appear in F. worldviews - materialism and idealism. Their struggle constitutes the main content of phil. development in all subsequent times. At the same time, the opposition between two main methods of thinking arises: dialectics and metaphysics

Mythology. This “everyday” idea of ​​​​myths is to some extent the result of the earlier inclusion of ancient mythology in the circle of knowledge of European people (the word “myth” itself is Greek and means tradition, legend); It is precisely about ancient myths that highly artistic literary monuments have been preserved, the most accessible and known to the widest circle of readers. Ancient myths are stories of the ancient Greeks and Romans about their gods, heroes and other fantastic creatures. The names of ancient gods and heroes and stories about them became known especially widely since the Renaissance (XV-XVI centuries), when interest in antiquity revived in European countries. Around the same time, the first information about the myths of the Arabs and American Indians penetrated into Europe. In the educated environment of society, it became fashionable to use the names of ancient gods and heroes in an allegorical sense: when saying “Mars” they meant war, by “Venus” they meant love, by “Minerva” - wisdom, by “muses” - various arts and sciences, etc. . e. This usage has survived to this day, in particular in poetic language, which has absorbed many mythological images. In the 1st half of the 19th century. The myths of a wide range of Indo-European peoples (ancient Indians, Iranians, Germans, Slavs) are introduced into scientific circulation. A comparative historical study of a wide range of myths has made it possible to establish that in the myths of various peoples of the world - despite their extreme diversity - a number of basic themes and motifs are repeated.

The formation of ancient philosophy: A characteristic feature of ancient Greek philosophy. F. consists primarily of contrasting phil. reflections on practical activity, in its unique relationship to mythology. Spiritual development went from mythology and religion to science and philosophy. An important link and condition for this development was the assimilation by the Greeks of scientific and philosophical concepts developed in the countries of the East. Many Greek f-fs received their education there. Main schools: Milenian, the main one of which was Thales; he assumed that water was the beginning of everything, i.e. liquid, fluidity. Heraclitus (“book of nature”) discovers opposites and concludes that only the alternation of opposites gives a specific meaning. But he also understands that opposites are harmonious: “everything is one, and from one everything comes.” He believed that the beginning of everything was fire, and everything else was the transformation of fire. Pythagorean school: for the Pythagoreans, the beginning of everything was number, which was understood as the beginning that forms things. Philolaus, a representative of Pythogoras, combined the first 4 elements: earth-cube, fire-pyramid, water-hexohedron, air-actahedron. They tried with pom. numbers describe the whole world. Gradually, 2 main types of phil appear in the f-fii. worldviews - materialism and idealism. Their struggle constitutes the main content of phil. development in all subsequent times. At the same time, the opposition between two main methods of thinking arises: dialectics and metaphysics

Ancient philosophy: stages of development, their features

beginning of the 6th century BC from the Milesian school: (Thales, Heraclitus, Dimoctritus) The main idea is cosmocentrism, they tried to explain the world, the first cause)

dawn (Plato, Aristotle). Creation of classical philosophical systems

Decline. Hellenism. Roman Republic period

Death (of the Roman Empire).

2. SUBJECT OF PHILOSOPHY. STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE. PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE

The subject of philosophy does not correspond to the ordinary understanding of this word. In the everyday sense, philosophy is reasoning carried out at leisure about the subjects that make up the object of study of philosophy, conducted at the level of intuition, formulated “on the basis of the life experience of these “philosophers”. Distinctive feature This philosophy is the absence of any system in reasoning. Philosophy clearly grew out of precisely this kind of philosophizing. It went through many stages, structured as follows: several facts are taken, some category is taken, analysis is carried out and in the end we get a contradiction. In everyday life, this technique is used either to prove the nonsense of philosophy, or to assert one’s “ego,” or to “prove” one’s position, etc. and so on. In philosophy, many such stages have passed, and the contradiction at this stage of logical analysis was a premise for the next stage. Thus, philosophy is the development of “philosophizing” over thousands of years. At the same time, errors were constantly revealed, and “way out of dead ends” were found. Thus, “philosophizing” is distinguished, firstly, by the use of only individual experience, and not the experience of all humanity, secondly, by a much smaller lesson in reflection, thirdly, “philosophizing” is usually leisure, entertainment, it does not imply any some deep thoughts. It should also be noted that the definition of philosophy given by philosophers cannot be objective, because it affects them to a much greater extent than others. Engels defines philosophy as the science of the most general laws of nature, society and human thinking. The main questions of philosophy are ontological and epistemological. The essence of the ontological question is to establish the primacy of matter and consciousness (in various formulations), epistemological in the knowability of the world. The basis of philosophical analysis is the following method: a certain concept is taken, which we will take at the level of intuition. The second concept is taken, which is also described intuitively.

STRUCTURE OF PHILOSOPHICAL KNOWLEDGE. As a theoretical discipline, philosophy has a number of sections:

1) Ontology (ontos-being, logos-teaching) - the doctrine of being or the origins of all things; 2) Epistemology (gnosis-knowledge, logos-teaching) - the doctrine of knowledge. This is the section where problems of the nature of knowledge and its capabilities are studied. The prerequisites of knowledge are explored, the conditions for its reliability and truth are identified. Epistemology includes the following chapters and departments: a) Psychology of cognition - studies the subjective and individual processes of cognition; b) Logic of knowledge - the science of generally valid forms and means of thought necessary for rational knowledge in any field of knowledge. (dialectical logic, class logic, propositional logic, relational logic, etc.); c) Criticism of knowledge - analyzes the relationship between objective and subjective elements; d) General history of knowledge, evolution of knowledge; d) Axiology (axios - value) - the doctrine of values.

In the structure of philosophical knowledge, they also distinguish: 1) Social philosophy - analysis, study of the social structure of society, of man in it; 2) Philosophical anthropology - the study of man. (from the problem of origin to the cosmic future.); 3) Philosophy of culture - a section where the essence and meaning of culture is studied and explored; 4_Philosophy of law - doctrine, science about the most general theoretical and worldview problems of jurisprudence and state science; 5) Philosophy of history.

Of independent and no less importance are the following sections: 1) Dialectics - (the art of conversation, argument) - the doctrine of the most general natural connections and the formation, development of being and knowledge; 2) Aesthetics is a science that studies the sphere of a person’s aesthetic relationship to the world and the sphere of people’s artistic activity. (includes the theory of aesthetic values, the theory of aesthetic perception, the general theory of art.); 3) Ethics is a philosophical science, the object of study of which is morality, morality, as a form of social consciousness, as one of the aspects of human life.

Functions of philosophy: 1) Worldview. Philosophy gives an understanding of the whole, formulates the most general concepts and categories. Worldview as an idea of ​​the whole has its own structure: the philosophical doctrine of being - ontology (from the Greek ontos - existing and logos - teaching); the philosophical doctrine of knowledge of the world - epistemology (from the Greek gnoses - knowledge) and the philosophical doctrine of values ​​(from the Greek axios - valuable) - axiology. We can call this function the function of explication (i.e., identification) of “universals”, of the whole. 2) methodological function. Methodology is a system of initial principles, generalized ways (methods) of organizing and constructing theoretical activity, as well as the doctrine of this system. Because of this, philosophy performs a methodological function for all scientific knowledge. 3) The function of rationalization and systematization, the theoretical expression of the results of human experience in all its forms (the atomism of Democritus) 4) The critical function. The basis is an orientation towards the rationalism of philosophical thought, rejection of all kinds of misconceptions and errors, dogmatism. 5) Focus on the future. These can be considered “planetary philosophy and ethics”, or “Russian cosmism” by Vernadsky, Tsiolkovsky, Chizhevsky, considering the unity of man and the cosmos.

3. TEACHING ABOUT BEING AND SUBSTANCE IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY

Substance (lat. substantia - essence; that which underlies), something relatively stable: something that exists on its own, does not depend on anything else. Aristotle distinguished in the concept of substance (Greek “ousia”) the so-called first substance - a specifically existing individual thing (“this horse”), as well as a second substance that characterizes the essence of individual things, their belonging to a certain species and genus (“horse”, “ living being”, etc.).

Being is a central philosophical concept that characterizes everything that exists, both actually and potentially (actual being, possible being), both in reality and in consciousness (thoughts, imagination).. The opposite of being is nothing. Being is existence in all its diverse forms. The doctrine of Being is called ontology. The categories of being unite, on the basis of existence, a wide variety of phenomena, objects, and processes. Many philosophical systems strive to view the world as a certain integrity. To express the unity of being there is a special category of substance. Substance means the internal unity of the diversity of things that exist through them and by their means. Substance was recognized as either the material or the ideal. In some teachings there are many substances, in others there is one. Pluralism in a philosophical sense means the recognition of a plurality of substances. Dualism comes from two foundations, two substances, one of which is material, the other ideal. Doctrines that recognize one substance are called monistic.

Philosophical categories of being are associated with real life the individual and humanity. The life of every person is based on understandable foundations. We accept them without doubt or consideration. The most important thing is that the world exists. Each of us has a natural need for this world to continue to exist as a stable whole. The problem of Existence arises acutely when the fundamental prerequisites of life and consciousness begin to “float away” and become a subject of doubt. Nature and stable life are constantly changing and give a person reasons to doubt the eternal and unchanging existence of the world.

Still, the idea of ​​the enduring existence of nature is more stable in the history of thought, although man, individual things, processes are finite. The world, reality has its own logic internal development, its existence. The world exists before consciousness, before the existence of individual people, their awareness, their actions.

4. DIVERSITY AND UNITY OF THE WORLD. MATTER, SPACE AND TIME

E. m. lies in its materiality, in the fact that all objects and phenomena in the world represent different states and properties of moving matter. There is nothing in the world that is not a specific form of matter, its property or manifestation of properties and relationships. E. m. finds its expression in the substantiality of matter as a substrate of various properties and forms of motion, its uncreation and indestructibility, universality, its eternity in time and infinity in space. In addition, energy is manifested in the universal connection of phenomena and objects, in the presence of such universal attributes in all types of matter as movement, space, time, the ability to self-development, etc., in the existence of universal dialectical patterns of the movement of matter, in its historical development, as well as in the processes of transformation of some forms of matter and movement into others. On a local scale, the unity of the world is revealed in the commonality of the physicochemical structure of various bodies from the same atoms and elementary particles and fields, in the commonality of physical and chemical laws on Earth and in space systems, in the unity of forms of motion, in the isomorphism of structural relationships in many systems. E. m., according to Engels, is proven by “the long and difficult development of philosophy and natural science.” But E. m. cannot be understood as the uniformity and homogeneity of its structure, as a simple repetition of phenomena known to us on all possible spatiotemporal scales. Due to the action of the universal law of transition quantitative changes In the qualitative, in the endless self-development of matter, countless qualitatively different states and structural levels of matter have arisen, at each of which specific properties and forms of motion are manifested. The currently known structural levels of matter from elementary particles to the Metagalaxy represent only a small part of the entire diversity and infinity of the world. But this diversity is not an insurmountable obstacle to reliable knowledge of matter. Based on the unity of natural phenomena, the presence in the world of general properties and patterns of movement of matter, the human mind reveals the elements of the infinite in every finite phenomenon. E. and M.M. are known through the universal and absolute in the properties and laws of the existence of matter.

5. MOVEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT, DIALECTICS AS A TEACHING ABOUT DEVELOPMENT,

The constantly evolving struggle between old and new, opposite and contradictory, emerging and disappearing, leads the world to new structures. This struggle itself objectively presupposes the need for dialectics - a scientific theory of development, a method of understanding nature, society and thinking. Everything that happens in the world, namely: change, movement and development, is subject to the laws of dialectics. Dialectics as a science constitutes the soul of Marxism, is a harmonious system of economic, socio-political and philosophical views and is an invaluable creation of the human mind. To understand dialectics, it is necessary to clarify some starting points. Dialectics as a term is used in the sense of reflecting the universal laws of movement and development of objective reality. Dialectics as a concept is used in three meanings:

1) Dialectics is understood as a set of objective dialectical patterns, processes operating in the world regardless of human consciousness. This is the dialectics of nature, the dialectics of society, the dialectics of thinking, taken as the objective side of the thought process. This is objective reality.

2) Subjective dialectics, dialectical thinking. It is a reflection of objective dialectics in consciousness.

3) Philosophical doctrine of dialectics or theory of dialectics. Acts as a reflection of a reflection. It is called the doctrine of dialectics, the theory of dialectics.

Dialectics as a category has a number of characteristics: Dialectics is the science of the most general laws of any movement. Nowadays in science it is axiomatic and indisputable that our subjective thinking and the objective world are subject to the same laws and therefore there can be no contradiction between them in the results. Modern natural science recognizes the heredity of acquired properties and thereby expands the subject of experience, spreading it from the individual to the race.

Dialectics as a theory of development. Hegel established that truth is not presented in the form of assembled ready-made dogmatic positions; truth lies in the process of cognition itself, in the long historical development of science, rising from lower levels to higher ones, but never reaching a point from which, having found abstract truth, should not contemplate with folded hands. All social orders that replace each other in the course of history represent only incoming stages in the endless development of man from the lowest level to the highest. Each stage is necessary and has its justification for the time and conditions to which it owes its origin. For dialectical philosophy, nothing is established once and for all.

6. PHILOSOPHICAL AND SCIENTIFIC PICTURE OF THE WORLD. MODERN SCIENTIFIC PICTURE OF THE WORLD.

The picture of the world (PW) is the set of ideas that has developed at a specific stage of human development about the structure of reality, the ways of its functioning and change, formed on the basis of the initial ideological principles and integrating the knowledge and experience accumulated by humanity. The picture of the world is not something individual (unlike from worldview). KM is the fruit of the collective efforts of the professional community.

The NCM began to take shape intensively in the 16th-17th centuries, when geocentrism was replaced by heliocentrism and classical mechanics emerged. NCM is understood as a holistic system of ideas about the general properties and patterns of the world, which arises as a result of generalization and synthesis of basic scientific concepts and principles that reflect these objective patterns.

In SCM we should distinguish between general scientific (GSCM) and specific scientific (SCNS) pictures of the world. The ONCM generalizes and synthesizes scientific knowledge accumulated by all sciences about nature, society, man and the results of his activities. Among the CNCM are physical, chemical, cosmological and cosmogonic, biological, environmental, informational, political, economic, etc. and so on. pictures of the world. Accordingly, along with the concept of physical reality, the scientific picture of the world contains the concepts of biological, social, historical and even linguistic reality. Each of these realities is also a system of theoretical objects constructed by biological, sociological, historical and linguistic theories, respectively. The main feature of the NCM is that it is built on the basis of the fundamental principles underlying the scientific theory and in the field of science that occupies a leading position in a given era.

The philosophical picture of the world (PWM) arose in the middle of the first millennium BC along with the emergence of philosophical teachings of the classical era. The world and man in philosophy were initially considered in connection with the idea of ​​Reason. In the philosophical picture of the world, man is fundamentally different from everything that exists, in particular from other living beings, because he has a special activity principle - ratio, LOGOS, reason. Thanks to reason, a person is able to understand the world and himself. Such comprehension is considered as the purpose of man and the meaning of his existence.

Space and time in the philosophical picture of the world act as categories of order and, therefore, conditions for the intelligibility of the world. Space - as a way of ordering external perceptions, time - as a way of ordering internal experiences. A person in the philosophical picture of the world is, first of all, a rational being, fundamentally different from inanimate objects and living beings. The FCM created within the framework of ontology determines the main content of the worldview of an individual, social group, and society. Being a rational-theoretical way of understanding the world, the philosophical worldview is abstract in nature and reflects the world in extremely general concepts and categories. Consequently, FCM is a set of generalized, system-organized and theoretically substantiated ideas about the world in its integral unity and the place of man in it.

Fundamentals new painting of the world: general and special theory of relativity (the new theory of space and time has led to the fact that all reference systems have become equal, therefore all our ideas make sense only in a certain reference system. The picture of the world has acquired a relative, relative character, key ideas about space have changed, time, causality, continuity, the unambiguous opposition of subject and object was rejected, perception turned out to be dependent on the frame of reference, which includes both subject and object, the method of observation, etc.)

quantum mechanics (it revealed the probabilistic nature of the laws of the microworld and the irremovable wave-particle dualism in the very foundations of matter). It became clear that it would never be possible to create an absolutely complete and reliable scientific picture of the world; any of them has only relative truth.

Later, within the framework of the new picture of the world, revolutions took place in the private sciences in cosmology (the concept of a non-stationary Universe), in biology (the development of genetics), etc. Thus, during the 20th century, natural science greatly changed its appearance in all its sections.

Three global revolutions predetermined three long periods of development of science; they are key stages in the development of natural science. This does not mean that the periods of evolutionary development of science lying between them were periods of stagnation. At this time, the most important discoveries were also made, new theories and methods were created, and it was in the course of evolutionary development that material was accumulated that made revolution inevitable. In addition, between two periods of the development of science, separated by a scientific revolution, as a rule, there are no irremovable contradictions; according to the principle of correspondence formulated by N. Bohr, the new scientific theory does not completely reject the previous one, but includes it as a special case, that is, it establishes for It has a limited scope. Already now, when not even a hundred years have passed since the emergence of the new paradigm, many scientists are making assumptions about the imminence of new global revolutionary changes in the scientific picture of the world.

7. MAN AND NATURE: THE IDEA OF CO-EVOLUTION OF MAN AND NATURE IN CONDITIONS OF FORMATION OF THE NOOSPHERE

The noosphere is the highest stage of development of the biosphere, associated with the emergence and formation of civilized humanity in it, when its intelligent activity becomes the main determining factor in the purposeful development. The noosphere includes: 1) the anthroposphere; ; 2) technosphere; 3) living and inanimate nature modified by humans; 4) sociosphere.

In the late 60s and early 70s, the aggravation of the environmental situation abroad intensified interest in the problem of interaction between nature and society, and anthropogenic influence on the Earth's biosphere. In this regard, domestic researchers turned to V.I. Vernadsky. One of the key ideas underlying Vernadsky’s theory of the noosphere is that man is not a self-sufficient living being, living separately according to his own laws, he coexists within nature and is part of it. This unity is due, first of all, to the functional continuity of the environment and man, which Vernadsky tried to show as a biogeochemist. Humanity itself is a natural phenomenon and it is natural that the influence of the biosphere affects not only the living environment, but also the way of thinking. But not only nature has an influence on humans, there is also feedback. Moreover, it is not superficial, reflecting the physical impact of man on the environment, it is much deeper. .

1. Man, as he is observed in nature, like all living organisms, like every living substance, is a certain function of the biosphere, in its certain space-time;

2. Man in all his manifestations is part of the biosphere;

3. The breakthrough of scientific thought was prepared by the entire past of the biosphere and has evolutionary roots. The noosphere is a biosphere processed by scientific thought, prepared by the entire past of the planet, and not a short-term and transient geological phenomenon.

Much of what Vernadsky wrote about becomes the property of today. His thoughts about the integrity, indivisibility of civilization, the unity of the biosphere and humanity are modern and understandable to us. Crucial moment in the history of mankind, as scientists, politicians, and publicists talk about today, was seen by Vernadsky. He saw the inevitability of the noosphere, prepared both by the evolution of the biosphere and by the historical development of mankind. So, what is the noosphere: a utopia or a real survival strategy? Vernadsky’s works make it possible to more substantively answer the question posed, since they indicate a number of specific conditions necessary for the formation and existence of the noosphere. We list these conditions:

1. Human settlement of the entire planet.

2. A dramatic transformation in the means of communication and exchange between countries.

3. Strengthening ties, including political ones, between all countries of the Earth.

4. The beginning of the predominance of the geological role of man over other geological processes occurring in the biosphere.

5. Expanding the boundaries of the biosphere and going into space.

6. Discovery of new energy sources.

7. Equality for people of all races and religions.

8. Increasing the role of the masses in resolving issues of foreign and domestic policy.

9. Freedom of scientific thought and scientific research from the pressure of religious, philosophical and political constructs and the creation in the state system of conditions favorable for free scientific thought.

10. A well-thought-out system of public education and an increase in the well-being of workers. Creating a real opportunity to prevent malnutrition and hunger, poverty and greatly reduce disease.

11. Reasonable transformation of the primary nature of the Earth in order to make it capable of satisfying all the material, aesthetic and spiritual needs of a numerically increasing population.
12. Elimination of wars from the life of society.

Vernadsky's ideas were far ahead of the time in which he worked. This fully applies to the doctrine of the biosphere and its transition to the noosphere. Only now, in conditions of extraordinary aggravation of global problems of our time, are Vernadsky’s prophetic words about the need to think and act in the planetary - biosphere - aspect becoming clear. Only now are the illusions of technocratism and the conquest of nature crumbling and the essential unity of the biosphere and humanity becoming clear. The fate of our planet and the fate of humanity are one destiny. Vernadsky associates the formation of the noosphere stage with the action of many factors: the unity of the biosphere and humanity, the unity of the human race, the planetary nature of human activity and its commensurability with geological processes, the development of democratic forms of human society and the desire for peace among the peoples of the planet, the unprecedented flourishing (“explosion”) of science and technology. Generalizing these phenomena, placing the further evolution of the biosphere inextricably linked with the development of mankind, Vernadsky introduces the concept of the noosphere. It must be borne in mind that the task of creating the noosphere is the task of today. Its solution is associated with the unification of the efforts of all humanity, with the establishment of new values ​​of cooperation and interconnection of all peoples of the world. In our country, the ideas of the noosphere are organically connected with the revolutionary restructuring of socialist society. Democracy, democratic principles public life, the revival of culture, science and folk life, a radical revision of the departmental approach to environmental management, etc. - all these are the components of the noosphere. Focus on the future, thus, - characteristic noospheric teaching, which in
modern conditions need to be developed from all sides.

8. MAN AS A PHIL PROBLEM: GENIC ESSENCE AND INDIVIDUAL EXISTENCE

For philosophy, it is very important to highlight concepts that reflect the fundamental aspects of human life. This topic distinguishes between understanding humans as both individual and social beings. The difference between individual and social in human existence lies in the fact that a person is able to draw a clear line between what belongs to him as an individual subject and what is the common property of many, many people. There are forms of human life that are possible only as an individual process. Many mental phenomena have an individual character: memory, attention, emotions, temperament, will, etc.

What is recorded in philosophy as the individual side of human life is expressed in special terms. One of these terms is the concept of “existence”, in the Western philosophical tradition - “existence”, expressing the individual existence of a person. A whole philosophical movement has been formed - “existentialism”, for which main issue is the existence of man as an individual.

Now let us directly turn to the meaning of the concept of “human existence”, linking it with the concepts of “isolation” and “loneliness”. In the concept of “existence” the most immediate is the level of purely natural human existence. Man exists, first of all, as a living organic being, a unity of soul and body. All people naturally, i.e. as natural beings, separated from each other. Therefore, people are very often spoken of as natural “individuals”. The natural, natural separation of man from man is the basis of any personal identity. From this point of view, loneliness is the highest degree of human isolation. The existence of a person as a subject of isolation and loneliness is directly related to self-awareness. The self-conscious Self is the main condition of human individuation. A person in his self-awareness decides the question of the purpose and meaning of his existence. If we analyze the life path of famous people, the role of self-awareness in the development becomes clear. human individuality. Human existence is inherently tragic: its tragedy is that a person is not able to realize himself fully and encounters insurmountable external obstacles. The spirit of man develops, but it is extinguished physical strength, mistakes are realized, but it is impossible to live life again.

For philosophy, the concept of “existence” expresses the real, concrete existence of a person as an individual, separate being. The fundamental nature of the meaning of life is easier to comprehend if we take into account the fact that the poles human existence are "birth" and "death". The original meaning of the word “exist” is “to live”, “to remain”, “to be present”. Any existing individual contains within himself all the secrets of human existence. In the deep roots of existential existence, the infinite value of human individuality is revealed. A person who ceases to exist is said to take the entire Universe with him. Man can exist in different forms. What makes it similar different people, is their ability to individually embody the generic essence of humanity. The historical richness of human nature is realized in the individual forms of human existence.

Related to the problem of existence is the problem of human essence. The concept of “human essence” refers to such a human state as “communication”, “collectivity”. The concept of essence captures the generalized idea of ​​a person. The category “communication” requires special clarification here. First of all, this concept should be given a very broad meaning. In the language of philosophy, “to communicate” means to have a common subject, to comprehend a common meaning, to express a common meaning. Examples of commonality are the presence of taboos in the life of primitive tribes, a central governing body for a state, etc. What is “common” places an invisible stamp on individual representatives of this community.

The philosophical problem of human essence is that people not only exist in the world, but somehow meaningfully define themselves, their human condition. Jean-Paul Sartre expressed a very definite philosophical position: the essence of a person is what he makes of himself. There is another philosophical point of view, its essence is that a person is not at all free in his implementation, that a person is given his essence before he exists; this means that a person can really exist only in a form that is determined without regard to his freedom.

So, we can state that the problem of human essence is not about the content, but about the form of human life. This means that if people enter into any kind of collective relations, then it is not indifferent in what social form this is carried out, in the form of tribal primitive relations, or in the modern civilized form of a market state. In the language of philosophy, this phenomenon received the name “transpersonal”, “transpersonal”, which means “dominant over the personality, person”.

The essence of a person does not apply only to separate, isolated individuals - it goes beyond one person and applies to many people. At the same time, we must not lose sight of the fact that the essence of a person is not an indefinite general characteristic of society alone—there are living people behind it. Yes, there are separate, isolated individuals, but they communicate with their own kind, adapt to each other, and organize common living together. Each individual, realizing himself in life, becomes an individual within society, within social forms of connection with other individuals. Education aims to connect the individual to the general social forms public life. Socialization of personality is the individual process of a person’s entry into society, the development of a person as a socialized being who knows how to live in society, with people.

9. THE PROBLEM OF THE MEANING OF LIFE IN PHILOSOPHY: GENERAL HUMAN IDEALS AND HUMAN VALUE ORIENTATIONS. PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEMS OF BIOETICS.

The problem of the meaning of human life. In considering the issue, it is appropriate to identify how this problem was considered in different eras. A number of interpreters of the problem have tried to reduce the importance of self-worth, but a person should be happy not in someone else’s life, but in his own life. The essence of the problem is succinctly expressed in the form of the question: “Why live?”

Adherents of the philosophy of hedonism and eudaimonism, today, like many centuries ago, claim as the meaning of life and its highest goal: the first is the achievement of maximum pleasure, the second is the achievement of happiness. Proponents of utilitarianism believe that achieving profit, benefit, and success is precisely the meaning of human life. Proponents of pragmatism argue that the goal of life justifies any means to achieve it.

The modern Christian Orthodox tradition proclaims: “man has no boundaries to his human nature.” If God is a free spiritual person, then man must become the same. Man always has the opportunity to become more and more godlike. The perfection of human nature within the nature of God turns out to be a source of joy and freedom.

Supporters of materialistic ideas believe that the development of man and humanity is determined by their internal logic of self-development. The purpose of man has nothing to do with some world mind, absolute or god. In the materialistic tradition, the meaning of life is seen in the self-development of man, in the improvement of his essential strengths, abilities and needs. This process is conditioned by previous development and has a specific historical real content.

The meaning of life is a philosophical category that reflects a long-term, stable task that has become an internal conviction of an individual, has social and personal value, and is realized in its social activities. This task is determined by the system of social relations, the goals and interests of society and the free choice of the individual. It is impossible to find the meaning of life for all times and peoples, because along with universal human, eternal truths, it includes something specific - the aspirations of the people of each given era. The meaning of life is revealed to each person differently. The content of the purpose of life changes not only depending on the historical conditions of a person’s existence, but also on his age characteristics: in youth the goals are the same, in maturity and old age they are different.

The meaning of life is an independent conscious choice of those values ​​that (according to E. Fromm) orient a person not towards having (an attitude towards possession), but towards being (an attitude towards using all human potentials). The meaning of life is in the self-realization of the individual, in the human need to create, give, share with others, sacrifice oneself for the sake of others. And the more significant a person is, the more influence she has on the people around her. The meaning of life is to improve yourself and improve the world around you.
These general ideas about the meaning of life must be transformed into the meaning of life for each individual person, determined by objective circumstances and his individual qualities.

Bioethics represents an important point in the growth of philosophical knowledge. The formation and development of bioethics is associated with the process of transformation of traditional ethics in general and medical ethics in particular. It is due, first of all, to the sharply increasing attention to human rights (in medicine, these are the rights of the patient, test subject, etc.) and the creation of new medical technologies that give rise to many acute problems requiring legal and moral regulation.

The development of bioethics in Russia can contribute to the humanization of domestic biomedicine and the ethical self-awareness of the professional medical community. The development of bioethics in Russia, of course, cannot lead domestic healthcare out of the crisis in which it finds itself. But it will help to formulate new ethical regulations for the professional medical community, to understand the moral conflicts and dilemmas that biologists, doctors, and psychiatrists face in their work. The development of bioethics in Russia is proceeding in different directions. Among them, the main one should be legislative regulation of biomedical research and health care practice in such areas as transplantation, determining the moment of death, the limits of life-sustaining treatment for hopelessly ill patients, etc. An important role in the development of bioethics should be played by the creation of ethical committees and commissions in research and development medical institutions. In the formation of ethical self-awareness medical community The introduction of bioethics courses in medical schools at all levels is of great importance. And finally, support for research work in bioethics. A lot has been done in 1991-1992. The Russian National Committee on Bioethics has been created. An association on bioethics has been formed within the Moscow Philosophical Foundation. Finally, the law “On the protection of the health of citizens of the Russian Federation” was adopted. Research work on bioethics issues is beginning to develop.

10. THE PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN PHILOSOPHY. CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS

Consciousness, one of the main aspects of spiritual life, is the correlation of the subject of experience with an internal or external object and its self-relation with itself (self-consciousness as knowledge of personal identity). In this sense, “consciousness” is “accompanying knowledge” in the unity of the conscious, the conscious and the very act of awareness, always aimed at something. Consciousness can vary in the degree of its clarity and distinctness.

Consciousness is structurally organized, representing a system of elements that are in regular relationships with each other. In the structure of consciousness, such elements as awareness of things, as well as experience, i.e., are most clearly distinguished. attitude towards the content of what is reflected. The development of consciousness involves, first of all, enriching it with new knowledge. Knowledge of things has different levels penetration and degree of clarity of understanding. Sensations, concepts, perceptions, thinking form the core of consciousness. But they do not exhaust the entire structural completeness of consciousness: it also includes the act of attention as its necessary component. Objects and events that influence us evoke in us not only cognitive images, but also emotions. The richest sphere of a person’s emotional life includes feelings, mood, or emotional well-being and affects. Feelings and emotions are components of consciousness. Consciousness is not limited to cognitive processes, focus on an object, or the emotional sphere. Our intentions are translated into reality through the efforts of the will.

Unconscious (B), in broad. sense - a set of mental processes, operations and states that are not represented in the consciousness of the subject. In a number of mental theories, B is a special sphere of the mental or a system of processes that are qualitatively different from the phenomena of consciousness. The term “B” is also used to characterize individual and group behavior, the actual goals and consequences of which are not realized. The concept of B was first clearly formulated by Leibniz, who interpreted B as a low form of mental activity, lying beyond the threshold of conscious ideas. The first attempt at a materialistic explanation of B was made by D. Hartley, who connected B with the activity of the nervous system.

The dynamic characteristic B was introduced by Herbart (1824), according to which incompatible ideas can come into conflict with each other, and the weaker ones are forced out of consciousness, but continue to influence it without losing their dynamic properties. French research psycho. schools made it possible to reveal mental activity different from conscious, which was not realized by the patient with the help of hypnosis. Freud continued this line, who presented B as a powerful irrational force, antagonistic to the activity of consciousness. Unconscious According to Freud, drives can be identified and brought under the control of consciousness using the technique of psychoanalysis. In addition to personal B, Jung introduced the concept of collective B, identical among individuals certain group, this or that people, all of humanity.

B is a form of mental reflection, in which the image of reality and the subject’s attitude to this reality are presented as one undivided whole: unlike consciousness, in B the reflected reality merges with the experiences of the subject. As a result, in B there is no voluntary control of the actions carried out by the subject and a reflexive assessment of their results. B find their expression in the child’s forms of cognition of reality, in intuitions, affects, etc., as well as in aspirations, feelings and actions, the motivating reasons for which are not recognized by the individual.

The problem of the ideal: All teachings are divided into materialistic and idealistic. Idealists distinguish the substance of being as the spiritual principle. The concept of the ideal also operates within the framework of materialist philosophy. The ideal has no clear definition due to the variety of approaches.

The ideal in the modern view is defined through the concepts of consciousness, psyche, sometimes as cosmic mind, information fields, but the ideal is not synonymous with these concepts. The concept of the ideal is correlated with spiritual monads. Many definitions come from the distant past, but their discussion has not lost its relevance today. The concept of the ideal is used to characterize the specific existence of an object, first of all, to distinguish the thought of an object from the object itself. From the point of view from the point of view of materialistic philosophy: being determines consciousness. Consciousness is a synonym for the ideal—this is wrong. Three points of view on the nature of the ideal:

The nature of the ideal is sought on the side of the subject (Dubrovin) - the ideal - the inner spiritual world of man.

The nature of the ideal is sought on the side of practice (Ilyenkov) - the ideal - objectified mental forms - as a scheme of objective practical activity.

The nature of the ideal is sought on the side of the object (Livshits) - the ideal - an objective standard - an example of what an object or phenomenon should be (a rehash of Plato's philosophy). It is necessary to synthesize these three positions.

12. COGNITION AS A CULTURAL-HISTORICAL PROCESS. THE PROBLEM OF TRUTH IN PHILIA AND SCIENCE

An adequate reflection of reality is the essence cognitive process. Materialest. the approach says that such knowledge is possible. Knowledge of the knowing subject is ideal. Knowledge gradually moves into the spiritual sphere (scientific and theoretical activity). Subject of knowledge - Ch. Object of knowledge - all forms of matter and forms of its interaction. On initial stages human development cognition is associated with practical activity. Gradually, knowledge related to predictions, theoretical, etc. appeared. Knowledge is the highest form of reflection of reality.

Structure of knowledge: Sensual and rational knowledge. 1) Knowledge as a system (Rules showing how to carry out a particular activity based on given knowledge are called rules. Knowledge is thus included in the system of activity); 2) knowledge as a reflection of reality; 3) Sensory cognition(to understand objects of this type, the functioning of the senses, nervous system, and brain is necessary, due to which sensation and perception of material things arise.

Truth is an adequate reflection of an object in the consciousness of the subject, which recreates the object as it exists independently of the consciousness of the subject. The materialist theory of knowledge concretizes the traditional concept of truth through the dialectical relationship of the concepts: “objective truth”, “subjective truth”, “absolute truth”, “relative truth”, “concreteness of truth”. Objective truth is the content of human knowledge about reality, independent of the subject, man, and humanity. It exists because the material world that is reflected in it is objective, and reflection implies similarity with the original. Therefore, in cognition there is a moment that does not depend on our consciousness, but is entirely determined by the influence on it outside world. This content of our knowledge, independent of us, is objective truth.

Relative truth is knowledge that is, in principle, correct, but does not fully reflect reality and does not provide a comprehensive, exhaustive image of it.

Absolute truth is a complete, accurate, exhaustive reflection of an object in the consciousness of the subject; in a broad sense - absolute knowledge about the whole world. In this sense, absolute truth is the boundary to which scientific knowledge strives, without ever achieving it. In a narrow sense, absolute truth means complete and accurate knowledge of individual moments of reality, and in this meaning it is an element of achieved knowledge.

From the analysis of absolute and relative truth follows the doctrine of the concreteness of truth. Concrete truth is a truth that correctly reflects the essence of certain phenomena and the specific conditions in which these phenomena develop. Modern materialism proceeds from the fact that there is no abstract truth; truth is always concrete. This means that it is necessary to take into account the boundaries of application of the results of knowledge and clarify them. Ignorance or ignorance of these limits turns our knowledge into error.

Truth cannot be understood as ready-made knowledge, unchangeable and given once and for all. Truth is not given ready-made, and it cannot be put into your pocket in this form. Truth is an endless process of approaching an object, which itself is in development. In this regard, any knowledge recorded at one or another specific historical level is incomplete, inaccurate, and to a certain extent one-sided, that is, at each specific historical level of development of knowledge we are dealing only with relative truth.

13. SCIENCE IS A SPECIFIC FORM OF COGNITIVE ACTIVITY. SYSTEMICITY, VALIDITY, AND GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE.

Science yavl. basic person shape knowledge. Social functions: 3 groups: 1) cultural and worldview, science as an immediate one. produced force, as a social force (used in solving various problems that arise in the course of general development). This is historical. functions arose and expanded. First in the Renaissance - the struggle between theology and science for the right to determine the worldview. The process of transforming science into production. strength - the creation and strengthening of permanent channels for practice. use of scientific knowledge, the emergence of applied research. In modern era, science acts as a social science. strength.

The variety of sciences about the island: 1) Ethnography studies the life and culture of peoples globe, their origin, settlement and cultural and historical connections. 2) Legal science see. the essence and history of state and law 3) Linguistics studies language, its culture, the laws of functioning and development. 4) Pedagogy has as its subject the issues of upbringing, education and training of younger generations in accordance with the goals and objectives of society. 5) Literary studies studies fiction, the specifics of literature. creativity, social significance of art. liters. 6) Economics studies economics. human relations, laws governing the production, distribution and exchange of material goods.

For scientific knowledge is characterized by the presence of 2 levels: empirical. and theoretical For empirical knowledge is characterized by fact-fixing activity. Theor. knowledge is essential knowledge carried out at the level of abstractions of high orders. A theory is a generalization of practice, experience, or observation. Observation and experimentation are the most important. research methods in scientific. knowledge. Empirical and theor. the levels are connected and presuppose each other, although historically the empirical preceded the theoretical. In the process of scientific In cognition, a thought experiment is used, when a scientist operates with images and concepts in his mind and mentally creates the necessary conditions. Theory is the highest, substantiated, logically consistent system of scientific knowledge, giving a holistic view of essential properties, patterns, etc. Theory is a developing system of scientific knowledge that has been verified by practice. The core of a scientific theory is its constituent laws. The variety of forms of modern theoretical knowledge corresponds to the variety of types of theories, as well as the variety of their classifications.

The transition from observation to empirical facts involves 1) rational processing of observation data 2) a search for stable invariant content in them. Science deals with a special set of objects that cannot be reduced to objects of everyday experience. The characteristics of objects of scientific research can explain the main features of scientific knowledge as a product of scientific activity. Their reliability can no longer be justified only by their use in production and everyday experience. Science forms specific ways of substantiating the truth of knowledge: experimental control over the acquired knowledge

14. STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE, ITS METHODS AND FORMS

Scientific knowledge, like all forms of spiritual production, is ultimately necessary in order to regulate human activity. Different types of cognition perform this role in different ways, and the analysis of this difference is the first and necessary condition for identifying the characteristics of scientific cognition.

Activity can be considered as a complexly organized network of various acts of transformation of objects, when the products of one activity pass into another and become its components. Science sets the ultimate goal of foreseeing the process of transforming objects of practical activity (object in the initial state) into corresponding products (object in the final state). Therefore, the main task of science is to identify the laws in accordance with which objects change and develop. The orientation of science towards the study of objects that can be included in activities, and their research as subordinate objective laws functioning and development constitute the first, main feature scientific knowledge., which distinguishes it from other forms of cognitive activity. Science is focused on the substantive objective study of reality. The process of scientific knowledge is determined not only by the characteristics of the object being studied, but also numerous factors socio-cultural nature.

Science in human activity singles out only its subject structure and views everything only through the prism of this structure. Science can study any phenomena of human life and his condition; it can study the activities of the human psyche and culture. but only from one angle - as special objects that obey objective laws. Science also studies the subjective structure of activity, but as a special object. Thus, science can study everything in the human world, but from a special perspective and from a special point of view, science cannot replace all forms of knowledge of the world, the entire culture; everything that escapes her sight. compensate for other forms of comprehension of the spiritual world.

Science has a system distinctive features scientific knowledge from everyday knowledge: 1) a focus on researching the laws of transformation of objects and the objectivity and objectivity of scientific knowledge that realizes this focus; 2) the expansion of science beyond the framework of the subject structures of production and everyday experience and the study of its objects relatively independently of today’s possibilities for their production development. Knowledge begins with observation. Observation is a method of directed reflection of the characteristics of an object, allowing one to form a certain idea of ​​​​the observed phenomenon. The block of observation procedures includes description, measurement, and comparison.

An experiment is a more effective method that differs from observation in that the researcher, through an experiment, actively influences an object by creating artificial conditions necessary to identify previously unknown properties of the object. The modeling method is based on creating a model that is a substitute for a real object due to a certain similarity with it. Building and studying a model is equivalent to researching and constructing a modeled object, with the only difference being that the second is done materially, and the first is done ideally, without affecting the modeled object itself. The second follows from this important function models in scientific knowledge - the model acts as a program of action for the upcoming construction of the modeled object.

Empirical analysis is simply the decomposition of a whole into its constituent, simpler elementary parts. Synthesis, on the contrary, is the combination of components of a complex phenomenon. Theoretical analysis involves highlighting the basic and essential in an object, imperceptible to empirical vision. The analytical method includes the results of abstraction, simplification, and formalization. Theoretical synthesis is an expanding knowledge that constructs something new that goes beyond the existing framework. Induction can be defined as a method of moving from knowledge of individual facts to knowledge of general facts. Deduction is a method of moving from knowledge of general laws to their particular manifestation. Theoretical induction and deduction based on it differ from empirical induction and deduction in that they are based not on the search for the abstractly general, the same in different objects and facts, but on the search for the concretely universal, on the search for the law of existence and development of the system under study.

16. Humanitarian aspects of the philosophy of technology. Modern engineering activity and its specifics.

Humanitarian philosophy of technology, which considers technology in the objective aspect of its occurrence and represents the totality of the efforts of scientists, writers, religion and philosophy, tries to comprehend technology in the humanitarian aspect, in its connection with the entire spectrum of human spiritual values ​​and actions, to give preference to the humanitarian principle over the technical. At the same time, the importance of human interpretation is especially emphasized - its ability to creatively relate to the world. Thus, arguing that man is not a “doing” but a “thinking” being, Mumford writes: “If all the mechanical (technical) inventions of the last five thousand years suddenly disappeared, it would be a catastrophic loss for life. And yet man would remain human being. But if the ability to interpret was taken away from man..., then everything that we have in this world would fade and disappear faster than the fantasies of Prospero, and man would find himself in a more helpless and savage state than any other animal. : he would be close to paralysis." Ortega also draws attention to the fact that human nature is a kind of raw material from which one or another person must create something for himself and technology can be considered as a certain type of human design.

The current state of the problem of engineering activity is that the world around us is represented by artificially created, designed subject structures - equipment and engineering structures. Penetration of technology into all areas social life, a fundamental change in the status of its social functions and, in general, the way of human life requires a change in traditional ideas regarding the nature of engineering activity. Moving on to the analysis of the phenomenon of engineering, it should be emphasized that the main task of the engineer is the transformation of the natural into the artificial, the transformation of matter, energy and information. Figuratively speaking, no matter what natural an engineer touches, everything turns into artificial. He sees his ultimate goal in using the properties of objects of subject practice to create technostructures and organize technologies.

An important role in the development of engineering activity was played by subject practice and its main type - material production, production of means and tools. The initial forms of engineering arose in the depths of production and technical activity and existed together for a long time, exerting a beneficial mutual influence. Recognition of the fact that equipment and various kinds of structures are created on the basis of production and technical activities dictates the need to make a distinction, a kind of demarcation line between technical and engineering activities. The identification of specific distinctive features of engineering work is associated with the analysis of the main structural components of the activity. It is known that the process of any scientific knowledge is determined, first of all, by the characteristics of the object being studied. Carrying out his activities, an engineer transforms the natural and social environment, satisfying the various technical needs of society. This transformation is always determined by essential connections, the laws of change and development of objects, and the activity itself can be successful only when it is consistent with these laws.

Currently, thanks to the rapid development of technical knowledge, the creation of large scientific and production complexes, modern technical means, new engineering and technical communities, natural and humanitarian knowledge, a new style engineering thinking, characterized by strict systematicity with a focus on the axiological aspect, as the basis of engineering and technical creativity aimed at creating fundamentally new equipment and organizing modern technologies. There is every reason to believe that new engineering thinking will be widely adopted and its role will increasingly increase with the development of science and technology, the economic, socio-political and spiritual spheres of public life. Social and scientific and technical progress directly related to the activities of technical specialists. Engineers are the creators of new technology and social technologies, and the quality of life on the planet depends on their creative thinking.

18. SOCIETY AS A SELF-DEVELOPING SYSTEM

In everyday life, the concept of “society” is used extremely widely. Therefore, various interpretations are possible:

1) a group of people who create an organization based on common interests,

2) a group of people, not formally organized, but having common interests and values ​​(having a common “lifestyle”, as Western sociologists put it),

There are many definitions of “society” in the scientific literature. The simplest of them sounds like this: society is a collection of people and their relationships. Another definition is possible: “Society is, first of all, such a special kind of relationship between people that gives them the opportunity to rise together above their purely animal, biological nature and create a truly human supra-biological reality.” Modern philosophy views society as a totality various parts and elements that are closely related to each other, constantly interact, so society exists as a separate integral organism, as a single system.

The idea of ​​society as a single organism is the result of a long development of philosophical thought. Its beginnings appear in ancient Greece, where society was understood as an ordered whole, consisting of individual parts. The reason for the appearance of such views is simple: “part” and “whole” are one of the most developed categories of the dialectical way of thinking, the foundations of which were laid in Ancient Greece. However, the concept of “system” is of more recent origin and is more difficult to understand.

By “element” or “part” we usually mean the smallest particle of a system. It is clear that the parts of the system are very diverse, multi-quality and have a hierarchical structure. In other words, each system, as a rule, has subsystems, also consisting of certain parts.

The problem of systematic social life was developed by G. Spencer, K. Marx, M. Weber, and many other philosophers and sociologists of the 19th - 20th centuries. There are usually two main aspects to the concept of society: the structure of society and the change in society.

Modern social philosophy identifies four main characteristics of society: initiative, self-organization, self-development, self-sufficiency. Only the totality of all activities, all taken together social groups, institutions (family, education, economics, politics, etc.) create society as a whole as a self-sufficient system. Society is always in a state of mobility, changing in one way or another. But, at the same time, it needs to ensure a certain level of stability.

19. SOCIAL ESSENCE OF CULTURE. UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF CULTURES. CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION

Culture is a set of material and spiritual values, life ideas, patterns of behavior, norms, methods and techniques of human activity, reflecting a certain level of historical development of society and man, embodied in objective, material media; and transmitted future generations. Social functions of culture - the ability of culture to act as a means of accumulation, storage and transmission of experience.

The category of culture is universal; Spengler considered this problem not as a single universal human culture, but as split into 8 cultures, each of which grows on the basis of its own ur-phenomenon, i.e. way of experiencing life.

Culture: Egyptian, Indian, Babylonian, Chinese, Greco-Roman, Byzantine-Arab, Mayan and Awakening Russian-Siberian culture. Each culture is subject to a rigid biological rhythm, which determines the main phases of its internal development: birth and childhood, youth and maturity, old age and decline.

If the original meaning of the word culture meant processing, cultivation, and then became identical in meaning to the words upbringing and education, then the term civilization initially emphasized the actual civil, state qualities and characteristics. For a very long time, both of these terms were used only to characterize a person. Even at the beginning of the century, a truly cultured person was contrasted, i.e. a well-mannered and educated civilized person, believing that civilization implies only an external characteristic, following a model and cannot give a complete picture of a person.

In the first case, the concepts of civilization and culture were sharply opposed. An example is the theory that civilization is a dying culture. Culture is a living and growing organism; it provides scope for the development of art and literature, for the flourishing of personality. In civilization, technology dominates; it turns people into faceless creatures. The end of the development of any culture was considered to be a stage of civilization characterized by a high level of development of science and technology, a decline in the field of literature and art, and a huge growth of cities (urbanization).

In the second case, the concepts of civilization and culture act as synonyms. As an example, a concept that considers civilization as a specific phase of culture, emphasizing its spiritual aspect and considering religion as the main and defining element.

It is believed that every civilization lives as long as it is able to give “answers” ​​to the “challenge” of the historical situation, however, when society is not able to give an answer and resorts to force of arms, the civilization ends its path and its death occurs. According to this opinion, in the modern world there are simultaneously five civilizations - Chinese, Indian, Islamist, Russian and Western. During the entire existence of humanity, it lives in conditions of civilization no more than 2% of the time of its existence, and in our time it is necessary to think about how to prevent the stages of death and decomposition modern civilizations, and this presupposes the need to develop a common philosophical concept of the meaning of life, an understanding of its intrinsic value and uniqueness.

Every culture has 2 main stages: the ascent of culture (culture itself), descent or civilization. The first is characterized by an organic type of evolution in all spheres of human life: social and political, religious and ethical, artistic and scientific. The second stage is characterized by a mechanical type of evolution, which represents the ossification of the organic life of a culture and its disintegration.

The difference between civilization and culture: civilization is functional, technological, institutional; culture is value-based and associated with goal setting.

civilization – assimilation of patterns of progress; culture is a way of mastering achievements within a national framework.

type of culture - expresses the attitude of society to the world; civilization is a specific form of implementation of this type in specific historical conditions.

20. Man in the information society, information culture and the possibilities of human self-realization.

And yet, no matter how much philosophers reflect on the prospects of the information society, on the essence of the information and computer revolution, philosophy remains true to itself and fulfills its inherent function only when it deals with a person. What we are used to calling Man coincides with the concept of society. No matter what limited, momentary goals a person sets for himself, sooner or later, with more or less acuteness, anxiety and fear, he thinks about the meaning of his existence. Therefore, to the question of what kind of person is a person - wise or stupid, reasonable or unreasonable, good or evil, a philosopher can give only one answer: a person is diverse. So how does a person differ from all living things? First of all, by reason, technological activity, the desire for creativity and freedom. These are the four great fundamental characteristics of man. The fundamental characteristics of man elevate him above the animal world, but this does not mean that he always uses his advantages for the benefit of himself and the human race as a whole. New information technology opens up for the first time the prospect of a colossal enhancement of these fundamental human characteristics. But what will be the consequences of its implementation and application depends on the social, cultural and civilizational structures, mechanisms, and emotions that modern man is in control of. This new, higher information technology can, like all previous technologies, serve good and evil.

Man, through his activities, transforms the world, himself, and society. Being at first dependent on the environment, he eventually managed to become its master, but thanks to this he fell into an even more severe dependence. The prospect of an environmental disaster has now become a reality: the ozone layer is being destroyed, there is not enough fresh water, acid rain and chemical waste are making the soil unsuitable for farming, and food is turning into poison. The world's oceans are dying, the mass of forests - the main source of atmospheric oxygen - is decreasing. Despite the emerging détente, the threat of thermonuclear war has not yet been eliminated, and at the same time, new troubles are already approaching humanity: the AIDS pandemic, the widening gap between poor and rich countries, chronic hunger and political instability in a number of countries, threatening fragile stability and precarious economic balance in foreseeable future.

However, there are also definite positive aspects. The information society is, in principle, devoid of any state or national characteristics in the sense that it is absolutely impossible in one particular country. Apart from the development of technology, we will have a chance to become more significant in the state, which we can control with the help of information communications. A method of government that reflects the very essence of democracy will become technically feasible. Moreover, taking into account the possibility of interactivity in expressing opinions, a social contract in the literal sense will become possible - achieving a compromise between all opinions without exception. Thus, the problem of the minority, whose opinion is actually ignored in the purely arithmetic method of deciding by majority vote, is completely eliminated.

In addition, information technology leads to the creation of intelligent computer systems. Doesn't computerization and informatization of society and the creation of artificial intelligence systems mean the emergence of a new, anti-humanoid, purely machine civilization, in which the mind, alienated from man, will lead to his historical (though not necessarily biological) death with greater inevitability than environmental imbalance or nuclear missile war? Now, after millions of years of struggle with nature, humanity has finally realized the need to enter into dialogue and cooperation with it. It should not now, before it is too late, think about the cultural and intellectual consequences of the information revolution, because the pace at which they are occurring is unprecedentedly high, and, perhaps, in the near future, preventing negative consequences will no longer be possible.

The application of new science must be reasonable and balanced, based on serious analysis, on a genuine and deep philosophy of man, a philosophy of mind, a philosophy of progress.

21. GLOBAL PROBLEMS OF MODERN TIME AND THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY

The twentieth century of human history is marked by the emergence and deepening of global problems. Global problems are a set of problems of all humanity, the solution of which determines the preservation of civilization. They are diverse. The most important include: the rapid growth of the Earth's population, leading to a demographic explosion; the near future of exhaustion of traditional energy and other natural resources; unprecedented pollution of the human environment, threatening environmental disaster.

A serious problem of the modern world is the “demographic explosion”. Ten thousand years ago there were about 5 million people, 2 thousand years ago - about 200 million, in 1960 - 3 billion, in 1975 - 4 billion, in 1987 - 5 billion. If this rate of population growth continues, then by 2000 there will be more 6 billion people, and by the end of the 21st century twice as many.

For their lives, people need oxygen, food, and industrial goods. All this has its source in nature. Based on the average standard of living of a person in the United States, 57 people can live per 1 km2, and 5.7 billion people can live on the entire earth. The particular severity of this problem is emphasized by the fact that over 4/5 of the world population growth occurs in developing countries. As a result of such rapid population growth in developing countries and their economic backwardness, instability in the world economy and politics is increasing. To this we must add that in many CIS countries, although the level of population growth is not high, due to the decline in living standards in relative terms, it makes these countries dangerous from the point of view. nuclear potential. The steady growth of the planet's population is faced with an equally difficult global problem - the depletion of traditional energy resources. Thus, coal reserves are 600 years old, oil reserves are 90 years old, natural gas reserves are 50 years old, and uranium reserves are 27 years old. That. all types of fuel in all categories will be burned in 800 years. At the same time, scientific and technical progress in the direction of creating revolutionary production technologies based on fundamentally new objects and means of labor has not proven itself. Traditional energy resources are not only limited, their use pollutes the atmosphere. The combustion of coal, gas and oil annually removes 20 million tons of oxygen from the atmosphere, and in return millions of tons of carbon dioxide and other toxic substances are emitted. The planet is literally drowning in a mass of toxic industrial waste.

Currently, the biosphere has left the state of stability. It stopped absorbing excess carbon in the atmosphere and, on the contrary, began to emit carbon into it. The biosphere has lost its ability to stabilize the environment. The stability threshold of the continental part of the biosphere has been exceeded 5-7 times. It should be borne in mind that if the resource model allows the Earth’s population to be 7-8 billion people, then the biosphere is only 1-2 billion.

The increase in population growth rates placed a heavy burden on the biosphere, requiring more intensive use of soil fertility. Due to population growth, the average area under cereal crops per person has decreased by one third over the past thirty years. If at the beginning of the 20th century there were 9 hectares of cultivated land per person, then by the middle of the century this figure was already 6 hectares, and in the present. time about 3 hectares (but in the USA the land is allocated for parks, etc.). So-called intensive technologies deplete soil fertility.

The increasing number of global problems and their deepening are a sign of a crisis of civilization and this is a crisis not of individual aspects of existence, but of the main forms of life activity of the European industrial and technical civilization, ideologically and ideologically dating back to Greek culture. At the same time, this crisis also concerns modern man in general, his method of self-realization, for all countries of the world, all peoples, trying to achieve the standard of living of the industrialized countries of Western Europe and the United States, strive to follow their path. Modern man does not know any other way of successful self-realization. That is why we can say that modern man and his way of being are in the deepest crisis.

Plan:

1. Sociocultural context of the formation and development of ancient Greek philosophy.

3.Philosophical teachings of Plato.

1. Ancient philosophy is historically the first form of European theoretical thought, which became the basis for development and the cultural horizon for all subsequent forms of thinking that arose within the intellectual space of medieval, modern and modern Europe. Chronologically, the history of ancient philosophy covers the period of St. 1200 years, from the 6th century. BC e. to 6th century AD

The emergence and development of ancient philosophy was facilitated by the favorable socio-economic and political conditions that developed in Ancient Greece: political freedom, the development of crafts and trade, active political and civil life in city states (policies), etc. Ancient philosophy is closely connected with all aspects of ancient culture.

The history of ancient philosophy can be divided into the following periods: early Greek philosophy; Sophists and Socrates; Plato and Aristotle; Hellenistic philosophy; philosophical schools during the era of the Roman Empire; Neoplatonism.

Pre-Socratics (6th-5th centuries BC). Initially, ancient philosophy developed in Asia Minor (Miletus school, Heraclitus), then in Italy (Pythagoreans, Eleatic school, Empedocles) and on mainland Greece(Anaxagoras, atomists). The main theme of early Greek philosophy is the principles of the universe, its origin and structure. The philosophers of this period were mainly nature researchers, astronomers, and mathematicians. Believing that the birth and death of natural things does not occur by chance or out of nothing, they looked for a beginning, or a principle that explains the natural variability of the world. The first philosophers considered the beginning to be a single primal substance: water (Thales) or air (Anaximenes), the infinite (Anaximander), the Pythagoreans considered the limit and the infinite to be the beginning, giving rise to an ordered cosmos, cognizable through number. Subsequent authors (Empedocles, Democritus) named not one, but several principles (four elements, an infinite number of atoms). Parmenides formulated the doctrine of true being, accessible only to thought.

2. The role of the Sophists and Socrates in the further development of ancient Greek philosophy.

The period of the Pre-Socratics is replaced by sophistry. Sophists are traveling paid teachers of virtue, their focus is on the life of man and society. The sophists saw knowledge, first of all, as a means to achieve success in life; they recognized rhetoric as the most valuable - mastery of words, the art of persuasion. The sophists considered traditional customs and moral norms relative. Their criticism and skepticism in their own way contributed to the reorientation of ancient philosophy from knowledge of nature to understanding the inner world of man. A clear expression of this “turn” was the philosophy of Socrates. He believed that the main thing was knowledge of good, since evil, according to Socrates, comes from people’s ignorance of their true good. Socrates saw the path to this knowledge in self-knowledge, in caring for his immortal soul, and not about his body, in comprehending the essence of the main moral values, the conceptual definition of which was the main subject of Socrates' conversations.

3. Philosophical teaching of Plato.

The most outstanding student of Socrates was Plato, the creator of the Academy, the teacher of another major thinker of antiquity - Aristotle, who founded the Peripatetic school (Lyceum). They created holistic philosophical teachings, in which they examined almost the entire range of traditional philosophical topics, developed philosophical terminology and a set of concepts, the basis for subsequent ancient and European philosophy. What was common in their teachings was: the distinction between a temporary, sensory-perceptible thing and its eternal, indestructible, comprehended by the mind essence; the doctrine of matter as an analogue of non-existence, the cause of the variability of things; an idea of ​​the rational structure of the universe, where everything has its purpose; understanding of philosophy as a science about the highest principles and purpose of all existence; recognition that the first truths are not proven, but are directly comprehended by the mind.

Plato was the first to introduce the term “eidos,” or otherwise “idea,” into philosophical use. “Idea” is translated from Greek as “appearance”, “image”, “outline”, “form”. As for Plato, for him “idea” means not so much the external form as the essence of a thing, or the law of its existence.

4. Aristotle’s philosophy as an encyclopedia of ancient culture.

Aristotle criticized Plato's theory of ideas for the “doubling” of the world it produced. He himself proposed a metaphysical doctrine of the divine Mind, the primary source of the movement of the eternally existing visible cosmos.

The prime mover-god-nus appears as the pure form and ultimate goal for everything that is combined from form and matter. Teleologism, striving for a perfect goal is the most characteristic feature of Aristotle’s philosophical worldview. Aristotle laid the foundation for logic as a special teaching about the forms of thinking and the principles of scientific knowledge, developed a style of philosophical treatise that has become exemplary, in which first the history of the issue is considered, then the argumentation for and against the main thesis by putting forward aporia, and in conclusion, a solution to the problem is given.

Literature:

1. Asmus V. F. Ancient philosophy http://www.gumer.info/

2. Bogomolov A.S. Ancient philosophy M., Higher school. 2006.

3. Solopova M.A.Ancient philosophy. Encyclopedic Dictionary.2012.

4.http://iph.ras.ru/elib/0203.html

5.http://labrip.com/dop_t1r4part1.html

6. http://filosok.narod.ru/glava3.html

Many scientists believe that science arose in antiquity; within the framework of ancient natural philosophy, natural science was born and disciplinarity was formed as a special form of organizing knowledge. In natural philosophy the first samples of theoretical science: the geometry of Euclid, the teachings of Archimedes, the medicine of Hippocrates, the atomism of Democritus, the astronomy of Ptolemy, etc. The first natural philosophers were more scientists than philosophers who studied diverse natural phenomena. The ancient world ensured the application of the method in mathematics and brought it to the theoretical level. Greek word "fuzis" the Latins conveyed how nature, therefore, physics and natural philosophy were related concepts.

In antiquity, much attention was paid to understanding truths, i.e. logic and dialectics. There was a general rationalization of thinking, liberation from metaphor, the transition from thinking, burdened with sensory images, to intellect, categories. Gradually, natural philosophical systems took on the appearance of more and more rationally designed knowledge. Arose in the context of ancient culture Euclidean geometry as a necessary condition for obtaining the truth, it put forward a procedure for demonstrating evidence. Ancient science encountered a phenomenon incommensurability. Irrational numbers indicated the presence of a reality that contradicted the usual logic of ordering. In the history of ancient science there are numerous attempts aimed at mastering incommensurability.

Ancient science has proven that the physical world is contradictory - This was emphasized by Heraclitus’ thesis “everything flows, everything changes.” The difficulties of comprehending the process of movement in logic through logical proof led the ancient philosopher and mathematician Zeno to the formulation of the famous aporias - difficult-to-solve problems associated with the contradiction between observational data and mental analysis.

In general, the idea prevailed in antiquity harmony, symmetry and ordered cosmos. Platonists (as logicians) were opposed by atomists (as physicists). Atomistics, which included Leucippus (c. 500-440 BC), Democritus (c. 460-370 BC), Epicurus (c. 342-270 BC) and Lucretius (c. 99 -55 BC), argued that everything that exists presupposes the presence of atoms and emptiness as the conditions for all processes and movements. Emptiness is motionless, limitless and devoid of density. Each member of existence is determined by form, is dense and does not contain any emptiness: it is indivisible. In Greek "atomos"- limit of divisibility. Atoms can have different shapes, differ in order, position, weight; folding and intertwining, they give birth to various things. The atomic picture of the world recognized that the world of things is fluid, the world of the elements from which things are composed is unchanging. Since the number of atoms is infinite, the eternity of the world in time and infinity in space are recognized. In addition to the established laws of conservation of being and conservation of motion, atomists proclaimed law of causality:“Not a single thing happens in vain, but everything happens due to causality and necessity.” The reason is understood as "culprit" one or another event. However, randomness is understood subjectively, as something for which people do not know the cause. The movement of atoms occurs in accordance with similar to the law of gravity to something like this.

The atomic hypothesis, i.e. discovery of the atomic level was of great importance for the development of natural sciences, physics and chemistry. Atomism was also present in the Indian and Arabic-speaking traditions;

The first attempt to systematize what later came to be called science was made by Aristotle- educator and adviser to A. Makedonsky, who provided all possible assistance to the development of scientific knowledge. Aristotle divided all sciences into theoretical ones, with the goal of knowledge itself (philosophy, physics, mathematics); practical, guiding human behavior (ethics, economics, politics); creative, aimed at achieving beauty (ethics, rhetoric, art). Contrasting nature with craft, Aristotle showed that physics examines the essence and nature of things, properties and movements, and mechanics is the art of building machines.

world (general overview)

Philosophy arose in the 7th - 6th centuries BC. e. in Ancient Greece, at first, primarily as a unified knowledge about the world, having the character of a philosophy of nature. Questions are raised about the single fundamental principle of being (substance), about the origin of individual things, about the connection of man and his soul with the universe. Related to this are questions that were later transferred to special sciences - astronomical, meteorological, physical and chemical.

In the second half of the 5th century BC. e. interest moves from problems of natural philosophy (philosophy of nature) to problems of ethics and politics (the era of the Athenian enlightenment - the Sophists and Socrates). The purpose of philosophy here is to teach a person to live correctly or wisely. But the profound formulation of the ethical problem by Socrates leads his closest student Plato, and then Aristotle, to a new in-depth construction of philosophy as a theoretical doctrine of being - a doctrine on the basis of which ethics is built. Plato and Aristotle created universal philosophical systems that embrace and resolve questions about the essence of being, about nature human knowledge, about the purpose and meaning of human life. After this brief highest flowering of the philosophy of antiquity, in the Hellenic-Roman era (end of the 4th century BC and before the beginning of the new era), the decline of philosophical creativity began. Philosophy at first again becomes primarily only ethics, that is, the doctrine of a correct, reasonable and happy life. The ethical systems of the Stoics, Epicureans and Skeptics arose, and the school of Cynics, which arose earlier, continues to exist, who, when deciding the question of the meaning of life, pose it in generally the same way. The theoretical side here has only an auxiliary significance for ethics. Theoretical science exists primarily in the form of literary and book scholarship (Alexandrian interpreters and historians of science). During the advent of a new era, the ethical problem merges with the religious one. Philosophy quickly turns into religious faith. In the struggle between different intermingling faiths in the 3rd and 4th centuries, Christianity finally wins. The philosophical genius of antiquity is back at short term revived in the deeply developed system of neo-Platonism (founded by Plotinus in the 3rd century AD).

Early classic

After a general description of the content and meaning of philosophy in different periods history of the ancient world, we move on to the study of specific philosophical teachings.

A/. Milesian school

Philosophy began its existence in the Greek city of Miletus, which is located in Asia Minor. The first philosopher is called Thales, who lived approximately 640 - 562 BC. He acquired (partly borrowed, partly created himself) enormous knowledge and information about various theoretical and practical areas of human activity. As a philosopher in the modern sense of the word, he became famous for the idea that at the heart of the world there is a first principle that allows us to think of it as a single whole. As such, he believed “infinite water”, which he thought of as the unity of the material and living principles. From water, according to Thales, everything else in the world arises. The deepening of scientific knowledge of the world before posing the question of its essence or origin, done by Thales, marks the beginning of its philosophical study.

Thales's student Anaximander (611-546 BC) refuted the point of view of his teacher. Neither water nor any other element of the world known to us can be its fundamental principle, since if one of them were the main one, it would absorb all the others. Anaximander considers the natural elements known to him as elements that are in opposition to each other: “air is cold, water is wet, fire is hot.” Therefore, if one of the named elements were infinite, then the rest would have died long ago. Consequently, the fundamental principle of the world must be neutral in this cosmic struggle. According to Anaximander, the fundamental principle of the world is infinite, eternal and “encompasses all worlds.” He called it “apeiron”.

The student of philosophy needs to pay attention to the struggle of ideas typical of science within even a single scientific school, unthinkable in pre-scientific systems of knowledge.

This tradition is continued by the third outstanding representative of the Milesian school, Anaximenes (585-524 BC). Being, like his predecessors, a major scientist with extensive knowledge in various fields of theoretical and practical activity, he insisted that the fundamental principle of the world is unlimited, infinite, having indefinite form air. The soul is made of air; fire is rarefied air; condensing, the air first becomes water, then, with further condensation, earth and, finally, stone. Anaximenes' theory makes it possible to reduce the variety of differences between the elements to quantitative characteristics - to the degree of condensation of the fundamental principle. But, by and large, the concept of Anaximenes is a step back in comparison with the speculations of Anaximander, since the arguments put forward by the latter against Thales water as the fundamental principle of the world also apply, of course, to air.

b/. Pythagoras

He founded his famous school in southern Italy and was a contemporary of Anaximenes and Anaximander. Pythagoras is one of the most outstanding intellectual geniuses of mankind. He is responsible for the invention of mathematics in its modern sense; he also created one of the very first philosophical systems, which organically combined both the solution of issues of theoretical philosophy and the understanding of ethical and aesthetic problems.

The most striking and well-known characteristic of Pythagorean thought belongs to Aristotle: “The Pythagoreans became the first mathematicians... and since numbers by their nature are the first principles in mathematics, they saw in them the beginnings of all things, more than in fire, water, earth... Moreover, they saw that tones and chords are contained in numbers, and many other things, and all reality seems to be an image of numbers, hence they believed that the elements of numbers must be elements of things, and the whole universe would be harmony and number.” So, numbers, according to the teachings of Pythagoras, underlie the world.

Pythagoras shared the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, that is, he believed that the soul is immortal and wanders through tomb bodies that do not possess immortality. The soul is not indifferent to the bodies into which it inhabits, and, moreover, the goal of its wanderings is the cessation of earthly existence and life on a star. This attitude to life is due to the fact that the stars are considered by Pythagoras to belong to eternity. In general, Cosmos in the philosophical system of the Pythagoreans acts as an ideal, as a carrier of beauty; its structure is subject to mathematical laws, it is perfect.

What should a person’s life be like for his soul to cease earthly existence after the death of his body? Explaining this issue, Pythagoras divides people into three types, according to what they do. The first type includes those who sell and buy, or rather, deal economic activity in the broad sense of the word. The second is one who competes in any type of human activity. The third type consists of those who contemplate. By contemplation, as an ideal form of life activity, the philosopher understands not just passive observation of life, not the work of an empiricist scientist, but the thinking of a mathematician who is extremely removed from reality. It is the representatives of the third type – aristocrats. They live with dignity noble life; distance from earthly problems allows their soul to leave the Earth and merge with the Cosmos, and working with numbers connects them with the numerical structures that underlie it.

The perfection of the Cosmos has not only ethical, but also aesthetic significance for humans. According to the teachings of Pythagoras, the stars are motionless and belong to eternity. Planets move, but not in empty space, but in filling - in the ether, so they emit sounds of a certain height, which depends on the speed of the planet. This is how perfect cosmic harmony is created (a combination of sounds of different pitches) - “harmony of the spheres”, not audible by people, but, thanks to the ability to measure the speed of planetary movement, reproduced under earthly conditions in music. It turns out that music, as an art form, justifies itself and acquires a special social meaning, due to the fact that it reflects the ideal harmony of the Cosmos. Social role Pythagoras sees it as being able to heal the human soul, adjusting it according to the perfect and truly beautiful harmony of the cosmic spheres.

V/. Heraclitus and Parmenides

A student of science must understand that in it the difference of views, even on the most important problems, sometimes reaches the complete opposite. An illustrative example of this feature of scientific development is the philosophical constructions of Heraclitus and Parmenides. They lived at the same time; They called their main philosophical works the same - “On Nature”, but in them they defended judgments directly opposite to each other.

Let's start by discussing the theory of Heraclitus (540-480 BC). He believed fire to be the fundamental principle of the world, as the most mobile and changeable element. He said: “This cosmos is the same for everything that exists; no god or man created it, but it has always been, is and will be an eternally living fire, igniting in proportions and extinguishing in proportions.” All other elements of the world are a product of fire: “All things are the exchange of fire, and one fire changes all things, just as goods are the exchange of gold, and all goods are exchanged for gold.” Variability, as the main characteristic of the origin, is absorbed by all things: everything moves, everything flows, everything changes, nothing remains motionless and constant. Heraclitus confirms his teaching with the following observations of reality: “You cannot enter the same river twice and you cannot touch something mortal twice in the same state, but, due to the uncontrollability and speed of change, everything is scattered and collected, comes and goes”; “We enter and do not enter the same river, we are the same and not the same” [quoted from 26, p. 24].

An important point of his philosophical system is the doctrine of the fusion of opposites, which anticipates Hegel's dialectic. In the world, according to the teachings of Heraclitus, there is unity, but it is achieved as a result of difference, that is, it is realized as a harmony of opposite principles: “The road up and the road down are the same road”; “Common - the end and the beginning of the circle”; “everything is one” and “from one everything flows” [Ibid., p. 25]. This harmony of “unity of opposites” is God and the divine: “God is day - night, winter - summer, war and peace, satiety and hunger” [ibid.].

Thus, in the philosophy of Heraclitus, perhaps for the first time, the relationship between two types of intuition is substantiated - mystical, in which a person is given the experience of the divine world, and aesthetic, in which the integrity of the world as such is captured.

Parmenides, Unlike Heraclitus, who believed that everything changes, Parmenides argued the opposite - nothing changes. It may seem that his theory is absurd, because change is an essential qualitative characteristic of reality, given to us in direct sensory experience, as Heraclitus convincingly showed. Changing the world seems self-evident. But it's not that simple. Parmenides, proving his point of view, notes that in the knowledge of the world there is a “path of opinion”, based on the senses, and a path of truth associated with reason. Human sensory perception is illusory. He is given only changeable, temporary, impermanent existence, what is now commonly called “reality” in philosophy. Eternal existence is accessible only to thinking. Parmenides expressed this discovery in the following words: “Thought and that about which thought exists are one and the same thing,” in other words, thinking and being are one and the same. The philosopher believes that the main principle of thinking is its consistency. Consequently, true being is recognized as that which can be thought without contradiction. Movement cannot be thought of without contradiction, which is convincingly proven by the famous aporias, that is, difficulties, of Parmenides’ student Zeno. Let's give one of them as an example. Let us assume that space is divisible to infinity. In this case, it is reasonable to assume that in order to travel a certain distance, you must first travel half of it and so on without end, since any segment of a line, for example, can be divided indefinitely. As a result, the movement cannot begin [for more details, see: 26, p. 39-40].

G/. Atomists

The creators of the theory of atomism, Leucippus and Democritus, tried to answer the questions raised by Heraclitus and Parmenides. For them, being is something simple - an atom, which translated from Greek literally means indivisible. Everything consists of atoms, of which there are an infinite number. Atoms are indivisible and indestructible. They are unchangeable and eternal, and, due to their small size, are not perceived by the senses, but are rationally comprehended. Thus, the atom has the properties that Parmenides attributed to all being. Atoms vary in shape; they are separated by emptiness. In the void, atoms move, collide, and sometimes combine, forming objects and worlds. Emptiness is nothingness, and as such, it is unknowable.

Atomists created a deeply thought-out version of the mechanistic explanation of the world. The whole in their theory represents the sum of its parts, and the random movement of atoms in empty space turns out to be the cause of everything that exists.

Atomists thought of the world as entirely material, which translated from Greek means material. Their atoms have exclusively spatial-mechanical properties. Sensory qualities of things - color, sound, smell, etc. - Democritus considered them subjective, that is, dependent on the person who perceives them. For atomists, the soul is also matter, but of a special, subtle composition: it consists of especially thin, round and most mobile atoms, which have the same properties as the atoms of fire. The perception of the world is the entry into our soul of material copies of things, which are material pictures. Even thinking is material, for it is also the perception of the subtlest copies - pictures.

Middle classic

A/. Sophists

As noted above, from the moment of the emergence of the Athenian enlightenment, which began with the philosophical school of the Sophists, scientific interest moved from problems of natural philosophy to problems of ethics.

Protagoras (490-420 BC) is considered the most famous representative of the Sophist school. Translated from Greek, the word “sophist” means “sage.” The Sophists are rightly called the Greek enlighteners. They popularized the available ancient culture knowledge, disseminating it among his many students. The Sophists were professional teachers of wisdom. The knowledge they taught concerned practical wisdom, that is, the ability to live wisely. The appearance of such teachers in Greece at that time was predetermined by the democratic system of many city-states, where the solution to most issues, both political and property, depended on the eloquence of a particular person, his oratory, and the ability to find bright, even if false, arguments in favor of his point of view and thus win over the majority of fellow citizens or judges to his side. Democratic government structure of that time in Greek cities did not involve the participation of lawyers in court hearings, therefore, every citizen had to learn everything listed above. The sophists taught grammar, rhetoric, and the ability to conduct polemics. They, like modern professional lawyers, were of little interest in the truth; the main purpose of training was to teach how to succeed.

This life position relied on the original philosophical principle of the Sophists, which was formulated by Protagoras: “Man is the measure of all things: existing things, that they exist, and non-existent things, that they do not exist.” Based on this, the sophists taught that in nature there is no order and no laws, and therefore no truth. Everything revolves around a person: what gives him pleasure is good, equally applies to the beautiful, and what causes suffering is bad and ugly.

The sophists declare a specific person and his senses to be the criterion of truth. This point of view in philosophy is called subjectivist. The term “subjectivism” has a negative connotation. As a rule, all philosophical schools identify the subjective moment in the process of knowing the truth and in assessing the value properties of being, for example, goodness and beauty. But when they “go too far” with subjectivity, i.e. all elements of cognitive activity are reduced only to it, then the philosophical construction is called “subjectivist”. The consequences of the subjectivist position of the sophists are curious. After all, people, as we know, are different, therefore, truth is relative, that is, changeable. And if this is so, then one can doubt the reliability of knowledge.

The sophists taught that, just like in nature, in all spheres of human activity there is nothing natural or serious. Art, for example, is also a completely subjective activity that does not have any significant life content. The only thing that justifies it, that gives it meaning, is that it is capable of bringing joy to a person, filling his soul with a raging passion.

b/. He objected to the sophists Socrates(470-399 BC), great Athenian philosopher, first a student of the Sophists and then their critic. The significance of Socrates in culture is enormous. He did not limit himself to criticizing the sophists. He created an original type of philosophizing, based on the spoken word, using dialogue as a means of knowing the truth, and as the main argument of a scientific dispute - the act of the thinker, that is, his life in accordance with his ideas. Socrates was most interested in moral issues: questions about what a person is, how he should live in accordance with the truth, what is good for him and what is evil. It is no coincidence that the philosopher loved so much the saying written on the wall of the Temple of Apollo in Delphi - “know yourself.”

Objecting to the sophists, Socrates tried to prove the existence of absolute truth, unchangeable and eternal, determining the natural nature of existence and providing a solid foundation for human virtue. He was the first to express the simple and indisputable idea that there is an internal contradiction in presenting the relativity of all human truths as an absolute truth, in asserting a general theory about the impossibility of any general theory, as the Sophists did.

Deep analytical work on the study of consciousness allowed the philosopher to discover in it different layers consisting of a person, its carrier, in difficult relationships. Socrates associates the lowest layer of consciousness - the individual - with the personal characteristics of the individual. It was on the analysis of this layer-level that the sophists stopped their analytical work, not without reason noting the subjectivity and relative nature of the knowledge of its components. From the point of view of Socrates, consciousness also has a higher level - reason, which is capable of giving not only an individual opinion, but also universal obligatory knowledge. Thanks to reason, knowledge of objective truth in science and art is possible.

But a person can acquire knowledge of the absolute truth only through his own efforts, and not receive it from the outside as a ready-made one. Socrates saw dialogue as an adequate means of obtaining knowledge, during which the interlocutors, critically analyzing different opinions on the issues under discussion, come to knowledge that everyone recognizes as true. The knowledge obtained in this way can be characterized as supra-individual.

Socrates considered the goal of the critical work of the mind to be the acquisition of a concept based on a strict definition of the subject. So he tried to determine what justice, goodness is, what the best state structure is, and so on.

Socrates was convinced that true knowledge can change the life of a person and society for the better, since an immoral act is the fruit of ignorance of the truth.