Features of ancient philosophy

Before analyzing certain features and trends in the development of any scientific picture, it is necessary to establish with a necessary degree of accuracy the historical framework for the development of these trends. Only this approach ensures the continuity of the analysis with those conditions that accompanied the development of this scientific phenomenon.

The term "ancient philosophy" synthesized the philosophical heritage of ancient Greece and ancient Rome.

For more than two millennia, the formation and development of the main philosophical schools and directions of the ancient world took place, and during this period a phenomenal volume of human wisdom and knowledge was accumulated, which can not be overemphasized. In the historical aspect, during the development of ancient philosophy, four distinct periods are distinguished.

The pre-Socratic period of the emergence of ancient philosophy, first of all, is characterized by the fact that in his time, in fact, the origin and formation of the phenomenon that we call "ancient philosophy" occurred. The most famous representatives are Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, who stood at the origins of the formation of the famous Miletus school. At the same time the atomists Democritus and Leucippus also created the foundations of dialectics. Bright features of ancient philosophy manifested themselves in the writings of the Eleatic school, first of all, Heraclitus of Ephesus. In this period, the first method of philosophical cognition was formulated-the declaration of one's views and the desire to justify them as dogma.

Attempts to explain natural phenomena, cognition of the essence of the cosmos and the human world, justification of the fundamental principles of the universe - these are the problems of ancient philosophy that interested the "pre-Socratics".

The classical, or as it is still called - the Socratic period - was a flourishing of ancient philosophy, it was at this stage that the characteristic features of ancient philosophical thinking were most clearly manifested.

The main "actors" of this period were the great sophists Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. The main features of the ancient philosophy of this phase were that the thinkers made an attempt to penetrate more deeply into the range of problems that were discovered by their predecessors. First of all, we should note their contribution to the development of methodology, instead of declarative-dogmatic cognition, they used the method of dialogues and evidence, which led to the rapid development of whole directions within the framework of a single philosophical knowledge, which later emerged as independent sciences - mathematics, physics, geography and Others. The thinkers of the classical period (so called in the literature the Socratic period of the development of philosophy) talked a little less about the problems of the fundamental principles of the world, but, having put forward an idealistic picture of the world, laid the beginning of a great discussion about the priority of the teachings of materialism and idealism. In their teachings, the peculiarities of ancient philosophy were manifested in the fact that the inclusion of the gods in the scientific interpretation of the ideas of the creation of the world and nature was allowed. Plato and Aristotle were the first to show interest in the problems of the interconnection between society and the state.

Further, the history of ancient philosophy was continued by representatives of the Stoic teaching, the Academy of Plato, the philosophical creations of Epicurus. This period was named in accordance with the name of the period of development of Greek civilization - Hellenistic. It is characterized by a weakening of the role in the development of the philosophical knowledge of the Greek component itself.

The distinctive characteristics of the Hellenistic stage are that the crisis of value criteria led to the denial and even the rejection of former authorities, including the gods. Philosophers urge a person to seek the sources of his strength, physical and moral, to seek in himself, sometimes leading this desire to absurdity, which is reflected in the teachings of the Stoics.

Roman period, some researchers call the death of ancient philosophy, which in itself sounds quite absurd. Nevertheless, one should recognize the fact of a certain decline in ancient philosophy, its erosion in the philosophical doctrines of other regions and peoples. The most prominent representatives of this stage were Seneca and later Stoics, Marcus Aurelius, Titus Lucretius Car. In their views, the features of ancient philosophy manifested themselves in increased attention to the issues of aesthetics, nature, the priority of the state's problems over the problems of man himself. In this period the leading position of the idealistic picture of the world arises in relation to the materialistic. With the advent of Christianity, ancient philosophy gradually fuses with it, forming, in the end, the fundamental principles of medieval theology.

Of course, each of the stages examined had its own characteristics. But ancient philosophy has properties that are of a transtemporal character, characteristic of all periods. Among these are the isolation of ancient philosophical thought from the questions of concrete material production, the desire of philosophers to position oneself in society as carriers of "absolute" truths, cosmocentrism, and at the last stages - its confusion with anthropocentrism. Ancient philosophy at all stages of its development was closely interrelated with the theological worldview.