Socrates: philosophy and life

Socrates (c. 470 - 399 BC) Great Athenian philosopher. Initially - a student of the sophists, later - their critic. At the end of his life (at the age of 70) he was brought to trial for "introducing new deities and corrupting youth." Sentenced to death; refusing to flee, he took poison in prison.

Philosophy. Socrates never wrote anything, and historians of philosophy draw information about his views from secondary sources - the “Socratic” writings of Plato and Xenophon. Spending most of his time in the squares, in the palestras, etc., Socrates entered into conversations with anyone who wished to speak with him. The style and character of these conversations are vividly reflected in Plato's dialogues.

"Know thyself" is the philosopher's favorite saying. There are two layers in human consciousness: objective and subjective. The task is to prove that the objective is the judge of the subjective. This is the mind.

Socrates considered philosophy as the knowledge of what is good and evil. An immoral act is the fruit of ignorance of the truth, a bad act is a delusion, a mistake. Philosophy is a means of forming a virtuous person and a just state.

The political views of Socrates: power in the state should belong to the "best", i.e. moral, just and experienced citizens in the art of government.

The most important merit of Socrates in the history of philosophy: the dialogue has become the main method of finding the truth. He considered himself not a teacher of wisdom, but only a person capable of awakening in others the desire for truth.

The main task of philosophy is the substantiation of the religious and moral worldview, while the knowledge of nature is not necessary. It is necessary to turn to the knowledge of oneself, human spirit and in it to find the basis of religion and morality. Socrates is an idealist: the spirit is primary for him.

The “Socratic” method, which had as its task the discovery of “truth” through conversation, dispute, is the source of idealistic “dialectics”. The "Socratic" method is a method of consistently and systematically asked questions, with the aim of bringing the interlocutor to a contradiction with himself, to the recognition of his own ignorance.

The main components of the "Socratic" method: "irony" and "maieutics" - in form, "induction" and "definition" - in content.

maieutics- "midwife" of Socrates (a hint at the profession of his mother). The main task is to find the "universal" in morality, to establish the universal moral basis of individual, particular virtues. This problem must be solved with the help of a kind of "induction" and "definition".

Socrates considered the three main virtues:

1) moderation (knowledge of how to curb passions);

2) courage (knowing how to overcome dangers);

3) justice (knowledge how to keep the laws divine and human).

Cynics

cynics- one of the most significant Socratic philosophical schools.

At the beginning of the IV century. BC e. philosophical schools were founded by some students of Socrates. One of these schools was cynicism. The founder of the school Antisthenes of Athens, developing the principles of the teacher, began to assert that best life is not just in naturalness, but in getting rid of conventions and artificialities, in freedom from the possession of superfluous and useless. Antisthenes argued that in order to achieve good, one should live "like a dog", that is, live by combining:

§ simplicity of life, following one's own nature, contempt for conventions;

§ the ability to firmly defend one's way of life, to stand up for oneself;

§ fidelity, courage, gratitude.

§ Askesis(ἄσκησις), the capacity for self-denial and hardship. Askesis of the Cynics - the ultimate simplification; limiting their needs; detachment from what is not extremely necessary for the function of a person as a living being; "strength of spirit, character."

§ Apedeusia(ἀπαιδευσία), the ability to free oneself from the dogmas of religion and culture. Apedeusia of cynics - detachment from culture and society. Cynics believe that culture (in particular, writing) makes knowledge dead; thus, ignorance, bad manners, and illiteracy are considered a [cynic] virtue.

§ Autarky(αὐτάρκεια), the capacity for independent existence and self-restraint. Cynic autarky - independence and independence, rejection of the family, rejection of the state.

Clinical ethics comes from a fundamental frontal denial and rejection of the moral code of the average individual. Such an ethics is, first of all, negative, "crosses out" generally accepted values ​​and requires "weaning from evil", that is, a break with established moral norms. The concept of cynic virtue is thus reduced to to four positions:

§ Naturalism coming from the priority of nature; not from nature-maximum, but from nature-minimum, assuming the lowest level of needs and only the economically necessary rate of consumption.

§ Subjectivism based on "free will"; on the strength of the spirit, character, ability for independent existence, self-restraint, self-denial, enduring difficulties, liberation from the fetters of religion, state, family, etc.

§ Individualism, orienting human behavior towards achieving independence from society, which imposes on him alien and hostile duties that induce properties alien to him.

§ eudemonism, suggesting salvation and happiness in poverty, moderation, detachment, which are natural for a reasonable virtuous person who understands the true price of things.

Thus, the ethical ideal of cynicism is formed as:

§ extreme simplicity, bordering on a pre-cultural state;

§ contempt for all needs except the basic ones, without which life itself would be impossible;

§ mockery of all conventions;

§ demonstrative naturalness and unconditionality of personal freedom.

Briefly about the philosophy of Plato.

Plato (-427 - -347, Athens) - the greatest Greek philosopher. Plato is usually remembered in connection with the following provisions:

1. Idea. Every thing is determined by its idea (eidos or form). Ideas (eidos or form) are not our thoughts about a given subject (the word acquired such a meaning later). Ideas are the essence of things, that which makes a thing what it is. Ideas make up the world of ideas (ideal world). This world is ideal in the modern sense of the word and absolutely static, not subject to change. On the other hand, there is a formless space, matter, chaos, which is in continuous motion, which has no form. The combination of ideas (eidos and forms) with formless matter creates our world cosmos - order - in all its diversity. Roughly speaking: a cat is a cat only because the idea (eidos, form) of a cat is realized in matter. The world of forms (ideas) was connected with matter by the Demiurge (literally: the architect), God the Creator, who, according to the model of the ideal (in the Platonic sense) world, created our world.

2. Soul. The act of knowing consists in knowing the idea (in the Platonic sense) of things. Therefore, the human soul must be related to the world of ideas. The soul is eternal and descends into our world from the world of ideas. Therefore, it "contains" everything that happens there. Hence, knowledge is the soul's memories of what it saw in the world of ideas. On the other hand, since the soul is related to the world of ideas, its stay in the body should be considered as a conclusion, as a punishment and restriction. Therefore, all unhealthy aspirations of a person should be attributed to the body. Death is the liberation of the soul. At the same time, Plato adheres to the theory of metempsychosis, that is, the theory of the transmigration of souls. The fact is that the number of souls is limited. They descend into our changing world, after death they return to the world of ideas in order to then again descend into our world in another body.

3. State. The state is necessary not for the benefit of its citizens, but for their achievement of perfection. Therefore, in an ideal state, citizens should merge with the state, and the state should not let things take their course, but clearly define what is right and what is not. For example, new citizens are an important matter, and therefore the state should determine who gives birth to children from whom, pursuing as its goal the birth of people with ideal bodies. All citizens must study from childhood in order to become philosophers. In the process of training, rulers of various degrees are selected.

Philosophy of Aristotle

Aristotle (384 - 322 BC), one of the greatest thinkers in the history of human civilization. Aristotle was born in Stagira, which is why he is sometimes called Stagirite. At the age of seventeen, Aristotle became a student of the Platonic Academy and remained there for twenty years until Plato's death. After leaving the academy, he was the tutor of the famous king and commander Alexander the Great for eight years. In 335 - 334 years. not far from Athens, he organized an educational institution called the Lyceum, where he, along with his followers, taught students of philosophy.

Describing the views of Aristotle, it should be said that at first he was strongly influenced by the teachings of Plato, but gradually freed himself from him, then exposes him critical analysis and creates his own philosophical doctrine. The sciences touched by Aristotle: “Categories”, “Analytics first and second”, “Physics”, “On celestial phenomena”, “On the soul”, “History of animals”, “Politics”, “On the art of poetry”, “Metaphysics” .

Unlike Plato, who considered only ideas as everything that exists, Aristotle interprets the ratio in being of the general and the individual, the real and the logical from other positions. He does not oppose or separate them, as Plato did, but unites them. Essence, as well as that whose essence it is, cannot, according to Aristotle, exist separately. The essence is in the subject itself, and not outside it, and they form a single whole.

Essence, according to Aristotle, is what underlies: in one sense it is matter, in another sense it is the concept and form, and in the third place it is that which consists of matter and form. At the same time, matter is understood as something indefinite, which “in itself is not designated either as determined in essence, or as determined in quantity, or as possessing any of the other properties that are definitely beings.” According to Aristotle, matter takes on definiteness only with the help of form. Without a form, matter appears only as a possibility, and only by acquiring a form does it turn into reality.

Essence is the cause of not only the real, but also the future being.

Within this paradigm, Aristotle defines four causes that determine being:

1. the essence and essence of being, thanks to which the thing is what it is;

2. matter and substrate - this is what everything arises from;

3. driving cause, meaning the principle of movement;

4. achievement of the set goal and benefit as a natural result of activity.

True knowledge, according to Aristotle, is not achieved through sensory perception or through experience, but through the activity of the mind, which has the necessary abilities to achieve truth.

These qualities of the mind are inherent in man not from birth. They exist potentially. In order for these abilities to manifest themselves, it is necessary to purposefully collect facts, to concentrate the mind on the study of the essence of these

An essential element of the search for truth are the ten categories of Aristotle (essence, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, position, state, action, suffering.

According to Aristotle, the state arises naturally to meet the needs of life, and the purpose of its existence is to achieve the good of people.

Aristotle believes that a person, by nature, is a political being and his completion, one might say, he receives perfection in the state.

If a person has moral principles, then he can achieve perfection. A person deprived of moral principles turns out to be the most impious and wild being, vile in his sexual and taste instincts.

The criterion of correct forms of government is their service to the common state interests, incorrect - the desire for personal good, benefit. The three correct forms of the state are monarchical rule (royal power), aristocracy and politics (politics is the rule of the majority, uniting the best sides aristocracy and democracy). Erroneous, wrong - tyranny, oligarchy, democracy.

Seneca

Lucius Aney Seneca is considered the founder of the "new Stoa" or late Stoicism. He was the tutor of Nero, and after his accession, one of the richest Roman dignitaries. However, he became a victim of intrigues and was put to death by order of Emperor Nero.

Seneca considered philosophy as a means of tripling man in the world. Seneca was of the opinion that philosophy is divided into ethics, logic and physics. His philosophy is dominated by an interest in ethics.

The philosophy of Seneca is not so much theoretical as applied. He did not identify knowledge and wisdom, but considered it necessary to possess knowledge in order to achieve wisdom.

Seneca considered matter to be inert. She, in his opinion, is set in motion by the mind, which he identified with the cause. He believed that the soul is corporeal, but this did not prevent him from opposing the soul and the body and from believing that the soul is immortal.

Seneca argued in his “Moral Letters to Lucilius” and in the treatise “On Benefits”, by which his views are mainly judged, that an inexorable necessity reigns in the world, before which all people - both free and slaves - are equal. A true sage must obey this necessity, i.e. fate, humbly endure all hardships, treat the mortal with contempt human existence. The condition for submission to fate, according to Seneca, is the knowledge of God. The gods, according to Seneca, are kind. They differ from people in the measure of the good they are able to do. The divinity manifests itself in the harmony of the world. The philosopher believes that nature without God is impossible. God is considered by Seneca as a force that makes everything expedient. However, as he believed, the recognition of the dominance of necessity and expediency in the world does not give rise to inaction. Taking this into account is just a reason not to despair, to act again and again in the hope that someday the efforts will still end in achieving the goal.

Seneca praised the victory over sensual passions, the desire for moral improvement. He called not for a change in the conditions of life that form a person, but for the correction of his spirit. The philosopher believed that "the root of evil is not in things, but in the soul." Seneca argued that one must live, striving to benefit one's neighbor, preached non-resistance to evil, forgiveness.

For the Stoic Seneca, despite his criticism of the property relations of his time, wealth is still preferable to poverty, since it makes it possible to serve people. According to Seneca, the wise should not be afraid of wealth, because he will not allow himself to be subjugated by him. Giving people wealth, in his opinion, should be seen as a test. If a person is virtuous, then wealth gives him the opportunity to test himself in the field of good deeds. Seneca believed that wealth is desirable, but it should not be stained with blood, acquired through dirty money. Unlike the Cynics, who consider wealth as the result of a deal with conscience, Seneca argued that the possession of wealth is justified if it is reasonably spent on things useful to people.

The means of ordering life for Seneca is the proposed transformation of it into a field for good deeds, which should be done without any hesitation, but legibly. Everyone who accepts a beneficence must benefit the benefactor. At the same time, property is considered as a means for creating good deeds. Seneca opposed the collection of funds for good deeds in immoral ways.

Stoicism

Founder of Stoicism V philosophy - Zenon of Kitia in Cyprus(c. 333 - 262 BC). A circle of admirers of his philosophy gathered near the portico painted by Polygnotus, stand, hence the name of the school - stoicism. Zenon's successor was Cleanthes (c. 330 - 232 BC) - a former fist fighter. His successor - Chrysippus (c. 281/277 - 208/205 BC) - a former athlete, runner.

In solving the problem of general and individual cognition, they were of the opinion that only individual things really exist, they considered the general to be a subjective concept. The Stoics paid attention to the doctrine of categories, which they considered subjective. They singled out only four categories: substance, quality, state and attitude. The Stoics believed that everything in nature is in motion. The Stoics believed that the path to bliss was in impartiality. They paid close attention to the analysis of passions, demanding their submission to reason. Passions were divided into four types: sadness, fear, lust and pleasure.

Sadness, according to the Stoics, is manifold. It can be caused by compassion, envy, jealousy, ill will, anxiety, grief, etc. The Stoics considered fear as a premonition of evil. Lust they understood as an unreasonable desire of the soul. Pleasure was perceived by the Stoics as an unreasonable use of desires. The Stoics shunned pleasure. For them, the ideal was an impassive person, an ascetic.

Plato's works belong to the classical period of ancient philosophy. Their peculiarity lies in the combination of problems and solutions that were previously developed by their predecessors. For this, Plato, Democritus and Aristotle are called taxonomists. Plato the philosopher was also the ideological opponent of Democritus and the founder of the objective.

Biography

The boy known to us as Plato was born in 427 BC and named Aristocles. The birthplace was the city of Athens, but scientists are still arguing about the year and city of birth of the philosopher. His father was Ariston, whose roots went back to King Kodra. The mother was a very wise woman and bore the name Periktion, she was a relative of the philosopher Solon. His relatives were prominent ancient Greek politicians, and the young man could follow their path, but such activities "for the good of society" disgusted him. All that he took advantage of by birthright was the opportunity to get a good education - the best available at that time in Athens.

The youthful period of Plato's life is poorly understood. There is not enough information to understand how his formation went. The life of the philosopher from the moment of acquaintance with Socrates is more studied. At that time, Plato was nineteen years old. Being a famous teacher and philosopher, he would hardly have taken up teaching an unremarkable young man, similar to peers, but Plato was already a prominent figure then: he took part in the national Pythian and Isthmian sports games, was engaged in gymnastics and power sports, was fond of music and poetry. Plato owns the authorship of epigrams, works related to the heroic epos and the dramatic genre.

The biography of the philosopher also contains episodes of his participation in hostilities. He lived during the Peloponnesian War and fought at Corinth and Tanagra, practicing philosophy between battles.

Plato became the most famous and beloved of Socrates' students. Respect for the teacher is impregnated with the work "Apology", in which Plato vividly drew a portrait of the teacher. After the death of the latter from the voluntary adoption of poison, Plato left the city and went to the island of Megara, and then to Cyrene. There he began to take lessons from Theodore, learning the basics of geometry.

After graduating there, the philosopher moved to Egypt to study mathematics and astronomy with the priests. In those days, adopting the experience of the Egyptians was popular among philosophers - Herodotus, Solon, Democritus and Pythagoras resorted to this. In this country, Plato's idea of ​​​​the division of people into classes was formed. Plato was convinced that a person should fall into one or another caste according to his abilities, and not origin.

Returning to Athens, at the age of forty, he opened his own school, which was called the Academy. It belonged to the most influential philosophical educational institutions not only in Greece, but throughout antiquity, where Greeks and Romans were students.

The peculiarity of Plato's works is that, unlike the teacher, he told thoughts in the form of dialogues. When teaching, he used question-and-answer techniques more often than monologues.

Death overtook the philosopher at the age of eighty. He was buried next to his brainchild - the Academy. Later, the tomb was dismantled and today no one knows where his remains are buried.

Ontology of Plato

Being a taxonomist, Plato synthesized the achievements made by philosophers before him into a large integral system. He became the founder of idealism, and many issues were raised in his philosophy: knowledge, language, education, political system, art. The main concept is an idea.

According to Plato, the idea should be understood as the true essence of any object, its ideal state. To comprehend an idea, it is necessary to use not the senses, but the intellect. The idea, being the form of a thing, is inaccessible to sensory cognition, it is incorporeal.

The concept of the idea is placed at the foundation of anthropology and Plato. The soul is made up of three parts:

1. reasonable ("golden");
2. strong-willed beginning ("silver");
3. lustful part ("copper").

The proportions in which people are endowed with the listed parts can be different. Plato suggested that they should form the basis social structure society. And society itself should ideally have three estates:

1. rulers;
2. guards;
3. breadwinners.

The last estate was supposed to include merchants, artisans and peasants. In accordance with this structure, each person, a member of society, would do only what he has a predisposition to. The first two estates do not have the need to create a family and private property.

Plato's ideas about two species stand apart. According to them, the first kind is the world, which is eternal in its immutability, represented by true entities. This world exists regardless of the circumstances of the external or material world. The second kind of being is intermediate between two levels: ideas and matter. In this world, an idea exists by itself, and real things become shadows of such ideas.

In the described worlds there are masculine and feminine principles. The first is active and the second is passive. A thing materialized in the world has matter and idea. It owes the latter to its unchanging, eternal part. Sensible things are distorted reflections of their ideas.

Teaching about the soul

Discussing the human soul in his teaching, Plato gives four proofs that it is immortal:

1. A cycle in which there are opposites. They cannot exist without each other. Since the presence of more implies the presence of less, the existence of death speaks of the reality of immortality.
2. Knowledge is actually memories from past lives. Those concepts that people are not taught - about beauty, faith, justice - are eternal, immortal and absolute, known to the soul already at the moment of birth. And since the soul has an idea of ​​such concepts, it is immortal.
3. The duality of things leads to the opposition between the immortality of souls and the mortality of bodies. The body is part of the natural shell, and the soul is part of the divine in man. The soul develops and cognizes, the body desires to satisfy base feelings and instincts. Since the body cannot live in the absence of the soul, the soul can be separate from the body.
4. Every thing has an immutable nature, that is, White color will never become black, and even - odd. Therefore, death is always a process of decay, which is not inherent in life. Since the body is smoldering, its essence is death. Being the opposite of death, life is immortal.

These ideas are described in detail in such works of the ancient thinker as Phaedrus and The State.

The doctrine of knowledge

The philosopher was convinced that only separate things can be comprehended by the method of feelings, while essences are known by the mind. Knowledge is neither sensations, nor correct opinions, nor certain meanings. By true knowledge is meant knowledge that has penetrated into the world of ideas.

Opinion is part of things perceived by the senses. Sense-knowledge is impermanent, because the things subject to it are mutable.

Part of the doctrine of cognition is the concept of memory. According to her, human souls remember the ideas known to her before the moment of reunification with this physical body. The truth is revealed to those who know how to close their ears and eyes, to remember the divine past.

A person who knows something has no need for knowledge. And he who knows nothing will not find what he should seek.

Plato's theory of knowledge is reduced to anamnesis - the theory of recollection.

Dialectic of Plato

Dialectics in the works of the philosopher has a second name - "the science of being." Active thought, which is devoid of sensory perception, has two paths:

1. ascending;
2. descending.

The first path involves the transition from one idea to another until the discovery of the highest idea. Having touched it, the human mind begins to descend in the opposite direction, moving from general ideas to particular ones.

Dialectics touches on being and non-being, one and many, rest and movement, identical and different. The study of the last sphere led Plato to deduce the formula of matter and ideas.

Political and legal doctrine of Plato

Understanding the structure of society and the state led Plato to pay much attention to them in his teachings and systematize them. The real problems of people, and not natural-philosophical ideas about the nature of the state, were placed at the center of the political and legal doctrine.

The ideal Plato calls the type of state that existed in antiquity. Then people did not feel the need for shelter and devoted themselves to philosophical research. Afterwards, they faced struggles and needed means of self-preservation. At the moment when joint settlements were formed, the state arose as a way to introduce a division of labor to meet the diverse needs of people.

Negative Plato calls such a state that has one of four forms:

1. timocracy;
2. oligarchy;
3. tyranny;
4. democracy.

In the first case, power is held in the hands of people who have a passion for luxury and personal enrichment. In the second case, democracy develops, but the difference between the rich and the poor classes is colossal. In a democracy, the poor rebel against the power of the rich, and tyranny is a step towards the degeneration of the democratic form of statehood.

Plato's philosophy of politics and law also identified two main problems of all states:

• incompetence of senior officials;
• corruption.

Negative states are based on material interests. In order for the state to become ideal, the moral principles by which citizens live must be at the forefront. Art must be censored, godlessness must be punished by death. State control should be exercised over all spheres human life in such a utopian society.

ethical views

The ethical concept of this philosopher is divided into two parts:

1. social ethics;
2. individual or personal ethics.

Individual ethics is inseparable from the improvement of morality and intellect through the harmonization of the soul. The body is opposed to it as related to the world of the senses. Only the soul allows people to touch the world of immortal ideas.

The human soul has several sides, each of which is characterized by a specific virtue, briefly it can be represented as follows:

• the rational side - wisdom;
• strong-willed - courage;
• affective - moderation.

The listed virtues are innate and are steps on the way to harmony. Plato sees the meaning of people's lives in the ascent to the ideal world,

Plato's students developed his ideas and passed them on to subsequent philosophers. Affecting the spheres of public and individual life, Plato formulated many laws of the development of the soul and substantiated the idea of ​​its immortality.

Philosophy of Plato

As mentioned above, he is the founder of idealism. Socrates himself was his teacher.

In his idealistic teaching, the following ideas can be distinguished:

The world around us is changing all the time. It does not exist as an independent substance;

Only incorporeal (pure) ideas can really exist;

The world is nothing but a reflection of pure ideas;

Pure ideas are permanent, infinite, true;

All the things that exist around us are a reflection of the original ideas - that is, pure ones.

Plato put forward the idea of ​​the doctrine of the triad. According to her, at the heart of all things are three substances: one, mind, soul.

The unity in this case is the basis of any being, cannot be associated with any common features. In fact, Plato's philosophy assures us that it is the One that is the basis of all pure ideas. One is nothing.

From the One comes the mind. It is not only separated from the one, but is also its opposite. It is something like the essence of all things, a generalization of everything living.

The soul, in this case, appears to be a mobile substance that connects such concepts as “one is nothing”, as well as “mind is alive”. It also connects absolutely all objects and phenomena of our world. The world has a soul and the individual has a soul. Things also have it. The souls of things and living beings are particles of the world soul. They are immortal, and earthly death is only an excuse for accepting a new shell. The change of bodily shells is determined by the natural laws of the cosmos.

The philosophy of Plato often touches the doctrine of knowledge - that is, epistemology. Plato argued that pure ideas should become the subject of knowledge for the reason that the entire material world is nothing but their reflection.

The philosophy of Plato very often touches upon the problems of the state. Note that his predecessors practically did not touch on such issues. According to Plato, there are seven types of state:

Monarchy. It is based on the just authority of one person;

Tyranny. The same as a monarchy, but with unjust power;

Aristocracy. It is associated with the just rule of a group of people;

Oligarchy. Here the power belongs to a group of people who rule unjustly;

Democracy. Here power belongs to the majority, which rules justly;

Timocracy. Unfair majority rule.

The philosophy of Plato puts forward a peculiar plan for the structure of the state. In this state, all people are divided into three large categories: workers, philosophers, and warriors. Everyone has to do a certain thing. When considering this issue, Plato often thought about private property.

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7. Philosophy of Aristotle.

Aristotle is an ancient Greek philosopher who lived during the classical period. His teacher is Plato. Aristotle is the teacher of Alexander the Great.

The philosophy of Aristotle is complex and useful. The great philosopher asked himself not only questions of the world order, but also of man himself. He devoted a lot of time to the art of speaking - rhetoric.

From the age of seventeen, the great thinker worked and studied at Plato's Academy. Plato was his direct teacher. After staying at the Academy for twenty years, he moved to the city of Pele, where Alexander the Great became his pupil. Then he founded his own school, where he worked until his death. This school was called - Likey.

The most famous works of this philosopher:

"Rhetoric";

"Metaphysics";

"Policy";

"Poetics";

"Organon".

Philosophy of Aristotle

He left many works that helped this science not only develop, but also move to a higher level. Aristotle's philosophy can be divided into three types:

theoretical - it studies the problems of being, its various spheres, the causes of various kinds of phenomena, the origin of things;

practical - studies the structure of the state, as well as human activities;

poetic.

There is also a fourth type - logic.

The philosophy of Aristotle has much in common with the philosophy of Plato. Often the first criticized his teacher. This was especially true for questions of being - Aristotle was against pure ideas, since he believed that things directly depend on the state of the world, and he also believed that everything in the world is unique, and there is no such thing.

Aristotle said that there are no pure ideas that are not connected with the surrounding world, only the existence of single, specifically defined things is possible, a specific thing - an individual - it exists only in a specific place at a specific time.

Asking questions about being, the philosopher deduces its categories:

essence;

attitude;

quantity;

position;

action;

state;

suffering;

quality.

The philosophy of Aristotle gives the following definition of being: an entity that has the properties of quantity, action, suffering, and so on.

Everything except the essence here is the properties of being - that is, what a person is able to perceive.

The philosophy of Aristotle also deals with the problems of matter. Matter is potency, which is limited by form. Thinking about matter, the philosopher comes to the conclusion that everything that exists on earth has potency and form, reality is a sequence of transition from matter to form and vice versa, potency is a passive beginning, and form is active. He also came to the conclusion that God is the highest form of all things. God has an existence outside of any essence.

The soul is the carrier of consciousness. It can be plant, animal, intelligent. The vegetative soul is solely responsible for nutrition, reproduction, and growth. Thanks to the animal soul, we can feel as well as desire. A reasonable soul helps to generalize and draw conclusions - only it distinguishes a person from the animal world.

The social philosophy of Aristotle asserts that a person is a highly organized animal that has speech, as well as thinking, has a tendency to live with people like himself. The need for one's own kind made a person who he is. Man is an extremely social being. Its sociality would not be so strong without language.

The political philosophy of Aristotle is also known. The philosopher distinguished six types of states:

monarchy;

aristocracy;

extreme oligarchy;

ochlocracy;

He subdivided all types of the state into "bad", also into "good". It is worth noting that he considered polity to be the best form of state.

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Plato (broad-shouldered) 427 - 347 BC e. - the largest philosopher of Ancient Greece, a student of Socrates, the founder of his own philosophical school - the Academy - the founder of the Idealistic trend in philosophy.

The main provisions of the teachings of Plato:

Material things are changeable, impermanent, and eventually cease to exist;

The surrounding world (the world of things) is also temporary and changeable and does not really exist as an independent substance;

In reality, only pure (incorporeal) ideas (eidos) exist;

Any thing is only a material reflection of the original idea (eidos) as in the mirror of this thing. Horses, for example, are born and die, but they are only the embodiment of the idea of ​​a horse, which is eternal and unchanging;

The whole world is a reflection of pure ideas (eidos)

The subject of knowledge should be, first of all, pure ideas;

Pure ideas cannot be known with the help of sensory knowledge, they can only be known by reason through idealistic knowledge;

Only philosophers, as the most educated people, are able to see and realize "pure ideas"

Cproperties of ideas:

1. First of all, it is necessary to understand well that we are not talking about our, human thoughts, but about cosmic, world ideas, ideas of the World Mind. These ideas are objective exist outside and independently of human consciousness.

2. Any the idea is one in many ways, something general for this class of things

3. Ideas are perfect samples of things Ultimately, the best of its kind.

4. Ideas are immaterial, immaterial. They cannot be perceived with the ordinary senses. They are super sensitive and comprehensible only by reason.

5. Because ideas are perfect, they never change. They abide forever beyond space and time in a special ideal world.

6. Ideas bring integrity and meaningful order to the world. Thanks to them, all things and beings are divided into species and genera. Each class of objects has its own idea (eidos) as a model.

According to Plato, everything that exists consists of three substances:One; Mind; Soul

United - there is nothing that has no signs of either beginning or end, it is higher than any environment, it is the origin of all ideas, all things, phenomena, both good and bad

Mind - comes from the one, but is separated from the one; it is the opposite of the one; it is the essence of all things; it is a generalization of every living thing on Earth.

Soul - p It is a moving substance that unites and binds the one and the mind. Connects all things and phenomena. The soul can be the world and the soul of an individual, things and inanimate nature can have a soul. The soul of a person (thing) is a part of the world soul. The soul is immortal. At the death of the soul underworld is responsible for his actions, acquires a new bodily shell.

State problem . The concept of the state is divided into 3 estates:

Philosophers;

Workers.

There is no marriage - all children and wives are common. Slave labor is allowed. The optimal form of the state is the Aristocracy and the monarchy.

Plato's Academy is a religious and philosophical school founded by Plato in 387 and existed for 1000 years. Aristotle, Philo, Xenocritus and many others studied at the academy.

The basis of Platonism is idealism

Philosophy is the highest science, which embodies the pure striving for truth. It is the only way to know yourself, God and to true happiness. The real sage is attracted to philosophy not by a dry, rational craving for dead, abstract knowledge, but by a love attraction (Eros) to the highest mental good.

The great Greek philosopher Plato

Plato on the dialectical method of philosophical knowledge

The world of things and the world of ideas in Plato - briefly

In addition to the perception of sensual, material of things, we have an idea of ​​​​general, abstract concepts - ideas. According to Plato's philosophy, an idea is the same thing that occurs in at least two different things. But no one can cognize the non-existent - therefore, ideas really exist, although we do not feel them as sensible objects.

Moreover - only the world of intelligible ideas true exists, but the sensible world of things. Not a single sensible object is capable of being a complete manifestation of at least one idea, of embodying it in its entirety. In the world of things, true essences are hidden and distorted by a cover of formless, qualityless matter. Things are nothing more than a faint semblance of ideas - and, therefore, they are not true being.

Plato's teacher, Socrates

The structure of the universe according to Plato

Ideas of beauty and harmony are inseparable from the mind. The distances between the orbits of the planets correspond to the first three numbers, their squares and cubes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 27. If you supplement a series of these numbers by inserting proportional numbers between them, you get a mathematical sequence corresponding to the relationship between the tones of the lyre. Hence Plato claims that the rotation of the celestial spheres creates musical harmony (" harmony of spheres»).

But since the ideal and material principles are connected in the universe, it is not controlled by one mind, and the second - inert, blind and inert - force: the law of necessity, which Plato figuratively calls rock. The movements of the planets in the direction opposite to the movement of the starry sky prove that forces operating in the universe are opposite to one another. At the creation of the Universe, the mind prevailed over the law of material necessity, but in some periods, evil fate can prevail over the mind. God, having initially put the mind into the world, then provides the universe with freedom and only occasionally takes care of it, restoring a rational device in space and preventing it from slipping into complete chaos.

Plato's doctrine of the soul - briefly

“Justice,” says Plato, “will be established only when philosophers become kings or kings philosophers.” The upper, ruling class, in his opinion, should receive philosophical education and upbringing from the state from an early age. Poets, artists, and in general all works of mental creativity should be subjected to strict government supervision, so that only noble, useful works full of good moral examples. Not only the political, but also the personal of each citizen must be fully regulated by the state - up to the establishment of a communist community of property and women.

The normal family in Plato's ideal republic is abolished. Relationships between the sexes are also regulated by the state. Children immediately after birth are transferred to public foster homes, so that they do not know their parents, and adults - those whom they gave birth to. The material goods produced by the lower working class are distributed under state control. In general, the political philosophy of Plato advocates the complete enslavement of every individual by society - so that he serves only the collective, and not his own personal interests.