To have an idea of the development of philosophy is necessary for all educated people. After all, this is the basis of a special form of cognition of the world, which develops a system of knowledge about the most general characteristics, fundamental principles of being, ultimate general concepts, the relation of man and the world. Throughout the entire existence of mankind, the task of philosophy was the study of the general laws of development of society and the world, the process of thinking and cognition, moral values and categories. In fact, philosophy exists in the form of a large number of diverse teachings, many of which oppose and complement each other.
The origin of philosophy
The development of philosophy began almost simultaneously in several parts of the globe. In the Greek Mediterranean colonies, India and China in the 7th-6th centuries BC, the formation of rational philosophical thinking first began. It is possible that more ancient civilizations already practiced philosophical thinking, but no work or evidence that could confirm this has been preserved.
Some scholars consider the aphorisms and proverbs preserved from the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt to be the oldest examples of philosophy. At the same time, the influence of these civilizations on Greek philosophy, on the worldview of the very first philosophers, is considered undoubted. Among the sources of the origin of philosophy, Arseniy Chanyshev, who dealt with this problem, distinguishes science from mythology and the “generalization of everyday consciousness”.
A common element in the development and emergence of philosophy was the formation of philosophical schools. According to a similar pattern, the formation of Indian and Greek philosophy took place, but the development of Chinese was restrained due to the conservative socio-political structure of society. Initially, only areas of political philosophy and ethics were well developed.
Causes
The development of philosophy is a generalization of existing types of human thinking that reflect existing reality. Until a certain moment, there were no real reasons for its occurrence. For the first time they begin to form in the first century BC. A whole complex of reasons appears related to epistemological and social.
Speaking briefly about the development of philosophy, we dwell on each group of reasons. Social manifest:
- in the formation of a moving social class structure;
- in the appearance of the separation of physical and mental labor, that is, for the first time a class of people is formed who are constantly engaged in mental activity (an analogue of modern intelligentsia);
- there is a territorial social division into two parts - the city and the village (human experience and culture are accumulating in the city);
- politics appears, interstate and state relations develop.
There are three subtypes of epistemological causes:
- the emergence of science, namely: mathematics and geometry, which are based on the definition of a single and universal, generalization of reality;
- the emergence of religion - this leads to the finding in it of a single divine essence and spiritual consciousness, which reflects all surrounding reality;
- contradictions between religion and science are formed. Philosophy becomes a kind of mediator between them, a spiritual triune complex serves the formation of mankind - this is religion, science and philosophy.
There are three features of the development of philosophy. Initially, it arises as pluralistic, that is, idealism, materialism, religious philosophy.
Then it arises in two main types - rational and irrational. Rational relies on a theoretical form of presentation, science and social issues. As a result, Greek philosophy became the spiritual expression of all Western culture. Oriental irrational philosophy is based on a semi-artistic or artistic form of presentation and universal issues, defining a person as a cosmic being. But from the point of view of Greek philosophy, man is a social being.
Stages of development of philosophical thought
There are several stages in the development of philosophy. A brief description of them is given in this article.
- The first historical stage in the development of philosophy is the period of its formation, which occurred in the 7th-5th centuries BC. During this period, scientists strive to realize the essence of the world, nature, the structure of the cosmos, the root cause of everything that surrounds them. Bright representatives are Heraclitus, Anaximenes, Parmenides.
- The classical period in the history of the development of philosophy is the 4th century BC. Socrates, Aristotle, Plato and the sophists are making the transition to the study of human life and humanitarian issues.
- The Hellenistic period of the development of philosophy - III century BC - VI century AD. At this time, the individual ethics of the Stoics and Epicureans came to the fore.
- The philosophy of the Middle Ages covers a fairly large time layer - from the II to XIV centuries. It is at this historical stage in the development of philosophy that two main sources appear. These are the installations of the monotheistic religion and the ideas of ancient thinkers of the past. The principle of theocentrism is being formed. Scientists are mainly concerned about the meaning of life, soul, death. The principle of revelation becomes a divine essence, which can only be discovered with the help of sincere faith. Philosophers interpret massively sacred books in which they seek answers to most questions of the universe. At this stage, the development of philosophy is three stages: analysis of the word, patristic and scholasticism, that is, the most rational interpretation of various religious ideas.
- XIV-XVI centuries - the philosophy of the Renaissance. During this period of the development of philosophy, thinkers return to the ideas of their ancient predecessors. Alchemy, astrology and magic are actively developing, which at that time few consider pseudoscience. Philosophy itself is firmly associated with the new cosmology and the development of natural science.
- XVII century - the heyday of the newest European philosophy. Many sciences are formalized separately. A cognitive method based on sensory experience is being developed. The mind manages to clear itself of an uncritical perception of the surrounding reality. This becomes a key condition for reliable knowledge.
- The English philosophy of the education of the eighteenth century occupies a special place in the periods of development of philosophy. Enlightenment appears in England in parallel with the birth of capitalism. Several schools stand out at once: humism, Berkeley, the concept of common sense of the Scottish school, deistic materialism, which implies that God after the creation of the world ceased to take part in his fate.
- The Age of Enlightenment in France. At this time, the formation and development of philosophy began, during which ideas that became the ideological basis of the future Great French Revolution came to the fore. The two main slogans of this period were progress and reason, and its representatives were Montesquieu, Voltaire, Holbach, Didro, Lametri, Helvetius, Rousseau.
- German classical philosophy makes it possible to analyze the mind in knowledge, to achieve freedom. In the view of Fichte, Kant, Feuerbach, Hegel, Schelling, knowledge turns into an active and independent creative process.
- In the 40s of the XIX century, the formation and development of philosophy in the direction of historical and dialectical materialism took place. Its founders are Marx and Engels. Their main merit is the discovery of unconscious motivation for human actions, which is due to material and economic factors. In this situation, economic processes drive social processes, and the struggle between classes is determined by the desire to possess specific material wealth.
- In the second half of the 19th century, non-classical philosophy developed. It manifests itself in two extreme orientations: the critical manifests itself in nihilism in relation to classical philosophy (prominent representatives - Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Bergson, Schopenhauer), and the traditionalist advocates a return to classical heritage. In particular, we are talking about neo-Kantianism, neo-Hegelianism, and neo-Thomism.
- In the process of developing the philosophy of modern times, value coloring and anthropologism become vivid manifestations. The main question that bothers them is how to give meaning to human existence. They advocate a departure from rationalism, cast doubt on the slogan of the victory of reason over the inertness of nature and the imperfection of the society around them.
In this form, one can imagine the historical development of philosophy.
Development
One of the first concepts that philosophers became interested in was development. The modern idea of him was immediately preceded by two ideas of development in philosophy. One of them was platonic, which defined this concept as a deployment, which allows you to show the possibilities inherent in the bud from the very beginning, proceeding from an implicit existence to an explicit one. The second idea was a mechanical concept of development as a quantitative increase and improvement of all things.
Already in the concept of the social development of philosophy, Heraclitus initially formulated a position in which he implied that everything simultaneously exists and does not exist, since everything is constantly changing, is in a continuous process of extinction and occurrence.
This section also includes ideas for developing a risky adventure of the mind, which Kant set forth in the 18th century. Many areas were simply impossible to imagine as developing. These include organic nature, the heavenly world. Kant applied this idea to explain the origin of the solar system.
One of the main problems of the methodology of history and philosophy is historical development. It should be distinguished from the teleological idea of progress, as well as from the natural-scientific concept of evolution.
The development philosophy for man has become one of the central topics.
Directions
As soon as a civilized person learned to recognize himself in the world around him, he immediately had a need to theoretically determine the system of relations between the universe and man. In this regard, in the history of this science there are several main directions of development of philosophy. The two main ones are materialism and idealism. There are also several diverse currents and schools.
The basis of such a direction in the development of philosophy as materialism is the material principle. These include air, nature, fire, water, aleuron, atom, directly matter. In this regard, a person is understood as a product of matter, which develops as naturally as possible. He is attributive and substantial, has a unique own consciousness. It is not based on spiritual, but material phenomena. Moreover, a person’s being determines his consciousness, and his lifestyle directly affects his thinking.
Bright representatives of this direction are Feuerbach, Heraclitus, Democritus, Hobbes, Bacon, Engels, Didro.
At the heart of idealism is the spiritual principle. It includes God, an idea, a spirit, a kind of world will. Idealists, among which are Kant, Hume, Fichte, Berkeley, Berdyaev, Solovyov, Florensky, define a person as a product of the spiritual principle, and not an objectively existing world. The entire objective world in this case is considered to be produced from the objective or subjective. Consciousness is definitely aware of being, and lifestyle is determined by human thinking.
Philosophical trends
Now we will analyze the largest and most popular of the existing philosophical movements. Ribot, Descartes, Lipps, Wundt are dualists. This is a steady philosophical movement, which is based on two independent principles - both material and spiritual. It is believed that they exist in parallel, simultaneously and at the same time, independently of each other. The spirit does not depend on the body and vice versa, the brain is not considered a substrate of consciousness, and the psyche is not dependent on nervous processes in the brain.
The basic principle of dialectics is that in a person and the universe everything develops according to the laws of the interaction of opposites, with the transition from qualitative changes to quantitative, with a progressive movement from lower to higher. In dialectics, the idealistic approach (its representatives Hegel and Plato) and the materialistic approach (Marx and Heraclitus) are distinguished.
The meaning of the metaphysical flow is that in a person and in the universe everything is either stable, static and constant, or everything is constantly changing and flowing. Feuerbach, Holbach, Hobbes held this view of the surrounding reality.
Eclecticists assumed that in man and the universe there is something changeable and constant, but there is something absolute and relative. Therefore, you can never say anything definite about the state of an object. So thought James and Potamon.
Gnostics recognized the probability of cognition of the objective world, as well as the ability of human consciousness to adequately reflect the world around him. These included Democritus, Plato, Didro, Bacon, Marx, Hegel.
Agnostics Kant, Hume, Mach denied the possibility of a person knowing the world. They even questioned the very possibility of adequately reflecting the world in human consciousness, as well as knowing the world as a whole or its causes.
The skeptics Hume and Sextus Empiricus argued that there is no definite answer to the question of the cognizability of the world, since there are unknown and known phenomena, many of them can be mysterious and mysterious, there are also world riddles that a person is simply not able to realize. Philosophers of this group constantly doubted everything.
Monists Plato, Marx, Hegel and Feuerbach gave an explanation to the whole world around them solely on the basis of a single principle, ideal or material. Their whole system of philosophy was built on a single common foundation.
The positivists Mach, Comte, Schlick, Avenarius, Karnap, Reichenbach, Moore, Wittgenstein, Russell defined empirio-criticism, positivism, and neopositivism as a whole era that reflected ideas meaning all positive, genuine, that can be obtained by synthesizing the results of private sciences. At the same time, they considered philosophy itself as a special science, capable of applying for independent studies of reality.
The phenomenologists Landgrebe, Husserl, Scheller, Fink and Merlot-Ponti took a subjectively idealistic position in the "man-universe" system. They built their philosophical system on the intentionality of consciousness, that is, its focus on the object.
Existentialists Marcel, Jaspers, Sartre, Heidegger, Camus and Berdyaev gave a dual assessment of the "man-universe" system. They defined it from an atheistic and religious point of view. Ultimately, they agreed that comprehension of being is the undivided integrity of the object and subject. Being in this sense is presented as being directly given to humanity of existence, that is, existence, the end point of which is death. The time allotted to a person’s life is determined by his fate, is connected with the essence of existence, that is, death and birth, despair and fate, repentance and deed.
The Hermeneutics Schlegel, Dilthey, Heidegger, Schleiermacher and Gadamer had a special vision of the relationship between man and the universe. In hermeneutics, in their opinion, was the basis of all sciences about the philosophical aspect of nature, the spirit, the historicity of man, and historical knowledge. Anyone who devoted himself to hermeneutics was able to give the most transparent description of the situation, if he avoids limitation and arbitrariness, as well as from unconscious mental habits resulting from it. If a person seeks not self-affirmation, but understanding another, then he is ready to admit his own mistakes arising from unconfirmed assumptions and expectations.
Personalists represented the German, Russian, American and French philosophical systems. In their system there was a priority in the philosophical understanding of reality by man. Particular attention was paid to the personality in its very specific manifestations - actions and judgments. The person, the personality itself in this case was the basic ontological category. The main manifestation of her being was volitional activity and activity, which were combined with the continuity of existence. The origins of personality were not rooted in itself, but in an infinite and united divine principle. This philosophical system was developed by Kozlov, Berdyaev, Jacobi, Shestov, Mounier, Scheler, Landsberg, Rougmon.
Structuralists perceived the man and the universe in a completely different way. В особенности их восприятия действительности было выявление совокупности отношений между элементами единого целого, которые в состоянии сохранить свою устойчивость в любых ситуациях. Науку о человеке они вовсе представляли невозможной, исключение - полное абстрагирование от сознания.
Отечественная школа
Исследователи всегда выделяли, что важной особенностью возникновения и развития русской философии всегда было обусловлено перечнем культурологических и исторических факторов.
Еще одним ее важным источником было православие, которое формировало важнейшие духовные связи с мировоззренческими системами остального мира, в то же время позволяло проявлять специфику отечественной ментальности по сравнению с Востоком и Западной Европой.
В формировании и развитии русской философии большая роль принадлежит нравственно-идеологическим основаниям древнерусских народов, которые получили выражение в ранних эпических памятниках славян и мифологических традициях.
Features
Среди ее особенностей выделяли то, что вопросы познания, как правило, отодвигались на второй план. При этом отечественной философии был свойственен онтологизм.
Другая ее важнейшая черта - антропоцентризм, так как большинство вопросов, которые она была призвана решать, рассматривались через призму проблем конкретного человека. Исследователь отечественной философской школы Василий Васильевич Зеньковский отмечал, что эта черта проявилась в соответствующей моральной установке, которую соблюдали и воспроизводили практически все русские мыслители.
С антропологизмом связаны и другие черты философии. Среди них стоит выделить склонность к акцентированию внимания на этической стороне решаемых вопросов. Сам Зеньковский называет это панморализмом. Многие исследователи делают акцент на неизменных социальных проблемах, называя в связи с этим отечественную философию историософичной.
Stages of development
Большинство исследователей считает, что отечественная философия зародилась в середине первого тысячелетия нашей эры. Как правило, вести отсчет начинают с формирования религиозных языческих систем и мифологии славянских народов того периода.
Еще один подход связывает возникновение философской мысли на Руси с утверждением христианства, некоторые находят основания, чтобы отсчитывать начало русской истории философии с укреплением Московского княжества, когда оно стало главным культурными и политическим центром страны.
Первый этап развития русской философской мысли продолжался до второй половины XVIII века. В это время произошло зарождение и развитие отечественного философского мировоззрения. Среди его представителей выделяют Сергия Радонежского, Иллариона, Иосифа Волоцкого, Нила Сорского, Филофея.
Второй этап формирования и становления отечественной философии пришелся на XVIII-XIX века. Именно тогда появилось русское просвещение, его представители Ломоносов, Новиков, Радищев, Феофан Прокопович.
Григорий Саввич Сковорода сформулировал бытие, состоящие из трех миров, к которым он относил: человека (микрокосм), Вселенную (макрокосм) и мир символической реальности, который объединял их воедино.
Наконец, свой вклад в развитие русской философии внесли идеи декабристов, в частности, Муравьева-Апостола, Пестеля.
