22. Periodization and features of the
development of ancient philosophy
• Ancient philosophy refers to trends, schools and teachings that
developed in ancient Greek and Roman societies. Ancient Greek
philosophers, depending on what they preached, formed many
trends, and the totality of these philosophical teachings, which
developed in the ancient Greek and Roman slave societies,
constituted ancient philosophy. Ancient philosophy – a single and
unique phenomenon in the development of the philosophical
consciousness of mankind.
23. • Ancient (ancient) philosophy, that is, the philosophy of the
ancient Greeks and ancient Romans, originated in the 7th
century. BC NS. in Greece and lasted until the VI century. n. NS.
In this millennium, two main directions in European
philosophy were formed - materialism and idealism, dialectics
arose, all the main questions of philosophy were posed in
embryo (or even in a rather developed form), dozens of thinkers
created, whose names are heard even by those who I did not
specifically study philosophy - Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Socrates,
Democritus, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Lucretius Kar, Marcus
Aurelius, Cicero, Seneca, Philo.
24. • Ancient philosophy, which was a holistic phenomenon in the history
of philosophy, can be divided into a number of periods.
• First period ancient philosophy – the period of its birth from a
mythological worldview – refers to the 7th century. BC NS. The first
philosophical anti-mythological teachings, which are still full of
mythological images and names, belong to this period. The creators
of these teachings were the philosophers of the Miletus school
(Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes), founder of the Eleatic school
Xenophanes, Pythagoras, Heraclitus and his contemporary and
philosophical antipode Parmenides – the main representative of the
Eleatic school.
25. • Second period in the history of ancient philosophy - the period
of its maturity - is the main and most difficult. These include
the Teachings of the great natural philosophers - Empedocles,
Anaxagoras, Leucippus and Democritus, as well as the
Pythagorean Philolaus, the movement of the Sophists, who first
turned to ethical and social topics, and Socrates, in whose views
the problem of philosophical methodology arises. V IV in... BC
NS. Plato introduces the concept of “idea” into philosophy
precisely as “ideal”.
• This includes the beginning of the activities of the so-called
Socratic schools (Cynics, Cyrenaics, etc.). Aristotle's teaching
ends this period.
26. • Third period in the history of ancient philosophy there is an era
of the spread of Greek culture both to the East and to the West -
to Rome. This period covers the III-I centuries. BC NS. These
centuries continue to function like the old schools of thought
Plato and Aristotle, and new ones. These are the schools of
Epicurus, Zeno. Their teachings penetrate the Roman Republic,
giving rise to Roman epicureanism (Lucretius Carus),
skepticism and stoicism (Seneca, Marcus Aurelius) .
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48. Socrates
• Socrates was the big-city philosopher in ancient Athens. Accused and
convicted of corrupting the youth, his only real crime was
embarrassing and irritating a number of important people. His
punishment was death.
• Socrates didn’t write books; he just liked to ask probing and
sometimes humiliating questions, which gave rise to the famous
Socratic Method of Teaching. This street-corner philosopher made a
career of deflating pompous windbags.
49. Plato
• An aristocratic man with plenty of money and a superb physique,
Plato at one time won two prizes as a championship wrestler.
Actually, the man's real (and little known) name was Aristocles;
Plato was just a nickname given to him by his friends, whose
original connotation made reference to his broad shoulders.
• Plato became an enthusiastic and talented student of Socrates
and wrote famous dialogues featuring his teacher verbally
grappling with opponents. Our wrestler believed in the pre-
existence and immortality of the soul, holding that life is nothing
more than the imprisonment of the soul in a body. In addition to
the physical world, there is a heavenly realm of greater reality
consisting in Forms, Ideals, or Ideas (such as Equality, Justice,
Humanity, and so on).
50. • As his crowning achievement: He wrote a famous
treatise (The Republic) on the ideal society, in which he
expressed the thought that a philosopher, of all people,
should be king (big surprise!).
51. Aristotle
Aristotle was Plato’s best student. He went on to become the
very well-paid tutor —probably the highest paid philosopher
in history — of Alexander the Great. Aristotle started his own
philosophical school when he was 50 years old. Although he
lived only ten more years, he produced nearly a thousand
books and pamphlets, only a few of which have survived.
This great thinker was called a peripatetic philosopher
(peripateo means “to walk around”) because he liked to
lecture to his students while taking a walk. Another group of
philosophers were called stoics because they preferred sitting
around on porches (stoa) when they shot the breeze.
52. • A key theme in Aristotle’s thought is that happiness is the goal of life.
Aristotle was a good deal less other-worldly than Plato. He voluntarily
went into exile from Athens when conditions became a bit politically
dangerous for him, in his words, “lest Athens sin twice against
philosophy.”
• The founder of logical theory, Aristotle believed that the greatest
human endeavor is the use of reason in theoretical activity. One of his
best known ideas was his conception of The Golden Mean — to
“avoid extremes,” the counsel of moderation in all things.
53. Post-Aristotelian philosophical schools: from
rationalism and consistency to mysticism and
eclecticism
• The death of Aristotle marks the end of the Golden Age of Greek philosophy. From Thales to
Socrates was the period of beginnings; from Socrates to Aristotle, the period of highest perfection;
with the opening of the post-Aristotelianperiod begins the age of decay and dissolution. To this
third period belong the pantheismof the Stoics, thematerialism of the Epicureans, and the final
relaxation of all earnest philosophicalthought, culminatingin the absolute scepticismof the
Pyrrhonists.The period of highest perfection in philosophywas also the period of the political
greatness of Greece, and the causes which brought about the political downfall of Greece are in
part accountablefor the decay of Greek philosophy.
• Sixteen years before the death of Aristotle, the battleof Chaeronea(338 B.C.) was fought, -- the
battlein which the doomof Greece was sealed. There followed a series of unsuccessful attempts to
shake off the Macedonianyoke. In vain did Demosthenes strive to arouse in the breasts of the
Athenians the spirit of the days of Marathon and Thermopylae; the iron hand of military despotism
crushed the last manifestations of patriotism. Then the Roman came, to succeed the Macedonian,
and Greece, the fair home of philosophyin theWest, was made a province of a vast military and
commercial empire.
54. • The loss of political freedom was followed by a period of torpor of the creative
energies of the Greek mind.{1} Speculation, in the highest sense of constructive
effort, was no longer possible and philosophy became wholly practical in its aims.
Theoretical knowledge was valued not at all, or only in so far as it contributed to
that bracing and strengthening of the moral fiber which men began to seek in
philosophy, and for which alone philosophy began to be studied. Philosophy thus
came to occupy itself with ethical problems, and to be regarded as a refuge from
the miseries of life. When men ceased to count it an honor to be a citizen of
Hellas, they turned to philosophy in order to become citizens of the world; and so
philosophy assumed a more cosmopolitan character. Imported into the Roman
Empire, it failed at first to take root on Roman soil because in the Latin contempt
of the Graeculus was included a contempt for all things Greek. Gradually,
however, philosophy gained ascendency over the Roman mind, while in turn the
Roman love of the practical asserted its influence on Greek philosophy
55. • All these influences resulted in (1) a disintegration of the distinctively
Greek spirit of philosophy and the substitution of a cosmopolitan spirit of
eclecticism; (2) a centering of philosophical thought around the problems of
human life and human destiny; and (3) the final absorption of Greek
philosophy in the reconstructive efforts of the Greco-Oriental philosophers
of Alexandria.
• But, while metaphysics and physics were neglected in this anthropocentric
movement of thought, the mathematical sciences, emancipating themselves
from philosophy, began to flourish with new vigor. The astronomers of
Sicily and later those of Alexandria stand out of the general gloom of the
period as worthy representatives of the Greek spirit of scientific inquiry.
• The principal schools of this period are: (1) the Stoics, (2) the Epicureans,
(3) the Sceptics, (4) the Eclectics, (5) the mathematicians and astronomers.
A separate chapter will be devoted to The Philosophy of the Romans.
