Religious philosophy in the Middle Ages was called. medieval philosophy
9.Philosophy of the Middle Ages
In the long period of the European Middle Ages (I-XIV centuries), philosophy developed mainly within the framework of theology. She is a servant of theology. Its main areas:
Apologetics (protection and justification of Christian doctrine with the help of arguments addressed to reason);
Patristics (dogmatization of the teachings of the "fathers of the church", who asserted the incompatibility religious faith With ancient philosophy);
Scholasticism (rational substantiation and systematization of Christian doctrine using the ideas of ancient philosophy). Cosmocentrism ancient Greek philosophy displaced by theocentrism, the initial idea of which is as follows: everything that changes is created by God from "nothing" and tends in the end to the insignificant. Natural and social existence is the result of divine predestination. The consequence of this thesis is the idea of world harmony and expediency of all processes. A person is understood as a person, an indivisible person with reason, free will and conscience. The bearer of the human personality is the soul created by God. Damage to the soul leads to damage to the personality. The imperfection of the behavior of a person who has free will is the cause of evil, which is necessary for the harmony of the world. Most of the philosophers of this period were characterized by dogmatic thinking, based on a thorough knowledge of formal logic, which becomes an unshakable canon. The methods of this thinking are a summary review, comments, citation. At the center of philosophical disputes was the question of the relationship between faith and knowledge. Known for the concept of pure faith Tertullian(160-220), the essence of which is expressed in the aphorism: "I believe, because it is absurd." Against, Thomas Aquinas(1225–1274) believed that belief in God should be based on a system of rational proofs:
1) evidence from movement (every movement needs a first push, which is God);
2) proof from a derivative cause (in the world there is a causal order originating from the first cause - God);
3) proof from necessity and chance (all phenomena are random, therefore finite. This means that the time will inevitably come when they will be absent. If this is so, then it cannot be assumed that they arose by themselves. Therefore, there is a necessary cause that produces them );
4) proof from perfection (everything that exists is perfect. God is perfect. Therefore, God exists);
5) proof from expediency (everything in the world is ordered, reasonable, harmonious. This means that there is a rational being that sets a goal for everything that happens).
In the late Middle Ages (X-XIV centuries), a number of heretical teachings arose that undermined the authority of religious ideas and laid the foundation for the philosophy of the New Age:
1) the doctrine of two truths: the truth of faith and the truth of knowledge (D. Scott);
2) the doctrine of free will and its relative determinism (J. Buridan);
3) the doctrine of the relationship between things and concepts about them: nominalism (only things really exist, concepts are only their names) and realism ( general concepts exist really, independently of individual things);
4) the doctrine of experience as a measure of the truth of concepts (W. Ockham).
So, the period of the Middle Ages cannot be considered a period of stagnation. philosophical thought. Medieval philosophy made a significant contribution to the development of epistemology, especially formal logic, distinguished knowledge from faith, substantiated the need to study nature.
2.2 Periods of Medieval Philosophy
cosmocentrism universe monotheism scholasticism philosophical knowledge Middle Ages are conventionally divided into several periods, the largest of which are patristics and scholastics ...
Ancient and Medieval Philosophy: General and Special
3.1 The totality of features of ancient and medieval philosophy
If Greek philosophy grew up on the soil of the ancient slave-owning society, then the philosophical thought of the Middle Ages belongs to the era of feudalism (V-XV centuries).
However, it would be wrong to think of things like this ...
Ancient and Medieval Philosophy: General and Special
3.2 Features of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
Medieval philosophy belongs mainly to the era of feudalism (V-XV centuries). The entire spiritual culture of this period was subordinated to the interests and control of the church, the protection and justification of religious dogmas about God and his creation of the world ...
2.
Features of medieval philosophy
The main directions of philosophy in the Middle Ages
4.
The main provisions of medieval philosophy
Theocentrism - (Greek theos - God), such an understanding of the world in which God acts as the source and cause of all things.
He is the center of the universe, its active and creative beginning. The principle of theocentrism extends to cognition...
The main directions of philosophy in the Middle Ages
5. Stages of formation of medieval philosophy
In medieval philosophy, at least two stages of its formation can be distinguished - patristics and scholasticism, it is rather difficult to draw a clear line between them. Patristics is a set of theological and philosophical views of the "fathers of the church" ...
The main directions of philosophy in the Middle Ages
6.
Ideas of medieval philosophy
In addition to the above provisions and features, it is equally important to identify the following ideas of medieval philosophy: The idea of commandments: Commandments are an agreement between God and man, the first list of crimes that a person can commit ...
The main features of medieval philosophy
1. The main features of medieval philosophy
Under the era of the Middle Ages, it is customary to understand a rather long historical period, which includes the origin and formation of European medieval civilization and the long process of its transformation - the transition to the New Age ...
1. Features of medieval philosophy
The problem of the crisis of European culture in the light of the philosophy of the twentieth century.
Berdyaev N.A. New Middle Ages
Features of medieval philosophy
Since Berdyaev's work is called The New Middle Ages, it is logical to analyze the features of medieval philosophy. 1. In contrast to antiquity, where the truth had to be mastered ...
The Problem of Universals in Medieval Philosophy
Problems of universals in medieval philosophy
Whatever problems were discussed in medieval scholasticism, they were somehow connected with the question of the place and role of universals in the structure of being and in the process of cognition...
Medieval Christian philosophy
3 The concept of medieval philosophy. Theology
Middle Ages is dominance religious outlook expressed in theology. Philosophy becomes the "servant" of theology. Its main function is the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures...
The nature and features of the philosophy of the Middle Ages
1.
Prerequisites for the emergence of medieval philosophy
During the Middle Ages, a complex hierarchical feudal social ladder arose, and various states appeared in place of the Roman Empire.
In the western area of the former Roman Empire, a huge state…
Characteristic features of medieval philosophy
1. Characteristic features of medieval philosophy
Until recently, medieval philosophy was studied in a very truncated form: it was often presented as a conglomerate of eclectic and relativistic ideas. The fact is that the dominant worldview of the Middle Ages was Christianity ...
Stages of formation of medieval philosophy
1.
Late Antique Philosophy as a Source of Medieval Philosophy. Theocentrism is a fundamental principle of the philosophy of the Middle Ages
In contrast to antiquity, where truth had to be mastered, the medieval world of thought was confident about the openness of truth, about revelation in Holy Scripture. The idea of revelation was developed by the Church Fathers and enshrined in dogma...
Medievalism
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The Middle Ages lasted from the 4th to the 16th centuries. This more than a thousand-year period in the development of European philosophy passed under the sign of the affirmation Christian principles and ideals.
The main sources of the philosophy of the Middle Ages were Christian theology and ancient philosophy, primarily the legacy of Plato and Aristotle.
There are three major periods in the development of medieval philosophy: the period of apologetics and patristics (4th-5th centuries); scholastic period (VI - XIII centuries); Renaissance, or Renaissance (XIV - XVI centuries).
The main feature of medieval philosophy was its dependence on religion.
Philosophia - ancilla theologiae (Philosophy - the servant of theology) - this was how the role of philosophy in the public consciousness of the Middle Ages was determined.
The ontological concept of medieval philosophy was built on an objective-idealistic basis: "In the beginning there was a word ... And this word was God." The distinctive features of medieval ontology were theocentrism (from lat. theos - god) - the proclamation of God as the center of all things and providentialism (from lat.
providentia - providence) - the belief that everything in the world is done by the will of divine providence.
Characteristic features of the medieval theory of knowledge were irrationalism - the assertion of the predominance of the unknowable over the knowable and intuitionism - the recognition of religious intuition (divine revelation) as the main source of knowledge.
The main channel for the development of rational knowledge in the Middle Ages was scholasticism, whose task was to prove the truths of revelation by means of logic.
Sensual, experimental knowledge was proclaimed sinful and severely persecuted, as a result of which the development of the natural sciences in the Middle Ages was suspended.
The initial period of medieval philosophy is correlated with the ideological movements of apologetics and patristics.
Persecuted by the authorities, Christianity of the first centuries needed theoretical protection, which was provided by apologetics.
Apologetics (from the Greek apologia - protection) is an early Christian philosophical movement that defended the ideas of Christianity from the pressure of official pagan ideology. Without creating an original philosophical concept, the apologists substantiated the very possibility of the existence of philosophy on the basis of Christian doctrine.
The most famous representative of apologetics was Justin Martyr (c.100-c.165). He went down in history as one of the first heroes-ascetics of Christianity.
Brought up in a pagan environment, from a young age he was looking for a religious and ethical teaching that could fully satisfy his spiritual claims. At the age of thirty, he became acquainted with Christianity. Having accepted it both as a philosophical doctrine and as a religion, he traveled a lot, arranging philosophical discussions with opponents of Christianity.
For refusing to sacrifice pagan gods was brutally executed.
Following apologetics, a trend of patristics was formed (from Latin pater - father). Patristics are the teachings of the first ideologists of Christianity, the so-called "fathers of the church". The writings of the "fathers of the church" outlined the main provisions of Christian philosophy, theology, and the doctrine of the church.
The largest representative of patristics was Blessed Augustine (354-430). Augustine was born in Tagaste, a Roman province in northern Africa, to a pagan and Christian father.
In addition to the Christian name Augustine, he also bore Roman name Aurelius. He received a good education and from the age of nineteen (when his father died) began to teach, quickly succeeding in the career of a rhetorician. Getting to know the legacy ancient philosophers, he was more and more deeply imbued with the idea of God-seeking. At the age of thirty-three, he converted to Christianity.
In his teaching, Augustine combined the foundations of Neoplatonism with Christian postulates. God, according to Augustine, is the cause of everything.
God created the world and continues to create it. Based on the ideas of Neoplatonism, Augustine developed in Christian theology the philosophical problem of theodicy * (from the Greek theos - god and dike - justice) - the problem of the existence of evil in the world created by God. Good is the manifestation of God on earth, Augustine taught, evil is the lack of good. Evil on earth arises from the inertness of matter, which, embodying the divine prototypes of objects, distorts the ideal.
Augustine's social views are expressed in his theory of the City of God, in which he contrasted the state (the kingdom of sin) and the church (the kingdom of virtue).
“There have always been two kinds of human communication, which we can call two cities,” wrote Augustine. “One of them is made up of people who want to live according to the flesh; and lives in a world of its own kind." Augustine called the church "Christ stretching for centuries", and the state - "the great gang of robbers."
The most important works of Augustine "Confession", "On the City of God", etc.
became the theoretical basis of the ideology of the Christian church.
The main philosophical trend in the era of the dominance of Christian ideology was scholasticism (from the Greek. schole - school, teaching, conversation) - the so-called school science, which combined Christian dogma with logical evidence. Dogma (from the Greek dogma - opinion) is a position that is unconditionally taken on faith and is not subject to doubt and criticism.
Scholasticism created a system of logical arguments to confirm the basic tenets of faith. In modern language, scholasticism is called knowledge, divorced from life, based not on empirical knowledge, but on reasoning based on dogma.
Scholasticism did not deny rational knowledge in general, although it reduced it to the logical knowledge of God. In this, scholasticism opposed mysticism (from the Greek mystika - sacrament, mysterious rites) - the doctrine of the possibility of knowing God exclusively through supernatural contemplation - through revelations, insights and other irrational means.
The mystic rejected the truth of rational knowledge in principle.
For nine centuries scholasticism dominated European thought. It is to her that the merit of preserving science as a sphere of knowledge recognized by society belongs. Scholasticism played a leading role in the development of logic and other theoretical disciplines, but significantly slowed down the development of the natural, experimental sciences.
The largest representative of scholasticism during its heyday is Thomas Aquinas, or Thomas Aquinas (1225/26 - 1274).
He systematized theological doctrine, creating philosophical concept, which became the basis of the official Catholic ideology. According to his name, the orthodox philosophical doctrine of Catholicism is called Thomism. The modern philosophical doctrine of the Vatican is called neo-Thomism (from Latin neo - new). The most famous works of Thomas Aquinas are the so-called Sums of Aquinas - "Sum against the Gentiles" (aka "Sum of Philosophy") and "Sum of Theology".
Thomas Aquinas came from a noble French family.
From the age of five he was brought up in a Benedictine monastery.
Having become close to the Dominicans, he joined them. Thomas considered theology his vocation, taught in Paris and other cities. IN last years life repeatedly experienced religious ecstasies, during one of which he burned the unfinished "Sum of Theology".
The central theme of the reasoning of Thomas Aquinas is the relationship between reason and faith.
In his teaching, a clear line is drawn between faith and reason, religion and science: religion acquires knowledge in revelations, science in reason. "We must allow the existence, along with the truths of the revelations, of the truths of reason," Thomas wrote. Blind faith is not enough for a person; it is necessary to rationally explain to him the truths of faith. This, according to Aquinas, is the purpose of the existence of science.
One of the most common forms of development of philosophical knowledge in the Middle Ages was scientific discussions.
The largest of these, which lasted for several centuries, was the so-called "dispute about universals."
Universals (from Latin universale - general) are general concepts (names, names) that reflect the general properties of a number of objects.
General terms are, for example, wood, red, hot, ball, dog, sour, etc. These concepts express the properties of not one specific thing, but a whole class of objects.
The discussion about universals was based on the following question: what comes first - general concepts or individual things? In other words, are individual objects created according to the common pattern that exists before them, or are general concepts created on the basis of individual objects? In answering this question, two currents have developed: nominalism and realism.
Nominalism (from lat.
nomen - name, name) recognized that only single objects really, objectively exist, and general concepts - names - are created by the subject who cognizes them when he singles out any common properties in these single objects. In other words, general concepts exist only after things. The largest representatives of nominalism were John Roscellinus (1050 - 1123/25) - a French monk-preacher who did not leave any written legacy, and William of Ockham (1300 -1349/50) - an Oxford Franciscan professor who was accused of heresy by the papal curia and found protection from the German Emperor Louis of Bavaria.
Realism (from lat.
realis - real) argued that general concepts exist really, objectively, regardless of the mind that cognizes them. General concepts exist before individual things and express ideal essence these things. General concepts are a kind of ideal prototypes of individual things. Being embodied in single things, their general essence is always more or less distorted. The concept of realism was shared by most orthodox Christian philosophers.
For example, the "father of scholasticism" Anselm of Canterbury (1033 - 1109), who held the high post of archbishop and John Duns Scotus (c. 1266 - 1308), professor of theology and philosophy at Oxford and Paris.
The Renaissance (XIV - XVI centuries), or the Renaissance (from fr.
renaissance - rebirth), got its name because of the restoration of the most important principles of the spiritual culture of antiquity that began during this period.
The main feature of the philosophy of the Renaissance was humanism * (from lat.
homo - man) - an ideological movement that affirms the value of man and human life.
The worldview of the Renaissance was built on the principle of anthropocentrism (from the Greek anthropos - man), which put man in the focus of world existence.
A peculiar manifestation of humanism is rationalism, which affirms the primacy of reason over faith.
A person can and should explore the secrets of being, studying the foundations of the existence of nature in all ways available to the mind. During the Renaissance, scholastic, purely speculative, principles of knowledge were revised and experimental, natural science knowledge was resumed. Fundamentally new, anti-scholastic pictures of the world were created - the heliocentric picture of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) and the picture of the infinite Universe by Giordano Bruno (1548-1600).
Giordano Bruno was born in Italy, near Naples.
In his youth, he joined the Dominican order, where he became interested in philosophy. His main interests were focused on natural-philosophical questions. He wrote a number of articles and treatises, the ideas of which were largely at odds with the orthodox provisions of Catholicism. Fleeing from the persecution of the Inquisition, he was forced to move from city to city, from country to country, speaking at scientific discussions, lecturing, continuing to write and publish his works.
Bruno was eventually captured by the Inquisition and burned at the stake.
"So, I proclaim the existence of innumerable separate worlds, like the world of this Earth. Together with Pythagoras, I consider it a luminary, like the Moon, other planets, other stars, the number of which is infinite.
All these celestial bodies make up countless worlds. They form an infinite universe in infinite space. This is called the infinite universe, in which there are countless worlds. Thus, there is a twofold kind of infinity - the infinite magnitude of the Universe and an infinite number of worlds, and from here the denial of truth based on faith indirectly follows, ”we read in the documents of the Venetian Inquisition about the interrogations of Giordano Bruno.
In the views on nature in Renaissance philosophy, pantheism was established (from the Greek.
pan - everything and theos - god) - a doctrine that identifies nature and God ("Nature is God"). The German self-taught philosopher Jacob Boehme (1575-1624), in his treatise on cosmology, brought out the famous formula of pantheism: "And like everything in God, God himself is everything."
Interest in the physical side of life, including the bodily existence of a person, suppressed in the Middle Ages, was equalized in rights with the study of spiritual phenomena.
In the ethics of the Renaissance, many principles of pre-Christian teachings on morality (Epicureism, Stoicism, skepticism) were restored.
"... Some distinguish between the useful and the pleasurable; their ignorance is so obvious that they do not need to be refuted ...
How can that be called useful which is neither virtuous nor pleasurable? ... Virtuous qualities are not parts of the highest virtue, but serve to receive pleasure. So sensibly believes Epicurus, with whom I agree," wrote, for example, in the treatise "On Pleasure" Lorenzo Valla (1407 — 1457).
In the social part of ethical teachings, concepts began to appear that affirmed new principles of social life: individualism (separation of the interests of an individual) and secularization (secularization, weakening of church influence in all spheres of life).
The social teachings of the Renaissance paved the way for the formation of a new, bourgeois ideology.
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The emergence of philosophy Philosophy of the ancient world. medieval philosophy. Philosophy of the XVII-XIX centuries. Modern Philosophy. Traditions of domestic philosophy.
Philosophy, as a special form of worldview and spiritual culture, was born only with the emergence of a slave-owning society. Its original forms appeared in the 7th-6th centuries BC. V Ancient Greece, India, China.
The word "philosopher" was first introduced by the ancient Greek thinker Pythagoras, who called people who aspire to high wisdom, the right way life, the knowledge of "one in all".
The emergence of philosophy is associated with a profound turn in the spiritual history of mankind, which took place between the 8th and 2nd centuries BC.
The German philosopher K. Jaspers called this unique period in world history "Axial Time".
In this era, the main categories that we think of to this day were developed, the foundations of world religions were laid, and today remain the most influential.
It is at this time that a person realizes his being as a whole, begins to feel himself as a person in the face of an infinite world. In all directions, a transition was made from isolation to universality, which forced many to reconsider their former, unconsciously established views and customs.
The changes that took place in the era of "axial time" were of great importance for the subsequent spiritual development of mankind. There was a sharp turn in history, which meant the appearance of a person of the type that has survived to the present
Philosophy, which arose as a natural response to the new needs of the spiritual development of society in the era of the "axial time", differs from mythology and religion in the following qualities:
rational nature of the explanation of reality(basing on universal scientific concepts, relying on scientific data, logic and evidence);
reflexivity, i.e.
constant introspection, a return to their original premises, "eternal" problems, their critical rethinking at each new stage. Philosophy is a reflexive "mirror" not only for itself, but also for science, culture, society as a whole. It acts as their self-reflection, self-consciousness;
free-thinking and critical directed against prejudice, fettering dogmatism, blind faith in "absolute" authorities.
The critical spirit of philosophy, expressed in the ancient saying: "question everything", is one of its core ideals.
Philosophy did not stand still, but constantly developed .
The history of world philosophy is divided into:
1. The emergence of world philosophical thought. Philosophy of ancient civilizations. VII-VI centuries BC.
ancient philosophy. 6th century BC - 5th century AD
3. Medieval philosophy V century AD. e. - XIV century AD
4. Renaissance XIV century AD - XVI century AD
5. Philosophy of modern times (bourgeois classical philosophy) 17th century AD
- ser. 19th century AD
6. Non-classical modern philosophy ser. 19th century AD - modern times
Philosophy ancient world.
Initially, the totality of the real was seen as "physis" (nature) and as the cosmos, why philosophical problem and acted as a cosmological one. The first naturalist philosophers put the question this way: how did the cosmos arise? What are the phases of its development? What are the initial forces acting in it?
But the Sophists have a different picture.
Cosmology is left in the background, attention is focused on a person and his specific abilities. Thus a moral issue arises.
Together with the grandiose systematic constructions of the 6th century BC, philosophical problems were enriched with questions that throughout history will be paradigmatic.
Plato will demonstrate that reality and being are not homogeneous, that in addition to the cosmos of the sensible, there is an intelligible reality that surpasses the sensual, physical, which will later be called metaphysical.
Moral problems will be specified: a person as an individual and as an associated person is aware of the difference between proper ethical and political problems (however, mutually related for the Greeks, but not for us).
Plato and Aristotle fixed the problems of the genesis and nature of knowledge, logical and methodological, from the point of view of the method of rational search.
Which path to follow to reach the truth? What is the true contribution of the senses and what comes from the mind? What characterizes true and false? What are the logical forms by which a person thinks, judges, reasons? What are the rules of adequate thinking? According to what rules can we qualify this or that judgment as scientific?
In connection with the logical and epistemological problems, the problem of art and the beautiful is born, which in artistic expression was designated as the problem of aesthetics.
Hence the problem of rhetoric, the art of persuasion, so important in antiquity.
Proto-Aristotelian philosophy can be grouped as follows: 1) physics (ontology - theology - physics - cosmology), 2) logic (epistemology) and 3) ethics.
The last period of Greek philosophy of the time of Christianity, in accordance with the spirit of this era, is marked by mystical and religious features.
medieval philosophy.
Medieval philosophy, philosophy of the Middle Ages - a historical stage of development Western philosophy covering the period from the 5th to the 14th centuries.
It is characterized by theocentric views and adherence to the ideas of creationism by ideologists (theologians) of this period in the development of philosophical thought. The Middle Ages is the dominance of a religious worldview, which is reflected in theology. Philosophy becomes the servant of theology. Its main function is the interpretation of Holy Scripture, the formulation of the dogmas of the Church and the proof of the existence of God. Along the way, logic developed, the concept of personality was developed (a dispute about the difference between hypostasis and essence) and a dispute about the priority of the individual or the general (realists and nominalists).
In contrast to antiquity, where truth had to be mastered, the medieval world of thought was confident about the openness of truth, about revelation in Holy Scripture.
The idea of revelation was wisdom; this idea was completely new.
Developed by the church fathers and enshrined in dogmas. Thus understood, the truth itself strove to take possession of man, to penetrate him.
Against the backdrop of the Greek
It was believed that a person was born in truth, he must comprehend it not for his own sake, but for its own sake, for God was it. It was believed that the world was created by God not for the sake of man, but for the sake of the Word, the second Divine hypostasis, the incarnation of which on earth was Christ in the unity of Divine and human nature.
Therefore, the far-off world was originally thought to be built into the higher reality, and accordingly, the human mind was built into it, partaking of this reality in a certain way - due to the innateness of man into the truth.
The communion mind is the definition of the medieval mind; the function of philosophy is to discover the right ways to exercise the sacrament: this is the meaning of the phrase ‘philosophy is the servant of theology’.
Reason was mystically oriented, since it was aimed at revealing the essence of the Word that created the world, and mysticism was rationally organized due to the fact that the Logos could not be represented otherwise than logically.
Because of this, the foundations of medieval philosophy were theocentrism, providentialism, creationism, and traditionalism.
Under conditions of given truth, the main philosophical methods were hermeneutic and didactic, closely related to the logical-grammatical and linguistic-semantic analysis of the word.
Since the Word lay at the foundation of creation and, accordingly, was common to everything created, it predetermined the birth of the problem of the existence of this common, otherwise called the problem of universals (from Lat.
universalia - universal). Three philosophical currents are associated with attempts to solve the problem of universals: conceptualism (the existence of the general outside and inside a particular thing), realism (the existence of the general outside and before the thing) and nominalism (the existence of the general after and outside the thing).
At a time when medieval philosophy was presented as the guardian of ancient traditions (with one of the main ideas - the existence of eidos, images of things before things), realism was considered the only correct approach to knowing what being is; the emergence of nominalism testified to the disintegration of medieval thinking, and conceptualism was a combination of moderate realism with moderate nominalism.
In the history of medieval philosophy, there are different periods: patristics (II-X centuries.
) and scholasticism (XI-XIV centuries). In each of these periods, rationalistic and mystical lines are distinguished. The rationalistic lines of patristics and scholasticism are described in detail in the relevant sections, and we have combined the mystical lines of the mystical teachings of the Middle Ages into an article.
Augustine the Blessed(Aurelius Augustine) (354 - 430). Main works:“On the city of God”, “On the beautiful and fit”, “Against the academicians”, “On order”.
Key Ideas:
· The course of history is a struggle between two kingdoms – the sinful Earthly and the perfect Divine;
· The earthly kingdom is mired in sins and sooner or later will be defeated by the Divine;
· The Church is the only force capable of helping the world;
The highest bliss is the deepening of a person into himself;
Thomas Aquinas(1225 - 1274). Main works:"The Sum of Theology", "The Sum of Philosophy".
Key Ideas:
Evidence for the existence of God;
· Reason and philosophy do not contradict faith, but faith is always higher than reason.
Classification of forms state government;
· The goal of human life is the achievement of heavenly bliss, and only the church can lead a person to this goal.
John Scott Eriugena(810 - 877). Main works:"On the division of nature". Main idea: God is the beginning and end of the development of the world, but he is also one of the types of nature. The doctrine was declared heresy and condemned.
Al Farabi(870-950). Main works:"Gems of Wisdom", "A Treatise on the Views of the Residents of a Virtuous City", "The Big Book of Music". Main idea: God is the root cause of the existence of the world ("First Existing").
Avicenna(Ibn Sina) (980-1037). Main works:"The Book of Healing", "The Book of Instructions and Instructions", "The Book of Knowledge", "The Canon of Medical Science". Main idea: God is the active, and matter is the passive beginning of the world, but they are equally eternal beginnings of being.
Pierre Abelard(1079-1142). Main works:"The Story of My Troubles".
Averroes(Ibn Rushd) (1126-1198). Main works:"Refutation of Refutation". Main idea: The individual soul is mortal, only the universal human mind is immortal. Averroes' work was banned by the Catholic Church.
William of Ockham(1285-1350). Main works:"The body of all logic". Main idea: Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily ("Occam's razor"). Excommunicated, teaching prohibited.
The meaning of medieval philosophy.
· Linked the ancient philosophy and the philosophy of the Renaissance;
· Preserved and managed to develop a number of ancient philosophical ideas;
· Contributed to the emergence of new sections in philosophy (epistemology);
Divided idealism into objective and subjective;
· Aroused interest in understanding the historical process;
· Put forward the idea of optimism (victory of good over evil and resurrection).
Outline of the lecture "Philosophy of the Renaissance and Modern Times".
1. Philosophy of the Renaissance.
2. Empiricism and rationalism in modern European philosophy.
3. German classical philosophy.
Philosophy of the Renaissance.
| Prerequisites for the emergence | The crisis of feudalism; · Development of crafts and trade; · Strengthening of cities and growth of their value; · Centralization of states and strengthening of secular power; · The crisis of the church and scholastic philosophy; · Increasing the level of education; · Great geographical discoveries; · Scientific and technical discoveries (gunpowder, firearms, microscope, telescope, blast furnace, book printing, etc.). |
| Main features | · Anthropocentrism (philosophical doctrine, according to which man is considered as the center of the universe); Humanism (recognition of the value of man and faith in his limitless possibilities); · Opposition to the church and church ideology; · Moving the main interest from the idea to the content; · New, scientific and materialistic understanding of the world; · Increased interest in social problems; · The triumph of individualism; · Spreading the ideas of social equality. |
| The main currents of the philosophy of the Renaissance | ||
| Flow | The largest representatives | Main Ideas |
| humanistic | · Dante Alighieri; · Petrarch; · Lorenzo Valla | All attention is paid to the person, his virtues, greatness and power. |
| Neoplatonic | · Kuzan; · Pico della Mirandola; · Paracelsus | The development of the teachings of Plato, the knowledge of the Cosmos and man from the point of view of idealism. |
| natural philosophical | · Copernicus · Bruno · Galileo | A new idea of the universe, built on scientific and astronomical discoveries. Pantheism is the doctrine according to which the concepts of "God" and "nature" coincide. |
| Reformation | · Luther; Munzer; · Calvin; Rotterdam | A radical revision of the church ideology and the relationship between the church and believers. |
| Political | Machiavelli Guicciardini | Problems of state management and the behavior of rulers. |
| Utopian - socialist | Mor Campanella | Ideal-fantastic forms of building a state |
Empiricism and Rationalism in New European Philosophy.
| Flow | Main Representatives | Key Ideas |
| Empiricism is a direction in the theory of knowledge, which considers experience, the totality of sensory data, to be the main source and criterion of scientific statements. | Francis Bacon (1561-1626) "New Organon"; "New Atlantis". | · The ancestor of empiricism and the founder of the experimental science of modern times; · “Knowledge is power” - an aphorism expresses faith in the power of the human mind and the omnipotence of science; · Developed the method of induction (movement from the individual to the general); "Teaching about idols". Idols are obstacles on the path of knowledge: idols of the family are mistakes due to the very nature of man; cave idols - mistakes that are characteristic of an individual or some groups of people due to subjective sympathies, preferences, education, upbringing; idols of the square - errors generated by verbal communication; idols of the theater - errors associated with blind faith in authorities, uncritical assimilation of views. |
| John Locke (1632-1704) "Experience about human mind research institutes | · The only source of all human ideas is experience; · The largest representative of sensationalism - a philosophical movement, according to which sensations are the source of knowledge; | |
| George Berkeley (1685-1753) | · All sensations are subjective; “To be is to be perceived.” | |
| David Hume (1711-1776) | A person cannot go beyond experience; · A person can only explore the content of his consciousness, but not the external world; Reality is a stream of impressions. The causes that give rise to these impressions are unknowable. | |
| Rationalism is a direction in the theory of knowledge, which considers the mind the basis of knowledge and the criterion of the truth of scientific provisions. | René Descartes (1596-1650) | · Founder of rationalism; “I think, therefore I am” - one can be absolutely sure only in own existence; · The doctrine of innate ideas; · Mechanistic explanation of the soul; Deism - the concept that God created the world, but then the world develops without the participation and intervention of God |
| Benedict Spinoza (1623-1677) "Ethics" | Supporter of pantheism; · Analysis of the content of our consciousness gives us the truth about the world and vice versa, knowing the world, we learn our consciousness. | |
| Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) | · The doctrine of monads (the principle of the diversity of the foundations of being); · Reducing the laws of the world to the laws of thought. |
German classical philosophy.
| Representatives | Main works | Key Ideas |
| Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) | "Critique of Pure Reason"; "Critique of Practical Reason"; "Criticism of Judgment" | Agnosticism - denial of the possibility of knowing the world; · "Thing in itself" - a part of the world, closed to human understanding; · The categorical imperative "Act in such a way that you treat humanity, both in your own person and in the person of everyone else, only as an end, and never treat it as a means." |
| Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) | "Phenomenology of Spirit"; "Science of Logic"; "Philosophy of Law"; "Philosophy of Nature" | · The basis of the universe is the World (Absolute) Spirit; · In its development the Absolute Spirit goes through three stages: 1) Idea-in-itself (Logos); 2) Idea-in-other (Nature); 3) Idea-in-itself-and-for-itself (Spirit); · Formulated the concept of dialectics as a fundamental law of development and existence of the World Spirit; · “Everything reasonable is real, everything real is reasonable” - the laws of reason and maar coincide. · Systematized the development of world classical philosophy. |
| Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814) | "Science" | · The only reality is the subjective human Self; · “I” forms “not-I”, i.e. external world. |
| Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775-1854) | "The system of transcendental idealism"; "On the Essence of Human Freedom" | · Understanding the origins of being and thinking; Nature is the unity of subjective and objective; eternal mind; holistic organism, possessing animation. |
Outline of the lecture "Modern Philosophical Teachings".
| Philosophical current | The largest representatives | Main Ideas |
| Voluntarism | Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) "The World as Will and Representation"; "Aphorisms of Worldly Wisdom". | “Life is mold on one of the balls.” The world is not controlled by the mind, but obeys the will. · Will is an ideal force and the highest cosmic principle that underlies the universe. · A person is a bunch of desires, he is constantly tormented by an insatiable thirst, a desire that he can never fully satisfy. Unsatisfied desires bring suffering. Suffering is a constant form of manifestation of life. · Introduced into philosophy the theme of the tragedy of being an individual and humanity as a whole. |
| Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", "Beyond Good and Evil", "The Anti-Christian". | Life is the only reality that exists for a particular person. · The task of philosophy is to help a person adapt to life (“falling - push”, “will to power”, “revaluation of values”, “God is dead”). | |
| Marxism | Karl Marx (1818-1883) Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) "Holy Family", "German Ideology". | · materialistic understanding stories; the idea of transforming the world. · The doctrine of socio-economic formations and class struggle. · Dialectical materialism– recognition of the primacy of material processes over spiritual ones. |
| Pragmatism | Charles Sanders Pierce (1839-1914). William James (1842-1910) John Dewey (1859-1952) | Thinking is a kind of adaptive function of the organism. “The world is what we make of it.” · That which is more convenient to believe is true. |
| Positivism and neo-positivism | Auguste Comte (1798-1857) Course in Positive Philosophy. Spencer, Russell, Wittgenstein, Carnap, Popper. | Philosophical knowledge must be accurate and reliable. In cognition, one must use the scientific method and rely on the achievements of other sciences. · Philosophy should investigate only the facts, not their causes. Philosophy should not be evaluative. · Philosophy should take a specific place among other sciences, and not rise above them. |
| Existentialism | Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855). Nikolai Berdyaev (1874-1948). Karl Jaspers (1883-1969). Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980). Albert Camus (1913-1960) | · Philosophy focuses on the problem of the essence of human life. The meaning of existence lies in existence itself. This meaning is hidden from a person by everyday life and is found only in borderline situations - between life and death. |
| Psychoanalysis | Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Adler, Jung, Fromm, Reich. | The unconscious is a psychological reality that is inherent in every person, exists along with consciousness and largely controls it. · The main contradictions of human existence: matriarchy and patriarchy; power and submission; personal existence and historical existence. The task of philosophy is to help a person solve these problems. |
Outline of the lecture "Being as a Philosophical Category"
The main feature of the philosophy of the Middle Ages is its theocentrism. It was closely connected with religious worldview systems and completely dependent on them. Therefore, medieval philosophy developed mainly within the framework of religion (European - Christian, Arabic - Islamic). This is due to the fact that a significant part philosophical teachings and schools that arose in the Middle Ages are classified as religious philosophy.
The specificity of the medieval type of philosophizing is determined by two important features:
- the first feature is close connection of philosophy with the Christian religion. Christian church in the Middle Ages it was the main center of culture and education. In this regard, philosophy was understood as a "servant of theology", i.e. as a branch of knowledge leading to higher knowledge - theological. It is no coincidence that most of the philosophers of that time were representatives of the clergy, as a rule, monasticism.
- The second important circumstance that influenced the character of medieval philosophy is its complex, contradictory attitude to pagan wisdom (ancient philosophical thought). The chronology of medieval philosophy already given above makes it possible to notice that it was formed in the atmosphere of a dying ancient (Roman) culture against the background of the wide spread of such philosophical teachings as Neoplatonism, Stoicism, Epicureanism. All of them had either a direct (Stoicism, Neoplatonism) or an indirect (Epicureanism) influence on the emerging Christian thought.
Problems of Medieval Philosophy
The above circumstances largely determined the originality of both the object and the method of cognition of medieval philosophy. . Theocentric idea(the idea of God as a reality that determines everything that exists) performs for the medieval philosopher the same regulatory function that the cosmocentric idea performed for the ancient philosopher. In the mind of a Christian person, an idea arises of the existence of two realities: along with the cosmos, the earthly universe, created, and therefore secondary, there is a creative absolute principle - a transcendent (beyond) God - a living Personality, revealing himself to a believing person in religious and mystical experience. Therefore, the object of knowledge itself changes, it is not created nature, but the Book (Bible), for it is the Word of the Creator, the source of all the secrets of the universe - first of all, the secrets of salvation. human soul. In this regard, the philosophical problems themselves have a specific connotation, for example: “Is the world created by God or does it exist on its own?”, “What does a person need to save his soul?”, “How do free will of a person and divine necessity agree?” etc.
At the same time, according to Christian doctrine, God can reveal the secrets encrypted in the text of the Bible, only to the believer. In other words, it is not only the object that changes, exploring which the philosopher tries to answer the questions that concern him, but also the way of his knowledge. Its basis is faith in the truths of divine revelation. Here we should pay attention to the following circumstance. Philosophy developed in ancient culture as a rational activity, however, has always been a certain system faith in which the components of knowledge and faith were inseparably connected in the most varied proportions. At the same time, it was Christianity that brought a kind of “epistemological drama” to the Hellenic world, revealing the non-identity of the truths of Revelation and pagan knowledge. For a Christian who sees the meaning of life in the salvation of the soul, which is possible only with a deep religious faith, the question inevitably arises: does the intelligence achieve this goal? Therefore, it is in medieval thought that the problem of correlation Christian faith and ancient reason (knowledge), theology and philosophy acquires the most acute character. Let us trace the evolution of this problem and the spectrum of its solutions.
Stages of development of the philosophy of the Middle Ages
Among the thinkers who played an important role in the transition from ancient to Christian philosophy, one usually singles out Philo of Alexandria(the end of the 1st century BC - the middle of the 1st century AD), whose ontological views were based on the Old Testament. God Jehovah (Yahweh, Yahweh) is higher than the Platonic Logos, Philo believes; God fills the world with meaning with the help of logoi, the main of which is Divine Word or Son of God: man is a combination of a soul divine in nature and a material inert body. Then this position was developed in the works of a number of thinkers of the beginning of the first millennium AD. In particular, the understanding of God was transformed towards the perception of the highest spiritual principle as a person.
Therefore, the beginning of the medieval stage in the development of philosophy is not considered a conditional general historical date (476), but is associated with the first religious and philosophical teachings of the II-IV centuries. These are teachings Aristide(II century), Justin Martyr(executed in 166), Clement of Alexandria(died c. 215/216), Tertullian(about 160 - after 220), Origen(c. 185-253/254), Athanasius the Great (293-373), Basil the Great(329-379) and some other philosophers.
The main stages of medieval European philosophy are usually called (II-VIII centuries) and (IX-XIV centuries). However, late scholasticism continued to exist in the 15th century, i.e. at the time when the philosophers of the next era, the Renaissance, create their philosophical and aesthetic systems. In addition, it is important to take into account the considerable influence on European philosophical (and scientific) thought of Arab philosophy of the 8th-13th centuries.
The cultural, historical and theoretical sources of the philosophy of the Middle Ages were formed at the beginning of the first millennium Christianity(for Islamic philosophy - Islam, which arose in the 7th century) and ancient philosophy, as well as the transformation of the social systems of the Mediterranean. Thus, the crisis of statehood, morality and, in general, the culture of the Western Roman Empire became an important prerequisite for its collapse. At the same time, new state formations arose. Gradually lost authority ancient philosophy. In addition, the need for a theoretical justification of Christianity, which at first was persecuted in the territory of the Roman Empire, played its role in the development of Christian philosophy.
Christian doctrine contains a powerful regulatory component. Nevertheless, this system of principles and norms was not positively accepted by all national-state types of worldview. Christian thinkers needed to show perseverance, patience, erudition, persuasiveness and courage in the course of mastering the European socio-cultural space, in the course of gaining the authority and trust of millions of people.
Representatives of medieval philosophy
Tertullian, Christian writer of the 1st - 2nd centuries. n. e., a representative of the so-called apologetics, proves that faith and reason are antipodes. “I believe, because it is absurd” - this aphorism attributed to Tertullian quite accurately conveys the spirit of his teaching. From his point of view, the truths revealed in faith are inaccessible to logic. Having received an excellent education, being a brilliant logician and rhetorician, he nevertheless insists on the incompatibility of pagan culture and philosophy with Christian doctrine. Philosophy is mired in continuous contradictions, points of view and theories that mutually negate each other. This fact testifies to the inferiority of the mind, to which Tertullian contrasts the immediate soul of a believing person who does not resort to logical tricks.
However, representatives patristics (Clement of Alexandria(about 150 - up to 215), Augustine Aurelius(354 - 430), Byzantine theologians) are trying to overcome the opposition of faith and reason, searching for their harmony. Augustine argues as follows: although reason plays a secondary role, it nevertheless clarifies Christian truths revealed by God in faith. Synthesizing the Christian doctrine and philosophy of Plato, Augustine argues that human knowledge is a reproduction of the ideas that are in the mind of God. If a person has faith, then there is a divine illumination (illumination) of his mind. In other words, God is directly involved in the process of cognition, revealing the truth to the believing mind of man, and faith is completely necessary condition to comprehend by reason the truths of Revelation.
Pierre Abelard(1079 - 1142) in the XII century puts the question differently about the relationship between rationality and faith. If Augustine's position can be expressed by his own formula: "I believe in order to understand", then Pierre Abelard has the opposite: "I understand in order to believe." In other words, in order to be imbued with the truths of Holy Scripture, a person must understand them logically. Note that this point of view was criticized by the Catholic Church as leading, ultimately, to the spread of pagan sophistication.
(1226 - 1274) showed that faith (theology) and reason (philosophy and science) are different paths that lead to the same goal (God). At the same time, the subjects of knowledge of theology and philosophy partially coincide. The fact is that there are problems that are open not only to faith, but also to reason, that is, problems that can be logically proved (natural theology):
- the existence of God;
- the unity of God;
- immortality of the soul.
At the same time, all other Christian truths (the trinity of God, the virgin birth, etc.) are not subject to reason (sacred theology). In other words, Thomas Aquinas, unlike Augustine, proves that the mind in its own way, independent of faith, is able to comprehend certain truths of Revelation.
The next step in explaining the relationship between faith and reason is connected with dual truth theory(XIV century), developed John Duns-Scotus(about 1265 - 1308), William of Ockham(c. 1300 - 1349) and an Arab thinker Averroes(1126 - 1198). Reason and faith are different paths that lead to different goals. And if faith and theology comprehend God, then for reason and philosophy the object of knowledge is the world. Thus, philosophy and theology are separated from each other. As a result, the ideas of Duns Scotus and Ockham open the way for Western rationalism of modern times.
In the evolution of understanding the relationship between the Christian faith and the ancient mind, the specificity of the two main stages of medieval thought is manifested - patristics And scholastics. Representatives of patristics (Church Fathers) carried out in the II - IV centuries AD. the first synthesis of Christian Revelation and pagan philosophy on the basis of a processing mainly of Platonism and Stoicism. The task of knowing the world in its ultimate meaning and “troubles”, and thus “influencing” it through the experience of the Church, determined the need for them to use Greek concepts and categories in preaching the teachings of Christ, for there were no other means of communication.
If the representatives of patristics stopped at the level of synthesis of the truths of Revelation and Greek philosophical concepts, then Western scholastic theologians during the 11th-14th centuries carried out the second synthesis of the truths of Revelation and now the logical tools (logical methods, procedures, proofs) of pagan philosophy. This fact led to a number of consequences: the autonomization and elevation of the human mind, the formation of Christian scholastic philosophy, which widely uses rational methods for religious purposes, as well as the assertion of the absolute transcendence of God, his complete separation from the world.
Main Features of Medieval Philosophy
Summing up the consideration of medieval philosophy as a whole, it should be noted character traits , influencing the development of subsequent philosophy:
- became a link between ancient philosophy and the philosophy of the Renaissance and modern times;
- preserved and developed a number of ancient philosophical ideas, since it arose on the basis of the ancient philosophy of Christian teaching;
- contributed to the division of philosophy into new spheres (in addition to ontology - the doctrine of being, which completely merged with ancient philosophy, epistemology stood out - an independent doctrine of knowledge);
- contributed to the division of idealism into objective and subjective;
- laid the foundation for the emergence in the future of empirical (Bacon, Hobbes, Locke) and rationalistic (Descartes) areas of philosophy as the results of the practice of nominalists, respectively, to rely on experience (empiricism) and increased interest in the problem of self-consciousness (I-concept, rationalism);
- aroused interest in understanding the historical process;
- put forward the idea of optimism, expressed in the belief in the victory of good over evil and in the resurrection.
The emergence of Christian philosophy
Medieval in Europe is associated with the emergence, spread and domination of Christianity. Therefore, medieval philosophy goes beyond the historical framework of the Middle Ages in Europe. As you know, the Middle Ages is the period of European history from the end of the first third of the 6th century BC. until the 17th century Medieval Christian philosophy was formed simultaneously with the emergence of Christianity as a world religion in the 1st-2nd centuries. n. e., i.e. before the beginning of the Middle Ages. Christianity as a religion takes shape in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire and spreads to the Mediterranean. The time of its appearance is characterized by a deep crisis of the slave system, which is aggravated by the fact that attempts to reform it, as well as attempts to forcibly transform it, by overthrowing the power of Rome, were not successful. The reflection of this crisis in the minds of people gave rise to despondency and fear.
In view of the fact that attempts to change the situation turned out to be fruitless, all that remained was to hope for a miraculous deliverance from troubles and to believe in the help of God and his supernatural powers that could save the perishing world.
Initially, Christianity was formed as a movement of dissatisfied with the life of the poor, freedmen and slaves. It expressed the protest of the oppressed and gave them consolation and hope for a better future in the afterlife. Since the well-to-do strata of Roman society were also affected by discontent and fear of the future, their representatives are also converting to Christianity.
One of the most important features monotheistic religion Christianity, which explains its attractiveness and vitality, lies in the extraordinary strength of its moral content. It appeals to believers as a religious and ethical doctrine that regulates a person's relationship to God, the world and other people.
The analysis made by historians of medieval philosophy shows that along with the sacred book of the ancient Jews, compiled by the Jewish priests of the 5th - 4th centuries. BC e., which includes the myths and legends of the Jewish people, and received the name of the “Old Testament” from Christians, the creations of the apostles of the disciples of Jesus Christ also played a role. Their writings made up the New Testament.
At the same time, the ideas of the Neo-Pythagoreans influenced the formation of Christian philosophy, the most famous among them was Apollonius from Tiana (Capadocia), who attributed divine power to himself.
Fruitful for Christianity were the ideas of the neo-Pythagoreans about the monistic picture of the world, about the recognition of the deity as a single intelligible whole, about the ability of a person to find the truth through a pure moral life.
Important for the emergence of Christian philosophy was the teaching of Philo of Alexandria, who considers God as the Logos - the law.
The formation of the content of Christian philosophy was influenced by Neoplatonic philosophy with its idea of unity and mind as the basis of everything that exists.
The ideas of the Gnostics had a significant influence on Christian philosophy. According to the ideas of the Gnostics, the struggle between light and darkness, good and evil, has a universal, cosmic significance. It acts as a struggle between matter, i.e., the evil rooted in it, and the spirit, which is the bearer of light and goodness. The doctrine of the origin of evil in the world, called theodicy, was based among the Gnostics on the idea of the existence of two gods: God the creator and God the redeemer. According to them, God the creator is subordinate to God the redeemer. They believed that sin is not the fault of a person, since his soul is only a battlefield on which good and evil fight.
The process of formation in Christian philosophical thought of ideas about the relationship between good and evil was also influenced by the struggle against Manichaeism. The founder of Manichaeism was the Persian thinker Mani (216-270). In Manichaeism, it is believed that the king of darkness, when attacking the kingdom of light, swallowed up part of it, and now there is a struggle to free that part of the world that is held captive by darkness. Victory over darkness is possible for someone who, with the help of Christ or Mani, on the basis of strict asceticism, breaks out of darkness into light, but many will die during the last world fire.
The attitude to the world as a source of sin is also characteristic of Christian philosophy. The people themselves are to blame for the fact that the world is bad.
The peculiarity of Christianity, as well as its philosophy, lies in the fact that revolutionary radicalism is alien to it. It does not put before man the task of changing the world. This creed seeks to translate a negatively rebellious attitude towards the world into a moral protest. Restoring order on Earth is considered by adherents of this doctrine as the destiny of the creator of the world - God. Recognition of the sinfulness of the earthly world and the temporality of human existence in it, faith in the second coming of Christ to judge sinners, hope for salvation and eternal bliss in paradise as a reward for a righteous life on Earth and love for God as a source of goodness form the basis of Christian religious philosophy.
Along with this, Christian thinkers recognize that God created the world and man in his own image and likeness. They believe that man is endowed with consciousness and free will by God. However, people do not always skillfully use this gift and sin. Man strives to avoid sin and be saved, but he cannot do this without the help of God. The means of salvation is love for God, but love expressed in service to him and others. Sinners will be judged by God the Last Judgment when he comes to Earth a second time and raises the dead. This means that good is stronger than the evil done by people and the final victory will be with righteousness.
Medieval philosophy covers in its development the period of time from the 1st - 2nd to the 14th - 15th centuries. It distinguishes two stages of development: patristics (I - II - VI centuries) and scholasticism (from VIII to XIV - XV centuries).
Medieval Arabic philosophy
Medieval Arabic is formed, on the one hand, in the course of reflection on the Koran, and on the other hand, in the process of comprehending and interpreting the ancient philosophical heritage. Meditation on the Qur'an led to the development of Islamic theology known as kalam. A group of theologians called the Mutazilites, along with questions of the Kalama, were also interested in philosophical questions proper, for example, about human freedom, about the ability of a person to know moral norms regardless of revelation, etc.
In this teaching aid, it seems necessary to consider some of the ideas of two representatives of medieval Arabic philosophy, al-Farabi and Ibn Sina.
Abu Nasr al-Farabi was born in the Faraba region at the confluence of the Arys River with the Syr Darya in southern Kazakhstan in the family of a warrior. He lived for 80 years and died in 950. Al-Farabi knew many languages, was industrious, unassuming, disinterested. Contemporaries and followers considered him the second teacher, the first was called Aristotle.
The thinking style of the second teacher was distinguished by rationalism, confidence in the ability of the human mind to solve a variety of problems. philosophical questions. A clearly expressed feature of the creative manner of al-Farabi is methodology. He brings all the problems of a theoretical-cognitive nature to the identification of methods and forms of comprehension of reality, that is, to the methodological level. The methodological requirements established by him are applied by him in the analysis of a wide range of issues related to poetry, art, physics, mathematics, astronomy, music, medicine and ethics. This feature of al-Farabi's creative manner is manifested on a large scale in the Big Book of Music. It finds expression in his studies of the classification of sciences. He not only systematizes the sciences, but seeks to subordinate them from a methodological point of view on the basis of revealing the internal logic of the development of scientific knowledge.
Al-Farabi lived and worked at a time of intransigence towards religious dissent, and this left an imprint on the style of his writings.
The thinker consistently defends the idea of the eternity of the world. It should be noted that the question of attitude to the world was one of the most important for Arab philosophy. Recognition of the eternity of the world is an important feature of al-Farabi's worldview. Another essential feature of his worldview is the recognition of the consubstantiality of reason, which generates knowledge and introduces people to immortality, but makes individual immortality problematic. The third important feature of al-Farabi's worldview is his recognition of the determinism and mediation of the world by God.
Often a thinker expresses his philosophical ideas in the context of comments on the works of Aristotle. Reflecting on the views of Aristotle, al-Farabi tries to be impartial. He writes: “The imitation of Aristotle should be such that love for him (never) reaches the point where he is preferred to the truth, but not such that he becomes an object of hatred capable of causing a desire to refute him.” This attitude towards the works of Aristotle was confirmed in the "Book of Letters", dedicated to the commentary of "Metaphysics" and in other works.
The doctrine of being is the basis of Al-Farabi's philosophy.
Consideration of the problems of being is given attention in his treatises "Classification of Sciences", "Dialectics", "On the Aims of Metaphysics" and "Categories". Al-Farabi considered the existence of the world to be co-eternal with God, who is considered by him as the eternal first cause of the world.
Thinking about knowledge, the thinker singles out ordinary, philosophical and theoretical knowledge. In his opinion, one can penetrate the essence of things only with the help of philosophy. He believed that philosophy was superior to religion.
The doctrine of reason is an important component of al-Farabi's philosophy. He, besides the first cause or the first mind, introduces ten minds into the heavenly world. These minds he sometimes calls "second causes." The scientist arranges them in nine spheres: the first heaven, in the region of the fixed stars, and also successively in the spheres of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury and the Moon. Tenth, the active mind has no sphere. It corresponds to the sublunar world, which implies the presence of a material substrate. This world is the world of change, emergence and destruction. It is preceded by an unstable divine peace. The sublunar world is subordinated to the active mind. The elements of the latter, according to al-Farabi, are: primary matter, shape, elements, minerals, plants, animals and man. The active mind is the inner law, the Logos of the earthly world.
What is intelligible in possibility is transformed by the active mind into what is really comprehended by the mind.
Based on the periodization of the development of thinking, the philosopher identifies the passive, real and acquired mind. “Passionate mind” is characterized by the potential ability of the mind to clarify things that exist, to identify the forms of connection between existing things and their dependence on matter. “Actual mind” is understood by al-Farabi as the realization of the Divine mind in the ability of things to be thought. The “acquired mind” is presented by the philosopher as the mind that a person masters in the course of the realization of the passive mind. A feature of the acquired mind is that it is endowed with morality.
Al-Farabi divides knowledge into empirical or sensual and theoretical. Cognition is possible, in his opinion, thanks to the rational force, which he divides into theoretical and practical.
The general methodological program of al-Farabi is instructive, which should be applied in scientific experiments. In it, he highlights the following points: “1. To know the whole history of the development of this topic, to critically evaluate different points of view. 2. Develop the principles of this theory and follow them steadily when deriving the rest of the theory. 3. Compare principles with results that do not occur in normal practice.”
Along with systematic philosophy, al-Farabi paid attention to logic, rhetoric, politics, problems of man and society. In his opinion, man is a social being by his very nature, he can achieve "necessary in business and obtain the highest perfection only through the union of many people in one place of residence."
Al-Farabi characterizes the societies of people on a qualitative and quantitative basis. Based on this, he divides societies into two types: complete and incomplete. In turn, the complete includes three varieties: the city (small society), the people (medium society) and humanity (great society). An incomplete society has three levels: family, village (village), city block. Society, according to al-Farabi, is like a biological organism.
Al-Farabi believed that happiness alone is unattainable. It can only be achieved if people help each other. According to al-Farabi, a person must be restrained and persistent in the process of mastering (sciences), he must by nature love the truth and its champions, and also be modest in the consumption of life's goods, despise money, easily obey goodness and justice.
The largest and most authoritative Arab-Islamic thinker of the Middle Ages is Abu Ali al Hussein ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina (Avicenna). He was born in 980 in one of the villages near Bukhara. He lived in different cities of Central Asia and died in 1037. He studied theology, physics, mathematics, medicine, logic, philosophy and left behind a great scientific legacy. Along with works on general scientific topics, he wrote a number of philosophical works. TO philosophical views Ibn Sina refer to “Healings”, “Book of Knowledge”, “Instructions and Instructions”, “Book of Salvation”, etc. Some works of Ibn Sina have been irretrievably lost, for example, the 20-volume work “Book of Justice”.
The sources of Ibn Sina's philosophy are considered to be the legacy of the philosophers of antiquity and Arab-Islamic thinkers mastered by him. Reflecting on the philosophical heritage of the great scientist, we must not forget that he was the son of his time. In the division of philosophy, Ibn Sina followed Aristotle. In logic he saw an introduction to philosophy. He divided philosophy into theoretical and practical.
In the interpretation of Avicenna, metaphysics is seen as the doctrine of being. In his opinion, there are four kinds of being: objects devoid of signs of corporality - purely spiritual beings (the main among them is God); less spiritual objects are connected with matter, for example, the celestial spheres, together with the souls that animate and set them in motion; objects that sometimes enter into an alliance with corporality (necessity, possibility, etc.); material objects are elements of physical nature.
Divine being is considered to be necessarily existent. The world is considered by Avicena as co-eternal to God. In his opinion, the law of causality operates in the world, in which some processes determine others. He considers the world knowable. The process of cognition, according to Ibn Sina, is possible due to the speculative and practical power of the human soul.
Ibn Sina believed that in order to maintain their lives, people must unite. In his opinion, people are not equal, but inequality should not give rise to grumbling and disobedience in them. They should live their lives content with their own position. According to the thinker, parasitism, theft, usury, gambling, etc., should be prohibited in public life. Ibn Sina believed that the most virtuous is such behavior that does not mean the achievement of personal gain. He saw the highest happiness in the suppression of the animal forces of man by the forces of reason and in soaring to the heights of knowledge.
Middle Ages(V-XIV centuries), which replaced antiquity, is usually characterized as a time of darkness and ignorance, barbarism and cruelty, an apology for the religious worldview and the fight against dissent - the "dark ages" in the history of mankind. What has been said is only partly true. It is impossible not to take into account that the Middle Ages -
- the period of formation of the main European states, peoples and languages, numerous workshops and corporations of artisans;
- the period of the birth of Romanesque and Gothic, chivalric romance and troubadour poetry, heroic epic, Gregorian chant and icon painting;
- the period of the emergence of monastic and cathedral schools, as well as the first universities in Europe.
The main feature of the culture of the Middle Ages is the dominance of the religious Christian worldview. Christianity is formed in the 1st century AD. in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire and gradually spread to the Mediterranean, Western and Eastern Europe. Under its influence, spiritual culture acquires a pronounced religious character and is regarded as a means of introducing a person to God, comprehending his essence.
A hallmark of medieval philosophy is theocentrism(from the Greek theos - god), according to which the reality that determines everything that exists is not nature, the cosmos, as it was in ancient philosophy, but the supernatural principle - God. Ideas about the real existence of the supernatural lead to a new understanding of nature, man and the meaning of history. Philosophical thought, limited by religious beliefs, merges with theology, is reduced to the systematization of Christian doctrine and its rational and speculative justification.. Other features of medieval philosophical thought follow from this. First of all, - authoritarianism And dogmatism. Philosophical conclusions are based on the dogmas prescribed by the Holy Scriptures (including the Bible), religious authorities, and partly the authorities of antiquity. Any innovations are considered as an "assault" on authorities and are condemned. Everything that contradicts the teachings of the church is subjected to sharp criticism. Christian theologians focus their attention on the speculative analysis of concepts, their creative potential is realized in the field of formal logical proofs. Medieval philosophy begins with the conscious submission of knowledge to faith. Religious faith is treated as a universal way human being, a special worldview position of the individual. The human mind can express through concepts only what is already in the faith, the truth is predetermined by the Christian doctrine. Thus, in the era of the Middle Ages, a new phenomenon is emerging - philosophizing in faith, which marked the beginning of religious Christian philosophy.
The rise of medieval philosophy. Patristics
It should be taken into account that the foundations of Christian doctrine are set forth in the Bible, the texts of which were compiled in three languages: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Starting from the II century. The Bible is translated into Latin, which becomes the universal language of medieval culture. But the spread of Christianity in the early Middle Ages took place against the backdrop of a decline in intellectual culture and education. The texts of the Bible were considered difficult, and for most ignorant people they were simply inaccessible. There is a need to interpret the Bible, explain the foundations of the Christian worldview and justify it. To solve these problems, the patristics(from Latin pater - father) - the teaching of the "fathers of the church", which is formed within the framework of a new social institution - the church. And if early patristics (II-III centuries) was reduced to the defense of Christianity, that's why it is called that - apologetics(from the Greek apologia - protection), then later, in the IV-VIII centuries. representatives of patristics turn to the development of Christian dogma and its systematization. In patristics, they find justification and develop the main provisions of the Christian dogma:
- 1. Pagan polytheism is being replaced monotheism(from Greek monos - one, only; theos - god). Christianity recognizes the existence of one God: "The Lord, our God, ... is one" [Deuteronomy. 6:4]. God is conceived as something transcendent, existing outside the world and above the world. The "Church Fathers" emphasize the need for faith in one God. At the same time, special attention is paid to substantiating the idea of the trinity of God (the problem of trinity) and disputes about the divine and human nature of Jesus Christ (Christology).
- 2. The power of the Christian God lies in the fact that he is the creator of the world - creationism(from lat. creatio - creation, creation), and constantly supports his creation: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. First and last" [Open John the Evangelist. 22:13]. This idea is very different Christian tradition from the Greek, in which the world (cosmos) was thought of as uncreated, eternal. The problem of the beginning of the world and its creation "out of nothing" (ex nihilo) is one of the main problems in patristics.
Monotheism and creationism underlie the religious and philosophical doctrine of being.
- 3. Christian anthropology comes from the biblical understanding of man as the image and likeness of God: "And God created man in his own image..." [Being. 1:27]. Hence the interest in the problems of the relationship between soul and body, free will and mind, God and man.
- 4. “Can you find God by research? Can you fully comprehend the Almighty? He is above the heavens - what can you do? Deeper than the underworld - what can you know? [Book of Job. 11:7-8]. The questions posed in the Bible involve the identification of the relationship between faith and reason, the limits of human cognitive capabilities. This topic occupies an important place in medieval philosophical thought.
- 5. Christianity is characterized by a new understanding of the historical process, according to which God gives meaning and expediency to history - providentialism(from lat. providentia - foresight). Of particular importance is the doctrine of the end of the world - eschatology(from the Greek eschatos - last, final; logos - teaching). In patristics, a teleological (from the Greek telos - goal) understanding of history is being formed. It is a single, regular process that has direction and purpose, and not a repeating cycle, as it was in antiquity.
One of the brightest representatives of Latin patristics Aurelius Augustine(354-430), whose views had a significant impact on the further development of religious philosophy, emphasizes that philosophy must present the teachings of the church in the form of a scientific system, substantiate and develop it: people ... but with philosophers, whose very name, if translated into Latin, indicates a love of wisdom; but if wisdom is God, by whom all things were created, as the divine authorities and truth affirm, then the true philosopher loves God. Above others, he appreciates the philosophy of Plato and the Neoplatonists: “If the pagan philosophers, especially the Platonists, accidentally dropped truths that are useful for our faith, then these truths not only should not be guarded against, but it is necessary to take them away from illegal owners and use them for our benefit” [Cit. . According to the book: 4. S. 107]. Based on ancient thought, Augustine tries to harmonize faith and reason, divine truths and accumulated knowledge. This approach indicates that Augustine sees in philosophy only a religious meaning and does not distinguish between theology and philosophy. 
Augustine Aurelius, according to many modern researchers of the Middle Ages, laid the foundations of Christian philosophy. At the center of his reflections are the problems of God, the world and man, faith and reason, eternity and time, divine grace and individual freedom, good and evil, the meaning of history. In the well-known work "Confessions", Augustine showed the inconsistency of the formation of personality on the example of his life. Revealing the spiritual foundations of human existence, he comes to the conclusion about the need for divine grace, which saves the "weak soul" of man. The theme of moral progress was developed in the treatise On the City of God. “City of the earth” and “city of heaven” are a symbolic expression of two types of love: “love for oneself up to contempt for God” and “love for God up to contempt for oneself”. The goal of history, according to Augustine, will be accomplished in the city of heaven, when a person reaches moral perfection, the state of "impossibility to sin." The perception of Greco-Roman philosophy by Christian theologians was quite contradictory. Without denying the idea of continuity, they, as a rule, turned only to late antique (Hellenistic) philosophy, which underwent significant changes under the influence of emerging Christianity. Mastering the classical philosophical heritage of Plato and Aristotle was fragmentary. Often, acquaintance with the views of the ancients was mediated by later teachings, in which the classics were quoted and interpreted. Thus, Plato was studied through the Neoplatonists, who significantly changed his doctrine of ideas and considered the One as the origin of everything that exists. As for Aristotle, his main philosophical works became known in the West only in the 12th century, translated from Arabic and commentaries by Arab thinkers, and until that time Latin language only his logical treatises were translated. Under these conditions, not only a systematic distortion of the views of ancient Greek thinkers takes place, but - and this is the main thing - the ancient way and style of thinking is changing. Understanding philosophy as a tool for explaining "divine truths", as a "charitable and respectable occupation", a representative of Greek patristics John of Damascus(673/76-777) emphasizes: “... Philosophy is the love of wisdom, while true wisdom is God. Therefore, love of God is true philosophy. For John of Damascus, like many other theologians of this period, "philosophy is the handmaiden of theology": as the queen uses the services of slaves, so theology uses philosophical teachings.
The affirmation of the idea “philosophy is the servant of theology” leads to the fact that ancient thought is adapted to the needs of Christianity. The views of the Neoplatonists about the origin (the One) as the principle of being, Plato's doctrine of the immortality of the soul, the dualistic understanding of man, according to which the body is opposed to the soul as the lowest to the highest, formed the basis of the Christian understanding of God and man. These views also contributed to the solution of the problem of the relationship between the final foundations of being, its visible manifestations and the affirmation of the idea of the immortality of the soul. The doctrine of the Stoics about the divine Logos helped to explain the world-creating and world-ruling role of God the creator, and their moral and ethical views with the ideal of a spiritually free person, meekly bearing the blows of fate, restraining passions, capable of love and forgiveness, corresponded to the Christian understanding of man. In the Middle Ages, Greco-Roman philosophy became the basis of religious and philosophical reflection.
The main problems of medieval scholasticism
Medieval philosophy of the IX-XIV centuries. received the name of scholasticism (from the Greek. scholastikos - school, scientist). Its formation and development was significantly influenced by the Arab world, thanks to which the philosophical texts of ancient authors were transmitted to the West. Scholasticism was developed and studied in universities, it was adapted to teach people the basics of the Christian faith. Most of the scholastics were representatives of the clergy, and developed their views, as a rule, from the positions of the church. Their writings were edifying and confessional in nature, many works were built in the form of a dialogue between an "all-knowing" teacher and a diligent student. In disputes and disputes, together with a reasoned reference to authorities, the formal logical substantiation of religious truths is becoming increasingly important, the means of achieving which is the scholastic method. Unlike the dialectical method, which was developed in ancient philosophy, the scholastic method is based on a rational study of problems with the clarification of the arguments "for" (pro) and "against" (contra) and bringing them to resolution. At the same time, it acts not as a way of thinking aimed at searching for truth in itself, but as a tool for comprehending divine truths: conclusions should not contradict the foundations of faith, religious dogmas. During the Middle Ages, scholasticism played a positive role, as it formed a person's confidence in the possibilities of rational comprehension of faith, strengthened him in the thought of the harmony of faith and reason.
The problem of universals, or general concepts, occupies an important place in religious and philosophical thought. It has its roots in the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, but in the Middle Ages it acquires specificity, due to Christian views on being and knowledge.
According to Christian doctrine, God, as the creator of all that exists, contains in himself the prototypes of all things. Every created thing reflects, copies the pattern that exists forever in the divine mind, and bears in itself the imprint of divine perfection. Universals as general generic concepts are carriers of the semantic characteristics of a certain class of individual things. Scholasticism raises the question of their nature: how do universals exist - “before the thing” (in the divine mind), “in things” or “after the thing” (in the human mind). For example, does the general concept of “humanity” exist objectively, apart from specific people, or does it exist in these individual people, or is it a name by which a person denotes certain qualities inherent in things.
Representatives of realism (from lat. realis - material, real) believed that universals express the essence of a thing and have real existence. Moreover, they precede the existence of singular things and have their highest realization in the divine mind. “... Everything that exists exists through a higher essence ... The essence of everything that exists, except for the highest essence, is created by the same higher essence and does not (consist) of any matter ...”, emphasizes one of the brightest representatives of realism, Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109). Universals exist eternally in the mind of God and then are found in created things as qualities (degrees). Essence and existence coincide only in God.
Opposite views on the nature of universals were held by nominalism (from Latin nomina - names). According to John Roscelinus (c. 1050-1123/25), only single things really exist, and general concepts are words, or “names of things”. In the process of sensory perception, a person cognizes individual things and forms concepts that exist in the human mind as names, sounds, signs of things and their properties. This means that a person cannot imagine simply “color” or “wisdom”, he always correlates general concepts with individual things and thinks something concrete: there is no color outside of a specific color, there is no wisdom outside of a wise soul. Such are the views on the nature of the universals of John Roscelinus, whose literary writings have been lost, and his position can be found through the works of other scholastics.
Nominalism denies the existence of universals not only in things, but also in God. Divine ideas are nothing but the very individual things produced by God. And if the early nominalists believed that the divine mind contains the prototypes of all things, then the later nominalists (William of Ockham - 1285-1349) refute this position, because its recognition means limiting the freedom of the divine will, since it turns out that God creates, in accordance with the prototypes. According to William of Ockham, God creates only individual and random things, not general and necessary things. Distinguishing intuitive knowledge(knowledge of really existing objects) and abstract (abstract), the thinker believed that universal concepts appear at the level of the latter. Therefore, universals are general concepts formed by our minds, and they do not correspond to any reality. The assumption of the reality of universals is not justified in any way, and the recognition of universal essences only hinders cognition. Hence the famous principle, called "Occam's razor": "Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily", since there is no real difference between essence and existence. Focusing on the reality of the individual, the concrete, William of Ockham, in fact, comes to the denial of the basic premise of scholastic philosophy, according to which the world is rationalistic, that is, there is some initial harmony of word and being.
Ultimately, the nominalism that developed within the framework of medieval scholasticism shook its foundations and contributed to the development scientific knowledge based on logical thinking and experiment.
The problem of the relationship between faith and reason is one of the main problems in medieval scholasticism. According to Christian views, the main form of unity between man and God is faith. But God created man as a rational being, so it is not enough to believe, you need to understand faith and be able to prove divine truths by means of reason. The mind cognizes the world not by virtue of its own capabilities, but with the help of "divine light" that enlightens human thinking. Unlike the monastic-mystical tradition that existed in the Middle Ages and relied on mystical intuition in comprehending
God, scholasticism considers the human mind not only as an ability necessary for acquiring knowledge useful for a person in his earthly affairs, but also as knowledge of God. Christian theologians direct their efforts to substantiate the idea of harmony of faith and reason, their consistency.
Faith is the initial prerequisite for all knowledge, including the knowledge of God. “I ... desire to understand to some extent Your truth, in which I believe and which my heart loves. For I seek not to understand in order to believe, but I believe in order to understand. I also believe that “unless I believe, I will not understand!” It was precisely such views on the relationship between faith and reason that Anselm of Canterbury adhered to: "I believe in order to understand." Note that this position was characteristic of Augustine Aurelius. Reason cannot always comprehend what is in faith, but it can substantiate the need for faith, reveal the sacred (secret) meaning of divine revelation through speculative-logical research. Belief in the human mind in Anselm of Canterbury found expression in the ontological proof of the existence of God, which is given in the work "Proslogion".
Other scholastics believed that a person needs to develop a conscious perception of religious dogma, which would be based not only on the authority of the Bible and the "fathers of the church", but would be supported by reasonable arguments. “... We must attract to the faith with the help of reasonable evidence those who seek wisdom,” says the French theologian, the most representative dialectician of the 12th century, Peter Abelard (1079-1142). With the help of the arguments of reason, faith can be made understandable, because the word strengthens faith: one cannot believe in what is incomprehensible (“I understand in order to believe”). The fact that some provisions of the Christian doctrine can be explained by reason does not detract from the authority of Holy Scripture, since faith limits reason. But if the truths of reason contradict the truths of faith, then they should be abandoned. P. Abelard explains this by "the superiority of canonical authority."
Based on the idea of the unity of faith and reason, medieval scholastics solve the problem of their relationship in favor of faith.
An attempt to harmonize faith and reason, divine truths and accumulated knowledge is undertaken by the philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas (1225/26-1274), who is rightfully considered the systematizer of medieval scholasticism. In the works "The sum of theology" and "The sum against the pagans" he summed up the results of the theological-rationalistic search for scholasticism. Being a follower of Aristotle, Thomas developed his teaching in the spirit of religious philosophy and laid the foundation for a new religious and philosophical direction - Thomism.
“... Faith and reason are different paths to truth: one and the same truth cannot be known and believed in at the same time,” Thomas Aquinas emphasizes. If the mind proceeds from true principles and makes correct conclusions, then it cannot come to results contrary to faith. According to Aquinas, the path of reason is the path of unbelievers and pagans to gain faith, since above all they value knowledge and do not accept Holy Scripture on faith. But one should not exaggerate the cognitive abilities of the mind, because not all "divine truths" are available to it. It is rationally possible to substantiate the following provisions of the Christian doctrine: the existence of God, his unity and the immortality of the soul. Other "supernatural truths" are inaccessible to the mind: the idea of the trinity of God, the idea of the creation of the world "out of nothing", the idea of the resurrection of man, and some others - you can only believe in them.
Thomas Aquinas develops the theory of dual truth, which transfers the problem of the relationship between faith and reason into the sphere of the relationship between theology and philosophy. In matters of interpretation of God, man, and the world, philosophy and theology use different methods: philosophy is based on human reason, while theology is based on divine revelation. They do not contradict each other, but are subordinated in terms of the degree of perfection, and the role of philosophy is reduced to the interpretation and justification of religious provisions. Revealing the autonomy of philosophy, Thomas Aquinas at the same time limits its cognitive capabilities and tries to use philosophy, the truth of which he was convinced, for the systematic development of theology. Thus, in the XIII century, Aquinas confirms the idea formulated in the early Middle Ages: "philosophy is the servant of theology."
The problems of the relationship between theology and philosophy, faith and reason become the subject of sharp scholastic discussions, lead to the creation of different directions within the framework of the religious worldview and are one of the significant reasons for the subsequent delimitation of the Catholic and Protestant Church. In the 14th century, the connection between philosophy and theology began to disintegrate. The consistent distinction between theology and philosophy had a significant impact on the development of Western European rationalist philosophy.
The problem of man in the Middle Ages is considered in accordance with the biblical understanding of man as the image and likeness of God. According to Christian anthropology, a person occupies a special position in the world: he is not just a part of the cosmos (microcosm) and a “reasonable animal”, as it was in ancient philosophy, but the crown of divine creation, the master of all that is created for him. But by his creation man opposes the uncreation of God, therefore he will never be equal to God.
The problem of the relationship between soul and body is considered rather contradictory. On the one hand, Christianity is characterized by the opposition of the soul and the body, which is expressed in the recognition of the superiority of the spiritual principle in man over the bodily, the affirmation of the idea of the immortality of the soul and the frailty of the body. But, on the other hand, the appearance of Christ, his atoning sacrifice and resurrection shift the focus from the immortality of the soul to the subsequent resurrection of man "in the flesh." Therefore, if early scholasticism, oriented towards the teachings of Plato, is characterized by the recognition of the human soul as a spiritual substance independent of the body (this is how the idea of the immortality of the soul is explained), then later the followers of Aristotle (for example, Thomas Aquinas) point to the inseparable connection between the soul and body and define man as a mental and bodily being. Such an understanding contributes to the affirmation of the idea of the resurrection of man in the unity of soul and body.
Christian theologians show a special interest in the spiritual life of a person, which determines his actions and deeds. The divine qualities that express the spiritual greatness of a person and are aimed at his moral and religious improvement are reason and will, thanks to which a person has judgments, distinguishes between good and evil, and makes a free choice.
Back in the 5th century, a controversy unfolded between Augustine Aurelius and the Christian monk Pelagius on the question of whether his good will and actions are enough to save a person?
Pelagianism denied the hereditary power of original sin and proceeded from the fact that the salvation of a person depends on his own moral and ascetic efforts; man's will is free. Augustine argued for the necessity of divine grace. Freedom is a property of the will, not the mind (as it was with Socrates): the mind understands, but the will rejects the good, so the choice of will is not always consistent with a reasonable explanation. Free will is the ability of a person to sin or not to sin. As a result of the abuse of free will on the part of the first people, the general human nature has become so corrupted that a person cannot help but sin. Original sin is seen by Augustine as a deviation of the will. It was he who made the will vulnerable, in need of divine grace (that is, support coming from God), so a person needs God's help. Augustine essentially denies freedom of choice.
In scholasticism, the dogma of divine grace and human freedom develops. Thus, Anselm of Canterbury believes that initially man had free will and was not a “slave of sin”: if there were no freedom, then there would be no sin. In particular, he notes: "... A person always has freedom of choice, but he is not always a slave of sin, but only when he does not have the right will." Therefore, freedom is rooted in human nature as a result of divine grace. In turn, Thomas Aquinas believes that free choice does not precede reason and will, but follows them. It belongs simultaneously to the realm of the will and the realm of the mind. But the mind itself is superior to the will. Reason is the highest human ability, and will, as a spiritual motivating ability (power), is reason directed towards action. Man has free will (or, as medieval thinkers put it, "freedom of choice"), which is determined by reason. The will moves the mind, instructing it to make decisions, and the mind moves the will, providing it with the right goals. A person receives the freedom of choice in order to return the “lost correctness”.
In late scholasticism, the idea that man is a free being is increasingly asserted. These ideas are developed in the views of William of Ockham, who believed that the human will acts predictably, but freely. His student Jean Buridan believed that the will is under the decisive influence of the mind. If the mind recognizes one good as the highest and the other as the lowest, then the will, under the same conditions, will strive towards the highest. If the mind recognizes one and the other as equivalent, then the will is "paralyzed", it cannot act at all. This is where the famous parable comes from. Buridan donkey”, who found himself between two identical armfuls of hay, could not make a choice between them and died of hunger.
The problem of the relationship between free will and reason is traditional for the medieval worldview and acquires an ethical focus. Christian thinkers are trying to reconcile the presence of evil on earth with the concept of God as absolute perfection. If God is all-good and all-powerful, then where does evil come from in the world?
Answering this question, theologians believe that possible cause sin, evil is the freedom of man. As a result of the original sin committed by Adam and Eve, man violated his godlikeness and distanced himself from God. But the depravity of the flesh in itself is neither good nor evil. Since free will is the consent of the will to an act, and the mind is able to distinguish between higher and lower, then evil is born as a “wrong decision of the free spirit” and takes root in human nature. It follows from this that evil is an inevitable consequence of the existence of a person, due to the peculiarities of his being. Evil is nothing but the absence, the negation of good. It has no independent essence and expresses the imperfection of human existence.
A person is able to overcome evil by developing the divine principle in himself. Free will is free only when it does not allow evil. In this regard, Christian morality, the main provisions of which are set out in the Bible, is of particular importance. The Ten Commandments (Decalogue) were adopted by Christianity from Judaism [Ex. 20:1-17], then they were developed in the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus Christ [Ev. from Matt. 5-7]. Christian ethics is the ethics of love (agape), understood as a selfless divine gift. Based on the idea of love for God (“Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.”), further love is preached here as a creative, all-forgiving good-heartedness in relations between people. Accordingly, the main ethical principle: "And so in everything, as you want people to do to you, so do you to them." [Evang. from Matt. 7:12]. This principle is one of the variants of the "golden rule" of morality, previously substantiated in the views of Buddha, Confucius, Socrates.
Christian morality inherently authoritarian, as it preaches the idea of human humility before the highest divine principle. At the same time, it is humanistic, since love, understood as agape, is what makes a person human, gives meaning to his existence [Ex. see 3. S. 101-112].
Medieval philosophy is an integral part of the development of European thought. Acting as the successor of ancient philosophy, it changes the Greco-Roman way of thinking, becoming original and original. Philosophical reflection in the Middle Ages is severely limited due to the fact that a characteristic feature of medieval thinking is the dominance of the Christian worldview, which largely determined the choice of topics for philosophical discussion. But at the same time, the confrontation of views could not but lead to the rationalization of thinking, the assertion of its independence.
Philosophy briefly and clearly: PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. Everything basic and most important in philosophy: in a short text: MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY. Answers to basic questions, philosophical concepts, history of philosophy, directions, schools and philosophers.
FORMATION OF MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY
For philosophy, the Middle Ages was a period when the purpose and nature of philosophizing changed. The transition from polytheism to monotheistic religion was coming to an end. Such a religion required the acceptance of a whole series of new "truths."
In the countries of Western Europe that arose as a result of the collapse of the Roman Empire, Christianity was such. It originated several centuries BC as a heretical movement in Judaism, then finally departed from it, began to gain more and more importance in the spiritual life of many countries and was recognized as the official state religion during the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great (324 AD). e.). The establishment of an alliance of secular power with Christianity strengthened the church organization in political, economic, and also ideological respects.
On the one hand, leading representatives Christian religion felt the need for a philosophical substantiation of their initial positions (primarily the doctrine of monotheism); from the once negative assessments of the “wise men” and their teachings, they increasingly began to turn to their provisions that could supplement or reinforce certain truths of religion (Titus Flavius Clement, Origen). On the other hand, philosophers were more and more oriented towards certain attitudes of Christianity, sometimes coinciding and supplementing (especially in the moral and ethical sphere) their speculative or, perhaps, insufficiently substantiated statements by life experience; the cosmological ideas of philosophers sometimes had the ten "final cause", about the "form of forms", etc., and the creed of the Christian religion about the immaterial (and in this sense "immaterial") Absolute, or God, could provide a starting point for new philosophical reflections . So the philosophy of the Middle Ages was far from always under the direct dictates of theology, acting allegedly in the role of a “servant of theology” imposed on it.
The conceptual apparatus of religion began to intensively penetrate into philosophy; sometimes it was difficult to distinguish between these two different forms of worldview; received the basis for the existence of the term "religious philosophy". Philosophy did not cease to develop progressively in the Middle Ages, contributing to shifts in the sphere of culture, including religion. However, in comparison with ancient philosophy, there were already other themes in the development of its problems and its constraint by external factors (this happened most clearly in later times, when the church came to the Inquisition). And the fact that the tendency towards the union of philosophy and theology, towards their interaction, manifested itself at the end of antiquity - from the centuries. n. e., speaks of the transient nature of that gross violence of the church, which she later undertook in relation to philosophical dissent. The same is evidenced by the existence even in our days of such a widespread in Western Europe currents, like neo-Thomism, one of the central ideas of which is the union of theology and philosophy.
In the philosophy of the Middle Ages, two periods are distinguished, called "patristics" (IV-VIII centuries) and "scholasticism" (VI-XV centuries).
Titus Flavius Clement.
NOMINALISM AND REALISM IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES
Titus Flavius Clement (Clement of Alexandria) (c. 150-219 AD) was one of the largest representatives of "apologetics". In his writings, a line was clearly marked for an alliance with "Hellenic philosophy", which, in his opinion, was closer to Christianity than Judaism. Clement discovered in philosophy those aspects that could be used by theologians. It is to him that the position belongs that philosophy should be the servant of theology. “In philosophy,” he pointed out, “the method of rational proof is especially useful. In religion, faith still serves as the sensory path to God. But faith alone is not always reliable. It will be stronger if it is supplemented with logical proofs.” “With the help of rational knowledge,” he pointed out, “we deepen and clarify faith. Such knowledge is capable of bringing faith to the state of conscious religiosity. Clement of Alexandria was the first in the history of Christianity to formulate the principle of harmony between faith and reason (of course, such a position actually meant the subordination of reason to faith, but it went beyond the Tertullian "I believe because it is absurd").
A distinctive feature of medieval scholasticism was a sharp struggle between realism and nominalism, stretching for several centuries in clarifying the question of whether general concepts have real content.
Representatives of realism believe that not single things have true reality, but only general concepts - universals. Hence the name of this direction, which does not coincide with the modern meaning of the concept of "realism". Previously, they argued, there was a “house in general”, as a kind of idea of a house, and then there were individual, specific houses as a product of the general idea of a house. It is easy to see here the powerful influence of Plato's doctrine of ideas. The supporters of realism include Anselm of Canterbury, Thomas Aquinas and others.
Another branch of medieval scholasticism, hostile to realism, nominalism, insisted on the reality of singular things, considering universals to be mere copies or names that people assign to things. There is no “house in general”, there is a specific house or their sum, and the name is given by people in order to distinguish one object from another. The supporters of nominalism include Rascelin, Ockham, and others.
Behind this dispute was hidden an extremely important philosophical problem, what precedes what: objectively existing, sensually perceived things to general ideas (nominalism) or, conversely, ideas to things (realism), whether our knowledge moves from sensations to concepts or from concepts to things. In modern times, this dispute continued in the struggle between empiricism and rationalism.
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