Cosmocentrism of ancient philosophy

The cosmocentrism of ancient philosophy is the first stage in the development of world philosophical thought, which lasted from the 6th century BC to the sixth century of our era. Early ancient philosophy was based on the mythological notion of a world that is inextricably linked with nature and its phenomena, therefore it was called "physical", that is, natural. Cosmocentrism of ancient philosophy considers the cosmos as the center of the universe, which is based on natural natural harmony.

The main was the question of the origin of the world - from what, from what matter, how life originated. Philosophers-"physicists" found the answer in natural phenomena, and they regarded nature as a source of order and harmony. In ancient Greek, the word "nature" was the opposite of the word "chaos".

The main task of their thinking was to search for the fundamental essence of being, a kind of matter from which not only the whole visible world could be born, but also intelligent animated beings.

To denote the concept of "primordial" ancient Greek philosophers introduced the term "Arche". Representatives of the Milesian school regarded all possible natural phenomena as it : for example, Thales called the water, Heraclitus the fire, Anaxagoras the earth, and Anaximen the air. And representatives of schools of the non-materialistic orientation, as the original substance, were called abstract concepts: "dao", "logos", "eidos", "yin-yan".

The real revolution in philosophical thought was the logic of Parmenides, according to which "nothing" can not exist, and "being" for a thing means that it can no longer become something than it is not at the current time. Such an abstract-logical approach to the explanation of existence found further development in many philosophical schools. In particular, Democritus, as a representative of the direction of atomism, believed that the world consists of the smallest indivisible particles that move in the void. From his point of view, "nothing" exists - it is a vacuum in which atoms move.

The cosmocentrism of ancient philosophy also sought to identify the cause of world harmony and order.

Materialists-natural philosophers believed that the cause of harmony lies in nature itself, in physical processes and phenomena. Water, earth, air, fire, atoms - all this carries in itself natural natural patterns.

Idealists-rationalists saw the cause of the world order in spiritual processes and phenomena. The basic concepts for this line of philosophy are eidos, the idea, the rational principle, the infinite - the apeiron.

At the same time, cosmocentrism in philosophy tried to unite these two opposing tendencies. Thus, there were generalizing teachings, such as yin and yang in the East, the Pythagorean school in ancient Greece. Their main idea is this: the world is so harmonious, because the opposites in it are one, and the essence of harmony is "a complete mosaic". According to these philosophers, moral purification, intellectual penetration into nature allowed to be saved spiritually.

conclusions

The cosmocentrism of ancient philosophy saw unity in diversity: the world is one, which has become many. All objects and phenomena are interrelated, while nothing is self-sufficient.

The characteristic features of ancient philosophy can be expressed in such terms:

- To be natural, to be yourself, a person should strive for nature, because it is wise.

- Ideally developed personality - balanced, harmonious, natural.

- The soul and body of man are beautiful, because they were created by nature.

- Enjoyment of beauty causes catharsis - the purification of the soul, as a result of which a person strives to become better, wants to live.

The most famous representatives of cosmocentrism are Heraclitus, Socrates, Confucius, Plato, Democritus, Pythagoras.