30.09.2019
The main features of the philosophy of renaissance include. General characteristics of the philosophy of the Renaissance
Introduction.. 3
1. Characteristic features and stages of the philosophy of the Renaissance .. 4
2. Humanism... 6
3. Neoplatonism... 10
4. Naturphilosophy.. 12
Conclusion.. 17
References... 18
Introduction
An important milestone development of philosophical thought is the philosophy of the Renaissance. It will touch upon a wide range of issues relating to various aspects of natural and social life. It had a great influence on the further development of culture and philosophy.
The era of the Renaissance (Renaissance), covering the period from the XIV to the beginning of the XVII centuries, falls on the last centuries of medieval feudalism. When the creative spirit of the Renaissance faded away, the concept of humanism remained in culture as a designation of scientific disciplines engaged in understanding the inner world of man. This is how the term "humanities" appears. The thought of the Renaissance is aimed at comprehending man himself in his relationship with the world. The divinity was not denied, but the earthly obscured it.
A specific feature of the philosophy of the Renaissance is the depersonalization of God. Either it is dissolved in nature (“nature is God in things,” G. Bruno repeated), or the world is immersed in God (N. Kuzansky). Such pantheism and hylozoism endowed nature with the ability for unconscious creativity, its own "language", the understanding of which gave hope for the knowledge and change of this world. This is where "natural magic" comes from, astrology and alchemy are very popular.
Pantheism and the call for experiential knowledge, sensationalism and magic, the deification of nature and psychologism are features of a single tradition of Renaissance philosophy.
Characteristic features and stages of the philosophy of the Renaissance
The Renaissance is a transitional period from the Middle Ages to the New Age. Its thinkers, on the one hand, are under the influence of the outgoing theocentric worldview, and on the other hand, they are laying the foundation for a new building of philosophy and science. This "proximity" to the outgoing era was reflected both in the terminology and in the concepts of all representatives of the Renaissance. So, Campanella tried to combine theology, metaphysics, magic and utopia, and science, magic, and astrology were intertwined in the activities of the scientists who laid the foundation for mechanics. Galileo made horoscopes for the Medici court, Copernicus was not only an astronomer, but also an astrologer, and Kepler drew an analogy between the harmony of the Sun, fixed stars and space, on the one hand, and the trinity of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit - with another.
The philosophy of the Renaissance (from the French renaisgance - rebirth, renaissance) covers the period from the fourteenth century. to the first half of the 17th century. At this time in Western Europe there was a transition from the Middle Ages to the New Age, capitalist relations were born and national states were taking shape. Along with this, an urban secular culture arises, connected, firstly, with the revival of interest in ancient culture and, secondly, with the emergence of a new culture of Western European peoples.
In systemic terms, the revivalist philosophical constructions are inferior to both ancient and medieval philosophy. The philosophical constructions of antiquity were brought together in the system of Plotinus, the philosophical views of the Middle Ages were united by Thomas Aquinas. But there is no thinker who could produce a similar work in the Renaissance. Apparently, this was a consequence of the state of the Renaissance philosophical thought itself, which required not so much the systematization of philosophical ideas as a comprehensive study of man, the assertion of his independence and creative activity. The Renaissance did not leave great philosophical systems, but it substantiated the idea of trust in the natural human mind and laid the foundation for a philosophy free from religious and ideological presuppositions.
What are character traits philosophies of the Renaissance, making it a peculiar period in the development of European philosophy and distinguishing it from the philosophy of the Middle Ages and modern times? Firstly, Renaissance philosophy ceases to be a servant of theology, secularizes and acquires a secular content, peacefully coexisting with religion. Secondly, it denies "bookish wisdom" and scholastic word disputes based on the study of nature itself, which is manifested in its closest connection with contemporary natural science and great geographical discoveries. Thirdly, it is characterized by a pronounced anthropocentrism, according to which man is the center and the highest goal of the universe, asserting his individuality and independence in the process of creative activity.
In the evolution of Renaissance philosophy, three main stages can be distinguished:
humanistic (XIV - mid-XV centuries) - Dante Alighieri, F. Petrarch, L. Valla;
Neoplatonic (ser.XV - the first half of the XVII centuries) - N. Kuzansky, M. Ficino, P. Mirandola;
natural philosophy (second half of the 16th - early 17th centuries) - B. Telesio, F. Patrici, D. Bruno, T. Campanella;
This division is not so much chronological as typological in nature, since it refers to the dominant tendencies of philosophical thought of each chronological period. Thus, the humanism of Erasmus of Rotterdam differs from the humanism of the Neoplatonists in its pronounced naturalistic character.
Humanism
Humanism (humanity, humanity, philanthropy) represents the first period of philosophical thought of the Renaissance. It covers a period of time of about a hundred years - from the middle of the XIV to the middle of the XV centuries. In contrast to the Christian-theological religious-ascetic understanding of man as "the likeness of God", the reasoning of church ideology, which in every possible way belittled man and inspired the idea that he was weak and helpless, the humanists of that time proclaimed man the crown of nature, the center of the universe and the highest value; glorified a freely acting, comprehensively developed living human personality, combining natural and spiritual principles, possessing wide creative possibilities and the ability for unlimited progress. This person has the right not to pleasure and happiness in earthly life, to all earthly joys in accordance with his "human nature". "I am a man, and nothing human is alien to me" was the main slogan of the humanists. Thus, the focus of Renaissance thinkers was a person, it was he who they brought to the fore, and not God, therefore such a philosophy is called anthropocentric with a fundamentally new understanding of a person, destined not so much for "salvation" in the name of eternal life, but for earthly affairs .
The humanists attached particular importance to the human mind, its limitless possibilities, they sang of the creative daring of the mind, which at the same time is capable of subordinating to its control all sensual impulses, all the good principles of human nature. Therefore, along with political freedom, humanists demanded, along with political freedom, deliverance from the dominance of the Church and its claims to political dominance, intellectual freedom, which would provide an opportunity for a person to freely develop his abilities and creative forces, to create a new secular culture capable of opposing itself to the church culture of the Middle Ages. Humanists were convinced of the power of human knowledge, hence their greed for the all-round accumulation of knowledge, which was one of their characteristic features. They strive to revive ancient culture, return to the origins of ancient wisdom, study Plato, Aristotle and other ancient thinkers, pay much attention to ancient art, history, literature, and natural science. The humanists gave rise to a new life-affirming worldview. The desire for the highest cultural and moral development of diverse human abilities, combined with gentleness and humanity, i.e. with what was called humanism even in the time of Cicero, was the goal of Renaissance thinkers.
In its genre, humanistic philosophy merged with literature, was expounded allegorically and in artistic form. The most famous humanist philosophers were also writers.
At the origins of the philosophical culture of the Renaissance is the majestic figure of Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321). "The last poet of the Middle Ages and at the same time the first poet of modern times", Dante was an outstanding thinker who laid in his works (primarily in the immortal "Divine Comedy", as well as in the philosophical treatises "Feast" and "Monarchy") the foundations of a new humanistic teaching about a human
In his work, Dante was closely connected with contemporary philosophy, theology, and science. He adopted the various currents of the then philosophical culture. The picture of the world presented to the reader is still quite medieval in its structure. The point here is not only in the geocentric cosmology inherited from antiquity, according to which the Earth is the center of the Universe, but also in the fact that God is the creator of the world and its organizer. And yet, the picture of the world order in comparison with the Bible and the ideas of the philosophers of the early Middle Ages is much more complicated and hierarchically arranged in more detail and detail. Accepting the dogmas of Christianity as an incomprehensible and immutable truth, Dante goes his own way in interpreting the correlation of the natural and divine principles - both in the world and in man. The idea of a gradual, indirect transition from the divine principle to the elements of the "lower" world is the most important part of his ideas about the world order.
As for the destiny of man, Dante sees it not in asceticism in the name of renouncing the world and avoiding earthly worries, but in reaching the highest limit of earthly perfection. Both the reminder of the brevity of earthly existence and the reference to the divine origin of man serve not to affirm the insignificance of man in his earthly existence, but to substantiate the call "to valor and knowledge."
So faith in the earthly destiny of man, in his ability to accomplish his earthly feat on his own, allowed Dante to create the first hymn to the dignity of man in the Divine Comedy. Dante opens the way to a new humanistic teaching about man.
The beginning of humanism, which determined the main content of the philosophical thought of the Renaissance in the XIV - XV centuries, is associated with the multifaceted work of the great Italian poet, "the first humanist" Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374). Petrarch was the creator of the new European lyrics, the author of the world famous sonnets "for life" and "for death", "Madonna Laura", canzones, madrigals, the epic poem "Africa". However, Petrarch developed his humanistic ideas not only in brilliant, innovative poetry, but also in Latin prose writings - tracts, numerous letters.
Petrarch opposed the scholastic way of philosophizing. He demonstrated his rejection of scholastic learning in the treatise "On the ignorance of one's own and of many others." Petrarch spoke of his (imaginary) ignorance, emphasizing the absolute uselessness of scholasticism in the world of his day. In the same tract, he called for a rethinking of the ancient heritage. In philosophy, he wanted to see not the interpreter of other people's texts, but the creator of his own. The object of philosophy, Petrarch believed, should be only man, and its method should be experience, primarily the inner experience of the individual, that is, his self-knowledge and introspection, but also the experience that arises as a result of human contact with nature, society and history. In the works of the thinker, the theocentric systems of the Middle Ages were replaced by the anthropocentrism of Renaissance humanism. Petrarch's "discovery of man" made it possible for a deeper knowledge of man in science, literature, and art.
Petrarch also showed great interest in questions of morality, which for him diverged from the dogmas of ascetic Christian morality and reflected his humanistic views. In his writings "On Contempt for the World", "On a Solitary Life", "On Means Against Suffering and Joy", the founder of Italian humanism is developing the "art of life", searching for ways to achieve peace of mind, self-control, nobility, dignity and complete independence in the presence of different kind of needs, passions, experiences. Nobility, in his view, is not an innate property and is not determined by belonging to a noble family. A truly noble person is not born with a great soul, but makes himself such by his magnificent deeds. Petrarch believed (in his essay "On the Republic") that the best state is one that is based on the high morality of its citizens.
Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism is an idealistic trend in philosophy, which set as its goal a strict systematization of Plato's teachings, the elimination of contradictions from it and its further development. A special dawn reached in the XV century.
Neoplatonist theorists are characterized by:
· Contrasting the established scholastic philosophy with a new philosophical system based on the ideas of Plato;
Presentation of a new picture of the world, in which the role of God decreased and the significance of the original (in relation to the world and things) ideas increased;
· Not a denial of the divine nature of man, but at the same time they considered him as an independent microcosm;
· A call for a rethinking of a number of postulates of the former philosophy and the creation of an integral world philosophical system that would embrace and harmonize all existing philosophical trends.
The most famous representatives of Renaissance Neoplatonism were Nicholas of Cusa and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola.
The founder of Renaissance Platonism was Nicholas of Cusa ( real name Krebs) (1401-1464) - a thinker, an outstanding German philosopher, theologian, a prominent scientist in the field of mathematics, astronomy, geography and other sciences. Studied at Heidelberg, Padua, Cologne Universities. In 1430 he became a clergyman and was active in politics as a cardinal of the Catholic Church and close associate of the Pope. Posted by a large number of theological and philosophical writings.
The philosophical views of Nicholas of Cusa were at the turn between medieval scholasticism and renaissance humanism, in which, however, the features of the latter prevailed. In his famous and significant treatise On Scientific Ignorance, he sets forth ideas about the interconnection of all natural phenomena, about the coincidence of opposites, about the infinity of the Universe and about man as a microcosm. In this work, the pantheistic tendency of his philosophical views is manifested. If we define the central problems of the philosophical searches of Nicholas of Cusa, then they come down to two - the relationship of God to the world and human knowledge.
According to the teachings of Nicholas of Cusa, God is not something outside the world, but is in unity with it. His pantheistic tendency in philosophy is clearly expressed in the thesis that "the creator and creation are one and the same" ("On the Gift of the Father of Lights"). This is not yet a complete identification of God and nature, since God in Cusa is something more perfect than nature and constitutes its rational basis, but already here the thinker refuses to recognize God as a personal supranatural being and from the creation of the world by him.
The cosmological views of Nicholas of Cusa are also of great interest. The universe, according to Nicholas, is in perpetual, universal motion, it does not have a center, which since the time of Aristotle the Earth was considered to be, it is homogeneous. "The universe is a sphere, the center of which is everywhere, and the circumference is everywhere." The absence of the motionless center of the Universe inevitably led him to the recognition of the motion of the Earth, and Nikolai directly states in his treatise "On Scientific Ignorance" that "our Earth is actually moving, although we do not notice it." Moreover, Kuzansky denies the immobility and central position of the Sun.
Thus, Nicholas of Cusa, being an idealistic philosopher and theologian, came very close to the materialistic explanation of the surrounding world (the Universe) and paved the way for the natural philosophical teachings of Nicholas Copernicus, Giordano Bruno and Galileo Galilei.
The doctrine of the knowledge of the philosopher also contains a number of dialectical provisions. He distinguishes four stages of cognition of the world: sensory sensation (perception) together with imagination, reason, reason and mystical superintelligent contemplation (intuition). In his writings, Nicholas of Cusa asserted the power of human knowledge, his creative independence and activity, established that "man is his mind."
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463 - 1494) - Italian thinker of the Renaissance. He owns a number of significant philosophical works ("Speech on the Dignity of Man", "On Being and Things"), and his numerous letters are also known.
Pico della Mirandola reinforces the pantheistic trend in philosophy, according to which God, as the essence of things, is everywhere. In his opinion, "we comprehend God first of all as the universality of any act, the fullness of being itself." Comprehension of the world, according to Pico, demonstrates the omnipresence of God, who is the basis of the unity of the world.
"Speech on the Dignity of Man" is one of the most famous testimonies of the Renaissance world education, a complete expression of the philosophical doctrine of the dignity and high purpose of man, of a unique position in the cosmic hierarchy. A person endowed with free will forms his own essence, determines his place in the world, and this makes him like God.
Pico believed that truth is one, no matter in what philosophical and religious guises it manifests itself; he strove for a general "reconciliation of the philosophers".
Natural philosophy
The highest result of the philosophical evolution of the Renaissance was natural philosophy, by which thinkers understood not only the subject of their study, the philosophy of nature, but also a natural approach to knowing the laws of the world order, opposing both the knowledge of scholasticism and theological ideas. Naturphilosophy is inferior to the philosophy of the new time, which arises outside the philosophy of the Renaissance that has completed its development - being associated with the emergence of a new mathematical and experimental natural science, primarily classical mechanics, and with the creation of a new mechanistic (mechanical) picture of the world.
Representatives of natural philosophy:
· Substantiated the materialistic view of the world;
· Strived to separate philosophy from theology;
· Formed a scientific worldview, free from theology;
· They put forward a new picture of the world, in which God, Nature and Cosmos are one, and the Earth is not the center of the Universe;
· They believed that the world is cognizable and primarily due to sensory cognition and reason.
The most prominent representatives of the natural philosophy of the Renaissance were Nicolaus Copernicus, Giordano Bruno and Galileo Galilei.
The Renaissance is rightly called the era of "great discoveries". World travel, the discovery of the New World, when for the first time the opportunity arose to go beyond the "world" known to ancient and medieval geography, was preceded by numerous important discoveries in various fields of natural science. However, none of the truly outstanding scientific observations and discoveries was of such exceptional importance as the creation of the heliocentric system of the world by the great Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543).
Nicolaus Copernicus' book On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, published in 1543, not only determined the nature of the scientific revolution of the 16th century, but played a decisive role in a radical revision of philosophical ideas about the world. It revives, develops, mathematically substantiates the ancient idea of heliocentrism: the Earth is not the center of the world and does not stand still. It rotates around its own axis and, together with other planets, around the Sun.
The attitude to the movement was also new. If on your own physical nature The earth in the old system of the world was the "lower" level, then by its immobility it ensured the significance of the center of the world. At the same time, rest was revered as the highest state in comparison with movement: the medieval picture of the world is fundamentally static. Having made motion the destiny of the Earth, Copernicus not only "raised" it to the skies, but also showed that it was motion that was normal state all planets.
The question of the cause and nature of the motion of celestial bodies was also subjected to a radical revision. Copernicus explains the movement of celestial bodies by their spherical, spherical shape, i.e. their nature. Thanks to this, there is no need for external engines ("intelligentsia" of scholastic philosophy, "angels" of scholastic theology), and God turns out to be the creator and creator of the "world mechanism", not interfering in its further functioning. Thus, the principle of self-movement of bodies was introduced not only into cosmology, but also into the philosophical picture of the world.
The destruction of the hierarchical system of the universe was the main ideological result of Copernicanism. It is around the new cosmology that the main ideological battles of the 16th - early 17th centuries will take place. The true meaning of the revolution - not only in natural science, but also in philosophy, which the book of Nicolaus Copernicus produced, will be revealed in his work by Giordano Bruno.
Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), Italian philosopher and poet. Bruno was born in Nola, near Naples. At the age of 17, he became a novice of the Dominican monastery, where in 1556 he was tonsured a monk. In 1576 he threw off his monastic cassock, then, persecuted for his views, he left Italy. Upon returning to his homeland, he was accused of heresy and freethinking, and after eight years of imprisonment, he was burned at the stake on February 17, 1600.
As a philosopher, Bruno was influenced by the ideas of Neoplatonism and early Greek philosophy. He considered the goal of philosophy to be the knowledge of nature, which is "God in things." A staunch supporter of the theory of Copernicus, Bruno developed the doctrine of the similarity of the Earth and heavens, a multitude of worlds ("On infinity, the universe and worlds"). Reviving the judgments of the ancient Greek atomists, the philosopher put forward the doctrine of "monads", the minimum indivisible particles, in whose activity the corporeal and spiritual, object and subject merge (On cause, beginning, one). The highest substance is the "monad of monads", or God. The Universe and Bruno's nature coincides with God.
Bruno's ethics is imbued with the assertion of "heroic enthusiasm", love for the infinite, elevating a person above everyday life and likening him to a deity.
Italian scientist Galileo Galileo (1564-1642) is rightly considered the true founder of the method of studying nature. His scientific activity was combined with a deep understanding of the philosophical foundations of the new natural science: the ideas expressed by Galileo in this regard make him the first representative of mechanistic materialism. Astronomer, mechanic and philosopher, Galileo gave in his writings a detailed and coherent exposition of the experimental mathematical method and clearly formulated the essence of the corresponding understanding of the world.
For the triumph of the theory of Copernicus and the ideas expressed by Giordano Bruno, the discoveries made in the sky by Galileo with the help of a telescope, which he built one of the first, were of great importance. With its help, he explored celestial bodies, proved that celestial bodies move not only along a trajectory, but also simultaneously around their axis, proved the plurality of worlds in the Universe.
All these discoveries of Galileo marked the beginning of his fierce polemics with scholastics and churchmen. Until now, the Catholic Church has been forced to endure the views of those scientists who recognized the theory of Copernicus as one of the hypotheses, and its ideologists believed that it was impossible to prove this hypothesis as a theory. Now, when this evidence has appeared, the Roman curia takes a decision prohibiting any propaganda of the views of Copernicus, even as a hypothesis, and the book of Copernicus "On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres" itself is included in the "List of Forbidden Books".
Conclusion
The philosophy of the Renaissance was distinguished by a pronounced anthropocentrism. If in the Middle Ages a person was considered not on his own, but only within the framework of his relationship with God, then the Renaissance is characterized by the study of a person in his, so to speak, earthly way of life. Formally, the thinkers of this era still put God at the center of the universe, but they paid more attention not to him, but to man. The person was seen as active creative person- be it in art, politics, technology, etc. Feudal asceticism, the authority of the church, faith in the other world were opposed to secular interests and a full-blooded earthly life. Liberation from spiritual fetters led to an extraordinary flourishing of art and literature, the formation of a humanistic worldview.
The culture of the Renaissance was focused not only on a person, but also on a new interpretation of the world. The Middle Ages primarily continued the concept of Aristotle (which was based on the idea of passive matter and the form imposed on it). However, some philosophers of the Middle Ages believed that forms are contained in potency in matter itself. But this view was the exception rather than the rule. The natural philosophy of the Renaissance is characterized by the following main features:
pantheism, the idea of the interpenetration of nature and God;
The idea of the identity of the micro- and macrocosm and, as a result, a peculiar organic worldview that interprets nature by analogy with man;
hylozoism, the belief in the liveliness and even animation of all being;
qualitative interpretation of nature.
Bibliography
1. Lecture materials
2. Radugin A.A. Philosophy: a course of lectures. 1995
3. Petrarch F. Aesthetic fragments. 1982
4. Anthology of world philosophy: Renaissance. 2001
5. Gorfunkel A.Kh. Giordano Bruno. 1973
6. Rodchanin E.G. Philosophy: A Historical and Systematic Course. 2004.
7. Yakushev A.V. Philosophy. 2009
Anthology of world philosophy: Renaissance. 2001
Petrarch F. Aesthetic fragments. 1982
Gorfunkel A.Kh. Giordano Bruno. 1973
Yakushev A.V. Philosophy. 2009
1. Renaissance philosophy is called the totality philosophical directions, which arose and developed in Europe in the XIV - XVII centuries, which were united by an anti-church and anti-scholastic orientation, aspiration to man, faith in his great physical and spiritual potential, life-affirming and optimistic character.
Prerequisites for the emergence of philosophy and culture of the Renaissance were:
Improving the tools of labor and production relations;
Crisis of feudalism;
Development of crafts and trade;
Strengthening cities, turning them into trade, craft, military, cultural and political centers, independent of the feudal lords and the Church;
Strengthening, centralization of European states, strengthening of secular power;
The appearance of the first parliaments;
Lagging behind life, the crisis of the Church and scholastic (church) philosophy;
Raising the level of education in Europe as a whole;
Great geographical discoveries (Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Magellan);
Scientific and technical discoveries (invention of gunpowder, firearms, machine tools, blast furnaces, microscope, telescope, book printing, discoveries in the field of medicine and astronomy, other scientific and technical achievements).
2. The main directions of the philosophy of the Renaissance were:
humanistic(XIV - XV centuries, representatives: Dante Alighieri, Francesco Petrarca, Lorenzo Valli, etc.) - put a person in the center of attention, sang his dignity, greatness and power, ironically over the dogmas of the Church;
neoplatonic(mid-15th - 16th centuries), whose representatives - Nicholas of Cusa, Pico della Mirandola, Paracelsus and others - developed the teachings of Plato, tried to understand nature, the cosmos and man from the point of view of idealism;
natural philosophical(XVI - early XVII centuries), to which Nikolai Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, Galileo Galilei and others belonged, who tried to debunk a number of provisions of the Church's teachings about God, the Universe, the Cosmos and the foundations of the universe, based on astronomical and scientific discoveries;
reformatory(XVI - XVII centuries), whose representatives - Martin Luther, Thomas Montzer, Jean Calvin, John Usenleaf, Erasmus of Rotterdam and others - sought to radically revise the church ideology and the relationship between believers and the Church;
political(XV - XV] centuries, Nicolo Machiavelli) - studied the problems of government, the behavior of rulers;
utopian-socialist(XV - XVII centuries, representatives - Thomas More, Tommaso Campanella, etc.) - was looking for ideal fantastic forms of building society and the state, based on the absence of private property and universal equalization, total regulation by state power.
3. To the characteristic features of the philosophy of the Renaissance relate:
Anthropocentrism and humanism - the predominance of interest in man, faith in his limitless possibilities and dignity;
Opposition to the Church and church ideology (that is, the denial of not religion itself, God, but an organization that has made itself an intermediary between God and believers, as well as a frozen dogmatic philosophy serving the interests of the Church - scholasticism);
Moving the main interest from the form of the idea to its content;
A fundamentally new, scientific-materialistic understanding of the surrounding world (sphericity, and not the plane of the Earth, the rotation of the Earth around the Sun, and not vice versa, the infinity of the Universe, new anatomical knowledge, etc.);
Great interest in social problems, society and the state;
The triumph of individualism;
Wide dissemination of the idea of social equality
9. Renaissance. The collapse of feudalism, before the bourgeois revolutions. Italy. The ideology of the Renaissance has an anti-feudal and anti-church content of the process. renaissance - rebirth, i.e. new flowering of antiquity. Anthropocentrism. Earthly happiness, creativity, philosophers of antiquity. The divinity of man. Development in everything. Art is the peak. Pantheism is a philosophical doctrine that recognizes the fusion of God with nature. Occultism. In the 1st, early period (XIV-XV centuries), “humanistic”, in the 16th and 17th centuries, natural science. Humanism is literary, philological. Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), poet. "Comedy!". Dante's concept: everything human (and politics) must be subordinated to human reason. Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) is considered the "first humanist", he is called the "father of humanism." Collection of texts. He rejected the cult of authority. Ethical Questions of Man, My Secret. Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375) - "The Decameron", ridiculed the stupid and deceitful clergy, praised the mind, energy. His work reflected the typical features of the Renaissance: earthly character, bodily sensuality, practical utilitarianism. Orientation to Plato - Marsilio Ficino (1422-1495), Neoplatonism, the immortality of the soul, philosophy is the sister of science. God is the world, dynamic. Religion is common. The soul determines the unity and movement of the world. Man develops in freedom. Pico della Mirandola (1463-1495) - eclectic Platonism. Pantheism: the world consists of angelic, celestial and elemental spheres. The doctrine of fortune. Man is the creator of happiness. Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469-1536), a Dutch thinker who wrote the work Praise of Stupidity, belongs to the main representatives of transalpine humanism. Christianity must become ethics. Asceticism, all things are immoral. The churches were fried. Promotion of experience. New trends in science were reflected in the works of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), N. Copernicus (1473-1543), I. Kepler (1571-1630), G. Galileo (1546-1642). Astronomy - Copernicus, heliocentrism. Analysis of the problem of dialectics. Nature is a manifestation of the divine. For example, N. Kuzansky (1401-1464) dissolves nature in God. God is the whole, nature is a part. There is a universal connection of things in nature, a unity of opposites. The representative of the magical-mystical philosophy of nature of the occult type was Paracelsus (1493-1541), a doctor, scientist, "miracle worker". All nature, according to Paracelsus, must be understood on the basis of three alchemical elements - mercury, sulfur and salt. Mercury corresponds to the spirit, sulfur to the soul, salt to the body. The pantheistic philosophy of nature by J. Bruno (1548-1600). He identified the cosmos with an infinite deity. He believed that nature is one .. There are no boundaries between the creator and creation. Nature, according to Bruno, is "God in things" (this is the path to a materialistic understanding of nature). They burned the man. Materialist.
10. the main features of the philosophy of modern times Philosophers F. Bacon
Modern times was the heyday of philosophy in England. English philosophyXVII - XVIIIcenturies had its own characteristics:
Materialistic orientation (most of the philosophers of England, in contrast to the philosophers of other countries, such as Germany, preferred to explain the problems of being materialistically and sharply criticized idealism);
The dominance of empiricism over rationalism (England became a rare country for its time, where empiricism won in matters of cognition - a direction of philosophy that, in cognition, assigned the leading role to experience and sensory perception, and not to reason, like rationalism);
Great interest in socio-political problems (philosophers of England not only tried to explain the essence of being and
knowledge, the role of man in the world, but also looked for the causes of the emergence of society and the state, put forward projects for the optimal organization of real-life states). The philosophy of England was for the XVII century. very progressive.
The following had a great influence on her character. political
events:
Revolution of Oliver Cromwell in the middle of the 17th century. (the overthrow and execution of the king, the short existence of the republic, the movement of independents);
the "glorious revolution" of 1688;
The final victory of Protestantism over Catholicism, the achievement of the internal autonomy of the Anglican Church, its independence from the Pope;
Strengthening the role of parliament;
Development of new bourgeois socio-economic relations.
Largest footprint VPhilosophy of England new time left:
Francis Bacon - is considered the founder of the empirical (experimental) direction in philosophy;
Thomas Hobbes (paid great attention to the problems of the state, author of the book "Leviathan", put forward the idea of a "social contract");
John Locke (studied the problems of the state, continued the tradition of T. Hobbes).
2. The founder of the empirical (experimental) direction in philosophy counts Francis Bacon(1561 - 1626) - English philosopher and politician (in 1620 - 1621 - Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, the second official in the country after the king).
The essence of the main philosophical idea of Francis Bacon - empiricism- thing is experience is the basis of knowledge. The more experience (both theoretical and practical) accumulated by humanity (and the individual), the closer it is to true knowledge. True knowledge, according to Bacon, cannot be an end in itself. The main tasks of knowledge and experience are to help a person achieve practical results in his activities, to promote new inventions, the development of the economy, and the dominance of man in nature.
In this regard, Bacon put forward an aphorism that succinctly expressed his entire philosophical creed: "Knowledge is power".
3. Bacon came up with the innovative idea that the main method of knowledge should be induction.
Under by induction the philosopher understood the generalization of a multitude of particular phenomena and the receipt of general conclusions on the basis of generalization (for example, if many individual metals melt, then, therefore, all metals have the property of melting).
Bacon opposed the method of induction to the method of deduction proposed by Descartes, according to which true knowledge can be obtained based on reliable information using clear logical methods.
The advantage of Bacon's induction over Descartes' deduction lies in the expansion of possibilities, the intensification of the process of cognition. The disadvantage of induction is its unreliability, probabilistic nature (since if several things or phenomena have common features, this does not mean at all that all things or phenomena from their given class have these features; in each individual case, there is a need for experimental verification, confirmation of induction ).
The way to overcome the main drawback of induction (its incompleteness, probabilistic nature), according to Bacon, is in the accumulation by mankind of as much experience as possible in all fields of knowledge. 4. Having defined the main method of cognition - induction, the philosopher highlights specific ways in which cognitive activity can take place. This:
"the way of the spider";
"path of the ant";
"the way of the bee"
"Way of the Spider"- obtaining knowledge from "pure reason", that is, in a rationalistic way. This path ignores or significantly downplays the role of concrete facts and practical experience. Rationalists are divorced from reality, dogmatic and, according to Bacon, "weave a web of thoughts from their minds."
"Way of the Ant"- a way of obtaining knowledge, when only experience is taken into account, that is, dogmatic
Empiricism (the complete opposite of rationalism divorced from life). This method is also imperfect. "Pure empiricists" focus on practical experience, the collection of disparate facts and evidence. Thus, they receive an external picture of knowledge, they see problems "outside", "from outside", but they cannot understand the inner essence of the things and phenomena being studied, see the problem from the inside.
"The Way of the Bee" according to Bacon, - the ideal way of knowing. Using it, the philosopher-researcher takes all the virtues of the "path of the spider" and "the path of the ant" and at the same time frees himself from their shortcomings. Following the "path of the bee", you need to collect
the whole set of facts, generalize them (look at the problem "outside") and, using the capabilities of the mind, look "inside" the problem, understand its essence.
Thus, the best way of knowledge, according to Bacon, is empiricism based on induction (collection and generalization of facts, accumulation of experience) using rationalistic methods of understanding the inner essence of things and phenomena by reason.
5. Francis Bacon not only shows in what ways the process of cognition should take place, but also highlights the reasons that prevent a person (humanity) from gaining true knowledge. These reasons the philosopher allegorically calls "ghosts"("idols") and defines four their varieties:
Kindred ghosts;
Ghosts of the cave;
Market ghosts;
Theater ghosts.
Kindred ghosts And cave ghosts- innate delusions of people, which consist in mixing the nature of knowledge with one's own nature.
In the first case (ghosts of the clan), we are talking about the refraction of knowledge through the culture of a person (kind) as a whole - that is, a person carries out knowledge, being within the framework of a universal culture, and this leaves an imprint on the final result, reduces the truth of knowledge.
In the second case (ghosts of the cave), we are talking about the influence of the personality of a particular person (cognizing subject) on the process of cognition. As a result, a person's personality (his prejudices, delusions - "cave") is reflected in the final result of knowledge.
Market ghosts And theater ghosts- acquired delusions.
Ghosts of the market - incorrect, inaccurate use of the speech, conceptual apparatus: words, definitions, expressions.
The ghosts of the theater - influence on the process of cognition of the existing philosophy. Often, when cognition, the old philosophy interferes with an innovative approach, directs cognition not always in the right direction (for example: the influence of scholasticism on cognition in the Middle Ages).
Based on the presence of four main obstacles to cognition, Bacon advises to abstract as much as possible from the existing "ghosts" and receive "pure knowledge" free from their influence.
6. F. Bacon owns one of the attempts to classify the existing sciences. Basis of classification - properties of the human mind:
Imagination;
Reason.
Memory corresponds to the historical sciences, imagination - poetry, reason - philosophy, which is the basis of all sciences. Philosophy Bacondefines as the science of:
nature;
Man.
Each of three subjects of philosophy a person learns in different ways:
Nature - directly with the help of sensory perception and experience;
God - through nature;
Oneself - through reflection (that is, the inversion of thought on itself, the study of thought by thought).
The philosophy of F. Bacon had a huge impact onphilosophy modern times, English philosophy, the philosophy of subsequent eras:
The beginning of an empirical (experimental) direction in philosophy was laid;
Gnoseology (the science of knowledge) has risen from a minor branch of philosophy to the level of ontology (the science of being) and has become one of the two main sections of any philosophical system;
A new goal of philosophy is defined - to help a person achieve practical results in his activities (thus Bacon indirectly laid the foundations for the future philosophy of American progmatism);
The first attempt was made to classify the sciences;
An impulse was given to anti-scholastic, bourgeois philosophy both in England and in Europe as a whole.
FEATURES OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE RENAISSANCE
Socio-historical conditions of the Renaissance
"Renaissance" is a term that, as a historical and geographical concept, came into use in the 19th century to designate a period in the development of the countries of southern Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries. , for the period of creativity of Campanella - the last representative of the Renaissance. Antiquity is not reborn on its own, but is combined with a new Italian spirit. The people of the Renaissance understood their own innovative mission as a mission of light that dispels darkness. The Renaissance is the birth of a new spirit. Humanitarian knowledge acted as the main instrument of the new era. The 15th century was the period of the collapse of the feudal system and the emergence of bourgeois relations. The largest discoveries and inventions follow one after another; the development of industry and trade required the progress of technology and science.
Features of the philosophy of the Renaissance
The decisive features of the philosophy of the Renaissance are the desire to get out of the monastic cell into the vastness of nature, materialistic tendencies associated with reliance on sensory experience, individualism and religious skepticism. Resurrects interest in the materialists of antiquity - the Ionians. The philosophy of the Renaissance is closely connected with natural science.
In the philosophy of the Renaissance, two main periods can be distinguished. In the 15th century, a new class - the bourgeoisie - was not yet able and did not have time to create its own philosophy. Therefore, she restored and adapted ancient philosophy to her needs. However, this philosophy differed significantly from scholasticism, which also used the works of Plato and Aristotle.
The philosophers of the Renaissance used ancient authors for fundamentally different purposes than the scholastics. Humanists possessed a wealth of Greek originals (and not Arabic translations and paraphrases) that philosophers of the 13th and 14th centuries could not even dream of.
The authority of Aristotle "fell", because. identified with scholasticism. The ensuing disappointment gave a different reaction - the emergence of skepticism, epicureanism and stoicism. They stood in the background and, although they were found in some authorities, they were not widely used. And only skepticism in the person of Michel Montaigne, he created a very special specific cultural climate in France.
Montaigne's skepticism cleared the way for new ideas, new knowledge. This prepared the second period of the philosophy of the Renaissance - natural philosophical.
Bernardino Telesio(1509-1588) revived the materialism of the Ionians. The world is based on a single matter, endowed with internal opposites - warm and cold. Four elements arise in the struggle, and the whole variety of things consists of their combination.
The works of Bernardino Telesio and Nicolaus Copernicus prepared the creation of the teachings of Giordano Bruno, a natural-scientific materialist, dialectician, and optimist.
In the 16th century, there was a revival of the Hippocratic philosophy of medicine.
Naturophilosophy of the magical-mystical type continued to exist. Its leader was Paracelsus- an outstanding practitioner, surgeon and therapist. His initial idea was the assertion that every reality has its own rule, the so-called "arche of life" - an active spiritual life force, which contains the key to nature, and whoever cognizes it, he will acquire a way to act (mystical way) on nature and transform it. In essence, the whole art of the doctor, according to Paracelsus, depends on mastering this method.
But both through the first and through the second periods of the Renaissance passes Platonism which created a certain spiritual climate. This does not mean that Plato's thought and his dialogues have become a favorite form of philosophizing. Platonism entered the Renaissance with centuries of stratification in the form of Neoplatonism, Christian stratification. As for the philosophical content of the revived Platonism, it should be noted that the Renaissance did not introduce any special original elements. Only the plemic of Plato's "superiority" over Aristotle matters. But the grandiose flowering of Platonism took place thanks to the works of Nicholas of Cusa. He was the forerunner of Italian natural philosophy, a pioneer of modern thinking, which began to take shape at the turn of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
In conclusion, it should be noted that the Renaissance gave rise to the predecessors utopian socialism- Thomas More and Tommaso Campanella - the author of "City of the Sun".
NICHOLAS OF CUSA - PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENTIFIC IGNORANCE
Nicholas of Cusa(1404-1464) was a prominent figure in the Roman Catholic Church. His teaching did not go beyond religious thinking, but his understanding of the world and man was directed to the future.
Nicholas of Cusa was the son of a peasant, a very persistent and ambitious person, he studied in Germany, Italy, where he got acquainted with the ideas of humanism, defended his dissertation in theology, became a bishop, and only then began to be interested in the specifics of knowledge. His main works: "On scientific ignorance", "On prerequisites", "On the hunt for wisdom".
Nicholas of Cusa creates an original method of cognition, which he calls " scientific ignorance". Basically, when the truth is established about various things, the indefinite is compared with the certain, the unknown with the known, therefore, when the research is carried out within the framework of finite things, it is not difficult to make a cognitive judgment, or very difficult when it comes to complex things. But in in any case it is possible. Truth can be exactly measured by the truth itself. Our mind is not true and therefore cannot grasp the truth exactly. But we can approach the truth (itself unattainable) by focusing on the thought that in infinity there is a coincidence of opposites.
Every being includes the universe and God. Man is a microcosm on two levels: general ontological (just as any thing is a microcosm) and on a special ontological level, since he has mind and consciousness. The basis of knowledge should be the opposition of ordinary, finite knowledge, something absolute, unconditional. And we can achieve absolute knowledge only symbolically. The absolute fusion of the divine and the human took place only in Christ. Man is also God. Such an understanding of man and the world leads to pantheism, according to which God does not exist separately from nature and is poured into it. Knowledge of the unfolded world, with which God is poured, is a matter of reason, and not of faith. Faith comprehends God in a folded form.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI - POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY, "THE PRINCE"
The Renaissance radically transformed not only the interpretation of man and his culture, not only freed them from the dictates of religion, but also radically changed the content of social and political theories. Machiavelli and Campanella, and later Hobbes and Spinoza, began to consider the state through the eyes of man and derive its natural laws from reason and experience, and not from theology. Instead of an unequivocal religious explanation, they were based on the position of the natural character of man, on his earthly interests and needs.
The Renaissance was for Italy and France the time of the formation of the nation. Only a strong, centralized state could overcome the internal disunity of society, so the ideas of the state and the autonomy of politics occupied an important place in philosophical doctrines.
With Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) a new era of political thinking begins. Political thought seeks to separate itself from speculative thinking, ethics and religion and accepts autonomy as a methodological principle. Machiavelli's position collectively and flexibly expresses the concept of autonomy in principle" politics for politics".
It was a sharp turn away from humanism, but it had an explanation: the crisis of moral values led to a gap between what is and what should be, i.e. how something should conform to moral values. This principle was placed in the principle of autonomy and became the basis of a new vision of the facts of politics.
Niccolo Machiavelli was the secretary of the Florentine Republic, a prominent diplomat, a sober and cautious politician. The main points of Machiavelli's philosophy are as follows: political realism, a new concept of the sovereign's virtue, a return to the beginnings, as a condition for the restoration and renewal of political life.
by the most popular works Niccolò Machiavelli are: "Sovereign", "Discourses on the first ten books of Titus Livius".
Realism This is the principle of brutal sobriety. The monarch may find himself in conditions that require extremely cruel and inhuman measures. Extreme evil requires extreme measures, therefore, in any case, half-heartedness and compromises should be avoided, which will not serve anything, but, on the contrary, are only extremely harmful.
Man in and of himself is neither good nor bad. Therefore, a politician cannot rely on the positive in a person, but must, taking into account the negative, act in accordance with them. You don't have to be afraid to appear intimidating. Certainly, ideal sovereign must at the same time be adored and feared, but these things are difficult to combine, and therefore the sovereign chooses the most effective way.
The sovereign must be virtuous, but political virtue, according to Machiavelli, is not at all the same as Christian virtue.
"Virtue is strength and health, cunning and energy, the ability to foresee, plan, coerce, it is the strongest will that sets the dam to the full flood of events ... people are controlled by cowardice, infidelity, greed, madness, inconstancy in intentions, incontinence, inability to suffer for the sake of achieving the goal ... as soon as the stick or whip falls out of the hands of the ruler, the order is immediately violated, the subjects abandon and betray their sovereign.
But the political ideal of Machiavelli was still the principle of organizing the state according to the type of the Roman Republic, based on freedom and good customs.
The doctrine of Niccolo Machiavelli is often reduced to the formula "the end justifies the means." She is hardly fair to the author of The State. This principle has a later, Jesuit origin. Machiavelli never formulated it, it does not follow from the whole context of his work.
Renaissance philosophy called the totality of philosophical trends that arose and developed in Europe in the XIV - XVII centuries, which were united by an anti-church and anti-scholastic orientation, aspiration to man, faith in his great physical and spiritual potential, life-affirming and optimistic character. The prerequisites for the emergence of philosophy and culture of the Renaissance were:
Improving the tools of labor and production relations;
Crisis of feudalism;
Development of crafts and trade;
Strengthening cities, turning them into trade, craft, military, cultural and political centers, independent of the feudal lords and the Church;
Strengthening, centralization of European states, strengthening of secular power;
The appearance of the first parliaments;
Lagging behind life, the crisis of the Church and scholastic (church) philosophy;
Raising the level of education in Europe as a whole;
Great geographical discoveries (Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Magellan);
Scientific and technical discoveries (invention of gunpowder, firearms, machine tools, blast furnaces, a microscope, a telescope, book printing, discoveries in the field of medicine and astronomy, other scientific and technical achievements);
The main directions of the philosophy of the Renaissance were:
- humanistic (XIV-XV centuries, representatives: Dante Alighieri, Francesco Petrarca, Lorenzo Vala, etc.) - put a person in the center of attention, sang his dignity, greatness and power, ironically over the dogmas of the Church;
- neoplatonic (middle of the 15th - 16th centuries, representatives: Nicholas of Cusa, Pico della Mirandola, Paracelsus, etc.) - tried to understand nature, the Cosmos and man from the point of view of idealism;
- natural philosophical (XVI - early XVII centuries, representatives: Nikolai Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, Galileo Galilei, etc.) - representatives of this trend tried to debunk a number of provisions of the Church's teaching about God, the Universe, the Cosmos and the foundations of the universe, based on astronomical and scientific discoveries;
- reformatory (XVI - XVII centuries, representatives: Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Usenleaf, Erasmus of Rotterdam and others) - its representatives sought to radically revise the church ideology and the relationship between believers and the Church;
- political (XV - XVI centuries, Nicolo Machiavelli) - studied the problems of government, the behavior of rulers;
- utopian socialist(XV - XVII centuries, representatives: Thomas More, Tommaso Campanella and others) - was looking for ideal fantastic forms of building society and the state. Based on the absence of private property and general equalization, total regulation by state power.
characteristic features Renaissance philosophies were:
- anthropocentrism and humanism- the predominance of interest in a person. Faith in its limitless possibilities;
- opposition to the Church and church ideology(the denial of not religion itself, God, but an organization that has made itself an intermediary between God and believers, as well as a frozen dogmatic philosophy serving the interests of the Church - scholasticism);
-scientific-materialistic understanding of the world around(sphericity, and not the plane of the Earth, the rotation of the Earth around the Sun, and not vice versa, the infinities of the Universe, new anatomical knowledge, etc.);
-social orientation(great interest in social problems, society and the state);
- triumph of individualism;
- wide use ideas of social equality.
Humanism as a direction became widespread in Europe in the XIV - mid-XV centuries. Italy was its center. Humanism had anti-church And anti-scholastic orientation, sought to reduce the omnipotence of God and prove human value. Main feature - anthropocentrism- special attention to a person, chanting of his strength, greatness, opportunities. This direction is characterized life-affirming character And optimism. In its genre, humanistic philosophy merged with literature, was expounded allegorically and in artistic form. The most famous humanists were also writers.
Dante Alighieri(1265 - 1321) - the author of the Divine Comedy (at that time, literary works with a happy ending were called comedies). In his work, the thinker sings of Christianity, but at the same time, between the lines, ridicules contradictions and inexplicable truths (dogmas) Christian doctrine. Dante praises a person, believes in his happy future and his initially good nature. He departs from the interpretation of man solely as a divine creation, recognizing for him the presence of both the divine and natural principles, which are in harmony with each other.
Francesco Petrarca(1304 - 1374) - author of the "Book of Songs", a treatise "On Contempt for the World." The humanist sings of beauty in the form of man and in his inner world. Petrarch believes that human life is given once and is unique, therefore a person must live not for God, but for himself. He believed that the human person should be free - both physically and spiritually. Man must have the freedom of choice and the right to express himself accordingly. The thinker believed that a person can achieve happiness, relying only on himself and his strength, and he has sufficient potential for this. He thought that immortality most likely does not exist, so immortality can only be achieved in people's memory. Therefore, a person should not sacrifice himself to God, but should enjoy life and love.
Lorenzo Valla(1507 - 15557) - author of the treatise "On pleasure as a true good." Walla overthrew church authorities, criticized scholasticism for artificiality, far-fetchedness and untruth. He placed man at the center of the universe, believed in his abilities and reason. The thinker rejected asceticism and self-denial, called for active action, struggle, courage in changing the world. He was a supporter of the equality of men and women. Valla considered pleasure to be the highest good, which he understood as the satisfaction of the material and moral needs of a person.
Neoplatonism- an idealistic direction in philosophy, which set as its goal a strict systematization of the teachings of Plato, the elimination of contradictions from it and its further development. Neoplatonism reached its peak during the Renaissance in the 15th century. The theorists of Neoplatonism opposed scholastic philosophy with a new philosophical system based on the ideas of Plato. They proposed a new picture of the world, in which the role of God decreased and the significance of the original (in relation to the world and things) ideas increased. Neoplatonists did not deny the divine nature of man, but at the same time considered him as an independent microcosm. Thinkers called for a rethinking of a number of postulates of the former philosophy and the creation of an integral world philosophical system that would embrace and harmonize all existing philosophical trends.
Nicholas of Cusa(1401 - 1464) was a clergyman, theologian, but he adhered to innovative philosophical views for his time. He gave a new interpretation of being and knowledge, according to which there is no difference between God and his creation (the world is one, and God and the surrounding world, the Universe are one and the same). He believed that the “one” (God) and the “infinite” (his creation) relate to each other as a minimum and a maximum. Based on this, Cusa introduced law of coincidence of opposites: since opposites coincide, then form and matter coincide (hence, essence (essence) and existence (existence) are inseparable and being is one); the idea and matter are united, actual infinity really exists (absorbing everything else). The universe, according to the thinker, is infinite, has no beginning, no end, the Earth is not the center of the universe. The Universe is a sensually changeable God, absolute and complete (the world, nature, everything that exists is contained in God, and not God is in the surrounding world). He believed that infinity itself unites opposites, which is proved mathematically (a square inscribed in a circle with an infinite increase in angles in it will become a circle, etc.). The infinity of the universe, the surrounding world leads to the infinity of knowledge. The thinker believed that it is impossible to achieve absolute (complete) knowledge, an increase in knowledge will only lead to scholarship, but not true knowledge (“ scientific knowledge"). Thus, Nicholas of Cusa, being an idealistic philosopher and theologian, came very close to the materialistic explanation of the surrounding world (the Universe), and paved the way for natural philosophical teachings - Nicholas Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, Galileo Galilei and others.
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463 - 1494) tried to combine all the religious and philosophical teachings known to him and created the eclectic work “900 Theses”, the main ideas of which were to elevate a person and separate him from the world around him, recognize him as a separate reality (“the fourth world of space, along with elemental, celestial and angelic). He demanded that a person be given complete freedom of choice. In this work, the thinker wanted to combine all philosophical teachings and find the "golden mean" by harmonizing them.
Naturphilosophical direction became widespread during the Late Renaissance (XVI - early XVII centuries). Representatives of this trend substantiated a materialistic view of the world and put forward a new picture of the world (in which God, Nature and Cosmos are one, and the Earth is not the center of the Universe). They sought to form a scientific worldview free of theology and also sought to separate philosophy from theology. Representatives of the natural-philosophical trend believed that the world is cognizable, first of all, thanks to sensory cognition and reason (and not Divine revelation).
Andreas Vesalius (1514 - 1564) made a revolution in medicine, refuting the views that have dominated medicine since the time of Galen (130 - 200) - an ancient Roman physician who described the physiology and structure of man, based on animal studies. Vesalius, on the other hand, relied on numerous anatomical experiments and published the book “On the Structure of the Human Body”, famous for his time, where he described in detail the human anatomy, more real than the anatomy of Galen.
Nicholas Copernicus(1473 - 1543), based on astronomical research, put forward a fundamentally new picture of life, in which the Earth is not the center of the universe (geocentrism was rejected). Copernicus believed that the Sun is the center in relation to the Earth (heliocentrism) and the Earth revolves around the Sun. He argued that the Cosmos is infinite and the processes taking place in it are explainable from the point of view of nature and are devoid of "sacred meaning". All space bodies move along their own trajectory.
Giordano Bruno (1548 - 1600) developed and deepened the ideas of Copernicus. He believed that the Sun is the center only in relation to the Earth, but not the center of the Universe. The Universe has no center and is infinite, it consists of galaxies (clusters of stars). Stars, according to the thinker, are celestial bodies similar to the Sun and having their own planetary systems. The number of worlds in the universe is infinite. All celestial bodies - planets, stars, as well as everything that is on them, have movement. Giordano Bruno believed that the Universe and God are one. The ideas of the thinker were not accepted by the Catholic Church, and he was burned at the stake.
Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642) in practice confirmed the correctness of the ideas of Nicholas Copernicus and Giordano Bruno. He invented a telescope and with its help explored celestial bodies, discovered spots on the Sun and a diverse landscape on the Moon (mountains and deserts - "seas"). The scientist proved that celestial bodies move not only along a trajectory, but also around their axis, discovered the satellites of other planets, studied the dynamics of the fall of bodies, and proved the plurality of worlds in the Universe. Galileo was put forward method scientific research which included: observation; hypothesis; calculations of the implementation of the hypothesis in practice; experimental (experimental) verification in practice of the hypothesis put forward.
Socio-political philosophy of the Renaissance included the philosophy of the Reformation, political philosophy, the philosophy of the utopian socialists.
Philosophy of the Reformation had as its goal the reform of Catholicism, the democratization of the Church, the establishment of relations between the Church, God and believers. The prerequisites for the emergence of this direction were:
Crisis of feudalism;
Strengthening the class of commercial and industrial bourgeoisie;
The weakening of feudal fragmentation, the formation of European states;
The disinterest of the leaders of these states, political elite in the excessive, supranational, pan-European power of the Pope and the Catholic Church;
The crisis, the moral decay of the Catholic Church, its isolation from the people, lagging behind life;
Spread in Europe of the ideas of humanism;
The growth of self-awareness of the individual, individualism;
The growth of the influence of anti-Catholic religious and philosophical teachings, heresies, mysticism, Gusism.
There are two main currents in the Reformation: burgher-evangelical (Luther, Zwingli, Calvin) And folk (Müntzer, Anabaptists, Diggers and etc.).
Martin Luther advocated direct communication between God and believers, believing that there should be no Church between God and believers. The Church itself, according to the reformer, must become democratic, its rites must be simplified and they must be understandable to people. He believed that it was necessary to reduce the influence on the politics of the states of the Pope and the Catholic clergy. The work of serving God is not only a profession monopolized by the clergy, but also a function of the whole life of believing Christians. The thinker believed that it was necessary to prohibit indulgences. He believed that authority should be restored state institutions, culture and education must be freed from the dominance of Catholic dogmas.
Jean Calvin(1509 - 1564) believed that the key idea of Protestantism is the idea of predestination: people were initially predestined by God to either be saved or perish. All people should hope that it is they who are predestined to salvation. The reformer believed that the expression of the meaning of human life on Earth is a profession that is not only a means of earning money, but also a place of service to God. A conscientious attitude to business is the path to salvation, success in work is a sign of God's chosen people. Outside of work, a person needs to be modest and ascetic. Calvin put the ideas of Protestantism into practice, leading the reform movement in Geneva. He achieved the recognition of the reformed Church as official, abolished the Catholic Church and the power of the Pope, carried out reforms both within the Church and in the city. Thanks to Calvin. The Reformation has become an international phenomenon.
Thomas Munzer(1490 - 1525) led the popular direction of the Reformation. He believed that it was necessary to reform not only the Church, but society as a whole. The goal of changing society is to achieve universal justice, the “Kingdom of God” on Earth. The main cause of all evils, according to the thinker, is inequality, class division (private property and private interest), which must be destroyed, everything must be common. It is pleasing to God that the life and activity of a person should be completely subordinated to the interests of society. Power and property, according to the reformer, should belong to the common people - "artisans and plowmen." In 1524 - 1525. Müntzer led the anti-Catholic and revolutionary Peasants' War and died.
Reformation served as an ideological justification for the political armed struggle against Catholicism. The result was the fall of Catholicism in a number of states and religious demarcation in Europe: the triumph of various areas of Protestantism in Northern and Central Europe - Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway; preservation of Catholicism in the countries of the South and of Eastern Europe– Spain, France, Italy, Croatia, Poland, etc.
Political philosophy explored the problems of managing a real-life state. A prominent representative of this trend was Nicolo Machiavelli (1469 - 1543) - Italian (Florentine) politician, philosopher and writer. The thinker believed that a person is inherently evil and the driving motives of a person's actions are selfishness and the desire for personal gain. If everyone pursues their own interests, then the coexistence of people will be impossible, therefore it is necessary to curb the base nature of a person, his egoism. For this purpose, a special organization- state. The philosopher believes that the ruler should lead the state, not forgetting the base nature of his subjects. The sovereign should look generous and noble, but not be such in reality, because when in contact with reality, these qualities will lead to the opposite result. In no case, the thinker believes, the ruler should not encroach on the property and privacy of citizens. In the struggle for the liberation of the Motherland, all means are good.
In the Renaissance, some thinkers were engaged in creating projects for an ideal state in which all social contradictions would be destroyed and social justice would triumph. These projects were far removed from reality and practically unrealistic, utopian. Philosophical views of thinkers - designers began to be called the philosophy of socialists - utopians. The greatest contribution to these views was made by Thomas More And Tommaso Campanella.
Thomas More(1478 - 1535) is considered the founder of utopian socialism. He was well aware of the problems of the real state, since he was professionally engaged in political activities: from 1504 he was a member of parliament, in 1523-1529. - Chairman of the House of Commons, since 1529 - Lord Chancellor of Great Britain. In 1535, T. More was executed as a supporter of Catholicism for refusing to take an oath to the king as the head of the Anglican Church, independent of the Pope. More outlined his ideas about the structure of society and the state of the future in the work "Utopia". IN ideal state thinker there is no private property, and all citizens participate in productive labor. Labor is carried out on the basis of universal labor service. All produced products become the property of society and are then evenly distributed among all the inhabitants of Utopia. Due to the fact that everyone is busy with work, a short working day of six hours is enough to ensure Utopia. From labor activity people who showed special abilities in the sciences were released. The dirtiest work is done by slaves - prisoners of war and convicted criminals. The primary unit of society is not the consanguineous family, but working family" (labor collective). All officers are elected, directly or indirectly. Men and women have equal rights. The inhabitants of Utopia believe in God, there is complete religious tolerance.
Another blueprint for an ideal society was given Tommaso Campanella(1568 - 1639) in the work "City of the Sun". The action takes place in the fantastic City of the Sun, where its inhabitants have built an ideal society based on social justice and enjoy life and work. According to Campanella, there is no private property in the City of the Sun, and all citizens participate in productive labor. The results of labor become the property of the whole society and are evenly distributed among its members. Work is combined with simultaneous training. The life of solariums is regulated to the smallest detail, from getting up to going to bed. Solariums do everything together: they go to and from work, work, eat, rest, sing songs. Much attention is paid to education - the child is taken away from his parents and brought up in special schools, where he learns the sciences and learns to collective life, other rules of the City of the Sun. At the head of the City of the Sun is a ruler for life, who owns all the knowledge of the era and all professions.
The ideas of the utopian socialists had many supporters among those who wanted to change the world.
significant period in history Western Europe is Renaissance (XV-XVI centuries).
During this period, the foundations of capitalist production were laid, city-republics were created, navigation and trade developed, new scientific directions were opened, book printing was invented, etc.
The era got its name because of the revival of the principles of the spiritual culture of antiquity. The era was focused on art and the cult of the artist. The artist imitates God in his work and begins to look for foundations in himself, in his soul and body.
The Renaissance is represented by such prominent thinkers as Petrarch, Boccaccio, Nicholas Copernicus, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Giordano Bruno, Machiavelli, Tommaso Campanella, Thomas More, Nicholas of Cusa, Galileo Galilei, Michel Montaigne.
Characteristic features of the Renaissance worldview:
A) anti-scholastic character(although for the state scholasticism remained the official philosophy and its principles were studied in most universities)
A: Socio - economic changes to. XV - n. 16th century led to the emergence of a numerous stratum of the bourgeois intelligentsia. IN given period a new culture emerged, called humanism, which meant secular, and not theological - scholastic education. The humanists contrasted the secular sciences with ecclesiastical learning.
A feature of the early bourgeois culture was the widespread use of ancient cultural heritage. Ancient culture was closer and more understandable to the emerging bourgeoisie than the culture of feudal society. Its significance was so great that the whole era was called the Renaissance (Renaissance), i.e. there was a restoration of many aspects of the rich ancient culture after more than a thousand years of oblivion.
IN) issues related to the structure of nature, its structure, with the laws of its development; about space (natural philosophy); the main principle of the worldview - pantheism.
IN: For the development of a materialistic worldview, the emergence of natural philosophy- the doctrine of nature, free from the subordination of theology. Naturphilosophy often wore pantheistic character, those. she identified God with nature without denying his existence. Consequence pantheism are hylozoism(the idea of universal liveliness of nature) and panpsychism(the idea of universal animation of nature).
Hylozoism- a philosophical concept that recognizes the animation of all bodies, space, matter, nature. Hylozoism eliminated the fundamental difference between inorganic and living nature.
Hylozoism was inherent in the views of Plato and Aristotle. During the Renaissance hylozoism under the influence of the concepts of ancient thinkers, it is used as an argument in substantiating the unity of man with his consciousness and nature. The appearance of the concepts of Hylozoism in the philosophy of modern times is associated with the search for an answer to the question of the grounds and prerequisites for the formation of sensitivity in living beings and consciousness in humans.
Of great importance for the development of new materialistic views and ideas of this period were the natural-science works of the pantheist N. Cusa, mathematician and astronomer N. Copernicus, J. Bruno, L. Da Vinci, G. Galileo, and others.
Nicholas of Cusa (1401 - 1464), a prominent church figure, mystic and theologian. Kuzansky brings together God and nature, the creator and creation, attributing divine attributes to nature.
Nicholas of Cusa presented the process of cognition as the achievement of the infinitely perfect. He expressed ideas in relation to the understanding of nature, the unity of opposites, one and many, possibility and reality, infinity and finiteness in nature. N. Kuzansky substantiated the concept scientific method, the problem of creativity.
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 - 1543) - the great Polish astronomer, whose works revolutionized the development scientific knowledge. It was proposed fundamentally new model universe. Heliocentrism of Copernicus led to a radical revision of the entire physical picture of the world. The hierarchical structure of the universe collapsed.
Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), his merit lies in the development of the philosophical aspect of the theory of Copernicus. He abandons the position of his predecessor, according to which the Sun is the absolute center of the universe. Such a center, according to Bruno, does not exist at all. Any planet can be interpreted as the center of the universe. The sun is only a relative center. e. the center of our planetary system. The universe has no boundaries, the number of worlds in it is infinite. The earth has its own movement, similar to the movement of celestial bodies. Giordano declares the universe equal to God. God is confined to him in the material world itself. He is his active and inner principle. Thus, Bruno appears before us as pantheist who rebelled against God as a supernatural force.
Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642), professor of mathematics. His works were of great importance for the development of the philosophy of the Renaissance. He believed that only scientific methods could lead to the truth. The scientific methodology of Galileo, based on mathematics and mechanics, defined his worldview as mechanistic materialism. The significance of Galileo's creativity was also manifested in the fact that he developed a method of scientific research. Galileo in the 17th century is considered the founder of scientific natural science.
WITH) the theme of man and his structure, his general qualities and place in the world - Anthropocentrism.
WITH: A characteristic feature of the era is anthropocentrism. Man becomes the main subject of philosophy, which develops a new ideal of personality.
The humanists of the era affirm the unity of man and the cosmos, proclaim the unlimited freedom of the individual, which is capable of transforming the world. Humanism is associated with the creative possibilities of man, he acts as the master of his own destiny.
Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469 - 1536) is an outstanding thinker, philologist, philosopher and theologian. In his work Praise of Stupidity, Erasmus ridicules the conceptual apparatus and logical structure of scholastic speculation. Erasmus of Rotterdam contrasted his "philosophy of Christ" with the moral system. Ethics replaces ontology and theology.
Erasmus' supporter was the French thinker, humanist Michel Montaigne.
Michel Montaigne (1533 - 1592). He did not accept the condition of Christian theology about the sinfulness of doubt and made it one of the principles of his concept.
Man is a doubting being, for he is given such a property as consciousness. Montaigne is a critic of ascetic morality. He saw the main engine of human actions in the pursuit of happiness and pleasure, although life is impossible without suffering. The philosopher was sure that the immortality of the soul does not exist.
In the field aesthetic thought At that time there are no complete systems. The general trend was outlined in favor of the secularization of art and the release of the artist from the guardianship of the church. Art was no longer seen as an allegorical form of truth. The ancient theory of imitation has been revived. The objectivity of art approaches science. An example is creativity Leonardo da Vinci.
D) Problems ideal state structure of society.
D: During the Renaissance, there were first socialist utopias. To a greater or lesser extent, they reflected the spontaneous protest of the peasant masses and the urban poor, who rose up in revolts, sometimes developing into peasant wars.
Nicolodi Bernardo Machiavelli (1469 - 1527) The object of study for him was political history: the causes of the rise and fall of states, the motives of human actions, the influence of the individual on the course of certain events.
The main philosophical works are: "Discourses on the first decade of Titus Livius" and "The Sovereign".
Exploring the state and the nature of laws, Machiavelli derives them from reason and experience, rejecting the idea of God. He believed that political systems are born, achieve greatness and power, and then decline, decay and perish. He explains the emergence of society, the state and morality by the natural course of events. In these circumstances, man also acts. Therefore, the success of his activities depends on how he adapted to the conditions of the social environment.
Thomas More (1478 - 1535) in his "Utopia" he develops the idea of Plato's "State", being convinced that "from the ruler, as from some source, everything good and evil spreads to the whole people."
The main pillar of the state is justice. The life of utopians is organized on the principles of republican democracy, the election of the authorities, and the absence of religious persecution.
Tommaso Campanella (1568 - 1639) considered the main cause of all disasters in society inequality of people. He believed that the abolition of private property would eliminate the difference between the interests of the individual and the interests of the state, which philosophers should manage. All citizens must work equally and receive the products of labor equally according to their needs. They reject wars, but if they are attacked, they all stand up to defend the Fatherland, including women.
Campanella designed education system and the preparation of new generations, which takes into account the natural predisposition of each individual. The main point in his program was the formation of world unity, the union of states and peoples, which was supposed to ensure the cessation of fratricidal wars between peoples.
II. The main features of the philosophy of modern times (17 - 18 centuries)
The ideas of the Renaissance thinkers were developed by the philosophers of the New Age.
The progress of science required the replacement of the scholastic method of thinking with new ways of knowing, addressed to real world. The principles of materialism and elements of dialectics were revived and developed.
This period is characterized by the rapid development of the natural sciences (mathematics, physics, mechanics, chemistry, physiology), which was determined by the needs of the formation of capitalist society and covered almost the entire 17th century. This era is represented by the names of prominent philosophers of France, Germany, England and Holland: F. Bacon, T. Hobbes, D. Locke, R. Descartes, B. Spinoza, G. Leibniz, D. Berkeley, D. Hume.
Main problems, that the philosophers tried to solve :
The doctrine of being and the doctrine of cognition: the substance of the world and its properties;
The ratio of material (atoms) and spiritual (monads) units of being;
Methods of cognition, levels of cognition;
Reasons for delusions.
The development of natural science dictates the main problem of philosophical reflection - the problem of constructing a universal method and a universal science. Gnoseology becomes the center of philosophizing. Science becomes the most important human activity, and the scientific method becomes universal, guaranteeing the receipt of truth.
Two conflicting positions have developed around questions about the universal method: empiricism (sensualism) and rationalism.
Empiricism (Sensationalism) New time: founder - F. Bacon, followers - John Locke, Thomas Hobbes.
Sensualists recognize experience as the only source of knowledge, and consider cognitive ability sensitive.
As a scientific method, F. Bacon offers induction.
Rationalism: founder - R. Descartes, followers - B. Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz.
Rationalists argue that universal and necessary knowledge cannot be obtained from experience. Certain knowledge is derived only from reason, which is human cognitive ability. Rationalists considered the universal method deduction. According to Descartes, only reasoning, thought can be true
Empiricism faced the problem of the reliability of experimental knowledge, and rationalism - with cognitive errors.
In modern times, a position was formed subjective idealism(D. Berkeley, D. Hume). Experience- these are sensory impressions, a person does not know anything other than the data of his consciousness, therefore, they do not know objective things, but their subjective images.
Philosophy of the Enlightenment
The 18th century is called age of Enlightenment, because the thinkers of that time believed that through education, enlightenment, upbringing, it is possible to significantly improve the morals and lifestyle of people, the very social structure.
This philosophy spiritually prepared society for the French Revolution of 1789, which destroyed the feudal-aristocratic foundations of society and created the conditions for the development of new bourgeois relations.
The Age of Enlightenment is famous for philosophers such as T. Hobbes, J. Locke, Voltaire, J. J. Rousseau, Diderot, Holbach, Helvetia, La Mettrie, Montesquieu.
Hobbes, in his treatise Leviathan, developed the social contract theory, according to which the state arises from an agreement between people to limit some of their freedoms in exchange for rights. Without a social contract, people are not capable of peaceful coexistence due to natural enmity towards each other. Leviathan - a sea monster - an absolutist organization that has the power to restrict the freedoms of citizens, doing it as if in their interests.
The range of issues that were reflected in the writings of these philosophers is mainly represented by the problems of man and social order or epistemological and anthropological problems.
In philosophical reflections on nature, enlighteners carry out the principles determinism and mechanical materialism. Nature is understood as clockwork. Man is also understood mechanistically. Characteristic in this sense is the work of J. La Mettrie "Man is a machine" and the statement of D. Diderot that the brain produces a thought in the same way as the liver bile.
The cultural project of the era was the "Encyclopedia of Sciences, Arts and Crafts" by D. Diderot, where it was supposed to collect all the achievements and knowledge of mankind. All the philosophers of the Enlightenment took part in this.
Literature:
1. Spirkin A.G. Philosophy: textbook - 3rd ed. revised and add.-M.: Yurayt Publishing House; ID Yurait, 2011. pp. 97-123
