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MAIN PROBLEMS OF PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES
Introduction.
In historical science, the Middle Ages in Western Europe are dated to the 5th–15th centuries. However, in relation to philosophy, such dating is not entirely correct. Medieval European philosophy is Christian philosophy. Christian philosophy began to take shape much earlier. The first Christian philosophers developed their ideas in the 2nd century AD. The philosophy of early Christianity was called apologetics, and its representatives were called apologists, since their writings were aimed at defending and justifying Christian doctrine.
The boundaries between antiquity and the Middle Ages are blurred and unclear. Therefore, paradoxically, medieval philosophy began earlier than ancient philosophy ended. For several centuries, two methods of philosophizing existed in parallel, mutually influencing each other.
If ancient philosophers saw essence and existence in an indissoluble unity, then, according to Christian philosophy, essence can take place without being (without existence). To become an existent (being), an entity must be created by God.
Medieval philosophical thought went through three stages in its development:
1. Patristics(from the Latin pater - father) - works of the church fathers. Initially, the “father of the church” was a spiritual mentor with recognized teaching authority. Later this concept was clarified and began to include four features: 1) holiness of life; 2) antiquity; 3) orthodoxy of teaching; 4) official recognition of the church.
2. Scholasticism- a type of religious philosophy characterized by a fundamental subordination to the primacy of theology, a combination of dogmatic premises with rationalistic methodology and a special interest in formal logical problems.
3. Mystic- a philosophy that comprehends the religious practice of the unity of man with God, the immersion of the contemplating spirit in the ocean of divine light. If in scholasticism the speculative-logical aspect prevailed, then in mysticism the contemplative aspect prevailed. All mystical teachings tend toward irrationalism, intuitionism, and deliberate paradoxicality; they express themselves not so much in the language of concepts as in the language of symbols.
In subsequent chapters we will take a closer look at the two main stages, and try to identify the problems of that time.
Representatives of medieval philosophy
Before moving on to the main problems of medieval philosophy, it is necessary to know the philosophers of that time and their philosophical views.
| Albert the Great | It was through his works that the philosophy and theology of medieval Europe adopted the ideas and methods of Aristotelianism. In addition, Albert's philosophy was greatly influenced by the ideas of Arab philosophers, with many of whom he polemicized in his works. Albert left a gigantic written legacy - his collected works number 38 volumes, most of which are devoted to philosophy and theology. Among the main works are the Summa on Creations, On the Soul, On the Causes and Origin of Everything, Metaphysics, and the Summa of Theology. | |
 | Tertullian | Tertullian had an excellent knowledge of the Holy Scriptures and Greek authors. Thirty-one works of Tertullian have reached us; all of his works are devoted to topics of practical importance: the attitude of Christians to paganism, issues of Christian morality and the refutation of heresies. 14 works known by title have not survived. Initially, Tertullian was engaged in apologetics, writing the Apologeticus and To the Gentiles in 197 and developed a code of Christian morality in the treatises On Spectacles, On Idolatry, On Women's Attire and To the Wife, instructing catechumens in the treatises “On baptism”, “On prayer” and “On repentance”, explained in the treatise “On the challenge of objections from heretics”. The author of Tertullian’s biography, Blessed Jerome, therefore called him “ardens vir” - “frantic man.” |
 | William of Ockham | According to Occam, the absolute freedom of the Divine will means that in the act of creation it is not bound by anything, not even by ideas. Ockham denies the existence of universals in God; they do not exist in things either. The so-called ideas are nothing other than the things themselves produced by God. There are no ideas of species, only ideas of individuals, for individuals are the only reality that exists outside the mind, both Divine and human. The starting point for understanding the world is knowledge about individuals. |
 | Thomas Aquinas | The works of Thomas Aquinas include: · two extensive treatises in the summa genre, covering a wide range of topics - Summa Theologica and Summa against the Gentiles (Summa Philosophy) · discussions on theological and philosophical problems (Debatable Questions and Questions on various topics") · comments on: - several books of the Bible - 12 treatises of Aristotle - "Sentences" of Peter of Lombardy - treatises of Boethius, - treatises of Pseudo-Dionysius - anonymous "Book of Causes" · a number of small works on philosophical and religious topics · several treatises on alchemy · poetic texts for worship, for example the work “Ethics” “Debatable Questions” and “Commentaries” were largely the fruit of his teaching activity, which, according to the tradition of that time, included debates and reading authoritative texts accompanied by commentaries. |
 | Meister Eckhart | Author of sermons and treatises, which were preserved mainly in the notes of his disciples. The main theme of his thoughts: Divinity is the impersonal absolute standing behind God the Creator. The Deity is incomprehensible and inexpressible, it is " complete purity of the divine essence", where there is no movement. Through its self-knowledge, the Divine becomes God. God is eternal being and eternal life. According to Eckhart's concept, man is able to know God because in the human soul there is " divine spark", a particle of the Divine. A person, having muffled his will, must passively surrender to God. Then the soul, detached from everything, will ascend to the Divine and in mystical ecstasy, breaking with the earthly, will merge with the divine. Bliss depends on the inner activity of a person. |
 | Peter Abelar | According to Abelard, dialectics should consist of questioning the statements of authorities, the independence of philosophers, and a critical attitude towards theology. Abelard's views were condemned by the church at the Council of Suassois (1121), and according to his verdict, he himself threw his book “Divine Unity and Trinity” into the fire. (In this book, he argued that there is only one God the Father, and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are only manifestations of his power.) In accordance with these beliefs, Abelard believed that the pagans who persecuted Christ did not commit any sinful actions, since these actions were not in conflict with their beliefs. The ancient philosophers were not sinful either, although they were not supporters of Christianity, but acted in accordance with their high moral principles. Abelard questioned the statement about the redemptive mission of Christ, which was not that he removed the sin of Adam and Eve from the human race, but that he was an example of high morality that all humanity should follow. Abelard believed that humanity inherited from Adam and Eve not the ability to sin, but only the ability to repent of it. According to Abelard, a person needs divine grace not to carry out good deeds, but as a reward for their implementation. All this contradicted the then widespread religious dogmatism and was condemned by the Council of Sana (1140) as heresy. |
 | Duns Scotus | Duns Scotus is considered the most important philosophical theologian of the High Middle Ages. He had a significant influence on ecclesiastical and secular thought. Among the doctrines that made Scotus famous are: “univocity of existence,” where existence is the most abstract concept applicable to everything that exists; formal distinction - a way of distinguishing different aspects of the same thing; the idea of concreteness - a property inherent in each individual person and giving it individuality. Scotus also developed a set of arguments for the existence of God and arguments for the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. |
 | Bonaventure | Bonaventure believed that Plato's ideas existed. However, in his opinion, perfect knowledge of ideas is given only to God. Bonaventure had great respect for Saint Augustine. He also supported Anselm of Canterbury's ontological proof of the existence of God. Attempts to synthesize Christianity with the teachings of Aristotle Bonaventure considered hostile to Christianity. Theology is for Bonaventure the mistress of all secular sciences, which he unites under the general concept of philosophy, and unity with God, to which love leads a person through six stages of knowledge, is the greatest good. He substantiates this in detail in the scholastic work “The Soul’s Guide to God” and in the mystical work “On the Reduction of Sciences to Theology.” The choice of problems in philosophy is determined by theology and there are only three metaphysical problems: creation, exemplarism (individuation) and reunion with God through illumination (illumination). According to the teachings of Bonaventure, a person has three eyes: bodily, mental and contemplative; the latter is developed by self-absorption into the soul as a reflection of God, self-abasement, self-denial and sincere prayer. Just as there were 6 days of creation, so there are 6 degrees of contemplation, followed by the highest good, merging with the Divine. |
The main problems discussed in medieval philosophy include the problem of faith and reason, the proof of the existence of God, and the problem of universals.
The problem of the relationship between faith and reason was solved by the authors in different ways. Three options (thesis) of this problem can be formulated:
1. Thesis of Aurelius Augustine: I believe in order to understand. Here the dogma of faith becomes the foundation for rational conclusions.
2. Pierre Abelard's thesis: I understand in order to believe. Here the truths of faith must receive rational justification and philosophical interpretation. This position leads to the absorption of theology by philosophy.
3. Tertullian's thesis: I believe because it is absurd. This option presupposes a divergence between reason and faith and leads to the concept of two truths. This position leads to a gap between philosophy and theology. Tertullian puts forward a position of pure faith, rejects the need for philosophical knowledge, since there is no need for research after Christ. The maxim is attributed to him: “I believe because it is absurd.”
Justin - philosophy is the sister of religion and can, in its best examples, pose the same problems as religious teaching.
Scholasticism
The main problems of scholasticism include:
a) the problem of the relationship between knowledge and faith;
b) the problem of the relationship between essence and existence;
c) the problem of the nature and essence of general concepts (“universals”).
Three approaches to solving one of the main problems of scholasticism - relationship between knowledge and faith.
1. Knowledge and faith are irreconcilable enemies. They are antipodes, incompatible with each other. Philosophy, reason, knowledge are the enemies of religion and faith. Faith does not need any knowledge, no reason. It has its own nature, its own basis - “revelation” and “holy scripture”. Tertullian speaks directly about this: “After Christ, we do not need any curiosity; after the Gospel there is no need for any research.”
Faith is faith because it does not need any reasonable justification or evidence. “The Son of God was crucified; We are not ashamed of it, because it is shameful; the son of god died - we fully believe this, because it is absurd. And the buried one rose again; this is true because it is impossible.” Hence Tertullian’s famous credo: “I believe because it is absurd.” With this approach, not only are philosophers not needed by religion, but on the contrary, “philosophers are the patriarchs of heretics.” Where the philosopher appears, where he poses rational questions, heretics also appear.
This concept was developed by Tertullian (160-240) and Peter Damiani (1007-1072). It is expressed in apophatic theology, which denies the possibility of knowing God and his manifestations in the real world.
2. Union of knowledge and faith. This concept is represented in cataphatic theology. According to it, knowledge of God is possible through the fruits of his creation and the results of intervention in the affairs of the world, therefore, a union of faith and knowledge is possible. However, the union itself was understood differently. Some gave primacy in this union to faith - “I believe in order to understand” (St. Augustine, A. of Canterbury), others - to knowledge, “I understand in order to believe” (P. Abelard).
3. The theory of dual truth. Its most famous representatives are Averroes (1126-1198) and Siger of Brabant (about 1235-1282). Its essence is that philosophy and theology have different objects of study (one is nature, the other is God), different sources of knowledge (philosophy - reason, religion - revelation) and therefore they have different knowledge and different truths. One truth is philosophical, the other truth is theological. These two truths are equivalent and independent of each other.
The concept of the union of knowledge and faith has become most widespread. However, this concept turned out to be internally contradictory and difficult to implement in practice.
The idea of relying on reason in resolving theological issues was expressed in the 9th century by John Scott Erigena. He considered reason as the criterion for the correct interpretation of “sacred scripture” and thereby laid the foundations of religious rationalism. Its essence is that “everything that is reasonable must be provable by reason.” Since God and his activities are rational, they must be demonstrable using reason. Hence the task of religious rationalism is to prove, with the help of reason, the reasonableness of religious dogmas.
However, this thesis in a hidden form contained its continuation - “everything that cannot be proven by reason is unreasonable.” From this it turned out that dogmas that cannot be proven by reason are unreasonable. Therefore, when it became clear that the dogmas of religion cannot be proven with the help of reason, scholasticism faced a dilemma - either admit that religious dogmas are unreasonable, which is impossible, or find some way out. And this solution was found - religious dogmas were recognized as “super-reasonable”, i.e. it was argued that these dogmas were reasonable in their divine nature, but inaccessible to human reason.
Thus, in order to avoid accusations of the unreasonableness of religious dogmas, scholasticism was forced to gradually abandon reliance on reason and move on to justifying their “super-reasonable” nature.
In this regard, the history of scholasticism can be considered as a history of the gradual demarcation of knowledge and faith. And the scholastics themselves carry out this demarcation. Albertus Magnus recognized the impossibility of rational proof of the dogmas about the unity and trinity of God, about the incarnation and resurrection. Thomas Aquinas added to them the dogmas about creation in time, about original sin, about sacrament and purgatory, about the Last Judgment and retribution, Duns Scotus recognized the dogma about “creation from nothing”; and finally, William of Ockham recognized the impossibility of rational proof of the existence of God and the unity of his nature. As a result of all this, the union of reason and faith did not take place.
The problem of the relationship between essence and existence is posed and solved in scholasticism as a theological problem, i.e. as a problem of the existence of God and knowledge of his essence. However, the philosophical essence of this problem remained the same. How do the existing world (the visible, sensory world, the world of phenomena, “the world for us”) relate to the essence of this world, i.e. a world that is not sensually perceived, a world that is comprehended only by the mind (the noumenal world, “the world in itself”), but which alone is the true world, forming the essence, the basis of the visible world.
The scholastics solved the problem posed from the standpoint of religious dogmatics. The existing world (things) is the creation of God. Therefore, the essence of the world (things) is that it (they) is the creation of God.
There was no debate about the fact that God is the cause and essence of the world. The debate was about whether it is possible to know God himself?
Some believed that by cognizing the existing world as the creation of God with the help of feelings and reason, we cognize the essence of this world and thereby cognize God. Therefore, knowing God through reason is quite possible. Others, on the contrary, believed that knowledge of the essence of God by man is impossible and that everything we know about God we receive directly from him, through revelation. This scholastic debate is important in two respects.
Firstly, on its basis, two main ways of proving the existence of God have emerged. The first is proof from “revelation,” when the existence of God is deduced from the authority of “holy scripture” and the works of the “church fathers.” This is holy proof of the existence of God. The second way is natural. The existence of God is inferred and proven based on the characteristics of the existing world. These characteristics supposedly give us evidence for the existence of God. Thomas Aquinas follows this path, proving the existence of God: God as the “prime cause”, as the “prime mover”, God as the absolute goal, as absolute perfection and as absolute necessity.
Secondly, more than a thousand years of scholasticism’s search for the “essence” of things has entered the flesh and blood of European philosophy and philosophical thinking. The search for “essence” has acquired an “innate” character. Clarification of the “essence” and ways of knowing it has become the central task of European philosophy. Hence the “phenomenal and noumenal” world of I. Kant, hence the “Absolute Idea” and “existing existence” of Hegel, hence, as a reaction to the endless search for “essence,” phenomenology, hence “essence and existence” in existentialism.
William Ockham proposed a fundamentally new approach to solving the problem of essence and existence. The thesis known as Occam's razor states that “entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.” This means that if science, relying on reason and experience, can explain the essence of a thing, then there is no need to introduce another “speculative” essence to explain it. Thus, if the law of conservation of energy proves that it neither arises nor disappears, then there is no need to assume “first causes” and “prime movers” to explain the nature and essence of the world. For the old dilemma of knowledge or faith, this meant that as the sphere of knowledge expanded, the sphere of faith would shrink. The separation of knowledge and faith became inevitable.
The problem of the nature and essence of general concepts (“universals”) with is presented as a theological problem. How to rationally explain one of the dogmas of Christianity - the dogma of the unity and trinity of God? The scholastics find out how the one God relates to his three separate hypostases (God - God the Son - God the Holy Spirit).
However, the philosophical essence of this problem is old - the relationship between the general and the separate (individual). The problem of the origin and nature of general concepts; the problem of the relationship between the sensory and rational in knowledge; problem: how and why do general concepts give us true knowledge about the world?
In answering this question, two main directions emerged in scholasticism: realism and nominalism. The first direction was based on the ideas of Plato, who believed that the general exists in reality before things in the form of an “idea”, the second - on the ideas of Aristotle, according to whom the general exists in the things themselves.
Nominalists believed that only isolated things really exist. The general either does not exist at all (Roscelin, for whom the general is only a word, a name (nomina), to designate homogeneous individual things), or exists, but only in thought, in the concept. The general exists after things and represents abstract knowledge about individual things. In the words of William Ockham, it is a generality - “the knowledge of something general that can be abstracted from many things.” This abstracted knowledge is fixed in general concepts (concepts). Hence the conceptual theory of universals.
The strength of nominalism is the recognition of the existence of separate material things accessible to our knowledge. Its weakness lies in the fact that it cannot explain the process of formation of general concepts that provide true knowledge about the world and things.
Realists believed that only the general really exists. Everything individual, separate only seems to exist (John Scott Erigena). Extreme realism (Anselm of Canterbury) understood the nature of this generality in the Platonic spirit. The general as the “ideas” existing in the mind of God, before and beyond individual things. These are some ideal “prototypes”, standards according to which God creates individual things. This explains the closeness of realism to idealism. Moderate realism leaned towards Aristotle's concept and believed that the general exists in the things themselves and is known through reason.
An attempt to unify existing views on the nature of universals was made by Thomas Aquinas. He essentially reproduced the point of view of Avicenna (980 - 1037), according to which universals exist in three ways: before things as “ideas”, as ideal prototypes in the divine mind; in the things themselves, since the universal is the essence of the individual thing; after things in the human mind, which abstracts the general from individual things and fixes it in a concept. But this is rather a mechanical combination of different points of view than their synthesis. Currently, the problem of universals has acquired practical significance in connection with the development of artificial intelligence.
Patristics
A characteristic feature of medieval philosophical thinking, characteristic of patristics, will be that thinkers, in order to confirm their ideas turn to the most authoritative and ancient source - the Bible.
One of the main generic features of patristics as a specific way of philosophizing is decisive change of orientation. The ancient sages, Plato or Aristotle (with all due respect to them) could not remain the highest authority for a Christian. The starting point for any theorizing is the text of Holy Scripture (the canon of which was finally formed in the 4th century). The authority of Scripture immeasurably exceeds the significance of any philosophical text. Scripture is the source of truth and at the same time the final explanatory authority. Therefore, Christian philosophizing can be understood as philosophical exegesis of the sacred text, and the method of such philosophizing can be understood as a set of ways of interpreting this text. The results of interpretation, in turn, constitute the real content of the philosophical constructions of patristics. The fundamental thesis of patristics (and any Christian philosophizing) states: the truth is contained in Scripture, and the task of the theologian (“true philosopher”) is to correctly understand and explain it. It was on these paths that Christian theology took shape, first of all, as religious and philosophical hermeneutics.
Patristics will be the direct successor of the apostolic tradition, which has the highest authority after the Old Testament. The philosophy created by the apostolic tradition is the first in Christianity. And due to the traditionalism of thinking of the representatives of patristics, it is considered as a prototype of any future philosophizing and its classic example. Based on this, they construct their works as explanations of individual provisions of the Old and New Testaments.
A special feature of the writings of the church fathers of the patristic period is that, along with knowledge of the texts of the Holy Scriptures, they reflect all the richness and diversity of ancient philosophy. This is explained by the fact that the creators of patristic philosophical literature were the most educated people of their time. Patristics created a tradition that found its continuation in scholasticism. This makes it possible to consider patristics and scholasticism as phenomena of the same order, firstly, due to their common method of philosophizing, and secondly, due to their reliance on the same principles that mediate the content of philosophical works. These principles include:
· theocentrism- recognition of God as the source of all things;
· creationism- recognition that God created everything from nothing;
· providentialism- recognition that God rules over everything;
· personalism- recognition that man is a “person”, created by God in his own likeness and endowed with a conscience;
· revolutionism- recognition that the most reliable way of knowing the most important truths for a person is to comprehend the meaning of the Holy Scriptures.
At the stage of patristics, a great contribution to the development of philosophy was made by such fathers of the Christian church as:
· Tertullian (160 - 220)
· Origen (about 185 - 253/254)
· Cyprian of Carthage (after 200 - 258)
· Eusebius Pamphilus (about 260 - 339)
· Athanasius the Great (295 - 373)
· Gregory the Theologian (Nazianzen) (329/330 - 390)
Don't forget that
· Basil the Great (about 330 - 379)
Ambrose of Milan (333/334 - 397)
· Gregory of Nyssa (335 - after 394)
· Jerome of Stridon (347 - 419/420)
· Augustine the Blessed (354 - 430) and others.
The range of problems that interested representatives of patristics was wide. In fact, all the problems of ancient philosophy were, to one degree or another, comprehended by the fathers of the Christian Church. And yet, the problem of man and his structure in the world remained in the foreground. Moreover, if representatives of Cynicism, Epicureanism and Stoicism placed the responsibility of ordering the world on the individual and saw in his activity a means for this, then Christian philosophers made the organization of man in the world dependent on God. Human activity and freedom were subordinated to the will of the Almighty. The volitional efforts of people and their activities began to be viewed through the prism of their compliance with divine institutions. Responsibility for what happens in the world is transferred outside the world. “Judge not, lest ye be judged,” we read in the Bible. Responsibility to people is mediated by responsibility to God. It is before God that sinners will have to answer.
Solving the basic problem of man's relationship to the outside world, to God and other people required philosophical analysis and other problems. Essential here was the problem of the relationship between knowledge and faith.
It is clear that knowledge is the acceptance of something by virtue of justification and evidence, that is, indirectly and out of necessity, while faith is the acceptance of something apart from any justification and evidence, that is, directly and freely. Believing and knowing are completely different things. Religion is based on faith, philosophy is based on knowledge, and therefore the difference between them is also obvious. Since the Middle Ages was the era of unconditional ideological dominance of Christianity in Europe, the problem was the possibility of applying philosophical knowledge to religious faith. There could be no talk of any priority for philosophy, since the primacy of religion was a given. Therefore, it was only necessary to find out whether philosophy can be at least to some extent compatible with religion and therefore it should be left, making it a support of faith, a “handmaiden of theology” or, on the contrary, it is necessary to discard any philosophizing altogether, as a harmful and ungodly activity.
Priority was given to faith. At the same time, the authority of knowledge was quite high. At the same time, knowledge was often seen as a means to strengthen faith. Another important problem discussed during the patristic period and later was the problem of free will. At the same time, some medieval philosophers denied free will, others allowed it, but limited it to the possible intervention of God, and others defended the idea that people are free in their will, but the world is not free from the will of God. People who do not fully comprehend the world can be mistaken and sin. Free will is seen as the source of sin. Knowledge of the world created by God can save you from sin..
Aurelius Augustine is the largest Christian thinker of the patristic period. In his works, he passionately condemns various heretical teachings - Gnosticism, Manichaeism and others. Augustine made God the center of philosophical thinking. God is primary, hence it follows that the soul is superior to the body, the will is superior to the mind. God is the highest essence, only his existence follows from his own nature, everything else necessarily does not exist. He is the only one whose existence is independent; everything else exists only thanks to the divine will. According to Augustine, the world, as a free act of God, is a rational creation. God created it based on his own idea. Christian Platonism was an Augustan version of Plato's doctrine of ideas, which was understood in a theological and personalistic spirit. The ideal example of the real world is hidden in God. Both Plato and Augustine had 2 worlds: the ideal in God and the real in the world and space.
1). Time was created by God.
2). God dwells in eternity, which is the absence of time.
3). The past and future, as such, do not exist, and the present has no duration.
4). Three times exist only in our soul: the present of the past is memory; the present of the present is immediate contemplation; the present of the future is its expectation
5). We also measure time only in our soul
Another widely discussed set of issues related to data. It is important to note that one of them was the problem of good and evil in the world. Many Christian philosophers of the patristic period believed that evil in the world has its source in the deeds of people, which are the realization of their free will, affected by errors. Other thinkers saw the source of evil in the machinations of the devil.
It is important to know that Christian philosophers of the patristic period paid great attention to the promotion of the commandments of religious morality. The works devoted to this amaze with the depth of penetration into the spiritual world of man, the knowledge of human passions and desires. It is worth saying that these works are characterized by pervasive humanism.
In their writings, the church fathers sought to give specific recommendations to those who sought to avoid sin and be saved from the wrath of God.
Anthological issues and problems of the theory of knowledge were touched upon in the works of Christian philosophers of the patristic period. Christian thinkers do not doubt the reality of the existence of the world and recognize the usefulness of its knowledge, since in the course of knowledge the greatness of the Creator will awaken.
Mystic
A consideration of medieval philosophy will not be complete if we ignore another direction of Christian thought - mysticism . As already noted, its origins go back to the spiritual quest of the church fathers, who believed that the highest being can be known only on the basis of mystical experience, i.e. direct and immediate contact with God.
A prominent representative of the mystical branch of medieval philosophy was Bernard of Clairvaux (1091 – 1153), who rejected the rational ways of comprehending deity inherent in scholasticism, giving preference to feeling and intuition. Being a well-educated man, familiar with ancient culture and the works of St. Augustine, he nevertheless emphasized his indifference to philosophy, considering the Holy Scripture the main source of his ideas.
Since communication with God requires not reason, but love, humility and attachment of the human soul to the Creator, the abbot of the monastery in Clairvaux elevated asceticism and asceticism to the rank of a way of life. The first step on the path to God is humility and submission, with the help of which a person realizes his imperfection and limitations before the Creator. The second is compassion, the third is contemplation of truth, which leads him to a state of mystical ecstasy, complete self-forgetfulness and likeness to God.
The most significant mystic of the 13th century was Giovanni Fidanza (1217 - 1274), better known as Bonaventure (“Good Coming”) In his most famous work, “The Soul’s Guide to God,” a member of the Franciscan monastic order, a teacher at the University of Paris, who after his death was canonized and declared one of the five greatest teachers of the Catholic Church, wrote that knowledge of God is achieved not through the study of the external world, but by knowledge of one's own soul. As the soul moves towards the goal, it must work, performing repentance, prayers, and merciful deeds. Under this condition, the human spirit, consisting of memory, reason and will, is able to see the “trace of God” in every feature of the universe and approach Him. Thus, for Bonaventure, faith acts as a teacher of reason.
The crisis of scholastic thought in the 14th – 15th centuries was accompanied by the increasing influence of mystical teachings, which, like heresies, expressed a kind of protest against the prevailing orders in society and the church.
The most famous mystic of this period was a Dominican friar who taught in Paris, Strasbourg and Cologne Johann Eckhart (c.1260 – 1327), nicknamed “Meister”, i.e. "master". He asserted the impossibility of knowing God by means of reason, contrasting the latter with the “spark of God” located in the human soul, which is the organ of mystical contemplation. In order for the latter to become possible, a person must renounce the external: “...detachment is the best, for it cleanses the soul, clarifies the conscience, ignites the heart and awakens the spirit, gives speed to desires; it surpasses virtues: for it gives us the knowledge of God; separates from creation and unites the soul with God.”
The goal of the mystical life, Meister believes, is to unite with God, which requires sincere repentance and cleansing from sins. At the same time, evil and sin are interpreted by the thinker in a unique way. God deliberately tempts man, causing those for whom he has destined great deeds to sin. The Fall fosters humility, and forgiveness ties us more closely to God. Thus, according to Eckhart's views, evil in the absolute sense does not exist, for it serves the fulfillment of divine purposes.
Since God is not a person for him, but is dissolved in the world, present at every point of it, there is no need to turn to him in prayer, perform rituals and sacraments. And the church, as a cumbersome structure that has lost its spirituality, becomes superfluous. Such unorthodox views of the mystical philosopher caused a negative reaction from the official authorities, and after the death of Meister Eckhart, his teaching was declared false by a papal decree.
Conclusion
Medieval theological philosophy was distinguished by self-containment, traditionalism, a focus on the past, isolation from the real world, belligerence, dogmatism, edification, and teaching.
The following main features of medieval theological philosophy can be distinguished:
· theocentrism (the main cause of all things, the highest reality, the main subject of philosophical research was God);
· little attention was paid to the study of space itself, nature, and the phenomena of the surrounding world, since they were considered the creation of God;
· dogmas (truths that do not need proof) about creation (of everything by God) and revelation (of God about Himself - in the Bible) dominated;
· the contradiction between materialism and idealism is smoothed out;
· man stood out from nature and was declared a creation of God, standing above nature (the divine essence of man was emphasized);
· the principle of human free will within the framework of divine predestination was proclaimed;
· the idea was put forward about the resurrection of a person from the dead (both soul and body) in the future with godly behavior;
· the dogma was put forward about the salvation of the surrounding world and humanity through the incarnation of God in the human body - Jesus Christ (incarnation) and Jesus Christ taking upon Himself the sins of all humanity;
· the world was considered knowable through the concept of God, which can be realized through faith in God.
The significance of medieval theological philosophy for the subsequent development of philosophy is that it:
· became a link between ancient philosophy and the philosophy of the Renaissance and modern times;
· preserved and developed a number of ancient philosophical ideas, since they arose on the basis of the ancient philosophy of Christian teaching;
· contributed to the division of philosophy into new spheres (in addition to ontology, which completely merged with ancient philosophy, epistemology emerged);
· contributed to the division of idealism into objective and subjective;
· laid the foundation for the emergence in the future of empirical (Bacon, Hobbes, Locke) and rationalistic (Descartes) directions of philosophy as a result of the practice of nominalists, respectively, to rely on experience (empiricism) and increased interest in the problem of self-consciousness (I am a concept, rationalism);
· awakened interest in understanding the historical process;
· put forward the idea of optimism, expressed in faith in the victory of good over evil and in resurrection.
Dictionary
Apologetics- 1) a learned exposition of the proofs of the truth and divine source of the Christian religion, written by Tertullian. 2) science, the task of which is to prove the truth of Christian teaching and its divinity, as well as to protect the Christian faith.
Apophatic theology- theology that seeks to adequately express the transcendence of God by consistently denying all of his attributes and designations, eliminating one after another the ideas and concepts related to him ( For example , O God it is forbidden say Not only That , What his No , But And That , What He There is , for He By that side being ) . Apophatic theology was developed by Pseudo-Dionysius Areo-pagite; V average century complemented by catalytic theology.
Epistemology– Theory of knowledge; engaged in the study of the origin, composition and boundaries of human cognition.
Dogmatism- in a broad sense - the tendency to follow dogmas and the inability to question what you believe in.
Cataphatic theology
Catechumens– In the ancient church, catechumens received instruction in the form of a summary of the doctrine, formulated in a creed, which they learned by heart. The assimilation of the symbol of faith was the final moment in the preparation of catechumens, preceding their acceptance of baptism, after which they were admitted to the sacrament of communion. Usually, the first communion was timed to coincide with the Easter holiday, when the catechumens put on white robes, which they did not take off throughout the entire Easter week. Those who had fallen away from the Christian faith also underwent the announcement; in this case, the catechumens had to prove the sincerity of their repentance in order to return to the bosom of the church.
Cynicism- one of the most significant Socratic philosophical schools.
Mystic– Science that sought the hidden meaning in the Holy Scriptures and rites of faith; taking into account the mysterious, enigmatic, supernatural; a special disposition of the soul to the impressions of the mysterious; a doctrine that recognizes religious objects as accessible to external senses.
Ontology– the doctrine of being as such, a section of philosophy that studies the fundamental principles of being.
Scholasticism– a type of religious philosophy characterized by a fundamental subordination to the primacy of theology, a combination of dogmatic premises with rationalistic methodology and a special interest in formal logical problems; received its most complete development and dominance in Western Europe in the Middle Ages.
Theology- a speculative doctrine about God, based on Revelation, that is, the divine Word, embodied in the sacred texts of theistic religions (in Judaism - the Torah, in Christianity - the Bible, in Islam - the Koran).
Theocentrism- a theological concept according to which God, understood as absolute, perfect being and the highest good, is the source of all being and good. Imitation and assimilation to God are considered as the highest goal and main meaning of human life, and veneration of God and service to him is the basis of morality.
Empiricism- one of the most important trends in the philosophy of modern times, which asserts that the source of reliable knowledge is sensory experience alone, and thinking and reason are only capable of combining material supplied by the senses, but do not introduce anything new into it.
Renaissance) – (French Renaissance, Italian Rinascimento), an era in the cultural and ideological development of a number of countries in Western and Central Europe, as well as some countries in Eastern Europe.
Bibliography
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General characteristics and features of medieval philosophy
Medieval philosophy covers a thousand-year period, approximately from the 5th to the 15th centuries. There are no clearly defined boundaries between ancient and medieval philosophy. The origins of the philosophy of the Middle Ages are in ancient philosophy, then for some time it was formed simultaneously with the religion of Christianity, which arose in the 1st-2nd centuries. n. e. The philosophy of the Middle Ages is a unique historical type of philosophy. It is represented by many names, different schools and directions. At the same time, it differs in a number of features inherent in it as a whole.
1The philosophy of the Middle Ages had two main sources of its formation. The first of them is ancient Greek philosophy, primarily in its Neoplatonic tradition. The second source is Holy Scripture.
2. The unity of Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition, which mutually complement and explain each other.
3. The philosophy and culture of the Middle Ages are based on text and words. Hence the enormous role of the art of interpretation.
4. All philosophical issues were resolved from the position of theocentrism, creationism, and providentialism.
Theocentrism - (Greek theos - God), such an understanding of the world in which God is the source and cause of all things. He is the center of the universe, its active and creative beginning.
Several stages can be distinguished in the development of medieval philosophy:
Patristics
Patristics is the initial, most authoritative stage in the development of Christian philosophy from the 2nd to the 6th centuries AD. e. The Latin word "patrice" means "fathers of the church." Respectively , “patristics” is the teaching of the Christian church fathers who laid the foundations of the Holy Tradition. Within the framework of patristics, a number of intermediate stages can be distinguished:
a) apostolic period (until the middle of the 2nd century AD);
b) the era of apologists (from the middle of the 2nd century AD to the beginning of the 4th century AD). Christian apologists are the first Christian philosophers who took upon themselves the function of defending Christian teaching in the face of a hostile Roman state and pagan philosophy.
Philosophy of A. Augustine
Aurelius Augustine - the largest religious thinker of the early Middle Ages. A. Augustine is a brilliant expert on Hellenistic-Roman culture.
After accepting Christianity, Augustine zealously devoted himself to the service of the Christian church. He publishes numerous religious and philosophical treatises and fights the religious heresy of the Manichaeans, Donatists and Pelagians.
Augustine's literary heritage numbers more than 40 volumes.
Based on Neoplatonism, Augustine created an influential religious and philosophical doctrine that served as the foundation of Christian thought until the 13th century. The most important themes of his philosophical teaching: the problem of God and the world, faith and reason, truth and knowledge, good and evil, free will, eternity and time, the meaning of history.
According to Augustine, God is the highest being, where all the eternal and unchanging ideas that determine the world order reside. He has three equal persons - Father, Son, Holy Spirit, united by a single divine essence and will.
The creation of the world out of nothing is an act of God's good will. Man in this perfect world occupies a special place, combining material nature, a rational soul and free will. Therefore, he is no longer considered as part of the cosmos, he was created by his master, but in his fall he lost this good. Now he has no power even over himself and is completely dependent on divine predestination.
If in ancient philosophy a person relates himself to the Cosmos, the polis through external connections, then in St. Augustine we are talking about the “inner man,” completely turned to God, opening his soul to him and purifying it in the sacraments of confession and communion.
The problem of knowledge is also solved in a new way in Augustine's philosophy. Truth is revealed not through passive contemplation and not in conceptual thinking, but only in divine revelation. All other methods of cognition provide incomplete, approximate knowledge, and only God can open it, at some point, by teaching man with his revelation. According to Augustine, a Christian does not exist without faith. He strives in all cases to present the primacy of faith as a universal methodological installation of a truly Christian consciousness.
Scholasticism
Scholasticism (VII-XIV centuries) In its original meaning, the term means “scholar”, “school”. If the church fathers, in comprehending God, relied on mystical intuition and super-rational contemplation, then the scholastic theologians looked for rational ways of knowing God. One of the main problems of scholastic philosophy is the problem of universals, i.e. the nature of common names or concepts. Do concepts have an independent, substantial existence, or are they just names to designate individual things? Depending on the theologian’s orientation towards the Platonic or Aristotelian philosophical heritage, all scholastic philosophers were divided into realists, nominalists and conceptualists. Proponents of realism, following Plato, saw in general concepts special, independent entities possessing maximum reality and existence. Nominalists believed that concepts themselves have no ontological status and are just names to designate individual things. Moderate nominalists, who recognized the existence of a common knowing subject in the mind, although they denied the substantiality of the concept, were called conceptualists.
The development of theological rationalism led to the approval of the theory of dual truth, according to which the truths of revelation and the truths of reason do not contradict each other, but are two equal forms of comprehension of the divine essence of the world. The theory of dual truth served as the theoretical basis for the gap between philosophy and theology, which marked the end of medieval philosophy.
Philosophy of F. Aquinas
The most prominent and major representative of medieval scholasticism and all Western European philosophy was Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274). His philosophy is like an encyclopedia of official Catholic religious ideology. He was born in Italy in the town of Aquino, into an aristocratic family. He received his primary education at a monastery school, studied at the University of Paris, and then became a teacher of theology and philosophy there. For special merits in substantiating Christian ideology, the church canonized Thomas Aquinas after his death, and his philosophy was recommended to be studied in all theological educational institutions, as the only correct one. The main provisions of the philosophy he created, called Thomism, form the basis of modern Catholic Christian philosophy - neo-Thomism.
The main merit of Thomas Aquinas is the development of the problem of the relationship between faith and reason in knowledge, the comparative significance of truths accepted on faith and truths obtained through logical evidence based on reason. This problem became one of the central ones in medieval philosophy. Her solution went through several stages.
Initially, during the early Middle Ages, philosophers believed that to know God and the world he created, truths and knowledge obtained on the basis of faith were sufficient. Scientific research and rational evidence are unnecessary when the Bible is known, the truths of which need only be believed. Reason can only lead to doubts and delusions, to heresy.
But over time, during the late Middle Ages, under the influence of the continuous growth of scientific knowledge and the intensification of disputes over the content of basic church dogmas, the church was forced to take a more flexible position on the issue of the relationship between truths obtained through faith and truths obtained through reason. .
Formulating this more flexible position, which allowed for the possibility of combining faith and reason, even in the early Middle Ages, St. Augustine put forward the formula: “I believe in order to understand.”
Developing these thoughts, F. Aquinas created a detailed teaching that substantiates the possibility of harmony between faith and reason. This teaching included the following main provisions:
Both faith and reason cognize the same subject - God and the world created by him.
Both methods of knowledge - faith and reason - do not exclude, but complement each other.
Both sources of knowledge were created by God and therefore have the same right to exist.
However, the similarity between these sources of our knowledge does not mean their equality or equal rights. There are significant differences between them:
Faith accepts the truth, first of all, the truth about the existence of God the creator, based on feeling, desire, and will.
The mind constantly doubts the truths it has obtained, looking for evidence even of such a truth as the existence of God.
Therefore, faith is higher than reason; it is "divine, supernatural light" directly emanating from God. The Bible and theological truths are filled with this light. The mind is a human instrument, a direct ability given to man. This is “natural light” embodied in the truths of philosophy, which is intended to be only the “handmaiden of theology.”
This was the concept of the relationship between faith and reason, created by F. Aquinas and still used by modern religious philosophy.
Renaissance philosophy
The Renaissance for the most advanced countries of Europe is the era of the emergence of capitalist relations, the formation of national states and absolute monarchies, the era of the rise of the bourgeoisie in the fight against feudal reaction, the era of deep social conflicts - the peasant war in Germany, religious wars in France and the Dutch bourgeois revolution.
The philosophy of the Renaissance is closely connected with the development of contemporary natural science, with great geographical discoveries, with successes in the field of natural science (the growth of knowledge about living nature, the first steps were taken in the field of systematization of plants), medicine (the emergence of scientific anatomy, the discovery of blood circulation, research into the causes of epidemic diseases), mathematics, mechanics, astronomy. The creation of a new cosmology by Copernicus played a special role in the development of ontological concepts.
The development of natural science stemmed from the needs of the development of a new bourgeois mode of production, the beginnings of which began to take shape in the 14th - 16th centuries. in cities of Western Europe.
The Renaissance got its name from the fact that it went under the slogan of the revival of classical antiquity. A decisive role in this was played by an appeal to the philosophy of the ancient Greeks and Romans. At the same time, in a sharp polemic against the scholastic tradition, not only the assimilation of knowledge accumulated in antiquity was carried out, but also its original processing. In Renaissance philosophy we encounter original modifications of Aristotelianism and Platonism, Stoic and Epicurean philosophical thought. Attempts to harmonize the ideas of representatives of different schools and movements of the past were used to search for answers to new philosophical questions that life itself posed to philosophers.
The philosophical thought of the Renaissance creates a new picture of the world, based on the idea that God is dissolved in nature. This identification of God and nature is called pantheism. At the same time, God is considered co-eternal with the world and merging with the law of natural necessity, and nature acts as the materialized beginning of all things.
The philosophy of the Renaissance is distinguished by pronounced anthropocentrism. Man is not only the most important object of philosophical consideration, but also turns out to be the central link in the entire chain of cosmic existence. The humanistic philosophy of the Renaissance is characterized by consideration of man, primarily in his earthly destiny.
At the origins of the philosophical culture of the Renaissance stands the majestic figure of Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321). Dante was an outstanding poet and thinker. He is known to the public as the author of the “Divine Comedy” and the treatises “The Feast” and “Monarchy”, who in his works laid the foundations of a new humanistic teaching about man. Dante fought against feudal privileges and the secular power of the church. For this he paid with lifelong exile. It is significant that the impetus for the creation of a new worldview came not from a professional philosopher, but from a poet who came from among people aware of the need for changes in life.
In his work, Dante was closely connected with contemporary philosophy, theology, and science. He accepted the various currents of the philosophical culture of that time.
The picture of the world presented to the reader of The Divine Comedy is still quite medieval in 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 considered 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 philosophers of the early Middle Ages, is significantly more complicated and hierarchically arranged in more detail and detail.
As for the destiny of man, Dante sees him not in asceticism in the name of renunciation of the world and avoidance of worldly worries, but in achieving the highest limit of earthly perfection. Both the reminder of the brevity of earthly existence and the reference to the divine origin of man served not to confirm the insignificance of man in his earthly existence, but to substantiate the call to “valor and knowledge.”
Thus, 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 14th - 15th centuries, is associated with the multifaceted work of the great Italian poet, the “first humanist” Francesco Petrarch (1304 - 1374). The great poet became the first outstanding thinker of the emerging humanistic philosophy.
Humanism emerges as a new system of cultural values that meets the needs and interests of those social strata that are formed in industrialized cities. In the writings of humanists, man was considered as a being worthy of happiness in earthly life. The world is seen by representatives of humanism as a place where a person is called to act and enjoy the benefits that are created. God is considered by them to be the creative principle and the concentration of good. Man, in their opinion, should strive to become like God. The task of philosophy for humanists is not to contrast the divine and natural, spiritual and material principles in man, but to reveal their harmonious unity.
The second stage in the development of Renaissance philosophy
The second stage in the development of Renaissance philosophy (from the mid-15th century to the first third of the 16th century) is associated with the interpretation of the ideas of the Platonists and Aristotelians in relation to the needs of a renewing world. During this period, Nicholas of Cusa (1401 - 1464), Marsilio Ficino (1422 - 1495), Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519), Pietro Pomponazzi (1462 - 1525), Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494), Erasmus of Rotterdam (1469) worked - 1536), Nicolo Machiavelli (1469 - 1527), Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 - 1543), Thomas More (1479 - 1535). These figures of the Renaissance made a significant contribution to the study of ontological issues and to the development of ideas about all forms of being. Taking into account the achievements of the philosophical thought of Plato and Aristotle, as well as rethinking the philosophy of Neoplatonism, they improved the theory of knowledge and ethics.
Thus, one of the greatest philosophers of this period, Nikolai Kuzansky, in his writings, considers God as being, giving rise to all things. The unity of the world, in his opinion, lies in God.
He views the movement towards truth as a process. Achieving final truths, according to the thinker, is problematic. Man, however, is capable of contemplating nature to the extent that he is allowed by God. God himself remains incomprehensible to man. And yet, thanks to reason, man is united with the world and God.
According to the pantheistic view, God as the essence of things is everywhere. God is seen as perfection contained in an imperfect world. Hence, knowledge of the world is knowledge of God. Human perfection is not given only as a consequence of the fact that man is created in the image and likeness of God, but is achievable.
Erasmus of Rotterdam made a great contribution to the development of Renaissance philosophy. He often called his teaching “The Philosophy of Christ.” The essence of this philosophy was reflected already in the first significant work, “Manual of the Christian Warrior” (1501 - 1503). In this work, the philosopher defended the idea that a normal person, imitating Jesus Christ, is able to rise to the level of following his commandments. To do this, it is necessary to return to genuine Christian morality. He believed that such a return was possible without reforming the Catholic Church.
Later, Tommaso Campanella’s famous work “City of the Sun” appeared, depicting a society in which people own property together. These works became milestones in social science fiction, and their authors are considered the heralds of utopian communism.
N. Machiavelli made a contribution to political philosophy. In his work “The Sovereign,” he outlined the rules of political activity for a sovereign who wants the rise of his state. Machiavelli's views were criticized by many philosophers because he proclaimed the principle “the end justifies the means.” His opponents argued that immoral means should not be used to achieve any goals, since the ends, in their opinion, do not justify the means.
The third stage of development of Renaissance philosophy
The last third stage in the development of Renaissance philosophy - from the second half of the 16th century. until the beginning of the 17th century. This period is marked by the work of Giordano Bruno (1548 - 1600), Tommaso Campanella (1568 - 1639), Jacob Boehme (1575 - 1624), Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642). These thinkers were interested in various philosophical issues.
A significant increase in philosophical knowledge since the middle of the 16th century. went along the line of development of the idea of \u200b\u200bthe philosophy of nature.
The synthesis of the nature of philosophical ideas was carried out in the works of Giordano Bruno. His main treatises are “On the Cause, the Beginning and the One” (1584), “On the Infinity of the Universe and the Worlds” (1584).
The central category of his philosophy is the One. It is understood by him as the highest level of the cosmic hierarchy of existence. In the dialogue “On the Cause, the Beginning and the One,” D. Bruno argued that the Universe is one, infinite and motionless. In the one, matter coincides with form, multiplicity and unity, minimum and maximum. He views matter as a substrate and a possibility.
D. Bruno, following his predecessors, believed that nature is animated and evidence of this, in his opinion, is its self-motion. He has a hypothesis about the inextricable connection between space, time and moving matter. The thinker believed that the Universe is infinite and equal to God, who is identified with the world.
Cognition, according to D. Bruno, is possible. The ultimate goal of knowledge is the contemplation of the deity. Such contemplation opens only when driven by heroic enthusiasm.
The ethical teaching of D. Bruno is directed against medieval asceticism and hypocrisy. The thinker became the herald of new morals entering European life, with the formation of a bourgeois way of life in it.
The peculiarity of the final stage of the development of Renaissance philosophy is that it increases its potential along with the development of science. This synthesis of philosophy and science, which gives an increase in the field of methodology, is characteristic of the works of Galileo Galilei. An example is his works such as: “Dialogue on the two most important systems of the world - Ptolemaic and Copernican”; “Assay master.”
The dialectically integral idea of the inextricable unity of man and nature, the Earth and the endless cosmos, developed by the philosophy of the Renaissance, was picked up by philosophers of subsequent times.
The ideas of humanism, brilliantly defended by the thinkers of the Renaissance, had a widespread influence on the entire social consciousness of Europe.
Philosophy of "New Time"
The philosophy of the "Modern Time" began with the astronomical revolution of Copernicus, which changed the image of the world. Copernicus places the Sun at the center of the world instead of the Earth. Kepler develops a theory of the circular rotation of planets. Newton confirmed many of these ideas experimentally.
Secondly, the image of science is changing. The scientific revolution is not only about creating new theories that are different from previous ones. This is also a new idea of knowledge, of science. Science is no longer the product of the intuitions of the individual magician. This knowledge is open to everyone, the reliability of which can always be confirmed through experiment.
Thirdly, scientific ideas, since they become a fact accessible to public control, are socialized. Academies, laboratories, and international scientific contacts emerge.
As commodity-money relations gradually develop in the depths of feudalism and the beginnings of capitalist production take shape, the need for a new vision of the world is maturing. Feudal privileges, class boundaries, as well as numerous barriers between feudal kingdoms and principalities, reveal their incompatibility with the development of capitalist industry and trade. Freeing himself from the shackles of feudal relations, a person strives for self-affirmation, self-awareness, and a more correct understanding of his place in the world.
Cognition becomes the central problem of philosophy, and its relationship to the material objects being studied becomes the core of new philosophical directions. This period in the development of philosophy was called gnosecentric (from the Greek gnosis - knowledge, cognition). One of these directions is rationalism (from the Latin ratio-reason) - highlights the logical foundations of science. The great minds of philosophy of the 17th and 18th centuries were divided into two groups: rationalists and empiricists.
Rationalism was represented by Rene Descartes, Gottfried Leibniz and Benedict Spinoza. They put the human mind at the head of everything and believed that it was impossible to obtain knowledge only from experience. They held the view that the mind originally contained all necessary knowledge and truths. Only logical rules are needed to extract them. They considered deduction to be the main method of philosophy. However, the rationalists themselves could not answer the question - why errors in knowledge arise if, according to them, all knowledge is already contained in the mind.
Another philosophical direction - empiricism (from the Greek empiria - experience) claims that all knowledge arises from experience and observations. At the same time, it remains unclear how scientific theories, laws and concepts arise that cannot be obtained directly from experience and observations.
Representatives of empiricism were Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. For them, the main source of knowledge is human experience and sensations, and the main method of philosophy is inductive. It should be noted that supporters of these different directions of modern philosophy were not in harsh confrontation and agreed with the significant role of both experience and reason in knowledge.
In addition to the main philosophical trends of that time, rationalism and empiricism, there was also agnosticism, which denied any possibility of human knowledge of the world. Its most prominent representative is David Hume. He believed that man is not able to penetrate into the depths of the secrets of nature and understand its laws. Within each of these directions, in an obvious or hidden form, there is a complex struggle between materialistic and idealistic views. Both rationalism and empiricism approach the process of cognition one-sidedly. Idealists strongly emphasize the active role of thinking and clearly do not pay enough attention to the processes and phenomena occurring in the real world. The materialists of that time, in turn, underestimate the active, creative nature of human thinking.
In the last third of the 16th - early 17th centuries, the first bourgeois revolutions took place (in the Netherlands, England), which marked the beginning of the development of a new social system - capitalism. The development of a new, bourgeois society gives rise to changes not only in the economy, politics and social relations, but also in people's consciousness.
The development of science and social life reveals the limitations of all previous philosophical systems, their ideological and methodological attitudes. As the capitalist mode of production develops, the contradictions between the emerging capitalist system and the remnants of feudalism become more acute. Therefore, bourgeois philosophy of modern times, reflecting profound changes and contradictions in social life itself, comes out with sharp criticism of feudalism. This was reflected primarily in the struggle between materialistic views and idealistic views. Progressive thinkers of the 17th-18th centuries, relying on the achievements of contemporary natural science, ideologically prepared revolutionary changes in social life and advanced philosophical science. The struggle between materialism and idealism during this period acquired an even more acute character than in antiquity. In the XVII-XVIII centuries. the struggle against religion, as the dominant ideology of the outdated feudal system, met the most pressing needs of the progressive development of society.
1. Theological philosophy of the V-XV centuries. n. e.
2. Philosophy of Augustine the Blessed.
3. Arabic philosophy of the Middle Ages.
4. Nominalism and realism.
5. Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas.
1. Medieval theological (religious) philosophy is usually called a system of teachings widespread in Europe in the 5th - 15th centuries, which recognized God as the highest principle, and the entire world around us as the creation of God. Religious philosophy began to emerge in the Roman Empire in the I-V centuries. AD based on the ideas of early Christianity, and reached its highest peak in the V-VIII centuries. Significant contributions to medieval philosophy were made by: Tertullian of Carthage (160-220), Augustine the Blessed (354-430), Boethius (480-524), Albertus Magnus (1193-1280), Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), Anselm of Canterbury (1033 -1109), Pierre Abelard (1079-1142), William of Ockham (1285-1349), etc.
Medieval philosophy is theocentric, ᴛ.ᴇ. the main cause of all things, the highest substance and the main subject of philosophical research was God. Philosophy was dominated by dogmas (truths that do not need proof) about God’s creation of everything and God’s revelation about Himself (in the Bible). Ideas were put forward about the resurrection of man from the dead (both soul and body) in the future with godly behavior, and about the salvation of humanity through the incarnation of God into the body of man - Jesus Christ and his taking upon himself the sins of all mankind. The world was considered knowable through the knowledge of God, which is possible only through faith in God.
Medieval religious philosophy was distinguished by self-absorption, traditionalism, a focus on the past, isolation from the real world, belligerence, dogmatism, and edification. This was facilitated by a number of reasons: the destruction and loss of ancient culture and the undivided dominance of religion in the spiritual life of society. Under these conditions, philosophy became the handmaiden of theology; the problems it solved were recognized as serving to substantiate the existence of God and apologetics of the divine truths of the Holy Scriptures.
During the era of the formation and development of feudalism in Europe, Christianity became the main ideology. This period in the history of mankind occupies almost a whole millennium, when philosophers conducted deep research and noted new methods in understanding the world, God, and themselves.
2. The philosophy of Aurelius Augustine (the Blessed) is reflected in his numerous works: “On the Blessed Life”, “On True Religion”, “Confession”, “On the City of God”, “Monologues”, “On the Quantity of the Soul”, “On the Teacher” ʼ, ʼʼOn the immortality of the soulʼʼ, etc.
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An outstanding philosopher, politician, preacher of the Catholic Church, he presented the history of the development of human society as a struggle between two hostile kingdoms: earthly (secular) and heavenly (divine). In his works the Catholic Church is identified with the kingdom of God. The Church is the only force capable of helping people overcome sin and unite the world.
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Kings and emperors, according to Augustine, must express the will of the Christian Church and obey it.
His philosophy promoted acceptance of poverty, injustice and inequality, and belief in a future afterlife as a reward from God for a righteous life on earth. He argued that a person, having learned the truth, will become happy, glorified the godlikeness of man, his strength and perfection. He argued that a person cannot achieve true knowledge only by knowing God. Initially, God laid the embryonic forms of all things in the material world, and subsequently they develop on their own. The Divine is present in everything, the creations of God are matter, space, time, man and his soul, almost the entire world around us.
The truth about God cannot be known by reason, but only by faith. separated knowledge from faith. Emphasizing the role of feelings, Augustine asserted the unity of faith and knowledge, without elevating reason.
3. Philosophy, created by the Arabs and other peoples of the Near and Middle East in the Middle Ages, went through two basic stages in its development: the first (VII-IX centuries) - the period of formation of Arab philosophy; the second (IX - XV centuries) - the period of its transformation into Arab-Greek. Especially in the X – XI centuries. In Arab countries there is a significant rise in spiritual life, especially in art, science, and philosophy. The strong influence of Aristotle's ideas on Arabic philosophy leads to the fact that prominent philosophers - encyclopedists develop the cult of reason and knowledge, reflect on the problems of God, soul, immortality, and human capabilities to understand the real world.
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Among them are outstanding thinkers: Al-Kindi (800-879), Al-Farabi (870-950), Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (980-1037), Ibn Rushd (Averroes) (1126-1198) and others.
Al-Kindi was the first of the Eastern scientists to discover ancient Greek philosophy for the Arab peoples. Taking Aristotle's philosophy as a basis, he further developed and expanded the ideas of materialism and defined five categories of existence: matter, form, movement, space and time. In epistemology, this philosopher boldly argued that only the human mind is capable of discovering the truth. To do this, he must go through three stages of scientific knowledge: logical - mathematical, natural - scientific, philosophical. But his teaching was not understood by his contemporaries, he himself was persecuted, and his works were destroyed. But it was Al-Kindi who created the foundations for the further progressive development of Arabic philosophy.
Al-Farabi is a prominent scientist and encyclopedist. He has written more than a hundred scientific works on philosophy, history, and natural sciences. He paid a lot of attention to logic, which allows one to distinguish true knowledge from false knowledge. Philosophy helps to understand the essence of existence. He considered the theory of knowledge to be the theory of finding truth in the unity of feelings and reason. The essence of things is known only by the mind, and the mind relies on logic. Although Al-Farabi recognized the existence of God as the root cause of existence, his teaching was a great work to clarify the most complex problems of existence and knowledge.
The most outstanding philosopher of Central Asia was a resident of Bukhara, Ibn Sina (Avicenna). He created more than three hundred scientific works. The main ones in philosophy: “The Book of Healing” and “The Book of Knowledge”. A man of an encyclopedic mind, he proposed a classification of sciences by dividing them according to objects of study; based his philosophical conclusions on the achievements of the natural sciences; believed that God exists, but in the world around us many phenomena occur against the will of God; tried to separate philosophy from religion; was convinced that philosophy is a separate science designed to generalize the progressive ideas of humanity.
In epistemology, Avicenna paid a lot of attention to the analysis of such problems as indirect and direct knowledge, the truth of knowledge, the role of intuition in knowledge, the role of logic in scientific creativity. Avicenna's philosophy contributed to the development and prosperity of not only Eastern, but also Western science and culture.
The Arab philosopher Ibn Rushd (Averroes), famous in Europe during his lifetime, rejected the idea of creation and believed that the world is eternal, uncreated and indestructible by anyone. Although he did not deny the existence of God, he argued that the movement of matter does not depend on God, this movement is an independent property of matter contained in it. He believed that what is true in philosophy must be false in religion, and therefore philosophical truths should be considered separately from religious truths.
The materialistic, anti-religious philosophy of Averroes found a wide response in Europe, was taught at universities, and opposed scholasticism.
Medieval philosophy made a significant contribution to the further development of the theory of knowledge, developing and supplementing various logical options for the relationship between rational and empirical, mediated and direct, individual, general and special, which later became the foundation for the formation of the foundations of natural science and philosophical knowledge.
The main stages of medieval philosophy were patristics and scholasticism.
Patristics (from the Latin Pater - father) is a theological and philosophical movement, the largest philosophers of which were the Church Fathers. The period of development of patristics is I – IV centuries. The main dogmas of the Christian religion were developed by: Basil the Great, Augustine the Blessed, Tertullian and others. The main problems of patristics: the essence of God; the relationship of faith and reason, the revelations of Christians and the wisdom of pagans, understanding history as movement towards a specific goal; consideration of human freedom through the possibility of salvation or destruction of his soul; problems of good and evil in this world, why God allows the presence of evil on earth. These philosophers also solved the problems of the existence of God, the substantiation of His triune essence, the relationship of faith and reason, the Divine predestination of human life, the possibility of the afterlife salvation of the soul, etc.
Scholasticism is the main type of medieval religious philosophy, the features of which were isolation from reality, isolation, conservatism, dogmatism, complete subordination to religious ideas, schematicism, and edification. Scholasticism (from the Latin Schola - school) was taught in all schools and universities in Europe and was a frozen university discipline. The scholastics divided knowledge into two types: supernatural (the revelations of God given in the Bible) and natural, found by the human mind (as he understood the ideas of God from the text of the Bible). Philosophers of the Middle Ages conducted numerous debates and wrote thousands of volumes in which they commented on the ideas of God. They paid special attention to the correctness and clarity of concepts and definitions. Prominent thinkers of this type of philosophy of the Middle Ages were Bonaventure (1221–274), Albertus Magnus (1193–1280), Pierre Abelard (1079–1142), and Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109). Philosophers have put forward a number of ideas:
The doctrine of the truth of faith and the truth of knowledge;
The doctrine of free will and its causes;
The doctrine of the correspondence of things and concepts about them, etc.
4. In the 11th century, a discussion arose in religious philosophy between various scientists about the dogma of the Christian religion about the trinitarian essence of God. According to the Bible, God is one, but threefold in persons: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. Soon the discussion went beyond this issue and touched upon the dialectic of the one and the general.
Proponents of realism (from the Latin realis - material) considered the general as something ideal, preceding the thing, ᴛ.ᴇ. developed an idealistic concept of the connection between the general and the individual. According to them, it is not the things themselves that truly exist, but their general concepts - universals. One of the representatives of realism, Anselm of Canterbury (1033 – 1109) argued: “If there is a thought about God, then God exists in reality.” Thought and being are identical. It turns out, in his opinion, general concepts - universals - really exist. Hence the term “realism”. The general exists as really as the world around us, and God is the really existing “common.”
They were objected to by supporters of nominalism (from the Latin nomen - names), who considered only the concrete things themselves to really exist, and perceived general concepts (universals) as names of things. The representative of nominalism, the philosopher Roscelin, believed that only isolated, separate things exist in the world, and the “general” does not really exist as a thing. “Universals” are general concepts, these are the sounds of the voice - the nominal value. This is where the term “nominalism” came from.
Pierre Abelard (1079 – 1142) tried to combine these two directions in his conceptualism. He argued that the general does not really exist outside of things. The general exists in the things themselves and is highlighted by our consciousness when we begin to cognize and study these things. For this reason, the “general” exists only in the human mind (the mind is a concept). For this reason, the general is (conceptually) real in the mind.
5. A prominent philosopher, theologian, author of Thomism (one of the dominant movements of the Catholic Church), Thomas Aquinas, managed to systematize scholasticism. In 1878, his teachings were declared the official ideology of Catholicism. In a number of his works: “Summa Theology”, “Summa Philosophy”, “Summa against the Pagans”, he considers being as possible and as actual.
Being is the existence of the individual, ᴛ.ᴇ. substance. Also, along with the categories “possibility” and “reality”, he introduces the categories “matter” and “form”. Matter is a possibility, and form is reality. Materiality does not exist without form, and form depends on God (the highest form). But God is a spiritual being, and for the physical world the unity of form and matter is extremely important. But matter itself is passive; activity is given to it by form.
Interesting are Thomas Aquinas’s proofs of the existence of God, which the modern Catholic Church still uses today:
1. Everything that moves is moved by someone. This means the prime mover is Boᴦ.
2. Everything that exists has causes. Therefore, the first cause of everything is God.
3. The random depends on the extremely important. Therefore, the initial utmost importance is Boᴦ.
4. Everything that exists has different degrees of quality, therefore, there must be the highest quality - God.
5. Everything in the world has a purpose or meaning. This means that there is a rational principle that directs everything towards the goal - God.
However, he managed to prove through the reasons for the existence of God that are understandable to us; schematize scholasticism; show convincingly that only that knowledge is true that is obtained by reason in accordance with faith; separate philosophy from theology, although philosophy occupies a subordinate position in relation to theology.
The significance of medieval philosophy is that it became a transition period from antiquity to the Renaissance; clearly identified ontology and epistemology, objective and subjective idealism began to be studied more deeply. The idea of optimism arose, which formulated the possibility of the resurrection of man, the victory of good over evil.
Philosophy of the Middle Ages - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Philosophy of the Middle Ages" 2017, 2018.
Federal Agency for Education of the Russian Federation
State Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education Ural State Economic University
Center for Distance Education
Test
discipline: "Philosophy"
on the topic: “Philosophy of the Middle Ages”
Completed by: Yu.A. Prokhorova
Checked by: teacher Yu.A. Tolkachev
Krasnoturinsk 2010
Introduction
General characteristics of the Middle Ages
Features of medieval philosophy. Theocentrism, creationism, providentialism. "God and man" - the central problem
Main philosophical movements (patristics and scholasticism, realism and nominalism). Outstanding philosophers: W. Ockham
Conclusion
List of used literature
Introduction
Each period of human history had its own characteristics in the development of science, culture, social relations, style of thinking, etc. All this left an imprint on the development of philosophical thought, on what problems in the field of philosophy came to the fore.
The Middle Ages occupies a long period of European history from the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the Renaissance (XIV-XV centuries).
The emergence of medieval philosophy is often associated with the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476 AD), but such dating is not entirely correct. At this time, Greek philosophy still reigns, and from its point of view, the beginning of everything is nature. In medieval philosophy, on the contrary, the reality that determines all things is God. Therefore, the transition from one way of thinking to another could not happen instantly: the conquest of Rome could not immediately change either social relations (after all, Greek philosophy belongs to the era of ancient slavery, and medieval philosophy belongs to the era of feudalism), nor the internal worldview of people, nor religious beliefs built over centuries .
The formation of a new type of society takes a very long time. In the I-IV centuries AD. e. The philosophical teachings of the Stoics, Epicureans, and Neoplatonists compete with each other, and at the same time, centers of new faith and thought are formed, which will later form the basis of medieval philosophy.
The philosophy that took shape during this period had two main sources of its formation. The first of these is ancient Greek philosophy, primarily in its Platonic and Aristotelian traditions. The second source is Holy Scripture, which turned this philosophy into the mainstream of Christianity.
The idealistic orientation of most philosophical systems of the Middle Ages was dictated by the basic dogmas of Christianity, among which the most important were the dogma of the personal form of God the creator, and the dogma of God’s creation of the world “out of nothing.” In the conditions of such a cruel religious dictate, supported by state power, philosophy was declared the “handmaiden of religion”, within the framework of which all philosophical issues were resolved from the position of theocentrism, creationism, and providentialism.
The roots of the philosophy of the Middle Ages lie in the religion of monotheism (monotheism). Such religions include Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and it is with them that the development of both European and Arab philosophy of the Middle Ages is associated.
Structurally, my work is written as follows: first there is an introduction containing preliminary information on the topic of the work, the relevance of this topic, followed by Chapter 1, which gives a general description of the Middle Ages, Chapter 2 focuses on the features of medieval philosophy, the main philosophical movements and outstanding philosophers using the example of W. Occam are revealed in Chapter 3. The conclusion contains the results of the work and at the end of the work there is a list of references used.
1. General characteristics of the Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a long period in the history of Western Europe between Antiquity and Modern Times. This period covers more than a millennium from the 5th to the 15th centuries.
Within the thousand-year period of the Middle Ages, it is customary to distinguish at least three periods. This:
- Early Middle Ages, from the beginning of the era to 900 or 1000 (until the X - XI centuries);
- High (Classical) Middle Ages. From the X-XI centuries to approximately the XIV century;
- Late Middle Ages, XIV and XV centuries.
The Early Middle Ages was a time when turbulent and very important processes took place in Europe. First of all, these are the invasions of the so-called barbarians (from the Latin barba - beard), who, already from the 2nd century AD, constantly attacked the Roman Empire and settled on the lands of its provinces. These invasions ended with the fall of Rome
New Western Europeans, as a rule, accepted Christianity , which in Rome towards the end of its existence was the state religion. Christianity in its various forms gradually replaced pagan beliefs throughout the Roman Empire, and this process did not stop after the fall of the empire.
This is the second most important historical process that determined the face of the early Middle Ages in Western Europe.
The third significant process was the formation of new state entities , created by the same “barbarians”. Numerous tribes based on the principles of military democracy and having the beginnings of statehood: Frankish, Germanic, Gothic and others were in fact not so wild.
They mastered crafts, including agriculture and metallurgy. Tribal leaders began to proclaim themselves kings, dukes, etc., constantly fighting with each other and subjugating their weaker neighbors.
At Christmas 800, the Frankish king Charlemagne was crowned Catholic in Rome and as Emperor of the entire European west. Later (900) the Holy Roman Empire broke up into countless duchies, counties, margraviates, bishoprics, abbeys and other fiefs. Their rulers behaved like completely sovereign masters, not considering it necessary to obey any emperors or kings. However, the processes of formation of state entities continued in subsequent periods. A characteristic feature of life in the early Middle Ages was the constant looting and devastation to which the inhabitants of the Holy Roman Empire were subjected. And these robberies and raids significantly slowed down economic and cultural development.
During the classical, or high, Middle Ages, Western Europe began to overcome these difficulties and revive. Since the 10th century, cooperation under the laws of feudalism made it possible to create larger state structures and gather fairly strong armies. Thanks to this, it was possible to stop the invasions, significantly limit robberies, and then gradually go on the offensive. In 1024, the Crusaders took the Eastern Roman Empire from the Byzantines, and in 1099 they captured the Holy Land from the Muslims. True, in 1291 both were lost again. However, the Moors were expelled from Spain forever. Eventually Western Christians gained dominance over the Mediterranean Sea and it. islands. Numerous missionaries brought Christianity to the kingdoms of Scandinavia, Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary, so that these states entered the orbit of Western culture.
The relative stability that ensued made it possible to quickly the rise of cities and the pan-European economy. Life in Western Europe changed greatly, society quickly lost its barbaric features, and spiritual life flourished in the cities. In general, European society has become much richer and more civilized than during the ancient Roman Empire. An outstanding role in this was played by the Christian Church, which also developed, improved its teaching and organization. On the basis of the artistic traditions of Ancient Rome and the former barbarian tribes, Romanesque and then brilliant Gothic art arose, and along with architecture and literature, all other types of it developed - theater, music, sculpture, painting, literature. It was during this era that, for example, such literary masterpieces as “The Song of Roland” and “The Romance of the Rose” were created. Of particular importance was the fact that during this period Western European scientists had the opportunity to read the works of ancient Greek and Hellenistic philosophers, primarily Aristotle. On this basis the great philosophical system of the Middle Ages arose and grew - scholasticism.
The later Middle Ages continued the processes of formation of European culture that began during the classical period. However, their progress was far from smooth. In the 14th and 15th centuries, Western Europe repeatedly experienced great famines. Numerous epidemics, especially the bubonic plague (“Black Death”), also brought inexhaustible human casualties. The Hundred Years' War greatly slowed down the development of culture. However, eventually the cities were revived, crafts, agriculture and trade were established. People who survived pestilence and war were given the opportunity to organize their lives better than in previous eras. The feudal nobility, the aristocrats, began to build magnificent palaces for themselves, both on their estates and in cities, instead of castles. The New Rich from the “low” classes imitated them in this, creating everyday comfort and an appropriate lifestyle. Conditions arose for a new upsurge in spiritual life, science, philosophy, and art, especially in Northern Italy. This rise led to the so-called Renaissance or Renaissance.
2. Features of medieval philosophy. Theocentrism, creationism, providentialism. "God and man" - the central problem
medieval philosophy patristics nominalism
Theocentrism - (Greek theos - God), such an understanding of the world in which God is the source and cause of all things. He is the center of the universe, its active and creative beginning. The principle of theocentrism also extends to knowledge, where theology is placed at the highest level in the system of knowledge; Below it is philosophy, which is in the service of theology; even lower are various private and applied sciences.
Creationism - (Latin creatio - creation, creation), the principle according to which God created living and inanimate nature out of nothing, corruptible, transitory, in constant change.
Providentialism - (Latin providentia - providence), a system of views according to which all world events, including history and the behavior of individual people, are controlled by divine providence (providence - in religious ideas: God, a supreme being or his actions).
Theocentrism
Medieval philosophy was inextricably linked with Christianity, therefore general philosophical and Christian ideas are closely intertwined in it. The main idea of medieval philosophy is theocentrism.
Christianity develops the idea of one God, the possessor of absolute goodness, absolute knowledge and absolute power, which matured in Judaism. All beings and objects are his creations, all created by a free act of divine will. The two central dogmas of Christianity speak of the trinity of God and the incarnation. According to the first, the inner life of the deity is the relationship of three “hypostases,” or persons: the Father (the beginningless principle), the Son or Logos (the semantic and formative principle), and the Holy Spirit (the life-giving principle). The Son is “born” from the Father, the Holy Spirit “proceeds” from the Father. Moreover, both “birth” and “procession” do not take place in time, since all the persons of the Christian Trinity have always existed - “pre-eternal” - and are equal in dignity - “equal in honor”.
Creationism
According to Christian dogma, God created the world out of nothing, created it through the influence of his will, thanks to his omnipotence, which at every moment preserves and supports the existence of the world. This worldview is characteristic of medieval philosophy and is called creationism. (creatio - creation, creation).
The dogma of creation shifts the center of gravity from the natural to the supernatural. Unlike the ancient gods, who were akin to nature, the Christian God stands above nature, on the other side of it, and therefore is a transcendental God. The active creative principle is, as it were, withdrawn from nature, from the cosmos, and transferred to God; in medieval philosophy, the cosmos is therefore no longer a self-sufficient and eternal being, is not a living and animate whole, as many of the Greek philosophers considered it.
In ancient philosophy, certain approaches had already been developed to solve the problem of overcoming the dualism of the world and its essence. The Pythagoreans, Plato and his followers laid down the basic methodological principles of the doctrine of the spiritual unity of the world. But neither the classics of ancient philosophy nor the Neoplatonists created the concept of God as a person. They interpreted the One as a certain original, which produced all being from itself, as an absolutely abstract and impersonal individuality. The personal understanding of God was first given by Philo of Alexandria.
The characterization of God as a person was a significant step forward in the direction of the Christian worldview, but it did not completely bridge the gap between God and the world. To bridge this gap it was necessary to introduce mediating forces. For this purpose, Philo uses one of the central concepts of ancient philosophy - the concept of Logos.
But unlike ancient philosophy, Philo’s Logos appears as a spirit created by God, which is originally the divine mind. Philo's idea of the Logos lacked only its identification with the messiah - Christ.
Providentialism
Providentialism - (Latin providentia - providence), a system of views according to which all world events, including the history and behavior of individual people, are controlled by divine providence (providence - in religious ideas: God, a supreme being or his actions).
. Main philosophical movements (patristics and scholasticism, realism and nominalism). Outstanding philosophers: W. Ockham
In medieval philosophy, at least two stages of its formation can be distinguished - patristics and scholasticism, a clear boundary between which is quite difficult to draw.
Patristics - a set of theological and philosophical views of the “church fathers” who set out to substantiate Christianity, relying on ancient philosophy and, above all, on the ideas of Plato.
Scholasticism - is a type of philosophizing in which, by means of the human mind, they try to substantiate ideas and formulas taken on faith.
Patristics (II-VI centuries AD)
Patristics got its name from the Latin word “patris”, meaning “fathers of the church”. Accordingly, this is the period of the Christian church fathers, who laid the foundations of Christian, and, consequently, medieval philosophy. Patristics can be divided into several periods:
Apostolic period (until the middle of the 2nd century) - the time of activity of the apostolic evangelists.
Apologetics (mid-II century - early IV) - Apologists were the name given to educated Christians who defended Christianity from pagan philosophy. To defend Christianity, apologists resorted to the help of ancient and Greek philosophy, using allegory and logical evidence, trying to show that the beliefs of the pagans are absurd, their philosophy has no unity and is full of contradictions, that Christian theology is the only philosophy that brings people the same truth for everyone. The most prominent works that have survived to this day were the apologies of Justin, Tatian, and Tertullian.
Mature patristics (IV-VI) - There are eastern (Greek) and western (Latin) patristics. Thanks to the Greek language, Eastern patristics is more closely connected with ancient philosophy than Western philosophy. The most famous figures of Eastern patristics: Gregory the Theologian, Athanasius of Alexandria, John Chrysostom and others; western: Aurelius Augustine, Ambrose of Milan, Jerome. The main problems of patristics: the formation of symbols of faith, the problem of three hypostases, Christology, creationism and others.
Scholasticism
Scholasticism (from the Greek “schole” - quiet activity, study) - medieval scholarship. It is closely connected with the emerging from the VIII-IX centuries. education system in the West. At the same time, this is also a new stage in the development of the spiritual culture of Europe, which replaced patristics. It was based on patristic literature, representing at the same time a completely original and specific cultural formation.
The following periodization of scholasticism is accepted. The first stage is from the 6th to the 9th centuries. - preliminary. The second stage is from the 9th to the 12th centuries. - a period of intensive formation. Third stage - XIII century. - “the golden age of scholasticism.” The fourth stage - XIV-XV centuries. - fading of scholasticism.
Scholastic learning in practice was a series of steps, climbing which the student could reach the highest. The “seven liberal arts” were studied in monastic and church schools. The latter were divided into “trivium” (from the number “three”) and “quadrivium” (from the number “four”). The student had to first master the trivium, i.e. grammar (Latin), dialectics, rhetoric. The Quadrivium, as a higher level, included arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. Universities were educational institutions that provided an even higher level of training.
Medieval philosophy entered the history of thought under the name of scholasticism, which has long been used in the common sense as a symbol of empty debate divorced from reality. And there are undoubtedly reasons for this.
The main distinctive feature of scholasticism is that it consciously views itself as a science placed at the service of theology, as a “handmaiden of theology.”
Beginning around the 11th century, interest in the problems of logic, which in that era was called dialectics and the subject of which was work on concepts, increased in medieval universities. The logical works of Boethius, who commented on Aristotle’s Categories and created a system of subtle distinctions and definitions of concepts with the help of which theologians tried to comprehend the “truths of faith,” had a great influence on the philosophers of the 11th-14th centuries. The desire for a rationalistic justification of Christian dogma led to the fact that dialectics turned into one of the main philosophical disciplines, and the dissection and subtle distinction of concepts, the establishment of definitions, which occupied many minds, sometimes degenerated into ponderous multi-volume constructions. The passion for dialectics understood in this way found expression in debates characteristic of medieval universities, which sometimes lasted 10-12 hours with a short break for lunch. These verbal disputes and intricacies of scholastic scholarship gave rise to opposition. Scholastic dialectics was opposed by various mystical movements, and in the 15th - 16th centuries this opposition received form in the form of humanistic secular culture, on the one hand, and Neoplatonic natural philosophy, on the other.
Nominalism and realism
Nominalism and realism (from the Latin nomen - name, realis - real) are opposing directions of medieval scholastic philosophy. Nominalism insisted on the objective existence of only individual things. Realism asserted the objective existence of general concepts in the Divine mind. For extreme nominalists, general concepts are sound; for moderate ones, general concepts arise in the human mind through the process of abstraction. Extreme realists (Eriugena) argued that universals (general ideas, concepts) exist ideally, before things. Moderate realists (Thomas Aquinas) believed that universals exist in things. The debate between nominalists and realists sharpened logic, the main achievement of medieval scholasticism, contributed to the development of scientific rigor, and laid the foundations of set theory and mathematical logic.
The characteristic features of the ideas of medieval philosophy about knowledge were manifested in the polemics of nominalism and realism that took place over the centuries.
Realism (in medieval philosophy) is a doctrine according to which only general concepts (universals) have true reality, and things that exist in the empirical world are changeable, individual, and temporary. Concepts exist before things; they are ideas in the divine mind. That is, knowledge is possible only with the help of reason.
Nominalism emphasizes the priority of will over reason. And concepts do not exist in the divine mind. First, God creates things by his will, and concepts arise in the knowing soul. A prominent representative of nominalism, William of Ockham, said that concepts that cannot be verified experimentally should be removed as irrational (Occam's razor).
Thomas Aquinas attempted to overcome both extremes. Objecting to the nominalists, Thomas argued that general concepts in the divine mind precede things, as their prototypes. At the same time, objecting to the realists. Thomas argued that the general internal is inherent in things, and the concepts formed in the human brain are secondary in relation to the general in things. Knowledge, from his point of view, occurs due to the action on a person of two sides of a thing - the sensory and the intelligible. Thus, the cognized object leads, as it were, a double existence: outside man as a thing and inside man as view . Through sensual species a person cognizes the individual in things through supersensible species - general. Through philosophical knowledge of things as creations of God, man rises to the knowledge of God himself.
Nominalism and realism in medieval philosophy. Idealism is a direction that asserts, in contrast to materialism, the primacy of spirit and the secondary nature of matter, the ideality of the world and the dependence of its existence on the consciousness of people. In medieval philosophy, a distinction is made between being and essence. For all medieval philosophers, knowledge of each thing comes down to answering 4 questions: 1. Does the thing exist? 2. What is she? 3. What is it like? 4. Why (for what) is it there? The meaning of the thinking of the Middle Ages is theocentric, i.e. God is at the core of the universe. Philosophy was based on 2 main ideas: - creation - revelation The more ancient, the more true, authentic, and reliable - this is the position of medieval thinkers. The main source of knowledge and revelations is the Bible. Philosophical thought religion of monotheism (monotheism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam). Directions of scholasticism. Realism (the direction of scholasticism) is the doctrine according to which only general concepts or universals have true reality, and not single objects existing in the empirical world. Eternal ideas have real existence, and not transitory and changeable sensory things. Universals exist before things, representing thoughts, ideas in the divine mind (Plato’s position). Knowledge is possible only with the help of reason, for only reason is capable of calculating the general. Nominalism gave priority to will over reason (nomen name) and denied the possibility of the existence of general concepts. Universals exist not before, but after things. (man is a living being endowed with reason) General concepts are only names; they do not have any independent existence. It was a dispute about the relationship between the general and the transactional. Realism is a type of objective-ideological solution to a problem, and nominalism gravitates more towards materialism. Realism was leading in the debate about the nature of universals, and nominalism was in opposition.
Eminent Philosophers: William of Ockham
William of Ockham (English: William of Ockham c. 1285-1349) - English philosopher, Franciscan monk from Ockham, a small village in Surrey in Southern England. A supporter of nominalism, he believed that only the individual exists, and universals exist only thanks to abstract thinking in the human mind, and besides this they do not have any metaphysical essence. Considered one of the fathers of modern epistemology and modern philosophy in general, as well as one of the greatest logicians of all time.
He drew radical conclusions from the thesis about the free, unlimited will of the Creator.
If the will of God, according to Duns Scotus, is free only in the choice of possibilities (Ideas) that pre-exist independently of the will in Divine thinking, then, according to Ockham, the absolute freedom of the Divine will means that in the act of creation it is not bound by anything, not even ideas. Ockham denies the existence of universals in God; they do not exist in things either. The so-called ideas are nothing other than the things themselves produced by God. There are no ideas of species, only ideas of individuals, for individuals are the only reality that exists outside the mind, both Divine and human. The starting point for understanding the world is knowledge about individuals.
The individual cannot be cognized with the help of general concepts; it is an object of direct contemplation. God is characterized by intellectual intuition of ideas corresponding to individuals, and man is characterized by intuitive knowledge of individual things in sensory experience. Intuitive knowledge precedes abstract knowledge. The latter is possible not because there are “whats” in the things themselves, that is, conceptually comprehensible properties or characteristics. A really existing thing is only “it,” an indivisible unit devoid of definitions. Concepts are formed in the mind of the cognizing subject on the basis of sensory perception of things. Universals are signs in the mind; in themselves they are singular, not general, entities.
Their universality lies not in their being, but in their designating function. Universal signs are divided by Occam into natural and conditional. Natural signs are concepts (ideas, mental images) in the mind relating to individual things. Natural signs precede verbal expressions - conventional signs. A natural sign is a kind of fiction (fiction), in other words, a quality that exists in the mind and has by nature the ability to designate.
Ockham distinguishes among natural signs the first and second intentions of the mind. The first intention is a concept (mental name), adapted by nature itself in order to be substituted for a thing that is not a sign. Second intentions are concepts denoting first intentions.
The logical basis for the nominalistic concept is given by Ockham in the theory of suppositions (substitutions), which explains how the use of general terms in language can be combined with the denial of the real existence of universals. Occam identifies three types of suppositions: material, personal and simple. Only with personal substitution does a term perform denoting functions, replacing (denoting) a thing, that is, something individual. With the other two, the term does not mean anything. In material substitution, a term is substituted for a term. For example, in the statement “man is a name,” the term “man” does not designate a specific person, but means the word “man,” that is, refers to itself as a term. In simple substitution, a term is substituted for a concept in the mind, not for a thing. The term “man” in the statement “man is a species” does not at all designate any general (species) essence of man that would have real existence; it replaces the specific concept of “man,” which is present only in the mind of the cognizing subject. Therefore, the use of general terms does not oblige the recognition of the reality of universal entities.
The absence of commonality in individual things excludes the real existence of relationships and any patterns, including causation. Since knowledge about the world is formed on the basis of general concepts, only probable, but not reliable knowledge about it is possible.
Occam's nominalism denies the basic premise of scholastic philosophy - the belief in the rationality of the world, the presence of a certain kind of original harmony of word and being. Existential and conceptual structures are now opposed to each other: only a single, rationally inexpressible “this” has existence, while semantic certainties fixed by general concepts have no place outside the mind. Since being is no longer connected with the semantic meaning of words, the scholastic study of being, based on the analysis of words and their meanings, becomes pointless. The emergence of Occam's doctrine marked the end of medieval scholastic philosophy. And although scholastic studies continued in the 15th-16th centuries, the golden age of scholastic philosophy was already behind us.
Occam's razor is a principle succinctly formulated as: “One should not multiply things without necessity.”
If we express this principle in more modern language, we get the following. “Essences should not be multiplied beyond what is necessary.” This means that when studying a phenomenon, one should first try to explain it based on internal causes. If this does not work, then connect new entities. For example, historical events should first be explained by economic, political reasons, and the role of the individual in history. Only if all this is not enough should aliens, Masons and other entities not directly related to it be introduced into history.
In many ways, Ockham can be considered to have developed some of the themes associated with Scotus. Of particular importance is his consistent defense of the voluntarist position, which recognizes the priority of the Divine will over the Divine mind. However, it is probably his philosophical position that has earned him a prominent place in the history of Christian theology. There are two important elements of the teaching to note:
. Occam's blade, often called the principle of parsimony. Ockham insisted that simplicity is both a philosophical and theological virtue. His “blade” cut off any hypotheses that did not seem absolutely necessary. This had great implications for his theology of justification.
Early medieval theologians (including Thomas Aquinas) argued that God was forced to justify sinful humanity through the "created garments of grace" - in other words, an intermediate supernatural substance introduced by God into the human soul, which made it possible to declare the sinner justified. The way was thus opened for the more personal approach to justification associated with the early Reformation.
Ockham stood out for his persistent adherence to the ideas of nominalism. In part, this was the result of the use of his "blade": universals were declared a completely unnecessary hypothesis and, therefore, discarded. The spread of the teachings of the “modern way” throughout Western Europe is largely due to his merit. One aspect of his thought that proved particularly important was the “dialectic between the two powers of God.” This allowed Ockham to compare the way things are with the way they could be. A detailed discussion of this problem will be presented below; Here it is enough to note that Ockham made a decisive contribution to the debate about Divine omnipotence, which remains important to this day.
Occam's Razor (Occam's Blade) is one of the basic principles of the scientific worldview. It was first formulated in the 14th century by the English philosopher and politician William OCKAM and says: “Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.” Or, in other words, “Concepts that are not reducible to intuitive and experimental knowledge must be removed from science.” More broadly speaking, "Razor" does not allow the creation of new models and hypotheses to explain phenomena that are perfectly explainable within the framework of existing concepts - for example, using the UFO hypothesis to explain the luminous "crosses" observed above the Baikonur Cosmodrome during the launch of Soyuz launch vehicles. . Nevertheless, a number of our contemporaries (A. Veinik) claim that at the moment the “razor” has exhausted itself and is actually cutting advanced science to the living. Most likely, this principle will continue to exist, and with an increase in reliable scientific data about today’s “unscientific” phenomena, scientific explanation will become precisely the framework of existing ideas that the “Razor” principle is interpreted and based on. In order to explain anomalous phenomena and UFOs using Occam's principle, in reality it is easier to assume the existence of a plurality of worlds and as yet undiscovered physical laws than to explain AE with the help of generally accepted laws by amazing coincidences of circumstances and thereby increase the improbability and artificiality of the explanation.
Conclusion
Medieval philosophy made a significant contribution to the further development of epistemology, to form the foundations of natural science and philosophical knowledge. XIII century - a characteristic feature of this century is the slow but steady increase in the bosom of feudalism, its decomposition, the formation of the rudiments of a new, capitalist system.
The development of the commodity-money economy in Western European countries caused significant economic recovery. Changes in production relations inevitably caused certain transformations in the ideological superstructure.
As a result, at the end of the 12th century. and the first half of the 13th century. feudal cities begin to strive to create their own intellectual and cultural atmosphere. The urban bourgeoisie strives for the development of urban schools and the emergence of universities.
The philosophical expression of the awakening of this life and the expansion of scientific knowledge was the perceived Aristotelianism
In Aristotle's philosophy, they tried to find not so much practical recommendations that could be used in economic and socio-political life. This philosophy was the impetus for scholars of the time, who were forced to admit that Augustinianism was no longer relevant to the current intellectual situation. After all, Augustinianism, based on Platonic traditions, was directed against natural science research.
Augustine argued that knowledge of the material world does not bring any benefit, because not only does it not increase human happiness, but it absorbs the time necessary for contemplating much more important and sublime objects.
The motto of Augustine's philosophy: “I want to understand God and the soul. And nothing more? Absolutely nothing!”
The medieval dispute about the nature of universals significantly influenced the further development of logic and epistemology, especially on the teachings of such major philosophers of modern times as Hobbes and Locke. Elements of nominalism are also found in Spinoza, and the technique of nominalistic criticism of the ontology of universals was used by Verkley and Hume in the formation of the doctrine of subjective idealism. The thesis of realism about the presence of general concepts in human consciousness subsequently formed the basis of idealistic rationalism (Leibniz, Descartes), and the position about the ontological independence of universals passed into German classical idealism.
So, medieval philosophy made a significant contribution to the further development of epistemology, developing and clarifying all logically possible options for the relationship between the rational, empirical and a priori, a relationship that would later become not only the subject of scholastic debate, but the foundation for the formation of the foundations of natural science and philosophical knowledge.
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History of philosophy in brief / Transl. from Czech I. I. Boguta - M.: Mysl, 1991.
Kimelev Yu.A. Philosophy of religion: A systematic essay. - M.: Note Bene Publishing House , 1998.
Kurantov A.P., Styazhkin N.I. Occam. - M.: Mysl, 1978. - (Thinkers of the past).
Fundamentals of Religious Studies Textbook / Yu. F. Borunkov, I. N. Yablokov, M. P. Novikov, etc.; Ed. I. N. Yablokova.- M.: Higher. school, 1994.
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Stolyarov A. A. Occam’s Nominalism./History of Philosophy. West-Russia-East. Book one. Philosophy of antiquity and the Middle Ages. - M.: Greco-Latin Cabinet, 1995
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Philosophy briefly and clearly: PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES. All the basic and most important things in philosophy: in a short text: MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY. Answers to basic questions, philosophical concepts, history of philosophy, trends, schools and philosophers.
FORMATION OF MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY
For philosophy, the Middle Ages was a period when the purpose and nature of philosophizing changed. The transition from polytheism to monotheistic religion was ending. Such a religion required the acceptance of a whole series of new “truths.”
In the countries of Western Europe, which arose as a result of the collapse of the Roman Empire, Christianity appeared as such. It originated several centuries BC as a heretical movement in Judaism, then finally moved away from it, began to gain increasing importance in the spiritual life of many countries and was recognized as the official state religion during the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great (324 AD). e.). The establishment of an alliance between secular power and Christianity strengthened the church organization in political, economic, and ideological relations.
On the one hand, leading representatives of the Christian religion felt the need for a philosophical substantiation of their initial positions (primarily the doctrine of monotheism); from the once negative assessments of the “wise men” and their teachings, they increasingly began to turn to their provisions, which could complement or reinforce certain truths of religion (Titus Flavius Clement, Origen). On the other hand, philosophers were increasingly oriented toward certain Christian attitudes, sometimes coinciding and complementing (especially in the moral and ethical sphere) their speculative or, perhaps, statements not sufficiently substantiated by life experience; The cosmological ideas of philosophers sometimes had the tenor of the “final cause”, the “form of forms”, etc., and the doctrine of the Christian religion about the immaterial (and in this sense “immaterial”) Absolute, or God, could provide a starting point for new philosophical reflections . So it was not always the philosophy of the Middle Ages that found itself under the direct dictate of theology, allegedly acting in the role of “the handmaiden of theology” imposed on it.
The conceptual apparatus of religion began to intensively penetrate into philosophy; sometimes it was difficult to distinguish between these two different forms of worldview; The term “religious philosophy” received a basis for existence. Philosophy did not cease to develop progressively in the Middle Ages, promoting changes in the sphere of culture, including religion. However, in comparison with ancient philosophy, there were already different themes in the development of its problematics and its constraint by external factors (this most clearly happened in later times, when the church came to the Inquisition). And the fact that the tendency towards the union of philosophy and theology, towards their interaction, appeared at the end of antiquity - from centuries. n. e., speaks of the transient nature of the brutal violence of the church, which it later undertook in relation to philosophical dissent. The same is evidenced by the existence even today of such a widespread movement in Western Europe as neo-Thomism, one of the central ideas of which is the union of theology and philosophy.
In the philosophy of the Middle Ages, two periods are distinguished, called “patristics” (IV-VIII centuries) and “scholasticism” (VI-XV centuries).
TITUS FLAVIUS CLEMENT.
NOMINALISM AND REALISM IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE MIDDLE AGES
Titus Flavius Clement (Clement of Alexandria) (c. 150-219 AD) was one of the largest exponents of “apologetics.” His works clearly outlined the line of alliance with “Hellenic philosophy,” which, in his opinion, was closer to Christianity than Judaism. Clement discovered aspects of philosophy that could be used by theologians. It was he who came up with the idea that philosophy should be the handmaiden of theology. “In philosophy,” he pointed out, “the method of rational proof is especially useful. In religion, faith is still the sensual path to God. But faith alone is not always reliable. It will be stronger if it is supplemented with logical evidence.” “With the help of rational knowledge,” he pointed out, “we deepen and clarify faith. Such knowledge can bring faith to a state of conscious religiosity.” Clement of Alexandria was the first in the history of Christianity to formulate the principle of harmony between faith and reason (of course, such a position actually meant the subordination of reason to faith, but it went further than Tertullian “I believe because it is absurd”).
A distinctive feature of medieval scholasticism was the intense struggle between realism and nominalism, which lasted for several centuries in clarifying the question of whether general concepts have real content.
Representatives of realism believe that it is not individual things that have true reality, but only general concepts - universals. Hence the name of this movement, which does not coincide with the modern meaning of the concept of “realism”. Previously, they argued, there was a “house in general,” as a kind of idea of a house, and then individual, specific houses as a product of the general idea of a house. It is not difficult to notice here the powerful influence of the doctrine of Plato's ideas. Proponents of realism include Anselm of Canterbury, Thomas Aquinas and others.
Another direction of medieval scholasticism hostile to realism - nominalism - insisted on the reality of individual things, considering universals to be simple copies or names that people assign to things. There is no “house in general”, there is a specific house or a sum of them, and the name is given by people in order to distinguish one object from another. Proponents of nominalism include Rascelin, Ockham, and others.
Behind this dispute was hidden an extremely important philosophical problem of what precedes what: objectively existing, sensorily perceived things to general ideas (nominalism) or, conversely, ideas to things (realism), whether our knowledge moves from sensations to concepts or from concepts to things. In modern times, this debate continued in the struggle between empiricism and rationalism.
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