Briefly about philosophy: the most important and basic things about philosophy in a brief summary
Eleatic School: Parmenides

Parmenides (late 6th - mid 5th century BC) - philosopher and politician, central figure of the Eleatic school.

Parmenides puts his teaching into the mouth of a certain goddess, symbolizing Truth. She tells Parmenides: “It is necessary that you study the One,” and shows him three paths:

1) the path of absolute truth;

2) the path of changeable opinions, mistakes and falsehoods;

3) the path of opinions worthy of praise.

The most important principle of Parmenides is the principle of truth: being is and cannot but be; non-existence does not exist and cannot exist anywhere or in any way.

Being, in the context of Parmenides' thoughts, is pure positivity, non-existence is pure negativity. The first is the absolute opposite of the second. Parmenides argued this principle as follows: everything that is said and thought exists. It is impossible to think (that is, speak) otherwise than by thinking (that is, speaking) about something that exists. To think nothing is the same as not to think; to talk about nothing is to say nothing. Nothing is unthinkable and inexpressible.

Parmenides considered the coexistence of contradictory judgments impossible: if there is being, it is necessary that there is no non-being.

Being is that which is not generated and is indestructible.

Existence has no past or future, it is an eternal present, without beginning and end.

Being is unchangeable and motionless, equal in everything; there cannot be “more being” or “less being.”

For Parmenides, Being is “complete” and “perfect,” represented in the form of a sphere as the most perfect figure.

The path of truth is the path of reason, the path of error is inevitably given by feelings. There is no precision in feelings: do not trust sensory perceptions, do not roll your eyes aimlessly, do not listen with ears in which only noise is heard, and do not idly chatter your tongue, but examine the evidence expressed with your mind. The path of error embraces all positions that comprehend and apply non-existence, for there is no non-existence, it is unthinkable and insoluble.

Parmenides believed that both the positive principle (being) and the negative principle (non-being) belong to being. They can be understood only when included in the highest unity of being.

Eleatic School: Zeno and the Birth of Dialectics

Zeno of Elea (c. 490-430 BC) - philosopher and politician, student and follower of Parmenides. He formulates the principle of reduction to the absurd. For the first time he uses the dialectical method to argue the refutation of the principles of movement and multiplicity.

The contradictions in the concept of movement are revealed in the famous aporia “Achilles,” which analyzes the situation in which the fleet-footed Achilles can never catch up with the tortoise. Why? Every time, with all the speed of his running and with all the smallness of the space separating them, as soon as he steps on the place that the turtle had previously occupied, she will move forward a little. No matter how the space between them decreases, it is infinite in its divisibility into intervals, and they all need to be traversed, and this requires infinite time.

Zeno's aporia is associated with the dialectic of fractional and continuous in motion. If we assume that “time” is measured by the number of segments, then the conclusion is correct. It is usually pointed out, however, that Zeno simply was not familiar with the concept of the sum of an infinite series, otherwise he would have seen that an infinite number of terms still gives a finite path, which Achilles, moving at a constant speed, will undoubtedly cover in the appropriate (finite) time .

Zeno gave the following arguments against multiplicity: if everything consists of many, then each of the parts turns out to be both infinitely small and infinitely great. Each particle simultaneously constitutes an infinitely small particle of everything, and, being composed of an infinite number of particles (which are divisible to infinity), represents an infinitely large quantity. If we admit that the many, that is, the particles of everything, have no size and are therefore indivisible, then a new contradiction emerges: everything turns out to be equal to nothing. In fact, something that has no magnitude cannot, by adding to another, increase it (zero is not a term). Therefore, everything consisting of indivisibles, devoid of magnitude, itself has no magnitude or is (materially) nothing.

Melissus of Samos and the systematization of Eleatic ideas

Melissus (late 6th - early 5th century BC) was a skilled naval commander and a capable politician. His book “On Nature and Being” is known, but only in fragments.

Melissus systematized the deductive doctrine of the Eleatics and partially corrected it. First of all, he believed that existence is “infinite”, since it has neither temporal nor spatial boundaries, and if it were finite, it would be limited by emptiness, and therefore by non-existence, which is impossible. How infinite being is one, because if there were two of them, they would limit each other. Melissus qualifies this one-infinite being as incorporeal, but not in the sense of immaterial, but as something that is devoid of a figure, even if it is a perfect figure of a sphere, as Parmenides imagined.

The second corrective point is that Melissa eliminates the entire sphere of opinion.

1. There are many things to which our senses attribute existence, our sensory knowledge would be plausible, but on the condition that at least one of them remained equal to itself and unchangeable, which is the One Being.

2. But the same source of knowledge tells us that nothing from the world of things remains or remains, in contrast to being and truth.

3. This means that there is an opposition between what reason understands as the absolute condition of being and truth, on the one hand, and what feelings and experience establish, on the other. Therefore, Melissa resolutely denies the value of everything sensory (after all, feelings affirm non-existence) and recognizes only what is established by reason. “If there were many,” he says, “there must be something that would be everything, One.”

Thus, thought leads the Eleatics to the eternal, infinite, one, unchanging, motionless, incorporeal Being, where the multiplicity and power of phenomena are denied. However, it is clear that not all being, but only a privileged being - God - met the requirements of the Eleatics. .....................................

The origin of philosophical science began so long ago that it is difficult for a modern person to imagine what the world was like then, what people expected from nature, and what they had their deepest hopes for. Artifacts that have survived to this day testify to the continuous search by the human intellect for the mysterious foundations of the universe, knowledge of which will serve as the key to happiness, a prosperous life, and humanity finding its own place.

The Eleatics were among the first to turn to reason as a powerful force capable of revealing the mystery of existence, therefore the Eleatic school of philosophy, together with the Pythagorean school, was considered the founder of rationalism, a physical view of existing reality. Considering the limitations of antiquity in research knowledge, the ancient Greek philosophers did not have enough available material to solve their problems. The thinkers found a way out in uniting their views with other ancient philosophical schools that were similar in ideology.

Basic ideas of the Eleatic school of philosophy

The ancient Greek school of Eleatics dates back to the early ancient period (VI-V centuries BC). The Ilion city of Elea gave its name to the philosophical movement that was extolled by the Eleatics to the masses. The dominant thought of the concept of the sages was the concept of being, moreover, in the broadest context. Thanks to this, they laid the foundations of ancient Greek ontology.

The school had several prominent representatives who were natural in their logical conclusions, but were distinguished by their colorful temperament.

Xenaphon was considered a scandalous (dubious) representative of the school. Possessing an eloquent, fiery character, the thinker conquered his successors with the gift of persuasion. Some historical sources talk about Xenophanes as the founder of the movement, but this is not entirely true, since the philosopher was a “preacher” of Eleatic Hellenism, and not a “father.” The sage did not find a common language with the authorities and ended his long life in poverty.

Parmenides was an outstanding and respected politician. The thinker's point of view carried weight. Parmenides was distinguished by his categorical views and narrated about existence on behalf of a certain goddess who personified truth.

These two central figures of the Eleatic school presented the primary idea of ​​the doctrine, based on the Pythagorean mathematical thesis - a pro-materialist study of the natural principle. It can be understood by the following principles:

• Eternity, the integrity of being – existence is unchanging and continuous;
• A rational approach to existence - rationalism tells that existence lies in a single primary source;
• The identity of the whole and the sum of the parts - the origin consists of many parts, which individually are of less quality than the source;
• Absence of emptiness - emptiness is equivalent to non-existence (nothing), only what really exists can be studied;
• Limitation of sensuality - the impression created by sensations does not correspond to the truth.

Teaching of the Eleatics

The ontological doctrine of the Eleatics is based on the main scientific principle - any perceived idea of ​​​​nature does not correspond to the true essence, since it is not subject to reasonable explanation.

An important part of Eleatic Hellenism is idealistic dialectics. But the objective principle of Heraclitus here gives way to dialectical idealism, which at the same time helps representatives of the Eleatic school to concentrate on the research process, but fetters the diversity of judgments.

Subsequently, it was idealism that would become the decisive quality of Plato’s teaching.

The metaphysical orientation of the Eleatic movement combined shades of the natural philosophical worldview, mixing the difference of opinions. For example, we can choose the complexity of realizing the infinity of space, the relationship of the latter to time, which found a way out in the ingenuity of natural philosophizing. The logical and predictable consequence of this process was the merging of the Eleatic movement with the eristic, sophistic movement.

The Eleatic doctrine of being itself stands on “three pillars”: monism, rationalism, knowledge.

The idea of ​​motion and set of Parmenides proves the logic of ontological knowledge.

The concepts of “being” and “non-being” that appeared within the framework of the movement served as a theoretical basis for the reasoning of philosophers of antiquity and future generations. Being, as existing in a continuum, is united and motionless, meaningful, immortal. Non-existence, as non-existent in the continuum, is not comprehended, has no place to be.

The Eleatic school presents real nature with the contradiction of physical hypostases. The conditional meanings provided indicate the unconditionality of cognition.

But timely understanding of the true essence of existence had a positive impact on the philosophical thoughts of subsequent famous thinkers: Democritus, Plato, Anaxagoras, Aristotle, Empedocles, Socrates.

Exegesis of the philosophy of the Eleatic school

The formalized concept of the knowledge of being of the Eleatic direction of philosophy, just like many others, was subject to criticism and analysis by contemporaries and subsequent generations of thinkers. Here begins the exegesis of the teachings of the Eleatics, that is, the style of understanding the ideas under discussion. The interpretation is based on the individual way of thinking, the epochal affiliation of the critic, and the historical development of society. The main philosophical principle is “deny, rethink” and in fact it is exaggerated, since philosophical concepts are subject to constant temporary change. A specific teaching, under the influence of many paradigms, loses its original meaning.

The Eleatic school is an excellent example of a diverse interpretation of the meaning of a concept, which thinkers of subsequent historical eras regarded in their own way. To maintain the importance of the idea, it is necessary to respect the relationship between the purpose of studying the phenomenon and the paradigm.

Prominent representatives of the Eleatic school

Adherents of any direction represent the unity of the extrapolated principle - religious, state or social.

In this case, representatives of the Eleatic school are focused on the unity of being. The school's associates include Parmenides, Melissus, Zeno and Xenaphon (some historians do not consider the ancient philosopher a member of the Eleatic movement).

In fact, the philosophers of the ancient Greek Eleatic ontological school are the founders of conceptual knowledge about the single metaphysical essence of things. Let's take a closer look.

Parmenides. The philosopher was the first-born of the ancient Greek movement. Being a noble, moral man, Parmenides enjoyed the respect of the townspeople. The authority of the thinker allowed him to become a trendsetter. In the research work “On Nature,” the Eleatic developed a theory of “unity,” which refuted Pythagorean materialism. Parmenides postulates the illusory nature of natural essence, as well as the plurality of the latter. Rationalism was the scientific basis for the worldview of the ancient scientist. It was Parmenides who recorded the untruthfulness of the emotional worldview and the limitations of man to knowledge.

Zeno. The next representative of the school, Zeno of Elea, continued the activities of the founder. The thinker’s contribution is not in doubt among critics, because the philosopher compiled a certain “set of rules” consisting of 40 aporias. Many aporias, being a dogma about the inconsistency of nature, prove Parmenides’ statement about the impossibility of cognizing discreteness, movement, and change in being. But Zeno's nine controversial aporias are still considered research topics, since they have received neither proof nor refutation. The generally recognized sage Aristotle considered Zeno an associate of idealistic dialectics (the doctrine of the unity of opposites), and worked hard to find a logical explanation for the author’s theories.

Melissa. The philosopher was a student of the legislator of doctrine and lived at the same time as Zeno. The merit of the thinker is that he expanded the scope of existence to universal boundaries and touched upon the theme of cosmic space-time immensity. Melissus corrected and systematized the Eleatic program, determined the dogmatic boundaries of his direction, and identified potentially new topics important for the future.

Xenaphon, the most controversial figure of the Eleatic school. Who is now able to say for sure: “Did the philosopher belong to the Eleatics or not?” But we cannot deny the fact that the thinker lived and worked in the same city with adherents of the doctrine, and agreed with the Eleatic sages on many issues. The unified philosophical pantheism of Xenaphon and the Eleatics comes down to the incomprehensibility of nature by man, to be more precise, only to the possibility of approaching its mysteries through careful research. It was the people's, government wisdom that the thinker revered as the greatest state asset. Xenaphon did not see the desire for victory as a good intention, but the moral education of society. The autocrats did not appreciate the dedication of a kind man and did not allow him to be included in the respected elite.

Abstract presentation of the teachings of the Eleatics

The essence of the attempts of the pre-Socratic philosophers of the polis of Elea to define the concept of existing being comes down to several theses.

1. The uniqueness of being. If existence were repeated at least twice (or more times), then its endless limits would necessarily interfere with another existence. From this follows the rule of unity.
2. Plurality is illusory, not singular. The perception of the variety of objects could be true if at least one of them was constantly stable and unchanging. Based on the fact that everything is subject to transformation, one cannot be firmly confident in the conclusions drawn and succumb to illusion.
3. Whatever the human experience, there is no guarantee of its truth, since it is impossible to realize every smallest particle of existence, and without it it will not be possible to create a perfectly accurate picture of the universe. Reason brings a person as close as possible to the correct answer, but does not bring the expected purity of knowledge. Sensory experience is completely devoid of scientific value.

Briefly speaking, the central concept of the Existence of the Eleatics comes down to the inconsistency of its plurality, immutability, fallibility of experimental research, and the truth of knowledge by the intellect.

This leads to a logical conclusion: the complex theories developed by pre-Socratic philosophers became objects of study by subsequent world minds, which determines the significance of the activities of the thinkers of the Eleatic school.

Followers of the Eleatic trend

As mentioned above, the importance of the rational approach to knowledge of the representatives of the Eleatic school is invaluable. The significance of the teachings of the Eleatics is characterized by the appearance of great followers such as Socrates, Aristotle, Plato.

Socrates' philosophizing largely depended on Parmenides' views on being. The school of sophists was also based on the philosopher's treatises.

The Eleatic theories of being and non-being (something and nothing) served as a source for the doctrine of the ideas of the thinker Plato.

The legendary aporia of the sage Zeno became the subject of study by Aristotle himself, who worked on creating a theory of the consistency of reasoning. His global scientific work “Logic” was also based on the axioms of Zeno.

This continuation of the advanced ideas of the Eleatics by representatives of other directions is considered by some scientific critics as a merger with similarly thinking philosophical movements. English-speaking historiographers even reduce the importance of the movement to the identity of the Ionian teaching.

It is important to note that through the efforts of the followers of the Eleatic school, the historical contribution of the school to the development of world philosophical thought has been documented.

ELEA SCHOOL– one of the ancient Greek philosophical schools (late 6th – 1st half of the 5th centuries BC), uniting Parmenides, Zeno of Elea and Melissa (sometimes Xenophanes is also included in it, given some evidence that he was Parmenides’ teacher ). Unlike most Pre-Socratics, the Eleans did not deal with issues of natural science, but developed a theoretical doctrine of being (the term itself was first proposed precisely in the Eleatic School), laying the foundation of classical Greek ontology.

The Eleatic school was characterized by strict monism in the doctrine of being and rationalism in the doctrine of knowledge. At the center of the teachings of all three Eleatic philosophers was the doctrine of being: Parmenides was the first to make the concept of “being” the subject of analysis in his philosophical poem, Zeno, with the help of logical aporias, showed the absurdity of teachings based on premises other than Parmenides (i.e. from the assumption of movement and multitudes); Melissa summarized school dogma in a treatise About nature, or about being. According to Parmenides, “that which is” (being) is, and this follows from the very concept of “to be,” but “that which is not” (non-existence) is not, which also follows from the content of the concept itself. From this comes the unity and immobility of being, which cannot be divided into parts and has nowhere to move, and from this comes the description of conceivable being as a continuum that is not divided into parts and does not age in time, given only to thoughts, but not to feelings. Emptiness is identified with nothingness, so there is no emptiness. The subject of thinking can only be something (being), non-existence is not thinkable (the thesis “to think and to be one and the same”). The truth about existence is known by reason; feelings form only an opinion that inadequately reflects the truth. Opinion, “doxa,” is fixed in language and represents the world as contradictory, existing in the struggle of physical opposites, but in reality there is neither plurality nor opposites. Behind conventional names there is an unconditional unity (“block”) of being.

The interest of representatives of the Eleatic school in the problems of being was developed in classical Greek thought by Plato and Aristotle.

6. Eleatic school - Parmenides, Zeno. The Doctrine of One.

Characteristic of the Eleatics is the doctrine of a single being - continuous, infinite, equally present in every element of reality. They first raised the question of the relationship between being and thinking.

Parmenides (7th-6th century BC) said that “to think and to be are one and the same.” However, he did not believe that being and thinking are identical. Being is one and motionless. Any change presupposes the passing of some qualities into oblivion - therefore existence is unchanged. The path of truth according to Parmenides is the path of reason. Feelings mislead a person, so in knowledge one must rely on reason.

Zeno proved the immobility of being with aporias (logical paradoxes). Zeno's aporia reveals the contradictions inherent in human consciousness. The “Flying Arrow” aporia: if you divide the trajectory of an arrow into points, it turns out that the arrow is at rest at each point.

The entire teaching of the Eleatics was aimed at separating sensory knowledge of changing things and intellectual knowledge, which has a special unchanging object (being). The discovery of this subject makes it possible for the existence of philosophical and generally accurate demonstrative knowledge.

The Eleatics introduced the following categories into philosophy (the basic operational units of philosophy, extremely general concepts): being, non-being, movement.

The Eleatic school is quite interesting for research, since it is one of the oldest schools, in whose works mathematics and philosophy interact quite closely and in many ways. The main representatives of the Eleatic school are considered to be Parmenides (late 6th - 5th centuries BC) and Zeno (first half of the 5th century BC).

The philosophy of Parmenides is as follows: all kinds of worldview systems are based on one of three premises:

1) There is only being, there is no non-existence;

2) There is not only existence, but also non-existence;

3) Existence and non-existence are identical.

Parmenides recognizes only the first premise as true. According to him, being is one, indivisible, unchangeable, timeless, complete in itself, only it is truly existing; multiplicity, variability, discontinuity, fluidity - all this is the lot of the imaginary.

His student Zeno defended the teachings of Parmenides from objections. The ancients attributed to him forty proofs for defending the doctrine of the unity of existence (against the plurality of things) and five proofs of its immobility (against movement).

Only nine of them have reached us. The most famous at all times have been Zeno's proofs against motion; for example, “motion does not exist on the grounds that a moving body must first reach half before reaching the end, and in order to reach half, it must pass half of this half, etc.”

Zeno's reasoning led to the need to rethink such important methodological issues as the nature of infinity, the relationship between continuous and discontinuous, etc. They drew the attention of mathematicians to the fragility of the foundation of their scientific activity and thus had a stimulating effect on the progress of this science. Zeno's aporias are related to finding the sum of an infinite geometric progression.

Of great importance for the subsequent development of mathematics was the increase in the level of abstraction of mathematical knowledge, which occurred to a large extent due to the activities of the Eleatics. A specific form of manifestation of this process was the emergence of indirect evidence (“by contradiction”), a characteristic feature of which is the proof not of the statement itself, but of the absurdity of its opposite. Thus, a step was taken towards the establishment of mathematics as a deductive science, and some prerequisites were created for its axiomatic construction.

So, the philosophical reasoning of the Eleatics, on the one hand, was a powerful impetus for a fundamentally new formulation of the most important methodological questions of mathematics, and on the other hand, they served as a source for the emergence of a qualitatively new form of substantiation of mathematical knowledge.

Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below

Students, graduate students, young scientists who use the knowledge base in their studies and work will be very grateful to you.

Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/

Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/

DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE, INDUSTRIAL POLICY AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP OF MOSCOW

State educational institution

higher professional education

"Moscow Academy of Labor Market and Information Technologies"

(GOU "MARTIT")

ABSTRACT

by discipline " Philosophy »

on the topic of: « Eleatic school. Main ideas and representatives »

Completed by: Andronov A.V.

2nd year student

Teacher: Rozhkov V.V.

Moscow 2013

Introduction

1 Philosophy of the Eleatic school

1.1 Parmenides

1.2 Zeno

1.3 Melissa

Introduction

The term “being” was first proposed by ancient Greek thinkers of the early period - the Eleatics. Unlike most Pre-Socratics, the Eleans did not deal with issues of natural science; they developed a theoretical doctrine of being, laying the foundation of classical Greek ontology.

The Eleatic school was characterized by strict monism in the doctrine of being and rationalism in the doctrine of knowledge. The Eleatics were conscious defenders of the unity of all that exists; they also discovered deep contradictions rooted in the ordinary, perceptual view of the universe. The antinomies of space, time and movement as definitions of truly existing things were revealed by the Eleatics with great dialectical talent. Finally, the Eleatics were the first to quite clearly distinguish between what really exists, comprehended by thought, and the phenomenon with which a person becomes acquainted through the senses.

The relevance of studying this topic is great, since the teachings of the Eleatic School made a huge contribution to Greek philosophy and to the history of philosophy in general.

The object of this study is the “Eleatic School”.

The subject of the study is the main ideas and representatives.

The purpose of this work is to study the main ideas and representatives of the Eleatic school.

To achieve the goal in the work, it is necessary to solve the following tasks:

1) analyze general teachings;

2) explore main ideas;

3) study the characteristics of philosophical teaching;

4) consider the main directions of teaching.

1. Philosophy of the Eleatic school

The Eleatics are an ancient Greek philosophical school (6-5 centuries BC), which arose in the city of Elea (Southern Italy). Its main representatives were Parmenides, Xenophanes, Zeno of Elea, and Melissus. The influence of their school on the formation of abstract scientific thought is enormous. The philosophy of the Eleatics stood on the path of rationalizing knowledge, operating with abstract concepts and freeing thinking from metaphorical images. The Eleatics were the first in the interpretation of substance to move from specific natural elements - water, air, fire, earth - to being as such.

1.1 Parmenides

Parmenides (late 7th-6th century BC) - philosopher, politician, central figure of the Eleatic school. He was born into a noble family and spent his youth in fun and luxury, when satiety with pleasures told him about the insignificance of pleasures, he began to contemplate “the clear face of truth in the silence of sweet teaching.” He took an active part in the political affairs of his native city. He was recognized as one of the wise political leaders.

Parmenides wrote the poem On Nature, where he figuratively presented the path of knowledge in the form of an allegorical description of the journey of a young man to the goddess who revealed the truth to him. In the very first verses of the poem, Parmenides proclaims the dominant role of reason in knowledge and the auxiliary role of the senses. He divided philosophy into the philosophy of truth and the philosophy of opinion, calling reason the criterion of truth, but in feelings, he said, there is no precision: do not trust sensory perceptions, do not roll your eyes aimlessly, do not listen with ears in which only noise is heard, and do not chatter idly with your tongue , but examine the evidence stated with your mind.

The central idea of ​​Parmenides is being, the relationship between thinking and being. Thinking always refers to something, for without the being about which it is expressed, we will not find thought. Try to think about nothing. And you will see that this is impossible. The brilliant idea of ​​Parmenides that there is not and cannot be empty space and time outside of changing existence. It is impossible to find thought without being: thought without being is nothing. Non-existence can neither be known nor expressed; only existence is conceivable. It is especially important to emphasize that Parmenides linked the spiritual world of man with such determinants as the position of man and the level of his bodily organization: the highest degree gives the highest degree of thinking. And physicality and spirituality coincide in the universe in God. [2]

The basic ideas of the Eleatic school were brought to full development by Parmenides. His disciples, Zeno (about 490-430) and Melissa (about 485-425), could only defend his theory from objections made by people who adhere to ordinary concepts of things, and look for new arguments. Working in this direction, they wrote in prose. Dialectical techniques, which Parmenides put into poetic form, received a more complete technical development in their treatises.

Zeno of Elea, a friend and student of Parmenides, defended the doctrine of the unity of everything that exists, of the illusory nature of everything individual, with dialectical techniques that showed what logical incongruities lie in the “opinion” that there really is a world of individual objects arising and moving. Proving that the concepts of movement and emergence contradict themselves, Zeno, in the spirit of the main tenet of the Eleatic school, eliminated these concepts as illusory and came to the conclusion that nothing changing can exist, that, consequently, there is only a single, unchanging being .

Only small fragments have survived from the writings of Zeno of Elea. Most of them are in Aristotle's Physics. Zeno's original method gave Aristotle a reason to call him the founder of “dialectics.” Among ancient authors, the term “dialectics” meant the knowledge of truth through the identification of internal contradictions in the thoughts of an opponent. Zeno exposes these contradictions in the thinking of the opponents of the Eleatic school in his famous “Aporia” (the literal translation of the word aporia is “hopelessness”).

Defending the teaching of the Eleatic school about the unity and immutability of Being, Zeno proves that the original mental foundations of those who reject it (the idea of ​​space as emptiness, separate from the substance that fills it; the belief in the plurality of things and the presence of movement in the world) are false. Zeno convinces us that the recognition of these seemingly self-evident postulates leads to irreconcilable contradictions. The truth is the main philosophical provisions of the Eleatic school: emptiness, multiplicity and movement do not exist in the world.

Regarding the empty space external to Being, the substance, Zeno says that since it is also Being, then it must be somewhere, in some special “second space”. This second space must reside in the third - and so on ad infinitum. According to the Eleatic school, such an assumption of a plurality of spaces is absurd. This means that space is inseparable from Being, is not a substance external to it, and things inseparable from it cannot be inside it.

The usual human idea of ​​​​the infinite multiplicity of things in the eyes of the Eleatic school and Zeno also suffers from irreconcilable contradictions. If there are an infinite number of things, then each of them has no magnitude (or, what is the same, has an infinitesimal one). Infinity destroys not only the concept of magnitude, but also the concept of number: the sum of the elements of an infinite set does not exist, because the sum must be a definite finite number, and conventional knowledge considers this sum to be infinite. Consequently, we must recognize as true the teaching of the Eleatic school about the unity of being.

The usual human idea of ​​the existence of movement, according to Zeno, also does not reflect the true metaphysical reality. The Aporias contains the famous “refutations of the movement”: “Dichotomy (division by two)”, “Achilles”, “Flying Arrow” and “Stadius”.

In “Dichotomy” Zeno points out that if we move from one point to another, we will first have to go half the way between them, then half the remaining half - and so on ad infinitum. But a movement that lasts an infinite amount of time will never reach its goal. To overcome a path, you must first overcome half the path, and to overcome half the path, you must first overcome half of the half, and so on ad infinitum. Therefore, the movement will never begin.

In the aporia “The Flying Arrow,” Zeno proves that if we consider an arrow fired from a bow at each individual moment of flight, it will turn out that at every moment it is simultaneously flying and occupying a certain stationary position. At the same time, both movement and immobility exist - therefore, the usual human idea of ​​movement is false and meaningless, but the idea of ​​the Eleatic school about the complete immutability and immobility of Being is true. A flying arrow is motionless, since at every moment of time it is at rest, and since it is at rest at every moment of time, it is always at rest.

In the aporia “Achilles,” Zeno proves that Achilles, famous for the speed of his running, will never catch up with the turtle running away from him. Although Achilles runs faster than the tortoise, the distance between them will never become zero, because the tortoise, moving away from Achilles, in each new period of time will have time to cover a distance that, no matter how insignificant it may be, will never be equal to zero. Zeno therefore argues that at no point in the run will the distance between Achilles and the tortoise become zero, and the former will never catch up with the latter.

Let's say Achilles runs ten times faster than the tortoise and is a thousand steps behind it. During the time it takes Achilles to run this distance, the tortoise will crawl a hundred steps in the same direction. When Achilles runs a hundred steps, the tortoise crawls another ten steps, and so on. The process will continue ad infinitum, Achilles will never catch up with the tortoise.

1.3 Melissa

Melissus, a native of Samos, successfully commanded the Samian fleet during the War of Athens and Samos in 440 BC. e. Some authors say that in his youth Melissus studied with the famous philosopher Heraclitus, but then joined the Eleatic teaching, which was completely opposite in meaning. Eleatic Zeno Aporia Ancient Greek

Among the philosophers of the Eleatic school, Melissus stood out in important ways. Entirely following the teachings of Xenophanes and Parmenides about the unity, immutability and eternity of true being, he argued that the world can be like this only if it is infinite. Other representatives of the Eleatic school, on the contrary, believed that the world was finite and spherical.

In addition, Melissus, unlike other Eleatics, believed that the world should be incorporeal, for “if Being had thickness, it would thereby have parts and would no longer be one.” Apparently, Melissa came to the idea of ​​​​the infinity of Being by the same reasoning. Finite Being would have a certain size, which means it could be decomposed into parts, and this violates the Eleatic idea of ​​universal unity and the absence of multiplicity.

Conclusion

This work was devoted to the current topic of research into the main ideas and representatives of the Eleatic school.

The object of the study was the Eleatic School.

The purpose of the work was to study the main ideas and representatives of the Eleatic school.

To achieve the goal, the following tasks were solved:

1) general teachings are analyzed, it is established that, unlike most Pre-Socratics, the Eleans did not deal with issues of natural science, they developed a theoretical doctrine of being (proposing this term itself for the first time), laying the foundation of classical Greek ontology;

2) the main ideas and representatives were examined, it was revealed that the philosophers of the Eleatic school considered being to be, and this follows from the very concept of “to be,” but “that which is not,” non-existence, is not, which also follows from the content of the concept itself;

3) the characteristics of philosophical teaching have been studied, which reflects a strict, unified principle in the doctrine of being and rationalism in the doctrine of knowledge;

4) the main directions of the doctrine are considered, such as non-existence, space, existence, matter, time, measure.

List of sources and literature used

1. Bogomolov A. S. “Ancient Philosophy” 2nd ed. M.: Higher. school 2006. - 390 p.

2. Wundt V. Introduction to philosophy. - St. Petersburg, 1903 .- 352 p.

3. Losev A.F. “Ancient Philosophy of History” M.: Nauka,
1977.- 208 p.

4. Lavrinenko V.N. “Philosophy” 2nd ed., rev. and additional - M.: Lawyer. 2004. - 520 p.

5. Spirkin A.G. “Philosophy” 2nd ed. - M.: Gardariki, 2006. -

436 pp.

6. Zeller E. Essay on the history of Greek philosophy / Transl. S.L. Frank. M.: Kanon, 1996. - 342 p.

7. http://rushist.com/index.php/greece-rome/767-elejskaya-shkola

Posted on Allbest.ru

Similar documents

Philosophical worldviews of the Milesian school: Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes. Pythagoras and his school. Eleatic School: Xenophanes, Parmenides, Zeno. Atomism of Leucippus-Democritus. Sophists and sophistry: Protagoras, Gorgias and Prodicus. Philosophy of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.

abstract, added 03/18/2011


The concept of one God and intelligible being in the philosophy of Xenophanes, Parmenides. Aporia as a concept meaning an intractable problem in ancient Greek philosophy. Method of proof. The phenomenon of popularity of Zeno's aporias. Denial of emptiness as non-existence.

course work, added 07/06/2011


The category of being in philosophy, periods in the interpretation of being, the existence of man and the existence of the world. The problem of the emergence of philosophy. Milesian school. Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes. Pythagoras and his school. Heraclitus of Ephesus. Eleatic School: Xenophanes, Parmenides Zeno.

course work, added 11/01/2003


Pre-philosophical forms of consciousness, the problem of the sources of philosophy. Features of the development of philosophy of the West and East. Milesian school. Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes. Pythagoras and his school. Heraclitus of Ephesus. Eleatic School: Xenophanes, Parmenides Zeno. Sophists and Sophies

course work, added 12/10/2004


The concept and main stages of development of ancient philosophy, its outstanding representatives and schools. Brief description of pre-Socratic philosophy. The Milesian and Eleatic school and its representatives, areas of research and significance in the history of this science.

presentation, added 11/27/2014


Philosophical views of the Milesian school: Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes. Heraclitus, Empedocles and Anaxagoras are the great dialecticians of antiquity. The orientation of the interests of the Eleatic school: Xenophanes, Parmenides, Zeno. Sophists and sophistry: Protagoras, Gorgias and Prodicus.

abstract, added 11/12/2010


Natural philosophy of the Milesian school. The essence of the concepts "arche", "being". Anaximander, Apeiron, Anaximenes. Fire and Logos of Heraclitus, dialectics. Pythagorean philosophy and mathematics, numbers and geometric figures. Parmenides and Xenophanes, the birth of metaphysics.

presentation, added 07/17/2012


Ancient philosophy as a consistently developing philosophical thought. The main schools of ancient philosophy: Ionian, Milesian, Ephesian, Eleatic, classical, Pythagorean school. Development of skepticism and stoicism. Philosophy of Thales, Pythagoras, Epicurus.

test, added 01/17/2011


Plato and Aristotle are the two “peaks” of ancient Greek philosophy. Basic ideas of Plato's philosophy. Aristotle's formal logic. The birth of Philosophical thought in Russia, its main representatives and theories. The meaning of human life according to various concepts.

test, added 09/06/2009


Main features, directions, representatives of ancient philosophy. Pythagorean school. Classical age of ancient Greek philosophy. Philosophy of Plato. Philosophy of Aristotle. Philosophy of the Hellenistic era. Psychoanalytic concepts of man. Freud's theory.

Zeno of Elea is an ancient Greek thinker, logician and philosopher. Aristotle and Plato relied on his ideas; his works are interesting and educational for modern humanity.

The fate of Zeno of Elea is striking in its complexity and tragedy. There are legends about him, he is admired and criticized.

Who is he - Zeno of Elea, whose biography is so contradictory and vague, and whose social activities are so varied and entertaining? Let's find out.

Childhood

The future philosopher was born in Elea, approximately in 490 BC.

Lucania, to which the ancient city of Elea belonged, is a territory of modern southern Italy, famous among the population of that time for its beautiful lush meadows. Cattle breeding and viticulture flourished in Lucania; it differed from other regions in its extraordinary wealth, fertility and dense population.

Elea was considered a Greek colony on the territory of Lucania. The city was located on the shores of the Tyrrhenian Sea and was considered the center of philosophical and cultural life of the entire region.

Zeno of Elea was the son of Teleutagoras. Most likely, his family was wealthy and noble, since from an early age the boy had the opportunity to study with the brightest and most influential minds of that time - Xenophanes and Parmenides.

Teacher Xenophanes

Xenophanes of Colophon, one of Zeno's teachers, is an ancient Greek poet and philosopher, the forerunner of the Eleatic school.

Being a very educated and deeply reflective person, Xenophanes criticized the religious system widespread at that time. He argued that the gods of Olympus are a folk invention, and that mythology is purely a figment of human imagination.

Observant and prone to mockery, the ancient Greek sage fearlessly criticized the views, worldviews and traditions of his contemporaries. For example, he argued that athletic achievements are less important than philosophical wisdom.

However, rejecting the Olympian gods and predictors of the future, Xenophanes remained a deeply religious man, representing God as one and omnipotent.

The teachings and beliefs adopted from Xenophanes had a huge impact on Zeno's life and worldview.

Teacher Parmenides

Another mentor of the Eleatic philosopher was Parmenides, an ancient Greek philosopher, a noble and rich man, legislator of Elea, founder and main representative of the Eleatic school.

Parmenides had close bonds of friendship with his young ward. Some sources call him Zeno's adoptive father. According to some historical works, the young student was the lover of Parmenides' wife. However, such information is contradictory and unconfirmed.

Be that as it may, Parmenides, who was fifty years older than Zeno, had a strong influence on the thinking and principles of his pupil.

What views did Parmenides hold? He explored the original nature of reality, the world and existence, separated the concepts of truth and opinion, and rejected sensations and experience as a source of knowledge.

Subsequently, his teachings and reasoning were shaped and disseminated by Zeno.

Life of Zeno of Elea

Zeno was a very insightful and inquisitive man, in constant thought and research. During his philosophical research, the thinker traveled to Athens and had long conversations with Socrates.

We know very little about the life of the Elean sage.

Various sources say that he was an active politician, and adhered to democratic beliefs, and even took part in the fight against the cruel tyrant Nearchus.

The confrontation was unequal. Zeno was captured and subjected to cruel and sophisticated torture. Without surrendering to his like-minded people, he died in agony, like a hero.

There are also many legends and rumors about the death of the philosopher. Some say that during torture, he tricked the cruel despot, dressed in a royal robe, to come closer, and bit off his ear. Others claim that he bit off his own tongue and spat it in the face of the ferocious tyrant.

Be that as it may, Zeno of Elea died the death of the brave, without betraying his allies and remaining true to his convictions. At that time, the ancient Greek philosopher was about sixty years old.

Mentions of the Sage

First of all, Zeno is famous for his scientific reasoning, or aporia. Many of them are still the subject of heated scientific discussions and debates.

The works of Zeno, which have survived to modern days, are contained in the expositions of Aristotle and his commentators. It was mentioned by such prominent ancient Greek philosophers as Plato, Diogenes, and Plutarch.

Before getting acquainted with the concept of Zeno's reasoning, let's first find out in what historical time he lived and what cause he was a follower of.

Philosophy of the time

In order to objectively assess the invaluable contribution Zeno of Elea made to the development of logic, philosophy and history, it is necessary to understand the state of Greek philosophy in the mid-fifth century BC.

Many prominent thinkers of those years searched for the basic element from which the Universe was formed. The Ionian sages of Asia Minor could not come to a common denominator as to what is the root cause of all things: water, air, or something vague, hitherto unknown. They were of the opinion that everything in the Universe is changeable and full of opposites.

There was another, completely similar worldview of Pythagoras and his followers, who believed that the main element, or root cause, was number, or a discrete unit endowed with a spatial dimension.

Zeno's teacher Parmenides criticized both theories, arguing that the primary element does not exist, since the Universe is an immovable, unchanging and dense ball, where everything is one and not divided into parts.

Philosophical school

Parmenides laid these and his other studies as the foundation of the so-called Eleatic school - an ancient Greek philosophical school of the early period, the followers of which were Zeno of Elea and Melissus of Samos.

The essence of this movement was not to deal with issues of natural science, but to develop a doctrine of being.

The Eleatic school took as the basis for its teachings the principle that existence is continuous, one, eternal, indestructible and unchangeable. From this the unity and immobility of being is deduced. It cannot be divided into parts and has nowhere to move. Emptiness is nothingness, which means it does not exist.

Also, the Eleatic school was of the opinion that truth can be known only by reason, and that even opinion, since it is formed by feelings, is incorrect and inadequate in reflecting the truth.

The Eleatic school in general, like Zeno in particular, has a huge impact on the philosophical science of our time. The Eleatic interest in the problems of existence was developed in the classical teachings of Plato and Aristotle. And although the representatives of the Eleatic school did not fully cope with the task set for themselves (they never found a solution to the questions about the relationship of unity to plurality, etc.), the Eleatics became the founders of eristics, sophistry and idealistic dialectics.

Zeno's Paradoxical Reasonings

What is remarkable about the philosophical works and quests of the student of Parmenides, a representative of the Eleatic school?

The aporia of Zeno of Elea touched upon such concepts as motion, space and multitude, proving the contradictory nature of their concepts.

What is special about Zeno's philosophical reasoning? Unlike his mentor Parmenides, who tried to prove his theories using logical chains, Zeno of Elea, whose philosophy was a consequence of the views of his teacher, used a different kind of tactics.

Instead of consistently proving his point of view, Zeno resorted to another method of argumentation - by contradiction. That is, by asking his opponent a series of thoughtful questions, Zeno forced him to see the paradox and absurdity of his position. This method of arguing is called dialectical. No wonder Aristotle considered Zeno the first dialectician.

The aporia of Zeno of Elea primarily related to the movement and multiplicity of things. It is difficult to say what motivated the thinker when he formulated his reasoning. Most likely, his aporia was a consequence of reflections on the early mathematical teachings of the Pythagoreans.

Paradoxes of movement

Zeno of Elea, whose main ideas are conveyed in the paradoxical reasoning that has reached us, tried to subordinate to logical understanding those mathematical and physical knowledge that seemed inconsistent and contradictory to him.

It should be mentioned that Zeno did not reject movement as such. He simply proved the incompatibility of movement with the idea of ​​continuity as a multitude. This point of view is clearly visible in Zeno’s famous aporia “Achilles and the Tortoise.” In it, the ancient Greek philosopher tried to prove that Achilles will never catch up with the turtle, since first he needs to get to the place from which it begins to move, and during this time the turtle will get to the next point of movement and so on ad infinitum. And although we can now calculate to the nearest thousandths when Achilles will catch up with the tortoise, the philosophical questions raised in the aporia still excite the minds of modern logicians and mathematicians.

The next aporia against movement is “Arrow”, where the ancient sage tried to prove that a flying arrow remains motionless in relation to the space it occupies.

Zeno's aporias against motion, such as "Achilles and the Tortoise", "Arrow", "Dichotomy" and others, are based on the erroneous axiom of ancient mathematicians that the sum of an infinite number of quantities is necessarily infinite.

Other paradoxes

The ancient Greek thinker was only interested in contradictory concepts. After all, what is perceived contradictory cannot exist! Similar reasoning is reflected in other aporia of Zeno - against plurality, place and other concepts.

For example, the aporia “About Place” states that all existing objects fit in space. This means that there is also space for space (and so on). Therefore, the concept of “place” exists only in relation to the bodies located in it.

Also interesting is the aporia about the “Medimna of Grain”, where the question is raised: why does one grain fall silently, but the fall of a bag of grain causes a lot of noise? With his paradox, Zeno wanted to prove that the part is different from the whole, and, therefore, infinite divisibility is practically impossible.

Influence

Most of the aporias of Zeno of Elea, although considered erroneous and outdated, still occupy prominent minds of our time with their complexity and logical confirmation. They had a huge influence on ancient Greek culture, philosophy and logic.