The philosophy of ancient Greece is a set of teachings that developed from the 6th century BC e. but VI century. n. e.(from the formation of archaic policies on the Ionian and Italian coasts to the flourishing of democratic Athens and the subsequent crisis and collapse of the policy). Usually the beginning is ancient Greek philosophy associated with the name Thales of Miletus
(625-547 BC), the end - with the decree of the Roman emperor Justinian on the closure of philosophical schools in Athens (529 AD). This millennium of the development of philosophical ideas demonstrates an amazing commonality, an obligatory focus on unification in a single cosmic universe and the gods
. This is largely due to the pagan (polytheistic) roots of Greek philosophy. For the Greeks, it is the main absolute, it was not created by the gods, the gods themselves are part of nature and personify the main natural elements. Man, on the other hand, does not lose his original connection with nature, but lives not only “according to nature”, but also “according to the establishment” (on the basis of reasonable justification). The human mind among the Greeks was freed from the power of the gods, the Greek respects them and will not offend, but in his Everyday life will rely on the arguments of reason, relying on himself and knowing that a person is happy not because he is loved by the gods, but because the gods love a person because he is happy. The most important discovery of the human mind for the Greeks is the law (nomos). nomos
- These are reasonable regulations adopted by all residents of the city, its citizens, and equally binding on all. Therefore, such a city is also a state (city - state - policy).
The polis nature of Greek life (with its role as a national assembly, public oratorical competitions, etc.) explains the Greeks' trust in reason, theory, and the worship of the impersonal absolute (nature) - the constant closeness and even inseparability of physics (the doctrine of nature) and metaphysics ( the doctrine of the fundamental principles of being). The civic nature of public life, the role of the personal principle are reflected in ethics (this is already a practical philosophy that orients a person to specific types of behavior), which determines human virtues, the proper measure of human life.
contemplation - consideration of the problems of worldview in the unity of nature, man - served as a justification for the norms of human life, the position of man in the world, ways to achieve piety, justice and even personal happiness.
Already in the early Greek philosophers of nature (natural philosophers) - Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Pythagoras and his schools Heraclitus, Parmenides- substantiation of the nature of the cosmos served to determine the nature of man. Coming to the fore the problem of cosmic harmony , which the harmony of human life should also correspond to, in human life it was often identified with prudence and justice.
Early Greek natural philosophy is a way of philosophizing and a way of understanding the world, in which physis plays a key role in integrating the universe: nature with man and gods with nature. But nature is not isolated either as an object of independent and special consideration, or as an expression of human essence. It does not break away from the things around a person - panta ta onta . Another thing is that a person cannot and should not dwell on phenomena, “a philosophizing person”, as noted , begins to "surprise", he is looking for, speaking in words Heraclitus, true nature, which "loves to hide", and on this way refers to the beginnings of the universe - arehai . At the same time, a person remains in the foreground in the picture of the universe. Actually, the cosmos is the cosmic world of human everyday life. In such a world, everything is correlated, adjusted and arranged: earth and rivers, sky and sun - everything serves life. The natural environment of a person, his life and death (Hades and the "islands of the blessed"), the bright transcendental world of the gods, all the vital functions of a person are described earlier by Greek natural philosophers clearly and figuratively. This clarity in the image shows the world as a settled and mastered person. The cosmos is not an abstract model of the universe, but the human world, however, unlike the finite man, it is eternal and immortal.
The contemplative nature of philosophizing manifests itself in a cosmological form in the later natural philosophers: Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Democritus. Cosmologism is undeniable here; it is also present in the doctrine of cosmic cycles and the roots of the universe in Empedocles, and in the doctrine of seeds and the cosmic “nous” (mind), which “brought everything out of disorder into order”, and in the doctrine of atoms and emptiness and the natural necessity of . But they combine contemplative visibility with the development of a categorical apparatus, the use of logical argumentation. After all, already Heraclitus images are filled with deep meaning (sense images), and Parmenides in a poem with the traditional title "On the Nature of Things" he substantiates an unconventional way of studying nature with the help of concepts ("with your mind you solve this problem").
A special role is played by the category of cause, guilt (aitia), introduced by . He rejects the possibility of using mythological images and judgments and declares the truth of names (including the entire sphere of concepts) not “by nature”, but “by establishment”. Nature for Democritus remains the basis of human life and the goal of knowledge, however, by knowing nature, creating a “second nature”, a person overcomes natural necessity. This does not mean that he begins to live contrary to nature, but, for example, having learned to swim, he will not drown in the river.
Democritus was practically the first to widely expand the anthropological aspects of ancient Greek philosophy, discussing such issues as man, god, state, the role of the sage in the policy. And yet, the glory of the discoverer of anthropological problems belongs to Socrates . Arguing with the sophists ( Protagoras, Gorgias, Hippias and others), who proclaimed man "the measure of all things", he defended the objectivity, universal validity of epistemological and ethical norms, which he explained by the inviolability, stability and binding nature of the cosmic order.
However, we can judge Socrates only on the basis of dialogues, who used the image of Socrates as a constant character in his dialogues. Plato was a faithful student of Socrates and therefore completely merged the ideas of Socrates with his own. Measure, knowledge (the famous Socratic “know thyself”), which are so necessary for man, Plato substantiates the cosmic mind. He puts forward the demiurgical creation of the world (Timaeus). Order and measure are brought into the world by the mind-demiurge, proportionately correlating the elements and giving the cosmos perfect outlines, etc. The mind creates, as an artisan ("demiurge") creates from the available material and referring to the standard, model (i.e., contemplating " ideas"). "Eidos", "idea" there is a sample of every thing, but first of all it is the “appearance”, “face” - eidos, idea, which we meet, but we cannot always recognize. These images, the true faces of things, are imprinted in our soul. After all, the soul is immortal and carries this immortal knowledge. Therefore, Plato justifies, following Pythagoras, the need to remember what the soul has seen. And the way to recreate the forgotten and the most valuable is contemplation, admiration and love (Eros).
Another great Greek philosopher is more prosaic. He banishes mythological images and ambiguity of concepts from philosophy. Nature, God, man, the cosmos are the constant subjects of his entire philosophy. Although Aristotle already distinguishes between physics and metaphysics, the principles underlying them (the doctrine of the prime mover, the doctrine of causality) are the same. The central problem of physics is the problem of motion, which is understood by Aristotle as the direct action of one object on another. The movement takes place in a limited space and involves the orientation of the bodies "to their natural place." Both of them are characterized by the category of goal - "telos", i.e. purpose of things. And this goal and predestination is communicated to the world by God, as the first impulse, as “what moves, while remaining motionless.” Along with this, things are based on causes - material, formal and driving. In fact, the target reason in opposition to the material one (the same Platonic dualism) covers both the driving and the target. However, the god of Aristotle, unlike the Christian, is not omnipresent and does not predetermine events. Reason is given to man, and, knowing the world, he himself must find a reasonable measure of his own life.
Hellenistic era marks the collapse of the polis ideals, as well as the justification of new models of the cosmos. The main currents of this era - Epicureanism, Stoicism, Cynicism - justify not civic activity and virtue, but personal salvation and equanimity of the soul. As a life ideal of the individual, hence the refusal to develop a fundamental philosophy (the physical ideas of Heraclitus are reproduced by the Stoics, Democritus by the Epicureans, etc.). The tilt towards ethics is clearly expressed, and it is very one-sided, which is defended by ways to achieve "ataraxia" - equanimity. What else was left to do in conditions of social instability, the collapse of the policy (and with it the easily visible and regulated social order) and the growth of chaos, uncontrollable social conflicts, political despotism and petty tyranny? True, different paths were offered: following fate and duty ( stoics
Philosophers are very interesting people. Previously, since there was no physics or many other exact sciences yet, philosophers tried to answer a variety of questions, from why we live to why the grass is green. Since today science has given people an answer to many, as it seems to us, children's questions, philosophers have switched to searching for answers to more global questions of the universe. But, nevertheless, although modern philosophers are trying to understand the universe, they cannot even come close to equaling their colleagues of past centuries. We invite you to familiarize yourself with the 25 greatest philosophers of all time. And so, the most famous philosophers.
25 Greatest Philosophers of All Time
Philosophers allowed visible world take shape in our mind. From the hard sciences to political discussions, philosophers have sought to challenge our idea of what the world looks like. And this science originated in Ancient Greece, known for its impressive list of philosophers, many of whom you know from school days. We have compiled 25 of the most famous names of philosophy so that you can show off your knowledge during an argument. And so, the most famous philosophers.
- 1 Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle
- 2 Immanuel Kant
- 3 Plato
- 4 Confucius is one of the greatest and most famous in the world
- 5 David Hume
- 6 René Descartes
- 7 Socrates
- 8 Niccolo Machiavelli
- 9 John Locke
- 10 Diogenes
- 11 Thomas Aquinas
- 12 Lao Tzu
- 13 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- 14 Baruch Spinoza
- 15 Voltaire
- 16 Thomas Hobbes
- 17 Aurelius Augustine
- 18 Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
- 19 Siddhartha Gautama Buddha
- 20 Baron de Montesquieu
- 21 Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- 22 George Berkeley
- 23 Ayn Rand
- 24 Simone de Bouvoir
- 25 Sun Tzu
Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle
Marble bust of famous philosopher
An ancient Greek philosopher, known to almost every person who is at least a little familiar with the course of school history. Aristotle was a student of Plato, but in many ways surpassed his teacher, which caused his discontent. Known for his work in mathematics, physics, logic, poetry, linguistics and political science.
Immanuel Kant
Grandfather of modern Matrix theory
A native of Germany, Kant is known for his ideas on the relativity of perception. According to him, we see the world not as it is. We can only perceive it through the prism of our thoughts, feelings and judgments. In other words, he laid the foundation for the creation of the concept of the Matrix by the Wachowski brothers.
Plato
Creator of Atlantis and the Academy
As already mentioned, Plato was the teacher of Aristotle. He is known for establishing the Academy in Athens. It was the first higher educational institution in the Western world.
Confucius is one of the greatest and most famous in the world
An article by a Chinese philosopher in Beijing
This Chinese philosopher lived around 500 BC. His philosophy was focused on relationships and the importance of the family in the life of each individual and society. Later, his views developed and became known as Confucianism.
David Hume
Portrait of Hume by a Scottish artist
This Scottish philosopher was known for his commitment to empiricism and skepticism. He was sure that our perception of the world is based not on an objective vision, but on our belief in how the world should look like. Kant, by the way, took a lot from Hume's ideas.
Rene Descartes
The famous philosopher on the canvas of the royal master
He is rightfully considered the father of modern philosophy. He owns one of the most famous aphorisms - "I think, therefore I exist."
Socrates
Great Greek Philosopher
Plato's teacher made a very significant contribution to rhetoric, logic and philosophy. He is credited with the so-called Socratic method of discussion, in which the listener is asked a series of questions that lead the listener to the desired conclusions.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Father of the "Sovereign" in a lifetime portrait
Living during the Renaissance, Machiavelli is known for his invaluable contributions to political philosophy. His book "The Sovereign" tells how to stay "at the helm" of power under any circumstances. Machiavelli's work was accepted with hostility, since at that time it was believed that power could not be unvirtuous. “Power is always right” and “Love does not get along well with fear” are his statements.
John Locke
The physician who opened the way for popular science thought
Locke was a British physician. According to his theory, all our perception is based on subjective vision. His thoughts were developed by Hume and Kant. Locke is also known for using simple language in his writings, understandable to anyone familiar with the ability to read. When asked how objects outside of a person could exist, he suggested sticking one's hand into a fire.
Diogenes
Scene with the search for Man through the eyes of an artist
This ancient Greek philosopher is famous for sitting in a barrel. He also cursed Aristotle, claiming that he perverted the teachings of Plato. No less famous is the episode in which Diogenes, finding Athens mired in vanity and vices, walked the streets of the capital with a torch and exclamations “I am looking for a Man!”.
Thomas Aquinas
Aquinas surrounded by ideas and one ancient Greek philosopher
Thomas Aquinas is one of the most important Christian theologians and philosophers. He not only combined the Greek natural school of philosophy with Christian theology, but also created a series of treatises that develop a rational approach to faith and religion (oddly enough). His writings most widely describe the beliefs and faith of the Middle Ages.
Lao Tzu
Statue of a philosopher in one of the Chinese temples
This mysterious philosopher lived around the 6th century BC. in China. He is credited with the creation of such a movement as "Taoism" (or "Taoism"). The main idea of this teaching is Tao, that is, a special Path to Harmony. These thoughts have become very important to Buddhism, Confucianism and other Asian philosophies.
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Lithograph of Leibniz's portrait
Leibniz is on a par with Descartes among idealist thinkers. Due to his technical background and penchant for analytics, Leibniz initially believed that the brain was a complex mechanism. However, later he abandoned these ideas precisely because of the perfection of the brain. According to his idea, the brain consisted of Monads - subtle spiritual substances.
Baruch Spinoza
The legendary "myth buster"
Spinoza was a Dutch Jew born in the early 15th century in Amsterdam. He is known for his research on rationalism and pragmatism in the Abrahamic religions. For example, he tried to prove the impossibility of many Christian miracles of that time. For which, as expected, he was repeatedly persecuted by the authorities.
Voltaire
A French philosopher of the Enlightenment, Voltaire advocated humanism, concern for nature and responsibility for the actions of mankind. He sharply criticized religion and the humiliation of human dignity.
Thomas Hobbes
This English philosopher lived in turbulent times. Looking at fratricidal wars, he concluded that a citizen must submit to the authority of the state at any cost, as long as this authority ensures internal and external peace, since there is nothing worse than wars.
Aurelius Augustine
Portrait of Augustine kept in the Vatican
Aurelius was born in what is now Algeria. He is especially known for his work "Confession", in which he describes his path to Christianity. In this work, he often talked about free will and predestination. He was canonized shortly after his death and is considered one of the most important Christian authors of the early period.
Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
Engraving depicting a philosopher
Persian philosopher, known for his criticism of the works of Aristotle. For example, he pointed out the error of assertions about the eternity of the world and its infinity. He also directly supported Sufism, the mystical branch of Islam.
Siddhartha Gautama Buddha
Gautama Buddha and his followers
Perhaps the most famous Indian philosopher. He came to the conclusion that all human suffering is the result of a conflict between the desire for permanence and the lack of permanence in the world.
Baron de Montesquieu
Philosopher profile on canvas
We can say that Montesquieu is the great-grandfather of almost all Constitutions (including the American one). This French philosopher contributed to political science invaluable contribution.
Jean Jacques Rousseau
Portrait by an unknown artist
He is known not only for his works in the field of humanism, but also for statements that are very controversial for us (though not without meaning). He argued that man is freer in anarchy than in society. In his opinion, science and progress do not develop humanity, but give more power to the government.
George Berkeley
Court portrait of a philosopher
An Irishman with a fine mental organization is known for the idea that the material world may not exist. Everything that surrounds us and we ourselves are thoughts in the mind of a higher deity.
Ayn Rand
Photo of Rand, made for one of the American magazines
Born in Russia, but emigrated to the United States, where she received wide popularity thanks to his ideas of strong capitalism, in whose affairs the government has no right to interfere. Her concepts formed the basis of modern libertarianism and conservatism.
Simone de Bouvoir
Bouvoir in last years life
Simone did not consider herself a philosopher. However, it was this French woman writer who influenced the formation of existentialism and feminism. Supporters of the latter, by the way, consider her almost the messiah of the struggle for women's equality.
Sun Tzu
Statue of the legendary warlord
Being a talented military man, General Sun Tzu had invaluable experience in combat operations. This allowed him to write one of the most popular book among business sharks and modern business philosophers - "The Art of War".
Of course, this list is far from complete, and it does not include many controversial or odeos personalities whose philosophy influenced modern society no less than scientific progress (take the same Nietzsche). However, philosophy and the development of thought always give rise to discussions. So right?
The first philosopher in history Thales (625-545 BC), who lived on the Ionian coast of Asia Minor, in Miletus. His main idea is “everything is water”. This idea is purely philosophical. He did not rely on any mythological ideas, but proceeded solely from what his mind prompted him to do. (Recall that a philosopher is a person for whom the arguments of reason are the main instrument of explanation and understanding). In other words, Thales tried to explain the world from natural causes, that is, from himself.
Taking water as a single principle of all things, he was the first to try (within the framework of philosophical, non-mythological thinking) to solve the problem of the one and the many, reducing all the diversity of things to water. With a sense of dialectics, he understood that behind the visible diversity lies the unity of nature.
Thales did not accidentally choose water as the first principle. It can be taken as the center of all opposites. Water can be cold and hot, turn into solid and gaseous states; it does not have a definite standing form (that is, it is something indefinite) and at the same time it is sensually determined (it can be seen, touched, smelled and even heard). In addition, water, or rather one of its two elements - hydrogen - is the most common substance in the universe.
Two legends are known about Thales, showing his strength and weakness as a philosopher. The first is about how, foreseeing a good harvest of olives, he rented all the oil mills, began to dictate prices for the products of the oil mills, and thus became rich. The second legend is about how, looking at the starry sky, he fell into a hole (they say, he is in the clouds, but he does not see what is under his feet).
Thales was a student Anaximander. He put forward the idea of arche, the beginning, and considered apeiron (the infinite) as such. Apeiron Anaximander - something like abstract matter, substance.
Anaximenes, developing the ideas of Thales and Anaximander, considered air as the beginning, which, condensing and rarefying, gives rise to water, earth, fire, i.e., the whole variety of things and phenomena.
The wise men of Miletus lit the fire of philosophical thought in Ancient Greece. The philosophers who followed them put forward doctrines in which principles were developed that were implicitly present in the Milesian philosophers. Thus, the search by the Milesians for a single principle led Xenophanes and Parmenides to the doctrine of universal being, and their attempts to find a rational explanation for the apparent diversity of things led Pythagoras to the doctrine of the numerical regularity underlying all things. Without the Milesians, there would be no Heraclitus.
Heraclitus(544-483 BC) lived on the Ionian coast in Ephesus. From his work “On Nature” 126 scattered fragments have come down to us. They amaze with their philosophy and depth. Heraclitus is the author of the famous thesis: "You cannot enter the same river twice." Subsequently, this thesis was reduced to the formula “Everything flows, everything changes” (panta rei). From this it is clear why Heraclitus considered the beginning of everything that exists the fire, something extremely variable and causing change. This is how he explained the world on the basis of his doctrine of fire-arche: “The world was not created by any of the gods and by any of the people, but was, is and will be an ever-living fire, igniting by measures and fading by measures.”
Heraclitus was the first conscious dialectician in history. (Initially, "dialectics" meant the art of arguing; in the end, this word came to be understood as the doctrine of real contradictions, development, and formation). According to Heraclitus, everything is fraught with opposites or consists of opposites. And these opposites are one, that is, they are a real-life contradiction. He also claimed that universal harmony is expressed in the form of a bow and a lyre. Lyra is the dialectic of preservation and harmony proper. Bow - the dialectic of change, struggle, destruction and creation. Which of them predominates? Until now, the best minds of mankind are struggling with this issue.
Eleatics -with creators of a qualitative concept of being. They lived in Elea (Southern Italy). Their predecessor was Xenophanes . He was one of the first to demythologize the picture of the world, giving natural phenomena natural explanation. He believed that the gods were invented by people in their own image. (While traveling, Xenophanes encountered a striking fact: people imagine their gods in different ways: “The Ethiopians say that their gods are snub-nosed and black; the Thracians represent their gods as blue-eyed and reddish”). He was probably the first critic of religion.
Parmenides(540-480 BC) - the most striking figure among the Eleatics. He argued: “there is no movement, there is no non-existence, only being exists” (compare with Heraclitus: “everything flows, everything changes”). Destruction, movement, change - not in truth, but only in opinion. Being is one, not many. Parmenides imagined it as a ball in which everything is the same essence. He drew a clear line between thinking and sensory experience, cognition and evaluation (the famous opposition of "in truth" and "in opinion").
Zeno, an Elean, is known for his aporias (translated as aporia - difficulty, difficulty) “Achilles and the tortoise”, “Dichotomy”, “Arrow”, “Stages”. If Parmenides proved the existence of the one, then Zeno tried to refute the existence of the many. He argued against the movement, pointing out that it was contradictory and therefore non-existent.
Pythagoras and Pythagoreans - creators of the quantitative concept of being. “Everything is a number,” Pythagoras (circa 580-500 BC) claimed. Everything is quantitatively determined, that is, any object is not only qualitatively, but also quantitatively determined (or otherwise: each quality has its own quantity). This was the greatest discovery. All experimental and observing science rests on this proposition. It is no coincidence that it was the experiment with musical strings (one of the first in the history of science) that led to a discovery that strengthened Pythagoras's belief in the omnipotence of numbers, confirmed the principle of the dependence of quality on quantity.
It is impossible not to note the negative side of the Pythagorean teaching, expressed in the absolutization of quantity, number. On the basis of this absolutization, the Pythagorean mathematical symbolism and the mysticism of numbers, full of superstition, grew up, which was combined with the belief in the transmigration of souls.
Pythagoras was the founder of the first community of philosophers-mathematicians-scientists - the Pythagorean Union. This Union became the prototype of the Platonic Academy.
Pythagoras is considered the inventor of the term "philosophy". We can only be lovers of wisdom, not sages (only gods can be). With such an attitude towards wisdom, philosophers, as it were, left an “open door” for the creation of the new (for knowledge and invention).
Empedocles from Agrigentum (O. Sicily, c. 490-430 BC) put forward the doctrine of the four elements, the elements of the world (earth, water, air, fire) and two forces that connect and separate them (friendship and enmity) .
Anaxagoras(c. 500-428 BC) - the first Athenian philosopher. He is known for his doctrine of homeomerism, similar to parts - the seeds of the world, which, mixing in different proportions, form the whole variety of things and phenomena. Anaxagoras put forward the thesis: everything from everything (“Everything is in everything and everything stands out from everything”).
Democritus(460-371 BC) - the greatest materialist, the first encyclopedic mind of Ancient Greece. He believed that everything consists of atoms (indivisible particles) and emptiness (the latter is a condition for movement). He even represented thought as a collection of especially thin invisible atoms. Thought, according to Democritus, cannot exist without a material carrier, the spirit cannot exist independently of matter.
From Democritus, many clever thoughts have come down to us. Here are some: "Wisdom bears these three fruits: the gift of thinking well, speaking well, and acting well." "Fools seek the benefits of good fortune, but those who know the value of such benefits seek the benefits of wisdom." "Courage makes the blows of fate insignificant." “Whoever has a well-ordered character, those who have a well-organized life.” “To a wise man the whole earth is open. For a good soul has a fatherland - the whole world.
The life of Democritus is instructive in devotion to the spirit of knowledge. The philosopher declared that he preferred one causal explanation to the possession of the Persian throne.
Sophists. The word "sophist" did not initially have a negative meaning. A sophist was a man, a philosopher, who earned his livelihood by giving young people certain knowledge which, as it was then thought, could be useful to them in practical life.
The most famous sophist - Protagoras . He taught for a fee "anyone who yearned for practical success and a higher spiritual culture" (E. Zeller). Protagoras is famous for his thesis: "Man is the measure of all things that exist, that they exist, and non-existent, that they do not exist." For all its controversy, and perhaps because of it, this thesis played a huge role in the further understanding of fundamental philosophical problems. Probably, Protagoras himself did not suspect what a wealth of ideas his thesis contains.
Socrates
Socrates (469-399 BC) is one of the brightest figures in the history of philosophy. Many consider him the personification of a philosopher. He did not write down his thoughts, but spoke and talked on the streets and squares of Athens. He had many students. The most famous is Plato.
The teaching of Socrates marks a turn from thinking about the world, space, nature (objectivism of natural philosophers) to thinking exclusively about man and the society in which a person lives (to the subjectivism of anthropology), from materialism to idealism.
From the point of view of Socrates, the structure of the world, the nature of things are unknowable; we can only know ourselves. “Know thyself” is Socrates' favorite motto. The highest task of philosophy is not theoretical, but practical: the art of living. Knowledge, according to Socrates, is thought, the concept of the general. Concepts are revealed through definitions, and generalized through induction. Socrates himself gave examples of the definition and generalization of ethical concepts (for example, valor, justice). The definition of the concept was preceded by a conversation, during which the interlocutor is exposed in contradictions by a series of consecutive questions. The disclosure of contradictions eliminates imaginary knowledge, and the anxiety into which the mind is plunged at the same time prompts thought to search for true truth. Socrates compared his methods of research with the art of a midwife (“maieutics”), and his method of questions, which involves a critical attitude to dogmatic statements, was called Socratic “irony”. Maieutics, literally midwifery, is the art proposed by Socrates to extract knowledge hidden in a person with the help of leading questions.
Socrates put forward a peculiar principle of cognitive modesty: I know that I know nothing” (compare: Olcott: "Being ignorant of one's own ignorance is the disease of the ignorant." J. Bruno: “He is doubly blind who does not see his own blindness; this is the difference between shrewdly diligent people and ignorant sloths.
There is also a saying from Socrates: you need to eat to live, not live to eat. My objection: there is nothing wrong with eating for the sake of eating, and living partly for the sake of eating. In this statement of Socrates - the beginning of idealism and holism. It turns out that the whole is more important than the part; the part must be unambiguously subordinate to the whole. (The whole is life, the part is food). With such an understanding of life, one can go far. Closer to the truth is another formula: "a man is what he eats."
Plato
Plato (427-347 BC) is one of the most famous philosophers of antiquity. In this, only Aristotle, his own student, competed with him. The latter owed much to Plato, although he criticized him. From Aristotle came the expression: "Plato is my friend, but the truth is dearer." Most of Plato's writings are written in the form of a dialogue. Happy was their fate; almost all of them have come down to us.
Plato's real name is Aristocles. The name "Plato" (Platos in Greek means wide) was given to him for his athletic build (tall, broad shoulders). He was an excellent gymnast and excelled in sports such as wrestling and horseback riding. There is evidence that for success in the fight he received the first prize at the Isthmian and Pythian games. Plato respected physical culture despite the fact that he was an idealist to the marrow of his bones.
He is best known for his doctrine of ideas and his doctrine of the ideal state.
AT doctrine of ideas Plato proceeded from the fact that a person in his creative activity goes from ideas to things (first ideas as samples, then things that embody them), that many ideas arise in a person’s head that do not have a material embodiment, and it is not known whether they will receive it ever incarnation. These facts were interpreted by him as follows: ideas as such exist independently of matter in some special world and are models for things. Things arise on the basis of these ideas. The true, real is the world of ideas, and the world of things is a shadow, something less existing (i.e., ideas have the maximum being, and the world of things is something that does not exist, that is, changing, disappearing). An idea in a person's head is, as it were, an act of remembering the world of ideas.
The followers of Plato, the so-called Neo-Platonists, came up with a whole hierarchy of concepts (from the most abstract-general, having the greatest being, to the most concrete-private-singular, denoting a specific thing, insignificant, vanishingly small in the sense of existence).
AT theories ideal state Plato mapped out this mental hierarchy. According to this theory, human society, represented by the state, dominates the individual. The individual is considered something insignificant in relation to the society-state. A thread stretches from Plato to totalitarian ideologies, Nazi and communist, in which a person is considered only as a particle of the whole, as something that must be entirely subordinate to the whole.
To explain his views, Plato cited the following image: we, people, are in a cave and do not see daylight, just as we do not see what is happening outside the cave. But the light is coming from somewhere, reflected on the wall, and shadows walk along this wall. The world of things is the shadows that we directly see, and the world of ideas is that which is outside the cave. This is how Plato explained his theory of ideas. He was right when he separated ideas from things, the spiritual from the material, and even contrasted them. True, he too absolutized this opposition. To some extent, it can be understood: at an early stage in the development of philosophical and human thought, it was not easy for people to express these contradictions of life - rudely cutting off one, they absolutize the other. For Plato, the general is more important, truer, more real than the particular, the individual. He almost literally understood the community of property, believing that even wives should be common. He also believed that people should live in large groups-communes. All socialists, communists of subsequent centuries drew their main ideas from Plato.
The negative side of Platonic idealism: the belittling of the bodily, the physical compared to the spiritual, the presentation of the body as a dungeon of the soul and, ultimately, the belittling of life compared to death.
Criticizing Plato, one cannot but note at the same time that he expressed many precious thoughts and ideas about human behavior, about love, creativity, immortality, in particular, put forward a very promising theory of creativity, comparing it with the birth and upbringing of a person, with love ( see dialogue "Feast"). According to Plato, love and creativity are the beginnings of life; it all comes down to them. They make a person immortal: love - through procreation; creativity - thanks to discoveries, inventions, art, architecture.
Plato founded the first philosophical school, which was called the Academy. It has existed for almost a thousand years.
There are many different philosophies and schools in the world. Some praise spiritual values, while others preach a more essential way of life. However, they have one thing in common - they are all invented by man. That is why, before you begin to study the school of thought, you should understand what a philosopher is.
At the same time, it is necessary not only to find out the meaning of this word, but also to look back into the past in order to remember those who stood at the origins of the first schools of philosophy. After all, only in this way can one comprehend the true essence of the question of who a philosopher is.
People who have devoted themselves to great reflections
So, as always, the story should begin with the main. In this case, who is a philosopher. Indeed, in the future, this word will appear very often in the text, which means that it simply cannot be done without a clear understanding of its meaning.
Well, a philosopher is a person who has devoted himself entirely to thinking about the essence of being. At the same time, his main desire is the desire to understand the essence of what is happening, so to speak, to look behind the scenes of life and death. In fact, such reflections turn common man into a philosopher.
It should be noted that such reflections are not just a passing hobby or fun, this is the meaning of his life or even, if you like, a calling. That is why the great philosophers devoted all their free time to resolving the issues that tormented them.
Differences in philosophical currents
The next step is to realize that all philosophers are different. There is no universal view of the world or the order of things. Even if thinkers adhere to the same idea or worldview, there will always be divergences in their judgments.
This is due to the fact that the views of philosophers on the world depend on their personal experience and ability to analyze facts. That is why hundreds of different philosophical currents have seen the light of day. And all of them are unique in their essence, which makes this science very multifaceted and informative.
And yet everything has its beginning, including philosophy. Therefore, it would be very logical to turn our eyes to the past and talk about those who founded this discipline. Namely, about ancient thinkers.
Socrates - the first of the great minds of antiquity
You should start with the one who is considered a legend in the world of great thinkers - Socrates. He was born and lived in Ancient Greece in 469-399 BC. Unfortunately, this learned man did not keep a record of his thoughts, so most of his sayings have come down to us only thanks to the efforts of his students.
He was the first person to think about what a philosopher is. Socrates believed that life has meaning only when a person lives it meaningfully. He condemned his compatriots for forgetting about morality and mired in their own vices.
Alas, the life of Socrates ended tragically. The local authorities called his teaching heresy and sentenced him to death. He did not wait for the execution of the sentence and voluntarily took the poison.
Great Philosophers of Ancient Greece
It is Ancient Greece that is considered the place where the Western school of philosophy originated. Many great minds of antiquity were born in this country. And although some of their teachings were rejected by contemporaries, we must not forget that the first scientists-philosophers appeared here more than 2.5 thousand years ago.
Plato
Of all the disciples of Socrates, Plato was the most successful. After absorbing the teacher's wisdom, he continued to study the world and his laws. Moreover, with the support of the people, he founded the great Academy of Athens. It was here that he taught young students the basics of philosophical ideas and concepts.
Plato was sure that his teachings could give people the wisdom they desperately needed. He argued that only an educated and sober-minded person can create an ideal state.
Aristotle
Aristotle did a lot for the development of Western philosophy. This Greek graduated from the Academy of Athens, and one of his teachers was Plato himself. Since Aristotle was distinguished by special erudition, he was soon called to teach in the palace of the steward. According to historical records, he taught Alexander the Great himself.
Roman philosophers and thinkers
The works of Greek thinkers greatly influenced cultural life in the Roman Empire. Encouraged by the texts of Plato and Pythagoras, the first innovatory Roman philosophers began to appear at the beginning of the second century. And although most of their theories resembled Greek ones, there were still some differences in their teachings. In particular, this was due to the fact that the Romans had their own concepts of what the highest good is.
Mark Terence Varro
One of the first philosophers of Rome was Varro, who was born in the 1st century BC. During his life he wrote many works devoted to moral and spiritual values. He also put forward an interesting theory that every nation has four stages of development: childhood, youth, maturity and old age.
Mark Tullius Cicero
This is one of the most ancient rome. Such fame came to Cicero because he was finally able to combine Greek spirituality and Roman love of citizenship into one whole.
Today, he is valued for being one of the first to position philosophy not as an abstract science, but as part of everyday human life. Cicero managed to convey to people the idea that everyone can comprehend if they wish. In particular, that is why he introduced his own dictionary, which explains the essence of many philosophical terms.
Great Philosopher of the Celestial Empire
Many attribute the idea of democracy to the Greeks, but at the other end the globe one great sage was able to put forward the same theory, relying only on his own convictions. It is this ancient philosopher and is considered the pearl of Asia.
Confucius
China has always been considered a country of wise men, but among all other Special attention should be given to Confucius. This great philosopher lived in 551-479. BC e. and was a very famous person. The main task of his teaching was the preaching of the principles of high morality and personal virtues.
Names known to all
Over the years everything more people wanted to contribute to the development of philosophical ideas. More and more new schools and movements were born, and lively discussions between their representatives became the usual norm. However, even in such conditions, there were those whose thoughts for the world of philosophers were like a breath of fresh air.
Avicenna
Abu Ali Hussein ibn Abdallah ibn Sina full name Avicenna, the great He was born in 980 on the territory of the Persian Empire. During his life he wrote more than a dozen scientific treatises related to physics and philosophy.
In addition, he founded his own school. In it, he taught gifted young men medicine, in which, by the way, he succeeded very much.
Thomas Aquinas
In 1225, a boy named Thomas was born. His parents could not even imagine that in the future he would become one of the most outstanding minds in the philosophical world. He wrote many works devoted to reflections on the world of Christians.
Moreover, in 1879 the Catholic Church recognized his writings and made them the official philosophy for Catholics.
Rene Descartes
He is better known as the father of the modern form of thought. Many people know him popular expression"If I think, then I exist." In his works, he considered the mind as the main weapon of man. The scientist studied the works of philosophers of different eras and conveyed them to his contemporaries.
In addition, Descartes made many new discoveries in other sciences, in particular in mathematics and physics.
Greek philosophy originated not in Greece itself, but in the Greek colonies - Asia Minor. Miletus was a rich Asia Minor "City. In this city, state power in the VI century BC passed from the hands of the ancient aristocracy into the hands of rich merchants. Thanks to its trade with Egypt and other states, Miletus reached a significant flourishing. In this city in 624 BC AD the first Greek philosopher Thales was born. Thales was not only a philosopher, but also a scientist. Thales said that the whole world arose from water. Our earth rests on water. Water is the main substance. He believed that the magnet has a soul, since he attracts iron. All things have a divine beginning. Thales visited Egypt, where he studied geometry. Nothing is known in detail about Thales, “oh, although his philosophy was still primitive, his teachings greatly contributed to the progress of thought in that era.The second Milesian philosopher was Anaximander. In his opinion, all things consist of one basic substance (apeiron. - Ed.). This substance is neither water nor fire, nor any of the substances known to us. It is limitless, infinite and eternal; it is present throughout the universe. All substances known to us are a modification of this original substance. These modified substances again pass into each other. In the world, fire, water and earth are present in all bodies in corresponding quantities. Each substance seeks to expand its boundaries, but thanks to the laws of nature, balance is restored. If something is burned, it turns into ashes. This ashes becomes earth. No element can violate its boundaries - this idea of justice became the main belief among the Greeks. If water, or any other substance known to us, were a substance, then it could easily subjugate other elements to itself. The elements known to us have contradictory qualities: water is moist, fire is hot, air is cool. If one of these elements were unlimited, then he could easily subdue others organic matter. But in the struggle of familiar substances, the original substance is neutral.
According to Anaximander, our earth is only one among an infinite number of other worlds. There is perpetual motion in the universe. This movement is the source of the creation of the world. The world was not created, it developed gradually. Under the action of hot sunlight, the moisture of the earth evaporated, resulting in life. All living beings, including man, are descended from fish: the length of the period of human childhood makes one think that he arose from a creature different from modern man. According to Anaximander, the Earth has a cylindrical shape. The Sun is 27-28 times larger than the Earth.
The last philosopher of the Milesian school was Anaximenes. In his opinion, the fundamental principle of everything is air. The soul is air, fire is lighter than air. If the air condenses, then at first water is obtained, and with even greater condensation, earth. When compacted, the earth turns to stone. The difference between individual substances is quantitative. Everything in the world is surrounded by air, and since our soul is also air, it is something that unites us all. Similarly, breath and air is what unites the whole world. According to Anaximenes, the Earth is shaped like a disk. During the attack of the Persians in 494 BC. e. Miletus was reduced to ruins. It is highly probable that the lifetime of Anaximenes refers to the period preceding this event.
The emergence of the Milesian philosophical school among the Greeks occurred under the influence of Egypt and Babylon. The efforts of this school in the field of philosophy deserve attention, although the success of its representatives was insignificant.
Miletus was mainly a cake center. The trade relations of its population with many countries undermined the foundations of various prejudices. From the point of view of religion, the inhabitants of Miletus were polytheists. But religion did not leave a deep mark on their thinking free from religious sacraments. Therefore, the Milesian philosophers were free from the influence of religion. But then philosophical thinking was not yet fully formed, and in the philosophy of the Milesian school a certain ambiguity is striking.
Pythagoras was an inhabitant of the island of Samos. He lived around 532 BC. e. Pythagoras moved from the island of Samos to Southern Italy, whose cities, like those in Asia Minor, were very rich. First, Pythagoras went to the city of Croton, whose inhabitants exported goods from Asia Minor and sold them in Western Europe. Through its trade, Croton achieved considerable prosperity. All the hard work in this city was done by slaves. The aristocrats looked with disdain on physical labor. Pythagoras was a mystic, he was not only an idealist philosopher, but also a preacher of religion. He reformed the religious cult of Orpheus and based his religion on the doctrine of the transmigration of the soul and the prohibition of eating beans. After the death of Pythagoras, his disciples seized power in several states and established in them for some time the kingdom of the pure. But the common people were very fond of beans and therefore rebelled against this religion.
Pythagoras believed that the soul is immortal. This soul finds refuge now in one, then in another living being. If something was born once, then it will be born in the future. There is nothing new in the world, everything is just a modification of the old. Everything that had life had the same merit. In the religious community men and women enjoyed equal rights. This equality of men and women is one of the distinguishing features Orphic religion. The Greeks inherited the cult of worship of the god of wine, Dionysus. Property in the religious community of Pythagoras was common, even mathematical and scientific discoveries were made jointly. Pythagoras believed that we in this world are alien aliens. Our body is the tomb of the soul. God - (the shepherd of this world, - we are his flock, and without his will we cannot leave this world. Therefore, suicide cannot serve as a means of deliverance. In this world, as in the game, we see three types of people. First go there only to buy and sell, others to play, still others go as spectators.In the same way, in this world: he who, like a spectator, having retired from business and studied pure science, can become a real philosopher, he can escape from the cycle of rebirth.
Pythagoras believed that every thing is a number. Empiricists are slaves of matter. As a musician is a free creator of the beautiful world of harmony, so is a connoisseur of pure mathematics a free creator of his own world of mathematics. Mathematics is the fruit of pure thinking. Knowledge of eternal truth can never be obtained from direct knowledge of this external world full of filth. Absolute, complete truth can only be found in the world of the supersensible mind. This requires pure mathematics. Thinking is higher than feelings. What is comprehended by the mind is many times higher than what is comprehended with the help of the senses. Only with the help of mathematics can one know the connection of the infinite with time. That is why Plato later said that God is a great geometer. In our time, James Gene says that God is devoted to number. The mathematical philosophy of Pythagoras caused great harm, for his teaching that complete knowledge of the world can be obtained with the help of the supersensible mind had a great influence on subsequent idealist philosophers.
A few remarks need to be made about this Pythagorean mathematicism. It would be wrong to suppose that in pure mathematics the mind deals with its own products.
“The concepts of number and figure,” wrote Engels, “are not taken from anywhere, but only from the real world. The ten fingers on which people learned to count, that is, to perform the first arithmetic operation, are anything but the product of the free creativity of the mind. In order to count, one must have not only objects to be counted, but already have the ability to be distracted when considering these objects from all their other properties except number, and this ability is the result of a long historical development based on experience. Both the concept of a number and the concept of a figure are borrowed exclusively from the external world, and did not arise in the head from pure thinking. There had to be things that had a certain form, and these forms had to be compared before one could arrive at the concept of a figure. Pure mathematics has as its object the spatial forms and quantitative relations of the real world, and therefore very real material. The fact that this material takes on an extremely abstract form can only slightly obscure its origin in the outside world. But in order to be able to investigate these forms and relations in their pure form, it is necessary to separate them completely from their content, to leave this latter aside as something indifferent; in this way we obtain points devoid of dimensions, lines devoid of thickness and width, different a and b, x and y, constant and variable quantities, and only at the very end do we reach the products of the free creativity and imagination of the mind itself, namely, to imaginary values. In the same way, the deduction of mathematical quantities from each other, which seems a priori, proves not their a priori origin, but only their rational mutual connection. Before arriving at the idea of deriving the shape of a cylinder from the rotations of a rectangle around one of its sides, it was necessary to investigate a number of real rectangles and cylinders, albeit in very imperfect forms. Like all other sciences, mathematics arose from the practical needs of people: from measuring the areas of land and the capacity of vessels, from the calculation of time and from mechanics.
But, as in all other areas of thought, laws that are abstracted from the real world, at a certain stage of development, break away from the real world, are opposed to it as something independent, as laws that have come from outside, with which the world must conform. So it was with society and the state, so, and not otherwise, pure mathematics is subsequently applied to the world, although it is borrowed from this very world and only expresses a part of the forms of connections inherent in it - and in fact only for this reason can it be applied at all.
“Mathematical axioms are expressions of the extremely meager mental content that mathematics “has to borrow from logic. They can be reduced to the following two axioms: 1.
The whole is greater than the part. This proposition is pure tautology, for the representation "part" taken in a quantitative sense is already related in a certain way to the representation "whole", precisely in such a way that "part" simply means that the quantitative "whole" consists of several quantitative "parts". This tautology can even be proven to a certain extent by reasoning as follows: the whole is that which consists of several parts; a part is that which, taken several times, makes up the whole; consequently, the part is less than the whole, and the emptiness of content is even more sharply emphasized by the emptiness of repetition. 2.
If two quantities are separately equal to a third, then they are equal to each other. As Hegel has already shown, this proposition is a conclusion whose correctness is vouched for by logic - which, therefore, is proved, although outside the realm of pure mathematics. The other axioms of equality and inequality represent only the logical development of this conclusion.
Ideas about lines, surfaces, angles, polygons, cubes, balls, etc. - all of them are abstracted from reality, and a fair dose of ideological naivety is needed to believe mathematicians that the first line was obtained from the movement of a point in space, the first surface from the movement of the line, the first body from the movement of the surface, and so on. Even language rebels against this. The mathematical figure of three dimensions is called a body, corpus solidum in Latin, hence even a tangible body, and thus it bears a name taken not from free imagination /ma, but from brute reality.
Consequently, mathematical knowledge obtained through the work of thought is no more complete than sensory knowledge of the external world. Mathematics is not pure thinking. Its original source was the outside world, full of dust and dirt. Therefore, the attempt to achieve pure knowledge, avoiding the gross touch of the material, is an attempt by the insane. The name of Pythagoras is associated with the theorem on the equality of the sum of the areas of squares built on the legs of a right triangle, the area of a square built on the hypotenuse. The Egyptians designated the sides of a right triangle as 3, 4, and 5. Pythagoras discovered that the square of three plus the square of four equals the square of five.
The view of the philosophers of the Milesian school was turned to the outside world. They attached great importance to sensory knowledge. Since their philosophy was free from the influence of religion, it was materialistic, based on experience. Pythagoras turned his gaze not to the external, but to the inner world of man. He attached great importance not to sensual, but to divine knowledge. His point of view was completely different. Work evoked in him contempt. The only thing worthy of worship was the abstract mind. Pythagoras became the first priest of idealistic philosophy among the Greeks. He was the first to oppose experience and inductive logic to introspection and deductive logic, which subsequently had an obvious influence on Plato. Heraclitus lived in the Asia Minor city of Ephesus and came from an aristocratic family. He preached his philosophical doctrine in the 5th century BC. e. Between Pythagoras and Heraclitus, another philosopher should be mentioned, named Xenophanes. Xenophanes believed that everything in the world consists of water and earth. He was an ardent opponent of Homer and Hesiod and believed that even ordinary people should be ashamed of the gods Homer and Hesiod, who were mired in debauchery and theft. The gods of Homer and Hesiod dress, behave, and speak in exactly the same way as people. If horses or bulls had hands and had the ability to create paintings and sculptures, then the god of horses would look like a horse, and the god of bulls would look like a bull. The inhabitants of Abyssinia are black, with flat noses, and therefore their gods also have black skin and flat noses. The gods of the Thracians, like themselves, have reddish hair and blue eyes. Xenophanes was the enemy of the gods. He did not believe in many gods, but in one god. This god rules the world with the help of spiritual power, without spending labor. Xenophanes maliciously ridiculed the theory of the transmigration of the souls of Pythagoras, about which such an incident is told. One day Pythagoras was walking down the street and saw that several people were beating a dog. Pythagoras immediately began to shout: “Hey, you, stop, stop! Stop hitting that dog. In her voice I recognize the voice of mine best friend. His soul after death moved into this dog. Xenophanes did not recognize any eternal truth, except for logical reasoning. According to Heraclitus, in this world there is nothing immovable, eternal. Everything is a continuous, ever-changing stream. We cannot step into the same river twice, for the river is constantly changing. Even the sun is new every day. The whole world is a stream. In his opinion, the unity of the world lies in its diversity. This unity is the unity of opposites. The movement that has arisen from the struggle of united opposites is one, both from one and one from everything. If there were no opposites, then unity would be impossible. The mortal becomes immortal, and the immortal becomes mortal. The life of one means the death of another, the death of one means the life of another. Many of one, one of many. The unity that we see in this world is the unity of the struggle of opposites.
According to Heraclitus, the primary substance of the world is fire. The soul consists of an eye and water. Fire is great, water is despicable. The soul dominated by fire is wise and beautiful. If water begins to predominate in the soul, the soul dies. When a person drinks wine for the sake of momentary joy, he dilutes his soul. Heraclitus was against all religious beliefs and prejudices that had spread. Everything mystical, of which man was a slave, did not contain anything sacred. Heraclitus believed in the gods. His hatred of Homer, Pythagoras and other earlier philosophers knew no bounds. None of the writings of the Greek philosophers who lived before Plato has survived to this day. Just as we (in India) have insignificant indications regarding the philosophy of lokayata and others in the work of the idealist Madhavacharya "Sarva-darshana-sangraha", so information about the teachings of the ancient Greek philosophers has to be obtained from quotations available from the idealists Plato and Aristotle, and there there is no detailed analysis of their systems.
Not being familiar with Indian Buddhist philosophy, Western European philosophers, especially Hegel and Engels, believe that Heraclitus discovered dialectics. 50-60 years before Heraclitus this truth was discovered by Buddha-deva. And if Hegel was an idealist, then Buddhadeva, like Marx and Engels, was a materialist. Just as Marx, being busy with the affairs of the International and writing Capital and other books of great importance, did not have time to write a vast philosophical work on dialectical materialism, Buddhadeva, being busy spreading his teaching and uniting the organization (sangha) , also did not have time to sufficiently develop the philosophical side of his teaching. And despite this, just as Marx was the one who discovered historical materialism, so Buddhadeva was the first to discover the philosophy of dialectical materialism. And just as the philosophical and historical side of Marxism was logically developed by Engels, Lenin and Stalin, so the original dialectical materialism of the Buddha was logically developed by Mahasthavira, Nagasena, Buddhaghosa, Kumaralabdha, Yasomitra, Dharmakirti and Dharmottara Heraclitus was basically a materialist, although he and recognized God as a symbol of "world justice". He believed that “there is no wisdom on the path of man, wisdom is on the path of God. As a man calls a child a baby, so God calls a man a child. Just as the most beautiful of apes looks ugly compared to man, so the wisest of men is a monkey compared to God. Both Buddhadeva and Heraclitus symbolically called the forces of nature the names of the gods. But besides these gods, the philosophy of Heraclitus mentions a god (Ishvara), whom we do not find in the preaching of Buddhadeva. In order to build a complete philosophical system following the example of the materialist philosophers of that time, Heraclitus made fire eternal. In his philosophy, "the world has always been, is and will be an ever-living fire." This fire is an ever-changing stream. According to many, in the philosophy of the Buddha, the place of fire is occupied by emptiness. Emptiness is the space in which the drama of the life of billions of celestial bodies, like our Earth, unfolds, the space where an endless stream of worlds moves. This emptiness, like fire, is not material, and therefore, it seems to me, like the Heraclitean idea of fire, the Buddha's emptiness is not something metaphysical. It is very likely that therefore the Buddha did not strive to build a complete, philosophical system of the universe. This world is a process that has no end, and that which has no end can never be fully known, so it would be madness to seek absolute truth.
