Philosophical understanding is possible only through texts. In them you can find answers to all the necessary questions. At the same time, the categorical apparatus used by thinkers is often quite complicated. This greatly exacerbates the problem of understanding. Are there any ways of a qualitative analysis of philosophical texts? The answer will be given in our material.
Concept of philosophy
First you need to deal with the very concept of "philosophy." From the Greek language this word is translated as "love of wisdom", for "sophia" is knowledge, wisdom. Philosophy is a special form of knowledge of the world. It develops a system of knowledge and ideas about the fundamental principles, ultimate concepts and characteristics of existing being, about the relationship of man and society.
In philosophical texts you can find different questions. Is it possible to know the world? Does God exist? What is truth, Man, and what is good? What is primary - consciousness or matter? All these problems have been resolved for more than one millennium.
... all other sciences are more necessary than her, but not one is better. Aristotle, Metaphysics.
Philosophy is a multitude of different teachings that oppose and complement each other. Each doctrine is a separate subject area - such as metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, political philosophy, epistemology, etc.
Each teaching is dressed in special philosophical texts. They can be recorded directly by thinkers, or their content will only partially testify to the thinking of a scientist. A considerable part of philosophical texts is difficult to understand. This is due to the lack of a system and the complexity of the available predicates (concepts). There are several ways to analyze texts. The philosophy is silent about them, since the main part of the toolkit is the responsibility of the methodology. The texts themselves and methods of their analysis will be described below.
Analysis of philosophical texts
Humanity has a written philosophy since the time of Plato. It was he who guessed to record the famous dialogues of his teacher Socrates. Today, access to texts is open to everyone. Reading and understanding the problems identified by thinkers are some of the most difficult tasks of mental work. Not the study of comments on teaching aids, but direct contact with the original is the only possible and real study.
When studying complex philosophical texts, a person tries to independently identify the problem that the author wanted to identify. Understanding is not easy, as ancient thinkers often reasoned randomly. Many even threw a large number of predicates to complicate the task. But this was mainly done by sophists. Classical thinkers - like Plato, Aristotle, scholastics and philosophers of the New Time, nevertheless tried to build a system from their own reasoning.
What should be understood in the text? Of course that makes sense. However, the meaning should not be read, but guessed. Any text with a philosophical problem does not have the task of directly acquainting the reader with certain tasks. Meaning is often hidden and encoded.
Looming meaning, when approaching it moves away, while the search is ongoing, it is present as a guide. It is necessary to “forcefully” extract it.
Bibikhin V.V.
Any philosophical text has its own characteristics. Most often, this is multifacetedness, incompleteness, variability, etc. The meaning hidden in the text is a moving phenomenon, sometimes changeable, inaccessible to direct observation and complete reflection. It should not be forgotten that the main means of obtaining meaning is understanding. It is it that reveals the content of any problem.
The meaning of philosophical texts
So, written evidence of the positions of different thinkers is often chaotic and varied, but most importantly - difficult to understand. To grasp the true meaning of a philosophical text, you will have to try a lot. What is the role of the texts themselves in this case?
Firstly, the original writings give an idea of the type of thinking of a particular era. Today there is a great opportunity to follow how people’s consciousness changed and developed, how priorities were set and attitudes towards certain phenomena formed.
Secondly, there is a great opportunity to compare different schools. A simple example is the philosophical texts of the West and East, the times of antiquity and the spread of Buddhism.
Finally, thirdly, philosophical works should be analyzed to improve the mechanisms of meaning-creation. This is a combination of empathy, inconsistency, metaphor, self-interrogation, etc. The study of meaning-creation is given to hermeneutics - one of the most important philosophical directions.
Hermeneutics
In the XIX century, largely thanks to the efforts of Dilthey and Schleiermacher, a general theory of understanding and interpretation, called hermeneutics, began to take shape. This is the art of interpreting and analyzing philosophical texts - ancient Chinese, ancient Indian, ancient and other periods.
There are four instruments that form the basis of the hermeneutic sphere. This is a hermeneutic circle, which is the interdependence of two concepts - understanding and explanation. Also, this is an infinity of interpretation, namely the study of a specific object through the set of its external manifestations. Here it is necessary to highlight the need for pre-understanding (the presence of basic knowledge about the predicate) and the intentionality of consciousness, that is, the direction of human thinking on a specific subject.
The main question of hermeneutics is how is understanding possible? It is about finding new ways and types of thinking.
Hermeneutics originates in antiquity. The Christian philosopher Aurelius Augustine in the IV-V centuries of our era tried to analyze the content of biblical texts. His work was called Christian Science, or the Foundations of Sacred Hermeneutics. In this sense, the discipline in question is a kind of philological criticism.
In the study of any literary monument requires the most objective interpretation. Representatives of German classical philosophy understood this: Paul Ricoeur, Gadamer and Schleiermacher. They became the first ideologists of theories of self-observation, literary analysis and philosophical knowledge. All these ideas are intertwined in the already established scientific direction, called hermeneutics.
Ancient Chinese literature
Using the example of the hermeneutic methods presented above, it is possible to parse the main ancient Chinese philosophical texts. It is known that the letters describe the entire period of the "hundred schools of philosophy." This is the collective name of the intellectual movements established in China in the pre-imperial and early imperial periods.
The first school was the teaching of Confucius - in the VI-V centuries BC. The remaining trends, in particular Taoism and Legism, were developed only with reliance on the basic principles of Confucianism.
Ancient Chinese philosophical texts include literary monuments such as the works of Xun Tzu, the writings of later monists, the notes of Li Ji (Confucians), Shang Jun Shu (legists), etc. Most of the works presented are presented in the form of a certain chronicle. All events are numbered, each subject has its own name.
The most famous example of an ancient Chinese philosophical text is "Zuo Zhuang" - a real literary monument of Ancient China. The events of the chronicle cover events from 722 to 468. BC e. The content of the work is incredibly rich. It provides abundant material about warriors, religion, rulers, domestic problems, etc. Each dialogue is dated.
To identify a problem or even a meaning in an ancient Chinese philosophical text is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. The use of basic hermeneutical instruments, despite the abundance of complex concepts, names and places, will help in the speedy disclosure of the contents of a literary monument.
Ancient Indian philosophy
Indian thinkers appeared long before the Chinese. The heyday of classical ancient Indian philosophy falls on the VIII-VI centuries. BC e. Then the first Vedas began to appear - collections of Hindu scriptures.
The ancient Indian philosophical texts include works of different schools and trends. There is no relative unity of opinion that could be found among Chinese thinkers. For a long time, the Vedas were considered sacred works. Closer to the VI century BC the Upanishads appeared - collections of commentaries on the Vedas. The treatises discussed the problems of God and Man, the nature of meditation, unity with nature, etc. The Upanishad period can be called conservative.
By the 4th century BC e. progressive ancient Indian texts appeared. Their compilation was done by the shramans - wandering monks and preachers. It was they who took upon themselves the task of analyzing the Vedas - that which had long been considered incorruptible and holy. An analysis of existing provisions led to a fall in the authority of Vedism. The first critics of Hinduism appeared - Kesakambal, Gautama and Buddha.
Indian texts are particularly difficult due to the presence of harsh religious controversy. At the same time, some researchers compare Indian philosophy with antique. Representatives of Vedism can be compared with the famous sophists, and shramans with abbreviations.
Classical Philosophy of Ancient Greece
It is almost impossible to give a brief analysis of ancient philosophical thought. Therefore, special attention should be paid to the ancient Greek texts, their origin and development.
The first ancient thinker who decided to compile literary works was Plato. Throughout his life, he wrote 23 dialogs and one speech, called "Apology of Socrates." The most famous work of the philosopher is "The State" - a treatise in the form of a dialogue between Socrates and other thinkers. In the "State" Socrates discusses the structure of the existing society, the ideal system of power and management. The remaining works reveal specific problems of being.
Reading Plato's work is not at all difficult. Perhaps his texts are one of the most accessible for understanding in the entire history of ancient philosophy. In the same "State", the main character of the work, Socrates, conducts a dialogue with his friends in a question-and-answer format. He gradually brings the interlocutor to the desired conclusion, after which he sums up the results.
A student of Plato, Aristotle, wrote a huge number of works. His philosophical texts on life, logic, psychology, ethics, art, politics, history and biology are studied and analyzed to this day. In this case, the main work of Aristotle remains "Metaphysics" - the doctrine of the principles, the true subject of wisdom.
The texts of Aristotle are systematic and substantive rigor. Each work belongs to a specific scientific group. In the works themselves, logic can be traced - something that so many eastern and western thinkers lacked.
Hellenistic philosophy
Athens became the center of the Hellenistic philosophical school. Three influential trends competed there: skepticism, stoicism and epicureism. Schools still existed founded by Plato and Aristotle. However, they have less and less influence on the development of philosophical thought.
Epicurus (IV-III centuries BC) was the founder of the Epicurean movement. Philosophy for him is the main means of achieving happiness. It is possible to lose any fear only through self-awareness. Epicurus shares science and mythology. At the heart of aesthetics, the famous philosopher puts the concept of "pleasure" - but not bodily, but spiritual.
Skeptics have incorporated a lot from the ancient Greek philosophers. One of the founders of the school is Pirron. He strove for equanimity, constant calm and criticality to everything that happens. Only through dispassion can a person achieve true bliss.
The third trend is stoicism. The study of nature, the formalization of logical judgments, the discussion of God - all this is characteristic of the Stoics. As well as skeptics, representatives of Stoicism appealed for the victory of the spiritual over the material.
Axiology
Axiological philosophy is problematic from the point of view of hermeneutic analysis. Axiology is a system of values that incorporates various aspects of ethics. The place of a person in the world is investigated, there is an endless search for answers about what human happiness is and how it can be achieved.
Ethics explores the problems of evil and good, justice and the meaning of life. The axiological direction is almost impossible to analyze into parts, since the problems raised are too difficult to understand. Because of this, value philosophy becomes practical, that is, it is divided into parts. Directions appear such as the philosophy of politics, history, law, aesthetics, education, technology, religion, etc. In each discipline presented, there are many texts that need to be analyzed. But with what tools is this possible? Let's try to figure it out further.
Analysis of philosophical thought
What is the understanding of the text? This is the creation of the text anew, in a new time and with a new reader. The author creates the text, the reader understands it. Any philosophical writing has the property of giving birth to something similar to itself, while remaining itself. To understand the author’s thought is to give rise to his own new thought. This is philosophical creativity - to think about what Buddha or Aristotle thought about.
The number of meanings increases depending on the individual meaning formation and sense renewal. It is the meanings that have a special novelty - thanks to updates to the configuration of relationships and relationships. There is an effect of empathy with the "author's spirit", which sets the reader on a wave of copyright ideas. The feelings of the reader, his interests and cognitive abilities - all this has a direct impact on the birth of new meanings.