Philosophy, the science of thinking, found its principles in antiquity. Basic concepts about the possibilities and methods of human cognition are formed in the schools of ancient Greek philosophy. The development of thinking in its history follows the well-known triad: thesis-antithesis-synthesis.
A thesis is a definite statement inherent in a given historical period.
Antithesis - the denial of the initial principle by finding contradictions in it.
Synthesis is an affirmation of a principle based on a new level of the historical form of thinking.
The logic of development can be traced both in the history of the formation of thinking and in the system of formation of a concept characteristic of a certain historical form, whether it be a school or a direction in the rational development of the world. For the historical period when the Elean school of philosophy was formed, a pro-materialistic approach to cognition was characteristic. The doctrine of the Pythagoreans about the physical principle in nature became the thesis for the formation of their own doctrine of the Eleans.
Elear School of Philosophy: Doctrine
In 570 BC the ancient Greek philosopher Xenophanes refuted the polytheistic teaching of God characteristic of this era and substantiated the principle of the unity of Being.
This principle was subsequently subsequently developed by his students, and the direction went down in the history of science as the Elean school of philosophy. Briefly, the teaching of representatives can be reduced to the following points:
- Being is one.
- Multiplicity is not reducible to a single, illusory.
- Experience does not provide reliable knowledge of the world.
The teachings of the Elyos are impossible to put into certain points. It is much richer. Any teaching is a living process of knowing the truth or falsity of existing statements through the prism of experience. As soon as the philosophical approach to cognition of nature and society takes shape as a concept, it becomes the subject of critical analysis and further negation.
Exegetics
Therefore, there is a certain style of interpretation of views, called exegetics. It is also, as in ancient times, defined by history, culture, the type of thinking of the era, the author’s approach of the researcher. Therefore, canonization is impossible in philosophy, since the forms of thought, clothed in words, immediately lose their basic principle of denial. The same doctrine within the framework of different paradigms changes its semantic load.
The Elean school of philosophy, the basic ideas of which were interpreted differently in historical periods, is a proof of this fact. The coherence of the paradigm ratio is important, in the parameters of which the research takes place and the very goal of the study of the phenomenon.
Key School Representatives
Representatives of a particular school of philosophy are thinkers of the historical era, united by a single principle, and extrapolating it to an objectively limited area of human knowledge: religion, society, and the state.
Some historiographers include the philosopher Xenophanes in the school, while others limit it to three followers. All historical approaches have a right to exist. In any case, the basis of the doctrine of the unity of Being was formulated by Xenophanes from Colophon, proclaiming that the one is God, who controls the Universe with his thought.
Representatives of the Eleatic school of philosophy: Parmenides, Zeno and Meliss, developing the principle of unity, explicated it in the spheres of nature, thinking, faith. They were the successors of the Pythagorean teachings, and on the basis of the critical development of the thesis of the material principle of the world, formulated the antithesis of the One nature of Being and the metaphysical nature of things. This served as a starting point for subsequent schools and directions in the development of philosophy. What does "One nature" mean? And what is the main content of each of the school representatives?
School teaching abstract
The Elean school of ancient philosophy, for which the category of Being has become the central concept of teaching, has formed a postulate about the static and immutable nature of existence. Truth is accessible for cognition by the mind, in experience only an erroneous opinion is formed about the properties of nature - this is what the Elean school of philosophy teaches. Parmenides introduced the concept of "Being", which became central to world philosophical understanding.
The provisions formed by Zeno in their becoming common nouns "Aporias" reveal the principle of contradiction in the case of recognition of the multiplicity and variability of the world around. Meliss, in his treatise on nature, summarized all the views of his predecessors and brought them out as a dogmatic teaching, known as "Helleic."
Parmenides about Nature
Parmenides of Elea was of noble origin, the citizens recognized his morality, suffice it to say that he was a legislator in his policy.
This first time representative of the Elea school wrote his work “On Nature”. The thesis of the material beginning of the world, characteristic of the Pythagoreans, became the basis of the critical teachings of Parmenides, and he developed the idea of unity in different fields of knowledge.
The thesis of the Pythagoreans on the search for a single principle in nature, Parmenides postulates the antithesis of the plurality of Being and the illusory idea of the nature of things. The Elean school of philosophy is briefly presented in his treatise.
He actually discovered the postulate of rational knowledge of the world. The external perception of the surrounding reality, according to his teachings, is unreliable, limited only by individual human experience. “Man is the measure of everything” is the famous saying of Parmenides. It indicates the limitations of personal experience and the impossibility of reliable knowledge, based on personal perception.
Aporia Zeno
The Elean school of philosophy in the teachings of Zeno of Elea received the confirmation of Parmenides about the impossibility of comprehending nature in change, movement and discreteness. He gives 40 aporias - insoluble contradictions in natural phenomena.
Nine of these aporias are still the subject of debate and debate. The principle of dichotomy, which is the basis of the movement in the Aporia “Arrow”, does not allow the arrow to catch up with the turtle ... These aporias became the subject of analysis of the teachings of Aristotle.
Meliss
A contemporary of Zeno, a student of Parmenides, this ancient Greek philosopher expanded the concepts of Being to the level of the Universe and was the first to raise the question of its infinity in space and time.
It is believed that he personally communicated with Heraclitus. But, in contrast to the famous materialist of Ancient Greece, he did not recognize the material fundamental principles of the world, and denied the categories of movement and change as the basis for the emergence and destruction of material things.
"Existence" in his interpretation is eternal, always has been, has not arisen from anything and does not disappear anywhere. In his treatise, he combined the views of his predecessors and left the world the teachings of the Eleatics in a dogmatic form.
Followers of the aleic school
The Elean school of philosophy, the basic principles and concepts of which in the teachings of the Eleatics became the starting point, the thesis, for the further development of philosophical thought. The teachings of Parmenides on opinion are presented in the dialogues of Socrates and later became the basis for the teachings of the school of sophistry. The idea of separating Being and Nothing served as the basis for Plato's teachings on ideas. Aporia Zeno served as the subject of research by the great Aristotle on the consistency of thought and the impetus for writing a multi-volume “Logic”.
Importance for the History of Philosophy
The Elean school of ancient Greek philosophy is significant for the history of the formation of philosophical thought in that it was precisely its representatives who introduced the central category of philosophy “Being” for the first time, as well as ways to rationally comprehend this concept.
Known as the “father of logic,” the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle subsequently called Zeno the first dialectician.
Dialectics - the science of the unity of opposites, received in the XVIII status the methodology of philosophical knowledge. It was thanks to the Eleatics that the first questions were posed about the truth of rational knowledge and the unreliability of opinions based on personal judgments and an experienced perception of reality.
In the later, classical, period of the emergence of science, the relation of being and thinking as the main philosophical categories became a universal principle, on the basis of which a distinction was made between the fields of ontology and epistemology.
In the history of philosophical thought, the formulation of questions is a more important, from the point of view of development, element of cognition than the options for finding answers to questions. Since the question always indicates the limits of our capabilities, and therefore, the prospect of a rational search.