Cosmocentrism of ancient philosophy is the first stage in the development of world philosophical thought, which lasted from the 6th century BC to the sixth century AD. Early ancient philosophy was based on a mythological concept of the world, which is inextricably linked with nature and its phenomena, therefore it was called “physical”, that is, natural. Cosmocentrism of ancient philosophy considers the cosmos as the center of the universe, which is based on natural natural harmony.
The main issue was the origin of the world - from what, from what matter, how life was born. Philosophers “physicists” found the answer in natural phenomena, and they considered nature to be the source of order and harmony. In ancient Greek, the word "nature" was the opposite of the word "chaos."
The main task of their thoughts, the thinkers set the search for the fundamental principle of being, a kind of matter, from which not only the entire visible world, but also rational animated creatures could be born.
To denote the concept of "primary basis" the ancient Greek philosophers introduced the term "Arche". Representatives of the Milesian school considered all possible natural phenomena as it : for example, Thales called water the primary basis of all things, Heraclitus - fire, Anaxagoras - earth, and Anaximenes - air. And representatives of non-materialist schools called abstract concepts: “Tao”, “Logos”, “Eidos”, “Yin-Yang” as the primordial substance.
The real revolution in philosophical thought was the logic of Parmenides, according to which "nothing" can not exist, and "to be" for a thing means that it can no longer become anything that it is not at the current time. Such an abstract-logical approach to the explanation of being has been further developed in many philosophical schools. In particular, Democritus, as a representative of the direction of atomism, believed that the world consists of the smallest indivisible particles that move in the void. From his point of view, “nothing” exists - it is a vacuum in which atoms move.
Cosmocentrism of ancient philosophy also sought to identify the cause of world harmony and order.
Naturalist philosophers believed that the cause of harmony is inherent in nature itself, in physical processes and phenomena. Water, earth, air, fire, atoms - all this carries the natural laws of nature.
Rationalist idealists saw the cause of the world order in spiritual processes and phenomena. The basic concepts for this line of philosophy are eidos, idea, rational principle, infinite - apeiron.
At the same time, cosmocentrism in philosophy tried to combine these two essentially opposite currents. Thus, generalized teachings arose, such as yin and yang in the East, the Pythagorean school in ancient Greece. Their main idea is this: the world is so harmonious, because the opposites in it are one, and the essence of harmony is “complete mosaicism”. According to these philosophers, moral purification, intellectual penetration into nature made it possible to be saved spiritually.
conclusions
The cosmocentrism of ancient philosophy saw unity in diversity: the world is one, which has become many. All objects and phenomena are interconnected, while nothing is self-sufficient.
The characteristic features of ancient philosophy can be expressed in such concepts:
- To be natural, to be oneself, a person must strive for nature, because it is wise.
- Ideally developed personality - balanced, harmonious, natural.
- The soul and body of a person are beautiful, because nature created them like that.
- The enjoyment of beauty causes catharsis - the purification of the soul, as a result of which a person strives to become better, wants to live.
The most famous representatives of cosmocentrism are Heraclitus, Socrates, Confucius, Plato, Democritus, Pythagoras.