For

1. The problem of being in the Early
Ancient Philosophy Lecture 3/1

2. Lecture plan
The problem of being in the early ancient Philosophy
2
From Thales to Socrates
 Philosophy of Anaksimen and Anaximander
 Philosophical schools of Antiquity
 The Pythagorean school and the value of the ancient
philosophy of nature
 Dialectical doctrine of Heraclitus
 Atomic theory of Democritus
 Parmenides's doctrine of being
 The value of the early period of Ancient Philosophy.

3. Requirements for knowledge and skills
3
Knowledge
 The Antique Philosophy of natural philosophy period
 Tendencies in the development of early philosophical
schools of Antiquity
 Authors and Terminology philosophy of early Antiquity
Skills
 Be able to identify the similarities and differences of
philosophical concepts of early Antiquity.
 Be able to orient in a variety of opinions, beliefs and values
that are the basis of an earlier Ancient Philosophy .

4. Material for knowledge recovery
4
To prepare for the theme of “The problem of being in the
Early Ancient Philosophy” is necessary to repeat the basic
issues of the ontology on the fallowing topics:
■ Philosophical knowledge and its role in society
■ Ancient Oriental Philosophy

5. Main concepts
The problem of being in the Early Ancient Philosophy
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 Atom
 Apeiron
 Dialectics
 Cosmology
 Monism
 Philosophy of nature
 Ontology
 First principle
 Pythagorean Union
 Cognition
 Number

6. Academic material
From Thales to Socrates
6
Ancient Greek Philosophy occurred in 6 century BC and
preferably its content has become materialistic.
• The desire to know the structure of the world was the
distinguishing feature of the Ionian school of Philosophy in
the early period of its existence.
• Thales first began to research in this field. He taught that
“water was the beginning of everything”.
• Monism – is a way of exploring the diverse phenomena of
the world, coming from the same start

7. Anaximander:
His calculation of the quantities
of the heavenly bodies and
distances between them are
set out in writing in the form of
small essay which is
considered the oldest
philosophical work.
He decided that start for all, or
first principle is not water, but
unlimited “All” (unlimited
(boundless) start).
Анаксимен:
Anaksimen felt within himself
the presence of something
that moved him. He did not
know how and why something
higher than himself, invisible
constantly made itself felt. He
called it his life. His life, he
believed, was the air.
Academic material
From Thales to Socrates
Anaksimen
7

8. The Pythagorean school
• The method and the tendency of the Pythagorean school is a deductive method.
This tendency is reflected in the recognition of abstractions only legal content of
science. That is why it is often called the mathematical school.
• «The numbers are cause of all material existence (of all things)".
Academic material
From Thales to Socrates
8
The value of the ancient philosophy of nature
1 For the first time the question was posed: “What is world?”
2. This question was decided, based on the observation of nature. This is a
scientific approach.
3. Natural materialists have come to the conclusion that the world is united and
constant.

9. Academic material
Atomic theory of Democritus
9
Democritus believed that the universal
principle of the world are atoms
Atomic characteristics:
Impenetrability
Indivisible
Are able to move
Atoms have an internal source of motion:
the gravity and repulsion

10. Рисунок
Being -
is in the present existence. To exist
means to be. This is the only
reality.
The characteristics of being–
It is one and indivisible.
It is static (constant).
It is present everywhere.
It is eternal.
Academic material
Parmenides's doctrine of being
10

11. Рисунок
In ancient philosophy
outlined the main issues of
the future of European
philosophy. It is the
materialistic and idealistic
approach to the solution of
philosophical problems of
the world and human
existence.
Academic material
11

12. Classic period (V-IV centuries BC.) of antique Philosophy
Lecture 3/2

13. Classic period of antique Philosophy (V-IV centuries BC.)
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 Sophists (sophists – sage, master, an expert) are the first
professional philosophers.
 Socratic method
 The philosophy of Plato (Aristocles)
 The philosophy of Aristotle
 Features of the classical period

14. Requirements for knowledge and skills
14
Knowledge
 Issues of the philosophy of classical period
 Philosophical tendencies in classical period
 Authors and terminology of antique philosophy
 Specificity of the philosophical schools of antiquity
Skills
 To be able to orient in a huge variety of opinions, beliefs and
values
 Be able to identify the similarities and differences of
philosophical concepts of antiquity
 Be able to identify tendencies in the cultural dialogue
between East and West

15. Themes for knowledge recovery
15
To prepare for the theme “Classic period (V-IV centuries BC)
ancient philosophy” must be repeated themes:
■ Philosophy and its role in human life and society.
■ The origin of philosophical thought (ancient India and
ancient Chinese philosophy)
■ The problem of being in early ancient philosophy.

16. Main concepts
Classic period of ancient philosophy
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 The school of Athens
 Sophists
 Maieutic
 Triad
 Ideas
 Peripatetic school
 Matter
 Form
 Metaphysics
 Logic
 Mind
 God

17. Academic material
Features of the classical period
17
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle are the greatest ancient Greek
philosophers.
Athens is the center of classical philosophy.
The School of Athens is the sum of the theories of the classics.
The peculiarity of the classical period that offset the problems
of natural philosophical issues to issues of anthropological
and epistemological nature.

18. Features sophistry:
 A critical attitude to reality.
 The rejection of the experience of
past civilizations.
 The rejection of the old norms, laws
and customs.
 Subjectivity in assessments and
judgments
 Following the logic of practice and in
the process of knowledge
Sophists:
 Enlightenment is the
ancient Greek Sophists,
who taught for money
“wisdom and oratory”.
 Protagoras, Hippias and
others are members of
sophistry.
Academic material
Sophistry
18

19. Expressions of sophists
«There are two diametrically opposed views about everything» - sophists were
taught.
“Of the views you can select one that will require, the criterion of truth is in the man”.
«Human is the measure of all things» (Protagoras)
Academic material
Comparative characteristics of the philosophy of Socrates and the sophists
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Socrates (469-399 years BC)
Socrates led talks and discussions with students and opponents.
Socrates first made the subject of analysis of the concept, not reality itself.
The Socratic method (“maieutic”) is a skilful guidance of questions in order to
achieve the responses which help the truth is born
One of the main philosophical problems of Socrates is self-knowledge (“Know
yourself”)

20. Academic material
Plato (Aristocles) ( 427-347 years BC)
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Philosophical school– Academy in Athens.
The main genre is dialogue (“Sophist”, “Parmenides”, “Theaetetus”, “State”
(Socrates is the main person in the dialogue).
The doctrine of the Triad. Everything that exists is composed of three
substances – “single”, “mind” and “soul”.
Plato is a founder of idealistic philosophy. He said that there are eternal
values of life and principles of morality, comprehensible (understandable) by
mind.
There is a world of “being” objectively. It is the “world of ideas”. It is eternal. It
can not be created.
The real world is the world of consciousness, the world of ideas. The idea is
kind of sample, the thought.
Ideas have prototypes of all things. They have a primary. They are
independent of human and things.

21. Рисунок
Epistemology
Explore the world of ideas is possible
not through sensation, but through a
system of concepts that are tested
by logic.
We know “the beauty in itself”,
“justice in itself” by mind, by means
of dialectics, by building the system
of concepts according to the
principle of logic.
We can justify the essence of being,
the rules of morality not by intuition,
but by means of the mind.
Academic material
Plato’s theory of knowledge
21

22. Рисунок
Aristotle founded the Lyceum in
Athens.
Methods of teaching Aristotle called
Peripatetic. Greek world
“Peripateticos” means “walk about”,
“promenade” because teaching was
often conducted during walks.
Books of Aristotle : «Organon»,
«Metaphysics», «Physics»,
«Politics», «Nicomachean Ethics»
and so on.
Ideas are the cause of things, but
the ideas have to be in the things
themselves, and not in another
“world of ideas” («Plato is my friend,
but the truth is more valuable»)
Academic material
Aristotle (384-322 years BC)
22

23. Рисунок
Theory
All things are composed of two
elements – the “Form” and
“Matter”.«Matter» - is a passive
possibility. “Form” is the active
principle, the reality.
Aristotle created a philosophical
system of scientific disciplines.
Theoretical disciplines:
(mathematics, physics,
psychology. Practical disciplines:
ethics. Creative disciplines:
technics, esthetics)
Academic material
Aristotle (384-322 years BC)
23

24. Academic material
Main ideas in theory of Aristotle.
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«Metaphysics» - is the science of the intelligible. It’s about what is
beyond our experience, what is “after physics”. Metaphysics is “first
philosophy”. Total known through inductive generalization of the
sensible world.
The doctrine of the categories. The concepts can be summarized in
one common way. The main categories are: «essence» (being),
«quality», «quantity», «ratio», «site», «time», «act», «suffering»,
«possession», «condition».
The science of the principles of thought (Logic). Logic associated with
the theory of being, with the theory of truth. There are forms of being
in the logical truths.

25. Academic material
Main ideas of Aristotle's theory
25
•Theory about matter and form.
•Theory about soul. Human, plant and animal have a soul.
The ability of growth, nutrition and reproduction is at the
soul of plant. Animal soul has a feeling. The soul of human
is the rational soul. People can live in a group. The human
is a “social animal”.
•The mind does not depend on the body. It is eternal and
unchanging, active mind. God is a moral model. God is
“thinking himself thinking”.

26. Academic material
Aristotle's heritage
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He systemized and generalized philosophical knowledge,
accumulated by IV centuries BC.
He developed the basic structure of philosophical knowledge, rut into
circulation many categories.
He began of the existence of formal logic and physics as a separate
subjects.
He developed the theoretical foundations of ethics, aesthetics, social
philosophy.
He developed a Geocentric system.
Together with the theory of Plato Aristotle was the legacy of the
philosophy of Christianity.

27. Acquired knowledge
27
 Features of the classical period of ancient philosophy.
 Schools, tendencies, famous philosophers of this period.
 The essence of sophistry.
 The philosophy of Socrates and feature of his method.
 The main genre of the Plato’s books. The essence of objective
idealism of Plato’s theory. Plato’s theory of knowledge.
 Plato’s theory of State.
 Aristotle. Peripatetic school. Theory of four causes. Theory of
matter and form.
 Classification of the sciences in Aristotle’s theory. Aristotle’s
theory of State.

28. Questions for self-examination
28
 What are the main features of the classical ancient philosophy?
 What are the main philosophical schools of classical period?
 What was the purpose of philosophical reasoning of Socrates?
 What is the objective idealist theory of Plato?
 What is the essence of things, according Aristotle’s theory?
 What is the conceptual difference between the early period and
classical period of ancient philosophy?