Table 7. Stages of development and characteristic features of ancient philosophy

Basic concepts of the topic.

Atomistic materialism -see Topic 1.

Cosmocentrism - see Topic 2.

The Milesian School – the first philosophical school of antiquity (VI century BC, Miletus). Its representatives became the founders of the natural philosophy tradition; their focus is on the question of the primary basis of being, which they see in various types of natural matter.

Naive dialectics (Greek: dialegomai – I conduct a conversation, I reason) is a way of understanding the world, which manifests itself in the desire to consider the world in its constant variability, in development, the source of which is the collision of opposite principles. The naive nature of the ancient dialectic is manifested in its contemplation, reliance on observations of nature.

Natural philosophy ("philosophy of nature") is a way of philosophizing and understanding the world, in which nature was put forward as a living whole, integrating the universe: the cosmos – nature – man.

Neoplatonism – (from the third century BC to the seventh century AD; the most famous representative-Plotinus) - is a current in the philosophy of the Hellenistic era, which is based on the ideas of Plato.

Skepticism is a philosophical trend of the Hellenistic era, which contained features of subjective idealism and agnosticism. It appeared at the end of the IV century BC; the largest representative is Pyrrhon.

Materialism of the elements -see Topic 1.

Stoicism is one of the trends in the philosophy of the Hellenistic era, which arose in the third century BC, whose representatives (Zeno of Kition, Seneca) developed ideas about the animateness of the world and about universal predestination.

Epicureanism is a social and ethical trend in the philosophy of the Hellenistic era. Its founder, Epicurus (341-271 BC), developed the atomistic teachings of Democritus.

Personalities.

Anaximander (VII-VI centuries BC) - a representative of the Milesian school, who believes that the basis of the world is a single, infinite, eternal, unchanging substance-apeiron.

Anaximenes (VI century BC) - a representative of the Milesian school, who considers air as the primary basis of existence.

Aristotle (384-322 BC) – the greatest encyclopedist of antiquity and systematizer of all the philosophical and scientific knowledge accumulated by that time. Aristotle's views combine materialistic and idealistic ideas.

Heraclitus of Ephesus (ser. VI-beginning. V centuries BC) - a bright representative of ancient spontaneous materialism and naive dialectics, who considers the primary basis of the world to be fire.

Democritus (V century BC) - a prominent ancient philosopher, the most prominent representative of atomistic materialism.

Pythagoras (VI century BC) - an ancient philosopher and mathematician, the first representative of philosophical idealism, claiming that number is the essence of any thing, that the main characteristic of the world is its measurability in numbers.

Plato (427-347 BC) - the creator of the system of objective idealism. Author of more than 30 philosophical dialogues ("The State", "The Sophist", "The Feast", etc.).

Socrates (469 – 399 BC) – the founder of classical ancient philosophy. In the center of his attention is the person and his cognitive abilities; the main way to get the truth, he considered dialectics as the art of dialogue.

Thales (VII-VI centuries BC) - a representative of the Milesian school, the first Greek philosopher and scientist who considers water to be the origin of existence.