Cosmocentrism of ancient philosophy is the firststage of development of world philosophical thought, which lasted from the 6th century BC to the sixth century of our era. The early ancient philosophy was based on the mythological view 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 harmony.
The main question was about the origin of the world - fromwhat, from what matter, how life was born. The “physics” philosophers 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, thinkers put the search for the fundamental principle of being, a certain matter, from which not only the entire visible world, but also intelligent animate beings could arise.
To denote the concept of "fundamental principle"ancient Greek philosophers coined the term "arche". Representatives of the Milesian school considered all possible natural phenomena as it: for example, Thales called water the fundamental principle of everything, Heraclitus meant fire, Anaxagoras called earth, and Anaximenes called air. And representatives of non-materialistic schools as abstract substance called abstract concepts: “dao”, “logos”, “eidos”, “yin-yang”.
A real revolution in philosophical thought has becomethe logic of Parmenides, according to which “nothing” cannot exist, and “being” for a thing means that it can no longer become something that it is not at the current moment in time. Such an abstract-logical approach to the explanation of reality has found further development 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 a vacuum. 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.
Materialistic natural philosophers believed that the reasonharmony is inherent in nature itself, in physical processes and phenomena. Water, earth, air, fire, atoms - all this carries with it natural laws of nature.
Idealist rationalists saw the cause of the world order in spiritual processes and phenomena. The basic concepts for this line of philosophy are eidos, an idea, a rational beginning, the unlimited - an apeiron.
However, cosmocentrism in philosophy triedcombine these two opposite flow. Thus, generalizing teachings emerged, such as yin and yang in the East, the Pythagorean school in ancient Greece. Their basic idea is this: the world is so harmonious, because the opposites in it are one, and the essence of harmony is “complete mosaic”. According to these philosophers, moral purification, intellectual penetration into nature allowed to be saved spiritually.
conclusions
Cosmocentrism of ancient philosophy saw unity in diversity: the world is one that has become much. All objects and phenomena are interrelated, while nothing is self-sufficient.
The characteristic features of ancient philosophy can be expressed in such terms:
- To be natural, to be himself, a person must strive for nature, because it is wise.
- Ideally developed personality - balanced, harmonious, natural.
- The soul and body of man are beautiful because nature has created them.
- 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.
