It had as its goal the reform of Catholicism, the democratization of the Church, the establishment of relations between the Church, God and believers. The prerequisites for the emergence of this direction were:
- the crisis of feudalism;
- · strengthening the class of commercial and industrial bourgeoisie;
- · the weakening of feudal fragmentation, the formation of European states;
- · lack of interest of the leaders of these states, the political elite in the excessive, supranational, all-European power of the Pope and the Catholic Church;
- • Crisis, moral decay of the Catholic Church, its isolation from the people, lagging behind life;
- · distribution of ideas of humanism in Europe;
- The growth of self-awareness of the individual, individualism;
- · the growth of the influence of anti-Catholic religious and philosophical teachings, heresies, mysticism, gusism.
There are two main currents in the Reformation: burgher-evangelical (Luther, Zwingli, Calvin) And folk (Müntzer, Anabaptists, Diggers etc.).
Martin Luther advocated direct communication between God and believers, believing that there should be no Church between God and believers. The Church itself, according to the reformer, must become democratic, its rites must be simplified and they must be understandable to people. He believed that it was necessary to reduce the influence on the politics of the states of the Pope and the Catholic clergy. The work of serving God is not only a profession monopolized by the clergy, but also a function of the whole life of believing Christians. The thinker believed that it was necessary to prohibit indulgences. He believed that authority should be restored state institutions, culture and education must be freed from the dominance of Catholic dogmas.
Jean Calvin(1509 - 1564) believed that the key idea of Protestantism is the idea of predestination: people were initially predestined by God to either be saved or perish. All people should hope that it is they who are predestined to salvation. The reformer believed that the expression of the meaning of human life on Earth is a profession that is not only a means of earning money, but also a place of service to God. A conscientious attitude to business is the path to salvation, success in work is a sign of God's chosen people. Outside of work, a person needs to be modest and ascetic. Calvin put the ideas of Protestantism into practice, leading the reform movement in Geneva. He achieved the recognition of the reformed Church as official, abolished the Catholic Church and the power of the Pope, carried out reforms both within the Church and in the city. Thanks to Calvin. The Reformation has become an international phenomenon.
Thomas Munzer(1490 - 1525) led the popular direction of the Reformation. He believed that it was necessary to reform not only the Church, but society as a whole. The goal of changing society is to achieve universal justice, "God's kingdom" on Earth. main reason of all evils, according to the thinker - inequality, class division (private property and private interest), which must be destroyed, everything must be common. It is pleasing to God that the life and activity of a person should be completely subordinated to the interests of society. Power and property, according to the reformer, should belong to the common people - "artisans and plowmen." In 1524 - 1525. Müntzer led the anti-Catholic and revolutionary Peasants' War and died.
Erasmus of Rotterdam(1469-1536) -Among the works stands out the famous "Praise of Stupidity", where Erasmus in a caustic form gives praise to Mrs. Stupidity, undividedly ruling the world which all people worship. Here he allows himself to mock both illiterate peasants and highbrow theologians - clergymen, cardinals and even popes.
It is worth noting the so-called "Enchiridion, or Weapon of the Christian Warrior" and "Diatribe, or Discourse on Free Will". The first work is devoted to the philosophy of Christ.
Erasmus himself considered himself a true Christian and defended the ideals of the Catholic Church, although, of course, he did not like much - licentiousness, lawlessness, abuse different kind Catholic dogmas, in particular, the dogma of indulgences, etc. However, Erasmus did not share many of the provisions that were taken for granted in the Middle Ages. So, he was an enlightener in spirit, believing that all people were created by God equal and the same, and their nobility depends not on their belonging by birth to a noble or royal family, but on their upbringing, morality, education.
Philosophy must be moral; only such a philosophy can be called the true philosophy of Christ. Philosophy must solve the problems of human life, the problems of man, but scholastic philosophy did not notice this. Philosophy should be present in the whole life of a person, lead him through life - it is to this topic that the main work of Erasmus, "The Weapon of the Christian Warrior" (1501), is devoted.
Significance of the Philosophy of the Reformation in that it served as an ideological justification for the political and armed struggle for the reform of the Church and against Catholicism, which continued throughout the 16th century. and later in almost all European countries. The result of this struggle was the fall of Catholicism in a number of states and religious delimitation in Europe: the triumph of various areas of Protestantism (Lutheranism, Calvinism, etc.) in Northern and Central Europe - Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway; the preservation of Catholicism in the countries of Southern and Eastern Europe - Spain, France, Italy, Croatia, Poland, the Czech Republic, etc.
Renaissance (Renaissance)- an era in the history of culture and philosophy, characterized by the restoration of interest in ancient culture and philosophy. In the era of the Middle Ages, antiquity was generally assessed negatively, despite the borrowing of some philosophical ideas. L. Valla called the Middle Ages "dark ages", i.e. time of religious fanaticism, dogmatism and obscurantism. rebirth geographically and chronologically it is divided into southern (first of all, Italy 14-16 centuries) and northern (France, Germany, the Netherlands, 15-16 centuries).
Features of the philosophy of the Renaissance:
- anthropocentrism- the idea of a special "dignity" (place) of a person in the world;
- humanism- in a broad sense: a system of views that recognizes the value of a person as a person, his right to freedom, happiness, development and realization of creative abilities;
- secularization- culture and philosophy acquire a secular character, freed from the influence of theology, but this process did not reach the emergence of atheism;
- rationalism- the conviction in the power of the mind as a means of knowledge and "legislator" increases human actions;
- anti-scholastic orientation- you need to study not words, but natural phenomena;
- pantheism- a philosophical doctrine that identifies God and the world;
- interaction with science;
- interaction with artistic culture.
Humanism as a cultural movement of the Renaissance, primarily in Italy, Florence, is divided into "early" ("civil") humanism, 14 - 1st half. 15th c. (C. Salutati, L. Valla, L. B. Alberti, D. Manetti, P. della Mirandola) and "late", 2nd floor. 15th - 16th century (Neoplatonism M. Ficino, neo-Aristotelianism P. Pomponazzi). From the end of the 15th century the humanistic movement moved to the Netherlands (E. Rotterdam), Germany (I. Reuchlin), France (M. Montaigne), England (T. More). Humanism was divided into "secular", distancing itself from religion, and "Christian" (E. Rotterdam); in his ethics, a humanistic understanding of man was synthesized with the ideals of early Christianity. Renaissance natural philosophers: N. Kuzansky, N. Copernicus, D. Bruno, G. Galileo. Social thinkers:N.Machiavelli, T.Campanella, T.Mor.
Cosmology and ontology:
- heliocentrism - the doctrine that not the Earth, but the Sun is the center of the world;
- pantheism;
- the idea of the unity of the universe and its laws;
- idea of the infinity of the universe And plurality of worlds.
Epistemology:
- strengthening the positions of the mind, the development of scientific methods of cognition of nature;
- skepticism- in the philosophy of M. Montaigne: critical examination on the basis of reason, doubts about any ideas, no matter how true they may seem;
- experiment- G. Galileo: the main method of knowing the laws of nature;
- mathematics belongs special role in the knowledge of nature (N. Kuzansky, G. Galileo).
Philosophical anthropology:
- principles of humanism;
- rehabilitation of the bodily principle in a person;
- similarity of the microcosm to the macrocosm- a principle indicating the special status of a person in the world, his ability to know God and the world he created (N. Kuzansky, Mirandola);
- the cult of a creative, comprehensively developed personality.
Ethics:
- secularization of morality- exemption from religious sanction;
- civic humanism- the doctrine according to which participation in public and state affairs is the duty of every citizen;
- civic virtues, ensuring the reasonable subordination of personal interests to public interests in the interests of the common good;
- work- the main factor in human development, a way to realize creative abilities;
- hedonism- getting pleasure as the main goal of human life;
- nobility- a concept that characterizes the dignity of a person not by origin, but by personal qualities and merits;
- idea of Fortune- luck comes only to an active, hardworking person.
- machiavellianism- a concept that characterizes the socio-political doctrine of N. Machiavelli, set forth in the treatise "The Sovereign", that politics and morality are incompatible and that any means can be used to achieve political goals;
- Utopia- in a broad sense: an unrealizable project of an ideal society; in a narrow sense: the name of the work of T. Mora, in which such a project was proposed, along with the work “City of the Sun” by T. Campanella.
Philosophy of history:
- the idea of the laws of historical development, which are developed in the course of the collective historical activity of people, the non-participation of God in the historical process;
- theory of historical circulation- the doctrine according to which all peoples go through approximately the same, repeating stages of development;
- the concept of the role of an outstanding personality in history in connection with the idea Fortune.
Reformation - in broad sense: socio-political, religious and ideological movement in the countries of Central and Western Europe, directed against the Catholic Church as a political and spiritual force, against its "secularization", abuses of the Catholic clergy; in narrow sense: revision of the basic tenets of Catholicism, which led to the emergence of a new branch in Christianity - Protestantism. Reformation subdivided into burgher-bourgeois, substantiated in the teachings of M. Luther (Germany), W. Zwingli (Switzerland), J. Calvin (France - Switzerland), and folk, substantiated by T. Münzer (Germany).
Ideologists reformation opposed the "corruption of the church", for a return to "true Christianity of apostolic times", "cleansing" the faith from historical accretions. To achieve this, it is necessary to check the Holy Tradition with the authority of the Holy Scriptures (Bible), oppose the authority of the Bible to the Catholic Church, preserve the sacraments, dogmas and rituals that are based on the Bible. Protestantism recognized two church sacraments out of seven, abolished the worship of saints, obligatory fasting and most church holidays. Principles:
- "justification by faith"- the principle of the teachings of M. Luther: sincere faith is the only condition for the salvation of the soul, and "good deeds"- only a manifestation of faith, and not a self-sufficient path to salvation;
- "universal priesthood"- the principle of the teachings of M. Luther: clergy and the church are not needed for salvation, any layman is a priest himself, and worldly life is the priesthood;
- "freedom of opinion" (conscience)- the principle of the teachings of M. Luther: the believer has inner freedom, the right to self-interpretation of the Bible, not just the Pope;
- predestination- the principle of the teachings of M. Luther: a person does not have free will, the will of God predetermines the life of every person;
- "absolute predestination"- the principle of the teachings of J. Calvin: God, even before the creation of the world, predestined some people to salvation, and others to death, and no human efforts can change this, but everyone must be sure that he is “God's chosen one”;
- professional activity - in the teachings of J. Calvin: success in it is a sign of God's chosenness, a profession is a vocation, a place of service to God, professional success is valuable in itself, and is not a means of achieving worldly goods;
- worldly asceticism- the principle of the teachings of J. Calvin: a person in everyday life should be content with only what is necessary for life.
The revival of philosophical and scientific thought, which came with the beginning of the Renaissance, also affected jurisprudence. The recognition of a person as an individual led to new searches for justifications for the essence of society and the state. There is a so-called humanistic direction in jurisprudence, whose representatives focus on studying the sources of the current (especially Roman) law, the intensified process of reception of which required harmonization of its provisions with the new conditions of socio-political life and with the norms of local national law. The rudiments of historical understanding and interpretation of law begin to develop.
For thinkers of the humanistic direction, law is, first of all, legislation. Movements against feudal fragmentation, for the centralization of state power, uniform legislation, and the equality of all before the law are intensifying.
At the same time, the focus of attention of the humanists of the historical era under consideration on positive law was not accompanied by a complete denial of natural law ideas and ideas, since Roman law, which includes these ideas and ideas, was also included in the current positive law. The popularity of Roman law remains quite high, it continues to be regarded as "the best objective norm of natural justice."
Renaissance humanists began to study law as a special factor in social life. But humanism has carried out the delimitation of theory and dogma only in the methods of study, i.e. Roman law and only Roman law remained the subject of study for both the lawyer-dogma and the lawyer-humanist. The subsequent activity of philosophers expanded the subject of study of law.
One of the first outstanding humanists of the Renaissance, who made a significant contribution to the theory of law, can rightfully be considered Lorenzo Valla(1407-1457), who, on the basis of a deep and comprehensive analysis of ancient Roman law, created the basis for further scientific developments in the field of jurisprudence.
Having put personal interest at the basis of legal ethics and made it a moral criterion, Valla calls to be guided in assessing human actions not by abstract moral or legal principles, but by specific life conditions that determine the choice between good and bad, between useful and harmful. Such moral individualism had a significant impact on the further development of European jurisprudence, laid a new ideological ground for the moral and legal values of the future bourgeois of modern times.
The modern science of state and law begins with the famous Florentine Niccolo Machiavelli(1469-1527), who set himself the goal of creating a stable state in the conditions of the unstable socio-political situation of that time in Europe.
Machiavelli distinguishes three forms state government- monarchy, aristocracy and democracy. In his opinion, all of them are unstable and only a mixed form of government gives the state the greatest stability. An example for him is Rome of the era of the republic, where the consuls were a monarchical element, the senate - an aristocratic, and the people's tribunes - a democratic one. In his writings "Sovereign" And "Judgment on the first decade of Titus Livius" Machiavelli considers the causes of successes and failures in politics, which he interprets as a way to retain power. In the work "The Sovereign" he acts as a defender of absolute monarchy, and in "Judgments on the first decade of Titus Livius" - a republican form of government. However, these works express the same real-political point of view on the forms of state government: only political results are important. The goal is to come to power and then keep it. Everything else is just a way, including morality and religion.
Machiavelli proceeds from the premise of the selfishness of man. According to this, there are no boundaries for the human desire for material goods and power. But due to limited resources, conflicts arise. The state, on the other hand, is based on the needs of the individual for protection from the aggressiveness of others. In the absence of a force behind the law, anarchy occurs, so a strong ruler is needed to ensure the safety of the people. Without going into a philosophical analysis of the essence of man, Machiavelli considers these provisions as obvious.
Based on the fact that although people are always selfish, there are varying degrees of depravity, Machiavelli uses the concept of good and bad state, as well as good and bad citizens in his argument. He is interested precisely in the conditions that would make possible the existence of a good state and good citizens. The state, according to Machiavelli, will be good if it maintains a balance between various selfish interests and is thus stable. In a bad state, various selfish interests openly conflict, and a good citizen is a patriotic and militant subject. In other words, a good state is stable. The aim of the policy is not good life, as it was considered in ancient Greece and in the Middle Ages, but simply the content of the authorities (and thus the maintenance of stability).
Machiavelli understands the importance of strong state power. But above all, he is interested in a pure political game. He shows relatively little understanding of the economic conditions for the exercise of power.
In general, Machiavelli's contribution to the development of philosophical and legal theory is that he:
- rejected scholasticism, replacing it with rationalism and realism;
- laid the foundations of philosophical and legal science;
- demonstrated the connection between politics and forms of the state with social struggle, introduced the concepts of "state" and "republic" in the modern sense;
- created the prerequisites for building a model of the state based on the material interest of man.
Assessing the teachings of Niccolo Machiavelli, one cannot but agree with those researchers who believe that his political views have not been formed into a coherent and complete theory, and even at its very foundation there is some inconsistency. But the main thing is that, starting from Machiavelli, political force, rather than moral attitudes, is increasingly considered as the legal basis of power structures and individuals, and politics is interpreted as an independent concept separated from morality.
In addition to Niccolo Machiavelli, during the Renaissance, a significant contribution to the development of philosophical and legal thought was made by Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam(c. 1469-1536), Thomas More (1478-1535)".
Along with the philosophical and legal teachings of the Renaissance, a significant contribution to legal science at the level of philosophical understanding of law was made by the period reformation. The process of overcoming medieval scholasticism, in principle, was carried out in a dual way: on the one hand, through the Renaissance, on the other, through the European reformation. These currents differ from each other in the way of criticizing medieval scholasticism, however, both of them express the need for the death of medieval philosophy, ideology, political theories, are a manifestation of their crisis, and form the prerequisites for creating the foundations of the philosophy of law of the New Age.
One of the brightest representatives of the reform movement is Martin Luther(1483-1546). This German reformer, the founder of German Protestantism, was not a philosopher and thinker. Despite this, the impulsive religiosity of his theology included philosophical elements and ideas.
Luther substantiates the rights and obligations of a person as a member of society from a religious and moral point of view and sees the meaning of his teaching in salvation by the power of faith alone. In personal faith, he sees something completely opposite to faith in authorities.
The vital activity of a person, according to Luther, is the fulfillment of a duty to God, which is realized in society, but not determined by society. Society and the state must provide legal space for the implementation of such a duty. A person must seek from the authorities the sacred and indisputable right to action taken in the name of expiation of guilt before God. Based on this, the Lutheran idea of freedom of conscience can be defined as follows: the right to believe according to conscience is the right to the whole way of life, which is dictated by faith and is chosen in accordance with it.
The philosophical and legal concept of Luther as a whole can be characterized by the following provisions:
- freedom of belief according to conscience is the universal and equal right of all;
- not only faith deserves legal protection, but also its premises;
- freedom of conscience presupposes freedom of speech, press and assembly;
- the right should be realized in disobedience to the state power regarding infringements of freedom of conscience;
- only the spiritual deserves legal support, while the carnal is left to the gracious discretion of the authorities.
In the demand that nothing else is needed but the word of God, an antipathy to the rational is expressed. Hence Luther's attitude to philosophy: word and mind, theology and philosophy should not be confused, but clearly distinguished. In the treatise "To the Christian nobility of the German nation" he rejects the teachings of Aristotle, since it turns away from the true Christian faith, without which a happy social life, the normal functioning of the state and its laws are impossible.
For a more complete picture of the philosophical and legal paradigm of the Renaissance and Reformation, it should be emphasized that on the political map of Europe in the 16th century. such powerful states as France, England, Spain with a strong central government were fully formed. The belief in the possibility of abandoning the authority of the Catholic Church is being strengthened, and this implies unconditional submission to secular state authorities. In the light of the events that took place in the XVI century. and had a significant impact on the development of new ideological and political doctrines, it is no coincidence that the emergence of a completely new doctrine of the state, the author of which was a French lawyer and publicist Jean Bodin (1530- 1596) .
He owns the justification of the state priority over all other social institutions including the church. He first introduced the concept sovereignty as a hallmark of the state. In my work "Six Books on the Republic"(1576) Bodin promotes the idea of a sovereign state that has the ability to protect the rights of an autonomous person and resolutely assert the principles of peaceful coexistence of various socio-political forces within the country.
Developing his philosophical and legal concept of the state, political power, Jean Bodin, like Aristotle, considers the family to be the basis of the state (Bodin defined the state as legal management households or families), recognizes wealth inequality in society as natural and necessary. Bodin's political ideal was a secular state with the ability to ensure the right and freedom for all. in the best way to maintain law and order, he considered a strong monarchy, because the monarch is the only source of law and sovereignty.
Under the sovereign state, Bodin understood the supreme and unlimited state power, contrasting such a state with the medieval feudal state with its fragmentation, social inequality and the limited power of kings.
Boden believed that the main features of a sovereign state should be: the constancy of the supreme power, its unlimitedness and absoluteness, unity and indivisibility. Only such power can ensure a single and equal right for all. Sovereignty for Boden does not mean the sovereignty of the state itself, the subject of sovereignty is not the state, but specific rulers (monarch, people in democratic republics), i.e. state bodies. Depending on who is the bearer of sovereignty, Bodin also distinguishes the forms of the state: monarchy, aristocracy, democracy.
In the work of Jean Bodin, a “geographical typification of states” is outlined, i.e. dependence of the type of state on climatic conditions. So, according to his ideas, the temperate zone is characterized by a state of reason, because the peoples living here have a sense of justice, philanthropy. The southern peoples are indifferent to work, therefore they need religious power and the state. The peoples of the north living in harsh conditions can only be forced to obey a strong state.
Thus, the philosophy of law of the Renaissance and Reformation made an attempt to “cleanse” ancient philosophy from scholastic deformations, made its true content more accessible, and, in accordance with the needs of life, a new level of social and scientific development, went beyond its borders, prepared the ground for philosophy Law of the New Age and the Age of Enlightenment.
- Some historians of law consider Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) to be the pioneer of scientific developments in the field of socio-political thought. However, his role in the history of Western European philosophy lies in the fact that he only outlined the main ways of developing the philosophical and socio-political thought of his time, called on his contemporaries to pay close attention attention to the problems of a person, his place in society, the problems of regulating social relations. He also pointed out the means by which these problems can be solved - the revival of ancient philosophy.
- It is recommended to study in more detail the contribution of L. Valla to the development of the philosophy of law, using the literature given at the end of this chapter. Bodin's worldview is rather ambiguous, it bizarrely combines the mysticism of the Middle Ages and the rationalism of the New Age. solid ground of facts.
The Renaissance dates back to the 14th-17th centuries. according to others - to the XV - XVIII centuries. The term Renaissance (Renaissance) was introduced in order to show that in this era the best values and ideals of antiquity were revived - architecture, sculpture, painting, philosophy, literature. But this term was interpreted very conditionally, since it is impossible to restore the entire past. This is not a revival of the past in its purest form - it is the creation of a new one using many spiritual and material assets antiquity.
The last period of the Renaissance is the era of the Reformation, completing this greatest progressive upheaval in the development of European culture.
Starting in Germany, the Reformation swept a number of European countries and led to the falling away from the Catholic Church of England, Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and partly Germany. This is a broad religious and socio-political movement that began at the beginning of the 16th century in Germany and aimed at transforming the Christian religion.
The spiritual life of that time was determined by religion. But the church was unable to resist the challenge of the times. The Catholic Church had power over Western Europe and untold riches, but found herself in a sad situation. Originating as a movement of the downtrodden and enslaved, the poor and persecuted, Christianity became dominant in the Middle Ages. The undivided dominance of the Catholic Church in all spheres of life eventually led to its internal rebirth and decay. Denunciations, intrigues, burning at the stake, etc. were done in the name of the teacher of love and mercy - Christ! By preaching humility and temperance, the church grew obscenely rich. She profited from everything. The highest ranks of the Catholic Church lived in unheard of luxury, indulged in rampant noisy secular life, very far from the Christian ideal.
Germany became the birthplace of the Reformation. Its beginning is considered the events of 1517, when the doctor of theology Martin Luther (1483 - 1546) spoke with his 95 theses against the sale of indulgences. From that moment began his long duel with the Catholic Church. The Reformation quickly spread to Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, England, and Italy. In Germany, the Reformation was accompanied by the Peasants' War, which was on such a scale that no other social movement of the Middle Ages can compare with it. The Reformation found its new theorists in Switzerland, where its second largest center after Germany arose. There, John Calvin (1509 - 1564), who was nicknamed the "Pope of Geneva", finally formalized the reformation thought. Ultimately, the Reformation gave rise to a new direction in Christianity, which became the spiritual basis of Western civilization - Protestantism. Protestantism freed people from the pressure of religion in practical life. Religion became a person's personal matter. religious consciousness replaced by a secular worldview. Religious rituals have been simplified. But the main achievement of the Reformation was in the special role that was given to the individual in his individual communion with God. Deprived of the mediation of the church, a person now himself had to answer for his actions, that is, a much greater responsibility was assigned to him. Different historians solve the question of the relationship between the Renaissance and the Reformation in different ways. Both the Reformation and the Renaissance put the human personality at the center, energetic, striving to transform the world, with a pronounced strong-willed beginning. But the Reformation had a more disciplinary effect: it encouraged individualism, but introduced it into a strict framework of morality based on religious values.
The Renaissance contributed to the emergence of an independent person with freedom of moral choice, independent and responsible in his judgments and actions. The bearers of Protestant ideas expressed a new type of personality with a new culture and attitude to the world.
The Reformation simplified, cheapened and democratized the church, placed the inner personal faith above the outer manifestations of religiosity, and gave the norms of bourgeois morality a divine sanction.
The Church gradually lost its position as a “state within a state”, its influence on the internal and foreign policy decreased significantly, and later completely disappeared.
The teachings of Jan Hus influenced Martin Luther, who in the general sense was not a philosopher and thinker. But he became a German reformer, moreover, the founder of German Protestantism.
Lecture 3. Philosophy of the Renaissance and Reformation
Domestic philosophy.
The Age of Enlightenment in Russia (M.V. Lomonosov, A.N. Radishchev).
Before talking about the age of enlightenment in Russia, let us recall the main stages in the formation of Russian philosophical thought.
Philosophy Ancient Russia based on the traditions of antiquity and folk (national) culture. The development of philosophical thought goes in line with religious institutions, in particular, Orthodoxy is its basis and foundation.
Philosophical ideas were realized in theology itself, in the literature of that time - chronicles, words, prayers, teachings, proverbs and sayings in paintings, sculpture, frescoes, architecture. Ancient Russian philosophy did not yet have a strictly developed logical conceptual apparatus.
The periods of formation of Russian philosophy:
1) IX - XII centuries. - times of the prehistory of philosophy;
2) XIV - XVII centuries. - the time of its formation, the emergence of theoretical thinking, the beginning of the formation of the categorical apparatus;
3) XVIII century. – processes of substantiation of philosophy from religion and its approval as a theoretical science;
4) XIX century. and the beginning of the 20th century. - fundamental development of the problems of the methodology of science, social transformation, dialectics, classification of sciences.
Important elements of early philosophical and socio-political thought were: the relationship of personality and government agencies power, patriotism, comparison of the Old and New Testaments as the foundations for the functioning of various states, moral testaments to posterity, questions of knowledge as knowledge of God, but the formation of approaches to knowledge from the standpoint of rationalism, reflections on the soul and body, on life and death and the soul. Among the thinkers: Hilarion of Kyiv (XI century).
The era of the Renaissance for most European countries is the era of the birth of capitalist relations, the formation of national states, the era of the struggle against national reaction, deep social conflicts. At the same time, this is the era of the development of natural science, the era of great geographical discoveries. At this time, mankind expanded its knowledge about environment, about the living world, about space. The first steps were taken in the systematization of plants, scientific anatomy arose, laying the foundation for modern medicine, blood circulation was discovered. Significant discoveries have been made in astronomy, mathematics, and mechanics.
The Renaissance was marked by outstanding achievements in all areas of culture, including philosophy, in which new ideas replaced medieval scholasticism and patristics. Among the philosophers of the Renaissance, one can name: Nicholas of Cusa, Leonardo da Vinci, Michel Montaigne, Niccolò Machiavelli, Giordano Bruno and others.
The philosophical thought of the Renaissance spans two and a half centuries from the 14th to the 17th century. It can be distinguished three periods:
1. Humanistic or anthropocentric (mid. 14th century - mid. 15th century);
2. Neoplatonic (mid. 15th - first third of the 16th century);
3. Naturphilosophical (second half of the 16th - early 17th century).
For first period characteristic opposition of man, his inner peace, spiritual values to medieval theocentrism, when the basis of philosophical constructions was the concept of God and his essence.
Second period was associated with the formation of epistemological ideas.
Third period was associated with the creation of a holistic picture of life.
The philosophical thought of the Renaissance creates a new picture of the world. In his main trend it is pantheistic, i.e. God ceases to be the main creative force, as it was in orthodox religion (i.e. primordial) in scholastic and dogmatic theorizing. In the philosophy of the Renaissance, God is dissolved in nature, identified with nature. Philosophy ceases to be the servant of theology, but becomes the expression of knowledge and wisdom.
Another important feature philosophy of this period is its anthropocentrism. According to this approach, it is the person who becomes the main object of philosophical consideration. At the same time, man becomes the center of the universe. He is no longer a creature with the Creator, but the goal of nature, a creative, spiritualized beginning.
Within the framework of the Renaissance, such a historical phenomenon as the Reformation is singled out, which most clearly revealed itself in the 15th and 16th centuries. Like the Renaissance, the Reformation was aimed at overcoming obsolete forms of social relations characteristic of the Middle Ages, called feudal. But if the Renaissance puts forward the requirements of transforming society by expanding secular education, which primarily concerned the upper strata of society, then the Reformation, remaining within the framework of the medieval religious understanding of the world, offered a new simplified path to God through a change in the church and its teachings and could, in first of all, to find a response in the middle and lower strata of society, due to their great attachment to religious ideas, due to the conditions of existence.
The essence of the Reformation movement consisted in criticism and an attempt to change the monopoly position of the Catholic papal church and its teachings in the political, ideological system of European society.
In the 16th century The reform movement reached its apogee. In a number of European countries, albeit in different ways, a transition was made to the new Protestant church. In some places, only the reformation of the Catholic Church took place. The 17th century no longer knows the Reformation.
For the first steps of the European reform movement, the teachings of the English reformer were of great importance. Wyclif and his follower master Jan Hus in which the social and humanistic orientation was expressed.
The most important role in the reform movement belongs to Martin Luther(1483-1546) - an outstanding representative of the Reformation, the founder of German Protestantism. He was not a philosopher and thinker, but having experienced the influence of mysticism ( I. Tauler) and the teachings of Hus, inspired by such serious deeds.
Luther opposed the church as the only mediator between God and man, against the right of the church to give absolutions, contributed to the denunciation of the moral uncleanliness of the Roman church and opposed the Catholic clergy in general. Luther becomes the head of a spontaneously growing anti-church movement.
Luther expressed the view that the cause of liberation is in the hands of every man. This position echoes the ideal of the liberation of the individual in the Renaissance. But he sees the possibility of salvation in direct faith in Scripture, in the word of God, as it is in the Gospel, therefore his teaching is often called evangelical.
In the first half of the 16th century Lutheranism spreads to other countries (Austria, partly Poland, Hungary and France). Switzerland was particularly affected by the Reformation movement. Here new directions of the Reformation arise - Zwinglianism, including Calvinism associated with the name John Calvin(1500-1594) - a French theologian who spent most of his life in Switzerland, where he wrote the main treatise - "Instructions in the Christian Faith." His main ideas coincide with those of Luther: earthly life is the path to salvation, one must endure in this life, and so on. He believed that the moderate use of wealth in accordance with God's will is necessary. Calvin, like Luther, was doctrine of predestination, according to which God predestines people to eternal salvation, since knows that they will believe during their lives.
The central phenomenon characteristic of the Renaissance was humanism- a view that recognized the value of a person as a person, his rights to freedom, happiness, development. Humanism had a long prehistory of antiquity and the Middle Ages, but as a broad social phenomenon it began to take shape precisely in the Renaissance. Humanism originated in the departments of universities, it was represented by diplomats, teachers, artists, poets, publicists, rhetoricians, communities of like-minded people were organized, concerned about the revival of ancient culture.
The principle of humanism marked a revolution in the culture and worldview of mankind. One of its manifestations was the opposition to scholasticism, which was criticized and ridiculed, as well as the formation of a new moral ideal and ways to implement it.
If, according to traditional Christian ethics, communion with God, an ascetic way of life, and the suppression of some sensual desires were considered the pinnacle of moral perfection, then humanism affirms the joy of earthly existence, sings of the beauty of the human body, the cult of pleasure and benefit. And in this they resonated with the ideals of the ancient Epicureans.
A prominent representative of humanism is Francesco Petrarca(1304-1374). He is called the father of humanism. He argued that the universities of the late Middle Ages are in decline, their teachers are deprived of piety, harming the good name of theology, which she earned in the era of the "fathers of the church." In his treatise On His Own Ignorance and the Ignorance of Others, by emphasizing his own ignorance, he expresses the idea of the independence of his thinking from scholastic university scholarship. He accepts Christianity, but not in the scholastic interpretation. Petrarch is inclined to the idea of active self-realization of a person, his views anthropocentric. The hallmark of the Renaissance was individualism, which is also characteristic of Petrarch. He was interested, first of all, in the internal ethical problems of a person. In the philosophical dialogue "My Secret", he reveals the deepest internal conflicts of a person and ways to overcome them. Creativity Ptrarky differs earthly character, a complete understanding of the joys and passions of man.
To the outstanding humanists of the 15th century. belongs Lorenzo Vala(1407-1457) - thinker, philologist, one of the founders of the method comparative analysis, which he applied not only to philosophical works (for example, Titus Livius), but also to the New Testament, intending to restore its original purity and clarity to the text. He rejected scholastic logic, putting forward Cicero's rhetoric against it as a way to help a person think and debate in a new way.
In ethics, Vala is close to Epicureanism and prefers it to Stoicism. He believes that everything in a person is virtuous that has to do with the vital instinct of self-preservation, so no pleasure is immoral. The ethics of Vala, like those of Petrarch, are individualistic.
Many humanists advocate the ideas of moderate utilitarianism, i.e. doctrine according to which the purpose of life and virtue are identified with utility. They are looking for ways to reconcile personal interest with the interests of others. Humanists believe that people should be a source of joy for each other, and this is impossible without love and friendship as the basis of human relations.
Thus, the humanism of the Renaissance is guided by free-thinking and, accordingly, a fair arrangement of social and state life, achievable on the basis of democracy, within the framework of the republican system.
