IN medieval philosophy a distinction is made between being, or existence (existence), and essence (essence). For all medieval philosophers, knowledge of each thing comes down to answering four questions: 1. Does the thing exist? 2. What is she? 3. What is it like? 4. Why (or for what) is it there? The first question, as we see, requires establishing the existence, and the second and subsequent ones require the essence of a thing. Aristotle, who comprehensively studied the category of essence, had not yet made such a definite distinction between essence and existence, although some approaches to it were outlined. A clear distinction between these concepts is given by Boethius (c. 480-524), whose development of problems of logic had a decisive influence on the subsequent development of medieval scholasticism. (The term “scholasticism” comes from the Greek schole - “school”; “scholasticism” means “school philosophy”). According to Boethius, being (existence) and essence are not at all the same thing; only in God, who is simple substance, do being and essence coincide. As for created things, they are not simple, but complex, and this is primarily expressed in the fact that their being and their essence are not identical. In order for this or that entity to obtain existence, it must become involved in existence or, more simply, must be created by the divine will.
The essence of a thing is expressed in its definition, in the concept of this thing, which we comprehend with our minds. We learn about the existence of a thing from experience, that is, from direct contact with things, since existence does not arise from the mind, but from an act of the omnipotent will of the creator, and therefore is not included in the concept of a thing. Thus, the concept of existence as not belonging to the very essence of a thing is introduced to comprehend the dogma of creation.
Attitude to nature in the Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages, a new view of nature was formed. The latter is no longer something independent, as it was for the most part in antiquity. The doctrine of divine omnipotence deprives nature of independence, since God not only creates nature, but can also act contrary to the natural course of things, that is, create miracles.
In Christian doctrine, the dogma of creation, belief in miracles and the conviction that nature is “insufficient for itself” (Augustine’s expression) and that man is called to be its master, to “command the elements” are internally interconnected. Due to all this, the attitude towards nature changed in the Middle Ages. Firstly, it ceases to be the most important subject knowledge, as it was in antiquity (with the exception of some teachings, for example the Sophists, Socrates and others); the main focus is now on knowledge of God and the human soul. This situation changed somewhat only in the late Middle Ages - in the 13th and especially in the 14th centuries. Secondly, even if there is interest in natural phenomena, then they act mainly as symbols pointing to another, higher reality and referring to it; and this is a religious and moral reality. Not a single phenomenon, not a single natural thing reveals itself here, each points to an otherworldly meaning of the empirical given, each is a certain symbol (and lesson). The world was given to medieval man not only for good, but also for instruction.
The symbolism and allegorism of medieval thinking, brought up primarily on the Holy Scriptures and its interpretations, was in highest degree sophisticated and developed down to the subtleties. It is clear that this kind of symbolic interpretation of nature contributed little to its scientific knowledge, and only in the late Middle Ages did interest in nature as such intensify, which gave impetus to the development of such sciences as astronomy, physics, and biology.
Man in the culture of the Middle Ages
If Greek philosophy grew out of the soil of ancient slave society, then the philosophical thought of the Middle Ages belongs to the era of feudalism (V-XV centuries). However, it would be wrong to imagine the matter in such a way that the transition from one social system to another occurred, so to speak, suddenly: in fact, the period of formation of a new type of society turns out to be very long. And although the beginning of the Middle Ages is most often associated with the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476), such dating is very arbitrary. The conquest of Rome could not overnight change either social and economic relations, or the way of life, or religious beliefs and philosophical teachings of the era in question. Formative period medieval culture, a new type of religious faith and philosophical thinking would be rightly dated to the 1st-4th centuries AD. e. During these several centuries, the philosophical teachings of the Stoics, Epicureans, Neoplatonists, which grew on the old, pagan soil, and the emerging centers of new faith and new thought, which later formed the basis of medieval theology and philosophy, competed with each other. At the same time, Christian thought often tried to assimilate the achievements of ancient philosophy, especially Neoplatonism and Stoicism, including them in a new, alien context.
Greek philosophy, as we have seen, was associated with pagan polytheism (polytheism) and, despite all the differences in the teachings that represented it, ultimately had a cosmological character, for the whole that included all things, including man, was nature.
As for the philosophical thought of the Middle Ages, it is rooted in the religion of monotheism (monotheism). Such religions include Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and it is with them that the development of both European and Arab philosophy of the Middle Ages is associated. Medieval thinking in its essence theocentric: For him, the reality that determines everything that exists is not nature, but God.
Christian monotheism is based on two most important principles that are alien to the religious-mythological consciousness and, accordingly, philosophical thinking pagan world: the idea of creation and the idea of revelation. Both of them are closely related to each other, because they presuppose a single personal god. The idea of creation underlies medieval ontology, and the idea of revelation forms the foundation of the doctrine of knowledge. Hence the comprehensive dependence of medieval philosophy on theology, and all medieval institutions on the church. As F. Engels noted, “church dogma was the starting point and basis of all thinking. Jurisprudence, natural science, philosophy - all the content of these sciences was brought into conformity with the teachings of the church."
Man in the philosophy of the Middle Ages
To the question of what a person is, medieval thinkers gave no less numerous and varied answers than philosophers of antiquity or modern times. However, two premises of these responses tended to remain common. The first is the biblical definition of the essence of man as “the image and likeness of God” - a revelation that was not subject to doubt. The second is the understanding of man as a “rational animal” developed by Plato, Aristotle and their followers. Based on this understanding, medieval philosophers posed the following questions: what is more in a person - the rational principle or the animal principle? Which of them is his essential property, and which one can he do without while remaining human? What is mind and what is life (animality)? The main definition of man as “the image and likeness of God” also gave rise to the question: what exactly are the properties of God that constitute the essence of human nature - after all, it is clear that neither infinity, nor beginninglessness, nor omnipotence can be ascribed to man.
The first thing that distinguishes the anthropology of the earliest Christian philosophers from the ancient, pagan one is an extremely dual assessment of man. Man not only now occupies the first place in all of nature as its king - in this sense, some Greek philosophers also placed man highly - but also, as the image and likeness of God, he goes beyond the boundaries of nature in general, becomes, as it were, above it (after all God is transcendental, beyond the world he created). And this is a significant difference from ancient anthropology, the two main tendencies of which - Platonism and Aristotelianism - do not remove man from the system of other beings, in fact, do not even give him absolute primacy in any system. For Platonists, who recognize the true essence in man only as his rational soul, he is the lowest step in the longest ladder - the hierarchy of rational beings - souls, angels, demons, gods, various minds of varying degrees of “purity”, etc. For Aristotle, man first of all, an animal, that is, a living body endowed with a soul - only in people, unlike animals and insects, the soul is also rational.
For medieval philosophers, starting with the earliest ones, there was an impassable gulf between man and the rest of the Universe. Man is an alien from another world (which can be called the “heavenly kingdom”, “spiritual world”, “paradise”, “sky”) and must return there again. Although, according to the Bible, he himself is made of earth and water, although he grows and eats like plants, feels and moves like an animal, he is akin not only to them, but also to God. It was within the framework of the Christian tradition that ideas emerged that later became cliches: man is the king of nature, the crown of creation, etc.
But how can we understand the thesis that man is the image and likeness of God? Which of the divine properties constitute the essence of man? This is how one of the church fathers, Gregory of Nyssa, answers this question. God is first and foremost the king and ruler of all things. Having decided to create man, he had to make him king and ruler over all creatures. And the king needs two things: firstly, freedom, independence from external influences; secondly, so that there is someone to reign over. And God endows man with reason and free will, that is, the ability to judge and distinguish between good and evil: this is the essence of man, the image of God in him. And in order for him to become a king in a world consisting of corporeal things and beings, God gives him a body and an animal soul - as a connecting link with nature, over which he is called to rule.
However, man is not only the ruler of all things, occupying first place in all nature. This is only one side of the truth. In the same Gregory, immediately after the panegyric to the royal splendor of man, clothed in the purple of virtues, the gold of reason and endowed with the highest divine gift - free will, there follows a contrite, sorrowful lament for a man who has sunk below any cattle, who is in the most shameful slavery to his passions and drives: after all, the higher the position, the worse the fall. There is a tragic split in man, inherent in his very nature.
1. The problem of the world and man in medieval philosophy.
3 Western European scholasticism. Thomas Aquinas and his teaching on the harmony of faith and reason.
4. Jewish philosophy.
Basic terms.
Test questions and assignments for the topic.
1. The problem of the world and man in medieval philosophy
The historical type of philosophy has always corresponded to its socio-economic system. Greek philosophy, as we have seen, grew on the soil of ancient democracy, while the philosophy of the Middle Ages belonged to the era of feudalism (V-XV centuries). The Middle Ages began its history with the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476), but the philosophical teachings of this era began to take shape already in the 1st-4th centuries, they were based on the ethical concepts of the Stoics, Epicureans and Neoplatonists. In medieval philosophy it is difficult to identify individuals as bright as in ancient philosophy, that is, like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, this philosophy is more homogeneous.
The philosophy of the Middle Ages is often called in one word - scholasticism 71 . She happens to be basic ideological line this type philosophy. The philosophy of the Middle Ages, in essence, theocentric . For medieval philosophy, the reality that determines everything in the world is not nature and not the Universe, as in ancient philosophy, but God.
The second important feature of medieval scholasticism was the influence of " schools ", namely, a religious school, subordination religious authority , devotion to them. It is clear that this could not but affect the problems epistemology philosophy of the Middle Ages. Belonging to a “school” and the need to follow its ideology over time gave rise to a specific feature of this philosophy - formalism, a penchant for fossilized, frozen formulas as opposed to ancient dialectics. This, in turn, gave rise to another important feature of medieval philosophy - its impersonal character. With this (abstract-logical) way of thinking, the personal retreated before the abstract-general. In medieval philosophy, the school dominated, and the school was dominated by abstract reason.
Man in medieval philosophy lost his former greatness and primary importance. The problems of human existence faded into the background. “Man is the measure of all things”, “man is the highest value” - such judgments are not characteristic of medieval philosophy. Moreover, such judgments are disgusting to her. Man sacrifices himself to the Absolute, therefore, he is not an absolute, he is nothing. Man is a slave; only by giving himself to the service of God does he gain meaning. This meaning is outside of natural life, but in the religious and spiritual sphere. The hierarchy of values is changing. Where ancient philosophy spoke about the rights and freedom of the individual, about the independence of the thinker, medieval philosophy reflects more on the duties of a Christian, humility and social inequality, sanctified by the church.
In medieval philosophy, the cosmocentrism of antiquity is replaced by theocentrism . It is closely related to theology. The main question of philosophy becomes problem ratios faith And reason . At the same time, faith must be rationally justified. Scholasticism became a kind of theological reaction against science and philosophy. Philosophy was defined as maid theology .
Medieval scholasticism was also based on two important principle, emanating from a theological worldview. The main principle ontologies became the principle creationism (or creations). And the main principle epistemology became the principle revelations . Both principles are closely related and presuppose the existence of one personal God.
Thus, while Greek philosophy, as we have seen, relied on polytheism (polytheism), medieval philosophy relied on monotheism(monotheism). By the way, for ancient philosophy, issues of religion were not paramount at all. In medieval philosophy they came to the fore. While Greek philosophy, with all the differences in its teachings, had a generally naturalistic character (a single whole that includes all that exists, including man, is nature); then medieval philosophy acquired religious character (one being is God).
Medieval philosophy from the very beginning developed in two directions: patristics And scholasticism .
Patristics – this is the earliest direction. Supporters of patristics were mainly engaged in criticism of the heretical teachings of the Christian Church and its apologetics (defense against distortions of the teaching). The ideologists of this direction received the definition of “church fathers,” and therefore the direction itself began to be called patristics. Many thinkers belonged to this movement, among them the most influential were Origen and Augustine.
Scholasticism - a later direction of medieval philosophy, it was formed in the 16th-13th centuries. Its main problem, as they said, was the problem of the relationship between faith and reason. Its main representatives were P. Abelard, F. Aquinas, F. Assisi.
Early Christian philosophy was exclusively built on the teachings of Augustine, and subsequent scholasticism remained entirely faithful to the Augustinian tradition. Thomas Aquinas synthesizes the Augustinian teaching with the teaching of Aristotle.
Augustine (354-430) - a prominent theorist of medieval philosophy, theologian and philosopher. His philosophical ideas are presented in the works “On True Religion”, “On Free Will”, “Confession”, “On the City of God”. The last work is the most significant; in it, the philosopher considered two opposing types of human community: the “earthly city,” i.e., statehood, which is based on self-love, brought to the point of contempt for God, and the “city of God,” i.e., a spiritual community, which is based on love for God brought to the point of self-contempt.
1. The main thing in Augustine’s teaching was doctrine O God . It was this that had a decisive influence on scholasticism. God is the highest being; in him reside the eternal and unchanging ideas that determined the world order. God created the world out of nothing, and by his own will, and not out of necessity. .
The dogma of creation radically changed the worldview. The center of gravity moved from the natural beginning to the supernatural and extranatural beginning. The ancient gods were related to nature, but the Christian God stood above nature, on the other side of it, He became transcendental By God 72 .
In his work “On the City of God,” Augustine wrote: “There would be no time if there had not been a creation that changed something by some movement... There is no doubt that the world was created not in time, but along with time” 73. Thus, the active creative principle was withdrawn from nature, from space, and transferred to God. In medieval philosophy, the cosmos was no longer a self-sufficient and eternal existence, a single whole.
2. The doctrine of transcendence included performance O world How second reality . With Augustine, the ancient dualism (mind and matter) was replaced by idealistic monism , i.e. the principle according to which there is only one absolute beginning - God, everything else is secondary, His creation. Two realities: God and the world created by Him are absolutely, ontologically separated. God is true being, he is eternal, unchangeable, self-identical, does not depend on anything and is the source of everything. Thus, the attributes with which ancient philosophers endowed existence were attributed to God. In the book “On the City of God” we read: “And if (God) takes away from things his, so to speak, productive power, then they will also not exist, just as they did not exist before they were created” 74
3. Already in the patristics of Augustine, the doctrine of predestination , Christian teleology 75 . Its essence was the assertion that although subjectively a person acts freely, everything he does is done by God through him. By His eternal decision, God chose some people for salvation, and others for condemnation to torment. Divine predestination is formed, according to Augustine, with the help of churches. In his theological writings, Augustine repeatedly turned to the concept of the church, which was crucial for his worldview. Later, for the scholastics, in particular for Thomas Aquinas, it became fundamental.
4. Doctrine of philosophy How theology completed Augustine's idea of transcendence. He wrote this: if philosophy is the love of wisdom, and by wisdom we understand God, then theology will be true philosophy, and the theologian will be a true philosopher. A philosopher, according to Augustine, is not one who “philosophizes in accordance with the elements of this world,” but “in accordance with God, by whom the world itself was created” 76 .
Another important tradition is associated with the name of Augustine. He paid a lot of attention psychology human souls. Christian psychology is based on the idea of the sinfulness of the human soul. The depths of a person’s soul are as much a mystery to him as everything created by God. But comprehension of these depths is vital for the “salvation of the soul”, its cleansing from sin. For this reason, confession becomes of great importance. European culture owes to Augustine the beginning of the confessional genre in philosophy. "Confession" J--J. Rousseau, L. Tolstoy's "Confession" goes back to its common beginning - Augustine's "Confession".
3. Western European scholasticism. Thomas Aquinas and his teaching on the harmony of faith and reason.
The founder of medieval scholasticism was a Roman philosopher and political figure WITH. Boethius (480-424). He studied and commented on Aristotle and was the author of a number of philosophical treatises, among which the most famous is The Consolation of Philosophy. In it, Boethius conducts a dialogue with philosophy, teaching him that earthly happiness is changeable, and a sage can find consolation only in virtue, passions should be subordinated to reason, and every failure is sent by God for the good of man. Boethius was canonized in scholastic ethics and logic and, to this day, is a recognized authority in theology.
The main provisions of the teachings of Boethius, which formed the basis of scholasticism, are as follows. Firstly, ontological doctrine of the Good. Existence is good, not evil, when it is connected with God. When a person deviates from God, then his existence becomes non-existence. Secondly, rational justification of faith. When a person is guided in his destiny by reason, this means that he lives with God, for reason is given by God. And therefore, the closer a person is to God, the more merciful fate is to him. Finally everything knowledge- from God, including knowledge of mathematics. Therefore, there is nothing unclear about the principle of self-identity Trinity. Boethius proved the truth of the Trinity using the mathematical law of identity. God is identical with Himself and all three hypostases of the Trinity.
The main question that medieval scholastics dealt with was the question of the relationship of knowledge to faith. It was a problem of the priority of faith over reason. In a philosophical dispute, this problem took the form of the well-known " spore about universals ", or O nature general concepts . Two points of view stood out: 1. assertion of the reality of the existence of “universals” regardless of human thought and speech; 2. the opposite statement is the denial of the real and independent existence of “universals” from humans.
The first point of view is called " realism ". Its supporters believed that universals existed even before the appearance of all things (it is not difficult to understand that we were talking about God as the highest of all universals). The second point of view was called " nominalism "because she denied the existence general concepts independent of human thought, but asserted the existence of “names”, i.e. individual things (nominalism - from the Latin nomina - names). Nominalists argued that general concepts cannot exist by themselves, but only in specific things. Thus, a person is not a general concept, but is something that is contained in people.
Medieval realism was close to Platonism, for which, too, eternal and self-identical ideas, and not transitory, concrete things, had real existence. According to medieval realism, universals existed before things, these are ideas inherent in the Divine mind. People know the essence of things thanks to Divine grace. According to realism, the concepts of good, truth and justice exist, as such, really and outside of individual actions. With the help of this kind of statements it was built ontological proof being God: from the universal concept of God as an unconditionally perfect being contained in our consciousness, it followed with logical necessity that God exists.
The largest philosopher of Western scholasticism of the 12th century. was P . Abelard (1079-1142), in the debate about universals, spoke out against both extreme nominalism and extreme realism. According to Abelard, only individual things (“substances”) can exist; these things can be identical with each other, and the nature of general concepts, universals is based on this identity. This is how nominalism was justified. Along with this, Abelard also recognized the reality of general concepts, or ideas, in the mind of God. They are the patterns by which God creates things. Abelard appealed to reason and promoted the development of moderate realism in scholasticism, which caused strong opposition from the reactionary part of the scholastics.
Abelard founded his own school and taught there with great success (mainly in Paris). Students flocked to him from different parts of Europe. However, official theology condemned Abelard as a heretic, and his works were publicly burned. Among the works of P. Abelard, the most famous is his autobiography “The History of My Disasters” (1132-1136), which contains a number of interesting ideological and philosophical characteristics of the era in which he appealed to the human mind. He believed that the main thing for a philosopher was to follow in everything not authority, not the opinions of people, but the arguments of reason. Following reason, he wrote, a person will inevitably come to ethics. Ethics “is the goal of all sciences and for its sake everything must be tried” 77 . Here are some of Abelard’s statements about the relationship between faith and reason, by which one can judge his sanity:
- “An idolater asserts about a stone or a log or any creation: this is the true God, the creator of heaven and earth. And no matter how obvious stupidity he expresses, who is able to refute it, if the mind is not at all allowed to talk about faith.”
- “What can we say about those who are considered authorities? Don’t they have many errors? After all, there wouldn’t be so many directions of faith if everyone used the same authorities. But, depending on who argues with the help of their own mind, individuals choose the authorities they follow."
- “Reason is so much preferred to authority that... since the need of human reason was the inventor of writing, the latter is least needed by those who have not developed this need at all. In any philosophical discussion, authority is placed in last place or is not taken into account at all, so that in general they are ashamed to bring evidence arising from someone else’s judgment about a thing, that is, from authority. own strength, despise the refuge of other people's help" 78.
The most influential scholastic to this day remains Francis Assisi (1181-1226) - founder of the Franciscan religious order. He was canonized in 1228, his main work is “Flowers”. The name of the work is due to the fact that the shoots of his sermons were meant. The essay is written in the form of parables. It is often called the “Gospel of the people.”
The main ideas of the scholasticism of F. Assisi consisted of the following commandments.
- "Commandment joy". A follower of Jesus Christ should not be sad, but rejoice. This will be the fulfillment of Christ’s covenant. This joy is spiritual.
- "Commandment virtues poverty". Poverty should become an ideal way of life. F. Assisi was called “the poor man” for this commandment and following it. Poverty should not sadden, but rejoice, for “My yoke and My burden are easy,” as Christ said.
- "Commandment universal love". F. Assisi, as legends say about him, pacified with his love not only people, but also animals, among whom he lived in the forest. Assisi addressed his sermons both to people and to everything living on Earth, including " flowers."
- "Commandment universal churches". F. Assisi did not consider himself either a priest or a monk. He said that Christianity is not outside the world, but in the world. He denied the asceticism of hermitage, sectarianism, and believed that the whole world is the church.
- "Commandment perfect joy". He taught the ability to rejoice, despite sorrows, he taught to be grateful to the Lord not only for joys, but also for trials. He wrote in his “Flowers”: “We will come to St. Mary, wet by the rain, caught in the cold, stained with mud, Exhausted by hunger, let us knock on the gates of the monastery. An angry gatekeeper will come and say: Who are you? ... You are telling lies, you two tramps, you wander around the world and fool people, taking alms from the poor, get away. He will not open us, but will force us to stand outside the gates in the snow and rain... until nightfall. And we stand patiently and do not complain, enduring all the insults, all his rage, and we think with love and humility that the gatekeeper knows us, and it is God who forces him to speak against us... And then there is perfect joy. And again we will knock, and again he will drive us away... And this perfect joy. He will throw us into the snow and mud. And we will get through this. And it will be perfect joy. And if we beg, he will come out and beat us with a stick. We will get through this and it will be perfect joy. Conquering yourself and voluntarily accepting torment, insults and reproaches - this is perfect joy."
The most prominent and influential scholastic philosopher of the Western Middle Ages was F . Aquinas , monk of the Dominican Order and student of the famous medieval theologian and naturalist Albertus Magnus. Thomas Aquinas (1225/26-1274) was subsequently canonized by the Roman Catholic Church (3323). The main theological and philosophical work of Thomas Aquipus is “Summa Theologica”. He was also the author of commentaries on the works of Aristotle and other philosophers. The teaching of Thomas Aquinas was revived again in the 20th century under the name neo-Thomism - one of the most significant trends in Catholic philosophy in the West, its influence is still very significant.
Let us consider the main provisions of the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas.
1.Rationale main principles Christian theology by using logic Aristotle. At the same time, Aristotle's teaching was transformed so that it did not conflict with the dogma of creation and the doctrine of the God-manhood of Jesus Christ. The highest principle is being itself, which is God. In his treatise “Summa Protivagantiki” F. Aquinas wrote the following.
- “The philosopher 79 determines that the first philosophy is the knowledge of truth, not just any truth, but that truth which is the source of all truth and which relates to the first principle of being for all things; whence it follows that this truth is the beginning of all truth, for the order of things in truth the same as in being...
There are some truths about God that surpass any ability of human reason, such as, for example, that God is three and one. However, there are some truths that natural reason can achieve, such as, for example, that God exists, that God is one, etc. ...
So, the study of the mentioned Divine truth can only be achieved with great labor and diligence, and few want to undertake this work for the love of knowledge, a natural attraction to which God, however, has placed in human minds, (...) therefore divine mercy showed salutary foresight by ordering to accept on faith what reason is capable of investigating, so that, in this way, everyone could easily be involved in the recognition of God without doubt or error."
So, the highest truth, according to Thomas Aquinas, is God, Divine truth. Its knowledge is not fully accessible to the human mind, for it is limited; and therefore a person must accept on faith both the truth that reason is capable of cognizing, and that which is generally inaccessible to him. That is, the relationship between faith and reason is such that unconditional preference is given to faith. The second important position of this passage quoted above is that the first philosophy is declared to be that which is occupied with the knowledge of the main truth - divine, i.e. theology. Moreover, Thomas Aquinas, like Augustine, reduced philosophy in general to theology, or theology.
At the same time, Thomas Aquinas did not allow any degree of freedom of reason and science in relation to faith, and opposed the doctrine of " dual truth"(This is exactly the form in which science tried to maintain its existence in the Middle Ages: in the form of recognition of faith and reason as equal criteria of truth).
2. Rationale evidence existence God . Thomas Aquinas belongs cosmological ( And teleological) proof of the existence of God, he derives the proof not from the concept of God, but from the fact that every phenomenon has its own cause. Following from one cause to another, Thomas leads to the idea of the necessity of the existence of God as the supreme cause of all real phenomena and processes.
Let us turn to his treatise “Summa Theologica”.
- “The existence of God can be proven in five ways, the first and most obvious way comes from the concept of movement... Everything that moves has something else as the cause of its movement... Therefore, it is necessary to reach some Prime Mover, which itself is not moved by anything else ; and by him everyone understands God.
The second way comes from the concept of productive cause. Indeed, we discover in sensible things a succession of productive causes; However, such a case is not found and impossible for a thing to be its own productive cause; then it would precede itself, which is impossible... Therefore, it is necessary to posit some primary Generating Cause, which everyone calls God.
The third way comes from the concepts of possibility and necessity and boils down to the following. We discover among things those for which it is possible both to be and not to be; it is discovered that they arise and perish, from which it is clear that it is possible for them both to be and not to be... Therefore, it is necessary to posit some necessary essence, necessary in itself, not having an external reason for its necessity, but the very constituting reason for the necessity of all others; the general consensus is that this is God.
The fourth way comes from the various degrees that are found in things. We find among things more or less perfect, or true, or noble; and this is the case with other relations of the same kind... It follows that there is a certain essence that is for all essences the cause of good and all perfection; and we call her God.
The fifth way comes from the order of nature. We are convinced that objects devoid of intelligence, such as natural bodies, are subject to expediency. Since they themselves are devoid of understanding, they can obey expediency only insofar as they are guided by Someone gifted with Reason and understanding, like an archer directs an arrow. Consequently, there is a rational being who posits a purpose for everything that happens in nature; and we call him God" 81.
3. Rationale paramount importance "sacred Scriptures ". We also read about this in the Summa Theologiae: “Sacred teaching is science. It should, however, be known that the nature of the sciences is twofold. Some of them are such that they are based on principles directly found by the natural cognitive ability, such as arithmetic , geometry and others of the same kind. Others are such that they are based on principles found through a different, and, moreover, higher, discipline... Holy Bible There is a science that belongs to the second kind; for it is based on principles clarified by another, higher science; the latter is the knowledge that God possesses, as well as those who are worthy of blessedness" 82.
Thomas Aquinas succeeded a lot in theoretical justification Catholic creeds, for which he was awarded (posthumously) the title of “angelic doctor.”
4. Finally, social Problems They also decided in the spirit of Christian teaching about the relationship between reason and faith. State power is from God, the form of government in each case must be consistent with the circumstances. For Thomas Aquinas, monarchy was preferable. The church should be given the first role in civil society. Earthly life in the state is only a preparation for the future, spiritual life. The power of the sovereign must be subordinated to a higher, spiritual authority. At its head in heaven is Christ, and on earth is the Pope.
The doctrine of Thomas Aquinas, called Thomism(named after its founder), subsequently - neo-Thomism. It is still the ideological support and theoretical tool of Catholicism.
For the medieval consciousness, the whole meaning of human life was in three words: live, die and be judged. No matter what social and material heights a person reaches, he will appear naked before God. Therefore, one must not worry about the vanity of this world, but about the salvation of the soul. The medieval man believed that throughout his life evidence accumulated against him - sins that he committed and for which he did not confess or repent. Confession requires a duality so characteristic of the Middle Ages - a person acted simultaneously in two roles: in the role of the accused, for he was responsible for his deeds, and in the role of the accuser, since he himself had to analyze his behavior in the face of the representative of God - the confessor. The personality received its completeness only when a final assessment was given of the individual’s life and what he had done throughout it:
"Forensic Thinking" medieval man made its expansion beyond the earthly world. God, the Creator, was understood as the Judge. Moreover, if at the first stages of the Middle Ages He was endowed with the traits of balanced, stern inflexibility and paternal condescension, then at the end of this era he was already a merciless and vengeful Lord. Why? Philosophers of the late Middle Ages explained the extraordinary increase in the preaching of fear of the formidable Deity by the deep socio-psychological and religious crisis of the transition period.
God's Judgment had a dual character, for one, private, judgment took place when someone died, the other. Universal, must take place at the end of the history of the human race. Naturally, this aroused great interest among philosophers in understanding the meaning of history.
Most complex problem, sometimes incomprehensible to modern consciousness, was the problem of historical time.
Medieval man lived, as it were, outside of time, in a constant sense of eternity. He willingly endured the daily routine, noticing only the change of day and seasons. He did not need time, because it, earthly and vain, distracted him from work, which in itself was only a delay before the main event - God's Judgment.
Theologians argued for the linear flow of historical time. In the concept of sacred history (from the Latin sacer - sacred, associated with religious rites), time flows from the act of Creation through the passion of Christ to the end of the world and the Second Coming. In accordance with this scheme, they were built in the 13th century. and concepts of earthly history (for example, Vincent of Beauvais).
Philosophers tried to solve the problem of historical time and eternity. But this problem was not simple, because, like all medieval consciousness, it was also characterized by a certain dualism: the expectation of the end of history and at the same time the recognition of its eternity. On the one hand, there is an eschatological attitude (from the Greek eschatos - last, final), that is, the expectation of the end of the world, on the other, history was presented as a reflection of supra-temporal, supra-historical “sacred events”: “Christ was born once and cannot be born again.”
A great contribution to the development of this problem was made by Augustine the Blessed, who is often called one of the first philosophers of history. He tried to explain such categories of time as past, present and future. In his opinion, only the present is valid, the past is connected with human memory, and the future lies in hope. Everything is united once and for all in God as Absolute Eternity. This understanding of the absolute eternity of God and the real variability of the material and human world became the basis of the Christian medieval worldview for a long time.
Augustine deals with the “fate of humanity,” guided, however, by biblical historiography, which claims that what was predicted by the prophets over many centuries comes true in due time. Hence the conviction that history, even with the uniqueness of all its events, is fundamentally predictable, and, therefore, filled with meaning. The basis of this meaningfulness lies in Divine Providence, Divine care of humanity. Everything that needs to happen serves the fulfillment of the original Divine plan:
punishing people for original sin; testing their ability to resist human evil and testing their will to good; atonement for original sin; calling the best part of humanity to build a sacred community of the righteous; the separation of the righteous from the sinners and the final reward to each according to his deserts. In accordance with the objectives of this plan, history is divided into six periods (eons). Augustine, as a rule, refrains from talking about the temporal duration of each of the periods and considers all biblical eschatological periods to be purely symbolic.
In contrast to his Christian predecessors and medieval followers, Augustine is more interested not in chronology, but in the logic of history, which is what his main work- “De civitafe Dei” (“About the City of God”). In the book we're talking about about a global community of people, a community that is not political, but ideological, spiritual.
5. Thomas Aquinas - systematizer of medieval scholasticism
One of the most prominent representatives of mature scholasticism, the monk Thomas Aquinas (1225/26-1274), a student of the famous theologian, philosopher and naturalist Albertus Magnus (1193-1280), like his teacher, tried to substantiate the basic principles of Christian theology, relying on the teachings of Aristotle . At the same time, the latter was transformed in such a way that it did not conflict with the dogmas of the creation of the world from nothing and with the doctrine of the God-manhood of Jesus Christ.
For Thomas, the highest principle is being. By being, Thomas understands the Christian God who created the world, as it is narrated in Old Testament. Distinguishing between being and essence, Thomas does not oppose them, but on the contrary (following Aristotle) emphasizes their common root. Entities, or substances, according to Thomas, have independent existence, in contrast to accidents (properties, qualities), which exist only thanks to substances. From here the difference between substantial and accidental forms is derived. The substantial form imparts simple existence to every thing, and therefore, when it appears, we say that something has arisen, and when it disappears, we say that something has collapsed. Accidental form is the source of certain qualities, not the existence of things. Distinguishing, following Aristotle, actual and potential states, Thomas considers being as the first of the actual states. In every thing, Thomas believes, there is as much being as there is actuality in it. On this basis, he distinguishes four levels of the existence of things depending on their degree of relevance.
1. At the lowest level of being, form, according to Thomas, constitutes only the external determination of a thing (causa formalis); this includes inorganic elements and minerals.
2. At the next stage, form appears as the final cause (causa finalis) of a thing, which therefore has an internal purposiveness, called by Aristotle the “vegetative soul,” as if forming the body from the inside. Such, according to Aristotle (and accordingly Thomas), are plants.
3. The third level is animals, here the form is the efficient cause (causa efficient), therefore the existence has in itself not only a goal, but also the beginning of activity, movement. At all three levels, form is transformed into matter in different ways, organizing and animating it.
4. At the last, fourth, stage, form no longer appears as the organizing principle of matter, but in itself, independently of matter (forma per se, forma separata). It is spirit, or mind, the rational soul, the highest of created beings. Not connected with matter, the human soul does not perish with the death of the body.
Of course, there is some logic in the model built by Thomas Aquinas, but in my opinion, his views were limited by the knowledge that humanity possessed in the 13th century. For example, I am inclined to believe that there is no fundamental difference between plants and animals, at least based on knowledge of biology. Of course, there is some kind of line between them, but it is very arbitrary. There are plants that lead a very active motor lifestyle. There are known plants that instantly curl into a bud with one touch. Conversely, there are animals that are very sedentary. In this aspect, the principle of motion as an efficient cause is violated.
It has been proven by genetics (by the way, there was a period when genetics was considered a pseudoscience) that both plants and animals are built from the same building material - organics, both of them consist of cells (why not put the cell on the first stage? Probably , because nothing was known about her at that time), both have genetic code, DNA. Based on these data, there are all the prerequisites for combining plants and animals into one class, and, in fact, so that subsequently there are no contradictions, all living things. But if we go even deeper, the living cell itself consists of organic elements, which themselves consist of atoms. Why not go down to such depth of recursion? At some time, this solution would have been simply ideal, when it was believed that the atom was an indivisible particle. However, knowledge in the field of nuclear physics indicates that the atom is not the smallest indivisible particle - it consists of even smaller particles, which at one time were called elementary, because it was believed that there was nowhere to go further. Time has passed. Science has learned enough a large number of elementary particles; Then they asked the question: are elementary particles themselves really elementary? It turned out that no: there are even smaller “hyperelementary particles”. Now no one can guarantee that even more “elementary” particles will not be discovered someday. Maybe the recursion depth is eternal? Therefore, I believe that you should not stop at any specific level and designate it as the basic one. I would divide everything that exists into the following three classes:
1. Emptiness (not matter).
2. Matter (not emptiness).
3. Spirit, if it exists.
Quite recently it would have been possible to add a field here (electromagnetic, gravitational, etc.), but now it is already known that the field consists of those “elementary” particles that follow the elementary ones in terms of nesting.
Let's return to the fourth stage of classification of the existence of things. Thomas calls the rational soul “self-existent.” In contrast, the sensory souls of animals are not self-existent, and therefore they do not have actions specific to the rational soul, carried out only by the soul itself, separately from the body - thinking and excitement; all animal actions, like many human actions (except for thinking and acts of will), are carried out with the help of the body. Therefore, the souls of animals perish along with the body, while the human soul is immortal, it is the most noble thing in created nature.
Following Aristotle, Thomas considers reason as the highest among human abilities, seeing in the will itself, first of all, its rational definition, which he considers the ability to distinguish between good and evil. Like Aristotle, Thomas sees in the will practical reason, that is, reason aimed at action, and not at knowledge, guiding our actions, our life behavior, and not a theoretical attitude, not contemplation.
In Thomas's world, the truly existing are individuals. This unique personalism constitutes the specificity of both Thomist ontology and medieval natural science, the subject of which is the action of individual “hidden essences,” souls, spirits, and forces. Beginning with God, who is a pure act of being, and ending with the smallest of created entities, each being has a relative independence, which decreases as it moves down, that is, as the relevance of the existence of beings located on the hierarchical ladder decreases.
The teachings of Thomas enjoyed great influence in the Middle Ages, and the Roman Church officially recognized it. This teaching is revived in the 20th century under the name of neo-Thomism - one of the most significant movements in Western Catholic philosophy.
Conclusion
Having analyzed the main provisions of the philosophy of the Middle Ages, we can say that medieval philosophy as a whole is theocentric: all the basic concepts of medieval thinking are correlated with God and are defined through him. For all the complexity of medieval culture, it had serious shortcomings: people who knew the four rules of arithmetic were rare, because if someone knew how to divide, then he was simply considered the most educated person. This dislike, contempt for mathematics, and even arithmetic, for others natural sciences - characteristic throughout medieval life.
3. THE PROBLEM OF MAN IN MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY
The philosophy of the Middle Ages covers the period from the 5th to the 15th centuries. This period is closely connected with Christianity. The main questions are related to the problem of God, which reflected the tendency of philosophy towards sacralization (convergence with religious teaching) and moralization (convergence with ethics).
Philosophy is defined as follows:
biblical traditionalism, retrospectiveness;
special significance exegesis - art correct interpretation and explanations of the provisions of the Covenant;
a tendency towards edification, teaching;
theocentrism - God at the center of the world;
creationism;
subjectivity.
During this period, the idea of the immortality of the soul was established. The concepts appeared: “Personal God”, “Personal Love”, “Individual immortality”, “Fall”. True story is the story of the relationship between man and God. God predetermines the fate of the world /providentialism/, He is the creator of everything /principle of creationism/. Man is a blind weapon in the hands of God; he only carries out the divine will.
Despite all the internal integrity of medieval philosophy, the stages of patristics (1st-6th centuries) and scholasticism (11th-15th centuries) are clearly distinguished in it.
Patristics is a set of theological and philosophical views of the “church fathers” who set out to substantiate Christianity, relying on ancient philosophy and, above all, on the ideas of Plato. Augustine the Blessed is largest representative patristic era.
In patristics itself there are three stages:
1) apologetics (II-III centuries), which played important role in the formulation and defense of the Christian worldview, its representatives were called apologists. They received this name because their works often bore the name and character of apologies, that is, works aimed at defending and justifying Christian doctrine and the activities of Christians.
The object of comprehension by Christian apologists were numerous mythological images and ideas of empirical religious consciousness, partly borrowed from the Middle Eastern, Greek and Roman religions, partly re-formed in the Christian consciousness under the influence of new social and spiritual factors.
2) classical patristics (IV-V centuries), which systematized Christian teaching;
3) the final period (VI-VIII centuries), which stabilized dogmatics.
Scholasticism is a type of philosophizing in which, by means of the human mind, they try to substantiate ideas and formulas taken on faith. Scholasticism in the Middle Ages went through three stages of its development:
1) early form (XI-XII centuries);
2) mature form (XII-XIII centuries);
3) late scholasticism (XIII-XIV centuries).
home distinctive feature scholasticism is that it consciously views itself as a science placed in the service of theology. Thomas Aquinas is the peak of medieval scholasticism. At this stage, the systematic development of Christian philosophy takes place under the influence of the legacy of Aristotle.
Thomas Aquinas. Thomism. Formulated five proofs of the existence of God. Recognizing the relative independence of natural being and human reason, he argued that nature ends in grace, reason in faith, philosophical knowledge and natural theology, based on the analogy of existence, in supernatural revelation.
About being
The act of being, being an act of acts and the perfection of perfections, resides within every “being” as its innermost depth, as its true reality.
The existence of every thing is incomparably more important than its essence. A single thing exists not due to its essence, because essence does not in any way imply (imply) existence, but due to participation in the act of creation, that is, the will of God.
The world is a collection of substances that depend for their existence on God. Only in God are essence and existence inseparable and identical.
Thomas Aquinas distinguished two types of existence:
* existence is self-essential or unconditional.
* existence is accidental or dependent.
Only God is truly, truly being. Everything else that exists in the world has an inauthentic existence (even the angels, who are at the highest level in the hierarchy of all creations). The higher the “creations” stand on the levels of the hierarchy, the more autonomy and independence they have.
God does not create entities in order to then force them to exist, but existing subjects (foundations) that exist in accordance with their individual nature (essence).
About man and his soul
Human individuality is the personal unity of soul and body.
The soul is the life-giving force of the human body; it is immaterial and self-existent; she is a substance that finds its fullness only in unity with the body, thanks to her corporeality acquires significance - becoming a person. In the unity of soul and body, thoughts, feelings and goal-setting are born. The human soul is immortal.
Thomas Aquinas believed that the power of the soul's understanding (that is, the degree of its knowledge of God) determines the beauty of the human body.
The ultimate goal of human life is to achieve bliss found in the contemplation of God in the afterlife.
By his position, man is an intermediate being between creatures (animals) and angels. Among corporeal creatures, he is the highest being; he is distinguished by a rational soul and free will. Due to the latter, a person is responsible for his actions. And the root of his freedom is reason.
Man differs from the animal world in the presence of the ability to cognition and, on the basis of this, the ability to perform free conscious choice: it is the intellect and free (from any external necessity) will that are the grounds for the commission of truly human actions (as opposed to actions characteristic of both humans and animals) belonging to the ethical sphere. In the relationship between the two highest human abilities - intellect and will, the advantage belongs to the intellect (a position that gave rise to polemics between Thomists and Scotists), since the will necessarily follows the intellect, which represents for it this or that being as good; however, when performing an action in specific circumstances and with the help of certain means, volitional effort comes to the fore.
About knowledge
Thomas Aquinas believed that universals (that is, concepts of things) exist in three ways:
* “before things”, as archetypes - in the divine intellect as eternal ideal prototypes of things (Platonism, extreme realism).
* “in things” or substances, as their essence (Aristotelianism, moderate realism).
* “after things” - in human thinking as a result of operations of abstraction and generalization (nominalism, conceptualism)
Cognition begins with sensory experience under the influence of external objects. Objects are perceived by humans not entirely, but partially. When entering the soul of the knower, the knowable loses its materiality and can only enter it as a “species”. The “look” of an object is its knowable image. A thing exists simultaneously outside of us in all its existence and inside us as an image.
Truth is “the correspondence between the intellect and the thing.” That is, the concepts formed by the human intellect are true to the extent that they correspond to their concepts that precede in the intellect of God.
Three mental-cognitive operations:
* creation of a concept and retention of attention on its content (contemplation).
* judgment (positive, negative, existential) or comparison of concepts;
* inference - linking judgments with each other.
Three types of knowledge:
* mind - the entire sphere of spiritual abilities.
* intelligence - the ability of mental cognition.
* reason - the ability to reason.
Cognition is the noblest human activity: the theoretical mind that comprehends truth also comprehends absolute truth, that is, God.
5 Proofs of the Existence of God by Thomas Aquinas
1. Proof by motion means that everything that moves has ever been set in motion by something else, which in turn was set in motion by a third. In this way, a chain of “engines” is laid out, which cannot be infinite, and in the end it is necessary to discover an “engine” that moves everything else, but is not itself driven by anything else. It is God who turns out to be the root cause of all movement.
2. Proof through an efficient cause - this proof is similar to the first. Only in this case it is not the cause of movement, but the cause producing something. Since nothing can produce itself, there is something that is the first cause of everything - this is God.
3. Proof through necessity - every thing has the possibility of both its potential and real existence. If we assume that all things are in potency, then nothing would come into being. There must be something that contributed to the transfer of a thing from a potential to an actual state. This something is God.
4. Proof from degrees of being - the fourth proof says that people talk about different degrees of perfection of an object only through comparisons with the most perfect. This means that there is the most beautiful, the most noble, the best - this is God.
5. Proof through the target reason. In the world of rational and irrational beings, there is a purposefulness of activity, which means there is a rational being who sets a goal for everything that is in the world - we call this being God.
For the medieval consciousness, the whole meaning of human life was in three words: live, die and be judged. No matter what social and material heights a person reaches, he will appear naked before God. Therefore, one should not worry about the vanity of this world, but about the salvation of the soul. The medieval man believed that throughout his life evidence accumulated against him - sins that he committed and for which he did not confess or repent. Confession requires a duality so characteristic of the Middle Ages - a person acted simultaneously in two roles: in the role of the accused, for he held responsibility for his deeds, and in the role of the accuser, since he himself had to analyze his behavior in the face of the representative of God - the confessor. The personality received its completeness only when a final assessment was given of the individual’s life and what he had done throughout it:
The “judicial thinking” of medieval man expanded beyond the boundaries of the earthly world. God, the Creator, was understood as the Judge. Moreover, if in the first stages of the Middle Ages He was endowed with the traits of balanced, stern inflexibility and paternal condescension, then at the end of this era He was already a merciless and vengeful Lord. Why? Philosophers of the late Middle Ages explained the extraordinary increase in the preaching of fear of the formidable Deity by the deep socio-psychological and religious crisis of the transition period.
God's Judgment had a dual character, for one, private, judgment took place when someone died, the other. Universal, must take place at the end of the history of the human race. Naturally, this aroused great interest among philosophers in understanding the meaning of history.
Philosophy of history
The most difficult problem, sometimes incomprehensible to modern consciousness, was the problem of historical time.
Medieval man lived, as it were, outside of time, in a constant sense of eternity. He willingly endured the daily routine, noticing only the change of day and seasons. He did not need time, because it, earthly and vain, distracted him from work, which in itself was only a delay before the main event - God's Judgment.
Theologians argued for the linear flow of historical time. In the concept of sacred history (from the Latin sacer - sacred, associated with religious rites), time flows from the act of Creation through the passion of Christ to the end of the world and the Second Coming. In accordance with this scheme, they were built in the 13th century. and concepts of earthly history (for example, Vincent of Beauvais).
Philosophers tried to solve the problem of historical time and eternity. But this problem was not simple, because, like all medieval consciousness, it was also characterized by a certain dualism: the expectation of the end of history and at the same time the recognition of its eternity. On the one hand, there is an eschatological attitude (from the Greek eschatos - last, final), that is, the expectation of the end of the world, on the other hand, history was presented as a reflection of supra-temporal, supra-historical “sacred events”: “Christ was born once and cannot be born again.” .
A great contribution to the development of this problem was made by Augustine the Blessed, who is often called one of the first philosophers of history. He tried to explain such categories of time as past, present and future. In his opinion, only the present is valid, the past is connected with human memory, and the future lies in hope. Everything is united once and for all in God as Absolute Eternity. This understanding of the absolute eternity of God and the real variability of the material and human world became the basis of the Christian medieval worldview for a long time.
Augustine deals with the “fate of humanity,” guided, however, by biblical historiography, which claims that what was predicted by the prophets over many centuries comes true in due time. Hence the conviction that history, even with the uniqueness of all its events, is fundamentally predictable, and, therefore, filled with meaning. The basis of this meaningfulness lies in Divine Providence, Divine care of humanity. Everything that needs to happen serves the fulfillment of the original Divine plan:
punishing people for original sin; testing their ability to resist human evil and testing their will to good; atonement for original sin; calling the best part of humanity to build a sacred community of the righteous; the separation of the righteous from the sinners and the final reward to each according to his deserts. In accordance with the objectives of this plan, history is divided into six periods (eons). Augustine, as a rule, refrains from talking about the temporal duration of each period and considers all biblical eschatological periods to be purely symbolic.
Didacticism and edification are important features of the philosophy of that era. An example of didacticism is Abelard’s work “Yes and No”. This work was a set of questions to which the students could not find answers.
The most important feature of medieval culture is the special role of Christian doctrine and the church. In the conditions of the general decline of culture immediately after the destruction of the Roman Empire, only the church remained the only social institution for many European states. Against the backdrop of poverty and a hard, meager life, Christianity offered people a coherent system of knowledge about the world, its structure, the forces and laws operating in it.
The picture of the world of believing villagers and townspeople was based on images and interpretations of the Bible. The starting point for the explanation of the world was the complete unconditional opposition of nature and God, heaven and earth, soul and body.
The medieval European was a deeply religious person; in his mind, the world was seen as a kind of arena of confrontation between the forces of heaven and hell, good and evil. The consciousness of people was deeply magical, everyone was absolutely confident in the possibility of miracles, they accepted everything that the Bible reported literally. The Bible was read and listened to the same way newspapers and magazines are read today.
He sought to perceive everything that the medieval man saw and experienced around him, any natural phenomena and events of his own life simultaneously in two planes: natural as phenomena and events occurring here, in the lower world, and symbolic as signs of the presence of God, manifestations of the wisdom and will of the Creator, always directed towards good, although acting in ways inscrutable to the human mind. In all spheres of medieval culture, the language of symbols and allegories is used: in architecture, painting, spiritual and secular literature, applied art; In philosophy and theology, traditions of symbolic knowledge that were formed during the period of patristics are developing.
The symbolism of the Middle Ages is the symbolism of all medieval life and culture. In the Middle Ages, people not only spoke in symbols, but also did not understand speech other than symbolic.
The world was not depicted symbolically, it was perceived as such. The earthly world is a symbol of the heavenly, the things of the first are only symbols of the objects of the second, and not because it is so intended by man, but due to the fact that the speculative subjugates the objective and controls it. A person is not involved in the process of symbolization; he can only find out what is behind the symbol. Things “not only can serve as symbols, it is not we who put symbolic content into them: they are symbols, and the task of the cognizing subject is reduced to revealing them true meaning"The process of developing a symbol and comprehending it is endless.
To the question of what a person is, medieval thinkers gave no less numerous and varied answers than philosophers of antiquity or modern times. However, two premises of these responses tended to remain common.
The first is the biblical definition of the essence of man as “the image and likeness of God” - a revelation that cannot be doubted. The second is the understanding of man as a “rational animal” developed by Plato, Aristotle and their followers.
Based on this understanding, medieval philosophers posed the following questions: what is more in a person - the rational principle or the animal principle? Which of them is his essential property, and which one can he do without while remaining human? What is mind and what is life (animality)? The main definition of man as “the image and likeness of God” also gave rise to the question: what exactly are the properties of God that constitute the essence of human nature - after all, it is clear that neither infinity, nor beginninglessness, nor omnipotence can be ascribed to man.
The first thing that distinguishes the anthropology of the early Christian philosophers from the ancient, pagan one is an extremely dual assessment of man.
Man not only now occupies the first place in all of nature as its king - in this sense, some Greek philosophers also placed man highly - but also, as the image and likeness of God, he goes beyond the boundaries of nature in general, becomes, as it were, above it (after all, God is transcendental , beyond the world he created). And this is a significant difference from ancient anthropology, the two main tendencies of which - Platonism and Aristotelianism - do not remove man from the system of other beings, in fact, do not even give him absolute primacy in any system.
For Platonists, who recognize the only true essence in a person as his rational soul, he is the lowest step in the longest ladder - the hierarchy of rational beings - souls, demons, gods, various minds of varying degrees of “purity”, etc. For Aristotle, man is first and foremost an animal, that is,
a living body endowed with a soul - only in humans, unlike animals and insects, the soul is also intelligent.
For medieval philosophers, starting from the earliest ones, there was an impassable gulf between man and the entire Universe. Man is an alien from another world (which can be called the “heavenly kingdom”, “spiritual world”, “paradise”, “sky”) and must return there again. Although, according to the Bible, he himself is made of earth and water, although he grows and eats like plants, feels and moves like an animal, he is akin not only to them, but also to God. It was within the framework of the Christian tradition that ideas emerged that later became cliches: man is the king of nature, the crown of creation, etc.
But how to understand the thesis that man is the image and likeness of God? Which of the divine properties constitute the essence of man?
This is how one of the church fathers, Gregory of Nyssa, answers this question. God is first and foremost the king and ruler of all things. Having decided to create man, he had to make him king over all animals. But a king needs two things: firstly, freedom (if a king is deprived of freedom, then what kind of king is he?), secondly, to have someone to reign over. And God endows man with reason and free will, that is, the ability to reason and distinguish between good and evil: this is the essence of man, the image of God in him. And in order for him to become a king in a world consisting of bodily things and beings, God gives him a body and an animal soul - as a link with nature, over which he is called to reign.