Category: philosophy
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Xenophonte’s “Symposium”: a review
In general, a set of dialogues called “Symposium” is a story about a group of virtuous friends who get into hilarious situations and make vulgar jokes about each other. Behind the jokes, there is sometimes an irony that points to the virtue of each character. But besides the banal self-glorification of Socrates’ friends, we are…
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A review of Xenophonte’s “Oeconomicus”
Considering the book called “Oeconomicus”, we will focus mainly on what interests us in terms of revealing Xenophon’s ethical-political and philosophical outlook, and in addition we will consider a very atypical work “On Income”, but first – “Oeconomicus”. Philosophical elements appear here almost immediately. Speaking by the mouth of Socrates’ disciple Critobulus, we are advised…
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Pre-Philosophy: The Nine Lyricists
After the above-mentioned five semi-mythical characters and poets of the “Cyclic” – follows the epoch of the “sages” (which, by the way, is very funny, because the word “philosopher” means a lover of wisdom, and “sage” therefore stands above “philosopher”). But the same “Cyclic” poets had other lyricist contemporaries, so before I go on to…
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Pythagoras and the Pythagorean brotherhood
The cycle “Ancient Philosophy: Formation of the Canon”: Introduction (Thales, Anaximander). First part (Pythagoras) – you are here. Second part (Xenophanes). Third part (Heraclitus). Fourth part (Parmenides). Fifth part (Summary). Now we know that the entire poetic culture, the Greek literary language itself, and with it the richest polities, including Miletus, the main colonial center…
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The formation of classical theology
Pre-Philosophy Cycle: The beginnings of philosophy in India and China. Eastern influence (Phoenician, Egyptian and Babylonian philosophy). Mythological stage (compressed mythology). Heroic stage (compressed stories about heroes). Homeric period, Cyclic poets and Orphism. Context, role of tyrants and kings. Nine Lyrics. Seven Sages. Formation of classical theology – you are here. Pre-philosophy (final paper). The…
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On frank criticism and anger
The title of this article was chosen for a reason; it is connected with such a scholar of the Epicurean school as Zeno of Sidon (150-75 BC). Who was this Zeno? We know that he was a man of considerable influence, and that it was under his patronage that Epicureanism became the leading doctrine in…
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Pre-philosophy: the influence of the East
History begins in the East The Greeks themselves believed that philosophy, as well as other varieties of high culture, came from the more ancient and developed Middle East. It was considered very prestigious if you are connected with something more ancient, because as it is known “it was better before”, and veterans should be respected.…
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The Philosophical School of Miletus
This article is a kind of bridge between the “Prephilosophy” series (the previous article in the cycle) and the “Formation of the Canon” series (the next article). In a way, it touches on both of them. Thales, the first empiricist “To begin philosophy with Thales” has long been a good tradition, and even in antiquity…
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Against Logic
Researchers of ancient culture widely know that in the Epicurean school of philosophy there is practically no “logic” section. It is replaced by a certain “Canon“, which is a set of recommendations for the proper conduct of the conversation, so that no unnecessary difficulties arise (strictly speaking, logic was developed by Epicureans, especially inductive logic…
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On the Differences in Epicurean and Stoic Ethics
In the course of our ongoing polemic with the “Stoicism and Stoics” group, a crucial question was raised about the difference between philosophical systems in their very essence. After all, from the outside it may seem that we are talking about practically the same thing, but described in different words. Russian philological scientists of the…