Средневековье – это почти тысячелетний период time in the history of Europe. It originates from the breakup in the fifth century AD of the Roman Empire, captures feudalism and ends at the beginning of the fifteenth, when the Renaissance is coming.
The main features of the philosophy of the Middle Ages
The features of medieval philosophy briefly represent the Christian faith as a tool for the unification of all people, regardless of their financial situation, nationality, profession, sex.
Medieval philosophers have achieved that everyonea person who was baptized received the opportunity to find in the future life those benefits that were deprived in this. Belief in the immortality of the soul as the main component of the essence of each person equalizes everyone: a king and a beggar, a publican and an artisan, sick and healthy, a man and a woman. If we represent the stages of the evolution of medieval philosophy briefly, then this is the establishment of the dogmas of Christianity and the introduction of the Christian worldview into the public consciousness in accordance with the requirements of feudalism as the main form of the state structure of most countries of the time.
The problems of Christian philosophy
The main problems of medieval philosophy are brieflyto state is rather difficult. If we try to present them in a few words, then this is the establishment of the universal domination of the Christian church, the justification of its doctrine from a scientific point of view, from positions that are understandable and acceptable to people of all categories. One of the main collisions of medieval philosophy was the theme of universals. The dichotomy of spirit and matter was expressed in the polemics of nominalists and realists. According to the concept of Thomas Aquinas universal manifested in a threefold form. The first one is parasitic, that is, intangible, in the form of the original plan of the Creator. The second is material or material, that is, physical appearance. The third is the aftereffective, in other words, imprinted in the mind, the mind of man. To Thomas Aquinsky, the nominalist Rosselin contradicted.
His point of view of extreme rationalism was reduced toto the fact that the world can only be known from the standpoint of the primacy of matter, for the essence of universals is only in their names. Studies worthy of only that which is individual. It is not just a swing of the voice. The Catholic Church condemned the theory of Roszelin as incompatible with the dogmas of Christianity. The Papal See was approved version of the world order by Thomas Aquinas. His moderate realism was eventually adopted by the Catholic Church as the most rational and logically quite easily amenable.
God-seeking is the main task of medieval philosophers
Medieval philosophy can be brieflyis designated as God-seeking and confirmation of the existence of God. The atomism of the ancient Greek philosophers was rejected, as was the consubstantiality of God according to Aristotle, while Platonism, on the contrary, was taken as a basis in the triune aspect of the divine essence.
Theocentrism of medieval philosophy is briefly describedin the catechism. Christianity began to occupy a dominant position in the political life of the states of medieval Europe. The harsh era of the Inquisition of the problem of medieval philosophy succinctly and fully used as a driving force for the introduction of the Christian way of thinking in everyday relations, formed in agricultural communities, between the merchants of townspeople and among the knightly estate.
Three stages of medieval philosophy
The following stages of medievalphilosophy, briefly their essence in the following. The generalized characteristic of the first is the establishment of the triune God, the proof of the existence of God, the adaptation of early Christian rituals and symbols to the nascent Christian church. The second stage of medieval philosophy set itself the task of establishing the rule of the Christian church. The third stage of medieval philosophy was briefly defined as a period of rethinking the Christian dogmas legalized in the previous period. The division of these stages according to time and the personalities of the philosophers themselves is only possible very conditional, since different sources provide uncoordinated information on this score. Scholasticism, patristy and apologetics are very closely interrelated and intertwined.
However, apologetics is still considered a timethe origin of the medieval view of philosophical science on the being and consciousness of man and takes a period of time approximately from the second to the fifth century. Patristic conventionally begins in the third century and in an active dominant position is up to the eighth century, and scholasticism is most vividly represented in the span of the eleventh to the fourteenth centuries.
Apologetics
The first stage was defined as apologetic.His main adherents were Quintus Septimius Florentus Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria. Apologetic features of medieval philosophy can be briefly described as a struggle against pagan ideas about the world order. Faith must be above reason. That in Christianity it is impossible to verify, it is necessary to accept as truth from God, without expressing doubts or disagreements. Faith in God does not have to be rational, but it must be unbreakable.
Patristics
The second stage is, by definitionpatriotic, because at this time there is no need to prove the existence of God. Now philosophers demand to accept everything coming from Him as a blessing, as a wonderful and useful gift. Medieval philosophy briefly and intelligibly communicates the Good News to the Gentiles through the organization of the Crusades. Whoever is not with the Christian church is against her, dissent was burned with fire and sword. Blessed Augustine Aurelius in his Confession, disbelief in God and man's sinful desires defines as the main problems of medieval philosophy. He says that everything good in the world is from God, and bad from the evil will of man. The world is made of nothing, so everything in it was originally conceived as good and good. A person has his own will and can manage his desires. The human soul is immortal and preserves memory, even leaving its earthly abode - the physical body of man.
According to the patristic, the main features of the medievalphilosophy briefly is a tireless effort to spread Christianity around the world, as the only true information about the world and man. It was during this period that the Lord's incarnation, His resurrection and ascension were established and proved by the philosophers. Also, the dogma was established about the second coming of the Savior, the Last Judgment, about the universal resurrection and new life in the next incarnation. Very important, from the point of view of the existence in the eternity of the Church of Christ and the priestly continuity within it, was the acceptance of the dogma of the unity and conciliarity of the Church.
Scholasticism
The third stage is the scholastic medievalphilosophy. A brief description of this period can be designated as giving a form to Church-Christian dogmas established in the previous period. There are educational institutions, philosophy turns into theology. The theocentricism of medieval philosophy, in short, is manifested as the creation of schools and universities with a theological focus. The natural and human sciences are taught from the point of view of Christian dogma. Philosophy becomes the service of theology.
Philosophical quest and Christian thinkers
Medieval philosophy, brief descriptionits stages are intelligibly explained in textbooks on the history of philosophy. In the same place one can find a mention of the works of such outstanding thinkers of the first stage, as representatives of the apologetics Tatian and Origen. Tatian assembled the four Gospels of Mark, Luke, Matthew and John into one. They subsequently began to be called the New Testament. Origen created a branch of philology, based on biblical tales. He also owns the introduction of the concept of the God-man in relation to Jesus Christ. Among the philosophers who left the most significant mark in this science, one can not but mention the patristicism of Boethius Anicia Manlia Torquata Severina. He left behind himself a remarkable work, Consolation by Philosophy. Medieval philosophy was briefly summarized and simplified for teaching in educational institutions. Universalia is the brainchild of Boethius. From his end, the seven main directions of knowledge were divided into two types of disciplines. The first is humanitarian disciplines.
The three-way path included rhetoric, grammar anddialectics. The second is natural science. This four-way path included geometry, arithmetic, music and astronomy. He also translated and explained the main works of Aristotle, Euclid and Nycomed. Scholasticism in philosophical teaching is always associated with the name of the monk of the Order of Dominicans Thomas Aquinas, who systematized the postulates of the orthodox church, brought five indestructible proofs of the existence of God. He combined and logically linked the philosophical calculations of Aristotle with the teachings of Christians, showed that the natural human being, mind and logic during development, inevitably reach a higher level of consciousness, namely, the belief in the existence and active participation of the omnipresent, omnipotent and intangible Triune God. He discovered and proved the always-occurring sequence when reason ends in faith, nature with grace, and philosophy with revelation.
Philosophers - saints of the Catholic Church
Many medieval philosophers were rankedthe Catholic Church to the saints. These are Irenaeus of Lyons, Blessed Augustine, Clement of Alexandria, John Chrysostom, Albert the Great, Thomas Aquinas, John of Damascus, Maximus the Confessor, Gregory of Nyssa, Basil the Great, Dionysius the Areopagite, Boethius, canonized as Saint Severin, and others.
