- •Contents
- •Part I philosophy
- •Philosophy: the range of philosophical problems and the role and significance in culture.
- •1.1. Philosophy as Specific Type of Knowledge
- •1.2. The Subject Matter and the Nature of Philosophy
- •1.3. Philosophy as Theoretical Basis of Worldview
- •1.4. Philosophy as General Methodology
- •1.5. The Specific Place of Philosophy in Culture. Functions of Philosophy
- •Questions and Tasks for Self -Control
- •Literature
- •Philosophy of the middle ages
- •3.1. Historical and Social-Cultural Grounds for the Development of Mediaeval Philosophy, Its Characteristic Features and Problems of Research
- •3.2. Basic Philosophical Ideas in the Period of Patristics
- •3.3. Scholasticism as Basic Stream of Medieval Philosophy
- •3.4. Argumentation on the Universals. Nominalists and Realists
- •Questions and Tasks for Self -Control
- •Philosophy of the renaissance
- •4.1. Humanism – New Worldview Orientation of the Renaissance: Historical and Cultural Grounds
- •4.2. Revival of Platonic Tradition. Nicolas of Cusa
- •4.3. Natural Philosophy and New Science
- •4.4. Social Theories of the Renaissance
- •Questions and Tasks for Self -Control
- •Literature
- •Philosophy of the modern ages
- •5.2. Empiricism. English Philosophy of XVII Century
- •5.3. Rationalism. European Philosophy of XVII Century
- •5.4. Philosophy of Enlightenment
- •Словарь - Открыть словарную статью
- •Questions and Tasks for self-control
- •Literature
- •German classical philosophy
- •6.1. Historical Social and Cultural Grounds for the German Classical Philosophy Development
- •6.2. I. Kant and His Critical Philosophy
- •6.3. Idealism: Fichte and Schelling on Road to Hegel
- •6.5. L. Feuerbach as Necessary Stepping Stone for Non-Classic Philosophy of XIX-XX Centuries
- •Questions and Tasks for self-control
- •Unit 7 european philosophy of the XIX-XX centuries
- •7.1. General Characteristics of XIX-XX Centuries’ Philosophy. Historical Social and Cultural Grounds for Its Development
- •7.2. Romantic Movement as Grounds for
- •7.3. Currents of Thought in XIX Century and
- •7.4. Variety of Doctrines in XIX–XX Centuries
- •Questions and Tasks for Self-Control
- •Literature
- •Formation and development of philosophical thought in ukraine
- •8.1. Ukrainian Philosophical Culture and Its Specificity
- •8.2. Philosophical Thought in Period of Kyiv Rus
- •8.3. Ukrainian Philosophy of XV–XVIII Centuries
- •8.4. Ukrainian Philosophy in XIX –First Third of XX Centuries
- •8.5. Philosophical Thought in Ukraine in XX-XXI Centuries
- •Congenial work (after h. Skovoroda) is a creative potential of human beings and the possibility of self-fulfillment in this life.
- •Questions and Tasks for Self-Control
- •Literature
- •Outline theory of dialectics
- •9.1. Dialectics and Its Historical Forms
- •9.2. Principles and Laws of Dialectics
- •9.3. Laws of Dialectics
- •9.4. Categories of Dialectics
- •Questions and Tasks for Self-Control:
- •Literature:
- •Philosophical theory of being
- •10.1. “Being” as Philosophical Category. Unity and Structuredness of Being
- •10.2. Philosophical Category of “Matter”. Structure of Matter in Contemporary Science
- •10.3. Motion, Space and Time as Attributes of Matter. Social Space and Social Time as Forms of Human Being in Culture
- •Questions and Tasks for Self-Control
- •Literature
- •Jan Westerhoff. Ontological Categories: Their nature and Significance / Jan Westerhoff. — New York : Oxford University Press, 2005. − 261 p.
- •Philosophical conception of man
- •11.1. Development of Concept of Man in the History of Philosophy
- •11.2. Man as Biopsychosocial Being
- •11.3. Man and His Environment: from the Earth to Outer Space
- •11.4. Man. Personality. Society
- •11.5. Problem of Man’s Being Purport
- •Questions and Tasks for Self-Control
- •Literature
- •Philosophical problem of consciousness
- •12.1. Problem of Consciousness in Different Philosophical Teachings
- •12.2. Role of Practical Activity, Communication and Speech in Formation and Development of Consciousness
- •12.3. Structure of Consciousness. Consciousness and Unconsciousness
- •12.4. Consciousness and Self-Consciousness
- •Questions and Tasks for Self-Control:
- •Literature:
- •Theory of cognition
- •13.1. Cognition as Object of Philosophical Analysis
- •13.2. Methods and Forms of Scientific Cognition
- •13.3. Problem of Truth
- •13.4. Practice as the Basis and Purpose of Cognition
- •Questions and Tasks for Self-Control:
- •Literature
- •Social philosophy: subject matter and structure
- •14.1. Specific Character of Social Philosophy. Social Being and Social Consciousness
- •14.2. Philosophical Meaning of the Concept of Society. Society as System
- •14.3. Social System’s Structure and Its Basic Elements
- •14.4. Historical Periodization of Social Development
- •Questions and Tasks for Self-Control:
- •Literature
- •Social production as mode of man’s being in culture
- •15.1. The Concept of Culture in Philosophy. Culture as a Symbolic World of Human Existence
- •15.2. Material Culture, Its Structure
- •15.3. Spiritual Culture, Its Structure
- •Questions and Tasks for Self-Control
- •Political sphere of society`s life as philosophical problem
- •16.1. Politics and Political System of Society. Structure of Politics
- •16.2. State as Basic Political Institution
- •Literature
- •Plato. Republic / Plato : [transl. By g.M.A. Gruber]. — Indianapolis : Hackett Publishing, 1992. — 300 p.
- •Philosophy of history
- •17.1. History as Object of Philosophical Research: Historical Development of Circle of Problems. Meaning of History
- •17.2. Coincidence of Evolutional and Revolution Principles
- •In the Development of Mankind’s Civilization
- •17.3. Role and Significance of Masses of People and Personalities in History
- •Questions and Tasks for Self-Control
- •Literature
- •Strategy of future
- •18.1. Opposition “Modern-Postmodern” in Mankind’s Cultural and Civilized Development
- •18.2. Global Problems of Today as Negative Consequences of Modern Culture
- •18.3. Phenomenon of Globalization in Modern Civilized Development
- •Questions and Tasks for self-control
- •Literature
- •Part II logic
- •Logic as philosophical and scientific discipline
- •19.1. Subject of Logic. Sensual and Abstract Cognition
- •19.2. Logical Functions and Laws of Thinking
- •19.3. Functions of Logic
- •Questions and Tasks for Self-Control
- •Literature
- •Logical forms of thinking
- •20.1. Concept as Form of Abstract Thinking
- •Identity (Sameness)
- •20.2. Proposition and Its Structure
- •Inductive reasoning
- •Literature
- •Logical basis of argumentation
- •21.1. Structure of Argumentation
- •21.2. Logical Fallacies
- •Questions and Tasks for Self-Control
- •Part III religion studies
- •Religion: essence, structure and historical forms
- •22.1. Religion studies as a philosophical discipline.
- •22.2. Religion: Structure and Functions
- •22.3. Historical Types and Forms of Religion
- •Literature
- •Primitive religious beliefs and ethnic religions
- •23.1. Primitive Religions
- •23.2. Ethnical Religions
- •Literature
- •The world religions
- •24.1. Buddhism
- •24.2. Judeo-Christian tradition
- •24.3. Islam. Fundamental Tenets of Islam
- •3) Belief in the Prophets and Messengers
- •4) Belief in the Sacred Texts
- •5) Belief in Life after Death
- •6) Belief in the Divine Decree
- •1) The Declaration of Faith
- •2) The Prayer (Salah)
- •3) The Compulsory Charity (Zakah)
- •4) The Fast of Ramadan (Sawm)
- •5) The fifth Pillar is the Pilgrimage or Hajj to Mecca
- •The Branches of Islam
- •Questions and Tasks for Self-Control
- •Literature
- •Religion in modern world
- •25.1. Specific Character of Development of Religion in Modern Time: Modernism and Fundamentalism
- •25.2. New Religions: Essence, Origin and Classifications
- •25.3. Why Do People Join New Religious Movements?
- •25.4. Tolerance
- •25.5. Religious Toleration and History of Struggle for Freedom of Conscience in Europe
- •25.6. Human Rights
- •25.7. Legislative Guarantee of Freedom of Conscience
- •In Independent Ukraine
- •Questions and Tasks for Self-Control
- •Literature
- •26.2. Morality and Morals
- •26.3. Origin of Morality
- •Questions and tasks for self-control
- •Literature
- •Notion and the structure of moral consciousness. Categories of ethics.
- •27.1. Moral Consciousness in the System of Morality. Structure of Moral Consciousness
- •27.2. Moral Norms and Principles. Motives and Value Orientation
- •27.3. Main Ethical Categories
- •Questions and Tasks for Self-Control
- •Literature
- •Moral world of man. Problems of applied ethics
- •28.1. Moral Necessity and Moral Freedom
- •28.2. Moral Choice and Responsibility
- •28.3. Love as Essential Component of Human Being
- •28.4. Problems of Applied Ethics
- •Questions and Tasks for Self-Control
- •Part V aesthetics
- •Aesthetics as philosophical discipline
- •29.1. Development of Concept of Aesthetics in History of Philosophy
- •29.2. Aesthetics and Other Disciplines
- •29.3. Basic Categories of Aesthetics
- •Questions and Tasks for Self-Control
- •Literature
- •Art as social phenomenon
- •30.1. Origin of Concept of Art
- •30.2. Art as Social Phenomenon
- •30.3. Forms of Art
- •30.4. Specificity of Artistic Creation Process
- •30.5. Search of Art in XXI Century
- •Questions and Tasks for Self-Control
- •Literature
- •The list of literature Basic Literature
- •Jan Westerhoff. Ontological Categories: Their Nature and Significance / Jan Westerhoff. — New York : Oxford University Press, 2005. − 261 p.
- •Supplementary Literature
- •J.L. Acrill. Essays on Plato and Aristotle / j.L. Acrill. – New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. — 251 p.
- •John Burnet. Early Greek Philosophy / John Burnet. – [4 ed.] – London: a. & c. Black, 1952. — 375 p.
- •Roy Burrel. The Greeks / Roy Burrel. – Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1989. — 243 p.
- •Primary sources
- •Plato. Collected dialogues / Plato : [transl. By Lane Cooper and others]. – Princeton : Princeton University Press, 1961. — 1743 p.
- •Plato. Republic / Plato : [transl. By g.M.A. Gruber]. — Indianapolis : Hackett Publishing, 1992. — 300 p.
1.4. Philosophy as General Methodology
Methods originate in practical activity as generalized devices that conform to the properties and laws of reality, with the objective logic of the things at the transformation of which human activity is directed. The methods of practical activity thus reflect the historically formed and socially consolidated modes of man’s sensuously objective interaction with the world. This was the basis for the formation of cognitive and later theoretical methods – sets of devices and operations directing the mind towards the path leading to the truth. Philosophy is a universal method, its subject matter being the most universal principles of thought of all cognition. Philosophical methods do not determine unambiguously the course of the creative search for the truth. In the final analysis the decisive factor here is practical life. The universal methods of philosophy are the necessary condition for the solution of various concrete tasks; they do not replace the special scientific methods – rather they are given a concrete form in these methods. Philosophical methods are devices for the study of objects with the aim of discovering in them the universal laws of movement and development manifested in specific ways in accordance with the specificity of the object.
Methodology is a system of basic principles or elements of generalized modes of the organization and construction of theoretical and practical activity. It is a particular area of philosophical knowledge.
The main philosophical methods are dialectics, metaphysics, phenomenology, hermeneutics and others.
“Dialectics” from Greek means a dispute, contradiction. In philosophy the term “dialectics” was first applied by Socrates. For him dialectics was an effective method of proceeding over a dispute aimed at revealing the truth through the collision of opposite points of view. German philosopher G. Hegel developed dialectics as a method of searching for the existence of opposite sides in things and of contradictions between them in reality itself. However under reality he meant only a thought. Later K. Marx and F. Engels stated, that G. Hegel' geniously guessed dialectics of things in dialectics of ideas and concepts. They regarded dialectics as a theory of the most general regularities of the development of nature, society and human thought which is expressed in the system of categories and laws.
Dialectics is the method, by which we study development in its most complete deep-going and comprehensive form. Dialectics affords a reflection of the extremely complex and contradictory processes of the material and spiritual world. Dialectics is not a mere statement of that, which happens in the reality but an instrument of scientific cognition and transformation, an instrument for moving from the domain of non-knowledge into the realm of knowledge, a methodology of knowledge based on action and methodology of action based on knowledge. It is in this that the unity of dialectics as theory and method is manifested.
Metaphysics is characterized by the static mode of thinking, by the veering of thought from one extreme to the other by exaggeration of some aspect of an object, such as stability, repetition and relative independence. A characteristic feature of metaphysics has always been one-sidedness, abstractness and the lifting of certain elements to an absolute. Things and their mental reflection are always unchanging, immobile, and identical to themselves for the metaphysical way of thinking. Metaphysics does not cover universal connections between things and phenomena, does not examine their mutual conditionality. Metaphysical thought regards motion only as a simple transition of things in space which takes place either on a circle or on a straight line. As a method of scientific cognition metaphysics played an important role in the development of classic natural science in the XVII-XVIII centuries. However, this method is not appropriate for philosophical generalizations.