- THE OCENTRIC PERIOD:
- 500BCE – 0
- Middle Age – Byzantium
- ARISTOCRATIC PERIOD:
- Renaissance (1450-1550)
- The Age of Enlightenment (1550-1789)
IDEAS AND THOUGHT
RESEARCH JOURNAL
I. OCENTRIC PERIOD:
1. 500BCE – 0:
Ancient and modern have the following characteristics:
- Art was not the beauty residence: it is not the definition of beauty with art.
- Reasoning about art theory and beauty developed independently of each other.
Socrates
Socrates was born in Athens in 470 BC. His father, Sofroniks, was a stonemason and his mother a midwife. From his father, Socrates learned the craft of sculptor. Socrates used to say that he inherited from his mother her art, comparing it with the philosophical method - maieutics: "Now my art is exactly as obstetrics, differing only in that I take delivery of husbands, rather than wives, birth of soul and not the body."
Socrates learned from one of the most famous philosophers of antiquity - Clazomenae Anaxagoras, who was also the teacher of Pericles.
Socrates traveled little and almost never left Athens. As a young man, he visited only Delphi, Corinth and Samos with Archelaus philosopher. He participated in the battles of Potidaea in 432 BC. e. and Amifipole in 422 BC. e. They say that when the Athenians retreated, he walked backwards, facing the enemy.
Conversations of Socrates were admired. He believed that his listeners in the first place were his friends, and only then disciples. Thanks to his extraordinary charm, he had an effect on people of all ages, causing envy and even hostility. In 399 BC he was charged with contempt of the gods and corrupting the youth, as he preached his doctrine. He was convicted, but continued to philosophize, because he thought this to be the mission that God has given him.
Socrates preferred to die defending his ideas. Thirty days after sentencing Socrates drank the cup of hemlock, surrounded by his disciples, whom he spoke of the unity of life and death: "Those who are truly devoted to philosophy, are busy with only one - dying and death."
Diogenes Laertius gives many testimonies and anecdotes borrowed from ancient authors, depicting the character of Socrates: determination, courage, control of passion, humility and independence of wealth and power. Socrates did not fundamentally record his thoughts, considering the real sphere of existence of true knowledge and wisdom, live chat with opponents, lively dialogue, and debate. According to Plato, anyone who was there with Socrates and entered into conversation with him about whatever was discussed was passed by spiral up discourse and inevitably found himself compelled to go forward until the report did not give itself in itself, as he lived and how he lives now, and that even briefly slipped once, could not hide from Socrates.
Socrates with his disciples.
Plato
Exact date of Plato’s birth is unknown. Following the ancient sources, most researchers believe that Plato was born in the years 428-427 BC in Athens or Aegina in the midst of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. Plato was born in the family, which had aristocratic origins. His father, Ariston (465-424) ascended, according to legend, to the last king of Attica Kodru, and ancestor of Perictione, Plato’s mother, Solon was an Athenian reformer. In addition, according to Diogenes Laertius, Plato was immaculately conceived.
The first Plato’s teacher was Cratylus. About 408 BC Plato met Socrates and became one of his disciples. Socrates was a permanent participant of almost all the works of Plato, written in the form of dialogues between historical and sometimes fictional characters.
After the death of Socrates in 399 BC Plato went to Megara (Taylor, 2001). According to legend, he visited Egypt and Cyrene during 399-389 years. In the year 389, Plato went to southern Italy and Sicily, where he associated with the Pythagoreans. Plato went to Sicily later, with the help of Dionysius of Syracuse found there an ideal state, in which philosophers instead of a bowl of poison would receive the reins. This trip, like Plato's previous attempts to make contact with the authorities, ended in complete failure. In 387, Plato returned to Athens, where he founded his own school - the Platonic Academy. The rest of life, Plato was in Athens, wrote extensively, lecturing. According to ancient legends, Plato died on his birthday in the year 347.
Plato was the first Greek philosopher, who left behind a number of fundamental philosophical works, the most important of which are: "Apology of Socrates", "Parmenides", "Gorgias", "Phaedo", "State", "Laws". He is also the founder of idealism. The main provisions of his idealistic teachings are as follows: material things are volatile, unstable and eventually cease to exist; the world of things surrounding us is also variable and does not really exist as an independent substance in reality; there are only really clean (incorporeal) ideas – eidoses; clean ideas are true, eternal and constant; any existing thing is just a material reflection of the original idea (eidos) of the things; the whole world is a reflection of pure ideas.
Plato & Aristotle- School of Athens, Fresco 1509-1510 by Raphael (1483-1520).
Plato also raises philosophical doctrine of the triad, according to which all things are composed of three substances: God or “the One”, "mind" or “thought”; “spirit” or “soul”. The one is the basis of all existence; it has no symptoms (no beginning, no end, no parts, no integrity, no form or content, etc.); it is nothing; above all being, above all thought, beyond all feelings; it is the foundation of everything - all the ideas of all things, all phenomena, all the properties (like all good from the standpoint of the person, and all that is bad).
Mind comes from the One, is shared with it; its opposite and the essence of all things, generalization of all life on Earth. Soul is the movable substance that unites and connects the One with nothing and the mind with all living things and connects all things and phenomena. According to Plato, the soul may be of the world and the soul of the individual; in case of animate approach, soul may also have things and inanimate nature. Soul of a person (thing) is a part of the world soul, which is immortal. When a person dies, in fact, dies only the body, but the soul, answering in the underworld for their earthly deeds, acquires a new corporeal shell. Persistence of the soul and the change of bodily form is the natural law of the cosmos.
Concerning epistemology (theory of knowledge), Plato comes from an idealistic picture of the world he created. Since the material world is only a reflection of the world of ideas, the object of knowledge should primarily be the pure ideas. Pure ideas cannot be known through sensory perception (this type of knowledge gives no certain knowledge, but only opinion - paradox). They can be known only by reason, thanks to the higher spiritual activities (idealistic knowledge). Higher spiritual activities can only deal with trained people - educated intellectuals, philosophers, therefore, only they can see and realize the pure idea.
In Plato's aesthetics, beauty is understood as absolute interconnection of body, soul and mind, unity of idea and matter, rationality and pleasure. Knowledge cannot be separated from the love and love from beauty. Everything perfect, audible and visible, external or physical, is revived by its inner life and contains one or another sense. Such beauty was in Plato ruler and the source of life for all living things.
The beauty of life and real life for Plato is above beauty of art. Being and life is an imitation of the eternal ideas, and art is an imitation of life and existence, i.e. imitation to imitation. Plato banished from his state sad, soft or toast in music, leaving only the military or even courageous and peaceful activities music. Good manners and decorum are indispensable conditions of beauty.
Aristotle
Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC) was Greek scientist and philosopher. His parents died when he was only 15 years old. First education in the biography of Aristotle gave him a guardian Proxenus of Atarneus, who drew Aristotle into reading. When he was seventeen, the young man came to Athens and became a student of Plato's Academy, remaining there until the death of the teacher. It was the only student who dared to argue with Plato (Hughes, 2001). Plato once jokingly remarked that Aristotle kicked him as a little colt his mother. The philosopher highly valued Plato, but saw vulnerable places in his theory of the world of ideas and things. Widely known is a saying of Aristotle: "Plato is my friend, but truth is a better friend."
Aristotle embraced all available sciences at that time. He studied philosophy as a set of systems. His ideas covered such areas as sociology, politics, logic, science. Aristotle's views have had a significant impact on the future development of these sciences.
His works can be divided into three parts, as did the scientist himself. The first is the physics, metaphysics (theoretical knowledge), the second is ethics, politics (practical knowledge), the third is creativity (poetic knowledge). Aristotle's philosophy includes consideration of ontology, epistemology, ethics, and politics.
Ontological theory of Aristotle represented physics as a science, in which the motion occurs because of differences of power and energy bodies. Also in the biography, he gave a definition of metaphysics, which was based on four concepts: form, matter, reason, purpose. Over a lifetime, Aristotle had written a huge number of works, among which there are the logical, physical, biological, ethical treatises.
Plato and Aristotle.
Aristotle gives a precise and unambiguous definition of beauty. The most important and essential features of beautiful he considers the "magnitude" and "order." In Chapter VII of the Poetics, Aristotle says, "Beauty is in the size and order". These features of beautiful Aristotle considers universal relating to all of its forms. First of all, they distinguish the works of art. "How inanimate and animate objects should have a value easily overlooked, and the plot should have a length and be easy to remember." Not only art, but also all forms of beauty in nature and society require a certain size and order.
2. Middle Ages/ Byzantine:
In the aesthetics of the early Middle Ages, the most complete aesthetic theory is the one of Augustine of Hippo. Under the influence of neo-Platonism, Augustine shared the idea of the beauty of the world. The world is beautiful because it was created by God, who himself is the highest beauty and is the source of all beauty. Art does not create real images of this beauty, but only its real forms.
Therefore, Augustine believes that it is not the artwork should that should be adored, but the encased in it divine idea. Following antiquity communication. Augustine gave the definition of beauty, starting from the formal signs of harmony. In his work “The City of God” he speaks of beauty as a proportional part in conjunction with the pleasantness of color. With the concept of beauty he also linked the concepts of proportionality, form and procedure.
Augustine of Hippo
New interpretation of medieval beauty was that harmony, order of items are not perfect themselves, but as a reflection of the higher godlike unity. The concept of unity is one of the central problems in Augustine’s aesthetics. He writes that the form of all beauty is the unity. The more perfect a thing is, the more it is in unity. The notion of aesthetic unity cannot arise from sensory perceptions. On the contrary, it causes the perception of beauty. Getting aesthetic appreciation, a person already has at heart the concept of unity, which then looks at things.
Big influence on medieval aesthetics had Augustine's teaching about contrasts and opposites. In his treatise “On the City of God”, he wrote that the world was created as a poem decorated by antitheses. Difference and diversity give beauty of each thing, and the contrast lends expressiveness of harmony.
For the perception of beauty to be complete and perfect, the right balance must bind themselves to contemplate the beauty of the spectacle. Soul is open to experiences that are consistent with it, and feeling rejected is unsuitable for it. For the perception of beauty, it is necessary to establish an agreement between the beautiful objects and soul. There needs to be in a person unselfish love of beauty.
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas in his main work "Summa Theologica" summed up the western medieval aesthetics. He systematized the views of Aristotle, the Neoplatonists, Augustine, Dionysius the Areopagite. The first characteristic sign of beauty is a form of perceived high human senses (sight, hearing). Beauty affects a person's sense of orderliness. He adequately justifies such concepts associated with an objective characteristic of beauty as clarity, integrity, proportion, consistency. Proportion, in his view, is the ratio of the spiritual and material, internal and external, ideas and forms. Under clarity, he understood a visible glow, shining of things and their inner spiritual glow. Perfection means no flaws. Christian worldview in the concept of beauty is certainly included into the concept of good. New aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas was the introduction of the differences between them. This difference he saw in the fact that the benefit is the object and purpose of permanent human aspirations, beauty is an achieved goal, when human intelligence is freed from all desires of the will, when he begins to experience pleasure. Goal, typical benefits, beauty, as they were, cease to be objective and is the purest form, taken by itself, unselfishly. Such an understanding of beauty Aquinas allows to conclude that such a definition is the subject of aesthetics is the beginning of all the original aesthetics of the Renaissance.
II. ARISTOCRATIC PERIOD:
1. Renaissance (1450-1550)
Renaissance was the era of intellectual and artistic flowering that began in Italy in the 14th century, reaching its peak in the 16th century and had a significant impact on the European culture. The term Renaissance, which meant a return to the values of the ancient world (although interest in the Roman classics originated in the 12th century), appeared in the 15th century and received theoretical justification in the 16th century in the works of Vasari, dedicated to the works of famous painters, sculptors and architects (Stokstad & Cateforis, 2005). At this time, there formed the idea of harmony prevailing in nature and of a person as the crown of its creations. Among the most prominent representatives of this era is the artist Alberti; architect, artist, scientist, poet and mathematician Leonardo da Vinci.
“The Last Supper”, 1498, Fresco, 460 x 880 cm (15 x 29 ft); Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie (Refectory), Milan.
Architect Brunelleschi, innovatively using the Hellenistic tradition, created several buildings, not inferior to the best beauty of ancient models. Very interesting works of Bramante, who contemporaries considered to be the most talented architect of the High Renaissance, and Palladio creating the largest architectural ensembles, distinguished by integrity and diversity of artistic design of composite solutions. Theater buildings and scenery were constructed on the basis of architectural works of Vitruvius (about 15 BC) in accordance with the principles of the Roman theater. Playwrights followed strict classical canons. Auditorium, usually shaped like horseshoes, before it was with the rise of the proscenium, separated from the main space of the arch. It was taken as a sample of the theater building for the whole of the Western world for the next five centuries.
BRUNELLESCHI, Filippo View of the Cathedral 1420-36 - Duomo, Florence.
Renaissance painters created a whole, having an inner unity vision of a world, filled with traditional religious subjects of earth content (Nicola Pisano, the end of the 14th century, Donatello, early 15th century). Realistic image of a man became the main target of the early Renaissance artists, as evidenced by the creation of Giotto and Masaccio. The invention is a method of transmitting prospects contributed to a more truthful representation of reality. One of the main themes of the paintings of the Renaissance (Gilbert, Michelangelo) was tragic irreconcilability of conflicts, struggles and death of the hero.
Pietà c. 1550 Marble, height 226 cm Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence.
In about 1425 Florence became the center of Renaissance (Florentine art), but by the early 16th century - the High Renaissance - the leading position was occupied Venice (Venetian art) and Rome. Cultural centers were the court of the Duke of Mantua and Urbino Ferrady. The main patrons were the Medici Popes, especially Julius II and Leo X. The largest members of the "Northern Renaissance" were Dürer, Cranach the Elder, Holbein. Northern artists mainly imitated the best Italian models, and only a few, such as Jan van Scorel, managed to create their own style, which is distinguished by a special elegance and grace - Mannerism.
2. The Age of Enlightenment (1550-1789)
Aesthetic views of the Enlightenment era are part of the ideology that has developed in the course of the liberation movement of the bourgeoisie of the XVII-XVIII centuries, i.e., during the early bourgeois revolutions (Roberts, 2006). Lighteners believed that the transformation of society must take place through the dissemination of progressive ideas, combat with ignorance, religious dope, medieval pseudoscience, with inhuman feudal morality, with art and aesthetics that meet the needs of especially the upper sections of the feudal absolutist state.
There were many prominent artists in this era. William Hogarth (1697-1764) was a graphic artist, painter, art theorist (treatise "Analysis of Beauty"). He created a series of paintings, was the organizer of art exhibitions. Hogarth was a master of exposing the flaws of the aristocracy, a pioneer in discovering new topics, stories, and coloring. Figures in his paintings are deprived of static, always covered by some action (the marriage ceremony, playing cards). Some pictures are combined in cycles, in which there is edifying and humor, satire turning into "Trendy marriage", etc. He believed that art should not only entertain, but also develop the mind and soul, correct morals of society.
Hogarth's portrait of The Shrimp Girl 1740-1745
Another major artist of this time, Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) - musician, writer, portrait painter. As a painter, he reveals the world of calm and clear English manor, noble, peaceful faces, shows corners of landscaped gardens. In the later period of creativity, Gainsborough becomes freer in his manner. The painting "Morning Walk" shows wild and disturbing landscape, emphasizing the disunity of two young men, the tension of their relationship. In this era, there was the opening of the Royal Academy of Arts (1768) and emergence of aesthetics and art as scientific disciplines.
For France, the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries became particularly vivid: the take-off of fine art, philosophy, theater and literature. At the very lush European yard, Bourbon backyard, worked the best artists and minds of France. However, many works of painters with their masquerade heroics and lots of allegories are already evaluated differently.
In France, at the beginning of the seventeenth century there was triumphant Baroque, but by mid-century in rivalry with typical Baroque theatricality and pathos came a new style. Heroic ideals of ancient Greece and Rome, clarity of thought, the triumph of reason - that was the basis of the aesthetics of classicism. It represented different ideals and norms of life: not a whim of jaded aristocratic taste, but the service to society, duty and honor. Harmony, simplicity and restrained classicism greatness more and more successfully competed with unbridled luxury, sensual fantasies and quirks ecstasy of "grand style" as it was known in France, baroque.
The Baroque Palace of Versailles in France
Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), the head and founder of the French classicism, painted genre paintings with courageous characters and majestic scenery. "Tancred and Erminia", "Adoration of the Magi", "Kingdom of Flora", and others, in which the compositions are built on workshop grouping of figures, they make myths and legends come to life with an idyllic landscape, solemn and majestic nature, peace captivating beauty and sublime poetry. In the painting "Arcadian Shepherds" (1650) shepherds are looking at the tomb with the inscription: "And I was in Arcadia" Poussin says that in moments of serene happiness man hears a voice reminiscent of the upcoming inevitable end of life. Basically, in his mythological compositions Poussin contrasted themes of modernity, recreating irrevocably gone golden age. Admirer of antiquity spoke about remaining in the past beautiful fantasy world of heroes and gods, nymphs and cupids living in marvelous groves. In his paintings, there is no place to ordinary, everyday and ugly; he works with the concepts of beauty and the sublime.
Poussin’s Martyrdom of St Lawrence 1622-23.
Another great master of classicism was Claude Lorrain (1600-1682). He limited his works to the lyrical landscapes with mythological scenes. He created perfectly beautiful images, guided by the thought of originally rational organization of the universe, which is revealed in the eternal beauty and eternal laws of nature. The main theme of his paintings "The arrival of Cleopatra in Tarsus", "Departure of the Queen of Sheba", "Landscape with Aeneas at Delos” becomes magical, charming nature, filled with tranquility and harmony. He soon became one of the leading landscape painters in Rome, where he worked constantly and Italy is becoming his new homeland.
THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION
The roots of evolutionary ideas, this dogmatic faith, denying the truth of God's creation of life, go back to antiquity. Many of the philosophers-atheists of ancient Greece held evolutionary views of life on Earth. Glancing over the history of philosophy, we see that evolutionary ideas were the basis for the existence of an atheistic worldview.
In the development of fundamental science of today, the driving role is played not by ancient atheistic philosophy, but rather faith in the Creator. Many outstanding scientists of modern times were people deeply believing, science was only for them to get close to understanding the infinite wisdom of God. Greatest scientist of mankind Leonardo da Vinci, the founders of fundamental astronomy Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Keppler and Galileo Galilei, the father of paleontology, Georges Cuvier, the founder of botany and zoology, Linnaeus, Isaac Newton recognized "outstanding scientist in the history of mankind," were deeply religious people and gave their works to science, believing that the universe and all living things on Earth were created by God.
The theory of evolution was a new interpretation of the materialist philosophy of antiquity, which became widespread in the XIX century. Materialism, as mentioned above, tries to explain the origin of life to material prerequisites priori denying the fact of its divine creation.
The philosophy of materialism asserts that all animate and inanimate objects in the world happened by themselves, in a chain of coincidences, and only then acquired certain order. While the mind of a common person, seeing around the wonderful and incomprehensible thin order, logically concludes that there must be the one who created this great order. The philosophy of materialism, contrary to the very essence of logic and common sense, gave birth in the middle of XIX century of the "theory of evolution."
Darwin's merit lies in the fact that he methodically correctly chose the logic to analyze the factors of evolution and successfully resolved the issue of the driving forces - the struggle for existence and natural selection. The essence of the theory of evolution of Charles Darwin can be reduced to the following provisions:
1. All kinds of living creatures on Earth, have never been created by anyone.
2. Originating naturally, organic forms slowly and gradually transformed and perfected in accordance with the ambient conditions.
At the heart of the transformation of species in nature there are such properties of organisms as variation and heredity, as well as occurring in nature natural selection, which is carried out through a complex interaction of organisms interacting with each other and inanimate nature factors. These relationships are called the struggle for existence. Fitness of organisms to the conditions of their habitat and species diversity in nature is a result of evolution. Thus, the driving forces of organic evolution Charles Darwin saw is a struggle for existence and natural selection, and a prerequisite of evolution - genetic variation.
Egocentrism
Egocentrism is a position of personality characterized by concentration on people’s own feelings, experiences, interests, etc., as well as the inability to receive and consider the information that contradicts their own experience, in particular, coming from another person. At the heart of egocentricity there is a person’s misunderstanding that there might be other points of view, as well as confidence that psychological organization is identical to others of its own.
Egocentrism is different from selfishness, which is, first of all moral value orientation and personality manifested in selfish behavior is contrary to the interests of others. Egoist can be aware of the goals and values of others, but deliberately ignore them; thus, it cannot be self-centered. Egocentric can also behave like selfish, but not necessarily because he opposes their interests to those of another, but because someone else's position, he does not perceive, being entirely focused on his own interests.
In psychology, self-centeredness is seen in various aspects, the following its forms stand out: cognitive egocentrism that characterizes mainly the processes of perception and thinking; moral self-centeredness, which is manifested in the lack of understanding of the moral foundations of behavior of other people; communicative egocentrism, hindering communication (primarily - speech) by neglecting differences of semantic content of concepts, etc. In general, self-centeredness, is somehow connected with the cognitive sphere.
Extremely pronounced egocentricity is a symptom of a number of mental disorders (schizophrenia, hysteria, etc.). In this communication with patients surrounding distorted so that the other person ceases to be a partner in the conversation and serves only a "mirror" of the patient's own statements.
Ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism is a vision of things, in which one’s group is at the center of everything, and all the other ones commensurate with it or evaluated with reference to it. Modern scholars consider ethnocentrism as an inherent property of people to perceive and evaluate the phenomena of life through the prism of the traditions and values of their own ethnic group, serving as a standard or optimum. As a reference there can be considered anything: religion, language, literature, food, clothing, for example, the method of plowing the ancient Chinese robe, etc.
M. Brewer and D. Campbell identified the main indicators of ethnocentrism:
- The perception of the elements of their culture as "natural" and "right", and elements of other cultures as "unnatural" and "wrong";
- Consideration of the customs of their group as universal;
- Evaluation of norms, roles and values of their group as undeniably correct;
- The notion that for a person it is natural to cooperate with members of his group, to assist them, to prefer his group, be proud of it and not trust and even feud with members of other groups.
It should be noted that there is no consensus among researchers in relation to ethnocentrism. Many psychologists believe ethnocentrism to be negative sociopsychological phenomenon that manifests itself in the tendency of rejection of all foreign groups in combination with an overestimation of their own group.
Like any other sociopsychological phenomenon, ethnocentrism cannot be regarded as something only positive or only negative, and a value judgment about it is unacceptable. While ethnocentrism is often an obstacle to inter-group interaction, it performs a useful function for the group to maintain a positive identity and even preserving the integrity and specificity of the group.
Moreover, ethnocentrism initially carries no hostility towards other groups and can be combined with a tolerant attitude towards inter-group differences. For example, Brewer and Campbell found ethnocentrism in all studied by them thirty-three ethnic communities in East Africa. To his group of representatives all peoples are treated with more sympathy, more positively evaluated its moral virtues and achievements. However, the degree of ethnocentrism varied. When evaluating advances, group favoritism was much weaker than that in the assessment of other aspects. A third of similarities evaluated achievements at least one of the outgroups higher, than their own achievements.
Utopia
Utopia is the image of an ideal social order, devoid of scientific justification. The term is derived from the name of the book Thomas Moore (1516). It became a common noun for the different descriptions of a fictitious country, to serve as a model of social order, and, by extension, all essays and treatises containing unrealistic plans of social transformation (Mannheim, 2013).
In the history of mankind utopia as one of the peculiar forms of social consciousness embodied the traits such as making sense of the social ideal, criticism of the existing system, the desire to escape from the grim reality, as well as attempts to anticipate the future of society. Originally, it intertwined with the legends of the golden age. In antiquity and the Renaissance utopia acquired features mainly form description of perfect states allegedly existing somewhere on earth or in the past; in 17-18 centuries there was a proliferation of various treatises and utopian projects of social and political reforms. Since the mid-19th century, U.S. is increasingly becoming a specific genre of polemical literature on social ideals and moral values.
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a philosophical doctrine of supernatural principles and laws of existence. It includes ontology - understanding of being, and cosmology - understanding of the universe. Being in metaphysics is supersensible reality, knowledge that opens a sense of peace and purpose of a person. Space in metaphysics is order, rationality, beauty and grandeur of the world, for which there is God. God is the first object of metaphysics and by knowing him, a person knows the world. Metaphysics considers the human mind capable of solving questions of knowledge of the Creator, referring to the data of Revelation.
History of metaphysics is a history of the knowledge of God and the world. Metaphysics of Plato and Aristotle is called the first philosophy, i.e., the science of the highest principles of knowledge, being and activity; therefore, metaphysics was a distraction and the most common part of philosophy. In scholastic, metaphysics was understood as a science of being and its qualities. In the Renaissance, metaphysics signified primarily natural philosophy.
Negative attitude toward metaphysics showed positivism, for which the metaphysical stage of cognition is mediating between the religious and scientific; science must destroy metaphysics. Also applies to metaphysics and empiricism. However, we must remember that some philosophical trends, denying metaphysics in words, in fact, introduced its contents under another name.
References
Hughes, G. J. (2001). Routledge philosophy guidebook to Aristotle on ethics.
Mannheim, K. (2013). Ideology and utopia. Routledge.
Roberts, D. (2006). Art and enlightenment: aesthetic theory after Adorno. U of Nebraska Press.
Stokstad, M., & Cateforis, D. (2005). Art History: Combined Volume. Pearson Prentice Hall.
Taylor, A. E. (2001). Plato: The man and his work. Courier Dover Publications.
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