We explain everything about the history of philosophy, its stages and its main currents. Also, the most important philosophers and more.
Philosophy as we know it, understood as Western philosophy, has its origins in ancient Greece. Being a broad, complex and changing discipline, one way to understand it is through its history, which is divided into different periods.
Those who study the history of philosophy They often disagree about the beginning or end of each periodbut, broadly speaking, they all agree on the general division of four large blocks: ancient philosophy, medieval philosophy, modern philosophy and contemporary philosophy.
This is the classic periodization of philosophy that covers about two thousand years, from its origins and development to the present day.
ancient philosophy
From Thales of Miletus, around 600 BC. C., until the Neoplatonists of the 6th century AD. C., the Greek people and other Mediterranean civilizations They practiced philosophy as a form of knowledge. and also as a lifestyle.
It is considered that the first philosophers were the so-called “pre-Socratics”for having lived and thought before Socrates. They are known for having taken the step from myth to logos (rational thinking), since they sought rational explanations, based on their observations of nature, of the origin of everything that is. Among them we find Thales of Miletus, Anaximander, Anaxiemenes, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Parmenides, Zeno, Anaxagoras, Empedocles and Democritus.
The pre-Socratics are followed by what is known as the classical Greek period.. This begins with Socrates, a contemporary of the group of sophists (masters of rhetoric), who was the teacher of Plato, who in turn taught Aristotle. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle are considered the most important philosophers of antiquity and are known as the “greater Socratics.” All of his works continue to be the subject of study and discussion today.
The Hellenistic period succeeded the older Socratics. This period goes from the death of Alexander the Great to the invasion of Macedonia by the Romans. At this time the schools of Socrates and Plato coexisted, which were continued by many of their disciples.
ancient philosophy comes to an end with the development of the thinkers of late antiquity: the Epicureans, the Stoics, the skeptics and, later, the Neoplatonists. Neoplatonism is the subject of discussion among different historians of philosophy, since it can be thought of as a transitional school between Antiquity and the medieval world.
Medieval philosophy
medieval philosophy It occurred between the 5th and 6th centurieswith the fall of the Roman Empire in 476, and VI AD. C., with the emergence of the Renaissance. Its main characteristic is the inclusion of classical ideas in the dogmas of the great monotheistic religions (Christianity, Judaism and Islam).
This attempt to reconcile philosophy and religion developed over a period of almost a thousand years. After the appearance of Jesus of Nazareth, in the first century, and the subsequent evangelization of the Western world by his disciples, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. This meant that philosophy was forced to take a backseat to theology: philosophical tools were at the disposal of theological and religious concerns.
The first centuries were the scene of the efforts made by the fathers of the Church, whose doctrine was called “patristic.” The most famous of them was Augustine of Hippo (354-430), better known as Saint Augustine. Augustine incorporated many of the ideas outlined by the Neoplatonistswho brought the saved works of Plato to the Roman Empire.
Aristotle's work, for its part, was still unknown to most of the Western world. Those who read it did so through the Latin translations of Boethius (477-524), who translated Categoriesby Aristotle, and Isagogewhich is Porfirio's comment to Categories.
Following Charlemagne's decree of 787, which established schools in all the monasteries of his empire, What is known as “scholasticism” appeared in the medieval world. The greatest representative of this period was John Scotus Eriúgena (815-877), who translated the work of Pseudo-Dionysius.
Scholasticism, which saw its peak between the 13th and 14th centuries, officially emerged after Eriugena, with the work of Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109). Saint Anselm is known for having written the first ontological argument (based on being) to prove the existence of God.
At the height of scholasticism, the main European universities were established in large cities. The orders of the Franciscans and the Dominicans were also founded. From these religious orders arises the figure of Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), known as Saint Thomas. Saint Thomas was the greatest conciliator between Christian doctrine and Greek rationality, and gave rise to what is known today as “Catholic philosophy.”
Renaissance philosophy
Renaissance or Renaissance philosophy is one that It developed between the 15th and 16th centuries. During this period, work was carried out with greater emphasis on the problems that concern natural philosophy, humanism and political philosophy.
Its main thinkers were Nicolás Machiavelli, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Thomas More, Michel de Montaigne, Giordano Bruno, Nicolás de Cusa and Francisco Suárez, among others.
This period is considered transitional because it is located between the Middle Ages and the Modern Age.. These periods were not only longer in time, but also more radical with respect to the problems addressed and the way in which they were worked on.
modern philosophy
Modern philosophy was characterized by being a period in which Its thinkers worked autonomously with respect to political and religious powers.. Figures such as Hume or Descartes sought to respond to many concerns by separating themselves from the scientific and philosophical criteria of most of the Church.
Modern thought developed between the 17th and 20th centuries.. Even though there are some disputes about it, it is almost unanimously considered that modern philosophy begins with the thought of René Descartes (1596-1650), father of modernity and rationalism, one of the main modern currents of thought. In this current we also find philosophers of the stature of Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz, among others.
The British current of empiricism opposed rationalism.. Its main figures were John Locke, David Hume and George Berkeley (although the latter is sometimes also considered a rationalist). Unlike rationalism, which advocated a rational explanation of the world, empiricism explained reality based on the senses and sensations that we obtain from encounters with objects.
Both currents, beyond their differences, They were characterized by trying to find a criterion of truth other than theological one.which was given by divine revelation or the opinion of the authorities of the Church. The two schools were contemporaneous with thinkers whose thought is sometimes difficult to classify, such as Thomas Hobbes or Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
19th century philosophy
The philosophy of the 19th century, like that of the Renaissance, is difficult to classify. with her the thought of Immanuel Kant appearswho reconciled rationalism with empiricism, and also the thought of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, father of German idealism.
Both the works of Kant and Hegel absolutely revolutionized the way philosophy was done. The Critique of pure reasonby Kant, and Phenomenology of the spiritby Hegel, are works that are studied exhaustively today, and in them we find new ways of thinking not only how we know reality, but what it is in itself.
The 19th century also gave birth to the works of philosophers such as Fichte and Schelling.German idealists, or Arthur Schopenhauer, radical thinker who promulgated the idea of the world as a useless game of images and desires. We also find Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, Kierkegaard and Edmund Husserl, among others, in this period.
The 19th century, prolific in thinkers and ideas that were revolutionary in more ways than one, was also the century in which Friedrich Nietzsche lived, thought and wrote. The figure of Nietzsche, since his appearance, has been extremely controversialand has managed to divide philosophy into large groups depending on whether it was its detractor or defender.
Generally Nietzsche is considered to be the one who initiated contemporary thought: after him one can no longer speak of totalities or foundations of reality (and this is what characterizes post-Nietzschean and contemporary philosophy).
Contemporary philosophy
contemporary philosophy It began in the 20th century and continues to this day.. For this reason, and because it is a living and developing thought, it is difficult to trace its limits or characteristics. However, there are some possible elements to mention.
The 20th century was the scene where the most significant philosophical traditions of contemporary philosophy: analytical and continental philosophy. The first developed mainly in the Anglo-Saxon world, while the second occurred in continental Europe. Both currents were contemporary with the emergence of logical positivism, phenomenology, existentialism, poststructuralism and philosophical materialism.
All of these currents were participants in what is known as the “linguistic turn,” which consisted of an important discussion regarding the relationship between language and philosophy. In turn, this turn occurred in parallel with the publication of the works of Martin Heidegger, in the continental tradition, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, who is located on the side of the analytical tradition. The figure of Heidegger generated many controversies in the philosophical world for his apparent and suspected adherence to Hitlerian Nazism in Germany during the Second War.
Among the best-known philosophers of contemporary philosophy, in addition to Heidegger and Wittgenstein, we find Bertrand Russel, Karl Popper, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jean Baudrillard, Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari, Jean-Francois Lyotard, Paul Preciado, Donna Haraway , Judith Butler, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Simone De Beauvoir, Jean Paul Sartre and Giorgio Agamben, among others.
References
- Marías, J., Zubiri, X., & and Gasset, JO (1941). History of philosophy (No. B94. M37 1974.). Madrid: Western Magazine.
- Reale, G., & Antiseri, D. (2007). History of philosophy. San Pablo Editorial.
- Hegel, GWF, & Terrón, E. (1971). Introduction to the history of philosophy. Aguilar.
