Antique culture of ancient Greece

The term "ancient culture" refers to the culture of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome from the 13th-12th centuries. BC and until the IV-V centuries. n. e., associated with the birth, flourishing and decline of the slave system.

Hegel, characterizing Greek culture, noted that among the Greeks we feel at home, "because we are in the sphere of the spirit, and if the national origin and difference of languages ​​can be traced further, in India, then nevertheless a genuine upsurge and a true rebirth of the spirit should be look first of all in Greece". (Hegel. Soch. M.; L., 1935, v.-8, p. 211). Hegel did not exaggerate the significance of the Greek world for subsequent history. The spiritual impulse with which the ancient Greeks influenced the entire world culture is still exerting its influence today.

Greece for centuries did not represent a single geographical space. There was no unity in socio-political terms either: it existed within the framework of a special state system - city-states. The differences between them were significant: in language dialects, their own calendars and coins, gods and heroes. (for example, Sparta and Athens). Despite regional differences, ancient culture allows you to speak of itself as a certain integrity. Seems

it is possible to distinguish the following features of ancient Greek culture: - interactive nature (interaction - interaction), as it synthesized the achievements of the cultures of many peoples: Achaean, Crete-Mycenaean, Egyptian, Phoenician, avoiding blind imitation;

Cosmologism, for the Cosmos acted as the absolute of culture. He is not only the World, the Universe, but also decoration, order, the world whole, opposing Chaos. Aesthetic categories were approved - beauty, measure. The measure is one and indivisible, it is a characteristic of perfection. "Beautiful is the proper measure in everything" - Democritus. The nature of Greece itself carries out the measure - there is nothing huge in it, everything is visible and understandable. Therefore, one of the main features of being is harmony - unity in diversity.

The presence of a canon - a set of rules, defining the ideal proportions of the harmonic human figure. Theorist of proportion is the sculptor Polikleitos (2nd half of the 5th century BC), author of the work "Canon".

The ideal to which a person should aspire is kalokagatiya(kalos) - beautiful, (agalhos) - good, kind. The ideal can be achieved by exercises, education and upbringing.

Thus, already the cosmologism of Greek culture presupposed anthropocentrism. Cosmos is constantly correlated with man., About which Protagoras wrote - "Man is the measure of all things."

Anthropocentric culture assumed the cult of the human body.

Competitiveness characterized various spheres of life of Greek society - artistic, sports, etc. The first Olympic Games were held in 776 BC.

In ancient Greece, dialectics originates - the ability to conduct a conversation.

Greek culture is truly festive, outwardly colorful, spectacular. Usually the holidays were associated with regular processions and competitions in honor of the gods.

Binder (?) The link between the ancient Eastern civilizations and antiquity was the Cretan-Mycenaean culture (II millennium BC). Its high level of development is evidenced by developed writing, technical inventions (water supply and pools), the presence of astronomical knowledge, the flourishing of art (frescoes of the royal palaces at Knossos and Phaistos, painted stone vessels, elegant images of women, ceramics). Cretan-Mycenaean art was a fine prelude to Greek art. The written source containing invaluable information about the culture of the Cretan-Mycenaean civilization is the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Homeric era (X-VIII centuries BC) characterized by the decline of culture, since in the XI century. BC e. Greece was invaded by the Dorians, who brought primitive forms of culture - the so-called geometric style of art, similar to the art of the Neolithic. The society of that time was illiterate. Mythological representations, which served as the basis for the development of ancient science, literature and art, became widespread.

From the VIII-VI centuries. BC e., period of the emergence of the polis system, quite distinct and integral stylistic features of the Greek archaic are formed. The formation and development of the culture of Greek policies (city-states) was based on achievements in the development of mining and metallurgy, construction equipment and architecture, ceramic and textile production, and the development of the fleet.

In this era, almost all the main forms of ancient culture and art arose - materialistic and very rational philosophy, classical literature (lyric poetry), fine arts - architecture, sculpture, painting. Archaic culture is the starting point of the classical culture of Hellas.

The social basis of education and the development of ancient culture was served by the policy - a form of socio-economic and political organization of society typical of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. The policies included the urban area and the surrounding agricultural settlements.

Different government bodies operated in the policies, but the supreme body in most policies was the people's assembly. Another feature of the policy was the coincidence of political and military organization. The citizen-owner was at the same time a warrior, ensuring the inviolability of the policy, and hence his property. In accordance with the basic principles of the policy, a policy system of values ​​was developed: the belief that the policy is the highest good, that the existence of a person outside its framework is impossible, and the well-being of an individual depends on the well-being of the policy.

Theaters, museums, gymnasiums, stadiums, markets, etc. were an indispensable attribute of the policy. Polises also acted as centers of formation and development of philosophy, science, literature, art, architecture, etc.

It was in the conditions of polis culture that a personality was born, since polis democracy provided such an opportunity, protecting its rights and freedom.

With the fall of the policy (4th century BC), the decline of Greek culture begins, but the dignity of this culture has been preserved, the most valuable achievement of which was the individual.

Mythology

Mythology played an important role in the design of ancient culture. Myths themselves are archaic stories about the deeds of gods and heroes based on fantastic ideas about the world. At their core, myths contain descriptions of the creation of the world, the origin of people and animals.

Greek mythology took shape in the 2nd millennium BC. At this time, the pantheon of gods living on Mount Olympus and subordinate to the power of one god - Zeus, "the father of people and gods", finally took shape. Each Olympic deity was endowed with certain functions: Athena - the goddess of war, the highest kinds of art, crafts, the guardian of cities and countries; Hermes is the god of trade; Artemis - goddess of the hunt; Aphrodite is the goddess of love and beauty, etc.

The pantheon of gods was reproduced in architectural structures (Temple of Artemis, etc.). Anthropomorphized images of gods became the main form of development of ancient art.

Philosophy. Philosophy occupies a special place in ancient Greek culture. We will not dwell in detail (this is the subject of the history of philosophy), we will note a number of basic provisions.

Firstly, recognizing the huge role of ancient Eastern cultures in the further development of mankind, it is necessary to recognize Ancient Greece as the stage of social development at which philosophy is born. The birth of philosophy was accompanied by the decomposition of myth. From him, philosophy inherited a holistic worldview perception of the world. But at the same time, in the process of its development, philosophy absorbed various previous scientific knowledge, everyday descriptions. As a result, a distinctive feature of philosophy took shape quite clearly - the desire for wisdom, for comprehending the world and man's place in it. It is not wisdom in itself, but love for wisdom, the desire for it as a constant state of the human spirit.

Secondly, philosophy developed within the city-states as free associations, schools, for example, the Milesian school (VI century BC), which laid the foundation for the materialistic trend in philosophy, the Eleatic school (VI-V centuries BC). ) and etc.

A new period in its development began with Socrates (5th century BC), who recognized purely human problems as truly philosophical. The grandiose philosophical systems of Plato and Aristotle included the main worldview provisions, the doctrine of being and non-being, dialectics, the theory of knowledge, aesthetics, logic, the doctrine of the state, etc.

Ancient Greek philosophy was the initial basis for all subsequent development of Western European philosophy.

Thirdly, it was ancient Greek philosophy that laid the foundation for the formation of a system of concepts, categories, which in their totality have remained to this day the focus of knowledge - a developing, enriching world in the course of practical and spiritual development.

The science

In close interaction with philosophy, the natural-scientific views of the ancient Greeks developed. Their source is the same mythology, but that is why early Greek science differs in many ways from modern science. These were only the beginnings of one or another group of natural sciences. Greeks in the 6th century BC. they represented the world as follows: it is closed and unified, limited from above by a celestial dome, along which they made regular movements. Sun, Moon and other planets. They recorded the rhythm of natural processes, the change of day and night, the alternation of the phases of the moon, the change of seasons, etc.

There were 4 substances of nature that are vital for everyday human activities: earth, water, fire and air. The harmony of the world, the cosmic order is violated by catastrophes and elements: earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, eclipses, which then could not be explained, and therefore they were characterized as manifestations of some mystical forces.

Ancient Greek science was unified, undivided, not divided into philosophy and natural science, and its separate disciplines. The world as a whole was understood as a single whole, sometimes even assimilated to a huge animal. Ancient science has immortalized itself in the history of spiritual culture with the creation of atomistics. The atomistic teaching of Leucippus and Democritus served as the ideological and methodological basis for the development of science until the 19th century. "Physics" of Aristotle was devoted to the study of nature and marked the beginning of physical science.

In ancient Greece, biological knowledge began to take shape. The initial scientific ideas about the origin of living organisms were developed by Anaxagoras, Empedocles and Democritus. The greatest physician of antiquity was Hippocrates. A number of biological treatises were written by Aristotle.

At the turn of the 7th-6th centuries. BC e. history emerged as an independent genre of literature. Ancient historians described mainly the history of individual cities and localities, i.e. it was a story about what happened in the past. The first historian of the ancient world is considered the "father of history" Herodotus, who, like his follower Thucydides, devoted his works to descriptions of wars. The author of the 40-volume "History" Polybius considered the search and presentation of the causes of events and phenomena to be the most important task of history. But in general, history as a science focused on the description of specific, single historical events.

Literature

Ancient Greek literature is the oldest of European literatures, at the origins of which (VIII century BC) are the Iliad and the Odyssey, attributed to the blind singer Homer. Literature is another sprout of spiritual culture that grew out of mythology. Antique literature is full of various stories about the struggle of gods and heroes against evil, injustice, the desire to achieve harmony in life.It gives rise to the idea of ​​the unity of external and internal beauty, physical and spiritual perfection of the individual.Man is mortal, but the glory of heroes is immortal.In ancient Greek literature, lyricism and tragedy appear. The lyric poets Hesiod, Anacreon, the poetess Sappho are known.The founder of the classical form of tragedy was Aeschylus, the author of the trilogy "Oresteia", "Chained Prometheus", etc. The tragic poets of Greece Sophocles and Euripides are also known. their social views.

Architecture, sculpture reached a high level of development, and a theater arose. Already in the archaic era, an order system for the construction of temples arose (allocation of load-bearing and weighty parts), which were built in honor of the gods - the temple of Apollo, Artemis. This tradition continues in the era of the classics - the Temple of Zeus, the Acropolis of Athens, etc.

In the 8th century sculpture was born, the main objects and images of which were gods and goddesses, legendary heroes personifying the image of an ideal person. Such are produced by Phidias - a statue of Zeus, Polikleitos - a statue of Doryphoros, Myron "Discobolus", etc. But gradually there is a departure from the idealized image of a person. This is how the art of Praxiteles and his most famous work, Aphrodite of Cnidus, arise, where elements of rigor, purity, and lyrical beginnings are combined. In the works of Skopas ("Bacchae"), psychologism and expression deepen.

In the Hellenistic era, the role of the aesthetic effect, drama (Venus de Milo, Laocoön, etc.)

In general, the significance of ancient Greek art is in the universal content of ideals, the harmony of rational and emotional, logic and feeling, absolute and relative. The priority direction was given to sublime beauty.

From the second half of the 4th c. BC e. a new period in ancient Greek history and culture begins - the period of Hellenism.

In a broad sense, the concept of Hellenism means a stage in the history of the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean from the time of the campaigns of Alexander the Great (334-323 BC) to the conquest of these countries by Rome. In 86 BC. e. the Romans conquered Athens, in 30 BC. e. - Egypt. 27 BC e. date of birth of the Roman Empire.

Hellenistic culture was not uniform throughout the Hellenistic world. The cultural life of various centers differed depending on the level of the economy, the development of social relations, and the ratio of ethnic groups. What they had in common was that ancient Greek literature, philosophy, science, and architecture served as classic examples of social economy and political development. In Hellenistic culture, there has been a transition from grandiose philosophical systems (Plato, Aristotle) ​​to teachings of an individualistic plan (Epicureism, Stoicism, skepticism), a narrowing of social topics in fiction. Hellenistic literature is characterized by complete apoliticalism or understands politics as the glorification of the monarchy.

The scientific literature associated with the names of Euclid, Archimedes, Ptolemy has become widespread. Outstanding discoveries have been made in the field of astronomy. So, in the III century. BC e. Aristarchus of Samos was the first in the history of science to create the heliocentric system of the world, which he reproduced in the 16th century. N. Copernicus.

In the III century. BC e. Literature was developed in new cultural centers, mainly in Alexandria, where there was one of the best libraries - Alexandria. This is the heyday of epigrams, the style of hymns, the unprecedented universalism of Hellenistic culture.

Thus, Ancient Greece is truly the cradle of European civilization, because almost all the achievements of this civilization can be reduced to the ideas and images of ancient Greek culture. It contained the origins of all subsequent achievements of European culture (philosophy, natural sciences, literature, art). Many branches of modern science have grown on the basis of the works of ancient Greek scientists and philosophers.

A significant part of scientific terminology, the names of many sciences, most of the names, numerous proverbs and sayings were born in the ancient Greek language.

Life of the Romans

The house had no windows. Light and air entered through a wide opening in the roof. Brick walls were plastered and whitewashed, often covered with drawings from the inside. In rich houses, the floor was decorated with mosaics - pieces of multi-colored stone or colored glass.

The poor lived in shacks or in cramped little rooms in tenement houses. The rays of the sun did not penetrate into the dwellings of the poor. Houses for the poor were built poorly and often collapsed. There were terrible fires that destroyed entire areas of Rome.

They did not sit at dinner, but reclined on wide couches around a low table. The poor were content for dinner with a handful of olives, a piece of bread with garlic and a glass of sour wine (half with water). Wealthy people spent fortunes on expensive meals, excelled in inventing amazing dishes like roast from nightingale tongues.

The underwear of the Romans was a tunic (a type of shirt to the knees). A toga was worn over the tunic - a cloak made of a piece of white oval-shaped woolen fabric. Senators and magistrates had a toga with a wide purple border. Craftsmen wore a short cloak that left the right shoulder open. This made it easier to work.

The rich and noble Romans, who did not know any labor, spent many hours every day in the baths (therms). There were marble pools with hot and cold water, steam rooms, promenades, gardens and shops.

Advances in technology

Previously, they sculpted from softened glass mass, as if from clay. The Romans began to receive puffed-up Romans in a toga, which have survived to this day. Ancient Roman statue glass,

they made glassware, learned how to cast glass products into a mold.

Roman builders built roads covered with dense stone slabs. Along the sides of the roads there were ditches lined with stone for water flow. Distances were marked with mileposts. Many Roman roads have survived to this day.

The Romans invented concrete, the components of which were lime mortar, volcanic ash and rubble. Concrete made it possible to use arches in the construction of bridges. On arched bridges with a trough for pipes at the top (aqueducts), water ran by gravity into the city. Imperial Rome had 13 aqueducts.

An exceptionally accurate calculation was required for domed structures, since the construction of domes did not use, as now, metal or reinforced concrete beams and fasteners. An example of a domed building is the Pantheon (temple of all gods), built in Rome in the 1st century BC. and now serves as the burial place of prominent people of Italy.

The Colosseum, a huge amphitheater 2, built in Rome in the second half of the 1st century BC, is a miracle of the building technology of antiquity. The walls of the Colosseum reached 50 meters in height, it accommodated at least 50 thousand spectators.

Many architectural monuments of Rome are dedicated to glorifying the victories of Roman weapons. Such are the wooden and then stone triumphal arches - the front gate through which the victorious commander passed and the victorious army passed during the triumph. To commemorate military victories, high stone columns with a statue of the emperor-commander were also erected.

Roman aqueduct. Built under Augustus. Its length is 269 m, height above the river level is 49 m. Current state.

We are introduced to the construction technique by the work of the Roman engineer Vitruvius (1st century BC), which for a long time served as a model for engineers and builders of modern times.

In ancient Rome, agronomic (agricultural) science was encouraged. Roman agronomists developed methods for better tillage, methods for better care of crops. Kathden (I century BC) and many other prominent people wrote about agriculture and its technology.

Sculpture of ancient Rome

The more ancestors there were, the more noble the plan of the city of Rome was considered the clan.

When, according to the Greek custom, they began to carve statues from stone, Roman sculptors retained the custom of accurately conveying the features of a person, as was done in wax works. If the statue depicts an old man, then you can see wrinkles, flabby skin. Roman sculpture was realistic in nature. The statues were real portraits, accurately conveying the features of the depicted faces.

Literature of ancient Rome

Beautiful in form and deep in thought, the poem “On the Nature of Things” was written by the poet and scientist Lucretius Carus (1st century BC). He proved that nature obeys its natural laws, and not the will of the gods. Lucretius fought superstitions and religion, promoted the achievements of science.

The poet of the time Augusta Virgilius, in sonorous and solemn verses of the poem "Aeneid", spoke about the distant past of Italy, linking its fate with the myth of the Trojan Aeneas, who escaped from the death of Troy and ended up in Italy after long wanderings. Virgil praised Augustus, who considered himself a descendant of Aeneas, Virgil also exalted the Roman state, which, as if the gods themselves ordered to rule other peoples.

A contemporary of Virgil, the poet Horace wrote wonderful poems about friendship and the benefits of peaceful life, sang the beauty of Italy's nature and the labor of a farmer.

Augustus was well aware of the extent of the impact of fiction on the masses and therefore sought to win over poets and writers to his side. A friend of Augustus, a wealthy slave owner Maecenas gave estates to the poets and gave them other gifts. Poets glorified Augustus as the savior of the Roman state, and the time of his reign was called the "golden age".

1 The word philanthropist began to denote a noble patron of the arts.

Calendar in ancient Rome

January was named after the god Janus; February got its name from the festivities in memory of the ancestors - february; March bore the name of the god of war and vegetation of Mars; July and August are named after Julius Caesar and Augustus; september, october, november, december 100. Colosseum - a huge building of the circus Pisotolu 50 m, 187 m long and 152 m wide.

denote "seventh", "eighth", "ninth", "tenth". The counting of days was difficult. Instead of "May 7" a Roman would say "8 days until May 15". The first day of the month was called kalends - hence the calendar.

Significance of Roman culture

Romans. having conquered many areas of Europe and Africa, introduced other peoples to the cultural mill and bakery. The mill, bakery and bakery of the Romans were connected in one house. The slave rotates a heavy stone millstone. Flour is poured into a special chute. Dia of other slaves put bread in the oven. Drawing by a contemporary artist according to excavations.

achievements of the Greeks. They kept copies of the wonderful works of Greek sculpture that have not come down to us in the original. Many works of the Greeks are known to us only in the Roman transmission.

In modern times, Greek and Roman culture began to be called antique (from the Latin word antikvus - ancient).

The Romans introduced new things into culture, especially in the field of construction and technology. The language of the Romans - Latin - became the ancestor and basis of the language of many peoples (Italian, French, Spanish, etc.). The Latin alphabet is now used by the peoples of Western and partly Eastern Europe, most of Africa, America, and Australia (see map). We designate centuries with Roman numerals, we use them on watch dials. Scientists use the Latin language to refer to plants, minerals, parts of the human body.

Federal Agency for Education of the Russian Federation

Vologda State Technical University

Department of G and IG

Abstract on the topic:

Science of antiquity

Done: student

group FEG-31 faculty

ecology Popova E.A.

Checked: Art. teacher

Nogina Zh.V.

Vologda 2011

Introduction

The emergence of science

Physics

Mathematics

Chemistry

Biology

Ethics

Philosophy

Geography

Astronomy

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

What is ancient science? What is science in general? What are the main features of science that distinguish it from other types of material and spiritual human activity - crafts, art, religion? Does the cultural-historical phenomenon that we call ancient science satisfy these signs? If so, was ancient science, in particular early Greek science, historically the first form of science, or did it have predecessors in countries with more ancient cultural traditions - such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, etc.? If the first assumption is correct, then what were the pre-scientific origins of Greek science? If the latter is true, then what was the relationship between Greek science and the science of its older eastern neighbors? Is there, finally, a fundamental difference between ancient science and modern science?

The emergence of science

Regarding the very concept of science, there are very large differences among science scientists. There are two extreme points of view that are in radical contradiction with each other.

According to one of them, science in the proper sense of the word was born in Europe only in the 16th-17th centuries, during the period usually called the great scientific revolution. Its emergence is associated with the activities of such scientists as Galileo, Kepler, Descartes, Newton. It is to this time that the birth of the scientific method proper, which is characterized by a specific relationship between theory and experiment, should be attributed. At the same time, the role of mathematization of the natural sciences was realized - a process that continues to our time and has now captured a number of areas of knowledge that relate to man and human society. The ancient thinkers, strictly speaking, did not yet know the experiment and, therefore, did not possess a truly scientific method: their conclusions were largely the product of baseless speculations that could not be subjected to real verification. An exception can be made, perhaps, only for one mathematics, which, due to its specificity, is purely speculative and therefore does not need experiment. As for scientific natural science, it actually did not exist in antiquity; there were only weak beginnings of later scientific disciplines, which were immature generalizations of random observations and practical data. The global concepts of the ancients about the origin and structure of the world can in no way be recognized by science: at best, they should be attributed to what later received the name of natural philosophy (a term that has a clearly odious connotation in the eyes of representatives of exact natural science).

Another point of view, directly opposite to the one just stated, does not impose any strict restrictions on the concept of science. According to its adherents, science in the broad sense of the word can be considered any body of knowledge related to the real world surrounding a person. From this point of view, the birth of mathematical science should be attributed to the time when man began to perform the first, even the most elementary, operations with numbers; astronomy appeared simultaneously with the first observations of the movement of heavenly bodies; the presence of a certain amount of information about the animal and plant world, characteristic of a given geographical area, can already serve as evidence of the first steps of zoology and botany. If this is so, then neither the Greek nor any other of the historical civilizations known to us can claim to be the birthplace of science, because the emergence of the latter is relegated somewhere very far away, into the foggy depths of centuries.

Turning to the initial period of the development of science, we will see that various situations took place there. Thus, Babylonian astronomy should be classified as an applied discipline, since it set itself purely practical goals. Carrying out their observations, the Babylonian astrologers were least of all interested in the structure of the universe, the true (and not just visible) movement of the planets, the causes of such phenomena as solar and lunar eclipses. These questions, apparently, did not arise before them at all. Their task was to calculate the onset of such phenomena, which, according to the views of that time, had a favorable or, conversely, detrimental effect on the fate of people and even entire kingdoms. Therefore, despite the presence of a huge number of observations and the very complex mathematical methods with which these materials were processed, Babylonian astronomy cannot be considered a science in the proper sense of the word.

We find exactly the opposite picture in Greece. Greek scholars, far behind the Babylonians in terms of knowledge of what is happening in the sky, from the very beginning raised the question of the structure of the world as a whole. This question interested the Greeks not for any practical purpose, but in itself; its production was determined by pure curiosity, which was inherent in the inhabitants of the then Hellas to such a high degree. Attempts to resolve this issue were reduced to the creation of models of the cosmos, which at first had a speculative character. No matter how fantastic these models were from our present point of view, their significance consisted in the fact that they anticipated the most important feature of all later natural science - the modeling of the mechanism of natural phenomena.

Something similar happened in mathematics. Neither the Babylonians nor the Egyptians made a distinction between exact and approximate solutions to mathematical problems. Any solution that produced practically acceptable results was considered good. On the contrary, for the Greeks, who approached mathematics purely theoretically, what mattered above all was a rigorous solution obtained by logical reasoning. This led to the development of mathematical deduction, which determined the character of all subsequent mathematics. Eastern mathematics, even in its highest achievements, which for a long time remained inaccessible to the Greeks, never approached the method of deduction.

So, the distinguishing feature of Greek science from the moment of its inception was its theoretical nature, the desire for knowledge for the sake of knowledge itself, and not for the sake of those practical applications that could result from it. In the early stages of the existence of science, this feature undoubtedly played a progressive role and had a great stimulating effect on the development of scientific thinking.

And now, turning to ancient science in the period of its highest achievements, can we find in it a feature that fundamentally distinguishes it from the science of modern times? Yes we can. Despite the brilliant successes of ancient science in the era of Euclid and Archimedes, it lacked the most important ingredient, without which we now cannot imagine such sciences as physics, chemistry, and partly biology. This ingredient is an experimental method in the form in which it was created by the creators of modern science - Galileo, Boyle, Newton, Huygens. Ancient science understood the importance of experiential knowledge, as evidenced by Aristotle, and before him by Democritus. Ancient scientists knew how to observe the surrounding nature well. They reached a high level in the technique of measuring lengths and angles, as we can judge from the procedures they developed, for example, to find out the size of the globe (Eratosthenes), to measure the visible disk of the Sun (Archimedes) or to determine the distance from the Earth to the Moon (Hipparchus, Posidonius, Ptolemy). But the experiment as an artificial reproduction of natural phenomena, in which side and insignificant effects are eliminated and which aims to confirm or refute this or that theoretical assumption, antiquity has not yet known such an experiment. Meanwhile, it is precisely such an experiment that underlies physics and chemistry - the sciences that have acquired a leading role in the natural science of modern times. This explains why a wide field of physical and chemical phenomena remained in antiquity in the grip of purely qualitative speculations, without waiting for the appearance of an adequate scientific method.

One of the hallmarks of true science is its self-worth, the desire for knowledge for the sake of knowledge itself. This sign, however, by no means excludes the possibility of the practical use of scientific discoveries. The great scientific revolution of the XVI-XVII centuries. laid the theoretical foundations for the subsequent development of industrial production, the direction of the new to use the forces of nature in the interests of man. On the other hand, the needs of technology were a powerful stimulus for scientific progress in modern times. This interaction between science and practice is becoming closer and more effective over time. In our time, science has become the most important productive force of society.

ancient era science philosophy

In ancient times, there was no such interaction between science and practice. The ancient economy, based on the use of manual labor of slaves, did not need the development of technology. For this reason, Greco-Roman science, with a few exceptions (which include, in particular, the engineering work of Archimedes), had no way out into practice. On the other hand, the technical achievements of the ancient world - in the field of architecture, shipbuilding, military equipment - were not in any! connection with the development of science. The absence of such interaction turned out, in the final analysis, to be detrimental to ancient science.

Physics

Being by its nature more synthetic than analytical science, the physics of ancient Greece and the Hellenistic period was an integral part of philosophy and was engaged in the philosophical interpretation of natural phenomena. As a result, the method and content of physics were of a qualitatively different nature than that which arose as a result of the scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries. V. classical physics. The beginning mathematization of the physical side of phenomena served as an impetus for the creation of an exact scientific discipline. However, a specific physical method, which could lead to the formation of physics as an independent science, did not yet take shape in the ancient period. The experiments were sporadic and served more to demonstrate than to obtain physical facts. Texts relating to physical phenomena in Latin and Arabic translations have been preserved from about the 5th century BC, mostly in a late transcription. The most important works from the field of physical knowledge belong to Aristotle, Theophrastus, Euclid, Heron, Archimedes, Ptolemy and Pliny the Elder. The history of the development of physics in the ancient period is clearly divided into four periods.

Ionian period (600-450 BC). Own practical experience, as well as borrowed from ancient cultures, led to the emergence of materialistic ideas about the essence and interconnection of natural phenomena as part of general science and natural philosophy. Its most prominent representatives were Thales of Miletus, Anaximander, Anaximenes, and Heraclitus of Ephesus, whose works contained rather modest, but empirically accurate information from the field of natural science. They knew, for example, the properties of compression and dilution of air, the rise of heated air, the force of magnetic attraction and the properties of amber. The traditions of natural philosophy were continued by Empedocles of Akragas, who proved the materiality of air and created the theory of the elements. Leucippus and Democritus substantiated the anatomical doctrine, according to which the whole plurality of things depends on the position, size and shape of their constituent atoms in empty space (vacuum). The opponents of natural philosophy were the Pythagoreans with their ideas about number as the basis of everything that exists. At the same time, the Pythagoreans introduced the concept of measure and number into Physics, developed the mathematical doctrine of harmony and laid the foundation for experimentally based knowledge of visual perceptions (optics).

Athenian period (450-300 BC). Physics continued to be an integral part of philosophy, although in the new social conditions, the explanation of social phenomena began to occupy an increasing place in the structure of philosophical knowledge. Plato applied his idealistic teaching to such physical concepts as motion and gravity. But the most prominent representative of the philosophy of that period was still Aristotle, who shared the views of Plato, but gave a materialistic interpretation to many physical phenomena. His physical theories concern almost all areas of this science. Of particular importance is his theory of motion (kinetics), which is the initial stage of classical dynamics. He owns the works: "Physics", "On the Sky", "Meteorology", "On the Origin and Disappearance", "Questions of Mechanics".

Hellenistic period (300 BC - 150 AD) Physical knowledge reached its peak. The Alexandria Museum, the first real research institute, became the center of physics. Now the mathematical interpretation of physical phenomena came to the fore; At the same time, physics turned to the formulation and solution of practical problems. Physics was practiced either by mathematicians (Euclid, Archimedes, Ptolemy), or experienced practitioners and inventors (Ctesibius, Phalon, Heron). A closer connection with practice led to physical experiments, but the experiment was not yet the basis of physical research. The most significant work was carried out at that time in the field of mechanics. Archimedes substantiated statics and hydrostatics from mathematical positions. Ctesibius, Philo of Byzantium and Heron turned primarily to solving practical problems, using mechanical, hydraulic and pneumatic phenomena. In the field of optics, Euclid developed the theory of reflection, Heron deduced the proof of the law of reflection, Ptolemy experimentally measured refraction.

The final period (up to 600 AD) is characterized not by the development of the traditions of the previous stages, but by stagnation and the beginning of decline. Pappus of Alexandria tried to summarize achievements in the field of mechanics, and only a few authors, such as Lucretius, Pliny the Elder, Vitruvius, remained true to the traditions of ancient Greek Hellenistic science.

Mathematics

In the era of antiquity, the level of development of mathematics was very high. The Greeks used the arithmetic and geometric knowledge accumulated in Babylonia and Egypt, but there are no reliable data to accurately determine their impact, as well as the influence of the tradition of the Cretan Mycenaean culture. The history of mathematics in ancient Greece, including the Hellenistic era, is divided, like physics, into four periods.

Ionian period (600-450 BC). As a result of independent development, as well as on the basis of a certain stock of knowledge borrowed from the Babylonians and Egyptians, mathematics has become a special scientific discipline based on the deductive method. According to ancient tradition, it was Thales who initiated this process. However, the true merit in the creation of Mathematics as a science apparently belongs to Anaxagoras and Hippocrates of Chios. Democritus, observing the playing of musical instruments, found that the pitch of a sounding string changes depending on its length. Based on this, he determined that the intervals of the musical scale can be expressed as ratios of the simplest integers. Based on the anatomical structure of space, he derived formulas for determining the volume of a cone and a pyramid. Along with the accumulation of elementary information on geometry, the mathematical thought of this period was characterized by the presence of the rudiments of the theory of duality, elements of stereometry, the formation of a general theory of divisibility and the doctrine of quantities and measurements.

Athenian period (450 - 300 BC). Specific Greek mathematical disciplines developed, the most significant of which were geometry and algebra. The goal of the geometrization of mathematics, in essence, was to find solutions to purely algebraic problems (linear and quadratic equations) with the help of visual geometric images. It was due to the desire to find a way out of the predicament in which mathematics found itself, due to the discovery of irrational quantities. The statement was refuted that the ratios of any mathematical quantities can be expressed in terms of ratios of integers, i.e. through rational quantities. Influenced by the writings of Plato and his students, Theodore of Cyrenus and Theaetetus developed the problem of the incommensurability of segments, while Eudoxus of Cnidus formulated a general theory of relations that could also be applied to irrational quantities.

Hellenistic period (300 - 150 BC). In the era of Hellenism, ancient mathematics reached its highest level of development. For many centuries, the Alexandria Museion remained the main center of mathematical research. Around 325 BC, Euclid wrote the essay "Beginnings" (13 books). Being a follower of Plato, he practically did not consider the applied aspects of mathematics. Heron of Alexandria paid special attention to them. Only the creation by scientists of Western Europe in the 17th century of a new mathematics of variables turned out to be more significant than the contribution that Archimedes made to the development of mathematical problems. He approached the analysis of infinitesimal quantities. Along with the widespread use of mathematics for applied purposes and its application to solve problems in the field of physics and mechanics, there was again a tendency to attribute special, supernatural qualities to numbers.

The final period (150 - 60 BC). The independent achievements of Roman mathematics include only the creation of a system of roughly approximate calculations and the writing of several treatises on geodesy. The most significant contribution to the development of ancient mathematics at the final stage was made by Diophantus. Using, apparently, the data of Egyptian and Babylonian mathematicians, he continued to develop methods of algebraic calculus. Along with the intensification of religious and mystical interest in numbers, the development of a genuine number theory also continued. This was done, in particular, by Nicomachus of Geras. On the whole, under the conditions of an acute crisis in the slave-owning mode of production and the transition to a feudal system, regression was observed in mathematics.

Chemistry

In ancient times, chemical knowledge was closely associated with handicraft production. The ancients possessed knowledge in the field of extracting metals from ores, making glass and glaze, mineral, vegetable and animal paints, alcoholic beverages, cosmetics, medicines and poisons. They knew how to make alloys that imitate gold, silver, pearls and "artificial" precious stones from molten glass mass painted in various colors, as well as purple paint based on vegetable dyes. The Egyptian masters were especially famous for this. Theoretical generalizations related to natural philosophical reasoning about the nature of being are found in the writings of Greek philosophers, primarily in Empedocles (the doctrine of 4 elements), Leucippus, Democritus (the doctrine of atoms) and Aristotle (qualitativism). In Hellenistic Egypt in the 3rd-4th centuries AD, applied chemistry began to develop in line with the emerging alchemy, which strove to transform base metals into noble ones.

Biology

In ancient times, biology as an independent science did not exist. Biological knowledge was concentrated primarily in religious rites and medicine. Here the doctrine of the 4 juices played a significant role. In hylozoism, there were ideas about the presence of a certain single primary form of the entire variety of life manifestations. The pinnacle of ancient biology was the work of Aristotle. Within the framework of his universal theological picture of the world, entelechy as an actively shaping force determined the direction of the transformation of passive matter. In the writings of Aristotle, ideas about the hierarchy of things found their further development, the author’s observations about the gradual transition in nature from inanimate to living things were displayed, which had a huge impact on subsequent development theories. The peripatetic school, in contrast to the materialistic direction of the philosophy of Democritus, put forward its own organic explanation of nature. Roman biology was based on the findings of Greek science and the atomism of natural philosophy. Epicurus and his student Lucretius consistently transferred materialistic views to ideas about life. Ancient biology and medicine found their culmination in the writings of Galen. His observations made during the autopsy of domestic animals and monkeys remained significant for many centuries. Medieval biology relied on ancient biology.

Ethics

Ethics owes its name and separation into a special scientific discipline to Aristotle, but its foundations were laid by Socrates. The first ethical reflections can be found already in the sayings of the seven wise men, of course, without philosophical justification. Ethical and religious issues were thoroughly dealt with by Pythagoras and his school. The anti-democratic aristocratic positions of the Pythagoreans were shared by Heraclitus and the Eleatics. Pleasures arising from feelings, excitements, Democritus considered dubious and relative. True happiness arises from an even and peaceful mood, which is due to the barely noticeable movement of the atoms of fire. Socrates' doctrine of morality was directed against the denial of obligatory moral norms. Aristotle saw the highest happiness for each individual being in the manifestation of his nature. But nature, the essence of man, according to Aristotle, is his mind, the ability to use reason is, therefore, a virtue, and the use of reason in itself brings satisfaction and pleasure. In Rome (with the exception of individual representatives of scientific ethics - Cicero, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius) predominantly practice-oriented ethics were recognized.

Philosophy

The term probably goes back to Heraclitus or Herodotus. Plato and Aristotle for the first time began to use the concept of Philosophy, close to the modern one. Epicurus and the Stoics saw in it not so much a theoretical picture of the universe as a general rule of practical life. Ancient philosophy as a whole was distinguished by contemplation, and its representatives, as a rule, came from the propertied strata of society. There were two main currents - materialism and idealism. The history of ancient philosophy is characterized by theoretical differences presented by certain schools or individual philosophers. Such, for example, as a contradiction in the views on being and becoming (Permenides and Heraclitus), on philosophy and anthropological philosophy, on pleasure and virtue or asceticism, on the question of the relationship between form and matter, on necessity and freedom, and others. The discipline of thought, which was the result of the emergence of ancient philosophy, has also become an important prerequisite for the development of science in general. The enduring merit of ancient philosophy, primarily materialistic philosophy and the philosophy of Aristotle, is a comprehensive and systematic substantiation of philosophy itself as a scientific theory, the development of a system of concepts, as well as the development of all basic philosophical problems.

Geography

Geography was the science most directly affected by the campaigns of Alexander the Great. Prior to this, the geographical outlook of the Greeks was not very different from those ideas about the ecumene that were set forth in the books of Herodotus. True, in the IV century. BC. journeys to distant lands and descriptions of foreign lands become more frequent than in the previous century. The famous "Aia-basis" of Xenophon contains a lot of interesting data on the geography and ethnography of Asia Minor and Armenia. Ctesias of Cnidus, who for 17 years (415 - 399) was a doctor at the Persian court, wrote a number of historical and geographical works, of which, in addition to describing Persia, the description of India, which contained a lot of fabulous information, was especially popular in ancient times and in the Middle Ages. about the nature and inhabitants of this country. Later (about 330 BC) a certain Pytheas from Massilia undertook a journey along the western coasts of Europe; passing Gibraltar and opening the Breton ledge, he eventually reached the semi-mythical land of Fule, which some researchers identify with present-day Iceland, while others with Norway. Excerpts from the writings of Pytheas are given in the writings of Polybius and Strabo.

And yet, when Alexander the Great began his campaigns, both he and his commanders had only a very faint idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe countries that they were to conquer. Alexander's army was accompanied by "surveyors" or, more precisely, "pedometers", who established, on the basis of counting steps, the distances traveled, made up the description of the routes and mapped the corresponding territories. When Alexander returned from India, part of the army was sent by sea, and the commander of the fleet, Nearchus, was ordered to explore the coastline of the Indian Ocean. Leaving the mouth of the Indus, Nearchus safely reached Mesopotamia and wrote an account of this voyage, which was later used by the historiographers of Alexander's campaigns Arriai and Strabo. The data accumulated during the campaigns of Alexander allowed the student of Aristotle, Dicaearchus of Messana, to compile a map of all the then known regions of the ecumene.

The idea of ​​the sphericity of the Earth, finally established in Greece in the era of Plato and Aristotle, posed new fundamental tasks for Greek geography. The most important of these was the task of determining the size of the globe. And so Dicaearchus made the first attempt to solve this problem by measuring the position of the zenith at different latitudes (in the region of Lysimachia near the Dardanelles and near Assuan in Egypt), and the value of the earth's circumference obtained by him turned out to be 300,000 stadia (i.e., about 50,000 km instead of the true value of 40,000 km). The width of the ecumene (from north to south) Dicaearchus determined at 40,000 stadia, and the length (from west to east) - 60,000.

Another representative of the peripatetic school, Strato, was also interested in geography. He hypothesized that the Black Sea was once a lake, and then, having connected with the Mediterranean Sea, began to give up its surplus to the Aegean Sea (the presence of a current in the Dardanelles was a well-known fact, discussed, in particular, by Aristotle; let us also recall the history of building bridges across this strait for the army of Xerxes). The Mediterranean Sea, according to Strato, was also formerly a lake; when it broke through the narrow Strait of Gibraltar (then called the Pillars of Hercules), its level dropped, exposing the coast and leaving shells and salt deposits. This hypothesis was then animatedly discussed by Eratosthenes, Hipparchus and Strabo. The highest achievements of Alexandrian geography are associated with the name of Eratosthenes from Cyrene, who for a long time (234-196 BC) was at the head of the Alexandrian library. Eratosthenes was an unusually versatile person who left behind works on mathematics, astronomy, history (chronology), philology, ethics, etc.; however, his geographical works were perhaps his most significant.

The great work of Eratosthenes "Geography", which consisted of three books, has not been preserved, but its content, as well as Hipparchus' polemical remarks on it, are quite fully set out by Strabo. In the first book of this work, Eratosthenes gives an outline of the history of geography, starting from ancient times. At the same time, he criticizes the geographical information given by the "infallible" Homer; talks about the first geographical maps of Anaximander and Hecateus; defends the description of Pytheas' journey, which was repeatedly ridiculed by his contemporaries. In the second book, Eratosthenes provides evidence of the sphericity of the Earth, mentions his method of measuring the size of the globe and develops considerations about the ecumene, which he considered an island surrounded on all sides by the ocean.

On this basis, he first suggested the possibility of reaching India by sailing from Europe to the west. The third book was a detailed commentary on the map compiled by Eratosthenes.

The method used by Eratosthenes to determine the circumference of the Earth was described in detail by him in a special essay; the method consisted in measuring the length of the shadow cast by the gnomon in Alexandria at the very moment when the Sun was directly overhead in Siey (Assuan), which was approximately on the same meridian. The angle between the vertical and the direction of the Sun turned out (in Alexandria) to be 1/50 of a full circle. Considering the distance between Alexandria and Syene to be 5,000 stadia (slightly less than 800 km), Eratosthenes obtained an approximate value of 250,000 stadia for the circumference of the globe. More accurate calculations gave a value of 252,000 stadia, or 39,690 km, which is only 310 km different from the true value. This result of Erastothenes remained unsurpassed until the 17th century.

Astronomy

The famous astronomer of the II century. BC. Hipparchus wrote an essay in which he sharply criticized the "Geography" of Eratosthenes. Criticism mainly concerned the methods of localization of geographical objects. Hipparchus considered it unacceptable to attach serious importance to the evidence of travelers or sailors about the remoteness and orientation of these objects; he recognized only methods based on accurate objective data, to which he attributed the height of the stars above the horizon, the length of the shadow cast by the gnomon, the differences in the time of the onset of lunar eclipses, etc. By introducing the grid of meridians and parallels as the basis for the construction of geographical maps, Hipparchus was the founder of mathematical cartography.

Using the example of geography, we see that even this science, which was previously purely descriptive, underwent a process of mathematization in the Alexandrian era. To an even greater extent, this process was characteristic of the development of astronomy, mechanics, and optics. Therefore, we have the right to assert that it was in this era that mathematics first became the called queen of sciences. Therefore, before moving on to other sciences, it is advisable to consider the remarkable achievements of Hellenistic mathematics.

Conclusion

Studying the development of sciences in the period of antiquity, it is clear that practically the same people took an active part in almost all sciences and made many discoveries and inventions - Aristotle, Democritus, Heron, Euclid, Heraclitus and many others. This suggests the interconnection of virtually all sciences that existed at the ancient stage, when many sciences were not yet isolated and were branches from each other. Philosophy was the basis of everything, they turned to it, proceeded from it and relied on it all the sciences of antiquity. Philosophical thought was fundamental.

Bibliography

1.Asmus V.F. ancient philosophy. - M.: Higher School, 1999.

2.Mamardashvili M.K. Lectures on ancient philosophy. - M.: Agraf, 1997.

.Rozhansky I.D. The development of natural science in the era of antiquity. Early Greek science of nature - M .: Nauka, 1979.

.Shchitov.B.B., Vronsky S.A. Astronomy is a science. - Publisher: Institute of Culture of DonNTU, 2011.

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Science in ancient Rome continued and classified the knowledge acquired by the Greeks in antiquity, during the classical period and especially during the Hellenistic period. The Romans' own discoveries relate to construction, mathematics, medicine, agriculture, law, and the areas of public administration. Fundamental in the Roman cultural tradition was the priority of practical knowledge, empirical experience over the speculative.

The most developed in Rome was jurisprudence - the science of law. The main Roman law was drawn up in the 5th century. BC. "Laws of 12 tables".

Later, professional lawyers appeared in Rome - it is known that already from the 3rd century. BC. they could get advice. Roman jurisprudence introduced the division of law into private and public, the principle of equality of citizens before the law, and laid the foundations of a general theory of law. Lawyers in their activities combined theory and practice, gave professional advice, drew up claims, etc.

In the development of mathematics, physics, astronomy, the Romans did not bring anything new - they used the Greek achievements.

Antique medicine reached its peak in the era of the empire thanks to the activities of the Greek physician Galen (139-199), who practiced in Rome. He conducted anatomical studies, experiments on the study of respiration, the activity of the spinal cord and brain.

Story. In Rome, its origins go back to the books of the pantifik priests, which had the form of a chronicle, where the main events were recorded. The great commander and dictator Gaius Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) is the author of Notes on the Gallic War, distinguished by clarity of presentation. The heyday of Roman historiography fell on the era of the principate: Titus Livius (59 BC - 17 AD) wrote the "History of Rome from the founding of the city"; the largest Roman historian Tacitus (c. 55 - c. 120) in his works "History" and "Annals" spoke about the dramatic events in the 1st century BC. AD, paid special attention to the personality of emperors.

The system of education and rhetoric in the Roman Empire in the II-I centuries. BC. was borrowed from the Greeks, but with some changes. The leading place was occupied by jurisprudence, not mathematics, there were no classes in music and gymnastics, languages ​​and literature were studied in close connection with Roman history. At the highest stage of education, special attention was paid to rhetoric, and not philosophy. Unlike Greece, primary and secondary schools were private, classes were paid.

Conclusion

The history of the culture of Ancient Rome covers the period from the 8th century. BC. according to the 5th century AD Having existed for more than 12 centuries, the latter has become a phenomenon much more complex than Greek culture. During this time, the Romans, under the influence of Greece and the East, created their own original culture, which deeply penetrated the culture of most European peoples. The very word "Rome" was once interpreted as a synonym for greatness, glory, military prowess, wealth, but later turned into a sad symbol of the breakdown and collapse of a powerful expansionist civilization, which experienced crisis upheavals even during its rise. Militarism was one of the characteristic features of Roman civilization.

Roman culture is an integral part of ancient. In many ways, relying on Greek culture, Roman culture was able to develop some of its achievements, to introduce something new, inherent only to the Roman state. During its heyday, Ancient Rome united the entire Mediterranean, including Greece, its influence, its culture spread to a significant part of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, etc. The heart of this huge state was Italy, located in the very center of the Mediterranean world.

Ancient Rome left a rich cultural heritage that has become part of the life and culture of modern mankind. The majestic remains of Roman cities, buildings, theaters, amphitheaters, circuses, roads, aqueducts and bridges, baths and basilicas, triumphal arches and columns, temples and porticos, port facilities and military camps, high-rise buildings and luxurious villas amaze modern man not only with their splendor , good technology, quality of construction, rational architecture, but also aesthetic value. In all this, there is a real connection between Roman antiquity and modern reality, a visible proof that Roman civilization formed the basis of European culture, and through it of all modern civilization as a whole.

More than 1,500 years have passed since the fall of the Roman Empire. But even today we can see the ruins of ancient cities, well-preserved stone roads, aqueducts, the remains of ancient majestic palaces and public buildings. The culture of Ancient Rome still lives in the language of Mediterranean culture - Latin, in modern law, in the urban architecture of Europe, in the customs and traditions of many European peoples.

The Greek should ideally be educated. To be educated meant not only to have a certain amount of knowledge, but also to be capable of a long, purposeful education, predisposed to hard mental work. To do this, a person must be internally organized, collected, be able to control himself, be moral.

Already in the era of the archaic, which was reflected in the poems of Homer, the ideal of education was shown by a noble hero who served his mentor in word and deed. In the form of a teacher, "the wisest of the centaurs Chiron" acted. The hero perfectly mastered all types of weapons, successfully participated in sports and gaming competitions, sang beautifully, played the lyre, danced and had the gift of eloquence. He should have been superior

In Greece, in connection with this, there was two systems education and education: Spartan and Athenian.
In Sparta , especially in the 7th-5th centuries. BC, children received a one-sided military education. The emphasis was on hardening the body, physical endurance, so even girls had to do gymnastics. However, the girls were taught music, dancing and singing. But still, musical education was reduced to a minimum. The consequence of such one-sidedness was cultural impoverishment and spiritual passivity. . In Athens Homeric ideal of education found in the VI-V centuries. BC. its further development in the form of musical-gymnastic education. All the arts belonged to the musical: poetry, music, theater, fine arts, sculpture, as well as the art of counting, speech, and even philosophy. By the 5th century BC. there was not a single illiterate person in Athens.

In Greece, a harmonious system of ancient education was created, which retained its significance not only until the end of the ancient period, but in its main features has come down to our time: at the first stage of elementary elementary education, children are taught to read, write and count, along with them lessons of gymnastics and music. This is followed by a higher level of education - grammar, rhetoric, and mathematics are studied in gymnasiums, sports and music education continues at a higher level. The culmination of the educational process was the study of philosophy and rhetoric.

In Rome, the peasant warrior was considered the ideal. Therefore, as a necessary knowledge, in addition to the ability to read, write and count, it was necessary to have knowledge of agriculture, medicine, eloquence and military affairs. From the 2nd century BC. the Greek system of education begins to penetrate into Rome, although its final approval dates back to the 1st century. BC, though with Roman features.

The concept of "ancient science" covers a set of scientific and philosophical ideas that arose in the period from the VI century. BC before the beginning of the VI century. after AD, from the emergence of the first philosophical doctrines “on the nature of things” (early Greek natural philosophy) to the fall of the Roman Empire and the closing of the Plato Academy in Athens (529).

At this time, in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, science rises to a qualitatively new level in comparison with the science of the Ancient East: for the first time in history, theoretical knowledge appears, the first deductive systems. Scientific knowledge for the first time becomes the subject of philosophical reflection: the theory of science also appears.

A new level was reached thanks to the emergence philosophy, that is, a worldview that is fundamentally different from the religious and mythological view of the world in the civilizations of the Ancient East. If in the latter the elements of scientific knowledge were “woven” into sacred-cognitive complexes, completely subordinated to religious or economic-state needs, then in antiquity pure science appeared, acting completely independently and freely, without regard to the duties of officials and priests.

Mathematics becomes a pure science of ideal, immutable, incorporeal entities, a deductive system that deduces and proves its position from definitions, axioms and postulates. The elementary mathematics of constants has reached a completely mature, developed form. Based on pure mathematics, it becomes possible to create theoretical astronomy, including the geocentric system of the world that dominated Europe until the 16th century.

At this time it appears natural philosophy, as historically the first form of theoretical knowledge of nature, the main categories, principles and programs of scientific natural science, a number of specific areas of scientific research stand out, from music theory, statics, hydrostatics, botany and zoology to grammar, rhetoric, economics, law and politics.

Some of the biggest scientific achievements of antiquity:

• atomistics Democritus (V century BC), Epicurus (III century BC) and Lucretius (I century BC);
• dialectics And theory of ideas Socrates and Plato (V-IV centuries BC);
• state theory Plato and Aristotle (4th century BC);
• metaphysics, physics, logics, psychology, ethics, economy, poetics Aristotle (4th century BC);
• geometry And number theory, set forth in the form of a deductive scientific system in the "Elements" of Euclid (III century BC), but prepared in the Pythagorean Union and the Academy of Plato;
• statics And hydrostatics Archimedes (III century BC), his mathematical work on the calculation of areas and volumes;
• theory conic sections Apollonius (III-II centuries BC);
• geocentric astronomy Claudius Ptolemy (II century), the heliocentric system of Aristarchus of Samos (III century BC), the work of Eratosthenes (III century BC) to determine the radius of the Earth and the distance to the Moon;
• architecture theory Mark Vitruvius (I century BC);
• historical the works of Herodotus and Thucydides (V-IV centuries BC), Caesar (I century BC), Tacitus (I-II centuries), etc.;
• medicine Hippocrates (V century BC) and Claudius Galen (II century).

classical system Roman law, works of ancient Roman lawyers, etc.

Ancient science in general has theoretical-contemplative character. This does not mean that it is purely "speculative" or "speculative" in nature. It also relies on the common life experience, and on special systematic, attentive, subtle observations, and on an extensive craft experience, but gives preference to logic, reasoning, easily soaring from individual facts of experience to the most general philosophical generalizations. The idea of ​​"experiment" and even more so of systematic experimentation as the basis of science absent in antiquity. Scientific and philosophical knowledge was not aimed at practical and technical application. Science and "art", knowledge and technology were separated from each other and even opposed to each other. The goal of science is truth, the goal of art (technology) is benefit.

The concept of "ancient science" covers the totality of scientific and philosophical ideas that arose in the period from the VI century. BC before the beginning of the VI century. after AD, from the emergence of the first philosophical doctrines “on the nature of things” (early Greek natural philosophy) to the fall of the Roman Empire and the closing of the Plato Academy in Athens (529).

At this time, in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, science rises to a qualitatively new level in comparison with the science of the Ancient East: for the first time in history, theoretical knowledge, first deductive systems. Scientific knowledge for the first time becomes the subject of philosophical reflection: it appears and theory of science.

A new level was reached thanks to the emergence philosophy, that is, a worldview that is fundamentally different from the religious and mythological view of the world in the civilizations of the Ancient East. If in the latter elements of scientific knowledge were “woven” into sacral-cognitive complexes, completely subordinated to religious or economic-state needs, then in antiquity there appears pure science, acting completely independently and freely, without regard to the duties of officials and priests.

Mathematics becomes a pure science of ideal, immutable, incorporeal essences, a deductive system that deduces and proving their positions from definitions, axioms and postulates. The elementary mathematics of constants has reached a completely mature, developed form. On the basis of pure mathematics, it becomes possible to create theoretical astronomy, including the geocentric system of the world that dominated Europe until the 16th century.

At this time it appears natural philosophy, as historically the first form theoretical knowledge nature, the main categories, principles and programs of scientific natural science are formed, a number of specific areas of scientific study, from music theory, statics, hydrostatics, botany and zoology to grammar, rhetoric, economics, law and politics.

The volume of scientific knowledge of antiquity is indirectly evidenced by the fact that the Alexandrian library in the III-II centuries. BC, the heyday of ancient science, numbered about half a million scrolls.

Some of the biggest scientific achievements of antiquity:

– atomistics Democritus (V century BC), Epicurus (III century BC) and Lucretius (I century BC);

– dialectics And theory of ideas Socrates and Plato (V-IV centuries BC);

– state theory Plato and Aristotle (4th century BC);

– metaphysics, physics, logics, psychology, ethics, economy, poetics Aristotle (4th century BC);

– geometry And number theory, set forth in the form of a deductive scientific system in the "Elements" of Euclid (III century BC), but prepared in the Pythagorean Union and the Academy of Plato;

– statics And hydrostatics Archimedes (III century BC), his mathematical work on the calculation of areas and volumes;

– theory conic sections Apollonius (III-II centuries BC);

– geocentric astronomy Claudius Ptolemy (II century), the heliocentric system of Aristarchus of Samos (III century BC), the work of Eratosthenes (III century BC) to determine the radius of the Earth and the distance to the Moon;

– architecture theory Mark Vitruvius (I century BC);

– historical the works of Herodotus and Thucydides (V-IV centuries BC), Caesar (I century BC), Tacitus (I-II centuries), etc.;

– medicine Hippocrates (V century BC) and Claudius Galen (II century).

- classical system Roman law, works of ancient Roman lawyers, etc.

Ancient science in general has theoretical-contemplative character. This does not mean that it is purely "speculative" or "speculative" in nature. It also relies on the common life experience, and on special systematic, attentive, subtle observations, and on an extensive handicraft experience, but gives preference to logic, reasoning, easily soaring from individual facts of experience to the most general philosophical generalizations. The idea of ​​"experiment" and even more so of systematic experimentation as the basis of science absent in antiquity. The practical, handicraft, production activity of that era is not based on science, except for isolated, exceptional cases, like the work of Archimedes on the creation of defensive machines. Scientific and philosophical knowledge was not aimed at practical and technical application. Science and "art", knowledge and technology were separated from each other and even opposed to each other.

Pointing to the reason for such a separation of science and practice, they often point out that at that time physical, material, industrial activity was largely the lot of slaves, and therefore for free people, scientists, it was a low, contemptible thing. But there are also sound philosophical reasons for this approach. The goal of science is truth, the goal of art (technology) is utility. Science seeks to cognize in this changing and diverse world something one, eternal, unchanging, perfect - true being which is entirely independent of the individual. Art is just aimed at the "fluid", imperfect, changeable and changeable by man. "Tehne" and "mekhane" - all this is a sphere human activity, his skills, which concerns convenience, utility and entertainment, but not truth, not being. "Mechanical" inventions are not a means of knowing what nature is in itself, but its deception, detour, "cunning" of man. This is the realm of the artificial, i. unnatural, that which does not exist in nature - therefore, it has nothing to do with "being truly" and thus has nothing to do with science.

Ancient science, from arithmetic to metaphysics, considers the world in the aspect of eternity. The very word "theory", as we have already seen, comes from the Greek "theos" (God) and means "contemplation of the divine." The achievement of true knowledge of true being is seen as ultimate the purpose of science. Scientific knowledge, as the knowledge of eternal and unchanging being, self-sufficient, has a completely independent, moreover - highest value. Science, knowledge of the truth, communion of the soul with the divine, perfect - the best, highest, the most rewarding job person. Only in a scientific theory does a person achieve the ultimate goal of his existence as a rational, thinking being, reaches the highest possible good for a person. Theory is the highest good and the highest good. Compared to the good that knowledge itself gives a person, all the comforts and pleasures that technology and practical activity can deliver to him are secondary.

The most complete expression ancient ideal of science found in the teachings of Aristotle, the creator of the first theory of science.

For Aristotle, "to know" means: 1) in search of reasons individual phenomena ascend to more and more general causes and rise to universal, first beginnings everything that exists; 2) dwell on the speculative "contemplation" of these principles; 3) in this contemplation of the true, eternal and unchanging being, to achieve peace, the ultimate goal, the completion of the process of cognition.

With this understanding of being and scientific knowledge, the center of the totality of human knowledge, the main and highest science forms metaphysics.

Thus, ancient science places a limit on scientific knowledge. Only the singular, the inessential, is infinitely varied. The higher we rise in science in search of the causes of things, the smaller the number of beginnings. The number of "first principles" is, of course, small. They can be fully known. It is no longer possible to rise "higher" and "further" or go "deeper" in science. It is possible to reach both the "extreme sphere" of being and the highest limits of knowledge.