Since ancient times, the question of what is the life of people, worried human society. People are beings endowed with consciousness, so they cannot help but think about the meaning, purpose and conditions of their existence.
Let's try and we will consider this issue in more detail.
Stating the problem of the meaning of life in ancient philosophy
According to scientists, the first works of a scientific nature that would comprehend the life of people as a philosophical problem began to appear in the era of Antiquity.
The Greek philosopher Parmenides believed that knowledge of the meaning of life depends on understanding the question of human existence. By being, the scientist understood the sensual world, which should be based on such values as Truth, Beauty and Goodness.
Thus, for the first time in science, the quality of life and its meaning were compared with the most important humanistic values.
The tradition of Parmenides was continued by other Greek philosophers: Socrates, his student Plato, Plato's student Aristotle. The essence of human life was worked out quite deeply in their writings. Her understanding was also based on the ideas of humanism and respect for the personality of each individual as a necessary component of everything.public order.
Problem solving in medieval European philosophy
Problems of life were also considered in the European philosophy of the Middle Ages. However, they were presented in the vein of Christian anthropology, so the agenda was not questions of life, but rather questions of life and death, immortal being, faith in God, the afterlife of a person, which assumed that he would go either to heaven, or to purgatory, or to hell. etc.
The famous European philosophers of that time, St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, did a lot in this vein.
In fact, the life of people on earth was considered by them as a temporary stage of existence, and not the best. Earthly life is a kind of test, full of deprivation, suffering and injustice, which each of us must go through in order to gain heavenly bliss. If a person shows due patience and diligence in this field, then his fate in the afterlife will be quite prosperous.
The problem of the essence of life in the tradition of the New Age
The era of modern times in European philosophy has made significant adjustments to the understanding of two issues: the first studied the quality of life, and the second was addressed to the problem of social injustice that permeated society.
People were no longer satisfied with the prospect of eternal bliss in exchange for patience and work in the present. They longed to build a paradise on earth, considering it as a realm of truth, justice and brotherhood. Exactlyunder these slogans, the Great French Revolution was carried out, which, however, did not bring what its creators dreamed of.
Europeans sought to ensure that the life of people already on earth was both prosperous and worthy. These ideas gave rise to those socio-political transformations that were rich in subsequent centuries.
Old Russian philosophy about the meaning of life
In Ancient Russia, the problem of the meaning of people's existence was considered from the point of view of the theocentricity of the universe. Man, being born on earth, was called by God to salvation, and therefore he had to fulfill God's plan throughout his life.
Western European scholasticism has not taken root in our country, with its exact calculations, according to which, for this or that sin, a person had to perform a certain number of righteous deeds or give so much alms to beggars or church employees. In Russia, for a long time, secret mercy was welcomed, which was done for God in secret from people, because Christ and the Mother of God, having seen the righteous behavior of a penitent sinner, will help him go through all the ordeals and gain the Kingdom of Heaven.
The problem of life in Russian philosophy
Famous Russian philosophers, starting with V. S. Solovyov, very carefully considered the problem of the meaning of human life on earth. And in their interpretation, this meaning is associated with the embodiment of each person in his unique and inimitable being of the most important spiritual and ethical values.
WhenThis philosophy, in contrast to its Western version, was of a religious nature. Russian authors were interested not so much in the quality of life and social issues of the structure of society as in problems of a different order: the moral aspects of human relationships, the problem of spirituality, faith and unbelief, the acceptance of the Creator's divine plan and the acceptance of the idea of the original harmonious structure of the human world.
In this vein, the dialogue between Ivan and Alyosha Karamazov (F. M. Dostoevsky's novel "The Brothers Karamazov") is indicative, which just testifies to the solution of the question of the meaning of human existence on earth.
If for Alyosha, who accepts the Creator's divine plan and believes in his unconditional goodness, the world is a wonderful creation, and a person with an immortal soul carries an image of divine beauty, then for Ivan, whose soul is full of bitter unbelief, faith brother becomes incomprehensible. He suffers cruelly from his own imperfection and the imperfection of the world around him, realizing that it is not in his power to change anything.
Such bitter thoughts about the meaning of life drive the eldest of the brothers to madness.
Transformation of the 20th century in light of the problems of life
The 20th century brought the world not only a lot of new knowledge in the field of technology and science, it also aggravated humanitarian issues, and first of all the question of the life of mankind on earth. What is it about?
Man's living conditions have changed dramatically. Whereas previously most people lived in rural areas, leadingsubsistence farming and with virtually no access to large sources of information, today the world's population has settled for the most part in cities, using the Internet and numerous other sources of communication.
Moreover, it was in the 20th century that weapons of mass destruction were invented. Its use in Japan and other countries has proven that it can destroy a huge number of people in the shortest possible time, and the affected area can cover our entire planet.
Therefore, questions about life have become especially relevant.
In the 20th century, humanity experienced two major world wars, which showed that the technology of death has greatly improved.
Bioethical issues of life
The development of new technologies has exacerbated the problem of bioethics.
Today you can get a living being by cloning its cells, you can conceive a child "in a test tube", choosing for him the genetic code that parents dream of. There is a problem of surrogate (donor) motherhood, when an embryo alien to her is implanted into a woman's body for a certain fee, and she bears it and then gives birth. And gives…
There is even the problem of euthanasia - voluntary and painless death of terminally ill people.
There are many more tasks of the same nature: a person's daily life provides them in abundance. And all these tasks need to be solved, because these are actually problems of life that are understandable to every person and require him to make a conscious choice of one or anotherhand.
Problems of life in modern philosophy
The philosophy of our time takes a fresh look at the problems of being.
It becomes clear that modern human life gives us, on the one hand, many new opportunities, such as the right to find out information about what is happening on the planet, to move around the world, but on the other hand, it grows every year number of threats. And first of all, these are threats related to terrorism.
It is clear that the life of the first people on earth was completely different. But humanity needs to adapt to new conditions, so the questions of life and its meaning are more relevant than ever.
Besides, man is the only creature on Earth who is aware of life in all its fullness and richness. Therefore, people, being, in fact, the first among living beings, are responsible for what our planet will be like in hundreds and thousands of years.
