Page 6 - 4153

MODULE 1

TOPIC 1

PHILOSOPHY, ITS GENESIS, ISSUES AND
HUMANISTIC MEANING

Lecture 1. Philosophy, its origin and content

1. Origin of philosophical knowledge.
2. Evolution of philosophy.

First steps, origins of philosophical thinking are closely related
with the concept of ideology and its types, with mythological and

religious world understanding as a premise of philosophy. Mythology
(myth – word, concept; logos – teachings, learning) – is a sort of
understanding the natural and social reality on the early stages of social

development when with the help of image (myth) they tried to explain
different phenomena of nature and society. By its content mythology is
not compatible with science. Mythological “logics” arises as a result of

human incapability of distinguishing herself/himself out of the
environment, however philosophical generalization of acquired material
has already existed. The basis of religious ideology is a belief of the
different powers existence and their key role in the world creation.

Similarity of philosophy and religion is that they both serve as a social
and historical form of the world-view, solving the problems of world
order, consciousness and human behaviour.

For the last two centuries with the growth of Enlightenment,
culture, scientific progress philosophical knowledge has become a true
path to wisdom and intelligence. Therefore, considering the evolution of
the philosophy, one should pay attention to the fact that the main

significative problem is nature, human being, social world which form
the basic problem of philosophical searches. Appearing of philosophy
was one of the part of great cultural revolution in Ancient Greece in
th
VIII-V century BC. The word “philosophy” was a synonym of
theoretical scientific thought in general. That’s why we should realize
that the occurrence of philosophy and its contents meant the formation
of a special spiritual sphere – search of harmony in knowledge about the

6