From heresy to dogma: prehistory category «worldview».

Abstract

The peculiarities of interpretation of the terms "heresy (ἀϊρεσις)"» and "dogma (δογμα) " in the context of the dynamics of European philosophical and theological thought in late antiquity and early Middle Ages reveals оn the article. Sets the ratio of their content with category «worldview». Determined by the verbal root is meaningful metamorphosis of their interpretation in ancient Greek philosophy and in the teachings of the Church fathers. First, the word "αιρεσις" had a rather broad range of meanings in ancient Greek: from the conquest to the choice or aspirations. It is widely used by Herodotus, Plato, and Plutarch. Palm and many other Greek thinkers. "Semantic revolution" regarding the "αϊρεσις" and "secta" is only the beginning of a complete dominance of Orthodox Christianity in the spiritual life of the Empire after the Council of Chalcedon. These words were given an extremely negative value, and Orthodox "heresy" that won in disputes, acquires the status of the only true "dogma". The Greek word "δογμα", which is a calque migrated to Latin (dogma), was adopted by Christian theologians with the vocabulary of ancient philosophy and Roman law. It comes from the verb "δοκέω" to think, to believe, to think, but unlike close to it by the origin of the word "δοξα" (idea, suggestion, opinion), meant is not a thought (mind), and the end result is a strong belief, position, or resolution or order that began or universally accepted religious truth, which became the subject of undoubted faith. Finally, modern notions of "dogma" takes in the era of the first Ecumenical councils. Neither in ancient nor in the scholastic philosophy, the concept of "worldview" did not exist, although the ancient Greeks, ancient Romans, inhabitants of medieval Europe and the Byzantine Empire had a certain, though not always systematic world views, religious and political beliefs and beliefs about healthy lifestyles. However, "dogma" and "heresy" were until then neutral in meaning and is quite common terms of the professional thesaurus of ancient philosophy, which suffered some unexpected flair. The first of these has come to mean the basics of Orthodox dogma; the second has become synonymous with negative and hostile worldview. These terms are not identical in content with the modern concept of "worldview", which was formed only in German classical philosophy, but they reflect the historical forms of contemporary philosophical and theological reflection on the human perception of reality and self-determination.