por what is the dogmatism?
He dogmatism It is the epistemological and ontological perspective through which it is considered possible to know things in themselves and, therefore, express all truth in an undeniable and certain way, without any need to review or criticize it.
It reveals the confidence that a person has in learning and objectively recognizing the world by its cognitive capacity. This is due to the creative possibility of your mind and the ability to build an absolute value. In other words, it supposes that thought derives from being.
For its part, the object is imposed on the subject because the latter has the capacity to receive the truth of the object as it is, without distortions. It is precisely its foundation that leads these philosophers to give more importance to the principles than to the facts or arguments put forward; that is why they affirm before examining or observing.
This notion was born in pre-Socratic Antiquity, but this position is also present in some rationalists of the 17th and 18th centuries, who trust reason but after analyzing it.
Origin
Dogmatism originates in the 7th and 6th centuries BC, in Greece. In fact, the word «dogmatic» (δογματικός) means “founded on principles”. It is an adjective derived from «dogma» (in Greek, δόγμα), whose original meaning is “opinion”, “something stated”.
Sextus Empiricus, one of the most important skeptical philosophers of Greece, included in AD 100. C. to dogmatism as one of the three philosophical trends. According to the attitude of philosophers with respect to truth, there are different tendencies:
The dogmatists who claim to have found the truth, such as Aristotle, Epicurus and the Stoics.
Academics, who are those who maintain that the truth cannot be perceived or reproduced in any way. Among them, Carneades and Clitomachus are cited.
Skeptics, who are those committed to the search for the truth. They are those involved in the investigation and examination.
For some historiographers of philosophy, dogmatism is opposed to skepticism, since the first considers true what for the second is an opinion and not an affirmation.
According to Kant, dogmatism is opposed to criticism, since this can be understood as an attitude that considers knowing or acting in the world as something impossible and undesirable without prior criticism.
Characteristics of dogmatism
Some of the most important characteristics that define dogmatism are the following:
Getting to the truth through knowledge
It is the cognitive capacity of the human being that allows direct knowledge of the world and the fundamentals that underlie it.
This knowledge makes it possible to know things in their true being. This is so because the object is imposed on the subject, who receives it without intermediaries or distortions.
Mind and thought as creative power
The dogmatists’ conviction that cognition of truth is possible is based on the creativity of thought and mind.
Metaphysical dogmatism considers that the mind can know the world objectively because its operation is similar to that of nature. For this reason, his thoughts can discover the laws independently of any subjectivity of the person or of the human species.
This also derives in the idea of the reflection of objective reality in the consciousness of man.
equality of being
This concept is related to the previous one. Knowledge can be reached because, in some way, it is being assimilated. That being is below all things and is common to everything.
Both man and the things of the world are within him and, in turn, being is distinguished from these by being their substratum: the real and true.
On the other hand, in dogmatism the concept that all things are apparent, unstable and changeable also appears.
Knowledge and absolute values
If man is part of that being that is the substrate for everything, there is no doubt that his knowledge is going to be absolute and that, therefore, he is going to reach absolute values.
These absolute values are not only because man understands them, but because he discovers them because reality is reflected in his conscience as part of that immutable being.
Main exponents of dogmatism and their ideas
There are six main exponents of dogmatism: Thales of Miletus, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Pythagoras, Heraclitus and Parmenides.
Thales of Miletus (624 BC – 546 BC)
Thales was a Greek philosopher, geometer, physicist, mathematician, and legislator. He was the initiator of the School of Miletus and did not leave any written text, so his theories and knowledge come from his followers.
However, great contributions are attributed to him in the field of physics, astronomy, mathematics and geometry.
As a philosopher, it is considered that he was the first in the West who tried to rationally explain the different phenomena of the world. An example of this is the passage from myth to reason, since until his time the explanations were only mythical.
Thales of Miletus maintains that water is the first element, the beginning of everything; therefore, he ascribes life to it. It also gives it a soul, because the soul makes things move and water moves by itself.
Anaximander (610 BC – 546 BC)
Disciple of Thales of Miletus and teacher of Anaximenes. He was a philosopher and geographer. For Anaximander the beginning of all things (arché) is ápeiron, which means «without limits», «without definition».
Ápeiron is imperishable, indestructible, immortal, indeterminate, unlimited, active and self-moving. This substance is the divine that originates everything and to which everything returns.
Substances that are opposite to each other within the Earth are divided from apeiron. When one of these prevails over the other, a reaction appears that rebalances them.
Anaximenes (546 BC – 528/525 BC)
Philosopher traditionally considered as a companion and successor of Anaximander. Like his teacher, he believes that the beginning of all things (arché) is invariable to change and end, and is infinite.
However, Anaximenes goes one step further than Anaximander, specifying that the apeiron is the element of air. The choice of this element is justified because he considers that it transforms everything through condensation and rarefaction.
The condensation generates the clouds, the wind, the water, the stones and the earth; rarefaction causes fire. In addition, he considers that the cold is a consequence of condensation and the hot of rarefaction.
Pythagoras (569 BC – 475 BC)
Greek philosopher and mathematician. He made great advances in geometry and arithmetic, and his principles later influenced Plato and Aristotle.
Although his original writings are not preserved, it was his disciples who, citing their teacher, justified his doctrines.
He founded a religious and philosophical school in southern Italy, where his followers lived there permanently. This so-called «Pythagorean brotherhood» was made up of both men and women.
Post-Aristotelians attribute to Pythagoras the concept of monism; that is to say, intangible principles from which number is born, in the first place; then the solid figures are born, as well as the plane; and finally, the bodies belonging to the sensible world are born.
Pythagoras is also considered to have given birth to the idea that the soul can rise to reach the divine and that, after death, it has a destiny, giving a rough idea of reincarnation.
The most important element is fire, as it is the principle that vivifies the universe. It is located at the end of the universe, and around that central fire the circular dance of the celestial bodies is formed, such as the stars, the Sun, the Moon, the Earth and the Anti-Earth.
Heraclitus (544 BC – 484 BC)
A natural philosopher from Ephesus, a city in Ionia, his thought is known from later statements, since only parts of his writings remain.
It supposes that the universe oscillates between the reversion and the expansion of all things to a primordial fire. This leads to continuous movement and change in which the world is involved.
That flow is governed by a law called logos. She guides the future of the world and gives signs, speaking to man, although most people do not know how to speak or listen.
For Heraclitus, order is the order of reason. He believes that the senses are not enough and that is why intelligence must be used, but to this we must add an inquisitive and critical attitude. He rescues time as a fundamental element; that is why he thinks of existence as a becoming.
Parmenides (530 BC – 470 BC)
Greek philosopher who believes that the path to knowledge has two paths: that of opinion and that of truth. The second is passable, while the first appears to be knowledge, but is full of contradictions.
The path of opinion starts from the acceptance of not being; instead, that of truth is based on the affirmation of being. For its part, the affirmation of being is opposed to becoming, change and multiplicity.
Parmenides does not agree with the future that his predecessors propose. He maintains that if something changes, it implies that it is now something that was not before, which is contradictory.
For this reason, affirming the change represents accepting the passage from being to non-being, or vice versa. However, for this philosopher that is impossible because non-being is not. In addition, he ensures that the being is whole, immobile and unborn.