THE DIALECTICS OF LIFE IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF ANTIQUITY SCHOLARS

Abstract

This article examines the formation and development of the concept of the dialectics of life within the philosophical and literary-aesthetic thought of antiquity. It analyzes how ancient Greek philosophers and theorists of literature interpreted such fundamental problems as the changing nature of human life, its development through contradictions, fate and choice, life and death, good and evil, knowledge and ignorance, necessity and freedom. In particular, the article provides a comparative study of Heraclitus’s doctrine of the continuous change of being and the unity of opposites; Socrates’ views on self-knowledge and moral choice; Plato‘s conception of the world of Forms, the soul, and the imitative nature of art; and Aristotle’s comprehensive interpretation of human action, fate, happiness, virtue, and artistic conflict. The study substantiates that the fundamental principles of the dialectics of life in antiquity-movement, change, contradiction, negation, choice, causality, and development-became among the important principles underlying philosophical and artistic thought.