Moral Nature of Philosophy

The article explores the moral nature of philosophy. The source of philosophy is the duality of human existence. Philosophy is moral in its essence, being a way of life which actualizes the contradictory unity of the dual human nature in thoughts and deeds. Historically, there were three types of understanding the philosophy: the Sophia type, the epistemic type and the technematic type. The Sophia type, first formulated by Pythagoras, comes from the idea of love of wisdom. Being the fullness of knowledge, wisdom is accessible only to God. Man’s lot is the eternal search for wisdom. Historically the Sophia understanding of philosophy was the first interpretation of philosophy which was also the most correct one in meaning. The epistemic approach understands philosophy as a science. Epistemology rejects the Sophia understanding of philosophy as a morally oriented search for wisdom. The technematic understanding of philosophy goes back to the sophists. Wisdom was understood by the sophists as an art of proving and refuting anything. The art of thinking in itself is not a philosophy as it can be aimed at both good and evil. Philosophy, being the love of wisdom, should not serve evil. The idea of the moral essence of philosophy is of particular importance to the Russian tradition of love of wisdom which is related to the Sophia logos. The rejection of the epistemic and technematic interpretations of philosophy separates the Russian thought both from the triumph of scientific philosophy and from the ridicule of the playful mind.