PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPT OF CULTURE IN ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME

Abstract

The article is devoted to the philosophical perception of culture in Ancient Greece and Rome. The author analyzes some concepts, such as Techne, Paideia, and Kalokagathia, which show that in Ancient Greece the cultural human was perceived as a microcosm, a harmoniously educated being endowed with the harmony of soul and body. The myth of the Prometheus told in Plato’s “Protagoras” is also analyzed to show that the ancient Greeks were already thinking of the culture as a service to gods, and regarded the human being as a bad-adapted to nature animal. The article also presents Roman speaker, legislator, politician, and philosopher Cicero's doctrine on the culture of the soul. It is shown that for Cicero, Cultura Animi is the philosophy itself, and the process of educating and cultivating noble Romans should be led by philosophy, the mother of virtues. Cicero attributes much of the achievements of human culture to philosophy and treats it as a consolation and a life-sustaining culture free of fear. Representatives of the Armenian philhellene school and their descendants inherit this culture, appreciating the wisdom and its importance in the process of developing identity.