Methodological Aspects of the Problem of Personality in the Period of Greek Classics

Abstract

Among Russian and foreign researchers, there are opposite points of view regarding the existence or absence of personality in classical antiquity. Thus, this article is devoted to the study of methodological aspects of the problem of personality in the period of Greek classics. In particular, the articles examines the views of O. Spengler and A.F. Losev, who reject the existence of a full-fledged personality in classical antiquity. The author argues that neither the first thesis of A.F. Losev that in ancient Greece of the classical period “slave labor was the leading economic factor” nor his second thesis about “commodity production, which replaced the subsistence economy of the old clan community,” are valid. Therefore, a conclusion (that was made by A.F. Losev on the basis of these theses) about a specific understanding of man as a thing and a living body in antiquity becomes also invalid. The development of personality in classical antiquity was inextricably linked with the development of democracy, where a free-born member of polis (city-state) acted as a self-valuable person. This person had its own historical identity, formed by the culture and structure of society. In particular, the ancient Greeks were characterized by one of the main qualities of the personality - the awareness of their own freedom, the right to choose. At the same time, this self-awareness was limited and opposed both to other poleis and the unfree and dependent population within the polis itself -women, metics, and slaves. In answering positively to the question of the existence of personality in the period of the Greek classics, we should avoid the other extreme - identification between the experience of the spiritual life of the individual in the modern era and in the classical period.