2. HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT 2.1. Political thought of the ancient world

2. HISTORY OF POLITICAL THOUGHT

The history of political teachings is one of the most important, organic parts of the spiritual culture of mankind. It contains the vast experience of many generations of thinkers who have been studying the problems of politics, government, and the state. This experience belongs not only to history, but also to modernity, continuing to influence political processes and ideological movements, the evolution of political theoretical knowledge.

2.1. Political thought of the ancient world

The emergence of political thought among ancient peoples dates back to religious and mythological sources. Terrestrial orders, according to mythological concepts, are part of the global, space. At the same time, myths not only explained, but also proved the validity of the existing social and state structure, streamlined beliefs and rules of behavior. The mythical "political cosmology" substantiated the idea of ​​the divine primary source of social and political orders (such is the myth of the divine origin of the power of the emperor of China, the myth of the gods as the original rulers and legislators in Greece, etc.).

A certain rationalization of political ideas in the cultural centers of the Ancient World occurs in the 1st millennium BC. The process of formation of political thought itself was accompanied by an active discussion of social problems, an attempt to explain them, as well as the development of concepts, principles, theoretical positions in the field of politics.

The origin of political science as an independent discipline is associated with the name of the ancient Greek thinker Aristotle . He is the leader in creating an empirical (experimental) methodology of political research. The state, according to Aristotle, arises in a natural way to achieve the good of the people and is a political organization. Each state has its own form, which is determined by the number of ruling (one, few, most) . In addition, Aristotle distinguished between right and wrong forms: in the right, the rulers are pleasing for the common good, in the wrong they defend the personal good. In the most correct form of the state - polity - the majority rules. Polity combines the best aspects of oligarchy and democracy. Aristotle expressed a number of profound statements on the nature of justice and equality and for the first time pointed out the dependence of the form of a state on the state of its elements (social groups) .

The views of Aristotle were widely known in medieval philosophical and political theories, where the theological form of thinking prevailed. The expression of the official teaching of the church in the Middle Ages in Western Europe was the teaching of Thomas Aquinas . He substantiated the theory of the divine origin of the state and sought to prove the superiority of spiritual power over secular . Aquinas developed a peculiar criterion for assessing the legitimacy of political power (the moral character of government) and, on the basis of this, constructed a classification of the forms of the state. Political science, he considered as a field of knowledge related to government. The main objectives of this science, in the interpretation of Aquinas, are the imitation of nature and the achievement of perfection in human relations.