DOGMATISM: ORIGIN, CHARACTERISTICS, EXPONENTS AND THEIR IDEAS - PHILOSOPHY - 2025

The dogmatism is the epistemological and ontological perspective through which it is considered possible to know things in themselves and, therefore, express all undeniably true and certain, without any need to review or criticize.

It shows the confidence that a person has in learning and objectively recognizing the world for its cognitive capacity. This is due to the creative possibility of your mind and the ability to build absolute value. In other words, it supposes that thought derives from being.

For its part, the object is imposed on the subject because the latter has the ability to receive the truth of the object as it is, without distortions. It is precisely its foundation that leads these philosophers to give more importance to principles than to the facts or arguments put forward; that is why they affirm before examining or observing.

This notion was born in pre-Socratic antiquity, but this position is also present in some rationalists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, who trust in reason but after analyzing it.

Origin

Dogmatism originates from the 7th and 6th centuries BC, in Greece. In fact, the word "dogmatic" (δογματικός) means "founded on principles." It is an adjective derived from "dogma" (in Greek, δόγμα), whose original meaning is "opinion", "something declared".

Sextus Empiricus, one of the most important skeptical philosophers of Greece, included in 100 AD. C. to dogmatism as one of three philosophical tendencies. According to the attitude of philosophers with respect to the truth, there are different tendencies:

-The dogmatists who claim to have found the truth, such as Aristotle, Epicurus and the Stoics.

-The academics, who are those who maintain that the truth cannot be perceived or reproduced in any way. Among them are Carneades and Clitomachus.

-The skeptics, who are those committed to the search for the truth. They are those involved in the investigation and examination.

For some historiographers of philosophy, dogmatism is opposed to skepticism, since the former takes for true what for the latter is an opinion and not a statement.

According to Kant, dogmatism is opposed to criticism, since this can be understood as an attitude that considers knowledge or action in the world something impossible and undesirable without prior criticism.

characteristics

Some of the most important characteristics that define dogmatism are the following:

Get to the truth through knowledge

It is the cognitive capacity of the human being that allows direct knowledge of the world and the foundations that underlie it.

This knowledge makes it possible to know things in their true being. This is so because the object is imposed on the subject, who receives it without intermediaries or distortions.

Mind and thought as creative power

The conviction of dogmatists that cognition of truth is possible is based on the creativity of thought and mind.

Metaphysical dogmatism considers that the mind can know the world objectively because its functioning is similar to that of nature. Therefore, his thoughts can discover the laws independently of all subjectivity of the person or of the human species.

This also results in the idea of ​​the reflection of objective reality in man's consciousness.

Equality of being

This concept is related to the previous one. You can come to knowledge because, in some way, you are assimilated to being. That being is below all things and is common to everything.

Both man and the things of the world are within him and, in turn, being is distinguished from them by being its substrate: the real and true.

On the other hand, in dogmatism there also appears the concept that all things are apparent, unstable and mutable.

Knowledge and absolute values

If man is part of that being the substratum of everything, there is no doubt that his knowledge will be absolute and that, therefore, it will reach absolute values.

These absolute values ​​are not only because man understands them, but because he discovers them because reality is reflected in his consciousness as part of that immutable being.

Main exponents and their ideas

There are six main exponents of dogmatism: Thales of Miletus, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Pythagoras, Heraclitus and Parmenides.

Thales of Miletus (624 BC - 546 BC)

Thales was a Greek philosopher, geometrist, physicist, mathematician and legislator. He was the initiator of the School of Miletus and did not leave any written text, so his theories and knowledge come from his followers.

However, great contributions are attributed to him in the field of physics, astronomy, mathematics and geometry.

As a philosopher, he is considered to be the first in the West to attempt to rationally explain the different phenomena of the world. An example of this is the passage from myth to reason, since until his time explanations were only mythical.

Thales of Miletus maintains that water is the first element, the beginning of everything; therefore, he gives it life. It also gives it a soul, because the soul makes things move and the water moves by itself.

Anaximander (610 BC - 546 BC)

Disciple of Thales of Miletus and teacher of Anaximenes. He was a philosopher and geographer. For Anaximander the principle of all things (arché) is ápeiron, which means "without limits", "without definition."

Ápeiron is imperishable, indestructible, immortal, indeterminate, unlimited, active and semi-moving. This substance is the divine that originates everything and to which everything returns.

From ápeiron the substances that are opposite to each other within the Earth are divided. When one of these is imposed on the other, a reaction appears that balances them again.

Anaximenes (546 BC - 528/525 BC)

Philosopher traditionally considered as Anaximander's companion and successor. Like his teacher, he believes that the beginning of all things (arché) is invariable before change and the end, and is infinite.

However, Anaximenes goes a step further than Anaximander, specifying that the apeiron is the air element. The choice of this element justifies it because it considers that it transforms everything through condensation and rarefaction.

Condensation generates clouds, wind, water, stones and earth; rarefaction causes fire. In addition, it considers that cold is a consequence of condensation and hot of rarefaction.

Pythagoras (569 BC - 475 BC)

Greek philosopher and mathematician. He made great advances in geometry and arithmetic, and his principles later influenced Plato and Aristotle.

Although his original writings are not preserved, it was his disciples who, citing their teacher, justified his doctrines.

He founded a religious and philosophical school in southern Italy, where his followers lived there permanently. This so-called “Pythagorean brotherhood” was made up of both men and women.

The postaristotelicos attribute to Pythagoras the concept of monism; that is to say, intangible principles from which number is born, in the first place; then the solid figures are born, as well as the plane; and finally, the bodies belonging to the sensible world are born.

It is also considered that Pythagoras gave birth to the idea that the soul can rise to the divine and that, after death, it has a destiny, giving an approximate idea of ​​reincarnation.

The most important element is fire, as it is the principle that vivifies the universe. It is located at the end of the universe, and around that central fire the circular dance of the heavenly bodies, such as the stars, the Sun, the Moon, the Earth, and the Anti-Earth is formed.

Heraclitus (544 BC - 484 BC)

Natural philosopher of Ephesus, city of Ionia, his thought is known from later statements, since only parts of his writings remain.

It assumes that the universe oscillates between the reversion and expansion of all things to a primordial fire. This leads to continual movement and change in which the world is engulfed.

This flow is governed by a law called logos. It guides the future of the world and gives it signs, speaking to man, although most people do not know how to speak or listen.

For Heraclitus, order is the order of reason. He believes that the senses are not enough and that is why intelligence should be used, but to this we must add an inquisitive and critical stance. Rescue time as a fundamental element; For this reason, he thinks of existence as becoming.

Parmenides (530 BC - 470 BC)

Greek philosopher who considers that the path to knowledge has two paths: that of opinion and that of truth. The second is passable, while the first appears to be knowledge but is full of contradictions.

The way of opinion starts from the acceptance of not being; on the other hand, that of truth is based on the affirmation of being. For its part, the affirmation of being is the opposite of becoming, change, and multiplicity.

Parmenides does not agree with the future posed by his predecessors. He maintains that, if something changes, it implies that now it is something that it was not before, which is contradictory.

For this reason, affirming the change represents accepting the transition from being to not being, or the other way around. However, for this philosopher that is impossible because not being is not. In addition, it ensures that the being is whole, immobile and unborn.

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