Civilizational Development of the West: the beginning of Ancient Philosophy as a Bifurcation Point

The article deals with the actual problems of civilizational development of the West and its cultural features. The author relies on the synergetic principles of analysis and tries to find the point of bifurcation, where the traditional cultures of the East and Greek culture are separated as the basis of the West. In the most ancient Greek culture they marked the dual beginning, on the one hand, professional agricultural and craft skills, and, on the other, civil, political. The analysis of Polis culture allows the author to characterize the space of intellectual life and its reflective bases. Political life in the Polis required self-determination,
active participation in public life and the ability to justify the proposed decision. In the sphere of social relations were needed not professional knowledge of the individual, and the ability of civil communication, which was first demonstrated by the Greeks. To do this, they needed a generally understood form of perception of the world and expression of their thoughts, and this was the ancient Greek philosophy. The definition in the policy sphere of its stable foundations became a form of self-determination and reflection of the individual, and the core of the individual-cultural identity. Rational attitude, born in the policy, explains substantivalism and rationalistically ancient philosophy. When building a model of the world, the first philosophers used social analogies, which opened the way to social introspection: on the way of self-consciousness, the individual comprehended the norms of the world order and following them. The individual thus has the responsibility to interpret the world order in accordance with the requirements of reason and the right to act in accordance with the decisions taken. Political freedom and rationalism are becoming points of bifurcation of Western civilization.