In any theory, an object is represented by a linguistic sign, a concept that not only points to it, but expresses our thought about this object. In everyday consciousness and in the epistemological teachings of early philosophers, a naive-realistic concept of an object that is closest to the so-called common sense is formed. From the point of view of naive realism, the world confronts the cognizing subject as a universal object that exists before cognition and is completely independent of it. Human concepts and ideas are considered as simple copies, casts of reality, arising as a result of the direct impact of the object on the cognizing consciousness - the human soul. Naive realism is based on a deep conviction that our knowledge is knowledge about the objective world itself, about the things that we encounter in life. It is these things that act as objects and appear before our consciousness as they are.

The main difficulty faced by the naive-realistic concept is that for a significant part of the concepts it is not possible to find subject referents and the number of such concepts is constantly growing. If, as Democritus said, sensations and thoughts arise as a result of the penetration of images into our souls ( eidos) emanating from objects, then what is the origin of abstract concepts to which no bodily objects correspond? What is represented in such terms? The answer to this question presupposes the rejection of the purely receptive concept of cognition and the recognition of the subject's ability to actively interact with the cognized object.

Ancient thinkers form a new, different from the naive-realistic, concept of the cognitive relation as a very widely understood ability to act, or activity. Anyway, Plato quite definitely declares that the basic forms of cognition, which he distinguishes as knowledge (episteme) and opinion (doxa) is nothing more than manifestations of specific forms of this universal ability ( dinameis). In the broadest sense, such ability to act is an inherent property of everything that exists. If a thing by its very presence did not produce changes in your environment, how could you discover its being? And could it even be possible to talk about its existence at all if it did not manifest itself in anything at all? Therefore, we can say that things are precisely because they produce.

Recognition of the decisive role of the result of the implementation of a certain active ability leads to certain consequences. For the theory of knowledge, one of the most important consequences is the presence of a deep internal connection between ability, her object and application result ability to this object. In other words, various ability aimed at different objects. One ability - one function - one object. In particular, Plato is clearly inclined to believe that no ability can be deprived of its own object. For example, in the design of his ideal state, each ability has a single function and a single object.

Aristotle also recognizes that for the knowledge of things of different kinds, there are different parts of the soul: "... one is the one with the help of which we contemplate such entities, whose principles cannot be different ... the other is the one with which [we understand] those, [whose beginnings] can [be both such and such] ". Such a close connection of knowledge with its object is expressed in the tendency to consider the cognitive act as some kind of direct contact between the cognizing subject and the object of cognition. The resulting knowledge of such contact is understood as a "direct acquaintance" of the cognitive ability with his object like direct contact or even grasping him.

Knowledge different from true opinions, just as the impression of an eyewitness differs from impressions made from rumors or stories. The knowledge of the ancient gods therefore surpasses human knowledge, because, being ever-living, they attended at all events (in contrast to the omniscience of the Christian God - the creator and "designer" of the world). But eyewitness testimony retains its truth value only on the condition that once seen remains unchanged. Thus, the ancient concept of the object of cognition paradoxically combines two mutually exclusive trends.

In modern European philosophy, the first of the noted trends is associated with the concept of given object to the cognizing subject; it develops mainly in line with the empirical tradition. The second is more related to recognition constructive character of the object and manifests itself, rather, in the traditions of rationalism and criticism.

† An empirical tradition considers objects as independent entities that exist independently of any experience. Objects - these are fragments of external reality that make up the solid basis of experimental knowledge; these are themselves perceivable things, and not constructs generated by the action of cognitive abilities. Everything else, in particular those hypothetical constructs that are set at the theoretical level, are considered only as some "pseudo-objects", subjective fictions that do not have referents in reality, although they play a certain role in cognition.

Objects, concepts about which are introduced in the course of theoretical reasoning, are not recognized as real to the same extent as objects of our everyday experience: stones, trees, houses, people ... Only what is available to direct or indirect (instrumental) observation is considered real here. ... However, such a situation, when any theoretical construction can be expressed in terms of everyday language, and for each of its concepts, it is possible to easily find a sensibly perceived referent object, remains only in the early stages of the development of science.

The development of scientific and theoretical knowledge required the development of many idealizations, those. such assumptions and assumptions, which, in principle, do not correspond (and sometimes even contradict) everyday experience. The introduction into the context of scientific knowledge of such "conceptual constructs" as, for example, "material point", "incompressible fluid", "absolutely black body", very sharply raised the problem of objectivity of knowledge, since such constructs do not have obvious referents. At first, they tried to simply ignore this problem. Naturalists of the 17th, 18th and even partly of the 19th century thought it beyond doubt that the concepts of classical mechanics represent an exact copy, " picture"of the real world. However, the number of such idealized" pseudo-objects "in the composition of scientific theories has constantly increased, and all attempts to reduce them to a set of sensibly perceived referents have turned out to be untenable. "constructions" of theorizing thinking, and, on the other hand, within the framework of the materialistic tradition itself, a more complex idea of \u200b\u200bthe ways of "giving" an object to cognizing consciousness is formed.

† Marxist theory of knowledge preserves the idea of \u200b\u200bindependence of the object from the cognizing subject, but at the same time recognizes that "consciousness does not immediately and does not simply coincide with nature." The subject of human cognition is not identical to a natural object, which is not "given" to the subject as such, but is recreated in the system of knowledge, reflected in it in the characteristics of actions performed with it. The relationship of the subject to the object is always mediated by the structure of the practical activity in which he is included as its subject. The activity of consciousness in relation to the object is manifested in an accent, concentration of attention precisely on this fragment of reality. Therefore, although cognition is based on the immanent characteristics of real things, the choice of which of them will be in the focus of cognitive interest remains with the subject. Human thinking is not able to completely control the object: it fixes, first of all, those aspects of it that are associated with the specific goal of the subject. When the goal is changed, the object itself does not change, but the focus is on its other aspects; its other characteristics are considered essential. So the various goals of the subject do not create the characteristics of the object, but only contribute to the identification of various aspects inherent in it. The more diverse the "roles" in which the object "appears", the more fully its diverse characteristics are presented in the system of knowledge about it.

Subject of study acts as a kind of modification of the cognized object, representing its projection, which within the framework of this study is relatively independent. Just as a thing illuminated from different sides casts various shadows, which nevertheless remain reflections of the same thing, the objects of study, formed in the light of different subjective goals, are reflections of the same object, which in this case appears as an invariant transformations of the research subject. All cognitive operations are carried out with just such idealized objects that change in the process of cognition, approaching an adequate reflection of a real object. At the same time, intermediate structures, which at a certain stage in the development of scientific knowledge were assumed to be reflections of real-life objects ( phlogiston, ether and others), in the future can be recognized as completely fictitious, but this will not in the least affect the reality of the objects themselves.

Since Kant, in European philosophy, the understanding of the object associated with the idea increasingly prevails designing his cognizing consciousness. Considering the object, Kant admits given all our sensual contemplations. But in order for these contemplations to truly become knowledge, they must certainly be connected into some kind of unity, otherwise they would be just a chaotic heap of impressions. But if given has external origin, then connectedness - this is the subject's business. The object, in Kant's understanding, appears as a result of the unification and ordering of sensory impressions by the subject: "An object there is something in the concept of which united diverse, covered by this contemplation. "Such a union is construction object, carried out by the cognizing subject. Knowledge about the world, Kant believes, arises only in the process of cognition. But then knowledge of being cannot be taken as the basis of knowledge itself, for in this case we find ourselves in a vicious circle. To solve this problem, philosophy must shift attention from the object to the subject and make it the central point of the theory of knowledge, precisely how constructor object.

Everything that we find in a cognizable object has been put there in advance by the cognizing subject as a result of the realization of his innate abilities to carry out cognitive activity. Consequently, all characteristics of an object are nothing more than representations of the subject. However, it does not at all follow from this that, designing object, we are in complete control of all its manifestations. For example, such a mathematical object as a natural series of numbers is a theoretical construction, but this does not mean that the "constructor" himself actually knows all the elements of a given series. Therefore, the recognition that the cognizable object constructed subject does not entail rejection of understanding cognition as the discovery of previously unknown properties and relations in it.

However, another problem arises here. If an object is viewed as a reality that exists independently of consciousness, its very independence acts as a guarantor of the continuity of subjective experience. Despite the fact that the experience of an individual is finite and limited, in the historical perspective, individual differences are commensurable, and objective truth is achievable. Kant believes that the object is a construction created by the subject. However, the continuity of experience in his theory of knowledge is still preserved, albeit in a different way. The guarantor of continuity is now the transcendence of the subject, representing not a historically limited person or a specific community of people, but a certain innate complex of cognitive abilities. If, in the theory of knowledge, understanding the object as constructions connects with idea historically limited subject, subjective experience loses its universal character and becomes torn, incommensurable, because each subject receives the "right" to create his own object world.

A separate person combines in himself the universal,inherent in him as a member of the human race, social features inherent in him as a member of a certain social group, and individual,inherent only to him. Since ancient times, since mythological worldview, there is an idea that a person is dual, consists of body and soul.For a long time it has been argued that the main thing in a person is animation, consciousness, reason. AT religious idealistic worldviewthe soul of a person was understood as a manifestation of the highest, divine principle.The body is mortal, the soul is immortal. In the materialism of the Ancient World, the soul was interpreted as the result of a specific combination of material principles (in atomism, a combination of atoms with a special shape). As a rule, the soul was understood as the "bearer" of the inner spiritual world of a person, his consciousness, emotions, reason.

In the Renaissance,and especially in German classical philosophy, an emphasis is placed on activity, activity, human freedom. German classical philosophy considered activity as an essential characteristic of human existence, but at the same time it understood activity mainly as a spiritual, mental activity. The rational principle in a person is created by the activity of the subjective "I".

Dialectical-materialist philosophy,distinguishing between material and spiritual activities, asserts the fundamental role of material, practical activities.The very ability for spiritual activity is historically formed and improved in social conditions, with the development of social practice. Man is a social being.

As philosophy developed, the main features of a person were highlighted: animality, activity, sociality.We must not forget that a person is also a biological organism. A person is formed both as a natural biological and a social being. A person is born three times: physically, sociallyand spiritually.And that makes a lot of sense.

Although man has always been the object of close attention in philosophy, in the XX century. a proposal was put forward about the need for a special philosophical science focused on human cognition - the so-called philosophical anthropology.One of its founders M. Scheler argued that all the main questions of philosophy are reduced to the question of what a person is and what position he occupies in the world. The initial problem of philosophical anthropology is the problem of human becoming.

3.2. Becoming a man

From the fossil remains of ancient creatures, paleontologists have compiled a general picture of evolution that led to man. Conducted biochemical studies of humans and great apes (chimpanzees, gorillas) have shown a slight genetic difference between them. Time parameters have been clarified. It is believed that the splitting of the evolutionary branch (from common ancestors to humans and great apes) occurred about 5 million years ago.

The idea of \u200b\u200bthe commonality of man and higher monkeys was expressed for a long time, but its recognition took place with great difficulty, causing fierce objections, especially from churchmen. In the last century, a lively discussion was caused by Charles Darwin's book "The Descent of Man and Sexual Selection" (1871). Darwin compared a number of properties between humans and animals, which is still of considerable interest today. Darwin outlined an approach to understanding man as a biosocial being. Dialectical-materialistic philosophy, taking into account the achievements of modern science, also asserts the dual, biosocial nature of man. In solving the problem of the formation of a person and society, it proceeds from the following fundamental provisions.

Labor played a decisive role in the development of man.

The formation of man and society is a transition from a biological form of motion of matter to a social one. At the same time, of course, the biological form of movement does not disappear, but in the dialectical sense "is removed" from the social one.

After the formation of a person, his development proceeds under the determining influence of social factors.

Originally as toolsnatural objects were used: stick, stone. Using the first "natural" tools, man becomes in a new relationship with nature; he had a new power at his disposal.

The use of "natural" tools by our ancestors opened up the possibility of various types of activity, a departure from narrow specialization. With the emergence of the rudiments of labor activity, the nervous system developed, a flexible hand adapted to grasping various objects developed, and the transition to constant movement on the hind limbs was carried out. The use of the first tools of labor contributed to the maturation of social ties. The specifics of the way of life are beginning to be determined not by biological, but by social relations. A person develops socially conditioned needs.

At the next stage, a transition is made from "natural" tools of labor to artificial ones. With the manufacture of tools began something that is not in the animal world - material production.

3.3. Origin of consciousness

One of the most important problems of philosophical anthropology is the problem of the origin of consciousness. Revealing the nature of consciousness, solving the problem of its connection with material phenomena is a question of great importance not only in theoretical, but also in practical terms; elucidation of the dependence of the course of mental processes on objective conditions opens up the possibility of a directed change in people's consciousness.

Cognition of consciousness faces a number of difficulties. The fact is that consciousness is not directly given to us.The images that appear in the brain are not externally observable. Outwardly, you can observe the behavior of a person, his emotions, his speech; when examining the brain, one can observe the physiological processes taking place in it. But it is impossible to observe, even with the help of instruments, consciousness. Images in consciousness do not possess the material properties that objects reflected by these images have (for example, fire burns, the image of fire in consciousness does not possess this property). Therefore, it turns out that when the physiological activity of the brain, human behavior, emotions, speech is studied, then not consciousness itself is directly studied, but its material basis and its materialization in human activity. In this case, consciousness can be judged indirectly, indirectly.

A special way of studying consciousness is introspection (introspection)for their own spiritual life. In this case, however, there is a specific difficulty. So, for example, if we begin to analyze our emotions or thoughts, then in the course of this analysis they begin to disappear (the thought of a thought supplants the thought itself).

However, with all the difficulties in understanding consciousness, for further conversation about it and its origin, one should try to give at least an undeveloped, working definition of consciousness. In dialectical-materialistic philosophy, a definition of consciousness develops, including an indication of its two main functions: reflective and control.Specifying this approach, we can offer the following definition: consciousness Is a person's ability display material objects in ideal imagesand purposefully regulate your relationship with these objects. Here it is necessary to stipulate that such a definition of consciousness somewhat narrows its content, since consciousness operates not only with images of material objects, but also creates various images that are not directly related to the reflection of material objects. However, the point is that the initial images of consciousness are precisely the images of material objects.

Consciousness is a property of highly organized matter.As a specific property of highly organized matter, it has its own objective grounds in matter.

When explaining the origin of human consciousness, some philosophers of the past (by the way, there are such ones even today) assumed that consciousness is, as it were, “diffused” throughout nature, that all matter is “animated” (this point of view is called “hylozoism”). There is only a quantitative difference between consciousness inherent in all natural objects and human consciousness. The hylozoistic concept is erroneous in general, but there is a rational point in it - about the premises of our consciousness in nature.

VI Lenin put forward the idea of \u200b\u200breflection as a universal property of matter. "It is logical to assume," wrote Lenin, "that all matter has a property essentially akin to sensation, the property of reflection." In the course of the development of dialectical materialist philosophy and science, the idea of \u200b\u200breflection as a universal property of matter received its substantiation and concretization.

Reflection is about the interaction of objects. There can be no reflection without interaction. At the same time, reflection is not identical to interaction. The specificity of reflection is revealed in the following points.

The ability of material objects to perceive certain environmental influences. This moment of reflection can be called "reflection-perception".

Changing an object as a result of the impact on it of other objects. The specificity of this change depends on the nature of the external influence and the internal content of the reflecting object. Let's call this moment "reflection-change".

The ability of an object to retain the results of influences. The structural features of the influencing object are reproduced in the content of the reflecting object. So, due to induction and resonance in various acoustic and magnetic phenomena, the structural features of some systems are "transmitted" and "remembered" by others. Let's call this moment "reflection-trail".

The ability of objects to react in a certain way to external influences. It should be noted here that the reaction of an object depends on its "history", its "remembered" past interactions with the environment. Let's call this moment "reflection-reaction".

Reflection - this is the ability of material objects to perceive certain environmental influences, to change under the influence of these influences, to preserve in their structure the features of influencing objects and to manifest their inner content in a response.

The original form of reflection in living nature is irritability - the ability of a living organism to the simplest specific selective reactions in response to the actions of specific physical and chemical stimuli.

As living organisms develop, specialization of cells and tissues occurs; a nervous tissue is formed, which concentrates the ability to perceive the effects of the external environment, and muscle tissue, which concentrates the ability to motor reactions. At the base of the nervous tissue appears sensitivity - the ability to display the environment in sensations, sensory images.

The further complication of reflection in animals is due to the fact that a living organism is oriented in the environment, reacting not only to those influences that are directly involved in metabolism, but also those that warn of the possibility of the appearance of the former (they are their signals).

The highest form of reflection is human consciousness.The human brain reflects the environment in ideal images, controls human behavior. The brain, like a person as a whole, was formed in the course of biological and social evolution. This evolution is a path from a creature adapting to the conditions of the environment to a conscious person who transforms the environment (and himself) in accordance with his needs. This transition was a qualitative leap in the development of reflection.

The material base of consciousness is the brain. The evolution of the brain proceeded, firstly, under the influence of natural, biological conditions. But natural conditions alone cannot explain either the evolution of the brain or the formation of consciousness. The social environment and the development of the human form of life were of decisive importance for the emergence of consciousness. Labor activity, communication, information exchange (language) were social factors in the formation of consciousness.

Labor as an expedient activity for the manufacture and use of tools has played a decisive role in the development of human mental abilities.

Consciousness is a social phenomenon in its origin, in content and in the functions that it performs. Consciousness not only historically evolved under the defining influence of labor, communication and language - they play a decisive role in the formation of each individual consciousness always, in any historical epoch.

3.4. The structure of consciousness

Consciousnessexists as a fundamental property of the brain.It should be understood that there is a significant difference between consciousness and material objects. The reflection of external objects in the brain is not the formation of their physical imprints. The image of an object, the thought of it, and the object itself are not the same thing. The images of consciousness do not have those properties and do not obey those laws that are inherent in material objects; they, for example, do not have volume, mass, firmness, etc. The images of consciousness are something subjective, spiritual, ideal. Consciousness is the subjective images of the objective world.Subjectivity here lies in the fact that consciousness belongs to individual people, subjects, and also in the fact that, although the images of consciousness are objective (more or less correctly reflect reality), nevertheless, these images have a subjective moment - dependence on the state of the organism, on human experience, conditions of perception, etc.

Consciousness is a reflection of objects in the form of ideal images.Objects are reflected in sensually visual and logically abstract images. The system of these images constitutes the content of consciousness. Consciousness as a reflection of reality is knowledge, information about objects.

Reflection of reality in consciousness is not a simple mirroring, copying, but a very complex process, during which newly emerging images are combined with the old ones, processed, and comprehended. In the mind, ideas and concepts about what is not or what may appear can be created. But any, including the most fantastic ideas and ideas, ultimately arise on the basis of data obtained in the process of reflection.

An important point of consciousness is memory - the ability of the brain to store and reproduce information. Consciousness without memory cannot exist, build complex images on the basis of simple ones, create abstract images and ideas.

Consciousness includes not only cognitive, but also emotional, motivational, volitional components.

A person not only reflects certain phenomena of reality; emotional experiences, assessments of these phenomena arise in his mind. These experiences, assessments can be both positive (joy, satisfaction, etc.) and negative (sadness, anxiety, etc.). Emotional states differ in their strength and duration. Emotions, as it were, highlight objects from the point of view of a person's needs, stimulate his actions, motivation.

Motivation is a set of goals, motivations of a person for certain actions. Motivation is about goal setting; at the heart of goal-lagging is dissatisfaction with the world and oneself. An important role in motivation is played by the creative imagination, the idea of \u200b\u200bthe results of their activities, the development of ideals. A person builds an ideal, some image of how the world should be arranged and how it should be, and then raises the question of how to achieve this ideal. The latter requires will. Will - the ability to act consciously, achieving the goal. This requires a specific mental stress - an effort of will. Thanks to the will, consciousness is realized in practical action. A volitional effort, as it were, completes the dynamics of consciousness. Volitional control of human behavior relies on knowledge, emotions and motivation.

During the disclosure structures of consciousnessfurther it is necessary to point to self-awareness.The formation of self-awareness begins in a person in early childhood, when he begins to distinguish himself from everything else. Subsequently, a person gradually develops a holistic idea of \u200b\u200bhis "I". Self-awareness can be characterized as a person's awareness of his feelings, thoughts, interests, his position in the system of relations with other people, etc. Communication with other people, taking into account their opinions about himself, plays an important role in self-awareness.

In self-consciousness, a person subjects himself to reflection. Reflection (introspection)can be represented similarly to the structure of consciousness discussed above.

1. Self-knowledge, self-observation, knowledge of oneself, one's position, abilities, etc.

2. Emotional assessment (positive or negative) of their qualities.

3. Development of motivation, determination of goals and ways of self-change.

4. Volitional efforts to achieve goals, self-regulation, self-control.

The concept of consciousness is often correlated with the concept of consciousness. The concept of consciousness, of course, presupposes consciousness in a person, while consciousness and consciousness are not identical. Consciousness is associated with an understanding of social duty, a sense of responsibility for their actions; we can say that the greater the place in motivation is occupied by the understanding of public duty, the higher the level of human consciousness.

Continuing the analysis of the structure of consciousness, it is necessary to highlight level of consciousness and subconscious (unconscious).

Language means any system of signs,serving a person to receive, store and process information. The primary is the natural human language, historically developed speech, the system of words that serves for thinking and communication.

The prerequisites for the human language were complex motor and sound forms of signaling that existed in higher animals. In the process of transition from animal ancestors to humans, speech signal system;sounds from a means of expressing emotions and a stimulus to action become a means of designating things, their properties and relationships, serve for deliberate communication.

The emergence of articulate speech was a powerful means of the further development of man, his consciousness. Thanks to the language, social experience, cultural norms and traditions are transmitted, the continuity of different generations and historical eras is realized through the language.

One interesting problem is the problem relationship between consciousness and language.There is an opinion that a person can think without words, and only when he wants to convey his thoughts to someone, he puts them in words. In some cases, a person experiences difficulties in conveying his thoughts, it seems to him that he has a clear thought and the difficulty is only that suitable words and phrases are not found. Some people believe that not only is it possible to think without language, but that this kind of thinking is “real” thinking. However, one cannot agree with this point of view.

Consciousness from its very inception exists in the material shell of the language, through the language it becomes real, available for perception by other people. “From the very beginning, the“ spirit ”is cursed to be“ weighed down ”by matter, which appears here in the form of moving layers of air, sounds - in a word, in the form of language. Language is as ancient as consciousness; language is practical, existing for other people and only thereby existing for myself, real consciousness. "

Thought is clothed in a material, verbal form, not only when we speak or write, but also when we think. There is a specific speech center in the brain. The process of thinking is associated with signals that go to this center from the organs of speech, hearing, vision, etc. It has been experimentally shown that the linguistic shell appears along with thought.

The language is made up of signs.A sign is some material phenomenon; but not every material phenomenon is a sign. Some material phenomenon becomes a sign when it is included in a sign situation. This situation is schematically expressed by the semantic triangle. Here O is some object, Z is another object that is a sign, C are images in the mind of a person. Between O and C, as well as between Z and C - a causal relationship; Between O and Z, there is a special relationship called the replacement relationship. The symbolic situation is as follows: a certain phenomenon called a sign replaces the phenomenon O, the sign is perceived by consciousness and the image of the object O appears in consciousness. Subsequently, the situation becomes more complicated, signs denoting other signs appear.

Various signs function in the language. Some signs (the so-called iconic signs, from lat. iconus - similar) are identical to the phenomena being replaced. Other, so-called schematic signs, are not identical, but similar in some respects to the designated phenomena. The third, the so-called symbolic signs, have neither similarity nor similarity with the objects being replaced and are accepted by agreement. The overwhelming majority of signs are symbolic. A person's mastery of language from childhood is the inclusion in the system of agreements.

The language has two main functions:

1) the organization of knowledge and their storage;

2) communication, communication, information transfer.

In its first function, language fixes the results of thinking. The history of language clearly shows how, as the transition from concrete-objective thinking to the abstract, the process of developing words denoting general concepts is taking place in the language.

The process of understanding is associated with comprehension, when a certain meaning is attributed to certain signs of the language and linguistic expressions. This meaning is general for people using the same language. General meanings are realized in the individual consciousness, corresponding to the extent to which a person has mastered the information available in society. The main communication condition - the same understanding of statements and the same emotional experiences of communication partners.

3.6. Activities

The reflection of reality in consciousness, as it were, passes into activity, ends in it. This is the manifestation of the unity of consciousness and activity.

Activity is a way of human existence. But not all actions, processes in a person are related to activities. A person breathes, eats, etc. - here he is no different from the actions of animals. A person with a cold coughs, a person snores in a dream, etc. - these actions do not belong to the philosophical category of activity. Human activity is distinguished by its purposeful nature.Human activity, on the one hand, obeys natural laws,and on the other - certain goals,which a person sets for himself.

Human action is preceded by goal setting - forming an image of what can be realized as a result of an action. Before doing anything, a person imagines what the result of the activity will be, imagines a certain sequence of actions that can lead to the realization of the goal.

Purposeful activity is different from instinctive activity. The latter is carried out without a preliminary idea of \u200b\u200bthe goal, plan (method, method) of actions, it follows a genetically established program based on unconscious reflection. This is exactly what animals do. In this regard, Marx wrote: “The spider performs operations reminiscent of the operations of a weaver, and the bee, by building its wax cells, puts some people-architects to shame. But even the worst architect differs from the best bee from the very beginning in that before building a cell of wax, he has already built it in his head. At the end of the labor process, a result is obtained that was already in the mind of a person at the beginning of this process, that is, ideal. Animals adapt to the environment, and man, by his activity, transforms it, creates a "second nature", an artificial environment.

It is purposefulness that distinguishes human activity from processes occurring in nature. Purposefulness and reflection are interconnected.Purposeful activity is based on reflection of reality,its laws; their knowledge makes it possible to achieve the goal. At the same time, reflection itself is stimulated by purposeful activity. An interesting fact is that emotional activation is necessary (although not sufficient) for productive reflective activity. Let us recall the well-known thesis that without human emotions there can be no search for truth.

Activity structurecan be represented as follows.

Subject of activity: a separate individual, a social group.

Object of activity.

A goal is a model of what can be the result of an activity.

Mode (method) of activity.

Acts of activity are separate actions.

Means of activity - a set of material (or ideal) instruments of activity.

The result (product) of the activity.

Achievement of a goal presupposes a will that orients towards achieving a goal, overcoming obstacles that arise. It should be noted here that in the general case there is no complete coincidence of goals and results of actions. Activity usually leads to two results: direct, which correspond to a consciously set goal, and side, which were not foreseen in advance and were not even realized. Side effects can sometimes be not only unexpected, but also undesirable.

The activity can be reproductive,reproducing what is already known, existing, and creative,creating something new, socially significant. In consciousness, images can be formed that, in a sense, are ahead of reality. On the basis of reflecting the possibilities, trends of reality, a person has the ability to foresee and organize his activities accordingly.

In general, the activity of consciousness is characterized by purposefulness, imagination, generation of new ideas, management of activities.

Human activities are very diverse. Today there is no single, generally accepted classification of types of activities. If we approach the isolation and classification of its types from the point of view of the development of an individual person, then we can proceed from the following considerations.

The first activity leading in early childhood is play activity.It is of great importance, in games children learn reality, master the norms of behavior, develop physical and mental abilities. Playful activity accompanies a person throughout his life, being an important element of leisure activities.

The second type of activity is educational activities.In studies, knowledge, skills, skills are acquired for the whole future life. A person is preparing for an independent life. Learning does not end in adolescence; a person learns all his life.

The third, main form of activity - labor activity.It aims to create products and services needed to meet needs. Labor is understood here in the broad sense of the word, including both physical and mental labor.

The main form of labor activity - production of material goods.The goals that people set for themselves in the production process are determined by material needs. It is impossible to achieve the goals that a person sets for himself, while remaining in the sphere of reason. From the fact that a person has set this or that goal, nothing is done by itself. To make changes in reality, to achieve a goal, you need to influence the world around you by material means, practically.

Practice - it is sensual, objective, material human activities,through which they purposefully transform the natural and social world around them. Practice Is not every movement, action, effort, but conscious activitywith an idea of \u200b\u200bthe goal, conditions, means aimed at the object of practice. In practice, it is a synthesis of objective activity with the creative nature of consciousness.

Practiceincludes three main activities: material and production, scientific and experimental and socio-political.The first is aimed at the natural environment, the latter - at the social environment, and scientific and experimental activities are focused on both the natural and the social environment.

The practical process includes three components: goal-setting, material-physiological and instrumental activity. Purpose is a prerequisite for a material and practical act of activity. The transition from a goal to an objective result begins with the activation of certain organs of the body (primarily the muscles) and ends with the use of material tools.

As technical progress progresses, changes occur in both the physiological and the instrumental aspect of practice. The state of the nervous system is becoming more and more important, and at the same time, the provision of tools for practice is developing. In a sense, a person is a product of his own practical labor activity. Changing the world, a person changes himself both materially and spiritually.

3.7. Personality

They say: people are not born, but become. This clearly implies that the concepts of a person and personality are not identical. But what is personality?

In philosophy, existed and exist different understanding of personality... Have Hegelthe decisive sign of personality is "autonomy of will", or "self-awareness." At the same time, it was said that not every person is a person. You need to have the gift of "pure thinking" to become a person.

The term "personality" in its original meaning denoted the mask of an actor in the Greek theater, then it began to denote the actor himself and his role. Later this term takes on a different, deeper meaning. Personality is understood as the result of human development.A separate person, an individual (for example, a child) becomes a person as he masters the experience of mankind.

Social experience is not encoded in nerve cells,it is fixed in the culture created by mankind. The individual becomes a person as he masters this culture. In principle, everyone can master the culture. One should not think that a person is only an outstanding person. Every normal person, included in the culture, mastering it, capable of making decisions independently and bearing responsibility for his actions before society, is a person.

Dialectical-materialistic philosophy claims that the essence of a person as a person is determined by social relations, primarily by social labor. In work, a person distinguishes himself from nature, distinguishes himself from other people and enters into communication with them, and then this is reflected in his consciousness: a person is aware of himself as a person. The content and self-awareness of an individual is determined, in addition to work, by family and household relations, social activities, etc. A person is influenced by the lifestyle of the social group to which he belongs. A person speaks in a language that is a product of social development, thinks in concepts that have been developed by a number of previous generations. Every person has a social content. The process of personality formation is the process of socialization of the individual.

Specific personalities as a result of the socialization of an individual, even if they were formed in conditions of approximately the same social environment, are, however, unique. No two individuals are exactly the same; each person has his own way of behaving, communicating with other people, showing himself in actions.

The content of the personality is multifaceted. In its structure, first of all, its psychological characteristics are distinguished. Every personality has your temperament.Hippocrates used the word "temperament" to denote individual abilities, peculiarities of human behavior. He believed that all people can be divided into four types by temperament: sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic and melancholic. Psychologists believe that personality temperament depends on the properties of the nervous system. The person has innate properties of the nervous system:sensitivity and reactivity, efficiency, strength, mobility and balance of processes of excitation and inhibition.

Although the properties of temperament are innate, this is not an obstacle for conscious self-education, compensation for certain properties of temperament, deliberately developed behavioral skills. In principle, people of any type of temperament can achieve success in any field of activity.

When organizing the activities of any team, it is important to know and take into account the temperaments of workers. So, in a team, choleric people can often be aggressive, boastful, vain, stubborn. Young people with a choleric temperament are characterized by maximalism and negativism. Sanguine people are ambitious, tend to flaunt their dignity, and melancholic people usually disguise them. Phlegmatic people calmly react to criticism. Choleric and melancholic in a state of fatigue can easily enter a state of irritation, accompanied by affective outbursts. Naturally, the team needs psychological compatibility, a balance of temperaments of its members. Psychologists consider phlegmatic and sanguine people to be the most compatible; most often choleric and melancholic people conflict with each other.

On the basis of temperament in the process of a person's life, it is developed character - a set of stable personality traits,defining her typical ways of behavior. The character of a person is manifested in her attitude towards other people, towards herself, towards business.

Individual psychological personality traits are not only in temperament and character, but also in ability. Abilities are genetically determined by the characteristics of the structure and functioning of the brain. Abilities that provide especially successful activities are called giftedness. It should be emphasized here that abilities and giftedness in themselves do not guarantee the achievement of high creative results by a person; this requires serious work, volitional efforts.

Now let's move on to social aspect of personality,which includes, first of all, motives, attitudesand value orientations.They follow from the social position of the individual and are prescribed by his environment.

Motive - the attitude of the individual to his possible act, which determines the choice of momentary behavior. Installation - a state of readiness, a mood for behavior in a certain situation. The attitude determines the behavior not only at the moment, but also for a longer period. Value orientations - a system of attitudes, in the light of which a person evaluates situations and chooses a certain way of behavior. Value orientations are based on the ideals and beliefs of the individual.

The social aspect of the personality, further, lies in the system of social roles performed by it. A social role is a normatively approved behavior,expected from everyone who occupies a certain position in society (for example, a young person fulfills the social role of a student). In the course of his life, a person performs many social roles, since at the same time or at different times he can belong to different groups, in each of which he performs a specific role. Of the many roles, a person can choose for himself the main, so-called internalized role. If this role is performed for a long time, it has a noticeable effect on personal qualities (for example, a teacher and an officer can be recognized outside the school and duty station).

A combination of specific biological, psychologicaland social characteristicsmakes a person as a person unique. This uniqueness is reflected in the concept "I".Each personality, each “I” has its own composition of needs. Usually allocate three groups of needs:

basic, biological(in food, water, etc.);

social(the need to belong to a certain group, to occupy a certain place in it, to enjoy attention, to be an object of respect, etc.);

cognitive(the need to know the world around you and yourself).

These or those needs take their place in the scale of personality values. The life path of an individual essentially depends on how these needs and values \u200b\u200bare combined in the individual. If, say, the satisfaction of biological needs is in the foreground, then this can lead to personality degradation (food turns into gluttony; more and more frequent consumption of alcoholic beverages leads to alcoholism, etc.). A person can see the meaning of his life in different ways. For some, this is personal success, for others - taking care of others, for others - nature conservation, etc.

Today, calls for "soulfulness" and "spirituality" are often heard. But sincerity is associated with altruism, the need to be useful “for others”; “Spirituality” - with the need for knowledge, development of the emotional sphere, etc. They also talk about the need to form a “comprehensively developed personality”. But how is it to be understood? For a long time, there was an idea of \u200b\u200bsuch a person; a number of parameters are included in its characteristics:

Strength and health;

Diligence, mastering practical skills and abilities;

Mind, wisdom, understanding of life;

Kindness, morality, high degree of humanity;

Beauty, development of taste, aesthetic feelings. In lapidary form, it looks like this: strong - diligent - wise - kind - beautiful(the so-called humanistic canon).

3.8. Personality and society

Starting a reasoning about the relationship between the individual and society,it must be borne in mind that historically there have always been specific societies with specific types of individuals. But in these specific societies and specific types of individuals there were some common features, which makes it possible to raise the question of the relationship between the individual and society in general terms. Further, one should not present the matter in such a way that at first there were separate people, and then they united into a society. Even Aristotle wrote that man was originally a "social animal".

Society is a stable system of relationships between people. Society as a system of relationships between people affects individuals as its elements. Sociologists point to two ways society affects a person:

Specially organized influence on the personality through education, propaganda, etc .;

Impact on a person through the restructuring of its microenvironment, living conditions.

Man is a product of the time and circumstances in which he lives. Views, ideas are generally determined by society; a person thinks the way the "spirit of the times" forces him to think. With a change in the social system, the position of the individual, his interests and needs change.

The relationship between the individual and society is, first of all, the relationship of interests.The public interest expresses what the society as a whole is interested in (development of the economy, means of communication, environmental protection, etc.). The public interests include the interests of social groups in a given society. Personal interests express the needs of an individual, related to the provision of his material needs and spiritual needs.

There are various concepts regarding the relationship between public and personal interests. One of them gives priority to the interests of the individual. This concept was concretized, for example, in the requirement freedom of private enterprise,non-interference of the state in the affairs of entrepreneurs. The concept of the priority of individual interests sometimes develops into a concept absolute freedom of the individual.But if you look at the real state of affairs, because a person cannot be independent of the environment,both social and natural. Moreover, if one individual could become absolutely free, this would mean the lack of freedom of others. Although there can be no absolute freedom of the individual, people are vitally interested in increasing the degree of freedom, liberation from oppression, exploitation, and violence.

Another concept states priority of public interests over personal(for example, the concept of "natural morality" by F. Bacon).

Finally, the third concept states the need to combine public and personal interests into a kind of harmonious unity.In this case, of course, one must take into account that it is impossible to achieve complete coincidence of personal and social needs and interests. The interests of people here must be considered in relation to the main features of the way of life of their social environment.

In our country, the idea of \u200b\u200ba harmonious combination of public and personal interests was officially promoted; the ideal of the way of life was considered mutual assistance and mutual responsibility, the increase in the social and political activity of people, etc. individualism". The interests of the state were put in the first place, but in fact the interests of a certain social group - the leading link of the party-state bureaucracy - were hidden behind the "national" state interests.

The founders of dialectical materialist philosophy argued the concept of humanism.Humanism in a broad sense means affirming the human right to freedom, happiness, development of one's abilities, equality, social justice. Human welfare is a criterion for evaluating any social action and institution.

Today we have two tasks. The first is to restore the true meaning of public interests, without identifying them with the state and the interests of some individual groups. The second is the development of the personality, its initiative, originality, etc. The implementation of these tasks is not an easy task, which presupposes such a democratization of society, from which we are still far enough.

When analyzing the problem of the relationship between the individual and society, attention is paid to the phenomenon called alienation.

3.9. The problem of alienation

Alienation is understood as the disunity of people, their inability to friendship and love, self-doubt, moral nihilism, etc.

Let's point out the main concepts of alienation. In the concept of a social contract (Hobbes, Locke, Spinoza, Rousseau, etc.) it was said that in conditions of private property a person alienates his natural rights in favor of the state;the state must guarantee citizens safety, property protection, etc. But this alienation creates the possibility of enslaving a person by the state.

Hegel spoke about the alienation of a person from the results created by him"Physical and spiritual skills." At the same time, the individual is alienated from the "universal life", becomes dependent on the "alien force" - the state, law, morality, etc.

According to Marxalienation is:

Loss of the right to dispose of their own activities;

Alienation of products of labor from the manufacturer;

Alienation from decent living conditions;

Mutual alienation;

People's loss of their social content.

Marx believed that the source of alienation is private property.

Alienation is the process of transforming the results and products of a person's activities into something that is independent of him and dominates over him. Consequently activity is deprived of creative content.In classical capitalism, of which Marx spoke, the worker is alienated from the product of his labor. Given the private nature of appropriation, workers cannot be attached to the product of their labor. A conveyor belt destroys creativity at work. It was in the past. But has it disappeared now?

It is not only the worker who is being alienated. A characteristic feature of our time is the participation of a large number of scientists, engineers, designers and people of other special professions in monopolized industrial production. These people are also alienated from the products of their creativity.

Alienation affects the artistic creative intelligentsia. The lack of content, lack of spirituality in many works of literature, cinema, music, etc. is often correlated with the "low taste" of the masses. But in fact, these works are the result of the alienation of their creators, as a result of which these works are not the fruit of free imagination, but must follow the standards of "mass" culture.

The entrepreneur is also, in a sense, subject to alienation. He is alienated from workers.He needs them to work in his enterprise, and he treats them in a sense as the appendages of machines.

It is generally believed that the endless domination of private property leads to alienation.But there is another side to the coin. Practice of the XX century. showed that the unlimited domination of public property also leads to alienation.Public means not mine, and I treat it accordingly. This clearly manifested itself in totalitarian regimes. Way out of extremes that generate alienation, apparently based on a combination of private and public property.

Alienation has its origins not only in economic, but also in certain socio-political relations, when the people are removed from the leadership of the state, the specific processing of public opinion, the suppression of individuality, the separation of people, etc. is carried out.

The process of alienation also occurs in the spiritual life of society. The transformation of an individual into an object of exploitation, political subordination, manipulation of personalities by the ruling groups generates in a person's consciousness a gap between his desires and social norms, the perception of these norms as alien and hostile to the personality, a feeling of isolation, loneliness, etc. The external social world is perceived as alien and hostile personality. Durkheim spoke of "anomie" as the loss of people’s understanding of the importance of social norms, the disappearance of a person’s sense of solidarity with a particular social group.

Alienation as a psychological phenomenon is an internal conflict,rejection of something that is, as it were, outside of a person, but connected with him. Alienation in some cases is specially formed. An example would be interethnic and interethnic relations. Alienation here finds its expression in the chauvinistic images of "monsters", when one or another people is presented as inferior, subhuman, etc. A hater who puts himself in an exceptional position ascribes to others everything that is cruel and inhuman, for which he himself feels aspiration.

Communication and isolation is a controversial eternal situation in the life of an individual. Sometimes a person wants to communicate, sometimes to be alone, and there is nothing wrong with that. Just not to go to extremes. And these extremes - conformism,on the one hand, when a person loses individuality in excessive communication, and alienation,on the other hand, when a person isolates himself from other people, seeing them as his enemies. To overcome the roots of alienation, it is necessary to abolish economic exploitation, democratize all social life, and humanize human relations.

Consciousness and thought are very broad natural-scientific and philosophical concepts, including the most diverse types of phenomena, the interpretation of which depends on the researchers and the problems they are considering. One of the most general definitions was given by the physicist-theologian A.V. Moskovsky, considering the connection between metaphysics and physics of today. Based on the philosophical concept of Plato's "whole" - "holon", he emphasizes its existence as an object of non-aggregate nature and gives it the following definition: "Holon is a fundamentally integral object, that is, an object whose integrity is irreducible to any interaction of its parts" and further develops his thought in the following thesis:

"... Fundamental integrity is not limited to interaction, but sometimes appears as interaction."

A similar point of view on the integrity of the physical world of reality is held by the Ukrainian philosopher I.Z. Tsekhmistro, in his work on the holistic philosophy of science, notes:

“... The main difficulty here is to achieve an adequate understanding of this unique property of the world as one (few) ... You can call this unique property of the integrity of the world a parameter (or rather a super-parameter) ... Bearing in mind this unique integrity in nature and its extraordinary properties, we will use the term "holoparameter" to denote it.

All that has been said above is clearly confirmed by the examples and information given by us in the chapter on the creative power of Consciousness. The author of one of the generalizing works on the nature of consciousness, philosopher S. Priest considers seven possible approaches and interpretations of Consciousness from the side of philosophers: dualism, logical behaviorism, idealism, materialism, functionalism, a two-aspect approach, a phenomenological approach, to which one should add the leading theories - the intentionality of consciousness and a nonlinear theory of consciousness based on the ideas of synergetics.

Psychophysical and psychophysiological problems arising in this case - “mental and physical”, “consciousness and body”, “consciousness and brain” and many others - have not been resolved until now due to the complexity of the concept of Consciousness. In this regard, S. Priest points out: “... It is known that“ consciousness ”is difficult to define verbally ... Please note that the existence and nature of consciousness cannot be grasped with the help of any physical description of the world ... Consciousness is nothing apart from experience ... I would like to make a radical assumption, consciousness does not exist. "

The opinion of S. Priest is fully shared by one of the most respected physicists of the world R. Penrose:

“..L assert that the phenomenon of consciousness cannot be described within the framework of the modern physical“ theory ”, and, summarizing what has been said about consciousness, adds:“ ... we have to state that today there is no generally accepted criterion for the manifestation of consciousness ”.

Earlier this idea was expressed by the famous psychophysicist D. Stokes in his fundamental book devoted to the problems of Consciousness:

“.. The data of parapsychology suggests that we have mental abilities that cannot be explained on the basis of modern physical theories. It turns out that humans are more than simple physical bodies and that the conscious mind can play a truly fundamental role in the universe. "

The generalization of research works in the field of Consciousness, with the exception of only the materialistic theory of consciousness, leads researchers to the conclusion about the NOT material essence of Consciousness and the connection of physical reality with Consciousness through some one fundamental quantity or one process, and one should completely agree with this. At first, the idea of \u200b\u200bthe NESS seems blasphemous and cannot be accepted by modern physical science, since in its research it operates only with metric concepts - mass, charge, velocity, spin, tension, etc. It should be noted that the further quantum physics goes deeper into research microworld, the more it has to operate with probabilistic concepts, images of virtual f (imaginary) particles, fields, energies, space - time, that is, not real material quantities, but their reflection ("shadows"), possible representations that have no real nature.

Contemplative hypotheses dominate this whole construction, and their proof seems to be a matter of the distant future, but now this brings them closer to the concept of Consciousness as a vacuum substance, and it seems to many that a solution has been found. In particular, Professor I.Z. Tsekhmistro notes:

“However, there is indeed a deep connection between quantum physics and the problem of consciousness. This connection was reflected in Vonneumann's interpretation of quantum mechanics, which greatly aggravated the psychophysical problem ... " : “... In quantum mechanics, the reduction of the wave packet (the transformation of the wave function with one or another probability into the eigenfunction of the operator of the measured quantity) requires an appeal to a new reality that cannot be reduced to ordinary particles and fields, somehow connected with consciousness .. This new reality, which serves as a prerequisite for the existence of consciousness, under certain conditions is capable, like a field, of changing the momentum and energy of a particle, producing a reduction in the wave packet and changing the probabilities of measurement results. " After analysis, he comes to the following conclusion: "This" new reality "is the subquantum property of the unique integrity and indivisibility of the physical world into many elements."

So, the Consciousness that exists in the world is explained on the basis of the concept of subquantum integrity, the indivisibility of the physical world of reality. Thus, the idea of \u200b\u200ba "slave" triumphed, but, unfortunately, this replacement of concepts does not clarify the numerous phenomena that show the creative power of Consciousness, which remain inexplicable. With this approach, Consciousness becomes, as it were, a general, unified, all-encompassing definition of the essence of the physical vacuum, that is, the deep foundation for the construction of the entire virtual physical reality of the world. And then it becomes clear the desire of physicists to consider Consciousness as an integral part of the overall picture of the universe, in the form of a functionally independent field mechanism that acts like a physical vacuum.

What then grounds do we have for declaring the immaterial essence of consciousness? First of all, even if we assume a certain similarity between the physical vacuum and Consciousness as virtual formations, then the analogy drawn between them is rather arbitrary, since there is at least one very significant difference between them - the presence of a creative, purposeful power of thought in the human psyche. Consciousness has a special force and energy component capable of fulfilling a person's mental desire, and the physical vacuum does not have such a component. In addition, one should take into account the fact that for the entire long century of development of modern science, no one anywhere (!) Has been able to study the physical characteristics of such a concept, which is called Consciousness. Supporting this statement, S. Priest says about it this way: “Regarding consciousness, this is its ephemeral and invisible nature. And also the inexpressibility of this concept. Both are explained by the fact that there is no such thing as consciousness. " Philosopher I.Z. Tsekhmistro notes: “... From this it follows that consciousness is quite real, although not mixed with the physicochemical states of the brain and therefore not observable by physicochemical means,” and adds: “... consciousness exists as something distinct, isolated and not mixed with the entire set of physical and chemical processes. "

As will be shown later, thanks to Consciousness and mental desire, a person is able to create de novo any kind of matter. In physics, various types of interaction and transformation of particles, fields and energies are known, but the creation of living or inert matter as a result of mental action is the prerogative of only a special property of a person's Consciousness. A distinctive feature of this property of a person's Consciousness is also its unique and universal ability to transform into any fields, particles, energies known in physics and to belong simultaneously to micro-, macro- and megaphysical systems. This inevitably leads to the logical conclusion that the Global Consciousness is a fundamental superstructural mental formation that has no analogues in the physical reality of our world.

CONSCIOUSNESS, ITS ORIGIN AND ESSENCE

1. The problem of consciousness in the history of philosophy.

2. The role of activity, communication, language in the formation and development of consciousness.

3. The structure of consciousness. Conscious and unconscious.

4. Consciousness and self-awareness.

Consciousness is the ultimate abstraction and, at the same time, the "eternal" problem of philosophy, psychology, and sociology. Discussion of the problem of consciousness in a philosophical vein is a discussion of the cardinal aspects of human existence, namely:

Wealth and diversity of a person's relationship to reality,

The ability to perfectly reproduce reality,

Knowledge about the world, including ideas about the role and place of a person in it, about the meaning of life,

· About the freedom of man, his sense of guilt and responsibility.

The problem of consciousness in the history of philosophy

The concept of consciousness in philosophy has always been correlated and correlated with previously emerging concepts spirit and soul.

Spirit - translation of the words "moving air", "breath", "breath" found in ancient philosophy and in the Bible, meaning is embedded in them - the carrier of life. The soul is an entity that can temporarily or permanently leave the body.

The currently used philosophical concept of spirit as the opposite of nature , developed in German philosophy. Hegel has a strong expression: "The spirit is revealed as a gigantic sign of the integral, connecting heaven and earth, good and evil."

The spirit is not the enemy of the soul. The soul as a concept of human vital energy is the bearer of the spirit. But the spirit undermines her strength. The spirit preserves and protects life, uplifts, perfects (“spiritualizes”) bodily activity. However, he can do it, only displacing life aspirations... Sometimes the spirit burdens an individual so heavily that bodily life begins to suffer: highly cultured families die out if their blood is not renewed at the expense of a sphere that is not burdened by the spirit.

The spirit appears in three forms of being: as individual spirit (personal spirit), as objective spirit (community spirit) and as an objectified spirit (culture, the totality of completed creations of the spirit).

Personal spirit he creates himself through spiritual work that cannot stop until the end of his life. Therefore, spiritual differences between people are much greater than biological ones. The needs of the body, the needs and motives of people have a lot in common.

The personal spirit becomes itself due to the growth of the individual into the realm of the objective spirit, into the spiritual sphere, culture, which he can partially learn through upbringing and education. This is the formation of man. Personal spirit enables a person become free and look at events and things as if from the outside, as opposed to other living beings dominated by immediate motives.

The bearer of the personal spirit is the mental make-up of a separate individual, the bearer of the objective spirit is any community (group, people, group of peoples).

The bearer of the objective spirit is called a person.In its purest and clearest form objective spirit manifests itself where its content is least obvious: in the norms of thinking, in the concept and judgment, therefore, in the logical sphere. Objectified spirit manifests itself in culture and is a condition for the formation of an individual and a people.

Soul - in ordinary usage, the totality of a person's motives; opposite of body and matter... Until modern times, the subject of metaphysics was the question, whether the soul is a substance. With the emergence of ancient ideas about the soul as breathing from the outside, the observation of the breathing of a living creature was borrowed, which disappeared from the dead ( the dying man "exhaled" his soul). Corresponding observations of blood and the disappearance of the soul with a great loss of blood (due to a fatal wound, etc.) led to the fact that it was seen as the bearer of the soul. Due to the fact that the soul is understood as a substance, properties are first attributed to it the finest substance. According to Plato, the soul is immaterial and precedes existence. Now, as in the days of antiquity, again often make a distinction between the soul and consciousness: the soul is the bearer of rhythmically flowing continuous life processes, while consciousness, in contrast to the soul, is "discontinuous."

For modern psychology, the soul is the bearer unconsciousand expression of the integrity and dynamics of mental life.

Depending on what form of philosophizing was characteristic of one time or another, as well as on the level of development of philosophy in general, consciousness received different interpretations.

Ancient philosophy in the teachings of representatives of natural philosophy (Thales, Anaximenes, Heraclitus), and later in Democritus, Epicurus and Lucretius, she interpreted the soul as generated by the material elements. She was also given some characteristics of the mind. Socrates raised the question of the need for the formation of conceptual thinking, which, as he showed, is the knowledge of contradictions. At the same time, Socrates emphasized the functionality of consciousness as an act of good, when the soul owns the truth.

Plato understood the soul as possessing the truth, which has an eternal and unchanging character. The soul dictates a certain line of behavior to a person. In Aristotle's philosophy, the “soul” is considered through the nature of thinking, which is not based on separate concepts, but on universal categories and laws of objective reality. In his opinion, the soul cannot be considered independently of the body; it is the “internal form” of the organism and realizes its essence. Aristotle analyzes the ability of the soul to feel, imagine and think.

Medieval philosophy is a religious philosophy, therefore, in it, consciousness is understood as a "soul" in which faith must connect with the arguments of reason, but the knowledge of God is mystical and irrational. Later, faith will be opposed to reason, which will be denied the ability to investigate foundations of God and faith... Representatives of scholasticism considered concepts to be real. Unlike realists, representatives nominalism argued that concepts do not really exist, but are names of things.

During the Renaissance, J. Bruno interprets the soul as a property of the world: the world soul is not outside the world, but in itself as its own inner form (pantheism).

Philosophy of modern times develops in unity with science. This caused new features in understanding the nature of consciousness. Since the science of modern times is based on experience and experiment, most of the philosophers of this time proceed from the independence of reason from faith and science from religion. Their interests shift to the theory of knowledge, logic and methodology of science. This means that consciousness for the first time becomes the subject of scientific knowledge. Of particular importance for the further development of philosophy is B. Spinoza's concept of the ideal, understood as an attribute - an inalienable property of a substance.

Philosophers of the French Enlightenment remain mechanists in understanding the origin of consciousness. However, due to the fact that the philosophy of this time is characterized by a focus on solving social problems, consciousness is considered at the level of the relationship between social being and social consciousness. Hence, an antinomy arises: on the one hand, the philosophers of that time argued, circumstances give rise to "views", and on the other, views affect the material world. The solution of this contradiction from the standpoint of mechanistic materialism was impossible.

In German classical philosophy consciousness and thinking were grounded through universal laws and categories. Dialectical materialism deduced the materialistic reasons for the origin of consciousness, using the theoretical argumentation of the idealistic systems of German classical philosophy.

Consciousness is one of the central concepts of classical Western philosophy... The sciences about man, in particular psychology, also proceeded from a certain understanding of consciousness. At the same time, the comprehension of consciousness was associated with significant difficulties. At the end of the nineteenth century. English biologist T. Huxley even expressed the opinion that the nature of consciousness, in principle, does not lend itself to scientific research. Meanwhile, philosophers tried to analyze its nature and formulated several concepts of consciousness.

Consciousness - the state of the individual's mental life, expressed in the subjective experience of the events of the external world and the life of the individual himself, in the report on these events. Consciousness is opposed to the unconscious in its various versions.

Most common the concept of identifying consciousness with knowledge: all that we know is consciousness, and all that we are aware of is knowledge... Even etymologically, consciousness is shared knowledge. True, some philosophers did not agree with this understanding. By and large, everything that is realized is knowledge of one kind or another. Another thing is that this knowledge can be very superficial, associated only with the selection of an object, distinguishing it from the rest and suggesting the possibility of further study. The subject's awareness of his emotions, desires, volitional impulses is also knowledge. At the same time, modern philosophy, psychology and other sciences about man are faced with the fact unconscious knowledge... This is, for example, an individual implicit knowledge... In this way, knowledge is a necessary condition for consciousness, but the condition is far from sufficient.

Distributed phenomenological concept consciousness - the main thing in consciousness is not knowledge, but its orientation, intentionality: I may not know anything about an object, but if I isolate it through my intention, it becomes the object of my consciousness.

Consciousness is perfect. The ideal is the ability of consciousness, reason to reproduce reality in feelings, thoughts, language and human activities. Nevertheless, this does not prevent consciousness from being a real, existential form. The Russian philosopher Shpet said: “ The idea, meaning, plot are objective. An idea can get into the head of a philosophizing character, it can be driven into his head or impossible, but it is and its existence is not in the least determined by the capacity of his skull. Even the fact that the idea does not fit into his head can be taken as a particularly convincing proof of its independent existence.».

The ideality of consciousness is understood in different senses.

Logically perfect - This is a special kind of idealized objects that have their own being and special rules for operating with them (these are numbers, figures, abstract objects of science).

There are social plan of the ideal - is a set of generally significant cultural norms, rules of religion, morality, law, art, science, these norms regulate human relationships.

In the individual and personal terms, the ideal is the inner world of a person, it manifests itself in the form of his needs, goals, desires, emotions, thoughts, spiritual and mental orientations. These the forces of the ideal serve motives of human activity in the world.

The ideal is associated with certain material structures of the language, brain, tools, but does not coincide with them, since the task of the ideal to express, to represent the forms of other things that are beyond its material reach... This mediation of the ideal is very essential, albeit paradoxical: the ideal is it is the ability to express, represent the nature of other objects, while remaining oneself.

Reflection - the main characteristic of consciousness and cognition from the point of view of the philosophy of dialectical materialism. Consciousness and cognition are understood within the framework of this concept as a reflection, reproduction of the characteristics of objects that exist objectively - really, independently of the consciousness of the subject.

The understanding of cognition as a reflection was formulated by V.I. Lenin in his work "Materialism and Empirio-criticism". In Soviet philosophy, Lenin's ideas regarding cognition as reflection, as well as on reflection as a property of all matter were dogmatized and ideologized and received the name "Lenin's theory of reflection". The latter was interpreted as the only possible understanding of knowledge and consciousness. In fact, Lenin's statements about reflection do not constitute a single and consistent concept and admit of different interpretations.

Lenin emphasized the direct given to the consciousness of a cognized object (matter, for example, is defined as an objective reality "given to us in sensation"). But this approach is incompatible with the recognition of the existence of intermediaries in the process of obtaining knowledge - traces, images, copies. Meanwhile, according to Lenin, the subject receives knowledge about real objects only with the help of images as some kind of independent formations.

Lenin also has another interpretation of the concept of reflection - as the correspondence of an ideal object (image) to a real original. Lenin many times likens image of a print, painting, copy of an object... This interpretation has become widespread. Reflection was interpreted as an isomorphic or homomorphic correspondence of an image to an object. This understanding was widely used in the ideas of information theory, cybernetics, semiotics, modeling theory, and other cognitive disciplines.

At the same time, the theory of reflection encounters a number of difficulties that are of real importance in the development of problems of consciousness and cognition.

3. The structure of consciousness. Conscious and unconscious.

Consciousness has a complex structure. It includes not only conscious components, but also the unconscious, as well as self-awareness.

Unconscious - it is unconscious, subconscious. The prehistory of the unconscious can be considered the doctrine of Plato about anamnesis - the recollection by the soul of the universal truths it contemplated before it entered the body. Subsequently, ideas about the unconscious developed in different directions. But the revolution in understanding the unconscious was the teaching of Freud. He distinguished between the unconscious itself - that which is never realized in its original form (sexual and aggressive drives, thoughts, impulses displaced from consciousness), as well as that which can be realized under certain conditions (moral norms, values). Only that which is compatible with the sociocultural constitution of the individual is realized. Freud also referred to the realm of the unconscious the so-called "archaic heritage" of humanity - a collective collection of ideas, typical reactions and mechanisms of the psyche. These ideas of the collective unconscious were widely developed by K. Jung.

According to Freud, the human psyche is the interaction of three levels: unconscious, preconscious and conscious.He considered the unconscious as the main component corresponding to the essence of the human psyche, and the conscious as only a special intuition, built on top of the unconscious.

The personality model created by Freud appears as a combination of three elements.

· "It" - a deep layer of unconscious attraction, it is the basis of the activity of individuals;

· "I" - the sphere of the conscious, an intermediary between "It" and the "outside world", including natural and social institutions;

· "Super-I" - intrapersonal conscience, which arises as a mediator between "It" and "I" due to the constantly arising conflict between them. "Super-I" is, as it were, the highest being in man. These are socially significant norms and commandments internally assimilated by the individual, social prohibitions of the power of parents and authorities.

The deepest layer of the human psyche, according to Freud, functions on the basis of natural instincts, "primary drives" in order to obtain the greatest pleasure.Their basis is sexual attraction. Freud later combined them the concept of "libido", which already covers the entire sphere of human love, including parental love, friendship and even love for the Motherland.

Since, in satisfying his passions, the individual collides with external reality ("It"), the "I" stands out in him, striving to curb unconscious drives and direct them into the channel of socially approved behavior with the help of the "Super-I". Freud believed that a person can master his instincts and passions and consciously control them in real life. The task of psychoanalysis is precisely that transfer the unconscious material of the human psyche into the field of consciousness.

Consciousness and self-awareness

Self-awareness is the subject's awareness of himself, i.e., states of your body, facts of consciousness, your I (appearance, personality traits, value systems, preferences and aspirations).

Self-awareness is one of the central concepts of classical Western philosophy. So, according to Descartes, self-consciousness is the only reliable, undoubted knowledge, which is therefore the basis of the entire system of knowledge.

Understanding self-awareness is fraught with difficulty... First of all, the question arises: how to explain the possibility of self-observation? How can a subject perceive the states of his own consciousness (his thoughts, ideas, experiences, etc.)? Ordinary perception is possible through the senses. With the help of what sense organs can you perceive the facts of your consciousness? And who in this case is the perceiving subject? Where is he located? And how is infallible knowledge possible at all (what self-consciousness was considered to be), if the very concept of knowledge presupposes the possibility of error?

In the non-classical theory of knowledge, self-consciousness receives a different interpretation. The starting point for understanding self-awareness is not awareness of consciousness, but perception of one's own body and its place in the system of other bodies and events of the physical world. This self-perception is a necessary condition for the perception of the external world as existing independently of the perceiving subject.The subject sees his hands, feet and other parts of the body, hears and sees his steps, hears the sounds of his own voice, feels the movements of his limbs and head, receives various kinds of information from all parts of the body. This allows him to specify his changing position in the real world and perceive real situations as they are.

Self-awareness is not something absolutely immediate, but the activity of thinking. As an activity of thinking, self-awareness can lead to delusion. So, the subject can make mistakes in the perception of his own body, for example, incorrectly localize the place of pain, the sensation of the intensity of the pain may depend on passing factors, although the pain itself may not change. However, there are much fewer mistakes in the self-perception of one's own body than in the perception of external bodies., which is explained by the maximum proximity of the object of perception and the perceiving system.

Consciousness is impossible without self-awareness... Without self-awareness, the subject cannot control his own actions, the work of thinking, imagination, desire

The highest form of self-awareness is reflection, when a person carries out a special analysis of the methods of his activity and phenomena of consciousness... Reflection arises only on the basis of mastering the language and other means of communication. In contrast to the simplest forms of self-awareness, reflection occurs only in certain situations when the subject is faced with the need to revise the accepted forms of activity, habitual ideas about the world, his attitudes and value systems.

Consciousness is a specific manifestation of the spiritual life of a person associated with knowledge, which unknown makes known. Consciousness transforms the real world into an ideal world.

Similar information.

In the structure of consciousness, the following three terms are clearly present: something conscious, i.e. an object consciousness, someone conscious, i.e. subject consciousness, and some kind of relationship between subject and object. The relationship between subject and object will be discussed later; now let's focus on the subject. The subject of consciousness is that being which is designated by the word "I". The subject and the object are two poles of consciousness, differing from each other in the following way: there are many objects of consciousness, they are constantly changing; walking among the fields and meadows, I rejoice at the onset of spring, I follow the flight of a lark, a minute later, having received news of a friend's illness, I experience and realize sadness, etc., etc. With all these changes of objects, the subject is always one and the same is mine. Thanks to the identity i exists unity of consciousness ", and recent joy and present sadness, and all perceptions in

== 140

walking time belong to the composition of a single individual consciousness, which I called my consciousness.

I, which serves as a unifying center of consciousness, is deeply different from such objects as joy, sorrow, the flight of a lark: these objects have a temporary form; they arise, flow and disappear in time, and. I has no temporary form.

Let's call everything that has a temporary form\u003e the word event. The flight of a lark, joy, sadness are something that is changing every moment, falling into the past and all reborn. i, conscious of all these events, itself does not flow bi time, does not fall into the past and is not born again and again: it does not occur, but is inviolable there is as one and the same me, standing above the dizzying flow of events in time. So I am not an event; it ontologically (existentially) belongs to a different area of \u200b\u200bbeing than events. Let's call events, that is, everything that has a temporary form and, therefore, flows in time, the word real being, and everything that has no temporary form, in a word ideal being. According to this usage, I there is an ideal being.

Having found the subject of consciousness, one can establish what should be called the words "subjective and" psychic. When I, the subject of consciousness, experience joy or sorrow and recognize them through discrimination, I find these processes as “my” states: they are manifestation my self in time, my life; I am the source and bearer of these feelings, which is expressed quite accurately by the words "I am glad of the walls", "I am sad." In the same way, intentional

== 141

certain acts, for example, the act of attention, the act of discrimination, are directly experienced as “my” acts, which is expressed by the words “I am attentive”, “I am discriminating”. In all these cases, the structure of what I have found is such that it contains two sharply different elements - the self standing above time and its manifestations in time belonging to it. I does not have a temporary form, but it is a source not only of the content of its manifestations, but also of their temporary form; some of their manifestations, for example, acts of attention, discrimination, i I can easily start, extend, stop. This disposition of my form of time should be noted by calling i not only timeless, but also overtime creature.

The supertemporal being, which is the source and bearer of its manifestations in time, is substance. In view of the fact that many people are used to understanding by this word a dead passive substrate of qualities, I prefer to replace the word "substance" with the word substantial agent, bearing in mind the meaning of the concept of substance, which was given to it by Leibniz. By the words “subjective state”, “subjective act”, etc., we will designate everything found in consciousness that is directly experienced as “mine” - my joy, my sadness, my attention, etc. Direct observation reveals that between me and these processes there is a relationship between them accessories our self.

== 142

while disgusting, I push the plate away from it It is quite obvious that the act of repulsion is my manifestation, at least in the sense that I am the initiator of this action and an accomplice in its implementation *.

Let us now compare such content I am aware of as “my” joy, sadness, an act of attention, a feeling of disgust, on the one hand, and a conscious repulsion of the plate, on the other. Obviously, these are phenomena of my self that are extremely different from each other: the former have a temporary form and do not have any spatial form, while the latter has both a temporal and spatial form. First essence mental, mental processes, repulsion is physical, i.e. material process. Under the word "mental process" we mean those processes that have only a temporary form, and under the word "material process" - those that have spatio-temporal forms)

So, relying on the absolutely reliable self-evidence of objects immanent to consciousness, we have established two essential truths. First, one and the same self, that is, one and the same substantial agent is capable of performing not only mental, but also material acts. Secondly, not only mental, but also material processes can be in the composition of consciousness: repulsion can be in such a self

* For details on the structure of such acts, see my article "The Psychology of the Human Self and the Psychology of the Human Body." Zap. Russian. Scientific. Inst. in Belgrade, 1940, no. 17; Psych logie des menschlichen Ich und Psychologie des menschlichen Kc pers, Zap. Russian. Scientific Research. Associations, no. 75, 194 Prag.

== 143

least directly aware, like my joy. So, the psychologization of the entire composition of consciousness, that is, the assertion that everything immanent to consciousness is psychic, is refuted by the evidence of experience.

The first truth eliminates such false, but very widespread doctrines, such as, for example, Descartes' thought that there is a substance-spirit / or soul, which is the carrier of only mental processes, and another substance, matter, which is the carrier of only material processes. In fact, we have found that one and the same substantial agent, I, is capable of creating both mental and physical processes. Therefore, I, the substance agent, am a being metapsychophysical (W. Stern's term), standing above the field of mental and material processes, capable of creating these processes, combine them into a single whole, for example, produce an act of repulsion intelligently and expediently under the guidance of his desire to get rid of an unpleasant object.

The second truth established above shows the fallacy of the thought that everything immanent to consciousness should be my mental state: my material manifestation can also be realized by me directly in the original.

Now it is necessary to take one more important step forward, concerning the issue of cognition of the external world.