Consciousness as a subject of philosophical knowledge. Consciousness as a subject of philosophical research. different approaches to solving the problem of the nature of consciousness. Consciousness and self-awareness. The difference between consciousness and the psyche of animals

Consciousness is a property of highly organized matter, the speech-related function of the human brain to display the world in ideal images.

The problem of consciousness is central in any philosophical doctrine, since the core of any philosophy is one or another solution to the question of the relationship between matter and consciousness. Consciousness is studied by various sciences: psychology. Medicine, cybernetics. In contrast to them, philosophy studies consciousness 1) as a value, 2) in its relation to matter.

From the point of view of idealism, consciousness creates the world. Such an idea makes consciousness mysterious and incomprehensible. Materialism has overcome mystification. He views consciousness as a function of the brain, Secondly as a reflection of matter, thirdly, as a product of the development of matter. Consciousness is inherent in man, it is subjective reality. At the same time, consciousness is objective, because on the whole it reflects the world.

Being secondary to matter, consciousness is a product of development;

Consciousness is a product of social development;

Consciousness has a concrete-historical character.

Consciousness is the highest sphere of the human psyche, but not the only one, because the latter includes the unconscious.

The structure of consciousness: 1) knowledge is the foundation of consciousness. Man is aware only of what he knows; 2) attention - the ability of consciousness to concentrate on certain types of activity; 3) memory - the ability to accumulate knowledge and reproduce it; 4) emotions, feelings - without emotions there can be no human search for truth; 5) will - a meaningful aspiration of a person to a goal; 6) self-consciousness.

Self-consciousness is a kind of center of our consciousness, integrating the beginning in it. Self-consciousness is a person's consciousness of his body, his thoughts and feelings, his actions, his place in society, in other words, awareness of himself as a special and unified personality. Self-awareness: well-being, belonging to a community, the emergence of "I".

The unconscious as a subject philosophical inquiry: Z. Freud, K. Jung.

Unconscious - when the object is not aware of the motive of actions.

The unconscious has 3 levels: 1st - unconscious psychological control of a person over the life of his body, this is the satisfaction of the simplest needs and needs of a person (self-preservation instinct, maternal instinct); 2nd - controlled processes that are usually realized within consciousness, but can also be realized moving into the sphere of the unconscious (feeling of hunger, conscience - initially formed within consciousness, but then moved to the area of ​​the unconscious); 3rd - the highest level of the unconscious, which manifests itself in science, philosophy, intuition and plays an important role in creative processes.

Sigmund Freud (introduced the unconscious as a force that opposes consciousness. The human psyche consists of 3 layers: 1- It- various biological drives and passions are concentrated in it. and the norms of society, the sphere of obligation and moral censorship According to Freud, a person is an erotic being controlled by unconscious instincts.

Jung opposed the interpretation of man as an erotic being and tried to more deeply differentiate the Freudian It. He singled out in it, in addition to the personal unconscious, also the collective unconscious, which is a reflection of the experience of previous generations. The content of the collective unconscious is universal prototypes - archetypes. Man is first and foremost an archetypal being.

The main problems of epistemology. The problem of the cognition of the world. The concepts of "knowledge" and "understanding".

Gnoseology - the doctrine of the cognizability of the world, considers the problems human knowledge, possibilities and limits of human knowledge, ways and means of achieving true knowledge, the significance of knowledge in human life.

The central problem of man's cognitive attitude to the world is the problem of the cognizability of the world. The solution of this problem gave rise to serious difficulties. These difficulties are connected with the fact that our sense organs react similarly to various stimuli (skepticism, agnosticism). Dialectical-materialist philosophy positively solves the problem of the cognizability of the world: our sensations, ideas, concepts, being ultimately products of the development of nature and society, must correspond to them, adequately reflect natural and social facilities. Finally, the most important, decisive confirmation of the cognizability of the world is found in objective practical activity.

Knowledge is a form of existence and systematization of the results of human cognitive activity. There are different types of knowledge: scientific, ordinary (common sense), intuitive, religious, etc.

Understanding is a psychological state that expresses the correctness of the decision made and is accompanied by a sense of confidence in the accuracy of the perception or interpretation of an event, phenomenon, fact. The ability to see cause and effect relationships.

Sensual and rational cognition, their specificity and interrelation. Philosophical teachings sensationalism and rationalism. The role of intuition in cognition.

Philosophy identifies two different kind knowledge: sensual and rational.

The main forms of sensory cognition: sensations, perceptions, representations.

1. sensation - a process consisting in capturing the individual properties of objects and phenomena of the material world at the time of their impact on our senses.

2. perception - a holistic reflection in the mind of objects and phenomena with their direct impact on the senses.

3. representation - images of objects preserved by memory that once acted on the senses.

Rational knowledge basically comes down to conceptual abstract thinking. Abstract thinking is a purposeful and generalized reproduction in an ideal form of essential and regular properties, connections and relationships of things. The main forms of rational knowledge: concepts, conclusions, hypotheses, theories.

Truth is achieved only by the joint efforts of these two components.

Sensationalism (representatives - Locke, Hobbes, Berkeley) is a direction in the theory of knowledge, according to which sensations and perceptions are the main and main form of reliable knowledge. The basic principle of sensationalism is "there is nothing in the mind that would not be in the senses."

Rationalism (representatives - Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz) - philosophical direction, recognizing reason as the basis of knowledge and behavior of people, the source and criterion of the truth of all life aspirations of a person.

The ability to directly discern the truth, bypassing the intermediate steps of the logical substantiation of the conclusion leading to it, is called intuition.

The problem of consciousness and the main approaches to its philosophical analysis: substantial, functional and existential-phenomenological. Traditionally, consciousness is one of the fundamental concepts of philosophy, psychology, sociology, cybernetics and other sciences. The concept of "consciousness" characterizes the most important component of the human psyche. Thanks to consciousness, a person develops a generalized knowledge about the world around him, sets goals and develops plans, regulates and controls emotional, rational and subject-practical relations with reality, determines the value orientations of his life and creatively changes the conditions of his existence.

Consciousness is an inner world of feelings, thoughts, ideas and other spiritual phenomena that are not directly perceived by the senses and fundamentally cannot be objects of subject-practical human activity.

Psychology defines consciousness as the ability of a subject to distinguish himself from the surrounding world, as the ability to self-report and self-observation, existing not only in an individual, but also in a supra-individual form (“I” and “Super-I”).

Sociology studies consciousness as a sphere of the spiritual life of society, in which the interests and ideas of various social groups, classes, nations and society as a whole.

Sociology reveals the role of consciousness in the organization of human social existence, in the development of history, the emergence and formation of culture and civilization, and so on.

In philosophy, the problem of consciousness is studied in ontology (the problem of the primacy of the material and the ideal), epistemology (the problem of the relationship between objective and subjective moments in the structure of the cognitive process), social philosophy (the problem of the relationship between social and individual consciousness).

In ontology, the concept of "consciousness" is rooted in the structure of being: what is not in our consciousness, that is really not in our being. Thus, consciousness is what outlines the circle of being, that is, it discovers and reveals being, shapes, projects and signifies being and, thereby, separates being from non-being. On the other hand, external being constitutes an unchanging foundation, the ground for the existence of consciousness, supplies content and material for the work of consciousness. Therefore, we can conclude that being is the main condition for the existence of consciousness. But the way a person perceives objective reality, what he puts into the process of understanding the surrounding world, is not exhausted by the existing reality of the latter. Ideal meanings, meanings and concepts are more significant for a person than existing objects and ongoing phenomena. This interdependence of being and consciousness leads in philosophy to the question of the primacy of the material and the ideal. According to the materialistic solution of this issue, matter is primary, and consciousness is a property of one of its types - highly organized matter. In accordance with his idealistic decision, consciousness is primary, which is a creative, formative principle that plays an active role in relation to passive, inert, inert matter.

The initial relation of the theory of knowledge is the opposition of the subject and the object, the nodal meeting point of which is consciousness, which is interpreted as a subjective reality. It is thanks to the activity of consciousness that the cognizing subject can know something about the object, establish essential connections and patterns of objective reality. However, consciousness every time refracts the world from its position, according to its desires, interests and, of course, its capabilities. Hence the problem of truth arises as the correspondence of the content of consciousness to a cognizable object. Also, in the process of cognition, consciousness not only reflects the world around a person, but takes an active part in its creative transformation, putting forward the goals of activity, choosing the means of their implementation, anticipating the expected result.

In social philosophy, the problem of consciousness is touched upon within the framework of the relationship between public and personal in the experience of consciousness. What is consciousness? An individual, creative, unique act or content of spiritual experience, depending on the position of a person in the structure public relations. On the one hand, consciousness is always associated with the unique inner world of a person, it exists only where the individual himself solves all life-sense questions, makes his own life choice, evaluates his own place in life, etc. But on the other hand, the individual experience of consciousness is not limited to originality and uniqueness, but also includes a universal content. After all, there are some supra-individual (universal) forms of perception of the world, value orientations and experiences that are reproduced in the individual consciousness.

With the undoubted self-evidence of consciousness for each person, it is one of the controversial categories in philosophy. The main difficulty lies in the fact that consciousness is unobservable, it is almost impossible to fix it in its pure form. Therefore, in the history of philosophy, two directions of analysis and study of consciousness have developed: introvertive and extrovertive. The first version goes back to the call inscribed over the entrance to the temple of Apollo at Delphi: "Know thyself!" Within the framework of the second direction, consciousness was either reduced to neuropsychological foundations (the brain), or projected onto the sphere of practice, activity (they tried to describe consciousness through the world of concrete things), or reduced to language.

There are three main traditions of the study of consciousness in philosophy. According to substantial approach, consciousness is interpreted as existing in reality (i.e. ontologization of consciousness takes place) and is recognized as primary in relation to objective reality. Main historical forms of this approach are ancient cosmologism, the theological interpretation of consciousness in the Middle Ages, the rationalism of modern European philosophy, the transcendentalism of German Classical Philosophy, where consciousness is described using the following concepts: logos, eidos, soul, spirit, cogito, transcendental subject, etc.

All the attention of the ancient Greek was directed to the world, Cosmos, to reveal the unified, supersensible principles and principles of being, macro- and microcosm. Such a beginning was the Logos of Heraclitus, the world of Plato's ideas, the immaterial and motionless prime mover of Aristotle. The value of the human mind, consciousness was determined by the degree of its involvement in this single principle and the beginning of the world order.

Medieval philosophy considers consciousness as a manifestation in a person of a spark of the supra-mundane divine mind, which exists before nature and creates it from nothing. Along with consciousness, a layer is opened in the structure of the soul that lies beyond knowledge and is not subject to knowledge. The spontaneous activity of the soul is recognized, which manifests itself both in self-knowledge, the experience of self-deepening and communication with the supreme mind, and in acts of self-will, following passions.

In the philosophy of modern times, an idea is formed of consciousness as an inner world closed in itself. Consciousness appears as self-consciousness, self-reflection. For Descartes, consciousness is a thinking substance that exists along with the material. Leibniz recognizes monads, the indivisible primary elements of being, as mentally active substances. He introduces the concept of apperception into philosophy, which means the act of transition of unconscious mental states and perceptions into clearly conscious representations, into the understanding that they are in the mind of the individual.

In German Classical Philosophy, the relationship between individual and supra-individual forms of consciousness was revealed. According to I. Kant, in the consciousness of every person there is the ability to perceive any object as something integral, in the unity of all its sensually perceived characteristics. In the consciousness of every person there is the knowledge that the world is spatial and temporal, causally conditioned, etc. In addition to personal, one's own experience, the content of the consciousness of each individual has the same conditions for determining and understanding the world and oneself by a person.

Along with the substantive approach in the philosophy of modern times, a functional approach to the explanation of consciousness. It is beginning to be considered (La Mettrie, Cabanis, Holbach, and others) in accordance with the achievements of physiology and medicine as a special function of the brain. The difference between consciousness and other functions of the brain is that thanks to consciousness, a person is able to acquire knowledge about nature and himself. The historical forms of the functional approach to the analysis of the phenomenon of consciousness include mechanistic, vulgar, dialectical and scientific materialism, which will be discussed below.

In modern Western philosophy the so-called existential-phenomenological approach to the problem of consciousness. Consciousness is considered as a specific type of being, which cannot be described in the traditional epistemological perspective of subject-object relations, since the “I” cannot observe itself from the outside. Consciousness in phenomenology is described as something inseparable from immediate life reality. The pre-reflexive level of consciousness is singled out and the latter is described in its essential "purity" and immediate givenness.

So, according to Husserl's phenomenology, consciousness is always directed at an object, there is always consciousness about something, and not subjectivity closed in itself (in perception one always perceives something, in judgment one judges something, in hatred one hates something). Subject and object are thus inextricably linked with each other, do not exist without each other. Consequently, any perceived object depends on consciousness, because the object is that which is revealed only in the act of consciousness. Consciousness highlights, constructs the being of an object, endows it with meaning and meaning. Therefore, Husserl sets himself the task of understanding what consciousness is, describing how it works, revealing it in its purity, immediacy, and presence.

The representative of French phenomenology, the existentialist J.-P. Sartre analyzes the "absolute consciousness", which is the sphere of freedom and the condition for human existence. The main components of consciousness are imagination and emotions, thanks to which consciousness is able to break away from the given and design what is not in the world. The world, according to Sartre, is already structured by consciousness at the pre-reflexive level, since in the world consciousness finds itself, reveals itself; in the world, consciousness tries to project itself, to realize its possibilities; in the world man is aware of himself as self-causation.

The genesis of consciousness. The main causes of the emergence of consciousness. The problem of the genesis of consciousness is solved within the framework of a functional model, where consciousness is interpreted as a property of highly organized matter capable of reflecting the surrounding reality. Therefore, the problem of the emergence of consciousness was reduced to the evolution of forms of reflection. Reflection- the ability of material objects in the process of interaction with other objects to reproduce in their content certain properties and characteristics of objects. The property of reflection belongs to both living and inanimate nature. In inanimate nature, reflection is carried out in the form of isomorphism (mirror reflection) and homomorphism (relationship of the map to the real area). With the advent of life, such forms of reflection as irritability, sensitivity and the psyche arise. Irritability- the ability of the organism to the simplest specific reactions in response to the action of vitally favorable and unfavorable factors that arise during direct contact and spread to the whole body. Irritability is especially characteristic of the flora (vegetable world). So, for example, the seed basket of a sunflower is directed towards the greatest solar illumination.

The emergence of the fauna (animal world) is accompanied by the appearance of a higher form of reflection - sensitivity (the ability to sense). Sensitivity- this is the ability to respond not only directly to environmental factors that are biologically important for the body, but also to biologically neutral factors for the body, which, however, carry information about other vital factors for the body. Sensitivity arises in the formation of the nervous system and sensory organs.

A more perfect form of biological reflection is psyche, which is the ability to create sensory images of external reality, and not only in the form of sensations, but also perceptions, due to which vertebrates develop a holistic image of the situation, and in "smart" animals (monkeys, cats, dogs) - also in the form of representations -sensually visual, generalized images of phenomena that are preserved and reproduced in an ideal form without direct impact of the phenomena themselves on the senses. The main properties of the psyche are: 1. Orientation to vital-neutral factors. 2. Selective search activity. 3. The formation of individual experience, which begins to prevail over the species.

The highest form of reflection is consciousness as a property of highly organized matter (the brain) to reflect the world in ideal images. The difference between consciousness and the psyche of an animal is that consciousness is inherent in:

goal setting: the possibility of an ideal design of an object that does not exist in reality, but which needs to be created;

abstract logical thinking: the ability to reflect reality in its essential properties;

Availability language or a second signaling system through which the information is transmitted;

Availability self-awareness: the ability of a person to distinguish himself from external reality, to draw a line between the external and internal environment.

When analyzing the problem of the emergence of consciousness great importance is given to the coincidence of phylogenesis (the process of formation of social consciousness, culture) and ontogenesis (the formation of individual consciousness). In addition to the philosophical one (Hegel), there were also natural-science prerequisites for this idea (the study of human embryonic development). This idea took shape at the beginning of the 20th century. in anthropology focused on the study of archaic tribes. Phylogeny is characterized by the presence of four stages: abstract-acting, visual-figurative (the presence of a language), the stage of mythological thinking (symbolism, syncretism, anthropomorphism, etc.), the stage of conceptual thinking (associated with the emergence of philosophy). Ontogeny repeats the stages of phylogenesis in its development.

The Swiss philosopher and psychologist J. Piaget distinguishes four main stages in cognitive (intellectual) development, which is characterized by a strict sequence of formation:

Sensorimotor (the child operates with various objects).

Stage of pre-operational thinking (intuitive). Passes from 2 to 7 years of a child's life. Its result is the transition of the child from dissolving himself in the surrounding reality to the realization that things represent something different from him. There is an egocentric perception of the world by the child and his mastery of the language.

Concrete-operational (activity with ideal objects, the ability to behave according to certain patterns, the adaptation of patterns of behavior to changing situations).

Formal-operational (formed by the age of 14). There is a formation of the intellect ready to carry out cognition and operate with abstractions.

What contributed to the emergence of consciousness? For example, Marxism singles out as prerequisites for the formation of consciousness: the evolution of the property of reflection inherent in matter; development of the rudimentary intelligence of animals; the transition from tool activity to the subject-practical development of the world with the help of artificial tools; the development in the process of labor formation of the need for sign communication and the transfer from generation to generation of acquired experience, which is fixed in semiotic systems that laid the foundation for the formation of culture as a special world of man. Thus, first of all, labor and language turn out to be powerful social factors stimulating the process of development of consciousness.

Consciousness and the brain. Consciousness is inextricably linked with the brain and the development of the human brain. This idea takes shape in the culture of the Renaissance and in the philosophy of modern times. There are several solutions to this problem:

psychophysical dualism. So. Descartes, along with the material substance (brain), singles out a thinking substance, extended (cogito, consciousness).

Psychophysical parallelism (Leibniz, Spinoza, Mach): mental and physical processes occur in parallel and are balanced by God.

Psychophysical monism (modernity): the brain is an antenna that captures objectively existing meanings. The brain itself is not able to form an ideal object.

Psychophysical materialism, which includes:

mechanistic materialism (La Mettrie, Holbach): the brain and nervous system function by analogy with a mechanism;

vulgar materialism (Kabanis, Vogt, Buechner). Cabanis argued that thinking is as much a product of the brain as the secretion of the pancreas or liver. According to Vogt, thoughts are in the same relation to the brain as bile is to the liver. Buechner tried to soften the harshness of his associate's statements, noting that thought is not a product of isolation, garbage, and suggested that thinking be viewed as a special form of general natural movement, like the movement of light or magnetism;

dialectical materialism (Anokhin, Leontiev): sociocultural factors are connected to the neuropsychological processes of consciousness, including material components, but defining ideal ones;

scientific materialism (Armstrong, Margolis, Rorty): the phenomena of the psyche and consciousness must be reduced to a certain subclass of bodily, i.e. physiological phenomena or explained on the basis of their physico-chemical processes of the central nervous system. Thus, mental phenomena are considered here as epiphenomena of physical and chemical processes.

In science, several versions of the solution to the problem of the relationship between consciousness and the brain have also arisen:

A neuropsychological approach that studies consciousness depending on specific areas of the cerebral cortex. If the functioning of the brain is disturbed due to certain diseases, consciousness is disturbed to some extent. When the frontal lobes are affected, patients cannot create and maintain complex behavioral programs; they do not have stable goal-setting intentions and are easily distracted by side stimuli. When the occipital-parietal sections of the cerebral cortex of the left hemisphere are affected, orientation in space, the operation of geometric relationships, mental arithmetic and the analysis of some grammatical structures are disturbed.

Neurochemical approach: here the chemical picture of the brain is built, it is determined how certain moods, alcohol, drugs affect the chemistry of the brain, therefore, on consciousness. Thus, depression is characterized by an increase in the level of serotonin in the blood.

Neuro-cybernetic approach: consciousness and the brain are considered as information systems, as complex programmed machines, the identity of the structure and functioning of the brain and existing computers is proved, that the work of the brain is determined by certain algorithms, programs, etc.

By the way, it was found that the brain is also in the process of development: 20% of the intellect is laid up to a year, 40% - up to 4 years, 80% - up to 11 years, and by the age of 13-14, the main potential of the brain is formed and the brain begins to age. After the age of 18, brain cells die.

Scientific and philosophical models of anthropogenesis. To comprehend the essential features of a person, the clarification of his pedigree is of great importance. This issue in science and philosophy is dealt with by such a direction as anthroposociogenesis, which involves an integrated approach, usually including such factors as labor, language, consciousness, certain forms of community, regulation of marital relations, morality. Despite the fact that these concepts claim to be scientific and can demonstrate clear achievements in explaining the origin of man, anthroposociogenesis has been largely mysterious until now. There are two main strategies for solving the problem of anthropogenesis: creationist and evolutionary.

Creationism about the origin of man. Creationism is translated from Latin as to create, to create. According to this concept, man was created by a higher power (God) in accordance with a certain plan and design. The most famous version of creationism is Christian, which describes the creation of the world in 6 days. Man was created in the image and likeness of God from the dust of the earth, possessed reason and free will. Man acted as the subject of language: after God created all the birds and animals, man gave them all names, names. Man was called by God to work: God placed man in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. Also, a person became a bearer of morality: when a person tasted the fruit of a tree forbidden by God, the knowledge of good and evil was revealed to him and a feeling of shame for his nakedness appeared.

Creationism, it would seem, should be subject to criticism from modern science. But science itself is interested in creationist versions of the origin of man. Modern versions of creationism include the theistically oriented philosopher, paleontologist and anthropologist Teilhard de Chardin, who tried to combine creationism and evolutionism. According to T. de Chardin, the human mind and soul could not have arisen from nothing. The origin of man had to be preceded by cosmic evolution, in which the appearance of man is one of the stages. Development begins with the evolution of the physical matter of the cosmos (“pre-life”), passes into the structures of life, and then into a person as a carrier of a thinking mind and noosphere (Greek. noos-mind, reason) and the subject of society ("superlife"). At all stages, evolution is produced and supported by God (“Omega”) with his active love, i.e. "the prime mover ahead." That is, although God does not directly create in this concept, he acts as a regulatory principle, as a project, plan, reason of evolution. The scheme of evolution looks like this: pre-life - life - thought - super-life, ahead of God - "Omega".

Evolutionary theory about the biological features of anthropogenesis. This theory is based on the idea of ​​the natural origin of man from the natural environment. Versions of evolutionism include: evolutionary anthropology, labor theory of anthropogenesis, game theory, psychoanalytic and structuralist.

Evolutionary anthropology believes that the emergence of man begins approximately 5 - 8 million years ago with the emergence of the first hominids (Australopithecines) - the great ancestors of man from the Arboretes. Africa (the area of ​​Lake Chad) is supposed to be the homeland of man. The characteristic features of Australopithecus were bipedalism, the use of fire, the beginnings of industrial activity. By the way, science connects the genesis of man with the formation of the hominid triad, i.e. genetically inherited traits that define a person as a biological species: upright posture, hand, brain.

The next stage of evolution was the archanthropes (the most ancient people), who existed 800 - 600 thousand years ago. They are characterized by large frontal lobes, height - 168 cm, stable types of tools, stone industry, the beginnings of speech and sociality (the community consisted of 3 - 6 men, 6 - 10 women and 15 - 20 children).

100 thousand years ago, paleontrops (ancient people) appeared, who are better known as Neanderthals. Their height was 155 - 165 cm, they had a developed tool activity. Neanderthals knew how to process the skin of animals, build dwellings, use and make fire. They were already using animal burial practices.

Approximately 40 thousand years ago, a neoanthrope (Cro-Magnon) or homo sapiense(reasonable person). His height was 160 cm, the average life expectancy was 24-30 years.

From the point of view of anthropology, the formation of both the hominid triad and society was carried out due to the evolution of the human genetic material. The reason for the evolution of the gene was considered to be their mutation due to the radioactive activity of the Earth at that time, the change of magnetic poles, food sources, etc.

The evolutionary theory explains the origin of man by purely biological causes (based on the law of natural selection). According to Charles Darwin, the origin of man is a necessary link in the natural evolution of life on Earth. However, a number of developers of this concept, represented by Haeckel, Huxley and Focht, formulated one of the difficulties in 1865, calling it the “missing link” problem, i.e. morphologically defined form between our ape-like ancestors and modern man reasonable. Ten years later, that missing link has still not been found.

Labor theory: labor as a mechanism of adaptation and factor of adaptation. The social factor that determined the emergence of man and mankind was labor activity, labor. The labor theory of the origin of man is known to us in the Marxist sense, however, it cannot be reduced to it. All supporters of this theory believe that it was labor, starting with the manufacture of tools, that created man. In the course of labor activity, the hand becomes more flexible and free. At the same time, the brain develops, an ever closer cohesion of people is achieved, and there is a need to say something to each other. Thus, tool activity, cohesion in society, speech and thinking are the decisive factors in the transformation of an ape into a man. Why did the person start working? How to explain the transition from instinctive to goal-setting forms of labor? According to A. Gelenn, a person was initially doomed to work due to his vulnerability and weakness. Man is an unspecialized animal, i.e. he does not have a special organ of adaptation and protection: fangs, claws, etc. For the rehabilitation of this moment, a person needed work.

Anthroposociogenesis and cultural genesis. Philosophical models of cultural genesis: game, psychoanalytic, semiotic. The processes of anthroposociogenesis (the emergence of man and society) proceeded simultaneously with cultural genesis (the formation of culture). The term "culture" (from lat. culture- cultivation, processing, reverence) has long been used to refer to what is made by man, as a synonym for artificial as opposed to natural, natural. In philosophy, culture is understood as a system of historically developing supra-biological programs of human activity, behavior and communication, acting as a condition for the reproduction and change of social life in all its main manifestations. Thus, even the first tools of labor were non-genetic information programs of activity (because any tool dictates how to behave with it, requires the possession of appropriate work skills, outlines the range of possible operations), transmitted from generation to generation. Things created by human hands and replenishing the cultural fund not only acted as material carriers of transmitted information, but were also a reflection of the human consciousness that took an active part in the process of their creation. The world of culture evolves historically, not always coinciding with the historical development of man. The cultural evolution of man was carried out in a variety of ways, which gave rise to various versions of cultural genesis.

Game theory of cultural genesis. Culture is a special redundant sphere in relation to labor activity. It was culture that predetermined the spiritual world of man. The game has become a special mechanism that contributes to the separation of man from nature and its material transformation. The Dutch cultural historian J. Huizinga in his book “The Playing Man” demonstrated that different spheres of human culture (art, philosophy, science, politics, jurisprudence, military affairs, etc.) are closely related to game phenomena. And the German philosopher O. Fink included the game among the main phenomena of human existence and defined it as the main way of human intercourse with the possible and the invalid.

According to Huizinga, the game is older than culture. He refers to the fact that animals are also capable of playing, they did not wait for the appearance of a person to teach them to play. All the main features of the game are already in the games of animals, and human civilization has not added any significant features here. The game extends simultaneously to the world of animals and the world of people, which means that in its essence it does not rely on any rational foundation, it is not associated with either a certain degree of culture or a certain form of the universe. Huizinga believes that the game precedes culture, accompanies it, permeates it from birth to the present. At the same time, he emphasizes that culture does not come from a game as a result of some evolution, but arises in the form of a game: something playful is inherent in culture itself in its original forms, i.e. it is carried out in the forms and atmosphere of the game. The salient features of the game are:

Play is a free activity (regardless of the dictates of other people's utilitarian goals), play is something superfluous that you can do without.

The game takes a person beyond the ordinary (this is both an activity in the real and imaginary world).

The game takes place within certain boundaries of space and time, it has a beginning and an end.

The game is played according to its own special rules that limit human willfulness.

The game can be repeated, but certain actions can be changed within certain limits, which gives a creative, free spirit.

Experiences of tension and excitement in the game.

The game contains opportunities and risks.

The main types of play are performance and competition.

So, the game permeates the entire human culture and occupies an important place in its formation and existence.

Psychoanalytic concept. The founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, believed that the basis of civilization is the constant curbing of human instincts. Freud considered this process inevitable and irreversible. The free satisfaction of man's instinctive needs is incompatible with a civilized society, whose progress is based on the rejection of them or the postponement of opportunities to satisfy them. Happiness, according to Freud, is not a cultural value. It must be subordinated to the discipline of labor as the main occupation, the discipline of monogamous reproduction, the existing system of law and order. Culture is a methodical sacrifice of libido (sexual desire), its forced switching to socially useful activities and self-expression. Freud illustrates this by examining the structure of the human psyche. In the psyche, three instances can be distinguished: "I", "It", "Super-I". The unconscious "It" is a seething cauldron of instincts. The task of the consciously preconscious "I" is such a satisfaction of the impulses of the "It" that would not run counter to the requirements of social reality. These demands are monitored by the "Super-I" - a representative of society, moral and religious ideals and authorities, acting with the help of remorse, fear of public condemnation, etc.

Civilization, according to psychoanalysis, begins with the rejection of the primary desire for a holistic satisfaction of needs. Under the influence of the social historical world, there is a change of animal impulses into human instincts. The anthropoid animal becomes a man only through a fundamental transformation of its nature, which affects not only the goals of the instincts, but also their values, i.e. principles governing the achievement of goals.

Semiotic approach as an essential characteristic, it fixes the non-biological sign mechanism for storing and transmitting social experience (sociocode), which ensures social inheritance. Within the framework of this approach, culture is a world of symbolic forms, fixing the cumulative historically developing social experience and passing it on from generation to generation in the content of various semiotic systems. In the role of such semiotic systems and, accordingly, the basis for the emergence of culture, the objective actions of a person, tools of labor, language, household items, then religious ideas, technology, works of art, scientific knowledge, philosophical ideas, etc.

The structure of consciousness. If, when solving a number of worldview issues, it is permissible to consider consciousness as something integral and homogeneous, then in a special analysis of the problem of consciousness, it is necessary to take into account its structure. Since the German Classical Philosophy, there has been a tendency to evaluate the manifestations of spiritual activity in a more differentiated way. This trend has received even greater development at the present time: it was found that consciousness in its structure is a multi-tiered and multi-polar formation.

The structure and properties of consciousness are largely overcome by the structure of the brain. Of great importance for understanding the structure of the brain is the discovery made by the American scientist R. Sperry: functional asymmetry of the right and left hemispheres of the brain. It turned out that the left hemisphere (in right-handers) controls speech, counting, writing, logical reasoning, i.e. verbal-conceptual thinking. The right hemisphere is responsible for ear for music, visual images, emotions, the formation of a holistic view of the object. The normal functioning of consciousness requires the mutually coordinated participation of both hemispheres.

Consciousness and the unconscious. The most difficult is the question of the levels of consciousness (more precisely, the human psyche). Only a relatively small part of mental activity is realized (controlled) by the subject, while the rest (like the underwater part of an iceberg) remains unconscious. According to Freud, the unconscious is mental processes that are actively manifested, but do not reach the consciousness of a person. The unconscious is also the main and most meaningful moment in the system of the human psyche, along with the preconscious and conscious elements. The unconscious is regulated by the pleasure principle and includes various innate and repressed elements, drives, impulses, desires, motives, attitudes, aspirations, complexes, etc., characterized by unconsciousness, sexuality, antisociality, etc. According to Freud, in the unconscious there is a constant struggle between Eros (drives and forces of life, sexuality and self-preservation) and Thanatos (drives and forces of death, destruction and aggression), using the energy of sexual desire (libido). The content of the unconscious includes: 1) content that has never been present in the mind of the individual; 2) the content that was present in the mind of the individual, but was forced out of it into the unconscious. Freud paid special attention to the struggle between the unconscious and the conscious (consciousness) as one of the basic foundations of human mental activity and behavior.

According to Jung, the unconscious consists of three layers: 1) the personal unconscious - the surface layer of the unconscious, which includes emotionally colored representations that form the intimate spiritual life of the individual; 2) the collective unconscious - an innate deep layer that has not an individual, but a universal nature, representing the experience of the previous generation of people: samples, symbols, stereotypes of mental activity and behavior; 3) the psychoid unconscious - the most fundamental level of the unconscious, which has properties common with the organic world, and is almost completely inaccessible to consciousness.

According to Fromm, a significant role in the organization of human life is played by the social unconscious, which is the repressed spheres characteristic of most members of society and containing what this society cannot allow its members to bring to awareness.

In modern psychology, several classes of manifestations of the unconscious are usually distinguished: 1) unconscious stimuli of activity (motives and attitudes); 2) unconscious mechanisms and regulators of activity that ensure its automatic nature; 3) unconscious subthreshold processes and mechanisms (perception, etc.); 4) unconscious social programs (values, attitudes, norms). In psychoanalysis, the following are used as the main methods of understanding the unconscious: analysis of free associations, analysis of dreams, erroneous actions of everyday life, the study of myths, fairy tales, fantasies, symbols, etc.

Basic components of consciousness. In the structure of consciousness, three levels of consciousness reflecting reality can be distinguished:

sensory-emotional: this is a direct reflection of the object by the senses in its specificity, uniqueness, variety of characteristics;

rational-discursive: indirect reflection of an object, highlighting essential characteristics in it;

intuitive-volitional: determines the self-consciousness of a person, ensures the integrity of the experience of perceiving an object, guarantees the unity of feelings and reason.

The core of consciousness is knowledge about certain processes and phenomena. The structure of consciousness also includes:

emotions- directly value-colored experiences that are formed as reactions to external influences;

meaning- this is the object (or class of objects) that is denoted by the expression. In classical formal logic, meaning corresponds to the scope of a concept;

meaning - it is the mental content that is expressed and assimilated by understanding the linguistic expression. In formal logic, the meaning corresponds to the content of the concept;

will- the ability of a person to self-regulate their behavior and activities, ensuring the orientation of consciousness towards a significant goal and the concentration of efforts to achieve the latter. In the historical and philosophical tradition, there are two trends in understanding the essence of the will: the dependence of the will on physiology, psychology, the social sphere of a person and the awareness of the will as a sphere of self-sufficient freedom.

The representation of time in the structure of consciousness is of great importance. The past corresponds memory as the ability of the brain to capture, store and reproduce information. The present belongs attention as a state of consciousness associated with a specific focus of the psyche or thinking on an object. Oriented to the future imagination as the ability of consciousness to creatively design the environment.

Sociocultural nature of consciousness. Human consciousness is initially socially conditioned, and this is manifested not only in its origin, but also in everyday life, because it cannot function normally outside the social environment. The process of connecting human consciousness to culture is called socialization. Socialization is carried out almost the entire life of the individual, however, the functional and meaningful extremum of this process (socialization proper) falls on the time period from the second to the sixth year of life. If this period is missed (the Mowgli phenomenon), then the socialization of a child biologically belonging to the species Homo sapiens, is practically impossible. All the described attempts to socialize children raised in a wolf pack, like the famous Amala and Kamala, like modern Ganymede, in an eagle's nest, show that socialization to the required extent is impossible.

According to the classical model of consciousness, consciousness was considered as a mirror reflection of reality, it was believed that it is a priori (before experience), given to a person, and is, in the words of J. Locke, “ tabula rasa”-“ a blank slate ”, and, therefore, can exist outside of society. The influence of society on consciousness was recognized as conditional and, first of all, interfering. For example, F. Bacon wrote about four "idols" (delusions) to which human consciousness is exposed in the process of cognition, and which stem from the influence of society on a person.

The non-classical model of consciousness affirms its socio-cultural regularity, the possibility of influence on it by society. Thus, K. Marx analyzes the concept of ideology, by which he understands false consciousness, reflecting the interests of a certain population and setting its own spectrum of vision of the world and reality. According to Gadamer, the understanding of any text is determined by the historical context, which is called "pre-understanding", which is based on a series of prejudices. Prejudices are the basis of understanding, they show the essence of the era, the meanings of being, which are not explicitly expressed. The understanding consciousness cannot be free from various prerequisites; it always shares the stereotypes of thinking of its time.

The main mechanisms of society's influence on consciousness include communication (communication), language and labor (activity).

Consciousness and communication. Communication(from lat. communication- communication, transmission) is a process of information exchange. Communication is an essential feature of a person, society and culture. Communication acts as a semantic and meaningful aspect of activity. We can say that communication is the activity of perception and processing of information. The structure of communication includes: 1) at least two participants endowed with consciousness and knowing the language (subjects of communication); 2) the situation they are trying to comprehend and understand; 3) message, text; 4) motives and goals - what encourages the subjects of communication to communicate with each other; 5) means of communication.

According to the type of relations between the participants, interpersonal, public, mass communications are distinguished. According to the type of means used, one can single out speech, paralinguistic (text, facial expressions, melody, gestures) and material-sign (for example, artistic) communication. The types of communication include audio (or speech), video (or visual) and synthetic communication. In the process of communication, the formation of the human "I", the human personality and individuality, the representation of oneself and understanding of the other takes place. The most in-depth self-understanding and self-disclosure of human consciousness is carried out in a dialogue, which is characterized by the equality of the subjects of communication, where everyone acts as a carrier of independent meaning and logic.

Thinking and language. Consciousness must be distinguished from thinking. Under consciousness understood the highest function of the brain, peculiar only to people and associated with speech, consisting in a generalized and purposeful reflection of reality, in a preliminary mental construction of actions (goal setting) and anticipation of their results, in reasonable regulation and self-control of human behavior. Thinking is the ability of human consciousness to purposeful, mediated and generalized reflection of the essential properties and relationships between things. Thinking is an active process of posing problems and solving them.

Thinking is always connected with language. Their close relationship leads to the fact that thought receives its adequate expression only in language. A thought that is clear in content and harmonious in form is expressed in intelligible and consistent speech. Therefore, they say: “Who thinks clearly, he speaks clearly.”

The main features of the language include:

Expressive. Man expresses thoughts through language.

Cognitive. Language is the most important means of knowledge.

Communicative. Language is a means of communication between people.

Cumulative. Language ensures the accumulation and preservation of knowledge.

Informative. Information is transmitted through language.

Pragmatic. Language controls people's behavior.

Language is a structure as ancient as consciousness. The difference between man and animals is not only in the possession of consciousness, but also in the possession of language, speech. The question of the origin of the language is still open, since its appearance is associated with activity only in part. There are several models of the genesis (origin) of the language:

Interjection. Language arises from the interjections "oh!", "ay!" etc., accompanying labor activity.

Imitative. Language arises as an imitation of the sounds of nature, animals.

Nominative. Language arises with the appearance of the phenomenon of the name.

Consciousness and language form a unity: in their existence they presuppose each other. Language is the direct activity of thought, of consciousness. Consciousness is revealed and formed with the help of language. Our thoughts are built in accordance with our language and must correspond to it. Through language, there is a transition from perceptions and ideas to concepts. However, the unity of consciousness and language does not mean their identity. Consciousness reflects reality, and language denotes it and expresses it in the form of thought.

Consciousness and activity. The formation of human consciousness is conditioned, first of all, by his labor activity. The evolution of the anatomy and physiology of monkeys was only a prerequisite for the emergence of man, the determining condition for this process was labor, the nature of which is purely social in nature. Labor in its developed form is inherent only to man, since it contains a purposeful activity oriented towards changing reality. Animals using auxiliary means (stones, sticks, etc.) act instinctively, on the basis of conditioned and unconditioned reflexes, and never make special tools, do not improve them, do not leave them with them for a long time.

Communication, language, and labor turn out to be powerful social factors stimulating the process of emergence and development of consciousness.

People have long experienced a great interest in consciousness, in their mind, considering it the most important achievement of man. This is indeed the most amazing and mysterious phenomenon of life, arising at a certain level of development of matter. With the help of consciousness, reason, a person goes beyond himself, penetrates into the past and the future - into what is already or not yet, invades the distances of space and the depths of the microworld, where he cannot physically penetrate. The blade of the mind mentally cuts everything and everything into its component parts, revealing to us the inner content of things. Controlling the hands of people, the mind creates what is not in nature, the world of culture, in which the power of thought is embodied, objectified.

What is consciousness, mind? In search of an answer to this question, human thought has traveled a long and difficult path before it managed to reveal the secrets of its nature, to reveal its essential characteristics. But this process continues.

Currently, more and more science circle, involved in the study of consciousness. Such studies are philosophy, anthropology, sociology, psychology, physiology, physics, representatives of technical sciences And informatics.

The aspects of consciousness studied in individual sciences turn out to be quite far from each other and, moreover, do not correlate with consciousness as a whole. Each of the sciences uses its own methods, schemes, ideals of rationality, objectivity, rigor, scientific character, i.e. this kind of research is more monodisciplinary character. Although interdisciplinary research is now expanding, it must be recognized that current research into the phenomenon of consciousness remains in many cases conceptually disjointed. Rather, one should speak not of one single concept of consciousness, but of a whole series of specific concepts used in the most diverse fields of knowledge.

What aspects of consciousness are studied by separate areas of knowledge?

Social Sciences, including psychology, study the forms of social consciousness - legal, political, moral, aesthetic, economic. Natural Sciences, which sometimes include psychology, explore mainly the states of individual consciousness, their mechanisms and material substrate . Technical science analyze and model individual functions of consciousness, which include pattern recognition, memory, intelligence. These forms are also studied by psychology.

In the context of the interdisciplinary study of consciousness, there is a need for philosophical reflection various approaches in the formation of the philosophical concept of consciousness, which would play an integration role in relation to special scientific concepts and ideas about consciousness, contributing to a holistic vision of the problem of consciousness. In turn, the data of psychology, neurophysiology, neurocybernetics and other special areas of consciousness research undoubtedly contribute to a deeper understanding of the philosophical concept of consciousness.

Philosophy approaches the study of consciousness from the point of view of its ontological and epistemological status, its place in the structure of being, both natural and social. Ontological and epistemological dimensions of consciousness, being its fundamental characteristics, are interdependent. Consciousness is a creative form of reflection of reality, but consciousness is also a property, a function of highly organized matter, which is formed in the context of the socio-cultural development of a person, the assimilation of historically developed forms of culture. In the philosophical understanding of consciousness, both the position of extreme epistemology, due to ignoring the ontological aspect of the problem of consciousness, and, on the other hand, a straightforward, rough reduction of consciousness to the function of the brain are untenable. The position of extreme epistemology closes consciousness in itself, cuts off its necessary connection with material reality, and thus leads to its idealistic mystification. On the other hand, the explanation of consciousness only as a function of the brain is hardly convincing. A broader approach is needed here, the disclosure of the role of the socio-cultural prerequisites of consciousness, the “clarification” of consciousness.

What is the specificity of the philosophical concept of consciousness? Philosophical concept consciousness is an integrating key concept for analyzing the relationship of a person with reality, a characteristic of one of the fundamental properties of highly organized matter, which lies in the active, creative ability of a person as a social being to display and cognize the objective and subjective world in the form of ideal images, including existential-phenomenological and psychoanalytic traditions .

Thus, the essence of the philosophical study of the phenomenon of consciousness lies, firstly, in identifying the ontological status of consciousness. From this point of view, consciousness is carried out with the help of the brain, but consciousness is not a function of the brain itself, but a function of a specific type of relationship between a socially developed person and the world. This characterization of consciousness involves the clarification ontological origins of consciousness in those forms of organization of matter that precede man in the process of its evolution.

Secondly, an important feature of consciousness is its characteristic in epistemological aspect. In this regard, consciousness is a reflection of reality, resulting from the formation of such bodily organs as the nervous system and its most highly organized department - the brain.

Third, consciousness is ideal, his being manifests itself in the form of ideal images.

Fourthly, consciousness is not only a reflection of activity, but also attitude towards her. This determines the value and at the same time personal aspect of consciousness, which most clearly expresses the social nature of consciousness.

Fifthly, consciousness denotes the highest level of a person’s mental activity, which, thanks to the ideal anticipation of a person’s practical activity, gives it focused nature.

Sixth, the philosophical understanding of consciousness involves an analysis of the prerequisites for the development of the most complex forms self-awareness, self-reflection of a person, the uniqueness and uniqueness of experiencing the system of one's relations to reality, society, other people and oneself.

Seventh, consciousness is characterized layered structure which includes as its components various forms of individual and social consciousness, conscious and unconscious, sensual and rational.

Eighth, the philosophical reflection of the twentieth century, along with the substantive-functional, sociocultural paradigms, revealed other equally important dimensions of consciousness associated with the formation existential-phenomenological and psychoanalytic traditions, where the emphasis is on describing the experience of individual consciousness with the simultaneous creative introduction of personal meanings into reality (Husserl, Sartre, Jaspers, Freud, etc.).

4.2.4. Philosophy and cognitive sciences about the genesis, structure and functions of consciousness

Questions about how and why consciousness arises are one of the key questions for modern philosophical and scientific knowledge. In one form or another, they intersect with the problem of anthropogenesis, but they represent an independent topic of research. Consciousness can be interpreted as a complex multi-level system that includes natural-psychic, individual-personal and socio-cultural projections. Accordingly, the problem genesis of consciousness can be considered at several levels: in the context of general natural evolution, in connection with the origin of culture and society, and in the aspect of ontogenesis (individual human development).

The natural basis for the emergence of consciousness was the property reflections, presented in various forms at the level of living and inanimate matter. The emergence of consciousness would be a miracle without the evolution of various forms of reflection in living nature, which is its prehistory. In the process of the development of philosophy and science, it was proved that all matter has a property essentially related to sensation, the property of reflection. This provision raised fundamental questions for science about the nature of reflection as an attribute of matter, about consciousness as the highest form of reflection associated with the activity of the human brain.

Reflection characterizes the ability of material objects in the process of interaction with other objects to reproduce in their changes some features and features of the phenomena affecting them. The type, content and form of reflection are determined by the level and features of the system-structural organization of reflecting objects, as well as the way they interact with the reflected phenomena. Outside and independently of interaction, reflection does not exist. The result of the reflection process is manifested in the internal state of the reflecting object and its external reactions.

At the present stage, the data of molecular biology deserve special attention. In DNA and RNA molecules, all the necessary information is recorded and reproduced, programming individual development and continuity in the chain of generations of living systems. Genetic information is a unique, specific form of reflection of the previous history, the development of living objects in DNA molecules.

At the level of wildlife, the following stages of reflection can be distinguished:

Irritability The body's response to environmental influences. This form of reflection is inherent in some plant species and unicellular living organisms. The specificity of this form of reflection is that: the body reacts to biologically important (biotic) factors; the organism reacts as a whole, since there are no differentiated organs, parts of the organism; the changes occur without a time gap, as the persistence reactions are triggered immediately.

The next type of reflection is sensitivity- the ability of the body to have sensations that reflect the individual properties of objects that affect the body. In lower animals, the sense organs are not differentiated. In the future, special sense organs appear, which form the central nerve nodes in invertebrates and the central nervous system in vertebrates.

The highest form of biological reflection is psyche. Its formation was associated with the appearance of a special, more powerful than at previous levels, interaction between the organism and the environment, associated with the orienting-search behavior of animals. The complex of conditioned reflexes fixed in associative memory allows highly organized animals to cope with a number of difficult situations quite effectively, which makes it possible today to talk about the skills of “practical intelligence” and associative thinking.

Human consciousness is qualitatively different from the psyche of animals. The main distinguishing features here are:

1) abstract logical thinking, associated with the ability to reproduce the essential characteristics and connections of reality, not given directly in perception;

2) goal setting as the ability to ideally design the desired product of activity, which allows a person to creatively transform reality, and not passively fit into it;

3) self-consciousness, determining the possibility of separating oneself from the external environment;

4) language as a second signal system, forcing us to navigate not so much by real physical processes as by their sign-symbolic, linguistic correlates.

The formation of these features of consciousness became possible thanks to socio- and cultural genesis, where and abstract thinking, and language, and the idea of ​​"I" act as historical formations. At the origins of consciousness stood practice, where the primary act of thinking actually acts as "internal action" carried out not with real objects, but with their ideal projections.

Known archaic cultures illustrate the next qualitative stage in the development of consciousness associated with specific symbolic perception of the world and represented in models mythological worldview. The characteristics of this stage include, on the one hand, the emergence of language; on the other hand, the reflection of the world in figurative and symbolic form. It is significant that if the formation of logical structures was undoubtedly influenced by labor as a factor of anthropogenesis, then the origin of the language is mainly associated with the game.

The transition from action to word-symbol, and then to combinatorics of concepts, apparently, is reproduced in a single genetic sequence both at the level of individual development and in the history of mankind. At the same time, the formation of consciousness in a child occurs in the process of socialization, through the assimilation of knowledge and language programs already existing in the culture, which our ancient ancestors clearly lacked. Just like the problem of anthropogenesis, the questions of the origin of language and thinking today do not have an unambiguous answer in modern philosophy and science, offering a range of very different interpretations of this topic.

The most important factor that determines the sociocultural dimension of consciousness is communication. The real experience of consciousness is always a task as a communicative process in the variety of its forms: auto-communication, dialogue, polylogue. Through communication, the functional characteristics of consciousness are manifested and consolidated at all its structural levels, however, communicative acts are of particular importance for the intuitive-volitional level that determines the nature of the “I”, self-consciousness. The very construction of “I” is possible only as a sign-communicative unit: “someone who says “I” goes to another person” (E. Levinas).

The cultural mechanisms that ensure communication are speech and language. Language- this is “a system of differentiated signs corresponding to differentiated concepts” (F. Saussure). Speech is a verbal activity designed in accordance with the rules accepted in society, in which the language is specified. It is only through speech that language realizes itself, but in relation to the latter it is a more fundamental concept.

In addition to the verbal, rational-logical, human consciousness is based on a non-verbal, figurative-associative type of thinking, the phenomena of which are only “post factum” translated into a verbal form. Intuition as the main cognitive mechanism of this type of thinking is associated with direct knowledge about the object, obtained as a result of the extralogical connection of various fragments of experience into a holistic image.

Analyzing the problem of consciousness, one cannot ignore the questions of what is included in its volume and how it “works”, functions. Depending on the selected natural-psychic, individual-personal and socio-cultural projections of the analysis of consciousness, one can also talk about its main structural and functional characteristics.

One of the first concepts structure and functioning of consciousness in the culture of the twentieth century. became the model proposed by Z. Freud psyche, considering the latter in the unity of such components as "It" (id), "I" (ego) and "Super-I" (super-ego). The phenomenon of consciousness (“I”) here is formed due to the intersection of the impulses of the unconscious (“It)” and the normative attitudes of culture and society (“Super-I”).

The Freudian scheme describes not so much consciousness as the psyche, within which consciousness acts as a small and not the most interesting fragment for Freud. At the same time, it seems possible to structure also the “internal” experience of consciousness, which is distinguished by the exceptional richness and diversity of its manifestations. As a primary construction, here we can talk about the allocation of the following levels of consciousness: sensory-emotional associated with a direct reflection of external reality; abstract discursive, assuming the intellectual processing of sensory data in accordance with the logical-conceptual and value framework given by the cultural tradition; intuitive-volitional, emphasizing the experience of “I”, self-consciousness, which is not reduced to external characteristics.

Characterizing the structure of consciousness, they single out such aspects of it as social and individual consciousness.

public consciousness– necessary and specific side public life, it is not only a reflection of the changing social life, but at the same time it performs an organizing, regulatory and creative-transforming function. It is of a socio-historical nature. This is a certain set of ideas, ideas, values, standards of communication, thinking and practical activities.

individual consciousness is the consciousness of the individual, which, of course, is unthinkable outside of society. The consciousness of each person necessarily includes as its main content ideas, norms, attitudes, views, etc., which have the status of social consciousness. Individual consciousness is a single consciousness in which, in each individual case, traits common to the consciousness of a given era, special traits associated with the social belonging of the individual, and individual personality traits due to the upbringing, abilities and circumstances of the individual's personal life are freely combined. Ontogenesis of personality is a process of socialization, appropriation of socially significant spiritual values.

Given the above, the structure of consciousness can be represented as a certain system of levels and projections that describe the nature of the reflection of reality and the range of attitudes towards it. It must be said that the given structure of consciousness is only one of the possible versions of the interpretation of this topic. Taking into account the undoubted richness of a person's spiritual experience, one can speak of the existence of a wide variety of elements of consciousness that are not included in this structure.

At the same time, it must be borne in mind that in the real experience of consciousness it is rather difficult to distinguish between the sensual and the rational or volitional. All levels and all projections of consciousness function as a single integrity, totality. Wherein dynamics consciousness is described through states memory, attention and imagination, where in the real focus of the present (attention) both past knowledge and the target anticipation of the future, both feelings and reason, are collected.

The nature and functioning of consciousness cannot be understood without taking into account the relevant socio-cultural factors of its formation and development. The idea of ​​the socio-cultural dimension of consciousness clearly separates the classical and non-classical versions of the philosophy of consciousness. Classical philosophy proceeded from the possibility of a peculiar "epistemological robinsonade", i.e. the possibilities of individual consciousness even in a situation of isolation from society. Human consciousness was interpreted either as a manifestation of "pure reason", acting as a universal characteristic of being as such, or as the initial tabula rasa (blank slate) filled by nature in the process of individual experience. Both for the substantial and for the functional models of the philosophy of consciousness, individual thinking had a contemplative-passive character and did not need additional social prerequisites for its design.

The overcoming of the classical principle of "contemplative thinking" is carried out initially in the philosophy of Marxism in connection with the idea of ​​social consciousness. Being socially determined, consciousness not only passively reflects reality, but every time it creatively reorganizes it in accordance with certain historical settings of the time. In addition to historical variability, the creative nature of consciousness also lies in its ability to forward reflection of reality, those. in the possibility of anticipating the situation on the basis of experience. The latter is connected with such a fundamental property of consciousness as goal-setting. At the same time, those target settings in which consciousness is concretized are both determined by the historical situation and go beyond its boundaries, allowing expanding the scope of sociocultural reality and creating new values.

The main cultural mechanisms that ensure the formation and development of consciousness are tradition and education. It is they who determine the system of "cultural prejudices" that guarantee the integrity and stability of the worldview. Despite the conservatism of the institutions of traditions and education, they, just like activity, reveal the creative nature of consciousness. On the one hand, as mechanisms of socialization, they form consciousness in its cultural and historical variability. On the other hand, they lay the necessary foundation for the subsequent development of the personality, whose creative potential sometimes directly depends on its general cultural and educational level.

Structural differentiation and integrality, sociocultural conditionality and individuality of the “I”, immediacy of feelings and abstractness of rational constructions, reflection and creativity - all these characteristics organically complement each other in the real experience of consciousness, but destroy the logical harmony of its theoretical reconstruction. Thus, the questions “what is a person” and “what is consciousness” largely remain open to philosophical and scientific knowledge, stimulating the search for new forms and accents in the self-determination of culture and man.

Attempts to explain the phenomenon of consciousness were made in ancient times. Ancient people associated consciousness not with the activity of the body, but with the existence of the soul, that is, the incorporeal principle, which is capable of temporarily or permanently leaving the human body.

The founder of idealism, Plato, argued that the soul is immortal, and the mortal body is its slave. Outside the body, the soul is in the heavenly world of ideas.

In the Middle Ages, the idea of ​​a world spirituality, and the human mind was seen as a spark of the divine mind. Materialist philosophers viewed consciousness as a function of the human body. At its extreme, metaphysical materialism claimed that the brain produces thoughts in the same way that the liver produces bile.

Thus, the idealists asserted the absolute independence of the thinking of the human body, and the materialists - the complete dependence of the spiritual on the bodily.

The origin of consciousness, its essence and structure

Materialist dialectics, in solving the question of the origin of consciousness, relies on the theory of reflection.

Reflection - this is the property of material systems in the process of their interaction to reproduce each other's features. In inanimate nature, there is a passive reflection, which manifests itself in the form of mechanical and physico-chemical changes. With the emergence of life and the appearance of the simplest organisms and plants, irritability - the ability of a living being to selectively respond to environmental influences.

In animals, due to the presence of the psyche and nervous system, there are more complex forms of reflection associated with the activity of the sense organs.

1. Sensation - the ability to reflect the individual properties of objects (color, shape, smell, etc.), as a result of their impact on the senses.

2. Perception - the ability to holistically embrace an object in its entirety.

3. Representation - the ability to reproduce an object that does not directly affect the senses.

As studies by physiologists have shown, mental activity is based on unconditioned and conditioned reflexes of the brain, that is, reactions to external influences, the first of which are inherited, and the second are formed in the process of life.

The chain of unconditioned reflexes is a biological prerequisite for the formation of instincts, that is, behavioral reactions. The presence of sensations, perceptions and ideas in animals is the basis for the emergence of human consciousness. This basis has a biological, natural character. At the same time, the formation of consciousness is not possible without the participation of social factors. These factors were singled out by Engels in his article "The Role of Labor in the Process of the Transformation of Apes into Man". He called labor the decisive social factor in the emergence of consciousness. Labor begins with the use of natural objects as instruments of activity. The next stage is the creation of tools from natural forms. The simplest labor skills contribute to the expansion of horizons and the improvement of the brain. The need to transfer experience has become a prerequisite for the modification of the larynx and the formation of articulate speech. Language has become the most important factor in understanding the world, a means of transmitting and storing information, the basis for the existence of abstract thinking.

The biological prerequisite for human consciousness is its brain. It is a complex physiological system that functions in another integral system - the human body. There is a fundamental difference between the physiological and psychological processes occurring in the human brain. Physiological processes are material, mental processes are ideal. Consciousness is not reduced to the reflected world, nor to the physiological processes of the brain.

Consciousness - this is the highest function of the brain, peculiar only to a person, which consists in the active reflection of reality and its constructive and creative transformation. The structure of consciousness can be represented as a unity of four main areas.

I - the sphere of bodily-perceptual abilities and the knowledge obtained on their basis. It includes sensations, perceptions, specific ideas that provide information about the surrounding world, one's own body, its relationship with other bodies. The purpose of this area is the development of expedient and useful behavior.

II - the logical-conceptual sphere includes general concepts, analytical-synthetic mental operations, rigid logical proofs. The purpose of this sphere is the attainment of truth.

III - the emotional sphere consists of emotions, feelings, moods, stresses, affects. Its purpose is the implementation of the pleasure principle, that is, the desire for positive emotional states and blocking negative ones.

IV - value-motivational includes the spiritual ideals of the individual and the highest motives of activity. Its purpose is to develop behavior that corresponds to a person's idea of ​​​​justice, truth, beauty.

This scheme must be supplemented with such components of consciousness as will, imagination, memory.

If this scheme is correlated with the interhemispheric asymmetry of the brain, then the functioning of spheres I and II will correspond to the activity of the left hemisphere of the brain, and III and IV - of the right hemisphere of the brain. Such "specialization" is typical for "right-handers", for "left-handers" it is the opposite.

Consciousness is able not only to reflect the surrounding world, but also to refer to itself, that is, to act as self-consciousness. Self-consciousness ensures the separation of a person from the surrounding world and the correlation of oneself with any others. This happens as a result of introspection, which leads to self-esteem. Separating yourself from the world does not mean a complete break with it. The world in relation to a person acts as a kind of mirror in which he sees his reflection.

Consciousness can be defined as a subjective image of the objective world. This means that consciousness does not belong to the surrounding world, but to a person, a subject. At the same time, the content of consciousness is the objective world, its various aspects and properties. In addition, the subjectivity of consciousness means that it is able to somewhat deviate from reality and the image created by consciousness differs from the original.

Along with consciousness, there are also elements of the unconscious in the human psyche, which are studied with the help of psychoanalysis. The unconscious activities of the human brain include creative insight, intuition, the ability to form paradoxical tasks, questions, and solutions. The phenomenon of consciousness is being studied by various natural and human sciences. Philosophical analysis of consciousness involves the definition of natural and social factors of its formation, the nature of their interaction, the source of the creative ability of the individual, the redistribution of the capabilities of the human intellect.

Consciousness is the highest form of the psyche, the result of the socio-historical conditions for the formation of a person in labor activity with constant communication with other people.

Consciousness is 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 variants (unconscious, subconscious, etc.).

Consciousness is one of the central concepts of classical Western philosophy. The sciences of man (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 19th century biologist T. Huxley even expressed the opinion that the nature of consciousness, in principle, is not amenable to scientific research. Many psychologists in the 19-20 centuries. (Wundt and others) believed that only individual phenomena of consciousness can be scientifically investigated, but as for its essence, it cannot be expressed, although consciousness is subjectively given in experience. Meanwhile, philosophers tried to analyze its nature and formulate the following concepts of consciousness.

1. The concept of identification of consciousness with knowledge: everything that we know is consciousness, and everything that we are aware of is knowledge. Majority representatives classical philosophy shared this idea, reinforcing it with a reference to the etymology of the word: lat. the name for consciousness means shared knowledge. True, some philosophers did not agree with this understanding. Some philosophers gave an example of the perception of an unfamiliar object, which from their point of view is not knowledge, but, of course, is an act of consciousness. In fact, everything that is realized is knowledge of one kind or another. This applies in particular to the perception of an unfamiliar object. For this perception to become possible, the subject must have certain perceptual hypotheses and even carry out an act of thinking - while the very process of using these hypotheses is not realized. Perception, therefore, is knowledge, contrary to the opinion prevalent in classical philosophy. Another thing is that this knowledge can be very superficial. Awareness by the subject of his emotions, desires, volitional impulses is also knowledge. Of course, the very emotions, desires, volitional impulses are not reduced to knowledge, although they presuppose the latter. But their awareness is nothing but the knowledge of their presence. From what has been said above, however, the conclusion about the identity of knowledge and consciousness does not follow. Modern philosophers and psychologists are confronted with the fact of unconscious knowledge. This is not only what I know, but what I don’t think about at the moment and therefore I don’t realize, but what I can easily make the property of my consciousness (knowledge of the theorem).

2. A number of philosophers (phenomenology - Bretano, Husserl, Sartre) as the main sign of consciousness distinguish not knowledge, but intentionality, i.e. focus on a specific subject, object. From this point of view, all types of consciousness have such a sign: not only perceptions and thoughts, but also representations, emotions, desires, intentions, volitional impulses. According to this view, I cannot be unaware of an object, but if I single it out through my intention, it becomes the object of my consciousness. With this approach, consciousness is not only a set of intentions, but also their source. At the same time, the intentional object of consciousness does not have to exist in reality. It may be imaginary. Consciousness can be intentionally aimed at physical objects (real, imaginary), at ideal objects (numbers, values) or at the state of consciousness itself. In phenomenology, in essence, the psyche and consciousness are identified, while the essence of consciousness, its essence, is not revealed.

3. Sometimes consciousness is identified with attention. This position is shared by a number of philosophers, but is especially popular with some psychologists who are trying to interpret consciousness (that is, attention in this understanding) from the point of view of cognitive science as some kind of filter in the way of information processed by the nervous system. Consciousness with such an interpretation plays the role of a kind of distributor of limited resources of the nervous system. Meanwhile, a number of facts of mental life cannot be explained from a similar point of view (the facts of inattentive consciousness of a driver who is talking while driving). American psychologists have shown that information perceived by the subject without attention, however, is realized to some extent.

4. The teachings of Z. Freud gained particular fame. He considers the human psyche as a complexly organized system with three spheres: “It” (a deep layer of unconscious drives), “I” (the sphere of the social, an intermediary between the unconscious and the outside world), “super-I” (sociality inside the human consciousness). Freud essentially reduces consciousness to the unconscious. Here, with the correct fixation of the important role in human behavior of unconscious phenomena of the psyche, the significance of the social component of consciousness is still unduly belittled. At the same time, consciousness is in a complex interaction with various forms of unconscious, unconscious acts that determine the behavior of the individual. Some of these aspects are done automatically. In cases where the unconscious invades consciousness, and the latter is not able to resist it, various mental disorders occur.