Eternal problems. Modern issues. The main question of philosophy
The main problems of philosophy are the highest, essential, critical issues a person about the world and about himself. IN different time the nature and ways of asking questions varied. In table 1.2 shows the main problem areas initially studied in different eras and by different philosophers.
Table 1.2. Basic problems of philosophy

All these questions are “eternal” and open questions. Each of them can be clarified in a number of more detailed, but no less significant questions, for example, the following:
o What is being? - “Where did it all come from?
o What is knowledge? -"What are the limits of human knowledge?
o What is a person? -" What is a sense of life?
o What is society? -gt; How to make society fair?
o What is value? -4 What matters in life?
Of course, philosophy is not limited to “eternal problems.” It has already been said that philosophy reflects time with all its features and contradictions. Therefore, philosophy is “doomed” to deal with modernity. Here is an approximate list of the most pressing issues to be considered:

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presented at international philosophical congresses and conferences in recent years:
About the philosophy of politics and law - international law, democracy, human rights, international order, war and justice, terrorism, inequality, poverty, globalization;
o philosophy of language and literature - the language of science, meaning, understanding of text, expression of truth, artificial languages;
o applied ethical and philosophical issues - problems of abortion, euthanasia, human cloning, genetic engineering; death penalty; animal rights, values ​​of nature; responsibility of a scientist;
o philosophy of virtuality - Internet, virtual worlds, computerization, artificial intelligence;
O philosophy of feminism - women's rights, emotions and feelings, criticism of logic;
o history of philosophy - application of traditional theories to modern times.
One of the important questions for understanding the development of philosophical knowledge is the question traditionally called the “fundamental question” of philosophy. It sounds like this: “What comes first - matter or consciousness?” The world has both material manifestations (tangible physical objects) and ideal ones (knowledge, ideas, thoughts, emotions). What is decisive? Depending on the answer to this question, philosophers are divided into materialists and idealists.
Materialists believe that only matter really exists. It is completely independent of our consciousness. Moreover, consciousness is dependent, secondary and is a property of matter itself. Thus, human consciousness cannot exist without the brain as a complex material organ. Belief in the existence of special and independent entities - souls, spirits - is an unscientific prejudice.
Idealists1, on the contrary, believe that only our consciousness can be considered the only reliable reality, and that what is called material things is only its manifestation.
1 Do not confuse philosophical idealism with idealism in behavior (dreaming and naive good-naturedness).

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nia. Who can reliably prove that the things we see are reality and not mere appearance? Thus, a person considers everything that he sees in a dream to be real, but the world of sleep is illusory and created by consciousness. Maybe all life is a dream, an illusion, a mirage and we are simply not able to “wake up” and break through to real reality (as objective idealists believe) or there is no reality at all, and everything exists only in our consciousness (as subjective idealists believe) !
For those who have seen the film The Matrix (1999, directed by the Wachowski brothers), the concept of objective idealism is quite easy to understand. To understand the ideas of subjective idealists, we recommend paying attention to the classic play by P. Calderon with the symbolic title “Life is a Dream” (1636).
Dualists adhere to the third point of view, according to which matter and consciousness are viewed as two independent aspects of reality. For dualism, in fact, there are no problems regarding the answer to the “fundamental question of philosophy,” since the question itself becomes impossible: there is nothing secondary in the world. Both matter and consciousness are equal and interconnected principles. Dualism in philosophy is not very popular - it avoids the struggle, which is driving force philosophical thought. In this regard, both materialism and idealism have a right to exist: in their eternal dispute, arguments are sharpened, new ideas are born, and ultimately philosophy develops.
The following two questions are often cited as “philosophical”: “Which came first - the chicken or the egg” and “Can you hear the sound of a tree falling in the forest if no one is nearby?” Although both questions are not, strictly speaking, philosophical, for the first one it can be assumed that, according to the theory of evolution, in the beginning there was an egg after all. In the second question, it is necessary to note the ambiguity of the word “sound”. These are both wave vibrations and human auditory sensations. Then the sound will exist in the first sense and will not exist in the second. As for philosophical questions, an idealist philosopher might ask in this regard: “Is there a forest at all if there is no one in it?”

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According to many modern philosophers, the main question is about a just society, about human values ​​or his purpose. Yes, the French philosopher Albert Camus wrote:
To decide whether life is or is not worth living is to answer a fundamental question in philosophy. Everything else - whether the world has three dimensions, whether the mind is guided by nine or twelve categories - is secondary."
Camus’ question also has its reasons, although the answer is intuitively obvious: “it’s worth it” (the philosopher himself comes to this conclusion). But how to live this life?
Thus, philosophical problems are diverse - their only common feature is that no science except philosophy itself can give detailed answers to them. The choice of the main problem is a personal matter for every thinking person. Philosophy assumes that in the search for the essence, everyone should be guided by their own mind, and the books and statements of famous philosophers are only means of forming one’s own opinion, and not a set of truths for all occasions.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Philosophical problems are the most important and most general questions a person has about the world and about himself. Depending on the answer to the question: “What comes first - matter or consciousness?” There are two main traditions in philosophy - materialism and idealism.
TASKS List the main problems of philosophy. Which one do you think is the most important? Why? What are the main differences between materialism and idealism?

The name “fundamental question of philosophy” (given by the German philosopher Friedrich Engels) is rather arbitrary.

Camus A. The Myth of Sisyphus//Twilight of the Gods. M., 1989. P. 223.

Among the main philosophical questions, a special place is occupied by the question of the relationship between the material and the spiritual, being and thinking. “The great, fundamental question of all, especially modern philosophy, is the question of the relationship of thinking to being...

Philosophers were divided into two large camps according to how they answered this question. Those who argued that spirit existed before nature and who... one way or another recognized the creation of the world... constituted the idealistic camp. Those who considered nature to be the main principle joined various schools of materialism,” wrote the outstanding thinker of the 19th century F. Engels.

The defining significance of this issue for philosophy is associated, first of all, with the process of decisive liberation of science from the spiritual power of religion and the church that took place in the 16th-19th centuries.

Religion and the directions of philosophical idealism adjacent to it consider a certain spiritual, primary Absolute (God, Absolute Idea, World Will, etc.) as the initial, primary beginning of the world. The material world is understood by them as a generation, a consequence of this omnipotent, all-encompassing Absolute, which creates Being in a supernatural way. In contrast to these ideas, science and the scientific, materialistic worldview consider the World, Existence as something objective, uncreated and indestructible, developing according to natural laws, existing before man and giving birth to man, society, spirit, consciousness in the course of its natural development. It is quite obvious that science and, above all, natural science can exist and confidently develop only based on the ideas of the objective existence of the world, its development according to natural laws and the knowability of these laws.

Therefore, the development and establishment of a materialistic worldview was until the twentieth century the most important means support and defense of science, scientific thinking in its opposition to religion, superstition, mysticism and pre-scientific ideas.

At present, the question identified by F. Engels as fundamental would be more accurately called fundamental to philosophy. The question of the relationship of thinking to being is of fundamental importance for philosophy because the solution to all other philosophical questions and problems radically depends on one or another of its solutions.

Along with the decisive significance of this issue for the free self-determination of science and the development of a scientific worldview, it is of fundamental importance for philosophy in a number of other aspects:

• - different solutions to the question of the relationship of thinking to being (in the spirit of materialism or idealism) ultimately lead to the adoption of fundamentally different ideals of personality and lifestyle;
• - the deep foundations of this question are rooted in the internal duality of human existence between spirit and matter. Being a contradictory unity of these principles, a person by his very nature is doomed to an inevitable struggle between his spiritual ideals, aspirations and material possibilities for their implementation, conditioned by the physical and biological qualities of a given person, his economic and other material capabilities and limitations. Therefore, the struggle of material and spiritual principles, bringing them into harmony are integral attributes of human life, which determines the significance of their philosophical understanding;
• - different visions and solutions to this issue underlie significant differences in the spiritual mentality of the civilizations of the West and the East. Western civilization is characterized by an aggressive-activist type of attitude towards existence according to the principle: “If the world does not meet my needs and ideals, then it needs to be changed, transformed.” This position had a profound impact on world history. She was one of significant reasons the colonial enslavement of many peoples by Western countries, the emergence of World Wars and many other wars, the development of severe environmental and many other crises on our planet, etc.

For the spiritual mentality of the East, it is more typical to recognize the highest intrinsic value of existence, the need to follow its conformity with the law: “If the world does not suit me, then it is necessary to change my consciousness, to bring it into harmony with the world.” Since the West and the East are the largest spiritual, cultural worlds, the opposition and complementarity of their mentalities on the problem of being and thinking are of fundamental importance for philosophical understanding.

The fundamental question of philosophy has a number of aspects. The main one is the question of which of the principles is primary and determining: spirit or matter. Various solutions to this issue in the history of philosophy have led to the emergence of opposing worldviews: materialistic and idealistic.

The philosophical direction that considers matter to be the primary, determining principle of the world, and the spirit, consciousness to be secondary, derived from matter, is called materialism. The opposite direction, which considers spirit as the primary principle, and matter as the generation and consequence of spirit, is called idealism. A clear definition of materialism and idealism was given back in the 19th century by the German philosopher F. Schlegel: “Materialism explains everything from matter... accepts matter as something first, primordial, as the source of all things... Idealism deduces everything from one spirit, explains the emergence matter from spirit or subjugates matter to it." Idealism exists in two varieties: objective idealism and subjective. Objective idealism recognizes the existence of matter, but believes that it is generated by a certain spiritual principle (God, the Absolute Idea, the World Mind, etc.).

The position of objective idealism is characteristic of a number of religions (Christianity, Islam, etc.); it was developed by such philosophers and thinkers as Plato, F. Aquinas, G. Hegel, etc.

Subjective idealism, unlike objective idealism, either denies the existence of the material world altogether or calls this existence into question. The only reality that subjective idealists recognize is the consciousness or sensations of the subject.

“The world is a complex of my sensations” - this is the position of subjective idealism. It is not surprising that this more than strange worldview, which declares the world to be derived from the consciousness of the subject, was called “bad idealism” by Hegel back in the 19th century.

Materialism also exists in a number of different forms, reflecting the natural stages of its development.

The initial forms of materialism arose along with the emergence of philosophy in the ancient civilizations of the East and ancient Greece. An excellent formula of spontaneous ancient materialism, expressing with extraordinary capacity the essence of this teaching, is one of the fragments of the teaching of the ancient Greek thinker Heraclitus: “This Cosmos, the same for all things, was not created by any of the gods or people, but it has always been , is and will be an eternally living fire, kindling in proportions and extinguishing in proportions.” In the era of New Time (XVI - XVIII centuries) metaphysical materialism became widespread in Europe, which was characterized by an exaggeration of moments of stability, staticity, isolation of objects, and an underestimation of their coherence and development.

A characteristic feature of metaphysical materialism was also mechanism, i.e., the extension of the ideas of classical mechanics to all sciences, the mechanical interpretation of phenomena, including biological and social ones. In the middle of the 19th century, K. Marx (1818-1883) and F. Engels (1820-1895) laid the foundations of a qualitatively new worldview - dialectical materialism, which was the largest scientific revolution in the philosophy of that era.

The essence of this revolution consisted primarily in the combination of dialectics and materialism, which had previously developed separately. The dialectical materialism of Marx and Engels, which later received the name of the philosophy of Marxism, combined and integrated the achievements of various directions of previous philosophical thought, including idealism, and reworked them from a scientific position.

The main provisions of the dialectical-materialist worldview underlying the philosophy of Marxism can be schematically formulated as follows:

• 1) The world (being, reality) exists objectively, that is, regardless of the will and consciousness of man;
• 2) The world was not created by anyone and cannot be destroyed by anyone. It exists and develops according to natural laws. It has no supernatural powers;
• 3) The world is one, there are no “otherworldly” (standing “above the world” or “outside the world”) spheres and phenomena that are absolutely separated from each other. Diverse objects and phenomena of reality represent different kinds moving matter;
• 4) The world is connected and is in eternal, continuous movement and development. Objects of reality interact with each other and mutually influence each other. In the process of development, qualitative changes in objects occur, including a natural transition from lower to higher forms;
• 5) The natural development of matter through a series of regular steps (inanimate nature - life - society) led to the emergence of man, mind, consciousness. Labor played a decisive role in separating man from the animal world and forming his consciousness. public character, the transition of human animal ancestors to the systematic production and use of tools;
• 6) Society, as the highest stage of development of matter, includes all the lower forms and levels on the basis of which it arose (mechanical, physical, chemical, biological), but is not reduced to them. It exists and develops on the basis of social laws that are qualitatively different from the laws of lower forms. The most important pattern of social development is the determining role of production in the life of society. The method of production of material life determines the social, political and spiritual processes of life in general - K. Marx believed;
• 7) The world is knowable. Human knowledge is not limited by nature, but it is historically limited at each stage of its development and for each individual person. The criterion for the truth of thinking and cognition is social practice.

Time has shown lasting value dialectical-materialistic worldview for the progress of science and society. At the same time, it turned out that some of its aspects require adjustment and development. IN last years a need arose for the formation of the highest form of dialectical-materialistic worldview - “spiritual materialism” (V. Mantatov). Spiritual materialism continues the line of Marxist materialism to recognize the objectivity of existence, its knowability, the natural evolution of matter from lower to higher forms, the exclusion of the supernatural from scientific ideas, etc.

At the same time, spiritual materialism overcomes the absolutization of the primacy of the material over the spiritual inherent in previous forms of materialism, the opposition and rupture of these principles, and focuses on identifying their unity, complex interrelation, interpenetration, on the precise fixation of the relationships in which the material and spiritual determine each other in functioning and development of facilities.

Mind-body problem

How exactly does consciousness relate to the brain? Today, neuroscience has reached the point where many philosophical questions about consciousness are becoming questions of neuroscience. Perhaps soon we will know what processes in the brain influence consciousness and the processes taking place in it, just as we will be able to understand what happens in the brain during certain states of consciousness.

Although the problem is still formulated as a division into two different categories, many philosophers insist that we can make progress in understanding consciousness only when we can overcome this dualism and assume that when something happens in consciousness, it is reflected in the brain, and when something happens in the brain, it affects consciousness.

When a person dreams of the sea, imagines himself jumping into the water, and then going to play volleyball, certain processes occur in his brain, and all these images are recorded in one way or another by groups of neurons. At the same time, if the brain is affected by electrical stimulation during sleep, this will affect consciousness. Perhaps the dream will suddenly turn into a hallucinatory adventure, it’s difficult to say for sure. But it is a fact that this mechanical effect will have an impact on the state of consciousness and the processes occurring in it. However, not all philosophers think so, so you can still stumble upon one in which one philosopher accuses another of reductionism or scientism.

Perception

How can we perceive anything? How do we receive information about the outside world? How can sense perception be a direct access to reality if it can fail in the form of hallucinations and illusions? Our knowledge of the world around us rests on the belief that the material world is exactly the way we see it. When we see a tree, we believe that it really exists outside of us, and therefore we believe that the tree stands where we saw it.

All the questions that theorists ask can be divided into phenomenological and epistemological questions. Phenomenologists try to describe what exactly happens when we perceive. Let's say you see a horse, brown, suppose it's standing. What is happening at this moment in consciousness? Unlike scientists, philosophers ask questions not about what is happening at this moment with neurons, but ultimately some data from outside world are transformed in the human brain and he sees exactly the horse, and specifically the brown one, the philosopher is concerned about what it is to “perceive” in general, how we can describe the perceiving consciousness and how it is fundamentally different from consciousness in its other states.

Philosophers who consider perception from the point of view of epistemology (theories of knowledge) study perception as the primary source of our knowledge about the world. Contemporary theorists are faced with the challenge of describing perception in such a way that their descriptions answer both types of questions, while also taking into account recent advances in the scientific study of perception.

Philosophy of language

Despite the huge number of results achieved in the philosophy of language, which can be traced back to Gottlieb Frege, today researchers still face many questions. Scientists continue to try to find an answer to how language appeared, how it is even possible that a person has a language. For example, John Searle believes that if we can understand how people benefit from the use of certain linguistic structures, how language functions and is used by people, then we can answer the question of what prelinguistic cognitive abilities people's ancestors must have had in order to appear language.

Another important problem, identified by Frege, is the question of how the meanings of words arise and how we understand them. This raises questions that intersect with the philosophy of communication. One person speaks (how does what he says make sense?), the second understands him (how is he able to understand exactly what the first one means, because every word can have different shades meanings depending on the context, not to mention metaphors), and communication occurs between them (why do people even communicate with each other?).

The question of the relationship between language and thinking also takes on a new meaning. Few scholars have addressed this issue since Sapir and Whorf, but in the 2000s the theory of linguistic relativity received renewed attention in the works of , which advocates the view that language and culture influence the way we think.

What is consciousness

Philosophy of consciousness today is one of the main research areas in philosophy. An important discussion about consciousness occurring in the 2000s was the debate about extensions of consciousness. The discussion revolves around the question of where consciousness ends and the external world begins. There are different points of view.

Some scientists believe that consciousness ends at the same place as our body. The externalist theory about the origin of word meanings states that meanings originate outside our heads and we learn them from the outside world. Under her influence, some scientists decided that our consciousness is not limited to the framework of the “I”, but also has a continuation in the external world. Still others believe that the environment plays an active role in the cognitive processes occurring in consciousness, and therefore we can say that consciousness has an extension in the form of the environment. In particular, David Chalmers and Andy Clarke think so. They received a strong reaction and provoked a huge number of responses refuting their thesis.

Democracy

Today, the question of democracy is one of the most pressing issues in political philosophy. Until recently, everyone was shouting about the victory of democracy throughout the world, and that its establishment in all states was only a matter of time. However, today among political philosophers this opinion is not the only one. The reason for this is not only the growing religious trends and the prospect of establishing Islamic states in the Middle East, as it may seem at first glance, but also the crisis of democracy, which is clearly observed in the United States and the European Union.

In this regard, the principles of functioning of existing democratic societies are being considered in a new way, what truly democratic principles should be, what true democracy is and whether such a form of government is really the best.

Theoretical debates focus on questions about the limitations of representative democracy, the relationship between liberal democracy and inequality, and many others.

One of the most interesting works in this area is David Estlund's book Democratic Authority. In it, he not only reviews and criticizes existing theories, but also puts forward his own theory of epistemological proceduralism. Estlund argues that the recognition of any political decision as legitimate and the recognition of power as such does not depend on whether a particular decision was right or wrong. Legitimation occurs because of the epistemic value of the democratic procedure. Even if there is someone who really knows better than others, he cannot decide for others. A decision can only have legitimacy if it is acceptable from all points of view and its adoption has gone through all the necessary democratic procedures.

Photographer Chris Wells

A scientific problem is the presence of several different hypotheses to resolve one question, or a question that does not have a definite solution and requires additional research. I think it’s clear that this article is not about the philistine misuse of the concept problem.

For research in philosophy, you can find a problem for every taste, which will require a lot of time, and perhaps a lifetime, to resolve, but will remain open. For example, I’ll just name approximate circle problems of philosophy briefly, it includes the following well-known:

• The problem of consciousness is perhaps the most pressing in recent decades, abstracting from the functional, obviously limited - read incorrect - understanding of consciousness, one can forget about most of the achievements in this field over the past half century, since they have a practical meaning related to artificial intelligence(consciousness). Bringing the problem to a universal scale is emphasized by the ability of consciousness to manifest itself both within itself and outside;
• The problem of cognition or knowability comes from its definition, where it is necessary to maintain the reliability of the knowledge obtained. It is this reliability and its criteria that are called into question in each specific case;
• The problem of time is simple to express, but extremely difficult to solve: is time a subjective and relative value, or an objective and fundamental one? In my opinion, time is a purely subjective value for measuring the extent of processes or phenomena relative to other processes and phenomena. Of course, I will talk about each issue that requires close detailed consideration separately;
• The problem of truth is generated by the questions of what is false and what, on the contrary, is true and leads the researcher to the previously mentioned problem of knowledge;
• The problem of subject and method in philosophy lies in different approaches to solving problems and opposing views on the methods used. For example, idealistic dialectics and dialectical materialism have diametrically opposed opinions;
• The problem of the meaning of life, although depending on how you look at it, in my opinion, there is no problem, and life has no meaning at all;
• The problem of personality is its formation, education, which should not be confused with training. Personality criteria are speculative, which leads to artificial stratification and gives rise to a number of socio-political troubles. The first and last cannot be called successes;
• The problem of death - does it exist? From the point of view of functionalism, where personality, the mind is a product of an organism that is mortal, then yes, there is death. From other points of view, these theories are questionable or incorrect - the question is relevant;
• The problem of society in philosophy is similar to the personal one, only here groups and their internal connections are considered; a collective is not at all the same thing as a crowd, and society is not synonymous with society;
• The problem of freedom is familiar to anyone, but a complex and effective consideration of it may cause the average person to panic, since behind the apparent simplicity this issue is connected with every aspect and phenomenon in the world, both external and internal;
• The problem of faith and reason is not about religious faith we are talking about what and how much the mind knows, really knows, and does not take on faith, problematic criteria and aspects of knowledge, the relationship between faith and reason;
• The problem of the ideal in philosophy is generated by the presence of views coming from natural science, where the theory of the idea and the ideal itself is often rejected;
• There is even a problem here about the very origin or emergence of philosophy.

It is easy to note the diversity and importance, the almost eternal relevance of the listed list, but this is not all. Solutions to these problems of philosophy have been proposed and, often, more than one for each, but the discussion remains and it is relevant.

Perhaps there is a major problem with philosophy? Yes and no; in the largest type of objects of science, the main problem can be called man, that is, a rational being, and the world, and their connections, read any of the main objects of philosophy. The latter is true for an arbitrary problem; So, if we call man the main thing, then without the world he is not so interesting; separately, the world loses its expediency for a rational being, for whom the world is not interesting without the researcher himself. Then perhaps the main problem of philosophy is the connection between a rational being and the world? This is probably a debatable issue.

Specifics of problems of philosophy

The specific problems of philosophy include:

Difficulty in defining problem criteria;

Methods for determining the nature of truth;

Existentiality of philosophical research;

Fundamentality and extremeness, universality and specificity;

Antinomy and paradox, apriority and aporia are forms of intensive development;

Framework of the issue: historical, applicability, etc. (general, specific, practical, local-situational, etc.).

In fact, it is possible to formulate the problem of philosophy in many concepts, since any answer or approach has an opposite view of the phenomenon or process it considers, certainly not always, but often. It is also true that a problem in science is not something bad and indicates a dead end in research. No, the problem mainly arises when there is already a number of theories and hypotheses that need to be correlated and summarized; in this vein, a philosophical problem can be considered as an intermediate stage between theories and a conclusion on the issue, or between a theory taken as a basis and its final proof.

However, unlike purely natural sciences, philosophy, due to its specific subjects, approaches or questions asked, is not as easy to achieve a final solution as, for example, in physics. Although in physics there are also enough theoretical models with indirect empirical evidence. In certain disciplines, such as ethics or aesthetics, it is impossible to experimentally establish definitive data, since the subject is largely subjective, and the choice of standard will be carried out in the same way and it will be removed from a largely subjective environment. This is also a specificity of philosophical problems, which, by the way, is one of the first often criticized by apologists of natural science. True, it should be noted that these individuals simply do not understand the issue that they are criticizing, otherwise they would not criticize from such a position. But this is a topic for a completely different conversation.

Problems of philosophy

In philosophy, as in any knowledge, problems are an organic part of the research process. Regardless of historically changing ideas about what problems philosophy solves, or personal preferences, it has always, in one way or another, always addressed a certain range of the most general and important issues for any worldview. The Basic Question of Philosophy predetermines the search for solutions to such problems as the knowability of the surrounding world, its uniqueness and plurality, finitude and infinity, discreteness and integrity, continuous change and immobility, its nature and essence, as well as man and his place in the world, the meaning of human life and death, good and evil, beauty and ugliness, truth and lies, justice and injustice, etc.

In different historical eras, numerous philosophical schools and movements formulated these problems in different ways. But the issues we have listed are discussed not only in philosophy. How do their philosophical understandings differ? The first difference is level of solving these problems. Philosophy strives to give their understanding at the level of universality, the ultimate foundations of culture. The subject of interest of philosophy is the universality, the ultimate nature of being, phenomena and facts.

Another important feature of the philosophical problems being studied is sustainability and timelessness. Worldview questions do not have definitive answers. Philosophical problems are “eternal”; they always retain their meaning. It should be noted that in the process of development of philosophical thought there has been progress in the depth and breadth of understanding of these problems. Thus, the understanding of matter in the era of antiquity differs from the understanding of matter at the present time. The same is true for the interpretation of space and time. Philosophy in its content correlates these problems with the sociocultural context of the time when it develops and which predetermines the features of their solution.

Philosophical knowledge also contains a range of problems that relate to applied, arising from the need to solve problems related to the real practical activities of people.

But even the interpretation of the material and ideal by materialists and idealists gave rise to various variations in the formulation of the main question. Thus, Hegel called the Absolute Idea primary. Schopenhauer considered the primary unconscious cosmic will, and Max- Feel. This led to the identification of an objective, proclaiming the independence of the idea, spirit, divine principle, idealism (Plato, Augustine the Blessed, Hegel, etc.) and subjective, asserting the dependence of the external world on human consciousness, idealism (Berkeley, Hume). There are other variants of idealistic philosophy. The spiritual principle could be understood as the world mind (panlogism), the world will (voluntarism), a single spiritual substance (idealistic monism), many spiritual primary elements (for example, Leibniz’s monadology, expressing the essence of idealistic pluralism), etc.

In the history of philosophy, materialism also underwent various changes, taking the forms of naive materialism, metaphysical materialism, mechanistic materialism, vulgar materialism, dialectical materialism, etc.

Depending on how many principles are accepted at the basis of being, all philosophical concepts can be divided into monistic(unity of command of the world), dualistic(two principles are equal - matter and consciousness) and pluralistic(the world has many initial foundations).

Any philosophical system necessarily addresses the issue of the relationship between matter and consciousness. The answer to this question determines the approach to all other problems and ways to solve them. The worldview orientation of a person is, to one degree or another, connected with the formulation of the main question of philosophy in terms of the relationship between matter and consciousness, material and spiritual, which concerns only one side of the main question of philosophy.

Another side of the main question of philosophy concerns opportunities to understand the world, the relationship of our thoughts about the world around us to this world itself. Yes, representatives agnosticism(for example, Hume) believe that the question of the truth of knowledge surrounding a person reality cannot be finally resolved. Representatives skepticism(Pyrrho, Carneades, Sextus Empiricus) question the knowledge of objective reality. It is impossible to unequivocally attribute agnosticism or skepticism to materialism or idealism, since both of them were among both materialists and idealists.

It cannot be proven that one or another interpretation of the main issue in philosophy is true. It is also impossible to prove the truth or falsity of a materialistic and idealistic position.

History of philosophy for a long time was seen as a struggle between two opposing directions - materialism and idealism. But this is a confrontation cannot be absolute just as it is impossible to unambiguously attribute one or another philosophical concept to materialism or idealism.

No matter how great the role of the main question of philosophy, its can't be exaggerated and even more so to reduce the entire problematic of philosophy only to its solution, highlighting the doctrine of being or the theory of knowledge.

Structure of philosophical knowledge

The relationship between the “world” - “man” subsystems can be reduced to ontological, epistemological, axiological and praxeological aspects. It is they who predetermine the structure of philosophical knowledge, which is revealed through the following disciplines.

Ontology- this is the doctrine of existence, the principles of its structure, laws and forms. Often in the history of philosophy, ontology is called “first philosophy,” or metaphysics, i.e., the doctrine of being in general, regardless of the particular types of the latter. In classical philosophy of the 18th–19th centuries. ontology was compared with epistemology (theory of knowledge), logic, anthropology and was defined through opposition to the latter. By the middle of the 19th century. The limitations of such an interpretation of ontology were revealed, since its connection with other spheres of development of human life was identified.

Epistemology- the doctrine of knowledge - explores “the problems of human knowledge, questions about its capabilities and boundaries, about the ways and means of achieving true knowledge, about the role of knowledge in human existence.” The main problems that epistemology works to solve include questions about the place of cognitive activity in the life of society and man, about its essence, forms and types. A large place in the research base is occupied by the question of truth, its criteria, ways and means of achievement, as well as the prospects for the cognitive activity of mankind. Modern epistemology treats cognition as a problem of human existence.

Logics studies the laws, forms, techniques and operations of thinking that help a person to understand the world around him. It belongs to the philosophical disciplines, since it not only examines problems associated with the knowledge of reality, but also explores the universal forms and laws of rational activity. At the same time, logic is a branched system of knowledge, including formal, mathematical, dialectical, classical, non-classical logic, etc.

Philosophical anthropology They call the philosophy of man, which is designed to comprehend the problems of his existence and nature, his role as a unique manifestation of life in general, as a creator of culture and history. Philosophical anthropology as an independent direction began to take shape in the philosophy of Feuerbach and received further development in the concepts of Scheler, Plesner, Buber, etc.

Social philosophy explores problems related to the study of the structure of society, its nature, determinants of existence, functioning and development, as well as the conditions, mechanisms and forms of its real historical existence. Social philosophy explores the macro-sociological patterns of the existence of society, as well as the cause-and-effect relationships inherent in groups of societies related in sociocultural, civilizational or other respects. One piece of knowledge is macrosociology society, and the other concerns the study of sociological patterns of development of society and philosophical problems of history itself as a science (historiosophy).

Originated in late XIX- early 20th century in Western philosophy axiology explores nature various systems human value orientations. Sometimes ethics, aesthetics, and philosophy of religion are considered in the axiology system (although they can also act as independent philosophical disciplines). All of these private disciplines touch upon issues of certain values ​​of human existence. Concept "value" can be interpreted as the human, social and cultural meaning of certain phenomena of reality.

Speaking about the disciplines that fill axiology, we should consider them in more detail. So, ethics how a philosophical discipline studies morality. It forms ideas about what is proper, good and evil in the form of ideals, moral principles and norms of behavior. Sometimes problems about the purpose and meaning of human life are considered ethical. At the same time, some authors call it an independent philosophical discipline and existential philosophy, covering the same topic.

Another special section of axiology is aesthetics studies the laws of aesthetic exploration of the world by man, the essence and forms of creativity in accordance with the laws of beauty. The focus of aesthetics is on the aesthetic attitude of man to reality, the essence of aesthetic consciousness and the nature of art.

Philosophy of religion explores the essential properties of religion, its elements, structure, functions and role in culture and society. It is also associated with the study of various schools and trends in the philosophy of religion, which also explores issues of free thought and atheism as phenomena of spiritual culture as a certain type of worldview.

In addition to the above, such private philosophical movements as philosophy of science, political philosophy, philosophy of property, philosophy of culture, philosophy of technology, philosophy of education. Other directions are also being developed, for example, philosophy of law or philosophy of politics.

In the structure of philosophical knowledge, some authors distinguish the so-called applied philosophy, which is designed to solve individual problems of specific life practice. Also included in the structure of philosophical knowledge is history of philosophy, which is intended to analyze the history of the formation of philosophical thought in order to understand its modern content, place and role in the life of society, and the severity of historical polemics. Studying the entire history of philosophical thought is necessary to comprehend the essence of philosophical problems, the logic of the development of philosophy as a science. Outstanding philosophical works, created over centuries, live a rich life beyond their time, are enriched with new meanings and meanings, playing with different facets in different contexts of present and future cultures and eras.

Functions of philosophy

Since philosophy is a means of expressing the worldview of people corresponding to a certain era, its most important basic function is the formation of a general system of human views on the world.Worldview the function includes a series subfunctions: humanistic, social-axiological, cultural-educational and reflective-informational. Let us characterize the named subfunctions.

Talking about humanistic subfunction of philosophy, It should be remembered that all the problems solved in it are combined in various ways with the problem of man. Remembering that the subject of philosophy orients philosophical knowledge towards the significance of human problems, we emphasize that philosophy tries to answer questions such as the essence and purpose of man, his place in the world, the meaning of human life and death, thus opening up for each individual the possibility of a worldview choice. The subject of philosophical understanding is the problem of death and immortality, which is important for humanity.

Social-axiological subfunction, is represented by three aspects: constructive-value (associated with the identification of various ideas about values ​​in philosophical knowledge), interpretive (consists in assessing social reality from the point of view of its inherent value orientations) and critical (clarifies the discrepancy between what should and what is in the assessment of social reality).

In philosophy there are social-target value orientations(Holiness, Spirituality, Knowledge, Mastery, Business, Glory, Power, Wealth); social-instrumental value orientations(Right, Freedom, Justice, Solidarity, Mercy); personal-instrumental value orientations(Life, Health, Strength, Dexterity, Beauty, Intelligence); subjective-target and universal value orientations. Value orientations concern the individual and society as a whole.

Among the subfunctions of philosophy as a worldview should be mentioned cultural and educational. Philosophy expands the scope of everyday consciousness and makes a person look at the world and himself differently. Philosophy teaches a person to reflect, to think about what he sometimes does not notice. Thanks to its tools and methods, philosophy develops most important qualities human thinking, such as self-reflection, criticality, doubt, as a result of which a person’s ability to think is improved. To self-identify as an individual, a person needs constant communication with systems of value orientations. By making a person more educated, philosophy helps him to better understand others, increasing the ability for mutual understanding, and affects the human soul.

Reflective-information subfunction is a method of philosophy in forming a general idea of ​​the world. Philosophy, like science, seeks to obtain information about the reality around us. Philosophy performs this subfunction, being the science of the universal.

Thus, the worldview function of philosophy can be revealed thanks to humanistic, social-axiological, cultural-educational and reflective-informational subfunctions.

Another important function of philosophy is methodological. Methodology is a system of principles and methods of organizing and constructing theoretical and practical activities, and in addition is a doctrine about this system. Due to the fact that the methodological function is performed not only by philosophy, special, general and universal methodologies are distinguished. But it is philosophy that acts as a theory of method and a universal method of knowledge and practice. As a theory of method, philosophy studies the most general patterns theoretical and practical activities, establishes the concept of “scientific method”, reveals the relationship between universal, general scientific and specific methods of cognition, etc.

Being universal method philosophy finds answers to questions about the ultimate level of existence. Philosophy outlines a range of problems and prospects for scientific disciplines, leading to the development of new topics by special sciences. In addition, philosophy, acting in this role, develops various methods, for example, such as dialectical; highlights principles, including systematicity, historicism, etc.; formulates concepts, including “space”, “time”, etc. Special sciences at the level of extreme generalizations are based on general philosophical methodology.

Like the basic, ideological function, the methodological function of philosophy can be presented as a set of subfunctions.

Carrying out heuristic subfunction, philosophy contributes to the growth of new scientific and other knowledge. Trying to explain the universality of the cause-and-effect dependencies of the world, discovering the universal laws of society, living and inanimate nature, philosophy reveals the general laws of knowledge, explains its dynamics, and reveals the ultimate foundations of culture. A scientific theory includes its philosophical foundations- philosophical categories and principles necessary for solving philosophical problems of a specific theory.

Philosophy plays a huge role in connecting scientific knowledge with the dominant worldview, with the categories of culture of a particular era. The philosophical basis of science serves as a means of adapting scientific knowledge to the prevailing ideological attitudes in culture, which is of great importance for scientific research in general.

Another subfunction of philosophy as methodology is coordinating- is to agree among themselves in the process scientific research various methods. Often, certain research methods fade into the background, and the role of others is undeservedly exaggerated or downplayed due to disunity in general scientific methodology associated with the specialization of sciences. Hence, it is important to find an integral approach to determining the logical connection between individual groups of methods. This subfunction is closely related to the logical-epistemological one.

Logical-epistemological role philosophy in scientific knowledge consists not only in the use of the logical apparatus and the logical construction of scientific theory, but also in the study of problems associated with knowledge in general.

The last subfunction of philosophy in this group is integrating- performs the unifying role of philosophical knowledge. Only philosophy has the ability to lay the foundations of systematicity and form an integral view of humanitarian knowledge as a whole, serving as connecting elements for various disciplines. Through ontology and epistemology, philosophy is connected with modern concepts natural sciences and philosophy of science, forming a complex ontological and epistemological disciplines. Anthropology is closely related to ontology and epistemology, allowing us to see the unity of psychology, pedagogy, logic and rhetoric. Ethics, aesthetics and philosophy of religion represent an axiology closely related to anthropology and social philosophy. Next, a holistic complex is built from sociology, political science, economic theory, cultural studies thanks to the corresponding philosophical concretization of social philosophy, which includes the philosophy of history. At the intersection of sociology and political science, a new level of understanding is emerging - the theory of state and law, which, being improved and generalized, gives impetus to the philosophy of law.

The Doctrine of Being

The focus of ontology scholars is on issues related to philosophical study being- one of the main categories of philosophy, which acts as a prerequisite for subsequent reflections on the world. In philosophy, in parallel with the category “being”, other concepts are used that are of the same order with this concept, one might say synonymous, among them such as “reality”, “reality”, etc.

There is no consensus regarding the definition of the category “being”; there are various interpretations. The most popular boils down to the following, where only one feature is recognized - existence, and the characteristic features of certain specific things are not taken into account: "…being is an integral characteristic of the world, affirming its integrity through its existence.”

Let us note, however, that the category “being” in modern philosophical literature can be used in two senses: narrow and broad. In the first case, scientists mean everything that exists, which includes matter, consciousness, feelings, and experiences of people, and in the second - objective reality, which, as is known, exists independently of consciousness.

All the diversity of manifestations of the world enters into existence, only at its different levels. Firstly, objective reality itself, taken from the perspective of pure potentiality, is called being in oneself. At this level, speaking about possibility, we can talk about potential being. Secondly, the totality of really existing phenomena, processes and objects acts as being for oneself, and reality appears as actual existence. The third level of being, the so-called being for another, is interpreted as a thing existing independently of the subject, which, being involved in real interaction with the object, becomes the object itself.

In addition, when characterizing the category of “being,” philosophy proceeds from modes of existence, as a result of which being is divided into three types of reality: objective(material, natural world), subjective(human inner world) and subjective-objective(intersection of the first two worlds in established groups phenomena). Thus, speaking about the existence of man himself, one can notice that his existence is located in both the objective and subjective world.

Since being belongs to the group of abstract concepts, it is very poor in terms of content as a concept, and therefore it is necessary to say that it can be concretized in other concepts, for example, such as “matter”.

Matter, being an objective reality, it exists independently of human consciousness and is reflected by it. There are several approaches to the interpretation of the concept of “matter”. The above definition gives matter an abstract characteristic, while others may associate it with concrete, sensory things. The understanding of “matter” and its interpretation took a long time to develop, over several stages in the development of philosophy.

The history of philosophy preserves all attempts to find an accurate definition of the concept of “matter” since antiquity, when philosophers understood matter as visual and sensory manifestations (water, air, fire, etc.). French materialists of the 18th century. belongs to the material-substrate idea of ​​matter.

In the definition of matter as an objective reality independent of consciousness, there is its opposition, from a philosophical and epistemological point of view, to consciousness. A number of authors make an attempt to interpret matter from a substantial-axiological position, listing its attributes and properties, emphasizing the absence of opposition between matter and consciousness in the ontological aspect. This approach allows us to interpret consciousness as a property of highly organized matter that appears at specific stages of its historical development.

From a philosophical and ontological point of view, matter acts as a substance, as the basis of changing phenomena. Thus, matter can be considered self-sufficient and the cause of itself. This implies its self-movement, self-generating character, infinity in space and time (eternity). Everything that exists in the world is a property or form of motion of matter, which exists in the form of an infinite variety of certain formations. As for material objects, they are endowed not only with internal order, but also with a systemic organization.

Space and time, being universal forms of the existence of matter that express specific forms of coordination of material objects, cannot exist outside of it.

Matter, being a substance, cannot be created or destroyed. From the point of view of its substantiality, it is genetically connected with consciousness, which is its generation. Not to mention the fact that consciousness is connected with matter due to the material basis of individual consciousness, since the latter is inseparable from the brain - the organ and its functions.

Matter can be defined through its relationship to consciousness, the universal characteristics of which philosophy seeks to identify. A. G. Spirkin gives the following definition: "Consciousness- this is the highest function of the brain, peculiar only to humans and associated with speech, which consists in a generalized, evaluative and purposeful reflection and constructive and creative transformation of reality, in the preliminary mental construction of actions and anticipation of their results, in the reasonable regulation and self-control of human behavior.”

Consciousness reflects the world around us, forms a certain image of it, which allows a person to get an idea of ​​the world around him. Therefore, consciousness often appears as a “subjective image of the objective world.” At the same time, it should be taken into account that consciousness is a mental form of activity, the purpose of which is to reflect, transform and evaluate reality.

In addition to the category of “consciousness,” such concepts as “spirit” and “thinking” are often used in the scientific apparatus. Based on this, the approach to the formulation of the main question of philosophy changes (the relationship between “matter and consciousness” is replaced by the relationship between “matter and spirit”, “matter and thinking”).

Let us note that the concepts of “thinking” and “consciousness” are not identical, since the individual consciousness of a person is not limited to performing mental operations. It implies the presence of a sensory reflection of reality, emotions and experiences.

Talking about the concept "spirit", the following definition can be given A. Loseva:“... the totality and concentration of all functions of consciousness, arising as a reflection of reality, but concentrated in a single individuality, as an instrument of conscious orientation in reality for influencing it and, ultimately, for remaking it.”

Let's highlight differences between matter and consciousness. From an epistemological point of view, images of the world do not contain materiality, or they are not material, independent from the reflected world and from the neurodynamic codes contained in the structure of the brain. In addition, the creative-constructive function of consciousness allows it to create images without relying on real prototypes and capable of being materially embodied. Thus, epistemology contrasts matter and consciousness, which is excluded in the ontological sense, where matter is defined as substance: “By substance I mean that which exists in itself and is represented through itself, that is, that the representation of which does not need the representation of another thing from which it should be formed” (B. Spinoza).

Both approaches, epistemological and substantial, are inseparable from each other. Complementing each other, they allow us to obtain a holistic understanding of the essence of one of the main philosophical categories of “matter”.

In addition to understanding matter as a substance, in philosophy there is another, no less significant principle for understanding existence - determinism, which emphasizes the mutual conditionality of phenomena and reveals its nature. Determinism is the doctrine of the universal conditionality of objective phenomena. The concept of determinism is revealed through a number of provisions, including the universal interconnection of material systems and processes, the principle of causality, the variety of types of determination, the regularity of conditioning relations and functional connections, or probabilistic determination. At the same time, the basis of philosophical determinism is the doctrine of the causality of all phenomena, where the basic categories of determinism are “connections” (the universal interconnection of all phenomena) and “interactions” (the cause acts as an interaction, and the effect is its result).

There are various concepts of determinism in philosophy. But in all concepts, the main place belongs to the concepts of “necessity”, which stands out as the main characteristic of cause-effect relationships, and “accident”. From the point of view of determinism, necessity stems from the essence of a specific material phenomenon, and chance arises in an external phenomenon, in side connections. The possibility of its manifestation is equal - as in the direction of something that may or may not happen.

G. Hegel in his works revealed the relationship between necessity and chance, pointing out that they do not exist without each other, that necessity is invariably realized through chance, that in the process of evolution, necessity and chance are mutually transformed.

Determinism pays much attention to the relationship between possibility and reality. Since reality appears as an objective existing world, as an actual being, it can be compared with a possibility that “fixes the objective trend of development of existing phenomena, the presence of conditions for their occurrence or, at a minimum, the absence of circumstances preventing this occurrence” (Philosophical Dictionary, ed. I. T. Frolova).

Determinism believes that possibility is nothing more than potential existence, an unconditional future present in the present. Consequently, reality can be interpreted as a realized possibility. From here we can talk about the existence of a dialectical relationship between possibility and reality, which contains within itself the possibility of its further evolution, which arose as a result of the implementation of previously existing possibilities.

The last important aspect of determinism is found in the relation freedom(the ability of “a person to act in accordance with his interests and goals, based on the knowledge of objective necessity” - P.V. Alekseev, A.V. Panin) and necessity.

When characterizing freedom, one cannot talk about it only from the point of view of the epistemological approach, where it is defined as “conscious necessity.” Freedom must also be considered from ontological positions, where it appears as the activity of people not only in relation to the practical mastery of necessity, but also in mastering the means of life and in individual development.

Thus, from the standpoint of determinism, freedom is impossible without a person’s responsibility to society and to himself for the act done on the basis of his own moral duty And legal norms accepted in society.

In contrast to determinism, the philosophical doctrine indeterminism from a methodological point of view, it denies both the objectivity of the causal relationship (the so-called ontological indeterminism) and the cognitive value of causal explanation in science (methodological indeterminism). From the standpoint of indeterminism, the will is presented as an autonomous force. According to proponents of indeterminism, the principles of causality cannot explain human choice and behavior. Among the followers of the ideas of determinism, one can single out the Baden school of neo-Kantianism, which limited the principle of determinism to the natural sciences (W. Windelband, G. Rickert). Determinism was consistently denied by neopositivists, pragmatists and personalists, who believed that determinism was limited to the logical sphere.

Modern quantum physics has exacerbated the contradictions between determinism and indeterminism, establishing the unsuitability of the principles of classical determinism for describing processes occurring in the microworld. Attempts have been made to apply the methodological foundations adopted in indeterminism and agnosticism to the interpretation of the basic laws of quantum physics.

For example, B. Russell, H. Reichenbach And F. Frank denied the scientific value of determinism. In their opinion, the indisputability of causality does not belong to the field of classical physics, since measurement results are distributed probabilistically, and even teleological forces have been brought in to explain individual micro-phenomena.

Movement and development, dialectics

Speaking about fundamental ontological concepts, we should especially highlight the category of “development”, which is considered the main subject of the study of dialectics. However, it should be emphasized that the concept of “dialectics” did not emerge immediately. In the process of formation of philosophical knowledge, its content underwent changes many times. Socrates understood dialectic as the doctrine of the art of conversation or argument. Plato, in development of the Socratic understanding, believed that dialectic is a technique for connecting and breaking up concepts, on the basis of which one can come to their exact definition. Aristotle, speaking about subjective dialectics, defined it as a subjective method for studying problems.

Starting with Heraclitus, ancient philosophy points to the continuity of the process of movement, which serves as the basis of all things, where any thing or property turns into its opposite.

As a result, dialectics began to be correlated with the study of the development of being. At the same time, Parmenides, on the contrary, asserted the immobility of being, denying concrete becoming.

Medieval scholasticism believed that dialectics, in essence, is formal logic. In fact, dialectics became the doctrine of development in the era of classical German philosophy, when I. Kant developed his dialectical ideas in the doctrine of antinomies. Important dialectical ideas were put forward I. G. Fichte.

Hegel was the first to present a holistic system of dialectics, developing the laws of dialectics, creating dialectical logic, and revealing the mobility of the system of logical categories. Thanks to Hegel's ideas, dialectics emerged as a special science.

Marxist-Leninist philosophy also contributed to the development of the concept of “dialectics”, interpreting it as the science of the most general laws of development of nature, society and thinking.

In philosophy development is considered as a qualitative change in material and ideal objects. Moreover, it is directional in nature and is inextricably linked with changes occurring in objects. Deserves special attention irreversibility of changes during development, since reversible changes are characteristic of functioning processes. In addition, changes must be characterized by patterns, since the absence of the latter indicates random changes of a catastrophic type. Thus, development leads to a new qualitative state of the object. Most often, in a generalized form relative to the concept of “development”, the concept is used "change" as the most general form of existence of objects and phenomena. Change is any movement and interaction, acts as a transition from one state to another, covering all development processes.

Philosophers have proposed several models of development, otherwise called “models of dialectics,” among which one cannot fail to mention "classic" model I. Kant, I. G. Fichte, F.V. Schelling and G. W. F. Hegel. This model proposed two variations of development models: rationalistic and logical-epistemological.

G. Spencer suggested gradualistic model development, based on the position of the universal gradual evolution of all nature. He argued that there was an external source of change and development of material systems, while denying explosive-type leaps.

L. Morgan, R. W. Sellars, A. Bergson and G. H. Lewis- representatives "emergentism"(the concept of “creative evolution”) - they recognized explosive leaps, taking internal “creative force” as their source.

"Naturalistic" model of development, developed C. Darwin, J. Huxley, J. Simpson And L. Bertalanffy, called the dialectic of natural scientific materialists, addressed specific manifestations of nature and did not include the study of development as a phenomenon covering all spheres of existence. The anthropological, existentialist model, the opposite of the “naturalistic” one, was of the opinion that dialectics lies in the dynamism of the human spirit.

IN equilibrium-integration modelF. Le Danteca And L. Ward Equilibrium as a state of the system was elevated to absolute. In accordance with this teaching, equilibrium is destroyed under the influence of external forces. Therefore, the system should strive for a state in which there are no contradictions. R. Dahrendorf And L. A. Kozer formulated the opposite theory, in which the central place belongs to the “conflict", thanks to which, or by which, the system has the opportunity to develop.

Influenced by ideas K. Marx And F. Engels has developed dialectical-materialist model, which is based on the doctrine of development, which occurs on the basis of the law of negation of negation. It was meant that the stages passed in development are repeated for more high level, development occurs spasmodically, as if in a spiral. This model is also based on the idea that quantitative changes sooner or later turn into qualitative ones, having internal impulses for development received from contradiction.

Other development models also deserve attention, such as "negative dialectic"(T.V. Adorno) And "antinomic dialectic"(P. A. Florensky).

Thus, analyzing views on the theory of development and approaches to its study, we can say that the philosophical category "development" is a multifaceted phenomenon. In dialectics there are a number of laws:

1) The law of “negation of negation” (dialectical synthesis) asserts the continuity of development, when at the highest stage of development some properties of a number of lower stages are repeated (T. Adorno and others).

2) The law of transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones. Its main idea is that quality is a system of essential and necessary characteristics of an object that make it externally and internally defined. In accordance with this law, in addition to qualitative certainty, objects also have quantitative certainty (magnitude, pace, volume, number, degree, etc.). Moreover, quantity and quality are so interconnected that the essence of quantity is determined by comparing it with quality. Thus, quantity indicates the degree of development of a given quality.

3) The law of unity and struggle of opposites (the law of dialectical inconsistency). Movement acts as self-motion, that is, each object contains opposites, but at the same time, being in unity, they do not always constitute a contradiction, since this requires interaction (inextricable unity, mutual exclusion and mutual penetration into each other).

The last thing to talk about when considering development is the concept of “progress”. In inorganic nature, the indicator of progress is the degree of complexity of the structure of the system. Regarding organic systems, determining progress requires the use of a set of indicators. Thus, progress can be characterized not only by the degree of differentiation and integration of the structure, but also by the functions of living things, the efficiency and performance of structures, an increase in the degree of independence from the environment, etc. Accordingly, regression will be characterized by a decrease in the level of system organization, loss of the ability to perform certain functions . Based on the proposed characteristics of progress and regression, we can propose the following formulation of the concept "progress"- this is the development of the system from lower to higher, to determine which a starting point, analysis, definition is necessary general trend development, since at some stages regression, chaos or circulation may appear.

Scientific, philosophical and religious pictures of the world

The main, ideological function of philosophy is to contribute to the formation in a person of the integrity of the picture of the world, ideas about its structure, its place in this world, the principles of interaction with the outside world.

History knows many attempts to present the general properties and patterns of nature. Any knowledge tries to spiritually reproduce the world in the form of its picture. There are three such ways of reproducing the surrounding world - scientific, philosophical and religious pictures of the world. Unlike other forms, the philosophical picture of the world is universal.

Yes, for scientific picture of the world characterized by the integrity of the system of ideas about the general properties and patterns of the world, which appears on the basis of generalized and synthesized basic concepts and principles of the natural sciences. In the scientific picture of the world, it is customary to distinguish two main components: conceptual, or conceptual(expressed by the philosophical categories “matter”, “time”, “space”, “motion”, etc.; the principles of “universal interconnection and interdependence of phenomena”, “systemic unity of the world” and other general scientific concepts and laws, for example, the “law of conservation and energy conversion") and sensual-figurative(a set of visual ideas about nature, for example, “planetary model of the atom”, “image of the Metagalaxy”, etc.).

The scientific picture of the world, in contrast to the pre-scientific and non-scientific, is based on a specific fundamental scientific theory. For the first time, scientific (natural philosophical) pictures of the world were proposed by ancient philosophers. The truly “scientific” picture of the world began only in the 16th–17th centuries, when modern natural science was born.

Scientific and mechanical views on the world in the 17th–19th centuries. were based on the rational-critical consciousness of the emerging bourgeoisie (hence the appearance of the works of Leonardo, the works of Galileo, determined by the demands of the time). It was necessary to answer questions regarding the mechanical movement of bodies in space and statics. Gradually, the structure of the world began to be explained exclusively through mechanics, astronomy and mathematics.

By the end of the 17th century. the fundamental properties of the world were explained using mechanical and mathematical science. Newton gave a final and adequate presentation of this. The general unit of measurement of mass was understood as a characteristic of all bodies, both terrestrial and celestial, in their various volumes. Force was determined based on its effect on the movement of the body. The concept of body size led to the discovery of simple qualitative laws.

The teachings of I. Newton with his law of gravity gave new impetus to the development of astronomy, physics and engineering. As a result, a single image of the material world was formed, after which a mechanistic explanation of natural processes took the leading position, which categorically took the place of the only paradigm of science, and the cosmos turned into some kind of huge machine, functioning in accordance with the eternal laws of nature, a kind of perpetuum mobile.

The mechanistic picture of the world was replaced by another, based on quantum mechanics, as well as the theory of relativity, the so-called quantum relativistic one. The picture of the world, based on mechanistic laws, could not explain what was happening at the level elementary particles and the megaworld, as well as the emergence of new, qualitatively different systems.

Modern science says anthropic principle, who is able to explain the world and offer its modern picture, including objectivity of vision and value assessments. Modern scientific ideas about the structure of the world are based on the idea of ​​a complex system organization, which provides the basis for combining various objects into classes of various systems.

Modern scientific ideas about the world have given impetus to a new worldview called cosmism, which treats humanity as a natural stage of cosmic evolution allowed to comprehend the secrets of the Universe. In the history of mankind, cosmic ideas have always served as the core of spiritual culture (V. I. Vernadsky, T. de Chardin, K. Tsiolkovsky, N. Fedorov and etc.). Plato, medieval mystics, as well as R. Descartes, A. Bergson and N. N. Moiseev.

Philosophy as a type of worldview comprehends the universe in terms of the relationship between man and the world. The object of a worldview is not the world as a whole, but its subject, that is, what the worldview highlights in the object is the relationship between the natural world and the human world, or using the term of ancient philosophy - macrocosmos and microcosmos. This is where the range of its problems follows. What is man's place in the world? What is the world like as a whole? What is the meaning of human life? What are time, space and motion?

Philosophy, cognizing the boundless world around us, does not try to understand the diversity of its phenomena, but tries to comprehend the unity of its essence. Therefore, the philosophical picture of the world can be presented as a systemically rationalized set of ideas about the world as a whole, which, of course, includes man.

The philosophical picture of the world is based on the fundamental philosophical concept of “being,” which can contain a wide range of approaches to its interpretation (including the uniqueness of human existence).

Approaches to explaining the unity of the world determine the direction of philosophical thought. Thus, philosophical teachings that emanate from one substance regarding the picture of the world belong to monism. Understanding substance as the basis of the real world or a construction by consciousness itself gives grounds to see matter or spirit in substance, which divides monism into materialistic and idealistic.

In contrast to monism, the dualistic interpretation of the world is based on the idea of ​​the coexistence of two substances: one unites the sphere of objective-corporeal reality, the other - the sphere of spirit.

In teaching Descartes two substances are distinguished: material and spiritual. According to R. Descartes, the cause of death is the body, and the departure of the soul from it is only a consequence. There are unconditional contradictions in the philosopher's teachings.

B. Spinoza tried to overcome the contradictions of the dualistic theory using pantheistic monism, where thinking and extension are two attributes of a single substance.

J. Berkeley denied material substance. In his opinion, our perception of an individual thing is divided without remainder into the perception of the sum of individual sensations (taste, color, smell, etc.), i.e. a person exists, which means he exists in perception. I. Kant emphasized the importance of the concept of “substance”, necessary for the scientific and theoretical explanation of phenomena. According to Kant, substance is something internally changeable. A similar approach was developed by G. W. F. Hegel, who highlighted the internal contradictoriness of substance, its self-development, but considered it only as a stage in the development of the idea, and not being.

In the first half of the twentieth century. Western European philosophy was skeptical about the category of “substance”, low-estimating its role in cognition. We should pay tribute to Marxist philosophy as the successor of Marxist monism, which treated substance as a universal characteristic of matter, and, therefore, as the cause of its own changes and a form of causal explanation of the objective world.

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From the book The Newest Philosophical Dictionary author Gritsanov Alexander Alekseevich

The formation of philosophy. Main directions, schools of philosophy and stages of its historical development Already in the first period of human life (V-IV millennium BC), people made attempts to comprehend the world around them. In the process of realizing space as something

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Problems of philosophy The main question of philosophy predetermines the search for solutions to such problems as the cognizability of the surrounding world, its uniqueness and plurality, finitude and infinity, discreteness and integrity, continuous change and immobility, its

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Subject of philosophy. The place and role of philosophy in culture The subject of philosophy Plato was the first to use the term “philosophy” as the name of a special sphere of knowledge. Subsequently, the historical and philosophical development of the concept led to a change in the idea of ​​it. Has also changed

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From the author's book

36. Problems of forest sustainability under anthropogenic loads. Specific problems of tropical forests The environmental cleaning function that forests perform leads to their damage, reduced sustainability and death. The death of forests from atmospheric pollution is one of the

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“SCANDAL IN PHILOSOPHY” is a concept whose existence is caused by the special status of philosophy as a system of predominantly rational knowledge, which, nevertheless, cannot be reduced to its own scientific incarnation. Kant, polemicizing with Berkeley, saw in the non-obviousness for