Philosophy is an ancient science. It arose during the slave system. And what’s interesting, somehow right away in countries such as China, India and Greece. The history of science has more than 2500 years. During this period, many diverse exercises have been formed, reflecting the levels of political, social and economic development of society. Explore all sorts of areas of philosophy, of course, interesting and important. But they all lead to the cornerstone - the problem of being and consciousness.
Different formulations of one problem
The initial question of philosophy, on which all directions are based, is formulated in different versions. The connection between being and consciousness is the problem of the correlation of spirit and nature, soul and body, thinking and being, etc. Each philosophical school was looking for answers to the question: what is primary - matter or consciousness? What is the relation of thinking to being? Such a ratio among the German thinkers of Schelling and Engels received the name of the main question of philosophy.
The importance of this problem lies in the fact that the construction of a holistic science about a person’s place in the world depends on its correct resolution. Mind and matter are inextricable. But at the same time this pair of opposites. Consciousness is often called the spirit.
Two sides of the same issue
The main philosophical question: “What is primary - matter or consciousness?” - there are moments - existential and cognitive. The existential, in other words, the ontological side, is to find a solution to the main problem of philosophy. And the essence of the cognitive, or epistemological side, is to resolve the issue of knowing or not knowing the world.
Four main directions are distinguished depending on these two sides. This is a physical view (materialism) and idealistic, experienced (empiricism) and rationalistic.
Ontology has the following directions: materialism (classical and vulgar), idealism (objective and subjective), dualism, deism.
The epistemological side is represented by five areas. This is Gnosticism and later agnosticism. Three more - empiricism, rationalism, sensualism.
Democritus Line
In literature, materialism is often called the Democritus line. His supporters considered the correct answer to the question of what is primary - matter or consciousness, matter. In accordance with this, the postulates of materialists are as follows:
- matter really exists, and it is independent of consciousness;
- matter is an autonomous substance; it needs only itself and develops according to its internal law;
- consciousness is the ability to reflect itself, which belongs to highly organized matter;
- consciousness is not an independent substance, it is being.
Among the philosophers-materialists, who pose the main question about what is primary - matter or consciousness, we can distinguish:
- Democritus
- Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes (Miletus School);
- Epicurus, Bacon, Locke, Spinoza, Didro;
- Herzen, Chernyshevsky;
- Marx, Engels, Lenin.
Passion for the natural
Separately highlight vulgar materialism. He is represented by Focht, Moleshott. In this direction, when one starts talking about what is primary - matter or consciousness, the role of matter is absolutized.
Philosophers are interested in the study of the material with the help of the exact sciences: physics, mathematics, chemistry. They ignore consciousness as an entity and its ability to influence matter. According to representatives of vulgar materialism, the human brain gives out thought, and consciousness, like the liver, releases bile. This direction does not recognize the qualitative difference between mind and matter.
According to modern researchers, when the question is posed that what is primary is matter or consciousness, the philosophy of materialism, relying on exact and natural sciences, logically proves its postulates. But there is also a weak side - a meager explanation of the essence of consciousness, the lack of interpretations of many phenomena of the world. Materialism prevailed in the philosophy of Greece (the era of democracy), in the states of the Hellenes, in England of the 17th century, in France of the 18th century, in the socialist countries of the 20th century.
Plato line
Idealism is called the Plato line. Proponents of this trend believed that consciousness is primary, matter is secondary in solving the main philosophical problem. Idealism distinguishes two autonomous directions: objective and subjective.
Representatives of the first direction - Plato, Leibniz, Hegel and others. The second was supported by philosophers such as Berkeley and Hume. The founder of objective idealism is considered Plato. The views of this direction are characterized by the expression: "Only the idea is real and primary." Objective idealism says:
- the surrounding reality is a world of ideas and a world of things;
- the sphere of eidos (ideas) exists initially in the divine (universal) mind;
- the world of things is material and does not have a separate existence, but is the embodiment of ideas;
- every single thing is the embodiment of eidos;
- the most important role for transforming an idea into a concrete thing is assigned to the Creator God;
- individual eidos exist objectively, regardless of our consciousness.
Feelings and Reason
Subjective idealism, saying that consciousness is primary, matter is secondary, states:
- everything exists only in the mind of the subject;
- ideas are in the human mind;
- images of physical things also exist only in the mind thanks to sensory sensations;
- neither matter nor eidos live separately from human consciousness.
The disadvantage of this theory is that there are no reliable and logical explanations of the very mechanism of converting eidos into a specific thing. Philosophical idealism prevailed during the time of Plato in Greece, in the Middle Ages. And today it is distributed in the USA, Germany and some other countries of Western Europe.
Monism and dualism
Materialism, idealism - are attributed to monism, i.e., the doctrine of one primary principle. Descartes founded dualism, the essence of which lies in the theses:
- there are two independent substances: physical and spiritual;
- physical has extension properties;
- spiritual possesses thinking;
- everything in the world is derived either from one or from the second substance;
- physical things come from matter, and ideas come from spiritual substance;
- matter and spirit are interconnected opposites of one being.
In search of an answer to the basic question of philosophy: “What is primary - matter or consciousness?” - You can briefly formulate: matter and consciousness always exist and complement each other.
Other areas of philosophy
Pluralism claims that the world has many origins, like monads in the theory of G. Leibniz.
Deism recognizes the presence of God, who once created the world and no longer takes part in its further development, does not affect the actions and life of people. Deists are represented by the French philosophers of the 18th century - Voltaire and Rousseau. They did not oppose matter to consciousness and considered it spiritualized.
Eclecticism mixes the concepts of idealism and materialism.
The founder of empiricism was F. Bacon. In contrast to the idealistic statement: “Consciousness is primary in relation to matter” - an empirical theory says that only experience and feelings can be at the core of knowledge. There is nothing in the mind (thoughts) that has not been obtained experimentally before.
Denial of knowledge
Agnosticism is a direction that completely denies even the partial possibility of comprehending the world through one subjective experience. This concept was introduced by T.G. Huxley, and I. Kant was a prominent representative of agnosticism, who argued that the human mind has great potential, but they are limited. On this basis, the human mind gives rise to riddles and contradictions that have no chance of resolution. In total, there are four such contradictions, according to Kant. One of them: God exists - God does not exist. According to Kant, even that which belongs to the cognitive possibilities of the human mind cannot be known, since consciousness has only the ability to display things in sensory sensations, but it is not within its power to know the inner essence.
Today, supporters of the idea “Matter is primary - consciousness is derived from matter” can be met very rarely. The world has become religiously oriented, despite a significant difference in views. But despite the centuries-old search for thinkers, the main question of philosophy has not been unambiguously resolved. Neither proponents of Gnosticism, nor adherents of ontology could answer it. This problem actually remains unresolved for thinkers. In the twentieth century, the Western school of philosophy shows a tendency to decrease attention in the direction of the traditional main philosophical question. It is gradually losing its relevance.
