The world is perceived by a person through his psyche, which forms an individual consciousness. It includes the totality of all the knowledge of the individual about the reality surrounding him. It is formed thanks to the process of cognizing the world through its perception with the help of 5 senses.
Receiving information from outside, the human brain remembers it and subsequently uses it to recreate the picture of the world. This happens when the individual, based on the information received, uses thinking, memory or imagination.
Concept of consciousness
With the help of consciousness, a person not only contrasts his “I” with that which surrounds him, but is also able to restore pictures of the past with the help of his memory, and his imagination helps him create what is not yet in his life. At the same time, thinking helps to solve the tasks that reality sets on the basis of knowledge gained during its perception. If any of these elements of consciousness is disturbed, the psyche will be seriously injured.
Thus, individual consciousness is the highest degree of a person’s mental perception of the reality surrounding him, in which his subjective picture of the world is formed.
In philosophy, consciousness is always opposed to matter. In ancient times, they called a substance capable of creating reality. For the first time this concept in this sense was introduced by Plato in his treatises, and then it formed the basis of the Christian religion and philosophy of the Middle Ages.
Consciousness and Matter
Materialists narrowed the functions of consciousness to a property of essence that cannot exist outside the human body, thereby putting matter in the first place. Their theory that individual consciousness is matter generated exclusively by the human brain has no foundation. This is seen in contrast to their qualities. Consciousness has neither taste, nor color, nor smell, it cannot be felt or given any form.
But one cannot accept the idealist theory that consciousness is an independent substance. This is refuted by the chemical and physical processes that occur in the brain when the individual perceives the surrounding reality.
Thus, scientists came to the conclusion that consciousness is the highest form of the psyche, reflecting being, which has the ability to influence and transform reality.
Constituents of consciousness
Describing its structure, it should be borne in mind that it is two-dimensional:
- On the one hand, it contains all the information gathered about external reality and the objects that fill it.
- On the other hand, it also contains information about the individual himself, who is the bearer of consciousness, which, when developing, goes into the category of self-consciousness.
Individual consciousness forms a picture of the world, which includes not only external objects, but also the person himself with his thoughts, feelings, needs and actions for their implementation.
Without the process of self-knowledge, there would be no human development in the social, professional, moral and physical sphere, which would not lead to an awareness of the meaning of one’s own life.
Consciousness consists of several blocks, the main of which are:
- The processes of cognition of the world through the senses, as well as its perception through sensations, thinking, speech, language and memory.
- Emotions that convey a positive, neutral or negative attitude of the subject to reality.
- The processes associated with the adoption and implementation of decisions, volitional efforts.
All blocks together provide both the formation of a person’s certain knowledge of reality and satisfy all his urgent needs.
Public consciousness
In philosophy and psychology, there is such a thing as the relationship of social and individual consciousness. It should be borne in mind that the public is a product of individual or collective concepts that have been formed over a long period of observation of reality, its objects and occurring phenomena.
The very first in human society to form such forms of social consciousness as religion, morality, art, philosophy, science and others. For example, observing the natural elements, people attributed their manifestations to the will of the gods, creating through individual conclusions and fears public knowledge about these phenomena. Collected together, they were passed on to the next generation as the only truth inherent in this society about the world around. So religion was born. People belonging to other peoples with opposing social consciousness were considered to be Gentiles.
Thus, societies were formed, most of whose members adhered to generally accepted principles. People in such an organization are united by common traditions, language, religion, legal and ethical standards, and much more.
To understand how social and individual consciousness are interconnected, one should know that the latter is primary. The consciousness of one member of society can influence the formation or change of the public, for example, as was the case with the ideas of Galileo, Giordano Bruno and Copernicus.
Individual consciousness
Features of individual consciousness is that they may be inherent in one person, but not at all coincide with the perception of reality by others. The assessment of the surrounding world by each individual is unique and makes up his concrete picture of reality. People who have the same opinion on any phenomena form like-minded organizations. This is how scientific, political, religious and other circles and parties are formed.
Individual consciousness is a relative concept, since it is influenced by social, family, religious and other traditions. For example, a child born in a Catholic family, from childhood, receives information about the dogmas inherent in this particular religion, which become natural and indestructible for him as he grows up.
On the other hand, each person shows his intellect, passing through the stages of development of consciousness, both in creativity and in cognition of the surrounding reality. The inner world of each individual is unique and not like the others. Scientists still do not know where the individual consciousness originates from, since in the "pure form" it does not exist outside of a specific carrier in nature.
The relationship of individual consciousness with public
Each person as he grows up and develops is faced with the influence of public consciousness. This happens through relationships with other people - in childhood with relatives and teachers, then with representatives of various organizations. This is done through the language and traditions inherent in this society. By how interconnected social and individual consciousness, it is determined how devoted and important its member will be each individual.
There are many examples in history when people, having fallen from their usual environment, into a society with other religious values and traditions, became part of it, adopting the lifestyle of its members.
From the way the public and individual consciousness are connected, it is clear that they mutually influence each other throughout the life of a person. During this period, he may change religious, cultural, scientific, philosophical and other concepts previously imposed by society. Just as, for example, the scientific discovery of one scientist, can change the idea of all mankind about things familiar to him.
Structure of individual consciousness
The essence of individual consciousness lies in the way and perception of the properties of reality:
- During evolution, people have developed a genetic memory that helps them adapt to the environment. Thanks to her, programs have been recorded in every person - from complex metabolic processes in the body, to sexual relationships between sexes and the education of offspring. This part of the individual consciousness programs the behavior of the subject and his emotional assessment of events familiar to him from past experience.
- The other part analyzes the environment through the senses and the formation of new knowledge based on the information received. At the same time, consciousness is in constant development, creating an inner world inherent only to this individual.
The highest form of consciousness is self-awareness, without which a person would not be a person.
Self-awareness
Awareness of one's “I” on the physical and spiritual level makes a person an individual. All internal values, ideas about reality, understanding what is happening to him and around him, all this forms a person’s self-awareness.
It is his development that helps people understand the reason for their actions, their value in society and gives us awareness of who they really are.
