Before proceeding to consider the question of what constitutes the subject of philosophy as a science, it is necessary to understand what such an object actually is. Without this understanding, approaching the definition of the subject of philosophy is simply meaningless, because the breadth of scientific interest in the framework of philosophical knowledge is practically unlimited. Another reason for this approach is that before considering the subject, it is necessary to have a clear idea of the object of scientific knowledge.
The object of any science, as follows from the term itself, is always objective, that is, its being is not determined by the desire or preferences of a particular researcher - the subject of scientific knowledge. Quite often it is possible to meet the judgment that, due to the breadth of the cognitive field in philosophy, an object and an object are identical. However, this approach should be recognized as unproductive, because it is precisely because of this breadth that the scientific interest in this science is eroded and becomes uncertain.
Based on the historical collisions of the development of philosophical knowledge and thinking, the object of philosophy can be recognized as all objective reality, spiritual and social reality in which the being of a person, including the person himself, is realized.
Unlike an object, the subject of any science is always subjective, that is, its existence is mediated by the scientific interest of the subject of knowledge - the researcher. He himself chooses which part of the object (objective reality) is of scientific interest to him, and after that, in fact, the subject of science is formed. In relation to philosophical knowledge, the subject of science is determined by the structure of science itself, its directions, trends, doctrines and theories. In this, by the way, one of the philosophical laws of philosophy is manifested - the dialectic of the connection between the subject of research and the structure of scientific knowledge. In the most simple and generalized form, the subject and functions of philosophy can be defined as follows.
As its subject, one can point out the most general laws of the genesis of the forms of being of the material and spiritual worlds, as well as their explicated images, rationalized by human consciousness.
The historically formed philosophical directions determined the features of the subject area within each individual direction. For example, existentialists, starting from the great Heidegger, believed that the subject and functions of philosophy consist in the knowledge of individual meaning - existence, which acts as the semantic justification of not only the person as such, but also everything that exists around us. Positivists took a different approach to solving this issue. Even Auguste Comte argued that the subject and functions of philosophy should be formed from the needs of society, explain and formulate the laws and trends of human existence. This is precisely what predetermined the fact that Comte is considered not only the founder of the philosophical trend of positivism, but also the founder of the science of sociology. But starting with Karl Popper, the positivistic definition of what constitutes the subject and functions of philosophy has changed significantly. Here we are witnessing a transition to the analysis of the scientific picture of the world, and here the main methodological criterion for this analysis is developed - the principle of verifiable knowledge is supplemented by the principle of falsification.
Based on the interdependence, which connects the concepts of subject, structure and functions of philosophy, it is possible to determine its functions only in the widest form. As a rule, they include:
- methodological, which consists in the fact that philosophy develops a cognitive apparatus and gives its universal methods for use in various fields of human activity;
- general scientific, consisting in the fact that it is within the framework of philosophical knowledge that basic theories and categories are used that are used in cognition;
- social function involves the consideration of society in the framework of philosophical knowledge as a single whole;
- normative and regulatory, which consists in the fact that it is philosophy that develops criteria for evaluating activities in the most diverse spheres of human being;
- worldview, speaks for itself, it provides the formation of types of thinking and behavior on the basis of exclusively theoretical attitudes and patterns.
It should be noted that this list cannot be limited to the list of functions that philosophy performs in our lives. They can be split, or you can formulate new, no less significant, but mediated by the historical process.
Science, philosophy, its subject and functions directly determine the structure of philosophical knowledge, which is also not a dogma and is constantly expanding as society accumulates new scientific facts. In addition, the development of philosophy is accompanied by a constant shift in the emphasis of scientific interest in certain problems, so we can note such a phenomenon as the coming to the fore of various philosophical problems at different times. This phenomenon also directly affects the content of the circle of problems that make up the subject of philosophy as a science.
