Consciousness should be considered as the second widest philosophical category after matter. F. M. Dostoevsky was of the opinion that man is a secret. His consciousness can be considered as mysterious. And today, when the individual plunged into the many-faceted secrets of the creation and development of the world, the secrets of his inner being, in particular, the secrets of his consciousness, cause public interest and still remain mysterious. In our article we will analyze the concept of consciousness, its origin and essence.
General issues
Today, the concept of consciousness in philosophy is interpreted in different ways, depending on how specific philosophers solve the key issues of philosophy, and first of all, a question related to the nature of the world. What is idealism? Objective idealism is capable of tearing consciousness away from matter, nature and endowing it with supernatural essence (Hegel, Plato and others). Many subjective idealists, for example, Avenarius, noted that the brain of an individual is not a habitation of thinking.
Materialism holds that matter is primary, and behavior and consciousness are secondary categories. These are the so-called properties of matter. Nevertheless, they can be understood in different ways. Hylozoism (from the Greek version of hyle - matter, zoe - life) said that consciousness should be considered a property of all matter (D. Didro, B. Spinoza and others). Panpsychism (from the Greek version pan - everything, psuche - soul) also recognized the universal natural animation (K. Tsiolkovsky). If we argue from the point of view of modern and dialectical materialism, we can conclude that the concept of consciousness in philosophy involves the definition of it as a function of the brain, a reflection of the external world.
Elements of consciousness
In the process of studying consciousness, its origin and essence, it is advisable to touch on the issue of its structure. Consciousness is formed from the sensory images of objects, which are a representation or sensation and therefore have meaning and significance. In addition, knowledge acts as an element of consciousness as a set of sensations that are imprinted in memory. And finally, generalizations created as a result of the highest mental activity, language and thinking.
It is interesting to note that since ancient times, thinkers have been trying hard enough to find the solution to the mystery associated with the phenomenon of consciousness. So, the philosophy of the origin and essence of consciousness even then occupied a most important position in the still emerging science. For many centuries, heated debates about the essence of the category and the possibilities of its knowledge have not ceased. Theologians regarded consciousness as an instant spark of the magnificent fire of the divine mind. It is worth noting that the idealists defended the thought associated with the primacy of consciousness regarding matter. They pulled out consciousness from the objective relationships of the real world and regarded it as an independent and creative essence of being. Objective idealists noted that human consciousness is something primordial: it can not only be explained by what exists outside of it - it is itself called upon to interpret all actions and phenomena that occur in history, nature, and the behavior of all individuals individually. Only proponents of objective idealism recognize consciousness as the only true reality.
To know, characterize, define consciousness, its essence and origin is very difficult. The fact is that it does not exist as a separate object or thing. That is why the problem of consciousness in the history of philosophy is still considered an essential mystery. She is inexhaustible.
The problem of consciousness in the history of philosophy
This problem has always been the subject of close attention of philosophers, since the recognition of the role and place of man in the world, as well as the specifics of relations with the reality surrounding him, involves determining the roots of human consciousness. It should be noted that for philosophical science this problem is important for the reason that specific approaches to the issue related to the nature, origin and development of human consciousness, as well as the nature of its relationship directly to being, affect the initial methodological and worldviews of any of the relevant philosophical directions. Naturally, these approaches are different, however, in essence, in any case, they deal with one problem. This is an analysis of consciousness, which is considered as a specifically social form of control and regulation of the interaction of the individual with reality. This form is characterized primarily by the allocation of personality as a kind of reality, as well as a carrier of special techniques for interacting with everything around, which includes its management.
Such an understanding of consciousness, its origin, essence implies an extremely wide list of questions, which is the subject of research not only of philosophical science, but also of special natural and humanitarian areas: psychology, sociology, pedagogy, linguistics, physiology of higher nervous activity. Today, it is important to include semiotics, computer science, and cybernetics in this list. The consideration of some aspects of the category of consciousness within the framework of the presented disciplines in one way or another is based on a specific philosophical and worldview position related to the interpretation of consciousness. However, the creation and subsequent development of scientific research of a special plan stimulates the formation and deepening of the directly philosophical problems of consciousness.
For example, the development of informatics, the development of “thinking” machines and the related process of computerization of social activity made us, on the other hand, consider the issue related to the essence of consciousness, specific human capabilities in the activity of consciousness, optimal ways of interaction of an individual and his consciousness with modern computer technologies. Currently relevant and rather acute issues of the modern development of society, the interaction of the individual and technology, the relationship between nature and scientific and technological progress, aspects of communication, educating people - all the problems of social practice that take place in our time turn out to be organically related to the study of the category of consciousness.
The ratio of consciousness to human being
The most important issue in modern science about the origin and essence of consciousness has always been and remains the question of the relation of an individual’s consciousness to his being, the inclusion of a person who has consciousness in the world, the responsibility that consciousness assumes in relation to an individual, and the possibilities that are provided to a person from the side of consciousness. It is known that activity of a practically transformative nature as a specific form of social attitude to the world implies as its prerequisite the creation of an “ideal plan” for concrete real activity. It is worth noting that the being of a person is somehow closely related to consciousness. It is as if "permeated" by him. In short, human existence cannot exist separately from consciousness, in other words, regardless of its forms. It is quite another matter that a person’s actual being, his relations with the surrounding natural and social reality are a wider system, within which the category of consciousness is considered a specific condition, premise, means, “mechanism” for an individual to fit into the general system of being.
In the context of social activity, which should be interpreted as an integral system, consciousness acts as its necessary condition, element, premise. So, if we proceed from the definition of human reality as a whole, then the secondary nature of the individual’s consciousness in relation to social being is considered the secondary nature of the element with respect to its incorporating and its surrounding system. Ideal plans of work that consciousness develops, relevant projects and programs precede activities, however, their implementation exposes the latest “unprogrammed” layers of reality, opens up a fundamentally new texture of being that goes beyond the boundaries of the original conscious attitudes. In this sense, our being constantly goes beyond the scope of action programs. It turns out to be much richer than the content of the initial ideas of consciousness.
A similar expansion of the so-called "being horizon" is carried out in activities that are stimulated and guided by consciousness and soul. If we proceed from the organic involvement of the individual in the integrity of animate and inanimate nature, then the category in question acts as a property of highly organized matter. Thus, from this it becomes urgent to trace the origins of consciousness of the genetic plan in the varieties of organization of matter that precede the individual in the process of evolution.
Approach Background
In the process of considering the essence of consciousness and its connection with the unconscious, it is worth noting that the most important prerequisite for the approach indicated above is the analysis of the varieties of the relationship of all living things to the environment, within which corresponding behavioral regulators appear as their “servicing mechanisms”. The development of the latter in any case involves the appearance of bodily organs. Thanks to them, processes of consciousness and psyche are carried out. We are talking about the nervous system and its most highly organized department - the brain. However, the most important factor in the development of these bodily organs is considered to be the function necessary for a full life of a person, for which the above organs work. The individual is conscious through the brain, but consciousness is not in itself a function of the brain. Rather, it refers to a specific, specific type of relationship between a person developed in the social plan and the world.
Given this premise, it cannot be said that consciousness is primary. Initially, it acts as a social product. A category appears and develops in the joint work of individuals, in the process of their communication and labor. Being involved in such processes, people are able to develop appropriate ideas, norms, and attitudes that together with their coloring in the emotional plane comprise the content of consciousness, considered as a specific form of reflection of reality. This content is fixed in the individual psyche.
General meaning
We examined the basic concepts of the origin and essence of consciousness. In the broad sense of the word, it is also advisable to associate the concept of self-awareness with it. It must be borne in mind that the development of the most complex forms of self-consciousness is carried out at rather late stages in the history of social consciousness, where self-consciousness is endowed with a certain independence. Nevertheless, it is possible to understand its origin only on the basis of considering the essence of the category as a whole.
Thus, consciousness acts as a key, initial philosophical concept for the analysis of all varieties of the manifestation of a person’s spiritual and spiritual life in their integrity and unity, as well as methods of regulating and controlling his relationships with real life, and managing such relationships.
Idealism: concept and essence
What is idealism? The category of substance in philosophical science is used to denote those moments that exist thanks to oneself, but in no case due to anything else. If consciousness is accepted as a substance, then idealism appears. This doctrine fully substantiates the thesis that everything existing in the Universe is based on ideas, as Plato taught it or how Leibniz proclaimed, that everything consists of monads, which are atoms, but not material ones, but with a specific degree of consciousness. It is worth noting that in this case, matter is interpreted either as a kind of being dependent on consciousness, or as a special kind of existence of the spirit, that is, its own creation. Hence it is clear what the human soul is in idealism.
Previously, there was also a variant of idealism of the subjective type. Such, if we talk about extreme form, defended by the philosopher of the beginning of the XVIII century from Britain, J. Berkeley. He proved that everything around us is only the totality of our perceptions. This perception is the only thing that a person can know. In this case, the bodies, together with the properties inherent in them, were treated by various kinds of relationships as complexes of sensations.
What is dualism?
There are teachings associated with two substances. They argue that the soul and body, consciousness and matter are two fundamentally different, and independent from each other varieties of being. It is like two independently developing substances. This position is called dualism. It should be noted that it is closest to the common sense of a person. As a rule, we are sure that we have a body, a consciousness; and that although they somehow agree with each other, the distinguishing features of thoughts, feelings and material things such as tables or stones are too large if we consider objects relative to each other to include them in one kind of being. This dilution to the opposite of the one related to consciousness and the material is given quite easily, nevertheless, then in dualism the main and essentially insoluble question appears, which consists in explaining how matter and consciousness that are so different in characteristics are capable of mutual relations in a coordinated manner. Indeed, as substantial principles, in other words, independent principles, they, in accordance with the categorical status assigned to them, cannot influence each other and interact in one way or another. Dualistic interpretations of the relationship of matter and consciousness are forced to either allow this interaction in some situations, or imply a predetermined harmony in a previously agreed change in matter and spirit.
Consciousness and Thinking
So, we examined what dualism is. Next, it is advisable to move on to the issue of consciousness and thinking, interconnectedness and interdependence of categories.
Under thinking, one should consider the process of reflection in the human mind of the essence of things, relationships, and regular relationships arising between phenomena or objects of reality. During the thought process, the individual interprets the objective world in a different way than in the processes of imagination and perception. In public representations, phenomena of the external plan are reflected exactly as they affect the senses: in forms, colors, movement of objects, and so on. When an individual thinks about certain phenomena or objects, he draws in his mind not these external characteristics, but directly the essence of objects, their mutual relations and connections.
The essence of absolutely any objective phenomenon is known only when it is considered in organic connection with others. Dialectical materialism interprets social life and nature not as a random collection of separate phenomena independent of each other, but as a whole, where all the components are organically interconnected. They condition each other and develop in close dependence. It is in such mutual conditioning and connection that the essence of the object, the laws of its existence, are manifested.
When perceiving, for example, a tree, an individual, reflecting in his own mind a trunk, leaves, branches, and other parts and properties of this particular object, perceives this object in isolation from others. He admires its shape, bizarre bends, freshness of green leaves.
In another way, the thought process is carried out. In an effort to understand the key laws of the existence of this phenomenon, to penetrate into its meaning, a person necessarily reflects in his mind, including the relationship of this object with other phenomena and objects. You cannot understand the essence of a tree unless you determine what role the chemical composition of the soil, air, moisture, sunlight, and so on play for it. Only the reflection of these relationships and relationships allows the individual to understand the function of the leaves and roots of the tree, as well as the work that they perform in the circulation of substances in the living world.
