Object and subject of philosophy. The structure of philosophical knowledge

What does philosophy study? The object of study of philosophy is the spiritual reality that is formed as a result of human interaction with the world around him. This reality is extremely complex and diverse. It includes: a person's life experience (life wisdom), as well as a variety of knowledge, both natural science (knowledge about nature and man, as part of nature), and social and humanitarian, which generalizes knowledge about a person as a social being capable of forming knowledge about the world around him and build his life in accordance with his ideas about the proper, right and just world. The subject of study of philosophy already. The subject of philosophy is that extremely generalized knowledge that reflects the laws of the natural and social world, providing a certain orderliness of the universe. Different philosophers defined the subject of philosophy in different ways.

Ø Plato points out that the subject of philosophy is the objective essence of the world of ideas that give rise to everything that exists, and the goals of philosophy are the comprehension of this higher knowledge, which makes the philosopher equal to God.

Ø Aristotle believes that the subject of philosophy is an extremely general knowledge about the root cause of every thing, its beginnings and end. This knowledge allows you to understand the essence of a thing, eliminates ignorance, makes a person wise, i.e. able to teach others.

Ø Hobbes, an English philosopher of the 17th century, believes that philosophy is a natural human mind, diligently studying all the works of the Creator in order to find and communicate the simple truth about their order, causes and effects.

Ø L. Feuerbach, a German philosopher of the first half of the 19th century, points out that the subject of philosophy is the study of how an object of vital interests turns into a mental object, that is, knowledge about the world; therefore philosophy was considered in ancient times as the mother of sciences.

Summarizing the above examples, we can draw the following conclusions:

Ø The subject of philosophy is the general that is inherent in the world as a whole (nature, society, man). These are the laws of the emergence, development and existence of all things (being as a whole).

Ø The purpose of philosophy: based on the understanding of this general knowledge, to form right decision tasks facing a person, as well as understanding their own destiny in order to embody their life.

What range of problems does philosophy cover? And what are the main sections of philosophical knowledge can be identified? There are several of them:

1 What is the world, that is, what are its foundations - the extremely general principles of the existence of being and its development. These questions are explored by ontology (metaphysics). Ontology(lat. ontos - being) - the doctrine of being as such; a branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental principles of being, the most general essences and categories of being.

2 How, in what way can you know the world? This branch of philosophy is called epistemology(epistemology - a section of epistemology; lat. gnosis - knowledge; episteme - scientific knowledge) - the theory of knowledge. Gnoseology - studies problems cognitive activity, exploring the essence of cognition, its nature, the relation of knowledge to reality, explores the general prerequisites for cognition, reveals the conditions for its reliability and truth, as well as the possibility of considering the cognitive result as objective knowledge that reflects the true state of things.

3 What is the Good? This question was first raised by Socrates, who sought to know the highest Truth, which determines the value and significance for a person of the world around him. The study of this problem determined the formation of axiology. Axiology(lat. axios - value) - the theory of values, the philosophical doctrine of the nature of values, their place in reality and the structure of the value world, i.e. about the relationship of different values among themselves, with social and cultural factors and personality structure.

4 What is human activity? The study of this problem determined the formation of praxeology. Praxeology(lat. praxis - experience) explores the practical activities of people, which is a condition and means of the relationship of a person with the world around him.

5 What is a person? The study of this problem determined the formation of philosophical anthropology. Philosophical anthropology(lat. anthropos - man) - the doctrine of man, his origin, social essence, his relationship with nature and society.

6 What is a society? The study of this problem determined the formation of social philosophy. Social philosophy (lat. socialis - public) - the doctrine of the origin of society, its structure, patterns and mechanisms, formation and development.

With the development of philosophy, such sections as the philosophy of culture, the philosophy of science and technology, etc. began to be distinguished. An important place in the system of philosophical knowledge is occupied by the history of philosophy, which studies the conditions and causes of the emergence of philosophical ideas and their impact on the development of man and society.

Philosophers give answers to the questions posed on the basis of an analysis of practical and cognitive activity that is carried out in the system of human relations with the world around him. Can be distinguished:

Ø a system of practical relations (relationship to nature, material and production, family and household);

Ø ideological relations that determine the formation various forms public consciousness(political and legal consciousness, morality, art and others);

Ø scientific and cognitive relations;

Ø value (aesthetic, ethical) and others.

All of them are dialectically interconnected and mutually condition each other as parts of a whole in an integral system of social relations, the totality of which determines social life.

Since philosophy studies the relationship of a person to the world, which develop in the process of practical and cognitive activity carried out by people, the initial philosophical concepts are the concepts subject and object necessary for the analysis of social activity. Only through the analysis of activity in the course of which a person learns, transforms and creates new world according to your needs, you can determine his attitude to this world.

Picture 1 Structure of philosophy

Subject(S) - the carrier of activity (a separate individual, social group, class, society as a whole) - the one who cognizes and creates. Derivatives of this concept are subjectivity, subjective; what characterizes the subject - his desires, aspirations, values.

An object(O) - what the cognitive and (or) transformative activity of the subject is directed to; it is that part of objective reality that exists independently of the subject and with which the subject interacts.

Subject and object, interacting with each other within the framework of social practice, oppose each other, but this opposition is relative. In the process of the subject's activity, they pass into each other: a person cognizes the world - the object becomes subjective; and then, on the basis of acquired knowledge, a person, carrying out subsequent activities, objectifies this knowledge in the results of his work, that is, he creates some new reality (material, for example, a technical object, or ideal, for example, new ideas, theories).

Summing up the results of the analysis, we can draw the following conclusions: philosophy allows human thought to reach the highest level of generalization, to see the world as an integral, objectively existing and developing according to its own laws system, of which the person himself is a part, and to determine the relationship of a person to this system. This creates the opportunity to consider philosophical knowledge in three dimensions:

Ø Philosophy is the ultimate generalized knowledge- the result of spiritual activity, which contains a significant layer of scientific knowledge; relying on scientific knowledge (natural and social sciences), philosophy acquires the ability to identify the most general patterns of everything that exists: nature, society, and human thinking.

Ø Philosophy is a form of social consciousness, covering extremely general ideas that make up the foundation of culture; therefore, it is the foundation of the worldview and determines the relationship of man to the world.

Ø Philosophy is a methodology of cognitive activity acting in the unity of the theory and methods of cognition; theory answers the question, what is the world in which a person lives and creates; method answers the question, how is this world known and transformed?

The prerogative of the philosophical worldview is philosophy. Philosophy - this is the doctrine of the general principles of being and consciousness, of the relationship of man to the world; the science of the universal laws of development of nature, society and thought. Like any science, it has its own attributes , namely:

І. About the object of philosophy . The object of any science is that part of objective reality, the study of which is directed by the actions of the cognizing subject (the carrier of cognition). The object of philosophy is an the entire objective reality, the entire material and spiritual world, including man himself.

In other words, the object of philosophical reflection is the natural and social world and man in their complex relationships.

ІІ. The subject of philosophy. The subject of any science is the result research activities. The subject of philosophy are the most general laws development of nature, society, human thinking, developed on the basis of the object of its study.

ІІІ. The fundamental question of philosophy . Due to the fact that a person divides the whole world into two groups: 1) material (being) and 2) ideal (consciousness), the question arises: What is primary - being or consciousness? This question about the relationship between the material and the ideal is called the main question of philosophy , because:

1) in the world, except for the material and ideal, nothing exists;

The fundamental question of philosophy has two sides. First side expressed in the question - what is primary, and what is secondary, derivative - spirit or nature, consciousness or matter? Depending on the answer to this question, three philosophical directions have arisen:

1)materialism - this is one of the main philosophical directions, which solves the main question of philosophy in favor of the primacy of matter, nature, being and considers consciousness as secondary, i.e. property of matter;

2)idealism - this is a philosophical doctrine that claims that consciousness, thinking is primary, and matter, nature is secondary, derivative, dependent. Depending on what idealists consider the basis of the surrounding world, they are either subjective or objective. Subjective idealists consider their own consciousness to be such a basis. Objective idealists - the consciousness of a certain object - the World Spirit, the World Soul, the Absolute (God).

Both materialism and idealism are varieties of monism. Monism - this is a way of considering the diversity of the phenomena of the world in the light of one principle of a single basis of all that exists.

3)dualism - a philosophical doctrine based on the recognition of equal rights, not reducible to each other, two principles - material and ideal.

Second side The main question of philosophy is expressed by the question: “Do we know the world around us?” In answering this question, three philosophical directions emerged:

1)agnosticism (Greek a - negation, gnosis - knowledge) is a philosophical doctrine that denies the fundamental possibility of the cognizability of the objective world (these are, as a rule, representatives of subjective idealism);

2)skepticism - this is a direction in philosophy that casts doubt on the possibility of fundamental cognizability of the world;

3)optimism - philosophical doctrine proclaims the fundamental possibility of knowing the essence of all phenomena and processes of the objective world.

IV. Categories of philosophy. Philosophy as a science has a set of basic concepts or categories. Since the human world consists of such things, properties, relationships that are largely equal to each other, the categories of philosophy express the commonality of the components of the human world and create a prerequisite for communication between people. The main categories of philosophy are: being, matter, nature, society, man, movement, law, thing.

v. Structure of philosophy . Philosophy as a science has its own structure or structure. Its structural elements are philosophical teachings that consider one of the sides of the material and ideal world. Hence it includes: ontology - the doctrine of being; epistemology or epistemology - theory of knowledge; axiology - the doctrine of values; praxeology - the doctrine of social practice; social philosophy - the doctrine of society, philosophical anthropology - the doctrine of man.

VI. Methods of philosophy. Method in Greek means way. In philosophy, such ways, methods of cognition of the surrounding world are known:

1)dialectics - a method in which things, phenomena are considered flexibly, critically, consistently, taking into account their internal contradictions, changes, development, causes and effects, unity and struggle of opposites;

2)metaphysics - a method opposite to dialectics, in which objects are considered separately, statically (changes, self-movement, self-development are ignored), unambiguously (search for absolute truth, no attention is paid to contradictions);

3)dogmatism - perception of the world through the prism of dogmas - accepted beliefs;

4)eclecticism - a method based on an arbitrary combination of disparate facts, concepts, concepts that do not have a single creative principle;

5)sophistry - a method based on the derivation of false, but skillfully and incorrectly presented as true premises;

6)hermeneutics – method correct reading and interpretation of the meaning of the texts.

Thus, philosophy – this is a theoretically developed worldview, a system of general categories, theoretical views on the world, a person’s place in it, an awareness of various forms of a person’s relationship to the world.

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The subject of philosophy and its function

The subject of philosophy is the most general laws of development of nature, society and human thinking, developed on the basis and in the process of studying the object of its study.

Sometimes the subject of philosophical research is understood as a certain area of reality or a range of problems studied by philosophers at a given moment in time or in a certain era, or a field of study of a certain philosophical science.

The fundamental question of philosophy

The main question of philosophy in its traditional interpretation, proposed by F. Engels, is the question of the relation of thinking to being. It has two sides. The first side is expressed in the question - what is primary, and what is secondary, derivative - spirit or nature, consciousness or matter? philosophy ethical worldview

Depending on the answer to this question, three philosophical directions arose: materialism, idealism, dualism. Materialism is one of the main philosophical trends that solves the main question of philosophy in favor of the primacy of matter, nature, being, physical and considers consciousness, spirit, thinking, mental, subjective as a property of matter.

Matter is an infinite set of all objects and systems existing in the world, the substratum of any properties, connections, relations and forms of motion. Close to the concept of "materialism" is the concept of "naturalism" - a view of the world, according to which nature acts as a single, excluding the supernatural, universal principle of explaining everything that exists. Idealism is a special designation of philosophical teachings that assert that consciousness, thinking, the mental, the spiritual are primary, and matter, nature, the physical are secondary, derivative, dependent.

Depending on what idealists consider the basis of the surrounding world, they are either subjective or objective. The former consider their own consciousness, the consciousness of an individual subject, to be such a basis, the latter - the consciousness of some object - the World Spirit, the Absolute Idea, the World Soul.

The concept of "soul", close to the concept of "spirit", expresses historically changing views on the psyche and the inner world of man. In religion and a number of philosophical teachings, this is the concept of a special intangible substance independent of the body. The Absolute is a philosophical concept denoting the spiritual principle of all that exists, which is thought of as something one, universal, beginningless and infinite and is opposed to any relative and conditioned being.

Both materialism and idealism are varieties of monism. Monism is a way of considering the diversity of the phenomena of the world in the light of one principle of a single basis for everything that exists and building a theory in the form of a logically consistent development of the original position.

There is also dualism - a philosophical doctrine, proceeding from the recognition of equal rights, not reducible to each other, two principles - spirit and matter, and ideal and material.

The second side of the main question of philosophy is expressed by the question: "Do we know the surrounding world?" In answering this question, three philosophical directions arose: agnosticism, skepticism, and optimism.

Agnosticism is a philosophical doctrine that denies the fundamental possibility of the cognizability of the objective world. Skepticism is a trend in philosophy that does not directly deny, but casts doubt on the possibility of fundamental knowability of the world. Optimism as a philosophical doctrine proclaims the fundamental possibility of knowing the essence of all phenomena, objects, processes of the objective world.

At present, in a number of philosophical teachings, the main question of philosophy is considered as the question of the role and place of man in the world around him.

Functions of Philosophy

Philosophy as a science performs certain functions. Function refers to a specific duty, activity. In a logical sense, a function means a relationship between two or a group of objects, in which a change in one is accompanied by a change in the other. I.T. Frolov identifies the following main functions of philosophy:

1. The function of explication (identification) of the most general ideas, ideas, forms of experience on which this or that particular culture or socio-historical life of people as a whole is based, i.e. cultural universals.

2. Rationalization function, i.e. translating these universals into a logical, conceptual form.

3. Function of systematization, i.e. theoretical expression of the total results of human experience in all its forms.

4. Critical function, since the formation of a new worldview should be accompanied by criticism of various kinds of errors, stereotypes, delusions, prejudices that stand in the way of true knowledge.

5. Function of coordination, integration of all forms of human experience.

According to other points of view, the following functions of philosophy are distinguished:

1. Worldview function, consisting in the formation of the basis of the scientific picture of the world.

2. Methodological function, which consists in guiding the impact on the sciences.

3. Theoretical-cognitive function, which consists in the increment of new knowledge.

4. The logical function associated with the fact that in any thought process the concept of philosophy is inevitably used.

5. Humanistic function associated with an extremely attentive attitude towards a person.

6. Axiological function associated with the orientation of philosophy towards certain values.

7. Moral or ethical function, as it teaches responsibility for decisions made and 8. Predictive, formative ability to foresee the consequences of one's actions.

8. Prognostic, formative ability to foresee the consequences of one's actions.

The nature of philosophical problems. The fundamental question of philosophy

The main question has 2 sides:

1. What is primary: matter or consciousness?

Materialism (matter is primary in relation to consciousness)

Dualism (matter and consciousness are two principles that exist independently of each other)

Idealism (consciousness is primary, matter does not exist independently of consciousness)

2. The identity of thinking and being (the question of the cognizability of the world).

a) We know the world:

Materialism and idealism answer the question: Does consciousness correctly reflect the real world?

Materialism - consciousness correctly reflects the objective mi.

Objective idealism - consciousness is not a reflection of the objective world, but self-knowledge of the absolute spirit.

Subjective idealism - the consciousness of the individual expresses only the state of "I" (spirit, will).

b) Separate aspects of things in the world are unknowable

Agnosticism - a direction that doubts the possibility of knowing the world

Kant believed that the world is knowable as a phenomenon, but not as an essence (“thing in itself”). The phenomenon is the knowledge of the subject from the outside.

Hume believed that a person deals only with sensations, we do not know not only what the world is like, but also whether it exists outside of us.

The concept of worldview and its structure. The specifics of the philosophical worldview

1. Philosophy is a form of social consciousness aimed at developing a holistic view of the world and the place of man in it, and exploring the ensuing cognitive, value, ethical and aesthetic relationship of man to the world.

2. Worldview - a generalized system of a person's views on the world as a whole, on the place of individual phenomena in the world, on his own place in it, a person's understanding and assessment of the meaning of his activity and the fate of mankind, a set of scientific, philosophical, political, legal, moral, religious , aesthetic ideals and beliefs of people.

Common between f. them.

Search for answers to questions:

1. what is nature, the world around?

2. What is the place of man in this world?

3. Can a person cognize the world and how is cognition achieved?

4. How should a person behave towards other people?

5. What is truth, goodness, beauty. Etc.

Miscellaneous

1. Poya's worldview comes long before philosophy

2. Philosophy is not the property of the masses

3. The concept of "worldview" is wider in scope than "philosophy"

Worldview is:

Everyday (ordinary) exists in the form of common sense, spontaneous, unsystematized ideas about the world.

The religious is connected with the recognition of the supernatural world principle, its basis is expressed in an irrational and emotional-figurative form.

The philosophical acts in a conceptual, categorical form, relying on the achievements of the sciences of nature and society and having a certain measure of logical evidence.

Scientific theoretical views on the world around, based on the data of sciences

Attitude, world perception, worldview - a holistic consciousness and experience of reality affecting a person in the form of sensations, perceptions, ideas and emotions. Refers to the everyday and religious outlook.

World outlook - is a conceptual, categorical, intellectual aspect of the worldview, refers to the philosophical and scientific worldview.

Structure:

Philosophical theories and views

Political views, ideas, theories

Ethical views and assessments

Ideas and theories of natural and social sciences

Aesthetic views and assessments

Legal views, ideas, theories

The birth of philosophical thought. Philosophy of the Ancient East: Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism

Philosophical worldview of Buddhism.

It arose 2.5 thousand years ago. Today it has 10 varieties. Differs in personification. The Buddha was a real person. Buddha - a nickname, translated as enlightened. Born into a wealthy royal family. The mother died in childbirth. It was predicted to the father: the dead, the sick and the monk will make an ascetic out of Buddha. Lived without leaving the palace. Indulged in the joys of life. At the age of 33, he entered the market square. I saw a crippled monk, suffering and dead. Horrified by the cruelty of the world. After that, he really took the path of asceticism. It doesn't matter how one lives. The main thing is that enlightenment visits him. Before that, many years may pass.

Buddhism consists in the consciousness of Noble Truths: 1. Life is suffering (parting, illness, old age, death) 2. Suffering is caused by the thirst for life. 3. Overcoming the thirst for life. 4. The path to bliss (nirvana - cooling down, extinction) The path to nirvana consists of 8 stages: 1) understanding of 4 truths; 2) will; 3) right thoughts - I will go down this road; 4) Correct speech - cleanse the tongue from foul language, lies. 5) Right deeds - do no harm to anyone, abandon bad deeds 6) Right life by honest work 7) Right effort - clear thoughts, rejection of temptations) 8) Right understanding - true life - in spiritual perfection - Niravana. 5 commandments of the Buddha: 1) do not harm the living 2) do not take someone else's 3) refrain. from prohibitions. sexual relations 4) do not lie 5) do not drink alcoholic beverages. Having passed 8 stages - a saint, reaches nirvana, leaves the cycle of rebirths. If not, then you can prepare yourself for salvation in one of the following rebirths. The Buddha did not teach finiteness or infinity, death, immortality. He believed that it was necessary to know the real world. Terrestrial world - world sadness and suffering. There is no pure Buddhism (China, Japan, Tibet, Far East Ceylon).

Confucianism.

Confucius (551-479 BC) - Chinese philosopher, from a poor family. At the age of 3 he was left an orphan. He began his studies at the age of 15. At 19 he got married. At 22 founded general education school(language, politics, discipline). Travel. across China. At 50, he founded a philosophical school (behavior, music, mathematics, archery) - 3 thousand students. His teaching is voluminous, consistent. The book "Lun Yu" (Thoughts and Reflections) is the main textbook, according to which officials were preparing to pass exams for the corresponding position for about 2 thousand years.

There are 3 main elements in his teaching: 1) the teaching about the sky and spirits; 2) the doctrine of society-ve; 3) ethics. (1) there are 2 beginnings of everything: yang - male, bright, sky; yin - dark, feminine, earth, war, lies. Everything that exists is a combination of these 2 principles. Quite successfully carried out divination. Constellations are hieroglyphs by which you can read fate using the "Book of Changes" (with the help of hexagrams). The sky includes 3 elements (fate, fate, tao (path)). The main sin is disbelief in the will of heaven. (2) He is interested in the relationship of people in the community. When organizing a community, the main principle is love for one's neighbor, philanthropy (zhien).

What you do not wish for yourself, do not wish for another. Are all societies capable of this? It is necessary to govern the country on the basis of the rules of conduct (li), which regulate relations between subjects and rulers, seniors and juniors. Noble - received knowledge, appreciate the sky, elders, have moral strength, strive for self-sacrifice. Low - to meet their needs. Draws a parallel to m-du social and family relationships(the sovereign is the son of heaven, the father and mother of the people). News of the state. things can only a wise man. For the good functioning of the state, it is necessary: 1. Lots of food.” 2.arms. 3. respect for rulers.

In case of hard times, reduce weapons, then food, but the reverence for rulers cannot be weakened. (3) Moral and aesthetic teaching is the main thing in his theory. Supreme justice from heaven (yang). A person cannot judge whether an action is just. The meaning of life is to know the sky, to know your destiny (dao). All misfortunes come from the fact that we cannot cognize the Tao and realize it. It all depends on what is more in a person: yang is noble (follows duty, is demanding of himself, lives in harmony with everyone, but goes his own way, goes to death for the sake of others, honors the wise, manages people), yin is low. He left his thoughts in the form of "Conversations" with students. Ethics. "Correction of Names". Everything changes. Care must be taken to ensure that everything in the society remains unchanged.

Lao-tzu - an ancient whale. Phil. 4th-5th century BC (dzy - teacher). A contemporary of Confucius (20 years older). He was an archivist for the Jou Dynasty. He left the bustle of the world and took up philosophical work. He could not understand the vanity of the world. He opposed the veneration of the wise. The reason for that. that it is difficult to manage the people - many enlightened, smart. As a philosopher, he developed the concept of "Tao" - the center. the concept of Taoism. Phil. there is the concept of Tao - 1) the source of the origin of all things; 2) world law. With the help of this concept, one can give a universal answer to the question of the origin and existence of all things.

Hieroglyph tao - road + head of a walking person. Tao is the road that people walk on. Thanks to the Tao, objects are born and go into oblivion. Dao first. It is the source of everything, not just the path. Tao is both material and immaterial, but at the same time material and spiritual. Everything has a soul. Tao is divided into eternal (associated with non-existence) and material (associated with being). Tao - the unity of opposites - is both harmony and disharmony. Tao is the law of the world, the law for rulers. The Tao can only be seen with the mind's eye.

Cosmology of early Greek philosophy

Ancient philosophy covers time from the end of the 7th century. BC. up to the 6th century. AD and contains theories created in Greece and Rome by thinkers of the past. An important, decisive role in this process belonged to ancient Greek philosophy - the primary source of all European wisdom. The philosophy of Hellas is traditionally divided into two main periods - pre-Socratic and Attic. The first is mainly associated with the study of nature (nature - philosophy), the second - with the knowledge of the problems of human existence.

As a result of the systematization of philosophical knowledge, the formation of basic concepts and categories takes place. Of these, the central place belongs to the concept - Cosmos. Hence, the defining feature of ancient Greek philosophy is cosmocentrism. Cosmos (Greek Kosmos - order, order, decoration, Universe) - a huge, spherical, harmonious in all its parts, a living animated body. The ultimate generalization of everything visible and conceivable, uniting nature, gods, and man into a single whole. Cosmic harmony acts as a law (nomos), a reasonable establishment, necessarily necessary for all spheres of the world. A comprehensive substantiation of the cosmic universe in all its manifestations and forms is an integral, characteristic ancient Greek philosophy.

The cosmos embraces the earth, man, the heavenly bodies and the vault of heaven itself. It is closed, has a spherical shape and a constant cycle takes place in it - everything arises, flows and changes. From what it arises, to what it returns, no one knows. Space - order, the concept proposed by Pythagoras. Some Greek F-s (Naturf-s) believe that the basis of things is the sensually perceived elements oxygen, fire, water, earth and a certain substance - apeiron; others (Pythagoreans) saw it in mathematical atoms; still others (the Eleatics) saw the basis of the world in a single, invisible being; the fourth considered such a basis (Democritus) indivisible atoms; fifth (school of Plato) - Earth only a shadow, the result of the embodiment of the realm of pure thought.

Of course, all these F. directions were in many respects naive and contradictory to each other. Having not yet completely broken with mythology, they relegated the gods, supernatural forces to a secondary, and even third-rate place, tried to cognize the world from itself. At first, the ancient Greek f-s did not realize that the main question of F. could have different meanings, but already in the 5th century. BC. (esp. Plato, Democritus) two opposing lines were clearly identified, the struggle between which runs through the entire subsequent history of F.

Philosophical idealism of Plato. Aristotle's teaching

In the teachings of Plato (real name Aristocles) (427-347 BC), ancient Greek idealism takes the form of a worldview. Literary philosophical heritage - "Plato's corpus" consists of over 30 dialogues. Born into the family of a noble Athenian citizen, he received a comprehensive education. He founded a philosophical school in Athens, called the Academy. He was one of the favorite students of Socrates, whose image he actively used in his works. He widely used and further developed various ideas of the Pythagoreans, Parmenides, Heraclitus and others.

The methodological principle of Plato consists in splitting the world into the world of ideas and the world of things. Description of the relationship between them is the core of his philosophical teachings. The sensible world of things is regarded as "not truly existing": objects cognized by the senses continually arise and disappear, there is nothing permanent in them, and, therefore, true. The essence of things lies in incorporeal, insensible forms, which are comprehensible only by reason, consciousness. They are called by Plato "species" or "ideas" (eidoses).

Each class or type of material sensible objects corresponds to a certain idea, which contains their essence. For example, a real table is such because it corresponds to the idea of a table in general. The totality of ideas constitutes true being. The system of ideas is completed by the highest - the idea of the common good, which is the supreme cause and purpose of being.

Plato develops a theory of knowledge, the methodological setting of which is the so-called "recollection". (Knowledge is a memory of the past. The soul, moving into the body, does not remember anything, but gradually remembers). Plato accompanies theoretical reflections with vivid images, analogies, comparisons. So, he popularly explains the theory of knowledge through the image of a cave.

The man who knows is a prisoner bound by chains (feelings) and placed with his back to the entrance. On the opposite wall of the cave, he sees the shadows of objects, animals, people, the images of which are carried in front of the entrance. The task of knowledge is to reveal the true world of images behind obscure highlights and shadows, to "remember" the true world.

In the cosmological doctrine, the influence of the Pythagoreans is manifested: the indivisible elements of all things are triangles - geometric incorporeal figures. The center of the Cosmos is the "world soul" - the demiurge, the world-creating principle, the creator of the world.

Plato is a supporter of the transmigration of the soul: it is immortal and constantly reincarnates. The dialectic of the relationship between soul and body is viewed through the image of two horses - White (noble passions) and black (base passions). The charioteer of this symbolic team is a rational soul, which chooses its own fate.

Education creates the prerequisites for a person's victory over passions and desires. But for the majority, the ideal of perfection is unattainable, and therefore the state and laws are necessary. Plato acts as a zealot of state interests, offers the restriction of personal property, the community of wives and the state education of children. Social theory as a whole bears pronounced features of the absolute priority of the state over the individual.

Aristotle (384-322 BC) is the greatest thinker of antiquity, the founder of logic and some other branches of knowledge. One of the closest associates and students of Plato from the age of 16, he stood out for his enormous erudition and outstanding mental gifts. He was invited to be educators to the son of Tsar Philip, the future Alexander of Macedon, and for a number of years taught him philosophy, rhetoric. The founder of the philosophical school "lyceum", named after the temple of Apollo Lyceum.

Aristotle systematized all the accumulated previous philosophical experience in his works: "Organon", "Physics", "Metaphysics" and others. He criticized the initial positions of his teacher: "Plato is my friend, but the truth is more precious." The edge of his criticism was directed against the concept of two worlds: the world of ideas and the world of things. Such an attitude, according to Aristotle, added absolutely nothing to knowledge about things. Immovable ideas also could not explain the universality of movement, changes that reign in the surrounding world.

Contrary to Plato, who considers only one idea as the cause of the world, Aristotle formulates four reasons: formal (the essence of being, by virtue of which every thing is as it is); material (that from which something arises); driving (the beginning of the movement, changes); target (what something is done for).

The interaction of causes is manifested in the relationship between form and matter. Every single thing is a unity of form and matter. For example, a copper ball is made up of a combination of form (sphericity) and matter (copper). One and the same object of the sensible world can be a form in one respect and matter in another. Matter is the possibility of an object, form is the reality of an object. Climbing the "ladder" of forms, Aristotle argues, we comprehend the highest form, which can no longer be considered as matter or the possibility of a higher form. Such an ultimate form is a demiurge, a god, immobile, prime mover, who is outside the world and communicates a purposeful movement to all that exists.

By being, Aristotle understands the existence of separate things, but it is impossible to know the essence of a thing with the help of feelings. This knowledge is carried out with the help and through the mind, which reveals in things the general, universal, that is, the essential. means theoretical knowledge are categories (extremely general philosophical concepts): essence, quality, quantity, relation, place, time, and others. Aristotle for the first time ordered the categories into a certain system, introduced them into the dialectical process of cognition.

Based on the previous rich experience of mental activity, Aristotle formulates the main provisions of traditional logic, the rules of inferential knowledge.

In cosmology, he developed the ideas of geocentrism, which was a step backwards compared to the Pythagorean heliocentric views. The system of Aristotle - Ptolemy existed for centuries until the scientific revolution carried out by N. Copernicus.

Aristotle developed a coherent system of moral postulates that corresponded to the requirements of the time. He attached the highest value to contemplative forms of activity: mental labor at that time was a privilege and a sign of a free person. God was proclaimed the highest moral ideal, which is understood as "thinking itself thinking." Moral virtue is understood as a reasonable regulation of people's activities, overcoming extremes. Thus, generosity represents the mean between stinginess and extravagance, courage between recklessness and cowardice, and so on. He emphasized the social character and nature of man. In "Politics" he developed the doctrine of society and state power.

Philosophy of the Middle Ages, its main features

Until now, they argue how to subsidize medieval philosophy. (4...5 - 15th century AD). Christianity arises in the 1-2 centuries AD in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, and then spreads to the Mediterranean coast. The time of the emergence of Christianity is associated with a deep crisis of the slave system. Medieval philosophy is connected with Christianity. The idea of Christianity lies in the idea of God's salvation. One of the main and important ideas which Christianity put forward is that all people are equal before God. The main source of Christianity was the Jewish religion, the Christian religion fully adopted the Jewish Old Testament.

In the beginning, Christianity was mainly the religion of the oppressed masses. Gradually, other classes of society join this religion. But the clergy (place of priests, etc.) were captured by the rich strata of society. Later, under Constantine the Great, Christianity in the Roman Empire was recognized as the state official religion. All pagan cults were banned. The Council of Chalcedon (451) formalized the position of the Christian religion in Rome. The Christian religion develops a definite worldview, which is called Christian philosophy.

The first phase of Christianity was patristics, which is divided into two stages: 1) at the first stage, a strong unified church was founded and the main Christian dogmas were set forth (325 AD Nicholas Cathedral). 2) the second stage of patristics is characterized by the work of Augustine. Patristics is divided 1) By its role in society a) Apological b) Systematic 2) By development a) Western b) Eastern 3) Greek and Latin. The second phase was the era of scholasticism (8-14..15c) During this period, Christian philosophy develops more thoroughly. Scholasticism is divided into 1) Early scholasticism 8 ... 12c 2) Heyday 13c 3) Late scholasticism 14 ... 15c Scholasticism is characterized by a connection with the works of Aristotle. Philosophy of Aristotle was considered a model. Formation of Christianity: In the Middle Ages, Christianity subjugated all forms of worldview. Philosophers have been successful only if they share ecclesiastical positions. Ethics is the most important part of Christian doctrine. The main features of medieval philosophy:

Theocentrism;

Creationism (the doctrine of the creation of the world by God from nothing);

Theodicy (the desire to justify God as a creator for the presence of evil in the world created by him);

Eschatology (the doctrine of the fate of the world and man);

Providentialism (the doctrine of the realization of one's plans by God);

Faith is superior to reason.

Sources of Christianity: The Old Testament of the Jews was immediately recognized. On the other hand, the works of the Church Fathers became an important source of the developing teaching of the church => the early period is called patristics. This period, when the Christian doctrine, on the one hand, was influenced by the works of the Church Fathers, and, on the other hand, by ancient philosophy. Patristics is a set of theological, philosophical and political-sociological doctrines of Christian thinkers of the II-VIII centuries. (fathers of the church). Basic theoretical questions.

The high status of human existence is determined by the biblical formula “man is the image and likeness of God”. The divine qualities of man are reason and will. It is reason and free will that make a person a moral being and a representative of God in this God in this world, a continuer of divine deeds. Man, like God, is given the ability to express judgments. Distinguish between good and evil. Free will allows a person to make a choice in favor of good or evil. The first people A and E - made this choice not successfully. They chose evil and committed the fall.

From now on, the nature of man turned out to be corrupted, he is constantly affected by the fall. Therefore, Christian thinkers define the nature of man as dual. This bifurcation of man Augustine called the “sickness of the soul”, its disobedience to itself, that is, to the highest principle. According to Christ's worldview, a person on his own is not able to overcome his sinful inclinations. He constantly needs divine help, the action of divine grace. The relationship between nature and grace is a central theme in Christian anthropology.

Providentialism and Eschatology. At the heart of Christ's conception of history lies the idea of a constant and necessary connection between man and God. Man is interpreted as being created by God, saved by Christ and destined for a supernatural destiny. With this approach, the true process is the revelation of a divine-human relationship, characterized, on the one hand, by the decline, regression caused by the fall and alienation of man from God, and, on the other hand, by the ascent of man to God. The main mission of man is characterized as saving, testing, and edifying. With this approach, the historical process acquires, as it were, two dimensions: horizontal and vertical. The horizontal characterizes the historical process in terms of its internal development: the activities of people, their struggle for power, for the improvement of well-being, etc.

Vertical - characterizes the influence on the historical process of the action of God, his intervention in the course historical development. Christendom is basically providential. The world does not develop by itself, but according to God's providence. According to this worldview, God's providence extends to the entire surrounding world and gives all natural and social processes a meaningful and purposeful character. In philo-history, providentialism claims that divine design predetermines the history of people. It remains for the people to either contribute to the implementation of this plan, and, then, to work for the salvation of the world and man, or to oppose it, for which God will punish people.

Providentialism is inextricably linked with eschatology - the doctrine of the end of the world. History in Christ's worldview is depicted as an expedient process directed by God to a predetermined goal - the kingdom of Eschaton (the kingdom of God). Christian thinkers portray the kingdom of God as a true, beautiful and perfect world, in which man will be in complete unity with God. Achieving the kingdom of God is the ultimate goal and meaning of human existence. This position is the basis of the Christian worldview and is recognized by all areas of Christian philosophy and theology.

Thomas Aquinas - tries to build and explain religion on the basis of reason, not faith, science must confirm religion.

Scientific revolution of the 17th century. Development of the inductive method. Philosophy of F. Bacon

The mathematization and experimental nature of the natural sciences of modern times have led to two varieties of gnoseocentric philosophy. Depending on the choice of methodological priorities, empiricism and rationalism of modern times were formed. The first defended experimental, experimental ways to achieve universal and necessary knowledge, the second saw these ways in logical discourse (reasoning). The founders of these trends are considered to be the Englishman Francis Bacon (1561-1626) and the Frenchman René Descartes (Cartesius14; 1596-1650. Descartes' followers are usually called "Cartesians" (Cartesius is a Latinized version of Descartes' surname).

Bacon held important government posts, was Lord Chancellor under King James I. Forced to interrupt his career due to accusations of corruption, he retired to his estate and at his leisure took up the philosophy and methodology of experimental science. The figurative language of his works belongs rather to the previous era, but their ideological content is directed to the future. Your thoughts and predictions regarding the huge role of science in the life of mankind, effective methodology scientific research, the prospects for the development of science as a means of increasing the power of man, Bacon outlined in the unfinished work "The Great Restoration of Sciences". In the utopian work "New Atlantis" he painted an image of a future society dominated by science. "House of Solomon" - the brain trust of this society; this institute organizes and plans research work, disposes of natural and industrial resources on a nationwide scale.

Bacon set a goal to find a way to a deep knowledge of nature, mastery of its elemental forces. Sharply speaking out against scholastic philosophy, Bacon defended natural history, practical cognitive priorities. Truths must be sifted, tested, derived from painstaking observation of nature and human practice. A lawyer by education, apparently familiar with the torture practice of his time, Bacon called for its use in cognitive acts. Only that nature will reveal its secrets, which is "tormented and tormented" by the natural scientist. Bacon persistently pursues the idea of experimental violence, the testing of nature.

According to Bacon, the best method of cognition is induction, that is, the ascent from single facts to extensive cognitive generalizations. By studying individual objects and phenomena, comparing them with each other, analyzing their various aspects, the scientist receives material for broad generalizations and conclusions.

The obstacles that stand in the way of true knowledge of nature, Bacon allegorically called idols (ghosts) besieging human minds. The idols of the race are rooted in human nature, which is different from the nature of things, but a person tends to mix them up, as a result of which the world appears to him in a distorted anthropomorphic form. The idols of the cave (a reminiscence of the Platonic image) are the subjective predilections of an individual, preventing objective knowledge. The idols of the market penetrate into the consciousness of a person from the social environment, from the current word usage imposed by this latter. Thus Bacon puts forward regulatory requirement terminological rigor and correspondence of concepts to reality. Finally, under the idols of the theater, Bacon understands the fictional worlds of false and outdated philosophical systems that lure a person like magnificent theatrical performances.

Bacon's philosophy has obvious dualistic features. He recognized the material substance, consisting of atoms. In his allegorical manner, Bacon illustrated the idea of the primordial vital energy inherent in matter with the ancient theogonic myth of the birth of Eros-Cupid, calling the latter the personification of that force "which creates and forms everything that exists from matter." At the same time, Bacon also recognized the reality of divine objects. He warned against the interference of science in matters of faith, thus adhering to the principle of dual truth.

Philosophy and methodology of R. Descartes

Dualistic ideas in a rationalistic version were developed by Descartes, who was not only an outstanding philosopher, but also a major scientist. The starting point of Descartes' philosophy is methodical doubt. If, in the search for certainty, we “bracket” everything more or less doubtful in our knowledge, then what remains? Descartes gives the answer: the very act of doubt, of thinking, will be absolutely reliable. The certainty of the thinking "I" is expressed by the famous Cartesian thesis "cogito ergo sum" ("I think, therefore I am").

To justify the transition from the reality of the thinking "I" to the reality of the conceivable world, Descartes resorts to Anselmian ontological proof. God exists by virtue of his own concept. The predicate of existence is inseparable from God, just as the mountain - logically and physically - is inseparable from the valley. God cannot be deceived and deceive. God is the absolute creator, he is the guarantor of the reality of the world he created and those ideas that were laid down in the plan of creation. For Descartes, God is the source of epistemological optimism; rational knowledge, having a divine guarantee, has the most favorable prospects.

God is infinite and free, but the world he created is finite and devoid of free will. In such a world, the truths of mathematics, physics, and philosophy gain ultimate power. The role of God is reduced to the creation of matter and giving it the first impetus. Everything else happens according to its own laws. Matter is the substance of all things, its main attribute (an integral property) is extension. Matter fills all space, without voids. Mechanical motion is transmitted from body to body without being destroyed. Descartes created a speculative hypothesis about the development of the world from the moving initial chaos of particles of matter.

In addition to material substance, Descartes also postulates the existence of a spiritual substance with the main attribute in the form of thinking. Both substances coexist without being related to each other. This doctrine was called psychophysical parallelism. The correspondence of two isolated substances is established by God, which allows thinking to comprehend the phenomena of the material world. The nodal points of the thinking substance are innate ideas, hallmarks which are self-evident clarity and distinctness. From undoubted premises it is possible and must, using the correct method, to derive all the necessary true consequences.

Pantheism B. Spinoza

Benedict Spinoza (1632-1677), pantheistically identifying nature with God, creates a monistic concept of a single substance, which opposes the dualism of Descartes. Substance exists as the beginning and cause of all things, is the cause of itself (causa sui). The essential qualities of a substance (attributes) are thinking and extension. Separate things and ideas represent its modes, i.e. single manifestations that do not possess substantiality. This shows the extreme realism (in the medieval sense) of the teachings of B. Spinoza, which forms the basis of his pantheism, brought to its logical conclusion.

The doctrine of substance, declaring the absolute identity of God and nature, soul and body, spiritual and material, allows B. Spinoza to develop and approve one of the fundamental provisions of rationalism: the order and connection of ideas corresponds to the order and connection of things. Since man is a part of nature and all his actions are included in the system of world lawful determination and are determined by them, then "will and mind are one and the same." From here famous definition freedom as a "cognized necessity". The world as a single system can be essentially understood through the geometric method. Main works: "Theological and political treatise", "Ethics", "Fundamentals of Descartes' philosophy" /Sm. there. c.349-408/.

G. Leibniz about the pre-established harmony of the world

Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) - German idealist philosopher, mathematician, physicist, inventor, linguist. The author of an original philosophical system, which has developed as a result of twenty years of creative evolution, during which the ideas of Democritus, Plato, Augustine, Descartes, Hobbes and others were reworked.

The real world, according to Leibniz, consists of countless spiritual formations - monads (gr. monos - one, unit), each of which has substantial qualities (indivisible, self-sufficient). The supreme monad is God, which ensures the pre-established harmony of the world, its integrity, universal connection and constant development. The essence of any material formation is a monad or a system of monads. Each monad has, firstly, a representation or perception, which makes it possible to reflect the entire diversity of the macrocosm and, secondly, aspiration, which ensures the movement, development of the universe. The doctrine of monads (monadology) deals with the problems of dialectics, the inextricable connection between matter and motion, the relationship between necessity and chance, the concept of development, and others.

In the theory of knowledge, Leibniz distinguishes between “truths of reason”, which contain a universal, necessary, consistent content (truths of a logical-mathematical type) and “truths of fact”, related to experience, and, therefore, are more or less random, probabilistic. In the correlation of these truths, the dialectic of knowledge is deeply revealed: under the influence of experience, the mind increasingly reveals its capabilities (preceding experience) in comprehending the truth. Ultimately, true thinking is determined by what one thinks about, i.e. the structure of the object, and not the subjective structure of the mind /See. there. c.449-486/.

Supporters of empiricism and rationalism of the 17th century asserted the possibility of knowing being by thinking. For the first time, doubts about this concept arise in J. Locke (1632-1704), then in the 18th century. it is sharply criticized by D. Hume.

The philosophical initiatives of Bacon and Descartes had their successors. In the empirical version, these were John Locke (1632-1704), George Berkeley (1685-1753) and David Hume (1711-1776).

The doctrine of the sensual nature of knowledge (sensualism) was developed by Locke. Sensory experience is the basis of all knowledge; there are no innate ideas in the soul. The latter can be likened to a blank slate (tabula rasa), on which only experience leaves writing. The problem of the objectivity of knowledge is solved by Locke in his concept of primary and secondary qualities. Primary (inherent in things themselves) qualities are the mathematical and space-time characteristics of a figure, mass, movement, etc., and secondary (not inherent in things) are subjective sensations of color, taste, smell, etc. Thus, Locke did not recognize the objective properties of objects that are not reducible to mechanical.

Theoretically, Bishop Berkeley sought to destroy the idea of a material substance. He denied Locke's division of primary and secondary qualities on the grounds that both figure and taste are equally sensations. Things are combinations of sensations, and not at all manifestations of material substance, which, according to Berkeley, is fiction and fiction. He is usually referred to as subjective idealists, which is not entirely correct. The bishop "abolished" the material substance (and for this he invented a system of subjective-idealistic argumentation), but did not at all deny the spiritual one. His teaching was a renewed apologetics, that is, a defense of the Christian doctrine. In one of his fantastic pamphlets, written at the beginning of the 18th century. (see reader), Berkeley allegorically portrayed the merciless attack of freethinking on the foundations of the church. Such an attack took place at the end of the century, during the French Revolution.

The skeptical position in philosophy was occupied by David Hume. In his opinion, the question of the existence of material or spiritual substances fundamentally lies outside the limits of sensory experience and therefore is unresolvable. The only given is a certain stream of "impressions", the causes of which are incomprehensible. The task of philosophy is to explore the bright and stable moments in the stream of consciousness and to draw up appropriate practical guidelines.

Classical German Philosophy. Philosophical positions of Kant. Mind and reason. The "Thing in Itself" Phenomenon

The formation of German classical philosophy took place against the backdrop of radical socio-economic transformations in some European countries, the highest point of which was the French bourgeois revolution of 1789-1794, which proclaimed the principles of freedom, equality and fraternity. Feudal rule in Europe was dealt another blow. But the development of bourgeois relations is not uniform: in England and France this process takes on an accelerated character, Germany as a whole still remains a feudal country.

The struggle for the progressive development of German society often took the form of philosophical concepts, the content of which reflected the specific conditions of the socio-economic and political life. German classical philosophy (Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel) in a theoretical form expressed the need to introduce Germany to the bourgeois order, relied on the advanced ideas of its time, took into account the achievements of natural science.

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) - the founder of German classical philosophy. The theoretical activity of the philosopher is divided into two periods: pre-critical and critical. (The line between them is the book Critique of Pure Reason.) In the first period, questions of natural science are considered mainly, among which is the hypothesis of the solar system. (discovered galaxies, explained the ebb and flow). The second (70 years) is associated with the development of the theory of knowledge, logic, dialectics, morality, aesthetics, anthropology. According to Kant himself, the immediate cause for deep philosophical reflection was D. Hume's skepticism, which woke him up from his "dogmatic hibernation." The following questions were put forward as a research program: what can a person know?, what should he do?, what can he hope for?, and the final one - what is a person?

The starting point of I. Kant's reflections is the historical dispute between rationalists and empiricists about what is the source of knowledge: reason or sensations. He does not recognize the legitimacy of such an opposition: sensations provide material to knowledge, and the mind (in the broad sense) gives it the appropriate form. This cooperation takes place in experience, the only source of knowledge. Sensations are impermanent, changeable, and the forms introduced by consciousness are stable and do not depend on the conditions of experience. Kant considers these forms to be a priori (pre-experimental) formations, manifestations of the transcendental abilities of thinking. A priori forms of consciousness streamline the chaos of sensory perceptions and in the epistemological plane "model" the world of phenomena through concepts. Cognition of PHENOMENA in infinitely possible experience is the lot of mathematics and natural science. At the same time, experience is limited by subjective sensations and cannot claim to know "THINGS-IN-Themselves", i.e. essence of the environment. The world of essences has a transcendental character, i.e. lies outside of experience.

Kant considers three abilities of thinking: sensibility, reason and reason. Each of them performs a specific function in cognition. A priori (pre-experimental) forms of sensory cognition are space and time, reason - the category of quantity, quality, relationship, modality. Through feelings and REASON, the data of experience are transformed into thoughts, concepts, ideas, and as the final result, synthetic a priori judgments arise - the goal of knowledge. Supreme Ability consciousness manifests itself in the MIND, which forms the most general, unconditional ideas of the world, the soul, God, performing a regulatory role in thinking. These ideas give integrity to thinking and the world that appears, induce the mind to cognitive activity, and are its ideal, unattainable goal; they, as a priori forms of reason, are not amenable to rational cognition and belong to faith. Every attempt of the mind to rationally define them gives rise to contrary statements. The emerging antinomies are a sign of the limit of reason, the violation of which leads to all kinds of illusions, chimeras, myths capable of causing misfortune and suffering to man and mankind. Kant's doctrine of the antinomies of theoretical reason played a large role in the development of dialectics.

But the critique of theoretical reason is only one side of Kant's new philosophy, the other no less important is the critique of practical reason, which is understood as morality, moral consciousness. The basis of moral norms is an a priori principle that gives them a universal and necessary character - the categorical imperative. The content of the latter is the consciousness of universal human moral duty, in contrast to sensual, empirical, subjective inclinations.

The teachings of I. Kant had a huge impact on the subsequent development of scientific and philosophical thought. His followers in German classical philosophy rejected ideas that limit the mind in knowing the essence of things and developed various aspects of Kantian philosophy.

Philosophical concept of Hegel. The dialectical method and the system of its philosophy

Hegel (1770-1831) deeply and comprehensively reworked the ideas of his predecessors and created a holistic one. system of idealistic dialectics. Unlike Schelling, who widely used elements of irrationalism in his philosophical system, Hegel's dialectic is clearly rationalistic in nature, conceived as a science based on logic, a certain system of concepts, reason. The basis of Hegelian philosophy is the proclamation of the reasonableness of the world, its rationality: "what is reasonable is real; and what is real is reasonable." The absolute identity of being and thinking is the main system-forming principle in Hegel's philosophy, which is consistently developed, concretized when considering logic, nature, thinking (spirit).

The "Absolute" (synonyms: "world mind", "world spirit", "absolute idea") acts as the fundamental principle of the world - a kind of impersonal, timeless, creative force that embodies the need for the development of nature, society and knowledge. The absolute idea is the substance that constitutes the essence and fundamental principle of all things. Development is understood as a process of self-knowledge of the absolute idea of itself. If we identify the "Absolute" with the universal regularity, the harmony of the world, then development means the growth of self-knowledge of nature, realized through the thinking of man - the highest stage of development.

The most general scheme of world movement is that the absolute idea, as a result of self-development, alienates itself into nature, and then, embodied in man, his thinking, realizes himself, acquires will and other personal qualities. This triple transformation (triad) is consistently considered by Hegel in his main works: "Science of Logic", "Philosophy of Nature", "Philosophy of Spirit".

The Science of Logic describes the logical development of an idea as an ascent to more and more concrete categories: being, nothing, becoming, quality, quantity, measure; essence, phenomenon, reality; concept, object, idea, culminating in an absolute idea. In the "Philosophy of Nature", respectively, in mechanics, physics, physiology, the otherness of the absolute idea is considered. And, finally, in the "Philosophy of Spirit" the return of the "Absolute" to itself is traced in the forms of the individual's mental activity: subjective spirit (anthropology, phenomenology, psychology), objective spirit (law, morality, morality, state), absolute spirit (art, religion , philosophy - the highest forms of self-consciousness of the spirit).

The internal source of the development of everything that exists, understood as an ascent from the abstract to the concrete, is a contradiction. The founder of the first integral theory of contradiction is Heraclitus. The meaning of dialectical contradiction was first revealed by Aristotle, who saw in it an essential moment in the definition of the subject. The contradiction permeates the whole philosophy of Hegel. Any object, concept, phenomenon, realizing itself, thereby exhausts itself and passes into its other. Any category, being the result of a contradiction, contains a new contradiction leading to further development.

A consistent analysis of the development of the absolute idea in the field of logic (pure thought), nature and society reveals the basic dialectical principles, laws and categories that form the system of Hegelian dialectics. (Dialectics is a holistic theory of universal connection and development)

Major works: "Phenomenology of Spirit", "Science of Logic", "Philosophy of Nature", "Fundamentals of the Philosophy of Law" and others.

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What is philosophy

Aristotle was the first to introduce philosophy as a separate area of theoretical knowledge. Until the 16th century, it included many areas, which then began to separate into separate sciences: mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, physics, biology. Now this science includes logic, metaphysics, ontology, aesthetics.

The purpose of this science is to captivate a person with the highest ideals, to give him a correct idea of perfect values.

It is believed that Pythagoras was the first to coin the term "philosophy", and the word itself first appears in the dialogues of Plato. The term originated in ancient Greece.

It is difficult for many to understand this science, since many philosophers contradict each other on global issues, there are many views and schools. The ideas of this science are not clear to everyone, and it is easy to get confused in it.

Philosophy solves such questions as: “Is it possible to know the world?”, “Is there a God?”, “What is good and bad?”, “What comes first: matter or consciousness?”.

The subject of philosophy

Now the focus of this science is man, society and knowledge. The focus depends on what issues are relevant for philosophers in a particular historical era.

Man

Man is the main object of philosophy, which has been studied since its inception. People are interested in themselves, their origin and the laws of development. Although human nature has been studied for a long time, there are still unsolved mysteries and questions from scientists.

In the Middle Ages, human nature was explained with the help of religion. Now, when religion does not play such a big role in society, other explanations are being sought. Biology also studies a person, which gives an idea of \u200b\u200bthe processes occurring inside the body.

A long study of man led to three conclusions:

Man is the highest form of development, as he possesses speech, knows how to create a tool of labor, and thinks. At the first stage of the development of philosophical thought, man was studied as the most intelligent creature on the planet.
At the next stage, philosophers studied the history of the development of mankind as a whole, identified patterns.
In the third stage, each person was studied individually.

These stages led to the formation of the concepts of "personality" and "individuality". Although man is one of the main subjects of philosophy, the topic has not been fully studied and remains relevant.

Society

Philosophers study the rules and principles adopted in society, the tendencies of its development and the ideas that arise in it.

There are two approaches to the study of society:

study of production and receipt of material goods;
study of the spiritual part of society.

An important rule is the assessment of personality in the study of society. Based on the questions raised, several currents emerged:

Marxism, whose followers believe that a person is a product of society. By setting rules, engaging in public labor activity and control is formed by the behavior model and the level of culture of an individual.
Existentialism. According to this trend, man is an irrational being. The study of society occurs without the study of individual individuals. of a person is a unique phenomenon, and intuition is the main method of comprehending reality.
Kantianism. The founder of this trend is. This trend suggests that society, just like nature, has its own principles and rules of development. These rules are different separate eras and depend on human needs.

Currents also arise as a result of various historical events and study the problems that were relevant at that time.

Cognition

This is the most difficult object of philosophy, since there is different methods knowledge. They are constantly being improved, so studying them is a complex process. Knowledge methods include:

sensation;
perception;
observation;
other.

Knowledge is divided into scientific and empirical. Each species has its own methods.

The main problem is the relationship between the world and man. Previously, these relationships were explained with the help of religion or mysticism. Now they are explained by science.

Development of the subject of philosophy

What philosophy studies at a particular point in time depends on the development of society and its needs. So, there are four stages in the development of the object of this science:

The subject of the first thousand years BC was the development of ideas about the emergence of the world and people. People were interested in where the world came from, and where they came from.
In the 1st to 4th centuries AD, religion appears and the focus changes dramatically. The relationship between man and God comes to the fore.
In the Middle Ages, philosophy was the main science and influenced the life of society. There were no drastic changes at that moment, since people were in solidarity in their points of view. This happened because dissent was punishable.
The development of the object of study resumes in modern times. The idea of various variants of human development comes to the fore. During this period, people hoped that philosophy would combine all the information about the world and the place of man in it.

During these stages, people's lives changed, various historical events took place that formed the object of science and influenced its development.

The subject went through three stages of evolution, because initially people could not explain many phenomena. But gradually our knowledge of the world expanded, and the object of study evolved:

Cosmocentrism is the first stage. All the events that took place on earth were explained by the influence of the cosmos.
Theocentrism is the second stage. Everything that happened in the world and people's lives was explained by God's will or mystical higher powers.
Anthropocentrism is the third stage. The problems of man and society come to the fore, and more attention is paid to their solution.

Based on these stages, it is possible to trace the development of mankind. At the very beginning, due to the lack of sufficient knowledge about the world, people tried to explain everything by the influence of the cosmos - matter that was incomprehensible to them. As religion develops, the life of society changes a lot: people try to be obedient to God, and religion occupies a significant place in their lives. In the modern world, when there is enough knowledge about the world, and religion does not occupy such a large place in people's lives, human problems come to the fore.

Objects of comprehension of reality

All of us, in the course of our lives, learn about the world around us. Philosophy identifies 4 subjects for understanding reality:

Nature is everything that is created without human intervention. Nature is spontaneous and unpredictable, it exists regardless of the existence of man: even if he dies, the world will continue to exist.
God is a concept that combines the idea of other world, supernatural forces and mysticism. Exalted qualities are attributed to God, such as: immortality, omnipresence and omnipotence.
Society is a system that is created by people and consists of institutions, classes and people. Society cannot exist naturally, as in the case of nature, and the work of mankind is necessary to maintain it.
Man is a being who is the center of existence. There is a divine beginning in man, which consists in the ability to create and create. Also, a person has innate qualities that connects him with nature. Some qualities develop under the influence of the environment and environment, which makes a person a social being.

We learn these four elements in the process of studying the world around us and form our own idea about them. Philosophy also studies these four elements and focuses on their nature and development laws.

The object of philosophy will always change. If now the problem of man and humanity is in the foreground, then in the next century the situation may change. Philosophy is the science most influenced by social factors and historical events. The specificity of philosophy lies in variability and duality.

Object in philosophy- this is the subject of philosophy, considered within the nature of things and evaluated regardless of the subject that cognizes.

It is impossible, of course, to consider the object independently of the subject, even if we are talking about a philosophical doctrine. At the same time, many thinkers tried to find such objects of philosophy that would be absolutely independent.

The object of philosophy is nothing but the universe, that is, the surrounding world and the reality in which it exists. Particular attention in philosophical doctrine is given to a person who is considered the subject of philosophy.

What is an object in philosophy?

The object of philosophy is an objective reality that includes human life within its own limits. Under the guise of reality, everything that exists in various forms (not only explicit ones) appears. Another definition of it in philosophy can be the concept of "being".

When being manifests itself for the physical senses, then it can be called reality. The same part of being that has not been manifested is called reality. Reality itself is considered hidden, yet intelligible. This ensures its versatility. A single being is thus composed of sides:

Reality, which is the cause and condition for changing reality;
Reality, which is the same reality that manifests itself in spatial and temporal outlines.

It turns out that reality is controlled by intelligible reality. The variability of being, composed of the real and the real, contributes to the emergence of the question of the regularity of the variability of being. The change in the world around us occurs in a rhythmic manner - even if we talk about physical laws.

This is one of the tasks of philosophical knowledge and is to consider the reasons for the constant change in the surrounding world. When knowledge can predict options related to the development of reality in the future, it can be called wisdom. In essence, wisdom is the knowledge possessed by a naturally developing being in various fields. Thus, the “invisible” is comprehended and preparations are made for the future.

About the subject of philosophy

It is not for nothing that philosophical science is unofficially called the love of wisdom. If we talk about what is the object of philosophy, then here knowledge about reality, which objectively changes, acts in this capacity. This is how “external” wisdom is defined, which is manifested in the human attitude to the world that surrounds it.

The subject of this science is knowledge about the various principles, as well as the laws of that reality, which is comprehended by the mind and gives rise to "internal" wisdom. The discovery of "inner wisdom" is possible in the attitude that a person shows towards himself.

The general principles of cognitive processes are determined by the unity of internal as well as external relations of the human individual to the surrounding world. Thus, philosophy is the external manifestation of philosophical wisdom. Wisdom itself is an internal philosophical content.

When they talk about what is the object of study of philosophy, they consider the reality of the relationship between the human individual and the surrounding world. To clarify the specifics of the philosophical subject, it turns out the angle of view, under which the reflection of the phenomenon under study is carried out.

First of all, the emphasis is placed on the essence of the relations under study, their origins, the specifics of the world order, and interconnections. It turns out that the subject of philosophy is its own object, connected with the relationship between the surrounding world and man, considered together with the world and human essence. The possibilities for the transformation of the human personality, the structure of the world in which a person lives are being studied.

On various historical stages the philosophical subject could not be presented in full integrity, but exactly as it was required to appear at that moment in order to master the surrounding reality.

At first, thinkers asked themselves only questions about the principles of the surrounding world, its structure and structure, one or another of its aspects. Subsequently, on the basis of the results of reflections, the meaning of being, considered by philosophers as one of the main tasks, was formed.

Although there has always been a variety of approaches related to the relationship between a person and the surrounding world, there was a need for a holistic view of the world and one's own "I". This approach was determined by the specifics of human life.

Solving problems related to practical human activity is often impossible without philosophically sound ideas about the integrity of the surrounding world. Actually, no activity is possible without the immediate existence of the world.

Tasks of philosophy

From this follow such important tasks that exist for philosophical science, such as:

Designation of the nature of the surrounding world.
Designation of social and personal interests in relation to the world, their nature and even orientation.
Historical social development.

To solve the above problems, philosophy offers several approaches. For example, people need to reckon with the fact that there is an objective world that has objective laws, natural connections. The basis of this world is the material principle, and the person himself is a part of the surrounding world.

Types of object of philosophy

There are different types of object of philosophy related to the fact that the philosophical discipline itself is multilateral and multifaceted. Accordingly, the object under study cannot be the only one. Perhaps, most of all attention is drawn to a person, society and the surrounding nature, as worthy subjects of study, their patterns and relationships.

Regardless of the level of its development, society is not a homogeneous collection of different individuals, since it is associated with relations between completely different socio-historical communities. Each such community has its own qualitative characteristics, which must be regularly studied and analyzed.

Philosophical science characterizes society as a dynamic system that develops itself. With serious changes, it still continues to retain its own essence, as well as indicators of qualitative certainty.

Initial ideas about consistency in nature and society, are already found in the works of some ancient thinkers, when they said that being is ordered and holistic. Of the modern philosophers dealing with these issues, it should be noted Comte, Spencer, Durkheim, Marx, Weber, and so on.

The society itself is a social system that can develop on its own, but exists due to human activity. Actually, it is in human material or spiritual relationships that one should look for a real system-forming social factor.

social systems

The characteristics of a social system are:

openness;
Consistency of subsystems.
Disequilibrium.

The dynamics of social systems can be described using special models. Sometimes the role of social systems can be played by some elements of society, which are its subsystems, such as certain areas public life, the relationship of man and society, ethnic groups, state unions.

Such subsystems are combined through various working interactions and are marked by the presence of processes:

Self regulation;
Self-playback;
Self structuring.

Society as a social system can be characterized by consistency between subsystems, openness and even unpredictability, since there are several options for its development.

Considering nature, as an object of philosophy, then this term is used by science in several interpretations at once:

To represent everything that exists.
To determine the extrahuman reality (the world that exists regardless of the anthropological factor).
As a synonym for the term "essence".

Representations of the ancients

As for the ideas of the ancients, nature was correlated with people, therefore people thought about what essence mental processes are endowed with and gradually began to use animism, associated with confidence in the existence of the human soul. You can also note such a definition as hylozoism, when the soul was completely endowed with the surrounding world.

It was these worldviews that served the subsequent formation of rationalistic ideas about what nature is. This is how the concept of “logos” appeared, that is, a universal law that is able to govern the world. He governs both nature and man. But the human mind initially challenged the right to independent transformation of nature.

Modern Philosophy

When studying the structure of the modern material world, they resort to using systems approaches, suggesting that it is necessary to consider any objects of nature as complex formations. Actually, the development of the very concept of "system", in turn, was necessary to denote the composite integrity of objects. At the same time, the emphasis is also placed on the presence of relationships between system elements.

The very definition of "element" implies the presence of an indivisible component within the system, but only in relation to the represented system. If we analyze the relationship of the element to other systems, then a rather complex system is already presented here.

System integrity may imply the emergence of new interactive properties after the constituent parts form an overall system. In nature and its philosophical understanding, such systems can be represented by the microcosm, the macrocosm, and also the megaworld.

Man as an object of philosophy

Man as an object of knowledge in philosophy is considered not only in the social, but also in the generic totality. If we study the essence of man through the prism of philosophy, a sufficiently large number of questions arise that affect the human essence, the cognizability or unknowability of the phenomenon, universality, the dominance of biological or social human nature, evolutionary principles and systems associated with human values.

Philosophical anthropology, dealing with answers to these questions, has been developing since ancient times and continues to develop along with the development of socio-natural areas of human habitation and the direct development of man himself.

Accordingly, we should talk about today's relevance and even topicality of this issue. Moreover, such relevance is generated not by conjectural features, but by the result of human activity (in the economy, ecology, society, and so on).

Object of study in philosophy

The central object of the study of philosophy is the world as a whole, due to which a general view of the world around is determined. As a philosophical subject, regularities, characteristics, as well as forms of being that operate in many material and spiritual spheres are considered.

It is impossible not to talk about the close relationship between philosophical science and man. In particular, we can note the following historical periods associated with the development of certain points of view on the problem of man and his role in the world around him:

At first, the level of understanding of the problem was perceived as a methodologically initial philosophical principle. Man was considered as the main object or subject of philosophizing, the importance of such a principle was determined.
The level of philosophical understanding of the human individual. The independence of a person for philosophical reflection is considered, the means of in-depth analysis are used in the study of the problem of a person.

It turns out that the problem of man at all times was in the depths of philosophical research, regardless of the problems with which this science was occupied.

There are also such periods of philosophical study of the problem of man as the central object of philosophizing:

Consideration of the problem by metaphysical means (by ancient representatives);
Consideration of the problem by theological means (medieval thinkers);
Analysis of the problem through mathematical and mechanical methods(philosophers of modern times);
Consideration of the human problem by biological science.

In order for a person to be studied as a complex object for cognition, a set of concepts was developed, thanks to which human nature and essence, the meaning of human existence, is determined.

First of all, man represents the highest level among living organisms living on our planet. In addition to philosophy, it is the subject and object of study of many sciences and activities, including culture, as well as historical activity.

Philosophical concepts about man

We should not forget about the generic category of such a concept as a person, since one definition can express the general characteristics of a genus or a socialized individual. This concept combines various characteristics of a person, including social and biological.

The definition of "individual" is used in the study of a separate human unit in philosophical science. Individuality is considered here as a complex of original traits and qualities that an individual possesses.

Personality is the social characteristics that an individual possesses and that he acquired during his upbringing, spiritual development or social interaction. A personality necessarily has dynamic features, since it is simply not capable of being static.

Human nature initially presupposes activity and activity, since a person is free to independently create his own destiny, as well as create world history and culture. As for activity, it can be considered as a method of human existence in the role of a creative individual (it is not necessarily about cultural creativity, but a person is considered as a historical and life creator).

Life forces the individual to constantly change and in a certain way change the world that surrounds him. Accordingly, human abilities have the nature of a specific historicity, which change in the process of activity.

According to the same Marx, external human feelings were formed under the influence of labor and industry. Activity makes a person more plastic and flexible, gives him physical energy and opportunities for constant search.

Moreover, a person has not only a social, but also a biological mechanism responsible for inheritance. For example, social inheritance takes place in the process of socialization, that is, personal development, which is carried out through educational procedures.

A person cannot live without a collective way of life, since only such activity allows him to create and develop his own basic characteristics. The rich human mind and its emotional world are determined by the breadth of its communication capabilities and interaction with other individuals.

People are subject to the creation of their own tools and their subsequent improvement. Based on moral standards, a person regulates his relationships.

The evolution of philosophical views

It is necessary to note the constant changes in the views of different thinkers on the human being in different historical periods. The development of philosophical views can be traced from early eras. Moreover, views were constantly changing and were prone to evolution.

You can focus on the following philosophical approaches helping to define the human essence:

Subjectivistic, when the inner human world is studied.
Objectivist, when a person is considered as a carrier of external living conditions.
Synthesizing, when a person is seen as a union of subjective and objective causes.

Among the followers of the above approaches, definitions such as human essence and human nature are shared or not.

The main object of knowledge in philosophy is a person and everything that can only be connected with him: these are relations with the outside world, the laws of development and existence. Also, the role of another object of knowledge in philosophical science is played by the world as a whole, due to which a general view of the world around is determined.

Man as an object of knowledge in philosophy

It should be noted that the question of man occupies one of the most important places in philosophical science. In particular, such important issues as the value of a person in modern world, its exact place in society.

The branch of philosophy that deals with the above issues is called philosophical anthropology. The problems associated with a person turn out to be important because one of the goals of philosophy is also considered to be the solution of worldview issues related to the freedom of a person, his place in society and the prospects for human development.

It is necessary to solve such problems because man is the creator of social history, the subject of many forms of activity. Accordingly, the understanding of its essence practically guarantees the understanding of this or that historical process.

On human responsibility

Insofar as global problems in modern time continue to escalate, a person becomes even more responsible for his own activities. First of all, he is responsible for preserving the earthly nature. The philosophical approach is specific because here the human personality is considered as an integrity, a lot of attention is paid to the connections of a person with the outside world.

It is interesting that the same ancient thinkers (for example, Aristotle) did not call a human being a social animal for nothing, since that is how they designated its main essence. Much later, Plekhanov clarified that a person is, indeed, a social being who can produce and operate tools of labor, contribute to changes in the world around him, use his own consciousness as a function of the brain, and use articulate speech for his own purposes.

In essence, it will be possible to correctly say that in man the natural is combined with the social. Such a question could be solved in absolutely different ways, depending on the philosophical doctrine:

Naturalistic attitude towards man;
Sociological.

Naturalistic approaches are associated with an exaggeration of the human natural principle, which directly affects human life. Such an example can be found, for example, in the teachings of social Darwinism, when the laws of evolution were simply transferred to social laws.

Human nature, according to the representatives of the naturalistic approach, never changes. The basis of human nature can be:

Physical;
genetic;
Natural.

The commonality of such a foundation is noticeable at least in the fact that a human being, like animals, needs food and oxygen. Human health is determined by the basis of the organism. Without this, social functions and their implementation are impossible.

The natural basis implies the consideration of man as a natural phenomenon, which is dependent on it. This, by the way, further emphasizes the importance of the environmental problem. A person is able to realize his own role, analyze his life meaning, understand the finiteness of his own being.

Religion is a rather important factor necessary for understanding human essence. In the context of philosophy, religious issues have always been considered important, and even more so in the medieval era.

As for the views of modern philosophers on man, they are quite diverse. At the same time, many thinkers believe that human essence lies in an adequate ability to distinguish the pragmatic from the integral. real world a pragmatic and adequate assessment is needed.

Conclusions about the object of philosophy

As we see the object of philosophy is the surrounding world, and its subject is the human individual. The relationship between the object and the subject turns out to be clear, the laws of which are also considered and studied by philosophical doctrine.

In different epochs, different philosophies considered the same person and his destiny differently from each other. At the same time, a certain commonality associated with the main place of a person was preserved.