In every historical epoch there is a form of worldview. Man's worldview: its essence, structure and historical forms
The human worldview has historically developed along with the emergence of man as a thinking being and is developing in connection with the needs of man and society. To selection forms and types of worldview there are different approaches. It is possible to single out the artistic-figurative level of the worldview, which is manifested in art and the conceptual-rational level, which is expressed in sign form.
On the basis of artistic and figurative spiritual assimilation of reality, a mythological and religious worldview is formed. On the basis of the rational-conceptual level, the philosophical and scientific forms of the worldview are formed.
In the history of mankind, 4 historical forms (types) of worldview : mythology, religion, science and philosophy.
The first type - mythological worldview - was formed in the early stages of the development of society and was the first attempt by a person to explain the origin and structure of the world and his place in it.
Mythology (from Greek. mythos -- story, tale) fantastic, imaginative comprehension reality in the form of sensory visual images and representations. Formythology characteristically anthropomorphic (human-like) understanding of the world, the revitalization of the forces of nature.
Mythological worldview is inherent syncretism(fusion, indivisibility of knowledge) objective and subjective, the world of real and fictional. In myths different peoples in figurative form, elements of art and life observations are presented inextricably linked. This made it possible for a person to adapt to the world and develop the optimal form of his own life arrangement;
Mythology is characterized symbolism , i.e., the use of conventional signs to designate material and spiritual objects.
It appears in myths unity of diachronicity and synchronicity , that is, the combination of two temporal aspects - the narration of the past (diachronic aspect) and the explanation of the present, and sometimes the future (synchronous aspect).
Among peoples with developed mythological systems, myths about the origin of the world, the universe (cosmogonic myths) and man (anthropogonic myths) played an important role.
myths establish the system of values accepted in a given society, support and sanction certain norms of behavior. The justification of the essence of things in myths usually prevails over their explanation. The content of the myth does not need proof, but is accepted on faith. Mythological comprehension of the world is often based on belief in the supernatural and close to the religious worldview. The boundaries of ancient myths and primitive religions are extremely blurred, for example, in animism- Animation of elements and objects, totemism- an idea of the fantastic connections between animals and humans and fetishism- endowing things with supernatural properties.
Mythology as a type of worldview has had a significant impact on the spiritual life of mankind, on religion, art and science, imprinted in legends, sayings, signs, metaphors and expressions such as "Tantalus torment", "Sisyphean labor", "Ariadne's Thread" and others.
Religious worldview formed at a relatively high stage of development of ancient society.
Religion(from Latin religio - piety, shrine, object of worship; or religare - to connect, connect) - worldview and attitude, as well as appropriate behavior and specific actions (cult), based on the belief in the existence of the sacred, the supernatural. The supernatural, the sacred, from the point of view of the religious worldview, is an unconditional value.
Belief in the supernatural- the basis of the religious worldview and its main feature. In the myth, a person does not distinguish himself from nature, the gods live in the natural, “earthly” world, communicate with people. Religious consciousness splits the world into "earthly", natural (profane) and "heavenly" (sacred), comprehended through the states of faith and inner experience of connection with the highest Absolute.
Religion is a complex worldview system. The following features of the religious worldview are distinguished:
Religion is based on conviction in the existence of phenomena with supernatural properties(elements, earth, sun, time, etc.). In the developed world religions, the main object of religious relations is the highest transcendental spiritual principle or the one God.
Religious worldview is belief in the reality of contact with higher principles. Cult actions (rites, fasts, prayers, sacrifices, holidays, etc.) are channels and means of communication with the Divine, which influences human destinies, announces its will to people, knows their thoughts.
Religion suggests feeling of dependency from objects of religious worship. Man's fellowship with God is "unequal". Dependence is expressed in a feeling of fear, forcing to humility, in enlightened humility, spiritual growth as a result of awareness of one's own imperfection and striving for a moral ideal (holiness).
Religion is one of the universal cultural mechanisms of regulation human activity. She is cultivates universal moral norms and values, has a positive effect on streamlining and preserving morals, etc. Through the system of cult activities, it significantly influences everyday life. With the help of mastering the dogma, the worldview is structured and religion makes a person think about the basics and meaning own life. As K. Marx rightly noted, philosophy “philosophy is first developed within religious form consciousness."
Religious worldview has two levels: mass religious consciousness, in which, as a rule, the central place is occupied by an emotional and sensual attitude to the world and cult practices, as well as rationally formed consciousness, involving the development of the content of the doctrine. The highest level of religious worldview is represented in theology (theology), the teachings of the church fathers or religious thinkers , based on sacred texts (Vedas, Bible, Koran, etc.), accepted as divine revelation. Religion is inherent faith in knowledge , the construction of knowledge in a cult. Religion is mass consciousness .
Philosophy initially developed as an elitist-professional knowledge. Main difference mythological-religious andphilosophicalthinking style -- in way of relating to knowledge (wisdom) and the forms of its comprehension. Philosophy as a type of worldview built onrational explanation of the world. Ideas about nature, society, man become in it the subject of theoretical consideration (comparison, analysis, synthesis, abstraction and generalization) and argumentation.
Pre-philosophical types of worldview interpreted wisdom as some kind of higher, extrahuman power, which was the privilege of a few to comprehend. The bearers of knowledge in ancient cultures - oracles, pythonesses, priests, soothsayers - were revered as the owners of the highest secret, and were surrounded by an aura of mystery and caste isolation. Keepers and translators (teachers) of knowledge based on experience, mainly traditionally conservative, associated with everyday life, were folk sages (healers).
With the progress of society, the relationship between man and the world has changed. There was a growing need for a deeper rational understanding of the world, human activity and consciousness. This led to the emergence of a new type of thinker - philosophers rationally and critically considering and explaining the world .
The characteristic features of philosophy are reflexivity, rationality, criticality, evidence, which implied a sufficiently high level of cultural development. The birth of philosophy appeared transition from myth to logos, from the authority of tradition to the authority of reason, that is, logical and reasoned reasoning.
Formation philosophical knowledge coincided with a radical change in the foundations of civilization, a new cycle of human history. K. Jaspers defined this as the beginning of the "axial time", the main distinguishing feature of which was the "awakening" of human self-consciousness .
The consequences of the "philosophical revolution" determined the intellectual "maturing" of humanity. A system of logical ordering of knowledge emerged, and, consequently, fast personal training. As a result of the growth of individual-personal self-awareness, the collapse of the traditional mythological worldview and started search for new religious and moral and ethical ways of human self-determination in the world. arose world religions.
Philosophy from its very origins destroyed the mythological and religious tradition of the deification of wisdom. It arose in connection with the transition to independent, independent of external authority, thinking about the world and about human destiny, when the seeker and questioner human mind he himself began to be perceived as an authority.
The specificity of philosophical knowledge lies in the very way of philosophical reasoningreflections . The essence of philosophy is not to claim to have eternal and absolute truth, but in the veryman's search for this truth . Philosophy is anti-dogmatic. All its problems centered around the self-consciousness of a person in various cultural and historical systems. Any problem becomes philosophical only when it is formulated as correlated with the Self, becoming a way of rational self-determination of a person in the world.
Reflection destroys mythological syncretism, separates the sphere of objects and the sphere semantic meanings objects (knowledge about objects). Exactly sphere of meaning (intelligible) is the subject of philosophy - speculative knowledge. philosophical reflection formed the conceptual framework of human thinking. With the help of philosophy, mankind has moved from mythological metaphors, analogies and meanings to operating concepts and categories that organize and order human thought. She contributed to the development scientific outlook .
interconnected . , identifying patterns.
Philosophy and science as types of worldview are historically closely interconnected. Philosophy acted as first hypothesis of human thought . Many sciences have grown out of philosophy. But scientific knowledge differs specifically from philosophical knowledge. Science is a form of thinking and a field of activity aimed at the objective comprehension of the world, obtaining and systematizing objective knowledge of reality, identifying patterns.
Special Sciences serve individual specific needs of society, study a fragment of being(physics, chemistry, economics, law, etc.). Philosophy is interested the world at large, universe.
Private sciences addressed to the phenomena that existobjectively , i.e. regardless of the person. The value-human aspect is relegated to the background. Science formulates its conclusions in theories, laws and formulas.. The law of gravity, quadratic equations, the Mendeleev system, the laws of thermodynamics are objective. Their action is real and does not depend on the opinions, moods and personality of the scientist. In philosophy, along with the epistemological aspect, value aspects. She discusses the social consequences of scientific discoveries, asserting the absolute value of human life.
Science sees reality as a set of causally conditioned natural events and processes subordinated to patterns. The results of scientific research can experimentally check multiple times. Philosophical theories cannot be tested by experiment, they are dependent on the personality of the thinker..
Science answers questions for which there are tools to answer, such as "How?", "Why?", "What?" (for example, "How does a person develop?"). Philosophical knowledge is problem-alternative. For many philosophical questions: -- You can't find the answer in a science lab. Philosophy attempts to answer questions that there is no specific way to get a response, for example, "What is the meaning of life?" etc. Philosophy deals with problems that, in principle, cannot be finally resolved either in science or in theology. Philosophy gives many different, including contradictory, answers to any fundamental question. Philosophical ideas depend on their authors.
Lack of generally accepted results, as a fundamental difference between philosophy and science, was noted by Jaspers in his work "Introduction to Philosophy". In her there are no truths that would not cause objections. The creed of the philosophizing mind expresses the famous saying: "Question everything!". He denies dogmas. Philosophy brings everything to the judgment of reason, rational criticism, including its own ideas. The main tool of philosophy - discovery and critical testing of truth. Like a reflection of philosophy gives science its self-awareness. Bringing thinking to reflection means raising it to the level of an idea that is clearly and coherently represented - for oneself and for others.
Philosophy fulfills heuristic function towards scientific knowledge. Science puts forward and refutes hypotheses and theories. Philosophy performs the function of control over the achievements of science (natural science, physics, etc.), exploring the criteria science, rationality and social significance of the latest scientific and technological developments. Philosophy comprehends scientific discoveries. Puts them in context scientific knowledge and thus determines their meaning. Related to this ancient representation about philosophy as the queen of sciences or about the science of sciences (Aristotle, Spinoza, Hegel). Philosophy takes upon itself responsibility for science before humanity.
Philosophy deals with a higher, secondary level of generalization, reuniting private sciences. The primary level of generalization leads to the formulation of the laws of specific sciences, and the task of the second - identifying more general patterns and trends . With the help of categories, philosophy forms a generalized theoretical image of the world - the universe. Hegel called philosophy the spiritual quintessence of time, the self-consciousness of the era. Philosophy fulfills coordination-integrative function, brings together various sciences and branches of knowledge, overcomes the disunity of the natural and human sciences, promotes the implementation of links between science, art and morality.
So, each historically specific type of worldview sets a generalized model of interaction between man and the world, reflecting the most universal forms of human activity.
worldview model represents the unity of the spiritual and subject-practical attitude of a person to the world and is characterized by a wide variety of ways of its expression: everyday language and artistic images, scientific definitions and moral principles, religious canons, technological and instrumental methods, etc. The task of philosophy is logical structuring of culture and expression of universal worldview principles in a logical-conceptual form.
FROM specificity of the philosophical worldview most clearly manifested in the fact that philosophy is a form of problematization of consciousness through the development of multivariate concepts of being, a way of forming a critical attitude to various forms of worldview. Philosophy is based on the principle of free, individual-personal understanding of the world. Philosophy has a specific subject of knowledge (knowledge of meaning, not of a thing), capable of realizing itself in almost any sphere of human life (philosophy of being, philosophy of art, philosophy of technology, philosophy of morality, etc.).
1. What type of worldview is the earliest?
a) religion;
b) philosophy;
c) mythology.
2. Worldview is:
a) a set of spiritual values;
b) a set of ideas that explain human behavior;
c) a system of ideas that determines human behavior.
3. Value is:
a) meaningful to a person;
b) satisfying a spiritual need;
c) a product of human activity.
4. Practice is:
b) activities to transform the world;
5. Essence is:
a) common to a class of things;
b) what makes an object such and not otherwise;
c) the idea of the subject.
6. The philosophical picture of the world is:
a) the dialectic of what is and what should be;
b) a picture of the world as a whole;
c) a picture of a person's existence in the world.
7. Philosophy is:
b) theoretical worldview;
c) the quintessence of the spiritual culture of the era.
8. Truth is:
a) the outcome of the convention;
b) the correspondence of the thought about the subject to the subject of thought;
c) the result of scientific knowledge.
9. Axiology is a doctrine:
a) about values; b) about morality; c) about a person.
10. Anthropocentrism is:
a) the principle of philosophizing, considering a person as the main object of the application of mystical forces;
b) a philosophical principle that considers man as the center of the universe and the goal of all events taking place in the world;
c) the ideological principle of explaining the world, the content of which is the understanding of man as an unconditional value.
IDEAS AND EVOLUTION OF BUDDHISM
Buddhism: Active world religion, which arose in the VI - V centuries BC. in India. Anchored in the minds of the peoples of Asia and the Far East. Tradition associates the emergence of this religion with the prince Siddhartha Gautalla, called the Buddha (enlightened knowledge). However, in Buddhism there is no idea of God as the creator of the world. The essence of the doctrine: life and suffering are inseparable due to human passions and desires. Getting rid of suffering is connected with the renunciation of earthly passions and desires. After death, a new rebirth occurs, but in the form of another living being, whose life is determined not only by its own behavior, but also by the behavior of those in whom the soul was embodied earlier. A person needs to break out of the cycle of being through nirvana - the highest being, achieved by renouncing earthly passions, pleasures and desires. This is the way of salvation of man and mankind. Code sacred books The Buddhist religion is called Tititaka (three baskets). They were brought to a written structured form by the monks of Ceylon in 80 BC. Now there are 500,000,000 Buddhists in the world. In the Russian Federation, they prevail in Tuva, Buryatia, Kalmykia.
Philosophy of Buddhism. Man in Buddhism is neither someone's blessed invention, nor the master of his own destiny. In traditional Buddhism, a person is only an involuntary executor of the universal world law - Dharma. This law does not exist for man, but is realized and comprehended precisely in him. However, it is a person who, committing good and bad deeds, activates a certain ethical mechanism that underlies the universe. From the point of view of Buddhism, human life is not a priceless gift, as in Christianity, but only one of the moments in the chain of rebirths. Buddhists do not strive for eternal life after death, as they consider it a given, and not a higher goal. Eternal life, according to Buddhists, is the eternal hostage of death. In Buddhism, there is a so-called doctrine of dependent origination. Its essence is that the source of suffering for a person is the thirst for life, desires, attachment to life. Buddhists consider the world to be illusory, and, consequently, the pleasures that it promises are also illusory. Man is dependent on the law of cause and effect (karma). Living beings are doomed, according to the Buddhist point of view, to eternal rebirth, and the condition of any new existence is the sum of all previous ones, namely the sum of all good deeds, or accumulated merit, and bad deeds, accumulated anti-merits. Man, as a subject, is divided into thousands of fragments corresponding to past and future lives. Therefore, the whole chain of elements of “dependent origination” links not several lives in the “circle of births and deaths”, but instantaneous states of one – the only one, this life. Buddhism considers a person (as well as everything that exists in the universe and the universe itself) as a combination of various energy particles - dharmas. The very fact of a person's birth means for a Buddhist only inclusion in the endless process of being, where death is not the end of this process, but a transition to a different form of existence of consciousness - to an intermediate existence, which inevitably precedes a new birth. The acquisition of the new birth has a definite temporal disposition. AT this case a person is compared with the whole universe, which is also born, lives and dies. This process is cyclic and each time interval within this cycle has its own characteristics. In Buddhism, one of the most important places is occupied by the denial of the unity of the individual. Each personality is represented, as mentioned above, in the form of an accumulation of "changeable" forms. The Buddha said that personality consists of five elements: corporeality, sensation, desire, imagination and knowledge. Particular attention in Buddhism is given to human soul, as an eternal element participating in the cycle of life (the wheel of samsara). The soul breaks up, according to the teachings of the Buddha, into separate elements (skandhas). In order for the same personality to be incarnated in the new birth, it is necessary that the Skandas unite in the same way as they were united in the previous incarnation. The cessation of the cycle of reincarnations, the exit from the wheel of samsara, the final and eternal peace - this is the main element in the interpretation of salvation in Buddhism. The soul, in the Buddhist view, is an individual consciousness that carries the whole spiritual world of a person, is transformed in the process of personal rebirth and strive for the highest state - nirvana.
PHENOMENOLOGY. HERMENEUTICS
Hermeneutics is the science of understanding and interpreting texts. G.G. Gadamer created the theory of understanding. P. Riker analyzed the language in a wider context of social life and culture, uses the german to study literature.
The art and theory of interpretation, which aims to reveal the meaning of the text, based on its objective (gram meanings of words and their historically conditioned variations) and subjective (authors' intentions) grounds. It arises during the Hellenistic period in connection with the tasks of scientific research and the publication of classical texts and develops further within the framework of the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. In the 19th century, the development of so-called free grammar began, not limited by the subject, the boundaries of the meaning of the text. In Dilthey, G. turns into a specific method of the general sciences, designed to provide an understanding of general events based on the subjective intentions of historical figures. At the same time, understanding was opposed to an explanation in natural science, associated with abstraction and the establishment of a general law. In the 20th century, philology gradually takes shape in one of the main methodological procedures of phylum, first within the framework of existentialism, then actually in phylum philology. Thus, in Gadamer, philology acquires the functions of ontology, since “being, a cat can be understood, is language”, social philosophy, since understanding is a form of the essence of common life and "criticism of ideology." The result is the closure of phyla in the circle of language, which makes G. related to the neopositivist analysis of language. Within the framework of the Frankfurt School (J. Habermas), G., as a critique of ideology, should reveal in the analysis of language “a means of domination and social power”, which serves to justify the relations of organized violence. Habermas G. acts as one of the consolidation of various currents of modern bourgeois philosophy. G. procedures can. used in history, law and other sciences dealing with the analysis of objectified res. conscious human activity.
Dilthey - G. - is a link between phil and history sciences. Hermeneutics. Hermeneutics (I explain, interpret) - the art and theory of text interpretation. Hermeneutics of the 70s–90s. they develop “understanding” not as an applied task that arises in the process of interpreting texts, but as a fundamental characteristic of a person, as something that determines human being and thinking.
THE PROBLEM OF THE VALUE OF SCIENCE
Science yavl. main the form of people knowledge. Issue. social functions: 3 groups: 1) cultural and world outlook, science as uncontroversial. production strength as a social strength (used in solving various problems that arose in the course of general development). In this historical order functions arose and expanded. First in the Renaissance-I - the struggle between the theol. and science for the right to determine. world carrier. Pr-with prev-I science in production. force - creation and strengthening of permanent channels for pract. use scient. knowledge appeared. applied research. In modern era of science ledge. tzh. in quality social strength. Sl., the variety of sciences about the island: 1) Ethnography studies the life and culture of the peoples of the globe, their origin., Settlement and cultural and historical ties. 2) Legal science considered. the essence and history of state-va and law 3) Linguistics studies the language, its culture, the laws of functioning and development. 4) Pedagogy has as its subject the issues of upbringing, education and training of the younger generations in accordance with the goals and objectives of society. 5) Literary criticism studies fiction, the specifics of literature. creativity, social significance artist. liters. 6) Economics studies economics. relations between people, the laws governing the production, distribution and exchange of material goods. For scientific knowledge har-but the presence of 2 levels: empiric. and theoretical For the empirical knowledge is characteristic of fact-fixing activity. Theor. knowledge is essential knowledge, carried out at the level of abstractions of high orders. Theory is a generalization of practice, experience or observation. Observation and experiment are the most important. research methods in scientific. knowledge. Empire. and theor. the levels are connected, presuppose each other, although historically the empirical preceded the theoretical. In the process of scientific knowledge applied thought experiment when a scientist in his mind operates with images and concepts, mentally creates the necessary conditions. Theory is the highest, substantiated, logically consistent system of scientific knowledge, which gives a holistic view of the essential properties, patterns, etc. Theory is a developing system of true, practice-tested scientific knowledge. The core of a scientific theory is its constituent laws. The variety of forms of modern theoretical knowledge corresponds to the variety of types of theories, as well as the variety of their classifications.
Skepticism. the pessimistic position about the possibility of the world being knowable was formed back in antiquity - in its finished form by Pyrrho, who did not trust either reason or feelings. Later, skepticism was developed by E. Rotterdamsky, M. Montaigne and others. Skepticism in principle does not deny the possibility of knowing the world, but expresses doubts that this can be done with the help of the means at our disposal. Fundamentals of Skeptical Argument: Feelings cannot be trusted because they different people there may be different sensations; feelings cannot be trusted, because the sense organs are constantly deceiving us; reason cannot be trusted, because any proof relies on data that also needs to be proven, and so on ad infinitum. Consequently, nothing can be proved unless one accepts unproven axoms or dogmas on faith.
Anti-scientists see purely negative consequences of the scientific and technological revolution, their pessimistic moods intensify as all the hopes placed on science in solving economic and socio-political problems collapse.
Anti-scientists are sure that the invasion of science into all spheres of human life makes it soulless, devoid of a human face and romance. The spirit of technocracy denies the life world of authenticity, high feelings and beautiful relationships. A non-genuine world arises, which merges with the sphere of production and the need to constantly satisfy ever-increasing materialistic needs. The bright anti-scientist G. Marcuse expressed his indignation against Scientism in the concept of "one-dimensional man", in which he showed that the suppression of the natural, and then the individual in man, reduces the diversity of all its manifestations to only one technocratic parameter. Extreme anti-scientism leads to demands to limit and slow down the development of science. However, in this case, the urgent problem arises of meeting the needs of an ever-growing population in elementary and already familiar life goods, not to mention the fact that it is in scientific and theoretical activity that "projects" for the future development of mankind are laid.
Philosophy of Faith and Religion.
Religion is a form of social consciousness, the basis of which is belief in the supernatural. It includes religious ideas, religious feelings, religious actions.
"religion" - conscientiousness, piety, piety, worship, holiness and shrine, doubt, sin, guilt, superstition, conscientiousness, a sign.
In philosophy, religion is a worldview, attitude, as well as appropriate behavior and specific actions (cult), which are based on the belief in the existence of one or more gods, "sacred", i.e. some form of the supernatural.
religion is one of the forms of social consciousness, a reflection of reality in illusory-fantastic images, ideas, concepts. In essence - one of the types of idealistic worldview. The main sign is belief in the supernatural.
Theology defines religion as a relationship that connects a person with God. God and the Devil are the basic concepts of religion
Religious consciousness. It is characterized by sensual visibility, images created by the imagination, as well as a combination of content adequate to reality with illusions, faith, symbolism, and strong emotional richness.
The most important element of religious consciousness is faith. This is a special psychological state of confidence in achieving the goal, the occurrence of an event, in the truth of the idea, provided there is a shortage of accurate information about the attainability of the goal and the final result.
Faith is the expectation that what is desired will come true. If an event has taken place or it has become clear that the expected cannot be realized, faith fades away.
religious faith is faith:
into the objective existence of beings, properties, connections, transformations that are the product of the process;
in the possibility of communicating with seemingly objective beings, influencing them and receiving help from them;
in the actual occurrence of some mythological events, in their repetition, in the onset of such events and their involvement in them;
in the truth of the corresponding views, ideas, dogmas, texts, etc.;
Ordinary consciousness appears in the form of images, ideas, stereotypes, attitudes, mysteries, illusions, feelings, aspirations, direction of will, habits and traditions of people, which are a direct reflection of the conditions of people's existence.
a specially developed, systematized set of concepts, ideas, principles, arguments.
The main functions of religion.
compensates for the impotence of a person, the limitedness of his knowledge, the imperfection of the social, political system, etc., and also gives consolation, deliverance from disorder, injustice, resentment, political persecution. Religion offers a search for ways of salvation from the imperfection of earthly existence to deliverance from suffering,
gives a religious picture of the world.
seeks to explain the place of man in the universe, the problem of being and non-being.
Political - leaders of various communities and states use religion to explain their actions, unite or divide people according to religious affiliation for political purposes.
Communicative - communication between believers, "communication" with gods, angels (spirits), souls of the dead, saints, who act as ideal mediators in everyday life and in communication between people.
allows people to perceive themselves as a single religious community, held together by common values and goals
separates fellow believers from adherents of other religions.
Consciousness and the unconscious
The unconscious is a complex phenomenon, "its own other" consciousness (unconscious, subconscious, preconscious). Although man is primarily a conscious being, the unconscious occupies a large place in his spiritual life. For example, we are far from aware of all the consequences of our actions. Many human actions are mechanical, automated.
The variety of forms and manifestations of the unconscious is exceptionally great. Among them (besides those mentioned) are dreams, slips of the tongue, reservations, loss of completeness of orientation in time and space, some pathological phenomena (delusions, hallucinations, illusions), etc.
It would be wrong to equate the unconscious with the animal psyche. However, the concept of "human psyche" is wider than the concept of "consciousness". The lowest level of the human psyche is the unconscious. In fact, all human actions turn out to be a combination of the conscious and the unconscious.
The prehistory of the unconscious can be considered Plato's doctrine of anamnesis - the recollection by the soul of universal truths contemplated by it before it entered the body. In the future, the desire to comprehend the phenomenon of the unconscious went both along the lines of philosophy (Descartes, Leibniz, Schelling, Jena romantics, etc.), and along the lines of psychology - especially in connection with the study of pathopsychological processes and hypnotic phenomena (Bernheim, Charcot, Janet, etc. ).
However, the most widespread and influential concepts of the unconscious were created in the 20th century. Austrian psychologist and psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961).
Briefly, the essence of Freud's concept is as follows. The ideas developed by him are based on the idea of the dominant role of the unconscious in human life, instincts - mainly of a sexual nature. It is Freud who said that the “I” “is not the master in my own house” and that the consciousness of a person is forced to be content with pitiful information about what is happening unconsciously in his mental life.
Freud develops a structural concept of the psyche, which derives all mental dynamics from the interaction of three instances - It, I, Super-I. The unconscious id is, according to Freud, a "boiling cauldron of instincts." The task of the conscious I is to satisfy the impulses of the Id in such a way that it would not run counter to the requirements of social reality. The Superego, the representative of society, monitors compliance with these requirements. Let's take a closer look at this structure.
It (Id) is the most ancient psychic formation containing unrestrained primitive bodily instincts (sexual and aggressive drives). Its functions are entirely subordinated to the principle of pleasure. The simplest methods of revealing the content of the id, according to Freud, are the analysis of dreams and free associations.
The whole power of It is controlled by “libido” (lat. “attraction, desire”) - the mental energy of sexual desires, desires, i.e., sexual instinct. Freud described the ways of transforming the libido." An instinctive impulse can be: a) repressed undischarged into the unconscious; b) discharged in action, either through shame and morality, or through sublimation.
Sublimation (lat. “elevate, exalt”) is a mental process, which is the switching of the energy of the sexual instinct (libido) from immediate goals (lower) to non-sexual goals - socially and culturally acceptable (higher), morally approved: doing science, creating artistic works, self-development of a person, etc.
I (Ego) - that part of the personality that is aware of and reacts to the environment through its cognitive abilities. I am the mediator between the id and the superego. As the individual develops, differentiation of the Self and the development of the Super-I occur. Freud found that people differ significantly from each other in the forms and effectiveness of the activity of the I (in particular, they can be strong or weak).
The Super-I (Super-Ego) is the highest authority in the structure of mental life, which acts as an internal censor. The superego serves as a source of moral and religious feelings, a controlling and punishing agent, socioculturally conditioned
In other words, the Superego is a system of social filters. What is not passed through these filters is driven into the unconscious, from which you can get rid of the system of moral norms and social prohibitions, especially with the help of a sense of conscience.
The pathos of Freud's teachings is in the demand for the constant transformation of the Id into the I - a truly humanistic (albeit very difficult) and noble work, worthy of both each person and humanity as a whole.
K.-G. Jung, although he began working together with Freud, later diverged from him in his views. Their main differences concerned two fundamental points:
the role of the sexual principle in the mental life of the individual; understanding the nature of the unconscious.
Jung criticized Freud's pansexualism, proving, firstly, the inadmissibility of analyzing all manifestations of the unconscious only from the point of view of repressed sexuality and, secondly, the fundamental impossibility of explaining the origin of human culture and creativity only from the standpoint of libido.
Building his original concept of the unconscious, Jung proceeded from the fact that it:
1. is not at all a dark ocean of vices and carnal desires, forced out of consciousness in the process of the historical development of man;
2. a container of lost memories, as well as an apparatus
intuitive perception, far exceeding the possibilities of consciousness;
3. does not act to the detriment of a person, but on the contrary, performs a protective function, at the same time facilitating the transition of the individual to a certain, higher stage of development.
One of Jung's most cardinal ideas in psychology: in addition to the personal, individual unconscious, there is a deeper layer of the inner world - the collective unconscious, which has a universal superpersonal nature. Jung called the carriers of the collective unconscious archetypes (Greek “beginning, image”), which constitute its content (structure) and are inherent in all people from birth. Archetypes are diverse, the most important of them: Anima (feminine), Animus (masculine), Shadow, Person, Self, Hero, Savior, Monster, etc. Archetypes cannot be grasped by the mind, these are some mythical timeless and extraspatial formations common to all people. These are some “dormant thought forms” in which colossal energy is concentrated. Archetypes are "images-symbols", which are adequate expressions of universal human needs, instincts, aspirations and potencies, and, ultimately, precede human history. Archetypes are some pre-experimental structures that appear to a person through dreams, images, myths, fantasies, and imagination.
THE CONCEPT OF WORLD VIEW AND ITS HISTORICAL FORMS
Man is a rational social being. His work is worthwhile. And in order to act expediently in the complex real world, he must not only know a lot, but also be able to. To be able to choose goals, to be able to accept this or that
other solution. To do this, he needs, first of all, a deep and correct understanding of the world - a worldview.
A worldview is a system of views on the objective world and a person’s place in it, on a person’s attitude to the reality around him and to himself, as well as the beliefs, ideals that have developed on the basis of these views.
principles of knowledge and activity, value orientations. And indeed, a person does not exist otherwise than in a certain relation to other people, a family, a collective, a nation, in a certain relation to nature, to the world in general. This attitude rests on the most essential question: "What is the world?".
Worldview is the foundation of human consciousness. The knowledge gained, the prevailing beliefs, thoughts, feelings, moods, combined in a worldview, represent a certain system of understanding by a person of the world and himself. AT real life worldview in the mind of a person is certain views, views on the world and one's place in it.
Mythological worldview - regardless of whether it refers to the distant past or today, we will call such a worldview that is not based on theoretical arguments and reasoning, or on an artistic and emotional experience of the world, or on public illusions born
inadequate perception by large groups of people (classes, nations) of social processes and their role in them. One feature of myth that unmistakably distinguishes it from science is that myth explains
“everything”, since for him there is no unknown and unknown. It is the earliest, and for modern consciousness - archaic, form of worldview.
Historically, the first form of worldview is mythology. It occurs at an early stage community development. Then mankind in the form of myths, that is, legends, legends, tried to answer such global questions as the origin and structure of the universe as a whole, the emergence of the most important natural phenomena, animals and people. A significant part of the mythology was cosmological myths dedicated to
device of nature. At the same time, much attention in the myths was paid to the various stages of people's lives, the secrets of birth and death, all kinds of trials that lie in wait for a person on his life path. Special place occupy myths about the achievements of people: making fire, the invention of crafts, the development of agriculture, the domestication of wild animals. myth is not the original form of knowledge, but a special kind of worldview, a specific figurative syncretic idea of natural phenomena and collective life. In myth as the most early form human culture united the rudiments of knowledge, religious beliefs, moral, aesthetic and emotional assessment of the situation. If in relation to myth we can talk about knowledge, then the word “knowledge” here has the meaning not of the traditional acquisition of knowledge, but of the worldview, sensual empathy (this is how we use this term in the statements “the heart makes itself felt”, “to know a woman”, etc.). d.). Myth usually combines two aspects - diachronic (a story about the past) and synchronic (an explanation of the present and future). Thus, with the help of myth, the past was connected with the future, and this ensured the spiritual connection of generations. The content of the myth was primitive man eminently real, deserving of absolute trust.
Mythology played a huge role in the lives of people in the early stages of their development. Myths, as noted earlier, affirmed the system of values accepted in a given society, supported and sanctioned certain norms of behavior. And in this sense they were important stabilizers of social life.
Close to the mythological, although different from it, was the religious worldview, which developed from the depths of the not yet dissected, not differentiated social consciousness. Like mythology, religion appeals to fantasy and feelings. However, unlike myth, religion does not "mix" the earthly and the sacred, but in the deepest and irreversible way separates them into two opposite poles. The creative almighty power is God
stands above nature and outside nature. The existence of God is experienced by man as a revelation. As a revelation, a person is given to know that his soul is immortal, eternal life and a meeting with God await him beyond the grave.
Religion, religious consciousness, religious attitude to the world did not remain vital. Throughout the history of mankind, they, like other cultural formations, developed, acquired diverse forms in the East and West, in different historical eras. But all of them were united by the fact that at the center of any religious worldview is the search for higher values, the true path of life, and the fact that these values, and leading to them life path is transferred to a transcendent, otherworldly realm, not to earthly, but to "eternal" life. All deeds and deeds of a person and even his thoughts are evaluated, approved or condemned according to this highest, absolute criterion.
Foreword
This publication, written in accordance with the official educational standards in Philosophy for Higher Education, sets as its main task to acquaint students, graduate students, as well as a wide range of readers interested in philosophy, with modern philosophical problems and encourage them to develop their own philosophical position. The authors sought to show different approaches to solving the most important philosophical problems and set the task of helping students, on the basis of knowledge of historical and philosophical material, acquire the ability to think independently and independently judge complex and vital things, based on the achievements of modern science and philosophy.
Philosophical problems are among the "eternal". They were placed throughout the history of this subject, and each point of view introduced new semantic shades into their understanding. Therefore, the study of philosophy presupposes not only the assimilation of some ready-made results, but also the clarification of how the thinkers of the past went to obtain them. ; What people experienced in certain periods of life, what was their way of thinking, beliefs and ideals, what knowledge they had - all this was reflected in philosophical problems, in the very types of philosophizing. But a change in philosophical approaches never required a rejection of the development that had been achieved. Alternative concepts of the past and present, mutually complementing each other, enrich the spiritual, moral and intellectual potential of mankind. Therefore, the study of philosophy is inevitably associated with an appeal to its history, to the concepts of the past.
At the same time, the study of philosophical topics presupposes knowledge of the concepts and categories corresponding to them, which present a certain complexity. The authors have tried to give short definition many of them either in the text or in concise dictionary at the end of the book. However, mastering the content of philosophical concepts is a necessary but insufficient condition. In order to master philosophical culture, you need to learn the art of operating with its categories. And this, in turn, is due to the general culture of a person, his erudition, familiarity with the history of world culture.
Philosophy has always played a special role in the formation and formation of a person's worldview. Therefore, the problem of being has been one of the most important since ancient times. It would be unjustified to think that this extremely broad abstract concept has nothing to do with the world of everyday life, with the anxieties and concerns of each of us. In fact, the problem of being is largely a question of human existence about the meaning of his life. The main function of philosophy is the orientation of a person in the world of nature, society. Each person at certain moments of his life is faced with the need to choose and thereby exercise his freedom. Philosophy is designed to help him make the right choice. To solve this problem, philosophy turns to the world of values, creates theories of values. It gives a scale for assessing phenomena, establishes a hierarchy of values and promotes their reassessment in a changing world.
Another fundamental problem of philosophy is the ways of development of civilization, the orientation of the cultural and historical process. The acuteness of this topic today is connected with the danger of a global ecological crisis, with the persistence of armed conflicts on the planet, with the collapse of totalitarian ideologies, as well as with the processes of integration of cultures. The search for alternative ways of social development is one of the most important tasks of philosophy.
The authors of the manual are aware of the complexity of the task ahead of them and do not pretend to the absolute correctness and unconditional truth of the proposed solutions where they express their own position. Outlining their views and ideas on certain issues, they sought to compare them with other points of view, bearing in mind that in modern science, which has accumulated a huge amount of knowledge, and even more so in philosophy, for study guide the most established, tested material should be selected. After all, even a scientist, a philosopher, in solving professional problems, usually uses the experience and achievements of other researchers, adhering, as a rule, to the prevailing theories. This also applies to the authors of this manual, who, in formulating their own views on various topics, relied on authorities and widely known provisions, although they admit that not all of them may ultimately stand the test of time. The main thing they aspired to was to encourage students of philosophy to think about what had already entered the treasury. philosophical thought, reflect on what still remains relevant and urgently requires its decision and, having refracted it through your consciousness, put it in the basis of your own worldview. There is no doubt that such an orientation of consciousness is an integral part of the worldview position of any educated person, especially one who has graduated from a higher educational institution. Chapters 1,2,4,5,9 were written by Doctor of Philosophy, Professor A.N. Chumakov, chapters 3, 6, 7, 8 - Doctor of Philosophy, Professor N.F. Buchilo.
At the end of the book is a Dictionary of Philosophical Terms.
Philosophy: its subject and role in society
Philosophy in the first approximation
Almost every person who starts studying philosophy for the first time, one way or another, already knows something or at least heard about it, since even in everyday life people often come across this famous, attractively bewitching concept. There are many who, thanks to school curriculum or his curiosity, he managed to get acquainted with textbooks and other literature on philosophy, and even with the works of great philosophers, whose influence left a deep mark on the cultural heritage of almost any nation.
Nevertheless, it is not so easy on your own, without special studies, to get a fairly clear idea of what philosophy is, what it does, and what problems it solves. Even among those who work professionally in the field of philosophy, there is no unity in the answers to the questions posed. Some consider philosophy a science, others consider it a game of the mind, others, disagreeing with this, give different definitions, focusing on various forms of people's worldview, the state of their soul, intellect, personal experience, etc. Someone sees in it a goal, someone sees it as a means, a way of rational, irrational, and even intuitive comprehension by a person of himself and the world around him.
At the same time, everyone builds his own logic of reasoning, depending on how he answers a number of fundamental questions: when and why did philosophy arise? What is the nature of philosophical knowledge and is it possible, relying only on the human mind, to know the world? This partly contains the answer to the question why, over the two and a half thousand years of its existence, philosophy has not given unambiguous, indisputable answers to many vital questions, has not found final, indisputable solutions to the so-called "eternal philosophical problems", such as, for example, : what is a person? Is there a God? What is matter, consciousness? How do they relate to each other? How to understand the truth and what are its criteria? What is a soul? And what do they mean: freedom, equality, justice, hatred, love?
And yet, despite the lack of an established, generally accepted definition of philosophy, as well as a wide variety of points of view and approaches to understanding its subject matter, essence, goals and objectives, it has, for all that, invariably - at all times and in all countries - been and remains one of the most fundamental subjects, which is mandatory for study at all universities and other higher educational institutions. Why? Where is the logic here? And to the above, let's add the fact that philosophy does not have a single, generally accepted language, indisputably established laws and a certain set of categories that are generally significant for any philosophical teachings. Moreover, in principle, it does not seek to build a unified system of knowledge and, ultimately, is not aimed at obtaining accurate results at all, as is, for example, typical of science.
Why, then, has such unflagging attention been paid to philosophy throughout the centuries-long history of its existence? It may seem that we are dealing with an inexplicable paradox. But the apparent contradiction is overcome as they delve into the essence of this subject, delve into its specifics and begin to understand the role philosophy plays in a person's awareness of himself and the world around him. Much can be clarified already in this introductory chapter, but a holistic vision of philosophy, a deeper and more complete understanding of the issues raised will come only as you get acquainted with the contents of this book and immerse yourself in philosophical problems, in the mysterious and fascinating world of philosophy - wisdom.
What is philosophy?
The content of any unknown word is best to start with its etymology, i.e. with finding out when, how and why it arose. The concept of "philosophy" comes from the Greek. “рһіісо” - I love and “§о£з” - wisdom, so that the original meaning of this term can be interpreted as love for wisdom, wisdom. For the first time this word was used in the VI century. BC e. the famous ancient Greek thinker Pythagoras, wishing to make a fundamental difference between the knowledge that was passed down from generation to generation in finished form (through myths, legends, traditions) and that which could be obtained by oneself, relying on one's own mind, through reasoning and critical reflection reality.
Both Pythagoras and other philosophers of antiquity initially invested in the concept of "philosophy" a slightly different meaning, in contrast to the one that was assigned to it in later times and essentially boiled down to the fact that philosophy is "the queen of all sciences." They did not consider themselves sages and did not claim to possess wisdom, for true wisdom, as it was customary then to think, consisted in myths, religion, traditions, coming from ancient times, from ancestors, from centuries. And the bearers of wisdom, centuries of proven knowledge, truths in the last instance were considered soothsayers, priests, elders - recognized and indisputable authorities, "true sages", whose words were not subject to doubt and were unconditionally taken for granted. The philosopher, however, had to be only a seeker, a lover of wisdom, to strive for them, relying not on authorities, but on his own mind, using knowledge and experience obtained, including by others in a creative way.
Pre-philosophy - its subject and role in society
Such an attitude to the world and to man himself arose far from immediately. Mankind has passed a long and difficult path before its ability to resist nature, create and increase the means of subsistence developed and increased, as a result of which sufficient experience and knowledge were accumulated, and the mind of people became so strong that it became self-sufficient in order to look for answers to numerous questions in itself.
Essence of the question. To understand the essence of philosophy, as well as the reasons and conditions for its appearance, the conversation should begin with a person's worldview. Why? Because, as will be shown below, philosophy is one of the main forms of worldview, and precisely the form based on the rational principle. To talk about philosophy means to talk about the worldview of a person, and, consequently, about his essence and history of appearance on Earth. And here we are faced with complex, still poorly understood problems, because the origin of man is one of those great mysteries that people have always tried to unravel. But even today in this field of knowledge there are many unresolved problems, just as there is still no unambiguous, generally accepted answer to the question: why, where, for what reasons, can one say so - for what purposes - did a person appear?
Background. Scientific, as well as other approaches to understanding this problem, we will consider in detail later - in the relevant chapters of this book. Now, let us note that from the point of view of modern scientific ideas about human history, there are still a number of issues regarding which scientists and specialists have a certain clarity. In particular, based on rich historical material, factual data obtained by archeology, and also taking into account the results obtained by the methods of other sciences (for example, determining the age of rocks, fossils, etc.), it can be argued with a high degree of certainty that a person is the result of the evolutionary development of life on our planet. The available knowledge allows us to conclude that the oldest settlements of humanoid creatures who made elementary tools of labor (homo habshz - a skilled man) appeared about 3-5 million years ago.
The age of Homo erectus, according to archaeological and scientific data, is about 1.5 million years. And only 40-60 thousand years ago there was a type of people who received the name hoto dawn, which means a reasonable person. Since man gained reason and finally formed as a social being, he, according to experts, has not undergone significant changes in his main characteristics, i.e. fundamentally different from modern people.
The appearance of the mind, in accordance with modern scientific ideas, corresponds to that period of the historical development of man, when his brain, thanks to ever-increasing labor activity and verbal (speech) communication, developed to such an extent that complex abstractions became available to him. Man, thus, began to carry out albeit still primitive, but already in the full sense of the word, intellectual work, formulating concepts, expressing judgments and building conclusions.
The man and his
worldview to talk about the formation of a sufficiently developed
worldview of a person and about the worldview of people
in general - as a set of accumulated knowledge, practical skills, established values.
Such a worldview, formed on the basis of life experience and empirical knowledge, is called ordinary or empirical and initially acts as a kind of undifferentiated, unsystematic set of human ideas about the world. It forms the basis of any worldview and performs an important regulatory function, orienting people in their Everyday life and activities, predetermining the behavior and a significant part of their actions.
If we give the bolsa a complete, detailed definition, then a worldview is a system of views on the objective world and a person’s place in it, on a person’s attitude to the surrounding duality and to himself, as well as the basic principles conditioned by these views. life positions people, their beliefs, ideals, principles of cognition and activity, value orientations.
A worldview defined in this way is inherent only to a person and is associated with the presence of a well-formed consciousness and rational activity in him, when he not only acquires the ability to form concepts and judgments, make generalizations and formulate rules, but also begins to operate with ready-made knowledge in order to obtain new knowledge. Reason, which characterizes such human activity, his creative activity, becomes a powerful means of accelerating the evolution of both himself and society and, as a result, acts as the main difference between people and animals.
With the advent of the mind, a person begins to realize himself as a thinking being, he forms and develops an idea of his own "I" and "NOT-I", "WE" and "NOT-WE". Thus, he cognizes himself and the reality around him, begins to distinguish between himself and Other people, between himself and the external environment, discovering more and more new aspects of the previously unknown world. Such views form the basis of the worldview, which is formed as a set of views of a person on himself and the reality surrounding him. At the same time, a person distinguishes between what he likes and dislikes, gives assessments, builds a system of priorities and acts accordingly, achieving certain goals.
In the worldview, therefore, in a generalized form, the following main functions performed by a person are presented: cognitive, value, behavioral.
At the same time, the cognitive one is the most important, since it includes all the questions that arouse the interest of a person, as well as the answers to which he comes in one way or another. Knowledge enriches and expands the worldview of people, which, as society develops, becomes deeper and richer in content.
But the world is infinitely varied and in constant change, and there are undoubtedly more questions that do not have satisfactory answers than those that could be given one and only one answer to the exclusion of all others. Hence the worldview of every person who selectively reacts to problems, questions, answers, always differs in personal originality and, if only for this reason, it never resembles the worldview of other people. It is always unique and unrepeatable also because in the worldview, along with the intellectual principle, emotional and mental are inextricably linked, which for each person act as absolutely specific, individual characteristics.
Intellectual, emotional and mental, in combination with the will, give rise to beliefs - views that are actively accepted by people, corresponding to the whole structure of their consciousness, life aspirations.
Another important element of any worldview is doubt, which protects it from dogmatism - such thinking when it becomes one-sided, uncritical, accepting this or that position as an immutable truth, unchanged under all circumstances. Another extreme in relation to dogmatism is skepticism, in which doubt is absolutized, put at the forefront and acts as the main principle of cognition and perception of reality. So, as can be seen from the foregoing, a person's worldview is a rather complex phenomenon, in which it is customary to single out the individual elements that make up its structure. The most important of them are attitude, world perception and world outlook.
Attitude is a sensory perception of the surrounding world, when feelings, mood, as it were, “color” the world, capture its image through the prism of subjective, purely individual sensations. For example, a light that may seem too bright for a sick person will be normal for a healthy person; The color gamut is perceived by a color-blind person in a completely different way than by those who have normal vision. Different types of attitudes follow from this, such as optimistic, pessimistic, tragic, etc.
Perception of the world is a representation of the surrounding world in ideal images. The perception of the world can be adequate or inadequate, that is, not correspond to reality, when reality is distorted or there are illusions, fantasies, such as ideas about rusals, goblin, centaurs, brownies, etc.
Understanding the world is a cognitive and intellectual activity aimed at revealing the essence of both the person himself and the world around him, as well as understanding the relationship between events and processes occurring in nature.
Attitude and, partly (in elementary forms), perception of the world are inherent not only to man, but also to animals. But the understanding of the world is peculiar only to people.
First historical forms worldview
Different epochs deepened the knowledge and broadened the horizons of a person, opening up new horizons of his vision of both the world and himself in it. Thus, the ordinary (empirical) worldview increased, grew, enriched, on the basis of which, as if crystallizing out of it, more and more complex structures gradually formed, which ultimately led to the separation of separate Forms in it, sometimes they say - historical types worldview.
The most important of them are: MYTH RELIGION PHILOSOPHY SCIENCE.
Historically, the first forms of worldview were myth and religion, which preceded philosophy and science, which is quite consistent with the general logic of the evolutionary development of mankind. So, as skills, experience and elementary knowledge were accumulated, not only did the problem of passing them on from generation to generation arise, but the worldview itself became more and more complicated. primitive people. At a certain stage of its development, upon reaching a "critical mass" of accumulated knowledge, in it, as in any other rather complex system, the action of the laws of self-organization began to manifest itself.
The essence of this phenomenon can be better understood if we turn to the example of the accumulation of books in the home library. When there are several of them, no systematization is required, and it does not matter where they lie and in what relation to each other they are. When the score goes to dozens, for more convenient and efficient use, they need to be somehow arranged and systematized. And the more books there are, the more complex the system of classification, ordering, heading should be, so that it is easier and less expensive to work with them.
It is this orderliness according to the laws of self-organization that arose in the sufficiently developed worldview of primitive people in the beginning in the form of a myth and primitive forms of religions.
Mythology The concept of "myth" comes from the Greek word tyuz, which means narration, legend. If we do not go into the features of the modern mythologization of consciousness, but limit ourselves to a simple definition that conveys the original meaning of this word, then we can say that the MYTH is an ordered, systematized worldview in a certain way, conveying the ideas of different peoples about the origin of the world, about natural phenomena, about fantastic creatures about the deeds of gods and heroes.
The myth initially united the rudiments of knowledge, religious beliefs, various elements of spiritual culture, art, social life and, thus, some order was given to the worldview of primitive people, and their views of the world formed into a certain system. The most important forms of this systematization are: epic, fairy tales, legends, traditions, through which, first of all, myths are transmitted. This also ensures the consolidation of the accumulated knowledge and experience in subsequent generations.
The specificity of mythological thinking lies in the fact that it is not just a narrative, telling a story, but empathy, the perception by the archaic consciousness of an oral "sacred" text as a kind of reality that influences the course of events, a person and the world in which he lives. . Myth, especially in the early stages of human history, performed the most important function of regulating the behavior and relationships of people, since customs were fixed in it, both moral views and the aesthetic attitude of a person to reality were expressed. Mythology is characterized by the fact that everything in it is merged, united, inseparable; objects and phenomena of nature live according to the same laws as a person, have the same sensations, desires, suffering, etc. as he does.
Thus, a myth is not someone’s invention or a “relic of the past”, but a specific language with which a person has described the world since ancient times, generalizing, interpreting, classifying and bringing his scattered and growing knowledge into a certain system.
In myth leading role tradition plays, an authoritative word coming from the lips of a father, a leader, an elder... The attitude to such a narrative and its content is based on faith, on a direct, emotional perception of reality. Mythological worldview- a holistic understanding of the world, in which there is no room for doubt.
Mythology (as a set of myths) is closely connected with the worldview of not only ancient people. And today, the myths that live in ordinary consciousness, visibly or veiledly present in religion, philosophy, politics, art, remain (for some - to a greater extent, for others - to a lesser extent) integral part worldview of any person, playing an active role in the life and work of people. In the context of the rapidly growing informatization of society, myth through television, radio, periodicals, modern electoral technologies is often used as a means of manipulating public consciousness, forming a predetermined public opinion, etc.
Religion. Another form of worldview that historically preceded philosophy is RELIGION. This word comes from the Latin ge!і§іo, which means piety, piety, shrine. Like myth, religion also has faith, feelings, and emotions at its core. And although the rudiments of it are found already at the very early stages of the formation of the worldview of a “reasonable person”, i.e. about 40-60 thousand years ago, on the whole, it takes shape as an independent form of worldview a little later, when, thanks to myth as well, a person's ability to think abstractly is noticeably enhanced.
Religion can be defined as a worldview and attitude, as well as the corresponding behavior and specific actions of people, which are based on belief in the supernatural (gods, "higher mind", some absolute, etc.).
Religion is complex spiritual education and a socio-historical phenomenon, where faith is invariably put in the first place and is always valued above knowledge! Compared to myth, religion performs a more complex set of functions, including:
Worldview, answering the questions: how, when and why everything that exists, and how the primary role of supernatural power was manifested in this;
Communicative, providing a certain type of communication and interpersonal relationships, contributing to the solidarity and integrity of society;
Regulatory, establishing appropriate norms and rules that regulate the behavior of people.
Compensatory, compensating for the lack of information, attention, care, replacing the lack of meaning in life, perspective, etc., i.e. fulfilling the needs of a person unsatisfied in everyday life.
Religion arose as a natural phenomenon and has its own deep roots, as if nourishing a person's faith in the supernatural. These roots lie primarily in human nature, in the psychology of people, where, regardless of the level of development of the intellect and the ability of a person to think critically, there is always a desire and even a need not only to understand, to realize, but simply to believe.
Substantial recharge religious views receive in the field of knowledge. Here lie the so-called epistemological roots of religion. From the point of view of rational knowledge, the world in its diversity appears to man as infinitely complex and opens up to his knowledge only fragmentarily. For this reason, he is full of mysteries and miracles for him, which a person is not able to solve (perhaps yet?), just as he fails, relying only on reason, neither to prove nor disprove, and much of what is recognized on faith. As psychologists note, “an extremely difficult task is stupefying”, a person feels weak, helpless in the face of insoluble problems and easily supplements, or even replaces the arguments of the mind with fiction, an appeal to the supernatural.
Causes of religiosity
sphere, because in society there has always been inequality, poverty and lack of rights, they could not change or overcome with all their desire. The feeling of injustice and imperfection of the earthly world gives rise to a feeling of hopelessness and despair, which easily develops into faith in afterlife where, as any religion teaches, everything is arranged in the best way and everyone is rewarded according to his deeds. Faced with problems, difficulties and not finding support in real life, a person turns to the other world, placing his hopes on supernatural forces. Having believed in them, he finds consolation and ultimately comes to humility and submission to fate.
Finally, an essential and unchanging connection is found between religion and politics. Various political forces, as a rule, do not miss the opportunity to use religion for their own mercenary purposes and, thus, directly or indirectly support it, strengthen its role and influence in society. These reasons for the vitality of religion are so solid that even the impressive achievements of modern science have not shaken the foundations of religion, and the growth of scientific knowledge practically does not change the percentage of believers and non-believers, even among scientists. So, in 1916, when the rapidly developing natural science seemed to promise a person unlimited possibilities in understanding the world, the American researcher James Lyuba published very interesting results of his research, according to which 40% of US scientists believed in God. Even more sensational were the results of a new study conducted in the late 90s. American historians E. Larson and L. Witham, who decided to find out how much the worldview of scientists has changed under the influence of the greatest discoveries and scientific achievements made in the 20th century. A survey they conducted among a thousand randomly selected humanities and natural scientists in the United States showed that the same 40% of scientists still believe in God and the afterlife. At the same time, the number of unbelievers and agnostics (denying the existence of God) has also changed little since then and today, as before, is approximately 45% and 15%, respectively.
The general conclusion about the vitality of the religious worldview, regardless of time, countries and continents, is also confirmed by the results of a survey conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation in May 2000 in Russia. Among the Russians, who in the 20th century lived for almost 80 years under conditions of militant atheism, which used all possible arguments to "debunk" religion, 2/3 of the country's population consider themselves believers. 59% of respondents are indifferent to whether the president of Russia believes in God, 31% believe that a believer should be the president, and only a small proportion of Russians (6%) believe that the head Russian state must be an atheist.
The history of mankind knows many different religions. So, in a primitive society, where there was an extremely low level of culture and knowledge, and a person could not resist the elemental forces of nature, which were a formidable, alien and mysterious force for him, early, still very primitive forms of religion arise: fetishism, animism, totemism, magic, etc.
Historical fetishism, for example, endows this or that object with miraculous properties, religious abilities to influence people's lives. Such an object is deified and becomes an object of veneration and worship.
Animism (from Latin apita - soul) cultivates faith in the existence of souls and spirits, as well as in their ability to influence not only the lives of people, but also animals, objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, since from the point of view of animism the whole world is animated.
In totemism, the basis is the belief in the common origin of a group of people with one or another animal, plant, object, declared a totem, i.e. an ancestor who should be worshiped, for he acts as a powerful protector, patron of this kind, provides food, etc.
Magic (from the Greek taoeia - magic) is also one of the forms primitive religion, which is based on the belief that without help natural forces it is possible in some mysterious way, for example, by a set of rituals, specific actions, to influence things, people, animals, and even otherworldly forces - “spirits”, “demons”, etc.
Marked ancient forms religions formed the basis of later religious beliefs and, to one degree or another, were reflected both in polytheism (worship of many gods) and in monotheism (worship of one god). In part, they retain an independent existence at the present time.
About 10 thousand years ago, when man switched to a settled way of life, taking up cattle breeding and farming, the so-called neolethic revolution took place. At this later stage in the development of society, polytheism arises, since the social division of labor, earthly relations of domination and subordination begin to correspond more to beliefs not in spirits and fetishes, but in gods, whom people endowed with specific names and appearances.
The further formation and development of statehood, the emergence of the great cultures of antiquity, the formation of slave-owning relations, the emergence of monarchies and the resulting unity of command contributed to the fact that in religious outlook there were tendencies towards unanimity, the creation of a cult of one god. By singling out a single almighty god from a multitude of gods, people thereby, as it were, brought into some correspondence their ideas about real life, where the earthly king rules, with the other world, where a single and omnipotent god lives. This is how monotheistic religions(from the Greek topo - one and Iheoz - god): Judaism (VII century BC), Buddhism (ҮІ-Ү centuries BC), Christianity (I century), Islam (VII century .).
The surrounding life forms a daily worldview in people. But if a person evaluates reality based on logic and reason, one should speak of the theoretical.
Among people of a certain nation or class, a social worldview is formed, and an individual is inherent in an individual. Views on the surrounding reality in the minds of people are reflected from two sides: emotional (attitude) and intellectual (). These aspects are manifested in their own way in the existing types of worldview, which are still preserved in a certain way and are reflected in science, culture, everyday views of people, traditions and customs.
The earliest type of worldview
For a very long time, people identified themselves with the outside world, and in order to explain the phenomena occurring around them, myths were formed in the era of primitiveness. The period of the mythological worldview continued for tens of millennia, developing and manifesting itself in various forms. Mythology as a type of worldview existed during the period of formation human society.
With the help of myths in primitive society, they tried to explain the questions of the universe, the origin of man, his life and death. Mythology acted as a universal form of consciousness, which combined the initial knowledge, culture, views and beliefs. People animated the occurring natural phenomena, considered their own activity as a way of manifestation of the forces of nature. In the primitive era, people thought that the nature of existing things had a common genetic beginning, and the human community came from one ancestor.
The ideological consciousness of primitive society is reflected in numerous myths: cosmogonic (interpreting the origin of the world), anthropogonic (indicating the origin of man), meaningful (considering birth and death, the destiny of man and his destiny), eschatological (aimed at prophecy, the future). Many myths explain the emergence of vital cultural goods such as fire, agriculture, crafts. They also answer questions about how social rules were established among people, certain rituals and customs appeared.
Faith based worldview
The religious worldview arose on the faith of a person who plays a major role in life. According to this form of worldview, there is a heavenly, otherworldly, and earthly world. It is based on faith and beliefs, which, as a rule, do not require theoretical evidence and sensory experience.
The mythological worldview marked the beginning of the emergence of religion and culture. Religious worldview gives only an assessment of the surrounding reality and regulates the actions of a person in it. The perception of the world is based solely on faith. The idea of God occupies the main place here: he is the creative principle of everything that exists. In this type of worldview, the spiritual prevails over the physical. From the point of view of the historical development of society, religion played an important role in the formation of new relations between people, contributed to the formation of centralized states under the slave and feudal systems.
Philosophy as a type of worldview
In the process of transition to a class society, a holistic view of man on the surrounding reality took shape. The desire to establish the root cause of all phenomena and things is the main essence of philosophy. Translated from Greek, the word "philosophy" means "love of wisdom", and the ancient Greek sage Pythagoras is considered the founder of the concept. Mathematical, physical, astronomical knowledge gradually accumulated, writing spread. Along with this, there was a desire to reflect, doubt and prove. In the philosophical type of worldview, a person lives and acts in the natural and social world.
The existing ways of understanding and resolving issues, the philosophical worldview is fundamentally different from the previous ones. Reflections on universal laws and problems between man and the world are based in philosophy not on feelings and images, but on reason.
The specific historical conditions of the life of society, the experience and knowledge of people from different eras constituted the sphere of philosophical problems. "Eternal" problems have no right to claim absolute truth in any period of the existence of philosophy. This indicates that at a particular level of development of society, the main philosophical problems"ripen" and are resolved in accordance with the conditions of existence of human society, the level of its development. In each era, "wise men" appear who are ready to raise important philosophical questions and find
