Consciousness in the philosophy of the form of human consciousness. public consciousness
Mental activity can express itself in the focus of consciousness, but often it does not reach this level.
The totality of mental phenomena, states and actions that are not represented in the mind of a person, that lie outside the sphere of his mind, that are not currently controllable is unconscious.
Philosophers and scientists have been thinking about the connection between consciousness and the unconscious for a long time. So, in the teachings of the Neoplatonist Plotinus (3rd century AD), consciousness is defined as a manifestation of the spiritual and it is emphasized that it is located between two spheres of the unconscious: the spiritual and the base. He develops the theme of the unconscious as the primary content of consciousness and comes to the conclusion that consciousness condemns a person to the choice of spirituality or corporality.
R. Descartes (17th century), in the spirit of the ideas of the New Age, identifies consciousness and the mental in general, thereby leaving out of consciousness only the physiological activity of the brain. The concept of the unconscious in philosophy in a strict form was first formulated by G. Leibniz: the unconscious is the lowest form of mental activity that lies beyond the threshold of conscious ideas. Of interest is the idea of I. Kant about the connection between the unconscious and intuition at the level of sensory cognition.
Thus, philosophers showed great interest in this problem, but scientific research on mental processes began actively only in the 20th century. I. F. Herbart's reflections on the unconscious led him to the conclusion that we are talking about incompatible ideas "repressed" from consciousness, which do not cease to influence the dynamics of consciousness. J. Charcot fixed the existence of mental activity, not realized by a person, at the level of psychopathology, and Z. Freud found direct links between neurotic symptoms and unconscious experiences of a traumatic nature. A doctrine is being formed about the unconscious as a powerful irrational force, antagonistic in relation to the activity of consciousness. By the 20th century a psychoanalytic tradition is emerging, within which:
1) Z. Freud creates a doctrine of the unconscious and ways to control it;
2) K. _G. Jung creates the doctrine of the psychoid, personal and collective unconscious;
3) J. Moreno develops the concept of "general unconscious";
4) E. Fromm proposes the theory of the "social unconscious".
Summing up the achievements of modern science and philosophy, one can define the space of the unconscious as:
1) a set of active mental states, formations, processes, mechanisms, operations and actions of a person that are not realized by him without the use of special methods;
2) the most extensive and most meaningful sphere of the human psyche;
3) the form of mental reflection, the formation, content and functioning of which is not the subject of special non-scientific reflection;
4) the state of a person, characterized by the absence of consciousness.
Freud's main conclusion is that the struggle between the unconscious and the conscious is the attributive and basic basis of human mental activity and behavior.
The unconscious, according to Freud, is represented, firstly, by the "truly real mental". These are mental processes that take place actively and at the same time do not reach the consciousness of the person experiencing them. Secondly, this is the main and most meaningful part of the psyche, regulated by the pleasure principle and including innate and repressed elements, impulses, desires, motives, attitudes, aspirations, complexes, etc. They are characterized by unconsciousness, sexuality, asociality. It is here that the eternal struggle between Eros (the forces of life, sexuality, self-preservation) and Thanatos (the forces of attraction, death, destruction, aggression) takes place. The energy of the libido exists because of this struggle. Thus, Freud believes that the process of human mental development in its essence is a biologically determined process. And although in recent works Freud departs from biologization by introducing two cosmic "primal urges" - Life and Death, he still considers human culture to be the cause of the contradiction between consciousness and the unconscious (between censorship and desire). Culture is based on the rejection of the pleasure of desire and exists through the sublimation of libido. This means that any progress in culture leads to a decrease in human happiness and an increase in guilt due to the growing restriction of the realization of natural desires.
What is the conclusion? Man cannot live without culture. This means that it is necessary to develop a special method that can teach a person to live, regardless of the real conflict between the conscious and the unconscious. To this end, he developed the foundations of psychoanalysis.
The doctrine of the unconscious and its relationship with consciousness was further developed in the works of K.-G. Cabin boy. K.-G. Jung points out that the structure of the unconscious includes three layers. First, superficial, consists of emotionally colored representations and complexes. This is the intimate spiritual life of the individual. Second layer contains the "collective unconscious". This is an innate deep layer, the core of the psyche, which has a universal nature! It accumulates the experience of all previous generations and contains archetypes (samples, symbols, stereotypes). These are inherited ways of mental activity and behavior. The third layer - "psychoid unconscious" - the most fundamental level, which has properties in common with the organic world and has a neutral character. This is something that is practically inaccessible to consciousness and is not even completely mental or physiological.
Jung's teaching opens up new possibilities for studying the problem of the origin and essence of consciousness, since the introduction of at least the category of "collective unconscious" makes us pay attention to the specific connections of consciousness with the process of evolution of the living and the role of archetypes in the symbolization of being.
J. Moreno introduces an understanding of the unconscious as a general one: with prolonged contact between partners, a mechanism of communication arises, which contributes to the removal of interpersonal (interpersonal) role conflicts.
Continuing the study of the unconscious as a general, E. Fromm considers it as a social phenomenon. These, from Fromm's point of view, are "repressed spheres characteristic of the majority of members of society." They contain what this "society cannot allow its members to bring to consciousness." Moreover, Fromm tries to show that the social unconscious is expressed through "social character". From his point of view, all socio-economic and political-ideological motives of people's activity (their "activity") have a chance of success in history only if they "resonate" with the sociological "aura" in which they operate.
Thus, developed in the XX century. psychoanalytic concepts give a certain idea of the nature and essence of the unconscious and its manifestations at the individual, group and social level. At the same time, additional opportunities have been created for further research into the relationship between consciousness and the unconscious.
public consciousness. Essence. levels. Forms.
PUBLIC CONSCIOUSNESS- this is the spiritual life of society in the totality of feelings, moods, views, ideas, theories that reflect social life and influence it. Reflection in the spiritual activity of people of interests, representations of various social groups, classes, nations, society as a whole.
Social consciousness is a set of psychological properties inherent in society, considered as an independent integrity, a system that cannot be reduced to the sum of its constituent individuals.
Almost any society, regardless of its size, stability and degree of integration, has one or another consciousness (some of its features can also be found at the queue in the store). Historical reality, reflected in the minds of people, gives rise to social moods, ideologies, social psychologies, national characters, and so on. Those, in turn, have an effective impact on reality. Social consciousness serves as the basis of cultural activity and influences the individual psychology of each person entering the society.
The subject of social consciousness is the society, not the individual. An individual is able to invent an ideology or give impetus to a certain phenomenon of social psychology, but it will enter the public consciousness only when it "takes possession of the masses."
Its structure: it consists of two parts - the poles of "Ideology" - conscious, theoretically processed, reflected. "Social psychology" or "mentality", which is the sphere of the collective unconscious, is characterized by concealment, depth, spontaneity. (
At the same time, “social psychology and ideology are in some contradiction with each other, but do not exist without each other” and mutually penetrate each other.
Public consciousness is part of culture in the broadest sense of the word.
Being preserved in the culture of society, social psychology / mentality reflects the historical path it has traveled. “The mentality of an individual is determined by the principles and structural features of the language and culture that determined its development and formation.< ...>Language and culture, in turn, are formed in the course of the historical development of a certain people. Thus, the historical experience, processed and deposited in the language and culture, then affects the formation of the deep features of the human psyche, mastering the world through language and culture. Way of thinking can therefore be seen as an internalized experience of linguistic and cultural history. The well-known historian P.N. Milyukov wrote about this: “The national character itself is a consequence of historical life.” What has been said in this case about the ethnos can, in our opinion, be extended to other types of societies.
The existence in culture of different parts of social consciousness is different. Ideology requires special development, cultivation, fixation (because it is based on theoretical, scientific thinking) and is therefore concentrated in a whole form in the minds of a few. The existence of social psychology / mentality is largely spontaneous (although there are ways to control, manipulate), it is inherent in all members of society.
The content of the pole of ideology are theories, scientific, religious, philosophical systems and teachings, conscious worldview. The content of the pole of spontaneous, unaccountable social psychology / mentality is mental, behavioral, emotional stereotypes; latent value installations; pictures of the world and perception of oneself in the world; all kinds of automatisms of consciousness; public performances, etc.
The mechanism of preservation and transmission of social psychology / mentality, as well as its assimilation by each new member of society, is similar to the mechanism of the life of living natural languages. Through the environment (linguistic or, respectively, mental) and from older generations to younger ones. “Culture and tradition, language, way of life and religiosity form a kind of “matrix” within which mentality is formed. The era in which the individual lives leaves an indelible imprint on his worldview, gives him certain forms of mental reactions and behavior, and these features of spiritual equipment are found in the "collective consciousness".
Public consciousness is historically changeable. An ideology can change instantly, although it always takes time to spread widely. As for mentality, representatives of the Annales School have always noted the slowness of the changes taking place in it. BF Porshnev in his "social psychology" identifies a more or less stable "mental warehouse" (for example, national character) and dynamic "mental shifts", social moods (for example, fashion).
To comprehend public consciousness, it is necessary to analyze the broadest possible cultural context: texts and objects of “material culture”, a system of social ties and relationships, everyday life and the history of everyday life. In feedback: understanding the mentality and ideology of society will help to correctly assess all the processes taking place in it, adequately perceive the behavior of its members and better understand the cultural phenomena developed by it.
Essence of public consciousness
For many centuries, heated debates around the essence of consciousness and the possibilities of its cognition have not ceased. Theologians see consciousness as a tiny spark of the majestic flame of the divine mind. Idealists defend the idea of the primacy of consciousness in relation to matter. Tearing consciousness out of the objective connections of the real world and considering it as an independent and creative essence of being, objective idealists interpret consciousness as something primordial: not only is it inexplicable by anything that exists outside of it, but it is called upon to explain everything that happens in nature, history and behavior of each individual. The supporters of objective idealism recognize consciousness as the only reliable reality.
If idealism digs out the abyss between the mind and the world, then materialism seeks commonality, unity between the phenomena of consciousness and the objective world, deriving the spiritual from the material. Materialistic philosophy and psychology proceed in solving this problem from two cardinal principles: from the recognition of consciousness as a function of the brain and a reflection of the external world.
Levels of public consciousness
The structure of social consciousness is very complex: first of all, there are levels in it - ordinary-practical and scientific-theoretical. This aspect of the consideration of social consciousness can be called epistemological, since it shows the depth of penetration of the subject of knowledge into objective reality. As is known, everyday practical consciousness is less structured, more superficial than scientific and theoretical. Social consciousness manifests itself as social psychology at the everyday practical level, and as ideology at the scientific and theoretical level. It should be emphasized that ideology is not the whole scientific and theoretical consciousness, but only that part of it that has a class character. But this will be discussed below.
The next aspect of the consideration of social consciousness is according to its carrier or subject. Thus, there are types of social consciousness - individual, group and mass consciousness. The carrier of individual consciousness is an individual, the carrier of group consciousness is a social group, the carrier of mass consciousness is an unorganized group of people united by some idea, goal. For example, fans of some pop singer, regular listeners of the Mayak radio station can be attributed to the phenomenon of mass consciousness. It is sometimes said that the bearer of mass consciousness is the crowd, but many sociologists believe that it is more correct to single out both the consciousness of the crowd and the consciousness of the masses. In passing, we note that the crowd is people who are in direct contact with each other, gathered to achieve some goal, but the crowd is distinguished from the mass by direct contact, the presence of a leader and joint activities, for example, at a rally, demonstration, etc.
Forms of public consciousness
Public consciousness is a combination of various spiritual phenomena that reflect all spheres of society and the wealth of individual human life, therefore, its various forms are distinguished - moral, aesthetic, religious, legal, political, philosophical, scientific, environmental, economic, etc. Of course, such structuring is conditional, since the types, forms, levels of social consciousness are in constant interaction and mutual influence.
Analyzing public consciousness, social F pays special attention to ideology. Ideology is a system of ideas and theories, values and norms, ideals and directives of action. It contributes to the consolidation or elimination of existing social relations. In its theoretical content, ideology is a set of legal, political, moral, aesthetic and other ideas that ultimately reflect the economic relations of society from the standpoint of a certain social class.
Let us dwell in more detail on the spiritual life of society. It can be understood as the sphere of being in which the objective, supra-individual reality has been transformed into an individual, subjective reality, inherent in every person.
Social consciousness and its forms.
| Parameter name | Meaning |
| Article subject: | Social consciousness and its forms. |
| Rubric (thematic category) | History |
The emergence of consciousness and its structure.
The central point in the spiritual society (its core) is public consciousness of people. It is a combination of feelings, moods and religious images, various views, theories that reflect certain aspects of social life. Modern social philosophy distinguishes in the structure of social consciousness as: 1) everyday and theoretical consciousness; 2) social psychology and ideology; 3) forms of social consciousness.
1) ordinary and theoretical consciousness
These are essentially two levels of social consciousness - the lowest and the highest. Οʜᴎ differ among themselves in the depth of understanding of the common. phenomena, the level of their understanding.
Ordinary consciousness inherent in all people. It is formed in the course of their daily practical activities on the basis of their daily experience. This is largely spontaneous reflection by people of the entire stream of social. life, without any systematization of total. phenomena and the discovery of their deep essence. Ordinary consciousness allows with sufficient reliability ʼʼat the level of common senseʼʼ to judge many phenomena and events in general. life and make generally correct decisions at this level, supported by worldly experience. This determines ordinary consciousness in people's lives and in the development of society.
theoretical consciousness- there is a comprehension of phenomena in general. life, by discovering their essence and the laws of their development. It stands as a system of logical interconnected provisions, hence as a definition. scientific concept concerning this or that phenomenon obshch. life. Not everyone acts as a subject of theoretical consciousness, but only scientists, specialists, i.e. people who can scientifically judge the relevant phenomena in general. life.
Ordinary and theoretical consciousness interact with each other as a result of this phenomenon, the development of both.
2) social psychology and ideology
They reflect not only the level of understanding of social. reality, but also the attitude to it from various social. groups and national., ethnic communities. This attitude is expressed in the needs, interests, value orientations of people, as well as in their moods, customs, mores, traditions, manifestations of fashion, in their aspirations, goals and ideals. It's about about a certain mood of feelings and thoughts, which combines a certain understanding of the processes taking place in society and the spiritual attitude of the subjects towards them. All this characterizes the general the psychology of people and their psychological make-up, which is expressed, in particular, in the national character of the people. Social psychology always acts as mass consciousness and all its properties are inherent in it.
In the social human activity plays an important role ideology. In it, as in general. psychology, expressed needs and interests decomp. social groups, primarily classes, as well as national. communities. At the same time, in ideology, these needs and interests are realized at a higher level. theoretical level. The ideology itself acts as a system of views and attitudes, theoretically reflecting the needs and interests of various social. forces, it should clearly express the relationship of certain classes, watered. parties, movements, in the existing system, state-ve, society, otd. polit. institutes. The fact that ideology appears in the form of theories. concept, indicates that it should cover the processes of total. development, but this does not always happen. The ideology must be scientific and non-scientific, progressive and reactionary, liberal and totalitarian, radical and conservative. Everything depends on its social class orientation, theoretical depth, as well as the methods of its implementation.
Unlike general psychology, which is formed more spontaneously than consciously, ideology is created by ideologists quite consciously
3) forms of social consciousness
In modern social Philosophy allocate such forms of common. consciousness as a political, legal, moral, aesthetic, release, scientific and philosophical consciousness. In them, various aspects of societies are comprehended and spiritually mastered. life including: 1) nature, because it is related to people. deya-ti - production, aesthetic and scientific; 2) system total. relations - political, moral, legal; 3) the person himself, his abilities, various types of his activities, the meaning of his existence and purpose in the world.
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Social consciousness and its forms. - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Public consciousness and its forms." 2017, 2018.
Each person is individual, his consciousness differs from the worldview of others. If we consider the mind of all people as a single whole, then a social one is formed, which, in turn, is divided into forms.
The main forms of social consciousness
In each form below, reality is displayed, but in a highly specific form. This reflection of the real world depends, first of all, on the purpose of such a recreation and on what the description is based on, that is, what is the object.
There are the following forms:
- philosophical;
- economic;
- religious;
- political;
- moral;
- legal;
- scientific consciousness.
Worldview form of social consciousness
Philosophy is a worldview, the main problem of which is to find the relationship between the individual and the world. In other words, this is a set of worldview views, both on the surrounding reality and on the attitude of each of us to this reality.
In philosophy, ways of knowing are put in the first place. Preference is given to a rational study of the world. Thanks to this science, entire systems of teachings about the principles of being, about its foundation, basis, general characteristics, attitude to spirituality, nature, and society are developed.
Economic form of social knowledge
It includes knowledge about the material world, economic activity. They reflect the main aspects of the production process, the ability to distribute the material wealth of mankind. This form of social consciousness has a subtle connection with the opposition for the idea, is associated with legal, moral and political consciousness.
The main component of the economic feasibility of any enterprise is profitability, the ability to increase production efficiency, introduce innovations.
Religion as a form of social consciousness
This form is based on the belief in the existence of one, several unearthly beings, a parallel world, supernatural phenomena. Philosophy classifies religion as a spiritual part of the life of all mankind. She is in some way.
It is believed that it was from religious consciousness that the culture of all mankind began its development, which over time acquired various forms of social consciousness.
Political form of public consciousness
It includes the unification of ideas, feelings, traditions, systems that reflect the initial interests of social groups of people and the attitude of each of them to various political organizations and institutions. Political consciousness begins its birth in a certain period of social development. It appears only when the most developed types of social labor are born.
Morality as a form of social consciousness
Morality or morality reflects the ideas, assessments, behavioral norms of each individual, society. It arises at the moment of social need to regulate human behavior in different areas of life. Its main problem is the stabilization of the relationship between man and society.
Legal form of public consciousness
It is a system of social norms that are protected by the state. Its main component is legal awareness, which includes legal assessment, ideology. Legal consciousness expresses the interests of social groups.
Science as a form of social consciousness
This is an ordered reflection of the world, which is displayed in scientific language. In its teachings, science relies on both practical and factual verification of any propositions put forward. The world is reflected in laws, theoretical material, categories.
