Basic concepts of philosophy - matter and spirit. Idealists and materialists define their meaning differently, but agree on the objective existence of matter. It represents the physical foundation of the world. At the same time, philosophers say that the attributes of matter are movement, space and time. They make up its essence and specificity.
Concept
The philosophical definition of matter says that it is some kind of objective reality, everything that exists regardless of human consciousness. Matter, attributes, the forms of existence of which are considered in the article, is defined as the antipode of the spirit. It embodies everything inanimate, unlike living life, the soul. In philosophy, matter is understood as an entity that is cognizable by the senses, but retains its characteristics, regardless of its awareness. Thus matter is objective.
Ontology comprehends the essence and role of matter in being. The answer to the question about the meaning of matter led to the emergence of two global trends in philosophy: idealism andmaterialism. In the first case, it is believed that consciousness is primary, and matter is secondary. In the second, matter is considered as the origin of being. Matter exists in infinite variety, has many properties and features, its own structure and functions. But in a global sense, there are universal attributes of matter. However, before the crystallization of ideas about the properties of matter, philosophy has come a long way of thinking about the essence of this phenomenon.
Evolution of views
Philosophy was formed as a sphere of comprehension of such objects as being, matter. The attributes of the objective world became the subject of reflection of thinkers in ancient times. The founder of the first system of views on the essence and role of matter was the ancient Greek philosopher Thales. He stated that the fundamental principle of being is water as a material reality. It possessed in the mobile, changing world the property of constancy of its characteristics. She could change form, but her essence remained the same. Water is known through the senses, and its transformations are comprehended by the mind. So Thales made the first observations about the objective nature of matter and its universality.
Later, Heraclitus and Parmenides expand their ideas about the objective characteristics of being, pose many new questions. The views of Democritus, his atomistic theory became a source of reflection on movement as the main attribute of being. The problem of opposing the ideal and material worlds appeared thanks to Plato. Any thing in the world is the result of the combination of ideas and matter. And herean important ontological question arises: what is matter? Aristotle devoted much thought to this question. He wrote that matter is a sensuously perceived substance, the substratum of every thing.
In the next few centuries, discussions about matter were only in the context of the confrontation between materialistic and idealistic ideas. And only the emergence of science again made it relevant to think about the definition of matter. Under it, they begin to understand the objective reality, which exists according to its own laws, independent of human perception. Philosophers, relying on scientific discoveries, begin to comprehend the properties and forms of the objective world. They substantiate such properties of matter as extension, inertia, mass, indivisibility, impenetrability. Later discoveries in physics introduce concepts such as the field, electrons, etc. into philosophical circulation. The attributes of matter in philosophy become the most important area of thought. The discoveries of contemporary physicists enrich and expand these ideas; new theories about the properties and structure of matter appear in ontology. Today, the problem of the relationship between the concepts of "matter" and "energy" is gaining relevance.
Properties
Characterizing matter, philosophers go by describing its properties. This allows us to understand the specifics of the phenomenon. The main property of matter is the objectivity of its existence. It does not change its form and properties when perceived by a person and without him, it obeys the physical laws of existence. The second property specifying the contentthe concept of "matter" is systematic. Matter is characterized by orderliness and structural certainty. Another universal property of matter is activity. It is subject to change and development, has dynamics. In addition, matter is characterized by the ability to self-organize and reflect. Its important property is called informativity. It is able to store and transmit information about its origin, development, structure.
Philosophers also consider its indestructibility and increatibility to be universal properties of matter. It cannot be subtracted or added in ways known to man, the world is self-sufficient. Matter has no beginning and no end, it was not created by anyone, it never began and will never end. An important property of matter is its determinism, all objects and things in the world depend on structural connections within it. Everything in the material world is subject to objective laws, everything has its cause and effect. The uniqueness of matter is another of its significant properties. There cannot be two identical things in the world, each item has a unique composition. In addition to these properties, matter has special attributes that are inherent in it, regardless of the form of existence. The properties of the attributes of matter and their study is an important area of modern philosophical knowledge.
Attributes
The subject of ontology and epistemology is matter. Its attributes and properties are constant, universal regardless of the form of existence. Even the ancient Greeks noticed that matter is characterized by movement. This refers not only to physical movement, butvariability, flowing from one form to another.
Matter is eternal in time, as it has no initial beginning and end point. In addition, it is infinite in the spatial aspect. Philosophers' reflections on the universal characteristics of matter led them to identify its basic attributes. Standing apart is its structure, which is also a global base property. The main attributes of matter are movement, time and space, they are the subject of deep philosophical analysis and reflection.
Structure
Philosophers of antiquity posed the most important questions: what is matter, is it infinite, where does it originate from? From the search for answers, ontology was born, which substantiated the existence of special characteristics of matter. She also formulated the theoretical premises, on the basis of which the attributes of matter were named in modern times. But the first answer to the question about its structure was given in the framework of ancient Greek philosophy. The atomistic theory of Democritus claimed that matter consists of the smallest particles - atoms, which cannot be seen by the human eye and which exist in free space. At the same time, atoms are unchanged, but the things in which they are grouped are changeable and mobile.
With the advent of science, ideas about the structure of matter have changed, the concepts of living and inanimate matter have appeared, each of which has its own structure. The world of inanimate nature consists of such levels as particles, atoms, chemical elements, molecules, planets, systemsplanets, stars, galaxies, systems of galaxies. Living nature consists of cells, acids and proteins, multicellular creatures, populations, biocenoses and the biosphere. Philosophers also introduce the concept of social matter, the structure of which includes the genus, family, ethnic group, humanity.
The development of science has led to the emergence of another point of view on the structure of matter, in which the microcosm, the macrocosm and the megaworld were singled out. The scales of these levels are determined through the main attributes of matter: time and space.
Movement: essence and properties
Movement, time are the attributes of matter, which were revealed in antiquity. Even then, people noticed that there is nothing constant in the world around us - everything changes, flows from one form to another. The comprehension of this phenomenon led to the emergence of two initial ideas about its essence. In the narrow sense of the word, movement is the spatial movement of objects from one point to another, without any change in the object. In this sense, movement is the opposite of rest. In a broad sense, movement is any change in an object, the dynamics of its forms and properties. And this is the natural state of matter. Like all attributes of matter, movement is inherent in it initially, genetically. It is characteristic of any material form. And it is impossible without matter, there is no pure movement. This is its attributive character. Matter is inherent in development, which is movement, it constantly strives for complication, moves from the lowest to the highest. It should also be noted that the movement is objective,only practice can change it.
Movement as an attribute of matter has a number of properties, they are most often ambivalent. First of all, it is characterized by absoluteness and relativity. The Absolute is connected with the fact that movement is inherent in any form of matter, nothing in the world is at rest. At the same time, any concrete movement always tends to rest, it is finite, and this is its relativity. When it stops, a single movement passes into a new form, and this is an absolute law. Also, the movement is both intermittent and continuous. Ego discontinuity is associated with the ability of matter to divide into separate forms, such as planets, galaxies, etc. And continuity lies in the ability to self-organize into integral systems.
Shapes of movement
The main attribute of matter is movement, which can take a variety of forms. Their classification was proposed by F. Engels, who discovered 5 main types:
- mechanical; the simplest form is moving objects;
- physical, based on the laws of physics, it includes light, heat, magnetism, etc.;
- chemical, interaction of molecules and atoms;
- biological - self-regulation, reproduction and development in ecological systems and biocenoses;
- social is all kinds of conscious and transformative activities of people.
All forms of movement form a complex hierarchical system: from simple to complex. These systems are subject to a singlelaws:
- there are genetic connections between the forms of movement, each simple form serves as the basis for the development of a more complex one and is included in it with all its components;
- each higher form has its own unique differences, this leads to the qualitative development of matter.
At the same time, the essence of the highest form of motion cannot be explained only by the action of physical and chemical laws. The movement covers the entire unity of the material world, including the consciousness of people.
History of the concepts of "space" and "time"
Space and time as attributes of matter began to be comprehended by people long before the advent of philosophy. Even primitive people, mastering the surrounding world, are aware of the existence of these phenomena. Moreover, they perceive them as an inseparable whole, measuring space in hours and time as some kind of spatial segments.
Mythological ideas about space and time were significantly different from modern ones. Time was presented as a kind of cyclical substance, which is not directed from the past to the future, as we are used to, but at the same time coexists in the form of separate worlds: there is the world of ancestors, the world of gods and the world of today's existence. The concept of "tomorrow" appears only at higher stages of the development of society. Moreover, you can travel between time layers, as in space. In many mythological systems, a tree was such a spatial link. So, in the "Tale of Igor's Campaign" it is told how the elder "spreads his thought along the tree", i.e., travels alongthe tree that links the times.
The concept of space also differed significantly. It seemed to be centered and finite. So, there was an opinion that there is a certain center of the earth, usually it is a kind of holy place, and there is an edge of the earth, beyond which comes the unknown, immaterial chaos. In addition, the space was evaluatively marked, that is, it was not homogeneous: there were bad and good places. Man deified the entire material world, including space and time.
With the advent of scientific discoveries, ideas about these phenomena are changing. The realization comes that the attributes of matter are objective, measurable and subject to the laws of physics.
Space: essence and properties
Space as an attribute of matter has an analogue in the material world and is an abstraction of the first level. It has the following properties:
- extension, i.e. the existence and connection of any elements; it is defined as the unity of discontinuity and continuity and consists of separate segments, which add up to infinity;
- three-dimensionality - according to the physical parameters, space has a length, width and height; according to the theory of A. Einstein, there is a fourth coordinate axis - time, but it is applicable only within the framework of physics, infinity and inexhaustibility of space appear in three dimensions;
- divisibility - space can be divided into a variety of segments: meters, kilometers, parsecs;
- homogeneity means that there are no selected points in space;
- isotopicity, i.e.equality of any of the chosen directions;
- infinity - space has no end or beginning.
Time: concept and properties
Time as an attribute of matter is defined as a special form of processes in the objective world and has special characteristics. It has no analogue in the material world and is an abstraction of the second level. Time is irreversible, it is always directed from the past to the future through the point of the present, and no other movement is possible. It is characterized by duration and consistency. The processes proceed in a certain sequence, the stages cannot change their order. Time is continuous and discrete at the same time. It is a stream that has no beginning and end, but it can be divided into segments: hours, years, centuries. An important property of time is also its infinity, or inexhaustibility.
