Philosophy: what comes first - matter or consciousness?

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

Philosophy is an ancient science. It originated during the slave system. And what is interesting, somehow immediately in countries such as China, India and Greece. The history of science goes back over 2500 years. During this period, many diverse doctrines were formed, reflecting the levels of political, social and economic development of society. It is certainly interesting and important to explore various areas of philosophy. But they all lead to the cornerstone - the problem of being and consciousness.

Different formulations of the same problem

The original question of philosophy, on which all directions are based, is formulated in different versions. The connection between being and consciousness is the problem of the relationship between spirit and nature, soul and body, thinking and being, etc. Each philosophical school was looking for answers to the question: what is primary - matter or consciousness? What is the relation of thinking to being? This ratio in Germanthinkers Schelling and Engels was called the main question of philosophy.

The importance of this problem lies in the fact that the construction of a holistic science about the place of man in the world depends on its correct resolution. Mind and matter are inseparable. But at the same time this pair of opposites. Consciousness is often called spirit.

Two sides of the same question

At the main philosophical question: "What is primary - matter or consciousness?" - there are moments - existential and cognitive. The existential, in other words, the ontological side, consists in finding a solution to the main problem of philosophy. And the essence of the cognitive, or epistemological side, is to resolve the question of whether we know or do not know the world.

Depending on the data of the two sides, there are four main directions. This is a physical view (materialism) and idealistic, experiential (empiricism) and rationalistic.

Ontology has the following directions: materialism (classical and vulgar), idealism (objective and subjective), dualism, deism.

The epistemological side is represented by five directions. This is Gnosticism and later agnosticism. Three more - empiricism, rationalism, sensationalism.

Democritus Line

In literature, materialism is often called the line of Democritus. Its supporters considered the correct answer to the question of what is primary - matter or consciousness, matter. Accordingly, the postulates of the materialistssound like this:

• matter really exists, and it is independent of consciousness;
• matter is an autonomous substance; she needs only herself and develops according to her inner law;
• consciousness is a property to reflect itself, which belongs to highly organized matter;
• consciousness is not an independent substance, it is being.

Among materialist philosophers who set themselves the main question of what is primary - matter or consciousness, we can distinguish:

• Democritus;
• Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes (Miletian school);
• Epicure, Bacon, Locke, Spinoza, Diderot;
• Herzen, Chernyshevsky;
• Marx, Engels, Lenin.

Passion for natural

Vulgar materialism is distinguished separately. He is represented by Focht, Moleschott. In this direction, when they start talking about what is primary - matter or consciousness, the role of matter is absolutized.

Philosophers are fond of studying the material with the help of the exact sciences: physics, mathematics, chemistry. They ignore consciousness as an entity and its ability to influence matter. According to the representatives of vulgar materialism, the human brain gives out a thought, and the consciousness, like the liver, secretes bile. This direction does not recognize the qualitative difference between mind and matter.

According to modern researchers, when the question is raised about what is primary - matter or consciousness, the philosophy of materialism, based on the exact and natural sciences, logicallyproves his postulates. But there is also a weak side - a meager explanation of the essence of consciousness, the lack of interpretation of many phenomena of the surrounding world. Materialism dominated the philosophy of Greece (the era of democracy), in the states of the Hellenes, in England of the 17th century, in France of the 18th century, in the socialist countries of the 20th century.

Plato Line

Idealism is called Plato's line. Supporters of this trend believed that consciousness is primary, matter is secondary in solving the main philosophical problem. Idealism distinguishes two autonomous directions: objective and subjective.

Representatives of the first direction - Plato, Leibniz, Hegel and others. The second was supported by such philosophers as Berkeley and Hume. Plato is considered the founder of objective idealism. The views of this trend are characterized by the expression: "Only the idea is real and primary." Objective idealism says:

• the surrounding reality is the world of ideas and the world of things;
• the sphere of eidos (ideas) exists initially in the divine (universal) mind;
• the world of things is material and does not have a separate existence, but is the embodiment of ideas;
• every single thing is the embodiment of eidos;
• the most important role for transforming an idea into a concrete thing is assigned to God the Creator;
• separate eidos exist objectively, regardless of our consciousness.

Feelings and reason

Subjective idealism, saying that consciousnessprimary, matter is secondary, states:

• everything exists only in the mind of the subject;
• ideas are in the human mind;
• images of physical things also exist only in the mind due to sensory sensations;
• neither matter nor eidos live apart from human consciousness.

The disadvantage of this theory is that there are no reliable and logical explanations for the very mechanism of converting eidos into a specific thing. Philosophical idealism dominated in the time of Plato in Greece, in the Middle Ages. And today it is distributed in the USA, Germany and some other Western European countries.

Monism and dualism

Materialism, idealism - referred to as monism, i.e. the doctrine of one primary principle. Descartes founded dualism, the essence of which lies in the theses:

• there are two independent substances: physical and spiritual;
• physical has extension properties;
• spiritual has thinking;
• everything in the world is derived either from one or the second substance;
• physical things come from matter, and ideas come from spiritual substance;
• matter and spirit are interconnected opposites of a single being.

In search of an answer to the basic question of philosophy: "What is primary - matter or consciousness?" - it can be briefly formulated: matter and consciousness always exist and complement each other.

Other trends in philosophy

Pluralism claims that the world has many beginnings, likemonads in the theory of G. Leibniz.

Deism recognizes the existence of God, who once created the world and no longer takes part in its further development, does not affect the actions and lives of people. Deists are represented by the French Enlightenment philosophers of the 18th century - Voltaire and Rousseau. They did not oppose matter to consciousness and considered it spiritualized.

Eclecticism mixes the concepts of idealism and materialism.

The founder of empiricism was F. Bacon. In contrast to the idealistic statement: "Consciousness is primary in relation to matter" - the empirical theory says that only experience and feelings can be the basis of knowledge. There is nothing in the mind (thoughts) that has not been empirically obtained before.

Rejection of knowledge

Agnosticism is a direction that completely denies even a partial possibility of comprehending the world through one subjective experience. This concept was introduced by T. G. Huxley, and I. Kant was a prominent representative of agnosticism, who argued that the human mind has great possibilities, but they are limited. Based on this, the human mind gives rise to riddles and contradictions that have no chance of being resolved. In total, according to Kant, there are four such contradictions. One of them: God exists - God does not exist. According to Kant, even that which belongs to the cognitive possibilities of the human mind cannot be known, since consciousness has only the ability to display things in sensory sensations, but it is not capable of knowing the inner essence.

Today, supporters of the idea "Matter is primary - consciousness is derived from matter" can be found veryrarely. The world has become religiously oriented, despite the significant difference in views. But despite the centuries-old search for thinkers, the main question of philosophy has not been unambiguously resolved. Neither Gnosticists nor ontologists could answer it. This problem actually remains unresolved for thinkers. In the 20th century, the Western school of philosophy shows a tendency to reduce attention towards the traditional main philosophical question. It is gradually losing its relevance.

Modern direction

Scientists such as Jaspers, Camus, Heidegger say that a new philosophical problem, existentialism, may become relevant in the future. This is a question of a person and his existence, management of a personal spiritual world, internal social relationships, freedom of choice, the meaning of life, one's place in society and a sense of happiness.

From the point of view of existentialism, human existence is a completely unique reality. It is impossible to apply inhuman measures of cause-and-effect relationships to it. Nothing external has power over people, they are the cause of themselves. Therefore, in existentialism they talk about the independence of people. Existence is the receptacle of freedom, the basis of which is a person who creates himself and is responsible for everything he does. It is interesting that in this direction there is a fusion of religiosity with atheism.

Since ancient times, man has been trying to know himself and find his place in the world around him. This problem has always interested thinkers. The search for answers sometimes took the whole life of a philosopher. The theme of the meaning of being is closely connected with the problem of the essence of man. These concepts are intertwined and often coincide, since together they deal with the highest phenomenon of the material world - man. But even today, philosophy cannot give the only clear and correct answer to these questions.