What comes first - matter or consciousness? The fundamental question of philosophy.

He gave the nose to smell, the tongue to taste, the skin to touch, the ear to sound, and the eyes to see the environment. And he gave the brain to analyze the information received by these organs, and build images of the surrounding reality in this brain, in order to understand what surrounds it, what is being done here, why, why and for what, and most importantly - how it all happens. This is in order not to do stupid things, but on the contrary, to adopt the working methods of the surrounding mechanism of nature and learn how to benefit from this environment. He looked around, thought about it and decided that everything that affects his sense organs will be called matter. Sources of smell, taste, sound, impact on the skin, what he sees - that will be matter. It does not matter why it is this that affects him, and not something else, such a task did not occur to him, something else is important - he wanted to control this matter in such a way that it gave him only pleasant sensations. This is where his work began. He cooks delicious food, makes at home, warms up if it's cold, invents pleasant music, surrounds with pleasant pictures, caresses, loves to be pleasant. But at the same time, he understands that in his little world he is still defenseless, and from an unknown part of the environment one can expect any misfortune, catastrophe, and a hunch came that apparently from somewhere someone manages this whole economy, and it is necessary to understand who exactly and why he treats people differently. Some decided that somewhere out there in the unknown God is hiding and he controls everything. Others objected. They said that everything is governed by the general laws of the universe and there is no God. You just need to understand these laws, take them into account and adapt to live in the current conditions.

But let me, - the supporters of God were alarmed, further we will call them idealists or theists, - after all, it is God who created everything, including us, people, we need to understand what he needs from us, and try to satisfy him with our behavior!

Nothing of the kind, - said the opponents - materialists, they are atheists, - there is no master over us, we are our own masters and will live as we like. Let's better understand what this thing is - the universe with all its laws, and we will benefit from this thing. We want to live forever and always get pleasure, in other words, get happiness. There is only matter in the world, it has always been and always will be, but you yourself invented God. Matter is the head of everything.

Oh, say the idealists, you are getting the message that God will punish us all. God is the head of everything! - But then they decided not to punish everyone, but only materialists. But one must live in one collective, and the question arose - how should a common life be valued? As it is necessary for God, or as it is necessary for pleasures? It is said - "God and mammon are incompatible." And so the irreconcilable war began.

Thus, the question of the first cause of all things has become the most important of all questions. This is not a question of philosophy, but of practical activity and even survival.

Let's try to figure it out.

In order to give a definition of matter and assess the root cause of existence, a person first had to master the ability to think, think logically, develop imagination, that is, become reasonable. And here the mind in this matter has become primary. It was the mind that decided what it would call matter and what non-matter. Here is a quote from Lenin.

This means that there is a certain objective reality, it represents the entire universe, and it somehow declares itself in its parts to a person by influencing his meager sense organs. So what is called matter? Is it an unknown objective reality? Or only that which directly affects the sense organs?

It must be assumed that only what is now directly affecting these organs. I cannot call matter what I do not see, what I do not feel. And this means that if I see a tree from the window, then this is a material object, and if I turn away, then the tree remains only in memory, I do not see it, and therefore I cannot consider it material. I can even photograph it, and then the paper with the image of the tree will be a material object, but not the tree itself. I cannot consider as material those objects that I saw yesterday, today those objects are no longer there, today, or rather now, there are already other objects. Today my table is not the same as it was yesterday. That is, matter has an instantaneous character. Every moment the matter is renewed. For the same reason, I cannot consider invisible people, invisible cities, mountains, rivers as material objects. But those cities, mountains, rivers, of course, exist, they are in the sphere of objective reality, but for me now they are not material. There is the whole universe, but it cannot be called material, because I cannot see and feel it all at once. I can build images of the universe in my head, images of the past, future, but they remain only in my head, which means they are not material. The laws that scientists deduce are described on paper; this is also not matter. These are only images that say how some objects affect others, what actions are caused by others. A magnetic field, an electric field, even radiation, when they do not directly affect our sense organs, cannot be considered material. The devices that capture them tell us only that there is such an objective reality beyond our sensations. And we draw her images in our head already according to the data of these devices.

So what comes first - objective reality or matter? Of course, the objective reality.

So, we work only with images of objective reality, and this activity falls under the definition of objective idealism. According to the existing images, we build speculative models of the interaction of parts of the universe, models of processes. We want to get a model that could be confirmed by experiments, and since not everything lends itself to experiments, for example, the model of the entire universe with its past and future cannot be verified by experiment, we are trying to come up with plausibility criteria.

So what can serve as such a criterion?

The presence in the model of structural and functional connectivity of parts of the universe into a single system, consistency, consistency, compliance with scientific discoveries, but this is not the main thing. The target orientation of the universal transformations along the irreversible time vector should be outlined, the reason that caused the inevitability of the appearance of the universe with all current transformations, their ultimate goal and how this goal can neutralize the initial reason should be shown. Since human logic does not work without basic axioms, the set of axioms should be minimal. And the fewer indefinable entities, the more plausible and understandable the model. And it should be as logical and understandable as possible, it should not prompt unresolvable questions. And this means that it should indicate the meaning of everything that exists, including intelligent beings - people, their role in the system of universal transformations.

It becomes obvious that it is impossible to build such a model in which there would be no source of the appearance of everything that exists, the source of physical laws and transformation procedures.

God is such a source. It is an indefinable entity. It is present in the worldviews of both theists and atheists. For atheists, it is hidden under the term "Nobody". His actions are defined by the phrase "by themselves". As a result, everything that exists appeared "by itself" from that unknown source. For theists, God is personalized and, although he does not have a clear definition, nevertheless, as an object, he can be included in the model of the universe. The god of atheists hidden behind "Nobody" has no mind, does not fit into any models, and therefore their models exclude any reasonable actions on the part of their god. Transformation procedures become meaningless, indefinite, aimless. They have the concept of "chance" and this "chance" becomes the second god. His actions do not have any logic, no consistency, but he has a control force, and therefore the universe is plunging into chaos. Under the influence and with the participation of both gods - the one that sits behind "Nobody" and issues physical laws, and "Accidents" a man appeared. According to this logic, being a product of two meaningless gods, a person cannot have either the meaning of life, or goal-setting, and even reason, since the source of reason is absent. And since there is no purposefulness in the universal procedures, then there cannot be an irreversible vector of time directed into the future. Such a worldview of atheists contradicts objective reality and does not meet the criteria of plausibility.

It follows that the source of the universe is a certain rational subject, and therefore consciousness becomes primary in relation to the matter that the person created by him feels.

And here are the last questions - why did God need to inspire a person with the need to divide everything into consciousness and matter? And why it is this matter that a person should see, and not another. I believe that on the first question - only so that with a consciousness estranged from matter, a person could understand the presence of God, his tasks and determine his place in their solution, and on the second - God gave only that understanding of matter that can induce in him the awareness of objective reality , necessary and sufficient for the solution of further divine tasks assigned to him.

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 comes first - matter or consciousness? What is the relation of thought to being? Such a correlation among the German thinkers Schelling and Engels was called the fundamental question of philosophy.

Two sides of the same question

At the main philosophical question: "What is primary - matter or consciousness?" - there are moments - existential and cognitive. Existential, in other words, the ontological side, is to find 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, four main directions are distinguished. This is a physical view (materialism) and idealistic, experimental (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 referred to as the line of Democritus. Its supporters considered the correct answer to the question of what is primary - matter or consciousness, matter. In accordance with this, the postulates of the materialists sound like this:

• matter really exists, and it is independent of consciousness;
• matter is an autonomous substance; it needs only itself and develops according to its 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 the materialist philosophers who pose the main question of what is primary - matter or consciousness, one can single out:

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

Fascination with natural

Separately allocate vulgar materialism. He is represented by Focht, Moleschott. In this direction, when they start talking about what is more 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 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 of what is primary - matter or consciousness, the philosophy of materialism, relying on the exact and natural sciences, logically proves its 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's 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;
• each single thing is the embodiment of an eidos;
• the most important role for the transformation of an idea into a concrete thing is assigned to God the Creator;
• individual eidos exist objectively, independently of our consciousness.

Feelings and reason

Subjective idealism, saying that consciousness is primary, matter is secondary, asserts:

• 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 separately 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 common in the USA, Germany and some other countries of Western Europe.

Monism and dualism

Materialism, idealism - are attributed to monism, that is, 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;
• the physical has properties of extension;
• the spiritual possesses thinking;
• in the world everything is derived either from one or from the second substance;
• physical things come from matter, and ideas 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?" - can be briefly formulated: matter and consciousness always exist and complement each other.

Other directions in philosophy

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

Deism recognizes the presence 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 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 previously obtained by experience.

The denial 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 capabilities of the human mind cannot be known, since consciousness has only the ability to display things in sensory sensations, but it cannot recognize the inner essence.

Today, supporters of the idea "Matter is primary - consciousness is derived from matter" can be found very rarely. The world has become religiously oriented, despite a 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 in 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 - this 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.

He began to ask questions about his being and destiny, about the reality surrounding him and the world in which he lives, trying to study and understand them, the birth of the science of philosophy began. The main question that has worried people throughout the development of mankind, from the most ancient civilizations, which are mentioned only in legends or ancient manuscripts, to the present day, is what appeared first, consciousness or matter.

The disputes that arose between philosophers over this issue gave rise to such concepts as materialism and idealism. For many centuries, supporters of both theories staged verbal “battles”, trying to prove their case, until a third possible concept was voiced: there are two types of reality, material and spiritual, and they are interconnected.

The concept of matter

Translated from Latin, materialis means "material", and it is this concept that began to be applied in relation to objective reality in the philosophical worldview. Matter in the understanding of philosophers is the surrounding world that exists on its own, regardless of the consciousness of the subjects that inhabited it. This is how the scientific minds of antiquity thought, nothing in this definition has changed today. The world really exists outside of man and his attempts to cognize reality. Another concept of objective reality is “being”, which the philosophers of ancient Greece called a certain substance that forms everything that exists, that is, matter.

If you carefully study the treatises of ancient scientists, you can see a general trend in them: it doesn’t matter if these are the works of Eastern or ancient philosophy, they are all similar in that matter exists independently of human consciousness. This understanding led to the emergence of such a term as "materialism".

Despite the fact that the scientists who lived in those times (7th-6th centuries BC) did not have modern technologies to look inside matter or beyond it, they understood that there was some kind of primary substance, which formed the basis of everything existing. It was then that for the first time it was born about the primacy of matter or consciousness.

Primordial in the understanding of ancient philosophers

Some scientists (Thales) believed that this substance was water (it was already then called the “cradle of life”), others (Anaximander) came up with the name “apeiron”, which meant a certain substance outside of time and space, which is in constant motion and development, and it was she who caused the creation of the world. There were also such philosophers (Anaximenes and Heraclitus) who sincerely believed that everything that exists arose from air or fire. Naturally, all this pushed the adherents of this or that concept to conduct philosophical disputes, although in those days there were no fierce verbal “battles” on the topic of what was primary, matter or consciousness. The gods were considered part of the universe, and any material objects could have a soul. In many pagan religions, there were such concepts as the spirit of fire, water, earth, birds or animals. Some of these beliefs continue to exist today.

The concept and types of consciousness

Since the philosophers of antiquity were more interested in the material world around them and its phenomena, most of which they could not explain (as well as where everything came from), they initially devoted less time to the issue of consciousness. They really began to study the relationship between matter and consciousness when the first philosophical question arose: is it possible to study and cognize objective reality.

If everything is clear with matter, since it can be seen, touched, and in some cases disassembled and assembled, then with the concept of “consciousness” everything is more complicated. It began to be used in different concepts, for example:

• In a broad philosophical sense, it is a certain essence, the highest substance that is capable of creating worlds and matter. This concept formed the basis of idealistic philosophy. Plato was the first to introduce this term and develop the concept of idealism, and it was further developed by Hegel, who believed that the root cause (basis) of all things is the world mind. He called it the absolute primary substance (idea), which permeates all forms of being.
• From the point of view of materialism, consciousness is a secondary form of being (highly organized matter, such as the human brain), which is not capable of creating, but can cognize and analyze objective reality, passing it through the individual perception of each individual. It was from the moment of reassessment of the category of consciousness and its transfer from an idealistic concept to a materialistic one that for a while nullified philosophical disputes about what is primary, matter or consciousness. This concept considers such subjects as "I" (a person, individuality) and "not-I" (the rest of the world) and the relationship of the first to the second.

  

  Another concept of consciousness is given by psychologists. This is a psycho-physiological substrate (that is, the essence of the human psyche), which is two-dimensional and can simultaneously:

  • cognize, analyze and memorize information about the objective world (the whole of reality);
  • as self-consciousness to be directed at the carrier.

  Thus, consciousness forms for a person a picture of the world, of which he is an integral part.

  Let us now consider how, with the development of philosophical science, ideas about what is primary, matter or consciousness, have changed.

  Sophists of Ancient Greece

  Thanks to the ancient sophists, philosophy as a science has reached a completely new level of development. Depending on what opinion the scientific minds had about the creation of the world, they organized their own philosophical schools, in which, by combined efforts, they tried to either prove their version or refute someone else's. The first of these was the Miletus school, the founder of which is Thales.

  Starting from water, as the fundamental principle of all being, he, by generalizing his observations, in all the diversity of matter, discovered a certain ultimate abstraction, which made a logical leap from an incredible multitude of things and concepts to singularity. Since, in his understanding, “water” had a structure (consisted of the core of stoicheiron and the pra-matter of arche), it belonged to the category of matter that contained potential and was in constant development. Thus, he was one of the first to point out the primacy of matter over consciousness. This was also recognized by representatives of other philosophical schools of the 6th-5th centuries BC. e.

  WATER (fundamental).

  ARCHE / stoicheon(pra-matter/logical element).

  School in the Ionian Greek colonies (Ephesus, Clazomenae)

  The Ionian school, led by Heraclitus, insisted that the root cause of everything is fire, which has the same structure as the "water" of Thales. Unlike Anaximander, who was of the opinion that the beginning of existence is infinity (apeiron), which always remains whole and constant despite the diversity and variability of its parts, Heraclitus believed that the material world was not created by either gods or people, and always existed in kind of fire.

  FIRE (fundamental).

  ARCHE / stoicheon (pra-matter / logical element).

  This is interesting to know: it was Anaximander who introduced the concept of “limitless beginning” as the main element of being, and his theory of the creation of the world was advanced at that time.

  Plato and his vision of the world

  The Plato Academy is perhaps the first real educational institution of its kind, as it had a training program for young men. Plato himself paid much attention to the study of consciousness and believed that the mind is the highest gift of man. He believed that ideas are not objects of the material world, but are closely related to it.

  

  These are far from all representatives of ancient sophistry and their school, but it was they who came to the conclusion that formed the basis for the further development of philosophy as a science: consciousness is the opposite of matter, but they are inseparable, like sides of the same coin.

  Christian philosophy about being and consciousness

  During the Middle Ages, all philosophical thought was reduced to the concept of trinity:

  GOD-father /GOD-son / GOD-holy spirit.

  That is, the scientists of that time did not go far in their knowledge of the world from the ancient sages, they only changed the terminology. The basis of the creation of all things has remained the same: there is an unchanging something (in Christian philosophy - this is God), which creates matter (God the son) through the idea (God the holy spirit).

  

  If the philosophers of antiquity argued about what is primary, matter or consciousness, then 700 years ago, scientists were worried about the reality of everything that exists, to which Aristotle once gave the name "actual being". It was he who first pointed to the unity of matter and form in reality, thereby uniting matter and consciousness.

  Real life:matter/form

  For a long time, the philosophers of the Middle Ages relied on the Aristotelian concept of the world, which corresponded to the Christian dogma about the trinity of all things.

  Idealists and their conception of the world

  For almost 30 centuries, scientists have argued about what comes first, matter or consciousness. Philosophy as a science was at the forefront of all scientific disputes. Its representatives were divided into 2 camps: idealists and materialists.

  Representatives of the first believed that at the head of all things is the spiritual principle, which had different names (God, the Supreme Mind, soul, idea), but was, in fact, a single concept. In their opinion, matter is secondary, so to speak, a “product” of the spiritual world.

  

  Plato is considered to be the ancestor of idealism, although the division itself and the concept of materialism and idealism were introduced in the 18th century by G. Leibniz.

  This philosophy has two prevailing forms:

  1. Objective idealism, which separates the spiritual principle from the material world (reality) and man, calling him the Absolute or World Mind.
  2. Subjective idealism is based on the inner human experience of knowing the surrounding reality through its conscious study.

  Representatives of idealism were D. Hume, George Berkeley and other scientists. One of the varieties of this philosophical trend was the idea of ​​dualism (lat. - "two"), which was introduced by R. Descartes, who argued that matter and consciousness are two separate fundamental principles.

  materialists

  Representatives of this philosophical direction at the head of all things put matter, by which they meant the eternal, indestructible, constantly moving and developing substance, from which nature, the Universe and everything that fills the surrounding space appeared. For them, matter is primary, exists according to its own laws, has always been, and always will be, and constitutes a single reality, while consciousness (idea) is only its reflection.

  Among the advantages of this theory is science, but even it cannot explain the presence of consciousness and the essence of the ideas that are born in it (this is its minus).

  Materialism is divided into:

  • A natural look that originated in ancient times.
  • Metaphysical refers to the New Age and is represented by such scientists as Galileo, Bacon, Locke and others.
  • The dialectical view combines materiality and dialectics, in which consciousness is the ability of matter to reflect itself. The founders of this type of materialism are Marx and Engels.

  These are far from all varieties of materialism and idealism, since philosophy is not a static science and is in constant development, like the reality it tries to explain.

  Philosophical paradoxes

  Attempts to determine what matter and consciousness are, from time to time created curious situations and led to the formation of paradoxes. If the first concept is more or less clear, then when studying the essence of consciousness, scientists sometimes drove themselves into a dead end, for example:

  • Matter is tangible and studied. But isn't consciousness manifested through sensations that a person can cognize and analyze?
  • Matter surrounds man. And who said that consciousness does not surround him? Even 500 years ago, people did not hear about the electromagnetic field, and today even schoolchildren know that it surrounds the entire planet.

  

  In fact, if there is no consciousness, then the objective world (reality) does not exist, so that disputes about the primacy and secondary nature of these categories lose all meaning.

  Conclusion

  In our time, after it was announced and proved that thought (the product of consciousness) is material, disputes about the primacy of matter or the spiritual principle have subsided. Consciousness has not yet been studied, while people have penetrated into matter to its very atoms. So all the most interesting things in the science of philosophy are yet to come.

“Philosophers and scientists in endless disputes about the primacy of consciousness or matter forgot that the concept of consciousness was used without any explanation. And if, for example, dialectical materialism gave a more or less acceptable explanation of matter as an "OBJECTIVE REALITY GIVED TO US IN FEELINGS", then with regard to consciousness, they could not think of anything better than to "explain" it by the HIGHEST QUALITY STATE of that very "objective reality ”, which is “given to us in sensations”. Isn't that amazing logic?

Idealists, in turn, did not go so far from such logic, preaching the primacy of consciousness, the absolute idea, the absolute, the logos, and ultimately the Lord God, who (th) created (l) the "objective reality" surrounding us.

In general, I would like to draw attention to the fact that the very question: “what is primary - matter or consciousness?” Is absurd in itself. Just like the question of the primacy of the egg or the chicken is absurd. Just as there is no chicken without an egg, so there is no egg without a chicken, so there is no consciousness without matter and matter without consciousness. Both of these concepts are simply INSEPARABLE AND DO NOT EXIST WITHOUT EACH OTHER. It's just that the concept of matter is much broader than modern science imagines, and consciousness has many states that qualitatively differ from each other.

First of all, let's highlight the main criteria of consciousness:

1. Awareness, selection of oneself as a carrier of consciousness from the environment.
2. Harmonious interaction of the bearer of consciousness with the environment.

And if we consider a person through the prism of these criteria, we can determine the degree of his reasonableness as a carrier of consciousness. And if everything is in perfect order with the isolation of oneself from all the surrounding nature in Homo Sapiens, unfortunately, things are very deplorable with harmonious interaction with the environment. Man has declared a real war on nature, instead of living in symbiosis with it. And for this it is absolutely not necessary to return to the wild state and expect from nature what she “wants” to give to man.

It is necessary to know the laws of nature and, using this knowledge, qualitatively change it so as not to disturb the harmony of the ecological system. And then it will become possible to control the planet's climate, and control over its elements, and harmony with all other creatures that have no less, and maybe more rights to breathe clean air, drink clean water and pass on the baton of life to their descendants.

It is amazing that a person looks at nature as a conqueror, and not as a child fed by her breast. And as long as this state of affairs continues, humanity has to be considered a POTENTIALLY INTELLIGENT RACE, like a newly born child who has everything ahead of him. I would like to wish that the “infant phase” does not drag on so long that there will be no one and nowhere to visit the “kindergarten” of nature ...

Matter and consciousness, consciousness and matter. These two concepts have unity and opposition. Consciousness implies rationality in the behavior of the bearer of consciousness. Intelligence, in turn, is manifested in the adequacy of reactions to processes occurring in the environment. Adequacy is the RATIONALITY, OPTIMALITY of certain reactions of the bearer of consciousness. Thus, one of the characteristics of consciousness is the RATIONALITY OF BEHAVIOR OF THE CARRIER OF CONSCIOUSNESS, which in any case is a MATERIAL OBJECT. In other words, CONSCIOUSNESS IS MANIFESTED IN A CERTAINLY ORGANIZED MATTER. It is only necessary to determine what the organization of matter should be in order for it to manifest certain elements of consciousness. Man is used to dividing matter into living and non-living, forgetting that both one and the other are formed by the same atoms.

Moreover, any atom of living matter, sooner or later, will become part of inanimate and vice versa, many atoms of inanimate matter will become part of living matter. Such a difference is determined only by the fact that the ratio of the masses of living and non-living matter is not equivalent. Living matter is only a small part of the mass of inanimate matter. Nevertheless, both are completely able to pass one into another, the difference is only in the SPATIAL ORGANIZATION AND THE QUALITATIVE STRUCTURE OF THESE MATTERS. Thus, the qualitative difference between living and non-living matter is reduced to the DIFFERENCE IN SPATIAL ORGANIZATION AND QUALITATIVE STRUCTURE OF MATTER.

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. Explore all sorts of certainly interesting and important. 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 comes first - matter or consciousness? What is the relation of thought to being? Such a ratio among the German thinkers Schelling and Engels was called

The importance of this problem lies in the fact that the construction of a holistic science of 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. Existential, in other words, the ontological side, is to find 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, four main directions are distinguished. This is a physical view (materialism) and idealistic, experimental (empiricism) and rationalistic.

Ontology has the following directions: materialism (classical and vulgar), 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 referred to as the line of Democritus. Its supporters considered the correct answer to the question of what is primary - matter or consciousness, matter. In accordance with this, the postulates of the materialists sound like this:

• matter really exists, and it is independent of consciousness;
• matter is an autonomous substance; it needs only itself and develops according to its 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 the materialist philosophers who pose the main question of what is primary - matter or consciousness, one can single out:

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

Fascination with natural

Separately allocate vulgar materialism. He is represented by Focht, Moleschott. In this direction, when they start talking about what is more primary - matter or consciousness, the role of matter is absolutized.

Philosophers are fond of studying the material with the help of physics, mathematics, chemistry. They ignore consciousness as an entity and its ability to influence matter. According to 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 of what is primary - matter or consciousness, the philosophy of materialism, relying on the exact and natural sciences, logically proves its 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's 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;
• each single thing is the embodiment of an eidos;
• the most important role for the transformation of an idea into a concrete thing is assigned to God the Creator;
• individual eidos exist objectively, independently of our consciousness.

Feelings and reason

Subjective idealism, saying that consciousness is primary, matter is secondary, asserts:

• 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 separately 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 common in the USA, Germany and some other countries of Western Europe.

Monism and dualism

Materialism, idealism - are attributed to monism, that is, 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;
• the physical has properties of extension;
• the spiritual possesses thinking;
• in the world everything is derived either from one or from the second substance;
• physical things come from matter, and ideas 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?" - can be briefly formulated: matter and consciousness always exist and complement each other.

Other directions in philosophy

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

Deism recognizes the presence 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 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 previously obtained by experience.

The denial 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 capabilities of the human mind cannot be known, since consciousness has only the ability to display things in sensory sensations, but it cannot recognize the inner essence.

Today, supporters of the idea "Matter is primary - consciousness is derived from matter" can be found very rarely. The world has become religiously oriented, despite a 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 in 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 - this 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.