Functions of cognitive philosophy. Functions of philosophy (2)

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→Basic functions of philosophy

Philosophy, as a special type of spiritual activity, has a direct impact on various spheres of human activity. Below we will briefly look basic philosophical functions.

Worldview function of philosophy

One of the main and most significant functions of philosophy is ideological. Philosophy shapes people’s ideas about the world and its structure, about man and society, about the principles of relationships with the outside world and man’s place in it, thereby shaping it. Philosophy clarifies a person’s views, his goals, interests and needs and their connection with the surrounding reality, develops a universal philosophical picture of the world and reveals human nature as a result of comprehension and systematization of scientific knowledge, as well as the content of other forms of social knowledge.

In the categories of philosophy, reflection on worldview problems occurs, and conceptual tools are developed for analyzing and comparing different types of worldviews. Thus, this function contributes to the construction of a unified and generalized system of human knowledge and the development of ideological ideals.

Fundamental function of philosophy

The essence fundamental function of philosophy is to reveal the formation of general concepts, laws and principles of reality, used both in science and in practical activities of people. Philosophy studies not objects, not empirical reality, but how this reality “lives” in the public consciousness; it studies the meanings of reality for society and individuals.

Philosophy seeks in the world its ontological, methodological, moral, aesthetic foundations. The philosopher always builds a system of values of the world, and thereby shows the original foundations human activity. Philosophy, unlike any other science, begins with man.

Methodological function of philosophy characterized by the formation of general principles and norms cognitive activity, and also promotes growth scientific knowledge and creating the preconditions for scientific discoveries.

The method and methodology of cognition is the “Ariadne’s thread” that helps the researcher successfully get out of the labyrinth of problems of cognition - and there are always plenty of them. However, the methodological function is not limited to the methodology of cognition: it refers to the strategic level of the methodology of human activity as a whole. Philosophy compares and evaluates various means of this activity and indicates the most optimal of them. Philosophical methodology determines the direction scientific research, makes it possible to navigate the infinite variety of facts and processes occurring in the objective world.

Epistemological function of philosophy pushes a person’s thinking to understand the world around him and search for truth.

Thanks to the theory of philosophical knowledge, the patterns of natural and social phenomena are revealed, the forms of advancement of human thinking towards truth, the ways and means of achieving it are explored, and the results of other sciences are generalized. Mastering philosophical knowledge is important for the development of a person’s culture of thinking, for solving various theoretical and practical problems.

Logical function of philosophy

Logical function of philosophy manifests itself in the formation of a certain position of a person in interpersonal and socio-cultural relations, and also determines the culture of human thinking. It also lies in the development of the philosophical method itself, its normative principles, in the logical justification of certain conceptual and theoretical structures of scientific knowledge.

If general epistemology convinces of the possibility and necessity of adequate scientific knowledge of an object, then logic is called upon to ensure the achievement of this adequacy. It develops means of the most complete, accurate reflection of the developing, continuously changing essence of an object.

Educational function of philosophy aimed at the formation of moral, ethical and cultural values, desire to improve oneself, create and look for life priorities.

Knowledge of philosophy contributes to the formation in a person of important qualities of a cultural personality: orientation towards truth, truth, kindness. Philosophy is able to protect a person from the superficial and narrow framework of the everyday type of thinking; it dynamizes the theoretical and empirical concepts of special sciences in order to most adequately reflect the contradictory, changing essence of phenomena.

The formation of philosophical thinking is at the same time the formation of such valuable qualities of a cultural personality as self-criticism, criticism, and doubt. The development of doubt, however, is not the development of skepticism (and in this sense, skepticism). Doubt is one of the active means of scientific research. Philosophy provides a solid general methodological and epistemological basis for the consistent self-development of doubt into scientific confidence, for harmonious combination him with faith in overcoming mistakes, misconceptions, in obtaining more complete, deep, objective truths.

Philosophy gives people mutual language, develops in them uniform, generally valid ideas about the main values of life. It is one of the important factors helping to eliminate the “communication barriers” generated by the narrowness of specialization.

Axiological function of philosophy is a reflection of the phenomena of the surrounding reality from the point of view of various values that determine people’s choices, their actions, ideals, and norms of behavior.

Philosophy cannot rid society of the negative phenomena generated by the socio-economic system. But it can protect the value system from the penetration of the false and critical untested, vicious and politically adventurous, primitive and radicalist.

The undoubted merit of modern philosophical thought is the promotion of new values by its representatives. These include general humanistic, environmental and quality of life values. The value of quality of life is opposed to the standard of living, mass production and consumption. For a person, his health and happiness, the standard of living is not as important as its quality. It is determined not so much by her comfort as by kind and humane relations in society, social equality and closeness to nature. Being in harmony with oneself, with others and nature - for many people becomes a priority guideline and motive for behavior.

Integrative function of philosophy

The essence integrative function of philosophy consists of bringing together the practical, cognitive and value-based life experiences of people. Philosophy tries to generalize, evaluate and comprehend both the intellectual, spiritual and practical achievements of all mankind, as well as the negative historical experience.

The knowledge provided by individual disciplines is so diverse that they need to be combined into a single, holistic scientific picture of the world. But the development of the theoretical foundations of scientific knowledge is not reduced to a mechanical combination of data from various disciplines. The synthesis of scientific discoveries itself is possible only on a higher theoretical foundation than the discoveries themselves. If philosophy is not the basis of individual sciences, but is entirely based on these disciplines, then with this approach philosophy turns into a side application to natural science, into some kind of optional add-on for science. This approach is refuted by science itself. The greatest scientists of different eras, working in the field of fundamental research from Lomonosov to Einstein, persistently and fruitfully worked on methodological and ideological problems, without having in the existing philosophy an appropriate justification for their natural science research. Thus, philosophy forms the methodological basis for every scientific discipline that has reached the heights of self-awareness. And the science that has not risen to self-awareness and does not have a methodological basis is undeveloped.

The critical function of philosophy

Philosophy fulfills and critical function, seeking to destroy old ideals and views, to form a new worldview, which is accompanied by doubts and criticism of accepted dogmas and stereotypes.

The philosopher is constantly faced with the discrepancy between social reality and ideals. Reflections on social reality, its comparison with social ideal lead to criticism of this reality. Criticism expresses the subject's dissatisfaction with the object and the desire to change it. Philosophy is critical in its essence. The basis and essence of the critical work of a philosopher is the detection and disclosure of contradictions, inconsistencies between the accepted system of concepts and values and the content that is introduced into them by a new stage in the development of world history.

As a special type of spiritual activity and a system of knowledge is connected with the socio-historical practice of people, being focused on solving certain social problems, it strives to give a holistic idea of the world, of material and ideal processes, of their interaction, of knowledge and transformation of reality in the course of practical activity .

Fulfillment of its purpose by philosophy presupposes its implementation of a number of interrelated functions through which its purpose is realized.

The most significant of them are:

ideological
epistemological
methodological
information and communication
value-oriented
critical
integrating
ideological
educational
prognostic
design

Worldview function

The worldview function of philosophy is considered one of the most important. It reveals the ability of philosophy to act as the basis of a worldview, which is an integral, stable system of views about the world and the laws of its existence, about the phenomena and processes of nature and society that are important for maintaining the life of society and man. The worldview of an individual appears in the form of a set of feelings, knowledge and beliefs. Special role a person is influenced by ideas about the principles that determine his relationship to the world, society and himself.

its form can be:

mythological
philosophical.

Often in modern conditions in the worldview of individual people, mythological, religious and scientific ideas are simultaneously combined. These ideas give worldviews specific people specifics.

Worldview, worldview and worldview

In worldviews that differ in form and nature, the intellectual and emotional-psychological experience of people is combined in a special way and is reflected in them differently attitude, worldview and worldview of people.

Attitude constitutes the emotional and psychological side of the worldview. It expresses the sensations, perceptions, and experiences of people.

IN worldview based on visual representations, the world appears in its reality, the images of which are mediated by a combination of emotional, psychological and cognitive experience of people.

Worldview develops on the basis of attitude and worldview. As science develops, the nature of the worldview is increasingly influenced by the knowledge it acquires. The importance of worldview lies in the fact that it is the basis for the formation of a person’s needs and interests, his ideas about norms and values, and therefore his motives for activity. The development and improvement of worldview, worldview and understanding of the world leads to an increase in the quality of the content of the worldview and an increase in the power of its influence on living life.

As a system of views, people's worldview is formed on the basis of a wide variety of knowledge, but its final form is given by philosophy, which, as noted earlier, generalizes the attitudes contained in it and develops the utmost general principles both knowledge, understanding, and transformation of the world. The foundation of a worldview is information about normative formations that mediate its orientation and give it effectiveness. Philosophy is a means of forming and justifying the content of the most general, fundamental and therefore essential normative formations of the worldview that mediate the entire life support system of people. In this sense, it is justified to consider it as the basis of the worldview that a person uses in his interactions with the world and to endow it with ideological function.

Epistemological function

Associated with the named function epistemological or theoretical-cognitive. The essence of this function lies in the ability of philosophy to carry out theoretical research cognitive activity of a person in order to identify mechanisms, techniques and methods of cognition. In other words, the theory of knowledge, by developing the principles and norms of knowledge, provides a person with the means by which people have the opportunity to comprehend the world, that is, to obtain true knowledge about it and thereby have a correct worldview that meets the requirements of modern times, on the basis of which effective practice.

Methodological function

Philosophy, being a means of developing principles human relationship to the world and the keeper of knowledge about these principles, able act as a methodology, that is, as a doctrine of methods of cognition and transformation of reality. This means that philosophy has methodological function. The term “methodology” is used in scientific literature in two senses: firstly, the word “methodology” denotes the doctrine of norms and rules of human activity; secondly, methodology is understood as a set of certain norms that mediate cognitive and practical actions with the aim of optimizing them. It can be argued that methodology as a set of principles and norms of activity acts as a manifestation of a worldview in action. The fulfillment of a methodological function by philosophy depends on the quality of the general principles of cognitive and practical activity of people developed within its framework, as well as on the depth of assimilation of knowledge of these principles by the people applying them.

Information and communication function

The nature of the assimilation of philosophical knowledge depends on the ability of philosophy as a system of knowledge to be transmitted from one person to another and to inform the latter about its content. This reveals the information and communication function of philosophy.

Value-orienting function

Philosophy as a body of knowledge about the most general principles of man’s relationship to the world is at the same time a system of criteria for evaluation activities, in the role of which these principles act. Evaluative activity, possible on the basis of people's awareness of the criteria proposed by philosophy for the optimality and usefulness of a particular set of phenomena and actions, acts as a means of orienting these people in the world. Philosophy as a means of developing knowledge about values and a carrier of this knowledge, from the point of view of axiology, or the theory of values, is capable of performing a value-orienting function.

Critical function

This direction of realizing one of the purposes of philosophy is associated with the manifestation of its other purpose, expressed in the fulfillment of a critical function. Within the framework of philosophy, an assessment of what is happening in the world is carried out on the basis of those contained in philosophy general ideas about the norm and pathology of the phenomena and processes of reality surrounding a person. Philosophy's critical attitude to what is negatively assessed in spiritual and material life contributes to the development of measures aimed at overcoming what does not suit a person, seems pathological to him and therefore worthy of transformation. The critical function of philosophy can manifest itself not only in people’s relationships to the world, but also be realized in the course of self-assessment by specialists of its own content. Thus, the critical function of philosophy can be realized both in terms of stimulating the development of knowledge about the world and updating the world as a whole, and in terms of improving the content of philosophy itself.

Integrating function

As is known, philosophy generalizes the knowledge accumulated by humanity, systematizes and integrates it into a single system, develops criteria for its subordination. This allows us to talk about the integrative function of philosophy in relation to knowledge.

In addition, philosophy formulates extremely general principles of the world order, as well as requirements for a person’s relationship to the world, society and himself. Having been learned during education and becoming the property of different people, such principles ensure that they form positions that are similar in content, which contributes to the integration of the social community into a single whole. This reveals another plan for the implementation of the integrating function of philosophy.

Ideological function

In close connection with these functions, philosophy capable of recording and promoting the interests of social strata and groups of society, i.e. act as an ideology, fulfill ideological function. This function may have specificity depending on the interests of which social groups this philosophy expresses. As we know, group interests can be progressive or reactionary. Depending on this is the direction of the implementation of the ideological function, which can have a great influence on the manifestation of other functions of philosophy. Reactionary ideologies are able to slow down the development of philosophy, deform and distort its content, and reduce it social value, reduce the scope of application in practice.

Educational function

An important role is played by the educational function of philosophy, which stems from the ability of this discipline to have, as knowledge about it is acquired, a formative effect on a person’s intellect. A person’s mastery of knowledge of philosophy, the formation of beliefs and activity skills that correspond to it are able to encourage a person to be active, creative and effective for people. If a person masters a reactionary philosophy, this can give rise to a passive attitude towards affairs, alienation from people, from the achievements of culture, or turn into activity directed against society or part of it.

Prognostic function

Along with the above functions philosophy deals with forecasting, performs a prognostic function. Many philosophers of the past acted as prophets, predicting the future. Some of the forecasts were utopian, far from reality, but sometimes the prophecies of individual outstanding thinkers achieved great adequacy. Of course, it is difficult to foresee the future, but the value of philosophers’ warnings about impending dangers, for example, those generated by thoughtless and predatory consumption natural resources, within the framework of the rules that the world economy uses today, is extremely high. For this poses the task of improving the norms regulating the connections between society and nature in order to ensure the survival of people.

Design function

Another function of philosophy is connected with the considered functions of philosophy—design. Due to the fact that philosophy reveals the mechanisms and most general trends in the development of nature, society and thinking, reveals the requirements, the observance of which ensures the operation of these mechanisms and trends, it is able become the basis for influencing natural and social processes . Such influence must be organized to ensure its clear focus and obtain certain results. Preliminary design of the social environment, for example, in the conditions of territory development, urban planning, construction of plants and factories, requires the participation of philosophy, which, together with other sciences, is designed to develop the most general principles and norms that make up the normative framework for the creation and functioning of objects used to organize the life of people in an urbanized environment. and other environment. Philosophy is called upon to play the same role in the organization of economic space. In a narrower sense, the design function of philosophy is realized in the formation of patterns of cognitive and practical activity. Consideration of the functions of philosophy is an illustration of its large-scale role in public life, in organizing people’s activities aimed at understanding and transforming the world.

In the activities of an economist, the functions of the acquired philosophy are realized not only in the content of his professional practical and theoretical activities. The embodiment of ideological, epistemological, methodological and other functions of philosophy is carried out both in terms of awareness of macroeconomic problems and in their implementation at the level of microeconomic relations. At the same time, it becomes possible to generate innovative ideas, make informed decisions on their implementation, successfully implement them in economic activity, and flawlessly follow the requirements of economic relations accepted for execution and existing in society. In other words, philosophy, having become the property of an economist as a component of his professional training, can act as the foundation of his practical activity. The success of this activity will depend, among other things, on what philosophy the economist has mastered and how skillfully he can apply it in practice.

Philosophy as a special type of spiritual activity and a system of knowledge is connected with the socio-historical practice of people, being focused on solving certain social problems, it strives to give a holistic idea of the world, of material and ideal processes, of their interaction, of knowledge and transformation of reality in the course of practical activity The fulfillment of its purpose by a philosophy presupposes its implementation of a number of interrelated functions through which its purpose is realized. The most significant of them are:

ideological

epistemological

methodological

information and communication

value-oriented

critical

integrating

ideological

educational

prognostic

design

Worldview function

The worldview function of philosophy is considered one of the most important. It reveals the ability of philosophy to act as the basis of a worldview, which is an integral, stable system of views about the world and the laws of its existence, about the phenomena and processes of nature and society that are important for maintaining the life of society and man. The worldview of an individual appears in the form of a set of feelings, knowledge and beliefs. A special role in a person’s worldview is played by ideas about the principles that determine his relationship to the world, society and himself.

A worldview in its form can be:

mythological

religious

philosophical.

It depends on what basis it is based on - mythological, religious or philosophical ideas. The basis mythological worldview constitute myths, that is, fantastic stories about the world order and the place of man in the system of the universe. This worldview comes from an artistic and emotional experience of the world or from social illusions. Religious worldview is the next stage in the development of people’s views on the world; unlike myth, religion does not mix the earthly and the sacred. Holders of such a worldview believe that the creative omnipotent force - God - is above nature and outside of nature. At the center of any religious worldview are ideas about higher values and ways to achieve them. It is based on faith that cannot tolerate doubt and makes a person’s views dependent on religious dogmas. Unlike him, philosophical worldview able to be based on the results of people’s cognitive and practical activities. An important role in the system of modern philosophical worldview is played by the data of science, synthesized in ideas about the scientific picture of the world. Often in modern conditions, mythological, religious and scientific ideas are simultaneously combined in the worldview of individuals. These ideas give specificity to the worldviews of specific people. Worldview and worldview In worldviews that differ in form and nature, the intellectual and emotional-psychological experience of people is combined in a special way and is reflected in them differently attitude, worldview and worldview of people. Attitude constitutes the emotional and psychological side of the worldview. It expresses the sensations, perceptions, and experiences of people. worldview Based on visual representations, the world appears in its reality, the images of which are mediated by a combination of emotional, psychological and cognitive experience of people. Worldview develops on the basis of attitude and worldview. As science develops, the nature of the worldview is increasingly influenced by the knowledge it acquires. The importance of worldview lies in the fact that it is the basis for the formation of a person’s needs and interests, his ideas about norms and values, and therefore his motives for activity. The development and improvement of worldview, worldview and understanding of the world leads to an increase in the quality of the content of the worldview and an increase in the power of its influence on living life. As a system of views, people’s worldview is formed on the basis of a wide variety of knowledge, but it is given its final form by philosophy, which, as noted earlier, generalizes the contained it contains attitudes and develops extremely general principles of both cognition, understanding, and transformation of the world. The foundation of a worldview is information about normative formations that mediate its orientation and give it effectiveness. Philosophy is a means of forming and justifying the content of the most general, fundamental and therefore essential normative formations of the worldview that mediate the entire life support system of people. In this sense, it is justified to consider it as the basis of the worldview that a person uses in his interactions with the world and to endow it with ideological function.Epistemological function Associated with the named function epistemological or theoretical-cognitive. The essence of this function lies in the ability of philosophy to carry out a theoretical study of human cognitive activity in order to identify mechanisms, techniques and methods of cognition. In other words, the theory of knowledge, by developing the principles and norms of knowledge, provides a person with the means by which people have the opportunity to comprehend the world, that is, to obtain true knowledge about it and thereby have a correct worldview that meets the requirements of modern times, on the basis of which effective practice. Methodological function Philosophy, being a means of developing the principles of human relations to the world and the custodian of knowledge about these principles, is able to act as a methodology, that is, as a doctrine of methods of cognition and transformation of reality. This means that philosophy has methodological function. The term “methodology” is used in scientific literature in two senses: firstly, the word “methodology” denotes the doctrine of norms and rules of human activity; secondly, methodology is understood as a set of certain norms that mediate cognitive and practical actions with the aim of optimizing them. It can be argued that methodology as a set of principles and norms of activity acts as a manifestation of a worldview in action. The fulfillment of a methodological function by philosophy depends on the quality of the general principles of cognitive and practical activity of people developed within its framework, as well as on the depth of assimilation of knowledge of these principles by the people applying them. Information and communication function The nature of the assimilation of philosophical knowledge depends on the ability of philosophy as a system of knowledge to be transmitted from one person to another others and inform them about its contents. This reveals the information and communication function of philosophy. Value-orienting function Philosophy as a body of knowledge about the most general principles of man’s relationship to the world is at the same time a system of criteria for evaluation activities, in the role of which these principles act. Evaluative activity, possible on the basis of people's awareness of the criteria proposed by philosophy for the optimality and usefulness of a particular set of phenomena and actions, acts as a means of orienting these people in the world. Philosophy as a means of developing knowledge about values and a carrier of this knowledge, from the point of view of axiology, or the theory of values, is capable of performing a value-orienting function. Critical function This direction of realizing one of the purposes of philosophy is associated with the manifestation of its other purpose, expressed in the performance of a critical function. Within the framework of philosophy, an assessment of what is happening in the world is carried out on the basis of the general ideas contained in philosophy about the norm and pathology of the phenomena and processes of reality surrounding a person. Philosophy's critical attitude to what is negatively assessed in spiritual and material life contributes to the development of measures aimed at overcoming what does not suit a person, seems pathological to him and therefore worthy of transformation. The critical function of philosophy can manifest itself not only in people’s relationships to the world, but also be realized in the course of self-assessment by specialists of its own content. Thus, the critical function of philosophy can be realized both in terms of stimulating the development of knowledge about the world and updating the world as a whole, and in terms of improving the content of philosophy itself. Integrating function As is known, philosophy generalizes the knowledge accumulated by humanity, systematizes and integrates it into a single system. develops criteria for its subordination. This allows us to talk about the integrative function of philosophy in relation to knowledge. In addition, philosophy formulates extremely general principles of the world order, as well as requirements for a person’s relationship to the world, society and himself. Having been learned during education and becoming the property of different people, such principles ensure that they form positions that are similar in content, which contributes to the integration of the social community into a single whole. This reveals another plan for the implementation of the integrating function of philosophy. Ideological function In close connection with the indicated functions, philosophy capable of recording and promoting the interests of social strata and groups of society, i.e. act as an ideology, fulfill ideological function. This function may have specificity depending on the interests of which social groups this philosophy expresses. As we know, group interests can be progressive or reactionary. Depending on this, the direction of the implementation of the ideological function is determined, which can have a great influence on the manifestation of other functions of philosophy. Reactionary ideologies are able to slow down the development of philosophy, deform and distort its content, reduce its social value, and reduce the scope of its application in practice. Educational function An important role is played by the educational function of philosophy, which stems from the ability of this discipline to provide, as knowledge about it is acquired, a formative influence on human intelligence. A person’s mastery of knowledge of philosophy, the formation of beliefs and activity skills that correspond to it are able to encourage a person to be active, creative and effective for people. If a person masters a reactionary philosophy, this can give rise to a passive attitude towards affairs, alienation from people, from the achievements of culture, or turn into activity directed against society or part of it. Predictive function Along with the above functions philosophy deals with forecasting, performs a prognostic function. Many philosophers of the past acted as prophets, predicting the future. Some of the forecasts were utopian, far from reality, but sometimes the prophecies of individual outstanding thinkers achieved great adequacy. Of course, it is difficult to foresee the future, but the value of philosophers’ warnings about looming dangers, for example, those generated by thoughtless and predatory consumption of natural resources, within the framework of the rules that the world economy uses today, is extremely high. For this poses the task of improving the norms regulating the connections between society and nature in order to ensure the survival of people. Design function Another one is connected with the considered functions of philosophy - design. Due to the fact that philosophy reveals the mechanisms and most general trends in the development of nature, society and thinking, reveals the requirements, the observance of which ensures the operation of these mechanisms and trends, it is able become the basis for influencing natural and social processes. Such influence must be organized to ensure its clear focus and obtain certain results. Preliminary design of the social environment, for example, in the conditions of territory development, urban planning, construction of plants and factories, requires the participation of philosophy, which, together with other sciences, is designed to develop the most general principles and norms that make up the normative framework for the creation and functioning of objects used to organize the life of people in an urbanized environment. and other environment. Philosophy is called upon to play the same role in the organization of economic space. In a narrower sense, the design function of philosophy is realized in the formation of patterns of cognitive and practical activity. Consideration of the functions of philosophy is an illustration of its large-scale role in social life, in organizing people’s activities aimed at understanding and transforming the world.

Ticket No. 9.1. Idealism is a direction of philosophy opposite to materialism, the initial principle of which is the assertion that the basis of things and phenomena of objective reality is not the material, but the ideal, spirituality: world mind, idea, feelings, etc. When solving the main question of philosophy - the relationship of thinking to being - idealism proceeds from the recognition of the primacy of consciousness, spirit and the secondary nature of nature and matter. There are two forms of idealism: objective and subjective. Objective idealism places consciousness as the basis of everything that exists, the world spirit, the absolute idea. The most complete system of objective idealism in ancient times was given by Plato. Of your highest development objective idealism reached in philosophy Hegel, who developed a system of idealistic dialectics. In Ukraine, the philosophical principles of objective idealism were defended by S. Gotsky, A. Novitsky, G. Chelpanov. Modern schools of objective idealism, neo-Thomism and personalism, are widespread. Subjective idealism comes from the recognition that only our sensations, our “I”, are primary and really existing, and everything that surrounds us is only a product, a complex of our sensations. Subjective idealistic views can lead to solipsism, i.e. recognition of the existence of only one’s “I”. The system of subjective idealism was most fully expounded in the 18th century. in the philosophy of the English bishop J. Berkeley. In the form of skepticism and agnocystism, subjective idealism was developed by the English philosopher D. Hume and the German philosopher I. Kant. A famous representative of subjective idealism was J. Fichte. In Ukraine, subjective idealism was promoted by P. Yurkevich and others. Modern subjective idealism falls into numerous schools: empirio-criticism, pragmatism, semantic idealism, logical positivism, empirical realism, existentialism and others. Most currents of modern idealism are characterized by irrationalism - the denial of the objective content of logical thinking and its replacement with intuition. Subjective idealism of J. Fichte and objective idealism of F. Schelling

I. Fichte (1762-1814) was the first to try to solve the problems posed by Kant in German classical philosophy. His philosophical system is based on the recognition of the active, practically active essence of man. The initial concept of Fichte's system is the “I,” which asserts itself as such in the act of self-consciousness. “I” is a volitional, active being. From the “pure Self” not only the form of knowledge must be derived, but also its entire content, i.e. natural world. In addition to the individual “I,” there is the “absolute I,” the absolute beginning of everything that exists, from whose activity the entire completeness of reality, the entire world surrounding a person, must be explained, i.e. "not me". According to Fichte, the active subject “I,” overcoming the resistance of nature, unfolds all its determinations, i.e. endows nature with its own characteristics. Thus, the subject sphere of a person turns out to be a product of his activity. Ultimately, the “I” masters the “not-I” and achieves identity with itself. However, such an identity cannot be achieved in a finite time. It is the ideal to which humanity has strived throughout its historical development. The relationships of the individual “I”, i.e. a specific individual with his inherent will and thinking and the absolute “I”, i.e. of humanity as a whole characterizes the process of human development of the environment. The individual and absolute “I” sometimes coincide and are identified, sometimes they fall apart and differ. This pulsation of coincidences and divergences constitutes the core of Fichte's dialectic, the driving principle of his system. The ideal of all movement and development is to achieve the coincidence of the individual and the absolute Self. However, achieving this ideal would lead to the cessation of activity, which according to Fichte is absolute. Therefore, all human history is only an approximation to the ideal. Fichte's ideas were further developed by his younger contemporary F. Schelling (1775-1854). In Schelling's teaching, the opposition between the world of nature as the world of phenomena and the world of freedom as the subjective active “I” is overcome on the basis of the doctrine of their identity, i.e. identity of subject and object. The absolute subject in Schelling's system turns into the divine principle of the world, the absolute identity of subject and object, the point of “indifference” of both of them. The emergence from this initial identity of the entire diversity of definitions of this world is a “creative act”, which, being unknowable to the mind, is the subject of a special kind of irrational knowledge - intellectual intuition. Such intuition is not available to all mortals; it is given only to especially gifted people, geniuses. According to Schelling, intellectual intuition is the highest form philosophical creativity and serves as the instrument with which the self-development of identity is possible.

A world in constant motion and development is matched by equally dynamic thinking about it. “If everything develops... then does this belong to the most general concepts And categories thinking? If not, then thinking is not connected with being. If yes, then there is a dialectic of concepts and cognition that has an objective meaning.” The concepts of categories and laws in their correlation contain such a “dialectic of cognition.” Even the simplest thought: “A black car drove up to the entrance” contains such concepts as “object” (car, entrance), “quality” (black), “movement” (drive up). If we, when perceiving objects, do not subsume them under any concepts or categories, then we are generally doomed to look at things meaninglessly. The categorical structure of thinking acts as a necessary prerequisite and condition for any cognitive act.

Categories of dialectics are formed at certain stages historical development society. Gradually, humanity’s knowledge of the universal connections of existence deepens, enriches, and is brought into the system. This was the case, for example, with the knowledge of the connections between the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of objects. Starting from naive conjectures, it eventually reached mature expression. Special philosophical concepts were developed (quality, quantity, measure, leap) and with their help the corresponding law was formulated. With the development of material and spiritual culture, human thinking is enriched with new categories. Knowledge about categorical relations, the results of understanding the universal connections operating in the world mature, crystallize, polish, and are stored in language. Thus, from a spontaneously working categorical apparatus, it turns into a thoughtful, conscious one. This gives dialectical thinking as a cultural phenomenon enormous power, makes it possible to learn, master, and consciously apply dialectics in solving various theoretical and practical problems.

Speaking about the categories of dialectics, one cannot help but say that they have characteristic features namely, firstly, they are connected in such a way that each of them can be understood only as an element of a system of categories. It is impossible, for example, to understand material and spiritual reality through one category of “matter”, without resorting to the categories of “movement”, “development”, “space”, “time” and many others. Otherwise, we will not go beyond a simple statement of reality. To comprehend reality, we are forced to involve the entire system of philosophical categories and concepts, where one is characterized through the other, in unity with the other, sometimes merging into a whole, sometimes diverging. Secondly, in the categories of dialectics, objective knowledge about the corresponding form of connection of phenomena (causality, law, etc.) and the form of thought - a cognitive technique through which such a connection is comprehended and comprehended - are closely connected. And the more perfect the conceptual means, the ways of understanding certain connections, the more successfully their real discovery and interpretation can, in principle, be carried out. One presupposes the other. In this regard, philosophers talk about the unity of the ontological (objective knowledge of being) and epistemological (cognitive techniques) meaning of categories.

Among the endless variety of connections in the real world Philosophical knowledge has historically identified various types of universal connections.“Single - general”, “many - single”, “similarity - difference”, “quality - quantity”, “simple - complex”, “part - whole”, “finite - infinite”, “form - content” and other concepts about this kind of connections can be combined into a group of categories expressing “device”, “organization” being. In the history of knowledge, another categorical series can also be traced, expressing the universal connections of determination: “phenomenon - essence”, “cause - effect”, “accident - necessity”, “possibility - reality” and others. The first approach to the analysis of universal connections can be conditionally called “horizontal”, the second - “vertical”. In this work, we would like to provide a semantic explanation of universal connections using the example of such categorical pairs as “individual - general”, “phenomenon - essence”, “necessity - accident”, “possibility - reality”, “part - whole”, “content - form”, “quality - quantity and measure”.

So, let's start with “the individual and the general.”

Individual and general.

There is an endless variety of things in the world. All things and events are different from each other, individual in their existence. Although people have the expression “like two peas in a pod”, which is usually applicable to people, science knows such a phenomenon as genes, which contain unique, always individual information, indicating that it is impossible in the whole world to find two people who are completely identical in everything, identical to each other. A myriad of unique conditions and a mass of accidents are involved in the “sculpting” of an individual. Thus, the dissimilarity of any pair of maple leaves is determined by differences in lighting, nutrition, temperature, energy microclimate, which, in turn, determines differences in their sizes, shades of color, shape, etc. Single , Thus, there is an object taken in its difference from other objects in their unique specificity. The singular characterizes an object, phenomenon, process that differs in its spatial, temporal and other properties from other objects, phenomena, processes, including similar ones. Not only a separate object, but also a whole class of them can be considered as a single object, if it is taken as one thing, as well as a separate property or sign of an object, if it is taken in its individual uniqueness.

However, infinite diversity is only one side of existence. Its other side lies in the commonality of things, their structures, properties and relationships. With the same certainty with which we asserted that there are no two absolutely identical things, we can say that there are no two absolutely different things. One cannot but agree that, although all people are individual, we nevertheless easily capture the generic essence inherent in all of them, thereby highlighting behind their uniqueness, uniqueness, something common to all of them, expressed in general concept"Human". General is one thing in many ways. Or, in other words, the general - the objectively existing similarity of the characteristics of individual objects, their similarity in some respects, belonging to the same group of phenomena or a single system of connections.

The dialectic of the individual and the general is manifested in their inextricable connection. The general “rules” over the individual, which mercilessly “forces” the individual to consistently perish as something transitory in the name of preserving the general as something stable: the individual dies, but the race lives.

Why is the general internally “tied” to the individual? Yes, because due to the discreteness of the world, the general does not exist and is not given to us except through the individual. They are not side by side things, and dialectics does not lie in the fact that one exists and the other exists and somehow they interact with each other, but in the fact that something exists and manifests itself as existing (in one way or another) due to the material unity of the world . Therefore, the general does not exist separately, but as the law of the birth and life of the individual. It contains the pattern of processes in any single phenomenon of a given class. The action of law, the anonymous power of the general, is expressed only in the individual and through the individual. In this way, how the individual is impossible without the general, and the general is impossible without the individual, which serves as a prerequisite and substrate for the general.

Essence and phenomenon.

The development of knowledge is a constant movement of thought from the superficial, visible, from what appears to us, to the ever deeper, hidden - to the essence. The essence has true reality only due to certain forms of its self-detection. Just as leaves, flowers, branches and fruits express the essence of a plant in appearance, so, for example, do ethical, political, philosophical, scientific, aesthetic ideas express the essence of a certain social system. What is the social system in its essence, such are the forms of its manifestation in domestic and foreign policy, in the nature of the expression of the people's will, in the forms of justice, in labor productivity, etc. A phenomenon, as a rule, expresses only a certain facet of the essence, one of its aspects . For example, many manifestations of a malignant tumor (cancer) have been studied in sufficient detail, but its very essence still remains largely an ominous secret. . The essence is hidden from human sight, but the phenomenon lies on the surface.(It was not for nothing that the wise Prutkov called: “Look at the root!”) Essence, therefore, is something hidden, deep, residing in things, their internal connections and governing them, the basis of all forms of their external manifestation.

A phenomenon is the external, observable, usually more mobile, changeable characteristics of a particular object, relative to an independent area of objective reality. Appearance and essence are dialectically related opposites. They don't match each other. Sometimes their discrepancy is pronounced: the external, superficial features of an object mask and distort its essence. In such cases they talk about appearance, appearance. An example of visibility is a mirage - a visual vision that occurs due to the bending of light rays by the atmosphere. Pricing can significantly distort the value relationship, the manifestation of which it, in principle, serves.

The categories of phenomenon and essence are inextricably linked. One of them presupposes the other. The dialectical nature of these concepts is reflected in their flexibility, relativity. The concept of essence does not imply some rigidly fixed level of reality or some limit of knowledge. Human knowledge moves from phenomena to essence, deepening further from the essence of the first order to the essence of the second order, etc., revealing more and more thoroughly causal connections, patterns, trends of change, development of certain areas of reality. Thus, Darwin's theory was an important step in understanding the laws of biological evolution, but their study did not stop there. And today science, taking into account evolutionary genetics and other research, has more deep knowledge wildlife. There are many such examples. The relative nature of the concepts “essence and phenomenon” thus means that this or that process acts as a phenomenon in relation to deeper processes, but as an essence (of a “lower” order) - in relation to its own manifestations.

This, to a certain extent, makes it possible to understand that we are not talking about some rigid concepts that can be assigned to constant levels of reality. Phenomenon and essence are concepts that indicate the direction, the path of the eternal, endless deepening of human knowledge.

Necessity and chance.

Very often people ask the question: how does this or that event happen - by chance or by necessity? Some argue that only chance reigns in the world and there is no place for necessity, while others claim that no chance exists and everything happens out of necessity. However, in our opinion, it is impossible to answer this question unambiguously, because both chance and necessity have their share of the “right” to being. What is meant by both concepts?

Let's start with the concept of “randomness”. Randomness is a type of connection that is caused by unimportant, external, factors incidental to a given phenomenon. As a rule, such a connection is unstable. In other words, chance is a subjectively unexpected, objectively incidental phenomenon; it is something that, under given conditions, may or may not happen, may happen one way or another.

There are several types of randomness:

External. It is beyond the power of this necessity. It is determined by the circumstances. A man stepped on a watermelon rind and fell. The reason for the fall is obvious. But it does not at all follow from the logic of the victim’s actions. Here there is a sudden invasion of life by blind chance.

Internal. This randomness follows from the very nature of the object; it is, as it were, “swirls” of necessity. Randomness is considered internal if the situation of the birth of a random phenomenon is described from within any one causal series, and the cumulative effect of other causal sequences is described through the concept of “objective conditions” for the implementation of the main causal series.

Subjective, that is, one that arises as a result of a person having free will when he commits an act contrary to objective necessity.

Objective. The denial of objective randomness is false and harmful from both a scientific and practical point of view. Recognizing everything as equally necessary, a person turns out to be unable to separate the essential from the inessential, the necessary from the accidental. With this view, necessity itself is reduced to the level of chance.

So, to put it briefly , random is possible under appropriate conditions. It opposes the natural as necessary under appropriate conditions. Necessity is a natural type of connection between phenomena, determined by their stable internal basis and the set of essential conditions for their occurrence, existence and development. Necessity, therefore, is a manifestation, a moment of lawfulness, and in this sense it is a synonym for it. Since a pattern expresses the general, essential in a phenomenon, necessity is inseparable from the essential. If the random has a cause in something else - in the intersection of various series of cause-and-effect relationships, then the necessary has a cause in itself.

Necessity, just like chance, maybe external and internal, that is, generated by the object’s own nature or by a combination of external circumstances. It can be characteristic of many objects or only of a single object. Necessity is an essential feature of the law. Like the law, she can be dynamic and statistical.

Necessity and chance act as correlative categories in which a philosophical understanding of the nature of the interdependence of phenomena, the degree of determinism of their occurrence and existence is expressed. The necessary makes its way through the accidental. Why? Because it is realized only through the individual. And in this sense, randomness is correlated with singularity. It is accidents that influence the course of the necessary process: they accelerate or slow it down. So, chance is in diverse connections with necessity, and the border between chance and necessity is never closed. However, the main direction of development is determined precisely by necessity.

Taking into account the dialectics of necessity and chance is an important condition for correct practical and theoretical activity. The main goal of cognition is to identify what is natural. In our ideas, the world is revealed as an endless variety of things and events, colors and sounds, other properties and relationships. But to understand it, it is necessary to identify a certain order. And for this we need to analyze those specific forms of chance in which the necessary is manifested.

Possibility and reality.

Chance and necessity are relative: what is necessary in some conditions may appear random in others and vice versa. To distinguish them reliably, the specific conditions must be carefully taken into account each time. In a concrete analysis of causal relationships, necessity and chance turn out to be closely connected with the relationship between the possible and the actual, with the transformation of possibility into reality.

Cause-and-effect relationships that implement the principle of causality arise when a phenomenon—the cause—gives rise to a random or necessary consequence. If the phenomenon has not yet become, but can become a cause, they say that it contains the possibility of becoming an actual cause. In other words, possibility is a prerequisite for the occurrence of a particular phenomenon, process, its potential existence. Thus, possibility and reality are two successive stages in the development of a phenomenon, its movement from cause to effect, two stages in the formation of causal relationships in nature, society and thinking. This understanding of the connection between the possible and the actual reflects the objective continuity of the development process of any phenomenon.

In each specific process of transforming a possibility into reality, as a rule, both necessary and random cause-and-effect relationships are realized. It follows from this that reality embodies heterogeneous possibilities and contains a multitude of not only necessary, but also accidentally formed properties.

Part and whole.

Many centuries ago, there was a belief that to understand a particular object means to know what it consists of. The philosophical concepts with the help of which, first of all, and for a long time, the “structure” of being was comprehended, were the concepts of “simple - complex”, “part - whole”. These pairs of categories are closely related to each other, because simple has long been thought of as elementary, not having parts, and complex - as composed of parts, decomposable into simple components.

Parts were understood as “objects” that in their totality form new, more complex objects. The whole was considered as the result of a combination of parts of an object. To put it more simply, the whole was considered to be the simple sum of its parts.

However, gradually in science and philosophy a conviction developed that the properties of the whole are irreducible to the set of properties of its parts, its components. But it remained unclear what the secret of integrity was. It is impossible to answer this question on the basis of metaphysical thinking. The key to the solution is provided by dialectics: the secret of integrity, its irreducibility to a simple sum of parts, lies in the connection that unites objects into complex complexes, in the mutual influence of the parts. Thus it was opened the principle of integrity is formulated, playing an important role in the development of knowledge and practice. Socrates also noticed that the face connects its parts into a single whole: lips, mouth, nose, eyes, ears, chin, cheeks. And no matter how different in appearance and function all parts of the face may be, and no matter how similar they may be, they themselves do not form a face. The face is something unified, a whole. It is inseparable and irreducible to those parts, of which it consists, without losing its qualitative certainty as a person. It unites the parts, embraces them all and forms a unique whole with new integrative properties.

The role of the principle of integrity in modern scientific and philosophical analysis, as well as in other forms of understanding reality, is exceptionally great. Orientation towards this principle makes it possible to overcome the limited methods of understanding that prevailed at previous stages of cognition: elementalism (dividing the complex into simple components), mechanism (understanding the whole as only a sum of parts), reductionism (reducing the complex, at a higher level of development, to the simple).

Within certain limits, the method of understanding complex objects in the concepts of “part - whole” and today, in general, has not lost its significance, but has received serious deepening, enrichment, and has taken an important place in modern systematic approach to a wide variety of objects.

The enrichment of the “part - whole” categories with the concept of connection opened the way to the gradual formation of new categories: element, structure, system. The concept of connection, first of all, gave impetus to the clarification and development of ideas about the ways of ordering various objects.

Content is the identity of all elements and moments of the whole with the whole itself; this is the composition of all elements of an object in their qualitative certainty, interaction, functioning, the unity of its properties, processes, connections, contradictions and development trends. Not everything that is “contained” in an object constitutes its content. For example, it would be meaningless to consider the atoms that make up the molecules that form cells to be the content of an organism. You will never know what a pigeon is if you carefully study every cell of its body under an electron microscope. TO constituent elements, forming the content, include parts of the whole, that is, such elements that are the limit of divisibility of an object within the framework of a given qualitative certainty. Therefore, the canvas cannot be included in the content of the painting, for example, although without it it is impossible to imagine the painting. The content of an organism is not just the totality of its organs, but something more - the entire real process of its life, occurring in a certain form. The content of society is the entire wealth of the material and spiritual life of the people acting in it, who make up this society, all the products and tools of their activities.

Having defined content as the identity of the components of the whole with the whole itself, let us move on to form. What is form?

When we perceive and think of an object, we isolate it from the surrounding background, thereby fixing its appearance, external form. When used in the sense of external appearance, the shape of an object is expressed in the category of boundary. The boundary indicating the difference between a given content in its entirety and everything else is the form - external shape of an object. The external form expresses the connection of a given object with others. In addition, the category of form is also used to mean the method of expression and the existence of content. Here we are dealing not with external, but with internal form. Inner form is associated with the qualitative certainty of the object, and qualitative certainty is understood in in this case not in the sense of one or another material substrate of the object (stone, metal, wood, etc.), but as its certain semantic design, indicating the way of activity with the object, determining the way of its perception and inclusion in the system of certain spiritual and practical activities.

Thus, form is the principle of order, the way of existence of one or another content.

The dialectic of form and content presupposes their relative independence with the leading role of content. The abstraction of form from content can never be absolute, because there are no “pure” forms that are indifferent to content. Each change in form is a reflection of transformations in content and internal connections of the subject. This process, unfolding in time, is carried out through a contradiction expressed in the lag of form from content, that is, the presence of such a state of the system when the new content does not have an adequate new form, but resides in the old one, oriented towards the content that has already become obsolete. The contradiction here is expressed in the multidirectionality of these moments of a single whole and is always resolved by the breakdown of the old form and the emergence of a new one. And it cannot be otherwise due to the irreversible nature of development.

Quality, quantity and measure.

Quality is such a certainty of an object (phenomenon, process) that characterizes it as a given object, possessing a set of inherent properties and belonging to the class of objects of the same type with it. With the loss of qualitative certainty, an object ceases to be itself and acquires new features that determine its belonging to another class of objects. For example, molten ore turns into slag and metal; a teenager, growing up, becomes a young man, a young man becomes a man, a man eventually becomes an old man; a village, growing, can become a city, etc.

Quantity is a characteristic of phenomena, objects, processes according to the degree of development or intensity of their inherent properties, expressed in quantities and numbers.

Assessing the quantitative characteristics of real “things” begins with identifying common properties in them that are inherent in both “things” that are homogeneous and qualitatively different in nature. Such properties by which dissimilar objects can be compared can be linear dimensions, movement speeds, mass, and temperature of bodies. For human organisms, we can talk about weight, height, lung capacity, etc.

Consideration various items from a quantitative point of view, on the basis of some common property, it seems to erase their qualitative differences. Thus, qualitatively different goods - bread, clothing, cars - are “equalized” during their loading, unloading, and transportation based on the fact that they all have weight and dimensions. “Equalizing” the qualitative differences of objects, bringing them to some unity makes it possible to measure, which involves establishing the appropriate unit of measurement (meter, kilogram). Quantitative characteristics of objects, phenomena, processes are widely used in social practice: in planning and financing production, construction, social development, when drawing up transport schedules, etc.

That is, qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis, study, and evaluation are widely used in various areas of science and practice. In addition, the concepts of “quality” and “quantity” are important for understanding the conditions for the transition of the economy from an extensive to an intensive path of development. In the first case, production output increases due to the introduction of new enterprises, an increase in acreage, production capacity, number of employees, etc. In the second case, an increase in production output is ensured by an increase in labor productivity with the same or even fewer number of workers and means of production by improving quality technological equipment, advanced training of workers, etc.

Today, specialists in various fields are faced with the task of mastering the most promising, qualitatively new forms of activity, finding ways to transfer the entire economy to a new qualitative state. This requires the most effective solutions to economic and management problems. From here it is clear how important it is to imagine what, in principle, ensures qualitative changes in system state, understand the dialectical relationship between quality and quantity.

Quality and quantity express opposite and at the same time inextricably linked characteristics of objects. This connection between them in philosophy is expressed by the concept of measure.

Measure is a dialectical unity of quality and quantity or such an interval of quantitative changes within which the qualitative certainty of an object is preserved. The measure acts as a “third member” that connects quality and quantity into a single whole. For example, labor productivity as a measure has two sides: the quality of labor and its productivity (the amount of product produced). But it is not enough to say that measure is the unity of quality and quantity, and also that it is the limit within which quality manifests itself in its definiteness. Measure is deeply connected with essence, with law, regularity. Let us pay attention to the fact that the meaning-forming root element of the word “regularity” is precisely measure. A measure is a zone within which a given quality is modified, varies due to changes in quantity and individual non-essential properties, while maintaining its essential characteristics.

So, we looked at some categorical pairs. And in conclusion, we can say that interdependence, the transitions of one phenomenon to another reflect the universal property of moving matter, act as a manifestation of the worldwide universal connection of objects, “everything in everything.”

Philosophy accomplishes a lot functions in human life. They need to be grouped and the most important ones highlighted. Based on the latter, it is possible to identify and reveal the specifics of all other functions derived from them.

The main functions of philosophy include worldview, cognitive (epistemological), methodological, practical-active (praxeological).

Worldview The function of philosophy is that, by equipping people with knowledge about the world and about man, about his place in the world, about the possibilities of his knowledge and transformation, it influences the formation of life institutions, on man’s awareness of the goals and meaning of life.

As a rule, when it comes to worldview, first it is characterized as a generalized system of ideas and views on the world, man, his place in the world, etc. This approach is important. But you can’t limit yourself to this. After all, the worldview in this case comes down to an objectified system of knowledge, divorced from the subject. Often, when characterizing a worldview, attention is actually drawn to the etymology of a word, and then the concept of a worldview is reduced to a “view of the world.”

Worldview should be considered not only from the point of view of its content (that is, as a result of the reflection of reality in the minds of people), but it is also necessary to take into account the relationship of knowledge about the world and man with the social subject, with his attitude to reality, based on this knowledge.

With this approach, the importance of knowledge for human life comes to the fore. Therefore, a worldview should be understood not simply as a system of generalized knowledge about the world and man, but as a system of knowledge that for a social subject is a way of seeing, understanding, analyzing, evaluating phenomena, determining the nature of the relationship to the world and to oneself, awareness of the goals and meaning of life , the nature of actions and actions. Worldview is a way of practical-spiritual exploration of the world.

Philosophy is methodological basis worldview. To build it, it provides the output, the basic principles, the application of which allows a person to develop his life attitudes, which become the main guidelines, determine the nature and direction of his attitude to reality, the nature and direction of practical activity. The core of a worldview is a person’s awareness of the goals and meaning of life.

Cognitive(epistemological) function lies in the fact that it, orienting a person’s cognitive desire to know the nature and essence of the world, the nature and essence of man himself, general structure world, connections and laws of its development, on the one hand, equips people with knowledge about the world, man, connections and laws, and on the other hand, influences every form public consciousness, determining the need for each of them (in their own sphere) to understand reality through the prism of the “man - world” relationship.

Formed and developing on the basis of the achievements of scientific knowledge and generalization of results in the sphere of political, legal, moral, aesthetic, religious consciousness, philosophy acts as a special sphere of a person’s cognitive relationship to reality, the object of which is the relationship “man - world”. However, the content and results philosophical knowledge influence the characteristics of the cognitive process in all other spheres of human life. This influence is manifested in the fact that philosophical knowledge acquires the meaning of a universal method of knowing reality, and also in the fact that knowledge in any sphere ultimately turns out to be various aspects awareness of the relationship "man - world".

Methodological function. Its selection as one of the main ones is due to the fact that philosophy occupies a special place in the process of awareness of existence in the structure of social consciousness. Each of the forms of social consciousness, acting as an awareness of the dependence of human life on a certain sphere of reality, is a reflection of precisely this aspect of human existence. The specificity of philosophy lies in the fact that it studies a person’s relationship to the world and to himself. Therefore, the basic principles of philosophy have important methodological significance for each form of social consciousness in the process of understanding its specific subject.

For a deeper and more intelligible understanding of this issue, we should dwell on the concept of methodology. Methodology is a system of initial, fundamental principles that determine the method of approach to the analysis and assessment of phenomena, the nature of the attitude towards them, the nature and direction of cognitive and practical activity.

Each philosophical concept has its own output, basic principles. Yes, materialistic philosophical concepts They claim that matter and nature are primary, and consciousness and spirit are secondary and derivative. One of the principles of materialism is the recognition of the knowability of the world. As a rule, the state of things and processes that are in development are recognized. These and other principles serve natural and social scientific research. In general, it can be argued that the essence of the methodological function of philosophy is the logical-theoretical analysis of the scientific and practical activities of people. Philosophical methodology determines the directions of scientific research and creates the opportunity to navigate the diversity of facts and processes occurring in the world. Philosophical methodology contributes to more effective and rational use scientific methods specific sciences.

Practical and active(praxeological) function of philosophy is that it becomes an instrument of active, transformative influence on the world and on the person himself. Philosophy plays an important role in determining the goals of life, the achievement of which is the most important condition for ensuring the existence, functioning and development of a person.

The assimilation of philosophical provisions should be considered not as an addition to the formation of a specialist who will use these provisions in his profession, but as a general basis for the formation spiritual world personality, through a person’s awareness of himself as a person, through awareness of the meaning of his existence, plays a decisive role in the formation of a person as a specialist.

Philosophy as a science performs certain functions. By function we mean a certain responsibility or activity. In a logical sense function means a relationship between two or a group of objects in which a change in one is accompanied by a change in the other.

Functions of philosophy:

1. Worldview function, consisting in the formation of the basis of a scientific picture of the world, explication (identification) of the most general ideas, concepts, forms of experience on which a particular culture or socio-historical life of people in general is based, i.e. universals of culture.

2. Methodological function, which consists in developing methods of knowledge used by all sciences, thereby exerting a guiding influence on the sciences.

3. Critical function, since the formation of a new worldview must be accompanied by criticism of various kinds of errors, stereotypes, misconceptions, prejudices that stand in the way of true knowledge.

4. Theoretical-cognitive function, which consists in the increment of new knowledge.

5. Logical function associated with the fact that any thought process is correctly organized, systematic, and consistent.

6. Ethical-axiological function associated with the orientation of philosophy towards humanistic values.

7. Prognostic, formative ability to anticipate the consequences of one’s actions, to see the prospects for the development of a situation.

6. Structure of philosophy

Philosophy as a system of knowledge has its own structure. Its structural elements are philosophical teachings, considering any one side of the material and spiritual world.

Before proceeding to a brief description of these sections, let us draw attention to an important circumstance. The development of philosophy is characterized by processes of differentiation and integration. Differentiation means dividing philosophy into an increasing number of relatively independent sections and branches. New branches of philosophy, as a rule, are isolated from old ones, grow, and acquire independent significance. At the same time, many modern areas of philosophical knowledge are characterized by integrative tendencies: they not only “split off” from one or several well-known branches, but also absorb the achievements of many other sections of philosophy, as well as science and culture in general. So, philosophy and methodology of science largely grew out of the classical theory of knowledge. At the same time, it absorbed a number of achievements of social philosophy, philosophy of culture, history of philosophy, as well as the history of science. Philosophy of art originally emerged as a branch of aesthetics. However, she managed to absorb the achievements of the philosophy of history, anthropology, art history, etc. Philosophy of global problems involves generalization wide range knowledge from the field of social philosophy, politics, economics, geology, biochemistry, etc.

At the same time, recently a whole series of sciences have “spun off” from philosophy, which until recently were even taught in philosophical faculties. They retain the closest connections with philosophy. This psychology, cultural studies, political science, mathematical logic, scientific studies, praxeology and some others.

Main branches of philosophy the following:

Ontology(Greek “ontos” - “existing”) - doctrine of being peace and man; about the origins of all things, expressed in universal principles and categories (such as “world”, “nature”, “matter”, “spirit”, “space”, “time”, “development”, “evolution”). The main question of ontology: what truly exists, and whose existence is a semblance, an illusion? Ontology seeks to create a certain picture of the world which would not only allow one to get an idea of the world as a whole, but would also reveal it hidden essence his underlying reasons.

Epistemology(Greek “gnosis” - knowledge) - theory of knowledge, interpreting its essence and capabilities; conditions of reliability and attitude to reality; the relationship between truth and error; the very concept of knowledge and its varieties. It answers the questions: How does a person understand the world around him? What are the stages or stages of cognition? What is truth in knowledge? In what ways is it achievable? And etc.

Theory of scientific, particularly complex and responsible knowledge often called epistemology(Greek “episteme” - “opinion”).

Metaphysics - This is what ontology and epistemology combined are called. Questions about the mind, soul, cosmos, causality, freedom of choice, etc. are called metaphysical.

Logics(Greek “logos” - “word”, “concept”, “understanding”) - part of the theory of knowledge, namely the doctrine of thinking, its universal human forms and principles, the laws of consistent and demonstrative alternation of thoughts in the precise discussion of any problem. Logic is interested in correct thinking, procedures for checking this very correctness of our thoughts.

Methodology(Greek “metodos” - path, meaning - research, the order of performing mental and practical actions) - the doctrine of effective work methods, the principles of rational activity of a scientist and a practicing professional.

Philosophical anthropology- a section of philosophical knowledge specifically concerned with understanding man. Anthropology as a philosophical discipline should be distinguished from anthropology as a private, primarily cultural, science. In world literature under cultural anthropology most often understand the study of life, traditions, customs, ways of thinking, cultural characteristics various peoples. Philosophical anthropology differs from all other sciences that study man primarily in its breadth of approach. Philosophy considers man as a special kind of being, different from all other creatures. Philosophical anthropology comprehends the problems human nature and human existence, the categories of human existence are analyzed.

Axiology(Greek “axia” - “value”) - interprets concept of values life and culture, procedures for assessing phenomena and events that are significant to humans.

Social philosophy- a section of philosophical knowledge that studies the most general characteristics of social life.

Philosophy of history- studies issues related to the meaning and purpose of social history, with its driving reasons.

Ethics(Greek “ethos” - character, customs) - moral doctrine, i.e. rules of human behavior, happiness and duty of a person, his responsibilities towards society, the state, his neighbors and himself.

Aesthetics(Greek “aistethicos” - sensation, feeling) - doctrine of the canons of beauty, forms of its development and creativity, primarily in art.

Philosophy of religion substantiates the idea of God and faith in him; analyzes the arguments of supporters and opponents of religion, the paths of its historical development and role in modern society.

History of philosophy examines the historical development of philosophy. She studies the philosophical creativity of thinkers of the past, as well as modern authors, identifies eras in the development of philosophy, and analyzes the connection of philosophical concepts with culture and characteristics of society. The task of the history of philosophy also includes comparing various teachings, identifying in them what may be of value for the present and the future. The history of philosophy is fundamental basis for the development of all branches of philosophical knowledge.

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Functions of cognitive philosophy. Functions of philosophy (2) - Abstract

Worldview function of philosophy

Fundamental function of philosophy

Logical function of philosophy

Integrative function of philosophy

The critical function of philosophy

Worldview function

Epistemological function

Methodological function

Information and communication function

Value-orienting function

Critical function

Integrating function

Ideological function

Educational function

Prognostic function

Design function

Worldview function

6. Structure of philosophy