The process of cognition includes all the mental activity of a person, but the main role is played by sensory and rational cognition.

In the history of philosophy, several main directions have developed in answering the question about the sources of knowledge, in assessing the role of the senses and thinking in the process of cognition.

Sensationalism(from Lat sensus - feeling) - an epistemological direction, whose representatives considered sensory perception the only source of knowledge. The sensationalistic concept began to take shape in ancient Greek philosophy (Democritus, Epicurus, the Stoics) and acquired its classical form in the teachings of the modern philosophers J. Locke, French materialists, L. Feuerbach. The main position of sensationalism is “there is nothing in the mind that was not originally in the senses.” This thesis correctly defines the original source of human knowledge, which directly connects a person with the outside world, but the sensualists absolutized the role of sensory perception in the cognitive process.

Sensualists (J. Locke "Experience on the Human Mind") put forward the idea of ​​dividing the qualities of things comprehended by sensations into primary (form, length, density, volume) and secondary (color, taste, smell, sound). Primary qualities are objective, our sensations reflect them as they really are. Secondary qualities are subjective - they reflect not the object itself, but the subject's attitude towards it (*water can cause a feeling of cold or heat, depending on the condition of the hand). Such a division is metaphysical and can lead to agnosticism.

Empiricism(F. Bacon) is a direction in epistemology, whose representatives claim that both in origin and in content, knowledge is of an experimental nature. While absolutizing the role of experience, experiment, empiricism underestimated the role of theoretical thinking in the cognitive process.

Rationalism(lat. racio - mind) (R. Descartes, B. Spinoza, G. Leibniz) - a direction in epistemology, whose representatives, on the contrary, absolutized the role of mind in the process of cognition and considers thinking in isolation from experience. Rationalists defined cognition as intellectual intuition, thanks to which thinking, bypassing experience, directly comprehends the essence of things. They saw the criterion of truth in the distinctness and clarity of knowledge. Downplaying the role of sensory perception, the rationalists could not explain the original basis of knowledge and formulated the position about the existence of innate ideas in the human mind, which they declared to be absolute truths.

Modern epistemology considers knowledge as a dialectical unity of the sensual and the rational.

Sense cognition– i.e. cognition with the help of the sense organs is the first stage of the cognitive process, a source of direct knowledge about objects and their properties, connecting a person with the outside world. The nature of the human senses biosocial.

Sensory cognition occurs in three main forms.

1)Feeling - this is the simplest sensory image of individual properties and signs of objects and phenomena (*visual, auditory, tactile, etc. sensations).

2) The second form of sensory knowledge - perception - represents a holistic sensual image of the objects of the surrounding world. Perceptions are formed on the basis of sensations, representing their combination. Sensation and perception are formed as a result of the direct impact of an object on the senses.

3) More complex shape sensory knowledge is performance - a sensual image of an object or phenomenon preserved in the mind that does not affect the senses at the moment. In the formation of ideas, the leading role is played by such properties of consciousness as memory and imagination. Representations play an exceptional role in the process of cognition: without representations, a person would be attached to the immediate situation.

Based on the representations, it is formed rational knowledge, or abstract thinking, which is also expressed in three main forms.

1) concept - a form of abstract thinking, which reflects the most general, essential and necessary properties, signs of objects and phenomena. Any thinking - everyday, scientific, philosophical - is carried out with the help of concepts. Concepts distinguish objects according to their common characteristics and represent them in a generalized form (* the concept of "man" reflects the common thing that is common to all people, and what distinguishes a person from other living beings).

2) Judgment - such a form of thinking, in which, through the connection and correlation of concepts, something is affirmed or denied, an assessment is given. Judgments are impossible without concepts and are built on their basis. Usually a proposition includes three elements: two concepts and a link between them. Judgments are usually expressed in statements like "A is B", "A is not B", "A belongs to B", etc. (* maple - plant).

3) inference - a form of thinking in which a new judgment about objects or phenomena of the world is derived from one or more judgments. Inferences allow, on the basis of previously acquired knowledge, to acquire new knowledge without resorting to sensory experience.

Thus, the process of cognition is a movement from sensory to rational forms of cognition:

1) highlighting individual properties and features of an object (sensation),

2) the formation of a holistic sensory image (perception),

3) reproduction of a sensual image of an object preserved in memory (representation),

4) the formation of concepts about the subject based on the summing up of previous knowledge,

5) assessment of the subject, highlighting its essential properties and features (judgment),

6) the transition from one previously acquired knowledge to another (inference).

Features of sensory and rational knowledge.

Cognition is a complex, contradictory process carried out at the entrance of practical, transformative activities of people. Depending on what abilities the subject uses at a particular stage of cognition, one can distinguish sensual, rational and intuitive stages of knowledge. They differ both in forms of reflection and in their role in the process of cognition.

The starting point for knowledge is sense cognition in which the object is known primarily through the senses. The main forms of sensory cognition are sensation, perception and representation.

AT feelings individual aspects and properties of the object are directly reflected. Sensation is an elementary sensory image of reality. Sensations arise under the influence of the objective and subjective (i.e., internal to a person) world on our senses. It is the source of our knowledge about the world, arising as a result of the transformation of the energy of external or internal irritation into a fact of consciousness. Feeling is secondary to material reality. Depending on the stimuli, sensations are divided into visual, auditory, gustatory, tactile, olfactory, etc.

Perception- this is a holistic reflection of the object by the senses, representing the unity of all sensations. Perception provides information about the object in its integrity with the direct impact of the object on the human senses. For example, a person's perception of a computer is based on combining its tactile, visual, auditory, etc. into a holistic image. sensations.

Representation- these are sensually visual images of objects that are stored and recreated in the human mind outside the direct impact of objects on the senses. The emergence of representations occurs on the basis of memory, i.e. the ability of the psyche to preserve and reproduce past perceptions of the subject.

The forms of sensory cognition include imagination, which consists in the ability to create new ideas based on previous experience. Imagination is of great importance in science, technology, art and in all other areas of human activity where creativity is required, and not just copying.

Human knowledge is not limited to sensual forms due to the fact that, firstly, not all properties and signs inherent in things, phenomena and processes can be seen, felt, heard. Secondly, the deep foundation of things, processes, phenomena cannot be comprehended only with the help of sensations, perceptions and ideas. To cognize the laws and regularities of the development of objective reality, it is required to add the power of abstract thinking to the sensual forms of cognition. For example, with the help of the senses, one can see the fall of bodies, but for the knowledge of the laws of gravity of the earth, the senses alone are not enough.

In Plato's dialogue "Theaetetus" can be read. That through sight we perceive color, through hearing we perceive sound. But how do we perceive the difference between color and sound? Neither in the sensation of color nor in the sensation of sound is there any knowledge of this difference. The power of abstract thinking is necessary to distinguish between color and sound.

Rational step knowledge is based on abstract thinking, which is a purposeful, mediated and generalized reflection by a person of the essential properties and relations of things. Abstract thinking is also called logical, because it functions according to the laws of logic - the science of thinking.

The main forms of abstract thinking are: concept, judgment and conclusion.

concept- a form of thought expressing the totality of the most general, essential features of an object. For example, the concepts of "engineer", "economist", "programmer", etc., reflect common features between the most diverse areas of human activity.

The concept is one of the main forms of logical or rational knowledge, the main task of which is to reveal the patterns of development of objective reality, to penetrate into the essence of objects and phenomena. Concepts concentrate the knowledge acquired by mankind about certain processes, phenomena and objects. For example, the concept of "atom" has a long history of its formation and development: from the position expressed by the ancient Greek thinkers Leucippus and Democritus (5th century BC) that it is an indivisible and unchanging particle of matter, to the discovery of a complex structure in the atom , which includes many elementary particles and formations like quarks. To assimilate concepts means to assimilate the knowledge about the objects to which the given concept refers.

Distinguish between everyday or everyday concepts that people use in their daily lives, and scientific concepts that operate in the relevant field. scientific knowledge. Concepts are the basic elements of any scientific theory.

Arising and developing on the basis of social practice, concepts as a form of thinking serve an important tool orientation of a person in an infinite mass of objects of the material world. At the same time, concepts act as samples or standards, according to which newly acquired knowledge is processed. The whole process of thinking is based on connections between concepts. The main advantage of concepts in comparison with sensual images is that. What concepts reflect properties. Signs, states, connections, actions, relationships, etc. objects and phenomena in an abstract and general form.

Judgment- a form of thinking in which, through concepts, something is affirmed or denied about an object. This is a connection expressed in thought between concepts that reflect real or imaginary connections and relations of objects, phenomena and processes. In any statement (a phrase and a simple sentence) is an example of judgments. For example, “we are economists”, “the market has no alternative”, “all metals are conductors of electricity”, “knowledge is power”, “I think - therefore I exist”. It is impossible to identify a sentence and a judgment, since imperative and interrogative sentences do not carry the burden of a judgment.

Judgment is an elementary, abstract mental form of logical generalization, in which the process of transition of the individual into the general takes place. For example, in the judgments: "friction is a source of heat", "a stork is a bird" - the process of rejection of the random from the essence, from the general, takes place. Arising on the basis of a comparison of various concepts, judgments are the initial logical material from which theories are created in the field of natural science, technology, economics and the humanities.

inference is a form of thinking in which a new judgment containing new knowledge is derived from several judgments. Here judgments are linked (operated with), giving new knowledge without resorting to the testimony of the sense organs. So, the idea that the Earth has the shape of a ball was obtained in antiquity on the basis of the following conclusion. All spherical bodies cast a disk-shaped shadow. The earth casts a disc-shaped shadow during a lunar eclipse. So it is round. Or another inference. It is known that all metals are electrically conductive, copper is a metal, which means copper is electrically conductive.

On the question of the role, place and correlation of the sensual and the rational in cognition, two opposite currents have developed in the history of philosophy - sensationalism and rationalism. Sensualists considered sensory knowledge to be the main form of achieving true knowledge, considering thinking only a quantitative continuation of sensory knowledge. Rationalists sought to prove that universal and necessary truths can only be deduced from thought itself. Sense data were assigned only a random role. Both of these currents suffered from one-sidedness, instead of recognizing the necessity and complementarity of the sensual and rational stages of cognition.

The further development of philosophical knowledge showed that rational knowledge is inextricably linked with sensory knowledge and plays a leading role in the process of knowledge. This is manifested, firstly, in the fact that true knowledge at the level of essence and law is formulated and substantiated at the rational level of knowledge; secondly, sensory cognition is always "controlled" by thinking.

Accounting for the unity of sensory and rational cognition is necessary in all spheres of human activity, including engineering practice and economics, since sensory cognition gives us the basis on which abstract thinking develops. In turn, abstract thinking gives impetus to the development of empirical knowledge. As the history of the development of science and technology testifies, facts begin to be realized and perceived by a person in accordance with the existing theory. For example, the first laser existed first in thought and then in reality.

Many scientists believe that an important role in the process of cognition is played by intuition, i.e. the ability to comprehend the truth by direct observation of it, before or in addition to logical justification. Intuition is based on the unconscious combination and processing of accumulated abstractions, images and rules in order to solve a specific problem. The main types of intuition are sensual, intellectual and mystical. In the history of philosophy, a fairly common trend is also intuitionism, who considers intuition (mainly intellectual) the main means of achieving truth in isolation from the sensual and rational stages of cognition.

The problem of truth in philosophy and science.

The immediate goal of knowledge is to achieve truth, which is understood as knowledge corresponding to reality. From the point of view of the classical theory of knowledge, “correspondence” means the essential coincidence of the content of knowledge with the object, and “reality” is, first of all, an objective reality, matter.

Truth is objective-subjective. Her objectivity lies in the independence of its content from the cognizing subject. Subjectivity truth is manifested in its expression by the subject, in the form that only the subject gives it.

Truth is an endless process of developing existing knowledge about a particular object or about the world as a whole to more and more complete and accurate knowledge, a constantly evolving system of theoretical knowledge.

To characterize the truth, the concepts of objective, absolute, relative, concrete and abstract truth are used.

The Absoluteness of Truth means, firstly, complete and accurate knowledge about the object, which is an unattainable epistemological ideal; secondly, the content of knowledge, which, within certain limits of the knowledge of the object, can never be refuted in the future.

Relativity truth expresses its incompleteness, incompleteness, approximation, binding to certain boundaries of comprehension of the object.

There are two extreme points of view on the absoluteness and relativity of truth. D ogmatism, which exaggerates the moment of absoluteness, and relativism absolutizing the relativity of truth.

Any true knowledge is always determined by given conditions, place, time, and other circumstances, which knowledge must take into account as fully as possible. The connection of truth with certain specific conditions in which it operates is denoted by the concept specific truth. Empirical fact about that. That water boils at 100 degrees Celsius indicates that truth is concrete. This fact is true only when ordinary water and pressure are taken, with a change in the chemical composition of water, pressure, true knowledge turns into its opposite - untrue knowledge.

In the process of cognition, the subject can take untrue knowledge for truth and, conversely, truth for untrue knowledge. This inconsistency of knowledge with reality, presented as truth, is called delusion. The latter is a constant companion of the process of cognition, and there is no absolute boundary between it and truth: it is always mobile. If we are convinced that this knowledge is a delusion, then this fact becomes the truth, albeit a negative one.

In cognition, it is not always possible to reveal the fullness of the conditions for which a given truth can be applied. Therefore, for knowledge, the conditions for revealing the truth of which are not complete enough, the concept is used abstract truth. When the conditions of application change, abstract truth can turn into concrete and vice versa.

It is believed that all types of knowledge are aimed at achieving truth - knowledge, the content of which is adequate to reality, without which human activity is impossible. But in most types of cognition, truth contains a significant amount of subjectivity, associated both with the form of its expression and with the subjective interests of a person. And only in scientific knowledge is objective truth, in which subjective contributions are reduced to a minimum, an end in itself.

One of the main problems of the theory of knowledge is the question of criteria truth, i.e. about what is the measure of the truth of knowledge. In the history of philosophy, various criteria of truth have been put forward: mind and intuition (Plato), sensory data and scientific experiment (F. Bacon, B. Spinoza, K. Helvetius, D. Diderot, M.V. Lomonosov), self-evidence, consistency and mutual consistency of all knowledge (R. Descartes), the correspondence of a thing to a concept (G. Hegel), usefulness (W. James), general validity (E. Mach), convention (agreements) between scientists (neopositivists), morality (I.V. Kireevsky, Vl .S.Soloviev). This shows that the criteria of truth can be sensory data, and intellect, and intuition, and everyday experience of people, and traditions, and authorities. But it is social practice that has the property of immediate reality, is of a sensitive-objective nature, is the sphere of realization of knowledge, takes the subject beyond the scope of speculative knowledge into the world of material activity.

§2. Sensory and rational cognition

Cognitive images by origin and essence are divided into sensual and rational, which, in turn, form sensual and rational cognition.

1. Sensory knowledge

The question of the relationship between sensory and rational cognition has long been considered by philosophers, and in modern times it has become the main one (the so-called problem of sensationalism and rationalism). The sensualists considered sensory cognition to be the source of knowledge, while the rationalists thought that only thinking could give truth.

Sensory cognition is created by sensory images obtained by the direct impact of objects and phenomena of reality on the sense organs (sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste).

The main forms of sensory cognition:♦ feeling; ♦ perception; ♦ presentation.

Sensation is a direct reflection of any individual property of an object (color, sound, smell) with the help of one of the sense organs. Sensations depend both on the properties of the object and on the structure of the organ that perceives. Animals that do not have "cones" in their eyes do not distinguish colors. But these organs of perception are built in such a way as to give reliable information, otherwise the life of the owner of the organs will become impossible.

Perception - the highest form of sensory knowledge - a reflection of the whole, a system of properties with the help of several senses. It, like sensation, is a function of two arguments. On the one hand, the reflection of the whole depends on the properties of the object, and, on the other hand, on the structure of the organs of perception (because it consists of sensations), previous experience and the entire mental structure of the object. Each person perceives the environment through the structure of his own personality, in his own way. On this phenomenon, such methods of personality psychodiagnostics as the Rorschach method, etc. are built.

The Rorschach method consists in the fact that the patient who is being diagnosed examines various colored spots and tells what exactly he sees in them. Depending on what a person sees, its most important psychological characteristics are determined, in particular, the mobility of the central nervous system, extroversion or introversion, the degree of aggressiveness and other properties, as well as attitudes, motives of the personality and its integral structure.

In other projective tests, the subject must complete incomplete sentences, determine what will happen to the people shown in the picture, and so on. In all these cases, the experimental object transforms the information according to its individuality, and the doctor has the opportunity to reveal the structure of the patient's personality, since there is a reliably established dependence of perception on this structure.

A specific form of sensory cognition is representation - the reproduction in the psyche of the sensory image of an object based on past sensations and perceptions.

If sensations and perceptions arise during the direct interaction of the human senses with the existing objects and phenomena of reality, then representations arise when these objects do not exist. The physiological basis of representations are traces of excitations, stored in the cerebral cortex of the cerebral hemispheres from past irritations of the sense organs. Thanks to this, we can recreate the sensual image of an object when it is no longer in our direct experience. For example, we can vividly reproduce in our memory our loved ones and home environment, being far from home.

Representation is a transitional form from sensory cognition to logical cognition. It belongs to the forms of sensory cognition, since knowledge of an object in the form of representation has a sensory-concrete character. The essential properties of the object are not yet clearly distinguished here, but are delimited from the non-essential. And representation, in contrast to perception, rises above the immediate givenness of individual objects and connects them with understanding.

Representation contains a significant element of generalization, because it is impossible to imagine an object in the fullness of its features, according to which we perceived it before. Some of them are bound to be forgotten. Only those properties of the object are stored in memory that they had for us highest value at the time of its perception. Therefore, representation is, so to speak, a generalized reflection of the object. We can have an idea not about some single tree, but about a tree in general, as a plant that has roots, trunk, branches, leaves. However, this general representation cannot be identified with the concept, because the latter reflects not only general and partial properties, all these features are in an internal necessary connection with each other. And it doesn't show up in the presentation.

Perception refers only to the present, to what exists at this moment, and the phenomenon - and the present, and the past, and the future. Representations exist in two forms: in the form of images of memory and images of imagination.

Memory images are images of an object that are stored in the psyche and are updated at the mention. Imagination images do not have a prototype in reality, they are constructed in the psyche and are the basis of fantasy.

Naturally, ideas, like perception, depend on the structure of the personality. So, a representation of memory, memories different people about the same events are very different.

Lawyers who interview witnesses are well aware of this. A striking example of this phenomenon is interesting movies. In particular, "Rashomon", in which several people tell the court about the same event (a duel between a robber and a samurai) in such a way that all the main points appear differently. Also "Married Life" - a film based on the novel by the French writer E. Bazin. In this film, the divorced couple recalls the story of their acquaintance, love, life together and divorce. It is convincingly shown that with the general scheme of events, the idea of ​​the details, the nuances and the very essence of their relationship are significantly different.

Characteristic features of sensory cognition:

♦ immediacy;♦ singularity; ♦ number of storeys.

♦ concreteness; ♦ visibility;

Immediacy means that there are no mediated links between the object and the sensory image (except for the neurophysiological process, which cannot be eliminated).

Singularity lies in the fact that sensation, perception and representation are always related to a certain object. Specificity lies in the fact that single objects are reflected, taking into account their specificity in certain conditions. The visibility of sensual images expresses the relative ease of their mental perception, representation. The number of storeys is connected with the fact that sensation and perception reflect the external side of phenomena, while their essence is hidden and is not amenable to sensory knowledge.

2. Rational knowledge

Rational cognition is active, mediated and generalized cognition with the help of signs of natural or artificial language in the form of judgments, conclusions, concepts.

Judgment is a form of reflection in the human head of the presence or absence of a feature in an object. Judgments are carried out in the form of affirmation or negation. Therefore, a judgment can also be defined as follows: a judgment is a thought that affirms or denies something about something. The external, linguistic form of expressing a judgment is a grammatical sentence. For example, "The leaves on the tree are green", "The universe has no boundaries either in time or in space", etc.

In some judgments, reliable knowledge of the attributes of the subject has already been achieved, for example: "A person can successfully work in space flight conditions." Probable judgments only assume the presence or absence of some sign of the object: "It is possible that organic life exists on Mars." In judgments - questions, only a request is made about the existence of any sign of the subject: "is there a virus that spreads cancer?".

As we can see, the epistemological, cognitive value of the judgment lies precisely in the fact that with the help of this form of thinking to carry out a logical reflection of the properties of objects and phenomena of reality. Studying objects and phenomena, we express many judgments about them, each of which is knowledge about some property or relation of the object.

Many judgments are expressed by us on the basis of sensory impressions of objects and phenomena that we encounter in direct experience. However, judgments are made not only on the basis of the direct evidence of our senses. All judgments of science, in the form of which definitions are given to objects and phenomena of reality, the laws of nature and society are formulated, expressed in various ways. general provisions and principles are inferential judgments, i.e. are the results of inferences.

Inference is the process of deriving a new proposition from existing ones. What is deduced in the process of inference is called a conclusion. Those judgments from which the conclusion is drawn are called reference, or grounds. Inference is a natural connection of judgments, that is, proposals. It exists only when the links are linked by some link, the so-called middle term. If we have, for example, two propositions "All infectious diseases are caused by microorganisms" and "Influenza is an infectious disease", then from these references we can conclude: "Influenza is caused by some microorganisms." In this inference, the reference is linked by a common term for them: "infectious diseases", which is the necessary logical basis for the conclusion. On the contrary, if we have such judgments as "The leaves on the tree are green" and "The whale is a mammal", then it is impossible to draw a conclusion from them, because there is no necessary logical connection, there is no middle term.

Applying various forms of reasoning, techniques and methods of scientific knowledge, a person discovers the general, necessary, essential properties and relationships of objects and phenomena of reality and creates scientific concepts about them. The concept is the end result, the result of scientific knowledge of the world. The essence of objects and phenomena is reflected in the form of concepts.

The concept is a reflection in the psyche of objects and phenomena of reality with their common and essential features. The concept as a form of thought is expressed in words and is characterized by such features. First, by the fact that it reflects the subject according to its general features. This means that the concept is a form of reflection not only of single objects or phenomena, but also of a certain number of homogeneous objects and phenomena and their regular relations. Secondly, the concept - is the knowledge of the essential properties and relationships of things. This circumstance is important to keep in mind, because different objects and phenomena can have quite a lot of common properties, but their knowledge does not mean knowledge of the essence. For example, both humans and chickens have two legs. However, the general sign "two-legged creature" will not express either the essence of a person, or the essence of a chicken as a bird. Thirdly, the concept reflects the unity of general and essential features, each of which is necessary, and together they are sufficient to define the subject.

The concept arises already at the empirical level, in everyday life, when, for example, children "define" things functionally: "What are fruits?" - "they are eaten"; "What is a dog?" - "She bites." That is, at this level, concepts reflect external and sometimes imaginary signs of things ("My mother is the best!").

The concept as a form of rational cognition is the result of judgments and the condition for their emergence; as a form of thinking, it is a concentrated expression of a long historical experience of cognition and hidden from the senses, deep, main properties and phenomena of reality. Science enhances the experience of a fleeting life thanks to our ability to form and apply concepts in cognition and activity.

Characteristic features of rational knowledge:

♦ mediation;♦ generalization;

♦ abstractness; ♦ lack of visibility;

♦ daytime.

Rational cognition, thought reflect reality not directly, directly, but indirectly, through an intermediate link, sensory cognition, which always mediates the connection between the object and rational knowledge. Therefore, the mediation of rational cognition is its first characteristic feature, as opposed to the immediacy of sensory cognition.

Generalization is the second feature of rational cognition, which lies in the fact that the signs of the language that is used in it denote (except for proper names) certain sets of phenomena that have common features, and not one specific phenomenon.

The third feature of rational knowledge is abstractness. It is formed from the selection and isolation of certain properties and relations from their specific carriers, the designation of a selected sign (for example, a word in a natural language) and then operating with these signs, which replace phenomena.

Since rational cognition is abstract and exists in a symbolic form, sensory representation becomes impossible, that is, we are talking about the lack of visibility as the fourth feature of rational cognition. And finally, the fifth feature is the ability of a system of abstractions, indirectly connected with reality, to penetrate into the essence, to reveal the main thing.

3. The unity of the sensual and the rational in cognition

After all that has been said about sensory and logical cognition, we are faced with the question of why rational cognition reflects reality deeper and more fully than sensory cognition. After all, abstract thinking is based on sensory knowledge. Where does this ability to penetrate into the essence of things come from?

This question throughout the history of philosophy has been the subject of discussions between various philosophical schools. Some philosophers argued that logical thinking does not give anything new in comparison with sensory knowledge. In thinking, as they said, there is nothing that would not have been in feelings before. These philosophers believed that thinking only unites, summarizes everything that is known from sensory perceptions. Moreover, it can lead to unresolvable paradoxes. For example, the paradox of a barber who can only shave those villagers who cannot shave themselves (what should he do with himself?).

Other philosophers, on the contrary, argued that sensory knowledge is dark, false knowledge, and that only reasonable, rational knowledge is true knowledge.

Thus, in the doctrine of cognition, there have long been two opposite directions: extreme sensationalism and extreme rationalism. Both of them are characterized by a one-sided approach: the first exaggerated sensory knowledge and humiliated the role of thinking, while the second exaggerated the role of thinking and belittled the importance of sensory knowledge.

Representatives of sensationalism believed that all our knowledge, after all, has a sensory origin. However, this direction limited the sphere of human knowledge to what is given directly in sensory experience, limited the role of thinking only to the function of processing sensory data and denied the possibility that thinking went beyond the sensory content of knowledge and penetrated into the essence.

Logical thinking not only sums up the sensory impressions that are supplied by the senses, but also critically processes, analyzes them, compares them with the already reliably known results of science and practice, provides a link between new sensory impressions and all previous experience of scientific knowledge and transformation of the world. It is said that Newton discovered the law of universal gravitation, drawing attention to the fact that an apple, having fallen off a branch of an apple tree, falls down. However, there is a huge distance between the well-known fact of falling bodies and the law of universal gravitation.

Science discovers the laws of nature and society that are not directly perceived by sensations, for example, physical patterns atomic nucleus or the laws of genetics. Moreover, the provisions of science often contradict direct human perception. For example, the Earth revolves around the Sun and its axis, but it seems to us that the Earth is stationary, and the Sun moves around it. All this clearly shows how much new logical thinking provides for the knowledge of the world and how deeply mistaken the supporters of extreme sensationalism were.

With regard to extreme rationalism, it also does not stand up to criticism. Medieval scholastic rationalism, reflected in the religious-idealistic philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, completely denied any empirical observation of natural phenomena and was the desire to "rationally substantiate the existence of God." Galileo gives an example when a scholastic scientist came to an anatomist and asked to show where the center is, to which all nerves converge. When the anatomist showed him that they converge to the human brain, the monk replied: "Thank you, this is so convincing that I would have believed you if Aristotle had not written that they converge to the heart." F. Bacon compared scholastics with spiders: "Scholastics, like spiders, weave their cunning verbal snares, not at all caring about whether their cunning sophistication corresponds to reality or not." It is necessary, however, to emphasize that such thinkers as Descartes and Leibniz belonged to the number of supporters of rationalism in their time, who developed the logical-mathematical method of cognition and put forward many valuable ideas.

In fact, sensual and rational moments are two sides of a single cognitive process. Logical thinking, thanks to labor and language, historically arises from concrete-figurative, sensory cognition. Even now it cannot be realized without an oral or written word or some other conventional designation.

Thus, sensory perception conditions logical thinking in the following way:

♦ supplies primary information about external objects;

♦ words and symbols as an external material form of expression of thought directly exist and function on the basis of feelings.

In turn, knowledge with the help of the sense organs never exists in its pure form, because a person always realizes and expresses his sensory impressions through the mediation of internal and external speech in the form of judgments. So, the whole process of human reproduction of the external world in ideal images is a constant interconnection of the sensual and rational aspects of cognition.

All of the above is directly related to medicine, medical knowledge, in particular, before a diagnosis is made.

When establishing a diagnosis at the first stage of a medical examination, sensory cognition prevails, but it is always accompanied by thinking. After that, during the definition of a nosological unit in differential diagnostics, the priority shifts to logical thinking, which operates not only with words, but also with sensory images and ideas.

4. Cognition and creativity

In the process of cognition, along with conscious sensibility and rationality, not conscious and not controlled mechanisms are involved, which are especially developed in talented and brilliant people, and are not explained by logical thinking. They define creativity, creative, non-algorithmic activity. The most important features of creativity is the harmony of the sensual and the rational (the harmony of the activity of the hemispheres of the human cerebral cortex), which turns out to be a developed imagination, fantasy and intuition.

In my right mind, the leak of creative work, true ... I try to subordinate things to myself, and not to obey them.

Horace

All the joys of life are in creativity... To create means to kill death.

G. Rolland

There is hardly any higher pleasure than the pleasure of creating.

M. Gogol

And the silver thread of fantasy always winds around the chain of rules.

G. Schumann

The human mind has three keys that open everything: knowledge, thought, imagination - everything is in it.

V. Hugo

In the work of thought there is joy, strength, breathtaking, harmony.

V. Vernadsky

Happiness is an easy product of free labor, free creativity.

I. Bardin

He who has imagination but no knowledge has wings but no legs.

J. Joubert

One should always prefer the sandals of the facts observed above the wings ... imagine how attractive flying may seem.

J. Fabre

A unique property of the Universe is that it is comprehensible.

A. Einstein

Imagination is the main element in the structure of spiritual creativity. Its specific feature is a special relation of a person to the world, which is expressed in the relative independence, freedom of the subject from direct perception of reality. Imagination is usually understood as mental activity, consisting in the creation of ideas and mental situations that have never been directly perceived by a person as a whole. In terms of meaning, the concept of imagination is close to the concept of fantasy.

Fantasy is a necessary component of creative activity and consists of creating an image or mental model that does not yet have its specific analogue (prototype) in the objective world. Without the ability to create images of imagination, fantasy, creative thinking of a person in general would be impossible. “Everything high and beautiful in our life, science and art,” wrote M.I. Pirogov, “is created by the mind with the help of fantasy, and much of what is fantasy with the help of the mind. We can safely say that neither Copernicus nor Newton without the help of fantasy would not have acquired the significance in science that they have."

Already in the representations of memory (reproductive representation) there is always an element of fantasy, so that any act of reflection is associated with a more or less significant mental transformation of the object. At the same time, images of memory and images of imagination (productive representations) differ significantly from each other.

To understand the specifics of imagination, it is necessary to take into account that, firstly, the transformation of the content of knowledge in the imagination always takes place in a visual form (the creation of visual or fantastic images in art, visual models in science, etc.). Secondly, the leading role in the work of imagine is played by goal-setting thinking (certain images are created in the name of certain goals - aesthetic, scientific, practical activities, etc.). Thirdly, representations are images, phenomena that have not been observed before. However, they are connected with reality and reflect it. So, in the fantastic image of a centaur, the features inherent in a man and a horse are combined, in the image of a mermaid - the features of a woman and a fish, etc.

Imagination images are formed not only by combining elements of memory images, but also by rethinking these elements, filling them with new content, so that they do not copy existing objects, but are ideal prototypes of what is possible. As a result of this, the images of the imagination, firstly, turn out to be complex, combined, and, secondly, contain both sensory-visual and rational-logical components.

The transformation of empirical knowledge, resulting in additional information, is the main element of creative imagination.

The French physicist Louis de Broglie argued that creative imagination, myslennєve operating with visual images underlie all the true achievements of science. That is why the human mind is able, in the end, to prevail over all machines that count and classify better than it, but can neither imagine nor anticipate.

A dream is a special form of imagination, a mental activity aimed at creating images of a desired future. The creative nature of a dream is determined by its social orientation and breadth of ideas of the imagination. The specificity of a dream is that it cannot be directly embodied in certain products. However, its idea can subsequently form the basis of technical, scientific and social transformations. A fruitful dream stimulates the activity of the individual, creates a creative tone, and determines life prospects. And vice versa, illusory dreams distract a person from reality, turn out to be fruitless, and fetter social activity.

So, the main operations of the imagination process are the mental combination (combination in thoughts) with relatively simple representations of sensory experience, the construction of complex new images from them or on their basis, and as a result, fantasizing as an assumption of the possibility of the existence of such things, the integral real existence of which has never been observed.

But what is the mechanism for putting forward new ideas and new ideas in the process of imagination? It is often thought that this is intuition.

What is intuition? The concept of intuition comes from the Latin word, which means "contemplation", "discretion", "vision", "sharp looking". Plato believed that intuition is an inner vision with which a person is able to contemplate the eternal world of ideas that are in her own soul. The complexity of clarifying the essence and mechanism of intuition is associated with its subconscious nature and the complexity of studying all the phenomena of the psyche. Intuition can be determined by a subconscious cognitive process, which leads to the creation of fundamentally new images and concepts, the content of which cannot be derived by logically operating with existing concepts.

In modern psychology of creativity, there are several stages in the process of intuition:

♦ accumulation of images and abstractions in memory;

♦ unconscious combination and processing of accumulated images and abstractions in order to solve the tasks;

♦ clearer understanding of the task and its formulation;

♦ sudden finding of a solution (insight - insight - "eureka!" - often during rest, sleep).

Creative intuition comes into its own when the available information does not make it possible to solve the problem using ordinary logical reasoning. Intuitive knowledge appears to appear abruptly, without a consistent logical justification, while the combination of sensory images is of great importance (in Einstein's words, "combinatorial play" with figurative elements of thinking). The famous chemist Kekule for a long time could not find the structural formula of benzene and finally found it as a result of an association, which he recalls as follows: "I saw a cage with monkeys that caught each one, then mating, then rising, one at a time, and once grabbed so that they formed ring ... Thus, five monkeys, jumping up, formed a circle, and the thought immediately flashed through my head: here is the image of benzene.

From the above example, we see that the success of the emergence of an intuitive solution depends on how much the researcher managed to get rid of the template, to be convinced of the unsuitability of previously known paths, and to maintain not only concentration, but also deep admiration for the task.

Attempts to solve the problem before "insight" are unsuccessful, but they are not meaningless. At this time, a special state of the psyche is formed - the search dominant - the state of deep concentration on solving the problem. This leads to a solution to the problem: thinking is a little detached (“you can’t see a face face to face”) and the brain that has rested is visited by an idea, as they say, “on a bright head”.

Intuition arises only on prepared soil as a result of labor, experience and talent, as a result of the activity of sensory and rational cognition.

Medical intuition is associated with a quick, subconscious positive confidence in the diagnosis. Such intuition is the result of mandatory long-term observations and the process of comparison and analysis of features brought to automatism.

The obligatory goal of sensual and rational cognition, scientific creativity is the knowledge of truth.

There are two main levels of knowledge - sensual (empirical) and rational.

Sensory cognition is based on images that arise in the mind as a result of the activity of the five basic human senses - sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. The forms of sensory cognition include: sensation- an elementary sensual image that displays individual, single properties of an object. It is possible to sense taste, color, smell, sound, etc. in isolation. For example, a lemon is characterized by sensations of acidity, yellowness, etc.;

about perception- displaying not individual properties, but their system, integrity. For example, we perceive a lemon not as acid or yellowness, but as a whole object. Our perception of a lemon includes its color, and its taste, and its smell in an inseparable unity: it does not imply the work of a single sense, but the coordinated activity of several or all of the main senses;

about performance- a sensual image of an object that arises in the mind in the absence of this object. For example, if we have ever seen a lemon, we may well imagine it, even if it is not in front of us and cannot affect our senses. Memory, memories, as well as the imagination of a person play an important role in the representation. Representation can be called the perception of an object in its absence. The possibility of representation and its proximity to perception are due to the fact that sensory images do not arise in the sense organs, but in the cerebral cortex. Therefore, the direct presence of an object is not a necessary condition for the emergence of a sensual image.

However, sensory knowledge is not enough to know the laws of the existence of the world.

Rational knowledge, based on abstract thinking, allows a person to go beyond the limited scope of feelings. The forms of rational knowledge include: concept- a thought that reflects objects, phenomena and connections between them in a generalized form. For example, the concept of "man" is not identical to a simple sensual image of a particular person, but denotes in a generalized form the thought of any person - whoever he may be. Similarly, the concept of "table" includes images of all tables - of various shapes, sizes, colors, and not any specific image of the table. Thus, the concept captures not individual features of an object, but its essence, in particular, in the case of a table - its functions, use (an inverted box can also be included in the concept of "table" if it is used in this capacity); about judgment is the negation or affirmation of something with the help of concepts. In a judgment, a connection is established between two concepts. For example, "Gold is metal";

O inference- reasoning, in the course of which another is deduced from some judgments - premises, the final judgment - a conclusion. Typical example conclusions:

Premise 1: Gold is metal.

Premise 2: All metals are electrically conductive.

Conclusion: Gold conducts electricity.

In general, the level structure of cognition can be represented as follows:

Sense cognition: o sensation o perception o representation

Rational cognition: about concept about judgment about inference

In the theory of knowledge, there is no consensus about what the decisive role in cognition belongs to - feelings or reason.

Sensationalists they believe that new knowledge can be obtained only on the basis of feelings, and the mind is closed in the sphere of what is already known. In a conclusion, a conclusion based on reason and the laws of logic does not give any increment of knowledge in comparison with premises. For example, what new knowledge do we get from the conclusion "Gold conducts electricity" if we already know that "All metals are electrically conductive"? Moreover, the conclusion that metals are electrically conductive cannot be reached by reason alone. To do this, you need to conduct appropriate experiments. Therefore, sensory experience and feelings are primary and go ahead of any logical reasoning.

Rationalists(supporters of the primacy of reason in knowledge) point out that data based on sensory experience are unreliable.

The English mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) gives a parable about the unreliability of our everyday repeating experience. To a certain hen the owner brings grain every day. From this, she draws an empirical conclusion that the appearance of the host means the appearance of food. But one day the owner appears with a knife...

For example, experience confirms that every time a thrown stone flies down, but this does not yet prove that after the next throw it will not be able to fly up. The proof requires reason and theoretical calculations (in this case, the theory of gravity). Experience and feelings have deceived mankind many times. This applies, in particular, to ideas about the shape of the Earth or about the rotation of the Sun around the Earth. Moreover, without the preliminary help of the mind, the senses cannot receive any new data. A scientist who does not use reason, but relies only on feelings, will collect everything he sees, but scattered facts without a logical connection with each other will be anything but science. Experience is theoretically loaded: any experiment or scientific observation implies a reasonable hypothesis and goal, otherwise it is meaningless. Therefore, reason and logical reasoning are primary and go ahead of all feelings and experience.

Both sensationalism and rationalism give a positive answer to the question of the knowability of the world. This position is called optimistic. In the theory of knowledge, it has also been developed pessimistic the position that the world is unknowable.

Skepticism expresses a pessimistic position and, in principle, does not deny the possibility of knowing the world, but doubts that this is possible with the help of the means that we have. The Persian poet Omar Khayyam (1048-1122) wrote about the world like this:

All that you see is only one appearance,

Only the form - and the essence is not visible to anyone.

Do not try to understand the meaning of these pictures -

Sit quietly aside and drink some wine.

The foundations for skeptical argumentation have been proposed by philosophers Ancient Greece: feelings cannot be trusted, because different people may have different feelings, for example, what one likes, causes disgust in another;

feelings cannot be trusted also due to the fact that the sense organs constantly deceive us, for example, the refraction of the image of an object at the border of the air and water environments creates an optical illusion;

o reason cannot be trusted, since any proof relies on data that also needs to be proven, and so on ad infinitum; consequently, nothing can be proved, unless unproven axioms or dogmas are taken for granted.

AT agnosticism(from the Greek agnostos - unknowable) a stronger version of pessimism is presented. This trend denies the cognizability of the objective world. A vivid example of agnosticism is the philosophy of I. Kant, according to which the real world is fundamentally unknowable. All that we can know is only the world of appearance, distorted beyond recognition by our feelings and experience.

modern science takes an optimistic view of knowledge. The world is cognizable, scientists believe, and although absolute truth is unattainable, with each new scientific discovery we are getting closer to it.

What is considered primary in the process of scientific knowledge - feelings or reason? Although sensationalism and rationalism contradict each other, they are usually considered as complementary directions, constituting a unity. In this perspective, the question of the primacy of feelings or reason in cognition is removed, and they can be considered as two sides of a single process of cognition of the world.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

• 1. There are two main levels knowledge- sensual (empirical) and rational. The forms of sensory knowledge include sensation, perception and representation; to the forms of the rational - the concept, judgment and conclusion.
• 2. The starting point for the theory of knowledge is the question of the knowability of the world. Skepticism expresses doubts about cognizability; agnosticism speaks of the fundamental unknowability of the world.
• 3. The possibility of knowing the world with the help of the senses asserts sensationalism, with the help of the mind rationalism. Modern science considers feelings and reason as two sides of a single process of cognition.

QUESTIONS

• 1. Give examples of each of the forms of sensory cognition and rational cognition.
• 2. What are the main characteristics of optimistic and pessimistic views on the cognizability of the world. What arguments can be made in favor of each of these positions?

• The concept of "feeling" is ambiguous: it denotes not only the basic five feelings of a person, but also a number of "complex" feelings, such as the feeling of love or patriotism. However, speaking of sensory cognition, they mean only those basic (perceptual) feelings that are associated with the work of the organs of perception.
• Often the term "agnosticism" is used in relation to religion. If believers believe in the existence of God, and atheists do not believe in him, then agnostics simply refrain from answering, pointing out that it is impossible to prove either that God is or that he is not.

The possibilities of sensory cognition are determined by our sense organs and are most obvious to everyone, since we receive information with the help of our sense organs. The main forms of sensory cognition:

Feeling- information received from individual sense organs. In essence, it is sensations that directly mediate a person and the external world. Sensations provide primary information, which is further subjected to interpretation.

Perception- a sensual image of an object in which information received from all senses is integrated.

Performance- a sensual image of an object, stored in the mechanisms of memory and reproduced at will. Sensual images can have different degrees of complexity.

2. Rational knowledge.

Based on abstract thinking, allows a person to go beyond the limited scope of feelings.

The main forms of rational knowledge:

Judgment is the negation or affirmation of something with the help of concepts. In a judgment, a connection is established between two concepts.

inference- this is such a form of thought, when a new judgment is derived from one or several judgments, giving new knowledge. The most common are deductive and inductive types of reasoning.

Hypotheses are assumptions, a very important form of cognitive activity, especially in science.

Theory- a harmonious system of concepts, judgments, conclusions, within which laws are formed, patterns of a fragment of reality considered in this theory, the reliability of which is substantiated and proven by means and methods that meet the standards of science.

Ticket 34.Methods of empirical knowledge.

Method is a set of principles, requirements, techniques and rules for the theoretical or practical development of reality.

The methods of empirical knowledge include:

1.Observation- this is a purposeful, organized and systematic perception of the external properties of objects and phenomena of the world. Scientific observation is different. characteristics: 1) reliance mainly on such sensory abilities of a person as sensation, perception and representation; 2) connection with the solution of def. tasks; 3) planned and organized. character; 4) the absence of interference in the course of the process under study.

Observation is characterized non-interference in the course of the process under study, however, the active nature of people is fully realized in it. knowledge. Activity is manifested: 1) in the purposeful nature of the observation, in the presence of the initial attitude of the observer: what to observe and what phenomena to pay special attention to; 2) in the selective nature of the observation; 3) in its theoretical conditionality; 4) in the choice of means of description by the researcher.

The cognitive result of observation is the description.

2.Description- fixation by means of the language of the initial information about the object under study. The results of observation can also be recorded in diagrams, graphs, diagrams, digital data, and simply in drawings.

3. Measurement- this is an observation using special instruments that allow for an in-depth quantitative analysis of the phenomenon or process under study. Measurement is the process of determining the ratio of one measured quantity characterizing the object under study to another homogeneous quantity taken as a unit.

4. Experiment- this is an active method of studying objects, phenomena in precisely fixed conditions of their course, which consists in the direct and purposeful intervention of the researcher in the state of the object under study. In this case, as a rule, various devices and means are used. The experiment must be localized in space and time. In other words, an experiment is always aimed at a specially isolated part of an object or process. The experiment allows: 1) isolate what is being studied from side phenomena that obscure its essence; 2) repeatedly reproduce the process under study under strictly fixed conditions; 3) systematically change, vary, combine conditions in order to obtain the desired result. The experiment is a link between the theoretical and empirical levels of scientific research. At the same time, the method of experiment according to the nature of the used cognitions. funds belongs to the empirical. stage of knowledge. The result of the experiment. research, first of all, is factual knowledge and tired empiric. patterns.

In cases where the experiment is impossible (economically impractical, illegal or dangerous), a model experiment is used in which the object is replaced by its physical or electronic model. Empirical studies include only experiments with an objectively real, not an ideal model. Types of experiment: 1) search; 2) verification; 3) reproducing; 4) insulating; 5) qualitative or quantitative; 6) physical, chemical, biological, social experiment.

Abstraction - a method of scientific research associated with distraction in the study of a certain phenomenon or process from their non-essential aspects and features; this allows us to simplify the picture of the phenomenon under study and consider it “in its pure form”.

Idealization is a relatively independent method of cognition, although it is a kind of abstraction. In the process of idealization, there is an extreme abstraction from all the real properties of the object with the simultaneous introduction into the content of the formed concepts of features that are not realizable in reality. A so-called ideal object is formed, which can be used by theoretical thinking when cognizing real objects (“material point” in mechanics, “ideal gas” in physics, etc.).

Formalization is a set of cognitive operations that provides a distraction from the meaning of concepts and the meaning of expressions of a scientific theory in order to study its logical features, deductive and expressive possibilities. In formal logic, formalization is understood as the reconstruction of the content of a scientific theory in the form of a formalized language. Formalized theory can be considered as a system of mater. objects def. kind, i.e. characters that can be treated as concret. physical objects.

Axiomatization is one of the methods of deductive construction of scientific theories, in which: 1) a certain set of proposals of a certain theory (axioms) accepted without proof is selected; 2) the concepts included in them are not explicitly defined within the framework of this theory; 3) the rules of definition and the rules of inference of a given theory are fixed, which allow introducing new concepts into the theory and logically deriving some sentences from others; 4) all other propositions of this theory (theorems) are derived from (1) on the basis of (3).

Thought experiment is also a method of theoretical knowledge. If in a real experiment, a scientist to isolate reproduction and study the properties of def. phenomena puts him in decomp. real physical conditions and varies them, then in a thought experiment these conditions are imaginary, but the imagination is strictly regulated by the well-known laws of science and the rules of logic. The scientist operates with sensory images or theoretical models. The latter are closely related to their theoretical interpretation, so the thought experiment is more theoretical than empirical research methods. Experiment in the property. sense it can be called only conditionally, because. the way of reasoning in it is similar to the order of operations in a real experiment.

Method of hypothesis, or hypothetical-deductive. He is represented by stages: 1) generalization of the conclusions and empirical laws obtained at the empirical level in a working hypothesis, i.e. an assumption about the possible regular nature of the phenomena and processes under study, their permanent and reproducible connections; 2) deduction - derivation of empirically verifiable consequences from the received hypothesis; 3) an attempt to apply the obtained conclusions in the activity, purposefully modify the studied phenomena. If the last step succeeds, then this is the practical confirmation of the truth of the hypothesis.

The unity of historical and logical - historical expresses the structural and functional processes of the emergence and formation of a given object, logical - those relationships, laws, interconnections of its sides that exist in the developed state of the object. The historical is related to the logical as a process of development to its result, in which the connections that are successively formed in the course of real history have reached “full maturity, their classical form” (Engels).

Ticket 35.Methods of theoretical knowledge.

Theoretical knowledge consists in reflecting the phenomena and ongoing processes of internal connections and patterns, which are achieved by methods of processing data obtained from empirical knowledge. Theoretical methods of scientific knowledge have one main task, aimed at obtaining the objective concrete truth of the entire process. They have the following characteristic features:

The predominance of such rational moments as laws, theories, concepts and other forms of thinking;

The main subordinate aspect of the methods is sensory knowledge;

Focus on the study of the cognitive process itself (its methods, forms and conceptual apparatus).

Methods of theoretical knowledge help to draw logical conclusions and conclusions based on the study of the facts obtained, to develop judgments and concepts. the main ones are:

Idealization - the creation of mental objects and their changes in accordance with the required goals of the ongoing research;

Synthesis - combining into a single system all the results of the analysis, which allows expanding knowledge, constructing something new;

Analysis - decomposition unified system into component parts and studying them separately;

Formalization is a reflection of the obtained results of thinking in statements or exact concepts;

Reflection - scientific activity, aimed at the study of specific phenomena and the process of cognition itself;

Mathematical modeling is the replacement of a real system with an abstract one, as a result of which the task turns into a mathematical one, since it consists of a set of specific mathematical objects;

Induction is a way of transferring knowledge from individual elements of the process to knowledge of the general process;

Deduction is the desire for knowledge from the abstract to the concrete, i.e. the transition from general patterns to their actual manifestation.

A special contribution to the development of methods of the theoretical level of knowledge was made by the classical German philosophy of Hegel and the materialistic philosophy of K. Marx. They studied quite deeply and developed the dialectical method based on the idealistic and materialistic foundations of knowledge. In this regard, the methods of the theoretical level of knowledge and their existing problems occupy a particularly important place in Western modern philosophy, since each method has its own subject and is studied by separate objects and classes. 3 methods of theoretical knowledge have been identified:

Axiomatic - consists in building a scientific theory on axioms and rules for inferring information. The axiom does not require any logical proof and cannot be refuted by empirical facts. Hence comes the absolute refutation of all the contradictions that arise;

Hypothetical-deductive - based on the structure of scientific theory on hypotheses, i.e. knowledge that can be refuted by comparing data with actually obtained experimental facts. This method requires excellent mathematical training at the highest level;

Descriptive methods of theoretical knowledge - these include graphic, verbal and schematic methods of knowledge based on experimental data.

Ticket 36.Consciousness, its origin and essence.

Consciousness is a specifically human form of ideal reflection and spiritual assimilation of reality.

Idealistic philosophy interprets consciousness as something independent of the objective world and creating it.

Objective idealism (Plato, Hegel, and others) transforms consciousness into a divine, mysterious essence, divorced from both man and nature, seeing in it the fundamental principle of all that exists.

Subjective idealism (Berkeley, Mach, and others) considers the consciousness of the individual, torn out of all social ties, as the only reality, and all objects as a set of ideas of an individual person.

Materialism understands consciousness as a reflection of reality and connects it with the mechanisms of higher nervous activity.

The views of the pre-Marxian materialists were limited: they interpreted man as a natural, biological being, ignored his social nature, practical activity, turned consciousness into a passive contemplation of the world (Contemplation).

The specific features of the Marxist understanding of consciousness are as follows:

Consciousness is social in nature. It arises, functions and develops as a component of the practical activity of a social person.

Man thinks with the help of the brain. The activity of the highly organized nervous system of the brain is a condition for the emergence and development of human consciousness.

Consciousness is objective, i.e. directed towards life. To know, to master the subject, to reveal its essence - this is the meaning of consciousness.

Consciousness includes not only a reflection of the objective world, but also a person's awareness of his mental activity (Self-Consciousness).

At the same time, consciousness is not reducible either to thinking or to acts of self-consciousness, but embraces both the abstracting activity of thinking and productive imagination. In addition, consciousness includes intuition and human emotions, will, conscience, etc. So, consciousness is the totality, the focus of human mental functions.

Consciousness is closely related to language. In it, it finds its material embodiment. Materialized in language, the products of the activity of consciousness can be passed on to subsequent generations. Language is only one of the forms of materialization of consciousness, it is also embodied in cultural objects - products of labor, works of art, etc.

Along with the theoretical reflection of reality, consciousness includes the value attitudes of the individual, his social orientations, etc.

There are differences between ordinary consciousness (by which people are guided in everyday life) and scientific consciousness, between individual consciousness and social consciousness, expressing the interests of classes, groups, society as a whole. Forms of social consciousness - science, art, morality, etc. - irreducible to individual consciousness.

The function of consciousness is not only to correctly orient a person in the surrounding reality, but also to contribute to the transformation of the real world through the display.

The very first ideas about consciousness arose in antiquity. At the same time, ideas about the soul arose and questions were posed: what is the soul? How does it relate to the subject world? Since then, disputes have continued about the essence of consciousness and the possibility of its knowledge. Some proceeded from knowability, others - that attempts to understand consciousness are futile, just like trying to see oneself walking down the street from a window.

Idealism - consciousness is primary. Dualism - consciousness and matter are independent of each other.

Materialism - matter is primary both historically and epistemologically. She is the bearer and the cause of its occurrence. Consciousness is derived from matter. Consciousness is not connected with all matter, but only with a part of the brain and only at certain periods of time. Moreover, it is not the brain that thinks, but a person with the help of the brain.

Consciousness is the highest function of the brain, peculiar only to man and associated with speech, which consists in a generalized and purposeful reflection of reality.

Consciousness can be absolutely opposed to matter only within the framework of the main question, beyond them - no. Beyond these limits, the opposition is relative, because consciousness is not an independent substance, but one of the properties of matter and, therefore, is inextricably linked with matter. The absolute opposition of matter and consciousness leads to the fact that consciousness acts as a kind of independent substance that exists along with matter. Consciousness is one of the properties of the motion of matter, it is a special property of highly organized matter. This means that between consciousness and matter there is a difference, and a connection, and unity.

The difference is that consciousness is not matter itself, but one of its properties. The images of external objects constituting the content of consciousness are different in form from these objects, as their ideal copies.

Unity and connection - mental phenomena and the brain are closely related as a property and a material substratum to which this property belongs and without which it does not exist. On the other hand, the mental images that arise in the mind are similar in content to the material objects that cause them.

The essence of consciousness is its ideality, which is expressed in the fact that the images that make up consciousness have neither the properties of the objects reflected in it, nor the properties of the nervous processes on the basis of which they arose.

The ideal acts as a moment of a person's practical relationship to the world, a relationship mediated by forms created by previous generations - primarily the ability to reflect language, signs in material forms, and turn them into real objects through activity.

The ideal is not something independent in relation to consciousness as a whole: it characterizes the essence of consciousness in relation to matter. In this regard, the ideal allows you to more deeply comprehend the secondary nature of the highest form of reflection. Such an understanding makes sense only when studying the relationship between matter and consciousness, the relationship of consciousness to the material world.

The ideal and the material are not separated by an impenetrable line. The ideal is nothing but the material, transplanted into the human head and transformed in it. Such a transformation of the material into the ideal is produced by the brain.

Consciousness does not always exist. It arose during historical development matter, the complication of its forms, as a property of a highly organized material system.

Matter has a property similar to consciousness - reflection. All material formations have reflection. It is the moment of any interaction. Reflection is a change in one phenomenon under the influence of another. In inanimate nature, isomorphic reflections are common - prints, traces.

Irritability is a property of living organisms. The next stage in the development of forms of reflection after irritability is associated with the emergence of sensitivity, i.e. the ability to have sensations that reflect the properties of objects that affect the body. Feelings constitute the initial form of the psyche.

The psyche is the ability of living beings to create sensual and generalized images of external reality and respond to them in accordance with their needs.

Under the human psyche is understood the totality of phenomena and states of his inner world. Consciousness is part of the psyche. The psyche covers not only conscious, but also subconscious and unconscious processes.

Ticket 37

Consciousness- this is the highest function of the brain, peculiar only to people and associated with speech, which consists in the reasonable regulation and self-control of human behavior, in a purposeful and generalized reflection of reality, in a preliminary mental construction of actions and foreseeing their results. Consciousness instantly links between what a person heard, saw, and what he felt, thought, experienced.

Core of consciousness:

- Feel;

- perception;

- representation;

- concepts;

- thinking.

Components of the structure of consciousness- feelings and emotions.

Consciousness acts as a result of cognition, and the way of its existence is knowledge. Knowledge is a practice-tested result of cognition of reality, its correct reflection in human thinking.

self-awareness- this is a person's awareness of his actions, thoughts, feelings, interests, motives of behavior, his position in society.

According to Kant, self-consciousness is consistent with the awareness of the external world: "the consciousness of my own existing being is at the same time the direct awareness of the being of other things that are outside me."

Man is aware of himself

– through the material and spiritual culture he created;

- sensations of one's own body, movements, actions;

- communication and interaction with other people. The formation of self-awareness is:

- in direct communication of people with each other;

- in their evaluation relationships;

- in formulating the requirements of society for an individual;

- in understanding the very rules of relationships. A person realizes himself not only through other people, but also through the spiritual and material culture he created.

Knowing himself, a person never remains the same as he was before.

Ticket 38. The problem of truth: objectivity, absoluteness, relativity and concreteness of truth.

The main goal of knowledge is the achievement of truth.

True- an adequate reflection of the object by the cognizing subject, reproducing reality as it is in itself, outside and independently of consciousness.

Truth is limited, because it reflects the object not entirely, but within certain limits, which are constantly changing and developing.

Truth Options

Objectivity. Objective truth is a cognitive content independent of society as a whole and a person in particular. Truth is a property of human knowledge, therefore it is subjective in its form. Truth does not depend on the arbitrariness of consciousness, it is determined by the material world reflected in it, therefore, in terms of content, it is objective.

Absoluteness. The absoluteness of truth is its completeness, unconditionality, its inherent cognitive content independent of the subject, preserved and reproduced in the course of the progress of knowledge. From absolute truth one should distinguish eternal truth, which means the immutability of truth, its validity for all times and conditions.

Relativity. The relativity of truth is its incompleteness, conditionality, incompleteness, approximation, the entry into it of only subjectively significant components that are permanently eliminated from knowledge as things incompatible with nature.

concreteness. The concreteness of truth is an integral parameter; it follows from the objectivity, absoluteness, and relativity of truth. Truth is always concrete, because it is received by the subject in a certain situation, which is characterized by the unity of place, time, and action. The concreteness of truth is its certainty - regardless of the degree of rigor and accuracy, truth has a limit of positive applicability, where the concept of the latter is given by the area of ​​the actual feasibility of the theory.

The main points of the concreteness of truth:

truth is historical - it is realized in a certain situation, characterized by the unity of place, time, action;

truth is dynamic - the absolute is given relatively and through the relative, it has its own limits and exceptions;

truth is qualitative - there is a feasibility interval beyond which extrapolation of truth is unacceptable.

Although the basis for science is truth, science contains a lot of untrue:

unproved theorems;

unresolved issues;

hypothetical objects with unclear cognitive status;

paradoxes;

conflicting objects;

unsolvable positions;

unfounded assumption

Ticket 39. Philosophy and religion

Philosophy and religion seek to answer the question of man's place in the world, of

relationship between man and the world. They are equally interested in the questions: what is good?

what is evil? where is the source of good and evil? How to achieve moral

perfection? They are characterized by: a look into eternity, the search for higher goals, a valuable perception of life. But religion is mass consciousness, and philosophy is theoretical consciousness, religion does not require proof, and philosophy is always the work of thought.

Philosophy- love of wisdom. In its original content, philosophy practically coincides with the religious and mythological worldview.

Religion- attitude and worldview, as well as the corresponding behavior, determined by belief in the existence of God, deity; a sense of dependency, bondage, and obligation to a secret power that provides support and is worthy of worship.

I. Kant. distinguishes between moral and statuary religions. Moral religions are based on the faith of "pure reason", in which a person, with the help of his own mind, cognizes the divine will in himself. statuary religions are based on historical tradition, in them knowledge occurs through the Revelation of God, they cannot be recognized as obligatory for people. Only moral religion is mandatory. Religion first appears as a moral one, but in order to spread in society, it takes on a statuary character. The highest form of religion is Christianity, and above all in its Protestant variety.

G. Hegel believed that religion is a form of self-knowledge. Religion is equivalent to philosophy, they have one subject - eternal truth, God and the explanation of God. But they differ in research method: religion explores God with the help of feelings and ideas, and philosophy - with the help of concepts and laws.

L. Feuerbach He believed that religion appeared as a result of the alienation from a person of his best characteristics, raising them to the absolute and worshiping them. He believed that such a religion should be destroyed, and in its place put the worship of one person to another, or the love of man for man.

Marxist philosophy defines religion as belief in the supernatural. Religion is a fantastic reflection in the minds of people of those external forces that dominate them in real life. K. Marx, following Hegel, called religion opium for the people, i.e. a means of fooling for the purpose of exploitation.

German philosopher and sociologist M. Weber believed that religion is a way of giving meaning to social action; religion brings rationality into the explanation of the world and into everyday behavior.

Ticket 40. Social philosophy, its subject and purpose. The problem of the relationship between society and nature.

social philosophy explores the state of society as an integral system, the universal laws and driving forces of its functioning and development, its relationship with the natural environment, the surrounding world as a whole.

The subject of social philosophy- society in a philosophical approach.

Social philosophy is a section, a part of philosophy, and therefore all the characteristic features of philosophical knowledge are also inherent in social philosophy.

In socio-philosophical knowledge, such common characteristics are the concepts of: being; consciousness; systems; development; truth, etc.

In social philosophy, there are the same basic functions, as in philosophy:

worldview;

methodological.

Social philosophy interacts with many non-philosophical disciplines that study society:

sociology;

political economy;

political science;

jurisprudence;

cultural studies;

art history and other social and human sciences.

Maintask the science of society, namely social philosophy, consists in:

to understand the best system of social organization for a given era;

to induce the ruled and the ruling to understand it;

to improve this system, as it is capable of improvement;

to discard it when it reaches the extreme limits of its perfection, and to build a new one out of it with the help of materials that have been collected by scientific specialists in each separate field.

Problems social philosophy can be divided into three groups: First of all, these are questions of the qualitative originality of the socio-cultural world, taken in relation to the natural world; Secondly, this is the study of the principles of the structural organization of social formations (human societies) and the establishment of the sources of the variability of the forms of this organization observed in history; third, this is the question of the presence of regularities in the historical process and the search for objective foundations for the typology of human societies, closely related to it.

In philosophical views on nature itself and its essence, two extreme, opposite points of view can be distinguished. One of them considers nature only as chaos, the realm of blind elemental forces, chance. The other proceeds from the fact that natural necessity and strict laws prevail in nature.

In philosophy under nature refers to the totality of natural conditions

human existence and human society. Society is a continuation of nature.

The inconsistency of relations in the society-nature system can be seen already in

that, one side, as society develops, it becomes more and more

degree masters the forces of nature and its riches. On the other side The more a person subjugates nature, the more he depends on it. From this dependence, thoughts of future environmental problems are visible on the horizon. Man, throughout the development of relations between nature and society, treated nature mainly as a pantry of the necessary materials and material goods. But the acute question of the regeneration of nature arose only in the 21st century.