What is consciousness - since ancient times thinkers and healers have tried to understand it as a phenomenon, does it relate to the soul or is it the soul itself? Is the mind dying with the person? There are no answers to many questions today, but one can say about consciousness that without him there is no thinking person.
Consciousness - definition
Consciousness is the highest function of the brain, characteristic only for people and consists in reflecting reality, interacting with it through the mental construction of actions in the mind, preliminary calculation of results and realization in the external world. Consciousness is closely connected with speech and thinking . The structure of consciousness in philosophy has a more interconnectedness with the social, in psychology much attention is paid to the individual consciousness that arose and was separated from the social consciousness.
What is consciousness in psychology?
What is human consciousness from the point of view of psychologists? Consciousness in psychology is a reflection of a person by himself, his activity and the reality where he is - so L. Vygotsky considered. French psychologists Halbwachs and Durkheim saw consciousness as a plane with projected concepts and concepts on it. W. James defined consciousness as the master of mental processes that occur with the subject.
What is consciousness in philosophy?
Consciousness in philosophy is the ability to learn objects, to relate to them and the world as a whole. Consciousness is a form that can not be considered independently in isolation from the world. A person is totally embraced by consciousness and can not go beyond it, it turns out that if there is no consciousness, then for the person there is nothing at all. Different currents of philosophy interpreted consciousness in their own way:
- Dualism (Plato, Descartes) - spirit (consciousness) and matter (body) are two independent but complementary substances. The body dies, but consciousness is immortal, and after death, its world of ideas and forms returns.
- Idealism (J. Berkeley) - consciousness is primary, and the objects of the material world do not exist outside the perception of consciousness.
- Materialism (F. Engels, D. Davidson) - consciousness is a property of highly organized matter, reflecting the world and being its creator.
- Hinduism is the consciousness of "the silent supreme witness watching the actions of material nature (Practi).
- Buddhism - everything is consciousness.
Human Consciousness
The structure of consciousness includes a certain attitude to the environment, to people and from this an individual picture of the world is formed. Folding relationships, cognition and experience - all these are the properties of human consciousness, developing directly through society. If we carry out a qualitative characteristic of consciousness, we can distinguish the basic properties:
- activity - a conscious perception of the world by a person in terms of significance;
- intentionality - the desire or attraction to the realization of consciously planned goals.
Functions of consciousness
The structure and functions of consciousness are aimed at interacting with the external world, the reality in which the individual consciousness of the individual lives and acting as regulators in solving vital problems and gaining experience. The following functions of consciousness are of paramount importance:
- regulatory (accounting, assessment and comparison of various factors and implementation of actions based on environmental analysis, regulation of their own behavior and impact on the team);
- creative (cognition of nature, the phenomena of mechanisms and gaining experience of diversity and freedom from which you can create something new);
- cognitive (as a result of transforming the material and ideal representations to extract knowledge of reality);
- communicative (using the consciousness of various verbal and non-verbal systems, modern means of communication for communication);
- accumulative (consciousness based on memory accumulates knowledge that a particular person has extracted himself, or knowledge of previous generations);
- axiological (the ability of consciousness to evaluate the knowledge, actions and deeds of other people and apply depending on their actual needs).
Levels of consciousness
The central aspect of consciousness is the consciousness of "I" - "I am!", "I think!" "I exist!". Layers or levels of human consciousness, contributing to what a person can say about himself "I ..!":
- Being consciousness - it contains the source of the reflexive beginning, images and meanings are born here (experience, properties of movement, practical activity, sensory images), and being is reflected and created (complex tasks
- Reflective consciousness is thinking about the world , regulating behavior (self-awareness, self-knowledge, self-esteem, self-reflection or introspection). This layer of consciousness performs the task of analyzing the situation, splitting the whole into parts and revealing the cause-effect relationships.
Development of consciousness
The essence and structure of consciousness changed throughout evolution, as it was seen from the stages following one after another:
- Psychic of animals and prehuman . Here differences are imperceptible, there is no individual consciousness yet, prehumans differ from intelligent primates by the presence of public consciousness, which included a common idea, a task, one for all, thought was to be the impetus to the development of the next stage.
- Herd consciousness . Among the "pack" of people, a strong and clever "individual" stands out: the leader, a hierarchical structure appears, and the consciousness is undergoing changes. Herd consciousness made it possible to feel each individual individual more protected, and common goals and tasks helped to capture territories and increase the number of herds.
- Consciousness of a reasonable person . Daily discoveries and observations of natural processes consistently contributed to the development of consciousness and the nervous system as a whole in a reasonable person. Reflections about themselves and the nature of things appear.
- Consciousness of a man of a clan society, self-consciousness . Perfection of the higher functions of the brain takes place: speech, thinking (especially abstract).
Control of consciousness
In order to control yourself you need to know what is consciousness, what mental processes occur in the brain, without it it is difficult to adjust yourself to achieve goals, to form a motivation. What role does consciousness play in a person's life can be seen in every concrete practical activity. Before something is put into practice, a person builds it in his head, then through certain operations, manipulations creates it. Without direction and control of consciousness, any activity would not be feasible - this is the specific role of consciousness.
Relationship between consciousness and the human subconscious
Consciousness and the unconscious in psychology are the layers of the human psyche. Between them there is interaction, it is believed that consciousness is only the "tip of the iceberg", whereas the unconscious is a dark, bottomless matter in which everything that a person often does not realize is hidden. With the help of psychoanalytic and transpersonal techniques, hypnosis , experts can help to identify the old traumas that have been repressed in the unconscious, which negatively affect today's life.
What is the public consciousness?
For each epoch in the history of mankind there were their own collective representations, beliefs, ideas - that in aggregate and is a social consciousness that is opposed to the individual and carries within it the aspect of spirituality. Public consciousness in philosophy, as a phenomenon since ancient times, aroused great scientific interest and thinkers defined it also as a collective consciousness.
Levels of social consciousness
The emergence and development of the consciousness of the individual is directly related to those processes that occur in society at a given time. Consciousness of each person "uniting" with each other form public consciousness. The way people perceive and interact with the surrounding reality determines the levels of development of the consciousness of society and depth. Philosophers and sociologists distinguish the following levels of social consciousness, their four:
- Ordinary - is typical for all people of the planet Earth and is formed through daily practical actions. What is ordinary consciousness? In itself, it is spontaneous, not systematized, its basis is everyday everyday experience.
- Theoretical - reality is reflected on the deep essential level, all phenomena and concepts of social life are logically grounded, at this level there is an understanding of the laws of development. Carriers of public consciousness: scientists, theorists of different scientific directions. The theoretical and ordinary consciousness interact and develop one of the other.
- Social psychology - everything that happens in society, a set of unrest, moods, certain traditions. Formed in close connection with historical development, it can differ in different groups or strata of society. Social psychology reflects the mood of people on the phenomena of social life, national character and mentality.
- Ideology is a level reflecting the system of views and attitudes of society, its spirituality, needs and interests. It is formed by politicians, ideologists, sociologists purposefully.