The subject, content and role of philosophy in society

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The subject, content and role of philosophy in society

The origin of the concept of "philosophy". It is appropriate to start with the meaning of any unknown word from its etymology, that is, when, how and why it arose. The concept of "philosophy" comes from the Greek words phileo - love and sophia - wisdom, and the original meaning of this term can be interpreted as love for wisdom. The word philosophy was first coined by the ancient Greek thinker Pythagoras in the XNUMXth century BC as knowledge passed from generation to generation (through legends, narratives, traditions) and a person relying on his own mind, observing and critically understanding existence. He used the knowledge he could get to differentiate.
It should be noted that both Pythagoras and other philosophers of the ancient times initially assigned a different meaning to the concept of "philosophy" than the meaning that appeared later and raised philosophy to the level of "the king of all sciences" with its focus on essence. . But the early philosophers did not consider themselves sages and did not claim to be wise, because, according to the popular belief of the time, true wisdom was embodied in myths, religions and legends handed down from ancestors, passed down from century to century. Prophets, priests, and elders who have knowledge that has stood the test of time and is the ultimate source of truth are recognized as sages. Their words are accepted as unquestionably and immediately correct. And the philosopher, according to the ancients, was a seeker, an admirer of wisdom, relying not on ready-made truths accepted as faith, but on his own mind, creatively using the knowledge and experience gained by other philosophers. should strive for the goal.
However, this attitude of a person to the world and to himself did not arise immediately. Until the ability of man to resist nature, to create and multiply the means of existence developed and increased, as a result of which sufficient experience and knowledge were accumulated, until the human mind was advanced enough to seek answers to a large number of questions. passed 'l. Therefore, in order to understand the essence of philosophy, as well as the reasons and conditions for its emergence, it is necessary to start from the human worldview. What for? Therefore, philosophy is one of the main historical forms of worldview. To talk about philosophy means to talk about the worldview of man, his ability to think rationally, and therefore, about its essence and the history of its appearance on Earth. Here we are faced with complex problems that are still understudied, because the origin of man is one of the great puzzles that people have always tried to solve. But there are many unsolved problems in this field of knowledge even today. In particular, there is still no clear, generally recognized answer to the question of why, where, and for what reasons man appeared. In the same way, the question of whether the mind is unique to humans or its presence in human existence is a part of objective existence, some phenomenon? has not yet found its answer.
However, there are some issues in terms of the current scientific conception of human history, on which scientists and experts have come to a certain halt. In particular, taking into account the rich historical material, evidentiary data obtained by the science of archeology, as well as the results obtained by the methods of other sciences (for example, determining the age of rocks, minerals, etc.), with confidence the gradual ( it can be noted that it is a product of evolutionary) development. The existing knowledge allows us to conclude that the ancient settlements of humanoid creatures (lat. homo habilis - learned man) who made simple tools appeared about 3-5 million years ago.
According to archeological and scientific data, the age of a man standing upright is about 1,5 million years. Homo sapiens, that is, intelligent people, appeared only 40-60 thousand years ago. According to experts, since consciousness appeared in man and he was gradually formed as a social being, his main characteristics have not changed significantly, that is, he is almost no different from the people of today.
The emergence of consciousness, according to scientific imagination, is associated with the period of human historical development when the human brain, under the influence of increasing labor activity and verbal (speech) communication, is highly developed and reaches the level of understanding complex abstractions. Thus, man began to perform intellectual work in a simple, but full sense of the word, by defining concepts, expressing opinions and making observations.
The essence of worldview. It is from this period that a more developed worldview of a person was formed, and about the worldview of people as a set of accumulated knowledge, practical skills, values, and ideas about themselves and the world around them. z can be run.
A worldview formed on the basis of life experience and empirical knowledge is called a simple or empirical worldview and acts as a fragmented, unsystematic set of human perceptions of the world. It is the basis of any worldview and performs an important regulatory function, guiding people in their daily life and activities, determining their behavior and most of their actions.
If we give a more complete and broad definition, worldview is a system of approaches of a person to the environment surrounding him and his attitude towards himself, as well as life ideals, beliefs, knowledge of people defined by these approaches. and operating principles, values ​​and goals.
The worldview defined in this way is unique to man, which is due to the existence of consciousness and rational activity formed in him. In this, a person not only acquires the ability to create concepts and reason, draw conclusions and define rules, but also begins to use ready-made knowledge to obtain new knowledge. Intelligence, which characterizes such activities of man, his creative activity, becomes a powerful factor in accelerating the evolution of mankind and society, and ultimately acts as the main sign that allows us to distinguish man from animals.
The role of personality in worldview. With the appearance of the mind, a person begins to realize himself as a thinking being, in which the idea of ​​\uXNUMXb\uXNUMXbmyself and others is formed and develops. In this way, he understands himself and the beings that surround him, differentiates himself and other people, himself and the external environment, perceives new and new aspects of the world that were not known to him before. Such views form the basis of a worldview, which is formed as a set of perceptions of a person about himself and the existence that surrounds him. In this, a person distinguishes between things he likes and dislikes, makes evaluations, creates a system of priorities and acts appropriately to achieve certain goals.
Thus, the functions of cognition, attitude to values ​​and determining behavior are embodied in worldview.
The cognitive function is especially important in this, because it includes all questions that arouse interest in a person, as well as answers that can be found in a certain way. Knowledge enriches and expands people's worldview, which becomes deeper and richer in content depending on the development of society.
But the world is very diverse and constantly changing, and there are undoubtedly more questions that do not have satisfactory answers than questions that can be answered conclusively. Therefore, the worldview, questions and answers of each person who approaches problems in a certain way are always distinguished by personal uniqueness and, at least for this reason, will never be the same as the worldview of other people.
The originality and uniqueness of the worldview is the integral connection of the emotional and spiritual foundations along with the intellectual basis and their overall functioning as completely specific, individual characteristics for each person.
Intellectual, emotional, and spiritual foundations combine with will to create beliefs—views that people actively embrace and align with their level of consciousness and goals in life.
Another element of any worldview is doubt, which protects the worldview from dogmatism, that is, from one-sided, uncritical thinking, accepting this or that rule as unquestionably true. The opposite of dogmatism is skepticism, in which doubt becomes absolute, becomes the main factor of thinking, acts as the main principle of knowledge and perception of existence.
The structure of worldview consists of the most important elements, such as perception of the world, perception of the world, and understanding of the world.
Sensing the world is an emotional perception of the world around us with the help of senses. In this case, emotions and mood paint the world with colors, reflect its image through subjective, purely individual sensations. For example, a light that may seem too bright to a sick person is normal to a healthy person; Color blindness perceives the gamut of colors completely differently than a person with normal vision. Different, especially optimistic, pessimistic, and tragic types of perception of the world arise from this.
Perception of the world is to imagine the environment in ideal images. The perception of the world can be right or wrong, that is, it does not correspond to existence. In this case, existence is wrongly imagined, or fantasies similar to visions of illusions, mermaids, alvasti, centaurs appear.
Understanding the world is a mental-cognitive activity aimed at determining the essence of a person and the world around him, as well as understanding the interrelationships of events and processes occurring in nature.
Sensing the world and partially (in elementary forms) perception of the world is characteristic not only of man, but also of animals, and understanding of the world is characteristic only of humans.
Historical forms of worldview. Different eras have deepened knowledge and broadened human outlook. Correspondingly, the simple (empirical) worldview was enriched, on its basis, more complex structures were gradually formed in accordance with the laws of self-organization, and this ultimately led to the differentiation of separate forms or historical types of worldview. The most important of them are myth, religion, philosophy and science.
Historically, the first forms of worldview are myth and religion, philosophy and science, which is in common with the general logic of the gradual development of mankind. Depending on the accumulation of skills, experience and simple knowledge, not only the problem of their transfer from generation to generation arose, but also the worldview of primitive people became more complex. At a certain stage of the development of this worldview, after reaching the "higher stage" of accumulated knowledge, the laws of self-organization began to apply in the worldview, as in any other complex system.
To better understand the nature of this phenomenon, it is appropriate to refer to the example of the collection of books in a private library. If there are several books in this library, they don't need to be organized, it doesn't matter where they are and how they interact. If the size of the library is measured by dozens of books, it is necessary to arrange and systematize the books in a certain way in order to facilitate their use. The greater the number of books, the more complicated the system of classifying, organizing, dividing them into columns, so that it is easier and more convenient to work with them.
According to the laws of self-organization in the highly developed worldview of primitive people, such order first appeared in the form of myth and the first forms of religion.
Mythological worldview. The concept of "myth" comes from the Greek word mythos, which means legend, narrative. A myth is a worldview systematized in a certain way, expressing the vision of different peoples about the origin of the world, natural phenomena, fantastic creatures, deeds of gods and heroes.
Knowledge, religious beliefs, various elements of spiritual culture, art, buds of social life are united in the myth, thus the worldview of primitive people has been organized to a certain extent, and their views on the world have been put into a certain system. The important forms of this systematization are epos, fairy tales, legends, narratives, and myths are primarily expressed through them. In this way, the accumulated knowledge and experience will be passed on to the next generations.
The peculiarity of mythological thinking is that it is not a simple narrative, a story about any event, but the oral "sacred" text as a specific being that affects the events in the archaic consciousness, the person and the world in which he lives. is a reflection. Myth, especially in the early stages of human history, performed the function of regulating people's behavior and interactions, because it expresses moral views, the aesthetic attitude of a person to existence. Mythology is characterized by the fact that everything in it is one, whole, inseparable; natural objects and phenomena live according to the same laws as humans, have the same sensations, desires, and inclinations as humans.
Thus, a myth is not someone's invention or a "relic of the past", but a unique language with the help of which man has described the world since ancient times, summarized, interpreted, classified and organized his growing scattered knowledge into a specific system. put
In the myth, the father, the elder's judgment and established traditions play a particularly important role. At the root of such an attitude towards the narrative and its content lies faith, a direct, emotional perception of existence. A mythological worldview is a holistic understanding of the world, in which there is no room for doubt.
Mythology (as a set of myths) is not only inextricably linked with the worldview of ancient people. Myths that exist in religion, philosophy, politics, art, which live in the common mind in a clear or veiled form, play an active role in people's lives and creativity even today (to a greater extent for some, for others). remains a component of any human worldview. In the conditions of rapidly growing society's information, myth is used as a means of manipulation of social consciousness and the formation of predetermined public opinion by means of television, radio, timed press, current election technologies.
Religious worldview. Historically, the second form of worldview is religion. (The word "religion" is translated from Arabic as "belief, faith, trust".) Like myth, faith, feelings and emotions lie at the core of religion. Although the buds of religion appeared in the early stages of the formation of the worldview of the "intelligent man", that is, about 40-60 thousand years ago, in general, it appeared later as an independent form of worldview, including the ability of man to think abstractly under the influence of myth. appeared during a period of significant increase.
A religious worldview is the corresponding behavior and specific actions of people based on their belief in supernatural things (gods, "higher mind", some kind of absolute, etc.). If in mythology the belief in tradition and the authority of the narrator, that is, the elder, is strong, then in religion the belief in the supernatural comes first, and the authority of priests who narrate on behalf of higher powers is secondary. plays a role.
Thus, religion is a complex spiritual construct and socio-historical phenomenon in which faith inevitably takes priority and always prevails over knowledge.
The main functions of religion. Compared to myth, the functions of religion are more complex. Among the functions of religion, the following can be distinguished:
• the function of worldview formation answers the questions of when and why the whole existence appeared and how the universal role of extraordinary power was manifested in it;
• the communicative function provides a certain type of communication and interpersonal relations, contributes to the cohesion and integrity of society;
• the regulatory function determines the relevant norms and rules that regulate people's behavior;
• the compensatory function compensates for the lack of information, attention, care, does not make one feel the absence of the meaning of life, perspectives, etc. will do.
The main roots of religion. Religion emerged as a legitimate phenomenon, and it has deep roots that saturate human belief in supernatural things and phenomena. The psychological root of religion is first of all in human nature, regardless of the level of development of the human intellect and the ability of critical thinking, it is always a manifestation of the desire and even the need not only to understand, understand, but also to believe.
The epistemological roots of religion are manifested in the fact that the world in its diversity seems infinitely complex to a person from the point of view of rational knowledge. According to Farobi, "Religion appears and strengthens only when the theoretical and practical laws are formulated, and when the ways of people's faith, education and training are developed. Thanks to such a religion, the masses can get enough knowledge for happiness". That is why the universe is full of mysteries and miracles for man. Just as man is not able to prove or disprove many of his beliefs based on reason alone, he is also unable (perhaps yet) to find answers to the above-mentioned mysteries and miracles. As psychologists note, "extremely difficult task makes the mind impassable", a person feels powerless in the face of unsolvable problems and easily fills the arguments of the mind with fictitious, unusual things.
The social roots of religion lie in the fact that people cannot change or overcome the ever-present inequality, poverty, and injustice in society, no matter how hard they try. The feeling of injustice and the imperfection of the mortal world creates helplessness and despair, the last mentioned feelings easily turn into a belief in the existence of life in that world. However, every religion teaches that real life is in the world. A person faced with problems and difficulties and unable to find support in real life turns to the other world, relying on extraordinary forces. Believing in them, man finds solace and comfort, and ultimately accepts fate.
Dinn's political roots. There is also an integral and continuous connection between religion and politics. Usually, various political forces do not miss the opportunity to use religion for their petty interests and thus directly or indirectly support it, strengthen its role and influence in society.
The basis on which religion is shown to be viable is so strong that even the impressive advances of modern science have not been able to undermine its foundation, and the growth of scientific knowledge has hardly changed the percentage of believers and atheists, even among scientists. For example, in 1916, when it was widely acknowledged that the rapidly developing natural science provides unlimited opportunities for mankind to know the world, James Luba based his research on the fact that 40% of American scientists believe in God. At the end of the 90s, the results of a new study conducted by American historians E. Larson and I. Whitham caused even more noise. They decided to determine to what extent the worldview of scientists has changed under the influence of the great discoveries and scientific achievements of the 40th century. Therefore, their survey among randomly selected representatives of social sciences and natural sciences in the United States showed that 45% of scientists still believe in God and life in the afterlife. The number of those who do not believe in God and atheists (those who deny the existence of God) has not changed and today, as before, is about 15 and XNUMX%.
Regardless of time, countries and continents, the general conclusion about the viability of the religious worldview is also available in Uzbekistan. Among the Uzbeks who lived in the conditions of militant atheism, which used all available evidence to "expose" religion for nearly 80 years in the XNUMXth century, two-thirds of the country's population considered themselves religious.
Historical forms of religious beliefs. A large number of different religions are known in the history of mankind. In particular, in the period of the primitive community, when a person with a very low level of culture and knowledge could not resist the extraordinary forces of nature, which seemed to him powerful, alien and mysterious, simpler forms of religion appeared: fetishism, animism, totemism, magic, etc. came
Fetishism believes that this or that object has miraculous properties, the ability to influence people's lives. Such an object is deified, becomes an object of worship and worship.
Animism (lat. anima - soul) is the belief that not only people, but also animals, objects and phenomena of existence are controlled by a soul. From the point of view of animism, the whole world is spirited and alive.
The basis of totemism is the belief in the common origin of a certain group of people with a totem, that is, an animal, plant, or object that is declared as an ancestor considered an object of worship. is a powerful patron, protector, provides him with food and the like. (In India Hanuman is a monkey, a cow, one or another divine object in different tribes)
Magic (Greek mageia - sorcery) is also one of the forms of primitive religion, based on which, without the help of natural forces, objects, people, animals and even supernatural forces - spirits, are created in a mysterious way, with pictures and rituals, with a set of specific actions. the belief that it is possible to influence insu genders and the like.
These ancient forms of religion formed the basis of later religious beliefs and were reflected to one degree or another in both polytheism (polytheism) and monotheism (monotheism). They still exist partially independently.
About 10 years ago, the Neolithic revolution took place when humans began to live a sedentary life, engaged in animal husbandry and agriculture. It was at this stage of the development of society that polytheism arose, because the social division of labor, the secular relations of domination and submission began to correspond more to the belief in the gods that people gave certain names, and not to the belief in spirits and dates.
In the following periods, as a result of the emergence and development of statehood, the emergence of ancient great cultures, the formation of slave relations, the establishment of monarchies and the resulting despotism, the tendency to worship one god also appeared in the religious worldview. By distinguishing among the many gods a single god in power, people thus made their vision of a real life ruled by a worldly king seem compatible with the other world, inhabited by a single and all-powerful god. In this way, monotheistic religions (Greek mono - one and theos - god): Judaism (1th century BC), Buddhism (XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries BC), Christianity (XNUMXst century) and Islam (XNUMXth century) came into being. came So every religion is based on a certain philosophy. The basis of true religion is correct (analytical) philosophy, and the basis of false religion is false philosophy, or views built on false argumentsXNUMX.
Philosophical outlook. By the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries BC, mainly under the influence of myth and religion, people's worldview not only expanded, but also became more complicated. He has risen to a whole new level of his development as a result of having the ability to think abstractly theoretically and (in the form of accumulated knowledge) real foundations. Undoubtedly, the development of socio-economic relations that led to the division of labor, a certain amount of surplus means of existence, and the emergence of free time made it possible. All this allowed a certain circle of people to engage in intellectual activity at a professional level.
Thus, about 2500 years ago, the necessary conditions for the emergence of the third form of worldview - philosophy - appeared almost simultaneously in Europe and Asia. Unlike previous forms of worldview - myth and religion, philosophy explains the world not based on beliefs and feelings, but based on reason and knowledge.
Philosophy arose in India, China, Central Asia and ancient Greece at about the same time, primarily as a method of rational understanding of the world. By this time, myth and religion could no longer satisfy man's ever-increasing interest in knowledge with their ready-made and concise answers. They also failed to cope with the task of summarizing, systematizing and passing on to generations the experience and knowledge that has grown significantly and become more complex.
In the words of the famous German philosopher Karl Jaspers, during this period (which the philosopher calls "secular time") humanity has made a big turn in its development. The age of mythology, imbued with the spirit of calmness and stability, has come to an end, and as a result of the struggle of rationality and rationally verified experience against myth, it has gradually begun to recede. "It is appropriate to connect the axis of world history with the spiritual process that took place between 500 BC, 800 and 200 BC," writes K. Jaspers. - During this period, the biggest turning point in history was made. A type of man appeared that has survived to this day. The first philosophers appeared. Man dared to look for support in himself as an individual. The faith of Chinese hermits, Oriental thinkers, secularists of India, Greek philosophers and Israeli saints, however different they may be in terms of content and internal structure of their teachings, are close in essence. Now man could set himself against the world on an inner level. Man has discovered the inner potential that allows him to rise above the world and himself" 1.
Another reason for the changes that took place is that mythology collided with the buds of scientific knowledge, which demanded to refer to natural laws and natural-causal connections, and not to the next myths for obtaining, developing and explaining. After all, people's worldview has undergone a radical change in a relatively short period of time; in it, knowledge, thinking, analytical thinking began to play an increasingly important role, they pushed aside all kinds of beliefs based on the perception of superficial information at the level of sensations and emotions. The father, the priest, the priest, whose words should only be trusted, has been replaced by the philosopher, the teacher who asks questions and encourages understanding. He spread the seeds of doubt, aroused interest and invited: "Don't believe, but think for yourself!"
The philosopher cleansed the thinking from superstitions and heresies, freed it and developed the ability to think critically, which is not at all characteristic of a mythological or religious worldview. Unlike those who consider the source of "wisdom" inherited from the ancestors, who call for ready knowledge and unquestionable truths to be accepted as faith, the philosopher defines the questions and, relying first on common sense and the power of his own intelligence, answers them. taught to search for answers.
The peculiarity of the philosophical perception of the world is manifested in the emergence of a completely new field of knowing, feeling, seeing and understanding the world - philosophy. In fact, philosophy is not only a form of a person's worldview, but also a form of social consciousness, the general principles of people's existence and knowledge, their attitude to the world, and the most general laws of nature, society and thinking are discovered and defined. . That is, it is a general system of views on the world and a person's place in it.
Such views are based on questions and a set of rationally acquired knowledge based on a person's desire to find answers to them. But knowledge has such a nature that the answer to one question often raises many other questions, and sometimes not only does not clarify the problem, but also complicates it, increases human curiosity and invites new research. So, here we are talking about creativity, constant research, striving for innovation.
If in mythology and religion the emphasis is on the answer, the whole content of knowledge is embodied in it, then in philosophy the question, the issue is in the first place. If it is correct and well defined, it clearly reflects the essence of the problem. A question, a problem encourages a person to create, until a satisfactory answer is obtained and the belief that the bottom of the truth has been reached, invites a person to search. In this case, the question itself, the setting of the problem, is not less important than the answer, sometimes even more important.
It should also be noted that philosophy, although it strives for specific results, perfect definitions, concise conclusions, is not satisfied with itself. Philosophy should be understood first of all as a spiritual process occurring in the field of human culture, which is integrally connected with various contradictions and interactions, and at the same time has the ability to move to other fields and be embodied in them.
The bottom line is that philosophical reflection means asking questions, doubting, searching for answers, and returning to issues that were thought to have been resolved yesterday. For philosophy, there are no "eternal", definitive truths, "uncomfortable", "tangling" questions or forbidden topics. Philosophy tries to expand the scope of knowledge by asking questions, trying to understand the essence of things and events.
So, philosophy is to express reality as it is, and religion is its symbolic, representative reflection. Philosophy is the basis and essence, religion is the symbol and form. The method of dialectical discussion is necessary for a few aspects of society. Expression in the way of revelation is necessary for the perception, upbringing and education of the masses
Subject of philosophy. Now we can ask the question: "What does philosophy study?" Any objective and questionable object that awakens interest in knowledge in a person, tries to give rationally based answers based on certain knowledge and experience, specific faith, trust and intuition to a person who is not satisfied with the answers of mythology, religion or science. Subjective existence is the subject of philosophy. . In other words, everything that can be a reason to ask questions in order to form a certain idea about the object of his interest is the subject of philosophy. In this regard, it is quite appropriate to talk about the philosophical views of this or that person, and even about his philosophy, and we often encounter this in everyday life.
However, at the same time, we are interested in philosophy as a science, as a social phenomenon that has become the product of the development of the whole society, and not of an individual person, and that is why the concept of "man" is used in the collective sense in the above definition. It should be noted here that although we have given a broad definition of the subject of philosophy from a general point of view, in some historical periods, usually for one reason or another, the scope of certain issues is at the forefront of philosophical research. comes out.
For example, in ancient Greece, cosmocentrism was a characteristic feature of early philosophical teachings, where the main focus was on understanding "space", "nature". Later, during the period when the ancient Greek city-polis flourished, philosophers focused on social problems, ethics, and issues of state building. As a result of the emergence and consolidation of Christianity in Europe and Islam in the East, the philosophy of the Middle Ages acquired a theocentric (Greek. theos - God in the center) character, that is, God and the world he created became the main subject of philosophical interest. During the Renaissance, philosophy was addressed to art (aesthetics) and to a large extent to man. In the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries, known as the New Age, philosophy became inextricably linked with the growing science, as a result of which knowledge and scientific methods were the focus of philosophical research. issues took place.
The crisis of "classical philosophy" and rationality that occurred in the second half of the XNUMXth century revealed the problems of irrationality, intuition, unconsciousness, and in the first half of the XNUMXth century they became the main subject of the analysis of "non-classical philosophy", which, in turn, focused on the logic of texts, language , led to a special interest in their interpretation and interpretation. In the last decades of the XNUMXth century, a post-noclassical philosophy was formed, which put the crisis events in the current culture and the problems determined by the rapid development of new information technologies and mass communication tools on the agenda. While the representatives of this philosophy observe that "historical development is complete", all meanings and ideas are "said", and draw attention to the fact that a person is not able to process the information that flows to him, disorganization, European tradition put forward the idea of ​​changing the foundations, values ​​and boundaries of traditional philosophical knowledge.
Finally, at the border of the XNUMXth-XNUMXst century, another topic that came to the fore in the newest philosophy and was among the most important topics, special attention was paid to defining the essence of globalization processes and their direction of development. These processes have now covered almost all aspects of society's life and created universal problems of our time, and finding their theoretical and practical solutions requires understanding these problems, including at the philosophical level. Among the most important problems that require special attention and concerted action at the international level, one can include the problems of ecology, demography, security, international crime, energy resources, and ending poverty.
As we can see, the subject of philosophy cannot be associated with a single, strictly limited, range of specific issues. Depending on the time factor and a set of objective reasons, it always comes to the fore in the form of one or another problem or a certain set of them. But this does not mean that other topics, issues and problems lose their importance and go beyond the limits of philosophy, they cease to be the subject of its analysis. Relegates major topics to the second, third, or even further position, "waiting" for their time to take the center of philosophical attention at a certain time and in the appropriate circumstances, or to rise up the priority line of philosophical problems. , it would be more correct to say that he is standing in a shelter. It is for this reason that in the history of philosophy we see a constant change in the priorities of interests, when one or another issue becomes the main issue, the main attention of the philosophical community is focused on it for a certain period of time.
The structure of philosophical knowledge. In the ancient period of its formation and development, philosophy achieved high results in the field of knowledge of nature, man, society and spirituality, as well as causal relationships, laws, and the like, and became the general vision of people about the world from the point of view of rationality. But due to the infinite variety and richness of the world, some sections began to separate from the unbroken philosophical knowledge and imagination, developed over time, acquired a more specific form and were filled with new knowledge. As a result, they formed the structure (structure) of philosophical knowledge.
The following are important components of philosophical knowledge:
• ontology - existence, knowledge about existence;
• epistemology (according to another terminology - epistemology) - theory of knowledge;
• social philosophy – the doctrine of society;
• ethics - the doctrine of morality;
• axiology — the doctrine of values;
• Philosophical anthropology - the doctrine of man, etc.
To understand the nature of philosophical problems, to determine their most important ones and, finally, to get acquainted with philosophical knowledge - means to carefully study the indicated sections, while approaching them as components of a whole. In the end, we witness the emergence of a unique language of philosophy, its own approaches and methods, and finally, a system of categories that reflects the most important relations, properties and laws of nature, society and thinking. In this case, each section or direction in philosophy has its own apparatus of concepts, that is, a system of categories that is unique to this field of knowledge and illuminates its main essence.
In addition to the topics considered in philosophy, there are also such areas of knowledge that penetrate all other areas of knowledge, harmonize with them and complement them. For example, the philosophical teaching about nature, society, man and the movement, development and changes occurring in his thinking - dialectics is one of such areas of knowledge.
For objective reasons, some areas of philosophical knowledge have developed significantly and over time have become independent philosophical disciplines. Among such areas of knowledge, for example, the science that studies the forms, laws and methods of human cognition — logic; the doctrine of spirituality and morality - ethics; it is possible to include the science of the essence and forms of creation in accordance with the laws of beauty - aesthetics.
In this sense, the science of the history of philosophy deserves special attention, because it is not only a philosophical, but also a historical science with attention to the essence. At the same time, it is also part of philosophical knowledge, because it studies the emergence, formation and development of philosophical thinking, the evolution and nature of philosophical ideas from the point of view of how they are described in the teachings of different philosophers, directions, currents. Special attention is paid to the systematization and classification of philosophical doctrines, the analysis of texts, historical dates, the collection of evidentiary material, biographical data in the science of history of philosophy. In this regard, the study of philosophy aimed at broadening and deepening the worldview, creating one's own philosophical approaches, necessarily implies acquaintance with its history, main figures and most important philosophical works.
New areas of philosophy. The structure of philosophical knowledge is not fixed, it is formed intermittently. Depending on the development of philosophy and the expansion of the scope of the problems it solves, there will be changes in the structure of philosophical knowledge. When scientific theories or philosophical ideas are in crisis or demonstrate their unfoundedness, their place and role in the knowledge system is re-evaluated, which sometimes leads to the loss of their theoretical and practical importance. For example, this was the case with the theory of phlogiston, the search for the "philosopher's stone", the philosophy of empirio-criticism, and many other ideas that have lost their significance and become the property of history. There is an opinion that a similar phenomenon is happening with philosophy today. There are even those who believe that philosophy is dying.
In fact, there are many ideas, directions and concepts that have not justified themselves, most of them are now in a very difficult situation, and some of them are experiencing a state of severe crisis. But philosophy in its first meaning - as "love of wisdom", as a way to get to the bottom of the truth, as a state of soul and, finally, as a special form of worldview will exist as long as mankind.
This is also confirmed by some relatively new areas of philosophical knowledge (sometimes they claim the status of independent philosophical sciences). They arose as a result of the application of philosophical approaches and methods to the study of certain aspects of social life, complex objects, specific sciences, and so on. Most of them are related to the most recent history of philosophy, mostly belonging to the XNUMXth century. First of all, natural philosophy, law, science, history, politics, art, religion, technical philosophy, thanatology, gerontology, etc. are meant here. In the last decades of the last century, another new and extremely important field of research - the philosophy of globalization and the global problems it creates - has appeared, and its study will not be without benefits.
The main issues of philosophy. Sooner or later, everyone who studies philosophy will be interested in the existence or non-existence of issues and problems that are more important than all other problems in philosophy, that is, they are considered more important. This topic is interesting not only for beginners, but also for professional philosophers. Among them, someone pays serious attention to this topic, and someone, on the contrary, does not consider it important. If we take a general look at the long history of philosophy, we can see that "eternal" philosophical problems related to the origin, development and essence of the universe and man, as well as the meaning of life, the nature of human knowledge, are present in one way or another in almost all philosophical teachings, in various philosophical works, they we can witness that it is discussed in part or, on the contrary, in detail, regardless of who it belongs to and what period it belongs to.
Indeed, it is difficult to find a philosopher who did not express his attitude to the issues of consciousness, thought, spirit, ideality and their relationship with matter, nature, existence, or, let's say, who did not doubt his judgments and conclusions. This situation prompted scientists to define the "main question of philosophy", in which two aspects are distinguished.
The first aspect concerns the relationship between materiality and ideality. The question is: Is matter primary or spirit (consciousness)? or, "The question of the ratio of thinking and being is the great fundamental question of all, especially of the latest philosophy."
The second aspect is closely related to the first aspect and is defined as follows: "Is it possible to know the world?" In other words: "Are we able to accurately reflect existence in our perceptions and understandings of the real world?"
Materialists and idealists. Depending on how one or another philosopher answers the first part of the question, they are materialists - those who believe that the world is material from the beginning, and consciousness is a product of this matter, and idealists - who defend the idea that at the heart of the world lie ideal things and phenomena that appeared before matter and created it. allocated to those who do.
There are two types of idealism - objective and subjective idealism. Objective idealists are those who recognize some intangible and independent (ie, objectively existing) objects and events (God, worldly mind, idea, soul, etc.) as the basis of all existence. . In the history of philosophy, thinkers such as Plato, St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, G. Hegel, N. Berdyaev are undoubtedly recognized as representatives of objective idealism. The world is viewed only from the point of view of individual (subjective) consciousness, and we talk about subjective idealism. J. Berkley, D. Hume, IGFixte are the bright representatives of subjective idealism.
In the history of philosophy, there are many materialistic directions and currents. In particular, opinions about the impossibility of creating and destroying matter can be found in the works of the first philosophers. Representatives of this simple materialism: ancient Chinese philosophers - Lao zi, Yan Zhu;
• Ancient Indian philosophers - representatives of the direction of lokayata;
• Famous philosophers of ancient times - Heraclitus, Empedocles, Democritus, Epicurus and others.
• Ancient Central Asian philosophers like Zoroastrian Sepitoma.
Mechanistic materialism (P. Holbach, P. Gassendi, J. Lametri) was especially widespread in the New period, when classical mechanics was created and actively developed.
Directions of philosophical materialism in the XVIII-XIX centuries:
— anthropological materialism (L. Feuerbach);
— vulgar materialism (Vogt, Buechner, Moleshott);
— dialectical materialism (K. Marx, F. Engels) was formed.
However, it should also be emphasized that one or another philosopher known as materialist or idealist according to this classification may not consider himself to belong to any of these directions, seeing such a distinction as unjustified schematization and simplification. Such views are explained by the fact that the "fundamental problem of philosophy", which is defined directly and concisely, without taking into account different approaches to the understanding of this problem, inevitably divides all philosophers into two great opposites. divides into camps - materialists and idealists, and distinguishes only dualists (for example, R. Descartes) who consider material and spiritual substances to be equal bases as some manifestations of this phenomenon.
But there are other problems in the history of philosophical thought that are considered the most important according to one or another philosopher. For this reason, most philosophers, when thinking about substance (the first basis of the world), do not tend to connect this issue with the "main issue of philosophy". For example, the main problem of philosophy for early ancient philosophers was connected with the question: "What is the world made of?". At that time, this question was considered the most important, basic, first-rate.
From the perspective of medieval scholasticism, the "fundamental problem of philosophy" can be defined as follows: "How can the existence of God be rationally justified?" It remains a central issue for current religious philosophical concepts, particularly neo-Thomism. According to Ibn Sina, the main problem of philosophy is to base the existence on the principles of the origin of all existing things, their promotion, mutual relation, the transition from one to the other, reality.
In the new era, the approach of I. Kant is noteworthy, he asked "What is a person?" considers this question to be the main issue of philosophy with attention to essence. According to him, man belongs to two different worlds - natural necessity and spiritual freedom, according to which man is, on the one hand, a product of nature, and on the other hand, he is the result of "the creation of a freely moving being"1 .
In the philosophy of existentialism, the problem of "Is life worth living?", which every individual must solve for himself, is recognized as the main issue, because, according to the representatives of this direction, this question everything without an answer loses its meaning. In the words of the French existentialist philosopher A. Camus: "To solve the question of whether life is worth living or not is to find an answer to the main question of philosophy."
For example, pragmatism focuses on the concept of truth and the problem of its definition. According to the opinion of the representatives of this direction, philosophy should first deal with this problem and bring practical benefit to man.
Consequences of politicization and schematization of philosophy. The over-politicization of philosophy is in some ways harmful. Because during the time of the former Soviet system, due to the absolutization of philosophical knowledge, limiting it to the scope of political knowledge, philosophy was narrowed down, its original content was damaged. Also, is there any one, single, correct central issue of philosophy that can retain its relevance at all times and under all circumstances, to the exclusion of all other issues? In our view, such an issue does not exist in the context of this fragmentary definition. First, it is necessary to take into account both the historical period and the pluralistic nature of philosophical knowledge. Secondly, it is possible to absolutize a certain problem only with a certain degree of conditionality, understanding that we are talking about schematization of complex issues, deliberate simplification in order to solve this or that specific task.
For example, when we talk about the particularly widespread basic categories of philosophy, such as "being" and "substance", and try to determine the attitude of certain philosophers to them, according to the logic put forward by supporters of the "basic problem of philosophy", we can divide all philosophers into materialists, idealists and dualists with some degree of conditionality. In general, if one is trying to define the range of problems that are particularly discussed in philosophy, or if the task is to better understand the history of philosophy, the succession of one or another philosophical ideas, directions, currents, such a separation is completely unreasonable. is rinly.
At the same time, it should not be forgotten that any schematization will have a limited character, in order not to block the way to the emergence and existence of different approaches that can offer a new approach to the problem or a new interpretation of the problem.
There are many examples in history of cases where an approach to the same problem was proposed from a different point of view, from an unusual or completely unexpected side, and in the end, discoveries were made that could not be reached from the point of view of previous views. For example, the replacement of geocentric views by heliocentric views, the emergence of the theory of relativity, the lecture "Limits to Growth" presented to the Club of Rome, etc. is the product of a relatively unconventional, unusual approach. These examples only confirm the idea that it is necessary to be very careful about "strict" definitions in philosophy, because it sometimes leads to the strengthening of mistakes, and ultimately to stagnation and dogmatism.
Among the answers given by philosophers to the question of whether it is possible to know the world, two opposing approaches are distinguished. One of these approaches is called epistemological optimism. According to it, it is considered that human cognitive abilities are not limited in general and sooner or later he will definitely succeed in discovering the laws of nature and society that interest him, determining the essence of things and creating a true picture of the world. In this case, it would be appropriate to mention G. Hegel and numerous supporters of the doctrine he created.
The second approach is called agnosticism (Greek. α - denial and gnosis - knowledge). The representatives of this approach believe that it is practically impossible to fully (or even partially) know the world, the essence of things and events. Such views are especially characteristic of D. Hume. Usually, I. Kant is included among the representatives of agnosticism, but this approach is quite controversial and causes debate among philosophers.
The role of doubt in philosophy. Skepticism plays an important role in comparing and evaluating the two epistemological approaches presented above. It is not only appropriate, but also a necessary element of any creatively oriented knowledge. Also, when philosophical reasoning is devoid of any doubt, when uncritically perceived past and unquestioning obedience to ancient laws becomes the norm, it leads to dogmatism, stagnation and decline. .
Ancient philosophers: Pyrrhus of Greece, Arcesilaus, Sextus Empiricus, and other founders of skepticism, a philosophical direction that declared human knowledge to be relative, paid attention to it. Skepticism arose as a reaction to the dominance of philosophical doctrines that claimed unquestionable possession of truth and correct understanding of things, and in this sense played a positive role.
The main functions of philosophy. Philosophy solves one or another problem, defines laws, certain principles, or puts forward hypotheses, ideas, and theories, while at the same time (sometimes in this way) performing various functions. Among the important functions of philosophy, it is possible to note the formation of worldview, cognitive, methodological, integrative, cultural, axiological, moral and educational functions. All of them are inextricably linked. The role and importance of these functions is determined by the scope of philosophy, the level and nature of the tasks it solves.
The function of worldview formation. The function of philosophy, the formation of a worldview, a person's attitude to the world, his understanding of himself and the world around him, as well as how he interprets various events, events and his duty, first and foremost depends on his worldview. As shown above, beliefs and knowledge, feelings and emotions, rationality and irrationality, experience, intuition, etc. are closely related in the human worldview. That is why it is impossible to create a holistic view of the world without philosophy, because only philosophy, which is considered "love of wisdom", "interferes with everything", unites different "fragments" of the worldview that are not connected to each other, and thus people have a common, coherent and logical view of the whole existence. allows you to create a relationship. In this, philosophy abstracts some intricacies, insignificant details and focuses on common connections, the unity of the properties of various things and events, and thus fulfills its main function - the function of forming a worldview.
The epistemological function of philosophy is to try to rationally explain things and phenomena that cannot be tested, described or unequivocally denied in experience, that is, science is not capable of revealing, researching and analyzing. By offering its own approaches, theories and hypotheses for the explanation of phenomena that are undefined or understudied, philosophy to some extent fills the place of the unsatisfied interest in knowing them, thus giving rise to mythological and religious fantasies. leaves less room. Another important task that philosophy solves in epistemology is related to the questions "What is truth?", "What are its criteria?", because any cognitive process is ultimately aimed at reaching the bottom of the truth in one way or another. and this is the most important issue.
When talking about the methodological function, it is appropriate to refer to the concept of method. This concept comes from the Greek word methodos - way, research, investigation, and means a certain method of achieving one or another goal, as well as a set of methods or actions aimed at theoretical and practical mastery of existence. In other words, it is the research path of the philosopher or scientist of the subject he is studying. Usually, methodological problems are studied within the framework of philosophy, but with the emergence of certain sciences, along with philosophical (general) methods, certain scientific methods also began to develop. Another important methodological function of philosophy is the development of various categories that play an important role both in philosophy and in some sciences. When the time comes, it should also be emphasized that philosophy works with very broad concepts, that is, categories, while defining them, it also performs the function of forming a worldview at the same time as the methodological function.
The integrative function of philosophy is closely related to science. New and new objects and phenomena of real existence take place in the field of human theoretical research, as well as the need for a deeper study of things and phenomena that were previously understood to a certain extent, motivates the classification of scientific knowledge in the early stages of its development. As a result of this, some sciences appeared, which not only separated the object and subject of their research, but also created their own language, apparatus of categories, etc., unique to this science. But there is also a serious danger on this path, which is that as a result of the separation of disciplines, the connections between them will weaken, they will lose the ability to actively interact in solving complex complex tasks. The opposite process - the integration of scientific knowledge and the process of combining efforts to solve one or another problem allows to avoid this risk.
In modern science, which investigates complex complex problems, sometimes representatives of certain scientific disciplines do not understand representatives of other disciplines only because they speak different languages, that is, the language of their own discipline. In this respect, philosophy becomes a connecting link, a unifying basis for them, because in its analysis it aims at interdisciplinary dialogue and the creation of fundamental concepts whose content is accepted and applied by different disciplines in the same context.
In the complex research of complex objects, each particular science originates from its subject. This scope of the subject does not allow him to see the studied object as a whole, to determine its connections. Only philosophy is capable of solving this task, it allows to see the whole situation as a whole, and in this respect, not only between sciences, but also some aspects of human activity, for example, researches are directly or indirectly related. It is also a link between possible legal, political and moral activities.
Cultural function. Philosophy also performs a cultural function by broadening people's worldview, arousing interest in knowledge, forming and developing a culture of theoretical thinking. As a universal form of mastering and knowing the world, it embodies the best achievements of mankind and makes them the property of all mankind. Studying the history of philosophy of different countries and peoples allows for a better understanding of their past and present culture, promotes the exchange of ideas and the interaction of cultural traditions, which is inextricably linked with cultural heritage. is important in solving many problems.
Axiological function. Philosophy puts the meaning of life, death and eternity issues on the agenda, by evaluating this or that action, event, phenomenon with the categories of "good", "bad", "important", "useful", "useless". it performs another important function - axiological (Greek. axia - value) function. By distinguishing long-term trends from short-term trends, distinguishing superficial processes from fundamental processes, important things and events from secondary things and events, it forms the relevant needs of a person, which are inextricably linked with the relationship to values. In this way, certain values, goals and priorities of a person are determined, that is, a corresponding value system is formed. This system is an important feature of people, reflects their attitude to life and determines their behavior in society in many ways.
The moral function of philosophy is related to the behavior of people and the relations that arise in this or that society. In this case, for example, moral values, their nature, foundations and practical role in society are the subject of philosophy's research, which has a significant impact on the norms and rules that arise in society and are established in a natural way, that is, in real life practice. shows. Such norms are an important lever regulating social relations and are manifested in the interaction of people, the nature of their relations and the level of mutual understanding. In conclusion, it can be said that philosophy always manifests itself in ethics, in the behavior of all members of society, and thus fulfills another important function - moral function.
When thinking about the educational function of philosophy, it is appropriate to speak taking into account the results of a wide and comprehensive discussion of this issue at the international level. Today, not only some nations, but the entire world community needs a philosophy aimed at self-realization. This is confirmed by the "World Philosophy Days", which are held every year on the third Thursday of November, and the World Philosophy Congresses, which focus on the most important issues for the world, since 2002, according to UNESCO's decision. In fact, such a congress was first held in France in 1900, and since 1948, it has become a tradition to hold it every five years. In particular, the 1998th World Congress of Philosophy held in Boston (USA) in XNUMX was devoted to the theme "Paideyya: philosophy in educating humanity", and the XNUMXst World Congress of Philosophy held in Ankara, Turkey, "Philosophy does not face world problems" -yuz" topic was thoroughly discussed. The XXII World Congress of Philosophy was held for the first time in Seoul, Republic of Korea, an Asian country, under the general theme of "Re-understanding philosophy in the present era". As can be seen from the topics of the congresses, philosophy is inextricably linked with real life and serves to understand the most important problems. One of such problems is the question of the role and importance of philosophy in the education and development of a person as a person. For this, of course, it is necessary to once again refer to the works of ancient thinkers.
Ancient thinkers used the term "paideya" (Greek: pais - child) to express all-round education and training, i.e. bringing up a physically and spiritually perfect person capable of realizing their abilities and potential. . In those days, paideia was considered a distinctive sign of aristocracy; Philosophers now recall this concept as they put the problems of education and upbringing back in the forefront and try to determine the role of philosophy in solving them. In particular, one of the authors of the main lectures at the Boston Congress, the French philosopher Pierre Aubank, raises the question: "To what extent is it possible for a person to move from a barbaric nature to an enlightened nature?" According to him, the unique nature of man is ambiguous, and only enlightenment (paideia) turns man into a man in the full sense of the word, or, in Plato's words, paideia opens his eyes.
However, the task of enlightenment is not to give the eye the ability to see, but to teach it to see correctly. So, relying on the opinion of Plato, Democritus, Zoroaster and other famous philosophers, it is possible to create a different nature of a person by using enlightenment, directing the process of education and upbringing against oppression and perfecting human intelligence. The concept of "Paideyya" focuses on the educational process that nurtures a child and transforms it into a perfect human being. The ancient Greeks distinguished concepts such as "techne" and "paideia"; the first term means knowledge, i.e. that which can be learned, while the second term means not the source of imparting knowledge, but the source of right thought. In this case, according to Aristotle, paideia should encourage a person to improve himself. Therefore, as Protagoras, Socrates, and Plato said, it is important to focus on teaching reasoning skills rather than persuasive skills when teaching philosophy.
The importance and role of philosophy in society or applied philosophy. It is generally believed that philosophy studies extremely general issues that are far removed from everyday life and practice. But it is difficult to agree with this idea, because general theories, if they are approached in a broader sense and from the perspective of a longer perspective, sometimes work better than many specific ideas that apply to narrow areas of knowledge.
Of course, philosophy has always been and remains somewhat distant from everyday life. Its unique feature, uniqueness is reflected in this factor. But, on the other hand, philosophy does not withdraw itself from what can be called ordinary social existence, the practice of everyday social, political or economic life. Philosophical reflection and this direction of actions common to it caused the emergence of a whole direction in the XNUMXth century - practical philosophy. It cannot be said that philosophy inevitably and directly affects political, social and other decision-making, but it would not be appropriate to completely exclude this situation. However, it is clear that philosophy, by shaping people's worldview, determines their behavior, their approach in the process of developing the above-mentioned decisions, and philosophers themselves are sometimes an important, universal force that completely changes people's lives. come up with the initiative of ideas.
Philosophers are also significantly responsible for the state of spirituality and morality in society, because they not only develop social norms and principles, teach them, or familiarize the social consciousness with them through books and articles, but in most cases, which arouse the opinion of the general public, organize discussions and debates on socially important, socio-political problems, cultural and spiritual issues.
The creative character of philosophy. Philosophy has a strong influence on almost all aspects of society, and at the same time works in close contact with science. Regardless of what specific problems this or that science solves, a philosophical approach to the processes and events related to them, that is, to the whole situation, including the results obtained in the end, is always a necessary condition. It is impossible to make fundamental discoveries and achieve the development of science in general without such a comprehensive approach to a specific subject of science and the problems facing it, which goes beyond the boundaries of this science and reflects the latest achievements in other fields of knowledge.
A broader approach to the world at the time (compared to the approaches that prevailed for many years in the framework of "classical" physics), for example, offering A. Einstein (1879-1955) a completely new approach to understanding the world view, and most of the rules of previous physics made it possible to describe the "General Theory of Relativity", which includes classical (Newtonian) mechanics in the conditions that remain valid only at the level of But a natural question arises: did philosophy really play a creative role here? If it played a creative role, what was it and how did it manifest itself?
Without dwelling on the general arguments, we consider it appropriate to note that in Einstein's mind the philosophical ideas of his predecessors and his own time collided. They undoubtedly had a strong influence on the thinker's entire creative activity, because he got acquainted with many classics of rationalist philosophy, their predecessors and followers already in his student years. "When we look retrospectively at Einstein's work in terms of physical concepts of the middle of the 1th century and predictions for the future, it can be considered the end of a great stage of the spiritual life of mankind. - This stage did not start only with Newtonian mechanics. The whole rationalist science and philosophy of the XNUMXth century is its basis. When you get acquainted with the works of Einstein, you will involuntarily remember the lines of Galileo, Descartes, Spinoza, Hobbes, Newton - sometimes you will encounter a surprising similarity of ideas... How the vague hypotheses and researches of the rationalist thinking of the XNUMXth century are gaining a creative, coherent form. you will witness. There is no doubt that there is a gradual connection here"XNUMX.
It is not an easy task to distinguish between philosophical views and natural-scientific views. However, the fact that philosophical imaginations influenced natural-scientific views, as well as the scientific ideas of great scientists such as al-Khorazmi, al-Farghani, Ibn Sina, Mirza Ulugbek, I. Newton, A. Einstein there is no doubt that their broad and deep philosophical knowledge lies. For this reason, it is possible to talk about the serious philosophical views of these thinkers, if not about the whole philosophical doctrine.
Philosophy and science. Philosophy is not only a science, but also closely related to other aspects of social life, such as economic, political, social, legal, scientific, art, etc. We talk about the genesis of the relationship between philosophy and science in order to determine their unity and differences. As we begin to study this issue in more detail, we will first determine the main meanings and contents of the indicated concepts.
The essence of science. There are two main approaches to understanding science, its broad and narrow interpretations.
Science in a broad (collective) sense is a whole aspect of human activity, the task of which is to study objective knowledge about existence and put it into a scientific theoretical system. Here, the concepts of "science", "scientist" are not specified and are interpreted as general, collective concepts. The term "science" applied to philosophy is often used in the same context, and philosophers are called scientists, which is partly appropriate.
In order to represent certain scientific disciplines, for example, physics, chemistry, biology, history, mathematics, the concept of "science" is assigned a narrower and therefore more consistent meaning. Science is clearly defined here, and a scientist is a narrow specialist, representative of specific knowledge. He is not just a scientist, but always and certainly a physicist, or a chemist, or a historian, or a representative of another science. In this case, science inevitably consists of a strictly regulated, coherent system of scientific knowledge about nature, society, this or that object (phenomenon) of thought.
Each of these sciences has its own special laws and methods, a unique language for this science, category apparatus, etc., in order to correctly describe and explain the processes that took place, to the present era. It allows to accurately predict events or processes that will definitely happen or can happen under certain conditions in the field of understanding and knowledge. The content of this or that science, as well as the results achieved by it, are unique for all cultures and peoples, and are completely independent of the approach, point of view or worldview of some scientist. They are passed down from generation to generation as a collection of knowledge that has passed the test of time and practice, which must be mastered in order to advance in this field.
And in philosophy there were some reasonable empirical answers to the innumerable questions of the admirers of wisdom in ancient times. These answers can be called authentic, that is, practical knowledge that has been proven in everyday life. Such answers caused the issue to be "closed", removed from the agenda, in other words, clearly defined and excluded other answers.
There are many examples of this. For example, as soon as it was established that the sum of the angles of any triangle is equal to 180 degrees, or that a body immersed in a liquid acts on a force equal to the weight of the liquid displaced, these problems lost their "open" character, that is, they were o found a clear solution that excludes other options. This meant that any further consideration of these issues was rendered useless. Solved issues and problems have passed to the level of clear, reliable knowledge and have lost their philosophical color since this period. In the XNUMXth century, the well-known German philosopher K. Jaspers defined this important rule. If anyone recognizes one of the unquestionable foundations, then it becomes scientific knowledge, and from now on it is not considered philosophy, but belongs to certain fields of knowledge. he noted.
Thus, on the ground of philosophy, which has been acting as a whole and indivisible preliminary knowledge since time immemorial, fields of knowledge with a practical character and a corresponding direction began to be actively formed. In this way, natural science gradually came into being, certain sciences (mathematics, geometry, physics, medicine, astronomy, history, etc.) were formed, acquired their own shape and became independent. In this sense, philosophy is the basis of all sciences. When these sciences separated from philosophy, later in the process of stratification of scientific knowledge, they sometimes broke up and began to further narrow and elaborate their research subject. If the depth of their analysis and understanding of the essence of things increases, at the same time the range of studied issues will narrow.
Science is a form of worldview. With the growth of knowledge, the number of various problems and issues has been constantly increasing. This process caused the speed of development of science to accelerate and it became more and more separated from philosophy. However, science as an independent field of knowledge, a separate form of worldview was fully formed only in the XVII-XVIII centuries. With a certain degree of conditionality, it can be said that it was I. Newton who described the basic laws of classical mechanics, thus the main branch of natural science - the foundations of which were formed over the centuries, and the main principles of classical mechanics, which were first described by Galileo Galilei a hundred years ago. it happened after the completion of its formation.
The main stages of the development of science. 1. The era of the first science from the XNUMXst millennium BC to the XNUMXth century. During this period, the first philosophical ideas about nature (natural philosophy) began to emerge, which were passed down from generation to generation over the centuries, and were characterized by theories based on very general and abstract observations, as well as practical knowledge gained in the course of work. Buds of scientific knowledge were formed within the framework of natural philosophy as its elements. With the accumulation of data, methods and methods used in solving mathematical, astronomical, medical and other problems, relevant departments were created in philosophy and then separated into some sciences that were gradually formed: mathematics, astronomy, medicine, etc.
In particular, in the philosophical works of Aristotle, one can come across the sprouts of such sciences as physics, zoology, embryology, mineralogy, and geography. In III-II centuries BC, statistical mechanics, hydrostatics, geometric optics (in particular, a separate science of mirrors - "catoptrics") are distinguished in the structure of philosophical knowledge and acquire relatively independent importance. Central Asian thinkers al-Khwarizmi mathematics, al-Farghani astronomy, al-Biruni mineralogy and geography, Ibn Sina medicine, Mirzo Ulug'bek astronomy, Alisher Navoi made a worthy contribution to the development of science of literature, and the products of their creativity are still used today. has not lost its importance. However, in these sciences, some random observations and practical data are generalized, but experimental methods are not yet used, and most theoretical rules are the product of baseless and unverifiable speculations. But the scientific sciences that emerged during the period under consideration continued to be interpreted as parts of philosophical knowledge during this period.
It is noteworthy that even at the end of the XNUMXth century, Newton published his work called "Mathematical Foundations of Natural Philosophy", which created the foundations of physics.
Thus, science as a field of activity separate from philosophy did not yet exist: it developed mainly within the framework of philosophy, at the same time and in very weak connection with another source of scientific knowledge - the practice of life and the art of craftsmanship. Plato's Academy", "Ma'mun Academy" was established in Central Asia, although certain achievements were made in the development of scientific knowledge, it is the "embryonic" period before the emergence of science as a separate form of culture.
2. XVI-XVII centuries - the period of scientific revolution, it is called the period of classical science. It began with the studies of Copernicus and Galileo and culminated with the fundamental works of Newton and Leibniz in the fields of physics and mathematics. The birth of Newton (January 1642, 8) a year after Galileo's death (January 1643, 4) is symbolic. The period in which these great creators of science lived is the romantic period, when the authors of innovative discoveries and new scientific ideas fought fiercely against scholasticism and religious worldview dogmatism.
During this period, the foundations of modern natural science were created. Some evidence obtained by artisans, doctors, and alchemists began to be systematically analyzed and summarized. New standards and ideals of scientific knowledge creation related to mathematical description of natural laws, experimental testing of theories, critical view of religious and natural philosophical dogmas that are not based on experience have emerged. Science has created its own methodology and is more and more actively focused on solving problems related to the needs of practical activities.
However, as science creates its new methodology and is imbued with the spirit of practice, it begins to move away from its historical homeland - the shores of philosophy. By the end of the considered period, it begins to be understood as a system of knowledge that can develop regardless of philosophical, religious, theological beliefs. As a result, science becomes a separate, independent field of activity. Professional scientists will appear, the university education system for their training will develop. A scientific community with its own activity, communication and information exchange forms and rules will emerge.
In the 1660th century, the first scientific academies were established: the Royal Society of London (1666), the Paris Academy of Sciences (1700). Later, scientific academies were founded in Berlin (1724), St. Petersburg (1739), Stockholm (55) and other capital cities of Europe. The largest of these academies was the Royal Society of London, which had 21 members at the time of its founding. The Paris Academy of Sciences started work with 11 members. Initially, XNUMX people were appointed as members of the St. Petersburg Academy. But by the beginning of the XNUMXth century, the number of scientists in European countries must have reached several thousand people, because the circulation of scientific journals (several dozen scientific journals were published during this period) reached a thousand copies.
3. The science of the XVIII-XIX centuries is called the period of non-classical science. During this period, many scientific disciplines are created, in which a huge amount of factual material is collected and systematized. Fundamental theories are created in mathematics, physics, chemistry, geology, biology, psychology and other sciences. Technical sciences emerge and begin to play a more significant role in material production. The social role of science increases, its development is recognized by thinkers of that time as an important factor of social development.
In the middle of the 10th century, the number of scientists in the world did not exceed 100, but by the end of the 1850th century, the number of scientists reached 1950. In the 10th century, more than half of the "learned people" were religiously educated clerics. In the 1825th century, science becomes an independent branch of social work, and "secular" professional scientists who graduated from special faculties of universities and institutes are engaged in it. In XNUMX, about a thousand scientific journals were published in the world, and by XNUMX, their number would exceed XNUMX. In XNUMX, the German chemist J. Liebig established a scientific laboratory, and it began to bring a large amount of income to the scientist. By the end of the XNUMXth century, the number of such laboratories increases. Science begins to attract more and more the attention of commercialists and entrepreneurs. They begin to provide funds for the work of scientists of industrial importance.
4. A new stage in the development of science begins in the XNUMXth century. The science of this period is called postnoclassical, because at the threshold of this century, a revolution occurs in science, and as a result, it begins to differ significantly from the classical science of the previous period. The revolutionary discoveries made on the border of the XIX-XX centuries shake the foundations of several sciences. In mathematics, the theory of sets and the logical foundations of mathematical thinking are critically analyzed, and several new disciplines are created. In physics, the fundamental theories - the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics - were created, which forced a revision of the philosophical foundations of classical physics. Genetics develops in biology. New fundamental theories emerge in medicine, psychology, and other human sciences. Global changes are taking place in the form of scientific knowledge, in the methodology of science, in the form and content of scientific activity, in its norms and ideals.
The second half of the XNUMXth century brings new revolutionary changes in science. These changes are often described in the literature as a scientific and technical revolution. These changes are related to the fact that after the Second World War, in economically developed countries, scientific achievements are put into practice on an unprecedented scale - in industry, agriculture, health care, and everyday life. Science makes especially great changes in energy (nuclear power plants), transportation (automobile industry, aviation), electronics (television, telephony, computers). The development of science becomes the main factor in the creation of the latest military equipment, and the arms race, which escalated in the conditions of the post-war confrontation of the "two camps", forces major countries to spend huge amounts of money on scientific and technical research.
In the last decades of the 50th century, FTT entered the stage of the information (computer) revolution. A characteristic feature of this stage is that information has become one of the important resources for the development of society. Thus, high technologies related to science, joint education with them now determine the level of civilizational development of any society. The distance between scientific discoveries and their implementation is reduced as much as possible. It used to take 100-2 years to find practical ways to use the achievements of science, but now it can be done in 3-XNUMX years or even less.
It has become natural for both the state and private firms to spend heavily on the support of promising areas of scientific development. As a result, the science of the second half of the XNUMXth century grew rapidly and became one of the important branches of social work. The era of "Big Science" has begun. Countless masses of people were involved in the work of numerous scientific institutions. The profession of a scientist is no longer a rare profession. At present, scientific activity is not an activity of some thinkers who take all the risk to solve the problems they are interested in, but it is an activity of those who work according to an order, a planned assignment, to complete it within a specified time and their work. the work of large teams who have to report on. Currently, scientific work is a type of industrial work. It is not for nothing that people working in science are now called "scientific workers".
Although science has reached a high level of development, it remains inextricably linked with philosophy. They actively interact and effectively influence each other's development. This situation is explained by the fact that philosophy has the ability to compare its abstract ideas with reality, relying on evidentiary material, tested scientific data, while science is not limited to recording and describing evidence, but has the ability to draw more reasonable conclusions. will enter. By the beginning of the 10st century, the number of scientists in the world has reached almost six million, approximately the same number of people are engaged in work providing services to science (laboratorians, technicians, employees of publishing houses, etc.). If we take the total number of scientists who lived on Earth from ancient times to the beginning of the 5st century, it becomes clear that nine out of ten of them are our contemporaries. In developed countries, the number of scientific workers is about XNUMX% of the working population, more than XNUMX% of the national income is spent on providing science.
Modern science has become a powerful force that guides society, technology, economy, culture, life and everyday life. At the same time, people today are well aware not only of the power of science, but also of the dangers associated with it. The modern world is responsible to science for its achievements and its vitality. But scientific truth as such is indifferent to the needs of people. He is reckless and merciless. However, in the words of IA Karimov, "power is knowledge and thinking", and as this power increases, it is necessary to use it more carefully in order not to harm humanity.
It should be recognized that society is currently on the brink of self-destruction in many ways due to the great achievements of science. This does not mean that scientific progress should be stopped. However, the issue of the need to subject scientific research to humane and moral attitudes and perhaps limit some of its directions is being put on the agenda. Humanization of scientific research, ethical attitude to its ways and consequences are important problems of our time.
Correlation of science and philosophy. It is reasonable to assume that the same situation will happen with philosophy, when certain sciences are separated from it with research subjects that had a philosophical tone before. However, this is not happening. History shows that the more science is separated from philosophy, the more issues and problems arise in it, that is, philosophy not only does not decrease, but, on the contrary, increases. What is the reason for this? It is reasonable to look for the answer to this question in the specific features of science and philosophy, in the difference between the issues and their solutions that describe them separately.
The fact that science relies only on the actual knowledge it has received and certain results that close the issues does not mean that it does not have its own problems and "open" issues. However, unlike philosophical questions, which do not have clear, unequivocal answers, scientific questions require careful thinking, not knowledge, because they ultimately lead to certain solutions that refute initial assumptions or confirm by expanding the range of reliable knowledge, realistic or has potential. The scientific sciences that arise in this way expand like bubbles in boiling water and expand the field of philosophical observation, the area where perceived things face the unknown, because they create new problems that cannot be answered within the framework of natural science.
Today, there is a shift from old philosophical problems to new philosophical puzzles. "Is there a God?", "What is truth?", "What is the nature of the soul?" Philosophical issues such as this cannot be solved clearly and succinctly, but there is no way to solve them at all. Therefore, these questions remain unanswered.
Why "maybe"? Such questions are because ancient sages were interested in issues that are not completely philosophical from today's point of view and are considered literally philosophical. For example: "Where do the stars disappear during the day and the sun at night?", "Why do some objects sink in water, and some objects float in water?", "How can the swift Achilles catch up with the crawling tortoise, the human if, in order to travel the distance between them, he has to travel half of this distance?" etc. etc.
However, these and similar issues, after passing from philosophy to the field of natural science, often give rise to new and new philosophical problems. For example:
• Where is the force that rotates the Earth and other planets in the same direction?
• If our sun is an average-sized star, is it possible that at least some of the billions of stars like it have moons that harbor life similar to our Earth? But how can it be proven or disproved since it takes longer than the history of not only human life, but the history of our civilization for man to reach even the nearest stars?
• Finally, if the observable universe is expanding, what are the causes and forces behind this motion?
These and many other similar problems force people to turn to philosophy again and again, because science is not yet able to give clear answers to such questions. This explains the existence of various philosophical ideas about anti-universes and anti-gravity, dark matter and dark energy, worlds in other space and time dimensions.
Nevertheless, there are some contradictions in assessing the role of science and philosophy. In particular, in some scientific and philosophical circles, there is an approach that absolutizes the role and importance of science, which opposes science as "positive", "useful" knowledge to "abstract" and "not based on experience" philosophy. Such views are called scientific, and the direction of theoretical thinking is called scientism (from Latin scientia and English science - science, knowledge). Scientism absolutizes the positive aspects of science and technology development. Antiscientism separates philosophical knowledge from scientific knowledge, declares it incompatible with scientific knowledge, denigrates rationality, and absolutizes mysticism, intuition, will, and the like.
What philosophy and science have in common is that they:
• primarily relies on reason and tries to create rational knowledge;
• aims at determining the laws and regularities of the studied objects and events;
• creates an apparatus of categories (their own language), substantiates the rules they put forward, provides evidence for them and tries to create integrated systems.
The difference between philosophy and science is that:
philosophy is always associated with the name of one or another philosopher, and his ideas and works may be self-contained and may not depend on whether other philosophers join them or not. And science is essentially the product of team work;
• philosophy (unlike certain sciences) does not have a single language and a single system. Diversity of opinion is the norm here. And in science, monism prevails, because at least in this or that particular field of science, the unity of approaches to the system (language) of the basic principles, laws and categories will definitely exist;
• philosophy makes extensive use of scientific knowledge and evidence, but its conclusions cannot be considered reliable, because they are based mainly on the subjective opinions and judgments of philosophers. And science tries to obtain proven and tested knowledge with attention to the essence, in which the presence of the possibility of checking or rejecting the obtained knowledge is an inevitable condition for the validity and scientific validity of this knowledge;
• philosophical knowledge cannot be tested experimentally (otherwise they will turn into scientific knowledge);
• philosophy cannot make accurate predictions, that is, it is not able to apply reliable knowledge to the future, because it does not have such knowledge. A philosopher can only predict with a certain system of philosophical views, but he is not able to predict or model like a scientist.
The importance of philosophy in today's world. Today, in the age of speed and high technology, is philosophy necessary, is it not outdated? In the conditions of continuous flow of information and chronic shortage of time, does not certain knowledge crowd out philosophy? Such questions are absolutely reasonable, but the answer to them is given by life itself, which presents a large number of modern people, including completely new philosophical problems that have never existed before.
The world community welcomed the beginning of the XNUMXrd millennium with a deeper awareness of its unity, the state of the biosphere and its responsibility for the continuation of life on Earth. For this reason, along with ancient philosophical topics, issues of human development, establishment of humane, good neighborly relations between people, nations, and between society and nature are coming to the fore in philosophical research. In this regard, philosophers first of all express that they are deeply concerned about the state of education and the level of development on Earth. According to many philosophers, the root of most of the current problems lies in unsatisfactory education and the lack of proper education. Philosophy should also play its role in solving these problems.
Philosophy as a way of understanding the world. Today, not only some peoples, but the whole world community is especially in need of philosophy and philosophical understanding of oneself, one's place and task in life.
Philosophy is inextricably linked with real life and always aims to understand the most important problems of human existence. That is why it is important to understand the important problem of the present time - globalization and its philosophical understanding as a completely new topic in philosophy. Another topic that deserves special attention when discussing the subject and problems of philosophy is the role and importance of philosophy in the education and development of a person as a person.
Modern philosophers continue to work on solving such problems, asking "What is philosophy?" Who needs it and why?", "What is the task of philosophy?", "What kind of philosophy should be taught, at what age and for what purpose?" issues that have already been resolved at first glance are being put back on the agenda. The world congresses, which have been discussed extensively and comprehensively, are the only approach to the subject of philosophy in the world, whether or not it is able to have a consistent effect on social development, and if it is able, how it can do this. confirms that it does not exist. Such a variety of opinions, as mentioned above, is a characteristic of philosophy, that is, pluralism of opinions, which can exist only where there is a possibility of different thinking.
This shortcoming of philosophy, which does not allow it to become a unified doctrine and rely on the unity of language, general laws and methodology, at the same time becomes its advantage when it works with complex systems that require solving complex interdisciplinary problems.
The following are currently the most important interdisciplinary complex problems for humanity: ensuring sustainable socio-economic development; environmental problems; globalization of all aspects of society. It is important to understand these problems from a philosophical point of view. In contrast to scientific approaches, the philosophical approach to the problem is characterized by more freedom in the interpretation of evidence, lighter requirements for proving the proposed rules, giving definitions based on observation, the right to subjective evaluation, and so on. Such studies may seem insignificant at first glance. But in practice it is not like that.
First, philosophical research is carried out in the field of rational cognition, which has become ineffective or completely ineffective due to the lack of possibility to verify (verify) or reject (falsify) the results obtained in science. Humanity has no other way of knowing rationally.
Secondly, philosophical reflection expands the horizon of seeing the problem, offers new, unique approaches to its research, including helps to promote such approaches to science. After all, a science that relies on clear definitions and reliable evidence cannot allow such liberties in its opinions and conclusions. However, philosophical thinking loses its originality without a free approach to reasoning and evaluation.
Since pluralism is considered the norm in philosophy, and in each individual brain it is necessary to arrive at monism, that is, an organized, integrated and relatively conflict-free system of views, how can philosophy be mastered and what lessons can be taught from it?
Most philosophers around the world are primarily interested in this issue. In particular, based on the experience of Socrates, Seneca and other thinkers of the past, the essence of an idea that at first glance seems unquestionable and obvious, which is rarely taken into account in the educational process today, is this: Philosophy does not teach me to remember facts. , but should develop the ability to reason and answer questions. Lessons from philosophy should mean that a person learns to think independently and listen to his own mind without referring to the opinion of thinkers on every issue. That is why the task of philosophy is to teach a person to communicate, not to show the importance of his personality, but to try to get to the bottom of the truth. This, in turn, implies that all people deserve to be listened to by those around them.
These very invented words once again confirm the idea that it is impossible to study philosophy as a science, to master it as a certain collection of knowledge, ready-made rules and definitions. To choose the path of paideya in teaching a person means to teach him not "what to see", but "where and how to look". It is self-evident that this task cannot be solved without a creative approach, without the curiosity and aspiration of the student and the teacher, and philosophy in its pure form will disappear, will be "blown into the air", and in the end someone will explain , there remains only a "science" that someone has to "pass", study and, moreover, take an exam. In other words, creativity must be at the core of teaching and mastering philosophy.
Conclusions. Worldview is a system of the most general views of a person's relationship to the world, events in it, his place in it, and the meaning of life.
In the history of mankind, a mythological worldview was first formed, in which man merges with the environment and is not separated from nature and his clan. The religious outlook is characterized by dividing the world into this world, that world, and the unnatural world. Religion is based on belief in supernatural powers.
Philosophy fulfills its worldview function based on its critical attitude to the environment from the mythological and religious worldview, draws logical conclusions by referring to epistemological and ontological categories.
Philosophy is a theoretically based worldview, general categories, a theoretical attitude of man to the world based on the achievements of science about nature and society.
The importance of philosophy lies in its ability to direct a person to understand himself, the world, and creative perfection.

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Philosophy, worldview, personality, cognition, historical forms of worldview, fetishism, animism, totemism, magic, ontology, epistemology, science methodology, social philosophy, ethics, axiology, philosophical anthropology, metaphysics, consciousness, thinking, spirit, matter, nature, being , science, science.

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