Consciousness as the highest stage in the development of the psyche. Consciousness is the highest stage in the development of life. Attitude towards other people

Consciousness as the highest stage of development of the psyche

In psychology, consciousness is considered as a special form of reflection, which is a common quality of the described mental functions. The development of all mental functions in their interaction ensures the formation in a person of an internal reflection of the external world, in a sense, his model. The directing influence of this model on human behavior is reflected by him as consciousness. Marxism proceeds from the active-reflective nature of consciousness. The objective world, influencing a person, is reflected in his consciousness - it turns into an ideal one, and consciousness as an ideal one is transformed into actions, into reality. Lenin wrote that consciousness is formed by activity in order, in turn, to influence this activity (2, p. 194).

One of the fundamental principles of Soviet psychology, the principle of the unity of consciousness and activity, is to affirm their interconnection and interdependence: human activity determines the formation of his consciousness, and the latter, by regulating human activity, improves his adaptability to the outside world. Consciousness forms inner plan activity, its program. It is in consciousness that dynamic models of reality are synthesized, with the help of which a person orients himself in the surrounding physical and social environment.

Consciousness determines the preliminary, mental construction of actions, foresight of their consequences, control and management of human behavior, his ability to be aware of what is happening in himself and in the world around him. The use of consciousness allows a person at the end of the labor process to get a result that already at the beginning of this process was in the mind of a person, that is, ideally. Unlike animals, a person does not implement a program of behavior laid down by species experience, determined by purely biological needs, but develops his own program by setting goals and objectives.

Conscious, expedient and arbitrary regulation of human behavior is possible due to the fact that he forms an internal model of the external world. Within the framework of this model, mental manipulation is carried out, it allows you to compare the current state with the past and not only outline the goals of future behavior, but also clearly represent them. This is how prudence is realized - the presentation of the consequences of actions before they are committed - and the gradual control over the approach to the goal is carried out by minimizing the difference between the real and the desired state of affairs.

The advantages of the internal model over the need to actually test all the planned actions are also manifested in the fact that it allows for the transfer of learning, i.e. the correct solution of a new task in a previously unknown area where a person has no experience, if, according to some criteria, the new task is similar to the old one. traits. Such a positive transfer eliminates the need to accumulate one's own practical experience in each specific area and thereby improves a person's adaptation to the environment. However, recourse to a thought experiment and to predictions based on dynamic processes in the model can give good results only if the external environment does not change too quickly: after all, any model is inertial, and if the external environment is too changeable, the forecast on the model can lead to mistakes.

Obviously, without the participation of memory, representations that are objects of manipulation in anticipating the result of future behavior cannot be formed and stored. The very fact of introducing information about a certain event into the memory indicates its certain significance (otherwise it would not have got into long-term memory), and the presence of this information there inevitably leads to its inclusion in the entire system of similar facts preserved before it, i.e. to the restructuring last. Thus, the impact of memory on consciousness is active, because such a restructuring can give rise to new assessments of events and new goals for actions.

At present, the following properties of consciousness are distinguished as the main ones: building relationships, cognition and experience. This directly implies the inclusion of thinking and emotions in the processes of awareness. Indeed, the main function of thinking is to identify objective relationships between objects and phenomena, and the main function of emotions is the formation of a person's subjective attitude to objects, phenomena and people. These forms and types of relations are synthesized in the structures of consciousness, and they determine both the organization of behavior and the deep processes of self-esteem and self-consciousness.

subjective attitude, given to man in emotions, is inextricably linked with experience. “The concept of experience expresses a special mental aspect of consciousness: it can be ... more or less expressed, but it is always present in every real concrete mental phenomenon; it is always given in relationship and unity with another moment - knowledge, especially essential for consciousness.

Really existing in a single stream of consciousness, an image and a thought can, being colored by emotions, be perceived sensually and, therefore, experienced. S. L. Rubinshtein emphasized this side of consciousness: “Awareness of experience is always the establishment of its objective relation to the causes that cause it, to the objects to which it is directed, to the actions by which it can be realized.” Emotions realize the initial rough assessments of information (dangerous - safe, edible - inedible), which are refined at the level of consciousness and are included as elements in the scale of values and meanings suitable for social adaptation.

According to K. K. Platonov, experience is a genetically more ancient mental function; knowledge, which is characteristic in embryonic forms and animals, acquired a verbal expression in a person in connection with the development of speech and determined social aspect its development; Relationship building is unique to humans. In this context, it is important to emphasize that consciousness develops in a person only in social contacts.

Almost all of the higher mental processes considered contribute to the specifics of the organization of consciousness. The role of language as an instrument of internal activity is most obvious.

K. Marx and F. Engels pointed out that "language is as ancient as consciousness" . Most researchers agree that awareness is closely related to speech. With the advent of language, a person creates subjective images of the objective world that are accessible for management, representations that he can manipulate even in the absence of visual perceptions. This is the decisive contribution of language to the mechanisms of consciousness. Many scientists have identified the unconscious with non-verbal behavior that is not fixed in words, they assumed that those impressions that are accumulated without the participation of speech are unconscious. The first year of a child's life, about which he does not remember anything, from this position seems to disappear from his memory, since it is not written down in words.

Some researchers admit that consciousness, as a structure of the internal model of the external world, is genetically predetermined and "started", begins to function during physical and social contacts of a person with his environment. It seems to us more convincing is the position of A. N. Leontiev, who believes that the development of consciousness does not follow the path of transition of external activity into a pre-existing internal plan, but along the path of the formation of this internal plan itself. Initially, action on the inner plane is still based on real action in a real situation, and only then does a true thought experiment with images or ideas become possible. In the early stages of formation, consciousness exists only in the form of a mental image that reveals to a person the world around him, while his activity remains practical, external. At a later stage of development, internal activity also becomes the subject of consciousness. Gradually, consciousness as an image, a picture of the external world is transformed into a model in which it is already possible to act mentally. Now consciousness in its entirety begins to control external practical activity and seems to be independent of the sensory-practical sphere.

The crown of the development of higher mental functions is the formation of self-consciousness, which allows a person not only to reflect the external world, but, having distinguished himself in this world, to know his inner world, experience it and treat himself in a certain way. As I. M. Sechenov wrote, self-consciousness creates “a person the opportunity to treat acts of his own consciousness critically, that is, to separate all his internal from everything that comes from outside, analyze it and compare (compare) with the external, in a word, study the act of his own consciousness” .

Self-consciousness in its essence has a deeply social character. The yardstick for a person in his relation to himself is, first of all, other people. Each new social contact changes a person's idea of himself, and gradually a whole system of such ideas is formed in him. This belief system becomes more and more meaningful as a person is included in the interaction with more and more diverse groups. Evaluations of oneself from the point of view of those with whom a person meets at home, at school, at work, gradually make him more multifaceted. Conscious behavior is not so much a manifestation of what a person really is, but the result of a person's ideas about himself, formed on the basis of communication with others around him. This is what gave rise to the famous visual analogy: each person is at the intersection of a unique combination social spheres, of which it is a part.

Awareness of oneself as some stable object presupposes internal integrity, constancy of the personality, which, regardless of changing situations, is able to remain itself. Unity, integrity and independence in the perception of one's "I", i.e., recognition of oneself with a continuous change in the external conditions of existence, which leads to a constant transformation of the inner world, is the pinnacle in the struggle for a person's independence from the environment. We have already talked about the individual stages of this path when we discussed the boundaries of the constancy of the image, the properties of memory and attention, which give stability to our reactions over time, ensuring the implementation of selectivity, guided by the internal needs of a person with variable external influences. It is these qualities mental processes constitute the necessary conditions for the development of self-consciousness.

A person's sense of his individuality is supported by the continuity of his experiences in time. He has both memories of the past and hopes for the future. The continuity of such experiences gives a person the opportunity to integrate himself into a single whole. The continuity of consciousness, manifested in the form of "I", is determined by long-term memory and, in turn, determines its role in the structure of consciousness. Only long-term memory provides a sense of continuity and continuity, it is its participation in the processes of consciousness and self-awareness that creates the conditions for a sense of self-identity of the individual, despite changes in both external conditions and the personality itself.

In ontogenesis, self-consciousness develops as the child's social ties become more complex; an essential condition for its emergence is the assimilation of speech. I. M. Sechenov pointed out the importance of speech in the emergence of self-consciousness. He noted that the perception of the external world is constantly accompanied by inseparable "dark" virgin reactions of bodily origin. In connection with the development of speech, it becomes possible to dissect the signals coming from the external and internal environment, and assign them different names. Then any excitation can be “pulled out” from its natural connection and kept in memory separately and isolated from others, thereby creating conditions for separating excitations coming from the external environment from excitations coming from the internal organs. Thus, a person has the prerequisites for separating himself from the outside world.

Children's awareness of their "I" occurs gradually. The child first exists for himself insofar as he acts as an object for other people. Marx wrote that a person “is born without a mirror in his hands and not a Fichtean philosopher:“ I am I ”... a person first looks, as in a mirror, into another person. Only by treating the man Paul as his own kind does the man Peter begin to treat himself as a man. At first, the child is aware of the actions of other people, then through them - and his own actions; their awareness is associated with the development of imitation, representations and sound speech.

The early stages in the development of self-consciousness are compared with the child's transition from random actions to arbitrary purposeful actions. Parts of his own body are realized by the child as he becomes able to control them voluntarily.

Gradually, the objects to which the child directs his activity begin to be realized. The separation of oneself from one's own actions is fixed in the child's assimilation own name. At the age of two, the classic formula “I myself” appears. At first, the children talk about themselves in different faces: “Don’t make noise”, “Mitya washed himself”. Only by the age of three, the child fully masters the pronoun "I" and begins to actively express himself in speech. The main role in the process of forming his inner world is played by imitation and representation, they unfold in two different planes: the first - in the motor, the last - in terms of images and symbols, but they have something in common, due to the similarity of their role. Imitations and representations make it possible to reduce impressions into a single timeless model that does not depend on the pace of development of events in the external environment - a model of the external world.

One of the sources of the formation of consciousness are children's games. Up to 3–4 years, these are imitation games with the desire to copy the actions of an adult, then these are games by the rules. Here the child begins to fulfill a certain, assumed role; in these games, relationships between people are mastered. The child plays “daughter-mother”, “shop”, taking on a specific role. Before role play, children played side by side, but not together. Role-playing games already represent a reproduction of those relations between others that are known to the child and accessible to his perception. These games can be considered as a simplified model of various social relations. Performing different roles, the child gets an elementary idea of himself and his abilities. Role play prepares the child to enter the adult world with its social connections. Mastering productive activity, a person masters real family, professional, social roles. It is they who determine the further path of development of his consciousness and self-consciousness. Only in adolescence does the formation of a self-aware personality take place.

Self-consciousness is the most highly organized mental process. It is formed in interaction with other people, mainly with those with whom particularly significant contacts arise.

However, self-awareness is associated not only with the impact of these contacts, but also with self-assessments, which depend on the ratio of successes and claims, that is, on the success of a person's activity.

The main function of self-consciousness is to make available to a person the motives and results of his actions and make it possible to understand what he really is, to evaluate himself; if the assessment turns out to be unsatisfactory, then a person can either engage in self-improvement, or, by turning on protective mechanisms, displace this unpleasant information, avoiding the traumatic influence of an internal conflict. Only through awareness of one's individuality, a special function of self-consciousness arises - protective - the desire to protect one's individuality from the threat of its leveling. On this basis, a number of protective mechanisms develop.

In self-consciousness, motives and actions are correlated, some motives with others, and thus a hierarchy of motives is built. Understanding for oneself the most significant motives marks the development of personality. Such awareness leads to the restructuring of all systems of attitudes and forms the ideal "I". In turn, the ideal "I" affects social adaptation, and the level of anxiety, and the characteristics of motivation, it also imposes prohibitions and moral restrictions on all human behavior. His own qualities, to which he aspires, determine for him both near and far goals, and the difference between the ideal and real "I" serves as a source of motivation. According to Freud, the "I" is the center of conscious adaptation to the environment, including perception, intellect, and motor skills. To the system of "I" James attributed own body, some objects, close people, memories and some long-term and especially significant thoughts. A person's own "I" now also includes his character, temperament and abilities.

For a person, the most significant thing is to become oneself (to form oneself as a person), to remain oneself (regardless of interfering influences) and to be able to support oneself in difficult conditions.

In order to self-actualize, to become yourself, the best of what you are capable of becoming, you must: dare to completely surrender to something, immerse yourself in something without a trace, forgetting your postures, overcoming the desire for protection and your shyness, and experience this something without self-criticism; dare to make choices, make decisions and take responsibility; to listen to oneself (and not only to dad, mom, teacher and authority), to give the opportunity to manifest one's individuality, i.e. to realize one's potential in this fully in each this moment.

One of the characteristic manifestations of self-consciousness is reflection. Reflective reasoning is accompanied by an imitation of the thoughts of another person according to the following scheme: "I think that he thinks that I think that ...". Reflection allows not only to anticipate the behavior of another person and adjust your own accordingly, but also to influence the course of his reasoning, directing the course of the conversation in the desired direction with remarks.

All representations of relative self, which an adult takes for granted, are organized into a system that makes his behavior consistent. The interaction of consciousness and self-consciousness forms the foundation of arbitrary control of expedient behavior.

From the book Collection of scientific and journalistic articles author Garifullin Ramil Ramzievich

Postmodernism as the highest and last phase of human development or why is postmodern addiction mortally incurable? Increasingly, one hears that the era of postmodernism is over and instead of it, some new era is already coming: neoclassical or proteistic, etc.

From the book Developmental Psychology and age-related psychology: lecture notes the author Karatyan T V

LECTURE No. 19. The development of the psyche in ontogenesis. driving forces development of the child's psyche The impetus for the development of the human psyche is the presence of cultural, social, activity factors surrounding a person in Everyday life and being an integral part

From book Pedagogical psychology: lecture notes the author Esina E V

LECTURE No. 1. Basic principles and patterns of the relationship between the processes of learning and the development of the psyche

From the book 48 affirmations to strengthen faith in yourself author Pravdina Natalia Borisovna

A HIGHER POWER CARES FOR ME I believe that God is always with me and always helps me. A higher power cares for me tirelessly, and I am always surrounded by the Divine

From the book Essays on the Psychology of Abnormal Personality Development author Zeigarnik Bluma Vulfovna

Essay III. About correlation of disintegration and development of the psyche The problem of correlation of disintegration and development of personality has always attracted the attention of not only physicians, but also psychologists. L. S. Vygotsky repeatedly argued that in order to fully illuminate the problem of the development and maturation of the psyche

From the book Roots of Love. family constellations- from dependence to freedom. Practical guide author Liebermeister Swagito

Higher Wisdom When working with Soul Movements, we acknowledge the existence of a higher wisdom that cannot be grasped logically or intellectually, and understand that neither the therapist, nor the client, nor proxies are responsible for healing. All in hand higher power. It looks like

From the book Autotraining author Alexandrov Artur Alexandrovich

The highest level of autogenic training Autogenic meditation SchultzThe exercises of the lower level (AT-1) affect primarily the vegetative functions. In order to optimize higher mental functions, I. Schultz developed the highest level of autogenic training (AT-2),

From the book Basics general psychology author Rubinshtein Sergei Leonidovich

The main stages in the development of behavior and psyche; The Problem of Instinct, Skill, and Intelligence Behavior is understood as an activity organized in a certain way, carrying out the connection of the organism with the environment. While a person has an inner plane of consciousness

From the book Pledge of the Possibility of Existence author Pokrass Mikhail Lvovich

CONSCIOUSNESS AS THE HIGHEST VALUE Reflecting the most significant phenomena and regulating the most motivated activities of a person and the activities of his body, leading to the most significant results for him as a person - “an animal that separates itself in society” (K. Marx),

From the book Intelligence: instructions for use author Sheremetiev Konstantin

The highest stage As soon as the energy passes into the sexual stage, a person receives an almost inexhaustible source of energy. People with a developed intellect raise their energy potential so much that they become staunch fighters on the sexual front. Energy is coming

From the book Child of Man. Psychophysiology of development and regression author Bazarny Vladimir Filippovich

The highest stage The problem of communication is that even if you said everything in a normal language and the interlocutor UNDERSTOOD you perfectly, this does not mean at all that he AGREES with you. It's hard, but if you

From the book Psychology and Pedagogy. Crib author Rezepov Ildar Shamilevich

Chapter 3 The nine-month period of intrauterine life of an infant is the basic step in the subsequent strategy of human development Not only in the popular press, but also in special medical literature, one can often hear and read:

From the book Psychotherapy. Tutorial author Team of authors

BIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PSYCHE Educational psychology proceeds from the idea that the laws mental development of a person are socially conditioned, the development process is determined by a complex set of conditions for living and raising a child. mental

From the book From the child to the world, from the world to the child (collection) author Dewey John

Mental pathologies and stages of development of the psyche The theory of psychosexual development associates mental disorders not so much with specific single injuries, but with a violation in the process of mental development - fixations at certain stages. Psyche

From the book The Key to Superpowers! 100 + 1 ideas for unlocking your potential from the monk who sold his Ferrari by Sharma Robin S.

From the author's book

94. Higher Freedom One of my favorite books is Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychiatrist who survived Nazi concentration camps. Many people died around him. They were losing hope. They fell into despair, and then they died.

The question of the relationship between the psyche and the brain is the subject of constant discussion between representatives of various areas in philosophy, medicine and psychology.

Domestic science claims that mental activity is the functional ability of the brain to reflect objective reality and ensure adequate relationships between the body and the environment. From psychophysiological positions, mental activity is a complex, multi-stage, multi-link physiological process, all links of which function in a harmonious unity.

Consciousness – This highest level reflection of reality, manifested by the ability of the individual to be aware of the surroundings, the present and past time, make decisions and, in accordance with the situation, manage their behavior.

You can give the characteristics, or structure, of consciousness. First characteristic– is a body of knowledge about the world, the second– a distinct distinction between subject and object, fixed in consciousness, that is, what belongs to the “I” of a person and his “non-I”. The third characteristic of consciousness– it is the provision of goal-setting activity. Fourth characteristic– the presence of emotional evaluations in interpersonal relationships.

The human psyche has a qualitatively higher level than the psyche of animals (homo sapiens - a reasonable person). Consciousness, the human mind developed in the process of labor activity, which arises due to the need to carry out joint actions to obtain food during a sharp change in the living conditions of primitive man. And although the specific biological and morphological features of a person have been stable for 40 millennia, the development of the psyche took place in the process of labor activity.

Labor activity has productive nature, carrying out the process of embodiment, objectification in the products of people's activities, their spiritual forces and abilities. Thus, the material, spiritual culture of mankind is an objective form of embodiment of the achievements of its mental development.

Labor is a process that connects man with nature, the process of man's influence on nature. For labor activity the following is characteristic: 1) the use and manufacture of tools, their preservation for later use; 2) the productive nature and purposefulness of labor processes; 3) the subordination of labor to the idea of the product of labor - the labor goal, which, like a law, determines the nature of labor and the method of labor actions; 4) the social nature of labor, its implementation in conditions joint activities; 5) labor aimed at transforming the external world.

The manufacture, use and preservation of labor tools, the division of labor contributed to the development of abstract thinking, speech, language, socio-historical relations between people. In the process of his historical development, a person himself changes the ways and methods of his behavior, transforms natural inclinations and functions into higher mental functions - specifically human.

Conscious activity is one of the highest mental functions. Without the participation of consciousness, it is impossible to imagine any complete complex action even at the level of a highly organized mammal, for example, the process of tracking and obtaining food by a predator, the complex process of protecting against the pursuit of enemies in the animal world, etc. Consciousness is considered in evolutionary-physiological and psychosocial aspects.

In the evolutionary-physiological aspect, it would be correct to qualify consciousness as a state of the central nervous system that provides a complex integral higher activity of the brain and the whole organism. In highly organized animals, this is a mental activity.

In the psychosocial aspect, conscious activity is inseparable from mental activity. Without clear consciousness as a certain state of the brain, mental activity is impossible. It is impossible to equate "conscious" and "mental". The latter is a broader concept.

It is necessary to distinguish several stages in the development of conscious activity, inextricably linked with the maturity of the mind and the corresponding level of social consciousness and the development of the psyche: the psyche of animals and prehuman, herd consciousness, the consciousness of a rational person, the consciousness of a person of a tribal society and the emergence of self-consciousness.

The concept of “consciousness” refers both to an individual (individual consciousness) and to society (social consciousness). Public consciousness as a reflection of social life includes political, philosophical, legal, artistic and aesthetic views, moral and ethical ideas, norms, and scientific knowledge. Social consciousness influences individual consciousness, its development.

Consciousness is inextricably linked with speech, language. Consciousness is always knowledge about something, has an active character and is inextricably linked with activity.

An important role among the various properties of consciousness is played by its orienting quality (in place, time, environment).

A person has the ability to be aware of both the world around him and himself. This is called self-consciousness, a person's awareness of his body, thoughts, actions, feelings, his own position in the system of social production.

The world is known and understood by a person through the prism of social relations, the production process, tools, language, ethical and aesthetic norms. Therefore, the consciousness of a person, in the final analysis, is determined by his being, i.e. real life in concrete historical conditions. On the physiological mechanism of consciousness, IP Pavlov said that consciousness is the nervous activity of a certain part of the cerebral hemispheres at a given moment, under given conditions, which has a known optimal excitability.

Consciousness is a dynamic process, determined by its object and mediated by the brain.

Often used in everyday life is the expression subconscious. Sometimes some feelings appear subconsciously, the origin of which a person is not able to explain. They should also include automated skills, suggestion in hypnosis, etc. The work of the brain during sleep should also be attributed to the area of the subconscious. It is known that a number of people made discoveries in their sleep (D. I. Mendeleev, A. S. Griboyedov, etc.) - Science has not yet given an explanation for this. In the brain during sleep, work continues - analysis and synthesis, refinement and isolation take place.

The disease can change self-consciousness, in particular, disrupt the awareness of oneself as a patient or understanding oneself as a person, one’s “I”.

Consciousness - special property psyche, specifically aimed at self-control of the individual's life, including the control of the functioning of the psyche itself. A certain role is occupied not in scientific, but in church psychology, in Eastern psychology and philosophy superconsciousness.

Superconsciousness differs from ordinary consciousness in that it represents not only the invisible world, but also everything superintelligent and supersensible, and in the ancient church ascetic superconsciousness, the supernature of Divine principles is also represented.

Lodyzhensky distinguishes three types of superconsciousness: astral, mental and spiritual.

Astral superconsciousness, according to Lodyzhensky, takes place in demonic mysticism, is realized through astral forces, nourished in man by evil passions. The astral superconsciousness constitutes an element in shamanic ecstasy, among whips and dervishes. It is based on the strength of an unreasonable soul, exaggerated to the extreme in dancing or jumping.

The mental superconsciousness is achieved by the power of the concentrated mind and consciousness, i.e., by the excitation of the rational part of the soul. Psychism is a characteristic feature of both these types of superconsciousness. Rudolf Steiner, in his book How to Attain Knowledge of the Supersensible Worlds, also pays attention to the development of these centers. In the astral superconsciousness, consciousness is replaced by sensuality, and in the mental superconsciousness by imagination and the “serpent”. Lodyzhensky also notes the role of imagination in the development of superconsciousness.

Spiritual superconsciousness in "intelligent meditation" is achieved by concentrating the mind in the heart, which causes the intention of the whole spirit in the heart.

Superconsciousnesses differ from each other according to the austerity that underlies them. Asceticism determines superconsciousness, and superconsciousness characterizes asceticism. In ancient church science there is no concept of superconsciousness, but there is a divine consciousness.

Consciousness- the highest form of a generalized reflection of the objective stable properties and patterns of the surrounding world, characteristic of a person, as well as the creation of an internal model of the external world, as a result of which knowledge and transformation of the surrounding reality are possible.

Function of consciousness- formation of activity goals, preliminary mental construction of actions and prediction of their results, which ensures reasonable regulation of human behavior and activities. The human mind has a certain attitude towards environment, to other people. “My attitude to my environment is my consciousness,” remarked K. Marx.

The following properties of consciousness are distinguished: relationship building, knowledge And experience. Therefore, thinking and emotions are also included here. Indeed, the main function of thinking is to identify objective relationships between the phenomena of the external world, and emotions are the creation of a subjective attitude of a person to objects, phenomena, people. In the structures of consciousness, these forms and types of relationships are synthesized and then determine both the organization of behavior and the deep processes of self-esteem and self-consciousness.

Really existing in a single stream of consciousness, an image and a thought can, being colored by emotions, become an experience. “Awareness of experience is always the establishment of its objective relation to the causes that cause it, to the objects to which it is directed, to the actions by which it can be realized” (S. L. Rubinshtein).

Rice. 4.1.

Consciousness develops in a person only in social contacts. In phylogenesis, it developed only under conditions of active influence on nature - during labor activity. Consciousness is possible only when there is a language, speech that arises simultaneously with it in the labor process.

In ontogenesis, the child's consciousness goes through a complex, mediated path. The psyche of an infant, generally speaking, cannot be regarded as isolated, independent. From the very beginning there is a stable connection with the mother's psyche. In the prenatal and postnatal periods, this connection can be called mental (sensory). However, the child is at first only a passive element of it, a perceiving substance, and the mother, having a psyche, a formed consciousness, transmits not just psychophysical, but also information formed due to consciousness.

Another point is the very activity of the mother. The primary organic needs of the child for warmth, psychological comfort and other things are organized and satisfied from the outside by her loving attitude towards her child. The mother with a loving look "catch" and evaluates everything valuable, from her point of view, in the initially disordered reactivity of the child's organism and gradually, lovingly cuts off everything that deviates from social norm. It is also important here that the norms of development, as well as motherhood, are already present in human society. Thus, by love for the child, the mother, as it were, pulls him out of organic reactivity, unconsciousness and draws him into human culture, into the sphere of people's consciousness. 3. Freud noted that "the mother teaches to love the child"; she "invests" her love (attitude) in his psyche, since the mother image is for children's feelings and perception the real center of all acts, blessings and troubles.

The next stage of development can be called the primary act of consciousness is the identification of the child with the mother when he tries to put himself in her place, imitate and become like her. This is, apparently, a primary human relationship, a window into culture cut through by maternal love for the child, the initial act of consciousness.

The Primary Attitude of Consciousness(and not objective) is identification with a cultural symbol, since the mother acts as a cultural model social behavior and the child just does it. This is the starting point life path human development of consciousness. And it is the identification with the symbols of culture that organizes human consciousness, makes a person a person. The isolation of the meaning, symbol and identification with it is followed by the implementation, active activity of the child in reproducing samples human behavior, speech, thinking, consciousness, by reflecting the surrounding world and regulating their behavior.

But the realization of the meaning of a cultural symbol, a model, entails the activation of a layer of consciousness rationalized by it, which can develop relatively independently due to reflection, analysis (mental activity). In a sense, awareness is the opposite of reflection. If it comprehends the integrity of the situation, gives a picture of the whole, then reflection, on the contrary, divides the whole - for example, it searches for the cause of difficulties, analyzing the situation based on the purpose of the activity. Thus, awareness is a condition for reflection, but the latter, in turn, is necessary for a higher, deeper and more accurate understanding of the situation as a whole.

Our consciousness in its development is associated with many identifications, but not all of them are realized. These unrealized potentials constitute what we usually designate by the word soul, which is for the most part an unconscious part of our consciousness. Although, to be precise, it must be said that the symbol as the infinite content of consciousness cannot be fully realized and therefore consciousness periodically returns to itself.

From this follows the third fundamental act of consciousness - the awareness of an unfulfilled desire. Thus the circle of development closes, and everything returns to its beginning.

Rice. 4.2.

There are two layers of consciousness (V.P. Zinchenko):

Existential consciousness(consciousness concerning being) is:
- biodynamic properties of movements, experience of actions;
- sensual images.
Reflective Consciousness(consciousness concerning consciousness), including:
- meaning;
- meaning.

Meaning- the content of social consciousness, assimilated by man. These can be operational, subject, verbal, worldly and scientific meanings.

Meaning- subjective understanding of the situation, information and attitude to it. Misunderstanding is associated with difficulties in understanding meanings. The processes of mutual transformation of meanings and meanings (comprehension of meanings and meaning of meanings) act as a means of dialogue and mutual understanding.

On the existential layer of consciousness, very complex tasks are solved, since for effective behavior in a given situation, it is necessary to actualize the image that is needed at the moment and the required motor program. The mode of action must fit into the image of the world.

The world of ideas, concepts, worldly and scientific knowledge correlates with the meaning (of reflective consciousness). The world of human values, experiences, emotions - with meaning (of reflective consciousness). The world of industrial, subject-practical activity - with the biodynamic fabric of movement and action (existential layer of consciousness). The world of representations, imagination, cultural symbols and signs - with sensual fabric (existential consciousness). Consciousness is related to all these worlds and is present in all of them.

The center of consciousness is the consciousness of one's own Self. Consciousness:

born in being;
reflects being;
creates life. Functions of consciousness:
reflective;
generative (creative);
regulatory and evaluation;
reflexive (basic, it characterizes the essence of consciousness). The object of reflection can be:
1. reflection of the world;
2. thinking about it;
3. ways of regulating a person's behavior;
4. the processes of reflection themselves;
5. your personal consciousness.

The existential layer contains the origins and beginnings of the reflective, since meanings and meanings are born in it. The meaning expressed in the word contains:

image;
operational and subject value;
meaningful and meaningful action.

Words do not exist only as a language, they objectified forms of thinking, which are expressed through the language itself.

The zone of clear consciousness reflects a small part of signals simultaneously coming from the external and internal environment of the body. Those of them that fell into this zone are used by man for conscious control with their behaviour. The rest are also taken into account by the body to regulate certain processes, but at a subconscious level.

Psychological studies have shown that those objects that create obstacles to the continuation of the previous regime of regulation immediately fall into the zone of clear consciousness. Difficulties that arise attract attention and are thus recognized. Awareness of the circumstances that impede the regulation or solution of the problem helps to find a new mode of regulation or a new way of solving, but as soon as they are found, control is again transferred to the subconscious, and consciousness is freed to resolve newly emerging difficulties.

This continuous transfer of control, which gives a person the opportunity to solve ever new tasks, is based on the harmonious interaction of consciousness and subconsciousness. The first is attracted to the object only for a short time interval and ensures the development of hypotheses at critical moments when there is a lack of information. No wonder the famous psychiatrist K. Claparede wittily remarked that we are aware of our thoughts to the extent of our inability to adapt.

A person subconsciously solves typical tasks that are often encountered in a normal situation. Thanks to this automatism, consciousness is freed from routine operations (walking, running, professional skills, etc.) for new tasks that at the moment can only be solved on a conscious level. Many knowledge, relationships, experiences that make up the inner world of each person are not realized by him, and the impulses they cause determine behavior that remains incomprehensible both for the person himself and for those around him. Freud showed that unconscious impulses underlie many pockets of latent tension, which can give rise to psychological difficulties in adaptation and even illness.

Most of the processes that take place in inner world of a person, they are not conscious, but in principle each of them can become conscious. To do this, you need to express it in words - verbalize.

Allocate:

subconscious: those ideas, desires, actions, aspirations that have now left consciousness, but can then return to it;
proper unconscious: such a psychic that under no circumstances becomes conscious.

Freud believed that the unconscious is not so much those processes to which attention is not directed, but rather experiences suppressed by consciousness - those against which consciousness erects powerful barriers.

1. The problem of consciousness in philosophy.

2. What is consciousness?

3. Natural prerequisites for consciousness.

4. The emergence of man and his consciousness.

One of the highest forms of being is also the inner, spiritual world person. In scientific philosophy, it is usually called consciousness. Questions about the origin of consciousness, its nature, essence, have always worried, worried, and will worry the best minds humanity. The study of these problems, as well as other philosophical issues, took place in two directions - idealism and materialism. Christian theology has always had a special view of the origin and nature of consciousness.

Idealists, as a rule, identified consciousness with the soul. The soul was interpreted by them as an intangible entity that does not arise simultaneously with the body, but exists forever and is connected by invisible channels with the World Mind. The soul possessed activity, and connecting with inert matter, it gave rise to a person.

Christian theology also proceeds from the fact that a person consists of a body and soul, and both body and soul are created by God. But for the full development of a Christian person, the acquisition of the Holy Spirit is also required. It follows that the ideal human consciousness is the harmonious unity of the Holy Spirit and the soul.

Materialists in solving the problem of consciousness have always proceeded from the fact that consciousness is secondary to matter and is a special function of the brain.

The rigid confrontation between idealism and materialism led to one-sided interpretations of the most important problems of consciousness and their insufficient development in philosophy. And only in the 20th century, a comprehensive study of the problems of consciousness by modern specialized sciences begins.

The human mind is complex, a multifaceted phenomenon, therefore it is studied by many sciences: philosophy, psychology, biophysics, biochemistry, psychiatry, cybernetics and others. But due to its versatility and immateriality, consciousness is very difficult to study, and any of its definitions, unless a special direction of this definition is specified, turns out to be incomplete, not conveying all the peculiarities of this amazing phenomenon.

Therefore, as a point of support, we will take the most frequently used definition of consciousness used in the philosophical theory of knowledge - epistemology. Consciousness is the highest function of the brain, peculiar only to man and associated with speech, which consists in a generalized, evaluative and purposeful reflection and constructive and creative transformation of reality, in reasonable regulation and self-control of human behavior.

Conventionally, consciousness can be divided into four spheres. The main goal of the first sphere of consciousness is the regulation of the behavior of the human body in the surrounding world, based on the analysis of information coming through the senses. The second sphere is the sphere of thinking, with the help of which a person goes beyond the limits of the sensually perceived being into the world of abstractions. The third sphere is connected with the emotional component of consciousness. This includes emotions (anger, fear, delight, etc.) and feelings (love, hate, pleasure, etc.). And, finally, the fourth sphere includes the value-motivational complex of consciousness. Here are rooted the highest motives of activity and spiritual ideals of the individual, as well as the ability to form them creatively in the form of intuition, imagination, fantasy, etc. But one must always remember that all these components of consciousness are intertwined, interact closely and it is almost impossible to separate them.

Most modern philosophers proceed from the concept of the natural origin of consciousness. This is supported by the data of many sciences, and above all biology. So one of the main properties of human consciousness is the ability to reflect the surrounding reality and adequately respond to it. But these abilities are manifested, albeit in primitive forms, already in organisms at a lower stage of development. For example, the first form of reflection in wildlife was irritability (a response to external influences). We know that single-celled organisms react to changes in temperature and light. In plants, this is expressed in the opening and closing of flowers, the opening and dropping of leaves, etc.

The emergence of sensory organs and the nervous system in more complex organisms led to the emergence of new forms of reflection, and hence new forms of behavior. These creatures have unconditioned reflexes (innate instincts), which now regulate the behavior of these individuals.

The appearance of the brain added to the previous abilities, the ability to respond to the external environment through conditioned (acquired) reflexes. In this case, the reflective function conditioned reflexes based on the principle feedback: the reflex process begins with the perception of the stimulus, continues with the nervous processes of the brain and ends with the response actions of the muscles and organs. In this case, the resulting impulses signal the results of this work and return to the brain. This makes it possible to make adjustments to the actions taken and, therefore, comes close to reasonable behavior.

From point of view modern science, already in the psyche of higher animals one can see the beginnings of rational behavior based on individual and collective experience. For example, during the hunt, wolves perfectly orient themselves in the current situation, develop a specific plan of action and carry it out. It can be said that wolves have practical intelligence, which manifests itself in direct activity.

Numerous experiments show that higher animals are characterized not only by instinctive, but also by rational behavior associated with the existence of a complex psyche and the presence of analytical forms of mental activity based on imaginative thinking. The difference between human mental activity is expressed in the fact that, along with figurative thinking, a person also has the ability to think abstractly.

Man is the only real being with consciousness. Therefore, the question of the origin of man has become one of the most important for philosophy.

Already primitive people begin to think about this question and look for answers to it. These answers were determined by the worldview of ancient people. Under the dominance mythological consciousness, people felt themselves an integral part of nature and traced their ancestry from some animal, less often a plant. So people from the bear clan believed that they were descended from a bear, people from the wolf clan - from a wolf, etc.

With the appearance of national and world religions on the historical arena, the worldview of a person has also changed. At this time, the biblical version of the origin of man begins to dominate. According to the Bible, the first man - Adam - was created by God on the sixth day of creation, in his own image and likeness. And if inanimate and living nature was created from nothing, then man is created from earthly soil. “And the Lord God created man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul,” Then God put Adam to sleep, took out his rib, and created a woman from him - Eve. Thus, the ancestors of mankind, Adam and Eve, were born.

In modern times, the scientific version of the origin of man was established. It is based on the evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin and the labor theory of F. Engels. According to this version, man descended from one of the extinct species of great apes. At present, most philosophers and scientists are on the positions of this particular theory of the origin of man, but corrected on the basis of recent achievements modern science.

According to the latest data, the separation of man from the animal world (anthropogenesis) began about 4 million years ago. The main factors or causes of anthropogenesis were:

Hereditary variability, including mutations;

Natural and sexual selection;

Labor activity.

Today, no one has any doubts that it was labor activity that became the main reason for the transformation of apes into humans. But the question arises: “Why did the monkeys begin to make and use tools?” Experiments with great apes show that they are able to use various objects to solve certain problems, primarily to obtain food. But this happens only when it is impossible to do this in the usual way. From this we can conclude that the beginning of labor activity is associated with a rather sharp change in the environment. Having lost their usual food base, the monkey population is faced with the choice of either dying or finding new ways to get food. Naturally, mutated individuals with new traits that allow them to survive in changed conditions get an advantage here. In this case, the mutations probably affected the brain and forelimbs, which allowed these individuals to survive through the use of the simplest tools: sticks, stones, bones and horns of dead animals. And then as a result natural selection new qualities begin to be fixed and strengthened. Thus, human evolution begins. The main stages of this evolution were:

Transition to upright posture;

mastery of fire;

The emergence of articulate speech and abstract thinking;

The emergence of religious beliefs and tribal organization. This shows that the decisive factor for the formation of human consciousness was the emergence of articulate speech and, on its basis, the ability to abstract thinking. This is what led to the appearance of a modern type of man about 40 thousand years ago - Homo sapiens (reasonable man).

The source of knowledge is inexhaustible: Whatever success Humanity gains on this path, All people will have to search, discover, learn.

I. A. Goncharov

The concept of consciousness. properties of consciousness. The role and functions of consciousness. Types of consciousness

Every person knows that he has consciousness, i.e. able to realize the world and own experiences. If, for example, a person wants to eat, then he does not need to consult with someone to find out if he really wants it. And if he hears the sound of rain on the street, then he understands, leaving the house, that he should take an umbrella, and not plug his ears. We all perceive the world and ourselves with immediate evidence. By itself, the fact of its presence (which in ordinary usage is understood as consciousness) is so beyond doubt that even in the 17th century. R. Descartes spoke of him as reliable fact in the world.

But the existence of only one's own consciousness is obvious to any person. How, for example, to establish whether there is consciousness in animals or in newborn children? They cannot tell us their opinion on this matter and tell us what they really feel. The presence of consciousness in someone other than oneself can only be assumed, but not known.

How can consciousness be explained? What determines its existence?

Scientists tried to explain the nature of consciousness by studying the processes occurring in the brain. Even in ancient times, people knew that injuries to the brain and sensory organs disrupt the conscious activity of a person, that there are chemical substances and poisons, the use of which leads to changes in the state of consciousness. With the development of physiology as a science, the belief in the existence of this connection only intensified. By the middle of the XX century. it seemed almost self-evident that the psyche must be explained by physiological laws.

But consciousness reflects not the state of the brain, but the external world. Surveys of patients who survived clinical death and resuscitation showed that even in a state of clinical death they perceive events (for example, conversations of medical personnel), somehow experience them, and then, upon leaving this state, they are able to reproduce them verbally. And this at a time when the body has almost no recorded physiological reactions!

But once in a very difficult cases you can survive without consciousness, then what is consciousness for? Animals commonly thought to be unconscious are perfectly adapted to their environment. Why, then, in the process of evolution, it was necessary to create such an education as consciousness?

Modern computers solve complex problems, write poetry, prove theorems, play chess, control spaceships and factories - and do not possess consciousness. But computers have just begun their evolution. And one can hardly imagine what they will be able to do tomorrow without any consciousness. It is known that people, having got into a catastrophe, more often die not from real physical impact, but from the horror that covers their consciousness. It is much more difficult to pass a log over an abyss than to pass on the same log lying on the ground. However, lunatics, being in an unconscious state, can, without any fear, show the miracles of tightrope walking that are inaccessible to them with full consciousness - walk along the cornices of roofs, climb a tower with a rope, etc.

Thousands of years of thinking over the mysteries of consciousness have not led to success. It remained the most obvious fact personal experience everyone and at the same time the most mysterious thing in the world.

The author dwelled on the mysteries of consciousness in such detail so that the reader could understand the scale of this phenomenon, its mystery, attractiveness, and most importantly, the difficulty of cognition. He already knows that this is the highest level of reflection of objective reality. It should be noted that the concept of "consciousness" is used to denote the state of wakefulness of a person, when he is ready for contacts with the outside world at any time. “To lose consciousness” in this sense means to interrupt these contacts, not to respond to environmental influences.

IN scientifically consciousness is understood as the highest manifestation of the psyche, which provides a person with the opportunity not only to study the outside world, but also to see his place in this world, form an attitude towards it, organize interaction with other people, love and hate, admire and resent, set himself the nearest and the most distant goals, feel responsible for their behavior. This is the sphere of the psyche, where the reflection of objective reality (in the form of a dynamic sequence of its images) acquires special, higher forms that are unique to humans.

The question arises: what was the impetus for the evolution of the psyche from simple irritability to consciousness?

As a result of development nervous system and first of all, the brain has reached a level that allows a person to do work. Under the influence of the latter, which is of a collective nature, a person began to develop mental processes that led to the emergence of consciousness - the highest level of mental development inherent only to him. Thus, the emergence of consciousness in a person has both biological and cultural-social conditions, i.e. the emergence of consciousness outside of society is impossible. The main conditions for these processes are the appropriate level of biological development, the presence of a social environment and collective work.

It can be assumed that similar mental activity occurs in more developed animals, such as dogs, horses, dolphins, monkeys. However, calling these animals “smart” in everyday life, we nevertheless do not talk about their consciousness.

Human consciousness differs not in the very fact of the formation of images of the surrounding world, but in the way this formation occurs.

From a psychological point of view, we can talk about several established properties of consciousness:

- it is characterized by activity;
- it is inherent in intentionality (from lat. intentio- desire), i.e. focus on any subject;
- it defines the ability to reflect (from lat. reflexio- reversal), the ability to observe one's mental states;
- his criticality - the ability to evaluate everything that happens around him from the standpoint of his views, values and morality.

Consciousness is not an imprint and not a frozen "photo" of reality. This is both a poorly studied sphere of the psyche of the highest level of organization, and a complex dynamic mental process. Consciousness is studied by many sciences - philosophy, anthropology, neurophysiology, sociology, psychology, physiology, but they have yet to reveal its secrets. All religions also pay close attention to it.

Consciousness has certain functions and roles. These concepts should be distinguished: the first reflect the purpose of the object prescribed by nature; the second is the fact how the function is used.

Functions of Consciousness consist of:

- in reflected and objective reality (outside world);
- self-knowledge of internal mental processes and states (reflection).

Roles of Consciousness boil down basically:

- to regulation mental activity through the formation of goals, motives and volitional efforts;
- ensuring the processes of cognition through training;
- social interaction through language and speech, emotions, feelings, non-verbal behavior.

Consciousness controls the most complex forms of behavior that require constant attention and conscious control, and turns on in the following cases:

- if a person faces unexpected complex problems that do not have an obvious solution;
- a person needs to overcome physical resistance on the way of thought movement;
- it is necessary to realize and find a way out of a conflict situation containing a potential threat to him;
- a person suddenly finds himself in a situation that cannot resolve itself

Situations of this kind arise in front of people almost continuously, therefore consciousness as the highest level mental regulation behavior is always present.

In psychology, there are several types of human consciousness::

- worldly - is formed first among other types of consciousness, arises when interacting with things, is fixed in the language in the form of the first concepts;
- design- covers the range of tasks related to the design and implementation of specific goals of the activity;
- scientific- based on scientific concepts, concepts, models, explores not individual properties of objects, but their relationships;
- aesthetic - connected with the process of emotional perception of the surrounding world;
- ethical- determines the moral attitudes of a person (from extreme adherence to principles to immorality). Unlike other types of consciousness, the degree of development of the ethical (moral) consciousness of a person is difficult to assess by himself.

Along with the development of civilization, human consciousness continues to develop, and at the present historical moment this development is accelerating, which is caused by the accelerated pace of scientific, technological and cultural progress.

Consciousness as the highest stage in the development of the psyche. Consciousness is the highest stage in the development of life. Attitude towards other people

Collection of ideal social studies essays

Anti-Soviet rebellion in Hungary (1956)