Our everyday life, actions and aspirations are based on simple and clear ideas (thoughts, judgments), which we have learned without much doubt. The most general idea- this is our conviction that there is (exists, exists) a certain world around us. This world, with all its changes, never disappears; it is preserved as a whole as something permanent.

It is clear to us that the world exists “here” and “now”. Can we say that the world existed before me, exists where I am not, and will exist after me? - Yes we can. What convinces us of this: history, geography textbooks, etc.; relatives, acquaintances, personal experience.

Thus, we come to the conclusion: the world was, is and will exist. This conclusion, which many agree with, has, however, different interpretations: the world is infinite in space and time; the world has a beginning and an end.

Even if the world exists indefinitely, how can this be correlated with the finite existence of individual things, including humans. The answers to this and other questions are not clear-cut, and not all of them are convincing enough. That is why they talk about the existence of a problem of existence. This problem breaks down into several parts (aspects).

First aspect:what, where and for how long does it exist?

We answer the first question quite confidently, based on obvious facts: certain objects. But two other questions may raise doubts. The idea of ​​the infinity of the world does not follow from our everyday experience. On the contrary, all our lives we feel the boundaries of space: room - apartment - house - block - city - country - Earth. (Even hell and heaven are limited, because they do not intersect). A person can imagine very long distances, very long periods of time. But one can only believe in infinity. A person is not able to perceive it sensually.

Human life is not eternal, even short, but most people value their place in this world because they are confident in the eternity of this world. This confidence forces us to compare our values ​​with those of humanity.

Is it worth organizing your life? Does this make sense? The answer to these questions can be given by analysis of another part of the problem of being.

Second aspect:Is the world one and whole in its existence??

This question arises whenever we find ourselves in a new situation. In this case, we are forced to integrate into the world(adjust yourself or adjust the environment to suit yourself). Life situations arise objectively, i.e. regardless of our desire, they lead to the conclusion: the world, so diverse and different in its manifestations, is fundamentally one.

What is this "something", which unites the whole world? Thinkers have been looking for an answer since philosophy appeared. This “something” was given a name: substance- that which underlies everything. What lies at the heart of it all? There were different opinions: earth, water, air, fire; then they began to talk about certain indivisible particles - atoms. Over time, this direction in philosophy came to the conclusion that substance is matter in general, in all its forms. This direction in philosophy is called materialism. Another direction in philosophy claims that substance is a thought, an idea. It got the name - idealism.

The difference between materialism and idealism is third aspect problems of life: what comes first?

Answering this question is even more difficult than the previous ones. The answer depends on the solution to the problem: does God exist? Because this problem human mind has not yet been resolved, then the answer to this question is a matter of personal faith.

Human existence is viewed from two points of view - as an individual and as a social one. Individual existence is determined by two groups of factors: natural-biological and social (cultural-historical). Each group of factors leads to its own result. In this regard, the concepts of “person” and “personality” are distinguished.

Human- the highest stage of development of living organisms on Earth.

Personality- a person who has a stable system of socially significant traits.

A person has traits given to him by nature: height, weight, skin color and others. There are traits that a person acquires in the course of life, but do not influence (or weakly influence) relationships with others: the ability to limit one’s needs, to survive in the desert (forest, sand, snow, etc.) and others.

When they talk about personality, they mean traits that allow a person to occupy a certain place in society: education, qualifications, business activity, organizational skills, desire for leadership, etc.

The term “personality” itself comes from the Russian “mask” - a mask or, as they used to say in the old days, a “false mug” that an actor wore in the theater. The actor himself was called a “actor.” The Romans used the term “persona”, which was always used only with an indication of the corresponding social role: the personality of a king, the personality of a judge, the personality of a father, etc. Later, this term began to denote not a role in the theater, but a person’s place in society, his social role (official, bandit, entrepreneur, student, etc.).

As a biological organism, humans belong to the phylum Chordata, the subphylum of vertebrates, the class of mammals, the order of primates, and the family of hominids. Therefore, like all other animals, he is forced, first of all, to satisfy the primary needs of life (food, clothing, shelter, etc.).

Need- the state of a living being, which characterizes its dependence on certain benefits.

Needs are divided into material(primary, vital) and spiritual. The first represent the biological side of human essence, the second - the social side. Spiritual needs include the need for knowledge of the world beyond the environment, creative self-expression, intellectual and moral perfection, and others.

In the formation and satisfaction of their needs, people often do not know the limits, i.e. cannot foresee the moment when it is necessary to stop satisfying some needs. This is especially true now, when people are exposed to advertising on a gigantic scale. Therefore there arises the topic of real and imaginary needs. Not every person is able to determine a criterion (sign) by which it would be possible to separate contrived needs from necessary needs. Perhaps it is worth taking the recommendation of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus. He called imaginary needs unnatural, which, therefore, are not necessary. The main sign for distinguishing them is that the satisfaction of unnatural needs leads to illness of the body and anxiety of the soul.

A person is able to consciously regulate his needs, based on moral standards and taking into account the interests of society.

Ability (potential)- this is a measure of the compliance of a person’s properties with the need to perform any physical or mental actions.

Ability (current)- it is a form of activity that allows you to achieve a specific goal. There are different classifications of abilities. Some of the commonly used ability assessments are the following.

Giftedness- This general abilities to highly effective activity in some area.

Talent- high level of development of special abilities.

Genius- this is the highest manifestation of creative abilities realized in specific achievements.

Majority philosophical concepts asserts that a person develops under the influence of society and only becomes an individual in it. As society is, so is the individual. Man, like any material body, is an element of nature. But its way of inclusion in the environment has a fundamentally different character. This method is an active transformation of the environment. This method was called practice. This concept occupies an important place in the system of philosophical categories. The search for this place is ensured by analyzing the concept of “connection”.

In the previous section it was already said that the need for activity is dictated by the presence of dependence (connection). These relationships take place in both living and inanimate nature. Various objects of inanimate nature can be characterized by such properties as seismic activity, radioactivity, optical activity, etc. For example, optical activity is the property of a number of substances (sugar, turpentine, etc.) to cause a rotation of the plane of polarization of light passing through them. For living beings, their mobility, as a form of activity, acquires special meaning, acting as a survival factor. The activity of living beings is caused by their dependence on the resources of the environment, with which they are forced to exchange matter and energy to maintain life. Without the search and struggle for resources, the existence of organisms as living things is not possible. In natural nature, these processes are carried out reflexively, on the basis of instinct, while a living organism can only rely on “products” that are ready for consumption.

Unlike animals, humans are able to consciously set goals for themselves. The presence of consciousness allows him to carry out purposeful activity.

Practice should not be understood as any act, but only one that radically changes the surrounding things, i.e. transforms them qualitatively.

Practice- this is a purposeful objective activity of a person to transform material systems.

Most often, a person uses some objects to transform the environment. Animals also sometimes use objects as tools and even make them. But the significant difference is that man creates complex artificial means of transforming the environment, which are reproduced and passed on from generation to generation as a special cultural reality.

One more thing. The communication of people in the process of transforming the environment is, in essence, the transformation of people themselves (training and education). Thus, by transforming nature, a person adapts it to himself, at the same time he adapts to nature and the people around him, transforms himself.

In this interaction, human activity can manifest itself in different ways. In this regard, the concepts of “behavior” and “activity” are distinguished. Although in common usage these terms are used as synonyms.

The term “behavior” denotes activity, actions aimed at adapting to the existing environment. In animals, this adaptation goes mainly to the natural environment; in humans - both to the natural and to the social environment. A typical example of social behavior is following the rules, norms, customs, etc. established in a given group (school, work, sports team, etc.). Worldly wisdom has developed the corresponding guidelines: “Don’t go into someone else’s monastery with your own rules” and others. Adaptive behavior allows for various activities, but only within the framework of prevailing circumstances (requirements, instructions, programs, etc.). A person’s ability to take initiative and creativity makes it possible to distinguish these types of activities from each other.

Behavior- performing activity, with the help of which a person implements someone else’s program of action.

Does the person always remain within the instructions or requirements? - No. And why? Because a person often has his own view of the situation, which is dictated by personal interests. It seems to him that he is able to improve the situation for others or for himself (maybe even without harm to others) if his actions go beyond the boundaries of other people’s instructions.

Activity- creative activity carried out to implement a personal program of action.

When following someone's instructions (orders, laws, etc.), a person is not formally responsible for anything. Only for complete compliance with these instructions. By setting his goals and starting an activity, a person takes responsibility for the results of this activity. Therefore wise man independent going beyond the rules, i.e. amateur performances, should be accompanied by the thought: “What will I gain or lose by doing this? Am I ready to pay someone else’s price for what I did on my own initiative?” The price is alien because amateur activity always has to be explained, its necessity must be proven, and often subject to sanctions. After all, amateur performance (if it is not artistic) is, by definition, a violation of rules, instructions, laws, etc.

Thus, a sign of activity is creativity.

Creation- human ability to create qualitatively new objects.

In the material (economic sphere) the leading role is played by scientific creativity, those. discovery of phenomena previously unknown to man, their connections with other phenomena (laws). Strictly speaking, scientific creativity has vital importance in all spheres of society. In the economic sphere, its main purpose is to be embodied, to move into technical creativity, invention. In the spiritual sphere, in addition to the scientific, humanity widely relies on the fruits artistic creativity. In the political sphere, people's relationships are built on the basis lawmaking. Achieving harmonious relations in the social sphere largely depends on pedagogical creativity. Man by nature is a creative being, so other types of creative activity can be distinguished.

Human activity in general, i.e. not necessarily creative, can be classified according to various criteria. According to the spheres of manifestation, we can distinguish practical activity, those. transformation of natural objects, creation of artificial objects, including social institutions, And spiritual activity- creation and transformation of various systems of ideas and images.

According to the method of formation of a person as a personality, they distinguish the following types activities: play, work, communication, communication.

A game- this is a form of activity in which human actions are conditional in nature and lack immediate practical expediency.

In the game, a person goes beyond ordinary actions and normal use items. This characteristic applies to both children's games and game elements of adult activity. For many people, gaming is a way to learn new things. social functions(for example, a business game). In this case, new skills are formed and developed, a person’s adaptation to unfamiliar situations and joint actions with other people is trained. The game often brings together people from different positions in society. This variety of situations, ideas and actions contributes to the development of creativity. For a child, play is generally a means of acquiring primary life experience and a “platform” for demonstrating one’s abilities.

Various games contribute to the development of different aspects of personality. So functional games(for example, construction kits) allow you to understand the purpose of objects, their interaction, and the ways people act with them. Games by rules form the skills of collective action of people, train collective discipline. Thus, the game can be presented as a form of learning, i.e. mastering knowledge, skills and abilities in any area of ​​society. It improves the practical and spiritual activity of the individual, prepares him for professional work.

Work- human activity aimed at creating a socially useful product that satisfies the material and spiritual needs of people.

The role of labor:

• source of income ( material goods);
• a means for the formation and development of human abilities (along with the game);
• type of relaxation (recuperation), i.e. work can act as psychological relaxation by changing the form of activity from spiritual to practical;
• personal mobility training, i.e. remedies for boredom and apathy (indifference) to social phenomena;
• a source of new social contacts, connections that can become a means of solving some problems;
• the basis for an individual to realize his importance in the family, among friends and colleagues.

The multiple divisions of labor that have occurred in human history have led to the emergence of various professions.

Profession- This is a type of occupation of a person who has a set of certain theoretical knowledge and practical skills (for example, a lawyer). The presence of special knowledge and skills in a given profession, acquired as a result of targeted training, is called specialty(for example, a specialist in civil law). The level of training, knowledge and experience in a given specialty is called qualifications. It is recorded in the form of ranks and ranks.

Communication- a form of activity during which information and actions are exchanged.

Communication- a subtype of communication that involves the exchange of information only.

Communication involves transmission and assimilation. human experience. In this case, both language and non-verbal means can be used: facial expressions, posture, form of looking at the interlocutor, gestures and others. In addition to reproducing human experience, communication also performs other functions:

• informational, i.e. aimed at establishing mutual understanding in relations between people, mutual clarification of other people's beliefs, values, motives for activity;
• regulatory, allows for division of labor to save resources (for example, time), and also allows for the coordination of joint actions to increase their efficiency;
• compensatory, communication can be an effective means of relieving nervous tension, stress, and finding a way out difficult situations, consolation, etc.;
• educational.

Variety of types of communication can be presented in the following classifications. According to the type of social subjects, communication can be interpersonal, personal-group and intergroup. By area public life Economic, social, political and spiritual communication can be distinguished. Depending on the presence (absence) of intermediate links (for example, telephone, courier, etc.), communication can be direct or indirect. Types of communication can be distinguished by purpose, duration and other characteristics.

Review questions:

• 1. What does the biosocial essence of an individual mean?
• 2. What is the content of the concept of “personality”?
• 3. What are needs, what are their types?
• 4. What are abilities, what are their types?
• 5. What is the relationship between the concepts of “behavior” and “activity”?
• 6. How do the concepts of “game”, “work”, “communication”, “communication” relate?

Being is existence, human life, flowing in a certain time and space. In the philosophical aspect, it is understood as a set of phenomena, processes, everything living and material (a certain dependence, interconnection) of everything that surrounds a person: “Existence determines consciousness.”

The purpose of life is the main force that determines and motivates life’s actions, on which a person’s active or passive (moving with the flow) attitude to life, his transformation of the world and social environment depends.

The meaning of life is the significance and meaningfulness of human existence on earth. It is especially important to realize your capabilities and abilities, to do something you love. Some thinkers are inclined to the idea of ​​the intrinsic value of the gift of life, the impossibility of making the life of another person the most important thing for oneself, especially the pursuit of material gain or growth in life. career ladder as an end in itself. From this point of view, the process of life itself acquires paramount importance (life for the sake of life).

A person’s life, from a physiological point of view, is a time period that begins with the moment of a person’s birth and is interrupted with his death. At the same time, life is filled with a variety of events - joyful and sad, tragic and happy, it is a fulfilling existence, a chain of inextricable, intertwined moments of a person’s biography.

Life and death are realized only in relation to each other. Without a sense of the tragedy of human death, the finitude of life, it is impossible to understand and fully appreciate the gift of life and its value. It is very important for a person to understand his place in life, his own purpose, to find maximum realization of all his capabilities and abilities.

Immortality - in the philosophical understanding, is the continuation of a person’s life on earth in his deeds, in what he left behind - a grown garden that will bear fruit for a long time and delight people, the offspring left behind, works of art. The great Russian poet A. S. Pushkin wrote the words “No, all of me will not die - the soul in the treasured lyre will survive my ashes and escape decay...”. For an artist, poet, musician, the main thing is to realize oneself in creative activity, an artistic legacy left behind that descendants will turn to.

An ideal is an idea of ​​the perfect or its embodiment in reality, also the highest goal, the reason for activity, the pursuit of an ideal.

An idea is a concept, a basic thought, an image of something that exists in the mind. It can be a generalized experience of something, expressing an attitude towards reality.

Beliefs are stable views on the world around us, ideals and principles deeply inherent in the individual.

Norm - establishment, prescription, mandatory procedure anything.

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EXISTENCE OF HUMAN

1. PHILOSOPHICAL CATEGORY “BEING”. Genesis – philosophical category, denoting existence, reality. Accordingly, not only natural phenomena have existence, but also man and the spheres of his activity. The world of thinking beings and everything created by them enters the sphere of existence.

1. Existential problems in philosophy have taken shape in a special philosophical discipline- ontology (the doctrine of being, its forms, attributes and principles). The term “ontology” first appeared in the philosophy of R. Goclenius (1613), while the first questions and problems of the relativity of the essence of being, as noted above, have worried the minds of philosophers since antiquity.

2. FORMS OF HUMAN EXISTENCE. Ordinary thinking perceives the terms “to be” and “to exist” as synonyms. Philosophy has long used the concept of being to designate not just existence, i.e., that which exists, but that which guarantees existence. And in this sense, “being” turned out to be synonymous not with the external characteristics of an object, but with its essence, internal laws. It is in this meaning that the category of being first appears in the ancient Greek philosopher Parmenides. Plato, Aristotle, Democritus, Thomas Aquinas, R. Descartes, I. Kant, G. Hegel, K. Marx, M. Heidegger and other philosophers offered their original interpretations of being, focusing on one or another specific historical understanding of being and its forms .

The primary prerequisite for human existence is the life of his body. In the natural world, man, existing as a body, is dependent on the laws of development and death of organisms, the cycles of nature. To give life to the spirit, it is necessary to provide life to the body. Therefore, in all civilized countries, fundamental human rights to satisfy his primary needs, rights related to the preservation of life, are legally enshrined.

An individual becomes a personality by mastering the achievements of human culture (personal aspect human existence). Therefore, a person does not blindly obey the requirements of bodily laws, but is able to control and regulate his needs, satisfying them not just in accordance with nature, but guided by historically emerged norms and ideals. Nevertheless, it is believed that individual existence is the basis for the existence of a person.

Social existence can be expressed in more in a broad sense as a social being. Social existence (the relationship of people to nature and each other) arises along with the formation of human society and is primary in relation to the consciousness of the individual and generation.

Sample assignment A1. Choose the correct answer. Are they true? the following judgments about human existence? A. The individual existence of a person does not depend on his natural data. B. The individual existence of a person does not depend on the socio-historical conditions of existence. 1) only A is true 2) only B is true 3) both judgments are true 4) both judgments are incorrect Answer: 4.

At the center of social existence is labor. Human activity: Activity is a human form of active relationship to the surrounding world, associated with purposeful change and transformation of both the external world and the person himself. Structure of human activity: The subject, with his goals, motives and needs, interests, knowledge and skills. An object is something towards which an activity is directed.

Types of human activity: 1) Material activity. 2) Social transformative activities (political and legal activities regulating social life of people). 3) Spiritual. 4) Communicative (communication process). 5)Game activity. 6) Activities to serve people.

The personal aspect of human existence is the individual’s assimilation of the achievements of human culture. The egoism of needs is covered by the actions and actions of a “cultivated being.”

The individual aspect of human existence (considers a person’s life from birth to death). Existence depends on natural data, on socio-historical conditions. The primary prerequisite for human existence is the needs of his body. In the natural world, man exists as a body and depends on the development cycles of nature. To give life to the spirit, it is necessary to provide life to the body.

MAIN CONCLUSIONS on the topic. 1.Thinking 2.Speaking. 3. Remember.

In the previous paragraph we defined the specificity of living things in relation to non-living things as new, qualitatively more high level development of nature. The same can be said with regard to human existence, if we define it as a higher, qualitatively different stage of development of living nature. Therefore, what was said in the previous paragraph about the existence of living things also applies to man, constituting his natural-bodily, biological basis. The laws and principles of the existence of living organisms, thus, fully apply to him, as a sentient being. But besides this, there is something fundamentally differentiating a person from all living things, which is undoubtedly present in him, but upon a “close”, more detailed examination it eludes and cannot be defined unambiguously and strictly. This “something” that expresses the inner world of a person, different thinkers at different times tried to define each in their own way, calling it soul, psyche, consciousness, thinking, ideal, etc.

Philosophy about the soul. U primitive people we find attempts to understand the essence of man, a desire to establish the specifics of his existence, and since the times of Socrates and Plato in the history of philosophy, perhaps, there are no more commonly used concepts than “soul” and “consciousness”, expressing the inner, hidden state of human individuality. And there are no more confusing questions that these concepts and what is connected with them give rise to.

So, Protagoras (490-420 BC) is one of the largest sophists, in the 5th century. BC. asserted that “man is the measure of all things: existing, that they exist, non-existent, that they do not exist.” Socrates (469-399 BC), in search of truth, also turned to the person who was most subject to the activity of his soul, and therefore the path to understanding the world, he believed, lay through self-knowledge. His no less famous student Plato was the first to develop a holistic doctrine of the soul, dividing people into different types depending on what souls they possess.

Further consideration of the history of philosophy from this point of view would not leave almost a single significant name among philosophers without attention, and the diversity of their views and approaches to solving this problem could amaze even an overly rich imagination. Thus, Seneca, R. Descartes, I. Kant, I. G. Fichte, F. M. Dostoevsky, J. P. Sartre, M. Heidegger, E. V. Ilyenkov and others, giving the spiritual principle in man paramount importance, They did a lot to study his consciousness, spirituality, and cognitive abilities. However, even in the 20th century, almost two and a half millennia after Protagoras and Socrates, the problem of man has not lost its relevance.

Despite the accumulated knowledge, man still remains a big mystery to himself, unraveling which, and thereby finding the key to understanding the universe, is the cherished dream of philosophically minded people. I. Kant (1724-1804) noted: “If we put together everything that a schoolchild mechanically repeats about spirits, a crowd says, and a philosopher explains, then it turns out that this constitutes a considerable part of our knowledge. Nevertheless, I dare to say that if it occurred to anyone to ask the question of what exactly is meant by spirit, he would put all these know-it-alls in the most difficult position.” (Kant I. Soch. T. 2. M., 1964. P. 295).

The existence of individuality. Why does the inner world of a person invariably come to the fore in the process of cognition? Why does human existence become the starting point for many philosophers in understanding the existence of things? The answer to these questions is partly contained in the words of the French philosopher A. Bergson (1859-1941), who emphasized: “Of all that exists, the most reliable and best known to us, indisputably, is our own existence, for the concepts we have about other objects can be considered external and superficial, while knowledge of oneself is internal, deep knowledge.” (Bergson A. Creative evolution. M.; St. Petersburg, 1914. P. 1).

Over many centuries, peering into themselves, analyzing their inner world and trying to understand their essence, people have identified some indisputable provisions, among which, undoubtedly, comes to the fore that a person is an inextricable unity of body and spirit - an absolute and necessary condition for his existence. At the same time, the loss, the rupture of this unity means the death of one or another individual, his transition as a thinking being from existence to non-existence. At the same time, the body as a natural bodily formation continues to exist for some time after death, i.e. to some extent retains its existence. But nothing remains in the sense of being from the individual spirit, consciousness, the loss of which, in fact, means the death of a specific person, the disappearance of individuality.

The problems in understanding the emergence of life were discussed above, but the emergence of spiritual consciousness is a mystery, undoubtedly more difficult, one that humanity is now working hard to solve.

Unconscious. Even more difficult to understand is the unconscious (subconscious), the presence of which was experimentally established by the famous Austrian psychiatrist S. Freud (1856-1939) only at the beginning of our century, and therefore it has been studied even less than consciousness. The existence of the subconscious can also be judged only by some forms of manifestation, accessible to us, as a rule, in fragments, which complicates the task of knowing it.

We are talking, for example, about dreams, obsessions, insights, intuition, etc. Therefore, the unconscious can be briefly defined as a fragment of consciousness that we this moment We cannot put it under consciousness control. (see: Questions of Philosophy. 1996. No. 7. P. 168).

The existence of individual consciousness. So, the first step towards a scientific understanding of consciousness is due to the recognition that, although it is inextricably linked with the brain and human physiology, it nevertheless exists, is present as something special, fundamentally irreducible to them, to inanimate or living nature in general. Consciousness acts as the ability of the human brain to reflect objective reality in ideal images and operate with these images in the process of thinking. It is inaccessible to direct observation and can only be studied as a result of work, a property of the human brain, and also through various shapes its manifestations, expressed in the form of thoughts, ideas, beliefs, values, etc.

The existence of individual consciousness does not lend itself to conventional description in space and time coordinates. It is not only always “here and now,” but also exists, as it were, outside of space, since it cannot be expressed by any volume or quantitatively measurable linear characteristics. In time, it (as a fact, as a phenomenon), just like the existence of anything in general, exists only in the present, because it no longer exists in the past, and in the future it does not yet exist. But, unlike the existence of material things, consciousness has a number of characteristic features - the ability to instantly move along the time scale to any depths of both the past and the future, mentally reproducing previously existing things and events and imagining what may yet become and happen . However, being ideal images of the past or future, in its present existence consciousness is comparable to a rotating kaleidoscope, only changing the images on its screen.

Speaking about the existence of individual people, we note that it is not only functional, as is the case for living organisms in general, but also goes through certain stages of its formation, when, along with the development of the body, the spirit also develops. And although these two processes are dialectically interconnected, the development of each of them follows its own path and is mostly subject to different laws. Hence the endless diversity and dissimilarity of individual people who, although each in their own way, go through essentially the same stages of their formation: man, individual, personality.

Personality is a social phenomenon, and it is formed only in society, when a person communicates with his own kind, adopting the experience and knowledge accumulated by previous generations, assimilating the values ​​and norms of behavior developed before him. All this characterizes various states and processes of social existence, which can be fully revealed only by analyzing the entire range of problems of social philosophy.

The existence of social consciousness. If we consider the specifics of social existence, we should point out its fundamental difference from all other forms of existence discussed above. A social “organism,” taken as a whole, as something unified, is essentially different from a herd of animals; and this is the main thing that distinguishes society, gives it a unique identity, is called in philosophy “social consciousness”, “collective mind”, “objectified spiritual”, etc. The forms of its manifestation are different, but in their totality they give reason to believe that this collective (social) consciousness also has its own specific existence, which cannot be reduced to the sum of individual consciousnesses.

To confirm this idea, let us consider language as a means of communication, communication, education, and socialization of people. The inextricability of the connection between language and the consciousness, ideas, and thoughts of individual people is undeniable, but from the standpoint of modern science, the social nature of language is also indisputable. There is no doubt that language (human speech) appeared and can exist only in human society. Its external (verbal, sound) design, content, depth, breadth, richness are the result of centuries-old interaction and mutual development of many, many generations. At the same time, an individual person acquires a particular language only through communication, mastering it as something independent, existing independently of its specific speakers. Let us also note that we are talking about language in general, which can be both natural and artificial.

Let us now pay attention to the similarities and differences between individual and collective (social, public) spirituality, expressed in ideals, norms, values, and ideas. The existence of public spirituality, in contrast to individual spirituality, can be judged by its manifestations in the form of science, art, religion, ethics, and culture as a whole. Thus, the emergence of certain scientific ideas is always associated with specific scientists, but science as a phenomenon, as a social phenomenon, cannot be reduced to specific individuals, because it is something more than a set of theoretical positions expressed by individual scientists. It is unthinkable without printed, audiovisual and other media, appropriate equipment, etc., and as a whole it has an independent existence, having now become, in the era of the scientific and technical computer revolution, a direct productive force of society.

The same can be said about the field of art. Songs, dances, music, having their own specific performers, nevertheless live their own relatively independent life in the form of customs, traditions, ideals and, thus, can be “protected, improved, multiplied, moving in social space and time.

Let us note one more feature of social consciousness: it, unlike individual consciousness, cannot “leave” its “body”, leaving it lifeless, breathless, as well as vice versa, remain outside its “body”, i.e. outside of society. Therefore, for many centuries public consciousness was considered as eternally existing, indestructible, because it can be deprived of its existence only with the cessation of the existence of all humanity. It was impossible to do this until the middle of the 20th century, until people invented a means of self-destruction - nuclear weapons. From this moment on, humanity has lost its “immortality” and now, just like an individual living organism striving for survival, must take care of preserving its social existence, protecting social life from self-destruction.

Concluding the consideration of the problem of being with an analysis of its social and perfect shape, we not only determined the content of this category (“being”), but also indicated the main areas of its application in philosophy, thereby opening the opportunity for the study of another important ontological problem, which at the dawn of philosophy was formulated as follows: “What is everything?”

The main question of philosophy is the question of the relationship of thinking to being. Its solution depends on deciphering the concept of being and considering its forms.

Basic forms of being:

Being of things

Human existence.

In the world of things

Specifically human existence

Being spiritual

Being social

The existence of man in the world of things

The existence of an individual person and a person as a whole is specific and unique. However, in this being there are aspects of existence that are common to both man and any transitory thing of nature. Consequently, the approach of materialism and natural sciences is justified: “man as a thing among things and a body among bodies,” but only if the essence of a person is not reduced to the life and manifestations of his body.

The human body is the body of nature, and this makes man a finite, transitory (mortal) being. The existence of the human body includes everything that relates to the dialectics of existence: emergence - formation - death of passing bodies of nature. It also applies to the human body that, having died, it does not disappear from the infinite and imperishable nature, but passes into another state of the 1st nature. Consequently, the problem of human existence is included in the question of the evolution of nature and genesis, the emergence of man himself.

Man exists as a body in the world of things, therefore the primary prerequisite is the existence of the body (existence in accordance with the laws of life, the cycles of development and death of organisms, with the cycles of nature...) the satisfaction of his human needs (food, protection from the cold) without this, human existence is generally impossible .

Materialism paid great attention to this fact:

The idea of ​​the primacy of the material in relation to the spiritual is confirmed

From this follows important consequences regarding the rights of each individual human being (healing, preserving life, the right to have food, clothing, housing)

Man's subjection to all the laws of life, and above all to heredity

Philosophy justifiably sought and is seeking a connection between the human body and his psyche

Consequently, the existence of an individual person is a dialectical unity of body and spirit:

The functioning of the body is closely connected with the functioning of the brain and nervous system, therefore with the psyche, with the spiritual life of the individual

The work of the spirit depends on the health of the human body

Man for himself is not only the 1st but also the 2nd nature. Thoughts and emotions are the most important aspect of a person’s holistic existence.

The existence of man as a thing in the natural world (thinking and feeling) is one of the first prerequisites that prompted people to produce and communicate (characteristic of Marxist philosophy)

Specifics of human existence

The peculiarity of human existence lies in the emergence of a specific, unique for living nature, “non-rigid” and non-universal determination of human existence from the side of his body.

Non-rigidity

The ability of a person to regulate, control his fundamental needs, satisfying them not in simple accordance with the commands of nature, but within the limits and forms determined by society, history, the individual’s own will and self-awareness.

Non-universality

Many human actions are very often regulated not by the egoism of bodily needs, but by spiritual, social motives.

The specificity of human existence: in the connection of the intersection of the interaction of 3 relatively different existential dimensions. The person is:

This thinking and feeling "thing" (body)

An individual that has evolved to the species homo sapiens and taken at a given stage of its development, the existing world

Socio-historical creature

All 3 dimensions, taken in unity, are the initial characteristics of human existence.

The life of a person is connected with the life of the family, therefore, for each individual there is a place on the single “family tree” of humanity; each passing existence is included in the irreversible historical chain of human existence and the purpose of the existence of nature in the evolution of the social world and forms one of the links of socio-historical existence.

Human existence is a reality that is objective in relation to the consciousness of individuals and generations. People exist before, outside of, and independently of the consciousness of each individual person. Each of us is a reality for ourselves: we exist, and with us our consciousness really exists.

What is the place and meaning of human existence in the holistic unity of existence?

There were many philosophical ideas and concepts, the general meaning of which was:

Man is nothing more than a grain of sand in the vast world. Even the existence of the human race is a “short” episode in the limitless duration of the world

Now other ideas are being updated: millions of years, centuries and even decades of human life are important “moments”, because they are included in a unique “human experiment”; people not only exist in the world, but are also capable of influencing the world and themselves. But they are capable of cognizing their own being and being as such. Therefore, a person must be aware of his contradictory role in a single system of existence and fulfill it with great responsibility.

Particularly alarming is the question of the responsibility of each person for the fate of humanity, for the existence of the human race and human civilization, for the planet earth.

Nature