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What type of individual consciousness does society need? What will we do with the received material?

Plan:

Introduction

1.Historical development concepts of consciousness

2. Structure of consciousness

3. Social consciousness

4. individual consciousness

Conclusion

Introduction

The psyche as a reflection of reality in the human brain is characterized by different levels.

The highest level of the psyche, characteristic of a person, forms consciousness. Consciousness is the highest, integrating form of the psyche, the result of socio-historical conditions for the formation of man in labor activity, with constant communication (using language) with other people. In this sense, consciousness is a “social product”; consciousness is nothing more than conscious being.

Human consciousness includes a body of knowledge about the world around us. K. Marx wrote: “The way in which consciousness exists and in which something exists for it is knowledge.” The structure of consciousness thus includes the most important cognitive processes with the help of which a person constantly enriches his knowledge. These processes may include sensations and perceptions, memory, imagination and thinking. With the help of sensations and perceptions, with the direct reflection of stimuli affecting the brain, a sensory picture of the world as it appears to a person at the moment is formed in the mind.

Memory allows you to renew images of the past in the mind, imagination allows you to build figurative models of what is an object of needs, but is absent at the present time. Thinking ensures problem solving through the use of generalized knowledge. Violation, disorder, not to mention the complete collapse of any of the specified mental cognitive processes, inevitably become a disorder of consciousness.

The second characteristic of consciousness is the clear distinction enshrined in it between subject and object, i.e., what belongs to a person’s “I” and his “not-I.” Man, who for the first time in the history of the organic world stood out from it and contrasted himself with his surroundings, continues to retain this opposition and difference in his consciousness. He is the only one among living beings capable of realizing self-knowledge, i.e., converting mental activity to explore yourself. A person makes a conscious self-assessment of his actions and himself as a whole. The separation of “I” from “not-I” is the path that every person goes through in childhood, carried out in the process of forming a person’s self-awareness.

The third characteristic of consciousness is ensuring the goal-setting activity of a person. The functions of consciousness include the formation of goals of activity, while its motives are formed and weighed, volitional decisions are made, the progress of actions is taken into account and the necessary adjustments are made to it, etc. K. Marx emphasized that “a person not only changes the form of what given by nature; in what is given by nature, he at the same time realizes his conscious goal, which, like a law, determines the method and nature of his actions and to which he must subordinate his will.” Any impairment resulting from illness or

For some other reason, the ability to carry out goal-setting activity, its coordination and direction is considered as a violation of consciousness.

Finally, the fourth characteristic of consciousness is the inclusion of a certain attitude in its composition. “My relationship to my environment is my consciousness,” wrote K. Marx. The world of feelings inevitably enters a person’s consciousness, where complex objective and, above all, social relations in which a person is included are reflected. Emotional assessments are represented in the human mind interpersonal relationships. And here, as in many other cases, pathology helps to better understand the essence of normal consciousness. In some mental illnesses, a violation of consciousness is characterized precisely by a disorder in the sphere of feelings and relationships: the patient hates his mother, whom he previously loved dearly, speaks with anger about loved ones, etc.

Historical development of the concept of consciousness

The very first ideas about consciousness arose in ancient times. At the same time, ideas about the soul arose and questions were posed: what is the soul? How does it relate to the objective world? Since then, debates have continued about the essence of consciousness and the possibility of knowing it. Some proceeded from cognition, others - that attempts to understand consciousness are as futile as trying to see oneself walking down the street from a window.

Initial philosophical views did not contain a strict distinction between consciousness and the unconscious, ideal and material. So, for example, Heraclitus associated the basis of conscious activity with the concept of “logos”, which meant word, thought and the essence of the things themselves. The degree of involvement in the logos (objective world order) determined the qualitative level of development human consciousness. In the same way, in the works of other ancient Greek authors, mental and mental processes were identified with material ones (the movement of air, material particles, atoms, etc.).

For the first time, consciousness as a special reality, different from material phenomena, was identified by Parmenides. Continuing this tradition, the Sophists, Socrates, Plato examined various facets and aspects of mental activity and affirmed the opposition of the spiritual and the material. For example, Plato created grandiose system“the world of ideas” – the single basis of all things; developed the concept of a global, self-contemplating, incorporeal mind, which is the prime mover of the cosmos, the source of its harmony. In ancient philosophy, the ideas of involvement of the individual consciousness of man with the world mind, which was given the function of an objective universal pattern, were actively developed.

IN medieval philosophy conscious human activity is seen as a “reflection” of the omnipotent divine mind, which was convincing evidence of the creation of man. Outstanding thinkers of the Middle Ages Augustine the Blessed and Thomas Aquinas, representing various stages development of philosophical and theological thought, consistently and thoroughly considered issues internal experience personality in conscious and mental activity in connection with self-deepening comprehension of the connection of the soul and divine revelation. This contributed to the identification and resolution of current specific problems of conscious activity. Thus, during this period the concept of intention was introduced as a special property consciousness, expressed in its focus on an external object. The problem of intention is also present in modern psychology; is also an important component of the methodology of one of the most widespread interdisciplinary areas of the theory of knowledge - phenomenology.

The greatest influence on the development of problems of consciousness in modern times was exerted by Descartes, who focused his main attention on the highest form of conscious activity - self-consciousness. The philosopher considered consciousness as the subject’s contemplation of his inner world as a direct substance opposed to the external spatial world. Consciousness was identified with the subject’s ability to have knowledge of his own mental processes. There were other points of view. Leibniz, for example, developed a thesis about the unconscious psyche.

French materialists of the 18th century (La Mettrie, Cabanis) substantiated the position that consciousness is a special function of the brain, thanks to which it is able to acquire knowledge about nature and itself. In general, modern materialists viewed consciousness as a type of matter, the movement of “subtle” atoms. Conscious activity was directly associated with the mechanics of the brain, the secretion of the brain, or with the universal property of matter (“And the stone thinks”).

German classical idealism constituted a special stage in the development of ideas about conscious activity. According to Hegel, the fundamental principle of the development of consciousness was the historical process of formation of the World Spirit. Developing the ideas of his predecessors Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel considered such problems as various forms and levels of consciousness, historicism, the doctrine of dialectics, the active nature of consciousness and others.

In the 19th century, various theories emerged that limited conscious activity, insisted on the innate powerlessness of the mind, and preached irrationalistic approaches to assessing human spiritual activity (Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Freudianism, behaviorism and others).

K. Marx and F. Engels continued the materialist traditions in philosophy, formulated the idea of ​​the secondary nature of consciousness, its conditionality external factors and above all economic. Marxism actively used various views and especially the dialectical ideas of German classical philosophy.

Structure of consciousness.

The concept of “consciousness” is not unique. In a broad sense, the word means mental reflection reality, regardless of what level it is carried out - biological or social, sensory or rational. When they mean consciousness in this broad sense, they thereby emphasize its relationship to matter without identifying the specifics of its structural organization.

In a narrower and special meaning By consciousness they don’t just mean mental state, but the highest, actually human form of reflection of reality. Consciousness here is structurally organized, representing an integral system consisting of various elements that are in regular relationships with each other. In the structure of consciousness, such moments as awareness of things, as well as experience, that is, a certain attitude towards the content of what is reflected, stand out most clearly. The way in which consciousness exists, and in which something exists for it, is knowledge. The development of consciousness involves, first of all, enriching it with new knowledge about the world around us and about man himself. Cognition, awareness of things has different levels, the depth of penetration into the object and the degree of clarity of understanding. Hence the everyday, scientific, philosophical, aesthetic and religious awareness of the world, as well as the sensory and rational levels of consciousness. Sensations, perceptions, ideas, concepts, thinking form the core of consciousness. However, they do not exhaust its entire structural completeness: it also includes the act of attention as its necessary component. It is thanks to the concentration of attention that a certain circle of objects is in the focus of consciousness.

The world around us is perceived by a person through his psyche, which forms individual consciousness. It includes the totality of all the individual’s knowledge about the reality around him. It is formed through the process of understanding the world through its perception with the help of 5 senses.

Receiving information from the outside, the human brain remembers it and subsequently uses it to recreate a picture of the world. This happens when an individual, based on the information received, uses thinking, memory or imagination.

Concept of consciousness

With the help, he not only contrasts his “I” with what surrounds him, but is also able to restore pictures of the past with the help of memory, and his imagination helps him create what is not yet in his life. At the same time, thinking helps to solve problems that reality poses to an individual on the basis of knowledge gained from its perception. If any of these elements of consciousness are disrupted, the psyche will suffer serious trauma.

Thus, individual consciousness is highest degree mental perception by a person of the reality around him, in which his subjective picture of the world is formed.

Always opposed to matter. In ancient times, this was the name for a substance capable of creating reality. This concept in this understanding was first introduced by Plato in his treatises, and then it formed the basis Christian religion and medieval philosophy.

Consciousness and matter

Materialists have narrowed it down to the property of an entity that cannot exist outside human body, thereby putting matter in first place. Their theory that individual consciousness is matter generated solely human brain, has no basis. This can be seen in the contrast of their qualities. Consciousness has no taste, no color, no smell, it cannot be touched or given any form.

But it is also impossible to accept the theory of idealists that consciousness is an independent substance in relation to a person. This is refuted by chemical and physical processes, which arise in the brain when an individual perceives the surrounding reality.

Thus, scientists have come to the conclusion that consciousness is highest form psyche, reflecting being, which has the ability to influence and transform reality.

Components of consciousness

When describing its structure, it should be taken into account that it is two-dimensional:

  1. On the one hand, it contains all the collected information about external reality and the objects that fill it.
  2. On the other hand, it also contains information about the individual himself, who is the bearer of consciousness, which, with development, passes into the category of self-consciousness.

Individual consciousness forms a picture of the world, which includes not only external objects, but also the person himself with his thoughts, feelings, needs and actions to realize them.

Without the process of self-knowledge, there would be no human development in the social, professional, moral and physical spheres, which would not lead to an awareness of the meaning of one’s own life.

Consciousness consists of several blocks, the main ones of which are:

  1. The processes of knowing the world through the senses, as well as its perception through sensations, thinking, speech, language and memory.
  2. Emotions that convey the subject’s positive, neutral or negative attitude towards reality.
  3. Processes associated with making and executing decisions and volitional efforts.

All blocks together provide the formation in humans certain knowledge about reality, and satisfy all his urgent needs.

Social consciousness

In philosophy and psychology there is such a concept as the relationship between social and individual consciousness. It should be taken into account that the social is a product of individual or collective concepts that were formed over a long period of observation of reality, its objects and ongoing phenomena.

The very first to form in human society were religion, morality, art, philosophy, science and others. For example, observing natural elements, people attributed their manifestations to the will of the gods, creating public knowledge about these phenomena through individual conclusions and fears. Collected together, they were transmitted next generations as the only truth about the world around us inherent in a given society. This is how religion was born. People belonging to other nations with opposite social consciousness were considered infidels.

Thus, societies were formed, the majority of whose members adhered to generally accepted principles. People in such an organization are united by common traditions, language, religion, legal and ethical standards and much more.

To understand how social and individual consciousness are interconnected, you should know that it is the second that is primary. The consciousness of one member of society can influence the formation or change of the social, for example, as was the case with the ideas of Galileo, Giordano Bruno and Copernicus.

Individual consciousness

The peculiarities of individual consciousness are that they may be inherent in some individuals, but do not at all coincide with the perception of reality by others. Each individual's assessment of the world around him is unique and constitutes his specific picture of reality. People who have the same opinion on any phenomenon form organizations of like-minded people. This is how scientific, political, religious and other circles and parties are formed.

Individual consciousness is a relative concept, since it is influenced by social, family, religious and other traditions. For example, a child born into a Catholic family receives information from childhood about the dogmas inherent in this particular religion, which become natural and inviolable for him as he grows up.

On the other hand, each person manifests his intellect, going through stages of development of consciousness, both in creativity and in cognition of the surrounding reality. The inner world of each individual is unique and unlike others. Scientists still do not know where individual consciousness originates, since it does not exist in nature in its “pure form” outside a specific carrier.

The connection between individual consciousness and social consciousness

Each person, as he grows up and develops, is faced with the influence of social consciousness. This happens through relationships with other people - in childhood with relatives and teachers, then with representatives of various organizations. This is done through the language and traditions inherent in a given society. The way in which social and individual consciousness are interconnected determines how dedicated and important each individual will be.

There are many examples in history when people, having found themselves from their usual environment, entered society with others. religious values and traditions, became part of it, adopting the lifestyle of its members.

From the way social and individual consciousness are connected, it is clear that they mutually influence each other throughout a person’s life. During this period, religious, cultural, scientific, philosophical and other concepts previously imposed by society may change. Just like, for example scientific discovery one scientist can change the way all of humanity thinks about things that are familiar to them.

The structure of individual consciousness

The essence of individual consciousness lies in the mode and reality:

The highest form of consciousness is self-awareness, without which a person would not be a person.

Self-awareness

Awareness of one’s own “I” on a physical and spiritual level makes a person an individual. All internal values, ideas about reality, understanding of what is happening to him and around him, all this forms a person’s self-awareness.

It is its development that helps people understand the reason for their actions, their value in society and makes them aware of who they really are.

Conscious and unconscious

As Jung argued, individual consciousness can only exist together with This is the spiritual experience of thousands of generations of people, which every individual inherits on an unconscious level.

These include:

  • sensations of muscles, balance and other physical manifestations that are not consciously recognized;
  • images that arise during the perception of reality and are defined as familiar;
  • memory, which controls the past and creates the future through imagination;
  • inner speech and much more.

In addition to the development of consciousness, a person is characterized by self-improvement, during which he changes his negative qualities to positive.

Social consciousness is a set of ideas, theories, views, ideas, feelings, beliefs, emotions of people, moods that reflect nature, the material life of society and the entire system public relations. Social consciousness is formed and develops along with the emergence of social existence, since consciousness is possible only as a product of social relations. But a society can be called a society only when its basic elements have been formed, including public consciousness.

The essence of consciousness lies precisely in the fact that it can reflect social existence only under the condition of its simultaneous active and creative transformation. The peculiarity of social consciousness is that in its influence on existence it can, as it were, evaluate it, reveal its hidden meaning, predict it, and transform it through the practical activities of people. And therefore, the social consciousness of an era can not only reflect existence, but also actively contribute to its transformation. This is the historically established function of social consciousness

In multinational states there is a national consciousness of different peoples.

Forms of social consciousness:

Political consciousness is a systematized, theoretical expression of public views on the political organization of society, on the forms of the state, on the relations between various social groups, classes, parties, on relations with other states and nations;

Legal consciousness in theoretical form expresses the legal consciousness of society, the nature and purpose of legal relations, norms and institutions, issues of legislation, court, and prosecutor's office. The goal is to establish a legal order that corresponds to the interests of a particular society;

Morality is a system of views and assessments that regulate the behavior of individuals, a means of educating and strengthening certain moral principles and relationships;

Art - special shape human activities related to the mastery of reality through artistic images;

Religion and philosophy are the most distant forms of social consciousness from material conditions. Social and individual consciousness are in close unity. Social consciousness is interindividual in nature and does not depend on the individual. For specific people it is objective.

Individual consciousness is the consciousness of a separate individual, reflecting his individual existence and, through it, to one degree or another, social existence. Social consciousness is the totality of individual consciousnesses.

Each individual consciousness is formed under the influence of individual existence, lifestyle and social consciousness. At the same time vital role plays the individual way of life of a person, through which the content is refracted public life. Another factor in the formation of individual consciousness is the process of assimilation by the individual of social consciousness.

2 main levels of individual consciousness:

1. Initial (primary) - “passive”, “mirror”. Formed under human influence external environment, external consciousness. Main forms: concepts and knowledge in general. The main factors in the formation of individual consciousness: educational activity of the environment, educational activity of society, cognitive activity of the person himself.

2. Secondary - “active”, “creative”. Man transforms and organizes the world. The concept of intelligence is associated with this level. The end product of this level and consciousness in general are ideal objects that arise in human heads. Basic forms: goals, ideals, faith. The main factors: will, thinking - the core and system-forming element.

Social consciousness is a set of ideas, views, theories and perceptions of people in society (that is, the spiritual life of society).

Social consciousness has a social nature (basis). It arises from the social practice of people as a result of their various activities. And it is the result of a joint understanding of social reality by people interacting with each other.

Individual consciousness is the consciousness of an individual person, his special, individual perception of the world around him (the totality of his views, ideas and interests).

It also generates corresponding individual behavior.

The relationship between public and individual consciousness

Social consciousness is closely, dialectically interconnected with individual consciousness as the categories “general” and “individual”. Social consciousness is a reflection of the individual (individual) consciousness and at the same time manifests itself through the individual.

1. However, individual consciousness, being autonomous, is not completely independent of society.

It interacts with public consciousness: enriches it with its images, experiences, ideas and theories.

2. In turn, the individual consciousness of any person is formed and developed on the basis of social consciousness: it assimilates the views, ideas, and prejudices existing in society.

As already mentioned, the central moment of the spiritual life of society (its core) is the social consciousness of people. So, for example, spiritual need is nothing more than a certain state of consciousness, and manifests itself as a person’s conscious urge to spiritual creativity, to the creation and consumption of spiritual values. The latter are the embodiment of the mind and feelings of people. Spiritual production is the production of certain views, ideas, theories, moral norms and spiritual values. All these spiritual formations act as objects of spiritual consumption. Spiritual relationships between people are relationships regarding spiritual values ​​in which their consciousness is embodied.

Social consciousness is a set of feelings, moods, artistic and religious images, various views, ideas and theories that reflect certain aspects of social life. It must be said that the reflection of social life in the public consciousness is not some kind of mechanical mirror, just as the natural landscape located along its banks is reflected in the mirror surface of a river. IN in this case in one natural phenomenon The features of the other were purely externally reflected. The public consciousness reflects not only external, but also internal sides life of society, their essence and content.

Social consciousness has a social nature. It arises from the social practice of people as a result of their production, family, household and other activities. It is in the course of joint practical activities that people comprehend the world around them with a view to using it in their own interests. Various social phenomena and their reflections in images and concepts, ideas and theories are two sides of people’s practical activities.

Being a reflection of the phenomena of social life, various kinds of images, views, theories are aimed at deeper knowledge by people of these phenomena for their practical purposes, including for the purpose of their direct consumption or their other use, say, for the purpose of aesthetic enjoyment of them, etc. d. Ultimately, the content of social practice, of all social reality, comprehended by people, becomes the content of their social consciousness.

Thus, social consciousness can be interpreted as the result of a joint understanding of social reality by people practically interacting with each other. This is the social nature of public consciousness and its main feature.

One can, perhaps, agree to some extent with the proposition that, strictly speaking, it is not man who thinks, but humanity. An individual person thinks insofar as he is included in thought process of a given society and humanity, i.e.:

  • engages in the process of communication with other people and masters speech;
  • gets involved in various types human activity and comprehends their content and meaning;
  • assimilates objects of material and spiritual culture of past and present generations and uses them in accordance with their social purpose.

By assimilating to one degree or another the spiritual wealth of his people and humanity, mastering the language, and becoming involved in various types of activities and social relations, an individual masters the skills and forms of thinking and becomes a thinking social subject.

Is it right to talk about the individual consciousness of a person if his consciousness is directly or indirectly determined by the society and culture of all mankind? Yes, that's legal. After all, there is no doubt that the same conditions of social life are perceived by individual people in some ways more or less the same, and in others differently. Because of this, they have both general and individual views on certain social phenomena, sometimes significant differences in their understanding.

Individual consciousness individual people are, first of all, the individual characteristics of their perception of various phenomena of social life. Ultimately, these are individual characteristics of their views, interests and value orientations. All this gives rise to certain characteristics in their actions and behavior.

In the individual consciousness of a person, the features of his life and activities in society, his personal life experience, as well as the characteristics of his character, temperament, the level of his spiritual culture and other objective and subjective circumstances of his social existence. All this creates a unique spiritual world individual people, the manifestation of which is their individual consciousness.

And yet, while giving due credit to individual consciousness and creating opportunities for its development, it should be taken into account that it does not function autonomously from social consciousness, and is not absolutely independent of it. We need to see his interaction with public consciousness. It is true that the individual consciousness of many people significantly enriches the social consciousness bright images, experiences and ideas, contributes to the development of science, art, etc. At the same time, the individual consciousness of any person is formed and developed on the basis of social consciousness.

In the minds of individual people, most often there are ideas, views and prejudices that they have learned, albeit in a special individual refraction, while living in society. And a person is richer in spiritual terms, the more he has learned from the spiritual culture of his people and all humanity.

Both public and individual consciousness, being a reflection of the social existence of people, do not blindly copy it, but have relative independence, sometimes quite significant.

First of all, social consciousness does not simply follow social existence, but comprehends it, reveals the essence of social processes. Therefore, it often lags behind their development. After all, a deeper understanding of them is possible only when they have taken mature forms and manifested themselves to the greatest extent. At the same time, public consciousness can be ahead of social existence. Based on the analysis of certain social phenomena, it is possible to detect the most important trends in their development and thereby predict the course of events.

The relative independence of social consciousness is also manifested in the fact that in its development it is based on the achievements of human thought, science, art, etc., and proceeds from these achievements. It's called continuity in the development of social consciousness, thanks to which it is preserved and further developed spiritual heritage generations accumulated in different areas of public life. All this shows that social consciousness not only reflects the social life of people, but has its own internal logic of development, its own principles and its own traditions. This is clearly seen in the development of science, art, morality, religion, and philosophy.

Finally, the relative independence of social consciousness is manifested in its active influence to public life. Various kinds ideas, theoretical concepts, political doctrines, moral principles, trends in art and religion can play a progressive or, on the contrary, reactionary role in the development of society. This is determined by whether they contribute to his spiritual enrichment, strengthening and development, or whether they lead to the destruction and degradation of the individual and society.

It is important to consider the extent to which TS or other views scientific theories, moral principles, works of art and other manifestations of social consciousness meet the genuine interests of the people of a particular country and the interests of its future. Progressive ideas in all areas of public life are a powerful factor in development, because they contribute to a deep understanding of the present and anticipation of the future, instill confidence in people’s actions, improve their social well-being, and inspire new creative actions. They form the very spirituality without which society and individuals cannot live and act normally. Everything suggests that the role of social consciousness in life modern society is very significant and is constantly increasing.

All forms of manifestation of consciousness should be understood, first of all, as mental activity performed by individual people and as an individual process of reflection. This especially applies to rational thinking. It is individualistic in nature, i.e. presupposes an isolated and free individual. It is no coincidence that the great French sculptor Rodin symbolically expressed the process of thinking in the sculpture of a lonely, self-absorbed man sitting. Looking at this sculpture, at the tension of a man’s muscles, at the features of his face collected by will, you understand that thinking requires deep silence and loneliness.

A person in a crowd, like the crowd itself, is not capable of deep thinking. The crowd is not a subject of thought, it is a subject of feeling. IN best case scenario she is capable of rising in thought to mythology, which is nevertheless perceived sensually.

It is the specific features of a person’s individual development, under generally equal conditions, that determine the differences between his spiritual world and the spiritual world of other people, which creates all the enormous diversity of human individualities.

The content of individual consciousness depends on three points. The first of them is the individual characteristics of the psyche of a given individual, i.e. those inclinations, abilities, inclinations that are innate, received by a given person from his ancestors. The second aspect of the content of individual consciousness is associated with the characteristics of upbringing, the influence of the environment in which a given individual was formed and exists. So, if you swap places between a child born in a highly civilized society and a child born, for example, among the aborigines of Australia, who still live in conditions not far removed from the primitive communal system, then these children, upon becoming adults, will be completely like their educators and peers. The son of illiterate and superstitious natives can become a luminary modern science and culture, and a descendant of a high civilization, who finds himself in the conditions of a tribal system, will live his life in the conviction that thunder is the voice of a deity, trees and stones have a soul, and meat must be eaten raw.

The third aspect of the content of an individual’s consciousness presupposes the dependence of individual consciousness on learning and education. The system of transferring knowledge from generation to generation leaves a specific imprint on the consciousness of individuals. Thus, in the Middle Ages, the education of a nobleman, a clergyman and a peasant were completely different.

But, at the same time, one cannot limit consciousness to unique individual characteristics. Firstly, because the very meaning of the word “co-knowledge” means knowledge together with other people. Secondly, the thoughts of each individual person are not tied to the brain, but function in the interpersonal environment, in communication, in interaction. The thoughts of one person are constantly in contact with the thoughts of other people, polished like pebbles on seashore. And the thoughts themselves, the consciousness of an individual, is not a given only of his brain. It exists not only in the form of an actual subjective process, but can, being objectified, exist transpersonally. Thought, emotion, feelings are objectified by coding in the object-symbolic “body” of culture. This is the scientific truth of Newton's laws, and the aesthetic value of Mozart's music, and the inspiration captured in Rodin's sculptures, etc. Information encoded in this way is universal in nature and does not depend on any subjective psychological characteristics of its individual carriers. This objectively universal supra-individual is social consciousness, existing in such forms as religion, art, morality, legal, political, scientific, environmental consciousness, extra-scientific knowledge.

The sphere of consciousness is much wider than the consciousness of the individual. For example, Hegel considered individual consciousness to be one of the final forms of manifestation of the absolute idea, which alone has true reality. But since he considers consciousness, the entire spiritual life of society in accordance with the events of world history, individual consciousness turns out to be “an abbreviated reproduction of the stages passed by man” (Engels F. Ludwig Feuerbach and the end of classical German philosophy, p. 10. M., 1990) .

Representatives of the “Philosophy of Life” - F. Nietzsche, A. Bergson spoke about consciousness as some broader reality from which consciousness draws its foundations. Some philosophers admit that consciousness in some primary way is outside the individual, like a kind of “field formation” (Mamardashvili M. Consciousness is a paradox // Questions of Philosophy, 1989, No. 7). Other scientists are trying to present consciousness as a memory of what happened in the prenatal period, which can be actualized in dreams and mythological creativity, when a certain “oceanic feeling” arises (S. Freud).

The ideas about the supra-individual consciousness of the 20th century anthropologist are of interest. Teilhard de Chardin. Not without utopian illusions, he dreamed of the future merging of all human wills and minds into a collective consciousness, into a certain “Omega” point. “Omega” is a reality formed by a living union of thinking particles. He derives this from evolution, which he believes consists of an ascent to consciousness. But consciousness is the ability for synthesis and organization, which is being updated in our age of planetization of humanity - mass unity. This finds expression both in economic interdependence and in mental community. And when today some peoples want, contrary to this objective tendency, to take “as much sovereignty as they want,” “it turns out that the amount of unoccupied forces coming out is enormous,” which leads to overexcitation (Phenomenon of Man. M., 1992, p. 200).

K. Marx and F. Engels explain the objectivity of social consciousness by the fact that consciousness, functioning in the interhuman environment of communication, in interactions in which a person began to separate his “I” from individual consciousness, becoming objectified in various forms, including in social structures, turns out to be independent of the consciousness of each individual.

Individual consciousness differs from public consciousness in that it is formed on a broader basis. If social consciousness reflects only social existence, then in the consciousness of the individual both social and personal conditions the life activity of a particular person, the specifics of the environment, natural, biological and physiological characteristics.

Social parameters of consciousness also manifest themselves in different ways. For example, moral consciousness is individualized. Here we cannot limit ourselves to passive perception and evaluation of certain principles developed by society. In this area, more than anywhere else, special human activity is required. If artistic values ​​can be mastered without turning into a painter or musician, then in order to assimilate moral norms one needs a personal position and a socially recognized result of action this person. He can't be moral personality, if he himself does not perform moral actions. In this area, the connoisseur, the creator, the creator and the performer merge into one.

If personal consciousness is the spiritual world of an individual, then social consciousness is the spiritual life of society, the ideal side of the historical development of man, social group, people. Society does not have the consciousness that an individual has: it does not have its own transpersonal brain.

At the same time, there is constant interaction between them. The norms of consciousness historically developed by society spiritually nourish the personality, become the subject of his beliefs, the source of moral precepts, aesthetic feelings, and ideas.

The mechanism that realizes the transformation of individual consciousness into social consciousness, and social consciousness into individual consciousness, is the process of communication. Social consciousness does not exist like Plato's kingdom of ideas: it does not hover somewhere independent of the consciousness of individual people. This independence is relative: the book wealth of libraries, the treasures of art galleries, music libraries, and undeciphered musical notations have the meaning of spiritual wealth only in relation to individual specific people. Outside of living, evaluative perception, the objectified idea is dead.