Social consciousness - Hypermarket of knowledge.

Chapter IV.
CONSCIOUSNESS AND COGNITION

§ 26. Knowledge and consciousness

Scientists argue about the essence, origin and functions of consciousness. How does this concept differ from the concept of “knowledge”? A person who has studied for many years at school does not need to explain what the word “knowledge” means. To know, to know, to understand means to have information (a set of information) about certain areas of reality. Knowledge is opposed to ignorance, ignorance. Psychology and philosophy study consciousness.

WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS

Understanding the essence of consciousness is directly dependent on resolving the issue of the relationship between spirit and nature, matter and consciousness. Recognition of the primacy of the ideal leads to the transformation of consciousness into an independent entity that creates the world. This approach was expressed in the period of Antiquity in the philosophy of Plato. In the Middle Ages, this approach was presented in Christian philosophy (God is the bearer of higher consciousness). In modern times in German classical philosophy, this approach developed in the views of G. Hegel.

Materialistic philosophy considers consciousness as a property of highly organized matter, as a subjective image of the objective world, as ideal, i.e. subjective reality as conscious existence.

Solving the problem of consciousness also involves clarifying the prerequisites for its occurrence. Materialism sees them in the property of reflection, which lies at the foundation of matter. Consciousness arises in the process of labor, develops and is enriched under the influence of sociocultural reality. Practice plays a decisive role. The core of consciousness is knowledge. Therefore, for materialism it is legitimate definition of consciousness as a subjective image of the objective world. This is nothing more than the ability of a person with knowledge to isolate himself from the surrounding world and contrast himself as a subject to it as an object. Consciousness is also a preliminary mental construction of an image of the activity itself and a certain result obtained during its course. The properties of consciousness are activity and selectivity, subjectivity and creativity. The first of these properties is that the components of consciousness - images of reality and images of imagination, words, emotions, volitional impulses, etc. - form a holistic picture depending on what these components are combined around. Consciousness is not at all like a mirror or a surface of water in which the surrounding reality is reflected. This reality is rather intricately refracted and combined from individual fragments.

For different people the ideal reality that is created through consciousness can vary significantly. What worries one person may be indifferent to another. Consciousness stores images of what makes sense to us. This selectivity manifests itself both at the individual level and at the social level.

The most important components of consciousness are needs and will. Interaction with the world gives rise to a certain attitude towards it in a person as a bearer of consciousness. This is expressed not only in mental assessments, but also in emotions and feelings. The process of cognition affects all aspects of a person’s inner world - needs, interests, feelings, will. Important role memory plays, which allows you to preserve experience, build a bridge between the past and the present, as well as between the present, past and future. Since the object of consciousness is not only the external world, but also the subject himself, the bearer of consciousness, self-consciousness is an essential moment of consciousness. Self-awareness is a person’s awareness of his activities, thoughts, feelings, interests, needs. About him we'll talk in the next paragraph.

The conscious is internally connected with the unconscious, which is often opposed to it, and the unconscious is assigned a vital role In human life. But there is another interpretation, based on the priority of the conscious. The unconscious can be seen as a product conscious activity. What was previously in the sphere of consciousness passes into the unconscious. In turn, the unconscious, existing in the depths of the human psyche, is capable of resurfacing into the area of consciousness.

At the same time modern psychology I was faced with the fact that not everything that relates to knowledge is realized.

Knowledge is not only what a person knows, but also what he is aware of. this moment does not think, and therefore is not aware, but what he can easily make available to his consciousness, for example, knowledge by a student chemical formula water, geometric theorems or facts of one’s own biography, etc. This is also knowledge that a person has and uses, but which can be realized with great difficulty, if at all it can become so. This is individual tacit knowledge used, for example, by experts. Knowing something significant in a certain field of science, an expert, if necessary, may not distinguish it from the total sum of his knowledge until a certain case, when he is required to compare his own knowledge with the object or theory presented to him and determine how much this object corresponds to what he knows. he knows. Awareness of all the premises and consequences of scientific theories is possible only under certain conditions and is never complete. In addition, some emotions and desires, some deep-seated attitudes of the individual, which will be discussed in the paragraph on the orientation of the individual, are difficult to comprehend. From the above we can conclude that knowledge is a necessary condition for consciousness, but a condition that is far from sufficient.

A number of philosophers identify as the main feature of consciousness not knowledge, but focus on a specific subject, object. A person may not know anything about an object, but if he singles it out and directs his interest to it, this object becomes an object of consciousness.

J. Locke has a theory about two sources of knowledge: sensations associated with the external world, and reflection as the observation of the mind over its own activities. The latter, according to Locke, is consciousness. Consciousness, with this understanding, acts as a specific reality, a special inner world that the subject cognizes. The way of knowing is self-perception, which can manifest itself in the form of introspection.

Another point of view on the essence of consciousness was the understanding of it as a set of ideas - individual or collective. It is in this meaning that G. Hegel and K. Marx used the term “consciousness” when speaking about social consciousness, class consciousness. The concept of social consciousness has found wide application in the philosophy of Marxism.

INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS

Social consciousness does not exist without the consciousness of individuals. Personal ideas and beliefs acquire the character of public value, the significance of social force, when they go beyond the boundaries of personal existence and become common property, a general rule or belief, and enter into the general consciousness, morals, art, science, law, and norms of behavior. At the same time, the individual biography of the author of this or that idea no longer plays a decisive role. Thus, the idea of a social contract and the idea of separation of powers, put forward in specific conditions, did not lose their authorship, but became an important part of public consciousness.

But society is selective about the results of the activity of individual consciousness: it takes some things and discards others. Not every achievement of individual consciousness is included in the general array of social consciousness. This depends on the depth and social significance of the spiritual activity of a given individual, on the need of the spirit of the time in her creativity.

In turn, the same applies to individual consciousness. It does not absorb all the elements of social consciousness. The norms of consciousness historically developed by society spiritually nourish the personality and become a source of moral precepts, beliefs, aesthetic feelings and ideas. But each person is different (due to personal, individual characteristics) perceives elements existing in the public consciousness.

The fate of such historical figures Like G. Bruno, G. Galileo, Joan of Arc, the fates of many of our contemporaries indicate the presence of a contradiction between personal and social consciousness, between the system of spiritual principles accepted in society and the ideas of individual citizens of a particular society. Individuals who are ahead of their time contribute to the development of public consciousness.

Just as social consciousness is not reduced to the quantitative sum of individual consciousnesses, but manifests itself in the form of a specially organized ideal-objective reality, so individual consciousness is not an exact copy of social consciousness. A person enters into a dialogue with social consciousness, which is a reality that has to be reckoned with. Personal consciousness is the accumulated experience of history. A person, an individual, can feel his connection with the history of his family, country, his people. Each individual consciousness has its own sources of development, therefore each personality is unique, despite the unity of the human culture that integrates it.

ESSENCE AND FEATURES OF PUBLIC CONSCIOUSNESS

The formation of public consciousness is a complex process. The public consciousness and spiritual life of society reflect the interests and activities of people aimed at satisfying their needs for new ideas, scientific knowledge, moral improvement, the beautiful, the sublime. In this case, it is necessary that ideas, theories, views, moral standards, scientific knowledge found wide use, influenced the entire society. This function is performed by schools, universities, facilities mass media, political parties, social movements and organizations.

Scientists recognize the relatively independent nature of social consciousness. The fact is that many ideas, views of people, their moral convictions have significant stability and remain for quite a long time in people’s minds and in their actions, even when objective conditions no longer exist. public relations, on the basis of which they arose. This happens because changes in people’s views and beliefs do not occur immediately as soon as it changes, for example, economic system. The consciousness of people, their ideas, views may lag behind social life and for a certain time may not correspond to it. In this case we're talking about either about the remnants of the past in the minds of people, or about the preservation of traditions. Thus, for quite a long time after the abolition of serfdom, part of the peasantry had difficulty getting used to the new economic and social realities. Just remember the hero of the play by A.P. Chekhov " The Cherry Orchard"Firsa, who calls this event a misfortune or misfortune. People's ideas and views may be ahead of real conditions, then they say that such ideas express social dreams, forecasts, and foresights. From your history course you know the forecasts of utopian socialists.

Social consciousness exists on the basis of the continuity of the best, useful and necessary that was in the spiritual life of society. Continuity is clearly manifested in science, morality, and traditions of peoples. Many manifestations of social consciousness interact with each other and themselves exert strong impact Each other. For example, people's aesthetic tastes and preferences are closely related to their moral ideals. Most often, the ideal of beauty is at the same time for people an ideal of goodness, and, conversely, what is associated with a moral ideal is perceived as beautiful.

Social consciousness actively influences the entire life of society. However, this influence does not manifest itself, but in the activities of people, which can have both a progressive and an inhibitory effect on the life of society.

THEORETICAL AND ORDINARY CONSCIOUSNESS

The structure of social consciousness can be considered from the point of view of the depth of reflection of social reality by social consciousness. Then the main structural elements are social psychology and ideology.

Social psychology is a set of feelings, moods, customs, traditions, motivations characteristic of a given society as a whole and for each of the large social groups. Social psychology develops under the influence of specific historical conditions of social existence. And since these conditions are different for each of the large social groups, their socio-psychological complexes inevitably differ from each other (the complex of superiority of the so-called “noble classes” over the “common people” in the Middle Ages). The socio-psychological complexes of various social groups have and common features related to historical features, national traditions, cultural level of a particular society./p

Ideology is a system of theoretical views that reflects the degree of society’s knowledge of the world as a whole and its individual aspects. It represents a higher level of social consciousness compared to social psychology - the level of theoretical reflection of the world. If, when analyzing the psychology of social groups, the epithet “social” is most often used (as opposed to age, professional, etc.), then the concept of “ideology” does not need such an epithet, since there is no individual ideology, it is always of a social nature.

It must be borne in mind that the concept of “ideology” is used in social philosophy in another, narrower sense - as a system of theoretical views of one large social group, directly or indirectly reflecting its fundamental interests.

If social psychology is formed spontaneously, directly under the influence of the life circumstances in which a social group or class finds itself, then ideology primarily acts as a product of the theoretical activity of representatives of a given class - its ideologists.

From a theoretical-cognitive point of view, the relationship between social psychology and ideology is vaguely reminiscent of the relationship between the emotional, sensory and rational levels of social consciousness. It is known that sensory knowledge in general is not sufficient, but a necessary “floor” of consciousness, since only thanks to it our brain can receive primary information about the world, but feelings cultured person always rationally loaded (musical ear, feeling the beauty of the shape of the eyes). Social psychology is that direct reflection external manifestations social reality, which forms the life-practical basis for the emergence of the corresponding ideology. Ideology clarifies what is not sufficiently understood by psychology and penetrates deeply into the essence of phenomena.

In philosophical and historical literature the concept is very often encountered. "ordinary consciousness" . This concept is intended to characterize consciousness directly woven into everyday life. practical life of people. This is pre-reflective knowledge, a set of socially approved life-practical evidence.

One of the varieties of social consciousness is mass consciousness.

Mass consciousness is distinguished not by its content, level and quality of reflection of reality, but primarily by the specific properties of its carrier, the subject. The mass as a subject of mass consciousness is a special collection (set, community) of individuals. Examples of the masses include participants in broad political, sociocultural and other movements, audiences of various media and media channels, consumers of certain socially “colored” (prestigious, fashionable) goods and services, members of various amateur (interest) associations and clubs, fans football and other sports teams, etc.

The masses as a subject of consciousness are characterized by the following features. Firstly, the statistical nature of this community, expressed in the fact that it, without being an independent, integral formation distinct from its constituent elements, is represented by many separate “units”. Secondly, the entry of individuals into it is disordered, random nature, as a result of which such a community is always characterized by “blurry”, open boundaries, and an uncertain quantitative and qualitative composition. The mass is characterized by a situational existence, which is expressed in the fact that it is formed and functions exclusively on the basis and within the boundaries of one or another specific activity, and is impossible outside of it. As a result of this, the mass always turns out to be an unstable formation, changing from case to case, from one specific situation to another. The mass is characterized by pronounced heterogeneity, the mixed composition of a given community, its non-group (or intergroup) nature, manifested in the fact that in it the boundaries between all social demographic, political, regional and other groups existing in society are “destroyed”.

The listed properties of the mass completely determine its inherent type of consciousness, the features of its content and structure, methods of formation and functioning.

In terms of content, mass consciousness is a set of ideas, judgments, perceptions, illusions, feelings, moods, in one form or another reflecting different aspects of the life of society. At the same time, in terms of its content, mass consciousness is much narrower than social consciousness as a whole, since beyond its boundaries there remains a great many subjects that are inaccessible to the understanding of the masses and (or) do not affect their interests (for example, the content of science, philosophy, etc. ).

The structure of mass consciousness is an extremely complex conglomerate formation that arises at the “intersection” of all known types of social consciousness - social psychology and ideology, everyday and theoretical, abstract and artistic, contemplative and associated with volitional actions, etc.

In this regard, the structure of mass consciousness is characterized by fragmentation, inconsistency, and the ability to undergo rapid, unexpected changes.

Mass consciousness in societies modern type arises in the process of standardization of the basic conditions and forms of human life (in the spheres of production, consumption, communication, socio-political participation, leisure), giving rise to the same aspirations, interests, needs, skills, inclinations, etc. The action of these conditions and forms of existence is consolidated and reaches its completion in the production and dissemination of the corresponding types of mass culture, associated primarily with the functioning of the media. With their help, the interests, needs, and aspirations of broad sections of the population are formalized in the form of standard images of reality, ways of understanding it, and patterns of behavior.

Being a spiritual product of objective processes of standardization human activity, mass consciousness itself has an active influence on many aspects of social life. It acts as a powerful regulator of mass forms of human behavior. At the same time, the main forms of expression and functioning of mass consciousness are public opinion and public mood.

Basic concepts: social consciousness, individual consciousness, social psychology, ideology.

Terms: consciousness, ordinary consciousness, mass consciousness, public opinion.

2. G. Hegel spoke about everyday consciousness that this is a way of thinking of any era that contains all the prejudices of a given time. Illustrate the philosopher’s statement with your own examples.

3. Comment on the following fragment:

« Social Psychology- this is the sphere of emotions, experiences and moods that are caused not by purely personal circumstances, but by circumstances generated by the course of social development, historical events affecting vital interests large groups population."

Give examples of such emotions, moods and experiences.

4. Using various dictionaries, find the meaning of the concept “ideology”. How do these interpretations differ?

Work with the source

Soul of the Crowd

...Decisions concerning common interests, adopted by the meeting even famous people in the field of various specialties, still differ little from the decisions made by a meeting of fools, since in both cases there are not any outstanding qualities combined, but only ordinary ones that are found in everyone. In a crowd, only stupidity can accumulate, not intelligence.

The appearance of these new special features, characteristic of the crowd and, moreover, not found in the individual individuals included in its composition, is determined by for various reasons. The first of these is that the individual in a crowd acquires, thanks only to his numbers, a consciousness of irresistible force, and this consciousness allows him to succumb to instincts that he never gives free rein to when he is alone. In a crowd, he is less inclined to curb these instincts, because the crowd is anonymous and does not bear responsibility. The sense of responsibility, which always restrains individuals, completely disappears in the crowd.

The second reason - contagiousness or contagion - also contributes to the formation of special properties in the crowd and determines their direction. In a crowd, every feeling, every action is contagious, and to such an extent that the individual very easily sacrifices his personal interests to the collective interest. This behavior, however, contradicts human nature, and therefore a person is capable of it only when he is part of the crowd.

Questions and tasks:

1) What features of people’s behavior are manifested specifically in a crowd? 2) What reasons does the author of the text name for the specific behavior of an individual in a crowd? 3) How do you understand the essence of these reasons? 4) Bring own examples, confirming or refuting the author’s opinion that the crowd has properties that an individual may not possess. 5) Is it possible to say that social consciousness is formed in the crowd? public opinion?.

ESSENCE AND FEATURES OF PUBLIC CONSCIOUSNESS

In the process of the spiritual life of society, various knowledge and attitudes towards nature, objective reality, and everything that happens in society are formed. In addition, the moods, habits, mores, traditions of peoples, as well as the mental makeup of different social groups, take root in society. Thus, it is customary to talk about the efficiency of the Americans or the precision and pedantry of the Germans. At the same time, not all representatives of this group necessarily differ in these qualities. Nevertheless, the characteristics of certain qualities have been assigned to the entire socio-cultural community.
The formation of public consciousness is a complex process. The public consciousness and spiritual life of society reflect the interests and activities of people aimed at satisfying their needs for new ideas, scientific knowledge, moral improvement, the beautiful, the sublime. At the same time, it is necessary that ideas, theories, views, moral standards, and scientific knowledge be widely disseminated and influence the entire society. This function is performed by schools, universities, the media, political parties, social movements and organizations.
Scientists recognize the relatively independent nature of social consciousness. The fact is that many ideas, views of people, their moral convictions have considerable stability and remain for quite a long time in people’s minds and in their actions, even when the objective conditions and social relations on the basis of which they arose no longer exist. This happens because changes in people’s views and beliefs do not occur immediately as soon as, for example, the economic system changes. The consciousness of people, their ideas, views may lag behind social life and for a certain time may not correspond to it. In this case, we are talking about either remnants of the past in the minds of people, or about the preservation of traditions. Thus, for quite a long time after the abolition of serfdom, part of the peasantry had difficulty getting used to the new economic and social realities. Just remember the hero of A.P. Chekhov’s play “The Cherry Orchard” Firs, who calls this event a misfortune or misfortune. People's ideas and views may be ahead of real conditions, then they say that such ideas express social dreams, forecasts, and foresights. From your history course you know the forecasts of utopian socialists.
Social consciousness exists on the basis of the continuity of the best, useful and necessary that was in the spiritual life of society. Continuity is clearly manifested in science, morality, and traditions of peoples. Many manifestations of social consciousness interact with each other and themselves have a strong impact on each other. For example, people's aesthetic tastes and preferences are closely related to their moral ideals. Most often, the ideal of beauty is at the same time for people an ideal of goodness, and, conversely, what is associated with a moral ideal is perceived as beautiful.
Social consciousness actively influences the entire life of society. However, this influence does not manifest itself, but in the activities of people, which can have both a progressive and an inhibitory effect on the life of society.

THEORETICAL AND ORDINARY CONSCIOUSNESS

The structure of social consciousness can be considered from the point of view of the depth of reflection of social reality by social consciousness. Then, social psychology and ideology are identified as the main structural elements.
Social psychology is a set of feelings, moods, customs, traditions, motivations characteristic of a given society as a whole and for each of the large social groups. Social psychology develops under the influence of specific historical conditions of social existence. And since these conditions are different for each of the large social groups, their socio-psychological complexes inevitably differ from each other (the complex of superiority of the so-called “noble classes” over the “common people” in the Middle Ages). The socio-psychological complexes of various social groups also have common features associated with historical characteristics, national traditions, and the cultural level of a particular society.
Ideology is a system of theoretical views that reflects the degree of society’s knowledge of the world as a whole and its individual aspects. It represents a higher level of social consciousness compared to social psychology - the level of theoretical reflection of the world. If, when analyzing the psychology of social groups, the epithet “social” is most often used (as opposed to age, professional, etc.), then the concept of “ideology” does not need such an epithet, since there is no individual ideology, it is always of a social nature.
It must be borne in mind that the concept of “ideology” is used in social philosophy in another, narrower sense - as a system of theoretical views of one large social group, directly or indirectly reflecting its fundamental interests.
If social psychology is formed spontaneously, directly under the influence of the life circumstances in which a social group or class finds itself, then ideology primarily acts as a product of the theoretical activity of representatives of a given class - its ideologists.
From a theoretical-cognitive point of view, the relationship between social psychology and ideology is vaguely reminiscent of the relationship between the emotional, sensory and rational levels of social consciousness. It is known that sensory knowledge in general is not sufficient, but a necessary “floor” of consciousness, since only thanks to it our brain can receive primary information about the world, however, the feelings of a cultured person are always rationally loaded (a musical ear that feels the beauty of the shape of the eyes). Social psychology is that direct reflection of the external manifestations of social reality, which constitutes the life-practical basis for the emergence of the corresponding ideology. Ideology clarifies what is not sufficiently understood by psychology and penetrates deeply into the essence of phenomena.
In philosophical and historical literature the concept is very often encountered. "ordinary consciousness". This concept is intended to characterize consciousness directly woven into the everyday practical life of people. This is pre-reflective knowledge, a set of socially approved life-practical evidence.
One of the varieties of social consciousness is mass consciousness.
Mass consciousness is distinguished not by its content, level and quality of reflection of reality, but primarily by the specific properties of its carrier, the subject. The mass as a subject of mass consciousness is a special collection (set, community) of individuals. Examples of the masses include participants in broad political, sociocultural and other movements, audiences of various media and media channels, consumers of certain socially “colored” (prestigious, fashionable) goods and services, members of various amateur (interest) associations and clubs, fans football and other sports teams, etc.
The following features are characteristic of the masses as a subject of consciousness. Firstly, the statistical nature of this community, expressed in the fact that it, without being an independent, integral formation distinct from its constituent elements, is represented by many separate “units”. Secondly, the entry of individuals into it is disordered, random, as a result of which such a community is always characterized by “blurry”, open boundaries, and an uncertain quantitative and qualitative composition. The mass is characterized by a situational existence, which is expressed in the fact that it is formed and functions exclusively on the basis and within the boundaries of one or another specific activity, and is impossible outside of it. As a result of this, the mass always turns out to be an unstable formation, changing from case to case, from one specific situation to another. The mass is characterized by pronounced heterogeneity, the mixed composition of a given community, its non-group (or intergroup) nature, manifested in the fact that in it the boundaries between all social demographic, political, regional and other groups existing in society are “destroyed”.
The listed properties of the mass completely determine its inherent type of consciousness, the features of its content and structure, methods of formation and functioning.
In terms of content, mass consciousness is a set of ideas, judgments, perceptions, illusions, feelings, moods, in one form or another reflecting different aspects of the life of society. At the same time, in terms of its content, mass consciousness is much narrower than social consciousness as a whole, since beyond its boundaries there remains a great many subjects that are inaccessible to the understanding of the masses and (or) do not affect their interests (for example, the content of science, philosophy, etc. ).
The structure of mass consciousness is an extremely complex conglomerate formation that arises at the “intersection” of all known types of social consciousness - social psychology and ideology, everyday and theoretical, abstract and artistic, contemplative and associated with volitional actions, etc.
In this regard, the structure of mass consciousness is characterized by fragmentation, inconsistency, and the ability to undergo rapid, unexpected changes.
Mass consciousness in modern societies arises in the process of standardization of the basic conditions and forms of human life (in the spheres of production, consumption, communication, socio-political participation, leisure), generating the same aspirations, interests, needs, skills, inclinations, etc. Action These conditions and forms of existence are consolidated and completed in the production and dissemination of the corresponding types of mass culture, associated primarily with the functioning of the media. With their help, the interests, needs, and aspirations of broad sections of the population are formalized in the form of standard images of reality, ways of understanding it, and patterns of behavior.
Being a spiritual product of objective processes of standardization of human activity, mass consciousness itself has an active influence on many aspects of social life. It acts as a powerful regulator of mass forms of human behavior. At the same time, the main forms of expression and functioning of mass consciousness are public opinion and public mood.
Basic concepts: social consciousness, individual consciousness, social psychology, ideology.
Terms: consciousness, ordinary consciousness, mass consciousness, public opinion.

1. What feature of consciousness did I. Kant point to when he said that the idea of an apple has neither weight, nor color, nor smell, nor taste. The concept of an earthquake cannot destroy a city, but a thaler in your pocket and a thaler in your head are not the same thing? State this feature in your own words.
2. G. Hegel spoke about everyday consciousness that this is a way of thinking of any era that contains all the prejudices of a given time. Illustrate the philosopher’s statement with your own examples.
3. Comment on the following fragment:
“Social psychology is the sphere of emotions, experiences and moods that are caused not by purely personal circumstances, but by circumstances generated by the course of social development, historical events that affect the vital interests of large groups of the population.”
Give examples of such emotions, moods and experiences.
4. Using various dictionaries, find the meaning of the concept “ideology”. How do these interpretations differ?

Work with the source

Read an excerpt from the book by psychologist G. Lebon “Psychology of Peoples and Masses.”

Soul of the Crowd

Decisions concerning common interests, made by a meeting of even famous people in the field of various specialties, still differ little from decisions made by a meeting of fools, since in both cases there are not any outstanding qualities combined, but only ordinary ones that occur everyone has. In a crowd, only stupidity can accumulate, not intelligence.<...>
The appearance of these new special features, characteristic of the crowd and, moreover, not found in the individual individuals included in its composition, is due to various reasons. The first of these is that the individual in a crowd acquires, thanks only to his numbers, a consciousness of irresistible force, and this consciousness allows him to succumb to instincts that he never gives free rein to when he is alone. In a crowd, he is less inclined to curb these instincts, because the crowd is anonymous and does not bear responsibility. The sense of responsibility, which always restrains individuals, completely disappears in the crowd.
The second reason - contagiousness or contagion - also contributes to the formation of special properties in the crowd and determines their direction.<...>In a crowd, every feeling, every action is contagious, and to such an extent that the individual very easily sacrifices his personal interests to the collective interest. Such behavior, however, is contrary to human nature, and therefore a person is capable of it only when he is part of a crowd.
Questions and tasks: 1) What features of people’s behavior are manifested specifically in a crowd? 2) What reasons does the author of the text name for the specific behavior of an individual in a crowd? 3) How do you understand the essence of these reasons? 4) Give your own examples that confirm or refute the author’s opinion that the crowd has properties that an individual may not possess. 5) Is it possible to say that social consciousness is formed in the crowd? public opinion?

§ 27. Self-knowledge and personality development

Inner world man and his self-awareness have long attracted the attention of philosophers, psychologists, linguists, ethnographers, sociologists, teachers and artists. Thus, philosophers starting from the 17th-18th centuries. they sought to know what the value of the individual is and how it manifests itself, how it knows itself and where the boundaries of this knowledge are. Already in the famous formula of R. Descartes “I think, therefore I exist,” the fact of possessing thinking serves as proof of the existence of a person.
J. Locke argued that a person knows himself intuitively on the basis of reflection (understanding) of life experience, which expands over the years. From his point of view, a reflective attitude towards oneself is characteristic of a mature personality, and not everyone.
I. Kant gave the understanding of “I” a value-personal dimension. He introduced into scientific circulation the division of human consciousness and self-awareness. “The fact that a person can have an idea of his Self infinitely elevates him above all other creatures living on Earth. Thanks to this, he is a person...” Self-awareness, according to Kant, is a necessary prerequisite for morality and moral responsibility.
G. Hegel considered self-consciousness in development; when studying self-awareness, he identified stages corresponding to the phases of development of human activity.
Psychologists, in turn, study the structure of the human self and ways of knowing it.

WHAT IS SELF-AWARENESS

The complexity of the problem lies in the fact that in this case the object and subject of knowledge coincide, which makes it difficult to establish the degree of reliability of a person’s knowledge about himself. Nevertheless, knowledge about oneself, assessment of one’s qualities, self-awareness represent important part personality formation.
Usually under self-awareness understand a person’s definition of himself as an individual, capable of making independent decisions, enter into certain relationships with other people and nature. One of the important signs of self-awareness is a person’s willingness to take responsibility for the decisions he makes and the actions he takes.
Self-knowledge occurs primarily at the individual level. In fact, a person spends his entire life engaged in self-knowledge, but is not always aware that he is carrying out this type of activity. Self-knowledge, according to scientists, begins in infancy and often ends with the last breath. Of course, in the process of personality development, the ways of knowing oneself, the attitude towards oneself change, and self-awareness develops.
Personality manifests itself not only through self-awareness, but also in the process self-realization. This term defines the process of the most complete identification and implementation by an individual of his capabilities, achievement of intended goals in solving personally significant problems, allowing him to fully realize creative potential personality.
But in order to realize oneself, a person must know his own characteristics.

FAMILIAR STRANGER

Self-knowledge begins with self-recognition, distinguishing between oneself and the outside world. Scientists believe that this discrimination occurs as early as three to eight month old infants.

Every person looking in the mirror strives to see himself, his image, adjust it, change or “correct” his appearance. This is the beginning of the transition from passive perception of oneself to the active creation of the image of “I”, the path to self-improvement, which so far affects only appearance.
Strictly speaking, a person practically does not see his real face in the mirror, just as he does not hear his own voice. (Each of you who has heard a recording of your voice on a tape recorder was probably surprised at the unexpectedly strange, unusual sound.) The fact is that, when preparing to look at ourselves in the mirror, we involuntarily take a certain pose. As a result, our facial expression changes, its spontaneity and ease are lost. We unconsciously form our image of “I”. Therefore, when we accidentally see our reflection in the mirror, we are surprised by unfamiliar features. Such a case is described in A. Moravia’s story “Trellage”. A young lawyer, examining a mirror that had just been delivered from the store, suddenly saw in it not his usual self, but some kind of his own double, towards whom he experienced a strong feeling of antipathy as a complete stranger. Mixed with the feeling of antipathy was a feeling of some kind of alienation. The hero of the story looked at the mirror as an object, and did not prepare to perceive his own appearance in it. As a result, what he saw turned out to be unexpected for him, strangely diverging from his usual, apparently more significant, idea of himself.
The photographic image also often diverges from the model’s true face, since it does not convey the liveliness of facial expressions characteristic of the character in life.
The famous film director S. Eisenstein believed that every face contains many faces and at the same time all people are two-faced. In the first case, he emphasized the mobility and variability of the human face, and in the second, the difference between the left and right parts of the face. If you mount portraits specific person from the same right or left halves of the face of the same photograph, they will differ significantly from each other. Thus, “right” faces (consisting of right halves) look older than the actual age of the original. “Left” faces are less defined, more typical, and less retain the individuality of a living face.
A person’s appearance is not only significant for himself, it influences the perception of a person by other people. You have probably noticed that some people invariably inspire trust in even strangers, while others, even their acquaintances, try to approach others infrequently. Psychological experiments show that people tend to attribute advantages to those who have a pleasant appearance, even ones that they actually do not have.
Even in ancient times, attempts were made to create typical characteristics of people's properties, based on external signs, body features, and facial structure. When they say: “It’s written all over his face,” they mean a certain connection between the appearance and internal properties of a person.
What has been said about the peculiarities of self-perception does not mean that a person is generally unable to form a correct idea of himself. Not everything is contained in human appearance. Clever expression faces in all ages have seemed more attractive than those devoid of manifestation of thought. How can one not recall the proverb that says that one is greeted by his clothes, but seen off by his mind?

HOW TO NOT MAKE A MISTAKE IN YOUR ASSESSMENT

Self-esteem plays an equally important role in self-knowledge.
The attitude towards one’s own appearance, together with ideas about one’s abilities and the attitude of other people towards oneself, forms self-esteem. Self-esteem is predominantly an emotional attitude towards one’s own image: “I am talented”, “I am absolutely untalented”, “I am no worse than others”, etc. Self-esteem is most often subjective, but it is based not only on one’s own judgments, but also on opinions others about your person. Strictly speaking, a person evaluates himself in two ways: first, by comparing the level of his aspirations with the objective results of his activities; secondly, by comparing yourself with other people.
Three main points are important to understanding self-esteem. Firstly, in its formation an important role is played by the comparison of the image of the real “I” with the image of the ideal that we would like to be. Self-esteem can be expressed with the following formula:

You can increase your self-esteem either by achieving something, such as success, or by lowering your level of aspirations.
Secondly, some people tend to evaluate themselves the way others evaluate them. You can tell your child from childhood that he is beautiful. However, if someone tells a boy that he has big ears, then years later, when going on a date, the young man will pull on his hat or comb his hair in a special way. Human consciousness turns out to be a kind of shell that opens to new knowledge about oneself.
Third, self-esteem depends on our attitude towards our own successes and failures, and what we learn from our own life history.
The image of “I” does not remain unchanged throughout life. Not only the appearance changes, but also the attitude towards it, self-esteem becomes more justified, and measures are taken to increase it. The desire to gain respect forces a person to change his attitude towards himself and others. It would be more correct to say that a person does not have one image of “I”, but many such images, alternately coming to the forefront of self-awareness or receding into the shadows.
The complexity and complexity of the “I” allowed scientists to identify a number of components in it that are formed in the process of life and have an impact on the behavior of the individual. general education ... equatorial air masses 10 . Determine what...

Textbook for 6th grade of general education institutions / O. A. Klimanova, M. N. Belova, E. V. Kim, etc.

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Geography. Geography. : Textbook For 6 class general education institutions/ O.A. Klimanova, M.N. Belova... Textbook For 10 class M., “Enlightenment”, 2010 Maksakovsky V.P. New in the world. Figures and facts. Addition of chapters to textbook For 10 class ...

Textbook for 6th grade of general education institutions.” Moscow, "Enlightenment"

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Compiled by textbook: "Russian language. Textbook For 6 class general education institutions" Moscow, “Enlightenment”, 2007. Authors: M. T. Baranov... inside a simple sentence Ex. 34 10 Difficult sentence. Commas in... dictation 14 Text § 10 , exercise 48 15 ...

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Compiled by textbook: "Russian language. Textbook For 9 class general education institutions" Moscow, “Enlightenment”, 2007. Authors: L. A. Trostentsova, ... corner of nature Compound sentences (SSP) 10 + 2 19 The concept of a compound sentence...

The concept of consciousness expresses the inner world of a person, the spiritual aspects of his existence in the world, and therefore it is one of the most ancient and most important in philosophy.

Consciousness is philosophical concept to designate and study all forms of manifestations of the spiritual that take place in human activity.

Human consciousness is a complex phenomenon; it is multidimensional, multidimensional. Ideas about it are very different, depending on the diversity of people’s life experiences, which form its interpretations that are far from identical to each other; understanding of consciousness, its essence, content, scale of manifestation is determined largely by the cultural traditions of people, their religious, public organization. As a result, what was called consciousness in one era might not be recognized as such in another.

It is very difficult to cognize, describe, define consciousness, since it does not exist as separate item or thing. Everything is given to us thanks to consciousness: it is certainly present in each of our images of perception, it instantly brings into connection, in correlation, our sensations, perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and without our consent, much less control. Consciousness cannot be “pulled out” from this meaningful connection, because outside of it it does not exist.

To resolve the question of the essence of consciousness (“What is it?”), philosophy introduced the concept reflections. It helps to explain how non-sentient and inanimate (non-spiritual) matter became, over time, sentient and animate (spiritualized) matter. The concept of reflection, thus, is the key to solving the problem of the origin of consciousness, revealing its essence and content, forms of manifestation and functions.

Reflection is a property of material objects, consisting in their ability to reproduce (copy) during interaction external signs, internal structure and contents of other objects, retain these prints (copies).

Reflection is the reproduction of other objects in oneself(like in a mirror) . It manifests itself only during the interaction (mutual influence, influence on each other) of material objects.

As the material world evolved, a whole spectrum of forms of reflection was formed, which differ in their medium, degree of complexity and specific features, functions performed.

Reflection exists in inanimate nature. Here it wears passive character and manifests itself in the form of changes in mechanical, physical and chemical properties, states of objects as a result of their interaction. In other words, traces of each other remain on interacting objects. On the contrary, reflection in living nature acquired an active, and over time, selective and even purposeful character. This allows organisms not only to receive information about the outside world, but also to adapt to its influences and even change their habitat. Let us arrange the forms of reflection in order of their complexity and give them a brief description.

· Elementary(mechanical, physical, chemical) reflection exists in the inorganic world. These are, for example, animal tracks in the snow, heating of an electrical conductor and its glow, photography)

· Irritability as a form of biological reflection arose along with the emergence of life in its simple forms at the level of plants and unicellular animals. It is known, for example, that the head of a sunflower tends to orient itself towards the sun; the flowers fold their petals with the onset of darkness. In the above cases, the simplest activity, internal excitation as a reaction to external stimulus. Based on these premises, animals developed sensitivity like the ability to feel the world. That is why we can say that irritability is an approach and transition to the psyche as a qualitatively different form of reflection of the material world.

· Psychic reflection(psyche) was formed along with the emergence of the central nervous system and the brain as its department, with the help of which this reflection occurs. Here special role plays feeling, which allows you to record individual aspects and properties of objects that are vital for the existence of animals - shape, color, smell and others. Sensations arise through special senses - vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste. Based on sensations, higher animals develop more complex forms. mental reflection - perception And performance. With their help, the psyche is already able to form a holistic image of an object and retain this image in memory for a long time.

Within the framework of mental reflection, the so-called advanced reflection- the ability to anticipate, predict the future based on a reflection of the present, the logic and trends of its development. Thus, animals are able to anticipate future events - the onset of cold weather, the approach of an earthquake. In humans, this manifests itself in the form of fortune telling and forecasts, fantasies, and “prophetic” (prophetic) dreams. Advanced reflection makes it possible to carry out goal setting to develop programs for one’s activities to see what is still, as it were, closed by time, but is already emerging.

As for the meaning of reflection, it consists, first of all, in the fact that this phenomenon and process is a method, a mechanism for obtaining the preservation and transmission of information, as well as energy from one object to another.

Consciousness - This is a form of mental reflection inherent in man as a sociocultural being.

We can also say that consciousness is a property of a functioning brain, which consists in an emotional-volitional and sensory-rational reflection of objective reality. This reflection is active, purposeful, generalized and evaluative in nature, representing the unity of “worldview” and “worldview”. In its reality, consciousness acts as a stream of images of the external world that exist in the internal (spiritual) world of a person and are a necessary condition for his objective and practical activity. The meaning of these images is that they act as symbols (signs) that carry information about the reflected objects and their meaning. (sometimes they say that consciousness is clear, visible side human soul, which is understood as the entire set of mental processes and states. However, the concept of “soul” is broader than the concept of “consciousness”. For example, feelings are a state of mind. They cannot be identified with consciousness.) Consciousness, as mentioned above, is a human way of reflection, based on the purposeful and systematic receipt, comprehension and application of various information about the world. The sources of consciousness are surrounding a person world ( natural processes and phenomena, sociocultural environment), one’s own spiritual experience, as well as brain activity.

To what has been said above about the nature and essence of consciousness, let us add that it is in a subjective way objective world, the property of the thinking individual. First of all, human consciousness presupposes the presence conceptual thinking . It is an active indirect and generalized (abstract) reflection of the world, giving a person knowledge about the essential aspects, properties and relationships of objects of this world. This is a logical process, the content of which is the movement of thought to an object, and from it to the truth about it.

Thanks to consciousness, a person achieves his goals “consciously”, i.e. with the help of knowledge about objects and phenomena. In his head a person can have not only mental image of the present, but also a picture of the future, which to some extent helps him protect himself from acting blindly, using the “trial and error” method. K. Marx in his work “Capital” wrote the following about this: “The spider performs operations reminiscent of the operations of a weaver, and the bee puts some human architects to shame with the construction of its wax cells. But even the worst architect differs from the best bee from the very beginning in that, before building a cell of wax, he has already built it in his head.

Unlike animals, in humans the very nature of reflection changes. Thus, it is obvious that the psyche of animals is focused on ensuring adaptive activity in relation to the external environment. On the contrary, human consciousness is aimed primarily at serving transformative activities. It is known from science that the nature of activity is determined by the nature of reflection. Considering the objective-practical nature of human activity, it is generally accepted that his consciousness is active And creative character. Reflecting the surrounding reality, it reveals in it not only that There is, but also formulates what a person necessary what he strives for in his life. Therefore, we can say that consciousness is directly involved in the processes of transformation of the world by man.

So, by consciousness we mean not just a mental reflection, but highest form mental reflection of reality by a socially developed person. It represents the following function human brain, the essence of which lies in the adequate, generalized, purposeful and active reflection and constructive and creative reworking of the external world, carried out in speech (or generally in symbolic) form, in linking newly received impressions with previous experience, in a person distinguishing himself from the environment and contrasting himself her as a subject to an object.

Consciousness lies in the emotional assessment of reality, in ensuring goal-setting activity - in the preliminary mental construction of reasonably motivated actions and provisions for their personal and social consequences, in the individual’s ability to be aware of both what is happening in the surrounding material world and in his own spiritual world.

From the noted characteristic features of consciousness the following definition of consciousness follows: “ Consciousness is the highest function of the brain, unique to humans and associated with speech, consisting in a generalized, evaluative and purposeful reflection and constructive and creative transformation of reality, in the preliminary mental construction of actions and anticipation of their results, in the reasonable regulation and self-control of human behavior.”

>> Public consciousness

§ 13. Social consciousness

Can the community reasonable people behave unreasonably? Who shapes public consciousness? How is the consciousness of society related to the consciousness of man?

ESSENCE AND FEATURES OF PUBLIC CONSCIOUSNESS

One of the categories that characterize the life of society is the category of social consciousness. However, there is no unity among scientists regarding this category. The problem is related to different understandings of the original concept - consciousness.

Most representatives of classical philosophy shared the idea of consciousness as identical concept"knowledge". All we know is consciousness, and all we are aware of is knowledge.

At the same time, modern psychology is faced with the fact that not everything that relates to knowledge is realized. Knowledge is not only what I know, but which I am not thinking about at the moment and therefore am not aware of, but also what I can easily make accessible to my consciousness, for example, recalling my knowledge of the Pythagorean theorem, facts of my biography, etc. d.

A number of philosophers identify as the main feature of consciousness not knowledge, but an orientation towards specific object. The essence of this is this: a person may not know anything about any object, but if he singles it out, directs his interest to it, this object becomes an object of consciousness.

The most widespread understanding of consciousness in philosophy and psychology is self-awareness, self-report. It is associated with the theory of the English philosopher J. Locke about two sources of knowledge: sensations associated with the external world, and reflection as the mind’s observation of its own activities. The latter, according to Locke, is consciousness. Consciousness, with this understanding, acts as a specific reality, a special inner world that the subject cognizes. The way of knowing is self-perception, which can manifest itself in the form of introspection.

The development of philosophical knowledge contributed to the expansion of understanding of social consciousness as an integral and complex spiritual phenomenon. In the process of the spiritual life of society, a variety of knowledge is formed, as well as attitudes towards nature, objective reality, and everything that happens in society. In addition, the moods, habits, mores, traditions of peoples, as well as the mental makeup of different social groups, take root in society. Thus, it is customary to talk about the efficiency of the Americans or the precision and pedantry of the Germans. At the same time, not all representatives of this group necessarily differ in these qualities. Nevertheless, the characteristics of certain qualities have been assigned to the entire social community.

The formation of public consciousness is a complex process in which strong influence two factors.

On the one hand, the public consciousness and spiritual life of society reflect the interests and activities of people aimed at satisfying their needs for new ideas, scientific knowledge, moral improvement of members of society, and satisfying the sense of beauty and the sublime. On the other hand, it is necessary that ideas, theories, views, moral standards, and scientific knowledge be widely disseminated and influence the entire society. This function is performed by schools, universities, the media, political parties and social movements and organizations.

It should be noted that although social ideas and other elements of social consciousness are intangible in nature, they function in society and influence consciousness individuals, groups, associations using various sign systems.

Scientists recognize the relative nature of social consciousness. The fact is that many ideas, views of people, their moral convictions have significant stability, vitality and remain for quite a long time in people’s minds and their actions. They can persist even when those objective conditions, those social relations on the basis of which they arose, no longer exist. This happens because a change in people’s views and beliefs does not occur immediately as soon as, for example, economic life or political relations change. The consciousness of people, their ideas, views lag behind social life and may not correspond to it for a certain time. In the case of such a lag, we are talking either about the so-called “remnants” of the past in people’s minds, or about the preservation of traditions. So, as you know, for quite a long time after the abolition of serfdom, part of the peasantry had difficulty getting used to the new economic and social realities. Just remember the hero of A.P. Chekhov’s play “The Cherry Orchard,” Firs, who simply calls this event a misfortune or misfortune. People's ideas and views may be ahead of real conditions, then they say that such ideas express social dreams, forecasts, and foresights. You know similar forecasts of utopian socialists from your history course.

Social consciousness has the continuity of everything that is best, useful and necessary that was in the spiritual life of the old society. Continuity is clearly manifested in science, morality, and traditions of peoples. Many manifestations of social consciousness interact with each other and themselves have a strong impact on each other. For example, people's aesthetic tastes and preferences are closely related to their moral ideals. Most often, the ideal of beauty is at the same time for people an ideal of goodness, and, conversely, what is associated with a moral ideal is perceived as beautiful.

Social consciousness actively influences the entire life of society . However, this impact does not manifest itself, but through the activities of people. At the same time, people’s actions can have both a progressive and an inhibitory effect on the life of society. This happens because in any society there are different ideas - new and old, advanced and conservative; This situation certainly affects the state of public consciousness.

STRUCTURE OF PUBLIC CONSCIOUSNESS

Social consciousness is complex not only in content, but also in its structure. In this regard, its division into structural elements can be carried out for various reasons. One of these reasons may be the specificity of those aspects of reality that are reflected by public consciousness, and then we talk about its forms. Each of these forms of social consciousness has its own specificity, in its own way reflects the complexity of social existence, its individual aspects, the processes of social life, and has its own social purpose and functions.

Social psychology is a set of feelings, moods, customs, traditions, motivations characteristic of a given society as a whole and for each of the large social groups. Social psychology grows directly under the influence of specific historical conditions of social existence. And since these conditions are different for each of the large social groups, their socio-psychological complexes inevitably differ from each other, for example, the complex of superiority of the so-called “noble classes” over the “common people” in the Middle Ages. Of course, in the socio-psychological complexes of different social groups in each country there are also common features associated with its historical characteristics, national traditions, and cultural level.

Ideology in in a broad sense words are a system of theoretical views in which people’s relationships to reality and to each other, as well as the goals of social activity, are recognized and assessed. It represents a higher level of social consciousness compared to social psychology - the level of theoretical reflection of the world. If, when analyzing the psychology of social groups, the epithet “social” is most often used, in contrast to age, professional, etc., then the concept of “ideology” does not need such an epithet, since there is no individual ideology, it is always of a social nature.

If social psychology is formed spontaneously, directly under the influence of the life circumstances in which a social group or class finds itself, then ideology primarily acts as a product of the theoretical activity of “os 5o authorized” representatives of a given group, class - its ideologists.

The relationship between social psychology and ideology can be considered as the relationship between the emotional, sensory and rational levels of social consciousness. It is known that sensory knowledge in general is an insufficient (superficial) but necessary level of consciousness, since only thanks to it our brain can receive primary information about the world and from it synthesize knowledge about the essence of things. Social psychology is that direct reflection of the external manifestations of social reality, which constitutes a kind of basis for the emergence of a corresponding ideology. Ideology clarifies what is vaguely grasped by psychology and penetrates deeply into the essence of phenomena. (We will look at what ideology is in more detail in the next paragraph.)

In philosophical and historical literature the concepts of everyday life are very often encountered. consciousness and mass consciousness . As their names suggest, these concepts are intended to characterize different sides public consciousness. We usually talk about ordinary consciousness when it does not rise to theoretical generalizations. About mass consciousness - when they talk about the degree of its prevalence in society.

At all stages historical development the socio-psychological factor plays an active role. It is possible, for example, to clearly trace how public sentiments lead to the ripening of social revolutions. Exactly the same psychological factors, which allow us to stabilize society after radical changes. Thus, analyzing the process of transition from slavery to feudalism, F. Engels drew attention to the fact that “slavery ceased to pay for itself and therefore died out. But dying slavery left its poisonous sting in the form of the free's contempt for productive labor. It was a hopeless impasse in which the Roman world found itself: slavery became economically impossible, the work of the free was considered despicable from a moral point of view. The first could no longer, the second could not yet be the main form social production"(Marx K., Engels F. Soch. - T. 21. - P. 149). The attitude towards slavery in this case is characterized precisely by a psychological moment that influences the formation of relations in society.

INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS

Having examined the essence and structure of social consciousness, let us turn to the problem of its relationship with the consciousness of an individual.

Both public and personal consciousness are a product of spiritual activity, a synonym for spiritual culture. In this sense, they talk about their unity. There are no hard boundaries between individual and social consciousness. On the contrary, there is constant interaction between them.

Social consciousness does not exist without the consciousness of individuals. Personal ideas and beliefs acquire the character of social value, the significance of social force, when they go beyond the limits of individual existence and become common property, a general rule or belief, enter into the general consciousness, into morals, into art, into science, into law, into norms of behavior . At the same time, the individual biography of the author of this or that idea no longer plays a decisive role. Thus, the idea of a social contract or the idea of separation of powers, put forward under certain conditions, did not lose its authorship, but became an important part of public consciousness.

However, society is selective about the results of the activity of individual consciousness: it takes some things and discards others. Not every achievement of individual consciousness is included in the general array of social consciousness. This depends on the depth and social significance of the spiritual activity of a given individual, on the need of the spirit of the time in her creativity.

In turn, individual consciousness acts in a similar way. It does not absorb all elements of social consciousness indiscriminately. The norms of consciousness historically developed by society spiritually nourish the personality and become a source of moral precepts, beliefs, aesthetic feelings and ideas. But each person in a different way (due to personal, individual characteristics) absorbs the elements existing in the social consciousness and can influence the public consciousness in different ways.

The fate of such historical figures as G. Bruno, G. Galileo, Joan of Arc, the fate of many of our contemporaries testify to the presence of a contradiction between personal and social consciousness, between the system of spiritual principles accepted in society and the ideas of individual citizens of a particular society. Together Moreover, overcoming the resistance of time, individuals who are ahead of their era contribute to the development of social consciousness.

Just as social consciousness is not reduced to the quantitative sum of individual consciousnesses, but manifests itself in a qualitatively new form - a specially organized ideal-objective reality, so individual consciousness is not an exact copy of social consciousness. A person enters into a dialogue with social consciousness, and this consciousness opposing him is a reality that has to be reckoned with. Personal consciousness is accumulated experience. A person, an individual, can feel his connection with the history of his family, his country, his people. Each individual consciousness has its own sources of development, therefore each personality is unique, despite the unity of the human culture that integrates it.

Along with individual and social consciousness, the spiritual life of society is also reflected by mass consciousness. This concept is usually used to define this type of social consciousness, a broad set of ideas, ideas, sometimes even illusions, feelings, and moods that reflect certain aspects of social life that can arouse the interest of the masses.

A state of mass public consciousness that reflects an attitude (explicit or hidden) various groups people to events and facts of social reality is called public opinion. We can say that public opinion is the point of view of many, perhaps even the majority, representatives of a social group, but not necessarily all. An interesting statement about the essence of public opinion belongs to the French sociologist J. Bourdo, who called public opinion a social force, which, receiving external embodiment through self-awareness, stems from “the similarity of judgments made by the majority of individuals on a certain issue.” IN modern world public consciousness is actively studied, politicians pay attention to it, trying to achieve recognition and support in society. And the head of the American Institute of Public Opinion, George Gallup, argues that “public opinion is just data.” sociological research" Of course last statement can be called a paradoxical exaggeration, but there is some truth in it, since the following stages are distinguished in the formation of public opinion: the emergence of an opinion, discussions on the subject of an opinion, the emergence common point vision and a common position. Many phenomena social life At first they cause surprise, then lively discussions, then seem so familiar that it is simply stupid to argue about them. This was the case, for example, with the idea of abolishing slavery in America or serfdom in Russia. (You can continue this series of examples yourself.)

PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS

1 When performing actions under the influence of public opinion, succumbing to the influence of others, it is important to understand what public interests drive social psychology.

2 Conflicting interests of different social groups and communities manifest themselves in the public consciousness. It is important to see the driving motives and motivations behind the actions of representatives of certain groups. Emotional perception of reality often interferes with a correct understanding of its essence. We advise you not to forget the words of the great A.S. Pushkin: “Accept praise and slander indifferently and do not challenge a fool.”

3 In the individual consciousness and personality, both advanced ideas and prejudices and misconceptions that exist in the public consciousness are reflected. Remember that young age is not always a guarantee of a fresh perception of reality. And remnants of the past may exist in the minds of young people.

4 If you remain at the level of mass consciousness, it is easy to become an object of manipulation and speculation on popular ideas. To avoid this, it is important to understand the nature of mass consciousness, to see and evaluate its shortcomings and contradictions.

DOCUMENT

From the book of the French psychologist, sociologist, historian G. Lebon “Psychology of Peoples and Masses”.

In a crowd, only stupidity can accumulate, not intelligence...

The appearance... of new special features that are characteristic of the crowd and, moreover, not found in the individual individuals that make up its composition, is due to various reasons. The first of these is that the individual in a crowd acquires, thanks only to his numbers, a consciousness of irresistible force, and this consciousness allows him to succumb to instincts that he never gives free rein to when he is alone. In a crowd, he is less inclined to curb these instincts, because the crowd is anonymous and does not bear responsibility. The sense of responsibility, which always restrains individuals, completely disappears in the crowd.

The second reason - contagiousness, or contagion - also contributes to the formation of special properties in the crowd and determines their direction... In the crowd, every feeling, every action is contagious, and, moreover, to such an extent that the individual very easily sacrifices his personal interests to the collective interest . Such behavior, however, is contrary to human nature, and therefore a person is capable of it only when he is part of the crowd.

QUESTIONS AND TASKS FOR THE DOCUMENT

1. What features of people’s behavior are manifested specifically in a crowd?
2. Indicate the reasons for the specific behavior of an individual in a crowd, which are named by the author of the text.
3. How do you understand the essence of these reasons?
4. Give your own examples that confirm or refute the author’s opinion that the crowd has properties that an individual may not possess.
5. Is it true that social consciousness is formed in the crowd? public opinion? Justify your answer.

SELF-TEST QUESTIONS

1 . What was understood by supporters of various points of view as the essence of consciousness?
2. How are social consciousness and spirituality related?

And it was not without reason that it was said:

And these copper-ringing words

Comparative analysis of scientific knowledge of nature and society

The first problem that arises on our way: we already know how the process of studying nature occurs, but how does the process of forming society occur?

Read paragraph 1 § 25.

What naturalistic views on the process of cognition of society were developed before the beginning of the 20th century?

Name the supporters of this approach and characterize the essence of their views,

How did W. Dilthey interpret the process of assimilation of social knowledge?

Analyze the views of G. Rickert.

What are they essential features knowledge of society, which gives rise to difficulties in studying social processes?

What is the object and subject of natural science? (The object is nature, and the subject is the whole society.)

What is the object and subject of social science? (Both object and subject is society.)

Thus, in natural science, the subject and object of cognitive activity appear separately. In social science, the object and subject of knowledge coincide. That is, society knows itself.

The fact of involvement in the processes being studied has positive and negative sides:

The positive side: much is clearer from the inside;

Negative side: a scientist cannot be indifferent to what is happening, so it is difficult to maintain an objective position, which means a large amount of subjectivity appears.

Great importance has a divergence of interests of large social groups and states. Hence the desire to get the desired answer from science. For example, the “Ukrainian version” of the concept of the emergence Old Russian state, according to which Rurik created the Ancient Ukrainian state.

1. Social cognition is associated with the complexity of the cognizable object - society and the processes occurring in it. There is a pluralism of opinions regarding the same phenomenon, fact, concept. For example, the October Revolution - a coup, a blessing, a revolution?

2. Limited opportunities using some research methods used by natural scientists. Thus, observation and experiment in social research can be carried out on a limited scale. It is difficult to conduct research on phenomena such as meaning, motive, intention.

Types of social knowledge

Read paragraph 4 § 25.

What do we mean by ordinary social knowledge?

Give examples of such knowledge.

Swipe comparative analysis two types social knowledge: Identify similarities and differences.

How do they relate to each other?

What role does everyday knowledge play in our lives?

Do you agree with the statement that ordinary knowledge is erroneous and scientific knowledge is true?

Why do you think it is necessary to study public opinion?

Bottom line

Let's return to the meeting of the academic council. Which of the three positions do you support? Why?

Homework: Learn § 25, complete the tasks.

What is "consciousness"

Let's try to compare primary knowledge about enough complex issue philosophy: what is “consciousness”? Look at the diagram:

CONSCIOUSNESS
The ability of a person to operate with images of social interaction, natural and cultural relations, separated from direct contacts with people and acts of activity, consider these images as conditions, means, guidelines for one’s behavior	This is the highest, characteristic only of man, form of reflection of objective reality, the way of his relationship to the world and himself, which represents the unity of mental processes that are actively involved in a person’s understanding of the objective world and his own existence and is determined not directly by his bodily organization, but acquired only through communication skills of objective actions with other people
The concept of consciousness in philosophy

Properties of consciousness

Do you think a person is always aware of everything that relates to knowledge?

A number of philosophers today identify as the main feature of consciousness not knowledge, but focus on a specific subject and object.

Bottom line

How was the essence of consciousness understood by supporters of different points of view?

How are social consciousness and spiritual culture related?

Give a description various forms public consciousness.

What levels are usually distinguished in the public consciousness?

How are social psychology and ideology related?

How are social and individual consciousness related to each other?

Complete the tasks for the paragraph.

Homework: Learn § 26, complete the tasks.

Self-awareness and self-knowledge

Each of us is unique. We differ in eye color, hair color, gender, age, habits, names and much, much more. But there is also something that unites us all. We have thoughts, feelings, desires, memories.

There is such an expression as “the inner world of man.” This is his own space, where almost no one has access, except perhaps the person himself.

The inner world of man and his self-awareness have long attracted the attention of philosophers, psychologists, linguists, sociologists, teachers, and artists. How did they imagine these processes?

J. Locke - a person knows himself intuitively on the basis of reflection (understanding) of life experience, which expands over the years.

I. Kant gave the understanding of “I” a value-personal dimension. He introduced into scientific circulation the division of human consciousness and self-awareness. From his point of view, self-awareness is a necessary prerequisite for morality and moral responsibility.

G. Hegel considered self-consciousness in development; when studying self-consciousness, he identified stages corresponding to the phases of development of human activity.

What does today's science of psychology say about self-awareness and self-knowledge? As my story progresses, write down in the form of abstracts a plan for answering the question: “Self-awareness and self-knowledge.”

1. The complexity of the problem lies in the fact that the subject and object of knowledge coincide, therefore it is difficult to establish the degree of reliability of a person’s knowledge about himself.

2. Self-awareness - a person's definition of himself as an individual capable of accepting independent decisions, enter into certain relationships with other people and nature.

3. Important sign self-awareness~ a person’s willingness to bear responsibility for the decisions he makes and the actions he takes.

4. Self-knowledge occurs at the individual level throughout life.

5. Personality manifests itself not only through self-awareness, but also in the process self-realization - This is the process of the most complete identification and implementation by an individual of his capabilities, the achievement of intended goals in solving personally significant problems, which allows the creative potential of the individual to be realized to the fullest. 6. In order to realize oneself, a person must know his own characteristics.

Let's conduct an experiment. Scientists say that the first step to recognizing yourself is self-diagnosis. Do you think you know yourself? People's opinions vary greatly in their answer to this question, even in what they understand by the words “know yourself.” For some, this means imagining what you are capable of, what to expect from yourself, for others - to know your positive and negative qualities, advantages and disadvantages, for others - to have a good understanding of the subtle movements of your soul, your feelings and experiences. For some it is a thorough knowledge of one’s appearance, for others it is the ability to communicate. And some people sincerely do not understand how it is possible not to know oneself.

And you? What does “knowing yourself” mean to you? Is it easy for you to answer this question?

The level of self-presentation is the level of presentation, presentation of oneself.

Low level self-presentation means that a person either does not want to present himself even to himself (why? What is so unpleasant or scary that he can hide from himself? think about it), or - this is more common - he simply does not think about himself and uses Everyday life only some, perhaps the most important, and often the most simple and obvious characteristics. But perhaps this is enough for him?

WITH average, moderate level of self-presentation. As with almost any average level, it is difficult to say anything definite here. It seems that a person knows himself, but somehow not very well, maybe he thinks about himself, but somehow not very much.

Those with low and average levels of self-presentation should think about what prevented them from answering? What were they missing? The ability to make an effort - are you just tired of answering? Couldn't get back to work right away? Or maybe you controlled yourself too tightly, subjected your answers to strict censorship? Or did you not have enough words to express how you feel? Decide for yourself and write down your answer. It is very important because it shows exactly what needs to be worked on.

High level of self-presentation. Usually it indicates that a person looks at himself from different sides, thinks about himself one way or another, and is not ashamed of himself. But attention! Those who have high level self-presentation, should see if they have repeated answers, for example: “I love rock music”; “In the evenings I often listen to records of rock musicians”: “My most favorite hobby- listen to music”, etc. p. Or like this: “I am very ugly”; “I have ugly eyes and hair”; “The ugliest thing about me is my height and overall figure”; “I often look in the mirror and wonder why I’m so ugly”; “I have an ugly face”; “No one is friends with me because I’m ugly.” Such repeated answers indicate that a person is concerned about one topic, one problem. And this is very important. But to determine the level of self-presentation, the level of how much you know yourself and can talk about yourself, count all these statements as one. (By the way, this is also useful for those with low and average levels.) How much is left? Underline and write down this topic that is important to you, even if it now seems strange to you and not a topic at all (for example, for one young man, the topic turned out to be that he is in the 10th grade). Think about why you are “stuck” on this particular characteristic. What is she talking about? And keep in mind, this is almost never accidental.

Super high level! Haven't the students outsmarted themselves? Maybe he decided that the task was to write as much as possible, and began to write whatever he could, just to get the desired number. He didn't fall into the "Who's Bigger" trap? Has he decided that there is a competition here and he must win? Does he always strive only to win? Do you often see a situation of competition where it was not expected at all? Re-read your answers, how many of them really somehow characterize you, and how many were written by chance, just like that? Think about what you win and what you lose, trying to guess what is expected of you and achieve “first place”?

You are convinced that the processes of self-knowledge and self-awareness are far from simple. Where does our process of self-discovery begin? Do we see ourselves as real?

Scientists conducted an original experiment. The subject was photographed and asked to project the photograph onto a wall screen. At the same time, a mirror was placed in front of him. He had to “fit” the photographic image to mirror image, for which he had the opportunity to change the proportions of the photograph - expand, narrow. It turned out that between in a real way and that which a person has, there are significant differences that we are not aware of.

Truly, man is a familiar stranger. A person does not see his real face, just as he does not hear his voice.

S. Einstein saw diversity in every face, since the human face is mobile and changeable.

Psychologists have come to the conclusion that a person’s appearance is significant not only for him, but also for those around him: those with a pleasant appearance are credited with virtues that they do not have, and vice versa. Perhaps this is why people have many proverbs on this topic:

Do not drink water from your face.

Don't be born beautiful, but be born happy.

Beauty will save the world.

The face reveals a scoundrel.

It's written all over his face.

Do you think that a person’s appearance is really that important?

But then what about another saying: “They meet you by their clothes, they see you off by their minds”? Give reasons for your answer.

Bottom line

What stages of self-knowledge can be distinguished?

What factors, from your point of view, influence a person’s self-esteem?

What ways do you know to increase your self-esteem?

Do one of the self-esteem exercises. This task was developed by psychologist I.V. Dubrovina.

Take a piece of paper. Write a large letter “I” in the center. You can even draw a circle around it, highlight it in some way. Your task is to name as many as possible more areas, where this "I" can be realized, and determine the desirable and undesirable "I" for each area. Just draw a line from “I”, the center of your Universe, draw a square or circle and write.

How many areas were you able to identify? Now that you have finished everything, come up with four more - any, the most unexpected ones. But important condition- they must be real, just like everyone else.

Homework

Learn § 27, complete the tasks.

Lessons 63-64. Social cognition

There are so many sensational messages you can see in the media today. In historical literature, facts and events are often interpreted arbitrarily. Here is just one of the “opuses” of this kind:

Half the kingdom is in blood, in the ruins of centuries,

And it was not without reason that it was said:

“How is it going now? Prophetic Oleg

Take revenge on the foolish Khazars..."

And these copper-ringing words

We repeated everything more than once or twice.

But somehow from the rostrum a big man exclaimed with excitement and fervor: “Once upon a time the traitor Oleg decided to take revenge on our Khazars brothers...” Words go and words come, With truth comes truth, So remember; people, and know forever, And to hell with the stupid turmoil... “Some Khazars, some Oleg took revenge for some reason!” And this legend of hoary antiquity is an example for historians of our country.

Why is this happening? What are the challenges in studying human society?

Among social scientists there are three various points view on the possibilities of social cognition:

1. Science must accurately describe facts, but cannot interpret them, because explanation and assessment are always arbitrary.

2. The description of a fact cannot be accurate, since complete data about past events can never be collected, and also because different researchers identify different features of an event as significant. Therefore, everything depends on the interpretation of the fact.

3. The researcher can approach the truth by conscientiously studying the facts in their connection and justifying their explanation, but must refrain from assessment, since it is always subjective.

Imagine that we are present at a meeting of the academic council, where issues and problems of social cognition are discussed. We need to develop our own view on the problem under discussion and express our thoughts. In order to cope with such a task, we need to “get into” this problematic issue by studying the material in the textbook.