Consciousness is the highest function of the brain, characteristic only of humans and associated with speech, which consists in a generalized and purposeful reflection of reality, in the preliminary mental construction of actions and anticipation of their results, in the reasonable regulation and self-control of human behavior.
Consciousness is inextricably linked with language and arises simultaneously with it. But there are certain relationships between consciousness and language. Language acts as a way of existence of consciousness. The connection between consciousness and language is manifested in the fact that the emergence and formation of individual consciousness is possible if a person is included in the world of verbal language.
Together with speech, the individual learns the logic of thinking and begins to reason about the world and himself. The richer the content of a person’s spiritual world, the more linguistic signs he needs to convey it. A change in language is an indicator of a change in consciousness. Language is a system of signs through which a person understands the world and himself. A sign is a material object that reproduces the properties of another object. We can distinguish natural (verbal, oral, written speech, sounds, gestures) and artificial, arising on the basis of the natural (language of logic, mathematics, music, painting) system of language signs.The language has the following functions:
One of the conditions for the possibility of the formation and objectification of an individual’s consciousness is the ability to declare one’s independent existence through language. In verbal communication, a person acquires the ability to consciousness and self-awareness. The content of consciousness directly depends on the space of speech communication. The specifics of the national language influence the nature and content of the national culture. For example, European languages are focused on a rational attitude towards the world and contain fewer words to convey an emotional state and inner experience. The difference between consciousness and language is that thought is a reflection of objective reality, and the word is a way of consolidating and transmitting thoughts. Language promotes mutual understanding between people, as well as a person’s awareness of his actions and himself. The following types of speech can be distinguished:
A word, as a unit of language, has an external sound (phonetic) and internal semantic (semantic) side. Among non-linguistic signs, there are copy signs (imprints), attribute signs, signal signs, and symbol signs. There are also specialized (symbol systems in mathematics, physics, chemistry, linguistics) and non-specialized languages (Esperanto). In the process of the historical development of language, the language of science was formed, characterized by accuracy, rigor, and unambiguous concepts, which contributes to the accuracy and clarity of formulations. In social and humanitarian knowledge, the use of artificial language is difficult.
One of the main directions of development of modern man is associated with his sign-symbolic activity. Therefore, modern philosophy is, by necessity, linguistic (language) philosophy.
Essence and types of language
“Language can be either natural or artificial. Natural language refers to the language of everyday life, serving as a form of expression and a means of communication between people. An artificial language is created by people for some narrow needs. Language is a social phenomenon. According to its physiological basis, language acts, according to Professor I.P. Pavlov, as a second signaling system. A linguistic sign, being by its physical nature conditional in relation to what it denotes, is nevertheless determined, ultimately, by the process of cognition of reality. Language is a means of recording and preserving accumulated knowledge and transmitting it from generation to generation. Thanks to language, the existence and development of abstract thinking is possible. The presence of language is a necessary tool for the generalizing activity of thinking. However, language and thinking are not identical. Once it has arisen, language is relatively independent, possessing specific laws that differ from the laws of thinking. Therefore, there is no identity between a concept and a word, a judgment and a sentence, etc. In addition, language is a certain system, a “structure,” with its own internal organization, without which it is impossible to understand the nature and meaning of a linguistic sign.”
“Language is considered as a product of the intelligentsia, consisting in the manifestation of its ideas in some external element.”
The emergence and development of consciousness is associated with the emergence and development of language. Language– a system of signs with the help of which communication, storage and transmission of information occurs. Language is any sign system, a system of gestures, images, words, etc. Sign is an object that replaces or represents another object, process or phenomenon. For example, smoke is a sign of fire, photography is a sign of some state of affairs in reality, high temperature is a sign of illness, red roses are a sign of love, etc.
Language arises in communication and in the joint activities of people, and the main thing for this is a variety of communication in animals: gestural, olfactory, visual and, of course, sound. Most anthropologists are of the opinion that the ancient apes and the immediate predecessors of humans, Australopithecus, communicated using gestures. Sign language corresponded to the development of visual-effective thinking, when external manipulations with objects constituted the content of the thought process. But sign language had serious limitations. Firstly, gestures cannot be seen in the dark or in conditions of limited visibility. Secondly, gestures are produced using the hands, and when the hands are busy, communication is impossible. Thirdly, a gesture is difficult to divide into its component parts, so it is impossible to express complex thoughts and describe a variety of situations with its help. All this led to the fact that gestures and visual communication were gradually replaced by sound and speech.
Communication with the help of sounds gradually developed visual-figurative thinking among human ancestors, because the material carrier of information was now not the body and hand movements, but sound. Australopithecus already communicated using sounds; they used about a hundred sound signals. But articulate speech appeared only in Homo erectus, i.e. in Homo erectus, approximately 2 million years ago. These human ancestors already used individual words to designate objects, and sometimes more complex structures. During the Neanderthal era 250 thousand years ago, communication through sounds improved. Neanderthals change the anatomy of the larynx, which allows them to produce complex sounds, one might say that this was already speech. Neanderthals used not only individual words, but also complex sentences; their language had an extensive vocabulary and a simple, but still grammar. The formation of language and speech ended in the Upper Paleolithic 30–10 thousand years ago, when ancient people finally developed the ability for visual-figurative thinking.
Language performs two functions: denoting and communicative. Signs of language replace objects, phenomena, events, thoughts and are used as a means of interaction and communication between people. Communication or communication consists of two related processes - expressing thoughts and understanding them. A person expresses himself not only in speech, but also in actions, artistic images, paintings, etc. These are also languages, but they are applicable only in certain closed areas and require additional, sometimes even professional knowledge for their understanding. Speech, in contrast, is universal and accessible to all people; it is used everywhere and even as a translator from other “private” languages (gestures, images, etc.). Speech- a special type of language associated with a special type of signs - words. Communication using words is characteristic only of humans; animals use other signs: movements, smells, sounds, but not a single animal can communicate using words, i.e. incapable of speech. Speech can be written and oral, but this does not change its nature. Unlike other languages with which people communicate with each other, speech is always associated with thinking. Emotions, sensations and experiences can be expressed in gestures, facial expressions, images, but a thought is embodied and expressed only in a word, its ambiguity gives rise to confusion in expression, and on the contrary, a clear word testifies to clear thinking.
Thinking is not only expressed, but also formed in language. Of course, this cannot be said about logic and abstract thinking; they are the same for all peoples speaking a wide variety of languages. But everyday thinking, which expresses the ethnic, historical, cultural characteristics of a particular people, is largely formed under the influence of language. People speaking different languages experience and evaluate things differently. Language records fundamental, vital images, ready-made assessments and perceptions of reality, which in a certain given form are transmitted to other generations of people. For example, there are two main syntactic types of languages, in which two different ways of relating to reality are recorded. The difference between these approaches is expressed by the peculiarities of the phrases “I do” and “happens to me.” In the first case, a person appears as an active figure, in the second - as a passive being who does not control events. The Russian language, according to this typology, gravitates towards passive impersonal constructions, although there are active ones in it, but they are used much less often in everyday communication. The English language, on the contrary, gravitates towards active linguistic constructions, although it also has a passive voice.
One of the main and essential features that allows us to classify a language as a social phenomenon is the ability of a language to serve society. We can say with confidence that language serves society differently than all other social phenomena, such as ideology, business, etc. In addition, the question of how exactly language serves society remains open to this day.
The most important, in our opinion, feature of language, which brings it closer to other social phenomena, but at the same time radically distinguishes it from them, is that language serves society in absolutely all spheres of human activity.
Consequently, language cannot be identified with any other social phenomenon. Language cannot be understood as a form of culture or ideology of a particular society. This feature of language mainly follows from the feature of one of its main functions, namely, to be a means of communication.
Expression in the language of social consciousness
Firstly, the most important feature of language as a social phenomenon is its ability to reflect and express the consciousness of society as a whole. Undoubtedly, other phenomena that serve society can also reflect social consciousness, but it is important to note that the distinctive property of language is that it is inherently the only means of reflecting and expressing social consciousness in its full extent.
Secondly, it should be noted that the problem of reflecting social consciousness in language is often raised in special linguistic works, as well as in courses on general linguistics. Despite this, the problem remains open and relevant to this day. It can be noted that there are many clear definitions of the essence of social consciousness, and there are also a sufficient number of vague definitions of this most important philosophical category. Social consciousness inevitably gets mixed up with such concepts as thinking, ideologies, etc. This is the main problem of this issue.
Due to the public nature of language, which is created by society, human thinking inevitably acquires a social character. Every reasonable person thinks in the same categories as the people around him think, uses the same concepts that all speakers of a given language use. Language, thus, turns into one of the most important conditions for the existence of all human society.
It should be emphasized that not all the content of human experience subsequently becomes the property of society. For the process of cognition, it is precisely those results of human thinking that are more significant that truly and accurately reflect the world surrounding a person, in other words, objective reality. It can be assumed that throughout the entire history of mankind, in the process of the natural struggle of individuals for existence, what was vitally necessary and practically useful was consciously, and in most cases completely spontaneously, selected and generalized.
The social nature of thinking can be identified at any stage of social development. It is thanks to the social nature of thinking that the spiritual and cultural connection between different historical stages is realized.
Thinking reflects objective reality on the basis and means of practice. The practice of society, first of all, is inextricably linked with the activities of the individual, individual practice.
In my opinion, it is wrong to assume that the system of certain material means of language represents a complete and accurate reflection of everything that is in the public consciousness. It should be noted that the conceptual sphere is more mobile than the sphere of means of material expression. “Language...,” G. O. Vinokur rightly notes, “has the ability to preserve its once emerged material organization as a relic for a very long time after it has ended.” the stage of cultural development that gave rise to it... Structures inherited from the past very easily adapt to new conditions."
In connection with the problem of the relationship between language and social consciousness, we should point out some ideas for solving this problem, formulated by various scientists.
Language is portrayed as the creator of reality, which shapes human consciousness. One of the most prominent and famous representatives of this theory is the famous German linguist of the first third of the 19th century. Wilhelm Humboldt.
Language, according to Humboldt, is inherent in the nature of people themselves and is necessary for the development of their spiritual powers and the formation of their worldview and worldview. Language is an external manifestation of the spirit of a people, the language of a people is its spirit, energy. Undoubtedly, the structure of languages among different peoples is different, because their spiritual characteristics are different; language, no matter what form it takes, is always the spiritual embodiment of individual folk life. Both objects of the external world and activity excited by internal causes simultaneously influence a person with many of their signs. However, the mind strives to isolate the common in objects; it dismembers and connects, and sees its highest goal in the formation of more and more comprehensive unities. Through subjective activity in thinking, an object is formed. All language as a whole is between man and nature influencing him internally and externally. Since a person’s perception and activity depend on his ideas, his attitude towards objects is entirely determined by language.
Humboldt's ideas received support from a number of other scientists of the younger generation, of whom the most prominent representative is Leo Weisgerber. Just like Humboldt, Weisgerber declares language to be a mental “intermediate world”, which is the result of the interaction of the world of things and the world of consciousness. According to Weisgerber, language is what embraces all phenomena, connecting them into a single whole. Language itself creates the world around us. Language is an image, a picture of the world, a people’s worldview. The difference in languages is explained by the difference in the very views of the world, and, naturally, for people of different nationalities the world looks different. Words do not presuppose individual objects, but organize the diversity of objects from a certain point of view of society. Everything depends on the worldview, on the point of view of the world. The most successful definition of language, writes Weisgerber, states that language (German, English) is a process of verbalization of the world carried out by a language collective (German, English). Language classifies and organizes material obtained as a result of the influence of the external world on human senses, which give a distorted idea of the surrounding world. Linguistic techniques form a linguistic image of the world, the conceptual side of language.
In the closest connection with the views of Wilhelm Humboldt and his followers is also the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.
Language, according to E. Sapir, serves as a guide to an objective perception of social reality. Evidence suggests that the real world is largely unconsciously built on the linguistic norms of a given society. “We see, hear or otherwise perceive reality one way and not another because the linguistic norms of our society predispose to a certain selection of interpretations...”.
These views were further developed in the works of B. Whorf. “Our linguistic deterministic mental world not only correlates with our cultural ideals and attitudes, but even captures our, in fact, subconscious actions in the sphere of its influence and gives them some typical features.” To a question such as: “What was primary - the norms of language or the norms of culture?” Whorf responds as follows: “Basically they evolved together, constantly influencing each other. But in this mutual influence, the nature of language is the factor that limits the freedom and flexibility of this mutual influence and directs its development along strictly defined paths.”
There is a significant, very rich variety of psychological theories that consider the essence of language. According to G. Steinthal, the individual psyche is the source of language, and the laws of language development are psychological laws. Like Steinthal, W. Wundt considered language a fact of the psychology of peoples, or “ethnic psychology.” Every expression is fundamentally artistic. Hence linguistics, as the science of expression, coincides with aesthetics.
Another theory was developed by Ferdinand de Saussure. Saussure proceeds from the distinction between three aspects of language: language as speech, language as a system of forms and an individual speech act - utterance. Language is a system of normatively identical forms. Language is not the activity of the speaking individual. The statement, on the contrary, is individual. The system of language is a fact external to any consciousness, consciousness does not depend on it.
Dialectical materialism teaches that the laws of reflection are objective in nature, that is, they act independently of the conscious motives of people, regardless of whether people know or do not know these laws.
This thesis is in full accordance with the instructions of K. Marx, who considered the process of thinking as a “natural process.” “Since the process of thinking itself grows out of certain conditions, is itself a natural process, then truly comprehending thinking can only be one and the same, differing only in degree, depending on the maturity of development and, in particular, the development of the organ of thinking. Everything else is nonsense."
Language is a means of expressing the ideal. Linguistic signs are different from images. Signs convey the meaning of things and phenomena of reality, acting as their unique denominators. More than 3000 languages are known on the planet + artificial languages of science: mathematical and chemical formulas; graphics; artistic and figurative language of art; signal system; facial expressions, etc. The essence of language is revealed in its dual function: to serve as a means of communication and an instrument of thinking. Speech is an activity, the very process of communication, exchange of thoughts, feelings, etc., cat. carried out using language. Language is a system of meaningful, meaningful forms. Through the language of thought, the emotions of individual people are transformed from their personal property into the social wealth of the entire society, that is, language plays the role of a mechanism of social heredity. What does it mean to perceive and understand the expressed thought? The listener feels and perceives the material appearance of words in their connection, and is aware of what is expressed by them - thoughts. And this consciousness depends on the level of culture of the listener. Consciousness and language form a unity: in their existence they presuppose each other, just as internal, logically formed ideal content presupposes its external material form. Language is a direct activity of consciousness. Consciousness is not only revealed, but also formed with the help of language. Through language there is a transition from perceptions and ideas to concepts, and the process of operating with concepts occurs. Language and consciousness are one. In this unity, the determining side is consciousness: being a reflection of reality, it “sculpts” forms and dictates the laws of its linguistic existence. But unity is not identity: consciousness reflects reality, and language designates it and expresses it in thought. Speech is not thinking. Language and consciousness form a contradictory unity. Language influences consciousness (the thinking styles of different peoples differ). But it also influences in the sense that it gives thought a certain compulsion, directs its movement through the channels of linguistic forms. But not everything can be expressed using language. The secrets of the human soul cannot be expressed in ordinary language. This requires poetry, music, art, and other non-rational forms of manifestation of human consciousness. The following functions of language can be distinguished: 1) nominative (the ability of language to designate the world of things and processes); 2) cognitive (helps to participate in the cognitive process); 3) communicative (means of communication).
18. Social consciousness: concept, structure, patterns of development.
Consciousness exists not only as something belonging to a given subject, but also in the form of forms of social consciousness recorded by means of language. For example, a system of scientific knowledge exists independently of the subjective ideas of individual individuals. Historically developed knowledge thus acquires a relatively independent character. Social consciousness exists above the individual in the system of material and spiritual culture, in the forms of social consciousness, in language, in science, philosophy, the creation of art, i.e. in the spiritual life of society. There is a constant interaction between individual and social consciousness. Social consciousness exists in historically established and changing forms. They are: political and legal views; morality; the science; religion; art; philosophy. Each of them, being a reflection of social existence, has its own specifics and plays a certain role in social life and the development of society. Social consciousness is the views of people in their entirety on natural phenomena and social reality, expressed in natural and artificial language created by society, creations of spiritual culture, norms and views of social groups and humanity as a whole. Social consciousness constitutes the spiritual culture of society and humanity. These are not only ideas, but also society’s ideas about the world as a whole, including itself. Social consciousness arose simultaneously and in unity with social existence, because Without him, society could not only arise and develop, but also exist for a single day. Consciousness as a reflection and as an active creative activity represents the unity of two inseparable sides of one overall process; in its influence on existence, it can both evaluate it, predict it, and transform it through the practical activities of people. Therefore, the social consciousness of an era can not only reflect existence, but actively contribute to its restructuring. Consciousness can distort existence and delay its development. In the structure of social consciousness, one should also distinguish between its levels in the form of ordinary and theoretical consciousness, as well as their components - social psychology and ideology. Ordinary consciousness- awareness of the everyday needs of people, it does not penetrate into the essence of things and includes the entire amount of empirical knowledge. Theoretical consciousness implemented in the form of scientific ideas, theories, laws. Ordinary and theoretical consciousness are closely interconnected, the boundaries between them change: ideas that arose as purely theoretical can be used on a mass scale after some time, thereby becoming everyday life. Social psychology is a mass psychology that directly reflects the social conditions of people's lives. Ideology is a system of views and ideas that reflect the socio-economic conditions of people's lives and expresses the fundamental interests of certain social groups. Within social consciousness, spontaneous interactions occur between all levels and forms that are influenced and can change.
19. Cognition as a philosophical problem. Concepts of substantiation of knowledge in the history of philosophy and modern epistemological teachings.
The problem of knowledge is one of the philosophical problems; it is the central problem in any philosophical teaching. The branch of knowledge in philosophy is called epistemology. From the middle of the 19th century. in English-speaking countries the concept of epistemology is used. The problem of knowledge is considered from both sensualistic and rationalistic positions. The sensationalistic direction is associated with the development of the concept of empirical, experimental knowledge (Bacon, Hobbes, Locke). Rationalistic - associated with the development of the role and meaning of reason in understanding the world (Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Hegel). Bacon recognized the need for observation and experience to obtain knowledge. But experience can give true knowledge only when consciousness is free from false “ghosts”. “Ghosts of the race” are errors arising from the fact that a person judges nature by analogy with the lives of people; “ghosts of the cave” consist of individual errors, depending on the upbringing, tastes, and habits of individual people; “market ghosts” - the habit of using current ideas and opinions in judging the world without a critical attitude towards them; “ghosts of the theater” are associated with blind faith in authorities. Descartes put reason in first place, reducing the role of experience to a simple test of intelligence data. He assumed the presence in the human mind of innate ideas that largely determine the results of cognition. Another direction in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. became irrationalistic (Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard). Schopenhauer reduced the role of reason at the expense of emotions and challenged the very concept of reason as an area of conscious activity of human consciousness, introducing into it unconscious-irrational moments (intuition). In an attempt to answer the question of the knowability of the world, there are 3 directions: optimism, skepticism and agnosticism. Agnosticism - does not recognize either the possibility of a person to know the world, or the knowability of the world itself, or allows for a limited possibility of knowledge. Optimism - looks optimistically at present and future knowledge. According to optimists, the world is knowable, and man has unlimited possibilities of knowledge. Skepticism - everything in the world is fleeting, truth expresses our knowledge about the phenomena of the world only at the moment, and what was considered true yesterday is today recognized as error. The subjective-idealistic direction drew attention to the active role of the subject in cognition, pointing out that without the subject there is no object. The objective-idealistic direction - the process of consciousness is associated with faith and is often considered as a divine revelation of the mysteries of existence. Issues related to the process of cognition become relevant in modern times. At this time, European philosophy is developing all areas of knowledge that are associated, first of all, with science and practical application. The fundamental difference between the knowledge of the New Age: 1) explores natural processes, the “machine of the world”; 2) applies other research methods - experimental; 3) focuses on practice, improvement of production processes. Thanks to this, a new type of knowledge is formed - objective, essential, largely due to the fact that human subjectivism is overcome. Philosophy, in the process of studying the process of cognition, gradually came to the following conclusions: 1) cognition is the result of an active transformation of an object by a person; 2) practice is the basis of knowledge; 3) problems of practical activity remain the most important factor determining the direction of scientific research; 4) paradigms are formed that determine the direction of scientific research; 5) science becomes the main type of knowledge. That. one can clearly trace the progressive development of knowledge from the sensory to the scientific in the historical process of the development of society.
20. Structure of the cognitive process. Subject and object of knowledge.
The process of cognition is a subject-object process. The subject of cognition is the bearer of consciousness - a person. The subject is never only epistemological: it is a living personality with all its passions, interests, character traits, willpower or lack of will, etc. If the subject is a scientific community, then it has its own characteristics: interpersonal relationships, contradictions, common goals, unity of action, etc. Often by the subject of cognition they mean a certain impersonal logical clot of intellectual activity. Scientific knowledge presupposes not only a conscious attitude of the subject to the object, but also to himself, his activity, i.e. awareness of the conditions, techniques, norms and methods of research activity. An object in relation to a subject is not just reality, but to one degree or another a cognized reality, i.e. one that has become a fact of consciousness. The subject does not exist without the object and vice versa. By object of knowledge we mean real fragments of existence that are being studied. The object of knowledge is the specific aspects to which the edge of the seeking thought is directed. Man is the creator of history, he creates the necessary conditions for his existence. => The object of socio-historical knowledge is not only cognized, but also created by people. Before becoming an object, it must first be created, formed. That. in social cognition, a person deals with the results of his own activities, and therefore with himself as a practically active being. Being the subject of knowledge, he is at the same time its object. The subject structure of an activity is the interaction of means with the subject of activity and its transformation into a product through the implementation of certain operations. The subject structure includes a subject of activity that carries out purposeful actions and uses certain means of activity for these purposes. On the one hand, means can be presented as artificial organs of human activity, on the other hand, they can be considered as natural objects that interact with other objects. Activities are always governed by certain values and goals. Value answers the question “why is this or that activity needed?” The goal answers the question “what should be obtained in the activity.” A person can act both as a subject and as an object of practical action. Science is focused on the substantive objective study of reality. The process of scientific knowledge is determined not only by the characteristics of the object being studied, but also by numerous factors of a sociocultural nature. Science in human activity singles out only its subject structure, and views everything only through the prism of this structure. Science also studies the subjective structure of activity, but as a special object. Thus, science can study everything in the human world, but from a special perspective and from a special point of view.
21. Specifics and basic forms of sensory knowledge.
Sensory cognition is a reflection of facts using forms of sensory cognition (sensations, perceptions, ideas). Sensation is based on the bodily organization of a person. The body is the window of consciousness to the outside world. The bodily structure of a person differs significantly from the bodily structure of animals: the ability to walk upright, the brain, the structure of the organs of smell, touch, taste, and vision. The development of sense organs is the result of the evolution of the organic world, on the other hand, of social development. A person can develop an acute sense of sensation. Sensation is the simplest sensory images that reflect in consciousness individual qualities, properties, aspects of material objects and phenomena, colors, smells, tastes, sounds. Sensations are the result of interaction between the external world and human sensory organs, processed in the cerebral cortex, and the reproduction of individual aspects of an object. There is practically no time interval between the act of an object influencing the senses and the appearance of an image. Based on sensations, a more complex form of sensory cognition arises - perception. Perception is a holistic image of an object, a reflection of the totality of its aspects, arising from direct influence on the senses. Memory, thinking, and experience are involved in the emergence of perception. An image tends not to coincide with the object, but only to correspond to it. As a result of sensation and perception, a subjective image of the objective world arises. Performance - the ability to store sensory images and reproduce them again. The role of sensory reflection is enormous. The senses are the only channel that connects a person with the outside world. Representations are images of those objects that influenced the human senses and are restored according to the connections preserved in the brain. Representation is a sensory image of a previously perceived object, or an image created by the creative activity of thinking. Relies on memory and imagination. Memory is a property of the nervous system associated with the ability to store and reproduce information about the past. Imagination is the ability to create images that were not previously perceived (dreams, dreams, daydreams). Sensations, perceptions, ideas are subjective images of the objective world. They are colorful and diverse. Sensory knowledge is the first and necessary stage of any knowledge, but does not make it possible to understand the inner essence of an object or phenomenon. The essence does not lie on the surface and cannot be, therefore it is perceived through the senses. Sensations and perceptions are the beginning of conscious reflection. That. sensory cognition is the interaction of an individual subject with the world of things.
22. Specifics and forms of rational knowledge.
Rational cognition is the interaction of a subject with an object, which is carried out with the help of concepts, judgments, and inferences. Rational knowledge (discursive) is based on the analysis of this material, which is given to us by the senses. Sensory cognition does not give us the opportunity to understand the essence of objects - this is the task of rational, discursive cognition, abstract thinking, which exists thanks to language. Concepts are the result of generalization of objects of a certain class according to a set of distinctive features. The formation of a concept is a complex dialectical process, including comparison (mental comparison of one object with another, identifying signs of similarity and difference between them) and generalization (mental unification of homogeneous objects based on their common, most essential features, abstraction from secondary ones). Concepts express not only objects, but also their properties and relationships between them (each science has its own conceptual apparatus). Judgment: includes concepts, but is not reduced to them, is a special form of thinking. This is the form of thinking through which the presence or absence of any connections and relationships between objects is revealed. Judgment is a form of thought in which something is affirmed or denied through the connection of concepts. In any judgment, a distinction is made between the subject of thought and the subject of judgment - what is said about the subject. Any judgment can have one of two meanings: true or false. On the basis of concepts and judgments, inferences are formed - reasoning, during which new judgments are logically derived. Inference - contains judgments and concepts, but is not reduced to them, but also presupposes their certain connection. It is a form of thinking by which new knowledge is derived from known knowledge. The significance of inferences is that they not only connect our knowledge into more or less complex, relatively complete mental structures, but also enrich and strengthen this knowledge. Together with concepts, judgments and inferences, the limitations of sensory knowledge are overcome. Inferences are indispensable where the senses are powerless in comprehending the causes and conditions of the emergence of any object, in understanding its essence, forms of existence, and patterns of its development. With the help of abstract thinking, a person acquires the ability to deny the general in objects, to reflect the essential in objects, as well as the ability to construct on the basis of knowledge of the essence. Rationalism is reflection, logical construction, irrationalism is intuition.
23. Ways of comprehending reality: everyday knowledge, myth, religion, artistic knowledge, philosophy, science.
Truth as a process is the movement of thought from incomplete, approximately correct knowledge to increasingly complete and accurate knowledge, or from relative truth to absolute truth. Relative truth characterizes the incompleteness, approximateness of our knowledge, its limitations at this stage of the development of knowledge. These are truths that need clarification, addition, deepening, specification, and further development. Absolute truth concentrates in itself what is unconditional, cannot be refuted or clarified in the future, which constitutes the elements of unshakable knowledge in the total volume of relative knowledge. “Eternal” truths are peculiar variations of absolute truth, i.e. firmly established, precisely recorded, unquestionable facts. Attempts to recognize the existence of only relative truths are called relativism. The desire to operate only with absolute truths has absorbed dogmatism, which does not take into account the specific conditions of place, time, and the validity of the provisions put forward. The most important characteristic of truth is the unity of the objective and subjective in it. Truth is objective in its content and subjective in its form of expression. Scientific conclusions made independently of each other by different scientists have a specific expression in each specific case. However, the objectivity of truth is emphasized by the fact that it expresses knowledge, the content of which does not depend on man. Truth is characterized by such a property as concreteness. It reflects an object or some aspect of it in certain conditions of place and time. Truth without taking into account the circumstances of time and space does not exist. Truth is always concrete. Accepting as true something that actually does not correspond to reality is a delusion. This is an unintentional discrepancy between our understanding of an object and this object itself. Misconceptions lead away from the truth and interfere with its comprehension, but on the other hand, they often contribute to the creation of problematic situations => further development of science. A lie is a deliberate distortion of reality, the purpose of which is deception. A lie is unable to grow into truth and serve its achievement. Criteria of truth. Proponents of rationalism considered thinking itself to be the criterion of truth (Spinoza, Descartes, Leibniz). Kant: there cannot be a universal material criterion of truth; the very existence of such a criterion is contradictory. But it recognizes the formal-logical criterion of truth. Soloviev: the moral aspect is central to establishing truth; its criterion presupposes conscientious work of thinking. Verifiability - (20th century neo-positivists) the process of establishing truth as a result of their empirical verification. The study of the role of practice as a criterion of truth is observed in Marxism. In order to compare the existing image with the object itself, it is necessary to practically influence it; if the changes that we predicted are detected, the original ideas can be considered true. The formal-logical criterion of truth presupposes compliance with the requirements of internal consistency, completeness and interdependence of axioms.
No matter what a person does, he constantly talks and even when he is working or resting, he listens or thinks. It is human nature to speak in the same way as to walk or breathe. We very rarely think about what language is and how is it possible to communicate with other people? The influence of language on us is so universal that it is difficult to say with certainty and unambiguity whether it is an innate ability or whether we learn to speak, gradually mastering it. One thing is clear that a person’s awareness of his own existence in the diversity of his relationships to the world, to others and to himself is largely determined by the capabilities of his language. Language provides him with the necessary conditions and means to overcome the limitations of his psychosomatic experience, go beyond its limits and satisfy his vital, cognitive and communicative needs.
Such a fundamental role of language in conscious activity is determined by the natural (mental and physical) and cultural-historical nature of man. Man created language as a means of his life, with the help of which he could both adapt to the environment, reveal the secrets of nature and influence it, and express his own states of consciousness and thoughts, experiences, desires, memories, communicate anything to other people.
From the moment of birth, each of us receives a language as a ready-made, existing set of means, rules, and norms for human communication. He uses them to convey his thoughts to another in the form of written or spoken speech. When speech is constructed according to the rules of language, it becomes understandable to another person. Our speech is our individual ability to use language as a coherent set of socially significant means of communication. “The gift of speech” (an expression of the outstanding linguist F. Saussure) is an ability that “grows” from the mental and physical depths of a person, has a pronounced biogenetic dependence and uses language. Without going into details of the distinction between speech and language, we will point out the commonality of their connections, rooted in history, culture, society, human communication, in the human psyche and body. The connection between language and consciousness, its role in acts of consciousness forces us, rather, to talk about speech conscioustelial human activity. Embodied in speech, language functions in the mind in accordance with the needs and goals of a person in everyday life and communication, in cognition and evaluation, in decision-making, storage, reproduction and transmission of one’s experience to other generations of people. The body, its organs, psyche and consciousness are “saturated” with the properties of speech.
Familiar refers to the relationship between the signifier (in the form of writing, drawing, or sound) and the signified (the meaning of a word or concept). A linguistic sign, as a rule, correlates with a word, in the form of which the minimal unit of language is seen. The ability of any sign to denote some phenomenon, property, relationship is usually called its meaning, or concept. For example, an object with the properties of hardness, heaviness, shape, etc. is associated with the concept of a stone. The set of properties that form the concept of a stone or the meaning of the word “stone” is in no way connected with an arbitrary sequence of letter signs or pronounced sounds stone, who express it. This concept could be expressed by any sign - a signifier, as evidenced by its spelling and pronunciation in various languages. Thus we notice that the connection between sign and meaning, signifier and signified is arbitrary, those. it is not determined by anything either from the side of sign or from the side of meaning. Sign and meaning are mutually definable: a sign is always something that has a meaning, and meaning is what is denoted by a sign, expressed in its written, visual or sound form.
It should be noted that the term “sign” itself has a long history from ancient philosophy to today’s computer modeling.
Already Plato distinguishes the ability of language to represent objects through the relationship of similarity between the signifier and the signified from the ability of language to act on the basis of agreement, agreement. The arbitrariness of the sign is more clearly visible in the Stoics. By signifier they meant what is perceived, and by signified what is understood. The semiotic properties of language, expressing its ability to designate phenomena, became the subject of philosophical quests of medieval thinkers from Augustine to Thomas Aquinas. The properties of the sign attract people with their searchability, versatility and variety of possibilities for its use. Some signs differ from others in the way they represent objects. Therefore, they have always tried to classify signs. Each type of sign was associated with the role it played in human life.
One of the first modern classifications of signs is considered to be the division of signs into three main types, proposed by C. Pierce.
He identified “iconic signs”, “index signs” and “symbol signs”. An iconic sign has a resemblance to what it stands for; an index sign can play the role of a sign (smoke is a sign of a fire) or a symptom (fever is a symptom of high temperature); a sign-symbol operates on the basis of an agreement about what it will mean.
The most common classifications of signs, as a rule, come down to dividing them into non-linguistic and linguistic, or natural and artificial. Thus, Husserl divides signs into “indicative signs” and “expression signs.” He classifies the first of them as non-linguistic signs that represent or replace any objects. These signs do not express consciousness and cannot serve as a means of communication. The second signs are linguistic signs that express acts of consciousness and serve as a means of communication between people. There are classifications of signs of a more general type. In them, all signs are divided into natural and artificial; Moreover, artificial signs, in turn, are divided into linguistic and non-linguistic. In addition, linguistic signs are divided into natural languages (for example, national) and artificial (for example, the languages of science), and non-linguistic signs are divided into signals, symbols and other signs. Properties of artificial languages of mathematics, symbolic logic, chemistry, etc. derived from the sign features of natural languages of human communication.
Any type of sign, regardless of which classification it is included in, presupposes a relationship between the signified and the signified. True, the very nature of these relationships varies depending on the different properties that manifest themselves in them. Thus, the action of natural signs is based on the actual determination of the signifier by the signified. Whereas the similarity of the signifier and the signified, for example, in signs-drawings, is supported by already defined agreements. And the arbitrary nature of national languages or signs-symbols is determined mainly by conventional (contractual) conditions. For example, the word “table” implies an agreement that it will serve as a sign of those objects at which one can sit. The “+” sign expresses a conventional rule - a symbol of an arithmetic sum of numbers or (if it is red) - a symbol of medical care. If we encounter, for example, allegorical signs, then they can be expressed in the form of an artistic image-symbol (for example, “Cliff” - the title of the novel by I.A. Goncharov - is an allegorical symbol of spiritual drama, the life “cliff” of the heroine ). Signs-gestures of hands, fingers, facial expressions, body postures, pantomimes, etc. have secondary symbolic properties and can serve as ways of communicating between people (for example, “shooting with your eyes” is a gesture of a person who seeks to attract someone’s attention; “wrinkling his forehead” is a gesture of a person thinking about something or dissatisfied with someone). Signs-signals contain information that records the relationship of direct dependence between their
source and medium (for example, transmission of information by radio or telegraph signals).
Thus, the differences between signs (no matter what classifications of signs we encounter) relative. There can be no causal connection between a sign and what it stands for. A simple sign may have elements of similarity with the designated object, but it may not have any similarity with it. The lack of similarity with the designated object turns the sign into an indispensable tool for generalizing objective properties and relationships. The meaning of any type of sign is “read” when the rules or terms of the contract are formulated regarding the functions that it must perform, when native speakers determine the nature of the similarity in the designation relationship. The arbitrariness of a linguistic sign can be adjusted by people’s desires to liken its properties to some objects, and vice versa, the degree of similarity between the signifier and the signified decreases or increases depending on what rules and conventions are accepted in a given community of people. Knowledge, enshrined in the meaning of a word-sign, is perceived and deciphered thanks to the linguistic abilities of human memory.
People's memory contains elements of logical, encyclopedic, lexical-semantic and pragmatic abilities. Logical abilities are embodied in the features of deductive or inductive inference, as well as in the ability to operate with the corresponding signs. Encyclopedic abilities express our knowledge of language. Lexico-semantic skills are based on the use of various techniques of synonymy, polysemy, homonymy, as well as on the use of metaphor, metonymy and other semantic figures of language. Pragmatic skills are determined by our linguistic experience, which allows us to use the language of a given culture, taking into account its historical, social and other life restrictions and in accordance with our goals, needs, desires, interests. With the help of language, we record, remember, store, reproduce and transmit from generation to generation the knowledge acquired in our lives, we exchange knowledge that has been accumulated in different cultures.
The arbitrary qualities of language endow it not only with an unlimited number of degrees of freedom in human communication, but also transform language into an indispensable means of expressing various acts or states of our consciousness: mental, sensory, emotional, volitional, mnemonic, as well as derivatives of them acts and states of conviction, faith, doubt, fear, guilt and many others. The use of language for the purposes of communication and expression of consciousness is associated with speech in its oral and written forms. At the same time, as we already noted in the previous paragraph, the internal form of speech differs significantly from the external one. The listener or addressee receives a speech stimulus, some piece of knowledge in the form of an oral, sounded or written word. He expends the effort necessary to decipher the message against the background of specific situations of communication and existence. Each word, phrase or statement denotes objects, actions, properties, relationships. By designating them, language as a system of signs replaces the objective world, its properties and relationships. For example, the word “cat” refers to a certain type of animal. With its help, we record the action of this animal - “the cat is running”, highlight a specific property - “the cat is gray”, correlate the behavior of the cat in a certain situation - “the cat is running up the stairs”, etc.
Speech is an individual act of a person turning to language as a social and cultural phenomenon. It presupposes the combinatorial ability of a speaking person, his ability to use language to express sensory images, thoughts, emotions, will, and memory. Speech is provided by the resources of the human speech organs, which allow one to articulate and pronounce sounds and sound combinations. The free combination of signs and arranging them in the desired sequence - statements made orally or in writing - is the main purpose of speech. That is why they say that without speech there is no language, although the opposite is also true: without language it is impossible to judge a person’s speech ability. The needs of people’s communication dictate compliance in speech with the formal and normative requirements of the language: orthographic (writing), phonological (pronunciation), syntactic (sentence organization), semantic (meanings of words and other elements of the language) and pragmatic (peculiarities of language use in specific situations). The speech formation of acts or processes of consciousness is carried out by means of phonology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics of language. Language and speech provide expressiveness of consciousness through joint efforts.