Definition 1

Consciousness is the highest, inherent only to man, brain function, the implementation of which consists in a meaningful, generalized and purposeful reflection of the surrounding reality in the form of ideal images, control over mental processes, behavioral strategies, the direction of the course of mental and objective activity, reflection and self-reflection.

Functions of Consciousness

Acting as the most important component of the personality, consciousness successfully performs a number of functions, including the following:

• cognitive - thanks to consciousness, a person forms a system of knowledge;
• goal-setting - a person is aware of his needs, carries out goal-setting, planning strategies to achieve the goals;
• value-orientation - a person analyzes, evaluates phenomena, processes of reality, formulates his attitude towards them;
• managerial - a person exercises control over his own behavior, the implementation of his own behavioral patterns in accordance with the goals set, formulated strategies for achieving them;
• communicative - consciousness exists and is transmitted in a symbolic form, is closely connected with the communicative activity of the individual;
• reflexive - thanks to consciousness, a person exercises self-control, self-awareness, self-regulation, providing opportunities for personal development.

Structure of consciousness

Consciousness is a complex, multifaceted and multifaceted phenomenon, in the structure of which the following components can be distinguished:

1. Intelligence- the mental abilities of the individual, necessary in the process of solving mental problems. The abilities of this group include the characteristics of thinking (intensity, flexibility, consistency), memory (volume, speed of memorization, forgetting, readiness to reproduce), attention (distribution, stability, switchability, concentration, volume), perception (selectivity, observation, ability to recognition). The core of the intellect is the system of knowledge;
2. Motivation- a set of motives, incentives, which determines the purposefulness of an individual's activity;
3. Emotions, sensory-emotional sphere - experiences of a person, reflecting his subjective attitude, evaluation of certain phenomena, phenomena, processes, situations, social environment. The sensory-emotional sphere includes moods, feelings, experiences, emotional stresses, affects, etc.;
4. Will- the ability of a person to consciously regulate their own activities and behavior, achieve their goals, overcoming difficulties. Volitional regulation implies responsibility and freedom;
5. self-awareness- representation of one's own "I", a part of the personality's consciousness, providing its self-regulation, self-control and self-education.

Intelligence as one of the most important components of consciousness

Definition 2

Intelligence is the general ability of the individual to cognize, interpret, solve problems, to carry out the cognitive process, to solve problems effectively; the ability to organize, plan, control their own activities to achieve the goal.

This concept combines all individual cognitive abilities, including perception, sensation, representation, memory, thinking, imagination.

Acting as the basis of personal consciousness, the intellect includes a number of qualities, including curiosity, depth, flexibility and mobility of the mind, logic, breadth and evidence of thinking, which ensure the formation of a system of knowledge, ideas of the individual, her personal development.

Thus, consciousness is a complex, multidimensional formation, in the modeling of which various personal qualities and properties take an active part, one of the priority places among which is the intellect.

1. Basic elements and levels of the structure of consciousness
2. Consciousness and self-awareness
3. Functions of consciousness. Public and individual consciousness
4. The structure of social consciousness, its main levels and forms

1. Basic elements and levels of the structure of consciousness. Consciousness as such is structurally organized, it is an integral organic system consisting of many components that are interconnected in diverse relationships. One of the important elements of the structure of consciousness is knowledge - the result of the process of cognition, a reflection of reality in the form of sensual and rational images. Knowledge and cognition as such is the subject of study of the theory of knowledge (epistemology), which will be discussed further.

A necessary component of consciousness is attention. It is often defined as a mental state that ensures the direction and focus of a person's cognitive and practical activities on a specific object or action. Distinguish attention involuntary (unintentional) and arbitrary, deliberate, which is of a volitional nature. The opposite of attention is inattention, that is, absent-mindedness.

An extensive sphere of consciousness is made up of emotions, emotional states of a person. The richest sphere of the emotional life of the human personality includes the actual feelings (pleasure, joy, grief, etc.), moods (emotional well-being - cheerful, depressed, etc.) and affects.

Feelings (emotions in the narrow sense) - a person's experiences of his attitude to the surrounding reality, to other people, to any phenomena. Feelings are short-term (joy, sadness, etc.) and long-term, stable (love, hate, etc.). Unlike animal feelings, human feelings are products of world history.

Mood - a long-term emotional state (joyful, depressed, etc.), which gives a certain emotional tone, coloring to all other experiences, as well as thoughts and actions of a person. Passion is a strong and deep feeling that captures a person for a long time. A special group of feelings are higher feelings - feelings of duty, honor, aesthetic, intellectual, etc.

Affect (mental excitement) is a strong and violently flowing emotional experience - rage, horror, numbness, strong vocal reactions (crying, screaming, etc.).

Another important element of consciousness is the will - the creative aspiration of a person to perform certain actions. Will is the creative overcoming of external and internal difficulties on the way to achieving the desired action and the set goal: it is, first of all, power over oneself, over one's feelings, actions.

The initial link of volitional action is the setting and awareness of the goal, then the decision to act, the choice of the most appropriate ways to carry out the action. Decisive for the characterization of this action as volitional is the execution of the decision.

Willpower is not given to man by nature. The ability and ability to choose goals, make the right decisions and carry them out, bring the work started to the end are the result of knowledge, experience, education and self-education.

Frustration is a mental state caused by objectively insurmountable (or subjectively perceived as such)
mi) difficulties on the way to solving significant for a person
tasks. This state arises in a situation of disappointment, not the implementation of any significant goal for a person, according to need. It manifests itself in oppressive tension, anxiety, a sense of hopelessness. A reaction to frustration can be withdrawal into the world of dreams and fantasies, aggressiveness in behavior, etc.

The most important elements of consciousness are imagination, fantasy and memory. Imagination is the ability to create new sensual or mental images in the human mind based on the impressions received from reality. Its important purpose is to present the result of the activity before it begins, that is, to foresee the future. Imagination "works" especially in uncertain situations, where the activity of thinking, accustomed to an exact, definite situation, is hindered. Often it is identified with fantasy as a "fruit" of the imagination.

In psychology, imagination is classified according to the degree of intentionality (voluntary and involuntary), activity (reproducing and creative), generalization of images (abstract and concrete), and types of creative activity (scientific, inventive, artistic, religious, etc.).

Memory is the consolidation, preservation and subsequent reproduction by the individual of his previous experience. Depending on the material that is remembered, figurative, verbal-logical, emotional and motor memory are distinguished. In addition, they talk about voluntary and involuntary memory, short-term and long-term, visual, etc.

The largest levels of consciousness most often distinguish ordinary (everyday) and theoretical consciousness, which will be discussed further.

2. Consciousness and self-consciousness. Most often, self-consciousness is defined as a person's awareness of his actions, feelings, thoughts, motives of behavior, experiences, interests, his position in society.

First, a person distinguishes himself from the object, then self-consciousness manifests itself as a generic, collective. With the advent of civilization and the isolation of the individual, the self-consciousness of the individual arises. Historically, initially a person is aware of objects and his actions, and at a higher level - his thoughts about objects and actions (reflection), he is aware of his body and his spirit.

Self-consciousness is included in consciousness, exists within its limits, is unthinkable without it, it makes the subject an object of this subject - his thoughts, feelings, will, goals, actions, etc. It is in the process of self-consciousness that a person becomes a person. "Know yourself!" Socrates said. A person realizes himself not only through other people, but also through the culture they have created. Knowing himself, a person changes, never remains the same as he was before, because he exercises self-control, self-esteem and, consequently, self-regulation.

Self-consciousness, like consciousness, as a whole develops, which manifests itself in self-observation and self-control; critical and self-critical attitude towards oneself (without "falling" into either exaltation or self-flagellation); self-control; responsibility for their actions.

Let us emphasize once again the important role of reflection in the formation of self-consciousness. Orienting a person's consciousness to comprehend their own feelings, thoughts and actions, reflection can have different levels. Its range is quite wide - from an elementary state to deep reflections on the deepest meanings of one's being, moral, religious and other collisions of one's inner world. In the process of reflection, there is not just an awareness of what is in guardianship, but always at the same time the alteration of the person himself, his consciousness and the spiritual world. True, a person's ideas about himself often diverge from what he really is.

Thus, self-consciousness is a person's assessment of his knowledge, skills, moral character, interests, ideals, goals, motives of behavior, etc. - this is a holistic assessment of oneself as a feeling, thinking and acting subject. Self-consciousness is characteristic not only of the individual, but also of social groups, various kinds of communities of people, when they rise to an understanding of their position in a particular social system, their common interests and ideals. With the help of self-esteem, the behavior of the individual is regulated.

3. Functions of consciousness. Public and individual consciousness. Consciousness has not only its levels, forms and structure, but taken as a whole performs a number of specific functions. These most often include the following:

1. Actively reflective is not a dead, mirror, passive reflection, but a creative, active, purposeful generalized process of reflecting reality by a person as a social being.

2. Explanatory - consciousness in one form or another (especially in science) seeks to explain the world, discover its laws, causes, contradictions, etc.

3.Active-transformative, constructive-creative -
consciousness mentally, ideally creates what "primordial nature" itself does not create - equipment, technology, building structures, i.e. "second nature" - the whole world of material and spiritual culture.

4. Communicative, regulatory, in the course of implementation, in the course of which forms of interconnection (communication) between people arise, for which they create norms, principles of law, morality, religion, science, etc.

5. Goal-setting - the ability to set goals - is a cardinal characteristic of human consciousness, that is, it is a mental anticipation of the result of activity. As a direct motive, the goal as an ideal image directs and regulates human activity.

6. Constructive-critical, polemical function.

Individual consciousness - the consciousness of a separate concrete person, personality. Public consciousness - spiritual
(ideal) side of the socio-historical process. It is not a simple sum, a mechanical aggregate of individual consciousnesses, but a qualitatively original new, integral, spiritual developing phenomenon that has a certain structure, including various levels and forms. The main thing in the correlation of social and individual consciousness is their close connection, interaction and - under certain conditions - mutual transition. Each individual makes a certain contribution to the "piggy bank" of social consciousness, which in turn, in one form or another, affects our individual consciousness, is absorbed by it.

The dialectics of social and individual consciousness is a manifestation and expression of the dialectics of the general and the individual (individual), this identity (unity) of opposites. From this, in particular, it follows that, firstly, the eclectic mixing of these qualitatively different opposites is unacceptable, and secondly, it is erroneous to absolutize, exalt one of them - either social consciousness (dogmatism, identifying the latter with indisputable truth), or individual (voluntarism with its hypertrophy of its consciousness).

Social consciousness as an organic integrity of individual consciousnesses is a reflection of social life, social reality as a whole. Both consciousnesses in their interconnection are not something immutable, given once and for all, but they develop, change their content depending on the development of social reality, i.e., they always have a concrete historical character.

4. The structure of social consciousness, its main levels and forms. In the structure of social consciousness, three interrelated levels are usually distinguished: ordinary, social psychology and social ideology, as well as forms of social consciousness, which include political ideology, legal consciousness, morality (moral consciousness), art (aesthetic consciousness), religion, science and philosophy:

1. Ordinary consciousness arises spontaneously in the process of everyday practice, as a direct reflection of the external ("everyday") side of people's life and is not aimed at finding the truth.

2. Social psychology - the emotional attitude of people to their social existence, also formed spontaneously in people's daily lives. Its specificity and regularities are studied by social psychology. Social psychology includes unsystematized feelings and ideas of people, primarily about their emotional life, certain states and some mental characteristics. It is the prevailing mood of feelings and ideas in a given social group (“socio-psychological atmosphere”), in a given country, in a particular society.

3. Public ideology - a conceptual and theoretical reflection of social life, expressed in forms of thinking (concepts, judgments, theories, concepts, etc.). Taken as a whole, it is defined as a system of political, legal, moral, aesthetic, religious and philosophical views, in which people's attitude to social reality is recognized and evaluated.

Thus, social ideology is a systematic, theoretical substantiation, a spiritual expression of the interests of various social groups or communities. Ideology is a complex spiritual formation, which includes a certain theoretical basis, programs of action arising from it, and mechanisms for the dissemination of ideological attitudes among the masses.

In any of its manifestations, it is essentially or formally, correct or false, but always connected with the needs of the whole society, is an expression of its goals, values, ideals, its programs, contradictions and ways to resolve them.

As such, a social ideology is always necessary, obligatory for any society - class, non-class, "open", "closed", etc. She always was, is and will be. For there is always a vital need for knowledge of the characteristics of the development of society, current problems and common tasks, stages of social change and prospects for social development.

Nowadays, some theorists (both in the West and in our country) came up with the idea of ​​the end of ideology (“pre-ideologization”). They associate this either with the "natural falsity" of the ideology, or with the end of the confrontation in the world of capitalism and socialism, or with its totalitarian class essence.

Forms of social consciousness are ways of spiritual development of reality. The main criteria for their differentiation:

1. On the subject of reflection - science and philosophy reflect reality, but at different conceptual and methodological levels (lower and higher).

2. By forms (types) of reflection - science reflects reality in the form of concepts, hypotheses, theories, laws, and art - in the form of artistic images.

3. According to the functions performed - art performs aesthetic and educational functions, science - cognitive, morality - moral, etc.

4. By public role. Science is the "locomotive" of progress,
religion satisfies belief in the supernatural, art satisfies belief in the beautiful, morality elevates a person to the "value of the good," and so on.

All levels and forms of social consciousness interact with each other and influence each other in the course of the interaction of social being and social consciousness.

In conclusion, we note that social consciousness is a reflection of social life, social reality as a whole. However, social consciousness and each of its forms have a certain independence in relation to social being, their own logic and special laws of their development. This manifests itself in:

a) continuity, maintaining a rational, positive
keeping the old in the new;

b) the mutual influence of various forms of social consciousness;

c) lagging behind or ahead of the forms of consciousness from social existence;

d) the active reverse impact of social consciousness and its forms on social being (a vivid example of this is the active impact of science on the development of technology and technology of the modern information society).

Leontiev on the essence and structure of consciousness

consciousness in its immediacy is a picture of the world that opens up to the subject, in which he himself, his actions and states are included;

Initially, consciousness exists only in the form of a mental image that reveals to the subject the world around him, while activity remains practical, external. At a later stage, activity also becomes the subject of consciousness: the actions of other people are realized, and through them, the subject's own actions. Now they communicate by means of gestures or spoken language. This is the prerequisite for the generation of internal actions and operations occurring in the mind, on the “plane of consciousness”. Consciousness-image also becomes consciousness-activity. It is in this fullness that consciousness begins to seem emancipated from external, sensory-practical activity, moreover, controlling it;

consciousness undergoes another fundamental change in the course of historical development. It consists in the destruction of the initial fusion of the consciousness of the labor collective (for example, the community) and the consciousness of the individuals that form it. At the same time, the psychological features of individual consciousness can only be understood through their connections with those social relations in which the individual is involved;

structure of consciousness includes: sensory fabric of consciousness, meanings and personal meanings;

sensual fabric consciousness forms a sensual composition of concrete images of reality, actually perceived or emerging in memory, related to the future or only imaginary. These images differ in their modality, sensual tone, degree of clarity, greater or lesser stability, etc.;

a special function of sensory images of consciousness is that they give reality to the conscious picture of the world that opens up to the subject. It is thanks to the sensual content of consciousness that the world appears as a subject as existing not in consciousness, but outside his consciousness - as an objective "field" and an object of his activity;

sensual images represent a universal form of mental reflection generated by the objective activity of the subject. However, in a person, sensual images acquire a new quality, namely, their own significance. Meanings and are the most important "forming" of human consciousness.

values refract the world in the human mind. Although language is the bearer of meanings, language is not the demiurge of meanings. Behind linguistic meanings are hidden socially developed methods (operation) of action, in the process of which people change and cognize objective reality;

the meanings represent the ideal form of existence of the objective world transformed and folded in matter, its properties, connections and relations revealed by the cumulative social practice. Therefore, the values ​​themselves, i.e. in abstraction from their functioning in individual consciousness, they are just as “non-psychological” as the socially recognized reality that lies behind them;

one should distinguish between perceived objective meaning and its meaning for the subject. In the latter case, one speaks of a personal meaning. In other words personal meaning- is the meaning of this or that phenomenon for a particular person. Personal meaning creates partiality of consciousness. Unlike meanings, personal meanings do not have their own "psychological existence";

human consciousness, as well as his activity itself, is not a certain summand of its parts, i.e. it is not additive. This is not a plane, not even a container filled with images and processes. This is not a connection between its individual "units", but the internal movement of its constituents, included in the general movement of activity that realizes the real life of the individual in society. Human activity is the substance of his consciousness.

Consciousness- the highest function of the brain, peculiar only to a person and associated with speech, consisting in a generalized evaluative and purposeful reflection and constructive and creative transformation of reality, in a preliminary mental construction of actions and anticipation of their results, in reasonable regulation and self-control of human behavior.

Consciousness- the highest form of reflection of reality peculiar only to a person, which is a set of mental processes that allow him to navigate in the world around him, time, his own personality, ensuring the continuity of experience, the unity and diversity of behavior.

Wundt: "Consciousness is the ability to notice one's mental states"

James: “Consciousness is the master of mental functions”

Jaspers: “Consciousness as a stage”

Vygotsky: consciousness is the unity of experience and knowledge

“Consciousness is co-knowledge, shared knowledge” (French social school).

Functions of consciousness:

Reflection

Consciousness organizes cognitive processes - perception, representation, thinking, and also organizes memory.

regulation

· Reflection

A variety of consciousness is self-consciousness - the process by which a person analyzes his thoughts and actions, observes himself, evaluates himself, etc. One of the meanings of the word "reflection" is the ability of a person's consciousness to focus on himself. In addition, this term also refers to the mechanism of mutual understanding, that is, a person’s understanding of how other people with whom he interacts think and feel.

· Creative function

Creativity is impossible without consciousness. Many arbitrary types of imagination are organized on a conscious level: invention, artistic creativity.

Spiritual

Structure of consciousness

L. Feuerbach put forward the idea of ​​the existence of consciousness for consciousness and consciousness for being. This idea was developed by L.S. Vygotsky.

A. N. Leontiev singled out three components in the structure of consciousness:

• sensual fabric of the image;
• meaning;
• meaning.

VP Zinchenko adds another component to this structure: the biodynamic fabric of movement and action. Then we can imagine the structure of consciousness schematically as follows:

properties of consciousness

Activity

Consciousness is associated with activity, with active interaction with the outside world.

Selective character

Consciousness is not directed at the whole world as a whole, but only at certain of its objects (most often associated with some unrealized needs).

Generalization and abstraction

Consciousness operates not with real objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, but with generalized and abstract concepts, devoid of some of the attributes of specific objects of reality.

Integrity

The consciousness of a mentally healthy person, as a rule, has integrity. Within this property, internal conflicts of values ​​or interests are possible. In some types of mental illness, the integrity of consciousness is violated (schizophrenia).

constancy

Relative stability, immutability and continuity of consciousness, determined by memory. The constancy of consciousness is determined by the properties of the personality.

Dynamism

Its variability and ability for continuous development, due to short-term and rapidly changing mental processes, which can be fixed in a state and in new personality traits.

distortion

Consciousness always reflects reality in a distorted form (part of the information is lost, and the other part is distorted by the individual characteristics of perception and attitudes of the individual).

individual character

The consciousness of each person is different from the consciousness of other people. This is due to a number of factors: genetic differences, upbringing conditions, life experience, social environment, etc.

The ability to reflect

Consciousness has the capacity for self-observation and self-assessment, and can also imagine how other people evaluate it.

Consciousness as the inner world of a person has its own structure. In order to consider it, one should first of all pay attention to the following circumstance. Often the concept of "consciousness" is identified with the concept of "human psyche". This is done by mistake. The psyche is a more complex entity. It includes two spheres of reflection - consciousness and the unconscious.

The concept of the unconscious was first formulated by the famous German philosopher of the 17th-18th centuries. G. Leibniz. In the work "Monadology" he spoke of the unconscious as the lowest form of mental activity. Later, the English thinker of the XVIII century. D. Hartley connected the unconscious with the activity of the human nervous system. A. Schopenhauer tried to explain the unconscious from the position of irrationalism. But 3. Freud paid special attention to this problem. He believed that the unconscious is a collection of mental phenomena, states and actions that are outside the realm of the mind. The unconscious includes, first of all, instincts - a set of innate acts of human behavior, which are created as a result of a long evolution and are aimed at ensuring vital functions, the very existence of each being. The structure of the unconscious also includes intuition and automatisms, which can originate in the sphere of consciousness and eventually sink into the sphere of the unconscious. Intuition is knowledge that arises without awareness of the ways and conditions for obtaining it, through direct sensory contemplation or speculation. Automatisms are complex actions of a person, which, initially formed under the control of consciousness, as a result of long training and repeated repetition, acquire an unconscious character. Dreams, hypnotic states, somnambulistic phenomena, states of insanity, and the like are also unconscious. Due to the inclusion of the unconscious in mental activity, the load on consciousness decreases, and this, in turn, expands the field of human creative possibilities. Modern science also operates with the concept of the subconscious. The subconscious is a special layer or level of the unconscious. It includes mental phenomena associated with the transition of operations of activity from the level of consciousness to the level of automatism.

The unconscious and the conscious are two relatively independent sides of the single psychic reality of man; quite often contradictions arise between them, sometimes conflicts, but they are interconnected, interact with each other and are able to achieve harmonious unity. The unconscious contains ample opportunities for the rationalization of human life, especially the creative activity of the subject. This circumstance serves as the basis for the formation of irrationalist philosophical doctrines. In these teachings, various forms of the unconscious are considered to be the main ones in human behavior: instincts, intuition, etc. However, many philosophical schools take a different position. They believe that consciousness is primary in the human psyche, "nourishing" and largely shaping the unconscious, in general, it is able to control it, and also determine the general strategy of human behavior.

Structure of consciousness

What is the structure of consciousness itself? The structure of consciousness is largely conditional. The fact is that the elements of consciousness are closely related to each other. However, with all the conventionality in consciousness, three such elements can be distinguished.

The first element is knowledge. This is the main component, the core of consciousness, the way of its existence. Knowledge is a person's understanding of reality, its reflection in the form of conscious sensual and abstract logical images. Thanks to knowledge, a person can "cover", comprehend everything that surrounds him and constitutes the subject of knowledge. Knowledge leads to such properties of consciousness as the ability to purposefully "create the world" through objective activity, to foresee the course of events, to show creative activity. In other words, consciousness is an attitude to reality in the form of knowledge, taking into account human needs.

Emotions are the second important element in the structure of consciousness. A person cognizes the world around him not from the cold indifference of an automaton, but with a feeling of satisfaction, hatred or sympathy, delight or indignation. She worries what she reflects. Emotions either stimulate or inhibit an individual's awareness of the real phenomena of reality. What pleases the eye is easier to remember. But sometimes an overly "rosy" perception of the world can blind, give rise to illusions, wishful thinking. Some emotions, especially negative ones, resist keeping the mind clear. The feeling of fear, for example, becomes an obstacle to a person's awareness of what is happening. The level of emotions is spiritual feelings (for example, a feeling of love), which are formed as a result of awareness of a person's connections with essential social and existential values. Feelings are characterized by substantive content, constancy, independence from the current situation. The emotional sphere has a significant influence on all manifestations of consciousness, performs the function of the foundations of activity.

The third structural element of consciousness is freedom. Will is a conscious purposeful regulation by a person of his activity. This is the ability of a person to mobilize and direct his mental and physical forces to achieve a goal, to solve the problems facing his activity and require conscious overcoming of subjective and objective difficulties and obstacles. The making of tools by man is the first and most important school of will formation. Will and purpose complement each other. Without will, revenge cannot be achieved; without expedient activity there is no freedom. Will is conscious aspirations and motivations for action. However, unconscious impulses are also characteristic of a person. Sometimes it happens that a person is torn somewhere, but where and why - she does not know. Such subconscious regulation has remained from animals.

We should also note such an element included in the structure of consciousness as thinking. Thinking is a process of cognitive activity of an individual, characterized by a generalized and indirect reflection of reality. This process ends with the creation of abstract concepts, judgments, which are a reflection of the essential, regular relations of things on the basis of what is known, tangible to the touch, heard, etc. Thanks to mental activity, we penetrate into the invisible, into what is not perceived by the touch and not are heard. Thinking gives us knowledge about essential properties, connections and relationships. With the help of thinking, we make the transition from the external to the internal, from the phenomenon to the essence of things, processes.

The structure of consciousness also includes attention and memory. Attention is a form of human mental activity, manifested in its focus and focus on certain objects. Memory is a mental process, which consists in fixing, preserving and reproducing in the brain of an individual his past experience. The main elements of memory are memorization, preservation, reproduction and forgetting.

In the subjective reality of a person, there is such an important sub-structure as self-consciousness. Self-awareness is a person's awareness of himself as a person, awareness of his ability to make independent decisions and act on this basis in a conscious relationship with people and nature, to be responsible for the decisions and actions taken. In other words, this is a holistic assessment of oneself, one's moral character, one's own knowledge, thoughts, interests, ideals, motives for behavior, actions, moral properties, etc.; with the help of self-consciousness, a person realizes the attitude towards himself, carries out his own self-esteem as a thinking being capable of feeling. In this case, the object of knowledge for the subject is himself and his consciousness. So, man - a self-evaluative being, without this characteristic action would not be able to define himself and find his place in life.

A person's understanding of his inner state, her ability to self-control does not come immediately. Self-consciousness, along with such spiritual elements of the personality as worldview, abilities, character, interests, is formed under the influence of the social environment. The environment requires the individual to control his actions and take responsibility for their results. The level of consciousness largely depends on what requirements are put in front of and social values ​​are cultivated in a given environment. The main requirement here is that a person himself must control his actions and be responsible for their consequences.

Consciousness as the inner world of a person has its own structure. To consider it, we should first of all pay attention to the following circumstance. Often the concept of "consciousness" is identified with the concept of "human psyche". This is mistake. The psyche is a more complex formation (diagram 6.6), which includes two spheres of reflection - consciousness and the unconscious.

Scheme 6.6. The structure of the human psyche

The concept of the unconscious was first formed by the German philosopher of the 17th-18th centuries. G. Leibniz. In Monadology, he characterized the unconscious as the lowest form of spiritual activity. Later, the English thinker of the XVIII century. D. Hartley connected the unconscious with the activity of the human nervous system. A. Schopenhauer tried to explain the unconscious from the position of irrationalism. But 3. Freud paid special attention to this problem. He believed that unconscious - a set of mental phenomena, states and actions that are outside the sphere of the mind. The unconscious is primarily instincts- a set of innate acts of human behavior, which are created as a result of prolonged evolution and are aimed at ensuring vital functions, the very existence of each creature.

Also included in the structure of the unconscious intuition And automatisms, which can originate in the realm of consciousness and eventually penetrate into the realm of the unconscious. Intuition is knowledge that arises without awareness of the ways and conditions for obtaining it through direct sensory contemplation or speculation. Automatisms are complex actions of a person, which, initially appearing under the control of consciousness, as a result of prolonged training and repeated repetition, acquire the character of the unconscious. Dreams, hypnotic states, somnambulistic phenomena, states of insanity, etc. are also unconscious. Due to the connection of the unconscious to mental activity, the load on consciousness is reduced, and this, in turn, expands the field of human creative possibilities. Modern science also operates with the concept of the subconscious. The subconscious is a special layer, or level, of the unconscious. It includes mental phenomena associated with the transition of operations of activity from the level of consciousness to the level of automatism.

The unconscious and the conscious are two relatively independent sides of the single psychic reality of man; contradictions often arise between them, sometimes conflicts, but they are interconnected, interact with each other and are able to achieve harmonious unity. The unconscious contains ample opportunities for the rationalization of human life, especially the creative activity of the subject. This circumstance serves as the basis for the formation of irrationalist philosophical doctrines. In them, various forms of the unconscious are considered significant or even the determining force of human behavior: instincts, intuition, etc. Well-known representatives of irrationalism are Arthur Schopenhauer(Germany), Soren Kierkegaard(Denmark), Friedrich Nietzsche(Germany), Eduard Hartman(Germany), Henri Bergson(France), Sigmund Freud(Austria), Martin Heidegger(Germany). 3. Freud, in particular, built his model of human behavior on the idea of ​​the dominance in the human psyche of sexual desires, which come into conflict with consciousness and, as a result, subordinate it to themselves. However, most philosophical schools take a different position. They believe that consciousness is the leading principle in the human psyche, which “nourishes” and largely forms the unconscious, is generally able to control it, as well as determine the general strategy of human behavior.

The structure of consciousness. What is the structure of consciousness itself? The structure of consciousness is largely conditional. The fact is that the elements of consciousness are closely interconnected. However, with all the conventions in the mind, the following elements can be distinguished.

The first element is knowledge. This is the main component, the core of consciousness, the means of its existence. Knowledge is a person's understanding of reality, its reflection in the form of conscious sensual and abstract logical images. Thanks to knowledge, a person can “cover”, comprehend everything that surrounds him and constitutes the subject of knowledge. Knowledge predetermines such properties of consciousness as the ability to purposefully "create the world" through objective activity, to foresee the course of events, and to show creative activity. In other words, consciousness is an attitude to reality in the form of knowledge, taking into account human needs.

The second important element of the structure of consciousness are emotions. A person cognizes the world around him not with the cold indifference of an automaton, but with a feeling of satisfaction, hatred or sympathy, enthusiasm or indignation. He experiences what he reflects. Emotions either stimulate or inhibit an individual's awareness of the real phenomena of reality. What pleases the eye is more easily remembered. But sometimes the "rainbow" perception of the world can blind, give rise to illusions, wishful thinking. Some particularly negative emotions have a negative effect on mental clarity. The feeling of fear, for example, becomes an obstacle to a person's awareness of what is happening. The highest level of emotions are spiritual feelings (for example, a feeling of love), which are formed as a result of awareness of the relationship of the individual with the most significant social and existential values. Feelings are characterized by subject content, constancy, independence from the real situation. The emotional sphere significantly affects all manifestations of human consciousness, performs the function of the basis of its activity.

The third structural element of consciousness is will - a conscious, purposeful regulation by a person of his activity. This is the ability of a person to mobilize and direct his mental and physical forces to solve problems that arise in his activity and require conscious overcoming of subjective and objective difficulties and obstacles. Tool making by man is the first and most important school of will formation.

Will and purpose complement each other. Without will it is impossible to reach the goal; without expedient activity there is no will. Will is a conscious desire and motivation for action. However, unconscious impulses are also characteristic of a person. Sometimes it happens that a person is striving for something, but he does not know where and why. Such subconscious regulation has remained in humans from animals.

In the structure of consciousness, one should also mention such an element as thinking. Thinking is a process of cognitive activity of an individual, which is characterized by a generalized and indirect reflection of reality. This process ends with the creation of abstract concepts, judgments, which are a reflection of the essential, regular relations of things on the basis of the known, tangible, heard, etc. Thanks to mental activity, we penetrate into the invisible, into that which is not perceived by touch and which cannot be felt. Thinking gives us knowledge about essential properties, connections and relationships. With the help of thinking, we make the transition from the external to the internal, from the phenomenon to the essence of things, processes.

The structure of consciousness also includes attention and memory. Attention is a form of human mental activity, which manifests itself in the direction and focus on certain objects. Memory is a mental process, which consists in fixing, preserving and reproducing in the brain of an individual his past experience. The main elements of memory are memorization, preservation, reproduction and forgetting. The physiological basis of memorization is the formation and consolidation of temporary nerve connections in the cerebral cortex. The subsequent revival of the neural connections gives the reproduction of the memorized material, and the inhibition of these connections leads to forgetting.

In the subjective reality of a person, there is such an important substructure as self-consciousness. Self-awareness - a person's awareness of himself as a person, awareness of his ability to make independent decisions and, on this basis, enter into conscious relationships with people and nature, be responsible for the decisions and actions taken. In other words, this is a holistic assessment of oneself, one's moral character, one's own knowledge, thoughts, interests, ideals, motives for behavior, actions, etc.; with the help of self-consciousness, a person realizes the attitude towards himself, carries out his self-esteem as a thinking being capable of feeling. In this case, the subject makes himself and his consciousness the object of knowledge. So, a person is a self-evaluating being, who without this characteristic action could not decide and find his place in life.

The appeal of philosophers to self-consciousness as a special sphere of the subjective world began from Socrates, from his maxim "Know thyself". In the process of the formation of philosophy as a specific knowledge about the world and man, a view was formed on the active, restless nature of the soul, the dialogue and criticality of the mind with respect to itself. By Plato the activity of the soul is an inner work that has the character of a conversation with oneself. When thinking, the soul constantly talks to itself, asks, answers, affirms and objects.

Thus, self-consciousness is an important condition for the constant self-improvement of a person. The following elements can be distinguished in the structure of self-consciousness: well-being, self-knowledge, self-esteem, self-control. Self-awareness in general is closely related to reflection. In philosophical literature, reflection is understood as the turning of the consciousness (thinking) of a person towards himself, his reflection on his mental state, full of doubts and contradictions. That is why, in our opinion, reflection can be regarded as an activity of self-consciousness, revealing the internal structure and specifics of the human spiritual world.

A person's understanding of his inner state, the ability to self-control do not come immediately. Self-consciousness, along with such spiritual elements of the personality as worldview, abilities, character, interests, is formed under the influence of the social environment. The environment requires the individual to control his actions and take responsibility for their results. The level of consciousness largely depends on what requirements are put before the individual and what social values ​​are cultivated in the given environment. The main requirement here is that a person himself must control his actions and be responsible for their consequences.

Functions of consciousness. Structural elements of consciousness are in interconnection and interaction and provide consciousness with a number of vital functions for a person (Scheme 6.7).

main function consciousness is cognitive or reflective those. obtaining knowledge about the reality surrounding a person, and about himself. As a cognitive activity, consciousness begins with sensory, figurative cognition and goes back to abstract thinking. At the stage of sensory (empirical) cognition, a variety of factual material is accumulated, which is then generalized with the help of abstract thinking, thus penetrating into the essence of the most complex phenomena and establishing the objective laws to which they are subject. This function is all-encompassing, and all others are derived from it. The cognitive function is not passive, but active, heuristic in nature, i.e. consciousness has the property of anticipatory reflection of reality.

Scheme 6.7. Functions of Consciousness

The cognitive function of consciousness determines accumulative (accumulative) function. Its essence lies in the fact that knowledge is accumulated in the memory of a person, obtained not only from direct, personal experience, but also received by contemporaries or previous generations of people. This knowledge, as necessary, is updated, recreated and serves as a means of implementing other functions of consciousness. The richer a person's memory, the easier it is for him to make the best decision.

Another function is axiological (evaluative). A person not only receives data about the outside world, but also evaluates them from the point of view of his needs and interests. Consciousness, on the one hand, is a form of objective reflection, a form of cognition of reality, independent of human aspirations and interests. The result and purpose of consciousness as a cognitive activity is the acquisition of knowledge, objective truth. On the other hand, consciousness includes the manifestation of a subjective attitude to reality, its assessment, awareness of one's knowledge and oneself. The result and goal of a value-based attitude to the world is the comprehension of what is, the degree of conformity of the world and its manifestations to human interests and needs, the meaning of one's own life. If thinking, cognitive activity basically require only a clear expression of knowledge, adherence to logical schemes for operating with them, then a value attitude to the world and its awareness require personal efforts, one's own reflections and experiencing the truth.

The evaluation function goes directly to the function of purposefulness (goal formation). Purposefulness is a purely human ability, which is a cardinal characteristic of consciousness. The goal is the idealized need of a person who has found his subject; it is such a subjective image of the subject of activity, in the ideal form of which the result of human activity is supposed. Goals are formed on the basis of the total experience of mankind and go back to the highest forms of manifestation in the form of social, ethical, aesthetic and other ideals. Purposeful activity is explained by the dissatisfaction of a person with the world and the need to change it, to give it the form that is necessary for a person, society.

The highest possibilities of consciousness are found in creative (constructive) function. Purposefulness, i.e. awareness of the “for what” and “for the sake of what” a person carries out his actions is a necessary condition for any conscious act. Realization of the goal involves the use of certain means, i.e. that which is created and exists in order to achieve a goal. Man creates something that nature has not generated before him. He creates a fundamentally new, builds a new world. The poet Nikolai Zabolotsky said this about this:

Man has two worlds -

One who created us

The other, which we have been creating from time immemorial to the best of our ability.

The scale, forms and properties of things transformed and created by people are dictated by the needs of people, their goals; they embody human designs, ideas.

A very important function is communicative (communication function). It is due to the fact that people participate in common work and need constant communication. This connection of thoughts is carried out with the help of speech (sound) and technical means (texts, coded information). It should be borne in mind that written texts (books, magazines, newspapers, etc.) do not contain knowledge, but only information. For information to become knowledge, it must be subjective. That is why the dissemination of the printed word is a condition, but not a guarantee, that the stated information will become knowledge. Additional efforts are needed to turn information into knowledge - a subjective asset.

Completes the logical cycle of personality consciousness regulatory (managerial) function. Based on the assessment of factors and in accordance with the goal set, consciousness regulates, puts in order the actions of a person, and then the actions of collectives. The regulatory function of consciousness depends on the interaction of a person with the environment and appears in two forms: incentive and executive regulation. The ideological content of the motives for the behavior and activities of people is important. As ideas become motivating, a person performs actions consciously, purposefully, according to his conviction. Executive regulation brings people's activities in line with their needs, ensures the proportionality of the goal and the real means of its regulation.

These are the main functions of consciousness. Only their harmonious development results in a truly holistic intellectual and spiritual personality.

By the beginning of the XXI century. scientists have done a lot to shift individual functions of intelligence to information machines. Already today, computers perform complex tasks: translate from one language to another, fly planes, drive trains, play chess, even perform some of the logical operations inherent in the human brain. The question arises: is it possible to create a machine that would be able to replace the human mind?

From the point of view of technical capabilities, indeed, one should not set limits on the improvement of information machines. However, the analogy between the operations that machines perform and those that take place in the human brain does not give grounds for considering machines capable of thinking. In essence, the machine recreates only one aspect of our thinking - formally logical, while the real thinking of a person is will, emotions, intuition, dreams, fantasy and other components. The richness of a person's inner world is a consequence of the wealth and versatility of his social ties. Therefore, in order to completely model the human consciousness, its structure and all functions, it is not enough to reproduce only the structure of the brain. To do this, it would be necessary to recreate the entire historical path of human development, to provide him with all the needs, including political, moral, and aesthetic needs. All this testifies to the limited capabilities of modern cybernetic devices in solving complex cognitive problems. They are nothing more than means of mechanization and automation of those aspects of intellectual activity that are associated with clear rules for processing information. But therein lies their great significance.