Everyone knows that in philosophy there is a fairly wide range of diverse worldview concepts. Egg or chicken? What was the first really? It is this question, only formulated slightly differently, that study materialism and idealism from all sides. Naturally, in this case we are talking about consciousness and matter, about their direct relationship and about primacy. And such a dichotomy, of course, can make anyone doubt its point of view. Even today, when these worldviews are indicated, one can find supporters of both philosophical movements. And in order to understand what the essence of these areas is, it is enough to understand the fact that some people believe in one thing, while others believe in another. Based on what kind of worldview you are inclined to, you can determine the features of your perception of the world.
Materialism and its essence
Despite the fact that materialism and idealism are opposite worldviews, in the absence of any of them, it would be very difficult to decide on a personal attitude to the issue of primacy, material, ideal and other philosophical categories. In the context of the historicism of society, circumstances developed in such a way that people were forced to believe that matter is still primary. And it's hard to argue, because a person is forced to take certain actions. And, for example, if you take any mental process (it doesn’t matter what you choose: memory, attention, thinking), it will become quite obvious that if there is no brain (which is quite material), then there will be no such processes. Therefore, from the point of view of materialism, consciousness is nothing more than a product of the activity of the nervous system.
In this sense, mechanistic materialism has begun to spread actively, which reduces everything to banal mechanics and its laws, to various natural processes, including biological, chemical, mental and others. But there always remained a category of scientists who had a completely different point of view, denying materialism. And idealism has become the opposite worldview.
Fundamentals of an idealistic worldview
This direction has become absolutely opposite to all the features of materialism. According to representatives of this trend, everything material is secondary. Initially, such representatives as Plato, Aquinas Thomas, and later Hegel, began to say that any ideal principle can in no way depend on material and some kind of matter in particular. It was an objective idealism, replaced by a subjective one, the main idea of which was nevertheless the interconnection of human consciousness with the outside world, its relations and basic properties. Later, Fichte's subjective idealism supplemented this worldview by building a system of the active essence of man. In fact, Fichte introduced the concepts of “I” and “not Me”, where “I” are specific acts of self-knowledge, including will and action. But “not I” is the whole world around us, which can be known only with the help of the “pure I”. Consequently, in the context of idealism, something immaterial was much more important, which, naturally, was criticized.
The main ideas of these worldview directions are understandable. Each of them has certain arguments and theories, and especially the right to exist. Moreover, if you personally communicate with any supporter of one of the trends, it will become clear that everyone is convinced that the theory on which he is based is correct. Consequently, materialism and idealism will always be opposed currents, and no one will surely be able to determine which of them is more adequate, useful, or believable. After all, no matter how much time has passed, the question of the chicken and the egg will remain, and with it the question of the material and the immaterial, their primacy and interaction will not go anywhere.