Thinking by nature is categorical in principle. Otherwise, cognitive progress, progress would be absent. For each new look around revealed completely new objects, unknown, unprecedented before, and one would have to get to know each tree, each boulder separately, each time “rediscovering” the same thing for itself.
"The forest is large and there are many animals in it, but the bear, it is so alone, and it does not matter that they run different: large and small, and further north - white." It is such a category as “bear” that does not allow bear variety to crumble into separate parts, to turn into a huge crowd of various animals.
A person can embrace with thought, think no more than a dozen objects at a time. But, turning piles of objects into one, it is possible to operate with huge layers of phenomena: Dagger - Weapon - Steel - Metal - Substance - Matter - Part of existence.
So, generalized categories in philosophy - a tool that allows you to think and act, navigate the world. At the same time, categories create for a person, make up the world as its frame, that is, at the same time they are both “the world itself” and “tool” for actions in it.
Categories “connect” the world, making it sequentially and linearly extended. If we remove the categories from life, life itself will disappear in the form to which we are accustomed. Existence will remain. How long?
In an effort to get to the bottom, get to the bottom, to the origins of the world, world formation, various thinkers, different schools came to different concepts of category in philosophy. And in their own way they built their hierarchies. However, a number of categories were invariably present in any philosophical teachings, and not only in them. (Almost any mythological cycle, any religion begins its narrative from the beginning. And at the beginning of everything there is usually chaos, which is then sorted out by some forces.)
These universal categories, which underlie everything, are now called the main philosophical categories, since the extremely general categories can no longer be described, defined by nothing, since there are no concepts that encompass them or include them as part. The main categories in philosophy, terms, are inexplicable, undetectable concepts. But, oddly enough, to one degree or another, they are industrial and yet understood. And even to some extent interpreted - certain.
Although this is the same as, for example, the concept of "liquid" is defined through coffee.
Being is nothingness
In philosophy, being is all that exists. It is impossible to think, to expand in consciousness even a small fraction of everything that exists, nevertheless there is such a category. As a bottomless abyss takes in everything that the thinker will not throw into it: he saw plus he remembered himself, plus his thoughts and those of his comrade.
All that exists includes the consciousness of the thinker, who can think, and something that does not exist, and thereby, with the “act of thinking” bring something new to the being, hitherto absent from being.
However, this “everything that exists” is presented exclusively in the consciousness, although it is conceived as dual powers - part outside and part inside, in consciousness.
To what extent is being really objective in its existence, is there something outside the mind of the thinker?
Is there something that no one has ever thought of? In general, if you remove the "observers", will there be something left?
Being in philosophy is everything that exists objectively, even that which cannot be imagined (imagined), is unrepresentable and incomprehensible by the mind plus nonexistent, but someone thought and thereby introduced into being.
But can there be something other than being? No, it cannot: “be” refers to being completely, without the remainder of exceptions and oppositions.
Despite the fact that there is nothing but being, in philosophy the category of “nonexistence” exists. And this is not an absolute emptiness, not the absence of anything as a contrast to the essence, “nothing” as such is inconceivable and incomprehensible, because as soon as it is presented, thought, understood, it will immediately be on this side - in being.
The understanding (interpretation) of the main categories in philosophy prevailing in the minds of people outlines, limits, and forms the world in which they (people) live and act.
The dialectical understanding of the world excluded the ideal principle from existing, leaving it only (since there is a concept) in consciousness - in subjective reality. That reality, which was "allowed" to exist, received carte blanche for development. As a result - a technological breakthrough. The abundance of highly complex devices, circuits, technologies based on the principles of interaction and transformation of matter, with almost complete oppression of idealistic ideas.
Just as the discovery of the conservation law put an end to the development of the perpetual motion machine, so the “discovery” of materialistic determinism vetoed the development of ideas that did not fit into its concept. And if the justice of particular ideas, scientific theories can be deduced from the correspondence to their general categories of metatheory, then the justice or injustice of the latter cannot be deduced, since there is no place.
In order to change the world by transforming the “vision” of the main categories in philosophy, more than possible, new, other patterns of interaction between the world and man will appear.
Matter is motion
Perhaps the only true definition of matter as a category in philosophy is that which is given in sensations. The sensations transmitted by thoughts give rise to reflection, of this substance, in the mind. It is also assumed that this “something” given in sensations exists regardless of whether there is a sensation (subject) or not. Thus, sensations became both a vehicle between thought (consciousness) and an objective entity, and an obstacle in its search - the true essence of matter. Matter appears before man only in those forms that are accessible to perception, and no more. The rest, much, almost everything, is behind the scenes. Creating various theoretical constructs, a person still tries to realize (understand) the essence of matter as such.
A brief history of the transformation of the category of matter in philosophy, these theoretical constructs that reproduce more or less matter:
- Awareness of matter as a thing. The concept of matter as a variety of manifestations of one basic, forming all material, things is the root cause of matter.
- Awareness of matter as a property. Here, the forefront is not a structural unit, but the principles of the relationship of bodies, relatively large parts of matter.
Later, they began to consider not only the linear, spatial relationship of the material parts, but also its qualitative change both in the direction of complication - development, and in the opposite.
Matter has been “fixed” by some inherent properties - its attributes. They are considered derived from matter, generated by it, and without matter, in themselves, not existing.
One of these properties is movement, not only linear, but, as noted earlier, and qualitative.
The causality of motion is thought in the discreteness of matter, its fragmentation into parts, which allows these parts to change the relative position.
Matter does not exist without its attributes. That is, in principle, it could have existed without them, but such a state of things was “legislatively” consolidated.
The absoluteness (continuity) of linear motion seems obvious, since motion is a mutual redistribution in space of parts of matter relative to each other, you can always find at least some particle relative to which others move.
From the properties of motion, such properties of matter as time and space follow.
There are two main approaches to the categories in philosophy - space and time: substantial and relational.
- Substantial - time and space are objective, as is matter. And they can exist separately both from each other and from matter.
- The relational approach in philosophy - the categories of time and space are only the properties of matter. Space is an expression of the extent of matter, and time is a consequence of the variability, motion of matter, as a distinction between its states.
Single - General
These philosophical categories are signs of the subject - a unique sign - a single. Symptoms are similar, respectively, common. Similarly, objects themselves, possessing a unique set of attributes, are single objects, and the presence of similar attributes makes objects common.
Despite the fact that the categories of the individual and the general are opposed to each other, they are inextricably linked and are both the primary cause and the consequence in relation to each other.
So, the individual is opposed to the general, as distinct from it. At the same time, the general always consists of separate things, which, upon closer examination, will turn out to be singular with the totality of their attributes. This means that from the total, the individual flows.
But the general is not taken from nowhere, being composed of single objects, and in them it also reveals a similarity - commonality. So the individual becomes the cause of the general.
Essence is a phenomenon
Two sides of the same object. What is given to us in sensations, how we perceive the object, is a phenomenon. Its true properties, the basis is the essence. True properties “manifest” in the phenomenon, but not fully and in a distorted form. It is rather difficult to single out, to know the essence of things, making its way through mirages of phenomena. The essence and phenomenon are different, opposite sides of the same subject. The essence can be called the true meaning of the object, while the phenomenon is its image distorted, but felt, in contrast to the true, but hidden.
In philosophy, there are many approaches to understanding the relationship of essence and phenomenon. For example: an entity is a thing in itself in the objective world, while a phenomenon, in principle, does not exist objectively, but just that “imprint” that the essence of the object left in perception.
Marxist philosophy at the same time claims that both are objective characteristics of things. And they are only steps in comprehending the object - first the phenomenon then the essence.
Content - Form
These are categories in philosophy, reflecting the organization of a thing (how it works) and its composition, of what a thing is made up of. Otherwise, the content is the internal organization of the subject, and the form is the external manifestation of the content.
Idealistic ideas in philosophy about the categories of form and content: form is an extra-subjective entity, in the material world it is expressed by the way of containing specific (existing) manifest things. That is, the leading role is given to the form, as the root cause of the content.
Dialectical materialism considers "form - content" as two sides of the manifestation of matter. The guiding principle is content - as invariably inherent in a thing / phenomenon. Form is a temporary state of content, manifested here and now, changeable.
Opportunity, Reality and Probability
Manifested, accomplished in the objective world event, the state of things, is reality. Opportunity is what can become reality, almost reality, but not realized.
Probability in these categories is interpreted as the chances of an opportunity to turn into reality.
It is believed that in explicit objects, real, already existing, the possibility exists in a potential, minimized form. So, reality, existing objects already contain developmental options, some possibilities, one of which will be realized. In this dialectical approach, a distinction is made - “maybe (will happen)” and “cannot be” - that which will never happen, impossibility, that is, incredible.
Necessary and random
These are epistemological categories, reflecting in the philosophy of the category of dialectics, knowledge of the causes from which flows the understandable, predictable development of events.
Accident - unintended versions of what happened, because the reasons are outside, beyond the known, are unknown. In this sense, randomness is not accidental, but not comprehended by the mind, that is, the reasons are unknown. More precisely, the external relations of the subject are attributed to the causes of the occurrence of accidents, and they are different and, accordingly, unpredictable (maybe - maybe not).
In addition to dialectic, there are other approaches to understanding the categories of "necessary - random." From such as: “Everything is determined. Causally ”(Democritus, Spinoza, Holbach, etc.), - to:“ There are no reasons and need at all. Logical and necessary in relation to the world, is the human assessment of what is happening ”(Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and others).
Reason - Consequence
These are the categories of dependent relationship of phenomena. The reason is a phenomenon that affects another phenomenon, either by changing it, or even by generating it.
The same effect (cause) can lead to different consequences, because this connection, the effect does not occur in isolation, but in the environment. And, accordingly, depending on the environment, different consequences can occur. The converse is also true - various causes can lead to one consequence.
And although the effect can never be the source of the cause, things, the carriers of the effect, can influence the source (cause). In addition, usually the effect itself becomes the cause, already for another phenomenon, and so on, and this, indirectly, can eventually touch the original source itself, which will now act as the effect.
Quality, quantity and measure
The discreteness of matter gives rise to its property such as motion. Movement, in turn, through forms manifests a variety of objects, things, but also constantly transforms things, mixing and moving them. There is a need to determine in which case a certain substance is still “the same thing”, and in which it already ceases to be. A category appears - quality - this is a set of phenomena inherent only in this subject, losing which the subject ceases to be itself, turning into something else.
Quantity - a characteristic of objects by the intensity of its qualitative properties. Intensity is a correlation of the severity of identical properties in various objects by comparison with a standard. Simply put, measurement.
Measure is the ultimate intensity, that area, within the crust, the intensity of the property does not yet change its quality as a characteristic.
Consciousness
The category of consciousness in philosophy appeared when thinkers contrasted thinking (subjective reality) with the outside world. Two really existing, parallel, but interpenetrating worlds were formed - the world of ideas and the world of things. Consciousness, thoughts, forms of objects, and much more, to which there was no place in the physical world, were "sent" to exist in an ideal (spiritual) world.
After the consciousness settled in the human brain in the form of electrochemical processes, that is, basically it became all the same material, the question arose of the relationship and / or transformation of the material (brain as a carrier of thoughts) and virtual (consciousness), as excellent from the material.
The emerging concepts suggested:
- Consciousness is a product of the work of the brain similar to the products of other organs: the heart feeds the body through the blood, the intestines process food, and the liver cleanses. The logical consequence was the dependence of consciousness of the “way of thinking” on the quality of the products (air, food, water) that enter the body.
- Consciousness is one of the phenomena of material objects in general (since the brain is their particular). The consequence is the presence of consciousness in all objects in general.
Categories of dialectics in the philosophy of consciousness have determined its subordinate place in relation to matter, as one of its properties that arise in the process of development (qualitative change of material objects). The main property of consciousness is reflection, as a recreation of the image (picture) of reality in thoughts.