The word "consciousness" is a "hello" from the Soviet past. Now they say differently - the adjective is “adequate”. That is, you ask the opinion of your friends and comrades about a person, and they say to you: "Well, he is adequate." The latter characteristic should tell a lot to those who are interested. But, oddly enough, we will not discuss the sanity of certain people today, but rather talk about consciousness.
Value
In Soviet times, when a person was called conscious, this meant that he was primarily trustworthy and legally enlightened. That is, adheres to the party line, does not violate the law and, possibly, persecutes those who do not comply with the rules of the hostel of Soviet society. But, despite the ambiguous past, consciousness is good. If we free the concept from class and other strata and read it without bias, it will come out approximately as written in the explanatory dictionary, namely:
- The same as conscious.
- Skill, ability to correctly understand the surrounding reality, to determine their behavior.
For completeness, let's also decipher the adjective "conscious":
- Possessing consciousness.
- Correctly evaluating, fully understanding the environment.
- Deliberate, perfect after reflection, deliberate.
As you can see, the meanings of the adjective can be correlated with the second meaning of the noun. And consciousness is a quality that is judged positively rather than negatively. But let's not forget that criminals do evil and injustice is also quite conscious. But the object of study, which we are considering, is still a positive concept, so it's time to give examples of consciousness.
Soviet-Russian present
Usually, everyday things are understood as consciousness, for example, a person does not litter on the street, because he understands that there will be no harm from one piece of paper, but if everyone throws it, we will drown in waste. The boy gives way to the elders, because he realizes that every year it is more and more difficult for a person to withstand the crush of public transport, and for a young body such training is only for the good. Children and adolescents participating in various volunteer programs can also be called conscious. But such examples anyway, whether we like it or not, refer us to the Soviet past and the figure of a pioneer. Clothes have changed, but the moral and ideological side is still the same. Moreover, we do not want to say that these guidelines are harmful, on the contrary, they are useful, but we need to modernize the concept of consciousness - this is necessary.
The dream of reason gives birth to monsters
Conscious can be called one who not only adheres to certain ideas or worldviews, but also understands why. In other words, a conscious person is not only and not only good, but also studying his inner content, having beliefs and reasons, the reasons why he adheres to certain views.
And if consciousness is not observed in relation to oneself, that is, the mind is sleeping, then negative habits that dictate to a person how to live can take hold of life. And we are talking here not only about dependencies, but also about various ideological trends that have not the same landmarks. Consciousness acts as a fuse and filter.
Such an interpretation does not contradict the vocabulary meaning of the word “consciousness”, but only supplements it. Before you learn how to navigate in the world around you, you need to know yourself, your strengths and weaknesses, your pros and cons. But in reality, of course, these two processes (world orientation and exploration of one’s own depths) go hand in hand. In reality, everything is mixed.