moral ideal and other concepts of moral consciousness. Moral ideal and reality. Purpose of the moral ideal. Ideal and antihero. Correlation between moral and social ideal
Above, we examined a number of fundamental concepts of moral consciousness, the content of which constitutes, one might say, the basis of moral culture. But specific person in his Everyday life, in a variety of, sometimes conflict situations, not abstract, abstract representations are needed, but specific example behavior, an example to follow, a clear guide for action.
In the most generalized form, such a clear example is expressed in a moral ideal, which, one might say, is a concretization for given historical, cultural, social conditions of ideas about good and evil, justice, duty, happiness, the meaning of life, and other concepts of morality. In reality, the ideal is either a living historical figure(most often idealized), or rather, its lacquered image - starting from Alexander the Great and ending with Lenin, Sakharov and other outstanding figures of our time, poets, artists, etc. All the necessary moral qualities are often attributed to this image, if they are lacking and life is made according to ... Dzerzhinsky, Matrosov, etc. As real incarnation the ideal is often the hero of a literary work. In the past, and partly today, there were many imitators of Pechorin, Bazarov, Rakhmetov, Korchagin, etc. The list of these "living" and fictitious ideals can be continued indefinitely. However, it is important to emphasize that a person, especially a young person, has an urgent need for a worthy, authoritative ideal, which to a certain extent determines both the content of the moral values of a particular person and the technology for their implementation. Therefore, it is quite reasonable to conclude: what is a person's ideal, such is he himself (with certain reservations).
Of course, one must be aware that the ideal by its nature is something not only sublime, but also unattainable. As soon as an ideal lands, becomes feasible, it immediately ceases to play its functions - a "beacon", a landmark. However, the ideal should not be completely unattainable, an alien from other worlds. In this case, he is not able to stimulate the activity of the individual, because whatever he undertakes, everything will be in vain. It is no coincidence that Jesus Christ - the embodiment of moral perfection for Christians - is a God-man, i.e. it contains both divine nature, inaccessible to mere mortals, and human nature. The Christian ideal, say Orthodox theologians, is expressed not by a one-sided emphasis on the divine principle. They remind that Jesus Christ was born in a simple family of a carpenter, that he specifically helped the suffering and destitute, condemned the evil, etc.
But the real moral life of a person consists not only of goodness, justice, happiness, decency and nobility. There is a lot of evil, injustice, shamelessness, etc. in the world. The focus of the moral negative is expressed in a kind of anti-ideals, in anti-heroes, etc. They are both specific historical figures, from Herostratus to Hitler, and numerous heroes of the works of Gogol, Saltykov-Shchedrin, T. Bulgakov and others. Moreover, in this case, real historical persons, or rather their images, are most often attributed to only negative traits. Apparently, in order to make this anti-ideal more effective. It must be admitted that anti-ideals can also play a positive role: they clearly, in their own way convincingly show how not to feel, think, act, i.e. they turn away evil.
Since the time of Plato, attempts have been made to create schemes for an ideal society (state), to construct various utopias (as well as anti-utopias). But it is worth remembering that social ideals can count on their present, and not on a temporary embodiment, if they are based on eternal moral values, if they are consistent with moral ideals.
In our life we often use the word "ideal". But do we think about its meaning? Let's look into dictionary. A synonym for the word ideal is the word "perfection". If you describe the meaning, it turns out that this is the highest point that a person can reach in his development. A person can have ideal beauty, character. But these are all external manifestations.
Interpretation of the term
After doing a little research, we could not find a consensus on the question "what are ideals?". The definition is completely different and ambiguous.
The problem is that for each person who lives in a particular society, the interpretation of the term "ideal" is unique. A person follows his ideas, which are embedded in his subconscious. For some, these are the ideals of external beauty, and for some, these are spiritual ideals. But you can not treat them as a static phenomenon. For example, in childhood may be the ideals of a prince or princess. They will have certain character traits, appearance.
As the child grows, these ideals begin to change. This is what needs to be taken quite seriously. Many children take for ideals images that are not ideals at all. Especially serious are the ideals that teenagers define for themselves. For example, an action hero who breaks the law. Following his ideal can lead the child to the fact that he himself repeats the fate of his idol.
Sometimes the ideal is chosen successful person. By following his advice, you can achieve success in business yourself. The older generation considers veterans, heroes who saved their homeland and thousands of lives, as an ideal and role model. But each person perceives ideals in his own way. Because everyone has their own value system.
Ideal Examples
Description of the ideal can be found in fiction, painting, architecture. But the problem is that in different era a certain stereotype was taken as the highest point of perfection. The moral ideal can be external or internal. In works of literature, one can find many examples of how a person who has external beauty, such as Helen in War and Peace, can be far from ideal in terms of his spiritual content. Thus, we are unlikely to find a unified point of view about what ideals are.
The concept of the ideal from the point of view of philosophy
The question of what ideals are has been of interest to people since ancient times. Today, the concept of morality and culture is gradually losing its meaning. In the minds of an adult, not to mention children, there is a real confusion of the most different cultures and values. At the same time, society cannot develop normally if there are no lofty goals and ideals. The concept of a moral ideal is present in the Orthodox religion, on which the culture of Ancient Russia was built. Children, in those days, were brought up in accordance with the idea of the dogmas of the Orthodox Church.
Later, many philosophers, such as Lomonosov, studied ideals from their own points of view. It was their ideas that were laid in the system of raising children. The concept of the ideal can be found in the works of Kant, Pestalozze, Ushinsky. The system of spiritual values is embedded in many works fiction. But the point is that in different time When asked what ideals are, people answered differently. Every culture has its own values.
About moral ideals
If we analyze the concept from a philosophical point of view, we can find a division. There is an ideal, which is defined as the highest point, value, a certain system of moral concepts. In which the moral ideal is a system based on moral requirements. Their combination forms a certain image of a person's personality. There are certain characteristics.
- From the point of view of the spiritual and moral system of values, ideals are a model worthy of imitation. In this regard, examples can be given from fiction and spiritual literature. Many heroes have a number of characteristics that allow us to draw conclusions about their moral qualities.
- Throughout human evolution, the concept of "moral ideal" has been constantly changing. Yes, in Ancient Greece, according to Aristotle, the ideal from a moral point of view was the ability of self-contemplation. A person had to renounce ordinary worldly life in order to achieve the highest point of perfection. Kant believed that the moral ideal is determined inner world person.
In order to perform actions that are worthy of an ideal personality, one must be guided by certain rules. One way or another, but for every philosopher and psychologist there is a concept of what ideals are.
Human cultural values
Man lives in society. This or that society, if we consider it as a society, lives in accordance with its own rules, traditions, which are also called culture. Man cannot exist without a definite purpose. It is culture that puts forward certain goals for the individual. This is not a scientific definition. Science reveals the causes that exist in certain time periods. The goals that a person sets for himself make it possible to predict the future. It is determined by the actions of the individual.
In the animal world there is no system of values that makes up the definition of what the ideals of culture are. But it exists in human society. Moreover, the goals that a person sets for himself are largely determined by culture. The culture of a society is based on traditions. It develops at the genetic level. That is, it is passed down from generation to generation. Society poses a difficult task for a person - to preserve culture. Throughout the evolution of mankind, there have been a large number of different cultures. There was Chinese, Egyptian, Old Russian. Each of them took care to pass on their value system to the next generation.
The ideal human life
From all of the above, we can say that each person has his own system of values. Each person sets himself certain goals. Achieving them, a person realizes his ideal of life.
For one, the ideal in life is a family, for another, material values. Each of us has our own ideal of life. Everyone makes an effort to achieve it. To do this, he sets goals for himself. This is very important, it is the goal that motivates a person to develop in the direction he needs.
Is it possible to achieve the ideal
If we consider the ideal as a goal to strive for, then we can turn to psychology. Much here depends on the answer to the question, what are the ideals of a person, as well as on his person. If there is a desire, then the goal set for oneself can be achieved. What is needed for this? First of all, you need to determine for yourself what exactly you need to achieve. It could be the perfect family, or the perfect job. After that, on a piece of paper, you should make a plan for yourself.
Secondly, it is important to determine for yourself the time frame for which the task should be achieved. Do not immediately plan your actions for several years in advance. It may be a short period of time for which you can achieve certain results that will bring the realization of the goal closer.
It is very important to find the right motivation or reason for yourself. You need to support yourself with positive thoughts. Very often there are obstacles in the way of achieving your ideal. Do not forget that without them it is impossible to achieve the goal. You need to treat them right. It is important to get out of your comfort zone.
Finally
Having considered the question of what human ideals are, we can draw conclusions. In pursuit of material values, one should not forget about morality and spirituality. The basis of moral values is laid down in many religions. There should be a system that is based on culture. The soul must come first. It is the development of spiritual qualities that should be taken care of in the first place. Then the life of society can become ideal.
focus, organizational center and at the same time a form of morality. Each of them exists as a pole of dual opposition: the liberal ideal is traditional, the conciliar ideal is an authoritarian ideal, etc.
A special place is occupied by hybrid ideals. in particular, pseudo-syncretism.
The poles of opposition are in a state of ambivalence among themselves. One of the ideals at a certain stage can be dominant, while the other is relegated to the background, perhaps even a form of catacomb culture.
Polarities can pass into each other according to the laws of inversion, i.e. through a logically instantaneous change of one pole by another. The mediation that exists in the background, which requires an ambivalent transition, an interpenetration of the poles, puts pressure on the inversion. Within each global period, stages arise, which turns it into a global modified inversion cycle. At each stage, its own specific version of the dominant N. and., homogeneous N. and.
correspond to similar stages of another global period. Each version of the dominant N. and. characterized by a new consensus and can be seen as a ripple stage. Emergence of each new dominating N. and. usually marked by a certain increase in social energy, strengthening of discipline, some improvement in economic indicators, a decrease in outright slovenliness, etc. This wave of N. and. reaches its apogee, but its utopian nature as a program for organizing society is gradually revealed, it turns out that its arrival was actually a departure from one pre-catastrophic state, from one threshold and a transition to another threshold, a pre-catastrophic state.
as a result, its weakening begins, the growth of disorganization in society, the growth of an uncomfortable state; inversion falling of the dominating N. and.
leads to domination of new N. and. Within the framework of each global modified inversion cycle, as long as there is an established relationship between inversion and mediation, there may be seven stages, seven versions of the dominant moral N. and.
Basic N. and. countries, i.e., the veche and the conciliar and authoritarian that emerged from it, as well as the ideal of universal consent, arise in an abstract form as elements of mass inversion, carrying the illusion that all urgent problems of society will be automatically resolved when the domination of the existing N.
and. and asserting the opposite. This utopia leads society into an inversion trap, which becomes apparent after the start of modernization.
The movement of the inversion wave requires from all groups of society and, first of all, from the first person, from the ruling elite, constant work on the interpretation of the new N. and., which is expressed in the corresponding shifts in the hybrid ideal, in ideology, in concrete politics, which is the direct result of this interpretations, in the daily solution of the mediation problem. The conflict of this - interpretation with mass consciousness can lead to catastrophic consequences.
When studying each N. and., the variety of its versions great importance has the identification in it of a certain socio-cultural core that gives impetus to the ideal. Such a core can be, for example, a local ancient community: a patriarchal family, clan, etc., the ideal image of which can be extrapolated to the whole society, to some extent identified with the ideal of a machine civilization and become the basis of the ideal of a community - a society - a machine . This ideal dominated in one form or another in the early stages of the second global period. In some cases, ideally, some cultural utopia of the kingdom of God on earth, the kingdom of Truth, prevails, in others, on the contrary, an attempt is made to highlight some realities, for example, in local worlds of the middle level, i.e., a feudal-type fiefdom (stage of stagnation) , self-management at the enterprises which should dictate N.'s content and. in general, etc. However, an appeal to real social relations can be no less a utopia than to the realm of Truth, since these relations themselves may either not fit into a large society, or themselves be the result of previous violations of the sociocultural law, represent a pathological the result of past inversion traps (for example, industrial enterprise, which developed as a technological, but not as an economic phenomenon; the collective farm as a compromise between the desire of the state to streamline the "liquid element" and to establish production, etc.
A moral ideal is a process built on the perception of moral requirements through a certain image of a person. It is shaped by a number of characteristics. Further in the article we will analyze in more detail the concept of "moral ideals" (their examples will be given below). What can they be? What are the goals?
General information
Spiritual and moral ideals of the individual serve Society imposes on people certain requirements of moral behavior. Its bearer is precisely moral ideals. The image of a morally highly developed personality embodies those positive traits, which serve as a standard of relations and behavior between people. It is these characteristics that make a person in particular and society as a whole improve their moral character, and therefore develop.
Attitude of scientists
Ideals and different times differed from each other. Many famous thinkers and poets raised this topic in their works. For Aristotle, the moral ideal consisted in self-contemplation, knowledge of the truth and renunciation of worldly affairs. According to Kant, inside any person there is a "perfect person". The moral ideal is the instruction for his actions. This is a kind of internal compass that brings a person closer to perfection, but at the same time does not make perfect. Each philosopher, scientist, theologian had his own image and his own understanding of the moral ideal.
Target
Moral ideals undoubtedly contribute to the self-education of the individual. A person, by an effort of will and understanding that the goal must be achieved, strives to achieve and conquer the heights of the moral plane. Moral ideals are the basis on which norms are further formed. All this happens on the basis of interests in human life. The life situation in which a person lives is also important. For example, during the war years, moral ideals were focused on the image of a courageous, valiant man who owns weapons, but uses them only to protect his land and his relatives.
Impact on the development of society
The understanding of the moral ideal has spread to the whole society. A person dreams of seeing himself in a society that will be built on humane and fair principles. In this case, the ideal is the image of such a society in which it is possible to express the interests of certain social groups, their concepts of higher justice and the social order that would be the best.
The moral indicators of the social ideal consist of the equal distribution of life's blessings among the members of society, the correlation between human rights and duties. The highly moral elements include the abilities of the individual, his place in life, contribution to public life and the amount received in return for it. Moral ideals determine positive indicators of life and the ability to achieve a happy existence. In striving for perfection, which is the ultimate goal of all efforts, man and society must use only highly moral means.
Lenin considered moral ideals to be the "moral highest", combining positive characteristics. In his opinion, they represented everything necessary for people and were a model for society. From the moral properties, evaluated on the highest scale, the content of the ideal is built. Consciousness raises to superlatives those highly moral features, qualities, attitudes of people that are valid and real in their essence. Society and the individual strive to realize moral values. Each member of the society should think adequately and correctly, be able to build relationships and interact. The ideal is accompanied by certain positive emotional manifestations. These include, in particular, admiration, approval, the desire to be better. All this is a strong stimulant that makes a person strive for self-education and self-development. There are several types of ideal: regressive and reactionary, real and utopian. The content of moral qualities has changed in the course of history. The ideals of the past, due to their illusory nature and isolation from reality, not aimed at the activity of an individual, remained inaccessible. Even the essence of progressive highly moral indicators was taken as a basis for subjective wishes, without realizing the impartiality of the law and the ways to achieve it.
Influence of modernity
In the days of the communist system, moral ideals were called upon to serve the formation and strengthening of the existing system. An indicator of the high morality of modern society is a harmoniously developed personality. It is distinguished by the pursuit of moral perfection. Society imposes certain moral requirements on its members. Together they form a model of a fully developed personality. Constantly enriched, replenished with something new, they reflect the development of the moral practice of socialist society. The society of the times of socialism puts in the first place the culture of the individual, an active citizenship, a sense of non-divergence of word and deed, honesty.
The moral ideals of our time are active and efficient, connected with the needs of society. They acquire real outlines in the socialist interaction of members of society. modernity are active in the areas of self-improvement and self-development. Plekhanov said that more active person strives to achieve a social ideal, the higher he becomes morally. But even in socialist times, highly moral indicators, not coinciding with reality, go one step ahead. They set certain goals for a person, consisting in constant movement, a continuous process of development. Increasing the social activity of the individual, improving social practice and moral education - all this in combination will resolve the contradictions that have arisen between reality and the moral ideal.
(from Greek idea - view, image, representation, concept; English ideal, moral; German Ideal, sittliches; French ideal moral; Czech ideal mravni)
1. An unattainable archetype that can never become reality.
2. The concept of moral consciousness, in which the moral requirements imposed on people are expressed in the form of an image of a morally perfect personality, an idea of a person who embodies all the highest moral qualities (virtues).
3. People's idea of a perfect personality, embodying the best moral qualities and being a role model, a standard of behavior, a goal towards which human efforts should be directed.
4. The idea of moral perfection, the highest moral standard.
5. Ideas of moral perfection, most often expressed in the image of a person who embodied such moral qualities that can serve as the highest moral model.
6. Focus, organizational center and at the same time a form of morality.
Explanations:
At the heart of the Moral Ideal lies the dissatisfaction of people with their lives, the desire to make it better, happier through moral self-improvement or the transformation of existing reality.
The content of the moral ideals of the past is changeable. They contained universal human values and always embodied certain needs and aspirations of people living in different historical eras expressed their dissatisfaction with the moral vices that exist in a society of social injustice. Moral ideals reflected the social and economic position of the class, corresponded to its criterion of morality and the social ideal.
In world culture, attempts have been repeatedly made to develop a moral Ideal - from the first codes of ethics that arose in antiquity to the "moral code of the builder of communism." However, not all of them were supported by practice, they did not always receive public recognition.
In some cases, some cultural utopia of the kingdom of God on earth, the kingdom of Truth, prevailed in the Moral Ideal; patrimony of the feudal type (stage of stagnation), self-government at enterprises, which should dictate the content of the moral ideal as a whole, etc.
However, an appeal to real social relations can be no less a utopia than to the realm of Truth, since these relations themselves may either not fit into a large society, or themselves be the result of previous violations of the sociocultural law, represent a pathological result of past inversion traps (for example, industrial an enterprise that has developed as a technological, but not as an economic phenomenon, the collective farm as a compromise between the state's desire to streamline the "liquid element" and establish production, etc.).
The "Builders of Communism" put forward the idea of a comprehensively developed and harmonious personality as a moral Ideal.
The concept of the moral ideal is more complex than the concepts of norms and moral quality. Unlike moral standards, which determine the behavior of people in everyday life situations, the Ideal indicates the ultimate goal of moral education and self-education of a person, gives him the highest model to which he should strive.
Usually the moral ideal also contains universal human values.
The moral ideal sets the model of behavior in the majority life situations and includes the aspect of comparison (good and evil).
Perhaps a greater approximation to the moral ideal is the goal of moral education.
In the process of individual upbringing and self-education of a person, the concept of the moral Ideal can play a decisive role. Young people often take some genuine or literary hero as a model, follow the example of a person who is a moral authority for them.
