Being presupposes not only existence, but also its cause. Being can be thought of as the unity of existence and essence. It is in the concept of substance that the essential side of being is expressed. The term "substance" comes from the Latin " substantia"- the essence, that which underlies. Substance there is a self-sufficient, self-determined existence. In other words, substance is an objective reality, conceivable in terms of its internal unity, taken in relation to the opposite to all infinitely diverse forms of its manifestation. In other words, it is the ultimate foundation to which all the final forms of its manifestation are reduced. In this sense, for a substance there is nothing external, nothing outside of it, which could be the cause, the basis of its existence, therefore, it exists unconditionally, thanks only to itself, independently.
One or another understanding of substance in various models of the world is introduced as an initial postulate, representing, first of all, a materialistic or idealistic solution to the philosophical question: is matter or consciousness primary? There is also a metaphysical understanding of substance, as an unchanging beginning, and a dialectical one, as a changeable, self-developing entity. All this taken together gives us a qualitative interpretation of the substance. Quantitative interpretation of substance is possible in three forms: monism explains the diversity of the world from one beginning (Hegel, Marx), dualism from two beginnings (Descartes), pluralism from many beginnings (Democritus, Leibniz).
In subjective idealism, the substance is God, who evokes in us a set of sensations, i.e. generates life. In objective idealism, substance also underlies being, although here it is only a form of abstract thought. For materialism, essence is the interaction of those elements that make up being itself. And therefore its essence, i.e. substance is a variety of interactions within being itself. For the first time this idea was expressed by B. Spinoza, for whom the substance is the interaction that generates the whole variety of properties and states of things. In the materialistic understanding, the substantial basis of the world is matter.
The concept of " matter » was changing. It has gone through several stages in the development of philosophical thought.
1st stage is a stage visual-sensory representation of matter. It is connected, first of all, with the philosophical currents of ancient Greece (Thales used water as the basis of existence, Heraclitus - fire, Anaximenes - air, Anaximander - "apeiron", combining the opposite of hot and cold, etc.) . As you can see, certain elements of nature, which are common in people's daily lives, were considered the basis of things and the Cosmos.
2nd stage is a stage atomistic conception of matter. In this view, matter was reduced to matter, and matter to atoms. This stage is also called the “physicalist” stage, since it was based on physical analysis. It originates in the bowels of the 1st stage (the atomism of Leucippus and Democritus) and unfolds on the basis of the database of chemistry and physics in the 17th-19th centuries (Gassendi, Newton, Lomonosov, Dalton, Helvetius, Holbach, etc.). Of course, ideas about the atom in the XIX century. differed significantly from Democritus' ideas about atoms. But, nevertheless, there was continuity in the views of physicists and philosophers of different eras, and philosophical materialism had a solid support in studies of a naturalistic nature.
3rd stage associated with the crisis of natural science at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and with the formation epistemological understanding of matter: it can be called "gnoseologists
"Chemical" stage. The definition of matter in epistemological terms is as follows: matter is an objective reality that exists outside and independently of consciousness and is reflected by it. This definition began to take shape as early as Helvetius and Holbach in the 18th century, but it was fully formulated and justified by Lenin in his work Materialism and Empirio-Criticism.
4th stage- stage substantive-axiological conception of matter. Having been developed and spread around the middle of the 20th century as a reaction to the reduction of the concept of matter to only one of its properties - “objective reality” (as it was claimed by epistemologists), this idea saw in matter a system of many attributes. The origins of such a concept can be found, in particular, in the philosophy of Spinoza.
By the way, it should be noted that, according to Spinoza, such eternal properties as extension and thinking are inherent in matter (it turns out that “thinking”, i.e. consciousness, is eternal). However, the variety of attributes, their interpretation, and most importantly, the axiologism of the modern concept distinguish it from Spinozism, although a deep continuity is undeniable. In our time, the epistemological and substantial ideas about matter are the main ones that provide the necessary initial information about it.
A rather strict organization is observed in material existence, although there are also chaotic processes and random phenomena in it. Ordered systems are created from the random, chaotic, and these latter can turn into unorganized, random formations. Structurality turns out to be (in relation to disorder) the predominant, leading side of being. Structurality is an internal dismemberment, orderliness of material existence, it is a natural order of connection of elements in the composition of the whole.
The sphere of the inorganic world is represented by many structural levels. These include: submicroelementary, microelementary(this is the level of elementary particles and field interactions), nuclear, atomic, molecular, level of macroscopic bodies of various sizes, planetary level, stellar planetary, galactic, metagalactic as the highest level known to us.
Structural levels of wildlife are represented by the following level formations: level of biological macromolecules, cellular level, microorganism, level of organs and tissues, body system level, population level, as well as biocenotic and biospheric.
In social reality, too, there are many levels of structural organization of matter. Here are the levels: individual level, levels of the family, various collectives, social groups, classes, nationalities and nations, ethnic groups, states and the system of states, society as a whole.
Thus, each of the three spheres of material reality is formed from a number of specific structural levels, which are ordered and interconnected in a certain way.
Considering the structural nature of matter, we pay attention to the fact that the basis of material systems and structural levels of matter are such physical types of reality as matter and field. However, what are they?
From the point of view of modern science and philosophy substance is a physical form of matter, consisting of particles that have a rest mass. These are actually all material systems: from elementary particles to metagalactic ones.
Field - this is a material formation that connects bodies with each other and transfers actions from body to body. There is an electromagnetic field (for example, light), a gravitational field (a gravitational field), an intranuclear field that binds the particles of an atomic nucleus.
As you can see, the substance differs from the field by the so-called rest mass. Particles of light (photons) do not have this rest mass. Light cannot rest. It has no resting mass. At the same time, these types of physical reality have much in common. All particles of matter, regardless of their nature, have wave properties, and the field acts as a collective (ensemble) of particles and has mass. In 1899 P.N. Lebedev experimentally established the pressure of light on solids. This means that light cannot be considered pure energy, that light is made up of tiny particles and has mass.
Substance and field are interconnected and pass into each other under certain conditions. Thus, an electron and a positron have a material mass characteristic of material-substrate formations. Upon collision, these particles disappear, giving rise to two photons instead. And, vice versa, as follows from the experiments, photons of high energy give a pair of particles - an electron and a positron. The transformation of matter into a field is observed, for example, in the processes of burning firewood, which are accompanied by the emission of light. The transformation of the field into matter occurs when light is absorbed by plants.
Some physicists believe that during atomic decay, “matter disappears”, turns into non-material energy. In fact, matter does not disappear here, but passes from one physical state to another: the energy associated with the substance passes into the energy associated with the field. The energy itself does not disappear. All specific material systems and all levels of organization of material reality have substance and field in their structure (only in different "proportions").
Substance is a philosophical concept for designating objective reality in terms of the internal unity of all forms of its self-development. In ancient philosophy, it was interpreted as a substratum, the fundamental principle of all things (“water” Thales, etc.). In the Middle Ages, the question of substance was resolved, first of all, in a dispute about substantial forms (nominalism, realism). In constructing a general picture of being, it turns out, as it were, a pyramid, at the base of which is inanimate nature. Above it, including it, living nature is built up, and even higher - man, as a unity of the spirit, living and inanimate nature.
SUBSTANCE (lat. siibstantia - essence) - matter in the aspect of the internal unity of all forms of its self-development, the whole variety of phenomena of nature and history, including man and his consciousness, and therefore a fundamental category of scientific knowledge, theoretical reflection of the concrete (Abstract and concrete). In the history of philosophy, initially, substance is understood as the substance of which all things are composed. In the future, in search of the foundation of all that exists, they begin to consider the substance as a special designation of God (scholasticism), which leads to the dualism of soul and body. The latter is a peculiar expression of the incompatibility of theological and scientific thinking. In modern times, the most acute problem of substance was posed by Descartes. The overcoming of dualism on the paths of materialistic philosophy was carried out by Spinoza, who. considering extension and thinking as attributes of a single bodily substance, he considered it as the cause of itself. However, Spinoza failed to substantiate the internal activity, the "self-activity" of the substance. This problem was solved (albeit inconsistently) in it. classical philosophy. Already Kant understands substance as "that constant, only in relation to which it is possible to define all temporary phenomena." However, the substance is interpreted by him subjectively, as an a priori form of thinking, synthesizing experimental data. Hegel defines substance as the integrity of the inessential, the changing. transient aspects of things, in which it "reveals as their absolute negativity, i.e. as absolute power and at the same time as the richness of any content", "an essential step in the development of the idea" (human knowledge), "the basis of any further genuine development ". Connected with this is the understanding of substance at the same time as a subject, that is, as an active self-generating and self-developing principle. At the same time, Hegel considers substance idealistically, only as a moment in the development of an absolute idea. Marxist philosophy critically reworks these ideas from the point of view of materialism. substance is understood here as matter and at the same time as the “subject” of all its changes, i.e., the active cause of all its own shaping, and therefore it does not need the outside activity of a special “subject” different from it (god, spirit, ideas, “ I, consciousness, existence, etc.). In the concept of substance, matter is reflected not in the aspect of its opposite to consciousness, but from the side of the internal unity of all forms of its movement, all differences and opposites, including the opposite of being and consciousness. The anti-substantialist position in philosophy is defended by neopositivism, which declares substance to be an imaginary and therefore harmful category for science. The rejection of the category of substance, the loss of the “substantial” point of view, leads the theory onto the path of decomposition, incoherent eclecticism, the formal unification of incompatible views and positions, represents, in the words of K. Marx, the “grave of science”.
2) The problem of substance in philosophy.
The most common feature of the category of "being" is the existence inherent in any things, phenomena, processes, states of reality. However, even a simple statement of the presence of something entails new questions, the most important of which relate to the root causes of being, the presence or absence of a single, common fundamental principle of everything that exists.
In the history of philosophy, to designate such a fundamental principle that does not need anything but itself for its existence, an extremely broad category of "substance" is used (translated from Latin - essence; that which underlies). Substance appears both as a natural, "physical" basis of being, and as its supernatural, "metaphysical" beginning.
Representatives of the first philosophical schools understood the substance of which all things are composed as the fundamental principle. As a rule, the matter was reduced to the then generally accepted primary elements: earth, water, fire, air or mental structures, the primary causes - aleuron, atoms. Later, the concept of substance expanded to a certain ultimate foundation - permanent, relatively stable and existing independently of anything, to which all the diversity and variability of the perceived world was reduced. For the most part, matter, God, consciousness, idea, phlogiston, ether, etc. acted as such foundations in philosophy. The theoretical characteristics of a substance include: self-determination (defines itself, uncreated and indestructible), universality (denotes a stable, constant and absolute, independent fundamental principle), causality (includes the universal causation of all phenomena), monistic (assumes a single fundamental principle), integrity (indicates the unity of essence and existence).
Different philosophical teachings use the idea of substance in different ways, depending on how they answer the question of the unity of the world and its origin. Those of them that proceed from the priority of one substance, and, relying on it, build the rest of the picture of the world, in the diversity of its things and phenomena, are called "philosophical monism". If two substances are taken as the fundamental principle, then such a philosophical position is called dualism, if more than two - pluralism.
From the point of view of modern scientific ideas about the origin and essence of the world, as well as the struggle of different, most significant in the history of philosophy, views on the problem of the fundamental principle, two most common approaches to understanding the nature of substance should be distinguished - materialistic and idealistic.
The first approach, characterized as materialistic monism, believes that the world is one and indivisible, it is initially material, and it is materiality that underlies its unity. Spirit, consciousness, ideal in these concepts do not have a substantial nature and are derived from the material as its properties and manifestations. Such approaches in the most developed form are characteristic of representatives of the materialism of the European Enlightenment of the 18th century, K. Marx and his followers.
Idealistic monism, on the contrary, recognizes matter as a derivative of something ideal, which has eternal existence, indestructibility and the fundamental principle of any being. At the same time, objective-idealistic monism is distinguished (for example, in Plato the fundamental principle of being is eternal ideas, in medieval philosophy it is God, in Hegel it is the uncreated and self-developing "absolute idea") and subjective-idealistic monism (philosophical doctrine of D. Berkeley).
The concept of "matter" is one of the most fundamental philosophical categories. It occurs for the first time in the philosophy of Plato. The term "matter" has many definitions. Aristotle interpreted it as a pure possibility, a receptacle of forms. R. Descartes considered length to be its main attribute and inalienable property. G.V. Leibniz argued that extension is only a secondary attribute of matter, arising from the main one - force. The mechanical worldview eliminated all the attributes of matter except mass. It deduced all phenomena from motion and believed that motion could not take place without the mover, and the latter is matter.
Finally, the energy worldview explains all phenomena from the concept of energy, completely dispensing with the concept of matter. In modern physics, "matter" is the designation of some singular point of the field. In materialistic philosophy, "matter" is the cornerstone; in different schools of materialism it takes on different meanings.
The concept of "matter" one of the most fundamental philosophical categories. The term “matter” has many definitions, but perhaps the most capacious and concise is the one that is entrenched in Marxist philosophy, where the concept of matter is defined as a philosophical category to denote the objective reality that is given to a person in his sensations, which is copied, photographed, displayed our senses, existing independently of them.
At the heart of modern scientific ideas about the structure of matter lies the idea of its complex systemic organization. Any object of the material world can be considered as a system, that is, a special integrity, which is characterized by the presence of elements and connections between them.
Basic structural levels of matter: Orderliness of matter has its own levels, each of which is characterized by a special system of regularities and its carrier. The main structural levels of matter are as follows. Submicroelementary level - a hypothetical form of existence of field nature matter, from which elementary particles are born (microelementary level), then nuclei are formed (nuclear level), atoms arise from nuclei and electrons (atomic level), and from them molecules (molecular level), from molecules form aggregates - gaseous, liquid, solid bodies (macroscopic level). Formed bodies embrace stars with their satellites, planets with their satellites, stellar systems, their enclosing metagalaxies. And so on ad infinitum (cosmic level).
In addition to the matter condensed in the form of celestial bodies, there is diffuse matter in the Universe. It exists in the form of separated atoms and molecules, as well as in the form of giant clouds of gas and dust of various densities. All this, together with radiation, constitutes that boundless world ocean of rarefied matter, in which, as it were, celestial bodies float. Cosmic bodies and systems do not exist from time immemorial in their present form. They are formed as a result of the condensation of nebulae that previously filled vast spaces. Consequently, cosmic bodies arise from the material environment as a result of the internal laws of motion of matter itself.
Any molecule is also a system that consists of atoms and a certain connection between them: the nuclei of atoms that make up the molecule, like the same (positive) charges, obey the forces of electrostatic repulsion, but common electron shells form around them, which, as it were, pull these nuclei together, without letting them scatter in space. An atom is also a systemic whole - it consists of a nucleus and electron shells located at certain distances from the nucleus. The nucleus of each atom, in turn, has an internal structure. In the simplest case, the hydrogen atom
Yes - the nucleus consists of one particle - a proton. The nuclei of more complex atoms are formed by the interaction of protons and neutrons, which inside the nucleus constantly turn into each other and form special wholes - nucleons, particles that are part of the time in the proton state, and part in the neutron state. Finally, both the proton and the neutron are complex formations. They can distinguish specific elements - quarks, which interact by exchanging other particles - gluons (from Latin gluten - glue), as if "gluing" quarks. Protons, neutrons and other particles, which physics combines into the group of hadrons (heavy particles), exist due to quark-gluon interactions.
Studying living nature, we also come across the systemic organization of matter. Complex systems are both a cell and organisms built from cells; an integral system is the whole sphere of life on Earth - the biosphere, which exists due to the interaction of its parts: microorganisms, flora, fauna, man with his transformative activity. The biosphere can be considered as an integral object, like an atom, a molecule, etc., where there are certain elements and connections between them.
Material systems always interact with the external environment. Some properties, relations and connections of elements in this interaction change, but the main connections can be preserved, and this is a condition for the existence of the system as a whole. The preserved connections act as an invariant, that is, stable, not changing with system variations. These stable connections and relationships between the elements of the system form its structure. In other words, the system is the elements and their structure.
Any object of the material world is unique and not identical to another. But for all the uniqueness and dissimilarity of objects, certain groups of them have common structural features. For example, there is a very large variety of atoms, but they are all arranged according to the same type - an atom must have a nucleus and an electron shell. A huge variety of molecules - from the simplest hydrogen molecule to complex protein molecules - have common structural features: the nuclei of the atoms that form the molecule are pulled together by common electron shells. It is possible to find common signs of structure in various macrobodies, in the cells from which living organisms are built, and so on. The presence of common features of the organization allows you to combine various objects into classes of material systems. These classes are often called levels of organization of matter or types of matter.
All types of matter are genetically linked, that is, each of them develops from the other. The structure of matter can be represented as a certain hierarchy of these levels.
Ontological problems in philosophy
1. Being as an object of philosophical research. The main approaches to understanding being in the history of philosophy
2. The problem of substance in philosophy
3. Levels and types of being
4. Matter, motion, space, time: correlation of these categories
5. The ideal sphere of being. The problem of consciousness
Being as an object of philosophical research. Basic approaches to understanding being in the history of philosophy.
Philosophy seeks to comprehend the world in its entirety. Arguing that the world exists, that it exists "here" and "now", that with all the changes that take place in nature and society, the world is preserved, as a relatively stable whole, we approach the formulation of the problem of being. Being is studied in ontology - a fundamental philosophical discipline.
There are several approaches to understanding life:
1) Being is everything that exists in one way or another.
2) Being is everything only truly existing (for example, in materialism, empirical objects are recognized as truly existing, in most theological concepts, only God is endowed with true existence).
3) Being is an indication of the process of existence itself (for example, everything that exists has being).
The discovery of the category of being belongs to the representatives of the Eleatic school (Parmenides), who believed that being is an eternal, unchanging, always equal existence to itself. Democritus (c. 460 - c. 370 BC) considered an infinite collection of atoms as being. Heraclitus considered being as changeable and continuously becoming. Plato contrasted the world of sensible things with the world of ideas - the world of true, genuine being. Based on the principle of the relationship between matter and form, Aristotle overcomes this opposition and builds a doctrine about the various levels of being (from the sensual to the intelligible). Medieval philosophy contrasted divine being and created being, while distinguishing, following Aristotle, actual being (act) and possible being (potency). The departure from this position begins in the Renaissance, when the cult of material existence - nature - was recognized. In the concepts of the 17th-18th centuries. being is seen as a reality opposed to man. From this arises the interpretation of being as an object opposed to the subject. At the same time, being was considered as a reality subject to the action of the laws of mechanics. The doctrines of being in modern times were characterized by a substantial approach, when a substance (an indestructible, unchanging substratum of being, its ultimate foundation) and its accidents (properties) is fixed. For the European naturalistic philosophy of that time, being is objectively existing, opposing and coming to knowledge. Being is limited by nature, the world of natural bodies, and the spiritual world does not have the status of being. Along with this line, identifying being with physical reality and excluding consciousness from being, a different way of interpreting being is being formed in modern European philosophy, in which it is determined on the path of an epistemological analysis of consciousness and self-consciousness. It is presented in the original thesis of Descartes' metaphysics - "I think, therefore I am", in Berkeley's subjective-idealistic identification of existence and givenness in perception ("To exist is to be perceived"). This interpretation of being found its completion in German classical idealism. For Kant, being is not a property of things; being is a universally valid way of connecting our concepts and judgments, and the difference between natural and morally free being lies in the difference in the forms of legalization. For natural being, this form is causality; for morally free being, it is the goal. Hegel reduced human spiritual existence to logical thought. The concept of being for him turns out to be extremely poor and, in fact, negatively defined (being as something absolutely indefinite, direct, qualityless), which is explained by the desire to derive being from acts of self-consciousness, from an epistemological analysis of consciousness. The idealistic attitude - to understand being, based on the analysis of consciousness, is also characteristic of Western philosophy of the late 19th - 20th centuries. In the philosophy of existentialism, being in oneself is opposed to being for oneself, material and human being are distinguished. The main characteristic of human existence, in existentialism, is the free choice of possibilities. In neopositivism, the radical criticism of the former ontology and its substantialism leads to the denial of the very problem of being, interpreted as a metaphysical pseudo-problem. Dialectical materialism defines being as an objective reality that exists outside and independently of human consciousness. Although this direction recognizes the irreducibility of being only to the material world, highlighting social being and the being of the individual, all these forms of being are characterized by a common feature - independence from consciousness. The same sign (independence from consciousness) is recognized by dialectical materialism as an attribute of matter. Thus, in this direction, the categories of being and matter actually coincide.
Summarizing the consideration of the historical development of ontological problems, we can make conclusion that the problem of being before German classical philosophy was not a problem of what existence itself , but the problem is what truly exists . In German classical philosophy and after it, the problem of what is truly existing became the main problem. in man and what properties and features of a person and his consciousness make it possible to find the path to true existence.
The problem of substance in philosophy
Being presupposes not only existence, but also its cause. In other words, being is the unity of existence and essence. It is in the concept of substance that the essential side of being is expressed.
Substance(lat. Substantia - essence, something underlying), can be defined as an objective reality, considered from the side of its internal unity, as the ultimate foundation that allows reducing sensory diversity and variability of properties to something constant, relatively stable and independently existing. Spinoza defined substance as the cause of itself.
substrate(lat. Substratum - base, bedding) - the general material basis of phenomena; a set of relatively simple, qualitatively elementary material formations, the interaction of which determines the properties of the system or process under consideration. The concept of substrate is close to the concept of substance, which has traditionally been regarded as the absolute substrate of all changes.
The Greek philosophers of the Milesian school, and after them Heraclitus, Pythagoras and others, came to the conclusion that there is a material from which all things consist, which was called substance much later. According to Thales, everything consists of water, according to Anaximenes - from air, according to Heraclitus - from fire. Despite the naivety of these provisions, they contained productive moments. Firstly, these considerations led to the conclusion that there are no eternal things, but there is something underlying them, i.e. the material of which everything in the world consists, the substance of the world. Secondly, the first philosophers realized that there is a big difference between how things, phenomena and processes that we observe look like, and what they really are. Anaximander believed that at the heart of the world rests an indefinite, material principle - apeiron. Pythagoras and his followers considered the number to be such a beginning. Thus, these thinkers formulated an important philosophical principle - the principle of elementarity. It says that all things are reduced to certain elements (one or more). The concept of “substance” that arose then was such an element.
Thus, the Greek natural philosophers considered substance, i.e. the basis of the sensually perceived world, various physical elements with special qualities. The movement, connection and separation of elements give rise to all the visible diversity in the Universe. In contrast, the idealists, above all Plato and his followers, believed that the substance of the world is formed by ideas. Aristotle identified substance with the "first essence" or form, characterizing it as the basis, inseparable from the thing. Aristotle's interpretation of form as the root cause that determines the certainty of an object served as the source of not only the distinction between spiritual and bodily substance, but also the dispute about the so-called substantial forms, which permeated all medieval scholasticism.
In the philosophy of modern times stand out two lines of substance analysis: ontological and epistemological.
First- goes back to the philosophy of F. Bacon, who identified the substance with the form of concrete things. Descartes countered this qualitative interpretation of substance with the doctrine of two substances: material and spiritual. At the same time, the material is characterized by extension, and the spiritual - by thinking. However dualistic position Descartes discovered an enormous difficulty: it was necessary to explain the apparent coherence of material and bodily processes in man. Descartes proposed a compromise solution, which is that neither the body itself can cause changes in the soul, nor the soul as such is capable of producing any bodily changes. However, the body can still influence the direction of mental processes, just as the soul can influence the direction of bodily processes. Descartes even pointed to the pineal gland as the place where the bodily and spiritual principles of the human personality touched. Spinoza tried to overcome the contradictions of dualism in explaining the relationship of these substances on the basis of pantheistic monism. For Spinoza, thinking and extension are not two substances, but two attributes of a single substance (God or nature). In total, the substance has an innumerable set of attributes, however, the number of attributes open to man is only two (extension and thinking). Leibniz in his monadology distinguished many simple and indivisible substances ( position of pluralism), possessing independence, activity, perceptibility and aspiration.
Second line analysis of substance (epistemological understanding of this problem) is connected with understanding the possibility and necessity of the concept of substance for scientific knowledge. It was started by Locke in his analysis of substance as one of the complex ideas and criticism of the empirically inductive justification of the idea of substance. Berkeley generally denied the concept of material substance, allowing only the existence of a spiritual substance - God. Hume, rejecting the existence of both material and spiritual substance, saw in the idea of substance only a hypothetical association of perceptions into a certain integrity inherent in ordinary, and not scientific knowledge. Kant, developing an epistemological analysis of the concept of substance, pointed out the necessity of this concept for the scientific and theoretical explanation of phenomena. The category of substance, according to Kant, is an a priori form of reason, a condition for the possibility of any synthetic unity of perceptions, i.e. experience. Hegel discovered the internal inconsistency of substance, its self-development.
Modern Western philosophy is mainly characterized by a negative attitude towards the category of substance and its role in cognition. In neopositivism, the concept of substance is seen as a relic of ordinary consciousness that has penetrated into science, as an unjustified way of doubling the world and naturalizing perception. Along with this line of interpretation of the concept of substance, there are a number of areas of idealistic philosophy that retain the traditional interpretation of substance (for example, neo-Thomism).
In dialectical materialism, substance is identified with matter. The attributive characteristics of matter (such of its properties, without which it does not exist) in this direction are structural, motion, space and time. Defining matter (substance) in this way, dialectical materialism assumes its endless development and its inexhaustibility.
This or that understanding of substance in the models of the world is introduced as an initial postulate, representing, first of all, a materialistic or idealistic solution of the ontological side of the main question of philosophy: is matter or consciousness primary? Distinguish the same metaphysical understanding of substance as an unchanging beginning, and dialectical - as a changeable, self-developing entity. All this taken together gives us a qualitative interpretation of the substance.
In the idealistic understanding, the substantial basis of the world is the spiritual essence (God, the Absolute Idea - in objective idealism; human consciousness - in the subjective).
In the materialistic understanding, the substantial basis of the world is matter.
The quantitative interpretation of substance is possible in three forms: monism explains the diversity of the world from one beginning (Spinoza, Hegel, etc.), dualism - from two beginnings (Descartes), pluralism - from many beginnings (Democritus, Leibniz).
Levels and types of being
Being as a reality is multifaceted, extremely complex in structure. Depending on the bases, there are various spheres, levels and kinds of being. For example, one can consider being as a unity of such spheres:
1. Material and objective existence . This is the world of sensually perceived objects that affect consciousness, thinking through the senses. Here being is presented as a world of sensory images in its concrete-objective expression. This is the world of things, specific situations, the world of activity to create objects, primarily in the labor, economic, and everyday spheres of life. In materialistic philosophy it is the world of matter, objective reality.
2. Objective-spiritual being . This is the spiritual life of a person in his sociality: the world of thoughts, scientific theories, knowledge, the world of spiritual values, the world of philosophy, the world of emotions, experiences, the world of relationships, etc., which really exist as a universal culture, as a public consciousness, as the mentality of a particular nation , society.
3. Socio-historical being . It includes both material and spiritual elements of being. These are real relations in historical time: reforms, revolutions, wars, "resettlement" of peoples, change of power and forms of state, appearance and disappearance of new countries, cities, civilizations, etc. on the map.
4. Subjective-personal being . It also includes material and spiritual elements, but this is the life activity of a specific individual with his unique individual experience, specific personal manifestations of being that occur only with this person, and thus already differ from the general course of life.
It is possible to structure being according to the difference in the ways of functioning and forms of reflection: inanimate, living nature and society, biosphere and noosphere.
According to the forms of movement: mechanical, physical, chemical, biological, social (classification by F. Engels).
According to the systemic nature of interactions: mega world, macro world, micro world (universe, galaxies, star systems, planets, objects, matter, molecules, atoms, nuclei, elementary particles, fields, etc.).
From a philosophical point of view, several more gradations can be distinguished in the structure of being:
· "Being Itself" (objective being), irrespective of our consciousness, basic, and therefore primary.
· "Being for Us" (subjective being). This is the being that we ourselves construct, the picture of the world in which we exist and with which, in fact, we interact. "Being in itself" corresponds with the concept of eternity, and "being for us" - with the concept of temporality, finitude, limitation in space and time.
Also, being is different, as real being , actual, actual, present, manifested (it can be certified in any way), and how - being potential , possible, not yet manifested (it can only be predicted, assumed). Being as an act and potency (Aristotle, Spinoza).
· Being true (semantic, essential) - the "world of ideas" in Plato, God in religious ontology, the Absolute Idea in Hegel, etc. and untrue being (seeming, visible) - being according to , being meaningless.
In the history of philosophy, the extremely broad category of ʼʼsubstanceʼʼ is used to designate the fundamental principle. Substance appears both as a natural, ʼʼphysicalʼʼ foundation of being, and as a ᴇᴦο supernatural, ʼʼmetaphysicalʼʼ principle.
Representatives of the first philosophical schools understood the substance of which all things are composed as the fundamental principle. As a rule, the matter was reduced to the then generally accepted primary elements - earth, water, fire, air, or the primary causes - apeiron, atoms. Later, the concept of substance expanded to some kind of ultimate foundation - permanent, relatively stable and existing independently of anything. For the most part, such foundations in philosophy were matter, god, consciousness, idea, etc. The theoretical characteristics of a substance include ˸ self-determination (defines itself), universality (denotes a constant fundamental principle), causality (includes the universal causation of all phenomena), monism (assumes a single fundamental principle), integrity (indicates the unity of essence).
Different philosophical teachings use the idea of substance in different ways, based on how they answer the question of the unity of the world and ᴇᴦο origin. Those of them that proceed from the priority of some kind of substance, and, relying on it, build the rest of the picture of the world, are called ʼʼphilosophical monismʼʼ. If two substances are taken as the fundamental principle, then such a philosophical position is called dualism, if more than two - pluralism.
From the point of view of modern scientific ideas on the problem of the fundamental principle, two most common approaches to understanding the nature of substance should be distinguished - materialistic and idealistic.
The first approach, characterized as materialistic monism, believes that the world is one and indivisible, it is initially material, and it is materiality that underlies the ᴇᴦο of unity. Spirit, consciousness, ideal in these concepts do not have a substantial nature and are derived from the material as ᴇᴦο properties and manifestations.
Idealistic monism, on the contrary, recognizes matter as a derivative of something ideal, which has eternal existence, indestructibility and the fundamental principle of any being.
The problem of substance in philosophy. - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "The problem of substance in philosophy." 2015, 2017-2018.
Considering the concept of "being" as a fundamental philosophical category, from which a person's knowledge of the world around him and himself begins, we have identified the most common feature of this category - existence, which is inherent in any things, phenomena, processes, ... .
One of the main problems of modern philosophy was the problem of substance. Substance is “objective reality, considered from the side of its internal unity ..; the ultimate foundation, which makes it possible to reduce the sensory diversity and variability of properties ... .
One of the main problems of modern philosophy was the problem of substance. Substance is “objective reality, considered from the side of its internal unity ..; the ultimate foundation, which makes it possible to reduce the sensory diversity and variability of properties ... .
(PROBLEM OF SUBSTANCE IN THE TEACHINGS OF SPINOSA AND LEIBNIZ). Benedict Spinoza. (materialist) - (1632 - 1677). Born in Amsterdam to a Jewish family. S.'s acquaintance with the ideas of Dec. led to a break with Judaism. S. was excommunicated from the community and was forced to live among sectarians and earn his own ....
The first and general sign of being is existence. But what is its root cause, hell's fundamental principle? To designate such a fundamental principle in the history of philosophy, the category of substance was used (from the Latin substantia - essence, that which lies at the base). Under ... [read more] .
SUBSTANCE (lat. substantia - essence, something underlying) is a philosophical concept of the classical tradition to designate objective reality in terms of the internal unity of all forms of its self-development. S. is unchanged in contrast to changing properties and states: it is that ... .
The understanding of substance is the key question of philosophy. Substance in philosophy is considered as matter from which everything in the Universe is created. It is immutable and exists on its own. It defines itself, and does not need the influence of an external force. This is an objective reality that takes concrete forms and embodies its unity.
Problems of definition
A clear definition of substance is an unresolved problem in philosophy. It is impossible to find one definition for this concept. Since it is a single primary principle of the entire universe, it cannot be divided into separate elements. It consists of all objects, including material (physical bodies) and intangible (soul, feelings, thoughts).
To define a substance, it is necessary to highlight the common features of objects and come to an attribute - the principle of operation of the substance. One of the philosophical approaches proposes to consider attributes as a hierarchical system, each of the elements of which affects the substance independently of each other.
The history of the concept
Substance is one of the first definitions that arose in philosophy. It denotes the essence - that which underlies the universe.
- Ancient philosophy: the substance is understood as a substratum. It is the fundamental principle of which the objects of the material and non-material world are composed.
- Patristics: God is a separate kind of substratum, different from other entities. They were created by God, therefore they have qualities similar to Him, but they cannot become like Him.
- Scholasticism: under the essence, first of all, they consider the possibility (potential). It is opposed to reality (actuality).
- Middle Ages: in the Middle Ages, the focus is not on matter itself, but on its forms: nominalism and.
- New time: several separate views stand out. In the ontological sense, it is perceived as the ultimate foundation. It is also considered as the central category of metaphysics: it is identified with God and Nature. Substance is one or acquires the attribute of plurality.
- Romanticism: substance merges with the concept of essence, and is almost excluded from the epistemological field of activity.
In modern philosophy, substance is a universal definition.
Different periods of development of philosophical thought
Translated from Latin, the term "substance" literally means: basis, essence. In philosophy, it is a key category of thinking. It is used as a designation of all things, a single beginning. Substratum in philosophy is a concept close to substance. It refers to the material - what everything is made of. It simultaneously means the fundamental principle of everything, the unity and uniformity of all objects, phenomena and processes.
According to a specific concept, already in ancient philosophy, several classifications of the fundamental principle were distinguished. Thales, Heraclitus and Democritus understand matter as an element: fire, water, earth and air, as well as atoms. Pythagoras and Plato name non-material definitions as a substance: spirit, thoughts. According to Descartes, everything is based on dualism: thinking and material. Leibniz and Popper admit pluralism - plurality.
Representatives of the Milesian school, Anaximander and Anaximenes, were the founders of the formation of a philosophical approach to finding answers to the questions of being. Anaximander owns the idea of the infinity of the worlds. The substance that makes up the universe, he called iperon. According to Anaximander, the whole cannot change, but its individual parts do. Anaximenes believed that the beginning of everything is air - an infinite light matter that affects the processes that occur with things.
Aristotle, the creator of the scientific approach in philosophy, called the substance the basis, inseparable from every thing. He developed the concept of the structure of the world, in which there were separate categories that were subject to a hierarchy.
In a simplified form, the concept had three categories:
- substance;
- condition;
- relation.
According to Aristotle, the form of an object determines its essence. Subsequently, from this idea developed the need to divide the origin into corporeal and spiritual.
Thomas Aquinas divided everything that exists into substance and accident. By accident, he understood physical signs: weight, size, shape. They define the substance - the inner essence of the object.
In philosophy, the concept of substance was considered from two points of view. believed that the substance is associated with the form of concrete things, it is the basis of being. Descartes interpreted it as an exclusively metaphysical phenomenon. A separate species is the soul, only man is endowed with it, and he, unlike animals, is close to God. God is the main substance (spiritual), and everything else is material, created by him.
Spinoza explained the relationship of the parts of matter on the basis of pantheistic monism. Thinking and extension in his view are not separate types of substance, but two attributes of a single substance. Leibniz continued his idea, but he considered God not as part of the corporeal world, but as a separate category rising above it.
Considered the substance through epistemological analysis. He believed that she was something that could change internally. Philosophy needs the concept of substance to explain phenomena, so it cannot be removed from the scientific and theoretical approach. Western philosophy has a negative attitude to this concept in philosophy: it is regarded as an extra element that has penetrated into science as an unnecessary way of doubling the world.
Matter in philosophy
Observing the surrounding world, philosophers were surprised to note some regularities in all processes without exception. They found that some properties of things do not change, but processes are constantly repeated. Philosophers called the ability of things to retain their basis primordial matter. Representatives of different schools had their own views on nature, but they agreed that all substances consist of heterogeneous matter. Already in the 5th century BC. e. a theory that suggested the existence of atoms.
In the 19th century, the theory of atoms found more and more evidence. Thanks to the development of physics, it became possible to demonstrate the existence of microparticles. It was found that the atom has its own structure: electrons. The study of atoms prompted philosophy to search for new ways of understanding the structure of matter.
Philosophers are divided. Some believed that what is tangible can be attributed to the material. But some phenomena cannot be perceived through the senses. A new definition of matter appeared, as a substance without physical properties. Someone represented it as a set of electrons, someone - as a complex of sensations or energy.
Indestructibility is the main attribute of matter. Matter changes, but it does not disappear without a trace and does not decrease. When it starts to move, the energy accumulates and goes into another state. Any object exists only in relation to other objects. Each element of matter influences the others. It has its causes of action and leads to a consequence.
Different views on matter served to divide philosophers into idealists and materialists. The former believe that the world comes from a spiritual principle, the latter rely on the material, as the only manifestation of the surrounding world.
The structure of matter
The structure of matter is discontinuous and inhomogeneous. Its particles have a different size and structure. The composition of matter includes:
- atoms;
- molecules;
- radicals;
- colloidal particles;
- macromolecules;
- complexes.
There is opposition in the structure of matter. All its particles have wave properties. Each wave field is a collection of particles.
Structural levels of matter:
- submicroelementary;
- microelementary;
- nuclear;
- atomic;
- molecular;
- macroscopic;
- space;
- organic;
- biological;
- social;
- metasocial.
In addition to the matter of which cosmic bodies are composed, there is diffuse matter. It consists of separated atoms and clouds of gas. Cosmic bodies, which have a higher density, move freely in diffuse matter.
The origin of life in space occurred as a result of the complication of matter. Gradually, substances at the molecular level of development led to the formation of the simplest organic compounds. They became more complicated until they moved to the biological level - the precellular form of protein existence. From the protein, cells were formed that spread over the entire surface of the Earth. Unicellular organisms evolved, transformed into multicellular animals. The pinnacle of evolution is man - the highest primate.
Scientists admit the existence of another level of development of matter - space civilization. Intellectually, she is equal to or superior to a human. The search for opportunities for contacts with extraterrestrial civilizations is the task of modern science.
