Lecture 6. Being. Basic forms of being

 

1. Ontology and category of being;

2. Basic forms of being.

 

1. Ontology (Latin "ontologia" from the ancient Greek word "ontos" is existence and “logos” is the doctrine, science) is the doctrine of the fundamental principles of existence of being, that is, nature, society, man. The basic question of ontology: what exists? The formation of philosophy began precisely with the study of problems of being. The main subject of ontology is being, which is defined as the completeness and unity of all kinds of reality: objective, physical, subjective, social and virtual.

The category of being is the verbal concept, that is formed from the verb "to be". What does it mean to be? To be is to exist. All the objects that surround us, for all their dissimilarity, unite the common property - they are, they exist, they have some being. Being is the most common property of all things. Being embraces all that really exists in nature, in society, in cogitation. Thus, the category of being is the most general concept, the most general abstraction, which unites the most diverse objects, phenomena, states, processes by the general feature of existence. Synonyms of the concept of being can be such concepts as reality, world, substance.

In Being two types of realities are distinguished: objective and subjective. Objective reality is all that exists outside and independently of the human consciousness. Subjective reality is all that belongs to a person and can not exist outside of it (this is the world of mental states, the world of consciousness, the spiritual world of man). Thus, being is an objective and subjective reality in its totality.

Modern philosophy considers being as a single system, all parts of which are interrelated and represent some kind of integrity, unity. Ontology, therefore, is an attempt at a more general description of the universe of the existing one, which would not be limited to the data of individual sciences and, perhaps, would not be reduced to them.

When clarifying the essence of being, philosophers faced the search for an answer to a question that many philosophers consider the main question of philosophy: what is the basis of the world? What is contained in all objects and phenomena of the world, i.e. what substance (from Latin substantia - the first principle, essence) is the real basis of all objects and phenomena: matter or consciousness? Proceeding from the way philosophers solved this question, two main directions appeared - materialism and idealism.

 

2. Basic forms of being. The consideration of being as a system makes it possible to distinguish its various levels and sublevels, different structures, patterns that can be known.

Being as a cumulative reality exists in the basic four forms: the being of nature, the being of man, the being of the spiritual, the being of the social.

1. The being of nature. In this case, the first and second nature are distinguished.

 

- The first nature is the being of nature, which existed before the appearance of man: the biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, etc. Being of the first nature is the first form of reality. It is the result of a long evolution. The first nature is organized in a systematic way. The basis of the being of nature is material substance, or matter.

 

- The second nature. It is the being of things and processes created by man or nature transformed by man. This includes tools of labor of varying complexity, industry, power engineering, cities, furniture, clothing, artificially derived species of plants and animals, etc. The second nature depends on the first nature, but, being produced by people, it embodies the unity of natural material, certain spiritual knowledge, the activities of specific individuals and social functions.

 

2. The being of man. In this form stands out: the being of man in the world of things and his own human being.

- The being of man in the world of things. Here a person is regarded as a physical and biological object, subject to the laws of physics, chemistry and biology.

- Own human being. Here a person is no longer regarded as an object, but as a subject that obeys not only the laws of nature, but also exists as a social and spiritual-moral human being.

The being of each concrete person is the interaction of, first, the thinking and feeling "thing" as the unity of natural and spiritual being, secondly, the individual taken at this stage of the evolution of the world together with the world, and, thirdly, as a socio- historical human being. Its specificity is manifested, for example, in that: without a normal functioning in a person of his spiritual-psychic structure, a person as an entity is not fully functional; a healthy, normally functioning body is a necessary prerequisite for spiritual, mental activity; human activity, bodily actions of a person depend on social motivation.

 

3. Being of the spiritual is the sphere of the ideal, the consciousness of man and his unconscious, in which one can distinguish:

- Individualized spiritual. This is a personal consciousness, especially individual processes of consciousness and unconscious of each person.

- Objective spiritual. This is a supra-individual spiritual. This is all that is the property of not only an individual, but also society, that is, this is the social memory of culture, which is stored in language, books, paintings, sculpture, etc. This includes various forms of social consciousness (philosophy, religion, art, morality, science, etc.), it closely associated with being social, at its level repeats and reproduces the structure of society. Spiritual being is characterized by spiritual activity, spiritual production and spiritual culture. Strengthening the interaction of all forms of spiritual life with production, practice (astronautics, bioengineering, etc.). New information technologies and communications have made spiritual being more dynamic, mobile.

 

4. Being of the social, which is divided into:

- The being of an individual as a social subject, the carrier of social relations and qualities in public life and in the progress of history.

- The being of society itself. It covers the whole aggregate of the life activity of society, including the material and production and spiritual sphere, the diversity of cultural and civilizational processes.

Being of the social is based on the economic life of society. The economy acts as a material and practical activity of society; production of material goods that satisfy human needs, as well as those relationships that people enter into in the process of this production. The social life of society is closely connected with the economy with the main social institutions and structurally organized social groups of various orders. Structure of being of the social or society: individual, family, labour collective, social groups, classes, ethnic groups, nations, states, humanity. The political sphere of society is closely connected with the economy and social structure, which includes the state, public and political organizations, parties, social movements.