Materialism and idealism - everything is simple

Everyone knows that in philosophy there is a rather wide spectrum of various worldview concepts. Egg or chicken? What was the first really? It is this question, only slightly differently formulated, from all sides studying materialism and idealism. Naturally, in this case we are talking about consciousness and matter, about their direct relationship and about the primacy. And such a dichotomy, of course, can make anyone in their point of view doubt. Even today, when these worldviews are indicated, one can find supporters of both philosophical currents. And in order to understand what is the essence of these directions, it is enough to understand the fact that some believe in one thing and others in another. Based on the kind of worldview you are inclined to, you can determine the features of your perception of the world around you.

Materialism and its essence

Despite the fact that materialism and idealism are opposite worldviews, provided there is no one of them, it would be very difficult to decide on the personal attitude to the question of primacy, material, ideal and other philosophical categories. In the context of the historicism of society, the circumstances developed in such a way that people were forced to believe that matter was primary all the same. And it's hard to argue, because a person has to take certain actions. And, for example, if you take any mental process (it does not matter what you choose: memory, attention, thinking) - it will be quite obvious that if there is no brain (which is quite material), then there will not be these processes. Consequently, from the point of view of materialism, consciousness is nothing but a product of the activity of the nervous system.

In this sense, mechanistic materialism began to spread actively, which reduces everything to banal mechanics and its laws, to various natural processes, including biological, chemical, mental and other. But there always remained a category of scientists who had a completely different point of view, denying materialism. And idealism has become the opposite worldview.

Fundamentals of an Ideal Worldview

This direction became absolutely opposite to all features of materialism. In the opinion of the representatives of this trend, all material is secondary. Initially, representatives such as Plato, Aquinas Thomas, and later Hegel, began to say that any ideal beginning can not in any way depend on the material and some matter in particular. This was objective idealism, replaced by a subjective, the main idea of which was still the relationship of human consciousness with the outside world, its relations and basic properties. Later, Fichte's subjective idealism supplemented this worldview by constructing a system of the active essence of man. In fact, Fichte introduced the concepts of "I" and "not I", where "I" are specific acts of self-knowledge, including will and action. But "not I" is the whole surrounding world, which you can only know with the help of the "pure self." Consequently, in the context of idealism, something more intangible was more important, which, naturally, was criticized.

The basic ideas of these worldview trends are quite understandable. Each of them has certain arguments and theories, much less the right to exist. Moreover, if you personally communicate with any supporter of one of the currents, it becomes clear that everyone is convinced precisely in the correctness of the theory on which it is based. Consequently, materialism and idealism will always be opposing currents, and to determine which of them is more adequate, useful or believable certainly will not succeed in anyone. After all, no matter how much time has passed, the question of the chicken and eggs will remain, and with it the question of the material and the non-material, their primacy and interaction will not disappear.