Materialism and idealism in philosophy

The categories of the ideal and the material are used in various sciences, not only in philosophy. However, materialism and idealism in philosophy are the main issue. The ratio of these two philosophical categories is a complex issue, around which disputes do not subside.

The concepts of materialism and idealism in philosophy have always been. Leibniz GV, a representative of German philosophy, wrote that the greatest materialist was Epicurus, and the idealist was Plato.

The problem of the ideal in philosophy as material worried scientists since the beginning of time.

Changing and renewing, the views on materialism and idealism in philosophy do not have a static state.

In the classical sciences, the traditional was attributing the material to everything natural, that is, the material, and the ideal - to the spiritual, inner world of man, his consciousness.

Modern science believes that this distribution is rather limited, because the ideal and the material are the two natural beginnings.

However, the classical definition, known to us today, was introduced by Schlegel F. representative of German classical philosophy of the 19th century.

Materialism and idealism in philosophy are not identical in their manifestations, on the basis of this, one can single out their various forms.

Forms of Materialism

The materialism of Ancient Greece and the Ancient East , in which the objects of the material world, of nature were viewed in themselves in independence from consciousness - this is the so-called initial form of materialism. Representatives of this philosophy include Democritus, Thales, Heraclitus and others

Mechanistic (metaphysical) materialism , which became widespread in Europe in the New Age. At this time materialism begins to be viewed from the point of view of nature. And all the materialism of a given time is reduced to a mechanical movement of the forms of matter. Representatives of this time are Galileo, J. Locke, Bacon and others.

Forms of idealism

Just like materialism, idealism has several forms, from which two main ones can be distinguished.

Objective idealism asserts that the spirit, the idea, God in no way depends on either matter or the consciousness of man. The philosophers who thought so - Plato, Hegel, as well as F. Aquinas.

Subjective idealism holds to the point of view that everything depends on a person's consciousness, that is, looks the way his person sees it. A bright representative of this direction is J. Berkeley.

The most extreme point of this direction is reflected in solipsism (from Latin solus - one, single and ipse - itself). Philosophers of this direction believe that one can confidently assert about reliability only about their "I" and their emotions.

Forms of Materialism

The materialism of Ancient Greece and the Ancient East, in which the objects of the material world, of nature were viewed in themselves in independence from consciousness - this is the so-called initial form of materialism. Representatives of this philosophy include Democritus, Thales, Heraclitus and others

Mechanistic (metaphysical) materialism, which became widespread in Europe in the New Age. At this time materialism begins to be viewed from the point of view of nature. And all the materialism of a given time is reduced to a mechanical movement of the forms of matter. Representatives of this time are Galileo, J. Locke, Bacon and others.

Dialectical materialism in philosophy, created by K. Marx and F. Engels, based on the philosophy of Hegel. They believed that the most important thing in Hegel's philosophy is the assertion that people's thinking and activities are not of any final character. And also the statement that truth is not some dogma, but a process of historical path in the development of knowledge.

For the philosophy of dialectical materialism there is nothing fixed and permanent. On all lies the seal of destruction and birth, in a constant and continuous movement from the bottom up, from the lower to the higher.

Dialectical materialism took as the basis categories of Hegel's philosophy, but completely rethought and changed the essence. If the Hegelian philosophy spoke of the development of the Absolute Spirit, dialectical materialism speaks of various processes that take place in the material and spiritual world. And the idea was understood not as a demigur as in Hegel, but as a reflection of being and the surrounding world by man.