Dialectical materialism, its categories, their contents are brief. Basic ideas and provisions of dialectical materialism

Dialectical materialism was based on the achievements of advanced practice and theory. This is the doctrine of the most general provisions The development and movement of consciousness, nature and society continuously developed and enriched along with the progress of science and technology. This philosophy views consciousness as a social, highly organized form. The dialectical materialism of Marx and Engels considers matter to be the only basis of the whole world, while recognizing the existence of a universal interconnection of phenomena and objects in the world. This teaching represents the highest result of the entire previous history of the formation

Marx's dialectical materialism arose in the 19th century, in the forties. At that time, in order to wage the struggle of the proletariat for the social liberation of itself as a class, knowledge of the laws of social development was necessary. The study of these laws was not possible without philosophy to explain historical events. The founders of the doctrine - Marx and Engels - subjected deep processing Hegel's teaching. Having analyzed everything that was formed before them in philosophy, social reality Having assimilated all the positive conclusions, thinkers created a qualitatively new worldview. It was this that became the philosophical basis in the doctrine of scientific communism and in the practice of the revolutionary movement of the proletariat. Dialectical materialism was developed in sharp ideological opposition to various views of a bourgeois nature.

On the nature of the emerging worldview of Marx and Engels big influence influenced by the ideas of followers of the bourgeois trend (Ricardo, Smith and others), the work of utopian socialists (Owen, Saint-Simon, Fourier and others), as well as the French historians Mignet, Guizot, Thierry and others. Dialectical materialism also developed under the influence of the achievements of natural science.

The teaching extended to understanding social history, substantiating the significance of social practice in the development of humanity and its consciousness.

Dialectical materialism made it possible to clarify the fundamental nature of the world and social existence, and to materialistically resolve the issue of the active influence of consciousness. The doctrine contributed to the consideration of social reality not only as an object opposed to man, but also in the form of his specific historical activity. Thus, materialist dialectics overcame the abstractness in contemplation that was characteristic of previous teachings.

The new teaching was able to theoretically substantiate and practically implement a conscious complex of practice, and dialectics, deriving theory from practice, subordinated it to revolutionary ideas about transforming the world. Characteristics philosophical teaching are a person’s orientation towards achieving the future and exclusively scientific prediction of upcoming events.

The fundamental difference between the doctrine of dialectical materialism was the ability of this worldview to penetrate the masses and be realized by them. The idea itself develops in accordance with the historical practice of the people. Thus, philosophy directed the proletariat to transform the existing society and form a new, communist one.

Lenin's theoretical activity is considered a new, highest stage in development dialectical materialism. Development of a theory about social revolution, the idea of ​​a union of workers and peasants was most closely connected with the defense of philosophy from the onslaught of bourgeois ideology.

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Dialectical materialism- the worldview of the Marxist party, the teachings of Marx and Engels, later developed by Lenin and Stalin. The philosophy of Marx and Engels is characterized by the fact that its method of studying natural phenomena, human society and thinking is dialectical, anti-metaphysical, and ideas about the world and philosophical theory itself are consistent scientific-materialist.

The dialectical method and philosophical materialism mutually penetrate each other, are in inextricable unity and constitute an integral philosophical worldview. Having created dialectical materialism, Marx and Engels extended it to the knowledge of social phenomena. Historical materialism was the greatest achievement of scientific thought. Dialectical and historical materialism constituted theoretical foundation of communism, theoretical basis marxist party .

Dialectical materialism arose in 40s of the XIX century as integral component theory of proletarian socialism and developed in inextricable connection with the practice of the revolutionary labor movement. Its emergence marked a real revolution in the history of human thought, in the history of philosophy. This was a revolutionary leap in the development of philosophy from an old state to a new state, which laid the foundation for a new, scientific worldview.

This revolution included continuity, a critical reworking of everything advanced and progressive that had already been achieved in the history of human thought. Therefore, when developing their philosophical worldview, Marx and Engels relied on all the valuable acquisitions of human thought. All the best that philosophy created in the past was critically revised by Marx and Engels. Marx and Engels considered their dialectical materialism to be a product of the development of sciences, including philosophy, over the previous period. From dialectics Hegel they took only its “rational grain”. Materialism Feuerbach was inconsistent, metaphysical, ahistorical. Marx and Engels took from Feuerbach’s materialism only its “basic grain” and, discarding the idealistic and religious-ethical layers of his philosophy, developed materialism further, creating the highest, Marxist form of materialism. Marx and Engels, and then Lenin and Stalin, applied the principles of dialectical materialism to the politics and tactics of the working class, to the practical activities of the Marxist party.

After Marx and Engels, the greatest theoretician of Marxism, V. I. Lenin, and after I. V. Stalin and other disciples of Lenin were the only Marxists who moved Marxism forward. Lenin in his book "Materialism and empirio-criticism", defended the enormous theoretical wealth of Marxist philosophy. Lenin not only defended dialectical materialism, but also developed it further. He summarized the latest achievements of science for the period after the death of Engels and showed natural science the way out of the dead end into which it had been led idealistic philosophy. Huge contribution The works of J.V. Stalin contributed to the further development of Marxist philosophy “On dialectical and historical materialism”, “Marxism and issues of linguistics”, “ Economic problems socialism in the USSR" and his other works.

The constituent, inseparable parts of dialectical materialism are Marxist dialectical method And Marxist philosophical materialism. Dialectics provides a scientific method of cognition that allows one to objectively approach phenomena and see the most general laws that govern their development. Marxist dialectics teaches that the correct approach to the phenomena and processes of nature and society means taking them in their connection and mutual conditionality; consider them in development and change; understand development not as simple quantitative growth, but as a process in which quantitative changes at a certain stage naturally turn into fundamental qualitative changes; proceed from the fact that the internal content of development and the transition from the old quality to the new is the struggle of opposites, the struggle between the new and the old. Lenin and Stalin called dialectics "soul of Marxism".

Marxist dialectics is organically connected with Marxist philosophical materialism. The basic principles of philosophical materialism are the following: the world is material in nature, it consists of moving matter, transforming from one form to another, matter is primary, and consciousness is secondary, consciousness is a product of highly organized matter, the objective world is knowable and our sensations, ideas, concepts are reflections of what exists regardless human consciousness outside world. Dialectical materialism first created scientific theory of knowledge , which is invaluable for understanding the process of cognition of objective truth.

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Dialectical materialism.
- 04/11/07

[Unlike other information sources, this article provides previously poorly disclosed methodological and some critical aspects of dialectical materialism. Many provisions deserve detail, but for the first article their presentation, in our opinion, is quite sufficient.]

Dialectical materialism is a specialized philosophical movement based on the (only) rational-materialist use of dialectics. This, on the one hand, determines the effectiveness of this direction in solving specific material issues of the development of nature and society, but, on the other hand, causes limitations, incl. its essentiality, in particular, dooms dialectical materialism to oblivion when the proletariat leaves the historical scene. A significant problem for dialectical materialism was the loss Marx's dialectical method in the USSR epistemological source and internal content. Perhaps dialectical materialism could be developed, which would require changing a number of its principles and principles, which does not contradict the views of K. Marx and V.I. Lenin, but this did not happen: dialectical materialism was dogmatized and sank into oblivion...

The emergence of dialectical materialism meant a revolutionary revolution in the history of the development of human thought. In a certain sense, he was qualitatively new philosophy, more precisely - the philosophical direction defined in XIX V. 1) historical events, first of all, the struggle of antagonistic classes, 2) the development of philosophy and sciences, 3) existing (utopian) ideas about the change of capitalism and 4) a new set of formative principles, primarily dialectical epistemological approaches, but in conjunction with a materialistic understanding of nature and stories.
An essential factor in the emergence of dialectical materialism was that in the first half XIX V. The revolutionary movement expanded, and its center moved to Germany. Moreover, public understanding of the developing situation was strong. In this case, one should take into account the development of the radical bourgeoisie and the formation of its views, incl. based on the views of the Young Hegelians ( left wing followers of Hegel's philosophy), to whom K. Marx joined. But K. Marx did not support the idealistic views of the Young Hegelians; moreover, he came to the conclusion that the course of the life of society is determined by the material interests of classes. In the articles of the "German-French Yearbooks" K. Marx defined the proletariat as the only force that can carry out a revolutionary transformation, and in fact the principles of dialectical materialism. In the article “Toward a Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Law,” it was already determined that no ideas can by themselves free a person from social slavery; only material force can overthrow the material foundations of capitalism and, most importantly, that theory can become material force when it takes over the masses. Although... this conclusion was known long before Hegel and Marx...
In the formation of Marx’s views, one might say, dialectical materialism, there was a sharp criticism of Hegel (but based on the play of the concepts of “idea” and “consciousness,” which was appropriate due to the advancement of new principles; cm. "Economic and philosophical manuscripts of 1844" K. Marx), Feuerbach and other thinkers of that time. The work “The Holy Family” was indicative, in which a historical retrospective of materialist and idealistic knowledge was given, and also a sharp critique of capitalism and the immorality of the contemporary elite of Marx was carried out.
Dialectical materialism, as a new worldview, was most clearly presented in the “Manifesto of the Communist Party.” According to Lenin, this work outlined a new worldview, 1) consistent materialism, covering the region social life, 2) dialectics, as the most profound and comprehensive doctrine of development, and 3) the world-historical revolutionary role of the proletariat (as well as the theory class struggle and other provisions).
Dialectical materialism was significantly developed in the works of V.I. Lenin, for example, such as “Materialism and Empirio-criticism” and “Imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism”. On its basis, great discoveries were made, for example, about the uneven development of capitalist countries...

[If users wish, then aspects of using V.I. Lenin’s dialectical materialism in the scientific knowledge of the world and the solution of pressing problems will be presented separately.]

Dialectical materialism is based on the basic principles dialectical method Marx:
1. universal connection and interdependence of phenomena - no phenomena exist outside of a natural connection,
2. movement, change, development and renewal of nature and society,
3. the transition of quantitative changes into qualitative transformations, the struggle between old and new,
4. struggle of opposites, incl. as the source and internal content of any development process.
Marx's dialectical method."]

Dialectical materialism has fundamental principles materialist theory of knowledge:
1. materiality of the world,
2. the primacy of matter and the secondary nature of consciousness,
3. knowability of the world.
[Criticism of these provisions when applied in a narrow, rational-materialistic approach is given in the article “ Materialistic theory of knowledge."]

Dialectical materialism is characterized by a number of groupable aspects, of which we will indicate the following (the rest will not be covered in this short article for reasons of its considerable increase and instrumentalization):
A. methodological aspects.
In particular, the subject (understanding) of philosophy was changed: claims to its understanding as a science of sciences were rejected (which corresponds to the ideas of the philosophy of Hegel and The latest philosophy , but for other reasons and in other planes). The subjective rational-materialist use of dialectics was approved. Dialectical materialism has become an instrument of knowledge, a method that permeates all sciences;
B. social aspects.
The materialistic approach was defined and extended to the area of ​​social phenomena, to the lives of individuals and the whole society. Another thing is that such an approach is particular, cannot be considered the only and most general, but it, as a particular one, should have been and appeared thanks to dialectical materialism;
B. class aspects.
Dialectical materialism is characterized by a connection with a specific class - the proletariat. This, on the one hand, gives it practical force, but, on the other hand, it is weak point, for with the disappearance of this class dialectical materialism itself loses its social basis;
D. aspect of theoretical development.
Dialectical materialism was formed as a creative and developing theory (another thing is that it was perverted in the USSR). The next thing from this is the deep connection of dialectical materialism with history, scientific discoveries and society, which distinguished it favorably from other, essentially conservative or too general, impractical theories and movements.

Dialectical materialism turned out to be fundamentally important for understanding the material development of the world, the discovery of political and economic laws of social development, the substantiation of the negativity of capitalism and the possibility of a transition to socialism based on the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Essential is the obvious antagonism of dialectical materialism to idealistic and reactionary philosophical and scientific positions and movements, for example., such as agnosticism, positivism, empirio-criticism, as well as social and political positions and trends, for example., such as opportunism and revisionism.
But due to its limitations, dialectical materialism turned out to be lifeless, dogmatized and turned into Soviet dialectical materialism . And maybe And due to ideological degradation social sciences in USSR.
In any case, dialectical materialism did not leave a theoretical heir, so in Russia in the 90s they began to talk about philosophy in general, about epistemology, about foreign philosophizing...
What turned out to be significant was the running in place of Russian philosophy and the degeneration of philosophy...

Addition.
Teachings of K. Marx, V.I. Lenin and dialectical materialism are not only not dialectical teachings, but are also opposite to the dialectical teaching - dialectical philosophy (the dialectical philosophy of Hegel and modern dialectical philosophy).

Continuation: "Soviet dialectical materialism".

See also "

LECTURE 3.2. BASIC APPROACHES TO THE PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN PHILOSOPHY. THE PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN VARIOUS PHILOSOPHICAL TEACHINGS (IDEALISM, HYLOZOISM, PANPSYCHISM AND DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM). BASIC PRINCIPLES OF MODERN MATERIALISM. BASIC APPROACHES TO THE PROBLEM OF CONSCIOUSNESS. ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS.

An attempt to solve the problem of consciousness in the history of philosophy was initially accompanied by opposition: materialism - idealism, dialectics - metaphysics, natural science - religion. Everything, ultimately, depends on how certain thinkers solve the question of nature, the essence of the world. Objective idealism “separates” consciousness from matter, from nature, endows it with a supernatural essence, essentially deifies consciousness. We can say that some representatives of subjective idealism also “severed” consciousness from matter.

Materialism approaches the problem of consciousness from the position of materialistic monism, believing that matter and being are primary, and consciousness is secondary, that consciousness is derived from matter and is a property of matter. However, this property itself was understood differently in the teachings of materialists. For example, some of them believed that consciousness is a property of all matter, including inanimate matter. This view is called hylozoism (from Greek gilo - substance, soi - life). Representatives of hylozoism were the Dutch philosopher Benedict Spinoza (1632-1677) and the French materialist Denis Diderot. (1713-1784), etc.

Panpsychism takes a similar position (from the Greek pan - everything and psyche - soul).

Panpsychism - This is the doctrine of the universal animation of nature. According to this teaching, all things are animate, have life and psyche. The same applies to the world as a whole, in which supposedly there is nothing dead, not endowed with life and consciousness.

Dialectical materialism (matter and consciousness.)

Dialectical materialism also solves the problem of consciousness in its relationship with matter.

First, based on data natural sciences, he claims that the direct carrier of consciousness, the psyche, is the brain, i.e. a very definite material formation.

Secondly, as data from specific sciences show, sensations, ideas, thoughts, consciousness are based on such material processes in the human brain as electrochemical, biophysical, biochemical, bioelectrical, physiological, etc.

Thirdly, dialectical materialism considers consciousness as a reflection of the objective world, things, phenomena, processes, their connections, properties, relationships. In other words, dialectical materialism denies the “independent” existence of consciousness, not related to matter. From the point of view of dialectical materialism, consciousness is a function of the brain, which consists in reflecting the world. Therefore, in this it is extremely brief definition the two most important ones are underlined important aspects: firstly, that consciousness is a property of the brain, and not all matter, and secondly, that consciousness in its content is a reflection of the world.

However, the inseparability of matter and consciousness does not mean their identity. Matter and consciousness really exist. But these are different realities.

Matter - it is an objective reality that exists outside and independently of the consciousness of man and humanity.

Consciousness - subjective reality that exists in a person’s head, in his perceptions, ideas, thoughts, as a reflection of objective reality.

Matter, its types, levels are a sensually perceived, physical reality, a material prototype, consciousness is an ideal image, an ideal copy of the material, an ideal reality. The subject of thought and the thought about the subject are not the same thing. The ideal image does not have any material signs and properties (physical, chemical, biological, etc.). For example, the image of a needle does not stab, the image of water does not quench thirst, the image of fire does not burn, the image of a knife does not cut. This alone shows the inconsistency of the views of vulgar materialists, who believed that the brain secretes thought in the same way as the liver secretes bile, the stomach secretes gastric juice, etc. It is characteristic that a person does not feel what physiological processes occur in his brain when an ideal image arises, and the image itself is recognized by both man and animal as existing outside of us, outside the head or sense organ, otherwise, as Feuerbach noted, the cat would not rush on the mouse, but scratched her own eyes.

Matter and consciousness, material and ideal are opposites, but their opposition is not absolute, but relative, in the sense that it is limited. Their opposition is permissible only within the framework of clarifying the question of the essence and nature of the world. Beyond this question, the opposition between matter and consciousness is relative.

So, consciousness, from the position of dialectical materialism, is the essence of reflection in human head natural and social phenomena. But reflection is also inherent in animals. The entire psyche is generally reflective in nature. However, even highly organized animals have a psyche, elementary thinking, but do not have consciousness.

Human reflection as opposed to animal reflection:

· selectively and purposefully;

· not only sensually and figuratively, but also conceptually and figuratively;

generalizes and possesses high degree abstractness;

· is a product of socio-historical activity, labor;

· regulates human activity and behavior;

· actively and expediently influences the world;

· reflects the past and looks to the future in the form of programming and choice of means to achieve goals;

· necessarily connected with language, expressed in articulate speech;

· also aimed at reflecting oneself, one’s own being, one’s own spiritual world person.

The problem of consciousness today remains one of the most difficult and mysterious, since consciousness does not exist as a separate object or thing. Some Western researchers say that consciousness is a kind of fiction that does not have any special features. Consciousness is a “nothing” phenomenon about which nothing specific can be said.

Today, a strange situation has arisen when, in theoretical terms, the question of the specificity of consciousness is called into question, when the conviction in the irrationality of the phenomena of consciousness is growing, and in the practice of studying consciousness, on the contrary, objective methods are widely used, consciousness is spoken of as linguistic consciousness, as behavior, as about brain (neurophysiological) processes. All this indicates various variations in the interpretation of consciousness.

Consciousness appears as a universal human ability to acquire knowledge, transform it, store it in memory, reproduce it again, provide value and regulatory orientations of people, communicate, exchange experience, transfer experience from one generation to another, stimulate Creative skills person. Consciousness instantly connects and correlates everything that a person saw, heard, felt and experienced.

Based on all this, we can give the following definition of consciousness: consciousness is the highest function of the brain, peculiar only to humans and associated with speech, which consists in the purposeful, meaningful and generalized reflection of reality in the form of ideal images, in its creative transformation, in the reasonable regulation of human behavior and its relationship with nature and the social environment. This definition reflects the basic principles of modern materialism in the understanding of consciousness:

· in consciousness there is nothing above natural and supernatural;

· consciousness is not inherent in all matter, but only in such a highly organized particle as the human brain;

· consciousness is an ideal image of the objective world, and this does not allow it to be identified with matter, as vulgar materialists did;

· consciousness is derivative, secondary in relation to matter;

· consciousness is active-creative, and not passive-contemplative;

· the concept of “consciousness” is narrower than the concept of “psyche”, including the human psyche, because the way a person reflects the world is called consciousness because a person relates to the world with understanding, with knowledge. The integral characteristic of consciousness is ideality.

The development of forms of reflection of matter is considered as a genetic prerequisite for the emergence of consciousness.

The property of reflection is of a universal nature, i.e. it is inherent in all matter. Consciousness is the result of the development of previous forms of reflection. From here it is clear that consciousness is something natural, natural, and not supernatural, inexplicable.

Consciousness is a social product - historical development, a functional property of the brain, an ideal reflection of reality, a regulator of human activity. Four aspects of the relationship of consciousness to matter are fixed: historical, ontological, epistemological and praxeological, activity.

At present, philosophy can only say with certainty that:

· Consciousness exists;

· It has a special, ideal nature (essence) - this position is also recognized by materialists, but at the same time they believe that ideal consciousness is nevertheless derived from matter.

Dialectical materialism, where the main postulate was that matter exists objectively and independently of man and develops according to the principles of dialectics. Dialectics is the science of the development of society and science. Dialectics - the most general laws. Laws:

• Private laws.
• General laws.
• Universal laws.

But these are all the laws of science, and the laws of dialectics must cover all areas. In every science it will be possible to find interpretations of the laws of dialectics. Hegel: the law of the transition of quantity into quality, the law of the negation of negation. Marx insists that the laws of dialectics apply everywhere and always. Through laws we learn how everything and everyone develops, but before development we must postulate where development comes from. Any development is based on movement, although movement can be without development. Movement is an attribute of matter, but plus another thing, movement is not always mechanical, movement as a category is a change in general, and the forms of this movement can be significantly different. Engels builds a classification of forms of movements:

• Mechanical.
• Physical.
• Chemical.
• Biological.
• Social.

They are combined based on the principles of dialectics:

· Each subsequent form of movement is based on the synthesis of all previous ones.

· Higher forms of motion of matter are not reducible to lower forms, they are not reduced, i.e. V higher forms ah, there are their own laws.

• The doctrine of being. Where the problem of matter is considered. The classic definition of matter according to Lenin is objective reality, given to a person in sensations, which is copied, photographed, by these sensations, and exists independently of them. This definition is logical at the level of development of physics of that time (at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries - the discovery of radioactivity). Lenin: “the electron is as inexhaustible as the atom,” i.e. matter is infinite. There is no limit to the division of matter.
• Form of motion of matter. Postulates:
• Movement is an attribute of matter.
• The development of material systems occurs on the basis of movement. Forms of movement are subject to the principles:
• Hierarchy.
• The forms of the higher movement are based on lower forms.
• Irreducibility of higher forms in relation to lower ones.
• Gradation of laws.
• Private.
• Are common.
• General.

According to V.I. Lenin, dialectics is the doctrine of development in its most complete, deep and free from one-sidedness, the doctrine of the relativity of human knowledge, which gives us a reflection of ever-developing matter. It is important to note that dialectics is first and foremost a science.

The question of causation.

Marx proceeds from the principle of causality. Causality is objective causality. The researcher only discovers causality; without it, nothing happens. This is not the understanding of causality that Hume had (causation is an association of the mind). According to Marx, causality is objective. Engels's causality is close to Laplace's determinism, an epistemological accident. Now, with the discovery of new statistical laws of physics, the following types of randomness are introduced in dialectical determinism:

• Dynamic - unambiguous at the level of the macrocosm, the reasons can be considered at the level of two bodies.
• Statistical – a variant of the pattern at the microcosm level. The reasons are considered at the ensemble level.

But causality does not disappear anywhere, it acquires various shapes. Further, speaking about causality, another question is raised: the question of categories. Categories are considered in the same way as in Hegel. But the nature of categories is perceived differently. Categories for Kant are a priori constructions at the level of one individual, for Hegel they are moments of the development of absolute reason, the unfolding of the spirit through the triad. And in Marxism these are the most generalized forms of human experience, human practice, praxis, the fruit of a generalization of specific historical experience. When learning, a person must undergo some historical experience. Hence, all of Hegel’s categories are a reflection in extremely abstract forms of completely real things and processes of the real World. Therefore, the laws of dialectics, with which Marxism agreed, of Hegel become the laws of the dialectics of the World itself, and not the spirit. Already Schelling tried to introduce some fundamental opposites into nature itself through polar categories. But here Marxism insists that this is not development as a result of some kind of involution spiritual origin, and this is inherent in matter itself. Conclusion: since dialectical materialism insists that the laws of dialectics are inherent in matter, then these laws have methodological significance for natural science. The entire general edifice of science must be built on the laws of dialectics. Many scientists admitted that they used these principles and received good results. Therefore, the task of a natural scientist is to apply the laws of dialectics to specific phenomena in nature.

All these discussions about being are based on the basic question of philosophy, what comes first - the material or the ideal. Many philosophers have considered this question. The main questions of any philosophical system are:

· Primacy of matter or spirit? No compromises. (ontology).

· Do we know the world? (epistemology).

Hegel believed that a person cognizes the World in the sense of his involvement with absolute reason. Marxism says that we know the World itself. Marxism proceeds from the fact that cognition arises along with the emergence of mental activity, starting from the simplest mental activity, irritability, and ending with complex mental activities - mental activity. The evolutionary series of mental activity evolves along with the evolution of the World, otherwise the organism simply would not survive, this is like the French materialists. Marxism also poses the problem of reflection, in order for mental irritability to appear, at the level of matter, something must also happen (French materialists talked about dull sensitivity). Reflection is a fundamental characteristic of matter, but it is not always a form of mental activity (for example, it can be a footprint in the sand or a photograph). It is possible to build a series of reflections at the inorganic level, and make a transition to mental activity as a result of a series of reflections. The foundation of reflection is a property similar to sensations; this is reflection.

Theory of knowledge.

• Sensual stage.
• Sensation at the level of individual sense organs, information about the external world. Lenin: “sensations are a subjective image of the objective World.”
• Perception of a holistic object based on a set of sensations.
• Representation is the ability to use memory to reproduce an object without direct contact with it.
• Rational stage.
• A concept as a generalization of the most important essential aspects of an object or subject, made in a formalized form, language. Language is a property of culture. Important features of the object appear in verbalized form.
• Judgment. Rational knowledge and installing a link between them. Example, in a proposition: this table is brown, there is something that is being talked about and a predicate that is being said.
• Inferences are a bunch of judgments themselves. Without resorting to experience, judgments are made only on the basis of logic. Example: all people are mortal, Socrates is a man, therefore Socrates is mortal.

Sensual and rational levels are necessary for every person; a person cannot operate with only one or the other. I see the color red - a feeling, a judgment - this color is red. Unity of the sensual and rational. This is a necessary attribute for any person. Man begins when he masters language and can make basic judgments.

• The science.
• Facts are real processes occurring in the world, formulated in the language of science. The color is red - the wavelength is such and such.
• Hypotheses. Hypotheses about the structure of the World based on the analysis of facts. Models.
• Private.
• Are common.

• Theories are final product Sciences. Based on scientific theory, we create a scientific picture of the World, which is dynamic.

The problem of truth.

The problem of truth is a key problem of epistemology; it has existed since the time of Aristotle. Truth is seen as:

· Correspondence theory – the content of your judgment corresponds to the real state of affairs (Aristotle). The claim that a proposition is true in relation to reality.

· Coherent. Truth without recourse to experience, establishing axioms, rules and obtaining results.

· A utilitarian, pragmatic concept of truth. Truth is all that and only that which leads to success.

In Marxism, first of all, there is a claim to correspondent truth, in scientific theories reflected real world. There are absolute and relative truths.

In relation to a part of the World, we can talk about absolute truths, for example, the world consists of atoms. But you can never talk about absolute truth of the entire World, this is fundamentally untenable, because... matter is infinite by any parameters. Thus, therefore, in relation to the most important things at each stage of development we have relative truth, this is objective truth, but incomplete. The incompleteness of the World is the result of its infinity in all respects. The process of learning the truth is a complex process, taken, moreover, at a specific historical moment. Lenin: “There are no abstract truths, truths are always concrete.” In general, the process of cognition is a process from living contemplation (information received through the senses) to abstract judgment and, through them, to practice - praxis. Practice in Marxism is understood as:

• Source of knowledge. Scientists themselves sometimes have no idea what practical value this or that discovery has.
• The purpose of knowledge.
• Evaluation of the result.

Practice is understood in a very broad sense - it is not only an experiment, but also industrial and cultural human activity. Only now is there an understanding in practice of how important this or that scientific discovery. Ultimately, Marx is for the connection of cognition with the social object, i.e. with society, not on their own, like other philosophers - this was original.