Social Consciousness

The Primary Forms of Social Consciousness

Philosophical Consciousness

As previously noted, literature occasionally falls into the erroneous identification of concepts such as "scientific consciousness" with "science," and "religious consciousness" with "religion." Similarly, the terms "philosophy" and "philosophical consciousness" are often conflated. In reality, philosophy manifests as a unity of philosophical being and philosophical consciousness.

Philosophical being emerges as a composite of the social relations among social subjects toward the surrounding reality, its objects, and phenomena, grounded in the reflection of its cognitive models that have developed within society at a particular stage of its historical evolution.

What relations are being referred to? Primarily, the relationship of thought to being, and consciousness to matter. "Consciousness," as O.K. Uledov rightly observes, "is a reflection of being, its product. Yet, by its very nature, consciousness is not merely a reflection... but also a relation to the surrounding world, to the being that has given rise to it."

A creative relation to the surrounding world, to its objects and phenomena, necessarily incorporates critical reflection on established cognitive models, correlating them through practice with their originals, which forms the basis of philosophical inquiry and serves as the source for the formation and development of philosophical consciousness.

Philosophical consciousness can be conceived as an objectively existing process of explication (explanation and elaboration) within each society at a given stage of its historical development, involving the comprehension and restructuring of the structures that define human relations to the world and the cognitive models of the objects and phenomena of reality.

Beyond the general characteristics common to all forms of social consciousness, philosophical consciousness possesses certain distinctive features.

The first distinctive feature of philosophical consciousness is that it comprises, as its primary structural element, a theoretically grounded worldview—a collection of views, evaluations, and principles that delineate the most comprehensive vision of the world, humanity's place within it, and, concomitantly, life stances and behavioral programs, acting as an integrator of philosophical consciousness.

The second feature is that while it reflects nearly all social relations that have formed within society, it does so not directly but indirectly, through other forms of social consciousness—moral, religious, legal, political, aesthetic, and scientific consciousness.

In philosophical consciousness, it is not the moral relations themselves that are reflected, but rather those that have been comprehended by moral consciousness and represented in a specific manner; not the religious relations in isolation, but those already interpreted by religious consciousness; not the legal, political, and aesthetic relations per se, but those that have been understood by legal, political, and aesthetic consciousness, represented in them in a particular way; not the substantial, established, recurring, internal, objective, and necessary connections of the objects and phenomena of reality—i.e., the laws and regularities to which they are subject in their development—but those that have been comprehended by the respective fields of science and represented in scientific consciousness. In other words, the formation of philosophical consciousness begins with the reflection on that which concludes moral, religious, legal, political, aesthetic, and scientific consciousness.

Connected to this is the third distinctive feature of philosophical consciousness. It is characterized by the absence of levels of mundane consciousness and psychological reflection within its structure.

The theoretical level of philosophical consciousness, or theoretical philosophy, constitutes a collection of ontological, epistemological, anthropological, and axiological theories and concepts of interrelation and development. Approaching it is practical philosophy—a collection of teachings regarding righteous human living.

The fourth distinctive feature of philosophical consciousness lies in its foundation of a critical attitude from the social subject toward the cognitive models of the surrounding world and its objects and phenomena that have emerged within society.

"The truly tragic position of the philosopher," M.O. Berdyaev noted, "is that almost no one loves him. Throughout the history of culture, animosity toward philosophy has manifested from various quarters. Philosophy is the most vulnerable aspect of culture. The very possibility of philosophy is constantly doubted, and every philosopher must begin his endeavor with a defense of philosophy, delineating its viability and necessity. Philosophy is subjected to attacks from both above and below. Religion is hostile to it, and so is science."

However, it should be borne in mind that philosophy faces "attacks from both above and below" precisely due to its reflexivity, the critical stance of philosophical consciousness toward the established worldview, the cognitive models of objects and phenomena of both natural and social reality that have solidified and taken root, upheld by either the creators of these models or those who have accepted them as valid and necessary and are prepared to defend them because they have become their convictions.

The fifth distinctive feature of philosophical consciousness is that it does not limit itself to the dismantling of previous cognitive models of objects and phenomena of reality whose truth is unsubstantiated by practice, but aims at a deeper understanding of them, seeking the determinants for optimizing their development, and the pathways to achieving the desired and the possible, all of which are related to social diagnostics, forecasting, project planning, and management.

The connection and synthesis of these two aspects of philosophical consciousness by the political elite is a necessary condition for the success of social transformations to which it calls the masses. Ignoring the first, destructive aspect of philosophical consciousness harbors the danger of forming utopian, arbitrarily constructed, and often static cognitive models of societal structure. Conversely, neglecting the second, creative aspect of philosophical consciousness risks losing the vector of social perspective, laying the groundwork for subjectivism and anarchy, and diminishing the effectiveness of social governance.

Reflecting various facets of the real process of human life, the forms of social consciousness remain interconnected, interrelating, mutually enriching, and co-determining one another, thus collectively forming an ideal manifestation of social existence.