The basic concepts of philosophy are matter and spirit. Idealists and materialists define their meaning differently, but they agree on the objective existence of matter. It represents the physical foundation of the world. At the same time, philosophers say that the attributes of matter are motion, space and time. They make up its essence and specificity.
The concept
The philosophical definition of matter says that it is a kind of objective reality, everything that exists, regardless of human consciousness. Matter, attributes, the forms of existence of which are considered in the article, is defined as the antipode of the spirit. She embodies all inanimate unlike living life, the soul. In philosophy, matter is understood as an entity that is cognizable by the sensory organs, but retains its characteristics regardless of its awareness. Thus, matter is objective.
Ontology conceptualizes the essence and role of matter in being. The answer to the question about the meaning of matter led to the emergence of two global trends in philosophy: idealism and materialism. In the first case, it is believed that consciousness is primary, and matter is secondary. In the second, matter is considered as the beginning of being. Matter exists in infinite variety, has many properties and features, its own structure and functions. But in a global sense, there are universal attributes of matter. However, before crystallization of ideas about the properties of matter took place, philosophy went a long way in thinking about the essence of this phenomenon.
Evolution of views
Philosophy was formed as a sphere of comprehension of such objects as being, matter. The attributes of the objective world became the subject of reflection of thinkers in ancient times. The founder of the first system of views on the essence and role of matter was the ancient Greek philosopher Thales. He stated that water as a material reality is the fundamental principle of being. She possessed in the mobile, changing world the property of the constancy of her characteristics. She could change form, but her essence remained the same. Water is cognizable through the senses, and its transformations are comprehended by the mind. So Thales made the first observations about the objective nature of matter and its universality.
Later, Heraclitus and Parmenides expand their ideas about the objective characteristics of being, raise many new questions. The views of Democritus, his atomic theory became a source of reflection on movement as the main attribute of being. The problem of contrasting the ideal and material worlds arose thanks to Plato. Any things in the world are the result of combining ideas and matter. And then an important ontological question arises: what is matter? Aristotle devoted a lot of thought to this question. He wrote that matter is a sensually perceived substance, a substrate of every thing.
In the next several centuries, discussions about matter took place only in the context of the confrontation of materialistic and idealistic ideas. And only the appearance of science again made the reflection on the definition of matter relevant. Under it begin to understand objective reality, which exists according to its own laws, independent of human perception. Philosophers, relying on scientific discoveries, begin to comprehend the properties and forms of the objective world. They substantiate such properties of matter as extension, inertia, mass, indivisibility, impermeability. Later discoveries in physics introduce such concepts as field, electrons, etc. into the philosophical circulation. The attributes of matter in philosophy become the most important area of thought. The discoveries of modern physicists enrich and expand these ideas; in the ontology, new theories about the properties and structure of matter appear. Today, the problem of the correlation of the concepts of "matter" and "energy" is gaining relevance.
The properties
Characterizing matter, philosophers go by describing its properties. This allows us to understand the specifics of the phenomenon. The main property of matter is the objectivity of its existence. It does not change its form and properties during the perception of man and without him, she obeys the physical laws of existence. The second property, specifying the content of the concept of "matter", is systematic. Matter is characterized by orderliness and structural certainty. Another universal property of matter is activity. It is subject to change and development, has dynamics. In addition, matter is characterized by the ability to self-organization and reflection. An important property is called informational content. She is able to store and transmit information about her origin, development, structure.
The universal properties of matter, philosophers also consider its indestructibility and indisputability. It cannot be reduced or added by methods known to man; the world is self-sufficient. Matter has no beginning or end, it was not created by anyone, it never began and will never end. An important property of matter is its determinism, all objects and things in the world depend on the structural connections within it. Everything in the material world is subject to objective laws, everything has its own cause and effect. The uniqueness of matter is another significant property. There cannot be two identical things in the world, each item has a unique composition. In addition to these properties, matter distinguishes special attributes that are inherent in it regardless of the form of existence. The properties of the attributes of matter and their study are an important area of modern philosophical knowledge.
Attributes
The subject of ontology and epistemology is matter. Its attributes and properties are constant, universal, regardless of the form of existence. Even the ancient Greeks noticed that motion is characteristic of matter. At the same time, this refers not only to physical movement, but also to variability, its flow from one form to another.
Matter is eternal in time, since it does not have an initial beginning and a point of completion. In addition, it is infinite in the spatial aspect. Reflections of philosophers on the universal characteristics of matter led them to identify its basic attributes. Apart is its structure, which is also a global basic property. The main attributes of matter are motion, time and space, they are the subject of deep philosophical analysis and reflection.
Structure
The philosophers of antiquity posed the most important questions: what is matter, is it infinite, where does it come from? An ontology was born from the search for answers, which justified the existence of special characteristics of matter. She also formulated the theoretical premises on the basis of which the attributes of matter were named in modern times. But the first answer to the question about its structure was given as part of ancient Greek philosophy. The atomic theory of Democritus claimed that matter consists of the smallest particles - atoms that cannot be seen with the human eye and that exist in free space. At the same time, atoms are unchanged, but the things into which they are grouped are changeable and mobile.
With the advent of science, ideas about the structure of matter underwent changes, the concepts of living and non-living matter appeared, each of which has its own structure. The world of inanimate nature consists of such levels as particles, atoms, chemical elements, molecules, planets, planet systems, stars, galaxies, galaxy systems. Wildlife consists of cells, acids and proteins, multicellular creatures, populations, biocenoses and the biosphere. Philosophers also introduce the concept of social matter, the structure of which includes race, family, ethnicity, humanity.
The development of science has led to the emergence of another point of view on the structure of matter, in it the microworld, macrocosm and megaworld were distinguished. The scale of these levels is determined through the main attributes of matter: time and space.
Movement: essence and properties
Motion, time - the attributes of matter, which were identified in antiquity. Even then, people noticed that in the surrounding world there is nothing permanent - everything changes, flows from one form to another. Comprehension of this phenomenon led to the appearance of two initial ideas about its essence. In the narrow sense of the word, movement is the spatial movement of objects from one point to another, while there is no change in the object. In this sense, movement is the antipode of peace. In a broad sense, movement is any change in an object, the dynamics of its forms and properties. And this is the natural state of matter. Like all attributes of matter, motion is inherent in it initially, genetically. It is characteristic of any material form. And it is impossible without matter, there is no pure motion. This is its attributive character. Matter is inherent in development, which is movement, it constantly strives to become more complicated, moves from the lowest to the highest. It should also be noted that the movement is objective, only practice can make changes to it.
Motion as an attribute of matter has a number of properties; they are most often ambivalent. First of all, it is characterized by absoluteness and relativity. The absolute is due to the fact that motion is inherent in any form of matter, nothing in the world is at rest. Moreover, any particular movement always tends to rest, it is of course, this is its relativity. Stopping, a separately taken movement passes into a new form, and this is an absolute law. Also, the movement is both intermittent and continuous. Ego discontinuity is associated with the ability of matter to divide into separate forms, for example, planets, galaxies, etc. And continuity lies in the ability to self-organize into integral systems.
Forms of movement
The main attribute of matter is motion, which is capable of taking a wide variety of forms. Their classification was proposed by F. Engels, who discovered 5 main types:
- mechanical; the simplest form is the movement of objects;
- physical, based on the laws of physics, include light, heat, magnetism, etc.
- chemical, the interaction of molecules and atoms;
- biological - self-regulation, reproduction and development in ecological systems and biocenoses;
- social - these are all types of conscious and transformative activities of people.
All forms of movement form a complex hierarchical system: from simple to complex. These systems are subject to uniform laws:
- there are genetic connections between forms of movement, each simple form serves as a basis for the development of a more complex one and is included in it by all its components
- Each higher form has its own unique differences, this leads to the qualitative development of matter.
Moreover, the essence of the higher form of motion cannot be explained only by the action of physicochemical laws. The movement embraces the whole unity of the material world, including the consciousness of people.
The history of the concepts of "space" and "time"
Space and time as the attributes of matter began to be comprehended by people long before the advent of philosophy. Even primitive people, mastering the world around them, are aware of the existence of these phenomena. Moreover, they perceive them as an inextricable whole, measuring space in hours and time as some spatial segments.
Mythological ideas about space and time were significantly different from modern ones. Time was presented as a kind of cyclic substance, which is not directed from the past to the future, as we are accustomed to, and at the same time coexists in the form of separate worlds: there is the world of ancestors, the world of gods and the world of today's being. The concept of “tomorrow” appears only at the higher stages of development of society. And you can travel between temporary layers, as in space. In many mythological systems, a tree was such a spatial link. So, in the “Word on Igor’s Regiment” it is told how the old man “spreads thought through the tree,” that is, travels through a tree connecting time.
The concept of space was also significantly different. It seemed centered and finite. So, it was believed that there is a certain center of the earth, usually this is some kind of holy place, and there is the edge of the earth beyond which comes the unknown, materialless chaos. In addition, the space had an appraisal marking, that is, it was not homogeneous: there were bad and good places. Man deified the whole material world, including space and time.
With the advent of scientific discoveries, ideas about these phenomena change. The realization comes that the attributes of matter are objective, measurable and obey the laws of physics.
Space: essence and properties
Space as an attribute of matter has an analogue in the material world and is an abstraction of the first level. It has the following properties:
- extent, i.e., the existence and connection of any elements; it is defined as the unity of discontinuity and continuity and consists of individual segments that add up to infinity in total;
- three-dimensionality - according to physical parameters, space has a length, width and height; according to A. Einstein’s theory, there is a fourth coordinate axis - time, but it is applicable only within the framework of physics, infinity and inexhaustibility of space are manifested in three-dimensionality;
- divisibility - space can be divided into various segments: meters, kilometers, parsecs;
- homogeneity means that in space there are no distinguished points;
- isotopicity, i.e., equal rights of any of the selected directions;
- infinity - space has no end and no beginning.
Time: concept and properties
Time as an attribute of matter is defined as a special form of processes in the objective world and has special characteristics. It has no analogue in the material world and is an abstraction of the second level. Time is irreversible, it is always directed from the past to the future through the point of the present, and no other movement is possible. It is characterized by duration and consistency. Processes proceed in a certain sequence, stages cannot change their order. Time is continuous and discrete at the same time. It is a stream that does not have a beginning and an end, but it can be divided into segments: hours, years, centuries. An important property of time is also its infinity, or inexhaustibility.