Some young people consider philosophy a boring and monotonous subject, which is studied with great difficulty. In fact, this is completely wrong, it’s just that sometimes people cannot understand this subject because of the difficulty in perceiving some metaphysical concepts. If this or that aspect is correctly disclosed, then the structure of philosophical knowledge becomes understandable to almost anyone who is interested in it.
So, in the first centuries of its existence, philosophy did not have a clear and coordinated structure, since it included the most diverse spheres of human activity. The first who decided to systematize and sort out all the available names on the shelves was the famous ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. He called his doctrine of the beginnings of all things “primary philosophy”, dividing all the knowledge that existed at that time into physics, ethics and logic. The same structure was followed by all the philosophical currents arising after it, right up to the era of the New Time.
Today, the general structure of philosophical knowledge includes the following aspects:
- Actually a philosophy that studies the categories and laws of thinking, as well as the concept of being.
- Logic, which is the doctrine of correct conclusions, as well as the search for evidence.
- Aesthetics that studies the sensual world, beautiful and ugly, harmonious and inharmonious.
- Ethics underlying the theory of morality and proper human behavior, the concept of good and evil, as well as the meaning of human life.
However, in our country, philosophy has always had its own characteristic features, where the emphasis was most often placed on the correctness of the chosen life path, honesty, decency, as well as the ability to sacrifice oneself for the sake of all mankind. That is why the structure of philosophical knowledge of Russian schools was divided into the following aspects: theory of knowledge and ontology, aesthetics, history of philosophy, logic, ethics, social philosophy, anthropology, philosophy of science and technology, religious and cultural philosophy.
As can be understood from all of the above, philosophy as a whole represents a very voluminous sphere of human knowledge, which affects many parallel scientific disciplines. We can say that this discipline includes all the most important human thoughts that were expressed by the sages who lived on our earth and were interested in higher knowledge. That is why in philosophy it should also highlight its specialized functions, that is, through which the implementation of its cognitive activity
The structure and functions of philosophical knowledge includes the following:
- Methodological function - develops the basic methods of knowing the reality around us.
- Worldview function - contributes to the formation of a holistic picture of the world, an idea of its structure, a person’s place in it, as well as human interaction with the world.
- Epistemological function - provides for verification of the validity of both existing and new knowledge, as well as the correct knowledge of the surrounding reality.
- Critical function - fills knowledge with important critical remarks, and also casts doubt on the existing understanding of the world.
- The thought-theoretical function is expressed in the ability to conceptually think and ultimately generalize the surrounding reality.
In addition to all of the above, the structure of philosophical knowledge includes educational, humanitarian and prognostic functions, thanks to which the young generation of children develops the ability to behave correctly in society and make predictions for the future. In general, the ability to correctly draw up an analysis for the near future is very useful, because it allows a person to prepare in advance for certain events that will happen in the near future.
Summing up the whole concept of this subject, it should be noted that the subject and structure of philosophical knowledge are extremely important in obtaining higher education, as they give a general idea of the most important aspects of the human soul and spirit. And in our time, the primacy of material values is very important not to miss the important knowledge about the life wisdom that the great world thinkers have brought to us.