Belief in the existence of the soul and spirits. Belief in the eternal existence of the soul. Belief in the existence of souls and spirits Belief in the existence of souls

in. religious ecstasy

Animal cult

38. Magic:

a. ancestor worship

b. cult of inanimate objects

G. faith in supernatural abilities human

39. According to the Bible, Jesus Christ was born in the city

a. Jerusalem

B. Bethlehem

in. Nazareth

Jericho

40. "Bible" in Greek means:

B. books

d. word of God

41. Old Testament considered a sacred book:

a. in Judaism

b. in Christianity

in. in Judaism and Christianity

d. in Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Protestantism

42. Nirvana:

a. cult procession

b. Christian rite

C. liberation of the soul from the laws of karma

d. religious ecstasy

43. Osiris:

a. deity in ancient india

B. deity in ancient Egypt

in. hero of the Sumerian-Akkadian epic

Mr. god in Ancient Greece

44. The word "gospel" in the Bible means

a. good news

b. Holy Bible

in. revelation

D. word of God

45. Bible:

a. dogma of Islam

b. collection of ritual texts of universal content

V. the holy book of Christianity

d. Buddhist sacred text

46. The name of the god who, according to myth, was the first ruler ancient egypt, taught people to cultivate the land, created the first laws:

A. Ra

b. Osiris

47. Ritual:

a. church ritual

b. mythological values

in. religious processions

D. historically developed form of symbolic behavior

48. Mythology:

a. idea of ​​kinship with some kind of animal or plant

B. the body of legends about the activities of the gods

in. belief in the existence of souls and spirits

d. cult of inanimate objects

49. Buddhism:

a. teaching within Christianity about the soul

b. variety of Islam

in. same as shinto

G. one of the world religions

50. A city on the Arabian Peninsula associated with the rise of Islam and named after Muhammad "the city of the prophet"

B. Medina

Jericho

51. Paganism:



a. same as mythology

B. belief in the existence of souls and spirits

in. part of the pantheon

d. polytheistic beliefs

52. The rise of Christianity:

a. 1st century BC e.

B. I century AD e.

in. late ninth century

the beginning of the 7th century

53. Commandments:

a. canons religious art

b. fundamentals of Shinto

B. moral and ethical standards prescribed from above

elements of Jainism

54. Fetishism:

a. any religious rite

B. cult of inanimate objects

in. belief in supernatural powers

d. cult of ancestors

55. Koran:

A. holy book of Muslims

b. part of the bible

in. religious rite of the Jews

d. history of religious wars

56. Sacraments:

a. pagan ritual

B. the main elements of the Christian cult

in. element of the sociology of religion

d. exposition of the sacred text

57. The myth is based

a. archetype

b. artifact

B. collective unconscious

d. individual unconscious

58. Sacrifice:

a. offering gifts to gods and spirits as part of a cult

in. belief in the existence of souls and spirits

G. ritual

59. The earliest of the Egyptian pyramids, erected about 4 thousand years ago, belonged to the pharaoh

A. Djoser

b. Amenhotep IV

in. Cheops

Ramses II

60. The pharaoh, who acted as a religious reformer, introduced a new cult of the god Aten-Ra:

A. Tutankhamen

b. Djoser

in. Akhenaten

Ramses II

61. The poet, whose work became the link between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance:

a. Ariosto

B. Dante Alighieri

in. petrarch

Mr. Virgil

62. The first university in Europe was opened in

A. Bologna

b. cologne

in. Oxford

Paris

63. French educator, opponent of contemporary culture, author of the slogan "Back to nature":

A. J.-J. Rousseau

b. F. M. Voltaire

in. R. Descartes

Mr. B. Spinoza

64. Revival:

a. a period in the history of human culture associated with the establishment of humanistic philosophy with a rethinking of the role of man in the historical process, returning to him the place of the central figure of the universe

B. period in world culture, characterized by a predominant interest in ancient culture and attempts to recreate it in various areas of intellectual and artistic creativity

in. a period that ended purely theological understanding historical process and natural phenomena

d. to characterize this concept, you can use all the definitions listed in this paragraph

65. Protestantism:

a. group of Christian sects

B. direction of Christianity, opposition to others

in. part of a Christian cult

d. collection of Christian sects

a. Raphael

b. Michelangelo

V. Leonardo da Vinci

Mr. Titian

67. Cubism style is associated with the name

a. A. Masson

b. S. Dali

in. K. Malevich

H. P. Picasso

68. The philosophy of the "superman" was proclaimed

a. A. Schopenhauer

b. O. Comte

W. F. Nietzsche

L. Feuerbach

69. Impressionism in painting is represented by the name

a. D. Velazquez

B. E. Manet

in. K. Koro

G. Courbet

70. "Second Rome" is called

A. Constantinople

b. Jerusalem

in. Alexandria

Carthage

71. English naturalist of the 19th century, creator of the theory of evolution of the organic world of the Earth:

a. C. Linnaeus

B. C. Darwin

in. A. Lavoisier

Mr. D. Watt

72. Impressionism as an art style was formed in

a. Scandinavian countries

b. England

W. France

Germany

73. A broad social movement in Europe in the 16th century associated with the struggle for renewal catholic church:

A. Reformation

b. Education

in. counter-reformation

Renaissance

74. Medieval monastic order, whose main function was the Inquisition:

a. Benedictine

b. Franciscan

in. St. Cassiodorus

G. Dominican

75. The thesis "I think, therefore I am" was put forward by

a. Voltaire

B. R. Descartes

in. J.J. Rousseau

Mr. B. Spinoza

76. Considered the "Father of Scholasticism"

A. S. Boethius

b. F. Aquinas

in. F. Cassiodor

G. A. Augustine

77. "Pieta" ("Lamentation") - a work

a. Leonardo da Vinci

B. Michelangelo

in. Donatello

Raphael

78. Art belongs to surrealism

a. J. Braca

B. S. Dali

in. R. Rauschenberg

M. Vlaminka

79. Artistic styles of the Western European Middle Ages:

A. romance and gothic

b. baroque and classicism

in. modern and eclecticism

d. rococo and eclecticism

80. The concept of the "Russian idea" was developed

a. K. Tsiolkovsky, V. Vernadsky

b. N. Danilevsky, P. Sorokin

When and why did animism appear? and got the best answer

Answer from Dmitry Golub[guru]
Animism (from Latin anima, animus - soul and spirit, respectively) - belief in the existence of the soul and spirits, belief in the animation of all nature. This term was first introduced by the German scientist G. E. Stahl. In his Theoria medica (1708), he called animism his doctrine of the soul as a kind of impersonal life principle underlying all life processes.
Tylor, who introduced the concept of A. into science, understood it as the initial stage in the development of religion in general. On the other hand, he tried to trace further development animistic ideas in the worldview of highly cultured peoples.
Tylor believed that animism is the "minimum of religion", that is, in his opinion, all religions from primitive to the most highly developed come from animistic views.
From Taylor's (E. Taylor) understanding of animism as the earliest form of religion comes the designation animists. This category includes the indigenous inhabitants of Africa, South America, Oceania - adherents of traditional local religions.

Answer from 3 answers[guru]

Hello! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: When and why did animism arise?

belief in the existence of the soul; one of the forms of religious beliefs that arose at an early stage of human development (Stone Age). Primitive people believed that a person, a plant, and an animal have a soul. After death, the soul is able to move into the newborn and thus ensure the continuation of the family. Belief in the existence of the soul is an essential element of any religion.

Great Definition

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animism

ANIMISM(from lat. anima, animus - soul, spirit) - faith in souls and spirits. For the first time in this sense, the term was used by the English ethnographer E. Tylor to describe the beliefs that originated in the primitive era and, in his opinion, underlie any religion. According to Tylor's theory, they developed in two directions. The first set of animistic beliefs arose in the course of ancient man's reflections on such phenomena as sleep, visions, illness, death, as well as from trance experiences and hallucinations. Being unable to correctly explain these complex phenomena, the "primitive philosopher" develops the concept of the soul, which is in the human body and leaves it from time to time. In the future, more complex ideas are formed: about the existence of the soul after the death of the body, about the transmigration of souls into new bodies, about afterlife etc. The second series of animistic beliefs arose from the inherent desire of primitive people to personify and spiritualize the surrounding reality. Ancient man considered all phenomena and objects of the objective world as something similar to himself, endowing them with desires, will, feelings, thoughts, etc. From here arises the belief in separately existing spirits of the formidable forces of nature, plants, animals, dead ancestors, but in the course of complex evolution this belief was transformed from polydemonism to polytheism, and then to monotheism. Based on the widespread prevalence of animistic beliefs in primitive culture, Tylor put forward the formula: “A. there is a minimum definition of religion.” This formula was used in their constructions by many philosophers and religious scholars, however, when discussing the Tylorian concept of A., its weaknesses were also revealed. The main counterargument was ethnographic data, which testified that the religious beliefs of the so-called. "primitive peoples" often do not contain elements of A. Such beliefs have been called pre-animistic. In addition, attention was drawn to the fact that Tylor's theory, according to which A. is rooted in the erroneous reasoning of the "philosophizing savage", does not take into account the social and psychological causes of religious beliefs. However, despite the criticism of Tylor's animistic concept and the recognition of many of its provisions as obsolete, modern philosophers and religious scholars continue to use the term A. and recognize that animistic beliefs are an integral and very essential part of all religions of the world. A.N. Krasnikov

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

(from lat. anima, animus - soul, spirit)

belief in the existence of souls and spirits, that is, fantastic, supernatural, supersensible images, which in religious consciousness are represented as agents acting in all dead and living nature, controlling all objects and phenomena of the material world, including man. If the soul appears to be associated with any particular being or object, then the spirit is attributed to independent existence, a wide scope of activity and the ability to influence various items. Souls and spirits are presented either as amorphous, or phytomorphic, or zoomorphic, or anthropomorphic beings; however, they are always endowed with consciousness, will and other human properties.

For the first time, the term "A." was introduced by the German scientist G. Stahl, who (in his Theoria medica, 1708) called A. his doctrine of an impersonal life principle - the soul, which supposedly lies at the basis of all life processes and is the "sculptor of the body." In the 19th century in a completely different sense, this term was used by E. Tylor, G. Spencer and other representatives of the so-called evolutionary school in the history of culture and ethnography. Tylor attached the term "A." ("Primitive Culture", 1871) double meaning: 1) faith in souls and spirits; 2) the theory of the origin of religion. Tylor saw in A. "the minimum of religion," i.e., the germ from which all religions developed, even the most complex and refined, as well as all views on the soul, not only in religion, but also in idealistic philosophy.

As a theory of the origin of religion, A. did not stand the test of scientific criticism and is now rejected by an overwhelming number of researchers. Firstly, no religion, from the most crude to the most refined, is limited only by faith in souls and spirits and cannot be completely identified with soul-belief and spirit-belief. Secondly, the vast factual material accumulated by science after Tylor testifies that the process of dualization (doubling) of the world, i.e. its division into the natural and the supernatural, the sacred and the everyday, the forbidden (see Taboo) and the permitted, It did not begin at all with the spiritualization or animation of nature and proceeded much more complicated than it seemed to Tylor. These facts gave rise to a number of trends, united by the name of pre-animism, or pre-animism, according to which A. was preceded by the age of magic (J. Fraser and others), animatism, i.e., the revival of all nature (R. Marett, L. Ya. Sternberg, etc. .), primitive prelogical mysticism (L. Levy-Bruhl and others). If preanimism turned out to be just as powerless to reveal the origins of religion as A., then it nevertheless revealed in primitive ideas about spirits and souls their material, material origin. Souls and spirits in the religion of the Australians, Fuegians and other backward peoples are twins of real beings and sensible objects, as if their ghosts, but they are still material enough to show their origin from the objects and phenomena of the material world. They all have flesh, they are all born, eat, hunt, even die, like the real creatures surrounding the savage. Myths and rites convincingly prove that before the imagination of the savage populated the supernatural world with souls and spirits, it endowed supernatural properties with the very things and phenomena, of which these souls and spirits became counterparts. For example, before the savage reached the point of propitiating or scaring away the spirit of the deceased, for a long time he sought to neutralize or appease the deceased himself, that is, his corpse. The process of spiritualization, i.e., the division of nature and man into a living, but non-material soul and material, but dead flesh, was long and went through many stages, and the very idea of ​​the soul as an intangible being is a very late phenomenon. No matter how refined the animation or spiritualization of nature and man becomes, it always retains traces of its material origin both in language and in ritual. Thus, A., contrary to Tylor, neither genetically nor chronologically can be recognized as a minimum or germ of religion.

A. not only does not explain the origin of religion, but he himself needs an explanation. Tylor saw in A. the “natural religion”, the “childish philosophy” of mankind, which arose spontaneously due to the properties of the primitive consciousness, which invented souls and spirits and believed in their existence as a result of psychological illusion and naive logical aberration associated with the phenomena of dreams, hallucinations, echo, etc. Spirits, according to Tylor, are only "personified causes" of the above phenomena. Modern scientific research has shown that the roots of animistic ideas, like all primitive religious beliefs, must be sought not in individual delusions of a lone savage, but in the impotence of a savage before nature and the ignorance caused by this impotence. The most important defect of the animistic theory is that it considers religion as a phenomenon of individual psychology, losing sight of the fact that religion is a fact of social consciousness.

If, as a theory of the origin of religion, A. turned out to be untenable and is of only historical interest, then as a designation of faith in souls and spirits, which is an integral part of beings, an integral element of all religions, famous history and ethnography, it is recognized by modern science.

Some idealistically and fideistically (see Fideism) minded bourgeois scientists, as well as theologians, seek to dissociate modern idealism and fideism from A. Some of them try to prove that between theism in the form of "world religions" and idealism, on the one hand, and A. - on the other hand, there is nothing in common. Others, the so-called pra-monotheists, headed by Father V. Schmidt, are trying, on the contrary, to discover in the beliefs of the most backward peoples, along with A., ideas about a single deity, in order to prove that these religions are revealed by God, but only “contaminated” by faith in spirits and sorcery. Of course, A. has undergone and is subject to various modifications, depending on the degree of its development. However, both in dogma and in the ritual of the most updated modern religions, in the teachings of theosophists (see Theosophy) about astral beings, idealists about the absolute idea, world soul, vital impulse, etc., in the table-turning and "photographing" of spirits among spiritualists lies at the heart of A., as in the ideas about other world the most backward societies.

The term "A." gained popularity in yet another sense. In foreign statistics, the indigenous inhabitants of Africa, South America, Oceania - adherents of local traditional religions - are included in the general heading of "animists". This designation comes from Tylor's understanding of A. as the earliest "savage" religion. But after all, these peoples for the most part created their own ancient culture, and their religions are different, sometimes very developed; they are animists as much as Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists. Therefore, this use of the term "A." scientifically wrong.

Lit.: Engels F., Ludwig Feuerbach and the end of the classical German philosophy, Marx K., Engels F., Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 21; Lafargue P., The origin and development of the concept of the soul, trans. from German., M., 1923; Plekhanov G. V., On religion and the church. [Sat. articles], M., 1957; Taylor E., Primitive Culture, trans. from English, M., 1939; Enshlen Sh., The Origin of Religion, trans. from French, Moscow, 1954; Kryvelev I. A., On the Criticism of Animistic Theory, "Problems of Philosophy", 1956, No. 2; Frantsev Yu. P., At the origins of religion and free thought, M.-L., 1959; Tokarev S. A., Early forms religions and their development, M., 1964; Levada Yu. A., The social nature of religion, M., 1965.

B. I. Sharevskaya.

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Animism in books

Animism and Spiritualism

From the book The Art of Psychic Healing author Wallis Aimee

Animism and Spiritualism The word "psychic" is derived from a Greek word meaning "soul" or "spirit." It refers to what is outside of natural or known physical processes. It also applies to a person who is sensitive to forces,

Tarot and Animism

From the Book of Thoth author Crowley Alistair

TAROT AND ANIMISM It is quite natural that in those times when ideas presented in graphic or written form were accessible only to the elite, when the Letter itself was considered magical, and Typography (as such) was the invention of the Devil, people belonged to

Animism

From the book Philosophical Dictionary author Comte Sponville André

Animism (Animisme) In a narrow sense, a doctrine that explains life by the presence of the soul in every organism. Thus, animism is opposed to materialism (which explains life by the existence of inanimate matter) and differs from vitalism (which refuses to explain it at all).

Animism

From the book Cults, Religions, Traditions in China author Vasiliev Leonid Sergeevich

Animism With the transition of the collectors to agriculture, the role of totemistic views faded into the background, and they became something of a relic. Pushed aside by the animistic beliefs that dominated the agricultural society, totemism underwent a certain evolution and in

Animism

From the book Christianity and Religions of the World author Khmielewski Henryk

Animism Ethnologists studying the culture of primitive peoples have drawn attention to the belief in spirits, which is very common among many peoples. Such faith can be different forms. So, in the view of some inhabitants of the Australian deserts or African

3.1.4. Animism

From the book Comparative Theology. Book 2 author Team of authors

3.1.4. Animism Most likely, the beginnings of animistic ideas arose in ancient times, perhaps even before the appearance of totemistic views, before the formation of tribal groups, that is, in the era of primitive hordes. However, as a system of originally perceived and

Animism

From the book Encyclopedic Dictionary (A) author Brockhaus F. A.

Animism Animism (Animismus) - under this name is known the doctrine introduced into medicine by G. E. Stahl at the beginning of the 18th century; according to this doctrine, the rational soul (anima) is considered the basis of life. Disease, according to the teachings of Stahl, is the reaction of the soul against disease-causing causes, i.e., the soul enters into

Animism

From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (AN) of the author TSB

ANIMISM

From the book The Newest Philosophical Dictionary author Gritsanov Alexander Alekseevich

ANIMISM (lat. anima, animus - soul, spirit) - a system of ideas about supposedly really existing special spiritual, invisible beings (most often doubles) that control the bodily essence of a person and all phenomena and forces of nature. In this case, the soul is usually associated with

19. Animism

From the book Style Exercises by Keno Raimon

19. Animism Hats, sluggish, brown, cracked, drooping brim, crown surrounded by weaving of braid, hats, standing out among others, jumping on bumps transmitted from the ground by the wheels of the vehicle that transported him, him, hats. At each

Chapter VIII Animism

author Tylor Edward Burnett

Chapter IX Animism (continued)

From the book Primitive Culture author Tylor Edward Burnett

Chapter IX Animism (continued) The doctrine of the existence of the soul after death. Its main subdivisions are: the transmigration of souls and the Hereafter. Transmigration of souls: rebirth in the form of a person or animals, transitions into plants and inanimate objects. The doctrine of the resurrection of the body

3.1.4 Animism

From Comparative Theology Book 2 author Academy of Management of Global and Regional Processes of Social and economic development

3.1.4 Animism

From the book Comparative Theology. Book 2 author USSR Internal Predictor

3.1.4 Animism Most likely, the beginnings of animistic ideas arose in ancient times, perhaps even before the appearance of totemistic views, before the formation of tribal groups, i.e. in the era of primitive hordes. However, as a system of originally perceived and

Animism

From the book Incredible India: Religions, Castes, Customs author Snesarev Andrey Evgenievich

Animism Despite the series cultural epochs and rulers, India in its peculiar bowels has preserved many remnants of ancient times; in the field of religion, animism will be such a survival. Animism at its most pure form observed among the forest tribes of the center and south

2. Belief in the eternal existence of the soul.

Nobody wants to die. Atheists say that death is a good thing, the source of our creativity. We must strive to make our every day an eternity.

3. Belief in a divine moral code.

For the believer, the Bible is the book of God, every word of which is 100% true; for an atheist, it is a poetic metaphor. Believers can be divided into true believers and believers.

The epistemological function of philosophy

The problem of the cognition of the world. Foundations of knowledge. Optimistic epistemology: rationalism, sensationalism, empiricism, dialectical materialism. Pessimistic epistemology: skepticism, agnosticism, irrationalism. The problem of truth. Correspondence theory of truth. Conventional theory of truth. pragmatic theory of truth. Marxist theory of truth.

The problem of the cognizability of the world

Gnoseology is the study of knowledge. The epistemological function of philosophy is the role of philosophy in the cognitive process. Gnoseology deals with the following issues:

Do we know the world;

Are there any difficulties that hinder the ability to know the world;

Gnoseology is engaged in the search for epistemological principles that determine the cognitive process;

Epistemology is engaged in the search for the last, ultimate signs of cognitive processes, epistemological milestones. This search inevitably arises, since the question arises before every thinking person: where do the rules of the principle of the cognitive process come from;

Gnoseology deals with the relationship of knowledge to real world, i.e. deals with questions of the truth of our knowledge.

Epistemology is not concerned with the cognition of the world, of reality; this cognition is dealt with by specific sciences: physics, chemistry...

Philosophy deals with the knowledge of the cognitive process.

Gnoseology includes directions: Rationalism, sensationalism, empiricism, materialism, dialectical materialism.

Rationalism is an epistemological trend that recognizes reason, thinking as the basis of knowledge and the basis of the world. This direction arose in the 17th and 18th centuries. Main representatives: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant, Hegel. Rationalistic epistemology goes back to the ancient period and is associated with Plato and Pythagoras.

According to Pythagoras, numbers are both the principles of mathematics and the principles of the world. Numerical relations, proportions - there is a relation of numerical harmony of the world itself. The basis of the world, according to Pythagoras, is the number.

According to Plato, sensory perception does not give real knowledge, but only gives rise to an opinion about the world. Only concepts give real knowledge, but concepts do not reflect the real world, but the eternal ideas that organize the world.

Rationalists 17th–18th centuries continued the ancient Greek tradition and came to the conclusion that the mind has an innate ability to embrace the regularity, universality, necessity, and repetition of the world. The world is rational, and our mind is also rational.

The Hindu-Christian worldview is a combination of rationalism with Christian teaching. It gave rise to faith in the power of human cognitive abilities, as well as faith in progress.

Sensationalism is a trend in epistemology that recognizes sensations as the basis of knowledge.

The cognitive process is not possible without sensations. We receive all information through the senses. Sensualists came to the conclusion that it is not the mind that plays the decisive role, but sensations. There is nothing in the mind that was not previously in the senses. The mind is engaged in combining, connecting, disconnecting the data that we receive through the senses. The process of cognition is carried out through the collection of these feelings, according to the following special order: the human brain is a blank board, when we feel something, then an “imprint” of this object appears on the “board”.

Empiricism is a branch of epistemology that recognizes sensory experience. The starting point of any cognitive activity is sensory experience, experiment. Sensationalism and empiricism are close in their premises.

Sensualist - "I feel, therefore I am" - the mind does not give anything new compared to sensation.

The controversy showed that the mind, feelings do not have universality, because. they are conditional. Thus, the assertions of the rationalists that “the mind has an innate ability to embrace the law cannot be proved, nor rejected, and. At the same time, the “innate ability to embrace the law” seems to exist - the laws of mathematics, logic, morality ... A priori knowledge- knowledge that is not based on sensory experience. Sense knowledge exists, but it is fragmented, disordered. Rationalism and sensationalism are sides of the same cognitive process.

Agnosticism is the doctrine of the unknowability of true being, i.e. about the "transcendence of the divine" in more broad sense about the unknowability of truth and the objective world, its essence and laws. Agnosticism is an epistemological concept that denies the cognizability of what cannot be directly represented in sensory experience and the unknowability of God, objective reality, causality, space, time, laws, nature, objects that exists on this basis.

Clarifications: everything that is not given in sensory experience for science is unknowable.

That which is not given in sensory experience is dealt with by philosophy, religion, and art. Hence, agnostics, like religion. Like Platonism, objective idealism doubles the world: the knowable and the unknowable. Why is the world doubling? Because, according to their views, there are two worlds: earthly and heavenly. Earthly is ours, imperfect; heavenly - true, real, authentic, harmonious.

The founders of agnosticism - Kant, D. Hume.

David Hume - English philosopher, historian and economist. In philosophy, D. Hume is a subjective idealist, an agnostic. The question is there objective reality or not. Hume considers unresolved. He argues that not only do we not know what things are in themselves, but we do not even know if they really exist. This is the difference between Hume's agnosticism and Kant's, which recognizes the existence of a "thing in itself".

Causality for Hume is not a law of nature, but a habit. Hume's agnosticism. Hume went to agnosticism from sensationalism:

The mind is never given anything but its perception,

We cannot imagine anything specifically different from perception,

We don't know what causes our perceptions,

We are prisoners of our senses.

Kant's agnosticism:

Material world exists, we do not know this world from the outside, from the side of phenomena,

There are things in themselves - the essence of objects, laws. They are not given to us in sensory experience.

Irrationalism - philosophical trend according to which the world is fundamentally irrational, chaotic, illogical. Cognition of the world is carried out not with the help of the mind, but with the help of intuition, instinct, fantasy, inner insight, inspiration, artistic content, getting used to.

Irrationalism arose in the 17th and 18th centuries. as a reaction to rationalism and rejection of rationalism. Representatives - Jacobi, Schelling, Schopenhauer. Our mind has not created anything more outstanding than nature, although it as such has no mind.

The world is like nature

The world as a human story.

Nature is rational, it has a law, and we know it through a number, a formula, concepts, a scheme, a law, an experiment.

Human history is chaotic, unrepeatable, historical events irreversible and life is indivisible. The social world is incalculable, it is subject not to a scientist, but first of all to a believer, a lover, a poet, an artist.

Nietzsche: "The world is not an organism, but chaos." “Nature, reality allows you to express many interpretations about yourself: “Centuries, millennia will pass until the truth is revealed.” Is there a meaning in the world? - Not! Not only the world is irrational and illogical, but also man himself. The irrationality in a person is evidenced by the sphere of the unconscious: the will to power, the feeling of love, instinct ... Cosmos is an organized universe. The universe is disorganized, chaotic, a gaping, open abyss.

Almost four hundred years ago, in the middle of the 17th century, in Holland, in the city of Amsterdam, at the age of about 55, one of the outstanding thinkers of that time, Uriel Dacosta, committed suicide. He was born in Portugal and was raised in the Christian faith, but then decided to convert to Judaism. Departure from Christian religion in Portugal was severely persecuted, and Dacosta had to secretly flee from his native country to Holland. But the Amsterdam rabbis soon excommunicated Dacosta from the Jewish church because this man, by word of mouth and in writing, fought against a number of basic provisions of the religious worldview.

Dacosta criticized one of the cornerstones of any religion - the doctrine of the immortality of the soul and afterlife. He came to the conclusion about the "mortality of the soul", although the state of science of that time did not give him the opportunity to explain those phenomena that are usually called mental. Dakosta's denial of the immortality of the soul was then a very bold step. Contrary to the prevailing religious beliefs he connected man with the animal world. Dakosta wrote:

“... There is no other difference between the soul of an animal and the soul of a person, except that the soul of a person is reasonable, and the soul of an animal is devoid of reason; in everything else, in birth, life and death - they are exactly the same ... ".

This means that Dakosta came to the denial of the afterlife, that is, life after death, and, consequently, to the denial of posthumous rewards and punishments in some "other world." Therefore, Dakosta believed that a person should not think about some special "future" life, but in this real, earthly life, he should consider the meaning and purpose of his existence. This thinker realized that by doing so he strikes a blow not only to the Jewish, but also to any creed, for, in his own words, "he who denies the immortality of the soul is not far from denying God."

In those days, heretics, that is, critics of the prevailing religious views, were looked upon as serious criminals, and as a result, excommunication from the church was then a very cruel punishment. An excommunicated person was considered a cursed god and therefore stood outside the law, could not find any protection from the authorities. According to the laws of the Jewish religion, even the closest relatives and friends of the excommunicated person could neither talk to him, nor cross the threshold of his house, nor have written communication with him. He could not calmly walk the streets, they shunned him with accentuated indignation, they even spat in his face. Children, incited by adults, teased and insulted Dakosta, and his brothers broke up with him. They even ruined him, capturing all his fortune.

To get rid of this persecution and persecution, at that time there was only one way: to go to "reconciliation" with the church, or, as Dacosta put it, "play a monkey among monkeys." But this was possible only as a result of a humiliating procedure: in mourning clothes, with a black candle in hand, publicly read the renunciation of their “mistakes” written by the rabbis, undergo scourging, lie on the threshold of the synagogue and allow everyone - men, women and children - to step over their body. This disgusting ceremony revolted Dacosta. For seven years he boldly defended his views, but then, under the pressure of loneliness and material need, he agreed to endure this humiliation. In fact, he did not change his teaching and did not attach serious importance to "renunciation", considering it only a means of getting out of his difficult situation. But Dacosta's forces were already broken, he did not see any opportunity ahead of him to fight for his views. Abandoned by everyone and not supported by anyone, he decided to commit suicide, after setting out on paper the sad story of his life.

Shortly after the tragic death of Dacosta, in 1656, the Amsterdam rabbis cursed and expelled from the community the great materialist philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), who denied faith in God and in the immortality of the soul.

The rabbis took an example from the Catholic churchmen, who, guided by the statement of the Christian theologian Blessed Augustine:

"It is better to burn heretics alive than to let them stagnate in error"

They created the Inquisition - a court to fight against the opponents of the church. In 1600, the inquisitors burned the remarkable scientist Giordano Bruno at the stake for denying the biblical doctrine of the universe, and in 1619 they also cracked down on the thinker Lucilio Vanini for criticizing faith in God and the afterlife.

However, no curses and bonfires can retard the development of free thought. Despite the efforts of the church, the idea of ​​the denial of God and the immortality of the soul, which broke with Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, was not forgotten. It was further developed by a number of prominent French thinkers of the 18th century. So, famous philosopher Julien Lamettry argued that the so-called soul depends on the organs of the body, that it is formed, grows old and dies with the body, so that there can be no question of the afterlife.

From this it followed that the soul should be understood as the ability of a person to feel and think, and that this ability is caused not by some independent spiritual entity, but by the activity of a living organism. This materialistic thought prepared the ground for the triumph of atheism, that is, godlessness. And with the fall of faith in the immortality of the soul, faith in hell, heaven, etc. also collapses. Therefore, representatives of any church are hostile to truly scientific views on the essence of spiritual phenomena.

Science gives a negative answer to the question of whether a person's life continues after death. Despite this, in the capital of Belgium, at the University of Brussels, a public debate was held on the topic: “Does hell exist?” Theologians gave an affirmative answer to this question. A certain Professor Vatlet even assured that he personally talked with the spirit of a dead banker he knew, who complained about his hellish torments, that he was on fire all the time, but did not burn out.

Among the modern ideologists of the bourgeoisie there are a lot of "certified lackeys of priesthood", that is, pseudoscientists and even enemies of genuine science. Fulfilling the social order of the bourgeoisie, they are trying in every possible way to preserve religion for populace and, going against true science, they warm up the belief in the existence of the soul and the afterlife.

It is not surprising, therefore, that in England, on television, footage from an old country villa was “demonstrated” by “spirits” and “ghosts” allegedly inhabiting this building. Even such a “miracle” of technology appeared on the television screen: a “ghost” carrying its head in its hands! Arranging such a television production is technically very simple. Similar can be seen on Russian television channels.

But how did this faith come about, and what is its role in society?

Belief in the soul, in spirits and in the "other world" is inherent in all ancient and modern religions. Belief in gods could arise only on the basis of belief in the existence of "spirits" - some kind of non-material, incorporeal creatures that are inaccessible to our senses.

Belief in the existence of the soul has grown into belief in the afterlife, in the fact that the soul of people continues to live after the death of the body, that a person does not die completely, but after death lives some kind of special life in a mysterious, "other world" world.

Religion teaches that the phenomena of consciousness, that is, sensations, thoughts, desires, aspirations, will, etc., are caused by a "spiritual principle" - the human soul, an intangible factor temporarily residing in the human body. Religion teaches to believe in the existence of the soul, which, after the death of the body, is supposedly able to live and stay outside the body as a "pure spirit."

However, none of the churchmen who talk about the soul or spirits can explain what he means by this "spiritual principle." The French thinker of the 18th century, Voltaire, wittily remarked that when two believers talk about God and the soul, the speaker does not understand what he is saying, and the listener pretends to understand him.

Theologians claim that belief in the existence of the soul, spirits, gods has always existed, because, they say, religious ideas are inherent in man. Science has refuted this claim, since it has collected numerous facts that indicate that there are no innate ideas, and that ancient people had no religious beliefs. These ideas arose only at a certain stage in the development of human society, in the conditions of the primitive communal tribal system, when there were no classes yet.

Belief in the existence of the soul has become part of all ancient and modern creeds.

It arose on the basis of the most obscure, completely incorrect ideas of primitive people about their own nature. After all, the crumbs of knowledge possessed by primitive people were completely insufficient to develop a correct idea of ​​the structure and activity of their organism. Therefore, they had a belief that feelings, thoughts and desires are caused by some invisible entity - the soul, on which the life of the human body supposedly depends.

Dreams contributed to the emergence of belief in the existence of the soul: for a long time, a person did not make a distinction between reality and sleep, between the consciousness of a waking person and a dream. Along with dreams, hallucinations also seemed real to primitive man, like reality itself. Thus, the idea arose that a person has his invisible mysterious double, which allegedly fits in the body, but can leave the body for a while, which causes sleep or fainting, and forever, which means the death of the body. The Jewish religion teaches that during sleep, the soul of a person is briefly separated from the body and the first morning prayer the believer should be grateful to God for the fact that he returned his soul.

According to this naive, but still very common belief, the soul is the bearer of life and consciousness. The most important thing in a person is supposedly his soul, for which the body serves only as a kind of temporary "case".

Where is the soul? Relying on the fact that a profuse flow of blood from wounds always ends in death, the Bible states that the soul resides in the blood of a person. This idea arose a very long time ago and is still common among backward tribes. There is an opinion among some tribes that the “seat” of the soul is the heart and that it is reflected in the eyes of a person.

Be that as it may, the ancient people in their imagination divided man into two opposite parts: a mortal body and an immortal soul. This savage idea has entered into all religions. According to the religious worldview, without a soul, a person's body is lifeless, the soul gives a person vitality and thought. And death represents the "liberation" of the soul from the body. Religion teaches that the soul, the consciousness of a person does not die when his lifeless body sinks into the grave. The deceased in church language is called “departed”, that is, “asleep”, but capable of resurrecting someday for “eternal life”.

Where does the human soul come from?

To this question, Christian and Jewish churchmen answer that God created the body of the “first” man Adam from “the dust of the earth” (clay) and breathed into it a “living soul”. It turns out that the human soul is the "breath of God", the stream of a divine being. Religious people call the soul "the spark of God" and say that the soul is free and immortal.

But if God created the soul of Adam, then where did the soul of Adam's wife, Eve, come from?

In the biblical tale about the first people, it is said that Eve was created by God from Adam's rib, and there is not even a word about the fact that God also “breathed” a soul into Eve.

This question, like many other questions about the soul and God, has led Jewish and Christian churchmen into a dead end. They started arguing about whether a woman has a soul, that is, whether a woman is a person. For a long time, many Christian churchmen believed that women did not have a soul at all, and only after long disputes, one of the Catholic church councils, by a majority of just one vote, decided that a woman did have a soul.

To a modern sane person, such disputes are ridiculous. But such disputes still take place today. For example, in the United States there was recently a debate on the topic: "Will the Negroes change the color of their skin when they enter the kingdom of heaven." Some of the speakers at the debate argued that Negroes "in the next world" would become white.

Representatives of the church and defenders of religion also get into a dead end when they are asked the question: at what exact moment does the soul unite with the body, giving it life? After all, during pregnancy this cannot happen, because there are cases when lifeless, dead babies are born. It is also impossible to admit that the soul enters the child at the moment of birth: after all, a pregnant woman, even before birth, feels the movement and shocks of her fetus in the womb. Thus, the adherents of religion have only to shrug their shoulders when they are asked: when exactly does the soul enter the body?

Ancient people believed that although the soul is very different from the body, it is still material, bodily, only consists of the thinnest and lightest substance. They imagined the soul in the form of a humanoid creature, which, after the death of a person, also needs food, drink, weapons, utensils and other household items. Therefore, food, weapons, utensils were placed in the burial grounds. Moreover, ancient people even believed that the soul is not necessarily immortal.

Many ancient peoples believed in the mortality of the soul.

This belief also existed among the ancient Jews: they admitted that the soul lives much longer than the body, but they did not consider it eternal, immortal. Dacosta first drew attention to this, and he argued that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, of the eternal afterlife, defended by Jewish theologians, does not find any support in the Old Testament books on which they rely. In this respect Dacosta was quite right, and his opponents, in spite of all their artifices, were not in a position to refute him.

Indeed, in the Jewish "holy books" there is not a word, neither about the immortality of the soul, nor about the afterlife retribution - posthumous punishments or rewards. On the contrary, the idea is repeatedly expressed there that with the death of a person everything is over for him: he will not get up, no one will wake him up, and even God himself will not create such a miracle. Furthermore, the bible says that the end of man is the same as the end of every animal: in this respect man has no advantage over cattle. However contemporary theologians, like the rabbis of the times of Dakosta, they hush up such passages from the "holy scripture" that are very unpleasant for them.

In early Christianity, too, there was no distinct doctrine of the immortality of the soul, which is understandable, since christian doctrine largely grew out of the ancient Jewish. One of the most prominent "fathers" of Christianity - Tertullian (died in 222) admitted that "the physicality of the soul is clearly reflected in the gospel itself." In chapter 20 of the New Testament book "Apocalypse", the most ancient work of Christians, written long before the gospels and before the development Christian doctrine about the afterlife, there is an idea that sinners, whom God supposedly resurrects for " doomsday”, followed by final death.

There is nothing surprising in the idea of ​​the ancients about the mortality of the soul, for some ancient peoples considered even gods to be mortal!

People could not but come to the conclusion that if death means separation from the body of the soul, which remains alive, then there is no need to invent a special death for it - it has to be considered immortal.

Thus, at first, there was essentially nothing comforting in the idea of ​​an immortal soul.

Many primitive forms of religion (worship of distant ancestors, etc.) were associated with belief in the soul and spirits - animism (from the Latin word "anima" - soul). Belief in the existence of the soul outlived some of the other early religious beliefs, so it led to the idea of ​​an afterlife. After all, with the emergence of sharp class contradictions, this idea (in the form of fantasies about hell and heaven) became a tool for influencing the masses on the part of the exploiters.

Belief in the soul and spirits was one of the sources of both the religious worldview and idealistic philosophy. Therefore, belief in the immortality of the soul is defended not only by churchmen, but also by many idealist philosophers. Idealistic philosophy and religion do not differ from each other in the main thing: in solving the basic, most important issue of any worldview - the question of the relationship of spirit to nature, consciousness to matter. Like religion, idealism claims that consciousness is primary, and matter is secondary, that some mysterious “spiritual principle” is the cause and essence of the world.

On the contrary, philosophical materialism believes primary matter, and consciousness - secondary, derivative. He argues that the world is material in nature and that, therefore, everything is generated by matter, is a product of matter. This idea is the basis of true science, which is materialistic in its very essence. Science does not invent any extraneous additions to nature and does not take anything away from nature; it tries to explain the world from itself and, therefore, accepts the world as it really is.

Idealism not only supports religion, but is essentially a thinly disguised form of religion. Idealists transform the rough idea of ​​God into something extremely vague and indefinite. To this end, they speak of God as the "world soul", "world spirit", "absolute spirit", etc. According to the fair expression of the Russian revolutionary thinker A. I. Herzen, idealistic philosophy in fact, it has become a "religion without a sky", that is, a refined religion.