What is primary - spirit or matter? Scientists argue about this throughout the history of the science of philosophy. Materialists recognize the primacy of everything material, i.e. real. All entities, they say, are formed by matter. Idealists, on the contrary, assert that the spirit has always existed and the entire external world is a manifestation of spiritual being.
The essence of the philosophy of materialism
The philosophical teaching of materialism appeared in the era of antiquity. The philosophers of Ancient Greece and the Ancient East considered everything in the surrounding world regardless of consciousness - everything consists of material formations and elements, Thales, Democritus and others argued. In the era of modern times, materialism acquired a metaphysical orientation. Galileo and Newton said that everything in the world comes down to the mechanistic form of the motion of matter. Metaphysical materialism has replaced dialectical one. Consistent materialism appeared in the theory of Marxism, when the basic principle of materialism extended not only to the material world, but also to nature. Feuerbach singled out inconsistent materialism, which recognized spirit, but reduced all its functions to the creation of matter.
Materialist philosophers argue that the only substance that exists is matter, all essences are formed by it, and phenomena, including consciousness, are formed in the process of interaction of various matters. The world exists independently of our consciousness. For example, a stone exists independently of a person's idea of it, and what a person knows about it is the effect that a stone has on human senses. A person can imagine that there is no stone, but this will not make the stone disappear from the world. This means, say the materialist philosophers, that first there is the physical, and then the mental. Materialism does not deny the spiritual, it only asserts that consciousness is secondary to matter.
The essence of the philosophy of idealism
The theory of idealism was also born during antiquity. Idealism ascribes to the spirit a leading role in the world. The classic of idealism is Plato. His doctrine was called objective idealism and proclaimed the ideal principle in general, independent not only of matter, but also of human consciousness. There is a certain essence, some spirit, which gave birth to everything and determines everything, idealists say.
Subjective idealism appeared in the philosophy of modern times. Idealist philosophers of modern times argued that the outside world is completely dependent on the consciousness of man. Everything that surrounds people is just a combination of some sensations, and a person attributes material significance to these combinations. The combination of some sensations generates a stone and all ideas about it, others - a tree, etc.
In general, idealistic philosophy boils down to the fact that a person receives all information about the external world only through sensations, with the help of the senses. All that a person reliably knows is knowledge obtained from the senses. And if the senses are arranged differently, then the sensations will be different. This means that a person is not talking about the world, but about his feelings.
