The subject and function of philosophy

Before proceeding to the consideration of the question thatis a subject of philosophy as a science, it is necessary to understand what is actually such an object. Without this understanding, it is pointless to approach the definition of the subject of philosophy, because the breadth of scientific interest within the framework of philosophical knowledge is practically unlimited. Another reason for this approach is that before you consider the subject, you need to draw a clear picture of the object of scientific knowledge.

The object of any science, as follows from the veryterm, is always objective, that is, its being is not determined by the desire or preferences of a particular researcher - the subject of scientific knowledge. Quite often one can come across judgments that due to the breadth of the cognitive field in philosophy, the object and object are identical. However, such an approach should be considered unproductive, because it is precisely because of this breadth that the scientific interest in this science is being eroded, becoming vague.

Based on historical development collisionsphilosophical knowledge and thinking, the object of philosophy can recognize all the objective reality, the spiritual and social reality in which the being of man, including man himself, is realized.

Unlike an object, the subject of any science is alwaysis subjective, that is, its existence is mediated by the scientific interest of the subject of cognition, the researcher. He chooses which part of the object (objective reality) is of scientific interest to him, and after that, in fact, the subject of science is formed. Applied to philosophical knowledge, the subject of science is determined by the very structure of science, its directions, currents, doctrines and theories. In this, by the way, one of the philosophical laws of philosophy is manifested - the dialecticity of the connection between the subject of research and the structure of scientific knowledge. In the simplest and most general form, the subject and function of philosophy can be defined as follows.

As its subject, it is possible to indicate the most general laws of the genesis of the forms of being of the material and spiritual world, as well as their explicable images, rationalized by human consciousness.

Historically formed philosophicaldirections have determined the features of the subject area within each separate direction. For example, existentialists, beginning with the great Heidegger, believed that the object and function of philosophy consisted in the cognition of the individual meaning - existence, which is the semantic justification not only of man as such, but of everything that exists around us. The positivists approached the solution of this question in a different way. More Auguste Comte argued that the object and function of philosophy should be formed from the needs of society, explain and formulate the laws and tendencies of human existence. This is what predetermined the fact that Comte is considered not only the founder of the philosophical direction of positivism, but also the founder of the science of sociology. But starting with Karl Popper, the positivist definition of what constitutes the subject and function of philosophy has changed significantly. Here we see a transition to an analysis of the scientific picture of the world, and here the main methodological criterion of this analysis is developed - the principle of verification of knowledge is supplemented by the principle of falsification.

Proceeding from the interdependence, which connects the concepts of the subject, structure and functions of philosophy, it is possible to determine its functions only in its widest form. As a rule, they are:

• methodological, which consists in the fact that philosophy develops the apparatus of cognition and gives its universal methods for use in various fields of human activity;
• general scientific, consisting in the fact that it is within the framework of philosophical knowledge that basic theories and categories used in cognition are created;
• social function involves the consideration of society within the framework of philosophical knowledge as a single integrity;
• normative and regulatory, consisting in the fact that it is the philosophy that develops the criteria for evaluating activities in the most diverse spheres of human existence;
• worldview, speaks for itself, it provides the formation of types of thinking and behavior on the basis of purely theoretical attitudes and patterns.

It should be noted that this list can not beLimit the list of functions that philosophy fulfills in our life. They can be broken up, and it is possible to formulate new ones, no less significant, but mediated by the historical process.

Science philosophy, its subject and functionsdirectly determine the structure of philosophical knowledge, which is also not a dogma and is constantly expanding as the society accumulates new scientific facts. In addition, the development of philosophy is accompanied by a constant shift in the emphasis of scientific interest to various problems, so we can note such a phenomenon as the emergence of various philosophical problems at different times. This phenomenon also directly affects the content of the range of problems that constitute the subject of philosophy as a science.