4. The origin and development of human consciousness

Summary

The concept of consciousness. Consciousness as the highest level of mental reflection and the highest level of self-regulation. Activity and intentionality are the main characteristics of consciousness. Reflection and motivational value character of consciousness. "I am conceptual." The relationship of brain development and human consciousness. The role of labor in the formation and development of human consciousness. The concept of A. N. Leontiev.

Cultural and historical concept of the human psyche. The confrontation of "biological" and "ideal" approaches to solving the problem of the origin of human consciousness. The concept of higher mental functions in the concept of L. S. Vygotsky. Components of the concept of L. S. Vygotsky: man and nature, man and his own psyche, genetic aspects. Internalization.

The development of the human psyche. The age classification of A. N. Leontiev and B. G. Ananyev. General characteristics of the human developmental stage: newborn, early infancy, late infancy, preschool age, preschool age, junior school age, adolescence and the beginning of adolescence, acmeological period, gerontogenesis period.

The physiological basis of the human psyche. The structure of the perineal system chelonska. The structure of the brain. The concept of the analyzer. The structure of the cerebral cortex. The ratio of mental phenomena and the work of the brain. The theory of conditioned-reflex teaching of IP Pavlov. Model of the conceptual reflex arc according to E. N. Sokolov. The doctrine of N. A. Bernstein on the participation of the psyche in the regulation of movements. The functional system model according to P. K. Anokhin. The main functional blocks of the brain, their connection with mental processes and their role in controlling behavior in the theory A. R. Lurin. The problem of one-to-one dependence of mental phenomena and certain structures of the brain: arguments for and against localizationism. The problem of correlation of physiological and mental processes.

Consciousness is the state of the individual's mental life, expressed in the subjective survival of the events of the external world and the life of the individual himself, as well as in the account of these events ^[1] .

The term consciousness is difficult to define because the word is used and understood in a wide range of ways. Consciousness can include thoughts, perceptions, imagination and self-consciousness, etc. At different times, it can act as a type of mental state, as a way of perception, as a way of interrelations with others. It can be described as a point of view, as I. Many philosophers see consciousness as the most important thing in the world. On the other hand, many scholars tend to view this word as too vague in meaning to be used.

Consciousness is a category for denoting a person's mental activity in relation to this activity itself.

The problem of what consciousness is and what is its scope, and what is the meaning of the existence of this term is the subject of study of the philosophy of consciousness, psychology, neuroscience, disciplines studying the problems of artificial intelligence. Problems of practical consideration include the following questions: how can we determine the presence of consciousness in seriously ill or comatose people; can there be a non-human consciousness and how to measure it; at what moment the consciousness of people is born; can computers reach conscious states, etc.

In a general sense, consciousness at times also means a state of wakefulness and a response to the world around us, as opposed to states of sleep or coma.

Consciousness as an ability should be distinguished from such an ability as thinking. The simplest consciousness is the feeling of one’s own state, or the state of one’s own “sense organs”, one’s own being as a whole. Consciousness is observable only for the subject himself. It is not observable by objective means. It is not obvious that consciousness is required for intelligent behavior. ^[2] In this case, a conversation arises about the relationship between subject and object, consciousness and peace. In contrast to consciousness, thinking is the ability to think - to fix the world in concepts and to draw conclusions on the basis of them in the form of judgments and conclusions.

Philosophical Theories of Consciousness

In philosophy, consciousness is seen as the ability to relate, to be aware of an object (Hegel). At the same time, “consciousness” is understood not as the psychic ability of the body (as in psychology), but as a fundamental way in which a person is related to his subject and the world in general. It is said about this that consciousness is a form or a method of a givenness of an object, a form or a method of a givenness of the world in general. So understood consciousness is always, can neither begin nor stop, cannot disappear, just as the world cannot disappear, which is constituted by a correlative consciousness by consciousness. Consciousness and the world are two poles of the same, unified correlation of consciousness. That is why, in a strictly philosophical sense, it is incorrect to consider consciousness independently, apart from its correlative pole - the world (psychologism), as well as the world - apart from its correlative pole - consciousness (naivety).

But consciousness is not only the ability of correlation, but also the relation itself. This is evident from the fact that we can not escape from the consciousness, "go" beyond it. In fact, we are totally captured by consciousness. If there is no consciousness, then there is nothing for us. In this sense, consciousness itself is a certain co-relation, duality, separation within oneself. It is said that consciousness is intentional (Husserl). Consciousness always manifests itself as a structure of consciousness about [something] . Moreover, philosophy tries to substantiate the conclusion that such a nature of consciousness constitutes the very separation between the subject and the object, the inner and the outer, the self and the world. As a relation, consciousness is a certain experience , a certain experience in which we relate to the world. This experience is understood at the same time as the very activity of correlation as a whole and as the experience of the subject of this activity of himself and his attitude to the world. That is why, sometimes in philosophy, the subject itself is “isolated” from consciousness and by “consciousness” in a narrow sense, one understands the relation of the subject and its object. It is said that the subject (s) knows the object. At the same time, the term “consciousness” in philosophy does not use *** when it comes to the movement “inside” of thinking, and not actually about correlation with the world. This is due to the fact that outside the experience of correlation with the world, consciousness loses its independent meaning and becomes only the ability to reflect on the conceivable content. Inside thinking, the subject of the movement becomes not consciousness, but thinking itself, understood at the same time as some general, impersonal space of activity and as the subject of this activity itself. However, in this case consciousness is always present as a possible position to which the subject can move at any moment - as an experience of possible correlation with the world.

The following forms of consciousness are distinguished: self-consciousness as consciousness by consciousness of oneself, reason as thinking consciousness, that is, comprehending the world in terms (categories of reason), mind as self-conscious reason, and spirit as the highest form of consciousness including all other forms. The difference between reason and reason lies in the fact that reason relates its concepts to the world and therefore its criterion of truth is consistency. Mind as a self-conscious mind rises to the dialectical retention of contradictions, since it relates not only its concepts to the world, but also itself with its concepts.

Philosophy tries to answer two basic questions about consciousness: what is the nature of consciousness and how is consciousness connected with physical reality, primarily with the body. For the first time, the problem of consciousness was explicitly formulated by Descartes, after consciousness was widely publicized in modern European philosophy, as well as in various philosophical traditions, such as phenomenology and analytical philosophy. Among the main philosophical theories of consciousness are the following:

Dualism

Dualism is a theory that there are two types of substances: consciousness and physical objects. The founder of this theory is Rene Descartes, who argued that the person is a thinking substance that can doubt the existence of everything except his own consciousness, and that consciousness, therefore, is not reducible to the physical world.

The dualism of soul and body is the point of view according to which consciousness (spirit) and matter (physical body) are two independent, complementary to each other and equal in value substance. As a rule, it is based on general philosophical dualism. The founders are Plato and Descartes.

Plato believed that the body belongs to the material world and therefore is mortal, whereas the soul is part of the world of ideas and is immortal. He believed that the soul is only temporarily attached to the body until the time of its death, after which the soul returns to its world of forms. The soul, unlike the body, does not exist in space and time, which gives it access to the absolute truth of the world of ideas.

Of the modern representatives of dualism can be noted David Chalmers. Calling his position naturalistic dualism, he insists on the non-physical nature of conscious experience, which cannot be reduced to physical properties, although it depends on the latter according to the laws of nature. Psychophysical laws are relied upon by Chalmers as a natural addition to physical laws and principles ^[3] .

Logical behaviorism

Logical behaviorism - the theory that to be in a mental state means to be in a behavioral state, that is, either to carry out a certain behavior, or to have a disposition (disposition) to such behavior. Logical behaviorism is associated with behaviorism in psychology, but they should be distinguished: in the latter case, behaviorism is understood as a method for studying human beings, but does not attempt to solve philosophical problems regarding the nature of consciousness and the relationship between mind and body. Representatives of logical behaviorism include such philosophers as Hempel and Ryle. This theory seeks to refute Descartes' dualism, since it contradicts the thesis of the unity of science, understood as physicalism. Some of the basic premises of this theory were also shared by Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Idealism

Idealism is a theory according to which the soul (consciousness) is primary. And the body is secondary. ^{[ source not specified 569 days ]} . Idealists claim that the objects of the physical world do not exist outside of their perception. Most consistently, this thesis was developed in subjective idealism by George Berkeley, who argued that "to be is to be perceived."

Hinduism

In Hinduism, consciousness is associated with Purusha ("the silent supreme witness"), who observes the actions of Prakriti ("material nature"). The consciousness of the soul tends to mistakenly identify itself with the material body, being carried away and connected by the gunas ("qualities of nature"). ^[four]

Materialism

Materialism is a theory that if something exists, then it has a physical nature ^{[ source not specified 755 days ]} . Consciousness is described by materialists ^{[ what? ]} as a property of highly organized matter. The materialists criticize both dualists and idealists, as well as behaviorists, arguing that behavior is not consciousness, but an internal physical cause of consciousness. Among the materialists we can mention Friedrich Engels, David Armstrong, Donald Davidson and others. See also the Cartesian Theater.

Turning to the history, prof. I. Kalnoy and Yu. A. Sandulov note: the driving force of development is the French materialists of the 18th century. see in education, in spreading positive ideas. The initial thesis of their social philosophy is that "opinions rule the world." German thinkers, seeing the French bourgeois revolution in its retrospection, will say: “Opinions not only rule the world, but also create a new world,” from which step to absolutization of consciousness in the formula “Consciousness not only reflects the world, but also creates it” ^[5] .

Functionalism

Functionalism (English) Russian. - this is the theory according to which to be in a mental state means to be in a functional state, that is, to perform some specific function. From the point of view of functionalists, consciousness refers to the brain in the same way as, for example, the function to show time is related to a specific physical device of a clock. Functionalism takes a critical stance against materialism, since it denies the necessary connection between consciousness and the brain. So, according to functionalists, consciousness can potentially be a function of various physical objects, such as a computer. Functionalism is the methodological basis of the theory of artificial intelligence and cognitive science. The functionalists include David Luce, Hilary Putnam, Daniel Dennett, and DI Dubrovsky.

Two Aspect Theory

A two-pronged theory is a theory that the mental and physical essence are two properties of some underlying reality of things, which in fact is neither mental nor physical. A two-pronged theory, therefore, rejects both dualism, and idealism, and materialism as the idea that there is a mental or physical substance. Similar views are characteristic, for example, of Benedict Spinoza, Bertrand Russell, and Peter Strasson.

Phenomenological theory

Phenomenology is an attempt to implicitly describe the content of experience without any allegations about the reality of its subject. Phenomenology attempts to discover the ideal (essential) traits of human thinking and perception, free from any empirical and individual inclusions, and thus substantiate all other sciences as based on thinking. According to phenomenology, the main property of human consciousness is intentionality. Among the supporters of this theory we call Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merlot-Ponty.

Emergent theory

An emergent theory is a theory that although consciousness is a property of some physical object (usually the brain), it is nevertheless irreducible to the physical states of the latter and is a special irreducible entity with unique properties, just as the properties of a water molecule are irreducible to the properties of hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Consciousness, however, is an ordinary real object, which must be studied by science on a par with all others. Among the supporters of this concept is John Searle.

4.1. Concept of consciousness

We have already used such a concept as “consciousness” more than once, and you know that consciousness is the highest level of mental reflection of objective reality, as well as the highest level of self-regulation inherent only to man as a social being. Let's take a closer look at this definition.

From a practical point of view, consciousness appears as a continuously changing set of sensual and mental images that directly appear before the subject in his inner world. However, as we noted earlier, it can be assumed that similar or close to it mental activity on the formation of mental images occurs in more developed animals, such as dogs, horses, dolphins, monkeys, etc. What is the difference between the mental reflection of the objective world and man? from similar processes in animals? First of all, the human being is distinguished from animals by not having a process of forming mental images based on the objective perception of objects.

Chapter 4. The origin and development of human consciousness • 89

surrounding reality, and the specific mechanisms of its occurrence. It is the mechanisms of formation of mental images and the features of operating with them that determine the presence of such a phenomenon in the person as consciousness is.

What is characterized by consciousness? First, consciousness is always active and, secondly, intentionally. Activity itself is a property of all living beings. The activity of consciousness is manifested in the fact that the mental reflection of the objective world by a person is not passive in nature, as a result of which all objects reflected by the psyche have the same significance, but, on the contrary, differentiation occurs according to the degree of significance for the subject of mental images. As a result, the consciousness of a person is always directed towards an object, object, or image, that is, it has the property of intention (direction).

The presence of these properties determines the presence of a number of other characteristics of consciousness, allowing to consider it as the highest level of self-regulation. The group of these properties of consciousness should include the ability for self-observation (reflection), as well as the motivational-axiological nature of consciousness.

The ability to reflect determines the ability of a person to observe himself, his sensation, his state. Moreover, it is critical to observe, that is, a person is able to assess himself and his condition by placing the obtained information in a certain system of coordinates. Such a system of coordinates for a person is his values ​​and ideals.

It should be emphasized that these properties of consciousness determine the possibility of forming an individual “I-concept” in the process of ontogenesis of a person, which is a combination of a person’s ideas about himself and the surrounding reality. A person evaluates all information about the world on the basis of a system of ideas about himself and forms behavior based on his system of values, ideals and motivational attitudes. Therefore, it is not by chance that “I-conception” is often called self-consciousness.

Self-consciousness of a person as a system of his views is strictly individual. People evaluate the events and their actions differently, the same objects of the real world are differently evaluated. Moreover, the assessments of some people are quite objective, that is, they correspond to reality, and the evaluations of others, on the contrary, are extremely subjective. What determines the adequacy of our consciousness? If we try to find an answer to this question, then we will be forced to give a variety of reasons for the adequacy of the human-perceived image of the real world and its self-assessments. However, the root cause of most of the factors determining the ability to build an adequate “I-concept” is the degree of human criticality.

As noted in previous chapters, in a simplified form, criticality is the ability to recognize the difference between “good” and “bad”. It is the ability to critically evaluate what is happening and to compare the information received with their attitudes and ideals, and based on this comparison to form their behavior, that is, to define goals and an action program, to take steps to achieve the goal, distinguishes man from animal. Thus, criticality acts as the main mechanism for controlling one’s behavior.

It should be noted that not all received information about the surrounding reality and its own state is realized by man. Much of the information is outside our mind. This is due to its low significance for humans or the “automatic” response of the body in response to a habitual stimulus. The problem of the relationship between the unconscious and the conscious in human behavior is extremely complex, and a separate chapter is devoted to it. Now we must answer the question of what causes the emergence and development of consciousness in man.

In domestic psychology, this question is usually considered based on the hypothesis formulated by A. N. Leontiev about the origin of human consciousness. In order to answer the question about the origin of consciousness, it is necessary to dwell on the fundamental differences between man and other representatives of the animal world.

One of the main differences between man and animal is his relationship with nature. If an animal is an element of living nature and builds its relationship with it from the position of adaptation to the conditions of the surrounding world, then the person does not just adapt to the natural environment, but seeks to subordinate it to a certain extent, creating for this tool of labor. With the creation of tools of labor changes the lifestyle of a person. The ability to create tools for the transformation of the surrounding nature demonstrates the ability to consciously work. Labor is a specific type of activity inherent only to a person, consisting in the implementation of impacts on nature in order to ensure the conditions of its existence.

The main feature of labor is that labor activity, as a rule, is carried out only jointly with other people. This is true even for the simplest labor operations or activities that are individual in nature, since in the process of their fulfillment a person enters into certain relations with the people around him. For example, a writer's work may be characterized as an individual. However, in order to become a writer, a person had to learn how to read and write, get the necessary education, that is, his work activity became possible only because of his involvement in the system of relationships with other people. Thus, any work, even seeming at first glance purely individual, requires cooperation with other people.

Consequently, labor contributed to the formation of certain human communities that were fundamentally different from animal communities. These differences lay in the fact that, firstly, the unification of primitive people was caused by the desire not only to survive, which is also typical for herd animals, but to survive by transforming the natural conditions of existence, that is, through collective labor.

Secondly, the most important condition for the existence of human communities and the successful implementation of labor operations is the level of development of communication between members of the community. The higher the level of development of communication between members of the community, the higher not only the organization, but also the level of development of the human psyche. Thus, the highest level of human communication - speech - led to a fundamentally different level of regulation of mental states and

behavior - regulation using the word. A person who is able to communicate with words, in order to form his behavior or idea of ​​the real world, there is no need to enter into physical contact with objects around him. For this, it is enough for him to have information that he acquires in the process of communicating with other people.

It should be noted that it was precisely the characteristics of human communities, consisting in the need for collective labor, that led to the emergence and development of speech. In turn, speech predetermined the possibility of the existence of consciousness, since the thought of a person always has a verbal (verbal) form. For example, a person, due to a certain coincidence of circumstances who came to animals and grew up among them in his childhood, does not know how to speak, and the level of his thinking, although higher than that of animals, does not at all correspond to the level of thinking of modern man.

Third, the laws of the animal world, based on the principles of natural selection, are unsuitable for the normal existence and development of human communities. The collective nature of labor, the development of communication not only entailed the development of thinking, but also led to the formation of specific laws of existence and development of the human community. These laws are known to us as the principles of morality and ethics.

Thus, there is a certain sequence of phenomena that determined the possibility of the emergence of consciousness in a person: labor led to a change in the principles of building relationships between people. This change was reflected in the transition from natural selection to the principles of social hostel organization, and also contributed to the development of speech as a means of communication. The emergence of human communities with their moral norms, reflecting the laws of social life, was the basis for the manifestation of the criticality of human thinking. Thus, the concepts of “good” and “bad” appeared, the content of which was determined by the level of development of human communities. Gradually, with the development of society, these concepts became more complicated, which to some extent contributed to the evolution of thinking. At the same time, the development of speech. She appeared all new and new features. She contributed to the awareness of the man of his "I", the release of themselves from the environment. As a result, speech acquired properties that allow it to be considered as a means of regulating human behavior. All these phenomena and patterns determined the possibility of the manifestation and development of consciousness in man.

At the same time, it should be emphasized that such a logical sequence is merely a hypothesis expounded from rationalistic positions. Today there are other points of view on the problem of the emergence of human consciousness, including those expounded from irrational positions. This is not surprising, since there is no consensus on many issues of psychology. We prefer the rationalistic point of view not only because similar views were held by the classics of Russian psychology (A.N. Leontiev, B.N. Teplov, etc.). There are a number of facts that allow to establish patterns that determined the possibility of the emergence of consciousness in humans.

First of all, attention should be paid to the fact that the emergence of human consciousness v, the appearance of speech and the ability to work were prepared by the evolution of man as a biological species. Straightforward, the forelimbs were freed from the function of walking and contributed to the development of their specialization related to the grabbing of objects, their retention and manipulation of objects, which generally contributed to creating opportunities for a person to work. At the same time, the development of the sense organs took place. In humans, vision has become the dominant source of information about the world.

Мы вправе полагать, что развитие органов чувств не могло происходить изолированно от развития нервной системы с целом, поскольку с появлением человека как биологического вида отмечаются существенные изменения в строении нервной системы, и прежде всего головного мозга. Так, объем головного мозга человека превышает объем мозга его ближайшего предшественника — человекообразной обезьяны — более чем в два раза. Если у человекообразной обезьяны средний объем мозга равен 600 см 3 , то у человека он составляет 1400 см 3 . Еще в большей пропорции увеличивается площадь поверхности больших полушарий, так как количество извилин коры головного мозга и их глубина у человека значительно больше (рис. 4.1).

Fig. 4.1. Строение головного мозга у акулы (Л), кролика (Б), ящерицы (В), человека (Г)

Однако с появлением человека происходит не только физическое увеличение объема головного мозга и площади коры. Происходят существенные структурные и функциональные перестройки мозга. Например, у человека по сравнению с человекообразной обезьяной уменьшилась в процентном соотношении площадь проекционных нолей, связанных с элементарными чувствительными и двигательными функциями, и увеличилось процентное содержание интегративных полей, связанных с высшими психическими функциями (рис. 4.2).

Такое резкое разрастание коры головного мозга, ее структурная эволюция прежде всего связаны с тем, что ряд элементарных функций, которые у животных целиком осуществляются низшими отделами мозга, у человека уже требуют участия коры. Происходит дальнейшая кортикализация управления поведением, большее подчинение элементарных процессов коре по сравнению с тем, что наблюдается у животных. Можно предположить, что эволюция коры головного мозга в процессе филогенеза человека, наряду с его социально-историческим

развитием, обусловила возможность появления высшей формы развития психики — сознания.

Today, thanks to clinical research, we know that conscious activity and conscious behavior of a person is largely determined by the frontal and parietal fields of the cerebral cortex. Thus, with the defeat of the front fields, a person loses the ability to consciously and rationally control his activities as a whole, to subordinate actions to more distant motives and goals. At the same time, the defeat of the parietal fields leads to the loss of ideas about temporal and spatial relationships, as well as logical connections. An interesting fact is that the human frontal and parietal fields are most developed in comparison with apes, especially the frontal ones. In monkeys, the frontal fields occupy about 15% of the area of ​​the cerebral cortex, then in human they occupy 30%. In addition, the peredslobnys and low-mass areas in humans have some nerve centers that are absent in animals.

It should also be noted that the results of the evolution of the motor organs are reflected in the nature of the structural changes in the human brain. Each muscle group is closely associated with specific motor fields of the cerebral cortex.

Fig. 4.2, Monkey (A) and human (B) cortex. Shaded plots - projection fields. Non shaded plots - and adjacent tivpy fields. In humans, the area of ​​integrative fields is much larger.

94 • Part I. Introduction to General Psychology

Vygotsky Lev Semenovich (1896-1934) - outstanding

Russian psychologist, creator of the cultural-historical concept of the development of higher mental functions. Until the second half of the 1920s. dealt with the problem of perception of works of art. He singled out in the emotional sphere a person who perceives a particular work of art, two multidirectional affects, the opposite of which is removed in catharsis, which is the basis of aesthetic reactions. However, later, starting with the work “The Historical Meaning of the Psychological Crisis”, Vygotsky began to analyze the general methodological problems of psychology, as a result of which, focusing on the Marxist methodology, he developed a study on the development of mental functions in the process of the individual's cultural understanding.

In the future, Vygotsky created a new trend in child psychology, including the provision on the child’s “zone of proximal development”. In practice, this problem was implemented by him in defectology. Vygotsky created the laboratory of the psychology of anomalous childhood (1925-1926), formulating a new theory of the development of an anomalous child. At the last stage of his work, he investigated the relationship of thinking and speech, the development of meanings in ontogenesis, and egocentric speech.

Despite the fact that he lived a very short life (only 36 years old), his influence on domestic and world psychology is quite significant. Many works of Vygotsky have not lost their relevance in our days.

work, which in turn was a prerequisite for the emergence of consciousness in man. The absence of indisputable evidence confirming or disproving one of the conclusions gave rise to different points of view on the causes of the emergence and development of consciousness in humans.

However, we will not focus our attention on theoretical debates, but only note that the emergence of consciousness in humans as the highest known form of mental development has become possible due to the complication of the structure of the brain. In addition, we must agree that the level of development of brain structures and the ability to perform complex labor operations is in close relationship. Therefore, it can be argued that the emergence of consciousness in humans is due to both biological and social factors. The development of living nature has led to the emergence of man, which has specific features of the structure of the body and a more developed nervous system than other animals, which in general has determined the ability of man to engage in labor. This, in turn, led to the emergence of communities, the development of language and consciousness, that is, the logical chain of laws mentioned above. Thus, the labor was the condition that made it possible to realize the psychological potentials of the biological species Homo S ar iens,

It is necessary to emphasize that with the advent of consciousness, man immediately separated himself from the animal world, but the first people were significantly different from modern people in terms of their mental development. Thousands of years passed before man reached the level of modern development. And the main factor in the progressive development of consciousness was labor. So, with the acquisition of practical

experience, with the evolution of social relations went complication of work. Man gradually moved from the simplest labor operations to more complex activities, which entailed the progressive development of the brain and consciousness. This progressive development testifies to the social nature of consciousness, which is clearly manifested in the development of the psyche of the child.

4.2. Cultural and historical concept of the human psyche

Considering the problem of the origin and development of human consciousness, we cannot but dwell in more detail on one of the psychological concepts that determined the scientific ways of solving the problem of the origin of the human psyche. Subsequently, it became known as the cultural-historical theory of the origin of the human psyche. (In some works, it is called the theories of the socio-historical origin of the higher mental functions of man.) Its author is the well-known Russian scientist L. S. Vygotsky. This concept appeared against the background of disputes about the position from which to approach the study of man. Among the various approaches, two dominated: "biological" and "ideal."

From the perspective of the ideal approach, man has a divine origin. According to this point of view, the goal of each person’s life is “to carry out God's plan” (Christian approach), to express part of the “objective spirit” (Hegel), and so on. The soul of man, his psyche is divine, immeasurable and unknowable.

From a “biological” point of view, man has a natural origin and is part of living nature, therefore his mental life can be described by the same concepts as the mental life of animals. IP Pavlov, who discovered that the laws of higher nervous activity are the same for animals and for humans, can be attributed to the brightest representatives of this position. Therefore, there was an opinion that is still shared by some physiologists; it lies in the fact that the physiology of higher nervous activity, or the science of the brain as a whole, will sooner or later replace psychology. But then it is quite natural that an assumption arises that the consciousness inherent in man should also occur in animals, and if we speak of consciousness as a qualitatively new entity, then it is necessary to introduce completely different concepts and look for completely different laws.

L. S. Vygotsky solved this problem differently. He showed that man has a special kind of mental functions that are completely absent in animals. These functions, called L. Vygotsky higher mental functions, constitute the highest level of the human psyche, generally called consciousness. They are formed in the course of social interaction. In other words, Vygotsky argued that the higher mental functions of man, or consciousness, are social in nature. In this case, under the highest mental

It is interesting

What are the mechanisms of consciousness

functions imply: arbitrary memory, arbitrary attention, logical thinking, etc.

The concept of Vygotsky * can be divided into three components. The first part can be called "Man and Nature." Its main content can be formulated as two theses. The first is the thesis that during the transition from animals to humans, a fundamental change in the relations of the subject with the environment took place. Throughout the existence of the animal world, the environment acted on the animal, modifying it and making it adapt to itself. With the advent of man, the opposite process is observed: man acts on nature and modifies it. The second thesis explains the existence of mechanisms for changing nature on the part of man. This mechanism consists in the creation of instruments of labor, in the development of material production.

The second part of Vygotsky's concept may be called "Man and His Own Psyche." It also contains two provisions. The first position is that the mastery of nature did not pass without a trace for man, he learned to master his own psyche, he had higher mental functions, expressed in the forms of arbitrary activity. Under the highest

* The structure and content of the concept of L. S. Vygotsky is considered according to a lecture by Yu. B. Gippenreiter

from the book Introduction to General Psychology.

By mental functions, L. S. Vygotsky understood the ability of a person to force himself to remember some material, to pay attention to an object, to organize his mental activity.

The second position is that a person mastered his behavior, like nature, with the help of tools, but special tools - psychological. These psychological tools he called signs.

Vygotsky called artificial means by means of which primitive man was able to master his behavior, memory and other mental processes. The signs were objective, a “memory knot” or a notch in the tree also act as a sign, as a means by which memory is acquired. For example, a person saw a notch and remembered what to do. By itself, this sign is not associated with a specific type of activity. A “nodule for memory” or a notch in a tree can be meaningfully associated with various types of labor operations. But when confronted with a similar sign-symbol, a person connected him with the need to perform some specific operation. Consequently, such marks acted as additional characters, meaningfully related to labor operations. However, in order to perform this work, a person needed to remember what exactly he should do. Therefore, signs-symbols were the trigger mechanisms of higher mental processes, i.e., they acted as psychological tools.

The third part of Vygotsky's concept can be called "Genetic Aspects." This part of the concept answers the question “Where do the means signs come from?” Vygotsky proceeded from the assumption that labor created man. In the process of joint work, communication took place between its participants with the help of special signs defining what each of the participants in the labor process should do. It is likely that the first words were words-orders addressed to the participants of the labor process. For example, “do this”, “take it”, “take it there”, etc. These first words-orders were in their essence verbal signs. The person, having heard a certain combination of sounds, carried out this or that labor operation. But later, in the process of activity, the person began to turn commands not on anyone, but on himself. As a result, his organizing function was born from the out-of-command function of the word. So man learned to control his behavior. Consequently, the ability to order oneself was born in the process of human cultural development.

It can be assumed that, first, the functions of the person ordering and the person executing these orders were separated and the whole process; in the words of L. S. Vygotsky was interpsychological, that is, interpersonal. Then these relations turned into relations with oneself, i.e., into psychological and psychological ones. The process of transforming interventions into the psychological psychology Vygotsky called internalization. In the course of interiorization, external means-signs (nicks, nodules, etc.) are transformed into internal (images, elements of internal speech, etc.).

In ontogenesis, according to Vygotsky, the principle is the same. At first, the adult acts with the word na on the child, prompting him to do something. Then the child adopts the mode of communication and begins to influence the adult with a word. Finally, the child begins to influence the word on himself.

Thus, the concept of Vygotsky can be divided into two fundamental points. First, the higher mental functions have a mediated structure. Secondly, for the development of the human psyche is characterized by the internalization of the relations of management and means-signs. The main conclusion of this concept is as follows: a person differs in principle from an animal in that he mastered nature with the help of tools. This left an imprint on his psyche, - he learned to master his own higher mental functions. For this, he also uses tools, but tools are psychological. As such tools are signs, or sign means. They are of cultural origin, with speech being the universal and most typical sign system.

Consequently, the higher mental functions of man differ from the mental functions of animals in their properties, structure and origin: they are arbitrary, mediated, social,

В заключение следует отметить, что, конечно, концепция Выготского имеет ряд недостатков и может подвергаться критике, но она сыграла огромную роль в становлении научной психологической мысли. Ее основные положения были использованы при разработке такой практической проблемы, как дефектология. Концепция Выготского также оказала влияние на формирование современных научных взглядов на проблему происхождения психики и развития сознания человека.

Сегодня в отечественной психологии основополагающим тезисом является утверждение о том, что происхождение сознания человека связано с его социальной природой. Сознание невозможно вне общества. Специфически человеческий путь онтогенеза состоит в усвоении общественно-исторического опыта в процессе обучения и воспитания — общественно выработанных способов передачи человеческого опыта. Эти способы обеспечивают полноценное развитие психики ребенка.

4.3. Развитие психики человека

Человек проходит от рождения до зрелости сложный путь психического развития. Если сравнить психику ребенка в первый год его жизни с тем уровнем психического развития, которого он достигает через пять-шесть лет жизни, то можно заметить не только количественное, но и качественное различие. Например, память маленького ребенка не просто слабее или сильнее, чем у старшего школьника, — она у него иная. Маленькие дети, как правило, быстрее запоминают стихи или слова иностранного языка. Однако это не означает, что у школьника память хуже. Требования, предъявляемые к памяти школьника, несравненно выше, чем возможности памяти маленького ребенка, а более легкое запоминание слов маленькими детьми определяется тем, что на разных этапах развития свойства памяти проявляются по-разному и само развитие определяется не только количественными изменениями, но в первую очередь изменением качественных характеристик. Поэтому не случайно, что процесс развития психики ребенка носит этапный характер. Каждый из этапов развития психики ребенка характеризуется

как самостоятельная стадия развития. Все стадии отличаются друг от друга прежде всего по своим качественным, а не количественным характеристикам.

It should be immediately noted that there is a very large number of approaches to the problem of the development of the psyche of the child. Moreover, in different approaches there are various stages in the development of the child’s psyche. For example, A. N. Leontiev identifies seven stages in the development of the child’s psyche: a newborn child (up to 2 months); early infancy (up to 6 months); late infancy (from 6 to 12-14 months); pre-school age (from 1 year to 3 years); preschool age (from 3 to 7 years old), primary school age (from 7 to 11-12 years old); adolescence and the beginning of adolescence (from 13-14 to 17-18 years). BG Ananiev also identifies 7 stages in human development from birth to adolescence: newborns (1-10 days); infant (10 days - 1 year); early childhood (1-2 years); the first period of childhood (3-7 years); the second period of childhood (8-12 years for boys, 8-11 years for girls); adolescence (12–16 years for boys, 12–15 years for girls); youth (17-21 years for men, 16-20 years for women).

As we can see, there are certain differences between these approaches. Consider the characteristics of the psychological content of the stages identified by A. N. Leontiev.

The first stage is the stage of the newborn (up to 2 months). What is characteristic of this stage? First of all, the child is born with relatively highly developed sensory organs, organs of motion and the nervous system, the formation of which occurs in the prenatal period. A newborn has visual and auditory sensations, sensations of the position of the body in space, olfactory, skin and taste sensations, as well as many elementary reflexes. The nervous system of the newborn, including the cerebral cortex, is generally already completely anatomically shaped. But the development of the microscopic structure of the cortex is not yet complete, in particular, the myelination of the nerve fibers of the motor and sensory zones of the cortex is only beginning-

The way of life of a newborn differs little from its way of life in the prenatal period: at rest, the child maintains the same fetal position; sleep takes 4/5 of all time; the external activity of the child is largely focused on meeting their nutritional needs; manual and switching movements are absent at all. Nevertheless, the stage of the newborn is the first stage at which the behavior begins to form in the form of the simplest acts, and most importantly, the sphere of sensations is formed most intensively. There is an early differentiation of taste and olfactory sensations that are associated with the nutrition of the child. Skin development on the side of cheeks, lips, mouth reaches high development. At first, visual perception of forms is absent, the child reacts only to large or bright moving objects. At the same time, the development of orientation reactions, such as silence on the sound, and above all on the whisper of the mother.

At the age of three to four weeks, the child begins preparations for the transition to the next, higher stage of development. At this time, a peculiar complex reaction appears, expressed in the general revival of the child in the presence of a person. This reaction among researchers has received the name "reaction of revival". The development of this reaction begins with the fact that in response to the approach

100 • Part I. Introduction to General Psychology

the speaking person, the child begins to smile and a general positive direction appears, which is not yet differentiable. That is, the child begins to appear the first signs of objective perception.

Thus, the main characteristics of this stage are: mye-lineization of nerve fibers; the formation of the simplest behavioral acts and indicative reactions; the emergence of the reaction "recovery" ..

Early infancy (from 2 to 6 months). At this stage of mental development, the child begins to operate with objects and his perception is formed. It all begins with attempts to grab or feel the subject with simultaneous visual fixation on this subject, which leads to the formation of visual-tactile connections that underlie the subject perception. The child is especially active in operating objects (with simultaneous visual fixation) at the age of five to six months, so it can be assumed that at this age there is a rapid development of perception processes. Moreover, by this time the child can already sit on his own, which provides him with further development of movements when retrieving objects. At the same time, the child begins to recognize people and things. It develops visual concentration and visual expectation.

Thus, the main feature of this stage is the development of actions with objects and processes of objective perception.

Late infancy (from 6 to 12-14 months). In the second half of