Functional-psychological essence of consciousness as a framework condition of cognition, methodologization, faith, thinking, activity

Abstract

The article substantiates that the methodology of consciousness today constitutes a high problem zone of cognitive creativity, which is caused by an irrefutable fact: the phenomenal essence of consciousness is in the noumenally-intelligible dimension, which can not be recognized by rational means of science, or even be proved the very fact of existence or not existence of this transcendental dimension. Therefore, it is logical that the cognition of given essence is now transferred to the format of faith competence. At the same time, the approach to consciousness as a “framework condition of cognition and methodologization” (A.V. Furman), which determines the qualitative parameters of all intelligence functions and activities of the subject, requires substantiation of the core functional-psychological content of the information-experienced foundations of this causation process as a basis component “of the indirectly establishing method of conditions for a conscious ability functioning” (M.K. Mamardashvili, O.M. Pyatigorsky). From these psychological positions, biovital (“earthly”) segment of a consciousness essence must be regarded as a conscious ability, which is provided by “correlative ratio between noesis and noema planes” (A. Gurwitsch) – and objective, ontological-existential meanings, and their significance for the subject. And this means that the consciousness also operates with objective contents – knowledge, – and subjective meanings – attitudes. It is advocated the thesis that for the study of consciousness as a method of indirectly establishing conditions for the functioning of conscious ability, it is necessary to identify the fundamental psychological content of this intentional ability, which is formed and functions thanks to experience. Through a systematic combination of functional-psychological characteristics of the consciousness main components (correlation between its noesis and noema planes) – conceptual knowledge, goal-setting, self-consciousness, attitudes, derived a definitive characteristic of its functional psychological content: a person knows that he knows about the content, that he knows, in particular, about himself as a subject, and his attitude to this knowledge. This characteristic is a laconic description of the key content of conscious ability, and hence the “framework conditions of cognition and methodologization” in the process of a deed as a way of human existence, that is, as a regulatory conditions “of consciousness’ life, without which or beyond which for a person is impossible neither thinking, nor activity, nor reflexive cognition, nor competent methodologization” (A.V. Furman). So, we seek to explain, “how exactly does consciousness arise” (D. Chalmers), the ability of awareness. It is proved that in the basis of processes that ensure the formation and functioning of the ability to aware, there is the operation of conceptual knowledge, where the basis among these processes is conceptual thinking. So an explanation of how this thinking is formed in ontogenesis and phylogeny reveals a channel of how consciousness arises. However, it does not arise from any other noumenon or phenomenon, but according to the genetic programmedness of the human central nervous system and the proper socio-psychological conditions – communicative activity, communication. Conceptual thinking is a speech phenomenon, because it operates with the experience which is accumulated in conceptual knowledge, the underlying system of which is a language. At the same time, this knowledge, in turn, is a fundamental component of consciousness. It is concluded that consciousness is formed, evolves and functions in harmony with conceptual thinking and speech in the process of activity. The most significant psychological operations and factors of this process in ontogenesis include surface image associations, syncretic images, pseudo-concept, egocentric, internal and written speech, etc. (according to L.S. Vygotsky), in phylogeny – participation, verbal symbolism (according to O.O. Potebnya), an ideographic and hieroglyphic writings, etc.