Emotional and rational in consciousness. “Without emotions, rational behavior would be impossible”: neuroscientists on the mechanics of decision making. Decision-making methods based on rational and emotional thinking

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Classifications of emotional states . positive, negative , sensory-neutral emotional states . Internal and external conditioning of emotions . Orientation: self and others . social feelings. aesthetic feelings . Three levels of emotional experiences: the level of non-objective emotional-affective sensitivity; object feelings; generalized feelings. affects , emotions , feelings , passions andsentiments .

The contraposition of consciousness and feelings, logical and emotional, mind and heart, rational and irrational has long and firmly come into use. We all have to make a choice between "the voice of the heart" and "the voice of reason" from time to time. Often these two "voices" prompt us with different decisions, different choices. A person of modern Western civilization is characterized by the dominance of the rational sphere over the world of feelings, the solution of this dispute in favor of the mind. With the help of the mind, we plan our careers, decide financial questions, evaluate the chances, stock up on knowledge, judge something. We repeat after Descartes "I think, therefore I am." Reason, logic, intelligence are needed for success in the modern technocratic, computerized world. And, adapting to this world, striving for success in it, we develop logic, intellect, and often care little about the development of the emotional and sensory sphere, impoverishing our inner world, because the richness of inner life is largely determined by the quality and depth of experiences. A person's perception of his life as happy or unhappy is a reflection of his emotional state. But the perception of one's life as successful or not depends on the quality of consciousness as an instrument and the degree of possession of it.

Contrasting emotions with intellect is not always justified. Back in the 13th century, Roger Bacon noted that there are two types of knowledge, one - obtained through arguments, the other - through experience (2, p. 129).
“No emotion is reducible to pure, abstract emotionality. Every emotion includes the unity of experience and cognition, intellectual and affective.- wrote S.L. Rubinshtein (1, p.156).

“Man, as a subject who cognizes and changes the world, ... experiences what happens to him and happens to him; he relates in a certain way to what surrounds him. The experience of this relation of a person to the environment constitutes the sphere of feelings or emotions. A person's feeling is his attitude to the world, to what he experiences and does in the form of direct experience.(S.L. Rubinshtein, 1, p. 152).

The word emotion comes from the Latin "emovere" - excite, excite.

The German philosopher and psychologist F. Krueger in his work “The Essence of Emotional Experience” (1, p. 108) wrote:

“What pleases a person, what interests him, plunges him into despondency, worries, seems ridiculous to him, most of all characterizes his “essence”, his character and personality ... To a certain extent, “emotional” gives us knowledge about the structure of the spiritual, “inner world generally".

Classification of emotions.

Manifestations of the emotional world of a person are extremely diverse. These include such diverse phenomena as pain and irony, beauty and confidence, touch and justice. Emotions differ in quality, intensity, duration, depth, awareness, complexity, conditions of occurrence, functions performed, effects on the body, needs, subject content and orientation (to oneself or others), to the past or future, according to the features of their expression, and so on. . Any of these measurements can form the basis for a classification.
We can evaluate the feelings experienced, emotions as deep, serious or superficial, frivolous, strong or weak, complex or simple, hidden or pronounced.

The most commonly used is the division of emotions into positive and negative.

But not all emotional manifestations can be attributed to one of these groups. There are also sensually neutral emotional states: surprise, curiosity, indifference, excitement, thoughtfulness, sense of responsibility.

The division of emotions into positive and negative reflects, first of all, subjective assessment experienced sensations. Externally, both positive and negative emotions can lead to both positive and negative consequences. So, although experienced anger or fear often have negative consequences for the body and even for society, in some cases they can have a positive function of protection, survival. Such positive emotional manifestations as joy and optimism can in some cases turn into “militant enthusiasm”, which can also lead to negative consequences. Thus, depending on the specific situation, the same emotion can serve as adaptation or disadaptation, lead to destruction or facilitate constructive behavior (2).

Another characteristic of emotions has to do with their conditioning: internal or external. It is known that emotions usually arise when something significant for a person happens. They can be associated both with a reflection of external, situational influence (this is the so-called external conditioning), and with the actualization of needs - while emotions signal to the subject about a change in internal factors (internal conditioning).

Emotions, feelings can be channeled to myself(repentance, complacency) and on another(gratitude, envy).

Separate groups of emotional phenomena are distinguished social feelings(feelings of honor, duty, responsibility, justice, patriotism) and aesthetic feelings(feelings of the beautiful, the sublime, the comic, the tragic).

According to S.L. Rubinshtein (1, p.158-159) there are three levels of emotional experience:

1. 
   level pointless emotional-affective sensitivity associated mainly with organic needs: a feeling of pleasure - displeasure, pointless longing. At this level, the connection of feeling with the object is not realized.
2. 
   object feelings associated with objective perception, objective action - for example, fear is experienced in front of something. At this level, feeling is an expression in the conscious experience of a person's relationship to the world. Objective feelings are differentiated depending on the sphere - aesthetic, moral, intellectual.
3. 
   generalized feelings towering above the subject - a sense of humor, irony, sublime, tragic. They express the worldview attitudes of the individual.

Among the various manifestations of the emotional world of a person, it is customary to single out affects, emotions proper, feelings, passions and moods.

affect called a rapidly and violently flowing emotional process of an explosive nature, accompanied by organic changes and actions, often not subject to conscious volitional control. In a state of passion, a person, as it were, "loses his head."

The regulatory function of affects consists in the formation of a specific experience - affective traces that determine the selectivity of subsequent behavior in relation to situations and their elements that previously caused an affect (1, p. 169).
The emotional intensity of affects often leads to subsequent
feeling tired, depressed.

Actually emotions- these are longer states in comparison with affects, sometimes only weakly manifested in external behavior. Emotions have a clearly expressed situational character. They express the evaluative attitude of a person to emerging or possible situations, to his activity and to his manifestations in it. Emotions reflect the relationship that develops between motives and direct activity for the realization of these motives (the regulatory role of emotions is described in the lecture "Functions of Emotions").

Feelings have a clearly expressed objective character, they are associated with the idea of ​​some object - concrete (love for a person) or generalized (love for the motherland).
The objects of feelings can be images and concepts that form the content of a person's moral consciousness (N.A. Leontiev, 1, p.170-171). Higher feelings refer to spiritual values ​​and ideals. They play an important role in the formation of personality. Feelings regulate human behavior, can motivate his actions.
Emotions and feelings may not coincide - so, you can be angry with the person you love.

Passion- a strong, persistent, long-lasting feeling. Passion is expressed in concentration, concentration of thoughts and forces aimed at a single goal. In passion, a strong-willed moment is clearly expressed. Passion means impulse, passion, orientation of all aspirations and forces of the individual in a single direction, focusing them on a single goal.

mood called common emotional condition personality. The mood is not objective, not timed to any event. This is an unconscious emotional assessment by a person of how circumstances are currently developing for her.

L.I.Petrazhitsky (1, p.20) compared emotions, affects, moods, passions with the following series of images: “1) just water; 2) sudden and strong pressure of water; 3) weak and calm flow of water; 4) a strong and constant flow of water along one deep channel.

Ten fundamental emotions : interest , joy , astonishment , grief , anger , disgust , contempt , fear , shame , guilt .

K. Izard in his monograph "Human Emotions" (2) identifies ten emotions that he considers fundamental - these are the emotions of interest, joy, surprise, grief, suffering, anger, disgust, contempt, fear, shame and guilt. Each of these emotions in a specific way affects the processes of perception and behavior of people.

From various combinations of fundamental emotions, more complex emotional formations are formed. If such complexes of emotions are experienced by a person relatively stably and often, then they are defined as emotional trait. Its development is determined both by the genetic predisposition of a person, and by the characteristics of his life.

Let's take a quick look at each of the fundamental emotions.

Interest is the most common positive emotion. Interest ensures the maintenance of a certain level of activation of the organism. The opposite state of interest is boredom.
The main reasons for interest are novelty, complexity, difference from the usual. They can be connected both with what is happening outside, and with what is happening in the inner world of a person - in his thinking, imagination. Interest focuses attention, controls perception and thinking. Thinking is always determined by some interest.
Interest is the dominant motivational state in the daily activities of a normal person, it is the only motivation that can support daily work in a normal way. Interest causes research behavior, creativity and the acquisition of skills and abilities in the absence of external motivation for this, it plays an important role in the development of artistic and aesthetic forms of activity.
Exploring the process of creativity, Maslow (2, p. 209) speaks of its 2 phases: the first phase is characterized by improvisation and inspiration. The second - the development or development of primary ideas - requires discipline and hard work, and here the motivational power of interest is crucial to overcome obstacles.
The manifestation (strength and frequency of occurrence) of the emotion of interest in a particular person depends on such factors as socio-economic conditions, the volume and variety of information received in the immediate environment, on the attitude of the family to activities, hobbies and other forms of activity of its members. Curious, adventurous parents are more capable of instilling interest-based cognitive orientations in their children than those parents who choose to live by fixed views and dogmas. The tendency of a person's interest to certain objects, to certain types of activity is largely determined by his system of values.

Joy- the main positive human emotion. However, it is not a person who can cause this experience by an arbitrary effort. Joy may follow an individual's achievement or creative success, but these alone do not guarantee joy.

Most scholars agree that joy is a by-product of efforts directed towards other goals.
Joy can also come from recognizing something familiar, especially after a long absence or isolation from a familiar person or object. Unlike interest, which keeps a person in constant arousal, joy can be soothing.
Joy gives a person a sense of being able to cope with difficulties and enjoy life, makes everyday life easier, helps to cope with pain, and achieve difficult goals. Happier people are more self-confident, more optimistic and more successful in life, have closer and mutually enriching contacts with other people. Their work is more consistent, purposeful and efficient. They have a sense of their own importance, possess the skills and achievements necessary to achieve their goals, and receive great satisfaction from the very process of this achievement. Happy people seem to have often experienced the joy of success in childhood, which instilled in them a sense of competence (Wessman and Ricks, 2, pp. 234-235).
Expressive expression of joy, including laughter, increases the power of the subjective experience of this feeling.
When experiencing joy, people are more inclined to enjoy the object than to critically analyze it. They perceive the object as it is, rather than trying to change it. They feel close to the object rather than wanting to step back and look at it objectively. Joy allows you to feel that there are various connections between a person and the world, a keen sense of triumph or belonging with the objects of joy and with the world as a whole. Often joy is accompanied by a feeling of strength and energy upsurge, a feeling of freedom, that a person is more than he is in his usual state. A joyful person is more likely to see beauty and goodness in nature and in human life (Meadows, on 2, p. 238).
The feeling of joy is associated with the realization of a person's capabilities. Joy is the normal state of a healthy person's life.
Obstacles to self-realization at the same time they are obstacles to the emergence of joy. These include:

1. 
   Some features of a person's social life, when rules and regulations suppress creativity, establish pervasive control, or prescribe mediocrity and mediocrity.
2. 
   Impersonal and too strictly hierarchical relations between people.
3. 
   Dogmatism regarding parenting, sex and religion, which make it difficult for a person to know himself, love and trust in himself, which makes it difficult to experience joy.
4. 
   Uncertainty of female and male roles.
5. 
   Too much importance, which is attached in our society to material successes and achievements. (Schutz, after 2, pp. 238-239).

The next emotion identified by Izard is astonishment.
The external cause of surprise is usually a sudden and unexpected event, which is rated as less pleasant than those that lead to joy. Surprise is characterized by a high level of impulsivity and disposition towards the object. Surprise is a fleeting feeling. It performs the function of adapting to sudden changes in the outside world, prompting change, switching attention. Surprise suspends current activity, often at the moment of surprise a person's thinking "turns off".
Depending on the circumstances, the emotion of surprise can be assessed by a person as pleasant or unpleasant, although surprise itself simply slows down the current activity, switches attention to the changes that have occurred.
If a person is often surprised by what they perceive as unpleasant, and yet they cannot deal satisfactorily with the situation, then the person may develop apprehension and inefficiency in the presence of the new and unusual, even if it is not unexpected. If a person often experiences a pleasant surprise, then he usually evaluates it as a positive emotion.

Woe- usually a reaction to loss, loss - temporary or permanent, real or imagined, physical or psychological (this may be the loss of any attractive qualities in oneself, positive attitudes towards oneself). The loss of a source of affection (a person, object, idea) means the loss of something valuable and beloved, a source of joy and excitement, love, confidence, a sense of well-being.

The inner work that the experience of grief does helps a person to pay tribute to the lost, adapt to the loss, and restore personal autonomy.
Like other emotions, grief is contagious, evokes sympathy in those around you, and helps to strengthen group cohesion.
Suffering occurs as a result of prolonged exposure to an excessive level of stimulation - pain, noise, cold, heat, failure, disappointment, loss. Failure, either real or imagined, can also be the cause of suffering.
Suffering is the most common negative emotion that dominates grief and depression. It motivates vigorous activity aimed at avoiding or reducing suffering.
A suffering person feels despondency, discouragement, disappointment in himself, inadequacy, loneliness, rejection, and the latter can be both real and fictional. Often it seems to a suffering person that all life is bad.
Suffering is often, especially in childhood, accompanied by crying.
Suffering has several functions.

1. 
   It communicates that a person is bad.
2. 
   Encourages a person to take certain actions to reduce suffering, eliminate its cause or change the attitude towards the object that caused the suffering.
3. 
   Suffering provides a moderate "negative motivation", an avoidance strategy.
4. 
   Avoiding the pain of separation helps bring people together.

Feelings anger, disgust, contempt form the so-called hostility triad.
Cause anger usually is a feeling of physical or psychological impediment to something that the person really wants to do. It can also be rules, laws, or your own inability to do what you want. Other causes of anger may be a personal insult, interruption of situations of interest or joy, compulsion to do something against one's own desire.
An angry person experiences strong tension, his muscles tense up, his blood "boils". Sometimes an angry person may think that he will explode if he does not show his anger outwardly. The emotion of anger is characterized by impulsive expression and a high level of self-confidence. The state of anger interferes with clear thinking.
The evolutionary function of anger was to mobilize the energy of the individual for active self-defense. With the development of civilization, this function of anger has almost disappeared, in many ways turned into a hindrance - most cases of expressing anger are a violation of legal or ethical codes.

When a person experiences disgust, he seeks to eliminate the object that caused this feeling or to move away from him himself. The object of disgust captures the attention of a person less than the object of anger. Anger causes a desire to attack, and disgust - a desire to get rid of the object that caused this emotion.

Disgust contributes to switching attention. Like anger, disgust can be directed at oneself, causing self-judgment and lowering self-esteem.

Contempt- a feeling of superiority over any person, group of people or object. A despising person feels stronger, smarter, better in some respect than a despised person, looks down on him, creates a barrier between himself and the other.

Contempt is often associated with situations of jealousy, greed, rivalry. It can manifest itself as sarcasm, hatred. cruelty to others. Contempt feeds various kinds of human prejudice.
Situations that cause contempt are less likely to lead to aggression than those that cause anger and disgust. Contempt is considered the coldest emotion of the hostility triad.
Perhaps contempt evolved as a form of preparation for a meeting with the enemy, as a demonstration of one's strength and invincibility, the desire to inspire oneself and frighten the opponent.

Fear is the most dangerous of all emotions. Feelings of fear range from unpleasant foreboding to dread. Strong fear can even cause death.

The cause of fear is usually events, conditions or situations that signal danger, and the threat can be both physical and psychological. The cause of fear can be both the presence of something threatening, and the absence of something that provides security.
Natural fear stimuli are loneliness, unfamiliarity, sudden change in stimulus, pain, etc. Natural fear stimuli include darkness, animals, unfamiliar objects, and strangers. The causes of fear can be culturally determined, be the result of learning: fear arising from the sound of an air raid siren, fear of ghosts, thieves, etc.
Fear is experienced as insecurity, uncertainty, a sense of danger and impending misfortune, as a threat to one's existence, one's psychological "I". Uncertainty can be experienced both about the true nature of the danger and how to deal with that danger.
Fear reduces the number of degrees of freedom in behavior, limits perception, a person's thinking slows down, becomes narrower in volume and rigid in form.
Bowlby (2, p. 317) describes the external manifestation of fear in this way - "careful peering, suppression of movements, a frightened expression on the face, which may be accompanied by trembling and tears, cowering, running away, seeking contact with someone", the most common feature of fear experiences is tension, "freezing" of the body.
The evolutionary-biological function of fear is to strengthen social ties, to "run for help."
Fear serves as a warning signal and changes the direction of a person's thoughts and behavior. It occupies an intermediate position between surprise and subsequent adaptive human behavior.
Individual differences in the manifestation of the emotion of fear in a particular person depend both on biological prerequisites and on his individual experience, on the general sociocultural context. There are ways to reduce and control feelings of fear.

Shame and guilt sometimes they are considered aspects of the same emotion, sometimes they are considered as completely different emotions that are not related to each other. Darwin believed that shame belongs to a large group of related emotions, which includes shame, shyness, guilt, jealousy, envy, greed, vindictiveness, deceit, suspicion, arrogance, vanity, ambition, pride, humiliation.

When a person feels shame, he, as a rule, looks away, turns his face to the side, lowers his head. With body and head movements, he tries to appear as small as possible. Eyes go down or run from side to side. Sometimes people raise their heads high, thus replacing a bashful look with a contemptuous one. Shame may be accompanied by redness of exposed parts of the body, in particular the face.
With shame, the entire consciousness of a person is filled with himself. He is conscious only of himself or only of those traits that seem to him now inadequate, indecent. It was as if something that he was hiding from prying eyes was suddenly exposed to the public. At the same time, there is a general inconsistency and incompetence. People forget words, make wrong moves. There is a feeling of helplessness, inadequacy, and even a stop in the flow of consciousness. An adult feels like a child whose weakness is exposed to the public. The "other" appears to be a powerful being, healthy and capable. Shame is often accompanied by a sense of failure, defeat.
Shame and shyness are closely related to self-awareness, the integrity of the image of "I". Shame indicates to a person that his "I" is too naked and open. In some cases, shame plays a protective role, forcing the subject to hide and disguise some features in front of a more serious danger that causes the emotion of fear.
As with other emotions, the situations that cause shame are different for different people. What causes shame in one may cause excitement in another, the third in the same situation begins to get angry, becoming aggressive.
Shame makes a person sensitive to the feelings and assessments of others, to criticism. Shame avoidance is a powerful motivator for behavior. Its strength is determined by how highly a person values ​​his dignity and honor. Shame plays an important role in shaping the moral and ethical qualities of a person. As B. Shaw said: "There is no courage - there is shame." The threat of shame forced many young people to go to pain and death in wars, even in those whose meaning they did not understand and did not feel.
Shame is a very painful emotion, hard to bear, hard to disguise or hide. Efforts to restore and strengthen one's "I" after experienced feelings of shame sometimes last several weeks.

The emotion of shame has the following psychosocial functions :

1. 
   Shame focuses attention on certain aspects of the personality, makes them the object of evaluation.
2. 
   Shame contributes to the mental replaying of difficult situations.
3. 
   Shame increases the permeability of the boundaries of the "I" - a person can feel shame for another.
4. 
   Shame guarantees sensitivity to the feelings of significant (close) others.
5. 
   Shame enhances self-criticism, contributes to the formation of a more adequate self-concept.
6. 
   Successful confrontation with the experience of shame can contribute to the development of personal autonomy.

To form a feeling guilt three psychological conditions are necessary: ​​1) - acceptance of moral values; 2) - the assimilation of a sense of moral obligation and fidelity to these values, 3) - a sufficient ability for self-criticism to perceive contradictions between real behavior and accepted values.
Guilt usually arises from wrong actions. Guilt-inducing behavior violates moral, ethical, or religious codes. Usually people feel guilty when they realize that they broke a rule or overstepped the boundaries of their own beliefs. They may also feel guilty for not accepting responsibility. Some people may feel guilty when they don't work hard enough compared to their own standards, to those of their parents or their reference group (a social group whose values ​​they share).
If a person feels shame after violating norms, it is most likely because it has become known to others. The feeling of shame is associated with the expectation of negative evaluation of our actions by others or with the expectation of punishment for our actions. Guilt is connected with, first of all, with the condemnation of one's act by the person himself, regardless of how others reacted or may react to it. Guilt arises in situations in which a person feels personally responsible.
Like shame, guilt makes a person lower his head, look away.
Guilt stimulates many thoughts that speak of a person's preoccupation with a mistake. The situation that caused the feeling of guilt can be repeated again and again in memory and in the imagination, a person is looking for a way to atone for his guilt.
The emotion of guilt usually develops in the context of an emotional relationship. Mager (2, p. 383) describes guilt as a special case of anxiety arising from the expectation of a decrease in love due to one's behavior.
Guilt has a particular influence on the development of personal and social responsibility.

2.3.1. EMOTIONS

It is not enough to cry, it is necessary to sob harmoniously, harmoniously ...

K. D. Balmont

It is often assumed that it is the rational vision that is most naturally not only for science, but also for ordinary reason 6 . However, does a person make decisions mostly rationally 7 ? Of course not. Understanding is far from exhausted by rational moments. It is especially significant that if leaders of all ranks are still trying to somehow use rational methods for making decisions in social issues, then the masses are much more susceptible to an emotional understanding of social reality. The verdicts of the people, which are passed in elections, are decisions based mainly on an emotional understanding of the social world 8 .

Understanding is not limited to verbal form. It is effectively achieved, for example, by using images. According to a Chinese proverb, a picture is worth ten thousand words. It is essential for understanding social reality to turn to architecture 9 . Painting in the 19th century, and cinema and a television in the 20th century determined the general perception of social situations to a much greater extent than was acknowledged. Finally, the ancients already knew that music plays an important role in understanding social reality. It is even said that any phenomenon of culture tends to become music 10 . The emotional understanding of reality marks a common "transparent border" between social philosophy and art.

Obviously, therefore, in many situations, it is not rational understanding that comes to the fore, but emotional, closely

associated with intuition. In any case, there is no doubt that, along with rational cognitive transcendental acts, it is necessary to take into account the emotional understanding of social reality, emotionally transcendental acts 11 . These latter play the most significant role in human life, because people most often have to make decisions "on incomplete information." After all, a person always acts without knowing in an exhaustive volume all the conditions of his action, and even more so - he desires and feels attraction, not possessing all the information about the object. If so, then his action can never be fully justified rationally.

Political and spiritual leaders are also just people, and their emotions also most often prevail over reason. Therefore, emotionally transcendent acts very often dominate not only in private, but also in public life. They go back to the archaic structures of the collective soul.

Emotional understanding can only adequately fulfill its role in cognition when it cultivated. Such cultivation is carried out not only in art, religion, but also in various forms of spiritual vision 12, esoteric practices, say, in astrology, etc. The cultivation of emotional understanding also includes culture critics and trust(k) this rationally unverifiable type of knowledge 13 .

Without emotionally transcendental acts, the above-described normativity social philosophy. Therefore, this discipline also contributes to the cultivation of emotionally transcendental acts. Moreover, without an emotional moment in understanding, it is impossible to wisdom as an attribute of specifically philosophical comprehension.

The task of social philosophy in terms of cultivating an emotional understanding of social reality is twofold:

1) it is necessary to be able to see, describe verbally, in the language of social
philosophy, emotional forms of understanding the social reality
features revealed by the subjects of social life: say, how
this or that nation accumulates experience civilization process,
to what extent this or that social class, this or that social
commonality is able to detect patience. We must be able to
speak in social philosophy suffering certain social
communities, such as the peoples of Africa and Asia under colonialism
ma. This will make it possible to move on to a rational
analysis;

2) the researcher himself areas of social philosophy
be patient, must be able to suffer and empathize, etc.

The culture of emotional understanding of social reality in our century is closely connected with the traditions of existentialism, anti-scientism, and hermeneutics. S. Kierkegaard, in his criticism of Hegelian panlogism, opposed feeling to reason. Kierkegaard's baton then fell into the hands of Heidegger, Gadamer,14 and others. From the spiritual experience of postmodern philosophy, we see that an emotional understanding of reality is not the prerogative of art alone or religion alone. Modern philosophizing is actively involved in the development of this way of understanding. At the same time, the role of emotional understanding is also growing because the transition from printed information to television means not only a change in the way it is transmitted, but also a new quality of the transmitted information - its increased emotionality 10 .

The culture of emotional understanding in the new European tradition was accentuated by the German romantics, 16 but this, of course, does not mean that emotional understanding has finally won its place in the sun. Again and again, "boundary conflicts" of emotional and rational forms of understanding flare up. Here is just one of the latest domestic examples. In Questions of Philosophy, a “Letter to the Editor” appears, where it is predicted that “the craving for the otherworldly and unearthly ... will crowd out humanistic optimism ... Imagination and intuition, connection with mysticism will become new pillars for the activity of a scientist. He will strive for virtuosity and complication of traditional motives. The subjective basis of creativity will assert itself powerfully” 17 . This "letter" is being objected to in a sedate manner from the standpoint of the established humanities, defending predominantly rational ways of understanding 18 . In this case, we are not faced with some kind of "mistake" on one side or the other, but the eternal antithesis of emotional and rational types of understanding.

With regard to the present study guide discipline, then its vocation is that, without denying rational ways, in its own ways cultivates emotional understanding. In other words, social philosophy teaches emotional understanding, educates emotions associated with the understanding of society.

Let us describe emotional understanding in some essential elements.

Emotionally transcendent acts are divided into:

a) emotional-receptive acts, such as, for example, experience, surprise 20, suffering 21, patience. Each emotional-receptive act contains the need to experience something, to endure, for example, to endure success, failure, shame, fame, endure a boring event, etc.

Particular attention should be paid forms of expression emotional

but-receptive acts. Let's say suffering is expressed we cry. Crying is interesting because it simultaneously represents both an immediate physiological reaction (for example, the crying of a newborn) and an artistic genre in folk culture. Natural science and medical research into the crying of children can reveal much that is essential in the experience of suffering in society 22 . Crying seems to be the key to the sound world of the archaic.

An essential role in the cultivation of emotional-receptive acts is played by art, in particular the culture of metaphor 23 ;

b) emotionally prospective acts such as waiting 24,
anticipation, willingness, trust. To the emotional prospect
other acts should also include imagination, which Hannah Arendt
defines as knowledge about the missing 26 . This also applies to
what a phenomenon social fear 27, say - before so call
unpredictable consequences 28 . historical knowledge,
knowledge within the framework of history and philosophy of history is carried out in
mode of a milder form of fear, namely - anxiety for the future 29 .

Reaction to a completely unexpected experience for which the individual was not prepared vigilance or anxiety, shock. This refers both to a separate individual experiencing psychological shock 30, and to the whole society (an example is the so-called futuroshok 31).

It is thanks to emotional-prospective acts that there is "optimism" or "pessimism" of this or that social concept. All prospective acts testify to the reality that is coming at us from the future;

in) emotional-spontaneous acts:attraction, desire
action. They aim to change the future and generate confidence
reality. From this point of view, one can look at
idea practices in general and socio-historical practice in Mark
sism as a criterion of truth. At least for her purposes, she has
there is an emotional moment. The idea of ​​practice in the "Theses on Feuerbach"
young Marx, of course, romantic in origin
niyu. Marx, in essence, proposes to check emotionally and under
assert rationality. Practice in the new European civilization -
it is always a technical collective practice. Hence the importance of
lateral understanding of the philosophy of technology for understanding the social
philosophy 32 .

Obviously, all these types of emotionally transcendental acts are interconnected and reveal reality as a whole. Let us consider in more detail some of the listed forms of emotional understanding of society.

2.3.1.1. social experience

Knowledge is always knowledge about diversity. And if the basis of social philosophy, as we shall see below, is the idea of ​​plurality, if the ontology of the social is diversity, then the role of experience

hh is very large.

Genuine experience O.Spengler describes the term "physiognomic tact", contrasting it with a weak "scientific experience". For him, physiognomic tact is closely connected with historical consideration: “Historical consideration, or, in accordance with my way of expression, physiognomic tact, it is judgment blood, knowledge of people extended to the past and future, innate vigilance to persons and situations, to the fact that there is an event, that it was necessary, that must be, and not just scientific criticism and knowledge of the data. For any genuine historian, scientific experience is only something secondary and additional. Experience only once again proves in an extended form by means of understanding and communication ... what has already been proven ... in the only one a moment of insight" 34 .

2.3.1.2. Patience

Patience is a special way of seeing the world and influencing things, a special method, a special life position associated with overcoming oneself, one's temper, haste, excitability. In contrast to impatience, patience implies the focus of all forces on holding back the reaction, on slowing down the emotional outburst, on cooling the passion. Patience is a form of conservation of strength. Patience is an intense, creative search for freedom.

Patience is a struggle with the idol of devouring time, the idol of talkativeness. Elements of patience: slowness, independence from time, inner calm before it, restraint and silence. Patience determines the path that opens when leaving the Platonic cave. If you leave too quickly, you will be blinded by too much light, if you return too quickly to free your comrades, you will be blinded by darkness. Genuine social philosophy presupposes slowness without limits. The philosophical method is not to rush, gaining time without fear of losing it. Mistake is the daughter of haste.

Patience as a virtue of a social philosopher presupposes the possibility and necessity to allow everything to take its course, to listen to the fatefulness of every moment, to find its inner regularity and beauty in any random pattern of reality. Patience is the constant promise of the fullness of being in knowledge. It is against

vouchsafes vulgarity. Its equivalent in the classical philosophical tradition is the concept of freedom 35 .

The concept of patience plays a special role in our national situation. It is related not only to the position of the philosopher, but also to the position of the people as a whole. Patience has always been designated as a characteristic feature of the Russian people. Summing up the Great Patriotic War, I. V. Stalin, at a reception in honor of the command staff of the Red Army on May 24, 1945, characterized the Russian people through a clear mind, steadfast character and patience.

2.3.1.3. Laugh

Social philosophy essentially exists not only in the form of academic writings. An important genre of literature in which socio-philosophical content can be expressed that is not reduced to rational form is the pamphlet. Russian social philosophy would be incomplete without M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin's "History of a City" and without his journalistic texts in general. Essentially, a socio-philosophical analysis of contemporary Western society is provided by Parkinson, Peter, and others. Laughter, humor, and satire generally play an important role in political, or, more broadly, journalistic texts 36 . Therefore, it is natural that this is also reflected in social philosophy. The meaning of humor in social philosophy can be understood with the help of the method of M. M. Bakhtin, applied by him in the famous work of 1940 "The work of Francois Rabelais and the folk culture of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance" 37 . Humor is a discovery in the social philosophy of carnival culture. Cynicism and laughter, going hand in hand, provide a dimension of sociality that cannot be revealed rationally 38 .

The comic element can take such an ancient form as irony. In the context of postmodernism, for which the comic is very important, U. Eco notes that irony - a metalanguage game - is a "squared statement". Therefore, if in the system of avant-gardism for those who do not understand the game, the only way out is to give up the game, here, in the system of postmodernism, one can participate in the game without even understanding it, take it quite seriously. This is the distinguishing property (but also insidiousness) of ironic creativity. Someone always perceives ironic discourse as serious 39 .

2.3.1.4. Music

The fundamental symbol and metaphor of society is choir. The philosophical vision of society can be built on the basis of the philosophy of music. In general, music is internally close to any philosophy, 40

since philosophy comprehends the world not only rationally, but also emotionally. It can be seen that internally related music and architecture (Architektur ist gefrohrene Musik (J. W. Goethe)) give form to society. It is no coincidence that the social thinker T. Adorno has such a great interest in the sociology of music in particular 41 .

A. N. Scriabin, for example, believed that he was able to write such a piece of music, which, being performed in a specially built temple, would lead to the end of the world. A.F. Losev spoke about the satanism of the “Poem of Ecstasy”, meaning precisely these general philosophical principles of the work of the Russian composer Serebryany

2.3.2. RATIO

Rational understanding, as far as it is present in philosophy, is close to positive scientific knowledge. Signs of rationality can be reduced to the following main points: cognizability, justification, consistency, clarity, universally binding acceptability. They are based on various modes of intersubjectivity, which we will subject to a special analysis in the future. It is about the following points:

Semantic aspect (general acceptability of concepts and judgments);

Empirical aspect (empirical validity);

Logical aspect (logical validity);

Operational aspect (reliance on a certain way of activity);

Normative aspect (orientation to certain norms that are realized as preferences) 43 .

Rational knowledge is close to the position that 3. Freud called the "reality principle" 44 . A rational understanding of reality is equivalent to a purposeful-rational type of behavior (according to M. Weber 45) and an “Adult position” (according to E. Berne 46).

Modeling and society. In connection with the rational understanding of society, the topic of modeling 47 should be discussed in particular. Modeling is associated with such a mode of human existence as a game, and the model, accordingly, appears as a game tool - a kind of a toy.

A rational view of society allows, on the one hand, to model social processes and, on the contrary, on the other hand, to consider the world sociomorphically, i.e. to raise the question that society itself acts as a model with which you can understand the world,

other realities of the world.

2.4. NATURAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITARIAN APPROACHES

Finally, the third aspect of the antithetics of the socio-philosophical method is the interaction of natural science and humanitarian approaches to society. This aspect is based on the very ontology of society. Society has a dual nature.

On the one hand, he appears as the world of necessity. And this is true, because society "consists" of real people of flesh and blood, in this sense they are res extensa, "extended things." People as bodily beings live in a real geographical environment. They operate with material objects, technical devices in order to earn their livelihood. In this regard, society has a material, moreover, a visually material form. Causal laws operate here, causes and effects dominate here. Hence the need natural science approach to society.

On the other hand, society appears as the world of freedom. People are not only res extensa, but also res cogita. These bodily beings nevertheless have free will, they desire something, and human desires are based not only on needs, but also on values. People's desires cannot always be reduced to their needs, to their reactions to the environment. Here the causal approach is of little help, here we need at least approaches that can be called "humanitarian" 49 .

Accordingly, there are two schools that approach society differently from a methodological point of view. They take on a wide variety of intellectual forms. B. Croce emphasizes "the difference between two forms of judgment - definitive and individual" 50 . He constructs numerous forms of this dichotomy: this is the difference between Platonists and Aristotelians, it is “noticeable in the meanings attributed to analytical and synthetic judgments, although it is more pronounced in the distinction truths of reason and truths of fact needed and random truths a priori and a posteriori what is asserted logically, and approved historically(everywhere my italics. - K.P.)" 01 .

Let us state this opposition in the language of another tradition, taking as a model the works of one of the prominent representatives of social phenomenology, Alfred Schutz, adding some explanations and examples. The dispute, which divided logicians, methodologists and social scientists for more than half a century, formed, according to A. Schutz, two schools:

1. The theorists of the first school argue that the methods of the natural sciences are the only scientific methods, so they must

We may be fully applicable to the study of human problems, but social scientists have not yet been able to develop an explanatory theory comparable in accuracy to that developed by the natural sciences. It is clear that in the sphere of the philosophical theorists of the first school there are close positivism. In the second half of the XIX century. positivist ideas seized great minds. For example, Nietzsche in the second period of his work 52 was strongly influenced precisely by the philosophy of positivism, especially in the form given to it by the English evolutionists: this was the basis of the historical critique of all values ​​53 . This is the approach that M. Weber later called "disenchantment of the world." And to this day, such a view not only exists, but also prevails in the minds of the peoples of civilized countries. It ultimately leads to nihilism which F. Nietzsche called dieser unheimlichste aller Gaste 54 .

One of the indicative, one might even say, demonstrative manifestations of the natural-science understanding of society - social synergy 55 . Of course, social synergetics can give certain results in understanding society, but they take into account only that side of social reality, which is limited the world of necessity. The world of freedom is not grasped by social synergetics, being reduced to chance.

2. Theorists of the second school argue that there is a fundamental difference in the structure of the social world and the natural world. The methods of the social sciences are fundamentally different from the methods of the natural sciences. Social Sciences - idiographic. They are characterized by individualizing conceptualization and are aimed at single assertoric statements 56 . Natural Sciences- but-mothetic. They are characterized by generalizing conceptualization and are aimed at apodictic statements 57 . These statements must deal with permanent relationship quantities that can be measured and confirmed experimentally. In the social sciences, neither measurement nor experiment is feasible. The natural sciences must deal with material objects and processes, the social sciences with psychological and intellectual ones. The method of the natural sciences consists in explanation, the method of the social sciences in understanding.

Next, we will see that various models social, even fixing the two indicated sides of society, put different accents in the consideration of society. Naturalistic and activity models (with a number of reservations - in the Marxist version 59) use nomothetic approach and are equal to natural science, while realistic 60 and phenomenological models gravitate towards idiography, although each

comes from different premises, and applies the idiographic approach in its own way.

The problem we discussed in chapter 1 regarding the difference social philosophy and sociology, here becomes concrete. Now it is clear that the pathos of sociology is to consider society precisely within the framework of the first school, i.e. nomothetically, in the image and likeness of any systems, primarily biological ones. The methods of the natural sciences, from the point of view of the sociologist, can and should be applied to society. Social philosophy, although it cannot fully assume the idiographic position of the second school, tries to compare these two visions of the social world.

Our civilization all the time encourages us to "slide" to the natural-scientific type of reasoning. Methodologically significant here. A. Toynbee's introspection: “...we used the methodology of classical physics. We built the reasoning in abstract terms and experimented with natural phenomena - the force of inertia, race, environment. Now, upon completion of the analysis, we see that there are more mistakes than achievements. It's time to stop and think about whether there is some significant error in our method itself. Perhaps, under the influence of the spirit of our time, we imperceptibly found ourselves victims of inanimate things, "against which they themselves warned at the beginning of the study? Indeed, did we not apply to the study of history a method developed specifically for the study of inanimate nature? Making a last attempt to solve the task before us, let us move along the path indicated by Plato, renounce the formulas of Science and listen to the language of Mythology” 61 .

From B. Croce's point of view, the situation is not so dramatic: “Usually those who cultivate ideas are opposed to those who cultivate facts. They say respectively - Platonists and Aristotelians. However, if something is cultivated in earnest, then the Platonists will be Aristotelians, for along with ideas, facts must also be cultivated. If the Aristotelians seriously cultivate facts, then they are also the Platonists. After all, how can one not nurture ideas with facts? There is no essential difference: we are often amazed at both the deep insight into the essence of the fact on the part of the "cultivators of ideas" and the visionary philosophy of the so-called guardians and collectors of facts.

It is almost impossible to completely separate these two elements, because in the psyche they work, as a rule, together.

However, people differ in that some use predominantly rational thinking, while others use emotional, sensual.

Here we will analyze how these two types of thinking affect our lives.

1. Rational- here we include all the elements of the psyche that operate with logical information. Thoughts, ideas, conclusions, judgments. It implies logical or rational thinking.

Rational thinking is based on the logic of things. Rational - it is without time, describes objects (physical and spiritual), uses them for thinking, but does not possess these "object-images", because they are not saturated with energy component, emotions.

Logical thinking can solve any problems in the future or the past. It always thinks about another time, not about the present, because, from the point of view of logic, it makes no sense to think about the present moment. Emotions do not need this, emotion is always concentrated in the here and now. Rationality, in turn, pulls us out of the present moment. And if a person prefers "ration" to emotions, then he is rarely in the present, he cannot feel the reality of life. And emotion is a way to return to one really existing time - the present.

Logical information always glides over the surface of reality and cannot penetrate the essence of things. It is feelings that reflect the truth of things and phenomena. Because feelings are a more serious and deep tool for understanding, awareness and orientation in this reality. The more a person is sensually developed, the better he understands reality. But certain, not “garbage”, feelings of a high hierarchical level also matter (presence in the present, measure, balance, fullness of life, mysticism of life, infinity, etc.).

If the algorithms of logic, when we experience sadness, will delay or intensify it, then our sadness will remain, turn into depression or increase to melancholy. If the same algorithms reduce it, it will decrease. But, if you do not involve rational thinking in the emotional process at all, then the emotion will completely disappear through its expression.

The more rational thinking is devoid of feelings, the more freedom of thought it has. It can go in any direction, both for us and against us. Formal logic does not care which way to work. It does not take into account our uniqueness, individuality. She cares only for certain laws of logic, the clarity of the thought process. Only when we connect feelings to thinking, then a system of thinking appears regarding our model of the world, our individuality, subjectivity. Intuitive feelings help us to process correctly information about us, our capabilities, and the capabilities of the environment. And logic is like a program that, depending on its purpose, will either help, or destroy, or remain neutral. For example, neurotic perception algorithms will worsen the quality of life. And the perception algorithms related to harmony improve it.

Rational thinking has much more plasticity than emotions and feelings. This property is based on the independence of logic from our model of the world, subjective perception, and is limited only by the possibilities of our thinking, memory, knowledge about nature. One and the same fact can be interpreted both in a good and in a bad way, both in one's defense and in one's accusation. Logic is freer in its movement than feelings. There are certain advantages in this: the ability to look objectively, from the outside, without being limited by the framework of one's perception and creative thinking. However, there are also disadvantages: you can easily get away from the main direction of thinking, get confused, stuck on something, harm yourself due to the lack of a relativity system of our Self.

Rational thinking is like a mercenary, it doesn't matter who he works for. Whoever gives him more feelings, it works for him. For example, if we are charged with anxiety, then the rational will diligently look for all new images of anxiety that do not even really exist, plunging us into an anxious world. If, however, we displace anxiety with anger, then logic will work for anger and prove to us that we need to destroy all images of anxiety, and that they are not really scary at all, and so on.

"Ratio" always works for a specific goal, not for quality. What you order, it will give you. It follows a narrow path, unlike feelings. "Ratio" cannot capture a large amount of information at the same time. When you achieve the results of thinking, there is a conviction that you are right because of the presence of logical evidence for the conclusion made. This is like a trap of logic that does not take into account our inner subjective reality, the sensual part of our personality.

One of the properties of rationality is the fear of loss, uncertainty, uncertainty, incompleteness, lack of control. These types of fears are more common in rational people than in intuitive ones. in the world of "ration" everything should be clear, understandable, logical, controlled.

Practice: If you let go of your mind, you can see the depth of what is happening now and what will happen later.

To struggle with the rational component means to try to pay attention to the factors of the sensual sphere and emotions, to slow down abstract thinking in view of its inferiority.

2. Emotions and feelings- these are the elements that emotional thinking and / or intuition operates on.

We define ourselves as reasonable people, but in reality this is not entirely true. Emotions and feelings, invisible to our consciousness, strongly interfere with the processes of perception and behavior. They distort perception depending on the emotion that we are experiencing at the moment.

Emotions and feelings are based on informal and subjective logic. They belong to the present more than the future or the past. Feelings allow us to become a full-fledged owner of the object, the image about which they arise.

In other words, if an object is not saturated with feelings inside my psyche, then it has no meaning for me. The more the image or object in the psyche is saturated with emotions and feelings, the more important it is for me. For example, if the correct values ​​and algorithms of behavior in a person are not supported by the corresponding emotions and feelings, then they will never be realized. A person can talk about them, teach others, but in his life he will not be able to fulfill them. Only emotions and feelings play a complex motivational role in the psyche.

Some emotions, such as anxiety, carry us into the future, make us think about the future; emotions of resentment, sadness, shame, guilt, contempt make us think about the past. But their meaning is to shape our attitude and behavior in the present to the future or to the past.

Interaction of logic and feelings.

All the main conflicts of people are in the wrong work of feelings and logic. Separately taken logic, even if it is contradictory, will not create a significant conflict in the psyche if it is devoid of emotional and sensory content.

Suffering, like joy, is a matter of feelings and emotions. We cannot experience any thoughts from any thoughts until emotions are connected to them. Therefore, thoughts in themselves are, as it were, inanimate material in the psyche, devoid of vital energy, without emotions and feelings.

The joint work of logic and emotions can be clearly seen in the example of one of the mechanisms of psychological defenses - rationalization. A person himself does not understand how he automatically modifies the facts in the direction he needs, justifies himself, using formal logic, but taking into account his own subjective interests at the moment. For example, to justify oneself to others because of feelings of guilt, to evade responsibility, to show selfishness. Rationalization is the basis of double standards, when we believe that we can break a certain set of rules, while others cannot.

There is no unique recipe for how a person needs to be - sensual or rational. Both of these types of perception of reality are necessary for a person in a full life and a more objective perception of it. Each situation requires its own approach. Therefore, the proportions of feeling-logic may vary depending on the specific situation. You can not rely only on intuition, since it can be wrong, especially if you have not specifically been involved in the development of sensory thinking.

The best solution is one that takes into account both the rational and the emotional together, but also takes into account the real state of affairs.

paradox absolute morality

Psychologists most often define emotions and feelings as "a special form of a person's attitude to the phenomena of reality, due to their compliance or non-compliance with a person." Since any human activity is aimed at satisfying one or another of his needs, emotional processes, a reflection of the conformity or inconsistency of phenomena with reality to human needs, inevitably accompany and encourage any activity.

The main difference between rational thinking and feeling is that, in their essence, feelings are intended to reflect only what affects the needs of a given person, while rational thinking also reflects what has not yet become a person’s need, does not personally affect him.

A person often has to deal with a discrepancy or even a conflict of reason and feelings. This conflict poses with particular acuteness the problem of the correlation of emotions and reason in morality.

Situations of conflict of mind and feelings in reality are resolved in different ways. It is possible with sufficient obviousness to fix attitudes towards the emotional or rational as a means of making moral decisions, a means of orientation in moral practice. There are no absolutely unemotional people, however, for some people, emotions are enough to make decisions and make assessments, while others try to verify the correctness of their feelings with the help of rational analysis. Both those and others resort to their own way of making decisions and evaluations unconsciously. But often there is also a conscious attitude towards an emotional or rational way of making decisions. One person may be convinced that "feelings will not deceive" while another tries to make decisions based on clear and rational arguments.

Without feelings and emotions, activity is impossible. Only being emotionally colored, this or that information can become a stimulus for action. It is no coincidence that in the theory and practice of moral education, the problem of education of feelings is persistently put forward, since only knowledge of moral norms does not yet lead to appropriate behavior. Based on this position, the conclusion is often drawn about the decisive role of feelings in morality. Feelings reflect the most profound characteristics of a person: her needs. But this is predominantly at the same time a disadvantage: they are too subjective to be a reliable means for finding objectively right decision, an objectively correct line of conduct. The mind is more objective. Rational procedures are just aimed at obtaining an objective, independent of human emotions. Thinking, prompted by certain emotions, tries not to be carried away by them in order to obtain an undistorted, true meaning. This understanding of the relationship between reason and feeling is characteristic of most of the teachings of the past. It also corresponds to the most common definition in modern psychology.

However, the human mind does not insure him against mistakes, which can be due to both the objective complexity of situations and the content of already formed feelings. The latter is especially important for understanding the limitations of the mind in morality, determining its dependence on needs, and therefore on feelings. Feelings direct the course of thoughts, and often determine their content. Sometimes the mind of a person becomes only a means of justifying her feelings.

A sophisticated intellect can come up with dozens of arguments justifying essentially immoral behavior. However, the weakness of his logical premises and constructions is usually not visible only to the owner of this intellect and those whose living conditions have formed similar needs. Such efforts of the intellect, aimed only at justifying feelings, in fact, are not much different from the implementation of the “emotional attitude”, because the mind here is entirely in the power of feelings and is called only to serve them, thereby diverting from its main purpose: the search for truth, and representing intellect only in form, i.e. on the means used, not on the merits. A rational attitude presupposes an objective, impartial control over one's feelings, a critical analysis of them.

Control over one's feelings, the ability to manage them is a necessary condition for correct moral behavior and an indicator of the level of moral culture.

The power of reason over feelings, of course, should not be presented as a complete suppression and repression of feelings. Of course, immoral feelings must be suppressed, but this suppression itself occurs through the conscious formation of the opposite feeling. In the case of morally neutral emotions, the role of the mind is, firstly, to restrain them at the boundary beyond which they begin to interfere with the normal work of the mind, and secondly, to determine their place in the valuable hierarchy of the personality and, activating them in the necessary cases of higher feelings, to prevent them from manifesting themselves in immoral acts. Finally, the consistent and correct implementation of a rational attitude leads to actions that cause the individual to have a specifically moral sense of satisfaction from their commission. Consequently, the implementation of a rational attitude results not in the displacement of feelings by the mind, but in their harmonious combination.