Consciousness, Soul and

Language

Lecturer:
Associate professor, PhD
Khairullayeva Venera
Aim of the lecture:
to acquaint students with the complex phenomenon of
consciousness, to discuss its relation to the categories of soul and
language, to develop students' critical thinking on these issues.
What is a soul?
How does it relate
with
consciousness?
Consciousness and
language.
 The importance of the problem
of Consciousness

Consciousness is a typical and at the same

time fundamental philosophical problem, the
interest in which does not fade away over the
years, but, on the contrary, increases. This is
primarily due to the fact that consciousness is
inseparably connected with such a key
category of any worldview as a person. Human
existence itself, all the diversity of its essential
definitions, such as activity, creativity,
existence, etc., necessarily includes various
phenomena of the sphere of consciousness -
perception, emotions, will, goal-setting,
thinking, etc.
 Soul, reason, mind and spirit

Soul (Greek ψυχή, Lat. Reason is a part of

Anima) - according to the thinking
Spirit is in the
religious and some consciousness,
religious worldview Mind (lat. Ratio),
philosophical teachings, capable of logically
the primary driving (Greek νους) is a
the immortal substance, comprehending
force inherent in all philosophical
the intangible essence, reality, knowing
living things, and in category expressing
which expresses the things and their
some cultures and the highest type of
divine nature and relations in terms of
inanimate. The mental activity, the
essence of man , his concepts, the ability
Holy Spirit is in ability to think in
personality, giving rise to to make judgments
Christianity the general, the ability
and determining his life, (according to Kant)
third person of the to analyze, abstract
the ability of sensation, turns perceptions
one God, the Holy and generalize.
thinking, consciousness, into experience by
Trinity.
feelings and will, usually combining them into
opposed to the body. categories.
Cosmologism of the soul of the mind in Ancient philosophy.

• Ancient philosophy was

Cosmocentric. God created the
best of all possible worlds out of
nothing. People must adapt to it,
not change. Created a rational
person in his own image and
likeness. But man is imperfect -
mortal, he can get rid of this sin
only through God. God, by death,
atoned for the sin of man. In
order to be resurrected, a person
must accept God and change
himself, take the path of love.
Aristotle "On the Soul"
About the soul (Greek ερὶ Ψυχῆς; lat. De
anima) - Aristotle's work on the theme of the
soul. Unlike his teacher Plato, Aristotle insists
that many states of the soul depend on the
state of the body. In the broadest sense, the
soul is the principle of life for all beings, both
for plants and animals.
In the 1st book, as usual, Aristotle considers
the opinions of the soul, collected by
predecessors (Anaxagoras, Democritus,
Pythagoreans, Plato, Thales and Empedocles).
Recognizing the soul as the principle of
movement, Aristotle considers the movement
itself, which can be of four types: movement,
transformation, decrease, increase.
 Aristotle "On the Soul"
• In the second book, considering the nature of the soul,
Aristotle addresses metaphysical questions. So he pronounces
the definitions of essence, matter, form and entelechy. Thus,
an entity (Greek οὐσία) is thought of as a kind of being, which
can be identified with matter (Greek ὕλη), form (Greek
μορφὴ) or their unity. From here he gives the definition of the
soul as the form and entelechy of the body (Greek σώματος
ἐντελέχεια). The soul has three abilities: growth, sensation,
and reflection. Based on the presence of these abilities
distinguish the souls of plants, animals or people.
• In the 3rd book, Aristotle claims the presence of the five
senses (Greek αἴσθησις): touch, smell, hearing, taste and
sight. He further contrasts the feeling with thinking, which
consists in imagination (phantasia) and judgment.
The concept of the soul in Eastern philosophy
The concept of the soul in Eastern philosophy
“Book of the soul” (arab. - “Kitab en-nafs”) is the 6th book
in the “Physics” section of one of the most significant works
of Ibn Sina - “The Book of Healing” (Kitab ash-Shifa
'between 1015 and 1030). The Book of the Soul is a
response to a similar work by Aristotle, but contains
fundamental provisions for Ibn Sina that go beyond the
peripatetics. He affirms the genetic unity of soul and body:
“Souls arise when bodily matter arises, suitable for the soul
to use” (Ibn Sina. Elect. Philosophical Works, p. 401). The
soul, like the body, is therefore subject to the management
of physics.
The vegetable, animal, and rational souls have different
bodily matter. The rational soul is connected with the
activity of the brain, and its different abilities are associated
with the corresponding parts of the brain. The functions of
the organs of touch, smell, taste and hearing, the ability of
sensation, representation, memory, imagination, and the
state of consciousness during sleep are described in detail.
Ibn-Sina “Book of the soul”

• A rational explanation of the phenomena of

predictions, prophetic dreams is offered. But
the main emphasis is on the fact that the soul
is a special substance that, existing in the body,
is different from it and dominates it; she does
not join the body from the outside, but (in the
terminology of peripateticism) creates the body
as a creator, is the cause of the body. To prove
the existence of the soul as a non-bodied
substance, Ibn Sina resorted to the so-called.
the argument of "floating man." The soul is not
merely a form existing in the substrate, and
human actions cannot be reduced to
physicalistic terms. Man is a free, sovereign
being. The human mind is not only a perceiver
of external impressions, but also a focused
subject, projecting ideas. As an inner bodily
soul, it has an individuality, never losing it.
Accordingly, the knowledge of a person about
himself (introspection) is ineradicably
individual: “I know what I call the soul ...
without knowing [the ideas of the soul]” (ibid.,
P. 511).
Theological interpretations of the soul and mind
The medieval period of human history began in the III-V
century with the fall of the Roman Empire and the
establishment of Christianity and ended in the XV century,
when the revival of art, secular science and the discovery of
America took place. The Middle Ages period lasted for more
than a thousand years and coincided with the epoch of the
rise, rise and fall of the feudal system.
The peremptory domination of Christianity and other religions
on a world scale in the Middle Ages led to the rejection by
society of any knowledge based on experience, ideas about
the sinfulness of trying to know the structure and purpose of
the world and the human soul. “The worldview of the Middle
Ages becomes theological. Its foundation is church dogma. The
authority of the Church was indisputable. ”[6] Any non-biblical
understanding of the nature and purpose of man was rejected.
Natural science research of the world and man stopped,
science was placed in a subordinate position in relation to
religion. Therefore, the Middle Ages period is considered
“dead” for the development of science, a period of decline of
culture and education.
 However, despite the general decline of the
natural sciences, elements of scientific thought
in the Middle Ages were preserved and
replenished, humanitarian fields of knowledge
developed, great thinkers and cultural figures
created their works.

Philosophical-psychological teachings "in faith" in the Middle Ages were the most
common, because they corresponded to the worldview and the basic requirement of the
time - not to contradict religious dogmas. Such teachings were embodied in scholasticism
- a philosophy aimed at the rational justification of the tenets of theology. Despite the
differences between scholastic trends, their common characteristic was the connection
with theology, dependence on religion.
Within the framework of medieval scholasticism, two main directions of
philosophical and psychological teachings emerged: realism and nominalism.
Representatives of realism based their views on the position of the primacy of being God
and the objective existence of general, universal concepts in the divine mind, regardless of
the person knowing it (ideas are primary, material objects are secondary). Adherents of
nominalism, on the contrary, believed that the general concepts do not have independent
existence and are only words, sounds, names that arise in the process of human cognition
(material objects are primary, ideas are secondary). The nominalists "denied the existence
of a single Divine substance ..., focused the researchers on a departure from theological
perspective and considered natural phenomena to be the subject of scientific knowledge."
Gnoseological models of consciousness
In philosophical literature, a point of view is expressed, according to which we receive
information about the future development of a material object as a result of studying
its ideal model. In other words, the human consciousness besides the property of
reflecting material objects, moreover, needs the special property of “reflecting ideal
objects”. So, V.A. Lisichkin believes that a person receives information not only from
the outside world; foresight as a property of consciousness to create ideal models, in
his opinion, is a “reflection” of the world of logical structures5 6. From this point of
view, foresight is not a reflection of the objectively real world taken in its development,
but a kind of “reflection of reflection”.
The Transcendental Foundations of Reason in German Classical
Philosophy

• As I. Kant writes, “transcendental any cognition

that deals not so much with objects as with our
method of cognition of objects, since this
cognition should be possible a priori”. The concept
of the “transcendental method” appears much
later, in the work of the neo-Kantian Hermann
Cohen “Theory of the Experience of I. Kant”. At the
same time, the transcendental approach / method
implies the “switching” of philosophical research
from subjects to the human mode of knowledge,
or the study of the “human ability of knowledge”,
assuming that human knowledge contains a priori
components. Kant himself relates the human way
of cognition with the divine, the difference
between which is that the divine Mind is an
intuitive reason, and our Mind is a discursive mind
(“second trunk of knowledge” according to Kant)
and assumes the obligatory presence of the first
stage (“ first trunk ") knowledge - sensuality,
through which we perceive the external
(transcendental) world.
Consciousness as an ontological
problem
• Consciousness is
a collection of
thoughts,
feelings and
experiences
about the world
of man and
about himself.
This is what
separates man
from the rest of
the living world.
 Two approaches of the
conception of consciousness
Materialistic approach Idealistic approach
• tries to understand • Connects consciousness
consciousness as a with God, the Absolute
product of the material Idea, spiritual
world for billions of phenomenon and etc.,
years. “A theory of seeing its source
reflection” was outside of this material
developed for this world.
purpose.
Philosophical concepts of consciousness

Vulgar Dialectical
Idealism
materialism materialism

Democritus, Plato, Schelling, K. Marx, F. Engels,

Malecot, Vogt Hegel V. Lenin

consciousness is a
consciousness is consciousness
property of matter
identified with breaks away from
and displays it in an
matter matter
ideal way
 Consciousness
The concept of The sources of
consciousness consciousness
a human higher nervous
the ability to ideally reflect reality, the transformation system, his brain, second
of objective content into the subjective content of the signaling system
spiritual world of man the ability to ideally reflect
reality, the transformation of objective content into
the subjective content of the spiritual world of man the world around a person is
displayed in consciousness in
the form of ideal images

the property of highly organized matter to a sociocultural environment

actively display the world in ideal images forms ideals, values, principles,
norms in the mind

consciousness is the highest form a personal experience of the

of reflection of reality and it individual, his inner spiritual
creates a new world world
 The main features of consciousness
ideality of • images do not possess the properties of things
consciousness that they reflect, do not have physical properties

subjectivity of • its carrier is a person who distinguishes himself

consciousness from the world around him, it is individually

objectivity of • its fullness with content, objects of consciousness

appear in consciousness as their various images
consciousness
reflexivity of it reflects not only the outside world, but also
consciousness its own content

it is expressed in a sign-language system

objectification of intended for fixation, storage and transmission
consciousness of information
 Content of consciousness
• emotions, • analysis -
feelings, synthesis,
affects, general
instincts; goal: concepts,
pleasure evidence; goal:
Subjective
Logical- truth
component conceptual
s componen
ts

Expediency,
Value-
usefulness in
motivational
• higher principles, human
components • sensations,
values, ideals, behavior
imagination; goal: • perceptions,
truth, beauty, justice representations give
knowledge about the
outside world
 Structure of consciousness
The irrational side of
consciousness:
- will, attention, memory
- unconscious
The sensory side of
consciousness: The rational side of
consciousness:
- feelings, sensations,
perceptions - concepts, judgments,
conclusions
- feelings, emotions
- processes of thinking

self-awareness is
the ability of
consciousness to
display its own
content, to be
aware of itself
Consciousness as a form of reflection
 The forms of reflection
• Reflection in inanimate nature
• Irritability (amoeba, in all animate
nature is the first form of
reflection. It based on
unconditioned and conditional
reflexes))
• Psyche (highly organized animals,
monkeys, dolphins, dogs and etc.)
• Consciousness (a man)
 The phenomenon of
consciousness
• Consciousness is the highest brain function that is
peculiar only to man and it connects with speech,
consisting in a generalized, evaluative and
purposeful reflection and transformation of the
surrounding reality.
 Psychophysiological problem of consciousness

• The relationship between physiology and

psychology of man.
• The relationship between two forms of reality:
material and ideal.
 Psychophysiological problem of consciousness

• These are the questions:

• -of materiality in relation to neurophysiological
processes;
• - on the ideality of mental processes and
conditions;
• - on the ratio of physiological (material) and mental
(ideal);
• - on the transition of the material into the ideal in
relation to the transition of the physiology of higher
nervous activity into the psyche
 Factors determining the formation of consciousness
according to the positivistic
scientific paradigm of the
19th and 20th centuries
biological heredity
biological variability (mutations)
natural environment
Socio-cultural environment
according to the theosophy and
philosophy of Living Ethics
past accumulations (experience) of the
transpersonal spiritual core (atma-buddhi-manas)
psycho-physical influence of cosmic
bodies and processes
biological heredity
psycho-physical and biological
variability (mutations)
natural environment
socio-cultural environment
 The problem of
Anthroposociogenesis
 The problem of Anthroposociogenesis
• Anthroposociogenesis is a term adopted to denote the problem of the origin
and evolution of man, the formation of Homo sapiens as a species in the
process of the formation of society. The problem of anthroposociogenesis
belongs to the natural science and social sciences and humanities.

• The theory of anthroposociogenesis in natural science is based on the theory

of development that explains the dialectical relationship between the
biological and the social. Among the problems of anthroposociogenesis, the
oldest is the problem of transition from the last animal to the first person. The
two-leggedness, reason, consciousness, articulate speech, tool activity, and
technical abilities were proposed as criteria for the qualitative certainty of a
person.

• Nowadays, anthropologists believe that many human features do not indicate

any completely new features (there are some such people, but few of them -
a free hand, an upright posture, a complex brain), but are enhancement
features characteristic of a typical terrestrial vertebrate, and for a typical
mammal, and for a typical primate.
 The factors of
Anthroposociogenesis
• Labor
• Articulate Speech
• Transition from
endogamy to exogamy
• The emergence of the
first moral standards
• The formation of the
primitive (primordial)
system of society
 The origin and essence of
consciousness: basic concepts
Unconscious, consciousness,
superconsciousness
The basic concepts of the unconscious in
philosophy (Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung)
Consciousness and self-
awareness
 Consciousness and self-awareness
Consciousness is a set of abilities, of which self-awareness is just one.
Consciousness is an umbrella term for all subjective mental states and non-mechanistic
mental processes. It includes at least the following:
• sentience, the ability to experience raw stimuli; sensitivity to stimulation;
• awareness, the ability to experience meaning; sensitivity to meaning in objects, events
and situations;
• attention, the ability to select the contents of awareness; focusing of consciousness onto
certain contents or processes to the exclusion of others;
• agency, the ability to behave with awareness; conscious control of behaviour;
• choice, or volition, the ability to make decisions for oneself with awareness; conscious
selection of agentic behaviours;
• self-awareness, a special form of attention and awareness; the ability to focus attention
on the self as an object of awareness. This comes in two forms:
• self-perception: the awareness of oneself as an individual in the world at large (my
location, my appearance, my behaviour, etc);
• introspection: the awareness of one’s own private contents of consciousness (my
thoughts, feelings, intentions, etc). This allows for the awareness of oneself as having self-
awareness, which creates an interesting loop.
• empathy, the ability to be aware of others’ experiences and awareness;
• self-consciousness, the ability (sometimes not a helpful one) to be aware of oneself as the
object of others’ awareness.
Consciousness and self-awareness
Socrates was the first to introduce this problem:
"Know yourself“.
Socrates: consciousness of the world without awareness of its inner world
will be flawed and incomplete.

Plato emphasized the active nature of the soul, its dialogism.

The activity of the soul is its conversation with itself, the soul
reflects, asking itself and answering its questions.

Self-awareness is a product of a person’s cultural and social

development and it is formed in the process of his
relationship with other people.
 National consciousness.
National consciousness in
the context of the spiritual
modernization of modern
Kazakhstan

A national consciousness is a shared sense of national identity; that is, a shared

understanding that a people group shares a common ethnic/linguistic/cultural
background. Historically, a rise in national consciousness has been the first step
towards the creation of a nation. National consciousness, at a glance, is one's level of
awareness, of the collective, and one's understanding that without "them" there is no
"us". It is the mere awareness of the many shared attitudes and beliefs towards things
like family, customs, societal and gender roles, etc. This awareness allows one to have a
"collective identity" which allows them to be knowledgeable of not only where they
are, but how those places and people around them are so significant in that they
ultimately make the collective, a nation. In short, national consciousness can be
defined as a specific core of attitudes that provide habitual modes for regarding life's
phenomena.
Thinking and language.
Philosophy of language
 Language and nation. The role of the Kazakh
language in the implementation of the program
"Spiritual Revival"
References:
1. Florin Gaiseanu. Human/Humanity, Consciousness and Universe: Informational Relation.
- 2019 - Neuroquantology 17 (5):20-30.
2. Seth Miller . Towards
an Aesthetic Epistemology: Transforming Thinking Through Cybernetic Epistemology and Anth
roposophy
. - 2014 - Dissertation, California Institute of Integral Studies.

3. Haoying Liu. Of Integrated Information Theory: A Philosophical Evaluation

- forthcoming - Philosophical Psychology:1-27.
4. Joe Morrison.
The Wonder of Consciousness: Understanding the Mind through Philosophical Reflection. By
Harold
Langsam. (The MIT Press, 2011. Pp. x + 234, Price £24.95 cloth.) [Book Review] Philosophical
Quarterly 63 (250):195-197 (2013).
THANK YOU FOR
ATTENTION!