Matter in philosophy: concept, properties and category. Scientific and technical encyclopedic dictionary What is Matter, what does it mean and how to spell it correctly

History of the concept

In the era of the first atomistic concepts of antiquity, matter was understood as a substance, the basis of everything that exists in the world, from which all other bodies in the Universe are “built”. The classical expression of such an understanding of matter was the atomism of Leucippus and Democritus. The concept was used by Plato to denote the substratum of things, opposed to their idea. Aristotle recognized the objective existence of matter. He considered it eternal, uncreated and indestructible.

In the era of enlightenment, in understanding matter, the emphasis shifted to the infinitely developing diversity of the world in its unity. From this point of view, matter as a substance exists not "before" and not "along with" other bodies, but only in this very variety of concrete phenomena and only through them. bright representative this trend was D. Diderot.

Attributes and properties of matter

Attributes and types of matter

The attributes of matter, the universal forms of its being are movement, space and time, which do not exist outside of matter. In the same way, there can be no material objects that would not have spatio-temporal properties.

Friedrich Engels identified five forms of motion of matter:

physical;
chemical;
biological;
social;
mechanical.

The universal properties of matter are:

indestructibility and indestructibility
eternity of existence in time and infinity in space
matter is always characterized by movement and change, self-development, transformation of some states into others
determinism of all phenomena
causality - the dependence of phenomena and objects on structural relationships in material systems and external influences, from the causes and conditions that give rise to them
reflection - manifests itself in all processes, but depends on the structure of interacting systems and the nature of external influences. The historical development of the property of reflection leads to the emergence of its highest form - abstract thinking

Universal laws of existence and development of matter:

The Law of the Transition of Quantitative Changes into Qualitative

Forms of motion of matter

Forms of motion of matter- the main types of movement and interaction of material objects, expressing their integral changes. Each body has not one, but a number of forms of material movement. IN modern science There are three main groups, which in turn have many of their specific forms of movement:

in inorganic nature
- spatial movement;
- motion of elementary particles and fields - electromagnetic, gravitational, strong and weak interactions, processes of transformation of elementary particles, etc.;
- movement and transformation of atoms and molecules, including chemical reactions;
- changes in the structure of macroscopic bodies - thermal processes, changes in aggregate states, sound vibrations, and more;
- geological processes;
- change in space systems of various sizes: planets, stars, galaxies and their clusters .;
in nature,
- metabolism,
- self-regulation, management and reproduction in biocenoses and other ecological systems;
- interaction of the entire biosphere with the natural systems of the Earth;
- intraorganismal biological processes aimed at ensuring the preservation of organisms, maintaining the stability of the internal environment in changing conditions of existence;
- supraorganismal processes express the relationship between representatives of various species in ecosystems and determine their abundance, distribution zone (range) and evolution;
in society,
- diverse manifestations of conscious activity of people;
- all higher forms of reflection and purposeful transformation of reality.

Higher forms of the motion of matter historically arise on the basis of relatively lower ones and include them in a transformed form. There is unity and mutual influence between them. But the higher forms of movement are qualitatively different from the lower ones and cannot be reduced to them. The disclosure of material relationships has great value for understanding the unity of the world, the historical development of matter, for understanding the essence of complex phenomena and their practical management.

Literature

Druyanov L. A. What is matter. - M .: Uchpedgiz, 1961.

Notes

Definitions, meanings of the word in other dictionaries:

Philosophical Dictionary

A material object, as it is known empirically, is not a single existing thing, but a system of existing things. When several people see the same table at the same time, they all see it differently; thus, "this" table, which is supposed to be everything...

Philosophical Dictionary

In its most general form, this is "being, which itself does not understand being" (J. Ratzinger). In Aristotle: that which is capable of taking shape, the possibility of being. In Plotinus: the limit of the disintegration of any being, its complete "spraying" to a state that defies any positive description or...

Philosophical Dictionary

From the standpoint of materialism, it is primary in relation to consciousness.

From the standpoint of idealism, matter is an arbitrary formation from spiritual substance. For subjective idealism, matter is permanent opportunity Feel.

There are three concepts of matter:

1. Substantial: matter is defined through things. This concept is realized by the ancient Greek philosophers (Democritus). They understood matter through substance.

2. Attributive: matter was defined through properties, through primary qualities (mass, dimensions) and through subjective properties, i.e. through secondary qualities (taste, color).

3. Dialectical-materialistic: matter is defined through a relationship with consciousness. Representatives of this concept are Marx, Lenin. Matter is a philosophical category for a reality that exists independently of our consciousness and which is copied by our senses. This definition eliminates the contradictions between philosophy and science. This concept arose at the end of the 19th century along with the breakthrough of scientific knowledge.

With the discovery of the electron came the collapse of materialism. Matter includes not only substances, but also fields. The main properties of matter are:

· Objectivity.

· Knowability.

Structural.

· Substantiality.

Matter exists through discrete material structures, matter does not exist at all. The most important properties of matter are attributes. The main attribute of matter is motion. Motion is the mode of existence of matter. The most important characteristics of movement:

· Universality.

Versatility

· Objectivity.

· Absoluteness (there are no fixed things).

Inconsistency (movement is the unity of stability and variability, stability is relative, and variability is absolute).

For Aristotle, motion was external to matter. Matter is a self-moving reality. In the non-materialistic concept, movement is understood as a manifestation of the objective spirit.

Matter attributes:

1. Movement exists in 3 forms.

2. Space and time.

The movement exists for three reasons:

but. By carrier

b. By interaction.

in. According to the laws.

There are three main forms of motion of matter:

1. social

2. biological (carriers - cell, organism)

3. chemical (carrier - molecule)

4. physical (vacuum, fields, elementary particles, atoms, molecules, macro-objects, planets, galaxies, etc.; there are forms of interaction at all of the above levels: for example, intermolecular interaction).

Forms of the motion of matter are connected by cause-and-effect relationships, a higher form is based on lower forms.

In philosophy, in understanding reality, there is a mechanism approach - the reduction of all the laws of the world to the principles of mechanics, the interpretation of a higher reality from the position of a lower reality.

Consider other attributes of matter - space and time. It is necessary to distinguish between real, triceptive and conceptual space and time.

Space is a form of existence of matter, which characterizes its structure. Time is a form of existence of matter, which expresses the duration of its existence. IN various forms motion of matter temporal characteristics are ambiguous: social, biological, chemical and physical space, time.

Matter

The concretization of the concept of "being" is carried out, first of all, in the concept of "matter". It is clear that the problems of matter, including its concept, were developed primarily by materialist philosophers from ancient to modern. The most complete and profound development of these problems is contained in the works of contemporary materialists. In materialistic philosophy, "matter" appears as the most general, fundamental category in which the material unity of the world is fixed; various forms of being are considered as generated by matter in the course of its movement and development. The definition of the concept of "matter" was given by V. I. Lenin in his work "Materialism and Empirio-Criticism" (1909).

“Matter,” Lenin wrote, “is a philosophical category for designating an objective reality that is given to a person in his sensations, which is copied, photographed, displayed by our sensations, existing independently of them.”

Let's take a closer look at this definition. The category "matter" designates an objective reality. But what does "objective reality" mean? This is all that exists outside of human consciousness and independently of it. So, the main property of the world, fixed with the help of the category "matter", is its independent existence, independent of man and cognition. In the definition of matter, in essence, the main question of philosophy, the question of the relationship between matter and consciousness, is solved. And at the same time, the priority of matter is affirmed. It is primary in relation to consciousness. Primary in time, because consciousness arose relatively recently, and matter exists forever; It is also primary in the sense that consciousness is a historically emerging property of highly organized matter, a property that appears in socially developed people.

Matter is primary as the object of reflection is primary in relation to its display, as the model is primary in relation to its copy. But we know that the basic question of philosophy has a second side. It is the question of how thoughts about the world relate to the world itself, the question of whether the world is knowable. In the definition of matter, we find the answer to this question. Yes, we know the world. Lenin in his definition focuses on sensations as the primary source of knowledge. This is due to the fact that in the work named Lenin criticizes empirio-criticism, a philosophy for which the problem of sensation was of particular importance. Although, in essence, we are talking about the problem of the cognizability of the world, the cognizability of matter. Therefore, we can give a shorter definition of matter: matter is a cognizable objective reality.

Of course, such a definition is very general and does not indicate any other properties of matter, except for its existence outside and independently of consciousness, as well as its knowability. However, we have the right to speak about some properties of matter that have the character of attributes, i.e., properties that are always and everywhere inherent in both all matter and any material objects. These are space, time and movement. Since all things exist in space, move in space, and at the same time the very existence of a person and the things around him proceeds in time, the concepts of "space" and "time" were formulated and used for a long time.

The categories "space" and "time" are among the fundamental philosophical and general scientific categories. And naturally, they are such primarily because they reflect and express the most general state of being.

Time characterizes, first of all, the presence or absence of being of certain objects. There was a time when I, who is writing these lines (as well as you, dear reader), simply did not exist. Now we are. But there will come a time when you and I will be gone. The sequence of states: non-existence - existence - non-existence and fixes the category of time. The other side of being is the simultaneous existence of different objects (in our simple example, this is mine and yours, reader), as well as their simultaneous non-existence. Time also fixes the relative periods of being, so that for some objects it can be greater (longer), and for others it can be smaller (less long). In a famous parable from captain's daughter» A. S. Pushkin, the life time of a raven was determined to be three hundred years, and an eagle - thirty. In addition, time allows you to fix periods in the development of an object. Childhood - adolescence - youth - adulthood - old age - all these phases in human development have their own time frames. Time is an integral part of the characteristics of all processes of existence, change, movement of objects, without being reduced to any of these characteristics. It is this circumstance that makes it difficult to understand time as a universal form of being.

The situation is somewhat simpler with the understanding of space, if it is taken in the ordinary sense, as the receptacle of all things and processes. More difficult problems associated with the evolution of the physical concepts of space and time will be discussed below.

Philosophical analysis problems of space, time and movement we find in ancient philosophy. These problems began to be considered and discussed in more detail in science in the 17th century, in connection with the development of mechanics. At that time, mechanics analyzed the motion of macroscopic bodies, that is, those that were large enough to be seen and observed both in the state of nature (for example, when describing the motion of the Moon or planets) and in experiment. .

The Italian scientist Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was the founder of experimental and theoretical natural science.

He considered in detail the principle of relativity of motion. The movement of the body is characterized by speed, i.e., the size of the path traveled per unit of time. But in the world of moving bodies, speed turns out to be a relative value and dependent on the frame of reference. So, for example, if we ride in a tram and pass through the passenger compartment from the back door to the driver's cab, then our speed relative to the passengers sitting in the passenger compartment will be, for example, 4 km per hour, and relative to the houses that the tram passes by, it will be will be equal to 4 km / h + the speed of the tram, for example, 26 km / h. That is, the definition of speed is associated with the frame of reference or with the definition of the body of reference. Under normal conditions, for us, such a reference body is the surface of the earth. But it is worth going beyond its limits, as it becomes necessary to establish that object, that planet or that star, relative to which the speed of the body is determined.

Considering the problem of determining the motion of bodies in general terms, the English scientist Isaac Newton (1643-1727) took the path of maximum abstraction of the concepts of space and time, expressing the conditions of motion. In his main job“The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy” (1687), he raises the question: is it possible to indicate in the Universe a body that would serve as an absolute reference body? Newton understood that not only the Earth, as it was in the old geocentric systems of astronomy, cannot be taken as such a central, absolute reference body, but the Sun, as was accepted in the Copernican system, cannot be considered as such. An absolute reference body cannot be specified. But Newton set the task of describing absolute motion, and not limiting himself to describing the relative velocities of bodies. In order to solve such a problem, he took a step, apparently as brilliant as it was erroneous. He put forward abstractions that had not previously been used in philosophy and physics: absolute time and absolute space.

“Absolute, true, mathematical time in itself and in its very essence, without any relation to anything external, flows uniformly and is otherwise called duration,” wrote Newton. He defined absolute space in a similar way: “Absolute space, by its very essence, regardless of anything external, always remains the same and immovable.” Newton contrasted absolute space and time with sensually observable and fixed relative types of space and time.

Of course, space and time as universal forms of the existence of matter cannot be reduced to one or another specific objects and their states. But it is also impossible to separate space and time from material objects, as Newton did. A pure receptacle of all things, existing on its own, a kind of box in which you can put the earth, planets, stars - that's what Newton's absolute space is. Since it is motionless, then any of its fixed points can become a reference point for determining absolute movement, you just need to check your clock with absolute duration, which again exists independently of space and any things in it. Things, material objects, studied by mechanics, turned out to be side by side with space and time. All of them in this system act as independent, not influencing each other, constituent elements. Cartesian physics, which identified matter and space, did not recognize emptiness and atoms as forms of the existence of things, was completely discarded. Advances in the explanation of nature and the mathematical apparatus of new mechanics provided Newton's ideas with a long dominance that lasted until the beginning of the 20th century.

In the 19th century began the rapid development of other natural sciences. In physics, great success was achieved in the field of thermodynamics, the theory of the electromagnetic field was developed; the law of conservation and transformation of energy was formulated in a general form. Chemistry progressed rapidly, a table of chemical elements was created based on the periodic law. The biological sciences were further developed, and Darwin's evolutionary theory was created. All this created the basis for overcoming the previous, mechanistic ideas about movement, space and time. A number of fundamental fundamental provisions about the motion of matter, space and time were formulated in the philosophy of dialectical materialism.

In a polemic with Dühring, F. Engels defended the dialectical-materialist concept of nature. “The basic forms of being,” wrote Engels, “are space and time; being outside of time is just as great nonsense as being outside of space.

In his work Dialectics of Nature, Engels considered the problem of motion in detail and developed a doctrine of the forms of motion, which corresponded to the level of development of science at that time. “Movement,” Engels wrote, “considered in the most general sense of the word, that is, understood as a mode of existence of matter, as an attribute inherent in matter, embraces all changes and processes occurring in the universe, from simple movement to thinking.”

Simple movement in space was considered by Engels to be the most general form of the motion of matter, over which, as in a pyramid, other forms are built. These are the physical and chemical forms of the motion of matter. The carrier of the physical form, according to Engels, are molecules, and the chemical - atoms. Mechanical, physical and chemical forms of movement form the foundation of a higher form of matter movement - biological, the carrier of which is a living protein. And, finally, the highest form of motion of matter is the social form. Its bearer is human society.

"Dialectics of Nature" saw the light of day only in the late 1920s and early 1930s. of our century and therefore could not influence science at the time when it was created. But the methodological principles that were used by Engels in developing the classification of the forms of motion of matter retain their significance up to the present day. First, Engels brings the forms of motion into conformity with the forms or types of the structural organization of matter. With the advent of a new type of structural organization of matter, a new type of motion also appears. Secondly, the dialectically understood principle of development is embedded in the classification of the forms of movement. Different forms of movement are genetically linked, they not only coexist, but also arise from each other. At the same time, the higher forms of movement include the lower ones as constituent parts and the conditions necessary for the emergence of a new, higher form of motion of matter. And finally, thirdly, Engels strongly objected to attempts to reduce completely qualitatively unique higher forms of movement to lower forms.

In the 17th and 18th centuries there was a strong tendency to reduce all the laws of nature to the laws of mechanics. This trend is called "mechanism". But later, the same word began to denote attempts to reduce biological and social processes, for example, to the laws of thermodynamics. With the advent of Darwinism, sociologists appeared who were inclined to explain the phenomena of social life by one-sidedly interpreted biological laws. All these are manifestations of mechanism.

Here we encounter contradictions inherent in the process of the development of knowledge, when the features inherent in one type of structural organization of matter are transferred to other types. However, it should be borne in mind that in the course of studying different types of organization of matter and different forms motion, some common, previously unknown circumstances and patterns are revealed that are characteristic of the interaction of different levels of matter organization. As a result, theories arise that cover a wide range of objects related to different levels organization of matter.

Late 19th – early 20th century became a time of a sharp break in ideas about the world - a time when the mechanistic picture of the world, which had dominated natural science for two centuries, was overcome.

One of major events in science was the discovery by the English physicist J. Thomson (1856-1940) of the electron - the first intra-atomic particle. Thomson investigated cathode rays and found that they are composed of particles with an electric charge (negative) and a very small mass. The mass of an electron, according to calculations, turned out to be more than 1800 times less than the mass of the lightest atom, the hydrogen atom. The discovery of such a small particle meant that the "indivisible" atom could not be considered as the last "brick of the universe." The studies of physicists, on the one hand, confirmed the reality of atoms, but on the other hand, they showed that a real atom is not at all the atom that was previously considered an indivisible chemical element, of which everything consists of known to man of that time things and bodies of nature.

In fact, atoms are not simple and indivisible, but consist of some particles. The first of these was the discovery of the electron. Thomson's first model of the atom was jokingly called "raisin pudding." Pudding corresponded to a large, massive, positively charged part of the atom, while raisins - small, negatively charged particles - electrons, which, according to Coulomb's law, were held on the surface of the "pudding" by electrical forces. And although this model fully corresponded to the ideas of physicists that existed at that time, it did not become a long-liver.

It was soon superseded by a model that, although contradicting the usual ideas of physicists, nevertheless corresponded to new experimental data. This is the planetary model of E. Rutherford (1871-1937). The experiments in question were carried out in connection with another fundamentally important discovery - the discovery at the end of the 19th century. phenomena of radioactivity. This phenomenon itself also testified to the complex internal structure of the atoms of chemical elements. Rutherford used the bombardment of targets made of various metal foils with a stream of ionized helium atoms. As a result, it turned out that the atom has a size of 10 to the -8 cm power, and a heavy mass that carries a positive charge is only 10 to the power of 12 cm.

So, in 1911, Rutherford discovered the atomic nucleus. In 1919, he bombarded nitrogen with alpha particles and discovered a new subatomic particle, the nucleus of the hydrogen atom, which he called the "proton." Physics entered into new world- the world of atomic particles, processes, relationships. And it was immediately discovered that the laws of this world are significantly different from the laws of the macrocosm familiar to us. In order to build a model of the hydrogen atom, it was necessary to create a new physical theory - quantum mechanics. Note that in a short historical period, physicists have discovered a large number of microparticles. By 1974, there were almost twice as many of them as chemical elements in periodic system Mendeleev.

In search of the basis for the classification of such a large number of microparticles, physicists turned to the hypothesis, according to which the diversity of microparticles can be explained by assuming the existence of new, subnuclear particles, various combinations of which act as known microparticles. It was a hypothesis about the existence of quarks. It was expressed almost simultaneously and independently of each other in 1963 by the theoretical physicists M. Gell-Man and G. Zweig.

One of the unusual things about quarks should be that they will have a fractional (when compared to the electron and proton) electric charge: either -1/3 or +2/3. The positive charge of the proton and the zero charge of the neutron are easily explained by the quark composition of these particles. True, it should be noted that physicists failed to detect individual quarks either in experiment or in observations (in particular, in astronomical ones). I had to develop a theory explaining why the existence of quarks outside of hadrons is now impossible.

Another fundamental discovery of the 20th century, which had a huge impact on the whole picture of the world, was the creation of the theory of relativity. In 1905, the young and unknown theoretical physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955) published an article in a special physical journal under the discreet title "On the electrodynamics of moving bodies." In this article, the so-called partial theory of relativity was presented. In essence, this was a new concept of space and time, and new mechanics were developed accordingly. The old, classical physics was quite consistent with the practice that dealt with macrobodies moving at not very high speeds. And only research electromagnetic waves, fields and related other types of matter made us take a fresh look at the laws of classical mechanics.

Michelson's experiments and Lorenz's theoretical work served as the basis for a new vision of the world physical phenomena. This applies primarily to space and time, the fundamental concepts that determine the construction of the entire picture of the world. Einstein showed that the abstractions of absolute space and absolute time introduced by Newton should be abandoned and replaced by others. First of all, we note that the characteristics of space and time will act differently in systems that are stationary and moving relative to each other.

So, if you measure a rocket on Earth and establish that its length is, for example, 40 meters, and then from the Earth determine the size of the same rocket, but moving at a high speed relative to the Earth, then it turns out that the result will be less than 40 meters. And if you measure the time flowing on Earth and on a rocket, it turns out that the clock readings will be different. On a rocket moving at high speed, time will flow more slowly in relation to the earth's, and the slower the faster the rocket speed, the more it will approach the speed of light. From this follow certain relations which, from our usual practical point of view, are paradoxical.

This is the so-called twin paradox. Imagine twin brothers, one of whom becomes an astronaut and goes on a long space journey, the other remains on Earth. Time passes. Spaceship returns. And between the brothers there is something like this conversation: "Hello," says the one who remained on Earth, "I'm glad to see you, but why haven't you changed at all, why are you so young, because thirty years have passed since the moment you left." “Hello,” the cosmonaut replies, “and I’m glad to see you, but why are you so old, because I flew for only five years.” So, according to the earthly clock, thirty years have passed, and according to the clock of the astronauts, only five. This means that time does not flow in the same way throughout the Universe, its changes depend on the interaction of moving systems. This is one of the main conclusions of the theory of relativity.

The German mathematician G. Minkowski, analyzing the theory of relativity, came to the conclusion that one should generally abandon the idea of space and time as existing characteristics of the world separately from each other. In fact, Minkowski argued, there is a single form of existence of material objects, within which space and time cannot be singled out, isolated. Therefore, we need a concept that expresses this unity. But when it came to designating this concept with a word, no new word was found, and then a new one was formed from the old words: “space-time”.

So, we must get used to the fact that real physical processes occur in a single space-time. And it itself, this space-time, acts as a single four-dimensional manifold; three coordinates characterizing space and one coordinate characterizing time cannot be separated from each other. But in general, the properties of space and time are determined by the cumulative effects of some events on others. Analysis of the theory of relativity required clarification of one of the most important philosophical and physical principles - the principle of causality.

In addition, the theory of relativity encountered significant difficulties in considering the phenomenon of gravitation. This phenomenon could not be explained. It took a lot of work to overcome the theoretical difficulties. By 1916, A. Einstein developed the “General Theory of Relativity!”. This theory provides for a more complex structure of space-time, which turns out to be dependent on the distribution and movement of material masses. The general theory of relativity became the basis on which, in the future, they began to build models of our Universe. But more on that later.

Astronomy has traditionally played an important role in shaping the general view of the world. The changes that took place in astronomy in the 20th century were truly revolutionary. Let's take a look at some of these circumstances. First of all, thanks to the development of atomic physics, astronomers have learned why stars shine. The discovery and study of the world of elementary particles allowed astronomers to build theories that reveal the process of evolution of stars, galaxies and the entire Universe. For thousands of years, the idea of \u200b\u200bunchanging stars has forever gone down in history. The developing Universe is the world of modern astronomy. The point here is not only in the general philosophical principles of development, but also in the fundamental facts that were revealed to mankind in the 20th century, in the creation of new general physical theories, primarily the general theory of relativity, in new instruments and new possibilities for observations (radio astronomy, extraterrestrial astronomy) and, finally, , in the fact that humanity has taken the first steps into outer space.

Based on the general theory of relativity, models of our Universe began to be developed. The first such model was created in 1917 by Einstein himself. However, later it was shown that this model has disadvantages and was abandoned. Soon the Russian scientist A. A. Fridman (1888-1925) proposed a model of the expanding universe. Einstein initially rejected this model, as he considered that it contained erroneous calculations. But later he admitted that the Friedman model as a whole is quite well substantiated.

In 1929, the American astronomer E. Hubble (1889-1953) discovered the presence of the so-called redshift in the spectra of galaxies and formulated a law that allows one to establish the speed of movement of galaxies relative to the Earth and the distance to these galaxies. So, it turned out that the spiral nebula in the constellation Andromeda is a galaxy, in terms of its characteristics close to the one in which our solar system is located, and the distance to it is relatively small, only 2 million light years.

In 1960, the spectrum of a radio galaxy was obtained and analyzed, which, as it turned out, is moving away from us at a speed of 138 thousand kilometers per second and is located at a distance of 5 billion light years. The study of galaxies led to the conclusion that we live in a world of receding galaxies, and some joker, apparently remembering Thomson's model, suggested an analogy with a raisin pie that is in the oven and slowly expands, so that each raisin the galaxy is moving away from all others. However, today such an analogy can no longer be accepted, since computer analysis of the results of observations of galaxies leads to the conclusion that in the part of the Universe known to us, galaxies form a certain network or cellular structure. Moreover, the distribution and density of galaxies in space differ significantly from the distributions and densities of stars inside galaxies. So, apparently, both galaxies and their systems should be considered different levels of the structural organization of matter.

An analysis of the internal interconnection between the world of “elementary” particles and the structure of the Universe directed the thought of researchers along this path: “What would happen if certain properties of elementary particles differed from those observed?” Many models of Universes have appeared, but it seems that they all turned out to be the same in one thing - in such Universes there are no conditions for life, similar to the world of living, biological beings that we observe on Earth and to which we ourselves belong.

The hypothesis of an "anthropic" Universe arose. This is our Universe, the successive stages of development of which turned out to be such that the prerequisites for the emergence of living things were created. Thus, astronomy in the second half of the XX century. urges us to look at ourselves as the product of many billions of years of development of our Universe. Our world is the best of all worlds, but not because, according to the Bible. God created it this way and saw for himself that it was good, but because such relations were formed in it within the systems of material bodies, such laws of their interaction and development that in separate parts of this world, the conditions for the emergence of life, man and mind could have developed. Wherein whole line events in the history of the earth and solar system can be assessed as "happy accidents."

The American astronomer Carl Sagan proposed a visual model of the development of the Universe in time, focused on man. He proposed to consider the entire time of the existence of the Universe as one ordinary Earth year. Then 1 second of the cosmic year will be equal to 500 years, and the whole year - 15 billion earth years. It all starts with the Big Bang, as astronomers call the moment when the history of our universe began.

So, according to the Sagan model, from a whole year of the development of the Universe to our human history it only takes about an hour and a half. Of course, the question immediately arises about other "lives", about other places in the Universe where there could be life, this special form of organization of matter.

The problem of life in the Universe is most fully posed and discussed in the book of the Russian scientist I. S. Shklovsky (1916-1985) “The Universe. A life. Mind”, the sixth edition of which was in 1987. Most researchers, both naturalists and philosophers, believe that in our Galaxy and in other galaxies there are many oases of life, that there are numerous extraterrestrial civilizations. And, of course, before the advent of a new era in astronomy, before the start of the space age on Earth, many considered the nearest planets of the solar system to be habitable. Mars and Venus. However, neither the vehicles sent to these planets, nor the American astronauts who landed on the Moon, found any signs of life on these celestial bodies.

So the planet should be considered the only inhabited planet in the solar system. Considering the nearest stars within a radius of about 16 light years, which may have planetary systems that meet some general criteria for the possibility of life on them, astronomers have identified only three stars near which such planetary systems can be. In 1976, I. S. Shklovsky published an article that was obviously sensational in its direction: “On the possible uniqueness of intelligent life in the Universe.” Most astronomers, physicists and philosophers do not agree with this hypothesis. But for last years no facts appeared to refute it, and at the same time it was not possible to detect any traces of extraterrestrial civilizations. Is that in the newspapers sometimes there are "eyewitness accounts" who have established direct contact with aliens from outer space. But these "evidence" cannot be taken seriously.

The philosophical principle of the material unity of the world underlies the ideas about the unity of the physical laws that operate in our Universe. This prompts the search for such fundamental connections, through which it would be possible to derive the variety of physical phenomena and processes observed in experience. Soon after the creation of the general theory of relativity, Einstein set himself the task of unifying electromagnetic phenomena and gravity on some unified basis. The task turned out to be so difficult that Einstein did not have enough to solve it for the rest of his life. The problem was further complicated by the fact that in the course of the study of the microcosm, new, previously unknown interconnections and interactions were revealed.

So a modern physicist has to solve the problem of combining four types of interactions: strong, due to which nucleons are pulled together into an atomic nucleus; electromagnetic, repelling like charges (or attracting opposite charges); weak, registered in the processes of radioactivity, and, finally, gravitational, which determines the interaction of gravitating masses. The strengths of these interactions are essentially different. If we take strong as a unit, then electromagnetic will be 10 to the power of -2, weak - 10 to the power of -5. and gravity is 10 to the power of -39.

Back in 1919, a German physicist suggested to Einstein that a fifth dimension be introduced to unify gravity and electromagnetism. In this case, it turned out that the equations that described the five-dimensional space coincide with Maxwell's equations that describe the electromagnetic field. But Einstein did not accept this idea, believing that the real physical world is four-dimensional.

However, the difficulties that physicists face in solving the problem of unifying the four types of interaction force them to return to the idea of higher-dimensional space-time. Both in the 70s and 80s. theoretical physicists have turned to calculating such a space-time. It was shown that at the initial moment of time (determined by an unimaginably small value - 10 to the power of -43 s from the beginning of the Big Bang), the fifth dimension was localized in a region of space that cannot be visualized, since the radius of this region is defined as 10 to the power of -33 cm.

Currently, at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton (USA), where Einstein lived in the last years of his life, a young professor, Edward Witten, is working, who created a theory that overcomes serious theoretical difficulties that quantum theory and general relativity have hitherto encountered. He managed to do this by adding to the known and observed four-dimensional space-time another ... six dimensions.

In ancient times, matter in philosophy was identified with the substance from which the surrounding objects are made. No wonder Aristotle in his Metaphysics, summarizing the achievements of previous years, wrote that most thinkers of an earlier era considered a specific substance to be the beginning of everything. It could be stone, water, earth, wood, fire or clay, and so on. They believed that all bodies were made of this primary substance. Moreover, when the objects perish, they will turn into this original substance. Aristotle called this substance the material principle. He considered its main property that the essence of things changes in its manifestations, but at the same time remains. This was the first time that matter was characterized in the history of philosophy.

Is it substance?

Due to the fact that the thinkers of the ancient world raised the question of whether the substance of which all bodies are composed is the fundamental principle, they simultaneously raised the problem of who created or gave birth to it. In this regard, a theory about the substantiality of matter arose. That is, if through it all manifold things exist, then how did it itself come into being?

In the Middle Ages, matter was considered not a substance, but the lowest manifestation of spiritual nature. At that time, every object was considered the unity of form and substance from which it was made. Only with the advent of the New Age, the concept of matter in philosophy acquired a new meaning. Benedict Spinoza very clearly defined it as a substance identical to nature, which develops independently, without any external cause. A little later, the English philosopher Berkeley sharply spoke out against such an understanding of matter. He believed that such a substance simply could not exist. We are not even dealing with specific things, but with their perception by our sensations. Thus, we do not encounter matter anywhere - this is a figment of the human imagination.

Definition

However, in the era of the New Age and the Enlightenment, this problem became extremely fashionable and relevant. Approximate to the current concept of matter in philosophy introduced Rene Descartes. He defines it. Descartes calls matter the substance of self-existent being. Its main attribute is length. In addition, it has more specific properties - to occupy any place, to have volume and to be three-dimensional. Isaac Newton made a great contribution to the development of this concept. He expanded the Cartesian definition of substance and expressed ideas about what are the properties of matter in philosophy. He suggested that she has three more attributes - this is extension, impenetrability (that is, the inviolable unity of the body), then inertia (passivity, the inability to independently change speed, according to the laws of dynamics, and also weight due to the action of gravity). Newton later developed his teachings. He combined inertia and weight into the concept of mass. He also considered the latter an attribute of matter, as well as a measure of its quantity.

Age of Enlightenment

This period in history was also favorable for the development of understanding of materiality and substantiality. The category of matter in the philosophy of the Enlightenment is developed by many thinkers, but the most successful definition is given by Paul Holbach. He writes that this is the name of everything that can be known with the help of sensations. Manifestations of matter are the basis of sensory knowledge. Such a source can be the sensations of form, color, taste, sound, and the like. We can say that Holbach brought the understanding of matter to an epistemological generalization. At the same time, the philosophical concept of substantiality disappears during this period. The thinkers of the Enlightenment actually reduced this term to "material substratum". Therefore, for example, Diderot believed that there is no matter as such. It exists only and exclusively in diverse things and objects.

The category of matter in the philosophy of Marxism

Even Helmholtz suggested that the main quality of this substance is its independence from our creation. Thus, the existence of matter is objective. Therefore, Helmholtz called everything that exists independently of man. But this concept has acquired a very high status in materialistic, and especially in Marxist, philosophy. It began to denote the origin of everything, including the spirit.

Matter in the philosophy of Marxism is a term that generally defines a reality independent of us, which is fixed by the human senses. However, the later development of physics, which tells us about atoms and elementary particles, called this formulation into question. After all, there are such levels of development and existence of matter that our sense organs do not perceive at all.

What is it?

Now many researchers and scientists doubt that some such substance has a real existence. After all, it cannot be experimentally fixed. But everyone agrees that matter in philosophy is such a category that it is convenient to designate objects, phenomena and processes. physical world. Therefore, it is often opposed to the phenomena of the spirit or consciousness. It determines the most essential qualities of the real existence of the world.

The properties of matter in philosophy are integrity, inexhaustibility, variability, systemic orderliness, and others. With the development of the methodology of modern scientific knowledge, some qualities began to be understood as fundamental. These include systems. In addition, this concept itself goes through a very difficult path of formation - it is refined, deepened, its new facets are opened.

Attributes and levels

Matter in philosophy exists in time, space and motion. These concepts are its attributes. Any material things and objects are always mobile, located at some point in space and in a certain period of time. Otherwise they cannot exist. In addition, matter has structural forms of organization. This is primarily an inorganic level. This includes micro, macro and mega worlds. Then the organic level is distinguished. It covers everything related to wildlife and biological existence. And finally, this is the social level. It takes into account various human communities and individuals - personality, family, tribe, clan, ethnic group, nation, group, gender, and so on.

Versatility

The definition known to us from the student bench has long been criticized by modern thinkers. However, more successful general definition no one has figured it out yet. Therefore, matter in philosophy is the most convenient way to reflect objectively real being in its universality in a scientific term. It is used when it is necessary to describe a certain substance that cannot be destroyed, it is eternal in terms of time and infinite in extent. It develops independently, proceeding from internal causes, and constantly passes from one state to another. All her bodies, things and phenomena are determined by cause-and-effect relationships, which makes it possible to observe patterns in the processes of their interaction. And this being is studied and continues to be known by man.

Of the variety of forms of being, philosophers have always focused on two: the material and the ideal. Of course, for philosophy, the most interesting subject of study is man. Philosophers show the specifics of human existence through the opposition of consciousness, the spirit of matter. The concept of "matter", apparently, was born from the desire to reveal the original unity of everything that exists in the world, to reduce all the diversity of things and phenomena to a certain common, initial basis.

From the history of philosophy, we remember that the role of such a fundamental principle of the world among the ancient Greeks was consistently claimed by water (Thales), air (Anaksimen), the boundless primordial substance “apeiron” (Anaximander), eternal living fire (Heraclitus), all 4 elements (Empedocles), the smallest indivisible atoms (Democritus), Plato's "eidos" can be listed endlessly. Democritus was the most successful of all.

So, what is matter?

The category "matter" designates an objective reality. This is all that exists outside of human consciousness and independently of it. In the definition of matter, the main question of philosophy about the relationship between matter and consciousness is solved. Materialists believe that it is primary in relation to consciousness, while idealists believe it is exactly the opposite.

Philosophical understanding of matter.

Matter (from Latin materia - substance) is a philosophical category for physical substance in general, as opposed to consciousness or spirit. In materialistic philosophy, the category "matter" denotes a substance that has the status of the beginning in relation to consciousness. Matter is reflected by our sensations, existing independently of them (objectively).

The attributes of matter, the universal forms of its existence are movement, space and time, which do not exist outside of matter. In the same way, there can be no material objects that would not have spatio-temporal properties.

Like matter, space and time are objective, independent of consciousness.

Space is a form of existence of matter, characterizing its extension, coexistence and interaction of material bodies in all systems.

Time is a form of existence of matter, expressing the duration of its existence, the sequence of changes in the states of all material systems.

Time and space have common properties. These include:

Objectivity and independence from human consciousness;

Their absoluteness as attributes of matter;

Inextricable connection with each other and the movement;

The unity of discontinuous and continuous in their structure;

Dependence on development processes and structural changes in material systems;

Quantitative and qualitative infinity

The universal properties of matter are:

The indestructibility and indestructibility of matter means that the objective world is self-sufficient, i.e., no additional forces are needed for its existence. No one created matter and no one can destroy matter.

The eternity of existence in time and infinity in space means that matter has always been and will always be, that matter has no beginning and no end.

Matter is always characterized by movement and change, self-development, transformation of one state into another. By movement, I understand not only mechanical movement in space, but also physical and chemical transformations, biological processes, etc. The transition of matter from one form of existence to another (substance-field) is also movement.

Determination (causality) - the dependence of phenomena and objects on structural connections in material systems and external influences, on the causes and conditions that give rise to them. Nothing in the material world happens just like that, by chance. Everything is subject to certain laws and the next develops from the previous.

The uniqueness of matter means that in the objective world there are no two identical objects. Any material object is individual, be it an atom or the universe. In other words, in the material world it is impossible for one object to exist in different parts of the universe.

Matter in philosophy: concept, properties and category. Scientific and technical encyclopedic dictionary What is Matter, what does it mean and how to spell it correctly

History of the concept

Attributes and properties of matter

Forms of motion of matter

Literature

Notes

see also

See what "Matter (philosophy)" is in other dictionaries:

Definitions, meanings of the word in other dictionaries:

Is it substance?

Definition

Age of Enlightenment

The category of matter in the philosophy of Marxism

What is it?

Attributes and levels

Versatility

Philosophical understanding of matter.