Features of mythology as an early form of worldview. The specificity of the mythological worldview

Historically, the first type of worldview among all the peoples of the world was the mythological worldview. Mythology is a universal, not yet dissected (syncretic), unified form of social consciousness that dominated the early stages of primitive (prehistoric) society.

Mythology is the worldview of a primitive communal, tribal society, and consists of spontaneously emerging legends, tales about life, origin, and the emergence of crafts that are passed down through generations.

The essence of mythology lies in the transfer of community-clan relations to the whole world around. Mythological representations are developed collectively unconsciously and are a fantastic, generalized reflection of natural and social existence in the mind of a person of a tribal society.

Myths (Greek ̶ storytelling, tale), were the first attempt to generalize and explain the various phenomena of nature and society in those distant times, when people were just beginning to peer into the world around them, just starting to study it and were not yet able to distinguish themselves from environment. There were many legends about gods, heroes and wonderful creatures, in which the structure of the Cosmos, the Universe, the world, nature and the fate of mankind were explained in an artistic form. Myths are sensually visual poetic images that contain the spiritual wealth and wisdom of peoples.

Myth, as it existed in the primitive community, i.e. in its living, original form, it is not a story to be told, but a reality to be lived. This is not an intellectual exercise or artistic creation, but practical guide to the actions of the primitive collective. The purpose of myth is not to give man any knowledge or explanation. Myth serves to justify certain social attitudes, to sanction a certain type of belief and behavior. During the period of domination of mythological thinking, there was no need to obtain special knowledge.

Myth is not the original form of knowledge, but a special kind of worldview, a specific figurative syncretic idea of natural phenomena and collective life.

Main features mythological worldview come down to the following:

1. Introduction to kinship forces and phenomena and human collectives. Anthropomorphism, i.e. transfer of human properties to the whole world around.

2. Personification, personification of natural forces and ways of human activity.

3. Mythological thinking is artistic in nature, it operates with images, not concepts.

5. Explanation of the origin of the Universe, the Earth and man:

̶ explanation natural phenomena;

̶ life, fate, death of a person; human activity and its achievements (rudiments of empirical knowledge of ancient people);

̶ issues of honor, duty, ethics and morality.

In myth, as the earliest form of human culture, the rudiments of knowledge, religious beliefs, moral, aesthetic and emotional assessment of the situation were combined. If, in relation to myth, one can speak of cognition, then the word “cognition” here has the meaning not of the traditional acquisition of knowledge, but of a worldview, sensual empathy.

The main principle of solving worldview issues in mythology was genetic. Explanations about the beginning of the world, the origin of natural and social phenomena boiled down to a story about who gave birth to whom. Myth usually combines two aspects:

1) diachronic (a story about the past) and

2) synchronic (explanation of the present and future).

Thus, with the help of myth, the past was connected with the future, and this ensured the spiritual connection of generations. The content of the myth is presented to the bearer of the myth in the highest degree real, deserving of absolute trust.

Myths were and are an important stabilizing factor public life. In addition, the significance of myths (including modern ones) lies in the fact that they establish harmony between the world and man, nature and society, society and the individual, and thus ensure the inner harmony of human life.

It was from myths that both religion and philosophy emerged over time: the systematization of fantasies led to the emergence of religion, and the systematization of knowledge led to philosophy.

Religious worldview

Religion is a form of worldview based on the belief in the presence of fantastic, supernatural forces that affect human life and the world around us. With a religious worldview, a person is characterized by a sensual, figurative-emotional (rather than rational) form of perception of the surrounding reality. Religion illuminates the same issues as myth.

Character traits religions:

̶ the predominance of sensory perception of the world;

̶ "faith" is elevated to a principle;

̶ system of dogmas;

̶ the mind occupies a subordinate position (the creed of religion: "do not think, but believe").

Already on early stage mythology was not the only ideological form in human history. On the basis of the fantastic beliefs and rituals present in the myths, religion (more precisely, religion) is born, which also acts as one of the socio-historical types of worldview coexisting with philosophy for many centuries. Representing a specific form of reflection of reality, religion still remains a significant socially organized and organizing force in the world.

Religion cannot be understood in a simplified or vulgar way, for example, as a system of "ignorant" ideas about the world and man. Religion is a complex phenomenon of spiritual culture. Within the framework of religious consciousness, moral and ethical ideas and ideals arose that helped the development of human spirituality, contributed to the formation universal values. So, for example, the unshakable basis of Christian morality is work, which is understood as cooperation with God, and whoever does not work is not a Christian. Religion has made a huge contribution to the process of consciousness of the idea of the unity of the human race and the enduring significance of high moral standards in people's lives.

Religion- this is the worldview and behavior of an individual, group, community, which are determined by the belief in the existence of some Higher Beginning. This is a belief in the existence of one or another variety of supernatural forces or in their dominant role in the universe and people's lives.

religious consciousness- this is the recognition of the real presence in human life, in the existence of all people and the entire Universe of a certain Higher Beginning, which directs and makes meaningful both the existence of the Universe and the existence of man.

It is necessary to emphasize once again that the mode of existence of religious consciousness is faith (more on faith will be discussed in the topic “Philosophical image of knowledge”).

The specificity of religion is due to the fact that its main element is cult system, i.e. a system of ritual actions aimed at establishing certain relationships with the supernatural. And therefore, every myth becomes religious to the extent that it is included in the cult system, acting as its content side.

Worldview constructions, being included in the cult system, acquire the character creeds. And this gives the worldview a special spiritual and practical character. Worldview constructions become the basis for formal regulation and regulation, streamlining and preserving mores, customs, and traditions. With the help of rituals, religion cultivates human feelings of love, kindness, tolerance, compassion, mercy, duty, justice, etc., giving them a special value, associating their presence with the sacred, the supernatural.

The main function of religion is to help a person overcome the historically changeable, transient, relative aspects of his being and to elevate a person to something absolute, eternal. In the spiritual and moral sphere, this is manifested in giving the norms, values and ideals an absolute, unchanging character, independent of the conjuncture of the spatio-temporal coordinates of human existence, social institutions, etc. Thus, religion gives meaning and knowledge, and hence sustainability. human existence helps him overcome life's difficulties.

It must be remembered that the mythological-religious worldview was spiritual and practical character. His worldview constructions enter into social and individual interaction in the form images and symbols.

Philosophical worldview

Philosophy is born as an attempt to solve the main worldview problems by means of reason, i.e. thinking based on concepts and judgments that are connected with each other according to certain logical laws. In contrast to the religious worldview with its predominant attention to the relationship of man to superior forces and beings, philosophy brought to the fore the intellectual aspects of the worldview, reflecting the growing need in society to understand the world and man from the standpoint of knowledge.

The emergence of philosophy meant the emergence of a special spiritual attitude - the search for harmony of knowledge about the world with the life experience of people, with their beliefs, ideals, hopes.

Philosophy has inherited from mythology and religion their ideological character, i.e. the whole set of questions about the origin of the world as a whole, about its structure, about the origin of man and his position in the world, etc. She also inherited the entire volume of positive knowledge that humanity has accumulated over the millennia. However, the solution of worldview problems in the emerging philosophy took place from a different angle, namely from the standpoint of rational assessment, from the standpoint of reason. Therefore, we can say that philosophy is a theoretically formulated worldview.

Philosophy is a special, scientific-theoretical type of worldview. It represents the highest stage and type of worldview, characterized by rationality, consistency, logic and theoretical formalization.

Differences between the philosophical worldview and the religious and mythological:

̶ philosophical worldview is based on knowledge (and not on faith or fiction);

̶ the philosophical worldview is reflexive (there is an inversion of thought towards itself);

̶ philosophical outlook is logical (has internal unity and system);

̶ philosophical outlook is based on clear concepts and categories.

The main stages of the evolution of philosophy as a worldview:

- Cosmocentrism- this is a philosophical worldview, which is based on the explanation of the surrounding world, natural phenomena through the power, omnipotence, infinity of external forces - the Cosmos, and according to which everything that exists depends on the Cosmos and cosmic cycles (this philosophy was characteristic of Ancient India, Ancient China, other countries of the East, as well as Ancient Greece).

- Theocentrism- This is a type of philosophical worldview, which is based on the explanation of everything that exists through the dominance of an inexplicable, supernatural force - God (was common in medieval Europe).

- anthropocentrism- a type of philosophical worldview, in the center of which is the problem of man (Europe of the Renaissance, Modern and Contemporary times, modern philosophical schools).

Historically, a form of the theoretical nature of comprehension of the world appears, the symbol is replaced by Logos – intelligence. Philosophy is born as an attempt to solve the main worldview problems by means of reason, i.e. thinking based on concepts and judgments, communicating with each other according to certain logical laws. Unlike religion, philosophy brought to the fore the intellectual aspects of the worldview, reflecting the growing need in society to understand the world and man from the standpoint of knowledge and rationality. Initially, she acted in the historical arena as a search for worldly wisdom.

Philosophy is a theoretically formulated worldview, it is one of the forms of human culture. Consequently, worldview in philosophy appears in the form of knowledge and is systematized, ordered. And this moment essentially brings together philosophy and science. The beginning of philosophy is the beginning of science in general. This is confirmed by history. Philosophy is the mother of science. The first naturalists were at the same time philosophers. Philosophy is brought closer to science by the desire to rely on theoretical methods of research, to use logical tools to substantiate one's positions, to develop reliable, generally valid principles and provisions.

History shows that the theoretical form of substantiating reality, the field of knowledge, is formed precisely within the framework of philosophy. But as the empirical material accumulated and the methods of scientific research improved, the forms of theoretical assimilation of reality became differentiated. Sometimes this process is described as a branching off from the philosophy of specific sciences. In European culture, this process took place in two main stages, which have some indirect connection with each other.

First stage associated with differentiation theoretical form development of reality in ancient Greek culture. This period was most clearly recorded in the system of Aristotle (4th century BC).

Second phase- XVI-XVII centuries, when science is formed as an independent social institution. Since that time, private sciences have been mastering certain areas of nature and society. At the same time, they rely on experimental (empirical) research methods. Philosophy, based on concrete scientific knowledge, sees its task in the synthesis of various human knowledge, in the formation of a unified scientific picture of the world.

Thus, after the formation of independent branches of scientific knowledge - mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry, etc. - philosophy lost its function of being the only form of theoretical exploration of reality. But under these conditions, the specificity of philosophy as a form of the universal theoretical knowledge. Philosophy is a form of knowledge of the most general, or rather, universal foundations of being.

Philosophical generalization has a much wider potential than any other specific generalization. The sciences, by their very nature, must proceed from everyday life experience and special experiments. Experience has its limits. And philosophical thought is inherent in the consideration of the world beyond the limits of human experience. No experience allows us to comprehend the world as integral, boundless in space and timeless, infinitely superior to human forces, independent of the individual and humanity as a whole. objective reality with which people must constantly reckon. A holistic understanding of the world gives a worldview support to specific scientific research, allows them to move forward, correctly pose and solve their problems. That's why hallmark philosophical way of mastering reality is universalism. Throughout the history of culture, philosophy has claimed to develop universal knowledge or universal principles of spiritual and moral life. And this found its expression in such images of philosophy as the “mother of sciences”, “science of sciences”, “queen of sciences”.

Philosophy is the search and finding by a person of answers to the main questions of his being (the most essential, fundamental, all-encompassing, not knowing exceptions, uniting people's lives into a single whole, in the field of action of which every person falls.

Historically, the first form of worldview is mythology. It arises at the earliest stage of social development. Then mankind in the form of myths, that is, legends, legends, tried to answer such global questions as the origin and structure of the universe as a whole, the emergence of the most important natural phenomena, animals and people. A significant part mythologies were cosmological myths dedicated to the structure of nature. At the same time, much attention in the myths was paid to the various stages of people's lives, the secrets of birth and death, all kinds of trials that lie in wait for a person on his life path. A special place is occupied by myths about the achievements of people: making fire, the invention of crafts, the development of agriculture, the domestication of wild animals.

The formation of the world was understood in mythology as its creation or as a gradual development from a primitive formless state, as ordering, transformation from chaos into space, as creation through overcoming demonic forces.

The myth serves to justify certain social attitudes, to sanction a certain type of belief and behavior. During the period of domination of mythological thinking, there was no need to obtain special knowledge. Thus, myth is not the original form of knowledge, but a special kind of worldview, a specific figurative syncretic idea of natural phenomena and collective life. In myth, as the earliest form of human culture, the rudiments of knowledge, religious beliefs, moral, aesthetic and emotional assessment of the situation were combined.

The myth usually combines two aspects- diachronic (a story about the past) and synchronic (an explanation of the present and future). Thus, with the help of myth, the past was connected with the future, and this ensured the spiritual connection of generations. The content of the myth was primitive man eminently real, deserving of absolute trust.

Myths were important stabilizers of social life. This does not exhaust the stabilizing role of mythology. The main significance of myths is that they established harmony between the world and man, nature and society, society and the individual, and thus ensured the inner harmony of human life.

4. Philosophy of life of the XX century - the main ideas, directions and representatives

PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE- irrationalist philosophical direction late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century, which put forward "life" as a kind of intuitively comprehended integral reality as the initial concept. This concept is widely understood in various options philosophy of life. The biological-naturalistic interpretation is characteristic of the trend that goes back to Nietzsche. The historicist version of the philosophy of life (Dilthey, Simmel, Spengler) proceeds from direct inner experience as it is revealed in the sphere historical experience spiritual culture. A peculiar pantheistic variant of the philosophy of life is associated with the interpretation of life as a kind of cosmic force, a "life impulse" (Bergson).

The main representatives of the philosophy of life are:

· F. Nietzsche(Nietzsche seeks to overcome the rationality of the philosophical method, his concepts - "life", "will to power" - appear as polysemantic symbols.)

· V. Dilthey(The task of philosophy (as a "science of the spirit"), according to Dilthey, is to understand "life" on the basis of itself. In this regard, Dilthey puts forward the method of "understanding", which opposes the method of "explanation" applicable in the "sciences of nature" .)

· G. Simmel(Life is understood as a process of creative formation, inexhaustible by rational means and comprehended only in the inner experience, intuitively. This experience of life is objectified in the diverse forms of culture.)

· A. Bergson(Bergson claims life as a true and original reality, the essence of which can be comprehended only with the help of intuition. The fabric of mental life is duration, therefore, life has not a spatial, but a temporal character. Life is a kind of metaphysical-cosmic process, "a vital impulse" ("Creative evolution"))

· O. Spengler(The philosophy of Nietzsche had a decisive influence on Spengler. Cultures are interpreted by him as "organisms", each of which is measured out for a certain period. Dying, culture is reborn into civilization.)

5. The emergence of philosophy - a qualitative leap from the mythological to the rational worldview

As the human society, the establishment by a person of certain patterns, the improvement of the cognitive apparatus, the possibility of a new form of mastering worldview problems arose. This form is not only spiritual and practical, but also theoretical. The image and symbol are replaced by the Logos - the mind. Philosophy is born as an attempt to solve the main worldview problems by means of reason, i.e., thinking based on concepts and judgments that are connected with each other according to certain logical laws. In contrast to the religious worldview with its predominant attention to the relationship of man to superior forces and beings, philosophy brought to the fore the intellectual aspects of the worldview, reflecting the growing need in society to understand the world and man from the standpoint of knowledge. Initially, she entered the historical arena as a search for worldly wisdom.

The term "philosophy" translated from Greek means love of wisdom. The word "philosopher" was first used by the Greek mathematician Pythagoras (c. 580-500 BC) in relation to people striving for intellectual knowledge and the right way of life. The interpretation and consolidation of the term "philosophy" in European culture is associated with the name of Plato. Initially, the concept of "philosophy" was used in a broader sense. In fact, this term meant a set theoretical knowledge accumulated by humanity. At the same time, it should be noted that the knowledge of the ancients, called philosophy, covered not only practical observations and conclusions, the beginnings of science, but also people's thoughts about the world and about themselves, about the meaning and purpose of human existence. The emergence of philosophy meant the emergence of a special spiritual attitude - the search for harmony of knowledge about the world with the life experience of people, with their beliefs, ideals, hopes.

Philosophy inherited from mythology and religion their ideological character, their ideological schemes, that is, the whole set of questions about the origin of the world as a whole, about its structure, about the origin of man and his position in the world, etc. She also inherited the entire volume of positive knowledge, which accumulated over thousands of years by mankind. However, the solution of worldview problems in the emerging philosophy took place from a different angle, namely from the standpoint of rational assessment, from the standpoint of reason. Therefore, we can say that philosophy is a theoretically formulated worldview. Philosophy- this is a worldview, a system of general theoretical views on the world as a whole, a person's place in it, understanding various forms relationship of man to the world, man to man. Philosophy is a theoretical level of worldview. Consequently, worldview in philosophy appears in the form of knowledge and is systematized, ordered. And this moment essentially brings together philosophy and science.

6. Existentialism - a general characteristic, representatives.

Existentialism, also philosophy of existence- a direction in the philosophy of the 20th century, focusing its attention on the uniqueness of the irrational human being. Existentialism developed in parallel with related areas of personalism and philosophical anthropology, from which it differs primarily in the idea of overcoming (rather than revealing) a person's own essence and a greater emphasis on the depth of emotional nature.

In its pure form, existentialism as a philosophical trend has never existed. The inconsistency of this term comes from the very content of "existence", since by definition it is individual and unique, it means the experiences of a single individual who is not like anyone else.

Existentialism (according to Jaspers) traces its origins to Kierkegaard, Schelling and Nietzsche. And also, through Heidegger and Sartre, it genetically goes back to Husserl's phenomenology (Camus considered even Husserl an existentialist).

Existential philosophy is the philosophy of human being

The main category of the philosophy of existentialism is existence (a unique and directly experienced human existence. Thus, according to Heidegger, such existence - existence - refers to a special being - Dasein - and should be considered in a special existential analytics, in contrast to categorical analytics for other beings.)

Philosophy of existentialism - an irrational reaction to the rationalism of the Enlightenment and German classical philosophy. According to the existentialist philosophers, the main flaw of rational thinking is that it proceeds from the principle of opposition between subject and object, that is, it divides the world into two spheres - objective and subjective. All reality, including man, is considered by rational thinking only as an object, an “essence”, the knowledge of which can be manipulated in terms of subject-object. Genuine philosophy, from the point of view of existentialism, must proceed from the unity of object and subject. This unity is embodied in "existence", that is, a kind of irrational reality.

History and representatives

In Russia, existentialism arose on the eve of the First World War 1914-1918:

L. Shestov

N. A. Berdyaev

In Germany, existentialism arose after the First World War:

K. Jaspers

M. Heidegger

M. Buber

Found his followers during the Second World War 1939-1945 in France:

J.-P. Sartre

G. Marseille

M. Merleau-Ponty

The concept and structure of the worldview

The concept of "worldview" does not have any single definition recognized by all. Most often, scientists agree that this term should be understood as a complex representation of a person about the world, a kind of substance that is a link between consciousness and cognition. From the point of view of its structure, the worldview includes such elements as attitude, worldview and worldview.

Main types of worldviews

The worldview developed along with the development of man, his ideas about the world around him and about himself. Despite the fact that at present scientists pay the most attention to the ordinary and scientific understanding of the surrounding reality, historically the first form of worldview is the mythological worldview.

The concept of mythological worldview

The mythological worldview, as the name implies, is based on myths, that is, on vivid, emotional, logically built schemes with which a person tried to explain certain phenomena or processes. Emotionality and colorfulness was necessary to make others believe that in reality everything is exactly what is happening.

Myth as a reflection of the specifics of the mythological worldview

At the same time, a myth is not just a story, it is a very deep experience by a person of the events that he tells about. This perception occurs because these stories touch upon the most important problems of a person and his relationship with the outside world. A myth is a kind of cipher, a "hidden language", with the help of which a person sought to convey to others all the complexity and orderliness of the environment. natural environment. It is in this search for the deep meaning of certain phenomena and processes, painted in bright, and sometimes in fantastic tones, that the specificity of the mythological worldview lies.

Prerequisites for the emergence of a mythological worldview

The mythological worldview, its appearance and development are associated with a certain stage in the development of human consciousness and the accumulation of knowledge about the surrounding world. The immediate prerequisites for its appearance should be recognized as a certain emotional discomfort that surrounded a person in those distant times, as well as his desire to use even the insignificant knowledge that he already possessed in order to immediately explain all the processes and phenomena surrounding him.

They are directly related to the specific of this type worldview. This is the animation of surrounding objects and phenomena, and the inseparability of ideas about reality and fantasy, and the transfer of many phenomena of one's life to the world of gods and spirits. In addition, the mythological worldview is characterized by the absence of any attempts to give cognition an abstract character, that is, to try to single out their main, essential qualities and properties in certain phenomena. At the same time, in myths, a person tried to give an explanation to absolutely everything that surrounded him, including himself. At the same time, it should be noted that the mythological worldview, in contrast to the same ordinary knowledge about objects, is a rather harmonious system, where each myth occupies its own, clearly defined place.

The concept and structure of the worldview

Main types of worldviews

The concept of mythological worldview

Myth as a reflection of the specifics of the mythological worldview

At the same time, a myth is not just a story, it is a very deep experience by a person of the events that he tells about. This perception occurs because these stories touch upon the most important problems of a person and his relationship with the outside world. A myth is a kind of cipher, a "hidden language", with the help of which a person sought to convey to others all the complexity and orderliness of the natural environment. It is in this search for the deep meaning of certain phenomena and processes, painted in bright, and sometimes in fantastic tones, that the specificity of the mythological worldview lies.

Prerequisites for the emergence of a mythological worldview

They are most directly related to the specifics of this type of worldview. This is the animation of surrounding objects and phenomena, and the inseparability of ideas about reality and fantasy, and the transfer of many phenomena of one's life to the world of gods and spirits. In addition, the mythological worldview is characterized by the absence of any attempts to give cognition an abstract character, that is, to try to single out their main, essential qualities and properties in certain phenomena. At the same time, in myths, a person tried to give an explanation to absolutely everything that surrounded him, including himself. At the same time, it should be noted that the mythological worldview, in contrast to the same ordinary knowledge about objects, is a rather harmonious system, where each myth occupies its own, clearly defined place.

1. Mythological form of worldview: the dialectic of myth and its socio-anthropological roots

Myth - Greek. mythos - a word, a legend, a story - is an extremely complex phenomenon and does not currently have a generally accepted interpretation. Myth is sometimes interpreted so broadly that not only theogony, cosmology, but also all kinds of fairy tales, teachings, genealogies, etc. fall under it. In addition, originally mythos was not opposed to logos, which also meant “word”, “speech”, and only later logos began to mean the ability to think, reason. So it makes sense to start with general characteristics mythology, and then proceed to the disclosure of the essence of the myth underlying it.

In modern literature, the word "mythology" is used in no less than three meanings:

1. Mythology as a set of legends, legends, stories about gods and heroes, their origin, life, deeds, etc.;

2. Mythology as a system of fantastic ideas about the world, including the mass various myths, which can be typologized;

3. Mythology as the science of myths, their nature, essence, origin, functions, etc.

This lecture will focus on mythology as a specific understanding of the world, how outlook. The phrase " mythological worldview"we combine, firstly, a whole complex of various mental phenomena, phenomena of consciousness, and secondly, a number of elements, "practical", "active" in the form of a system of rituals, rituals, actions that accompany acts of consciousness, legends, a story about like it was the first time. Thus, the individual is involved in the life of the clan, the community, ensuring the preservation of the myth and its transmission to the next generations. The world of myth is the world of relatives, a large community. Myth is socioanthropomorphic. Thus, the mythological worldview contains two series: verbal-narrative and active-practical, eventful. The syncretism and non-differentiation of such a worldview, implicitly containing elements of the most diverse knowledge, make it indecomposable into its constituent parts. According to many Russian authors (A.S. Bogomolov, A.F. Losev, E.M. Meletinsky and others), in the mythological worldview there is no distinct separation of subject and object, thing and word, object and sign, being and its name, etc. In the mythological worldview, the world of myth and the real world are not separated from each other. Both are accepted by the subject as authentic, real. This is largely due to the fact that the individual does not distinguish himself from the surrounding world and does not separate himself from the genus, the Cosmos. Moreover, the life of the Cosmos was conceived, seen by them by analogy with the life of the genus. The indivisibility, non-differentiation of the worldview, the inseparable fusion of the emotional, affective and mental, contemplative are evidence of the fusion of life itself. The mythological worldview absorbs and relies not on individual experience, but on the experience of the family. “Myth,” writes M. Mamardashvili, “is a multi-thousand-year collective and nameless tradition packed in images and metaphors and mythical creatures.” The myth, as it were, says that once all this was, and in this sense it appears to the individual as real, really taking place. But whether it will take place in the future, whether it will happen again, is difficult to say. Probably not! Therefore, the sequence of events is perceived as miracle. The events referred to in the myth took place, as it were, in the distant past, they are separated from the present by a large time interval, which allows them to be seen as real, as the fundamental principle on which everything that follows grows. Thus, the mythological worldview acquires the meaning of a paradigm, a model for reproduction, thereby performing a regulatory function and forcing the individual to follow this model.

In the very general view you can note following features mythological outlook. First, it is socio-anthropomorphic: the surrounding world is comprehended in accordance with the properties of man and society. Sometimes this feature of the mythological worldview is called analogy, thus emphasizing that it is natural for a person to judge the world by analogy with himself, endowing the world with his own properties, animating it. For this reason, the mythological worldview has a second name - socioanthropomorphic worldview. Secondly, the mythological worldview is distinguished by its exceptional totality, integrity. The world presented in it is a vague, but complete picture. Thirdly, the mythological worldview perceived the world as changeable, arising and constantly changing. This feature of the worldview is usually called the Greek term geneticism. Geneticism is the idea of the origin of all things, including the mythological gods. According to E.M. Meletinsky, geneticism is of a total nature, including not only theogony (myths about the origin of the gods), but also ethnologism (the doctrine of the causes and conditions for the emergence and origin of everything that exists, the world as a whole).

It should be noted that the idea origin - birth and death, the death of beings - is also central to the philosophical worldview. Therefore, philosophy is attentive to this feature of the mythological worldview, since it itself arises, emerges from the mythological worldview. However, the basis is not the original mythology, but significantly reworked, transformed by the creative imagination and talent of Homer, Hesiod (the heroic epic of Homer, the didactic epic Works and Days by Hesiod, his Theogony).

Olympian Gods of Homer third generation ancient Greek mythological gods. To first generation should be attributed Ocean and his wife Tefida(in Homer) or Chaos(in Hesiod). The second generation should include broad-breasted Gaia-Earth, gloomy Tartarus, beautiful Eros. Gaia with her husband Uranus(Heaven) spawns titans led by Kronos. Having overthrown Uranus, Kronos with his wife Rhea generates the gods of olympics third generation - at the head of which, having overthrown his father Kronos, becomes Zeus. This theogonic process continues further: Thanatos (Death), Son, the goddesses of fate Kera and Moira appear ... Heroes are born from the love affairs of gods and goddesses with mortals. Homer and Hesiod, having subjected myths to processing, gave them artistic imagery, laying the foundation for allegorism: we perceive these myths as images of natural elements, as metaphors - poetic images. Ultimately, the mythological worldview tried to explain how an ordered and harmonized world is born out of Chaos.

Thus, we have approached the characterization of the myth itself as the core of the mythological worldview, as its basic concept. “Myth,” according to A.F. Losev, is a necessary, one can directly say, a transcendentally necessary category of thought and life, there is absolutely nothing accidental, unnecessary, arbitrary, invented or fantastic in it. … He dialectically necessary category consciousness and being in general.

There are many definitions of myth in philosophical and historical literature, but if you try to summarize their essence, then all of them ultimately define myth as a generalized reflection of the world in the fantastic form of certain animated beings. But the definition of myth itself does not yet reveal its essence. The essence of myth is revealed by its theory. A classic work on the theory of myth is A.F. Losev. It is believed that he gives the most correct methodology for studying the phenomenon of myth: without dwelling on the definition of myth as fantastic reflection - this is not enough to understand - it reveals the special character mythological reflection. The reflection of reality in myth turns out to be her development.

The initial methodological principle of his concept of myth A.F. Losev formulates as follows: "I take myth as it is, i.e. I want to reveal and positively fix what myth is in itself - how it understands its fabulous nature ... I give only one dialectic of myth. But what does it mean to take the myth as such, as it is? A.F. Losev explains: “We must first take the point of view of mythology itself, that is, become the mythical subject itself. We must imagine that the world in which we live and all things exist is a mythical world, that in general only myths exist in the world.

Therefore, to take myth as such means to look through the eyes of a mythical subject, and not from outside, not from our time through the eyes of a rationally theoretically thinking alienated subject. That's why A.F. Losev and says that the myth is not an invention, is not a concept, is not an image ... it is all. From this he concludes that the essence of a myth cannot be understood through its comparison with an artistic image, a religious representation, scientific concept. It is possible to detect elements of the most diverse forms of cognition and ways of mastering reality, and each of them can be considered as the specific nature of myth. However, warns A.F. Losev, none of them can be taken as independent and ready-made prerequisites for myth, as existing forms of knowledge. All these elements in the myth are merged, inextricably fused, and therefore have no meaning of their meaning outside of this total syncretism. That is, all comparisons of myth with other forms do not answer the question of what myth is: the answer will always be negative.

It may seem strange, paradoxical that a myth, being a fantastic reflection of reality, does not contain anything ... invented, fantastic. Yes, a paradox, if you look at the myth from the standpoint of rational-theoretical consciousness and try to define it through comparison with pure art, religion, science, since it is possible to detect allegory, figurativeness, metaphor, conceptuality in it, without noticing only the myth itself.

What is a myth, if we take the point of view of the mythological subject? Answer A.F. Losev sounds paradoxical: “Here is our shortest summary of the entire previous analysis, with all its delimitations and subdivisions: there is a myth being personal or, more precisely, image of personal being, personal form, face of personality» . And one addition - we will need it in the future - " Every living person eat anyway myth» .

So myth is personality. That is, to understand the nature, essence, mystery of myth means, first of all, that it is necessary to understand the personality of the bearer of mythological consciousness, the subject of myth. Let's leave for a while the elucidation of the structure of the myth, the specifics of the mythological consciousness, the evolution of the myth, and try to understand the mythological personality, the bearer of the mythological worldview.

In a research form, A.F. Losev (“in our formula, in our own words, there are four members: 1) personality, 2) history, 3) miracle, 4) word”) personality is in the first place. For him, any person is mythical. What does it mean? This means that the roots of the myth are socio-anthropomorphic, the myth follows from the very socio-cultural essence of man. Man, having created himself, thereby created, as M. Mamardashvili emphasizes, "a gap, an abyss between culture and nature." The myth turns out to be a system for neutralizing the opposition "culture-nature", filling this gap. According to Mamardashvili, mythical creatures and natural, and cultural, and at the same time supernatural and capable of the impossible, unlike man. What is the first thing a person is not capable of? What is impossible for him in reality? Achieve physical immortality, overcome death, bridge the gap between life and death. This is precisely what mythical creatures overcome: they are either immortal, or when they die, they are resurrected.

The world of culture created by man is a “second nature”. Therefore, everything that helps a person to overcome the gap between these two worlds is close, necessary and understandable to a person. All those who have written about myth point to the closeness of myth to human nature. M. Bakhtin noted that there is "the warmth of a unifying mystery" in the myth. B. Zaitsev in the story " Reverend Sergius Radonezhsky" says that "the myth feels the soul of the event better than the official of historical science." And, finally, K. Jaspers writes that "the myth enchants, it is good to enter into its sphere." Where does such a charming native warmth of myth, which captivates and warms even a modern, rational person, turns out to be necessary for him? And not only in terms of aesthetics, but also in a broader socio-cultural sense, casting doubt on Marx's assertion that in the future the myth will die out, that it will become impossible in the age of electricity. Perhaps F. H. Cassidy, author of From Myth to Logos, is right when he says, in relation to our day, that we are going “From Logos to Myth”.

The existence of modern mythology cannot be explained only by the readiness of modern myth-makers to create any myth, fulfilling a social order. This is not about myth-making, but about mythology, i.e. mass collective consciousness that needs myths and perceives them as reality. “The existence of myths in modern culture,” says I.T. Kasavin, is an obvious fact, because every spiritual culture is half made up of myths. The transmission of cultural archetypes is a typical mythological process in which cultural heroes, procedures, and their cult exaltation appear.

Modern mythology is based on a number of objective and subjective reasons. Among these objective reasons, according to A.F. Losev, refers to the preservation of elements of community-clan relations that have never completely disappeared and, perhaps, will never disappear, because “for a person, with all the successes of his civilization and with any triumph of rational constructions, it is very difficult to forget that he has parents and children that throughout his life he is bound hand and foot by relatives and that this relationship is by no means an accidental phenomenon, but something in human, and in all natural life very profound and ineradicable." No, even the deepest, economic, scientific and technological achievements can completely destroy the roots of the mythological worldview, since they are rooted to a certain extent in the very nature of man. Therefore, the myth cannot be eradicated by rational arguments. Being irrational in its essence, it does not always react to the circumstances of the mind.

The eternity of the elements of mythological consciousness is rooted in the dualistic, ambivalent nature of man. Man as a goal-setting and ideal-pursuing being, obliging and existing, hoping and believing, cannot but potentially contain a tendency to mythologization. Mythologization is a special, specific way of mastering reality, giving rise to the illusion of overcoming a person's own duality. It is impossible for a person to overcome this duality to the end. He is forever doomed to being a carrier, according to F.K. Cassidy, "a dual ideological orientation in the world associated with freedom and necessity". Necessity forces a person to adapt, to reconcile with reality, with what exists, but free goal-setting activity pushes him illusory, in faith to accept due for being, wishful thinking. This is the source of faith in various utopian projects, in quick and easy ("miraculous") ways and ways to implement them.

The mythological worldview is the worldview of a generic person who has not yet been touched by the division of the pile. Such a person is distinguished by integrity and primitive comprehensiveness. He was not aware of his spiritual individuality, and it practically did not exist. The integrity of the individual, i.e. not limited to any one type of activity, corresponded to an equally holistic mythological worldview, which gave him complete knowledge about the genus, about the world, which, in essence, was the same large genus, about itself. This, as we have already said, is the sociomorphism of the mythological worldview.

Knowledge of the history of the family, the history of gods, heroes - understandable and close to the individual with their human strengths and weaknesses, made the world around us accessible and simple, understandable and clear. In mythological plots there was a place for almost all phenomena surrounding life. And if necessary, each individual could easily enter into the overall picture one or another phenomenon that he encountered: this required knowing the history of his kind, presented in the system of myths.

The mythological worldview gave such a picture of the world in which it was easy to navigate, find one's place in it, know one's destiny, etc. This is precisely the ideological nature of the myth and its expediency: for the subject of mythological consciousness, there is nothing at all incomprehensible, unclear. He was alien to the feeling of his ignorance. He seemed to know everything. Mythology was complete and complete knowledge about the world. Of course, this does not mean that the mythology itself has not changed. The myth has undergone a certain evolution. For example, one can speak of a significant difference between the mythology of Homer and Hesiod and early mythology. So, J.-P. Vernan writes: “When reading Homer, the picture changes. In the Iliad, another society, another human world is revealed to us, as if, starting from the Homeric era, the Greeks could no longer perceive the appearance of the former Mycenaean civilization ... It influenced the man himself of that era, changed him spiritual world, transformed his psychological attitudes.

Speaking about late mythology, one can point to such features as, firstly, systematization and internal orderliness, secondly, literary processing, and thirdly, there was a genetic and rational formalization of theogonic and epic ideas about the gods. Genetic order meant that there is no universal mythological determinism, when everything can come from everything. A rational order meant that the functions of the gods are limited, they seem to "specialize".

In general, we can say that the evolution of the mythological worldview meant its dialectics: a change in the correlation in the myth of faith and knowledge, figurative metaphorical and sane, objective and subjective. The process of reduction in the myth of the sphere of the unknown, mysterious, mystical is gradually increasing. Rational-logical elements, which were previously dissolved in figurative-sensory reactions to obscure natural phenomena, begin to prevail over fantastic-illusory representations. The sphere of the known is expanding, although the sphere of the unknown and incomprehensible remains, moreover, it can grow, but this sphere is already losing its mystical character: the incomprehensible ceases to be explained with the help of the even more incomprehensible. Thus, the evolution of the mythological worldview goes in the direction of its destruction, which ultimately leads to the emergence of new forms of cognition and knowledge. Thus, for example, the symbolic-figurative elements of myth served as a prerequisite for the development of a religion from them, based mainly on the symbolic function of myth. The allegorical element served as the basis for the genesis of art. The philosophical form of knowledge was based on the generalizing function of myth. The mythological generalization, based on the ascent from the concrete-personal to the general cause of the world order, reproduced the hierarchy mythological creatures. Gradually, this type of generalization is replaced by an ascent from the abstract to the concrete, leading to the formation of a theoretical integrity that reflects the integrity of the subject and reproduces the logical hierarchy. The process of decomposition, splitting of the mythological worldview became possible thanks to rationalization the whole way of life of the communal-tribal system. By the term "rationalization" we designate a whole set of processes covering all spheres: economic, social, spiritual. The rationalization of the economic sphere was manifested in the further division of labor, the deepening of specialization. AT social sphere rationalization was expressed in the appearance of the first elements of slave-owning democracy, which replaced tribal democracy: social stratification begins, written law, different branches of government are born. And most importantly, the individual stands out from the clan, acquiring relative personal sovereignty. Rationalization, therefore, destroyed the soil that nourished mythology. Influenced by rationalization way of life there is a rationalization of the social consciousness itself. There is a process of accumulation of elements of correct knowledge and ideas, the need for which is growing in connection with the division of labor and its specializations. That is, it appears positive Rezhabek E.Ya. The Formation of Mythological Consciousness and Its Cognitiveness // Questions of Philosophy. 2002. No. 1.

Cassidy F.K. On the problem of the origin of Greek philosophy. Afterword // Vernand J.-P. The origin of ancient Greek thought. M., 1988. S. 179.

Features of mythology as an early form of worldview. The specificity of the mythological worldview

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