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a) The Emergence of Consciousness

p The psychic form of the reflection of reality evolved at a certain stage in the development of animal organisms, particularly their nervous system. It does not remain unchanged, but is constantly improving and developing, turning, under certain conditions, into a qualitatively different form of reflection-consciousness.

p Labour is the condition for transforming the psyche of animals into human consciousness. It is rooted in the reflex activities of animals who used natural objects to achieve corresponding objectives connected with the satisfaction of certain needs of the organism. Scientists believe that certain species of anthropoid apes began to use natural objects in order to satisfy their needs, such as a stick to knock down fruit or a stone to defend themselves. At first, these actions were occasional. But since, as a rule, they yielded positive results and helped satisfy a particular need, they became the basis for developing a conditioned reflex and with it the habit of using natural objects as “tools” under appropriate circumstances. This habit resulted in substantial changes in animal behaviour. Their connection with the environment was now maintained through natural objects. Indeed, previously they reacted directly to the impact of external reality, whereas now they themselves affect the surrounding world through natural objects that they use as “topis”. 124 This more complex connection of the organism with the environment had a positive impact on the development of the nervous system, the brain in particular. It began forming more and more connections and performing ever more complicated functions, thereby developing and perfecting itself. In turn, this exerted a positive influence on the “tool activity" of animals, which also developed and became more complex. At a certain stage in the development of this activity, animals, seeing no “tool” to help them perform a particular action, began to seek ways of adapting other objects for this purpose. A trend developed for making the necessary “tool” by processing certain objects. The development of this trend among man’s animal ancestors conditioned a gradual transformation of reflex activity into conscious actions aimed at changing the environment by specially made implements.

p This activity became the necessary form of contact between creatures developing from the animal world and between them and surrounding reality. Certain relations developed between them that were independent of their will, thus uniting them in a single, welded entity-society. A certain degree of co-ordination in the actions of the individuals that made up this entity was required for it to emerge, function and develop. This, however, presupposed an understanding of a common goal and the tasks, distribution of functions in attaining this goal, and exchange of ideas among individuals acting in concert. “In short,” Engels wrote, “men in the making arrived at the point 125 where they had something to say to each other."  [125•1  This emerging necessity conditioned the development of a means to satisfy it: language, in v/hich consciousness acquired a material form of existence corresponding to its social nature. Being a system of symbols ensuring the storing, processing and transmitting of information, language is a means of expressing thoughts and a means of intercourse among people.

p Men in the making began to designate particular phenomena, their properties and actions by suitable sounds or symbols, using them to transmit their thoughts to each other. The names given by them to particular phenomena acted as substitutes for them. People reacted to them in the same way as to the phenomena designated by them. Words became the signals of particular phenomena. By using them, people reflected surrounding reality, exchanged information and used it in their everyday life and activities.

p The reflection of reality through a system of words is a specifically human form of reflection. Animals reflect surrounding reality through the signals of reality itself. It has been noted above that the role of these signals is played by phenomena or properties that, by themselves, are not significant for the vital activity of an organism, but that are in a certain relationship with other biologically important phenomena or properties. The Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov called this system of signals, common to animal and man, 126 the first signalling system. The specifically human signalling system, the system of words that play the role of signals of particular phenomena of the surrounding world, he called the second signalling system.

The development of language introduced substantial changes in man’s reflective activity. Language liberated man from his blind dependence on actual circumstances, created the conditions necessary for broad generalisations and intercourse with other people, greatly contributing thereby to the formation and development of man’s consciousness.

b) The Essence of Consciousness

p Consciousness is connected with labour and society that developed on the basis of labour. It is therefore an essential aspect of the social form of the motion of matter, although it exists through the consciousness of the individuals making up human society. Each individual uses an existing language, the means of labour and modes of activity to assimilate the experience accumulated by society and to transmit to society his personal experience in the form of cultural and material values created by him.

p Having developed as an essential aspect of the life of society that began to emerge on the basis of labour, consciousness manifested itself among man’s ancestors primarily through an awareness of their being, of their existence, through their differentiating themselves from the surrounding 127 world, and through their definite attitude towards it. An animal does not distinguish itself from the environment. It merges completely with its vital activities. A savage who has acquired consciousness notices for the first time that he exists, that various objects surround him, and that he is somehow related to them and they to each other. By becoming aware of his instincts and habits, he gradually begins to understand what is going on around him. Thus, consciousness is awareness of what is happening in the surrounding world, which is nothing other than knowledge.

p The outside world is present in the consciousness in the form of images taking shape in man’s brain as a result of his interaction with it. The sum total of these images reflecting reality makes up man’s knowledge. By using these images and the information they contain concerning the particular properties and connections of the objects and phenomena of the surroundnig world, man comes to understand what is happening around him.

p This understanding is a necessary condition for man to take his bearings in the world. Guided by a correct perception of reality and a knowledge of its particular aspects and connections, man anticipates the future and reproduces, in tEe form_pf ideal images, that which does not yet exist, but must occur following certain actions upon existing reality.

p Proceeding from this anticipatory reflection of reality, man sets himself corresponding tasks and subordinates his behaviour and actions to them. 128 Thus, purposefulness is a major attribute of human consciousness. The fulfilment of this function distinguishes human behaviour from that of animals, and sensible human activity from the instinctive actions of animals. “A spider,” Marx wrote, “conducts operations that resemble those of a weaver, and a bee puts to shame many an architect in the construction of her cells. But what distinguishes the worst architect from the best of bees is this, that the architect raises his structure in imagination before he erects it in reality. At the end of every labour-process, we get a result that already existed in the imagination of the labourer at its commencement.”  [128•1 

p The anticipatory reflection of reality underlies not only goal-setting activities, but also the constructive, transformative activity of consciousness, which is a major aspect of the latter’s essence. Having emerged under the direct impact of labour, which presupposes the transformation of the world in accordance with man’s needs, consciousness creates something new, that did not exist before, on the basis of the knowledge it possesses. This new thing, expressed in a system of ideal images, becomes a real plan translating a particular possibility of matter into reality. Thus, being a reflection of the world, consciousness is also constructive-it actively influences the surrounding world and transforms it in keeping with the reguiremenfs ot society.

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To sum up, consciousness is the realityin the human brain, accompanied by an understanding ot what is happening in the outside world, and goal-setting and thinking activity based on this understanding, which ensures a corresponding orientation in the surrounding world and its constructive transformation in the, interests ojjiocietv.

c) The Correlation
of Consciousness and Matter

p It follows from the above that consciousness is secondary in relation to matter. This is expressed, above all, in the fact that it does not exist always and everywhere, but emerges at a specific stage in the development of matter only in highly organised material entities. As such, consciousness is necessarily tied up with matter and cannot exist without it. Matter, on the other hand, is not dependent on consciousness, having existed before it emerged.

Moreover, consciousness is also secondary because it is a reflection of the outside world, a picture of objectively existing things, their properties and relations. As such consciousness cannot exist independently of material objects, inasmuch as a reflection cannot exist independently of the reflected object, whereas the latter can exist independently of its reflection.

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d) The Material and the Ideal

p Being a specific psychic phenomenon, consciousness emerges in the brain as a result of certain physiological processes occurring within it. However, in its relation to the outside world, with reality reflected in it, we find that consciousness is ideal.

p The ideal in consciousness is expressed in that the images that form it possess neither the properties of the real objects reflected in it, nor those of the nervous physiological processes underlying their emergence. The images do not contain a grain of matter characteristic of reflected reality and the brain. They are devoid of weight, space dimensions, or any other physical property.

Though the ideal is different from the material, it is inherently linked to it, developing and existing only in that which is material-the human brain. It is a result of the influence exerted by material phenomena on the sense organs. Its content is determined by these phenomena, being a reflection of them. Marx underlined the intrinsic connection between the ideal and the material and the former’s dependence on the latter. He wrote: ”. .. the ideal is nothing else than the material world reflected by the human mind, and translated into forms of thought.”  [130•1 

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e) The Subjectivity of Consciousness

p The emergence of consciousness presupposes that man separates himself from surrounding reality, understands what is happening there, and takes account of it in his activities. All this makes man a subject, a being endowed with the ability to understand what is happening around him, setting himself definite goals and performing actions to achieve these goals. By his very nature, the subject is active. His relative independence is the result of his influence upon the environment in order to cognise and transform it. As distinct from the subject, the reality cognised and transformed by him is the object.

p Since man emerges and exists as a member of a particular group of necessarily interconnected and interdependent individuals, i.e.. a member of society, the latter should be treated as the universal subject. It is society that cognises and transforms the surrounding world. As for the individual, he is the subject only in as far as he expresses the essence of society.

p The subject possesses an intrinsically specific inner world which is an ideal reflection of the outside world, of objective reality. This inner spiritual world constitutes the realm of the subjective. Thus, all that relates to man’s (society’s) spiritual world, that is included in the sphere ot consciousness and is realised by the subject, makes up the subjective.

As the spiritual world of the subject, the subjective depends on the latter, on his peculiarities.

132 specific features and state. But not everything in the subject’s spiritual world is dependent on him. In man’s subjective world, there are aspects stemming from objective reality that are independent of the subject-man and society. These aspects are the objective within the subjective; they are a specific form of existence of the outside world within the inner world of the subject. This means that consciousness, while being a subjective, aware reflection of reality, is a unity of the subjective and the objective. It includes aspects that reflect properties of the object and do not depend on the subject, and aspects that depend on the subject, on the condition of his nervous system, his personal experience, social status, conditions of life, and so forth.

p The activeness of consciousness, realised through the purposeful actions of the subject, is a major form in which his subjectivity is expressed. Before taking any action, the subject sets himself a certain goal, specifies the ways and means of achieving it, makes a decision to undertake a certain course of action, and so forth. In a word, all his actions pass through the sphere of consciousness and are manifestations of his will.

Being a manifestation of subjectivity, the activeness of consciousness enhances rather than excludes the objectivity of its content. By taking a certain pursposeful course of action, the subject intervenes in objective processes, changes them in a certain way, thereby transforming the subjective that existed in his consciousness into the objective that exists outside and independently of him.