Mythological consciousness: the basic features

mythological consciousness - a kind of ideology, which is based primarily on the desire to believe.This is one of the oldest types of perceiving the world, and it is noteworthy that the reality still perceived by many people mythological.Generally, the more developed the science, the more skeptical attitude of the society to the myths, but now the popularization of scientific knowledge leads to a distortion of reliable information, and there are so-called "scientific myth."

mythological consciousness: the definition

to identify and understand the nature of consciousness and the mythological type, you need to properly represent the phenomenon of myth.In the simplest understanding the myth - a story that explains the process or phenomenon of the world.So, we know many stories about love and death, natural phenomena, human behavior (loyalty and betrayal, for example).Ancient myths have features artistic and sometimes handed down in poetic form.Despite this, they contain elements of scientific knowledge, philosophy and religion.This explanation of the myth makes him a little distinguishable from a fairy tale, but between them there is a big difference in the perception of the listener: a man sees myth as truth, which is based on faith and compassion heroes.Thus, the mythological world - a set of ideas based on an emotional perception of reality and belief the facts set out, but not confirmed, and are based on guesswork.

Mythological consciousness as the perception of the integrity of

Here we see that people who have a mythological world, able to explain all the surrounding events.In this case, there is no "information gaps" becauseeverything is explained by means of stories, who believe.For example, an unusual set of circumstances is not due to the interweaving of complex concepts of theories of space and time, probably a reference to the elementary "spirits" or "karma."Strange people phenomenon requires immediate explanation from them, and because science can not explain everything, then they try to make up for this shortfall with the help of myths.Certainly not fair to say that these guesses have no relation to reality: they can be both true and false, so the use of such concepts as "karma" or "spirits" is quite acceptable, and does not mean the presence of mental disorders in humans.

Mythological consciousness of the unity of reality and the supernatural

People with this type of world do not separate the supernatural from the norm because of their understanding of the world is one.Even God or deities exist in harmony with the laws of the universe and do not contradict them.The gods or spirits appear here as elements of the world that come into relationship with the elements of the lower units - animal or human.

mythological consciousness as a symbolic perception of reality

There prevails in the thinking of the symbolic perception.If the scientific world uses the term, then dominated by mythological images, symbols and signs.The man in this case, looking for a special meaning in the events that surround it, and considers them a kind of "sign."

Mythological consciousness and belief in the magical phenomenon

This is probably the most striking expression of the mythological worldview.Here, people believe in the magical powers of nature, for it permitted the use of rites and rituals in order to win over the higher powers, which, in his belief, can relieve the state of its affairs and support in difficult situations.The most common is the kind of sympathetic magic that manifests itself in the identification symbol and object.The man believes that, by intervening with the thing that directly or indirectly represents, for example, the other person, then it will affect his state.Typically, such rituals are accompanied by the words, the meaning of which depends on the purpose of exposure.