Myth is the earliest type and form of consciousness, and display it in the world.Features consist of a mythological worldview that is itself a myth, it is the earliest historical form of awareness of reality individual.In the myth, brought together and intricately intertwined basic knowledge of human norms regulating individual and social thinking and behavior, as well as artistic and aesthetic criteria, emotional design and evaluation criteria of human activity.
Mythology, according to some scientists, appears before modern man, not merely as a variant of oral tradition, which is the source of the human imagination.Mythology also has a motive for not only the simple satisfaction of human curiosity and the search for answers to the burning questions of existence.Mythological worldview emerges as a holistic mechanism of social regulation of society, with the objective mechanism, because at a certain stage of its development, society begins to experience particularly strong need for such a regulator.As such, the mythological worldview manifests itself as a way of preserving the natural and human harmony and psychological unity of the people.
Specificity mythological world, in this sense, is that it is generated and recreated in the new generations are not rational logic and historical experience of previous generations, and fragmentary views of the world, wearing a purely personal and imaginative character.Within this picture, nature, social phenomena are recognized and motivated to such reflection only to the extent that there is a need from the people themselves in this reflection.
mythological world at this stage of society is characterized mainly by ignoring the causal methods of describing reality, resulting in a picture of the world appears only in its space-time design (for example, unrealistic deadlines people's lives, rebirth and resurrection in a different capacity, etc..d.).
major in the mythological consciousness is the image than, in fact, different from the philosophy of mythology, where rational thought prevails already.Nevertheless, the myth presents to the world a man is not just a fairy tale, and so where there is indisputably some higher authority.This factor, and subsequently becomes the basis of formation of "pure" religion, to distinguish themselves from mythology.
mythological world has another feature - the myth there is always the presence of undifferentiated representation between the natural substance and the man himself.The social significance of this unity is embodied in the principles of collectivism, claiming that everything in this world is subject, if the problem can be solved collectively.
basis of these features, it can be argued that the main function of mythological consciousness and world does not lie in the plane of cognitive activity, it is - a purely practical, and its main purpose is to strengthen the solidity of the company or its parts.Myth, unlike philosophy, does not generate questions and problems and does not require an individual to meaningfully-conscious attitude to the environment.
But the accumulation of practical knowledge, there is an objective need for their classification at the level of rational activity and hence the theoretical.Therefore, mythological consciousness first "dissolved" in the religious, and then gives priority to the philosophical, remaining, however, in the minds of every person in the form of mental representations of everyday level.
