SENSATION

SENSATION, a state of consciousness caused by stimulation of sensory organs, which are connected via centripetal pathways to the higher levels of the central nervous system - cortical centers. Thus, sensation as a property of a complex, predominantly cortical process, is the final element of the activity of sensory organs subjected to external stimuli, and at the same time the initial element of internal activity - consciousness. From a physiological point of view, S. is considered not only as a necessary part of the activity of the receptor, but also as a condition for the analyzer-synthetic activity of the brain, * by means of which man cognizes the world around him and acts upon it as a concrete-historical personality, a member of a specific socio-economic formation. The entire muscular apparatus of man plays an enormous role in this process, closely connected with the sensory organs through numerous neuro-physiological "mechanisms" (see in particular Reflexes and Conditioned Reflexes). The higher a given animal is organized, the more diverse is the character of its connections with the conditions of the external world, and consequently the character of its S. The problem of the origin of S. is essentially one of the most complex philosophical problems; it plays an enormous role in the Marxist-Leninist theory of knowledge. For a more complete coverage of this problem and its significance for psychology and pathology, it is necessary to outline the historical path traversed by the doctrine of S. The elementary, primitive concept of man about S. carried, as can be judged from the remaining monuments, an extremely naive character. Considering himself one part of nature, experiencing along with other living beings the influence of temperature factors, terrestrial gravity, light, etc., primitive man was far from contrasting himself and his inner life (the S. he received) with all other phenomena. Various S. were apparently characteristic of our distant ancestors in a completely different form than we experience them now (see below on the gradual development of S. in connection with the development of tools and methods of labor organization). The flourishing of philosophical-idealist conceptions about the character of S. in man belongs to the period of development of crafts and trade in Greece and its colonies, which meant a significant development of productive forces and slave-owning production relations of the ancient era. From the works of Greek philosophers that have come down to us, we see that at least the ruling class in this era was inclined to contrast its S. as some self-sufficient principle with all the rest of nature, asserting that matter is secondary, while primary is spirit (the basic position of idealist philosophy). After the "dark millennium" (the so-called Middle Ages), characterized by the dominance of Christian ideology, which recognized the activity of our sensory organs more as a source of sin than as a source of knowledge, we observe a new period in the study of the character of our S., connected with the name of R. Descartes (1596-1650). The development of navigation, the discovery of new continents caused an extraordinary upsurge in the productive activity of man and accelerated the development of elements of bourgeois production relations within the feudal society. In the person of Descartes, young natural science, as if testing its strength, took up the study of sensory organs as natural sources of our S. Thus, the foundations of dioptrics of the eye were laid and for the first time an analysis was made of the relationships between S. and action, which Descartes represented as an elementary reflex. While laying a number of prerequisites for spontaneously materialist views among scientists of later generations, Descartes and his followers, however, maintained the opposition between the activity of our sensory organs (and consequently S.) and the activity of our reason. The classical expression of idealist teachings in the field of S. is the so-called philosophy of subjective idealism (Berkeley), which put forward the formula of solipsism: esse percipi (to be is to be perceived). This teaching, which greatly exaggerated the significance of our S., in reality reduced its role to zero. The teaching of I. Kant (1724-1804) on the difference between "phenomenon" and "thing in itself", with human cognition supposedly accessible only to the former (phenomenon), is nothing but a new compromise between the involuntary recognition of the enormously grown productive experience of that era (18th century) and the desire to preserve and renew the purely ideological concept of reason as "introducing order and regularity" into "the chaos of sensory impressions". Kant's teaching left a lasting imprint on a number of psychological theories. It is from here that the roots of the teaching on the so-called psychophysical parallelism in the psychology of S. (Wundt, Ebbinghaus and others) grow.- The most significant for the history of the doctrine of S. is that moment in the history of the development of our knowledge about sensory organs and their activity, which is connected with the enormous growth of natural science and materialist philosophy of the 19th century. The technique of physiological experiment, developed on the basis of the economy of young capitalism and the progress of its technology and energy, allowed I. Müller (1796-1858) to develop his teaching on the specific energy of sensory organs, which retains its significance to this day. However, in the sphere of philosophy, Müller, like many physiologists and psychologists who studied S., remained close to idealism. Subsequently, this "physiological idealism" gave way to "physical idealism", connected with the crisis of bourgeois natural science. The discoveries of C. Darwin, published in the middle of the 19th century, played a significant positive role in the development of the doctrine of sensation. Darwin brilliantly substantiated his teaching "on the expression of sensations", proceeding evolutionarily with the application of all the rich means that comparative physiology places in the hands of the modern experimenter. However, only K. Marx and F. Engels, who revealed the role of labor as rational, purposeful practical activity in the development of historical man, managed to bring complete clarity to the question of the development, essence, and that active role which S. play in the process of cognition and transformation of the environment by man. The view of dialectical materialism on the nature and character of our S., forged by it in the struggle with idealist and vulgar materialist worldviews, is most vividly expressed by V. I. Lenin in his philosophical works (see in particular "Materialism and Empiriocriticism", Chapter I). Contrary to the idealist views of Mach, who believed that S. are not even symbols of things, and rather a thing is a mental symbol for a complex of S., Lenin, using the full wealth of material of natural science and in particular physics, proves that S. is nothing but the result of the action of matter on our sensory organs. "Materialism," says Lenin, "in full agreement with natural science takes as primary the given matter, considering consciousness, thinking, S. as secondary, for in a clearly expressed form S. is connected only with the highest forms of matter." The very fact of the appearance of S. indicates the emergence of quite definite processes occurring in our organism, in particular in our brain. The transformation of external stimuli into S. every man has observed millions of times in every step of his activity; it is confirmed by the entire vast experience of humanity. However, this transformation should not be understood in the sense of identifying external stimuli and S. To admit this means to surrender positions to idealism, which in the person of the physicist Mach repeats only what was said at one time by Bishop Berkeley, who also stood on the point of identity, which in fact annuls the category of external stimuli. S. cannot be considered a symbol of the external world, as idealists of other interpretations believed: S. are reflections, snapshots of things in our heads (Engels) as a result of the contradictory zigzag process of cognition. It is precisely from this point that we must reject the theory of "hieroglyphs" by G. V. Plekhanov, a theory that ultimately paves the way for idealism. The teaching of Marxism-Leninism on S. is the only complete scientific theoretical basis for the further development of the problem of S. For studying the character and course of S., modern anatomy and physiology use all available methods of research: histological study of sensory organs, section of nerve conductors (centripetal), suturing them together, stimulation of nerve endings, fibers and nerve cells themselves with electric current and chemical substances, as well as extirpation of certain brain areas with subsequent finest registration of animal behavior. Since these experiments are performed almost exclusively on animals, to register the obtained changes in the sphere of S., more precisely - in the area of corresponding bodily reactions, the method of conditioned reflexes and other methods of external observation are mainly used. The study of the entire wealth of the sphere of S. in man is carried out mainly by psychology, and here statistical processing of the results of mass studies of S. is also widely applied.

To satisfy the practical needs of various disciplines that require knowledge of the laws of sensation, diverse apparatus of special precision is created. Part of this apparatus has recently been manufactured by industry in the USSR. In addition to the qualitative characterization of S., expressed for example in formulations such as 'light blue color, spicy smell, bitter-salty taste' and others, S. is also characterized from the standpoint of its strength and duration. To this must be added the following properties of S.: the sequential effect from irritations occurring in the peripheral receptor organ or in the cerebral cortex, perceived as a special kind of S. (see Eidetism), the concreteness of certain S., binding them into one inseparable whole and, along with rhythm, connected with the process of artistic perceptions (see Perception) and experiences. The frequently used term localization of S. is used in at least two senses: in the sense of the attribution of S. to individual zones of the cerebral cortex, and in the sense of the subject assigning the object of S. to one or another part of the external world or one's own body. In addition to the development of questions about the affective tone of S., about the influence on them of associative and apperceptive activity, which are detailed in the classical works of W. Wundt, Stumpf, Marbe and others, the attention of researchers (biologists and psychologists) in recent times has been occupied by 1) the problem of the influence of adaptation, or set, on the fineness of discrimination of S., on the change in their threshold, the upper and lower limits of audibility of sounds, etc. (see Dominance). 2) The problem of the relationship between the nature of the course of certain (mainly visual) S. and the constitution of a person [so-called eidetic phenomenon EHiua(Jaensch)]. 3) The problem of the connection between individual S. and the feeling of the structure of the whole (so-called Gestalt) (Kohler, Koffka, Wertheimer, K. Levin). 4) The problem of discontinuity (the break in continuity in a series of gradually changing S., for example, when gradually increasing the following one after another noise-impacts, oscillations,-we obtain a qualitatively new S. of a musical tone). 5) The question of the connection between the appearance of one or another S., on the one hand, and certain purely somatic manifestations-on the other (for example, the psycho-galvanic effect or reflex). 6) The problem of colored hearing and others. The problem of the dependence of S. on socio-economic factors, mainly on the growth of ideological superstructures (science, art), also represents enormous everyday, cultural-historical and industrial interest. Thus, for example, it is a known fact that the Greeks of the period of the flourishing of Hellas with its rich literature did not have a designation for the blue color of the sky and water, calling them gray everywhere, and therefore did not possess the particular acuity of discrimination of color S., so characteristic of modern works of art. The same applies to the perception of semi- and quarter-tones in music, which the Greeks hardly used, and many others. This last problem also poses anew all the previous ones, and especially the problem of the connection between individual S. and the feeling of the structure of the whole. It forces one to pose the question of the 'whole' by no means in the sense of representatives of Gestalt psychology, but in the direction of the concrete-historical genesis of the 'whole' and its mediation in individual S. Of special practical importance for us is the increasing role and significance of muscular S., especially S. arising from the contraction of small muscles of the hand in their combinations and resulting from the unusual development of technique, beginning from the period of manufacture. Completely new qualities of muscular S. further derive from the fine