Subjective World and Objective World

A pair of philosophical categories that reveal the relationship between human consciousness and the external world. The subjective world refers to the field of human consciousness and thought, which is usually called "spiritual world". As for the objective world, it refers to the material world beyond human consciousness, including nature and human society. The subjective world is unique to human beings, although animals have senses and even consciousness, they have no consciousness like humans, thus, there is no distinction between subjective and objective, "self" and "environment" for them. Consciousness is the product of material movement which possesses its own development laws and began to appear with the emergence of human society.

The subjective world and the objective world are in a dialectical unity. The objective world determines the generation and development of the subjective world, and the subjective world actively reflects and promotes the development and progress of the objective world.

Matter has developed a thinking human brain from itself, which is purely accidental to the theory of mechanics, although the occurrence of things is gradually and inevitably determined. But in fact, the further development of thinking creatures is related to the nature of matter, so that it is inevitable to happen where there are suitable conditions (these conditions are not necessarily the same everywhere and at any time). The development of the objective material world has produced the thinking human brain, which is the material condition for the existence and development of the subjective world. Productive labor has transformed the human condition, promoted the improvement of human brain, the material organ of thinking — while transforming the objective world, human beings have been constantly transformed themselves.

Engels said that first labor, after it and then with labor the speech — these were the two most essential stimuli under the influence of which the brain of the ape gradually changed into that of man, which, for all its similarity is far larger and more perfect. The sense of touch developed with human hand itself, through the medium of labor, and the reaction on labor and speech of the development of the brain and its attendant senses, of the increasing clarity of consciousness, power of abstraction and of conclusion, gave both labor and speech an ever-renewed impulse to further development. A new element which came into play with the appearance of fully-fledged human — namely, society, and by the combined functioning of hand, speech organs and brain, not only in each individual but also in society, humans became capable of executing more and more complicated operations, and were able to set themselves, and achieve, higher and higher aims. The work of each generation itself became different, more perfect and more diversified, and agriculture was added to hunting and cattle raising; then came spinning, weaving, metalworking, pottery and navigation. Along with trade and industry, art and science finally appeared, and tribes developed into nations and states. At the same time, law and politics arose, and with them that fantastic reflection of human things in the human mind — religion.

Engels pointed out that all merit for the swift advance of civilization was ascribed to the mind, to the development and activity of the brain. Humans became accustomed to explain their actions as arising out of thought instead of their needs (which in any case are reflected and perceived in the mind). Thus, in the course of time there emerged that idealistic world view which, especially since the fall of the world of antiquity, has dominated human mind. The emergence and historical role of the idealistic world view has certain inevitability in the history of human development.

The objective world determines the object and content of the subjective world, and restricts the subjective world, and the active reflection of the subjective world on the objective world has its own characteristics in the form of cognition, and it is a process from ignorance to cognition, from superficial to deep.

Lenin states that knowledge is the reflection of nature by human being. But it is not a simple, direct, total reflection; this process consists of a whole series of abstractions, formulations, formations of concepts, of laws, etc., and these concepts, laws, etc. (thought, science= "logical idea") can embrace relatively, approximately, the universal laws of an eternally moving and developing nature. Human cannot seize (= reflect = reproduce) nature in its entirety, in its “direct totality”: all he can do is eternally draw closer to it by creating abstractions, concepts, laws, a scientific picture of the universe, etc. Humans’ understanding and transformation of the objective world and the subjective world is a process of eternal development, from relative truth to absolute truth.

Mao Zedong, also pointed out that the struggle of the proletariat and the revolutionary people to change the world comprises the fulfilment of the following tasks: to change the objective world and, at the same time, their own subjective world—to change their cognitive ability and change the relations between the subjective and the objective world.

Marxist philosophy correctly solves the problem of both transforming the subjective world and the objective world, provides people with a scientific world view and methodology, and warns people to oppose idealistic world view and methodology that are divorced from the reality of the objective world, indulge in the fantasy of the subjective world or exaggerate people's cognitive ability, but also to oppose mechanical materialism, which denies people's subjective initiative, and prevent ideological rigidity and fatalism.