The hylozoistic content of the definition of matter in Soviet philosophy

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to identify the ontological content of the definition of matter in Soviet philosophy and the specific nature of the materialist character of the Soviet definition. The article addresses the problem of the need to abandon, within ontology, the coupling of the category of matter to the category of consciousness, which was characteristic of Soviet philosophy. The fact is that the core content of the official definition of matter during the Soviet period is the relationship between matter and consciousness. The scientific novelty of the study lies in developing an ontological approach to matter that was not brought to its logical conclusion in Soviet philosophy. Representatives of the ontological approach proved unable to break out of the framework of the official epistemological approach to matter. The result of the study is the explication of the hylozoistic content of the Soviet definition of matter. It is argued that the hylozoistic context is a consequence of the substantialization of the category of “objective reality”. As a prospect for further research, the study proposes searching for an ontological definition of matter not within the domain of the epistemological interconnection between matter and consciousness, but within the domain of the direct interconnection between matter and the fundamental ontological categories of being and non-being.