Society as a complex dynamic system 1 page

System (Greek) – a whole made up of parts, a connection, a set of elements that are in relationships and connections with each other, which form a certain unity.

Society is a multifaceted concept (philatelists, nature conservation, etc.); society as opposed to nature;

society is a stable association of people, not mechanical, but having a certain structure.

There are different subsystems operating in society. Subsystems close in direction are usually called spheres human life:

· Economic (material and production): production, property, distribution of goods, money circulation, etc.

· Legal policy.

· Social (classes, social groups, nations).

· Spiritual – moral (religion, science, art).

There is a close relationship between all spheres of human life.

Social relations are a set of various connections, contacts, dependencies that arise between people (relations of property, power and subordination, relations of rights and freedoms).

Society is a complex system that unites people. They are in close unity and interconnection.

Sciences that study society:

1) History (Herodotus, Tacitus).

2) Philosophy (Confucius, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle).

3) Political science (Aristotle, Plato): theory of the middle state.

4) Jurisprudence is the science of laws.

5) Political saving(origins in England from Adam Smith and David Renardo).

6) Sociology (Max Weber (anti-Marx), Pitirim Sorokin).

7) Linguistics.

8) Social philosophy– the science of global problems facing society.

9) Ethnography.

10) Archeology.

11) Psychology.

1.3. Development of views on society:

Initially they developed on the basis of a mythological worldview.

The myths highlight:

· Cosmogony (ideas about the origin of space, Earth, sky and Sun).

· Theogony (origin of the gods).

· Anthropogony (origin of man).

Development of views on society of ancient Greek philosophers:

Plato and Aristotle strive to understand the essence of politics and determine the best forms of government. Knowledge about politics was defined as knowledge about the highest good of humanity and the state.

/Cm. ideal state according to Plato/

Views changed in the Middle Ages under the influence of Christianity. Scientists had a vague understanding of the nature of social relationships, the reasons for the rise and fall of states, and the connection between the structure of society and its development. Everything was explained by God's providence.

Renaissance (XIV – XVI centuries): return to the views of the ancient Greeks and Romans.

17th century: a revolution in views on society (Hugo Grotius, who substantiated the need to resolve issues between peoples with the help of law, which should be based on the idea of ​​justice).

XVII – XVIII centuries: scientists create the concept of a social contract (Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau). They tried to explain the emergence of the state and modern forms human condition. All of them substantiated the contractual nature of the emergence of the state.

The state of nature according to Locke is characterized by general equality, freedom to dispose of one's person and property, but in the state of nature there are no mechanisms for resolving disputes and punishing violators. The state arises from the need to protect freedom and property. Locke was the first to substantiate the idea of ​​separation of powers.

Rousseau believes that all the troubles of humanity were born with the emergence of private property, because it has led to economic inequality. The social contract has turned out to be a fraud for the poor. Economic inequality has been exacerbated by political inequality. Rousseau proposed a genuine social contract in which the people are the sovereign source of power.

From the 16th century, utopian socialism arose; its first stage lasted until the 18th century (More, Campanella, Stanley, Meslier). They developed socialist and communist ideas, emphasized the need for public property and social equality of people.

Socialism is the universal equality of people.

2) Workers (industrialists);

at the same time, in society he retains the right of private property.

Charles Fourier: society represents an association where there is free labor, distribution according to work, and comprehensive equality of the sexes.

Robert Owen: being a wealthy man, he tried to rebuild society on a new basis, but went broke.

In the 40s of the 19th century, Marxism began to develop, the founders of which were Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who believed that a new communist society could only be created through revolution.

Before this, all workers’ protests for their rights ended in defeat (the Luddites (machine destroyers), Lyon weavers (1831 and 34), Selesian weavers (1844), the Chartist movement (demanded universal suffrage)). The reason for the defeats was the lack of a clear organization and the lack political party, as an organization that defends the interests of workers at the political level. The program and charter of the party were assigned to be written by Marx and Engels, who created the manifesto of the Communist Party, in which they substantiated the need to overthrow capitalism and establish communism. The doctrine in the twentieth century was developed by Lenin, who defended in Marxism the doctrine of class struggle, the dictatorship of the proletariat and the inevitability of the socialist revolution.

1.4. Society and nature:

Man is a part of nature, i.e. society, as a part of nature, is inextricably linked with it.

The meaning of “nature” is used to denote not only natural, but also human-created conditions for existence. During the development of society, people’s ideas about nature and the relationship between man and nature changed:

1) Antiquity:

Philosophers interpret nature as a perfect cosmos, i.e. the opposite of chaos. Man and nature act as a single whole.

2) Middle Ages:

With the establishment of Christianity, nature is conceived as the result of God's creation. Nature occupies a lower place than man.

3) Revival:

Nature is a source of joy. The ancient ideal of harmony and perfection of nature, the unity of man with nature, is being revived.

4) New time:

Nature is an object of human experimentation. Nature is inert, man must conquer and subjugate it. The idea expressed by Bacon is strengthened: “Knowledge is power.” Nature becomes an object of technological exploitation, it loses its sacred character, and the ties between man and nature are broken. At the present stage, there is a need for a new worldview that unites the best traditions of European and Eastern cultures. It is necessary to understand nature as a unique integral organism. The attitude towards nature must be built from a position of cooperation.

1.6. Spheres of social life and their interrelation:

1.7. Development of society, its sources and driving forces:

Progress (movement forward, success) is the idea that society develops from simple to complex, from lower to higher, from less ordered to more organized and fair.

Regression is an idea of ​​the development of society when it becomes less complex, developed, and cultural than it was.

Stagnation is a temporary stop of development.

Progress criteria:

1) Condorcet (18th century) considered the development of reason to be a criterion of progress.

2) Saint-Simon: the criterion of progress is morality. Society should be one where all people are brothers to each other.

3) Schelling: progress - gradual approach to a legal structure.

4) Hegel (19th century): sees progress in the consciousness of freedom.

5) Marx: progress is the development of material production, which allows one to master the elemental forces of nature and achieve social harmony and progress in the spiritual sphere.

6) B modern conditions progress is:

– life expectancy of society;

- Lifestyle;

- spiritual life.

Reform (change) is a change in any area of ​​life carried out by the authorities peacefully (social changes in public life).

Types of reforms: – economic,

– political (changes to the Constitution, electoral system, legal sphere).

Revolution (turn, revolution) is a radical, qualitative change in any basic phenomena.

Modernization is adaptation to new conditions.

What drives human history (?):

1) Providentialists: everything in the world comes from God, according to divine providence.

2) History is made by great people.

3) Society develops according to objective laws.

a) Some scientists take the position that this is the theory of social evolutionism: society, as a part of nature, develops progressively and proceeds unilinearly.

b) Others adhere to the theory of historical materialism: the driving force for the development of society is the recognition of the primacy of people’s material needs.

From Weber's point of view, the source and driving force of the development of society is the Protestant ethic: a person must work to become God's chosen one for salvation.

1.8. Formation:

Depending on what is the main source of the development of society, there are different approaches to viewing history.

1) Formational approach (founders Marx and Engels). The general economic formation is a certain stage in the development of humanity. Marx identified five formations:

a) Primitively communal.

b) Slave-owning.

c) Feudal.

d) Capitalist.

e) Communist.

Marxism views human life from the point of view of a materialist solution to the fundamental question of philosophy.

Materialistic understanding of history:

Social consciousness

Social existence

Social existence is the material conditions of people’s lives.

Social consciousness is the entire spiritual life of society.

In social existence, Marx singled out method of producing material goods

Productive Production

relationship strength

Productive forces include means of production and people, with their skills and abilities.

Means of production: – tools;

– Subject of labor (land, its subsoil, cotton, wool, ore, fabric, leather, etc., depending on the type of activity);

Relations of production- relations between people in the production process, they depend on the form of ownership of the means of production.

Not only production relations, but also the process of exchange, distribution and consumption of goods depend on who owns the means of production.

Production forces and production relations interact, and the social structure of society depends on production relations. The law of correspondence of production relations to the nature and level of development of production forces was formulated by Marx:

	Relations of production		Relations of production

		Relations of production

1 – a certain level of production forces must correspond to certain production relations, so under feudalism, land ownership is in the hands of the feudal lord, peasants use the land, for which they bear duties (tools of labor are primitive).

2 – production forces develop faster than production relations.

3 – a moment comes when production forces require changes in production relations.

4 – the form of ownership changes to a new one, which leads to changes in all spheres of society.

Marx, exploring the methods of producing materialist goods, concluded that people create not only material goods, but also reproduce their sociality, i.e. reproduce society (social groups, public institutions etc.). From the above, Marx identified 5 modes of production that replaced each other (the same as 5 formations /see above/).

From here the concept of socio-economic formation (SEF) was derived:

* – politics, law, public organizations, religion, etc.

The change of the EEF from the point of view of Marxism is a natural process that is determined by the objective laws of social development.

The law of class struggle (which is the driving force of history):

Marx and Engels, analyzing bourgeois society, came to the conclusion that capitalism has reached its limit and cannot cope with the production forces that have matured on the basis of bourgeois production relations. Private ownership of the means of production has become a brake on the development of productive forces, so the death of capitalism is inevitable. It must perish through the class struggle of the proletariat with the bourgeoisie, as a result of which the dictatorship of the proletariat must be established.

1.9. Civilization:

/Derived from the Latin civil - civil./

The concept began to be used in the 18th century.

Meanings: 1) Synonym for “cultural”

2) “The stage of historical development of mankind following barbarism”

3) A certain stage in the development of local cultures.

According to Walter:

Civilized is a society based on the principles of reason and justice (civilization = culture).

In the 19th century, the concept of “civilization” was used to characterize capitalist society. And since the end of the century, new theories of civilizational development have appeared. The author of one of them was Danilevsky, who substantiated the theory according to which there is no World History, there is only a theory of local civilizations that have an individual, closed character. He identified 10 civilizations and formulated the basic laws of their development, according to which each civilization has a cyclical nature:

1) Generation stage

2) The period of cultural and political independence

3) Blooming stage

4) Period of decline.

Spengler: (“Law of Europe”):

Civilization undergoes birth, growth and development.

Civilization is the negation of culture.

Signs of civilization:

1) Development of industry and technology.

2) Degradation of art and literature.

3) Huge unity of people in big cities.

4) Transformation of peoples into faceless masses.

Identifies 21 local civilizations and tries to highlight the connections of different civilizations with each other. In them he identifies a minority of people who are not involved in economic activity(creative minority, or elite):

– professional soldiers;

– administrators;

– priests; they are the bearers of the basic values ​​of civilization.

At the beginning of decomposition, it is characterized by a lack of creative forces in the minority, and the refusal of the majority to imitate the minority. The connecting link in history, providing a new creative impulse in civilizational development, is the universal church.

Pitirim Sorokin:

Civilization is a system of beliefs about truth, beauty, goodness and the benefits that unite them.

There are three types of crops:

1) A culture based on a system of values ​​associated with the idea of ​​God. A person's whole life is connected with his approach to God.

2) A cultural system based on rational and sensory aspects.

3) Sensual type of culture, based on the idea that objective reality and its meaning are sensual.

Civilization is a stable cultural and historical community of people, distinguished by a commonality of spiritual and moral values ​​and cultural traditions, material, production and socio-political development, peculiarities of lifestyle and personality type, the presence of common ethnic characteristics and corresponding geographical and time frames.

Distinguished civilizations:

– Western

– Eastern – European

– Muslim

– Indian

– Chinese

– Latin American

1.10. Traditional Society:

Eastern society is usually considered this way. Main features:

1) Non-separation of property and administrative power.

2) Subordination of society to the state.

3) Lack of guarantees of private property and citizens' rights.

4) Complete absorption of the individual by the team.

5) Despotic state.

The main models of the countries of the modern East:

1) Japanese ( South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong): Western capitalist path of development. Characteristic: - free in the economy competitive market

Government regulation farms

Harmonious use of traditions and innovations

2) Indian (Thailand, Türkiye, Pakistan, Egypt, a group of oil-producing states):

The Western European economy is combined with its traditional internal structure that has not been deeply restructured.

Multi-party system.

Democratic procedures.

European type of legal proceedings.

3) African countries: characterized by lag and crises (most African countries, Afghanistan, Laos, Burma).

Western structures play a significant role in the economy. The backward periphery plays a significant role. Scarcity natural resources. Inability to self-sufficiency low level life, characterized by the desire to survive)

1.11. Industrial society:

Characteristics of Western Civilization:

The origins come from Ancient Greece, which gave the world private property relations, polis culture, and democratic state structures. These features developed in modern times with the formation of the capitalist system. At the end of the 19th century, the entire non-European world was divided between imperialist powers.

Characteristic signs:

1) Formation of monopolies.

2) Merger of industrial and banking capitals, formation of financial capital and financial oligarchy.

3) The predominance of the export of capital over the export of goods.

4) Territorial division of the world.

5) Economic division of the world.

Western European civilization is an industrial society. It is characterized by:

1) High level industrial production focused on mass production of durable consumer goods.

2) The influence of scientific and technological progress on production and management.

3) Radical changes in the entire social structure.

60 – 70s of the XX century:

Western civilization is moving into the post-industrial stage, which is associated with the development of the service economy. The layer of scientific and technical specialists becomes dominant. The role of theoretical knowledge in economic development is increasing. Rapid development of the knowledge industry.

1.12. Information society:

The term itself came from Toffler and Bell. The quaternary information sector of the economy, following agriculture, industry and service economy. Neither labor nor capital are the basis of post-industrial society, but information and knowledge. The computer revolution will lead to the replacement of conventional printing with electronic literature, replacing large corporations with smaller economic forms.

1.13. NTR and her social consequences:

NTR is an integral part of NTP.

STP is a process of consistent interconnected progressive development of science, technology, production and consumption.

NTP has two forms:

1) Evolutionary

2) Revolutionary, when there is a sudden transition to qualitatively new scientific and technical principles of production development (STR). Scientific and technological revolution also implies socio-economic changes.

Scientific and technological progress at the present stage covers:

1) Social structure. The emergence of a layer of highly qualified workers. There is a need for a new accounting of labor quality. The importance of working at home is increasing.

2) Economic life and work. Information that is included in the cost of production is becoming increasingly important.

3) The area of ​​politics and education. With the help of the information revolution and the expansion of human capabilities, there is a danger of control over people.

4) Influence on the spiritual and cultural sphere of society. Promotes cultural development and degradation.

1.14. Global problems (addition to the report):

The term appeared in the 60s of the twentieth century.

Global problems are a set of socio-natural problems, the solution of which determines the preservation of civilization. Arise as objective factor development of society and require the united efforts of all humanity to solve them.

Three groups of problems:

1) Super-global problems (worldwide). Prevention of world nuclear missile war. Development of economic integration. A new international order on terms of mutually beneficial cooperation.

2) Resource (planetary). Society and nature. Ecology in all its manifestations. Demographic problem. Energy problem, food problem. Use of space.

3) Universal (subglobal) humanitarian problems. Society and man. Problems of eliminating exploitation and poverty. Education, healthcare, human rights, etc.

2. Person:

2.1. Human:

One of the main philosophical problems is the question of man, his essence, purpose, origin and place in the world.

Democritus: man is part of the cosmos, “a single order and standing of nature.” Man is a microcosm, part of a harmonious world.

Aristotle: man is a living being endowed with reason and the ability for social life.

Descartes: “I think, therefore I exist.” Specificity of a person in the mind.

Franklin: Man is a tool-producing animal.

Kant: man belongs to two worlds: natural necessity and moral freedom.

Feuerbach: man is the crown of nature.

Rabelais: Man is an animal that laughs.

Nietzsche: the main thing in a person is not consciousness and reason, but the play of vital forces and drives.

Marxist concept: man is a product and subject of social and labor activity.

Religious idea: 1) the divine origin of man;

2) recognition of the soul as the source of life, as that which distinguishes man from the animal kingdom;

3) man is the owner of an immortal soul from God, unlike animals.

Scientific ideas about the origin of man:

1) Biology, anatomy, genetics.

2) The theory of natural selection.

3) The influence of labor.

/4) Cosmic origin (paleovisit theory)/

The problem of human origin remains a mystery.

2.2. Natural and social factors about human development:

Anthropogenesis is the process of human formation and development. Associated with sociogenesis - the formation of society.

The modern type of man appeared 50 - 40 thousand years ago.

Natural factors that influenced human isolation:

1) Climate change.

2) Disappearance of tropical forests.

Social factors:

1) Labor activity (man changes nature in accordance with his needs).

2) Development of verbal communication in the process of work (development of the brain and larynx).

3) Regulation of family and marital relations (exogamy).

4) Neolithic revolution (transition from gathering and hunting to cattle breeding and agriculture, from appropriating to producing).

Man, at his core, is a biosocial being (bio is part of nature, socio is part of society). As part of nature, it belongs to the higher mammals and forms a special species. The biological nature is manifested in anatomy and physiology. Man, as a social being, is inextricably linked with society. A person becomes a person only by coming into contact with other people.

Differences between humans and animals:

1) The ability to make tools and use them as a way to produce material goods.

2) A person is capable of social, purposeful creative activity.

3) A person transforms the surrounding reality, creates the material and spiritual values ​​he needs.

4) A person has a highly organized brain, thinking and articulate speech.

5) A person has self-awareness.

2.3. Personality and socialization of the individual:

Personality (from the Latin “person”) is a mask in which an ancient actor performed.

Personality is a concept denoting a person in the system of social relations.

Personality is a subject of social activity, possessing a set of socially significant traits, properties, qualities, etc.

People are born as human beings and become individuals through the process of socialization.

Individuality:

An individual is one of the people.

Individuality (biological) – specific features, inherent in a particular individual or organism due to a combination of hereditary and acquired properties.

----| |---- (psychology) – holistic characteristic a certain person through his temperament, character, interests, intelligence, needs and abilities.

The concept of society covers all spheres of human life, relationships and interconnections. At the same time, society does not stand still; it is subject to constant change and development. Let's learn briefly about society - a complex, dynamically developing system.

Features of society

Society as a complex system has its own characteristics that distinguish it from other systems. Let's look at what has been discovered by different sciences. features :

• complex, multi-level nature

Society includes different subsystems and elements. It can include various social groups, both small ones - family, and large ones - class, nation.

Social subsystems are the main spheres: economic, social, political, spiritual. Each of them is also a unique system with many elements. Thus, we can say that there is a hierarchy of systems, that is, society is divided into elements, which, in turn, also include several components.

• presence of different quality elements: material (equipment, structures) and spiritual, ideal (ideas, values)

For example, the economic sphere includes transport, structures, materials for the manufacture of goods, and knowledge, norms, and rules in force in the sphere of production.

• the main element is man

Man is the universal element of all social systems, since he enters into each of them, and without him their existence is impossible.

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• constant changes, transformations

Of course, in different time the rate of change changed: the established order could be maintained for a long time, but there were also periods when there were rapid qualitative changes in social life, for example, during revolutions. This is the main difference between society and nature.

• order

All components of society occupy their position and certain connections with other elements. That is, society is an ordered system in which there are many interconnected parts. Elements may disappear and new ones appear in their place, but on the whole the system continues to function in a certain order.

• self-sufficiency

Society as a whole is capable of producing everything necessary for its existence, therefore each element plays its role and cannot exist without the others.

• self-government

Society organizes management, creates institutions to coordinate the actions of different elements of society, that is, creates a system in which all parts can interact. Organizing the activities of each individual and groups of people, as well as exercising control, is a feature of society.

Social institutions

The idea of ​​society cannot be complete without knowledge of its basic institutions.

Social institutions are understood as such forms of organizing the joint activities of people that have developed as a result of historical development and are regulated by norms established in society. They unite large groups people engaged in any type of activity.

The activities of social institutions are aimed at meeting needs. For example, people's need for procreation gave rise to the institution of family and marriage, and the need for knowledge - the institution of education and science.

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In philosophy, society is defined as a “dynamic system.” The word “system” is translated from Greek as “a whole made up of parts.” Society as a dynamic system includes parts, elements, subsystems that interact with each other, as well as connections and relationships between them. It changes, develops, new parts or subsystems appear and old ones disappear, they are modified, acquiring new forms and qualities.

Society as a dynamic system has a complex multi-level structure and includes a large number of levels, sublevels, and elements. For example, human society on a global scale includes many societies in the form of different states, which in turn consist of various social groups, and humans are included in them.

Consists of four subsystems that are fundamental to man - political, economic, social and spiritual. Each sphere has its own structure and is itself a complex system. For example, it is a system that includes a huge number of components - parties, government, parliament, public organizations and more. But government can also be viewed as a system with many components.

Each is a subsystem in relation to the whole society, but at the same time it is itself a rather complex system. Thus, we already have a hierarchy of the systems and subsystems themselves, that is, in other words, society is a complex system of systems, a kind of supersystem or, as they sometimes say, a metasystem.

Society as a complex dynamic system is characterized by the presence in its composition of various elements, both material (buildings, technical systems, institutions, organizations) and ideal (ideas, values, customs, traditions, mentality). For example, the economic subsystem includes organizations, banks, transport, produced goods and services and, at the same time, economic knowledge, laws, values, and more.

Society as a dynamic system contains a special element, which is its main, system-forming element. This is a person who has free will, the ability to set a goal and choose the means to achieve this goal, which makes social systems more mobile and dynamic than, say, natural ones.

The life of society is constantly in a state of flux. The pace, scale and quality of these changes may vary; There was a time in the history of human development when the established order of things did not change fundamentally for centuries, however, over time, the pace of change began to increase. Compared to natural systems in human society, qualitative and quantitative changes occur much faster, which suggests that society is constantly changing and developing.

Society, like any system, is an ordered integrity. This means that the elements of the system are located within it in a certain position and, to one degree or another, are connected with other elements. Consequently, society as an integral dynamic system has a certain quality that characterizes it as a single whole, having a property that none of its elements has. This property is sometimes called the non-additivity of the system.

Society as a dynamic system is characterized by another feature, which is that it is one of the self-governing and self-organizing systems. This function belongs to the political subsystem, which gives coherence and harmonious relationship to all elements that form the social integral system.

1. What is society? Signs of society.

2. Past thinkers about society.

1. Under society usually understand the social organization of a particular country, nation, nationality or tribe. Society is a concept that comes from ordinary, non-scientific language and is therefore difficult to define precisely. However, in science the word “society” is usually used to designate the largest associations of people who are not components of other communities.

The boundaries of a society usually coincide with the boundaries of a country, although this is not always the case. This coincidence is typical for modern world. In ancient times, when there were many nomadic peoples, the boundaries of society did not always coincide with the boundaries of the country, since not every people lived in a certain territory. And at present, not every nationality has statehood, that is, it has a clearly defined territory of residence, as well as legalized power and other government structures. However, a nationality can be a separate society if its life is organized in accordance with certain rules and the members of the nationality are aware of their difference and their separation from other similar associations of people. The feeling of one’s own characteristics is created due to traditions and customs unique to a given association of people, due to common language, in which its members communicate, due to living in a certain territory clearly delimited from others, that is, the homeland, etc.

If these signs are lost for some reason, then society may lose its boundaries and merge into a larger association. For example, on the territory of Russia there are many peoples for whom our country is their main place of residence. Such peoples include, for example, the peoples of the North (Yakuts, Chukchi, Nanais, etc.). Of course, such peoples exist separately from other peoples, since they have a national language and an original culture. And at the same time, they are not completely isolated from other peoples and other cultures and are part of a larger community of people.

For this reason, calling these peoples separate societies can only be done with some reservations.

The society has the following characteristics:

1. Every society has a history that is stored in its memory. This story may differ significantly from what historians describe. Sometimes this leads to extremely funny consequences. Thus, in the USA, studies were conducted on how citizens of this state see its history. At the same time, researchers often received completely unexpected answers. For example, when asked what happened before the discovery of America, some (few) respondents answered: then dinosaurs lived Naturally, this speaks of the extremely low level of culture of some representatives of American society, who cannot imagine the overall picture of world history. However, such ideas are very indicative, since they reflect their attitude towards the society in which people live.

In addition, ideas about the history of society are reflected in historical symbols, that is, in those iconic cultural phenomena that make up the flavor of a given society. These can be images of historical figures and events. For Russia, such key images are, for example, Patriotic War 1812, the Great Patriotic War, images of Prince Vladimir, Ivan the Terrible, Peter I, Lenin, Stalin, and to a lesser extent Gorbachev and Yeltsin. These images reflect important stages in the history of Russia.

2. Every society has its own culture. Naturally, at the present time, when there is a strong mutual influence of cultures, culture should be understood as the core of the native culture, that is, traditions, thanks to which an Individual person realizes his involvement in this particular society and not in another. A developed culture allows society to form norms and values ​​that form the basis of social connections.

3. Each society is the largest unit of social reality, that is, it is not included as an integral part in a larger society. Naturally, nowadays, due to globalization trends, the stability of society from this point of view is becoming more and more conditional, but it is impossible to say that this sign is invalid.

4. Society reproduces itself through children from marriages between recognized members of society: in the usual case, a child born to members of a society himself becomes a member of that society. The population may be replenished due to migration, but the bulk of the population is still replenished by representatives of what is usually called the “indigenous nation” (this is an unscientific concept). This distinguishes society from most other social communities.

5. The population as a subject of society lives in a certain territory. Currently, migration processes have intensified greatly, and we should expect that they will intensify even more. However, societies isolated from a specific territory have not yet emerged: in the case of migration, a person loses his direct connection with the society from which he came, ceases to be its member.

6. Very important, although not mandatory, is the presence of a state. Although society is primary in relation to the state, it can be argued that societies that do not have state forms of life lag behind in their development.

7. Society is characterized by social differentiation, which represents the most important mechanism of its development. In society there are classes, estates, relatively closed social groups, that is, associations of people according to different signs, which may or may not be realized by their people. Periodically, tensions and conflicts arise between these groups. A typical example in this case is the confrontation between the rich and the poor: the poor may want a more equitable distribution of social wealth, and the rich may oppose this. Such a conflict leads either to the victory of one side, or to the preservation of the existing situation with a fairly active transition of people from one social category to another (that is, from poor to rich and, conversely, from rich to poor). And in any case, this confrontation leads to changes within society, and, therefore, is the driving force of development.

Society is different from such phenomena as the state and population.

The differences between society and the state are mainly due to the fact that they are relatively independent from each other.

1. First of all, society is primary, it arises before the state, while the state appears later than society, and therefore is secondary. State structures and state power arise only at “advanced” stages of development of society and indicate that the society is developed. The state presupposes citizenship, that is, a person’s formal affiliation with it and certain rights and responsibilities that the citizen and the state assume. However, not every society is civil. From the point of view of the presence or absence of citizenship, as well as the characteristics of the status of a citizen, we can distinguish:

a) uncivil society. There are dozens of nations that have not created their own statehood. Without a state, society as a whole is doomed to a primitive existence;

b) pre-civil society. Society has a state that, in one way or another, suppresses the freedom of citizens, that is, does not respect the rights and freedoms that are inherent to citizens as independent, independent people. Citizenship represents a big step forward compared to stateless societies, but from the point of view of modern sociology there is no reason to call society civil;

c) civil society. Personal freedom is the main indicator that a society is civil. Civil society is understood as a set of social relations that are not associated with the struggle for power in society and public administration.
Civil society existed even before the emergence of the state.

Civil society has the following characteristics:

– the presence of private property among the majority of the population. It is private property that leads to the emergence of a middle class - individuals who live off their own labor and are not financially dependent on the state;

– presence of developed non-political organizations. Members of civil society are united in organizations that protect certain interests of the citizens themselves or society as a whole (for example, trade unions, religious, youth, women's, environmental and other organizations). Such organizations do not seek to obtain state power and, of course, exist independently of state power. However, thanks to such organizations, the state cannot arrogate to itself the rights of citizens and control over them;

– democracy at the grassroots level, that is, participation in public life of all citizens of society without exception. In addition, grassroots democracy also consists of a democratic procedure for resolving issues that arise in other associations of people (for example, in labor collectives).

2. Society is broader than the state: all functions of the state can be performed by society, but not all functions of society can be performed by the state. For example, society forces people to act in a certain way and abandon unacceptable ways of achieving goals through social control, which is expressed in the attitude of others to a person’s actions. And state power only takes on some of the functions of society, enshrining norms of behavior in the form of legislation.

The difference between society and population is that the population is the “carrier” of society, that is, what makes society exist, but does not yet shape it. The independence of these two categories is indicated, for example, by the fact that changes in society do not always mean that the population has changed, and, conversely, a change in population does not always mean that society has changed. A change in society while the population remains unchanged can be observed in the current period of development of our country, since as a result of economic and political reforms, the stratification of society has changed, new social and cultural phenomena have appeared, and this despite the fact that the change in population was not so significant. People have remained the same, their habits, level and style of life, and field of activity have changed.

A change in population while society remains unchanged is a phenomenon that is now also very common, since mass migrations of the population are occurring. People move from country to country and are forced to “fit in” to those social structures that exist in another country. The way of life in the host country does not change, but the composition of the population does not remain the same. An example is the emigration of citizens Russian Federation to European countries and the USA. In ancient times, such changes occurred mainly during conquests.

Society is a multi-level education. It includes:

– social interactions and the relationships that connect people;

– social groups and communities;

4) social institutions;

5) norms and values.

All of these elements are closely interconnected with each other. So, social action, interactions and relationships ­ tions connect people who form groups, communities and institutions. Values ​​and norms exist thanks to institutions, groups and communities, and an individual becomes an individual only if, in the process of group communication, as well as communication within a community and under the influence of its institutions, he has learned norms and values.

Questions and tasks

1. Prove that society and the state are different from each other.

2. How can you prove that a society is different from a population?

3. Name the main features of society. What ensures its integrity? What features are inherent in any society?

4. Name three main approaches to the study of society. What is taken as the starting point in each of them?

5. What are the main stages in the development of society that can be identified?

ANCIENT INDIA

The main source of our knowledge about the social ideas of the ancient Indians is Veda- an extensive collection of texts, mainly of religious content. The Vedas do not have a single author and were compiled from 1500 to 600 BC. BC, that is, for about nine centuries. The same period saw the formation of the first slave states, which became possible only after the transition from a nomadic to a settled way of life, as well as the emergence of communities and agriculture.

Buddhism was formed under the great influence of Vedic ideas. Its founder is Sidhartha Guatama Buddha- was born in royal family, at the age of 29, became a monk and led an extremely ascetic lifestyle prescribed for brahmins. However, he then came to the conclusion that neither asceticism nor hedonism (that is, the desire for life's pleasures) guarantees salvation.

Indian society had a very strict division into castes, of which there were four: Brahmans (priests), Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishyas (artisans, farmers) and Shudras (slaves). The highest position in the hierarchy was occupied by the Brahmins, the lowest by the Shudras. Relations between castes were regulated by very strict rules, and moving from one caste to another was simply impossible. The latter was associated with the karmic ideas of the ancient Indians. On the one hand, a person’s belonging to one caste or another was explained by the laws of rebirth, and therefore, a person had to fully atone for the sins that he committed in a past life if he was born as a representative of lower castes. On the other hand, compliance with all the requirements and norms that regulated the social life of Ancient India was a guarantee that in a future life a person would be reborn as a representative of the upper class.

In Buddhism, attachment to life was recognized as the main problem of man. Only renunciation of this attachment could free a person from the endless chain of rebirths. The natural way to break this chain was considered to be renunciation of passions, “thirst,” that is, attachment to the world. Buddhism offered a radical way of liberation from this attachment - non-action. Any action of a person further draws him into an endless cycle. The same goes for desires. Therefore, a righteous person must free himself from desires, from the desire for action. The renunciation of desires automatically led to the renunciation of attachment to life, and therefore the person turned out to be “inaccessible” to all worldly misfortunes and troubles - illness, birth, death, losses.

First of all, monks could apply for liberation, although such a possibility could not be excluded for ordinary people leading a righteous lifestyle. For the latter, the main thing was to comply The five precepts of Buddhism are: do not take what belongs to others, do not harm living beings, do not make idle or false speech, do not engage in forbidden sexual intercourse and do not drink intoxicating drinks.

Ancient China. Chinese civilization gave birth to many philosophical schools and movements, but the most influential, the most important for the Chinese worldview was Confucianism. Confucianism only later became a religious doctrine, but first it was formed as a social theory. Certainly, the emphasis in Confucianism was not on objective description social processes, but on “recipes” for creating an ideal, harmonious society. However, this does not mean that Confucianism is not a social theory.

Its founder was Confucius(Kung Fu Tzu, 551-479 BC). At that time, several independent monarchies existed on Chinese territory, which were constantly at odds with each other.

The upper strata of society also constantly fought for power and influence over the sovereigns. A rigid centralized power was established, destroying the traditional communal way of Chinese life. All this could not but lead to destruction moral standards and, consequently, to the disorganization of public life.

Confucianism was a conservative movement in social life which idealized the past. It was based two principles. Firstly, all the misfortunes of life at that time were a consequence of the fact that people retreated from the traditions that their ancestors followed. Therefore, in order to restore harmony in the state, it was necessary to return to these traditions and revive them. In-second, from the point of view of Confucius and his followers, ideal state should be structured like a family in which roles are strictly distributed between members.

The concept was central to her "ren", which can be translated as "humanity", "humaneness", "philanthropy". This principle can be formulated as follows: “don’t do to others what you don’t want for yourself, and help them achieve what you yourself would like to achieve.”

Important role in Confucianism the principle " whether"– observance of rituals (order). It boiled down to the fact that a person must strictly follow the norms prescribed to him by society, comply with all the rules that he must follow. Relationships in Chinese society were governed by a complex system of rules and regulations concerning people and social groups. Without this, from the point of view of Confucius, the normal functioning of society was impossible. It was this principle that later became the main principle of organizing the life of Chinese society. Confucius put into this principle a meaning somewhat different from simply observing the rules of etiquette. However, after his death, when Confucianism became the dominant ideology in China, this principle began to be understood more formally as adherence to etiquette, and the humanistic aspects of Confucius's teachings faded into the background.

Ancient Greece . Antiquity is rightfully considered the cradle of European civilization. The social ideas expressed by Eastern thinkers have not had much influence on the way we now see society. This is not the case with antiquity. It was during the period of antiquity that the foundations of the sciences that exist today were laid. These include social sciences. Of course, in those days no one was talking about sociology, political science and economics, but social, political and economic issues were already the object of consideration in various philosophical systems.

The first and one of the most significant thinkers for antiquity was Plato (427-347 BC) - an ancient Greek philosopher, the founder of philosophical idealism.

Social theory Plato is outlined in his works "The State", "Laws" and "Politician". In the Republic, Plato argues that the main reason for the emergence of society was the need for unification, without which people could not satisfy their needs.

Plato, like many ancient thinkers, did not offer an objective, impartial, descriptive concept of society. Plato's social theory is largely subjective in nature, since it describes an ideal state structure rather than social reality. This was due to the fact that his theory of the state was a continuation of his doctrine of ideas. This was expressed especially clearly in The State.

At the same time, Plato proposed a classification of forms of power. He highlighted: 1) aristocracy, that is, the power of the elected; 2) monarchy; 3) timocracy, that is, the power of warriors; he cites Sparta as an example; 4) oligarchy - the power of a small number of rich people; 5) democracy, the extreme form of which is ochlocracy, that is, crowd rule; 6) tyranny and 7) an ideal state that cannot be embodied in. In reality, aristocracy and monarchy were classified by Plato as the correct types of government, the following four forms - as incorrect.

Plato viewed democracy (literally “the power of the people”) as the power of the poor. Plato had a negative attitude towards democracy, since freedom, which is the main benefit of democracy, will become the reason for its death: according to the philosopher, it is from democracy that tyranny is gradually born, since the tyrant usually comes to power as a protege of the people. Plato believed that a person does not know how to use his freedom and sooner or later directs it to the detriment of himself and others. Criticism of democracy also had a more specific meaning, since it was aimed at criticizing the government structure of Athens, where Plato lived for a long time

Plato was one of the first to try to analyze the structure of society. He identified three classes: the class of philosophers who administer the state; the class of warriors, or guards, ensuring the security of the state; and the class of farmers and artisans who ensure the life of the state. Each class has its own virtue: philosophers - wisdom, for warriors - courage, for artisans and farmers - prudence. Only the fourth virtue - justice - is inherent in society as a whole.

Aristotle (384-322 BC) is a student of Plato, who later turned out to be his fierce opponent, becoming the founder of materialism. Aristotle played a huge role in the development modern science, since it was he who described the system of sciences, which, without dramatic changes still remains today. According to Aristotle, the basis of knowledge is sensory perception, which does not allow consciousness to fall into speculation. In addition, the very ideas of Aristotle determined the face of science in general - with its ideals of universality, the need for evidence, as well as the attitude towards explaining any described fact.

Aristotle outlined his social views in his treatise Politics. In it, Aristotle was the first to formulate the signs of democracy, which are currently shared by all political scientists. In particular, he argued that the basis of democracy is middle class, since it is he who ensures the stability of power. In addition, Aristotle considered the election of government bodies to be an essential feature of democracy. Finally, Aristotle believed that democracy is the most durable government system because it is based on the opinion and desire of the majority, which is opposed by the minority.

Aristotle considered the family to be the fundamental basis of the state, but not in the modern sense: he considered the family not only husband, wife, children, but also slaves. For this reason, he considered the ideal state structure to be a slave-owning state, in which power belongs to the middle stratum - slave owners, and not to the rich and poor (in this idea one can see another prototype modern ideas on the stratification of society).

Aristotle proposed his typology of forms of power. He highlighted" normal" and "abnormal""forms of government. To the former he included monarchy, aristocracy and polity, to the latter tyranny, oligarchy and democracy. Monarchy and tyranny, aristocracy and oligarchy, polity and democracy form pairs based on one principle. As can be seen, in assessing existing Aristotle's forms of power are much softer than Plato's.

Questions and tasks

1. Describe the structure of ancient Indian society. What are castes?

2. What teachings played the greatest role in the Ancient East? State their main points. What works of the philosopher Plato do you know?

3. What structure did Plato’s ideal society have?

4. How did Plato and Aristotle understand democracy? What is the difference between their points of view?

5. How did Plato and Aristotle classify forms of power? What do their classifications have in common? How are they different?

6. What form of government, according to Aristotle, is the most correct and most fair?

7. What works did Aristotle write?

SOCIAL THOUGHT OF THE MIDDLE AGES, RENAISSANCE AND MODERN TIMES

Middle Ages and Renaissance. Medieval science existed within the framework of a theological culture that contrasted earthly low life with the divine world of the pure, eternal, and beautiful. And all the scientific constructions of the Middle Ages fit into Christian ideology and did not contradict it.

In the Middle Ages, man was seen as a dual being. Since man has a soul, he is the closest to God among all things. However, man is a sinner, and his body is an earthly, devilish principle, prone to sin. And for this reason, man was seen as a battlefield between God and the devil, between good and evil.

At the center of the medieval picture of the world was God - the supreme being, the creator of the world, capable of deciding its fate. Of course, human freedom was not denied: since man is closest to God, he, unlike other creatures, has maximum freedom. He is free to choose between good and evil. For this reason, the church sought to put as many people as possible on the true path - the path of faith in God and observance of moral and religious norms.

One of the most important figures of the Middle Ages was Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), a theologian who developed a philosophical concept that is still recognized by the Catholic Church as the only correct one. From his point of view, all knowledge constitutes a hierarchically organized system, in which the highest point is theology as the doctrine that is closest to the divine mind. Philosophy is the expression of the human mind, and it cannot and should not oppose theology; the difference between them lies only in the fact that the human mind and the divine mind occupy different positions in the world hierarchy.

Thomas Aquinas deduced the power of the sovereign and social inequality from the divine will: God designed the world this way, and we have no choice but to submit to his will; any attempts to move from one’s class to a higher one are sinful by nature.

However, Thomas clearly distinguished between divine and temporal authority. Since the world is a place where only a corruptible body exists, only this body belongs to the worldly authorities, but not the immortal soul, which is in the power of God.

Aquinas the best type of government considered monarchy, since it reproduces the structure of the world ruled by God. However, the ruler cannot identify himself with God and must recognize the priority of church power over earthly power. This is most clearly manifested in tyranny. Thomas also considered democracy to be the worst form of government.

Roger Bacon (1214-1294) was a Franciscan monk who developed an independent theory, for which he was imprisoned, where he spent almost fourteen years. His influence on social thought was not very great, but it was he who laid the foundations of empirical science, that is, science based on experimental knowledge. Bacon opposed such a science to scholasticism.

Renaissance- this is the period in which the gradual separation of science from theology began, ending later, in modern times. This period is characterized by the highest achievements in the field of art. In the economic sphere there was a gradual advancement to the forefront bourgeoisie, which became a prerequisite for the subsequent formation of capitalism. IN political sphere There was a strengthening of state power, and the first states emerged, characterized by strong centralized power. The political views of the time remained largely unscientific. Thus, projects of an ideal state structure, presented as descriptions of fantastic states, were very popular during the Renaissance. The most famous are "Utopia" by Thomas More and "City of the Sun" by Tommaso Campanella.

It was during this period that the experimental method began to take shape. scientific research. The development of science has also led to significant changes in ideas about the world and the place that man occupies in it.

During the Renaissance, thinkers such as Michelle Montaigne and Erasmus of Rotterdam . Their work contains a thorough critique of religious morality, which these thinkers considered necessary to replace with a simpler and more humane morality. Montaigne and Erasmus of Rotterdam were among the first people in Europe who realized that morality and ethics do not depend on religion and are universal values ​​inherent in man as a thinking being.

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) was a major Italian ruler and diplomat of the Renaissance. His treatise "The Sovereign". Machiavelli continues the tradition begun by Plato's "State", but pays more attention not to the state as such, but to the personality of the political leader. This emphasis can be explained biographically (Machiavelli was a politician, diplomat), as well as the cultural context of the Renaissance: it was during this period that the individual came to the fore.

According to Machiavelli, politics is a special sphere to which the norms of general morality cannot be applied. The state fulfills independent goals, and therefore the rules by which the sovereign must act are different from the rules governing the lives of ordinary people. Machiavelli paints an image of a cunning, treacherous and cruel ruler, whose prototype can be considered Caesar Borgia. However, these qualities are not a feature exclusively of the sovereign. They are also inherent in all other people, whom Machiavelli views as evil, greedy and vindictive. In particular, this is indicated by the principles (laws) that a ruler should be guided by in his activities:

1. At the heart of all human actions are ambition and the desire for power; a person strives either to preserve what he has or to obtain what another has.

2. A smart sovereign should not fulfill all the promises that he made to his subjects. Machiavelli justifies this principle by the fact that simple people They also do not always fulfill their obligations to the sovereign. Here, in general, for the first time, a promise is considered as a way of attracting supporters, a way of winning people over. In addition, Machiavelli believed that a ruler who remembers his promises and fulfills them inevitably becomes dependent on his subjects, and, therefore, can fall under their control.

3. Good should be done gradually, and evil should be done immediately. It is human nature to strive to remember the good and forget the bad. Cruelty is considered fairer and easier to bear if it is done all at once rather than gradually. People value awards and praise because they are pleasant to them, even when these awards are rare.

Machiavelli justified the cruelty of the sovereign by the fact that the state exists for the common good, that is, it ensures order, security and well-being of citizens.

Machiavelli proposed his typology of forms of government: 1) monarchy is one of the main forms; it can be limited, despotic and tyrannical; 2) republic – the second of the main forms; it can be balanced (Rome) and massive (Athens); 3) oligarchy; 4) plebiscite monarchy.

Machiavelli considered the last two forms of government as transitional between monarchy and republic. Republic is the most correct government system, however absolutism more acceptable in situations where the state needs to establish order.

New time. New times are a new stage in the development of European thought. If in the Middle Ages the nascent science was entirely dependent on the church, and in the Renaissance its separation from theology only began to emerge, then in modern times the liberation of science from theology became a reality.

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) is an English philosopher who worked for some time as secretary to F. Bacon.

He developed the concept social contract, on the basis of which the concept was subsequently developed civil society. The natural state of humanity is a war of all against all. It would be wrong to think that a person is born with a desire to cooperate. Man is an extremely selfish creature who strives for honor and wealth; since goods cannot be divided equally, rivalry and competition must be the only forms of interaction within society. To avoid constant struggle and threat to life, people decided to enter into a social contract, as a result of which civil society emerged. It is based on laws, and thanks to this it can protect the rights of citizens(for example, property rights). According to Hobbes, civil society involves a person’s renunciation of freedom in favor of security, which is provided by the state through institutions such as the court, army, police, and government.

Hobbes identified three types of government: 1) democracy, 2) aristocracy and 3) monarchy. Best form He considered monarchy to be the form of government.

Another great philosopher of that time John Locke (1632-1704) he created the concept of " natural law", according to which people are equal from birth. Based on this, he concluded that no one - not even the monarch - has the right to infringe on the freedom, health and life of another person. If the monarch violates these rules, citizens have the right not to obey him, that is, to terminate the contract concluded with him. Subsequently, Locke’s ideas formed the basis of the idea of ​​human rights, which is very relevant today.

John Locke was also at the origins doctrines about the branches of government. He highlighted three branches: executive, federal and legislative. The legislative branch must pass laws, the executive branch must monitor and ensure their implementation, and the federal branch must be responsible for foreign policy. Currently, the branches of government are distinguished differently, but their separation is based on the idea of ​​John Locke.

Charles Louis Montesquieu (1689-1755) can rightfully be considered the founder geographical direction in sociology, political science and geopolitics. In his works “Persian Letters” and “On the Spirit of Laws,” he formulated a theory according to which the customs of peoples, their character, and the political structure of their states depend on the territory in which they live. Geographical determinism, developed by such scientists as G. T. Buckle, F. Ratzel, L. I. Mechnikov, assumes that the political and social structure of society is determined by the shape of the landscape, access to the seas, and the vastness of the territory in which representatives of the nation live.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) - French writer and philosopher who created the theory "natural man""According to his theory, a person is an initially good creature, which then, under the influence of society, becomes corrupted and becomes evil. Accordingly, a “social contract” is needed, which would be based on the ideals of equality and freedom.

According to Rousseau, society is created by people, and therefore its laws must be an expression of the general will of people. To check how strong this general will is, and whether the laws by which society lives correspond to it, it is necessary to hold referendums. Most favorable conditions for this purpose are social formations, reminiscent of ancient city-states in which there were not so many members that agreement could not be reached.

For a long time, people, living in a group, thought about the features and patterns life together, sought to organize it and provide it with stability.

The ancient Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle compared society to a living organism.

Man is a social being and cannot live in isolation.

Society- this is the totality of relationships between people, the intelligently organized life and activities of their large groups.

System(Greek) - a whole made up of parts, a connection, a set of elements that are in relationships and connections with each other, which form a certain unity.

COMPONENTS OF THE COMPANY:

A people is a historical form of community of people associated with the conditions for the production of material and spiritual goods, language, culture and origin.

A nation is a historical form of organizing the life of any one people (or several close ones). This is a group of people formed on the basis of a common territory, economics.

The state is a form of organization of the life of a people or a nation based on law and law.

Manages the population of a certain territory.

Nature is the totality of natural conditions for the existence of human society (they are closely interconnected).

Man is a living being that has the maximum impact on nature.

Society is a set of relationships between people that develop in the course of their life.

Society is a multifaceted concept (philatelists, nature conservation, etc.); society as opposed to nature;.

There are different subsystems operating in society. Subsystems that are close in direction are usually called spheres of human life

Social relations are a set of various connections, contacts, dependencies that arise between people (relations of property, power and subordination, relations of rights and freedoms)

SPHERES OF SOCIETY LIFE

The economic sphere is a set of social relations that arise in the process of production of material values ​​and exist in relation to this production.

The political and legal sphere is a set of social relations that characterize the relationship of the government (state) to citizens, as well as the relationship of citizens to the government (state).

The social sphere is a set of social relations that organize interaction between various social groups.

The spiritual, moral, cultural sphere is a set of social relations that arise in the spiritual life of humanity and function as its basis.

There is a close relationship between all spheres of human life.

Social relations are a set of various connections, contacts, dependencies that arise between people (relations of property, power and subordination, relations of rights and freedoms).

Society is a complex system that unites people. They are in close unity and interconnection. The institution of family is the primary social institution associated with human reproduction as a biologist. Vida and his upbringing and socialization as a member of society.

Parents-children, love and mutual assistance.

Society is a complex dynamic self-developing system, which consists of subsystems (spheres of social life).

Characteristic features (signs) of society as a dynamic system:

dynamism (the ability to change over time both society and its individual elements).

self-sufficiency (the ability of a system to independently create and recreate the conditions necessary for its own existence, to produce everything necessary for people’s lives).

integration (interconnection of all system components).

self-governance (response to changes in the natural environment and the global community).