Crib: The subject of social philosophy. The subject and functions of social philosophy
Before defining the subject of social philosophy, let us point out the basic meanings of the concept of “social”. In modern philosophical and sociological literature, this concept is used in the narrow and broad senses.
In a narrow sense, "social" means the existence of a special area social phenomena, constituting the content of the so-called social sphere of society, in which its own range of problems is solved, affecting the relevant interests of people. These problems relate to the social position of people, their place in the system of social division of labor, the conditions of their work, movement from one social group to another, their standard of living, education, health care, social security, etc. All these problems within the social sphere are solved on the basis of the specific social relations that are taking shape here, also understood in a narrow sense. Their specific content is determined by the content of these problems, about which they arise. In this they differ, say, from economic, political, moral, legal and other social relations.
In a broad sense, the concept of “social” is used in the sense of “public”, as a synonym this concept, coinciding with it in scope and content. In this case, the concept of “social” (“public”) denotes everything that happens in society, in contrast to what happens in nature. In other words, it denotes the specificity of the social in relation to the natural, natural, biological. In a broad sense, the concept of "social" is also used as the opposite of the individual. In this case, it means that which refers to social groups or to the whole society, in contrast to what concerns the individual qualities of an individual.
In social philosophy, the concept of "social" is used both in a broad and narrow sense. In other words, it can concern all the processes taking place in society, including in its social sphere, but it can concern only those that relate to the given sphere proper and express its specificity. The social sphere itself is considered in its interactions with other spheres of public life within the framework of a single society.
The subject of social philosophy is society, taken in the interaction of all its sides, i.e. as an integral social system, as well as the laws of functioning and development of society.
This means that social philosophy considers and explains various social phenomena and processes at the macrolevel, i.e. at the level of the whole society as a self-developing and self-reproducing social system. It is primarily interested not so much in the specific features of, say, economic, political or spiritual phenomena - this is mainly the subject of other sciences, but in their place in the integral structure of society, the role they play in its existence and development.Social philosophy also considers the interaction between different societies. In its field of vision are those phenomena and processes of social life that characterize the development of all mankind. In this case, the subject of social philosophy is the historical process as a whole, the interaction of its objective and subjective aspects, the laws of its development.
The attention of social philosophy cannot but be occupied by the practical activity of people and their social relations. After all, it is in the process of their practical activities - production, economic, spiritual, socio-political, scientific, moral, aesthetic - that people produce the material and spiritual benefits necessary for their existence, transform nature, create the spiritual atmosphere and socio-cultural environment necessary for themselves.
In the process of their joint activities, people enter into various relationships with each other in order to solve the pressing issues of their social life. We are talking about production, family, household, moral, political and other social relations, which in their totality form the structure of society. After all, society is primarily people in their social relations with each other. A similar understanding of society takes place in a number of socio-philosophical theories, which we will touch on later. Within the framework of public relations of people, all types of their practical activities are realized, state, economic, moral and other social institutions all aspects of society's culture are developing.
Thus, various types of people's activities and their social relations constitute the main content of social life and determine the development of society. They represent the initial beginnings and the main factors in the formation, functioning and development of any society. That is why they are the subject of attention and study of social philosophy.
Social philosophy explores both the objective and objective aspects of the activities and social relations of people. It explores the objective motivating forces of activity, which are, for example, their objective needs and interests, as well as the motives and goals of activity inherent in their Knowledge. All these phenomena are interconnected and are in dialectical interaction.
Alekseev P.V.
It is believed that the subject of social philosophy is society. However, this statement, correct in a certain sense, needs significant clarification, since society is studied in different aspects and at different levels by many sciences that are not social philosophy. It is impossible, for example, to deprive political economy of its object, inseparable from society; at the same time, it would be erroneous to assume that it is also a social philosophy. What is the specificity of the socio-philosophical approach to society? In short, we can say - in a philosophical approach to society. What does it mean?
Social philosophy is a section, a part of philosophy, and therefore everything character traits philosophical knowledge must be inherent in social philosophy. Between them is the relationship of the whole and the part, where the part, in addition to peculiar, special properties (unlike other parts and integrity as such), has, first of all, the properties of the whole. In socio-philosophical knowledge, such concepts common to the “whole” are the concepts of being, consciousness, system, development, truth, etc.; it also has the same basic functions as in philosophy (ideological and methodological). If we recall the subject of philosophy and its general scheme, then it is fully applicable to social philosophy, minus, of course, those aspects that turn out to be the subject of ontology, epistemology, methodology (as the doctrine of the principles of a general method), general ethics and theoretical aesthetics. By the way, all the problems of social philosophy are closely connected with these disciplines, for example, the problem of consciousness, the problem of man, etc.
1 See: Alekseev P. V., Panin A. V. Philosophy. Textbook. Ed. 3rd. M., 2001. S. 4, 50-51, 73.
In addition to these sections of philosophical knowledge, social philosophy interacts with many non-philosophical disciplines that study society: with sociology, political economy, political science, jurisprudence, cultural studies, art history and other social and human sciences; it relies in the development of its ideas on general concepts of these sciences, to all the essential information that is produced in them.
There is another source that helps social philosophy to develop its concepts, to develop more deeply its subject of study; such a source is nature, a complex of natural sciences: biology, physics, geography, cosmology, etc. Philosophically, society acts as one of the forms (and the highest form) of the movement of matter, determined in its genesis by the development of inorganic and organic nature on Earth; of considerable importance, by the way, is the influence of solar activity on the social processes studied in social philosophy. Society is one of many systems, and it is an open system exposed to larger natural systems. It follows from this that not only at its inception, society relied on nature, but also in the future it had to interact with nature, and various social structures in one way or another absorb natural components. For example, the main component of society - man - is inconceivable without a physiological organization that has its roots in the organic world. Yes, and the family, as one of the most important forms of human existence, also has many points that make it related to families in the organic world.
As you can see, social philosophy in its content (and in its subject matter) is connected not only with various philosophical disciplines, but also with private social, humanitarian and natural sciences. The above point does not exclude, of course, the fact that social philosophy is a kind of field of knowledge (within the framework of philosophy), which has a relatively independent logic of philosophical reflections and a specific history of the development of its concepts, principles and laws.
From the very beginning of the study of social philosophy, it is necessary to keep in mind at least two narrow and generally unproductive research strategies: 1) naturalistic, striving to reduce society to biological problems (thus, 3. Freud stated that the sources of community development), and 2) sociological, absolutizing sociological factors in its development and in the determinism of the essence of man (for example, K. Marx proclaimed that a person is a complex of social relations; hence the underestimation of the importance of the individual, his interests, feelings, needs and blind subordination of the individual to society ).
Such extremes are sooner or later overcome by philosophy, which is initially focused on a person, his problems and a radical improvement in his life. A truly philosophical strategy for the study of society, and therefore a philosophical view of the subject of social philosophy, is quite well outlined in the book of the Russian philosopher S. L. Frank “The Spiritual Foundations of Society. Introduction to Social Philosophy. S. L. Frank raises theoretical questions related to understanding the subject of social philosophy with the definition of the composition of the problems of this discipline: “What is actually social life? What is its general nature, which is hidden behind all the diversity of its specific manifestations in space and time, starting with a primitive family unit, with some horde of wild nomads, and ending with complex and vast modern states? What place does social life occupy in a person's life, what is its true purpose and what, in fact, does a person aspire to and what can he achieve by building the forms of his social being? And, finally, what is the place of human social life in the world cosmic being in general, what area of being does it belong to, what is its true meaning, what is its relation to the last, absolute principles and values that underlie life in general? All these questions, S. L. Frank writes further, are not only of "academic" interest. The problem of the nature and meaning of social life is an essential element of the problem of the nature and meaning of human life in general. This philosophical question is, in essence, the ultimate goal of all human thought and, from a certain very essential aspect, is reduced to the question of the nature and meaning of social life, for concrete human life is, after all, always common life, i.e., precisely social life.
Attractive in this regard is the task set almost 200 years ago by the French thinker, utopian socialist A. Saint-Simon. He emphasized that the main task of the science of society is to comprehend the best system of social organization for a given era, to induce the ruled and ruling to understand it, to improve this system, since it is capable of improvement, to reject it when it reaches the extreme limits of its perfection, and build a new one from it with the help of materials collected by scientific specialists in each separate field.
1 Frank S. L. Spiritual foundations of society. M., 1992. S. 15.
2 Saint-Simon A. Selected works. M.-L., 1948. T. II. pp. 273-274.
So, truly philosophical interpretations of social philosophy, its tasks and subject matter are focused on the individual, on his multifaceted needs and provision. a better life person. It is these interests (and not the mythical "Oedipus complex" or "dictatorship of the proletariat") that should shine through all studies of social philosophy. The scientific nature of socio-philosophical knowledge must merge with humanism - this is the leading principle of knowledge in the field of social philosophy.
Wide enough, it seems general characteristics the subject of social philosophy can now be completed with two brief definitions her concepts:
1) social philosophy, "based on the principle of anthropocentrism, explores the state of society as an integral system, the universal laws and driving forces of its functioning and development, its relationship with the natural environment, the surrounding world as a whole";
2) "... the direct task of socio-philosophical theory is to understand society as a special self-sufficient collective of interacting people, possessing universal laws of organization and specific forms of their manifestation ... The subject of study of social philosophy is not only society, but also society, or sociality in general, as a special non-natural , more precisely, a supranatural reality (regardless of the collective or individual forms of its manifestation)" .
1 Basics modern philosophy/ Ed. Yu. N. Solonin et al. St. Petersburg, 2001. S. 224.
2 Momjyan K.Kh. Philosophy of society // Kuznetsov V. G., Kuznetsova I. D., Mironov V. V., Momdzhyan K. X. Philosophy. M., 1999. S. 264-265
In social philosophy, there are different points of view on almost every problem, and indeed on the whole complex of its problems. Many of these approaches can be found on topics teaching aids, which are named in the preface; some of them will be characterized in this tutorial. However, even now it is expedient to touch upon two widespread approaches: civilizational and formational.
The term "civilizational" comes from the word "civilization", which has many meanings and is used even in social philosophy, or the philosophy of history, in various senses, depending primarily on the general position of the philosopher or sociologist. Let's take as the initial understanding of civilization, which opposes it to the period of savagery and barbarity of mankind and connects the formation of civilization with the formation of human culture. The New Philosophical Encyclopedia says: “Civilization (from Latin civilis - civil, state) is a concept known since antiquity, where it was opposed to barbarism as a certain form and order of life”, and as an independent term correlated with the concept "culture", came into use and scientific circulation in the XVIII century (during the Enlightenment in France). It was at this time that it acquired a broad socio-philosophical meaning to designate a certain stage of the world-historical process. The concept of "civilization" allows fixing the beginning of the actual social stage of the evolution of the human race, its exit from the primitive state; the dynamics of the development of the social division of labor, information infrastructure, the dominant form of social connection and social organization within the framework of the "big society". Based on this extremely broad understanding of the phenomenon of civilization in modern historiography and philosophy, it is customary to distinguish three main historical forms (types) of the civilizational world order: 1) agricultural (agrarian), 2) industrial (technogenic) and 3) informational (post-industrial). Some of the sociologists clarify that the first (pre-industrial) stage is agrarian-handicraft and embraces not only the primitive patriarchal society, but also the slave-owning and feudal societies; technogenic society correlates with the emergence and wide spread of machines and qualifies as the "industrial-machine" era of mankind (in its two guises - "capitalist" and "socialist").
This civilizational concept, based primarily on the criteria for delimiting epochs according to technological criteria, has many of its supporters among modern philosophers and sociologists. In the future, we will get acquainted in more detail with one of its representatives - the American sociologist D. Bell (his fundamental work "The Coming Post-Industrial Society" was first published in the USA in 1973, and in Russian translation - in 1999).
The representative, or rather, the founder of the formational approach was K. Marx. He subdivided all societies in the history of mankind according to the "form" of the mode of production, which was production, primarily property relations. They distinguished: primitive-communal, slave-owning, feudal, capitalist and communist (with the first phase - socialist) socio-economic formations. Another one was added to them - the “Asian mode of production”. The productive forces, the base and the superstructure constitute the main frame of the socio-economic structure. In addition to the above three subsystems, the socio-economic formation includes culture, nations, family and other structural formations of society. Socio-economic formation, as it was customary to define this concept, is a society at one stage or another of its development.
The literature notes both the positive aspects of these two approaches (civilizational and formational) and their shortcomings. Some researchers believe that the first approach makes it possible to focus on the technological basis of society, i.e., on the productive forces, on their evolutionary and revolutionary (“wave”) changes, without tying them unambiguously to production relations, as well as to the political sphere and culture. The political sphere and culture are autonomous (although they are influenced by productive forces and property relations). It is difficult to understand, in the opinion of these opponents, the unambiguous connection between production relations and the productive forces under slave ownership and under feudalism. The absence of an unambiguous connection is also such a well-known fact: at some point, the USA and the USSR, having different property relations, were based on the same type of productive forces; This alone refutes the view that the productive forces decide the fate of the relations of production.
There is a general idea that the formational approach and the civilizational approach, if their extremes are overcome, can be compatible with each other; they are complementary.
In the future, these approaches will be considered in more detail, and now it is advisable to dwell on the driving forces of the development of society and on the main areas of society.
Before defining the subject of social philosophy, let us point out the basic meanings of the concept of "social". In modern philosophical and sociological literature, this concept is used in a narrow and broad sense.
In a narrow sense, “social means the existence of a special area of social phenomena that make up the content of the so-called social sphere of society, in which its own range of problems is solved that affects the relevant interests of people. These problems relate to the social position of people, their place in the system of social division of labor, the conditions of their work, movement from one social group to another, their standard of living, education, health care, social security, etc. All these problems within the social sphere are solved on the basis of the specific social relations that are taking shape here, also understood in a narrow sense. Their specific content is determined by the content of these problems, about which they arise. In this they differ, say, from economic, political, moral, legal and other social relations.
In a broad sense, the concept of "social" is used in the meaning of "public", as a synonym for this concept, coinciding with it in scope and content. In this case, the concept of "social" ("public") means everything that happens in society, in contrast to what happens in nature. In other words, it denotes the specificity of the social in relation to the natural, natural, biological. In a broad sense, the concept of "social" is also used as the opposite of the individual. In this case, it means that. what refers to social groups or to the whole society, in contrast to what concerns the individual qualities of an individual.
In social philosophy, the concept of "social" is used both in a broad and in a narrow sense. In other words, it can concern all the processes taking place in society, including in its social sphere, but it can concern only those that relate to the given sphere proper and express its specificity. The social sphere itself is considered in its interactions with other spheres of public life within the framework of a single society.
The subject of social philosophy is society, taken in the interaction of all its sides, i.e. as an integral social system, as well as the laws of functioning and development of society. This means that social philosophy considers and explains various social phenomena and processes at the macrolevel, i.e. at the level of the whole society as a self-developing and self-reproducing social system. It is primarily interested not so much in the specific features of, say, economic, political or spiritual phenomena - this is mainly the subject of other sciences, but in their place in the integral structure of society and the role they play in its existence and development.
Social philosophy also considers the interaction between different societies. In its field of vision are those phenomena and processes of social life that characterize the development of all mankind. In this case, the subject of social philosophy is the historical process as a whole, the interaction of its objective and subjective aspects, the laws of its development.
The attention of social philosophy cannot but be occupied by the practical activity of people and their social relations. After all, it is in the process of their practical activity - production-economic, spiritual, socio-political, scientific, moral, aesthetic - that people produce the material and spiritual benefits necessary for their existence, transform nature, create the necessary spiritual atmosphere and socio-cultural environment for themselves.
In the process of their joint activities, people enter into various relationships with each other in order to solve the pressing issues of their social life. We are talking about production, family and household, moral, political and other social relations, which in their totality form the structure of society. After all, society is primarily people in their social relations with each other. A similar understanding of society takes place in a number of socio-philosophical theories, which we will touch on later. Within the framework of public relations of people, all types of their practical activities are realized, state, economic, moral and other social institutions are created, all aspects of the culture of society are developed.
Thus, various types of people's activities and their social relations constitute the main content of social life and determine the development of society. They represent the initial beginnings and the main factors in the formation, functioning and development of any society. That is why they are the subject of attention and study of social philosophy.
Social philosophy explores both the objective and subjective aspects of the activity and social relations of people. It explores the objective motivating forces of their activity, which are, for example, their objective needs and interests, as well as the motives and goals of activity inherent in their consciousness. All these phenomena are interconnected and are in dialectical interaction.
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Ed. prof. V.N. Lavrinenko
Reviewers: A.K. Uledov - Doctor of Philosophy, Professor, Honored Worker of Science of the Russian Federation; A.V. Fedotov - Doctor of Philosophical Sciences, Professor.
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Culture is a measure of the human in a person, a characteristic of his own development, as well as the development of society, its interaction with nature. brow problem
Culture and civilization
The problem of civilization today has come to the fore. There are several reasons for interest in this issue. First, the development of the scientific and technological revolution in the modern world
Technical civilizations
There are civilizations that are characterized primarily by the level of technological development. Western researchers (D. Bell, G. Kahn, Z. Brzezinski, R. Aron and others) characterize them as “doind
Philosophy of the Ancient East about man
The first ideas about man arise long before philosophy itself. On early stages mythological and religious forms of self-consciousness are inherent in human history. In legends, say
The problem of man in the philosophy of ancient Greece
Ancient Greece laid the foundation for the Western European philosophical tradition in general and philosophical anthropology in particular. In ancient Greek philosophy, initially man does not exist.
Medieval Christian concept of man
In the Middle Ages, man was seen primarily as part of the world order established by God. And the idea of himself, as it is expressed in Christianity, boils down to this,
The man of modern times in European philosophy
The philosophical anthropology of modern times is formed under the influence of emerging capitalist relations, scientific knowledge And new culture called humanism. If the relay
Anthropological problem in Russian philosophy
In the history of Russian philosophy, two main directions in the approach to the problem of man can be distinguished: the materialistic teachings of the revolutionary democrats (Belinsky, Herzen, Chernyshevs
The problem of anthropogenesis
Man is a complex integral system, which in turn is a component of more complex systems - biological and social. This is due to the fact that man is a creature
Essence and existence
The problem of the essence of man is at the center of the philosophical doctrine of man. This is explained by the fact that the disclosure of the essence is included in the very definition of any subject, and without this, in general
Biological and social in man
The question of the relationship between the biological and the social in man is also connected with the problem of essence and existence. In essence, as already noted, man is a social being.
Unconscious and Conscious
The problem of the unconscious and the conscious in philosophical anthropology is closely related to the question of the biological and social, reflecting the mental and biological aspects of the being.
Individual and personality
Man is considered as an individual as a single representative of the human race. The definition of this concept does not need any specific characteristics.
Meaning and purpose of life
Philosophical anthropology cannot avoid the question of the meaning and purpose of life. Different philosophies respond to it in different ways. Representatives of materialism turn to the consideration
Personality and social values
What are the values, so are the society and the individual. It is no coincidence that the problem of values always comes to the fore in transitional periods of social development. It's that kind of time
The concept and nature of values
The philosophical doctrine of values and their nature is called axiology (from the Greek axios - value and logos - teaching). But before folding into her modern form, this theory has passed
Social values and socialization of the individual
Each person lives in a certain system of values, the objects and phenomena of which are designed to satisfy his needs. In a sense, we can say that value expresses
The object of social philosophy is social life and social processes. However, the term "social" itself is used in the literature in different senses. Therefore, it is necessary to define what is meant by this term when we speak of social philosophy. First of all, we note that, on the one hand, natural, and on the other hand, individual psychological phenomena are excluded from the concept of the social. That is social phenomena are always social phenomena. However, the concept of "social phenomena" includes economic, political, national and many other phenomena of the life of society.
The point of view, according to which social reality includes various aspects of social life, is sufficiently substantiated. In short, the social life of society is the joint existence of people, this is their "coexistence". It includes material and spiritual phenomena and processes, various aspects of public life: economic, political, spiritual, etc. in their multilateral interaction. After all, social action is always the result of the interaction of a number of social factors.
In modern socio-humanitarian knowledge abroad and in our country, two categories are increasingly used to designate the public: “societal” and “social”. The category "societal" refers to the processes of the "first level", i.e. processes related to society as a whole: economic, actually social, political, regulatory, spiritual. The category "social" refers to direct relations of the "second level" - between social communities and within them, i.e. this category most often refers to sociological science.
That's why the main subject of social action and social relations is community group(social community) or society as a whole. A characteristic moment of social life is its organization and structure within a certain social system.
Various kinds of interactions between the elements of a social system form its structure. The elements of this system themselves are diverse. It includes various ways of its functioning, diverse social institutions that ensure the implementation of social relations. And, of course, such elements are the main subjects of social life - social communities and individuals organized into social groups.
Based on the foregoing, the following definition can be given: social philosophy is a system of scientific knowledge about the most general patterns and trends in the interaction, functioning and development of elements of society, an integral process of social life.
It is necessary to highlight the following content subject area of social philosophy:
Sources of development of society;
Driving forces and sources of social development;
Purpose, direction and trends of the historical process;
Forecasting the future.
Social philosophy studies society and social life not only in structural and functional terms, but also in its historical development. Of course, the subject of its consideration is the person himself, taken, however, not “on his own”, not as a separate individual, but as a representative of a social group or community, i.e. in his social network.
Social philosophy studies the laws according to which stable, large groups of people are formed in society, the relations between these groups, their connections and role in society.
Social philosophy explores the entire system of social relations, the interaction of all aspects of social life, the patterns and trends in the development of society. At the same time, she studies the features of the cognition of social phenomena at the socio-philosophical level of generalizations. In other words, social philosophy analyzes the holistic process of changing social life and the development of social systems.
The subject and specifics of social philosophy as a science cannot be disclosed without touching upon the question of its functions. We can highlight the main ones.
Gnoseological function social philosophy is connected with the fact that it explores and explains the most general patterns and trends in the development of the whole society and social processes at the level of large social groups.
Methodological function social philosophy lies in the fact that it acts as a general doctrine of the methods of cognition of social phenomena, the most general approaches to their study. It is at the socio-philosophical level that the general formulation of a particular social problem and the main ways to solve it are born. The socio-philosophical theory, due to the great degree of generality of its provisions, laws and principles, acts at the same time as a methodology for other social sciences.
In the same row there is also such a function as integration and synthesis of social knowledge, the establishment of universal ties of social life. Integrative function social philosophy is manifested in its focus, above all, on the integration and consolidation of human society. It is she who has the prerogative in developing comprehensive concepts designed to unite humanity in order to achieve collective goals.
Here it should also be noted predictive function social philosophy, the formulation within its framework of hypotheses about the general trends in the development of social life and man. In this case, the degree of probability of the forecast, of course, will be the higher, the more social philosophy relies on science.
It should also be noted ideological function social philosophy. Unlike other historical forms of worldview (mythology, religion), social philosophy is associated with a conceptual, abstract-theoretical explanation of the social world.
Critical function of social philosophy - the principle of "questioning everything", preached by many philosophers since antiquity, indicates the importance of a critical approach and the presence of a certain amount of skepticism in relation to existing social knowledge and sociocultural values. This approach plays an anti-dogmatic role in the development of social knowledge. At the same time, it must be emphasized that only constructive criticism based on dialectical negation, and not abstract nihilism, has a positive meaning.
Closely related to critical axiological (value) function of social philosophy. Any socio-philosophical concept contains the moment of evaluating the object under study from the point of view of a variety of social values. This function is especially acute in transitional periods of social development, when the problem of choosing the path of movement arises and the question arises of what should be discarded and what of the old values should be preserved.
social function social philosophy - quite multifaceted in content and covers various aspects of social life. In the broadest sense, social philosophy is called upon to perform a dual task - to explain social being and contribute to its material and spiritual change. Before you try to change the social world, you need to explain it well.
WITH social function a closely related function that can be called humanitarian. The point is that social philosophy should play an adaptive and life-affirming role not only for every nation, but also for every person, contribute to the formation of humanistic values and ideals, the affirmation of the positive meaning and purpose of life. It is thus intended to perform the function intellectual therapy, which is especially important during periods of unstable state of society, when old idols and ideals are collapsing, and new ones have not had time to form or gain authority; when human existence is in a "boundary situation", on the verge of existence and non-existence, and everyone must make their own difficult choice, which sometimes leads to a tragic denouement..
It should be noted that all the functions of social philosophy are dialectically interconnected. Each of them presupposes the others and in one way or another includes them in its content. It is impossible to break, for example, ideological and methodological, methodological and epistemological, social and humanitarian and other functions. And only through their integral unity is the specificity and essence of socio-philosophical knowledge manifested.
Social philosophy is the most important area of philosophical knowledge aimed at comprehending the states and processes of people's life in society. Being an integral and integral part of philosophy, it naturally carries all the common features inherent in this knowledge, but at the same time it also has a number of features that distinguish its object and subject of study.
Social philosophy analyzes not only the relations and connections of society with other spheres of reality surrounding and embracing people, comprehending the general problems of the existence of nature and man, but it also studies the specific patterns of manifestation of the social life of people, which are characteristic of it as a special form of being of the world as a whole. This means that social philosophy represents an integral view of the world of human existence as a whole, inaccessible to any other form of knowledge about society except for it.
The specificity of the socio-philosophical view of society lies, in particular, in considering it as a differentiated and complex integrity, identifying its essential features, structure, patterns of functioning and development. This is a social ontology, i.e. knowledge about the existence of society, about the conditions of its existence as such; knowledge that reveals the fundamental foundations of society through the creation of a certain system of categories. Society is considered as a supranatural reality, the mode of existence of which is fundamentally different from other types of existence of the objective world. This reality arises and exists only in the process of human activity. Social philosophy performs a number of functions.
The worldview consists in developing a certain holistic view of the structure, functioning and development of society, its past, present and future;
critically reflexive - in understanding the current stage of social development from the point of view of ideas about the ideal, perfect structure of social order;
methodological - in determining the boundaries of the subject of private social and humanitarian disciplines - political science, sociology, history, etc., in developing the basic principles and concepts of these disciplines.
The subject of social philosophy are: firstly, society as an integral social system; secondly, the laws of its functioning and development; thirdly, the interaction between different societies; fourthly, the practical activity of people and their social relations; fifthly, the specificity of the type of connections of individuals into a single whole. The very concept of "society" can be used in two semantic meanings.
1. In a broad sense - a set of historically established forms of joint activity of people.
2. In the narrow sense - a specific historical type of social system, a certain form of social relations.
Thus, the object of knowledge of social philosophy is not the whole world, the universe in its integrity and infinity of changes in nature, being and thinking in general, but only society, as a way and result of the interaction of people with each other and with the surrounding world. The object of socio-philosophical knowledge is the constantly changing reality of social life in the unity and diversity of all human relations, intricately intertwined random and regular causal factors and consequences. Accordingly, the subject of social philosophy is not the knowledge of the universal and the whole about the existence of the world, the possibilities and methods of its comprehension, but the knowledge of the universal about the integrity of social (collective, joint) being, about the conditions and factors of its development. All this determines the main problem of social philosophy - the question of what society is, or, what is the same thing, what is its nature (foundations) and the laws of existence and development.
It should be noted that all the questions that were solved by philosophy at one or another historical stage contained, explicitly or implicitly, the corresponding assessments of reality, expressed the value attitude of philosophers towards it. In this sense, all philosophical teachings were completely identical to the era in which they were put forward and formulated. So, already in ancient philosophy, primarily in the teachings of Plato and Aristotle, the issues of the identity of the general and the particular in the conditions of the community of people, the optimal possibilities for its harmonization, were resolved. It was the ancient philosophers, on the basis of the attitudes of that era, who quite definitely declared the need to streamline public life, proposed a project-prototype of an ideal state, emphasizing that the harmony of virtues is the essence of the state and the individual.
Thus, we can say that socio-philosophical ideas are almost always in tune with the historical era in which they are put forward and formulated. In this regard, naturally, the question arises of what is social philosophy anyway: objective general scientific knowledge about social reality or value (subjective) knowledge that determines the meaning and tasks of the actions of people of a certain specific historical era?
In the history of philosophy there are many explanations for understanding the causes and conditions of these connections and patterns. Systematizing, three approaches can be distinguished.
1.Naturalistic- human society is considered as a natural continuation of the laws of nature, the world of life and the Cosmos as a whole. Inside (the schlralistic approach, in turn, it is also possible to identify three directions that reduce the causes of the development of society to:
a) rhythms of solar activity and cosmic radiation (A. Chizhevsky, L. Gumilyov);
b) the peculiarities of the geographical, natural and climatic environment (Charles Montesquieu, I. Mechnikov.);
c) the specifics of man as a natural being, his genetic, racial and gender characteristics (E. Wilson, R. Dawkins, etc.).
2. Idealistic- the essence of connections is seen in the complex of certain ideas, beliefs, spiritual principles (a single state ideology or religion, they play the role of the skeleton of the social structure). As long as the idea is “alive”, society develops and flourishes. the idea "died" - the society "collapsed". Thus, the cause of all changes in society is the consciousness of people or the World Spirit.
The conclusion is made about the dominant role of consciousness, and the need for spiritual improvement of each person.
3. Materialistic- objective connections and foundations for the development of society are seen in the development of material social production. Thus, the fundamental principle of the development of society must be sought not in the consciousness, but in the conditions of people's lives, which to a decisive extent determine the motives of activity, behavior, as well as the desires, aspirations and goals of each person.
2. Social structure and main spheres of society.
The social structure of society is based on:
a) social division of labor;
b) the relation of ownership of the means of production and its products.
This gives rise to social groups (classes, professional associations), strata (urban and rural population), workers of mental and physical labor, etc.
The main elements of the social structure are:
· classes;
people of the city and village;
representatives of physical and mental labor; estates (social groups whose place in society is determined by their position and traditions, legal acts);
· socio-demographic groups (youth, men, women, pensioners);
National communities (nations, ethnic groups, etc.).
In themselves, social groups and national communities are heterogeneous in composition and, in turn, are divided into separate layers and groups with their own political, economic, social, and other interests.
The relationship between the elements of the social structure is dynamic and manifests itself in the satisfaction of their needs and the realization of interests.
The main trends in the development of the social structure of Russian society are manifested in the following:
a) there is an active process of differentiation of society;
b) working conditions, its nature and content among representatives of various groups are converging;
c) there is a violation of the existing social balance, which leads to social instability (a sharp stratification into the poor and the rich, who have acquired their wealth illegally).
The main areas of society(types of joint activities of people) are:
economic (material production); social;
political (organizational, regulatory); spiritual.
Economic sphere includes: production; distribution; exchange;
consumption of material goods.
Its importance for the development of society is fundamental.
Social sphere- this is the sphere of relations between all social groups and strata of the population, as well as national communities regarding the conditions of their life and activities. We are talking about: creating healthy working conditions; providing required level life; solving health problems; ensuring the right to education; addressing social security issues.
The degree of satisfaction of these questions determines the level and quality of life. That is what should be aimed at. social politics states.
Political sphere - this is the space of activity of the main elements of the social structure (classes, national communities, parties, movements, public organizations) aimed at the implementation of their political interests, i.e. to influence political processes in their own interests. To do this, each of them expandshis political rights and freedoms. Today, the role of the political sphere has increased significantly.
spiritual realm- this is the sphere of people's relations about spiritual values, their creation, distribution and consumption. The spiritual sphere develops historically and absorbs the geographical, national characteristics of society and manifests itself in national character. The spiritual sphere is the field of activity of educational and upbringing institutions, as well as professional art - theater, music, fine arts, architecture, etc. In the spiritual sphere, people are formed aesthetically and morally, so it is difficult to overestimate it.
