The main areas of public life, their relationship. Material, production, political and social spheres of public life
The scope of society - a certain set of stable relations between social actors. The spheres of public life are large, stable, relatively independent subsystems of human activity.
Traditionally, there are four main areas of public life:
social (peoples, nations, classes, age and gender groups, etc.)
economic (productive forces, production relations)
political (state, parties, socio-political movements)
spiritual (religion, morality, science, art, education).
Social sphere - this is the relationship that occurs in the production of direct human life and man as a social being.
In social philosophy and sociology, this is the sphere of society, which includes various social communities and the relationships between them. In economics and political science, the social sphere is often understood as the totality of industries, enterprises, organizations whose task is to increase the standard of living of the population; at the same time, the social sphere includes health care, social security, public services, etc.
Economic sphere - this is the totality of the relations of people arising from the creation and movement of material goods. The economic sphere is the field of production, exchange, distribution, consumption of goods and services. In order to produce something, people, tools, machine tools, materials, etc. are needed. - productive forces. In the production process, people enter into a diverse relationship with each other - relations of production. Production relations and productive forces together constitute the economic sphere of society:
productive forces - people (labor force), tools, objects of labor;
production relations - production, distribution, consumption, exchange.
Political sphere - This is the relationship of people, primarily associated with the authorities, which provide joint security. The modern term “politics” is now used to express social activity, the center of which is the problem of acquiring, using and retaining power. Elements of the political sphere can be represented as follows:
political organizations and institutions - social groups, revolutionary movements, parliamentarism, parties, citizenship, the presidency, etc .;
political norms - political, legal and moral norms, customs and traditions;
political communications - relations, connections and forms of interaction between participants in the political process, as well as between the political system as a whole and society;
political culture and ideology - political ideas, ideology, political culture, political psychology.
Spiritual sphere - This is an area of \u200b\u200bideal, non-material formations, including ideas, values \u200b\u200bof religion, art, morality, etc.
The structure of the spiritual sphere life of society in the most general terms is as follows:
religion is a form of worldview based on belief in supernatural powers;
morality is a system of moral norms, ideals, assessments, actions;
art - artistic development of the world;
science - a system of knowledge about the laws of existence and development of the world;
law - a set of standards supported by the state;
education is a focused process of education and training.
6. The dialectic of society and nature. Global problems.
The dialectic of nature and society is a developing, objective and controversial process. Using the Hegelian scheme of development of the contradiction, we can distinguish a number of stages in the interaction of society and nature.
The first stage characterizes the process of formation of society. It covers the period from the emergence of the species Homo sapiens to the emergence of cattle breeding and agriculture. The second stage of the interaction of nature and society is associated with the emergence and development of cattle breeding and agriculture, which characterizes the transition to a "producing" economy, since people began to actively transform nature, produce not only tools, but also means of subsistence. The beginning of the third stage of the interaction of nature and society is associated with the deployment of the industrial revolution of the eighteenth century in England.
The main global problems of our time: environmental, demographic, the problem of war and peace.
2. The main areas of society
The complex nature of the development of society is determined by its very complex structure, the action in it of many heterogeneous factors. First of all, various types of social activities are carried out in it in nature and content: industrial, economic, social, political, religious, aesthetic and others that have their own social space. The latter is outlined by the corresponding type of social relations, within the framework of which this or that social activity takes place. As a result, various spheres of society are formed. The main ones are economic, social, political, spiritual.
The economic sphere includes the production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material goods. This is the sphere of the functioning of production, the direct implementation of the achievements of scientific and technological progress, the implementation of the totality of the production relations of people, including relations of ownership of the means of production, the exchange of activities and the distribution of material wealth.
The economic sphere acts as an economic space in which the country's economic life is organized, all sectors of the economy interact, as well as international economic cooperation. Here, the economic consciousness of people, their material interest in the results of their production activities, as well as their creative abilities are directly realized. The activities of economic management institutions are also implemented here. In the economic sphere, the interaction of all objective and subjective factors of economic development is carried out. The importance of this sphere for the development of society is fundamental.
The social sphere is the sphere of relations of social groups existing in society, including classes, professional and socio-demographic layers of the population (youth, elderly people, etc.), as well as national communities regarding the social conditions of their life and work.
It is about creating healthy conditions for the production activities of people, about ensuring the necessary standard of living for all segments of the population, about solving the problems of health care, public education and social security, about observing social justice when each person exercises his or her right to work, as well as when distributing and consuming in a society of material and spiritual benefits, on the resolution of contradictions arising from the social stratification of society, on the social protection of the corresponding sections of the population. This refers to the regulation of the whole complex of social-class and national relations relating to working conditions, life, education and people's living standards.
As you can see, the functioning of the social sphere is associated with the satisfaction of a special range of social needs. The possibilities of satisfying them are determined by the social position of a person or a social group, as well as by the nature of existing social relations. The degree of satisfaction of these needs determines the level and quality of life of a person, family, social group, etc. These are general indicators of the achieved level of human well-being and the effectiveness of the functioning of its social sphere. The social policy of the state should be directed at this.
The political sphere is the space of political activity of classes, other social groups, national communities, political parties and movements, various kinds of public organizations. Their activity takes place on the basis of established political relations and is aimed at the realization of their political interests.
These interests concern primarily political power, as well as the exercise of their political rights and freedoms. In the interests of some subjects - the consolidation of existing political power. Others - its elimination. Still others seek to share political power with other actors. As a result, everyone wants in one form or another to influence political processes in their own interests.
To this end, each of the actors in the political sphere, whether it be a class, a political party or an individual, seeks to expand his political rights and freedoms. This pushes the boundaries of their political activities, creates great opportunities for the realization of their political interests and the embodiment of their political will.
Modern political processes significantly politicize the minds of many people and increase their political activity. This enhances the role and importance of the political sphere in society.
The spiritual sphere is the sphere of people's relations regarding various kinds of spiritual values, their creation, dissemination and assimilation by all sections of society. At the same time, spiritual values \u200b\u200bmean not only, say, objects of painting, music or literary works, but also people's knowledge, science, moral standards of behavior, etc., in a word, all that constitutes the spiritual content of public life or the spirituality of society.
The spiritual sphere of social life is developing historically. It embodies the geographical, national and other features of the development of society, all that has left its mark on the soul of the people, their national character. The spiritual life of society consists of everyday spiritual communication of people and from such areas of their activity as cognition, including scientific, education and upbringing, from the manifestations of morality, art, religion. All this makes up the content of the spiritual sphere, develops the spiritual world of people, their ideas about the meaning of life in society. This has a decisive influence on the formation of spiritual principles in their activities and behavior.
Of great importance in this regard is the activity of institutions that perform the functions of education and upbringing - from primary schools to universities, as well as the atmosphere of family education of a person, the circle of his peers and friends, all the wealth of his spiritual communication with other people. An important role in the formation of human spirituality is played by original folk art, as well as professional art - theater, music, cinema, painting, architecture, etc.
One of the fundamental problems in the development of modern society is how to form, preserve and enrich the spiritual world of people, to introduce them to genuine spiritual values \u200b\u200band to turn them away from false ones that destroy the human soul and society. Everything suggests that the importance of the spiritual sphere in the development of modern society, for its present and future, is difficult to overestimate. Scientists, philosophers, religious figures, and other representatives of spiritual culture are turning more and more persistently to the study of the processes occurring here.
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The main areas of society are economic, political, social and spiritual.
The basis of the economic sphere is the material production of immediate life goods. The philosophy of Marxism affirms its leading role in the development of society as a whole. Perhaps there is a rational grain here, however, it should be noted that all spheres of society are very closely interconnected and have a noticeable and indisputable influence on each other.
Material production appears in the concrete historical form of the mode of production, which is characterized by the unity of productive forces and production relations. Productive forces include the means of production (means of labor and objects of labor) and the employee with his qualifications, physical strength, labor skills, intelligence, etc.
Industrial relations characterize the way of connecting the means of production with the employee and include relations of ownership, distribution, exchange and consumption.
The development of productive forces is an evolutionary revolutionary process. The first revolution in the productive forces is associated with the beginning of the production of not only instruments of labor, but also means of subsistence (the emergence of cattle breeding and agriculture). On the basis of the division of labor and the growth of its productivity, a surplus product arose, which led to the emergence of systematic exchange and trade, the concentration of surplus product in the hands of part of society and the emergence of private property and exploitation. On the basis of exploitation, labor has become more intense. There was a separation of mental labor from physical, craft from agriculture, there was an economic specialization of countries and regions. The second most important revolution is the transition from manual tools to the machine. The role of scientific knowledge, but also practical skills, began to increase. Man became an appendage of the machine. At the same time, a gradual democratization of society took place. The third - the scientific and technological revolution (NTR) began in the middle of the last century. It is characterized by the transition from machine production to automated, the introduction of computer technology. The importance of high-tech industries is growing. Scientific activity becomes a link in material production. A qualitatively new type of continuously learning and improving employee is being formed. In connection with the environmental crisis, there is a need for long-term consideration of the widespread consequences of the use of science and technology.
Changes in productive forces are accompanied by corresponding processes in production relations. Commodity-money relations cut off useless and low-quality labor.
Consequently: the main components of the economic sphere of society are production (industry and agriculture), trade, consumption.
The political sphere of society is emerging in a class, antagonistic society. The political system is closely linked to political power. Power is the ability to impose one’s will on other people. The means of imposition are direct violence, persuasion, authority, compromise. The most important component of the political system is the state. The functions of the state include the regulation of public relations, the organization of public life, forced and restraining actions, the protection of human rights to life, property, etc., the regulation of relations with other states, and the solution of social issues.
With the growth of universal human interests, the importance of politics fulfilling the function of stabilizing society, giving it stability and viability of harmonizing relations, increases.
Distinguish between democratic, totalitarian and authoritarian political regimes. The totalitarian regime controls all the main spheres of life of citizens, strives for complete uniformity. The authoritarian regime also strives for a uniform mood, but controls only the main public spheres, rests on the authority of a political leader. The democratic regime proclaims and seeks to ensure civil and political rights and freedoms, is based on the election of authorities, the principle of the real separation of branches of government (legislative, executive and judicial). The form of control over power in a democracy is the institutions of civil society - organizations independent from the government, with authority and influence in society.
The social sphere of society covers the social interaction of individuals and society. When integrating many goals, interests, aspirations, and will, individual interactions are accumulated into mass ones, and a social structure is being formed. Social relationships include a platform (interest, orientation, shared interest) and responsibilities between partners. In a socially differentiated society, nations, classes, social groups, primary collectives of people, families, individuals are distinguished. There are also informal groups in society (unite to solve some common problems), diffuse groups (temporary unstable associations), etc.
The stratification theory divides society into groups by profession, income level, education, etc.
In modern society, the processes of social integration and social differentiation coexist.
The main functions of the spiritual sphere of society are cognitive-informational, ideological substantiation of social relations, the formation of a social ideal, projects of changes in reality, communication, educational. At the same time, all sorts of design constructions can be realized only when there are material possibilities for this. On the other hand, any change in the economic and political spheres is “born” and takes shape precisely in the spiritual sphere of society.
The spiritual sphere of society also includes its culture as an indicator of development. Various types of art, philosophy, science, religion, etc. take a person beyond the scope of everyday life, contribute to giving meaning to his life.
As already noted, society is a systemic education. As an extremely complex whole, as a system, society includes subsystems - “spheres of social life” - a concept first introduced by K. Marx.
The concept of “sphere of public life” is nothing more than an abstraction that allows us to isolate and study individual areas of social reality. The basis for highlighting the spheres of public life is the qualitative specificity of a number of social relations, their integrity.
Traditionally, following Marx, four main areas of society are distinguished: economic, social, political and spiritual. Each sphere is characterized by the following parameters:
This is the area of \u200b\u200bpeople's activity necessary for the normal functioning of society, through which their specific needs are satisfied;
Each sphere is characterized by certain social relations that arise between people in the process of a certain type of activity (economic, social, political or spiritual);
As relatively independent subsystems of society, spheres are characterized by certain laws by which they function and develop;
In each area, a set of certain institutions that are created by people to manage this social sphere is formed and functions.
The economic sphere of society -defining, named by K. Marx basissociety (that is, its foundation, foundation). It includes relations regarding the production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material goods. Her purpose is meeting the economic needs of people.
The economic sphere is the genetic basis of all other spheres of public life, its development is the cause, condition and driving force of the historical process.The importance of the economic sphere is enormous:
It creates the material basis for the existence of society;
Directly affects the social structure of society (for example, the emergence of private property led to the emergence of economic inequality, which, in turn, caused the emergence of classes);
Indirectly (through the social-class sphere) affects the political processes in society (for example, the emergence of private property and class inequality caused the emergence of the state);
It indirectly affects the spiritual sphere (especially legal, political and moral ideas), directly - its infrastructure - schools, libraries, theaters, etc.
The social sphere of public life - This is an area where historical communities (nations, peoples) and social groups of people (classes, strata, etc.) interact about their social position, place and role in society. The social sphere covers the interests of classes, nations, social groups; relations of personality and society; working and living conditions, upbringing and education, health and leisure. The core of social relations are relations of equality and inequality of people according to their position in society. The basis of the various social conditions of people is their attitude to ownership of the means of production and type of work.
The main elements of the social structure of society there are classes, strata (social strata), estates, urban and rural residents, representatives of mental and physical labor, socio-demographic groups (men, women, youth, pensioners), ethnic communities.
The political sphere of society- the area of \u200b\u200bfunctioning of politics, political relations, the activities of political institutions (primarily the state) of organizations (political parties, unions, etc.). This is a system of public relations regarding the conquest, retention, strengthening and use of state authorities in the interests of certain classes and social groups.
The specifics of the social sphere are as follows:
It develops as a result of the conscious activity of people, classes, parties, seeking to seize power and management in society;
To achieve political goals, classes and social groups create political institutions and organizations that act as the material force to influence the state, government, economic and political structures in society.
Elements of the political system of society are: the state (the main element), political parties, public and religious organizations, trade unions, etc.
The sphere of the spiritual life of society isthis is the sphere of production of ideas, views, public opinion, customs and traditions; the scope of functioning of social institutions that create and disseminate spiritual values: science, culture, art, education and upbringing. This is a system of public relations about production and consumption. spiritual values.
The main elements of the spiritual life of society are:
Activities for the production of ideas (theories, views, etc.);
Spiritual values \u200b\u200b(moral and religious ideals, scientific theories, artistic values, philosophical concepts, etc.);
The spiritual needs of people who condition the production, distribution and consumption of spiritual values;
Spiritual relations between people, the exchange of spiritual values.
The basis of the spiritual life of society is social consciousness.- a set of ideas, theories, ideals, concepts, programs, views, norms, opinions, traditions, rumors, etc., circulating in a given society.
Public consciousness is associated with individual (with the consciousness of an individual person), because, firstly, without it simply does not exist, and secondly, all new ideas and spiritual values \u200b\u200bhave their own source of consciousness of individuals. Therefore, a high level of spiritual development of individuals is an important prerequisite for the development of social consciousness. Nevertheless , public consciousness cannot be regarded as the sum of individual consciousnesses if only because a single individual does not assimilate the entire content of social consciousness in the process of socialization and vital activity. On the other hand, far from everything that arises in the consciousness of an individual person becomes the property of society. Public consciousness includes knowledge, ideas, ideas, are common for many people, therefore, it is considered in anonymous form as a product of certain social conditions, enshrined in the language and works of culture. The carrier of public consciousness is not only the individual, but also the social group, society as a whole. In addition, individual consciousness is born and dies with man, and the content of social consciousness is transmitted from one generation to another.
In the structure of public consciousness distinguish reflection levels (ordinary and theoretical) and forms of reflection of reality (law, politics, morality, art, religion, philosophy, etc.)
Reality reflection levels differ in the nature of their formation and by the depth of penetration into the essence of phenomena.
Commonplace level of public awareness(or “social psychology”) is formed as a result everyday life people, covers superficial connections and relationships, giving rise, at times, to various misconceptions and prejudices, public opinion, rumors and moods. It is a shallow, superficial reflection of social phenomena, therefore, many ideas that arise in the mass consciousness are erroneous.
The theoretical level of public consciousness (or “social ideology”) provides a deeper understanding of social processes, penetrates the essence of the phenomena studied; it exists in a systematized form (in the form of scientific theories, concepts, etc.) Unlike the ordinary level, which develops mainly spontaneously, the theoretical level is formed consciously. This is the field of activity of professional theorists, specialists in various fields - economists, lawyers, politicians, philosophers, theologians, etc. Therefore, theoretical consciousness not only more deeply, but also more correctly reflects social reality.
Forms of Public Consciousness differ among themselves in the subject of reflection and in the functions that they perform in society.
Political consciousnessit is a reflection of political relations between classes, nations, states. It directly manifests economic relations and the interests of various classes and social groups. The specificity of political consciousness is that it directly affects the sphere of state and power, the relationship of classes and parties to the state and government, the relationship between social groups and political organizations. It most actively affects the economy, on all other forms of public consciousness - on law, religion, morality, art, philosophy.
Legal consciousness- represents a set of views, ideas, theories expressing people's attitudes to existing law - a system of legal norms and relations established by the state. At the theoretical level, legal consciousness acts as a system of legal views, legal doctrines, codes. At the ordinary level, these are people's ideas about legal and illegal, fair and unfair, due and optional in relations between people, social groups, nations, the state. Legal consciousness performs a regulatory function in society. It is associated with all forms of consciousness, but especially with politics. It is no accident that K. Marx defined law as "the will of the ruling class elevated to law."
Moral consciousness (morality) reflects the relationship of people to each other and to society in the form of a set of rules of behavior, moral standards, principles and ideals that guide people in their behavior. Ordinary moral consciousness includes ideas about honor and dignity, about conscience and a sense of duty, moral and immoral, etc. Ordinary moral consciousness arose in the primitive communal system and performed there function of the main relationship regulator between people and groups. Moral theories arise only in a class society and represent a coherent concept of moral principles, norms, categories, ideals.
Morality performs a number of important functions in society:
Regulatory (regulates human behavior in all areas of public life, and, unlike law, morality is based on the power of public opinion, on the mechanism of conscience, on habit);
Evaluative and imperative (on the one hand, it evaluates the actions of a person, on the other hand, commands you to behave in a certain way);
Educational (actively involved in the process of personality socialization, the transformation of "person to person").
Aesthetic consciousness- an artistic, figurative and emotional reflection of reality through the concepts of the beautiful and the ugly, the comic and the tragic. The result and the highest form of manifestation of aesthetic consciousness is art. In the process of artistic creation, aesthetic representations of artists are “materialized” by various material means (colors, sounds, words, etc.) and appear as works of art. Art is one of the oldest forms of human life, but in pre-class society it was in a single syncretic connection with religion, morality, cognitive activity (primitive dance is a religious rite that embodies moral norms of behavior, and a method of transferring knowledge to a new generation).
Art in modern society performs the following functions:
Aesthetic (satisfies the aesthetic needs of people, forms their aesthetic tastes);
Hedonic (gives people pleasure, pleasure);
Cognitive (in an artistic-figurative form carries information about the world, being a fairly affordable means of enlightenment and education of people);
Educational (affects the formation of moral consciousness, translating the moral categories of good and evil into artistic images, forms aesthetic ideals).
Religious Consciousness -a special type of reflection of reality through the prism of faith in the supernatural. Religious consciousness, as it were, doubles the world, believing that besides our reality (“natural”, obeying the laws of nature) there is a supernatural reality (phenomena, creatures, forces) where natural laws do not work, but which affects our lives. Belief in the supernatural exists in various forms:
Fetishism (from the Portuguese "fetiko" - made) - faith in the supernatural property of real objects (natural or specially made);
Totemism ("that-to" in the language of one of the North American Indian tribes means "his genus") - belief in supernatural blood relations between people and animals (sometimes - plants) - the "ancestors" of the genus;
Magic (translated from ancient Greek - witchcraft) - faith in supernatural connections and forces that exist in nature, using which you can succeed where a person is really powerless; therefore, magic covered all spheres of life (love magic, harmful magic, commercial magic, military magic, etc.);
Animism - faith in ethereal spirits, in an immortal soul; arises in the later stages of the tribal system as a result of the collapse of mythological thinking, which has not yet distinguished between living and nonliving, material and intangible; ideas about the spirits of nature became the basis for the formation of the idea of \u200b\u200bGod;
theism (Greek theos - god) faith in God, which originally existed as polytheism (polytheism); the idea of \u200b\u200ba single god - monotheism (monotheism) was first formed in Judaism, and was later adopted by Christianity and Islam.
Religion as a social phenomenon besides religious consciousness includes cult (ritual actions aimed at communicating with the supernatural - prayers, sacrifices, fasting, etc.) and this or that form of organization of believers(church or sect) .
Religion in the life of man and society performs the following functions:
Psychotherapeutic - helps to overcome the feeling of fear and horror in front of the outside world, eases feelings of grief and despair, allows you to remove the feeling of helplessness and uncertainty in the future;
Worldview; like philosophy, it forms the worldview of an individual - an idea of \u200b\u200bthe world as a single whole, of the place and purpose of a person in it;
Educational - affects a person through a system of moral standards that exist in every religion, and through the formation of a special attitude to the supernatural (for example, love of God, fear of destroying an immortal soul);
Regulatory - influences the behavior of believers through a system of numerous prohibitions and prescriptions covering almost the entire daily life of a person (especially in Judaism and Islam, where there are 365 prohibitions and 248 prescriptions);
Integrative-segregative - uniting co-religionists (integrative function), religion at the same time contrasts them with carriers of a different faith (segregative function), which is, to this day, one of the sources of serious social conflicts.
Religion, therefore, is a contradictory phenomenon and it is impossible to unequivocally assess its role in human life and society. Since modern society is multi-religious, the basis of a civilized solution to the problem of attitude to religion is principle of freedom of conscience, which gives a person the right to profess any religion or to be unbeliever, prohibiting insults to the religious feelings of believers and open religious or anti-religious propaganda.
Thus, the spiritual life of society is a very complex phenomenon. Forming the consciousness of people, regulating their behavior, political, moral, philosophical, religious, etc. ideas affect all other spheres of society and nature, becoming a real force that changes the world.
The structure of society interested people at all times. For many centuries, scientists have tried to find a model, an image with which it was possible to reproduce human society. He was represented in the form of a pyramid, a clockwork, a branching tree.
Modern scientists argue that society is a holistic, naturally functioning and developing system. The word "system" of Greek origin and means the whole, composed of parts, the totality. So, a system is a set of interconnected elements, each of which performs a specific task.
Society as a social system is a holistic education, the main element of which are people, their connections, interactions and relationships, which are sustainable and pass from generation to generation.
In this case, society can be compared with a gigantic organism, and just as a living organism has a heart, arms, legs, brain, nervous system, so in society there are certain mechanisms of environmental impact - its own control center for various processes and communication facilities. And just as various life support systems function in a living organism, so in society, each of its “organs" performs only its characteristic function. Finally, just as several interrelated levels of its vital activity can be distinguished in the body, depending on the significance of each of them for the whole organism (nervous system, circulatory and digestive systems, metabolism, etc.), so in society it is possible to isolate specific levels ( in the scientific literature more often - "spheres") of his life - economic, social, political and spiritual.
Economic sphere - this is the area of \u200b\u200beconomic activity of the company, the area of \u200b\u200bcreation of material wealth. Being one of the main subsystems of society, it can also be considered as an independent system. Elements of the economic sphere are material needs, economic goods (goods) that satisfy these needs, economic resources (sources of production of goods), business entities (individuals or organizations). The economic sphere is firms, enterprises, factories, banks, markets, money and investment flows, capital flows, etc. In other words, what allows society to put into production the resources at its disposal (land, labor, capital and management ) and create such a quantity of goods and services that will satisfy the vital needs of people in food, housing, leisure, etc.
50-60% of the population directly referred to as the economically active population directly participate in the economic life of society: workers, employees, entrepreneurs, bankers, etc. Indirectly, 100% of people living in this territory participate in it, since all are consumers of goods and services created directly participants in the economic process. Pensioners have already left production, and children have not entered it yet. They do not create material values, but they consume.
Political sphere - This is the area of \u200b\u200bimplementation between people of relations of power and subordination, the field of public administration. The main elements of the political system of society are political organizations and institutions (state, political parties, public organizations, mass media), norms of political behavior and political culture, political ideologies. The main elements of the political system of modern Russian society are the president and the presidential administration, the government and parliament (the Federal Assembly), their apparatus, local authorities (provincial, regional), the army, the police, the tax and customs services. Together, they make up the state.
The political sphere also includes political parties that are not members of the state. The main task of the state is to ensure social order in society, resolve conflicts between partners, for example between workers, trade unions and employers, introduce new laws and monitor their strict implementation by all structures, prevent political upheavals, protect the country's external borders and sovereignty, collect taxes and ensure money of institutions of social and cultural spheres, etc. The main function of the political sphere is to legitimize the methods of struggle for power and to protect it. The task of parties is to express the diversity of political interests of various, often opposing, groups of the population through channels established by law.
Social sphere - This is the area of \u200b\u200borigin and functioning of the relationship of people with each other. The social sphere is understood in two senses - broad and narrow - and, depending on this, covers different volumes of social space.
The social sphere of society in the broad sense is a set of organizations and institutions responsible for the welfare of the population. In this case, this includes shops, passenger transport, public utilities (housing and communal services and dry cleaners), catering (canteens and restaurants), healthcare, communications (telephone, mail, telegraph), as well as leisure and entertainment facilities (culture parks, stadiums ) In this sense, the social sphere covers almost all strata and classes - from rich and middle to poor.
The social sphere in the narrow sense implies only socially unprotected segments of the population and the institutions serving them: pensioners, unemployed, low-income, large families, people with disabilities, as well as social protection and social security bodies (including social insurance), both local and federal.
The social system consists of social groups, social ties, social institutions, social norms, values \u200b\u200bof social culture.
TO the spiritual realm include morality, religion, science, education, culture. Its components are schools, museums, theaters, art galleries, the media, cultural monuments and national art treasures, and the church.
Society consists of a huge number of elements and subsystems that are in constant interaction. Various examples can illustrate the connections between subsystems and elements of society. Thus, the study of the distant past of mankind allowed scientists to conclude that the moral relations of people in primitive conditions were based on collectivist principles, that is, in modern language, priority was always given to the collective, rather than to an individual individual.
It is also known that the moral standards that existed among many tribes in those archaic times allowed the killing of weak members of the clan — sick children, old people, and even cannibalism. Did these material ideas and views of people about the limits of the morally permissible affect the real material conditions of their existence? The answer is clear. The need to collect material wealth together, doom to the quick death of a person who has divorced from the family - this should look for the origins of collectivist morality. Also, from the standpoint of the struggle for existence and survival, people did not consider it immoral to free themselves from those who could become a burden for the collective.
The relationship of legal norms and socio-economic relations is well traced. Let us turn to the well-known historical facts. In one of the first codes of laws of Kievan Rus, which is called "Russian Truth", various penalties for murder are provided. Moreover, the measure of punishment was determined primarily by a person’s place in the system of hierarchical relations, his belonging to a particular social layer or group. So, the fine for killing a tyun (ruler) was enormous: it was equal to the cost of a herd of 80 oxen or 400 sheep. The life of a stinker or slave was valued 16 times cheaper.
Society is in continuous motion and development. Since ancient times, thinkers have pondered the question, in which direction is society developing? Can his movement be likened to cyclical changes in nature?
Development direction, which is characterized by a transition from lower to higher, from less perfect to more perfect, is called progress. Accordingly, social progress is a transition to a higher level of the material condition of society and the spiritual development of the individual. An important sign of social progress is the tendency toward the liberation of man.
The following criteria of social progress are distinguished:
1) the growth of well-being and social security of people;
2) the weakening of confrontation between people;
3) the establishment of democracy;
4) the growth of morality and spirituality of society;
5) improving human relations;
6) the measure of freedom that society is able to provide to an individual, the degree of individual freedom guaranteed by society.
If an attempt was made to graphically depict the development of society, it would not be an ascending straight line, but a broken line, reflecting ups and downs, accelerated forward movement and giant leaps back. We are talking about the second direction of development - regression.
Regress - downward development, transition from higher to lower. For example, the period of fascism was a period of regress in world history: millions of people died, various peoples were enslaved, many monuments of world culture were destroyed.
But the matter is not only in such turns of history. Society is a complex organism in which various spheres function, many processes take place at the same time, a diverse activity of people unfolds. All these parts of one social mechanism and all these processes and activities are in mutual connection and at the same time may not coincide in their development. Moreover, individual processes, changes occurring in different areas of society can be multidirectional, i.e. progress in one area may be accompanied by regression in another.
So, throughout history, technical progress is clearly traced - from stone tools to sophisticated machine tools with program control, from pack animals to cars, trains and planes. At the same time, technological progress leads to the destruction of nature, to undermining the natural conditions of human existence, which, of course, is a regression.
In addition to directions, forms of development of society.
The most common form of social development is evolution - gradual and smooth changes in social life that occur naturally.The nature of evolution is gradual, continuous, ascending. Evolution is divided into successive stages or phases, none of which can be skipped. For example, the evolution of science and technology.
Under certain conditions, public changes occur in the form of a revolution - these are quick, qualitative changes, a radical revolution in the life of society. Revolutionary changes are radical and fundamental. Revolutions happen long or short-term, in one or several states, in one sphere. If the revolution affects all levels and spheres of society - economy, politics, culture, social organization, people's daily life, then it is called social. Such revolutions cause strong emotions and mass activity of people. An example is the Russian revolution of 1917.
Social changes are taking place in the form of reform - this is a set of measures aimed at transforming, changing one or another aspect of public life. For example, economic reform, educational reform.