The initial methodological principle in economic sociology is a theoretical approach in the views on the development of society

Modern society to the XXI century. has achieved such results, which are still underestimated by scientists. Attempts to explain what is happening have led to a variety of approaches to the periodization of economic progress, reflecting the real processes in society.

Usually, among them, approaches of such an orientation are singled out: formational, civilizational, world-system and the theory of post-industrial society.

With the formational approach, society is compared in time. It was dominant in the Western world and in domestic society for almost the entire 20th century. At present, the number of its supporters has significantly decreased, which is primarily due to a change in the development paradigm in former countries socialism.

The formational approach is based on the theory of K. Marx. It assumes a five-link structure of human development, i.e., the existence of such socio-economic formations as primitive communal, slave-owning, feudal, capitalist and communist. The main thing in them is the mode of production and the nature of property relations. In this regard, the basis of society is the production of material goods necessary for the existence of society and its further improvement. At the same time, the development of production methods is considered as the history of the development of society. Along with this, they recognize the process of successive change of one formation by another from lower to higher. The disadvantages of the formational approach usually include:

• - Simplified division of the structure of society into productive forces, production relations and superstructure;
• - underestimation of the role human factor;
• - a simplified structure, the weak point of which is the one-line approach (from simple to complex);
• - its applicability to only one limited, albeit very important region of Western Europe. "Five-membered" excludes Asian and other societies.

A civilized approach to the periodization of economic progress is characterized by the comparison of societies in space. It was quite popular in the Western world throughout the 20th century and in Russia before and after the collapse of socialism. New trends have appeared in connection with the concept that defines the civilization of the 21st century as fundamentally unified. However, the growing contradictions between Western and Muslim worlds significantly weakened the arguments of supporters of a civilized approach. In the most general form, many approaches to civilized theory can be represented in the form of two main ones: complex-materialistic and humanitarian. social wallerstein toynbee society

The determining principle in the complex materialistic approach is material production, methods of management and the relations generated by it. But unlike the formational approach, this concept reflects not only the diversity of the material world, but also reveals the patterns of the phenomenal development of a number of societies. They allowed, in particular, some Western European countries not only to transform their societies, but also created opportunities for them to control the destinies of other peoples. This idea in various modifications and at different times was supported by L. Morgan, P. Armils, K. Marx, F. Engels, G. Chaill, R. Redfill, M. Blok, L. Febvre, F. Vradel and others.

The humanitarian approach is characterized by the diversity of the world in its social and cultural dimensions. Within the framework of this concept, many historical processes and their trends were identified. The founders of the humanitarian approach are primarily L. Danilevsky, M. Weber, O. Spengler, P. Sorokin, A. Toynbee. This concept is also supported by modern researchers N. Elias, S. Enzenstadt and others.

A. Toynbee's concept became a huge event in intellectual history. The controversy about it caused a huge number of works written by scientists different countries. Currently, "Toynbeeana" is replenished with new works. The popularity of the theory is due, firstly, to the author's ability to give the most complete reflection of the problem, and secondly, to the fact that in the age of narrow specialization he solves questions of general history.

In its development, society goes through the stages of birth, growth, breakdown and decay. The birth of a civilization is possible under two conditions: a creative minority and an environment that is neither too favorable nor too unfavorable. The mechanism of the origin of civilization is based on the theory of challenges and responses, which assumes their interaction. Any phenomenon in the history of human development is a response to someone's challenge. For example, the environment challenges society. It responds to the challenge through the creative minority and successfully solves the problem. People achieve civilization not as a result of biological gifts or favorable geographic and natural conditions, but in response to a challenge in special situations that inspire them to do things never seen before. Society is constantly in motion, which leads it to civilization. Challenge and response theory has the following features:

• - harmonization of interaction between personality and history;
• - variety of answers with their completeness and intensity;
• - constant repetition of unanswered calls;
• - the variety of challenges and responses that determine the different nature of societies;
• - lack of answers means loss of vitality of the society;
• - the viability of society is characterized by the possibilities of using the living environment, its development and development of spiritual life. The growth of civilization represents "the continuous creative departure and return of the charismatic minority of society in the process of constantly renewing successful responses to new environmental challenges." However, the growth of civilization is not connected either with technical progress, it is not accompanied by either the geographical spread of society, or the strengthening of dominance over the natural environment. A growing civilization realizes its potentialities, which are different for different civilizations. Yes, in ancient civilization aesthetic, in Indian - religious, in Western - scientific and mechanical potency.

The fracture stage is characterized by such features as:

• - insufficient level of creativity of the creative minority;
• - the refusal of the majority to follow and imitate the minority;
• - disintegration of social unity in society.

To maintain their status, the creative minority uses force and resorts to the creation of a universal state like the Roman Empire. Such a state was invented by the ancient ruling minority in order to preserve civilization and themselves.

The decay of civilization can continue for centuries and even millennia. It manifests itself in various forms, affecting the types of human behavior. There are usually two types of human behavior: active and passive. However, both of them are not constructive. An active type of behavior suggests "a form of curbing natural passions through a system of spiritual exercises." Passive type means withdrawal, avoidance of activity. According to the current situation, four types of "rescuers" are possible: the archaic, the rescuer with the ball, the impassive stoic, the transformed religious rescuer. However, nothing can stop the process of decay. The only exception to the rule is the only path - the path of transformation, which involves a change in goals and values. Of the 26 civilizations that existed before, 16 ceased to exist. The rest are either under the threat of liquidation or assimilation with Western civilization.

Considering the typology of civilizations, A. Toynbee notes that some of them are fully realized, others - partially. He calls them "delayed" civilizations. Among them, two types are distinguished depending on the nature of the challenges: the natural environment (Polynesians, Eskimos, nomads) and the social environment (Ottomans, Spartans in the Hellenic world). At the same time, A. Toynbee believes that not a single society has passed the path of civilization to the end. All societies are incomplete. Therefore, their experience is not complete. AT modern society the following typology of civilizations has been adopted: European, Indian, Islamic, Latin American, Buddhist, Far Eastern. In its most general form, civilizational theory is characterized by the following features:

• - the originality of the history of the economy and culture of different peoples and countries;
• - lack of typification of the history of the peoples of different countries in the consistent development and methods of production of material goods;
• - the existence and death of civilization is a process that does not have any patterns;
• - many civilizations, held both fully and partially.

Along with this, there are a number of shortcomings in the civilizational theory, among them:

• - extreme uncertainty and vagueness of the concept of "civilization";
• - linking the criteria of civilization to the phenomena of world religion, mentality, etc.;
• - lowering the priority of economic relations, which dissolve in the totality of criteria and values;
• - isolation from the realities of modern life. The growth and development of civilizations is not determined by the development of scientific and technical progress and the accumulation of material wealth, which is one of the main factors in the development of most modern countries;
• - the criterion of Western civilization with its liberal-democratic values, which are often imposed on the universe, does not suit many countries and peoples. Although the West began to dominate in economic and political aspects, nevertheless, it could not completely disarm its rivals and destroy their native cultures;
• - unfinished nature of the historical experience of civilization.

The formational approach developed in Marxism assumes a spasmodic revolutionary movement of society from one socio-economic formation to another. The source of movement is a change in the mode of production of the material conditions of life (in the productive forces and production relations). Production relations act as the basis of the socio-economic formation, changes in which lead to a more or less rapid replacement of the superstructure of the socio-economic formation, which includes the entire spiritual life of society with its inherent social consciousness, system public relations, ideology and social institutions that organize all social life. The following were distinguished as the main social formations in Marxism: primitive society, slave-owning, feudal, bourgeois (capitalist) and communist socio-economic formations. The latter had to go through two phases: socialism (the first phase) and communism (the second and highest phase of social development). The formational concept of social development was a theoretical generalization of the principle of historical materialism, the main components of which were economic determinism and the interpretation of social development as a natural historical process.

Civilizational approach to the development of society.

The civilizational concept of social development considers this process as a closely related interaction and mutual influence of cultural characteristics and transformations that determine the entire system of social relations. Civilization is interpreted as a "material body" culture, its social organization, etc. But the basic element of civilization, its reverse side is the type of culture (ideals, values ​​and norms) that determine the specifics of human community.

The main spheres of society.

The main purpose of society is to ensure the survival of man as a species. Therefore, the main elements of society, considered as a system, are those areas in which the joint activities of people are carried out, aimed at preserving and expanding the reproduction of their lives.

The main types of socially necessary human activity are economic, social, political, spiritual activities. The areas of implementation of these types of activities are called economic, social, political and spiritual spheres or subsystems of society.

Economic sphere- this is the area of ​​economic activity of society, covering the relations that arise in the process of production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material goods. Being one of the main subsystems of society, it can also be considered as an independent system. The elements of the economic sphere are material needs, economic benefits (goods) that satisfy these needs, economic resources (sources of production of goods), business entities (individuals or organizations).

Social sphere- this is the area of ​​the emergence and functioning of the relationship of people with each other. The social system consists of social groups, social ties, social institutions, social norms, values ​​of social culture

Political sphere covers relations related to the interaction of the state, parties, political organizations regarding power and control, this is the area of ​​​​realization of relations of power and subordination between people. 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.

spiritual realm covers relations related to the development of social consciousness, science, culture, art, this is the area of ​​creation and development of spiritual benefits. The elements of the spiritual sphere are spiritual needs as a source of the spiritual activity of society, a means of implementing spiritual production, as well as subjects of spiritual activity. Spiritual values ​​- the main element of the spiritual sphere - exist in the form of ideas, and are materially embodied in the form of language, works of art, etc.

Each of these spheres, in turn, can be considered as a system consisting of certain elements:

economic sphere includes production establishments (plants, factories), transport establishments, stock and commodity exchanges, banks, etc.,

political - the state, parties, trade unions, youth, women's organizations, etc.,

social - classes, strata, social groups and strata, nations, etc.,

spiritual - science, art, morality, religion, etc.

Society, therefore, is a certain set of elements interconnected and interacting with each other.

Theory of stratification.

Stratification- this is the division of society into special layers (strata) by combining various social positions with approximately the same social status, reflecting the prevailing idea of ​​social inequality in it, built horizontally (social hierarchy), along its axis according to one or more stratification criteria (indicators of social status). The division of society into strata is carried out on the basis of the inequality of social distances between them - the main property of stratification. Social strata line up vertically and in strict sequence according to indicators of wealth, power, education, leisure, and consumption. In social stratification, a certain social distance is established between people (social positions) and a hierarchy is built from social strata. Thus, the unequal access of members of society to certain socially significant scarce resources is fixed by establishing social filters on the boundaries separating social strata. For example, the allocation of social strata can be carried out according to the levels of income, education, power, consumption, the nature of work, spending free time. The social strata identified in society are evaluated in it according to the criterion of social prestige, which expresses the social attractiveness of certain positions. But in any case, social stratification is the result of a more or less conscious activity (policy) of the ruling elites, who are extremely interested in imposing on society and legitimizing in it their own social ideas about the unequal access of members of society to social benefits and resources. The simplest stratification model is dichotomous- the division of society into elites and masses. In some of the earliest, archaic social systems, the structuring of society into clans is carried out simultaneously with the implementation of social inequality between them and within them. This is how those who are initiated into certain social practices (priests, elders, leaders) and the uninitiated - profane (all other members of society, ordinary members of the community, fellow tribesmen) appear. Within them, society can further stratify if necessary. As society becomes more complex (structuring), a parallel process occurs - the embedding of social positions into a certain social hierarchy. This is how castes, estates, classes, etc. appear. Modern ideas about the stratification model that has developed in society are quite complex - multi-layered (polychotomous), multidimensional (carried out along several axes) and variable (sometimes allow the existence of many stratification models). qualifications, quotas, attestation, determination of status, ranks, benefits, privileges, other preferences.

The political sphere of society. Signs and functions of the state.

The political sphere is one of the most important spheres public life.

Political sphere- this is the relationship of people, connected primarily with power, which provide joint security.

The Greek word politike (from polis - state, city), having appeared in the writings of ancient thinkers, was originally used to refer to the art of government. Having retained this meaning as one of the central ones, the modern term "politics" is now used to express social activity, in the center of which are the problems of acquiring, using and retaining power. The elements of the political sphere can be represented as follows:

political organizations and institutions- social groups, revolutionary movements, parliamentarism, parties, citizenship, 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 political system in general and society;

political culture and ideology- political ideas, ideology, political culture, political psychology.

Needs and interests form certain political goals of social groups. On this target basis, political parties arise, social movements, power state institutions that carry out specific political activities. The interaction of large social groups with each other and with the institutions of power constitutes the communicative subsystem of the political sphere. This interaction is regulated by various norms, customs and traditions. Reflection and awareness of these relations form the cultural and ideological subsystem of the political sphere.

The most common signs of the state are:

Territory. The state represents a single territorial organization of political power throughout the country. State power extends to the entire population within a certain territory, which entails the administrative-territorial division of the state.

Population. This sign characterizes the belonging of people to a given society and state, composition, citizenship, the procedure for its acquisition and loss, etc.

public authority. The state is a special organization of state power, which has a special apparatus for managing society to ensure its normal functioning.

Sovereignty. State sovereignty is state power which is expressed in the supremacy and independence of this state in relation to any other authorities within the country, as well as its independence in the international arena, provided that the sovereignty of other states is not violated.

Publication of legal norms. The state organizes public life on a legal basis. Only the state, represented by its competent authorities (unlike other political organizations), issues decrees that are binding on the entire population of the country, unlike other norms of public life (morals, customs, traditions) Legal norms are provided by measures of state coercion with the help of special bodies .

Mandatory fees from citizens - taxes, taxes, loans . The state establishes them for the maintenance of public authority. Compulsory fees are used by the state for the maintenance of the army, police and other enforcement agencies, the state apparatus, and state programs.

State symbols. Each state has an official name, anthem, coat of arms, flag, memorable dates, public holidays. The state establishes the rules of official behavior, forms of addressing people to each other, greetings, etc.

The state belongs to the most stable structure of the political organization of society due to the fact that it performs a number of functions that are different from the activities of other subjects of the political system.

FUNCTIONS OF THE STATE- these are duties, scope of activities, appointment, role in the most concentrated, generalized form.

Internal functions- these are the main activities of the state in managing the internal life of society.

economic function

social function

financial control

Law enforcement function

Cultural and educational function

Political and protective function

Environmental (environmental) function

External functions of the state - these are the main directions of its activity in the international arena.

Defense function

Diplomatic and trade and economic functions

Struggle for peace and peaceful coexistence

Participation in the activities of international and interstate

Cultural, scientific and information exchange .

Interaction with other countries

Basic concepts of Marxist sociology.

Marxist sociology can be presented in the following theses:

1. the development of society is a natural-historical progress; 2. people create their own history, but the course of development is determined not by desire, but by the material conditions of their life; 3. a person is born and formed as a person in an already formed society with established stable social relations, and the formation of a person occurs under their influence ("a person is a set of social relations"); 4.primary in the system of social relations are economic relations; the relations of production and the forces of production of society determine all spheres of life: the production of the directly material forces of life and thus each stage of the economy of a period and epoch form the basis from which state institutions, legal views, art and even the religious ideas of people develop, from which they must be explained, and not vice versa, as has been done so far; 5. the unity and interaction of certain production forces and relations (modes of production) constitute separate stages in the development of society - socio-economic formations ("specifically historical forms of society's existence formed on the basis of a given mode of production"); 6. society, evolving in its development, successively goes through the following stages of development (formations): primitive communal, slave-owning, feudal, capitalist, communist (Marx analyzed the formations in his work "Capital", the communist formation was derived by him as a scientific forecast based on application of Hegel's dialectic); 7. the basis of the social life of society is the class struggle, which is regarded as the source and driving force of social progress; for each formation there are antagonist classes, the relations between which determine the content of the story; 8. the transition from one formation to another occurs in the form of social revolutions, during which one ruling class is replaced by the next and the class struggle develops between new antagonist classes; class affiliation is the main characteristic of the individual, it determines his consciousness, value system and behavior. According to Marx, no economic formation can become a thing of the past as long as it allows the development of production forces and production relations, and new production forces and production relations will not appear until the conditions for their development within the formation are created.

The doctrine of the state. History and modernity.

State- a political organization of the economically dominant class, which has as its goal to protect the existing order and suppress the resistance of other classes.

In general, all theories of the origin of the state can be divided into three groups:

1. The state is a product of divine revelation - a theological hypothesis.

2. Contractual hypothesis (people agreed).

3. Theories of a biological nature (nature itself ordered that some people she gave strength to lead).

Plato was one of the first ancient Greek philosophers who systematically presented his understanding of the state. Plato's works on this subject: "The State" and "Laws". Plato divides society into three classes: rulers, warriors, artisans, each class has its own virtue, respectively, wisdom, courage, temperance. The state has never existed as a product of the reconciliation of classes, always as a weapon to maintain the "order that it allows" (Plato, Marshal). Hobbes said the following: the state has the right to use not only the force of law, but also the force of arms. Plato: "We (aristocrats) want to create a state in which everyone is happy, in which it gives everyone equal opportunities." Plato does not include slaves at all. He noticed that the state is a product of inequality. The state is where virtue is not valued, the poor are not honored there, in the state there are, as it were, two states: the poor and the rich, they will always infringe on each other, the state is held by the use of force. Any form of government is a dictatorship of the ruling class. Plato is against private property, unless absolutely necessary, then no one should have private property. In a perfect state, all citizens should be equal, they call each other associates. “Those who are in love with it should not come to power.” An excess of freedom, according to Plato, leads to slavery. Plato's ideal state is based on the principle of justice. In the project of an ideal state, the life of its citizens is largely regulated. The cohesion of the state is ensured by severely restricting and impoverishing people's lives, by completely subordinating the individual to the state. So, the Platonic state is a theoretical scheme of a utopian state in which the life of society is subject to strict state control.

Machiavelli is one of the first ideologists of the Renaissance, who set forth new views on the development of society and the state. He owns these words: "Kill him before he kills you." In Machiavelli's theory of the state there was no place for church and religion. According to Machiavelli, any violence can be justified in the name of the public good. The sovereign must be guided by generally accepted norms of morality, but if the state interests require actions that neglect morality, then this can be done. Machiavelli believed that a sovereign was required who was able to unite the republic.

Rousseau believed that inequality did not always exist, it appeared when private property arose. The stratification into rich and poor is the first stage of inequality. The second stage of inequality begins with the emergence of the state, when the poor and the rich entered into an alliance with each other. The third stage of inequality is the transition of state power to despotism, which turns subjects into slaves. “You will have everything if you educate citizens; without this, everyone, starting with the rulers of the State, will be only miserable slaves.” The laws must embody the general will of the people.

State. power yavl. united the beginning in the state and correlates with the state as God with the world or the soul with the body. The theory arose. state-va due to total. contracts, creation state-va according to the parties. In this theory (Spinoza, Hobbes, Locke) was conditioned. the desire of people to prevent mutual. enmity and settlement. noun relationship between them. Having created the state, people, on the basis of an agreement, transferred to him part of the rights and instructions to protect their freedom. a range of diets. thoughts about arose. frequent sosbst., classes and go-va vys. Rousseau (1712-78). Perfection. tools led to improvements. tillage, arose, frequent. own and affairs. about-va on God. and the poor and the struggle between them. Strengthen the class fight vyz. required image. go-va, cat. often comes to the defense. own and fixed. state-va haves. However, he says that Mr. invented by the rich, the cat, by deception, convinced the poor of the need. created. state-va. Hegel (1770-1831). Labor underlies eq. rel., cat. are at the core of social differentiation of people (class division).

The concept of the spiritual life of society. Structure of public consciousness.

The spiritual life of society is usually understood as that area of ​​being in which objective, supra-individual reality is given not in the form of objective reality that opposes us, but a reality that is present in ourselves, which is an integral part of a person’s personality. It is in the spiritual sphere that what distinguishes a person from other living beings is born and realized - spirit, spirituality. The spiritual life of society, being a product of social practice, historically completes the formation of society as such.

Since the spiritual life of mankind is repelled from material life, its structure is largely similar: spiritual need, spiritual interest, spiritual activity, spiritual benefits (values) created by this activity, satisfaction of spiritual need, etc. In addition, the presence of spiritual activity and its products give rise to a special kind of social relations (aesthetic, religious, moral, communication, etc.).

public consciousness is a very complex structure.

The social consciousness of each historical epoch (excluding the primitive communal system) has two levels: psychological and ideological.

Public psychology there is a set of feelings, moods, customs, traditions, motives characteristic of a given society as a whole and for each of the large social groups (class, nation, etc.). Social psychology develops directly under the influence of concrete historical conditions of social life.

Ideologists I am a system of theoretical views that reflects the degree of society's knowledge of the world as a whole and its individual aspects, and, as such, it represents a higher stage in comparison with social psychology, the level of social consciousness - the level of theoretical reflection of the world. If in analyzing the psychology of social groups we use the epithet "public",

The relationship between social psychology and ideology is predetermined by the fact that the first is an emotional, sensual, and the second is a rational level of social consciousness. Ideology is the theoretical level of social consciousness. Social psychology - the ordinary level.

Spiritual life of society: morality and law.

Morality- a form of public consciousness, representing a set of principles, norms, rules of conduct designed to regulate relations between people, based on public opinion and on the ideas of good and evil that have developed in a given society. Morality or moral consciousness is a vision of the world through the prism of good and evil, it is a reflection of the world associated with a person's assessment of reflected phenomena as good or bad, good or evil. Morality at the level of social psychology manifests itself in the form of moral feelings and manifests itself in the form of mores, special norms of moral behavior. At the level of everyday consciousness, morality is ethnic knowledge about the rules of the community, customs and mores, which are manifested in all spheres of society. At the theoretical level, a theoretical form of knowledge about moral relations, customs (forms of action) and mores (norm of behavior) is formed, and the science of ethics is also being created.

Important philosophical questions of morality are the questions of the origin and essence of morality. “Two things always fill with new and stronger surprise and reverence,” I. Kant said, the more often and longer we think about them, “this is the starry sky above me and the moral law in me.”

Performing, along with the law that appeared later, the role of a regulator of people's behavior, morality at the same time fundamentally differs from it in a number of significant points:

1. Morality is such a regulatory system that is mandatory for each formational and civilizational stage of development of society. Law, on the other hand, is an attribute of only “state” formations, in which morality in itself cannot ensure the behavior of people corresponding to a given social order.

2. Moral standards of behavior are supported only public opinion, legal norms - with the whole force of state power. Accordingly, the moral sanction (approval or condemnation) has an ideal-spiritual character: a person must be aware of the assessment of his behavior by public opinion, accept it internally and correct his behavior for the future. The legal sanction reward or punishment) takes on the character of a coercive measure of public influence.

3. The categories of legal and moral systems are fundamentally different from each other. If the main categories of law are legal and illegal, lawful and unlawful, fair and unfair, then the main evaluative categories of morality and ethics are: good, evil, duty, conscience, honor, dignity, happiness, meaning of life.

4. Moral norms also apply to such relations between people that are not regulated by state bodies (friendship, camaraderie, love, etc.).

The essence of morality is expressed in its functions. Among the many functions performed by morality, the main ones are considered to be the following: regulatory, evaluative-imperative, cognitive

morality and law closely intertwined. On the one hand, formalized morality can become law. The Ten Commandments are both the moral and legal law of many cultures. The moral justification of the rules of law for the creation of a rule of law is as important as their unity

The concept of “moral harm” is reflected in law, but morality remains the sphere of higher ideas, a matter of conscience, which serves as a criterion for historical legal reforms. In addition, the practice of totalitarian regimes has shown that sometimes morality can conflict with law.

Both moral and legal norms are social. What they have in common is that both types serve to regulate and evaluate the actions of the individual. Various include:

law is made by the state

morality - by society;

law is enshrined in state acts, morality is not;

for violation of the rule of law, sanctions of the state are assumed, for violation of the norm of morality - public condemnation.

Right- one of the types of regulators of public relations

Spiritual life of society: art and religion.

Art(along with science) is one of the ways of cognition, both in the natural sciences and in the religious picture of the perception of the world.

The concept of art is extremely broad - it can manifest itself as an extremely developed skill in a particular area. For a long time, art was considered a kind of cultural activity that satisfies a person’s love for beauty. Along with the evolution of social aesthetic norms and assessments, any activity aimed at creating aesthetically expressive forms has gained the right to be called art.

On the scale of the whole society, art is a special way of knowing and reflecting reality, one of the forms of artistic activity of social consciousness and part of the spiritual culture of both man and all mankind, a diverse result of the creative activity of all generations. In science, art is called both the actual creative artistic activity and its result - a work of art.

religious system representations of the world (worldview) is based on religious faith and is associated with a person’s attitude to the superhuman spiritual world, some kind of superhuman reality, about which a person knows something, and to which he must somehow orient his life. Faith can be reinforced by mystical experience.

Of particular importance for religion are such concepts as good and evil, morality, the purpose and meaning of life, etc.

The foundations of the religious ideas of most world religions are written down by people in sacred texts, which, according to believers, are either dictated or inspired directly by God or the gods, or written by people who have reached the highest spiritual state from the point of view of each particular religion, great teachers, especially enlightened or dedicated, saints, etc.

Art and religion

It is impossible to separate the birth of art from the birth of religion. From the point of view of an established religion, art is only a symbolic way of conveying the higher truths preached by a given religion. For a long time from the heyday of Christianity to the Renaissance in the European world, art was mainly commissioned by the church.

Global problems of modernity and the future of mankind.

Global problems of our time - this is a set of vital problems of modern mankind, directly related to its existence (environmental, demographic, war and peace, food, raw materials, energy). These problems have the following features: planetary, global character; threaten degradation and death to all mankind; need urgent and effective solutions; require collective efforts of all states, joint actions of peoples; require their consideration through the prism of universal interests. Global problems were the result, on the one hand, of the huge scale of human activity, which radically changes nature and society, and, on the other hand, the inability of man to rationally manage this powerful force. Ecological problem caused by the contradiction between the production activity of man and the stability of the natural environment of his habitat. The pressure of anthropogenic factors on the biosphere can lead to collapse - a sharp and rapid deterioration of the ecological situation and, as a result, the fleeting death of the planet's population. The environmental crisis has a multifaceted nature: environmental pollution, an increase in ozone holes, acid rain, the greenhouse effect, the extinction of a number of animals and plants, the depletion of the energy and material resources of the world, the rise in the level of the world ocean, the melting of glaciers, etc. demographic problem caused by the rapid growth of the world's population. Now it is growing at a rate of 75 million people a year and by 2025 will exceed 8.5 billion people. The population of the developing, poor countries of Africa and South Asia is growing especially rapidly. If by the beginning of our era the world population was 250 million people, then in 2006 it was 6.5 billion and is increasing at a rate of about 9 thousand people per hour. The problem of war and peace associated with a military threat, build-up of nuclear arsenals. Nuclear weapons are possessed not only by Western countries and Russia, but also by India, Pakistan, South Africa, Israel and a number of other states. The accumulated weapons can destroy all life on Earth many dozens of times. While the danger of a direct military clash between nuclear powers has now diminished, the threat of blind technological chance has not disappeared. The presence of nuclear weapons has not prevented the emergence of hotbeds of local wars, each of which can become the fuse for a world war in which there will be no winners. Crisis of human corporality associated with the danger of the destruction of humanity as a species, the deformation of its bodily foundations: the loosening of the gene pool, the development of genetic engineering. The genetic burden of human populations is growing, and the human immune apparatus is weakening. The increase in the number of people infected with AIDS, suffering from drug addiction and alcoholism is also a global problem.

The future of humanity . An unstable, constantly changing world does not give grounds for accurate predictions. However, some tendencies of this movement can be caught. Does it futurology . Futurology as an independent discipline was formed around the middle of the 20th century. If we talk about the methods of futurology, then the most common among them are the following:

the method of inertial analysis, which involves the extrapolation of stable trends that exist in the present to the future;

trend analysis - building on the basis of particular, but stable trends, the so-called trend - a general trend;

scenario method, which consists in determining the fan of development opportunities and sorting through various options for the future, taking into account the disappearance or preservation of some specific circumstances.

The reliability of any forecast is low. In addition, humanity would hardly want to get an accurate forecast. It is not for nothing that in ancient mythologies, one of the most terrible punishments was precisely the knowledge of the future, which makes senseless the creative efforts of the present and the past. Realizing this fact, a person does not so much calculate the future as invents it. Futurological concepts, no matter how scientific they may look, remain a more or less realistic fantasy of both a desirable and a gloomy, terrible, unacceptable future.

The concepts of the future are built on the basis of certain values, worldview guidelines, so any futurological reflection is a kind of philosophizing. The rich history of philosophy is a necessary support for such reflection and a basis for overcoming contemporary problems.

Is " civilization". It is most often used in modern science and journalism and comes from Latin word"civilis", which means "state, civil, political".

In modern scientific literature civilization interpreted:

• as a synonym for the concept;
• a type of society that differs from savagery and barbarism by the social division of labor, writing, and a developed system of state-legal relations;
• type of society with characteristic only for him and.

Modern social science prefers the latter interpretation, although it does not oppose it to the other two. Thus, the concept of "civilization" has two main meanings: how separate society And How stage originated in antiquity and the ongoing development of mankind. The study of the history of society based on this concept is called civilizational approach to the analysis of human history.

Within the framework of the civilizational approach, there are several theories, among which two main ones stand out:

• local civilizations;
• world, universal civilization.

Theory of local civilizations

Theory of local civilizations studies historically established communities that occupy a certain territory and have their own characteristics of socio-economic and cultural development. Local civilizations may coincide with the borders of states, but there are exceptions, for example, Western Europe, consisting of many large and small completely independent states, is considered to be one civilization, since with all the originality of each state, they all represent one cultural and historical type.

The theory of the cyclical development of local civilizations was studied in the 20th century. sociologist P. A. Sorokin, historian A. Toynbee and others.

So, A. Toynbee singled out more than 10 closed civilizations. Each of them passed in the development of the stage of emergence, growth, breakdown, decomposition. A young civilization is energetic, full of strength, contributes to a more complete satisfaction of the needs of the population, has a high rate of economic growth, and progressive spiritual values. But then these possibilities are exhausted. Economic, socio-political mechanisms, scientific, technical, educational and cultural potentials are becoming obsolete. The process of fracture and disintegration begins, manifesting itself, in particular, in the escalation of internal civil wars. The existence of civilization ends with death, with the change of the dominant type of culture. As a result, civilization completely disappears. Thus, there is no common history for mankind. No existing civilization can pride itself on representing the highest point of development in comparison with its predecessors.

The main civilizations are:

• western;
• Orthodox Christian in Russia;
• Iranian and Arabic (Islamic);
• Hindu;
• Far East.

This also includes such ancient civilizations as the Sumerian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Hellenic and Mayan civilizations. In addition, there are minor civilizations. Unlike more early life modern civilizations, according to Toynbee, are longer, they occupy vast territories, and the number of people covered by civilizations is usually large. They tend to spread through the subjugation and assimilation of other societies.

Theory of human civilization

AT theories of world, universal civilization its separate stages (stages) are distinguished. Well-known American scientists D. Bell, O. Toffler, Z. Brzezinski and others name three main stages in the global civilizational process:

• (agrarian);
• , the beginning of which was laid by the first industrial revolution in Europe;
• (information society), which arises with the transformation of information technology into a determining factor in the development of society.

Character traits pre-industrial (agrarian) civilization:

• the predominance of agricultural production and natural exchange of products;
• the overwhelming role of the state in social processes;
• rigid class division of society, low social mobility of citizens;
• the predominance of customs and traditions in the spiritual sphere of society.

Character traits industrial civilization:

• the predominance of industrial production with the growing role of science in it;
• development ;
• high social mobility;
• the growing role of individualism and the initiative of the individual in the struggle to weaken the role of the state, to increase the role of civil society in the political and spiritual sphere of society.

post-industrial civilization(information society) has the following characteristics:

• automation of production of consumer goods, development of the service sector;
• development of information technology and resource-saving technologies;
• development of legal regulation of social relations, the desire for harmonious relations between society, the state and the individual;
• the beginning of attempts at reasonable interaction with environment, solutions to global diverse problems of mankind.

Formational approach to historical phenomena

Analysis from the standpoint of the theory of global civilization is close to formational approach formed within the framework of Marxism. Under formation is understood as a historically defined type of society that arises on the basis of a certain method of material production. Plays a leading role basis - a set of economic relations that develop between people in the process of production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material goods. The totality of political, legal, religious and other views, relations and institutions is superstructure.

public consciousness

One of the elements of the superstructure is, i.e., the totality of the views of a given society on various aspects of the structure of the world and social life.

This set of views has a certain structure. Views are divided into two levels. The first the level consists of empirical (experimental) views of people on the world and their own lives, accumulated throughout the history of a given society, second- theoretical systems of ideas developed by professional researchers.

In addition, the views are divided into groups depending on the area of ​​the issues being addressed. These groups of ideas are called . These forms include: knowledge about the world as a whole, about nature, about social life, legal knowledge, morality, religion, ideas about beauty, and so on. These ideas for theoretical level act as scientific disciplines: philosophy, political science, legal sciences, ethics, religious studies, aesthetics, physics, chemistry, etc. The state and development of social consciousness are determined by the state of social life, i.e., the level of development of society and the nature of its economic basis.

social revolution

The source of the development of society are considered contradictions between productive forces and production relations resolved in the course of the social revolution.

According to this theory, humanity in development passes a series of stages (formations), each of which has its own basis and corresponding superstructure. Each formation is characterized by a certain basic form of ownership and a leading class that dominates both the economy and politics. stages primitive society, slave society and feudal society correspond to an agrarian civilization. The capitalist formation corresponds to the industrial civilization. The highest formation—communist—with its best principles of social organization from the point of view of Marxism, is built on the most developed economic basis.

The following are commonly referred to shortcomings of the formational approach:

• predetermination, the rigid inevitability of the development of the historical process;
• exaggeration of the role of the economic factor in public life;
• underestimation of the role of spiritual and other superstructural factors.

Currently, the formational theory is in crisis, the civilizational approach to the study of the historical process is becoming more common. The civilizational approach has a more specific historical character, taking into account not only the material and technical aspects of social development, but also the influence of factors arising in other spheres of society.

Generally formational and civilizational approaches do not exclude, but complement, enrich each other.

In the social sciences, discussions have been going on for a long time on a fundamental question: is the world moving towards a single civilization with universal values, or is a trend towards cultural and historical diversity realized and humanity will be a collection of locally developing civilizations? Proponents of the first point of view refer to the indisputable facts of the spread of values ​​that originated in European civilization: ideological pluralism, humanization, democracy, modern technologies and others. Supporters of the second position emphasize that the development of any viable organism, including a social one, is based on the interaction of opposite sides, diversity. The spread of common values ​​common to all peoples, cultural ways of life, the globalization of the world community supposedly entail the end of human development.

Different theories make it possible to see history in different ways. In the formational and general civilizational theories, the laws of development common to all mankind come to the fore, in the theory of local civilizations - the individual diversity of the historical process. Thus, different approaches have their own advantages and complement each other.

Most The approaches to explaining the essence and features of the historical process developed in Russian historical and philosophical science are formational and civilizational.

The first of them belongs to the Marxist school of social science. Its key concept is the category of "socio-economic formation"

The formation was understood as a historically defined type of society, considered in the organic interconnection of all his parties and spheres, arising on the basis of a certain method of production of material goods. In the structure of each formation, an economic basis and a superstructure were distinguished. Basis (otherwise it was called relations of production) - a set of social relations that develop between people in the process of production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material goods (the main among them are the ownership of the means of production). The superstructure was understood as a set of political, legal, ideological, religious, cultural and other views, institutions and relations not covered by the base. Despite relative independence, the type of superstructure was determined by the nature of the basis. He also represented the basis of the formation, determining the formation affiliation of a particular society. The relations of production (the economic basis of society) and the productive forces constituted the mode of production, often understood as a synonym for the socio-economic formation. The concept of "productive forces" included people as producers of material goods with their knowledge, skills and labor experience, and means of production: tools, objects, means of labor. The productive forces are a dynamic, constantly developing element of the mode of production, while the relations of production are static and inert, not changing for centuries. At a certain stage, a conflict arises between the productive forces and production relations, which is resolved in the course of the social revolution, the destruction of the old basis and the transition to a new stage of social development, to a new socio-economic formation. The old relations of production are being replaced by new ones, which open up scope for the development of the productive forces. Thus, Marxism understands the historical process as a natural, objectively conditioned, natural-historical change of socio-economic formations.

In some works of K. Marx himself, only two large formations are singled out - primary (archaic) and secondary (economic), which includes all societies based on private property. The third formation will be communism. In other works of the classics of Marxism, the socio-economic formation is understood as a specific stage in the development of the mode of production with its corresponding superstructure. It was on their basis that in Soviet social science by 1930 the so-called “five-term” was formed and received the character of an indisputable dogma. According to this concept, all societies in their development alternately pass through five socio-economic formations: primitive, slave-owning, feudal, capitalist and communist, the first phase of which is socialism. The formational approach is based on several postulates:

1) the idea of ​​history as a natural, internally conditioned, progressive progressive, world-historical and teleological (directed towards the goal - the construction of communism) process. The formational approach practically denied the national specificity and originality of individual states, focusing on the general that was characteristic of all societies;

2) the decisive role of material production in the life of society, the idea of ​​economic factors as basic for other social relations;

3) the need to match production relations with the productive forces;

4) the inevitability of the transition from one socio-economic formation to another.

At the present stage of development of social science in our country, the theory of socio-economic formations is experiencing an obvious crisis, many authors have highlighted civilizational approach to the analysis of the historical process.

The concept of "civilization" is one of the most complex in modern science: many definitions have been proposed. The term itself comes from the Latin the words"civil". In a broad sense civilization is understood as a level, a stage in the development of society, material and spiritual culture, following barbarism, savagery. This concept is also used to refer to the totality of unique manifestations of social orders inherent in a certain historical community. In this sense, civilization is characterized as a qualitative specificity (originality of material, spiritual, social life) of a particular group of countries, peoples at a certain stage of development. The well-known Russian historian M.A. Barg defined civilization as follows: “... This is the way in which a given society resolves its material, socio-political and spiritual-ethical problems.” Different civilizations are fundamentally different from each other, since they are based not on similar production techniques and technologies (like societies of the same Formation), but on incompatible systems of social and spiritual values. Any civilization is characterized not so much by a production basis as by a way of life specific to it, a system of values, vision and ways of interconnection with the outside world.

In the modern theory of civilizations, both linear-stage concepts are widespread (in which civilization is understood as a certain stage of world development, opposed to “uncivilized” societies), and the concepts of local civilizations. The existence of the former is explained by the Eurocentrism of their authors, who represent the world historical process as the gradual introduction of barbarian peoples and societies to the Western European system of values ​​and the gradual advancement of mankind towards a single world civilization based on the same values. Supporters of the second group of concepts use the term "civilization" in the plural and proceed from the idea of ​​the diversity of ways of development of various civilizations.

Various historians distinguish many local civilizations that may coincide with the borders of states ( Chinese civilization) or cover several countries (ancient, Western European civilization). Civilizations change over time, but their "core", due to which one civilization differs from another, remains. The uniqueness of each civilization should not be absolutized: they all go through stages common to the world historical process. Usually the whole variety of local civilizations is divided into two large groups- Eastern and Western. The former are characterized by a high degree of dependence of the individual on nature and the geographical environment, the close connection of a person with his social group, low social mobility, and the dominance of traditions and customs among the regulators of social relations. Western civilizations, on the contrary, are characterized by the desire to subordinate nature to human power by the priority of individual rights and freedoms over social communities, high social mobility, democratic political regime and the rule of law.

Thus, if the formation focuses on the universal, general, repetitive, then civilization focuses on the local-regional, unique, original. These approaches are not mutually exclusive. In modern social science, there are searches in the direction of their mutual synthesis.

community development is a complex process, therefore its comprehension has led to the emergence of various approaches, theories, one way or another explaining the history of the emergence and development of society. There are two main approaches to the development of society: formational and civilizational.

1. Formational approach to the development of society.

According to the formational approach, which was represented by K. Marx, F. Engels, V.I. Lenin and others, society in its development passes through certain successive stages - socio-economic formations - primitive communal, slave-owning, feudal, capitalist and communist. A socio-economic formation is a historical type of society based on a certain mode of production. The mode of production includes productive forces and production relations. The productive forces include the means of production and people with their knowledge and practical experience in the field of the economy. The means of production, in turn, include objects of labor (what is processed in the labor process - land, raw materials, materials) and means of labor (what objects of labor are processed with - tools, equipment, machinery, production facilities). Production relations are relations that arise in the process of production and depend on the form of ownership of the means of production.

How is the dependence of production relations on the form of ownership of the means of production expressed? Let's take primitive society as an example. The means of production there were common property, and therefore everyone worked together, and the results of labor belonged to everyone and were distributed equally. On the contrary, in a capitalist society, the means of production (land, enterprises) are owned by private individuals - capitalists, and therefore the relations of production are different. The capitalist hires workers. They produce products, but the same owner of the means of production disposes of them. Workers only get paid for their work.

How is the development of society according to the formational approach? The fact is that there is a regularity: the productive forces develop faster than the relations of production. The means of labor, knowledge and skills of a person employed in production are being improved. Over time, a contradiction arises: the old production relations begin to hold back the development of new productive forces. In order for the productive forces to be able to develop further, the old relations of production must be replaced by new ones. When this happens, the socio-economic structure also changes.

For example, under a feudal socio-economic formation (feudalism), the relations of production are as follows. The main means of production - land - belongs to the feudal lord. Peasants perform duties for the use of land. In addition, they are personally dependent on the feudal lord, and in a number of countries they were attached to the land and could not leave their master. Meanwhile, society is evolving. Technology is improving, industry is emerging. However, the development of industry is hampered by the virtual absence of free labor (peasants depend on the feudal lord and cannot leave him). The purchasing power of the population is low (mostly the population consists of peasants who have no money and, accordingly, the opportunity to purchase various goods), which means that there is little point in increasing industrial production. It turns out that for the development of industry it is necessary to replace the old relations of production with new ones. The peasants must become free. Then they will have a choice: either to continue to be engaged in agricultural labor or, for example, in case of ruin, to be hired by an industrial enterprise. The land should become the private property of the peasants. This will allow them to dispose of the results of their labor, sell their products, and use the money they receive to purchase manufactured goods. The relations of production in which there is private ownership of the means of production and the results of labor, wage labor is used - these are already capitalist relations of production. They can be established either in the course of reforms or as a result of a revolution. So the capitalist socio-economic formation (capitalism) comes to replace the feudal one.

As noted above, the formational approach proceeds from the fact that the development of society, various countries and peoples goes through certain stages: the primitive communal system, the slave system, feudalism, capitalism and communism. This process is based on the changes taking place in the sphere of production. Proponents of the formational approach believe that the leading role in social development is played by historical patterns, objective laws, within the framework of which a person acts. Society is steadily moving along the path of progress, since each subsequent socio-economic formation is more progressive than the previous one. Progress is associated with the improvement of the productive forces and production relations.

The formal approach has its drawbacks. As history shows, not all countries fit into the "harmonious" scheme proposed by the proponents of this approach. For example, in many countries there was no slave-owning socio-economic formation. As for the countries of the East, their historical development was generally peculiar (to resolve this contradiction, K. Marx came up with the concept of “Asiatic mode of production”). In addition, as we see, the formational approach to all complex social processes provides an economic basis, which is not always correct, and also relegates the role of the human factor in history to the background, giving priority to objective laws.

2. Civilizational approach to the development of society.

The word "civilization" comes from the Latin "civis", which means "city, state, civil ". Already in ancient times, it was opposed to the concept of "silvaticus" - "forest, wild, rough." In the future, the concept of "civilization" acquired various meanings, many theories of civilization arose. In the Age of Enlightenment, civilization began to be understood as a highly developed society with a written language and cities.

Today there are about 200 definitions of this concept. For example, Arnold Toynbee (1889 - 1975), a supporter of the theory of local civilizations, called a civilization a stable community of people united by spiritual traditions, a similar way of life, geographical, historical boundaries. And Oswald Spengler (1880 - 1936), the founder of the culturological approach to the historical process, believed that civilization is the highest level, completing the period of development of culture, preceding its death. One of the modern definitions of this concept is as follows: civilization is a set of material and spiritual achievements of society.

The theories of the staged development of civilization (K. Jaspers, P. Sorokin, W. Rostow, O. Toffler, and others) consider civilization as a single process of the progressive development of mankind, in which certain stages (stages) are distinguished. This process began in ancient times, when humanity moved from primitive to civilized. It continues to this day. During this time, there have been great social changes that have affected socio-economic, political relations, and the cultural sphere.

Thus, a prominent American sociologist, economist, historian of the twentieth century Walt Whitman Rostow created the theory of stages of economic growth. He identified five such stages:

traditional society. There are agrarian societies with rather primitive technology, the predominance of agriculture in the economy, the estate-class structure and the power of large landowners.

Transitional society. Agricultural production is growing, a new type of activity is emerging - entrepreneurship and a corresponding new type of enterprising people. Centralized states are being formed, national self-consciousness is being strengthened. Thus, the prerequisites for the transition of society to a new stage of development are ripening.

"shift" stage. Industrial revolutions are taking place, followed by socio-economic and political transformations.

"maturity" stage. There is a scientific and technological revolution, the importance of cities and the number of urban population is growing.

The era of "high mass consumption". There is a significant growth in the service sector, the production of consumer goods and their transformation into the main sector of the economy.

Theories of local (local from Latin - “local”) civilizations (N.Ya. Danilevsky, A. Toynbee) they proceed from the fact that there are separate civilizations, large historical communities that occupy a certain territory and have their own characteristics of socio-economic, political and cultural development.

Local civilizations are a kind of elements that make up the general flow of history. They may coincide with the borders of the state (Chinese civilization), or may include several states (Western European civilization). Local civilizations are complex systems in which different components interact with each other: geographical environment, economy, political system, legislation, religion, philosophy, literature, art, people's way of life, etc. Each of these components bears the stamp of the originality of a particular local civilization. This uniqueness is very stable. Of course, civilizations change over time, they experience external influences, but there remains a certain basis, a “core”, thanks to which one civilization still differs from another.

Arnold Toynbee, one of the founders of the theory of local civilizations, believed that history is a non-linear process. This is the process of birth, life and death of unrelated civilizations in different parts of the Earth. Toynbee divided civilizations into main and local. The main civilizations (for example, the Sumerian, Babylonian, Hellenic, Chinese, Hindu, Islamic, Christian, etc.) left a bright mark on the history of mankind and indirectly influenced other civilizations. Local civilizations are closed within the national framework, there are about thirty of them: American, German, Russian, etc.

Toynbee believed that the driving forces of civilization were: a challenge thrown to civilization from the outside (unfavorable geographical position, lagging behind other civilizations, military aggression); response of civilization as a whole to this challenge; the activities of great people, talented, "God's chosen" personalities.

There is a creative minority that leads the inert majority to respond to the challenges posed by civilization. At the same time, the inert majority tends to “extinguish”, to absorb the energy of the minority. This leads to the cessation of development, stagnation. Thus, each civilization goes through certain stages: the birth, growth, breakdown and disintegration, culminating in death and the complete disappearance of civilization.

Both theories arestadial and local - give you the opportunity to see history in different ways. In the stadial theory, the general comes to the fore - the laws of development common to all mankind. In the theory of local civilizations - the individual, the diversity of the historical process.

In general, the civilizational approach presents a person as the leading creator of history, pays great attention to the spiritual factors of the development of society, the uniqueness of the history of individual societies, countries and peoples. Progress is relative. For example, it can affect the economy, and at the same time, this concept can be applied in relation to the spiritual sphere in a very limited way.