What is society in literature? What is society - spheres, structure, functions and its concept

The term "society" has several definitions.

In the broad sense of the word society

- these are forms of organization and ways of interaction between people and social groups that are isolated from nature, but are closely connected with it, and are part material world.

Concept of society

in a narrow sense, it appears in several variations:
1. Society as a collection of people united by a certain common feature, interests (society of book lovers).
2. Society as a characteristic of a certain historical stage in the development of humanity (medieval society).
3. Society as distinctive features life of a specific country (Russian society).
4. Society as the entire population of the Earth as a whole (the human race).

Signs of society:

a) integrity - means that society consists of interconnected components (elements of society);
b) openness - society is open to the emergence of something new;
c) sustainability - society strives for self-preservation
d) dynamism - society is in constant movement; Static society is not typical.

Functions of the society:

→ reproductive - reproduction of the species.
→ production - production of material and spiritual goods.
→ regulatory - establishing rules of behavior for people in society.
→ socializing - introducing a person to the achievements of civilization.

Society and nature are closely interconnected.

The entire material world (planet Earth) consists of two parts: society and nature.
Their interaction can be both constructive and deconstructive.
An example of constructive interaction between society and nature: the first settlements along rivers, agricultural production.
Example of deconstructive interaction: drainage of water bodies, deforestation, pollution environment.
Just as society can influence nature, so nature can influence society.
An example of the influence of society on nature → changes in the river bed.
An example of the influence of nature on society → natural disaster (hurricane, earthquake, tsunami).

Culture - all transformative human activities.

Under the influence of what society develops:
1. Idealists believe that society changes under the influence of human ideas.
2. Materialists believe that society changes under the influence of a person’s desire to live in comfort.
3. Naturalistic approach - society changes under the influence of natural forces.
4. Most scientists agree that society changes not under the influence of any one approach, but under the influence of several.

Society is a dynamic system.

Dynamic - because it is in constant motion, staticity is not characteristic of society.
A system - because it consists of interconnected elements, subsystems of society.
Spheres of society (subsystems/elements):
a) society
b) politics
c) economics
d) spiritual world

Social process - a spatio-temporal concept that includes life milestones of different generations of people.

Trends in the social process:
- progress (movement from lower forms to complex ones)
- regression (on the contrary, degradation).

Criteria social progress:
progressive development of production
degree of development of science
standard of living of the population
level of protection of honor and dignity of the individual
level of morality

Forms of social change:
1. Evolution
2. Revolution
3. Reform
4. Modernization

Founder Auguste Comte considered it about society, the space in which people’s lives take place. Without it, life is impossible, which explains the importance of studying this topic.

What does the concept “society” mean? How does it differ from the concepts “country” and “state”, which are used in everyday speech, often as identical?

Country is a geographical concept that denotes a part of the world, a territory that has certain boundaries.

- political organization of society with a certain type of government (monarchy, republic, councils, etc.), bodies and structure of government (authoritarian or democratic).

- the social organization of the country, ensuring the joint life of people. This is a part of the material world isolated from nature, representing a historically developing form of connections and relationships between people in the process of their life.

Many scientists have tried to study society, to determine its nature and essence. The ancient Greek philosopher and scientist understood society as a collection of individuals who united to satisfy their social instincts. Epicurus believed that the main thing in society is social justice as the result of an agreement between people not to harm each other and not to suffer harm.

In Western European social science of the 17th-18th centuries. ideologists of the new rising strata of society ( T. Hobbes, J.-J. Rousseau), who opposed religious dogma, was put forward the idea of a social contract, i.e. agreements between people, each of which has sovereign rights to control its own actions. This idea was opposed to the theological approach to organizing society according to the will of God.

Attempts have been made to define society based on the identification of some primary cell of society. So, Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed that the family is the most ancient of all societies. She is the likeness of a father, the people are like children, and all those born equal and free, if they alienate their freedom, do so only for their own benefit.

Hegel tried to consider society as complex system relations, highlighting as the subject of consideration the so-called, i.e., a society where there is a dependence of everyone on everyone.

The works of one of the founders of scientific sociology were of great importance for the scientific understanding of society O. Konta who believed that the structure of society is determined by the forms of human thinking ( theological, metaphysical and positive). He viewed society itself as a system of elements, which are the family, classes and the state, and the basis is formed by the division of labor between people and their relationships with each other. We find a definition of society close to this in Western European sociology of the 20th century. Yes, y Max Weber, society is a product of the interaction of people as a result of their social actions in the interests of everyone.

T. Parsons defined society as a system of relations between people, the connecting principle of which is norms and values. From the point of view K. Marx, society is a historically developing set of relationships between people, emerging in the process of their joint activities.

Recognizing the approach to society as the relations of individuals, K. Marx, having analyzed the connections and relationships between them, introduced the concepts of “social relations”, “relations of production”, “socio-economic formations” and a number of others. Relations of production, forming social relations, create society, located at one or another specific level historical development. Consequently, according to Marx, production relations are the root cause of all human relations and create large social system called society.

According to the ideas of K. Marx, society is the interaction of people. The form of social structure does not depend on their (people's) will. Each form of social structure is generated by a certain stage of development of production forces.

People cannot freely dispose of productive forces, because these forces are the product of people’s previous activities, their energy. But this energy itself is limited by the conditions in which people are placed by the productive forces that have already been conquered, by the form of social structure that existed before them and which is the product of the activity of the previous generation.

American sociologist E. Shils identified the following characteristics of society:

it is not an organic part of any larger system;
marriages are concluded between representatives of a given community;
it is replenished by the children of those people who are members of this community;
it has its own territory;
it has a self-name and its own history;
it has its own control system;
it exists longer than the average life expectancy of an individual;
unites him general system values, norms, laws, rules.

It is obvious that in all the above definitions, to one degree or another, an approach to society is expressed as an integral system of elements that are in a state of close interconnection. This approach to society is called systemic. Main task systematic approach in the study of society is to combine various knowledge about society into a coherent system that could become a unified theory of society.

Played a major role in systemic research of society A. Malinovsky. He believed that society can be viewed as a social system, the elements of which are related to the basic needs of people for food, shelter, protection, and sexual satisfaction. People come together to satisfy their needs. In this process, secondary needs arise for communication, cooperation, and control over conflicts, which contributes to the development of language, norms, and rules of the organization, and this in turn requires coordination, management and integrative institutions.

Life of society

The life of society is carried out in four main areas: economic, social, political and spiritual.

Economic sphere there is a unity of production, specialization and cooperation, consumption, exchange and distribution. It ensures the production of goods necessary to satisfy the material needs of individuals.

Social sphere represent people (clan, tribe, nationality, nation, etc.), various classes (slaves, slave owners, peasants, proletariat, bourgeoisie) and other social groups that have different financial status and attitudes to existing social orders.

Political sphere covers power structures (political parties, political movements), people managers.

Spiritual (cultural) sphere includes philosophical, religious, artistic, legal, political and other views of people, as well as their moods, emotions, ideas about the world around them, traditions, customs, etc.

All of these spheres of society and their elements continuously interact, change, vary, but in the main remain unchanged (invariant). For example, the eras of slavery and our time differ sharply from each other, but at the same time all spheres of society retain the functions assigned to them.

In sociology, there are different approaches to finding foundations choosing priorities in people’s social life(the problem of determinism).

Aristotle also emphasized the extremely important importance government system for the development of society. Identifying the political and social spheres, he viewed man as a “political animal.” Under certain conditions, politics can become a decisive factor that completely controls all other areas of society.

Supporters technological determinism The determining factor of social life is seen in material production, where the nature of labor, technique, and technology determine not only the quantity and quality of material products produced, but also the level of consumption and even the cultural needs of people.

Supporters cultural determinism They believe that the backbone of society consists of generally accepted values and norms, the observance of which will ensure the stability and uniqueness of the society itself. The difference in cultures predetermines the difference in the actions of people, in the organization of material production, in the choice of forms of political organization (in particular, this can be associated with the well-known expression: “Every people has the government that it deserves”).

K. Marx based his concept on determining role economic system , believing that it is the method of production of material life that determines the social, political and spiritual processes in society.

In modern Russian sociological literature there are opposing approaches to solving problems of primacy in the interaction of social spheres of society. Some authors tend to deny this very idea, believing that society can function normally if each of the social spheres consistently fulfills its functional purpose. They proceed from the fact that the hypertrophied “swelling” of one of the social spheres can have a detrimental effect on the fate of the entire society, as well as underestimating the role of each of these spheres. For example, underestimating the role of material production (the economic sphere) leads to a decrease in the level of consumption and an increase in crisis phenomena in society. The erosion of norms and values that govern the behavior of individuals (the social sphere) leads to social entropy, disorder and conflict. Acceptance of the idea of the primacy of politics over economics and others social spheres(especially in a totalitarian society) can lead to the collapse of the entire social system. In a healthy social organism, the vital activity of all its spheres is in unity and interconnection.

If unity weakens, the efficiency of society will decrease, up to a change in its essence or even collapse. As an example, let's take the events recent years twentieth century, which led to the defeat of the socialist public relations and the collapse of the USSR.

Society lives and develops according to objective laws unity (of society) with ; provision social development; energy concentration; promising activity; unity and struggle of opposites; transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones; negations - negations; compliance of production relations with the level of development of productive forces; dialectical unity of the economic basis and social superstructure; increasing the role of the individual, etc. Violation of the laws of social development is fraught with major cataclysms and large losses.

Whatever goals the subject sets for himself social life, being in the system of public relations, he must obey them. In the history of society, hundreds of wars are known that brought huge losses to it, regardless of the goals of the rulers who unleashed them. Suffice it to recall Napoleon, Hitler, the former US presidents who started the war in Vietnam and Iraq.

Society is an integral social organism and system

Society was likened to a social organism, all parts of which are interdependent, and their functioning is aimed at ensuring its life. All parts of society perform the functions assigned to them to ensure its life: procreation; security normal conditions for the life of its members; creating production, distribution and consumption capabilities; successful activities in all its areas.

Distinctive features of society

Important distinctive feature society advocates him autonomy, which is based on its versatility, ability to create necessary conditions to meet the diverse needs of individuals. Only in society can a person engage in narrowly professional activities, achieve its high efficiency, relying on the division of labor existing in it.

Society has self-sufficiency, which allows him to perform main task- provide people with conditions, opportunities, forms of organization of life that facilitate the achievement of personal goals, self-realization as comprehensively developed individuals.

Society has a great integrating force. It provides its members with the opportunity to use habitual patterns of behavior, follow established principles, and subordinates them to generally accepted norms and rules. It isolates those who do not follow them in various ways and means, ranging from the Criminal Code, administrative law to public censure. Essential characteristic of society is the level achieved self-regulation, self-government, which arise and are formed within himself with the help social institutions, which, in turn, are at a historically determined level of maturity.

Society as an integral organism has the quality systematic, and all its elements, being closely interconnected, form a social system that makes the attraction and cohesion between the elements of a given material structure stronger.

Part And whole as components unified system connected inseparable bonds between each other and support each other. At the same time, both elements have relative independence in relation to each other. The stronger the whole is in comparison with its parts, the stronger the pressure of unification. And on the contrary, the stronger the parts are in relation to the system, the weaker it is and the stronger the tendency to separate the whole into its component parts. Therefore, to form a stable system, it is necessary to select appropriate elements and their unity. Moreover, the greater the discrepancy, the stronger the adhesion bonds should be.

The formation of a system is possible both on the natural basis of attraction, and on the suppression and subordination of one part of the system to another, that is, on violence. In this regard, different organic systems are built on different principles. Some systems are based on the dominance of natural connections. Others rely on the dominance of force, others seek to take refuge under the protection of strong structures or exist at their expense, others unite on the basis of unity in the fight against external enemies in the name of the highest freedom of the whole, etc. There are also systems based on cooperation, where force is not plays a significant role. At the same time, there are certain limits beyond which both attraction and repulsion can lead to the death of a given system. And this is natural, since excessive attraction and cohesion pose a threat to the preservation of the diversity of system qualities and thereby weaken the system’s ability to self-develop. On the contrary, strong repulsion undermines the integrity of the system. At the same time, the greater the independence of the parts within the system, the higher their freedom of action in accordance with the potentials inherent in them, the less they have the desire to go beyond its framework and vice versa. That is why the system should be formed only by elements that are more or less homogeneous with each other, and where the tendency of the whole, although dominant, does not contradict the interests of the parts.

The law of every social system is hierarchy of its elements and ensuring optimal self-realization through the most rational construction of its structure in given conditions, as well as the maximum use of environmental conditions to transform it in accordance with its qualities.

One of the important laws of the organic system — law to ensure its integrity, or, in other words, vitality of all elements of the system. Therefore, ensuring the existence of all elements of the system is a condition for the vitality of the system as a whole.

Fundamental Law any material system , ensuring its optimal self-realization, is the law of the priority of the whole over its constituent parts. Therefore, the greater the danger to the existence of the whole, the greater the number of victims from its parts.

Like any organic system in difficult conditions society sacrifices a part in the name of the whole, the main and fundamental. In society as an integral social organism, the common interest is in the foreground under all conditions. However, social development can be carried out the more successfully the more the general interest and the interests of individuals are in harmonious correspondence with each other. Harmonious correspondence between general and individual interests can be achieved only at a relatively high level social development. Until such a stage is reached, either public or personal interest prevails. How more difficult conditions and the greater the inadequacy of social and natural ingredients, the more strongly the general interest manifests itself, being realized at the expense and to the detriment of the interests of individuals.

At the same time, the more favorable conditions, which arose either on the basis of the natural environment, or created in the process of the production activities of people themselves, then, other things being equal, the general interest is to a lesser extent realized at the expense of the private.

Like any system, society contains certain strategies for survival, existence and development. The survival strategy comes to the fore in conditions of extreme lack of material resources, when the system is forced to sacrifice its intensive development in the name of extensive, or more precisely, in the name of universal survival. In order to survive, the social system withdraws material resources produced by the most active part of society in favor of those who cannot provide themselves with everything necessary for life.

Such a transition to extensive development and redistribution of material resources, if necessary, occurs not only on a global, but also on a local scale, that is, within small social groups if they find themselves in an extreme situation when funds are extremely insufficient. In such conditions, both the interests of individuals and the interests of society as a whole suffer, since it is deprived of the opportunity to develop intensively.

Otherwise, the social system develops after leaving extreme situation, but located in conditions inadequacy of social and natural components. In that case survival strategy is replaced by existence strategies. The strategy of existence is implemented in conditions when a certain minimum of funds arises to provide for everyone and, in addition, there is a certain surplus of them in excess of what is necessary for life. In order to develop the system as a whole, surplus produced funds are withdrawn and they concentrate on decisive areas of social development in in the hands of the most powerful and enterprising. However, other individuals are limited in consumption and are usually content with the minimum. Thus, in unfavorable conditions of existence the general interest makes its way at the expense of the interests of individuals, a clear example what is the formation and development of Russian society.

Any baby that is just born instantly becomes a member of society with the corresponding rights and rules. But what is this society that we all belong to? This concept is quite broad and includes many aspects. Society is a kind of system in which people interact and communicate, and are also divided into different groups depending on the characteristic that unites them.

Origins

The first community arose in primitive times, when people united in order to survive together. Entire clans were created this way. with their own hierarchy, who were engaged in a common cause and were often at war with other communities. In order to develop successfully, it was necessary to fight for food and territory, and then divide them. In addition, differences in religion or interracial prejudices could be reasons for conflicts.

From this distant primitive community came modern society, which is so very different from it, at first glance.

Definition in dictionaries

Society is such a broad concept that this word can be used to describe completely different groups of people. So, it can be called children who study in a macrame club, and at the same time, the entire population of the entire planet is also united under this broad concept. The whole point is that all members of society are united by their interaction. Thus, people who are completely different in worldview, skin color, character, are forced to support social relations and live peacefully with each other.

And it’s not for nothing that “society” has the same root as the word “communicate”. It could not have formed without this simple action. If people were deprived of the need to talk to each other, everyone could live alone, but this is completely ineffective. Every person in society has a role. A striking example of this is the difference in professions.

Another example is an organization, firm or company, since people working in any production are united by a common goal - producing quality products. That is why each institution is assigned a form name economic activity, which characterize the property from a legal point of view and indicate the nature of the relationship between the people working there.

The most famous and complete dictionary was created by V.I. Dahl. In addition, there is a special dictionary dedicated to the interpretation of social science terms, the author of which is N. E. Yatsenko. So, What interpretation of society do these authors give?

Dictionary by N. E. Yatsenko

Dictionary of V. I. Dahl

Oddly enough, this popular explanatory dictionary does not contain a definition of society as such. The lexicographer interpreted it with the verb “to communicate” - that is, to connect, unite something or someone, as well as to communicate and interact. You can watch it with another person at the same thing from different points of view and yet combine into one whole unity.

Society structure

Society cannot exist without society and social interactions. It can be imagined as a single organism, the normal functioning of which requires the coordinated work of all members . And this means, it is possible to distinguish separate systems and structures, including the following categories:

institutions;
layers of society;
community;
social groups.

All these categories are subject to external factors. In every society, it is quite natural for an individual to appear who will develop and change the views of a group of people. This can lead to both minor deviations from the original foundations and changes in the history of entire nations.

They play a very important role in the development of any association, since they establish connections and interactions not only within one group, but also between several communities.

Characteristic signs

Society has characteristic features and characteristics that distinguish it from other organizations of groups of people. These characteristics include fundamental features that will be described below.

Relationships and connections

So , society itself in a simple sense - this is the interaction of its members among themselves, leading to the emergence of a social structure. This interaction takes place both between individuals and between groups, cells and similar elements of society.

At birth, a person enters into the society of people, as well as his family group. Then he begins to enter the society of his peers in kindergarten and school. Over time, the number of such groups increases. A person enters society on the basis of interest in common cause, profession, favorite thing. Moreover, these groups do not always meet the needs individual person, so the association of people in which we find ourselves does not always suit us and satisfy our needs. Thus, it occurs due to the imperfection of dividing the general flow of people into smaller groups.

Nevertheless, a person communicates in his group according to certain rules. They can be either open or not. However, this does not mean that a person cannot influence or change them. In a group you can take a lower position than you would like, or a higher position than others. This leads to a certain inequality among group members.

It is not possible to achieve the same position for all group members. It’s just that everyone should be equal before the law, but, for example, in an interest group, someone will still occupy a leading position due to greater talent or stronger character. Such positions can be identified in any society - family, political party, work collective.

Types of society depending on science

There is a special science - social science, aimed at studying the concept considered here. But besides it, there are other sciences (psychology, philosophy and the like) that actively use the term society. Wikipedia considers the meaning these definitions also apply to interdisciplinary and subdisciplines of anthropology.

Social science

No matter how broad the concept considered here is, several historical types can be distinguished as a classification. They will be discussed further:

Social anthropology

Social society is the main form of human existence, which includes self-regulation mechanisms. Most often in sociology it is divided into types based on their level of development. Sociologist D. Lenski compiled the following classification:

the hunting and gathering group - a community in which responsibilities were shared for the first time;
an agrarian simple society is a group of people that does not have a separate leader to control it;
agrarian complex - a group of people whose political structure includes people engaged in management activities;
industrial - a society engaged in production activities;
special, which cannot be attributed to any of the above types.

Also in sociology, the term virtual society is used; it operates on the Internet, which is typical for the modern age of technology.

Since society also call the totality of all people on the planet, it is important to understand how its development is represented. It is assumed that the first tribes, united for the sake of survival, chose the territory in which they led a settled life. As they developed, they turned into villages and then cities. From the latter, entire states grew. Subsequently, people developed laws and certain norms of behavior that a group of individuals had to follow. People could earn a certain status and improve your position in the team.

Political anthropology

This subdiscipline is classified According to its political structure, society is divided into the following types:

tribe;
chiefdom;
state.

Moreover, the strength of these types will primarily depend on the environment of other groups of people who can be friendly or hostile. Typically, a more isolated society is protected from attack and lives more peacefully.

Based on the foregoing, we can conclude that that society is a living organism, where each member plays an important role and influences the development of other individuals and the life of the organization as a whole.

The human community is called society. It is characterized by the fact that community members occupy a certain territory and conduct joint collective productive activities. In the community there is a distribution of the jointly produced product.

Society is a society characterized by production and social division of labor. Society can be characterized by many characteristics: for example, by nationality: French, Russian, German; state and cultural; by territorial and temporary; according to production method, etc.

Yet this society is not reduced either to its material carriers, which is characteristic of naturalism (the vulgar sociological interpretation of society) or to mentalities and forms of communication (“societies”), which is characteristic of its phenomenological interpretations. Society in the phenomenological understanding is mens intensas (mind, thought as if in itself) - a set of social worlds of our mentalities, worlds imprinted in our consciousness. Society, in a naturalistic approach, is res extensas (extended things) - a collection of bodies, physical and biological, that are in real objective relationships to each other.

In a number of species of living organisms, individual individuals do not have the necessary abilities or properties to ensure their material life (consumption of matter, accumulation of matter, reproduction). Such living organisms form communities, temporary or permanent, to ensure their material life. There are communities that actually represent a single organism: a swarm, an anthill, etc. In them, there is a division of biological functions between members of the community. Individuals of such organisms outside the community die. There are temporary communities - flocks, herds, in which, as a rule, individuals solve one problem or another without forming strong connections. Common property All communities have the task of preserving this type of living organism.

Closed society - according to K. Popper - a type of society characterized by static social structure, limited mobility, inability to innovate, traditionalism, dogmatic authoritarian ideology (there is a system when the majority of members of society willingly accept the values that are intended for them, usually this is a totalitarian society).

In an open society, each participant is responsible for his own life and takes care primarily of himself, while the society respects the right to private property and personal dignity. In a closed society, it is a “sacred duty” to take care of others, and private property is a questionable (reprehensible) or even criminal, unworthy matter.

Notes:

The above discussions about the types of closed and open societies can only be valid for societies the size of a state. If a person in an open society, in contrast to a closed one, finds basic values on his own, then he can then coexist with other like-minded people who also form a society with him, which may have common values, but which cannot be classified as closed on this basis.
There are universal human values, common to all humanity, otherwise it could not be called human society.

The functioning and development of a social system necessarily presupposes a succession of generations of people and, therefore, social inheritance - members of society pass on knowledge and culture from generation to generation. See "education" and "socialization".

Modern society

Undoubtedly, the key issue of any civilized society is the issue of its organization. Modern society is organized exclusively on capital, which gives it the right to be called capitalist.

Society in literature and cinema

R. Bradbury's novel “Fahrenheit 451” describes a totalitarian society, which is based on mass culture and consumer thinking, in which all books that make you think about life are subject to burning.

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Synonyms:

Nobel Prize in Physics
Chicago

See what “Society” is in other dictionaries:

society- society, and... Russian spelling dictionary

SOCIETY- in a broad sense, a part of the material world isolated from nature, representing a historically developing form of human life. In a narrow sense, defined. human stage history (socio. economic. formations, interformation... Philosophical Encyclopedia

SOCIETY- societies, societies (societies, societies wrong), cf. 1. A set of certain production relations that forms a special stage of development in the history of mankind. “...Marx put an end to the view of society as a mechanical unit... ... Dictionary Ushakova

Society- State * Army * War * Elections * Democracy * Conquest * Law * Politics * Crime * Order * Revolution * Freedom * Navy Power * Administration * Aristocra... Consolidated encyclopedia of aphorisms

IN everyday life We use the word “society” quite often, almost without thinking about its meaning, which seems simple and understandable. But once we are asked whether it is a synonym for the word “public”, we begin to wonder. We propose to find out together what society is and how it differs from the public.

Definition of what society is

Question " What is society?" refers to the field of activity of sociologists, who today have not yet come to a consensus and have not formulated a definition of this term.

The word "society" has many meanings. It can mean:

humanity. The entire population of the earth in a certain context is called society. For example, when they talk about the history of the development of civilization;

population of the country. For example, residents Russian Federation can be called Russian society;

bringing together people based on interests or similar activities. Surely, you have come across the expression “society of hunters and fishermen”, “sports society”, “society of ballet lovers”;

historical stage of development. From school history many remember such concepts as primitive society, feudal, capitalist, etc.;

a legal concept denoting the organizational form of an enterprise: limited liability company, joint stock company, etc.

What is society - definition and division

In our article we will consider society from the point of view of sociology, which means by this concept a historically established structured community, whose members live in the same territory and enter into certain relationships. In other words, this is a collection of people living according to the social laws they have developed and constantly interacting with each other.

The public is a narrower concept, behind which stands the active part of society, which is the spokesman for the opinion of a certain part of citizens. Let's give an example. In the city of N, several public organizations and activists from the local population called for the closure of a metallurgical plant, whose emissions are several times higher than existing standards. In this case we are dealing with the city public.

What is society and man?

Philosophical debates about man and society have been going on for centuries. We will express an opinion supported by the majority of scientists.

A person is a rational being who enters into social relationships, and, therefore, is a member of society. Can a person exist outside of society? Hardly. Even hermit monks who lived in solitude were subject to the laws and rules developed by society, since the church is one of its institutions.

Children raised by animals - shining example how the influence of the environment affects the individual. Undeveloped speech, animal habits and, most importantly, lethargy psychological development, which does not recover over the years - this is what the lack of communication with other members of society leads to.

Society: main features

Characteristic features by which society can be distinguished from a state and a country:

What is society: answers

In this section we will provide answers to the most common questions related to society.

What is civil society?

Civil society is a set of public institutions and relations that are independent of the state and are designed to protect the rights and interests of their representatives before it. Often civil society exists in opposition to the state, limiting its omnipotence. For example, civil society actors may be public organizations, fighting for human rights, environmentalist associations, trade unions.

What is a traditional society?

Traditional society is one of the types of society, which is based on traditions and customs. This organization of society is conservative, since it strives to preserve traditional foundations unchanged.

The economy is built on rural subsistence farming, the dominance of religion is recognized in the spiritual sphere, and the monarch is considered the representative of God on earth. A similar social structure existed in ancient times and the Middle Ages.

What is modern society?

Modern society is called post-industrial, highlighting main characteristic- a departure from industrialization, when the production sector was considered dominant, and a transition to an information society, where most people are engaged in processing, storing and selling information and information technologies.

Main features modern society are the sharp growth of the urban population, robotization of production, intensive development of the information industry and globalization of the economy.

What is a social society?

At the core social society lies the idea of social equality. An attempt to create such a society was made in 1917, when, after October Revolution First, the dictatorship of the proletariat was proclaimed, and then the construction of a socialist state based on the ideas of equality and fraternity began.

However, it was not possible to achieve the desired goal: the USSR collapsed. Among the existing countries there is not a single one where there is no social oppression.

What is the sphere of society?

The sphere of society, or more precisely, the sphere of activity of society, is the totality of stable relationships between subjects of society. There are 4 main spheres of society’s activity: social (dividing society into classes, nations, gender and age groups, etc.), economic (production and trade relations), political ( government system, the presence of parties and political movements), spiritual (religion, culture, morality).

What is the culture of society?

The culture of a society is the system of values, behavioral patterns and ideas about life accepted in a given society. Let's explain with an example. The culture of the people of Myanmar, from the point of view of a Russian, is very specific: there a long neck is considered the standard of female beauty, and the local population associates the emergence of this tradition with the legend of dragons. Russians do not have such a custom; there is a clear cultural difference.