2. In literature there are many
definitions of society. The simplest
of them is: society is a collection
of people and their relationships.
3. Social philosophy does not consider a
person as a certain individual, but as
part of some kind of community:
family, country, ethnicity, etc. At the
same time, he appears
simultaneously in several social
spheres.
4. Social philosophy - the area of philosophy, the
study of society and human behavior in it.
5. There are two types of philosophizing in this case:
Value. It is designed to answer questions about the meaning of
human life in society and history. As a problem to be solved,
the desired form of society is set, in which a person could
follow his mission, in which the norms of a decent human
existence would be respected. This section of social philosophy
also plays the role of social preaching, emphasizing the highest
values of life.
Reflective. Investigates society, history and man in the aspect
of being, interested in their own logic of being. It analyzes the
essence of social reality as a subsystem of a single and integral
world. Reflective social philosophy in this intersects with
theoretical sociology.
6. The subject of the analysis of social philosophy are:
• Subjects of social development (individuals,
classes, nations);
• Types of social development (cyclical, linear,
spiral);
• The peculiarity of the process of social
development (evolutionary, revolutionary);
• Social progress (necessity, price);
• Driving forces and prospects for social
progress;
• The ratio of the conscious and the
spontaneous in social development.
7. In Western literature, society
is often called as a geographic
entity associated with legal
system and has defined by
“national characteristics”
8. “Society is, first of all, such a
special kind of relationships amid
people which give them the
opportunity to rise together
above their purely animal,
biological nature and to create
proper human cultural reality”
9. In the philosophical literature,
we can often meet definitions
like “open society” and “closed
society”.
10. The term “open society” entered the
dictionary of modern social philosophy by
the famous English philosopher K.
Popper, serves as a password to liberal-
democratic and Social-Democratic
reformism and used as a synonym of
democracy prevailing in the mid-
twentieth century in Western Europe and
North America.
11. This term of “open
society” was borrowed by
Popper from a well-
known Bergson’s book
“The Two Sources of
Morality and Religion”
12. But Popper wasn’t limited only by
using of this term: he devoted to the
study of “open” and “closed”
societies one of his most significant
and world-famous works – “The
Open Society and Its Enemies”
13. “Closed society”, according to
Bergson, is a society whose
members are guided by
common moral norms in their
social behavior.
14. Norms are transmitted to the
customs and traditions in the
form of prescriptions or
taboo.
15. Modern philosophy considers
society as a system of individuals
who are closely interrelated,
constantly interacting, and
therefore society exists as a single
integrated organism, as a certain
system.
16. Idea of society as a single
body is the result of long-term
development of philosophical
thought.
17. The notion of society usually
indicates two major aspects: the
structure of society and
development of society.
18. Contemporary social philosophy
gives four main characteristics of
the society: self-activity, self-
organization, self-development,
self-sufficiency
(самодостаточность).
19. Society exists always in a state of
mobility. But at the same time, it
needs to ensure a certain level of
stability.
20. The basic structure of society
form (образуют) the main types of
social activities that it is
constantly reproduced.
21. They are:
• Material activities
• Spiritual activities
• Regulatory or administrative
activity,
• Service activities
22. In addition to this approach,
there is another, more
traditional domestic
philosophical thought, which
distinguishes the following areas
of society:
23. • material and economic,
• social,
• political,
• spiritual
24. One merit of Marx is a selection
the social being from “being in
general”, and the public
consciousness from
“consciousness in general”
25. The structure of social
consciousness is very complex:
first of all, it’s allocated two levels
– ordinary, practical and
theoretical levels.
26. Such an aspect of consideration of
social consciousness can be called
epistemological, because it shows
the depth of penetration
(проникновения) of the subject
knowledge of social reality.
27. Public consciousness on the
practical level manifests itself as
social psychology, the scientific
and theoretical level – as an
ideology.
28. The next aspect of consideration
of social consciousness is its
carrier or subject. Thus, allocated
forms of social consciousness are
individual, group and mass
consciousness.
29. Crowd is people who exist
directly in contact with each
other, gathered in order to
achieve any goal
30. Crowd distinguishes from the
mass owing to direct contact, the
presence of a leader and joint
activities, such as demonstrations,
etc.
31. Social consciousness is a
combination of a variety of
spiritual phenomena, reflecting all
aspects of society and the wealth
of individual human life,
therefore, it’s allocated its various
forms
32. Ideology is a system of ideas
and theories, values and
norms, ideals and guidelines of
action. It contributes to the
creation or elimination of
existing social relations.
33. Social philosophy also deals with
issues of culture, not as a cultural
studies, but considers culture as a
qualitative characteristic of society,
the stages of its development, the
development of civilization.
34. Social philosophy is closely connected
with the philosophy of history. However,
it also studies the relationship between
man and society historically, in the form
of the history of individual civilizations,
that is, more specific factors.
36. -Cognitive. Consists in the study of the relationship of social
consciousness and social being.
-Diagnostic. Analysis of society in terms of its current (crisis) state,
evaluation of development options, their causes, methods and
plans.
-Predictive. Developing reasonable forecasts about the
development trends of societies and humanity, social
contradictions and conflict processes in the future.
-Educational. The study of social philosophy by students, scientists,
politicians.
-Projective. Development of the project of transformation of
reality in the interests of some social community (group, class,
nation).
37. Conclusion: The study of social philosophy provides a
person with a complete picture of the world, society,
man and the meaning of his life. It becomes the leading
component of philosophy, to some extent to the
background nature of the philosophy of nature. It is
addressed every time when it is necessary to find a way
out of the crisis, in which society finds itself, when new
ideas of a way out of the current situation are required.
38. Abstract topics:
1. The subject and structure of social philosophy.
2. The main directions of modern Western social and philosophical
thought.
3. The liberal concept of an open society K. Popper.
4. The problem of method in social philosophy.
5. Explanation and understanding in social cognition.
6. Functions of modern social philosophy.
7. Nature as a prerequisite and condition for the emergence of human
society and its development. The concept of geographic environment.
8. The concept of the social structure of society and the criteria for its
organization.
9. Social differentiation. The concept of a social group.
10.Man as a complex multi-level system. The concepts of the individual,
personality and individuality.
11.The problem of the meaning of life.
12.The principle of humanism and the problem of its crisis.
13.Culture and society, their relationship. Two forms of being culture in
society. The diversity of cultures in the history of society, the different
types of their interaction. The problem of the dialogue of cultures.
14.Formation of post-industrial society. Models of globalization.
