Topic: The subject of the structure and functions of social philosophy. Functions of social philosophy Functions of social philosophy are not

The structure of philosophical knowledge

In the first centuries of its existence, philosophy did not have a clear structure. Aristotle was the first to put this problem clearly. He called the doctrine of the principles of being "the first philosophy" (later it was called "metaphysics"); his doctrine of pure forms of thinking and speech among the Stoics received the name "logic"; in addition, Aristotle wrote books on physics, ethics, politics and poetics - apparently considering them also branches of philosophy.

Somewhat later, the Stoics divided philosophical knowledge into three subject areas: logic, physics and ethics. This division persisted until modern times, when each school began to reshape the structure of philosophy in its own way. First, the theory of sensory knowledge, which Alexander Baumgarten gave the name "aesthetics", turned into a special branch of philosophy. Then the Kantians invented a special doctrine of values - "axiology", renamed the theory of rational knowledge into "epistemology", and metaphysics - into "ontology". Already in the 20th century, such disciplines as philosophical anthropology, hermeneutics, grammar, etc., appeared.

There is currently no generally accepted understanding of the structure of philosophical knowledge. V educational literature, as a rule, four departments appear: philosophy proper, which studies the laws and categories of thinking and being; logic - the doctrine of the forms of inference and evidence; aesthetics - the doctrine of the world of feelings, of the beautiful and the ugly; and ethics - the theory of morality, which tells about good and evil and about the meaning human life. In the domestic tradition of specializations of philosophy, there are: ontology and theory of knowledge, history of philosophy, aesthetics, ethics, logic, social philosophy, philosophy of science and technology, philosophical anthropology, philosophy and history of religion, philosophy of culture

The main functions of philosophy

Functions of Philosophy- the main areas of application of philosophy, through which its goals, objectives, purpose are realized. It is customary to single out:

Worldview function contributes to the formation of the integrity of the picture of the world, ideas about its structure, the place of a person in it, the principles of interaction with the outside world.

Methodological function is that philosophy develops the basic methods of cognition of the surrounding reality. Thinking-theoretical function It is expressed in the fact that philosophy teaches to think conceptually and theorize - to generalize the surrounding reality to the utmost, to create mental-logical schemes, systems of the surrounding world.

epistemological – one of the fundamental functions of philosophy is the correct and reliable knowledge of the surrounding reality (that is, the mechanism of knowledge).

Role critical function – to question the surrounding world and the existing meaning, to look for their new features, qualities, to reveal contradictions. The ultimate goal of this function is to expand the boundaries of knowledge, the destruction of dogmas, the ossification of knowledge, its modernization, and the increase in the reliability of knowledge.

Axiological function philosophy (translated from Greek axios - valuable) is to evaluate things, phenomena of the surrounding world from the point of view of various values - moral, ethical, social, ideological, etc. The purpose of the axiological function is to be a "sieve" through which to pass everything you need , valuable and useful, and discard the inhibitory and obsolete. The axiological function is especially enhanced during critical periods of history (the beginning of the Middle Ages - the search for new (theological) values after the collapse of Rome; the Renaissance; the Reformation; the crisis of capitalism in the late 19th - early 20th centuries, etc.). social function - explain society, its causes, evolution state of the art, its structure, elements, driving forces; reveal contradictions, indicate ways to eliminate or mitigate them, improve society.

Educational and humanitarian function philosophy is to cultivate humanistic values and ideals, to instill them in a person and society, to help strengthen morality, to help a person adapt to the world around him and find the meaning of life.

predictive function is to predict development trends, the future of matter, consciousness, cognitive processes, man, nature and society on the basis of the existing philosophical knowledge about the world and man, the achievements of knowledge.

3. The role of philosophy in human life and society.

The main role is to come to a meaningful understanding of who a person is, what is the world around him, what is his role in it, what is the meaning of his life - when several individuals are united into a society, the question arises what is the function of this society, what place does this society occupy in the world, what is the role of each person in it.

4. Worldview and its main historical types: mythology, religion, philosophy.
Historically, the first form of worldview is mythology. It occurs at an early stage community development. Then mankind in the form of myths, that is, legends, legends, tried to answer such global questions as the origin and structure of the universe as a whole, the emergence of the most important natural phenomena, animals and people. A significant part of the mythology was cosmological myths dedicated to the structure of nature. At the same time, much attention in the myths was paid to the various stages of people's lives, the secrets of birth and death, all kinds of trials that lie in wait for a person on his life path. A special place is occupied by myths about the achievements of people: making fire, the invention of crafts, the development of agriculture, the domestication of wild animals.

Thus, myth is not the original form of knowledge, but a special kind of worldview, a specific figurative syncretic idea of natural phenomena and collective life. In myth, as the earliest form of human culture, the rudiments of knowledge, religious beliefs, moral, aesthetic and emotional assessment of the situation were combined. If in relation to myth we can talk about cognition, then the word “cognition” here has the meaning not of the traditional acquisition of knowledge, but of a worldview, sensual empathy (this is how we use this term in the statements “the heart makes itself felt”, “to know a woman”, etc.). d.).
Myth usually combines two aspects - diachronic (a story about the past) and synchronic (an explanation of the present and future). Thus, with the help of myth, the past was connected with the future, and this ensured the spiritual connection of generations. The content of the myth seemed to the primitive man to be extremely real, deserving of absolute trust.

Mythology played a huge role in the lives of people in the early stages of their development. Myths, as noted earlier, affirmed the system of values accepted in a given society, supported and sanctioned certain norms of behavior. And in this sense they were important stabilizers of social life. This does not exhaust the stabilizing role of mythology. The main significance of myths is that they established harmony between the world and man, nature and society, society and the individual, and thus ensured the inner harmony of human life.

At an early stage of human history, mythology was not the only ideological form.

Close to the mythological, although different from it, was the religious worldview, which developed from the depths of the not yet dissected, not differentiated social consciousness. Like mythology, religion appeals to fantasy and feelings. However, unlike myth, religion does not "mix" the earthly and the sacred, but in the deepest and irreversible way separates them into two opposite poles. The creative almighty force - God - stands above nature and outside nature. The existence of God is experienced by man as a revelation. As a revelation, a person is given to know that his soul is immortal, eternal life and a meeting with God await him beyond the grave.

Religion, religious consciousness, religious attitude to the world did not remain vital. Throughout the history of mankind, they, like other cultural formations, have developed, acquired diverse forms in the East and West, in different historical eras. But all of them were united by the fact that at the center of any religious worldview is the search for higher values, the true path of life, and the fact that these values, and leading to them life path is transferred to a transcendent, otherworldly realm, not to earthly, but to "eternal" life. All deeds and deeds of a person and even his thoughts are evaluated, approved or condemned according to this highest, absolute criterion.

The main function of religion is to help a person overcome the historically changeable, transient, relative aspects of his being and elevate a person to something absolute, eternal. In philosophical language, religion is called upon to “root” a person in the transcendent. In the spiritual and moral sphere, this is manifested in giving the norms, values and ideals an absolute, unchanging character, independent of the conjuncture of the spatio-temporal coordinates of human existence, social institutions etc. Thus, religion gives meaning and knowledge, and hence stability to human existence, helps him overcome everyday difficulties.

Philosophy is a worldview form of consciousness. However, not every worldview can be called philosophical. A person can have fairly coherent, but fantastic ideas about the world around him and about himself. Everyone who is familiar with the myths of Ancient Greece knows that for hundreds and thousands of years people lived, as it were, in a special world of dreams and fantasies. These beliefs and ideas played a very important role in their lives: they were a kind of expression and custodian of historical memory.

In the mass consciousness, philosophy is often presented as something very far from real life. Philosophers are spoken of as people "not of this world." Philosophizing in this sense is a lengthy, vague reasoning, the truth of which can neither be proved nor refuted. Such an opinion, however, is contradicted by the fact that in a cultured, civilized society, every thinking person, at least "a little" is a philosopher, even if he does not suspect it.

Philosophical thought is the thought of the eternal. But this does not mean that philosophy itself is ahistorical. Like any theoretical knowledge, philosophical knowledge develops, enriched with new and new content, new discoveries. At the same time, the continuity of the known is preserved. However, the philosophical spirit, philosophical consciousness is not only a theory, especially an abstract, dispassionately speculative theory. Scientific theoretical knowledge is only one side of the ideological content of philosophy. Another, undoubtedly dominant, leading side of it, is formed by a completely different component of consciousness - spiritual and practical. It is he who expresses the life-meaning, value-oriented, that is, worldview, type of philosophical consciousness as a whole. There was a time when no science had ever existed, but philosophy was at the highest level of its creative development.

Man's relation to the world is an eternal subject of philosophy. At the same time, the subject of philosophy is historically mobile, concrete, the "Human" dimension of the world changes with the change in the essential forces of man himself.

The innermost goal of philosophy is to take a person out of the sphere of everyday life, to captivate him with the highest ideals, to give his life a true meaning, to open the way to the most perfect values.

The organic combination in philosophy of two principles - scientific-theoretical and practical-spiritual - determines the specifics of it as a completely unique form of consciousness, which is especially noticeable in its history - in the real process of research, development of the ideological content of philosophical teachings that are historically, in time connected among themselves, not by accident, but by necessity. All of them are just facets, moments of a single whole. Just as in science and in other areas of rationality, in philosophy new knowledge is not rejected, but dialectical “removes”, overcomes its previous level, that is, it includes it as its own special case. In the history of thought, Hegel emphasized, we observe progress: a constant ascent from abstract knowledge to more and more concrete knowledge. The sequence of philosophical teachings - basically and most importantly - is the same as the sequence in the logical definitions of the goal itself, that is, the history of knowledge corresponds to the objective logic of the object being known.

The integrity of human spirituality finds its completion in the worldview. Philosophy as a single integral worldview is the work not only of every thinking person, but of all mankind, which, as an individual, has never lived and cannot live only by purely logical judgments, but carries out its spiritual life in all the colorful fullness and integrity of its diverse moments. The worldview exists as a system value orientations, ideals, beliefs and convictions, as well as the way of life of an individual and society.

Philosophy is one of the main forms of social consciousness, a system of the most general concepts about the world and the place of man in it.

5. The problem of the genesis of philosophy.

Question the genesis of philosophy in historical and philosophical science is solved ambiguously. A.N. Chanyshev identifies mythogenic, religious and epistemogenic approaches to the problem of the genesis of philosophy, and the first two approaches are sometimes difficult to separate.

A striking example is predominantly religious approach is the concept of G. Hegel, who in the myth saw primarily religious content. According to Hegel, philosophy arises from developed mythology (in Antiquity) and religion (from Christianity in modern times) as a means of overcoming the contradiction between the content, the knowledge about the world that is contained in religion, and the inadequate form of its expression - vague, obscure, mired in particular representation. Philosophy, on the other hand, clothes this knowledge in the form of a pure concept corresponding to the very foundation of the world. Protoscientific knowledge turns out to be superfluous in this struggle of contradictions and therefore is not taken into account.

Mythogenic approach represented, for example, by the works of A.F. Losev, who fundamentally separated mythology and religion and believed that philosophy arises from a non-religious myth through further abstractization and general ideas that are really contained in developed mythology. Philosophy turns out to be an attempt to read the knowledge encrypted in the images of myth and translate it into the language of concepts. Within the framework of this approach, philosophy is often thought of as incapable of discovering some new knowledge in comparison with what is already hidden in myth.

Gnoseogenic approach believes that the main prerequisite for the emergence of philosophy is the development of protoscientific knowledge, primarily mathematical and astronomical, which is characterized by a high degree of abstractness, evidence, the desire to identify objective laws, as well as a high ability to formulate problems. For example, the Pythagorean theorem, according to which the length of the hypotenuse of an isosceles triangle cannot be expressed as an integer, for a long time acted as a refutation of any ideas about the finite divisibility of space, not allowing natural scientists and philosophers to confine themselves to naive atomism.

In the national tradition, it has developed mythogenic-epistemological approach, within the framework of which the developed mythology and the emerging principles of scientific knowledge are considered the basis of the genesis of philosophy. It is important that these two sources of philosophy are considered equally necessary and that the process of the genesis of philosophy does not generate without each other. Forms transitional from myth to philosophy are called pre-philosophy (terminology by A.N. Chanyshev).

In addition to the sources of the genesis of philosophy, one should also talk about the conditions that made this process possible. In modern historical and philosophical science, it is customary to single out the following conditions for the emergence of philosophy:

1. Socio-political processes. For example, the formation of democracy in the Greek city-states gave rise to an active political struggle which made possible and even necessary not only a pluralism of points of view, but also the need for their rational substantiation. On the contrary, ensuring the stability of Chinese society required the creation of philosophical and ethical concepts based on the principles of rigid hierarchy and subordination.

2. Generalization of practice common sense- primarily in the field of interpersonal and social relations, which was expressed in the emergence of copyright, but generally significant ethical and legal norms. Such were the fragmentary ethical statements of the "seven Greek sages", the legislation of Lycurgus and Solon, the original teachings of Confucius.

3. The widespread use of abstract thinking in the life of society, which manifested itself, in particular, in the invention and distribution of the coin as a universal abstract measure of the value of all things.

Summing up the presentation of the problem of the genesis of philosophy, we note that, being a qualitatively new spiritual formation, philosophy can by no means be reduced to the sources and conditions of its origin. This also means that in the history of philosophy there are qualitatively specific regularities that cannot be reduced to regularities that operate in other spheres of society and even spiritual culture.

6. Man in the philosophy and culture of the Ancient East.

These features of the worldview and religious and philosophical ideas are, one might say, a kind of archetylic features of the peoples of the East and influence the processes that take place in the world. Acquaintance with Eastern philosophy shows that it has absorbed not only rational forms of human exploration of himself and the world, but also other forms that existed in culture.

A feature of Eastern philosophy is the ideological synthesis of the mythological, religious-symbolic and rational, reflected in the teachings of Buddha and Confucius, the Vedas, the sacred book of the Persians "Avesta", as well as the integrity of a person's vision. The ratio of these principles and elements changes over time, but the very unity of the various approaches is preserved. A simplistic view of the Eastern synthetic concept of being from the point of view of the European tradition, which puts its scientific and rational vision above the mythological and religious, and sometimes philosophical view. Both mythology, and religion, and philosophy, and science are forms and at the same time products of a person's cultural self-determination, which are not subordinated in terms of the degree of truth, but are coordinated as independent, in a certain respect, incommensurable conceptual structures. Historically, the complication of previously created value and worldview ideas and the emergence of new forms did not always lead to the complete replacement of the former, seemingly archaic, ways of interpreting being. Rather, there was a dominance of certain forms of rational-spiritual development of the world with the preservation of the previous forms on the periphery of the cultural space. In certain socio-cultural situations, these seemingly obsolete ways of spiritual and practical assimilation of the world by a person can be actualized, become dominant. Such is the complex dialectic of the development of various socio-cultural forms of human exploration of the world.

The ideas about the origin and essence of man in ancient Eastern philosophy are still largely mythological. The whole world became like a man. Therefore, this period is characterized by associativity, hylozoism, animism and anthropomorphism, i.e. revival, spiritualization and assimilation natural phenomena man, and man to the world. The world and man were seen as creations of the gods.

However, already in the first written sources of Ancient China, in particular, in the "Book of Changes" (III-IV centuries BC), specific characteristics of a person are comprehended in the teachings of Confucius. To be human, Confucius believed, means to love people. Reciprocity and love for others distinguish a person from other creatures of the Middle Kingdom. A follower of Confucius, Mencius, believed that a person is naturally good, and the manifestation of evil is the loss of his innate good qualities. Emphasizing the importance of human knowledge, Mencius argued that only those who know their nature can know Heaven. Mencius saw the fundamental difference between man and animal in the fact that man observes certain norms of relationships between people.

The opponent of Confucianism, Mo Tzu, believed that a person differs from an animal in the ability to work, while Lao Tzu and all representatives of the Taoist school were convinced that the main thing in a person’s life is non-action, non-resistance to what is destined by the Tao.

7. Basic principles of philosophical thinking in ancient India.

Ancient Indian pre-philosophy historically dates back to the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. and extends to the III-IV centuries. AD Within this period, several very independent stages are distinguished: Vedic (before VI-V centuries BC); post-Vedic (before III-IV centuries BC); period of sutra philosophy (before lll-IVBB. AD).

Home goal Indian philosophy - the achievement of eternal bliss, both before and after death. This means complete and eternal liberation from all evil. The method of achieving this goal is withdrawal into oneself, self-deepening. Concentrating in himself, a person comprehends a single, insensible higher being. This thought runs through Jainism and Buddhism.

Jainism, like Brahmanism, is characterized by a focus on the individual, the personality. However, there is more elemental rationalism in Jainism. It is in a certain sense opposed to Brahmanism. The central, backbone problem of Jainism is the personality, its place in the universe. The Jains tried to liberate not only the bodily, but also the spiritual in man. Jainism bases the liberation of the spirit on the operation of the law of karma, which regulates the connection of the individual soul with nature. The essence of personality is twofold: it is both material and spiritual. Karma is interpreted as a subtle matter that connects the material and spiritual in a person. The soul can be freed from the influence of karma as a result of good deeds and ascetic behavior.

Jainism tries to help a person to be saved, to find eternal bliss, to be in a state of nirvana. Life must be lived in such a way as to achieve a state of bliss, to merge with Brahman, to be in a state of nirvana.

Buddhism is a religious and philosophical concept that arose in the 6th-5th centuries. BC. The founder of Buddhism was Siddhartha Gautama, who comprehended the correct path of life as a result of enlightenment (or awakening) and was called the Buddha, i.e. enlightened. Buddhism proceeds from the equality of all people in suffering, so everyone has the right to get rid of them. The Buddhist concept of man is based on the idea of reincarnation (metempsychosis) of living beings. Death in it does not mean complete disappearance, but the disintegration of a certain combination of dharmas - the eternal and unchanging elements of an existing, beginningless and impersonal life process - and the formation of another combination, which is reincarnation. The new combination of dharmas depends on karma, which is the sum of sins and virtues of a person in a past life.

Important integral part The Buddhist worldview is the doctrine of a person's knowledge of himself and the world through the process of self-deepening and self-contemplation in yoga. As a philosophical concept and system of meditation techniques, yoga arose around the 1st century BC. BC e. and is aimed at teaching a person to free himself from the unrest of life, suffering, the shackles of the corporal-material, in order to stop the flow of reincarnations. Only “saints” can do this - people who have reached nirvana, completely freed from everything earthly. Achieving nirvana is extremely difficult, but possible. As a special state, it is difficult to imagine it rationally, it can only be felt. In fact, this is immortality, eternity, the end of the world. Such a state can be achieved by those who train faith, courage, attention, concentration, wisdom. This allows them to enter a state of eternity, emptiness, absence of time, space, desires.

Indian philosophical thought appears as a holistic concept of personality, seeking to help a person in his unrest and suffering. The Indian type of philosophizing focuses on the individual, abstracting from complex social connections. Moreover, Indian philosophy focuses on avoiding these connections, looking for ways to achieve the independence of the subject. It can be said that both nirvana and yoga serve not so much the adaptation of the world to the cheshvek, but of man to the world. Thus, Indian philosophy believes that if the world does not satisfy a person, then it is necessary to change not the world, but the person.

8. Philosophy of Ancient China, the specifics of its problems.

China is a country of ancient history, culture, philosophy; already in the middle of the second millennium BC. e. in the state of Shang-Yin (XVII-XII centuries BC), a slave-owning economy emerged. The labor of slaves, in which the captured prisoners were converted, was used in cattle breeding, in agriculture. In the XII century BC. e. as a result of the war, the state of Shan-Yin was defeated by the Zhou tribe, which founded its own dynasty, which lasted until the 3rd century BC. BC e.

In the era of Shang-Yin and in the initial period of the existence of the Jok dynasty, the religious and mythological worldview was dominant. One of the distinguishing features of Chinese myths is the zoomorphic nature of the gods and spirits acting in them. Many of the ancient Chinese deities (Shan-di) had a clear resemblance to animals, birds or fish. But Shang-di was not only the supreme deity, but also their ancestor. According to myths, it was he who was the ancestor of the Yin tribe.

The most important element of the ancient Chinese religion was the cult of ancestors, which was based on the recognition of the influence of the dead on the life and fate of their descendants. In ancient times, when there was neither heaven nor earth, the Universe was a gloomy formless chaos. Two spirits, yin and yang, were born in him, who took up the ordering of the world. In the myths about the origin of the universe, there are very vague, timid beginnings of natural philosophy. The mythological form of thinking, as the dominant one, existed until the first millennium BC. e. The decomposition of the primitive communal system and the emergence new system social production did not lead to the disappearance of myths. Many mythological images pass into later philosophical treatises. Philosophers who lived in the V-III century. BC BC, often turn to myths in order to substantiate their conceptions of true government and their norms of correct human behavior. At the same time, Confucians carried out the historicization of myths, demythologization of plots and images of ancient myths. The historicization of myths, which consisted in the desire to humanize the actions of all mythical characters, was the main task of the Confucians. In an effort to bring the mythical traditions in line with the dogmas of their teaching, the Confucians did a lot of work to turn spirits into people and to find a rational explanation for the myths and legends themselves. So the myth became part of the traditional story. Rationalized myths become part of philosophical ideas, teachings, and the characters of myths become historical figures used to preach Confucian teachings.

Philosophy was born in the depths of mythological ideas, using their material. The history of ancient Chinese philosophy was no exception in this regard.

The philosophy of ancient China is closely connected with mythology. However, this connection had some features arising from the specifics of mythology in China. Chinese myths appear primarily as historical legends about past dynasties, about the “golden age”. They contain relatively little material that reflects the views of the Chinese on the formation of the world and its interaction, relationship with man. Therefore, natural philosophical ideas did not occupy the main place in Chinese philosophy. However, all the natural-philosophical teachings of Ancient China, such as the teachings about the “five elements”, about the “great limit” - tai chi, about the forces of yin and yang, and even the teachings about dao, originate from the mythological and primitive religious constructions of the ancient Chinese about the sky and earth, about the "eight elements".

Along with the emergence of cosmogonic concepts based on the forces of yang and yin, naive materialistic concepts arose, which were primarily associated with the “five elements”: water, fire, metal, earth, wood.

The struggle for dominance between the kingdoms led in the second half of the 3rd century. BC e. to the destruction of the “Warring States” and the unification of China into a centralized state under the auspices of the strongest kingdom of Qin. Deep political upheavals - the collapse of the ancient unified state and the strengthening of individual kingdoms, the sharp struggle between large kingdoms for hegemony - were reflected in the stormy ideological struggle of various philosophical, political and ethical schools. This period is characterized by the dawn of culture and philosophy.

In such literary and historical monuments as “Shi jing”, “Shu jing”, philosophical ideas are traced, which arose on the basis of generalization of direct labor and socio-historical practice of people. However, the true flowering of ancient Chinese philosophy falls precisely on the period of VI-III in BC. BC, which is rightly called the golden age of Chinese philosophy. It was during this period that such works of philosophical and sociological thought as “Tao De Ching”, “Lun Yu”, “Mo Tzu”, “Meng Tzu”, “Zhuang Tzu” appeared, great thinkers came forward with their concepts and ideas. Lao Tzu, Confucius, Mo Tzu, Zhuang Tzu, Xun Tzu, and schools are formed - Taoism, Confucianism, Mohism, Legalism, the natural philosophical school, which then had a huge impact on the entire subsequent development of Chinese philosophy. During this period, those problems, those concepts and categories, which then become traditional for the entire subsequent history of Chinese philosophy, up to modern times, arise.

1.2 Features of the development of philosophy in China

Two main stages in the development of philosophical thought in ancient China: the stage of the birth of philosophical views, which covers the period of the VIII-VI centuries. BC e., and the heyday of philosophical thought - the stage of rivalry "100 schools", which traditionally refers to the VI-III centuries. BC e.

The period of formation of the philosophical views of the ancient peoples who lived in the basins of the Huanghe, Huaihe, Hanshui rivers (VIII-VI centuries BC) and laid the foundations of Chinese civilization, coincides in time with a similar process in India and Ancient Greece. On the example of the emergence of philosophy in these three regions, one can trace the commonality of the patterns that followed the formation and development of human society of world civilization.

The history of the formation and development of philosophy is inextricably linked with the class struggle in society. Therefore, the struggle of various classes in society, the opposition of progressive forces to reactionary ones, directly affected the development of philosophy and led to a struggle between two main trends in philosophy - materialistic and idealistic - with varying degrees of awareness and depth of expression of these trends.

The specificity of Chinese philosophy is directly related to its special role in the acute socio-political struggle that took place in numerous states of Ancient China during the periods of “Spring and Autumn” and “Fighting Kingdoms”. Development social relations in China did not lead to a clear division of spheres of activity within the ruling classes. In China, a peculiar division of labor between politicians and philosophers was not clearly expressed, which led to the direct, immediate subordination of philosophy to political practice. Questions of social management, relations between different social groups, between kingdoms - that's what mainly interested the philosophers of ancient China.

Another feature of the development of Chinese philosophy is that, with a few exceptions, the natural scientific observations of Chinese scientists did not find a more or less adequate expression in philosophy, since philosophers, as a rule, did not consider it necessary to refer to the materials of natural science. Perhaps the only exception of this kind is the Mohist school and the school of natural philosophers, which ceased to exist after the Zhou era.

Philosophy and natural science existed in China, as if fenced off from each other by an impenetrable wall, which caused them irreparable damage. Thus, Chinese philosophy deprived itself of a reliable source for the formation of an integral and comprehensive worldview, and natural science, despised by the official ideology, experiencing difficulties in development, remained the lot of singles and seekers of the elixir of immortality. The only methodological compass of Chinese naturalists remained the ancient naive materialistic ideas of natural philosophers about the five primary elements. This view arose in ancient China at the turn of the 6th and 5th centuries and lasted until modern times. As for such an applied branch of natural science as Chinese medicine, it is still guided by these ideas to this day.

Thus, the isolation of Chinese philosophy from specific scientific knowledge narrowed its subject matter. Because of this, natural-philosophical concepts of explaining nature, as well as problems of the essence of thinking, questions of the nature of human consciousness and logic, have not received much development in China. The isolation of ancient Chinese philosophy from natural science and the lack of elaboration of questions of logic are one of the main reasons for the fact that the formation of the philosophical conceptual apparatus proceeded very slowly. For most Chinese schools, the method of logical analysis remained virtually unknown.

9. The main stages in the development of ancient philosophy.

In the development of ancient philosophy, there are four main stages in the development of philosophy. The first one covers the period from the 7th to the 5th centuries. BC e., it is usually called pre-Socratic (and philosophers, respectively, pre-Socratics). This also includes the philosophers of the Miletus school, Heraclitus of Ephesus, the Eleatic school, Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans, the ancient Greek atomists Leucippus and Democritus.

The second stage - from about the middle of the 5th century. until the end of the 4th c. BC e. - classical, associated with the activities of the prominent Greek philosophers Protagoras, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, whose philosophical heritage most fully summarizes and expresses the achievements of antiquity.

The third stage in the development of ancient philosophy (the end of the 4th century - the 2nd century BC) is usually called Hellenistic. In contrast to the classical stage, associated with the emergence of significant, deep in content philosophical systems, philosophical schools are being formed: peripatetics, academic philosophy, Stoic and Epicurean schools, skepticism. This period accounts for the work of prominent philosophers Theophrastus, Carneades and Epicurus. All schools are united by one feature: the transition from commenting on the teachings of Plato and Aristotle to the development of ethical problems, moralistic revelations in the era of decline and decline of Hellenistic culture.

The fourth stage in the development of ancient philosophy (I century BC - V-VI centuries AD) is the period when Rome began to play a decisive role in the ancient world, under the influence of which Greece also falls. Roman philosophy is formed under the influence of Greek philosophy, especially the Hellenistic period. Accordingly, three directions are distinguished in Roman philosophy: stoicism (Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius), skepticism (Sext Empiricus), epicureanism (Titus Lucretius Car). In the III-V centuries. n. e. In Roman philosophy, Neoplatonism arises and develops, the most prominent representative of which was Plotinus. Neoplatonism had an enormous influence not only on early Christian philosophy, but on all medieval religious philosophy.

10. Search for the fundamental principle of the world in ancient philosophy.

The birthplace of philosophy in the proper European sense of the word is Ancient Greece.

Greek philosophical thought has its own stages of birth, flourishing and decay. At the first, pre-Socratic stage, Greek philosophical thought is cosmocentric in nature and initially retains the features of mythology. At the same time, philosophers (Pythagoras, Thales, Heraclitus, Anaxagoras) make a significant step from mythology to philosophy, trying to build a monoelementary model of being, which, however, is based not on the evidence of their statements, but on sayings, which is especially pronounced in Heraclitus. At this stage, the formation of a philosophical categorical system takes place.

The importance of the first cosmocentric philosophical concepts should be especially noted, since the most difficult thing is the beginning of something fundamental. The beginning of European philosophy, at the origins of which stood the Greeks, is a revolution in the intellectual and ideological culture, which influenced the entire subsequent development of history.

Following the Milesian school of philosophy was the Eleatic one, which posed the question of being more definitely. Parmenides proves that being is eternal, motionless and unchanging. Indeed, there is not what we directly perceive and feel, but what we think. Hence the assertion that the conceivable exists and the unthinkable does not exist. All these provisions were also reflected in the famous aporias (paradoxes) of Zeno, such as “Achilles and the tortoise”, “Dichotomy (halving)”, etc. Significant in ancient Greek philosophy was the atomistic tradition of Democritus, which deepened the discussion of the problem of being and non-being. Democritus proceeds from the fact that the basis of existence is indivisible, indestructible, not composed of parts, eternal particles, which he called "atoms". Thus, the diversity of existence is reduced to atoms moving in the void. This continues the tradition from Thales, Anaximenes, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, but deepens it, because atoms have more explanatory possibilities, since they can form various combinations.

Later, in the era of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, ancient philosophy receives its highest, classical development.

After the discovery of nature as an object of philosophy, it became possible to raise the question of man, and then of God.

A person is always a mystery not only for others, but also for himself. Therefore, human existence includes the desire to know oneself. Knowing the outside world, other people, a person knows himself. The relation of a person to others, to the Cosmos characterizes, first of all, the most cognizing person, his intentions, value attitudes and beliefs. In a certain sense, man is the goal) of being, which was emphasized by the Greeks, who proposed the maxim "Man is the measure of all things."

11. The classical period of ancient philosophy.

The pinnacle of the development of ancient Greek philosophy falls approximately on the time from the second half of the 5th to the end of the 4th century. BC. This is the period of the greatest flourishing of classical Greek slave-owning democracy, based on the political form of the city-state - policies. Thanks to the three most prominent representatives of classical Greek philosophy - Socrates, Plato and Aristotle - Athens became the center of Greek philosophy for about 1000 years.

Socrates for the first time in history raises the question of personality with its decisions dictated by conscience, and with its values. Plato creates philosophy as a complete worldview - political and logical-ethical system; Aristotle - science as a research and theoretical study of the real world. Ancient Greek philosophy has had a decisive influence on the entire history of Western and partly even world philosophy up to the present day. We owe the very term "philosophy" precisely to antiquity.

The heyday of ancient Greek philosophy falls on the V-IV centuries. BC and its echoes died away for another millennium. In Byzantium and the countries of Islam, the dominant influence of Greek philosophy continued throughout the next millennium; then, during the Renaissance and humanism, and in Europe there was a revival of Greek philosophy, which led to creative new formations, starting from Platonism and Aristotelianism of the Renaissance and ending with the influence of Greek philosophy on the entire development of European philosophical thought. one.

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State state educational institution

higher professional education

"Russian Customs Academy"

Department of Humanities

TEST

in the discipline "Philosophy"

on the topic "Social Functions of Philosophy"

Completed by: Belousov A.A., student of the 2nd year of the correspondence course of the Faculty of Customs, group Тс1333

Lyubertsy 2014

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of the test is to study the social functions of philosophy.

So, philosophy - firstly - is the highest level and type of worldview, it is a theoretically formalized, system-rational worldview. general patterns existence and development of the world and man.

MAIN FUNCTIONS OF SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY

The functions of social philosophy must be considered in relation to the society in which it exists and to the student who studies it: these functions are close, but not identical.

Figure 1. - The main functions of social philosophy

The most important function of social philosophy is, first of all, cognitive. It consists in studying the relationship between social consciousness and social being, in developing a socio-philosophical theory that society needs. This work is carried out by social philosophers. The development of a theory includes the definition of the main categories and concepts of social philosophy, such as society, the formation of society, the economy, civilization, etc., as well as bringing them into a certain system built on the basis of some principles.

In the countries of Eastern Europe and Russia, there is a transition from developed (Soviet) socialism to democratic capitalism. This transition is contrary to Marxism-Leninism and its socio-philosophical component - historical materialism. Russian and foreign philosophers face the task of filling the socio-philosophical vacuum that arose after the collapse of historical materialism. Peter Kozlowski suggests filling it with personalism. We are trying to develop a social philosophy of historical realism.

The diagnostic function of social philosophy consists in analyzing society from the point of view of its current (crisis) state, assessing development options, their causes, methods and plans. Russia is a transitional society, in such periods the role of politics (and politicians) is great, which is the sphere of provoking and resolving conflicts. Such conflicts, on the one hand, are the source of Russia's development, and on the other hand, they are accompanied by material, psychological and human losses, many of which can be avoided with the skillful management of social conflicts.

The diagnostic function of social philosophy allows us to analyze the causes of conflicts in various spheres of society, understand their causes and outline a socio-philosophical way to resolve them.

The prognostic function of social philosophy is expressed in the development of reasonable forecasts about the trends in the development of societies and mankind, social contradictions and conflict processes in the future. This involves an analysis of the trends in the development of the main social subjects (formations of society, social communities, institutions, organizations), the dynamics of interests, etc. Such an opportunity is given by the realization of the cognitive and diagnostic functions of social philosophy. The result of the prognostic function is a forecast that sets out possible (real and formal) scenarios for the development of a given society and humanity.

These scenarios include reasonable social development goals and realistic ways to achieve them. Possible scenarios for the development of society and humanity can only be developed on the basis of existing socio-philosophical principles. The socio-philosophical approach to developing scenarios for the development of society differs from the pragmatic approach currently prevailing in our country, which presents a reaction to historical challenges from the point of view of momentary interests, leads to the fact that we swim with the flow of events, instead of swimming towards some morally justified goal. Events take over us and our principles if we do not use them.

The educational function of social philosophy is expressed in the study of its students, leaders, politicians. Knowledge of the foundations of social philosophy makes it possible to use it to prevent and resolve conflicts, to understand the main trends in the development of society and humanity. The lack of education of many people in the field of social philosophy is one of the reasons for ill-conceived and hasty decisions, utopian projects, such as communist, destructive and diverse conflicts that shake our country. For a long time in the minds of the Soviet people, an attitude to conflict with alleged enemies was introduced: capitalists, bourgeois, businessmen, speculators, etc. Now we have to learn tolerance (tolerance) for opposing opinions and actions.

The projective function of social philosophy is to develop a project for the transformation of reality in the interests of some social community (group, class, stratum, nation). This transformation may relate to a change in a social institution, state, formation, civilization, and include the goal, subjects, means, timing, pace of transformation (for example, the Marxist-Leninist project for the socialist reorganization of Russia). In this case, social philosophy acquires an ideological character, plays the role of an acquittal authority for some political decisions.

And as V.A. Tishkov, that the 20th century was largely created by intellectuals, not only in the form of explanations of what was happening, but also in the form of instructions on what and how to do. And in this sense, we are talking not just about the responsibility of the historian, but also about the authority of the historian in history, and therefore about the benefits or harms of his actions. Lived century, especially National history give more than enough grounds for such a view.

Society, represented by its ruling elite and intelligentsia, always turns to social philosophy when it is in a crisis, when the way out of it is not clear to it, when new ideas and means of their implementation are required. The world is now in such a position on the threshold of post-industrial civilization in the conditions of an ecological crisis, and Russia is in the conditions of abandoning the obsolete proletarian-socialist system.

The subject and specifics of philosophy cannot be fully disclosed without touching upon the question of its functions. First of all, it is a worldview function, which is associated with an abstract-theoretical, conceptual explanation of the world, unlike all other types and levels of worldview. The only thing I would like to add here is to point out the dual nature of the philosophical concepts themselves, which is expressed in their attraction either to scientific knowledge, objective truth, or to pseudoscience.

The methodological function, which has also already been discussed, lies in the fact that philosophy acts as a general doctrine of the method and as a set of the most common methods knowledge and understanding of reality.

It is necessary to single out the prognostic function of philosophy, the formulation within its framework of hypotheses about the general trends in the development of matter and consciousness, man and the world. In this case, the degree of probability of the forecast, of course, will be the higher, the more philosophy relies on science. Finally, one cannot fail to mention the function of philosophy as a school of theoretical thought and wisdom. This is especially true for the study of the history of philosophy.

The critical function of philosophy. It extends not only to other disciplines, but also to philosophy itself. The principle "question everything", preached by many philosophers since antiquity, just testifies to the importance of a critical approach and the presence of a certain amount of skepticism in relation to existing knowledge and socio-cultural values. It plays an anti-dogmatic role in their development. At the same time, it must be emphasized that only constructive criticism based on dialectical negation, and not abstract nihilism, has a positive meaning.

Closely connected with the critical function of philosophy is its axiological function (from the Greek axios, valuable). Any philosophical system contains the moment of evaluating the object under study from the point of view of the various values themselves: social, moral, aesthetic, ideological, etc. This function is especially pronounced in transition periods social development, when the problem of choosing the path of movement arises and the question arises of what should be discarded and what should be kept from the old values.

The social function of philosophy is quite multifaceted. It will be discussed in more detail in this essay.

Closely connected with the social function is the function of philosophy, which we would call humanitarian. We are talking about the fact that philosophy should play an adaptive and life-affirming role for each individual, contribute to the formation of humanistic values and ideals, the affirmation of the positive meaning and purpose of life. It is thus called upon to carry out the function of intellectual therapy, which is especially important in periods of unstable state of society, when old idols and ideals disappear, and new ones do not have time to form or gain authority; when human existence is in a "boundary situation", on the verge of being and non-being, and everyone has to make their own difficult choice.

It seems that today this function is especially relevant, and we should be grateful to W. Frankl, who created logotherapy (from the Greek logos - meaning, and therapeia - treatment) - a theory that could help millions of people. Its task is to "cope with the suffering that is caused by the philosophical problems posed to man by life" . The name of the theory is formed by analogy with psychotherapy. However, the scientist puts logotherapy much higher in its significance, because a person, in his opinion, is more than a psyche, it is a spirit, which philosophy is called upon to treat.

It should be emphasized that all the functions of philosophy are dialectically interconnected. Each of them presupposes the others and includes them in one way or another. It is impossible to break, for example, ideological and methodological, methodological and epistemological, social and humanitarian, etc. functions. And at the same time, only through their integral unity is the specificity and essence of philosophical knowledge manifested.

THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF PHILOSOPHY AND ITS ROLE IN THE LIFE OF SOCIETY

social philosophy ideological prognostic

First of all, let us point out the main meanings of the concept "social". In modern philosophical and sociological literature, this concept is used in the narrow and broad senses.

In a narrow sense, "social" means the existence of a special area of social phenomena that make up the content of the so-called social sphere of society, in which its own range of problems is solved that affects the relevant interests of people. These problems concern the social position of people, their place in the system of social division of labor, the conditions of their labor activity, movements from one social group to another, their standard of living, education, health care, social security, etc. All these problems within the social sphere are solved on the basis of the specific social relations that are taking shape here, also understood in a narrow sense. Their specific content is determined by the content of these problems, about which they arise. In this they differ, say, from economic, political, moral, legal and other social relations.

In a broad sense, the concept of "social" is used in the sense of "public", as a synonym this concept, coinciding with it in scope and content. In this case, the concept of "social" ("public") means everything that happens in society, in contrast to what happens in nature. In other words, it denotes the specificity of the social in relation to the natural, natural, biological. In a broad sense, the concept of "social" is also used as the opposite of the individual. In this case, it means that which refers to social groups or to the whole society, in contrast to what concerns the individual qualities of an individual.

In social philosophy, the concept of "social" is used both in a broad and narrow sense. In other words, it can concern all the processes taking place in society, including in its social sphere, but it can concern only those that relate to the given sphere proper and express its specificity. The social sphere itself is considered in its interactions with other spheres of public life within the framework of a single society.

The social function of philosophy is quite multifaceted in its content and covers various aspects of social life: philosophy is called upon to perform a dual task - to explain social existence and contribute to its material and spiritual change. At the same time, it should be remembered that social changes, experiments and reforms are of particular value and importance in public life. Therefore, before trying to change the social world, you must first explain it well. It is philosophy that has the prerogative in developing comprehensive concepts of the integration and consolidation of human society. Its task is to help to understand and formulate collective goals and direct efforts to organize collective actions to achieve them. At the same time, the degree of vitality of a philosophical concept is determined by the extent to which each individual can understand and accept it. Therefore, despite its comprehensive nature, philosophy must be addressed to every person.

Social philosophy recreates a holistic picture of the development of society. In this regard, it solves many "general questions" concerning the nature and essence of this or that society, the interaction of its main spheres and social institutions, the driving forces of the historical process, and so on. These questions are constantly faced in the study of their problems by various social sciences: history, political economy, sociology, political science, social Psychology, law, ethics, etc.

Appeal to the provisions of social philosophy helps representatives of these sciences to find solutions to their specific problems. This means that social philosophy plays the role of methodology social sciences, in a certain way directs their studies of the relevant aspects of social life, forms approaches and principles for their study. This is possible because it helps representatives of the social sciences to comprehend the place in society of the phenomena they study, their connections with other social phenomena, the combination of regularities and accidents in their development, and so on.

The effectiveness of this assistance depends primarily on the content of social philosophy, the degree of its penetration into the essence of a particular society, the processes taking place in it. It is the depth and breadth of her judgments and conceptual propositions, the heuristic nature of many of them, i.e. their inherent ability to comprehend the secrets of social phenomena and their complex interactions determine the theoretical and methodological significance of social philosophy. This significance of it is revealed when its provisions are used in solving the relevant problems of science and practice.

The task of social philosophy is not at all to reflect in detail all the phenomena and processes of social life. The life of society is extremely rich in various events. It is very complex with diverse connections between social phenomena that are dynamic and contradictory. No science is able to express all the richness and complexity of social life. Nor does social philosophy set itself such a goal. However, recreating one or another ideal model of the development of society and its individual aspects, social philosophy contributes to understanding the essence of various social phenomena, their place and role in society, reveals the most significant direct and feedback links between these phenomena as elements of the social system. Ultimately, it reproduces a holistic picture of the existence of society, reveals the main mechanisms of interaction between its parties, the trends and patterns of its development.

This expresses the main content of the concepts of many traditional and modern trends and schools of social philosophy. It is desirable, of course, that the content of the concepts of social philosophy reflect real social processes as deeply as possible, which would contribute to their deeper understanding. This is important not only for science, but also for practice, more precisely, for the scientific substantiation of the practical activities of people.

The need for this is constantly reminded of itself. It is important that the development of society should not proceed by itself, but be more purposeful and carried out in the interests of all people. And for this it is necessary, in particular, that their activity be as less spontaneous as possible and as conscious as possible, meaningful by them at the level of understanding the problems of the whole society. This is especially important for the activities of state bodies, which are called upon to purposefully organize practical solutions to social problems and thereby find optimal ways for the development of society. All over the world, people strive to solve the problems of their social life more meaningfully, taking into account not only momentary, but also long-term interests, on which the solution of their personal problems also depends. It is important that they are clearly aware of both the immediate and long-term consequences of their activities and could change it in their own interests.

Appropriate ideological and methodological provisions of social philosophy can help with this. Revealing the social significance of various forms of activity and their role for the self-affirmation of a person in society, showing the nature of society itself, the dynamics and direction of its development, social philosophy helps people to realize the immediate and long-term consequences of their actions for themselves and other people, social groups and perhaps for the whole society. This is one of the manifestations of the prognostic function of social philosophy, which often helps to foresee trends in the development of social processes and consciously predict them.

So, we can talk about the ideological, theoretical, methodological and prognostic functions of social philosophy. Its ideological function lies in the fact that it forms a person’s general view of the social world, the existence and development of society, in a certain way solves questions about the relationship between people’s being, the material conditions of their life and their consciousness, about the place and purpose of a person in society, goals and the meaning of his life, etc. All these problems are posed and solved within the framework of various schools of materialistic, idealistic and religious philosophy.

The theoretical function of social philosophy is that it allows you to penetrate into the depths of social processes and judge them at the level of theory, i.e. systems of views about their essence, content and direction of development. At this theoretical level, we can talk about trends and regularities in the development of social phenomena and society as a whole.

Connected with all this is the methodological function of social philosophy, which consists in the application of its provisions in the study of individual phenomena and processes of social life studied by various social sciences. In this case, the provisions of social philosophy play the role of methodology in research carried out in the field of historical, sociological, legal, economic, psychological and other sciences.

Finally, the prognostic function of social philosophy lies in the fact that its provisions contribute to foreseeing the development trends of society, its individual aspects, the possible immediate and long-term consequences of human activity, the content of which, in fact, determines the content of social development. On the basis of such foresight, it becomes possible to build forecasts for the development of certain social phenomena and the whole society.

These functions of social philosophy are manifested in the development of the consciousness of each person, if he masters the philosophical worldview, the theory and methodology of philosophical thinking. In this case, he acquires the ability to think systematically, dialectically, to consider social phenomena in their interaction, change and development. As a result, a certain methodological discipline of thinking is formed, making it strictly logical and clear, which is an indicator of the culture of thinking.

All this does not exclude, but rather implies the development of a person's ability to think creatively, outside the box, overcoming various stereotypes, one-sidedness and dogmatism, to think in close connection with life, reproducing all its complexity and inconsistency. Logical creative thinking becomes an effective means of understanding social phenomena and solving practical problems of the life of people and the whole society.

At present, in the analysis of the phenomena of social life, so-called concrete sociological studies are used. They are resorted to in the study of economic, social, political and other phenomena and processes. In other words, their application can be universal, as is the application of the provisions of social philosophy. At the same time, there are significant differences between them. The main one is that social philosophy is able to comprehend the processes taking place in society more deeply, more clearly understand the internal logic of their development and the diverse forms of their manifestation, than the data of specific sociological studies, taken by themselves, which most often contain information only about external side of social phenomena and processes. In addition, the results of specific sociological studies themselves, which receive a systematic justification within the framework of social philosophy, can be more deeply interpreted.

At the same time, if social philosophy really adheres to scientific foundations in the analysis and explanation of the processes taking place in society, it proceeds from the relevant principles. These include:

* approach to society as an integral social system, all elements of which are interconnected and interdependent; wherein special meaning attached to causal and regular relationships, the analysis of which is the main content of social determinism as a theoretical and methodological principle of the study of social phenomena, orienting on a comprehensive account of the causal and regular relationships and relationships existing between them;

* consideration of all social phenomena and processes in their constant dynamics, i.e. in motion, change and development; this is the principle of historicism, requiring the analysis of any social phenomena in a historically developing social context, i.e. in the system of their developing and changing relations with other social phenomena, together with which and under the influence of which these phenomena develop. This means that when analyzing social phenomena, one cannot artificially tear them out of their historical context, i.e. the system of circumstances in which their development took place or is taking place, so as not to get superficial, and even false conclusions about their essence and social significance;

* finding and analyzing those social contradictions that determine the essence and source of development of these social phenomena and processes:

* consideration of the latter in their historical continuity, taking into account what is really outdated and now plays a conservative, and even openly reactionary role, and what continues to live, retains its significance and enables society to develop along the path of civilization and progress;

*all this is expressed in the principle of transition from the abstract to the concrete in the analysis of the development of society, individual social phenomena, the historical process as a whole; this principle, substantiated within the framework of the dialectical method, has not lost its relevance and significance to this day.

These are, in brief, the provisions of social philosophy that characterize its subject matter, functions and principles of the study of social phenomena, as well as its theoretical and methodological significance for other social sciences that study various aspects of society, for analyzing the practical activities of people and their social relations.

CONCLUSION

Thus, the social function of philosophy is quite multifaceted in its content and covers various aspects of social life: philosophy is called upon to fulfill a dual task - to explain social being and contribute to its material and spiritual change. At the same time, it should be remembered that social changes, experiments and reforms are of particular value and importance in public life. Therefore, before trying to change the social world, you must first explain it well. It is philosophy that has the prerogative in developing comprehensive concepts of the integration and consolidation of human society. Its task is to help to understand and formulate collective goals and direct efforts to organize collective actions to achieve them. At the same time, the degree of vitality of a philosophical concept is determined by the extent to which each individual can understand and accept it. Therefore, despite its comprehensive nature, philosophy must be addressed to every person.

LIST OF USED SOURCES

1. Alekseev P.V., Panina A.V. Philosophy: textbook. - M.: Prospect. 2009.

2. Zotov A.F. Philosophy: textbook - M.: Prospekt, 2009.

3. Kaverin B.I. Philosophy (actual problems): tutorial/ B.I. Kaverin, A.T. Klimovich, V.V. Dibizhev, M.N. Ischuk, I.V. Demidov, S.Yu. Ruchkin, A.I. Fedorishchenko. M.: Publishing House of the Russian Customs Academy, 2011. 292 p.

4. Karmin A.S., Bernatsky G.G. Philosophy: a textbook for universities 2nd ed. - St. Petersburg: "Peter", 2007.

5. Ilyin V.V. Philosophy: textbook M., 1999.

6. Krapivensky S.E. Social Philosophy. Volgograd. 1996. www.gumer.info/bogoslov_Buks/Philos/krapiv/

7. Lavrinenko V.P. Social philosophy: textbook - M., 1995. www.alleng.ru/d/phil/phil025.htm

8. Lavrinenko V.P. Philosophy: textbook - M., 1998. www.gumer.info/bogoslov_Buks/Philos/lavr/index.php

9. Frankl V. Man in search of meaning: a textbook - M., 1990.

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The history of philosophy has more than two and a half millennia. During this time, many definitions of philosophy have accumulated, but disputes about what it is - a worldview, science, ideology, art still do not subside. Everyone knows colloquial, everyday definitions of philosophy:

1) philosophy is established beliefs on about something(eg life philosophy, student philosophy);
2) abstract, are common, not related To cause reasoning(for example, to breed philosophy).

One of the most common definitions of philosophy, which was adopted in the USSR for several decades, proceeded from the thesis of K. Marx about the need to create a new philosophical science, armed with modern, precise methods for studying being, society and man: philosophy is the science O most general laws development nature, human societies and thinking.

Philosophy is often understood as someone's doctrine O world(for example, ancient philosophy, Hegel's philosophy, etc.)

The term "philosophy" is often referred to as methodological principles lying v basis any Sciences, areas knowledge(e.g. philosophy of history, philosophy of mathematics, etc.)

It is even more difficult to define social philosophy, since this field of knowledge directly affects the interests of people, their understanding of the world and themselves in this world. Social philosophy originates in Antiquity. Its appearance is associated with the names of Socrates and Plato, who first set the task of philosophical understanding of society and its individual areas.

As for the philosophy of history, its beginning in Europe was laid by Augustine Aurelius (4th century AD) with his famous work "On the City of God". The Augustinian interpretation of the historical process dominated European philosophy until the 18th century. But the formation of social philosophy as a separate branch of knowledge dates back to the middle of the 19th century. At this time, the formation of sociology and psychology takes place. Scientists are abandoning "speculative", based only on reflection, rational knowledge of the world in favor of experimental, rational knowledge. They single out the active role of a person who masters the secrets of the universe not with the help of metaphysical mental constructions divorced from real life, but with the help of precise scientific methods.

The century and a half that have passed since then have not brought clarity to the problem of the essence of both philosophy in general and social philosophy in particular. And to this day in the literature there is no unity in the definition of social philosophy and its subject. Moreover, in the scientific world there is not even a single understanding of one of the main categories - "social", - although the object of social philosophy is social life and social processes.

In the literature, the term social" is used in different senses. Perhaps the most commonly used definition is that given by P.A. Sorokin, according to many, the most prominent sociologist of the first half of the twentieth century. " Social phenomenon there is peace concepts peace logical (scientific - in strict sense this words) being, resulting v process interactions (collective experience) human individuals", - wrote this American scientist (Sorokin P.A. Man. Civilization. Society. M., 1992. S. 527.).

Consider definitions social philosophy. One of the most famous definitions is the following: Social philosophy called upon answer on the question O volume, how generally maybe conscious streamlining people their relations v society, what kind opened and open front them v various historical era way and facilities construction social relations, which character wore and wear here objective barriers, getting up front people how these restrictions are realized people and appear v practice, how much adequately this problem reflected philosophical systems and ideological designs of the past and present"(Essays on social philosophy. M., 1994. P.3.).

We will not analyze such a complex definition (interpretation of a word), apparently, it can be quite useful for a theoretical scientist, but we will try to find a simpler definition: "Social philosophy is a system of scientific knowledge about the most general patterns and trends in the interaction of social phenomena, functioning and development of society, a holistic process social life"(Social Philosophy. M., 1995. S.13-14.).

The author of another definition is the famous Russian scientist V.S. Barulin. He thinks that " social philosophy studies the laws, according to which v society add up sustainable, large groups people, relationship between these groups, their connections and role v society"(Barulin V.S. Social Philosophy. Ch.1.M., 1993. P.90.)

The student can use any of the above definitions. He may also try to synthesize them in some way, or even try to construct his own definition. But for this you need to know that the diversity and difference in the definitions of social philosophy is largely due to the fact that the problem-subject status of social philosophy is still not clear. The reasons for this are varied. The nihilistic (denying completely all past achievements) break with the "Histmatic" past is having an effect. Influenced by the assertion since the mid-80s of "pluralism of thoughts, not knowledge." Difficulties in the development of modern Western literature are also having an effect.

Let's dwell on the last reason in more detail. For several decades, even Soviet professional philosophers, not to mention those who studied philosophy in higher educational institutions or were simply interested in it, were deprived of the opportunity to communicate with foreign non-Marxist colleagues and read foreign philosophical literature. The consequence of this, among other things, was that since the late 80s, the book market has brought down on readers such a volume of previously unknown literature that was simply difficult to master. But it's not only that. Much of what was already the history of philosophy abroad has become fashionable in Russia.

If in the West the term "social philosophy" became very common in the middle of the 20th century, in Russia it was only in the 1990s. In fairness, it should be noted that in the West there is no consensus on the essence of social philosophy. Thus, a textbook for Oxford students (Graham G. Modern social philosophy. Oxford, 1988.) contains sections on the essence of society, personality, social justice, social equality and its maintenance, health care, moral standards and law. Another textbook published in Darmstadt (Forshner M. Man and Society: Basic Concepts of Social Philosophy. Darmstadt, 1989) examines the concepts of society, the idea of human free will and responsibility, problems of punishment, power, political systems, theories of just wars, etc. . This list goes on.

Note that the approaches of domestic authors are also different and all of them have the right to exist, since they are not alternative, but only complement each other, considering the complex social world from different sides of the philosophical worldview.

What role does social philosophy play in society? Before answering this question, let us recall functions philosophy: after all, to a large extent they are common to social philosophy.

1) function extrapolation universals(identification of the most general ideas, ideas, concepts on which the socio-historical life of people is based);
2) function rationalization and systematization(translation into a logical and theoretical form of the total results of human experience in all its varieties: practical, cognitive, value);
3) critical function ( criticism of the dogmatic way of thinking and cognition, delusions, prejudices, mistakes);
4) function formation theoretical generalized image peace on the certain steps development societies.

Speaking about the specifics of social philosophy, one should Special attention give it to the next functions:

1) epistemological function(research and explanation of the most general patterns and trends in the development of society as a whole, as well as social processes at the level of large social groups);
2) methodological function(social philosophy acts as a general doctrine of the methods of cognition of social phenomena, the most general approaches to their study);
3) integration and synthesis social knowledge(establishment of universal ties of social life);
4) predictive function social philosophy (creating hypotheses about general trends in the development of social life and man);
5) ideological function(unlike other historical forms of worldview - mythology and religion - social philosophy is associated with a conceptual, abstract-theoretical explanation of the social world);
6) axiological or value function(any socio-philosophical concept contains an assessment of the object under study;
7) social function(in the broadest sense, social philosophy is called upon to perform a dual task - to explain social being and contribute to its material and spiritual change);
8) humanitarian function(social philosophy should contribute to the formation of humanistic values and ideals, the affirmation of the positive goal of life).

Functions social philosophy dialectically interconnected. Each of them presupposes the others and in one way or another includes them in its content. Thus, it is obvious that the socio-philosophical study of social processes will be the more successful, the more carefully attention is paid to each of the functions of philosophy.

The famous philosopher K.Kh. Momjyan rightly notes that, unlike the specific sciences, each of which develops its own "plot", philosophy has the audacity to try to comprehend the world in its totality, universality, generality. This totality is revealed by her in two interconnected aspects, which can be conditionally called "substantial" and "functional". V first case speech goes O search significant and nonrandom similarities between subsystems holistic world (example whom maybe serve their subordination universal principles causal-functional communications, on the existence which insist concepts philosophical determinism). In second case speech goes O attempts explanations similar similarities through disclosure significant and nonrandom connections, real mediations between correlative "kingdoms being"(Momdzhyan K.Kh. Society. Society. History. M., 1994. P.68.).

Thus, the main task of social philosophy is to reveal the essence of society, to characterize it as a part of the world, different from its other parts, but connected with them into a single world universe.

At the same time, social philosophy acts as a special theory, which has its own categories, laws and principles of research.

social philosophy knowledge society

Due to the large degree of generality of its provisions, laws and principles, social philosophy also acts as a methodology for other social sciences.

social philosophy ideological prognostic

First of all, let us point out the main meanings of the concept "social". In modern philosophical and sociological literature, this concept is used in the narrow and broad senses.

In a narrow sense, "social" means the existence of a special area of social phenomena that make up the content of the so-called social sphere of society, in which its own range of problems is solved that affects the relevant interests of people. These problems relate to the social position of people, their place in the system of social division of labor, the conditions of their work, movement from one social group to another, their standard of living, education, health care, social security, and so on. All these problems within the social sphere are solved on the basis of the specific social relations that are taking shape here, also understood in a narrow sense. Their specific content is determined by the content of these problems, about which they arise. In this they differ, say, from economic, political, moral, legal and other social relations.

In a broad sense, the concept of "social" is used in the sense of "public" as a synonym for this concept, coinciding with it in scope and content. In this case, the concept of "social" ("public") means everything that happens in society, in contrast to what happens in nature. In other words, it denotes the specificity of the social in relation to the natural, natural, biological. In a broad sense, the concept of "social" is also used as the opposite of the individual. In this case, it means that which refers to social groups or to the whole society, in contrast to what concerns the individual qualities of an individual.

Appeal to the provisions of social philosophy helps representatives of these sciences to find solutions to their specific problems. This means that social philosophy plays the role of the methodology of the social sciences, in a certain way directs their studies of the relevant aspects of social life, forms approaches and principles for their study. This is possible because it helps representatives of the social sciences to comprehend the place in society of the phenomena they study, their connections with other social phenomena, the combination of regularities and accidents in their development, and so on.

approach to society as an integral social system, all elements of which are interconnected and interdependent; at the same time, special importance is attached to cause-and-effect and regular relationships, the analysis of which is the main content of social determinism as a theoretical and methodological principle for studying social phenomena, orienting on a comprehensive account of the cause-and-effect and regular relationships and relationships existing between them;

consideration of all social phenomena and processes in their constant dynamics, i.e. in motion, change and development; this is the principle of historicism, requiring the analysis of any social phenomena in a historically developing social context, i.e. in the system of their developing and changing relations with other social phenomena, together with which and under the influence of which these phenomena develop. This means that when analyzing social phenomena, one cannot artificially tear them out of their historical context, i.e. the system of circumstances in which their development took place or is taking place, so as not to get superficial, and even false conclusions about their essence and social significance;

finding and analysis of those social contradictions that determine the essence and source of development of these social phenomena and processes:

consideration of the latter in their historical continuity, taking into account what is really outdated and now plays a conservative, and even openly reactionary role, and what continues to live, retains its significance and enables society to develop along the path of civilization and progress;

University: VZFEI

Introduction

The subject of social philosophy is the most general, primarily ideological and methodological principles of the life and development of human society. Social philosophy is not identical with sociology, which is an empirical science that studies social life in its various aspects, using all sorts of specific methods. Social philosophy is based on sociological research and carries out its own philosophical generalizations.

What is the problem of social philosophy as a fundamental branch of philosophy? Obviously, in order to comprehend philosophically what society is, what significance it has in a person's life.

Social philosophy in unity with historiosophy studies general principles life and development of society, regularities world history etc.

Social philosophy and historiosophy have as their general methodological basis the principles, categories and laws worked out by the entire history of the development of philosophical thought in the full extent of its categorical structure.

Proceeding from this, it is fair to consider the history of socio-philosophical thought in unity with the analysis of the formation of the ideas of the philosophy of history.

1. The specifics of social cognition.

Human knowledge is subject to general laws. However, the features of the object of knowledge determine its specificity. There are specific traits and social knowledge, which is inherent in social philosophy. In the narrow sense of the word, social cognition is a system of knowledge about society at its various levels and in various aspects.

The specificity of this type of cognition lies, first of all, in the fact that the object here is the activity of the subjects of cognition themselves. That is, people themselves are both subjects of knowledge and real actors. In addition, the object of knowledge is also the interaction between the object and the subject of knowledge. In other words, in contrast to the sciences of nature, technical and other sciences, the object of social cognition itself is initially present as its subject.

Further, society and man, on the one hand, act as part of nature. On the other hand, these are the creations of both society itself and man himself, the materialized results of their activities. Both social and individual forces operate in society, both material and ideal, objective, subjective factors; matters, as feelings, passions and reason. Within society itself, its various structures and elements seek to satisfy their own needs, interests, and goals. This complexity of social life, its diversity and heterogeneity determine the complexity of social cognition and its specificity in relation to other types of cognition.

To the difficulties of social cognition are added the difficulties associated with the subject of cognition. Ultimately, such a subject is the person himself, although involved in public relations and scientific communities, but having his own individual experience and intellect. Thus, according to the characteristics of social cognition, one should also take into account its personal factor.

Finally, it is necessary to note the socio-historical conditionality of social cognition, including the level of development of the material and spiritual life of society, and its social structure and the interests that dominate it.

This specificity largely determines the nature and characteristics of various aspects of social cognition: ontological, epistemological and value.

ontological side social cognition concerns the explanation of the existence of society, the laws and trends of its functioning and development. At the same time, it also affects such a subject of social life as a person, to the extent that he is included in the system of social relations. In the aspect under consideration, the above complexity of social life, as well as its dynamism, in combination with the personal element of social cognition, are the objective basis for the diversity of points of view on the essence of people's social existence.

Pointing to the complexity of social cognition and its object, for example, such followers of I. Kant as Windalband and Rickert argued that there are no objective laws in society and cannot be, since all phenomena are individual, unique, and, therefore, there are no objective laws in society that fix only stable, necessary and recurring connections between phenomena and processes. The followers of the neo-Kantians went even further and declared that society itself exists only as our idea of it, and not as an objective reality.

In fact, human society has an objective, primarily natural basis. It arises and develops also objectively, that is, regardless of who and how it is known and how it is known, regardless of the specific subject of knowledge. Otherwise, there would be no line of development in history at all.

The main objective social factors underlying any society include, first of all, the level and nature of economic development society, material interests and needs of people. Not only an individual, but the whole of humanity, before engaging in knowledge, satisfying their spiritual needs, must satisfy their primary, material needs. Certain social, political and ideological structures also arise only on a certain economic basis. For example, the modern political structure of society could not have arisen in a primitive economy. Although it is impossible to deny the mutual influence of various factors on social development, ranging from geographical environment and ending with subjective ideas about the world.

Gnoseological side social cognition is connected with the peculiarities of cognition itself, primarily with the question of whether it is able to formulate its own laws and categories, and whether it has them at all. In other words, we are talking about whether social cognition can claim the truth and have the status of science? The answer to this question largely depends on the position of the scientist on the ontological problem of social cognition, on whether the objective existence of society and the presence of objective laws in it are recognized. In social cognition, ontology largely determines epistemology.

The epistemological side of social cognition includes the solution of such problems:

How is the knowledge of social phenomena carried out
What are the possibilities of their knowledge and what are the limits of knowledge
The role of social practice in social cognition and the significance in this personal experience knowing subject
The role of various kinds of sociological research and social experiments.

Of no small importance is the question of the possibilities of the human mind in the knowledge of the spiritual world of man and society, the culture of certain peoples. In this regard, there are problems of the possibilities of logical and intuitive knowledge of the phenomena of social life, including the psychological states of large groups of people as manifestations of their mass consciousness.

In addition to the ontological and epistemological aspects of social cognition, there is also value- its axicological side, which plays an important role in understanding its specificity, since any knowledge, and especially social, is associated with certain value patterns, preferences and interests of various subjects. The value approach is manifested from the very beginning of knowledge - from the choice of the object of study. This choice is made by a specific subject with his life experience and cognitive experience, individual goals and objectives. In addition, value prerequisites and priorities largely determine not only the choice of the object of cognition, but also its forms and methods, as well as the specifics of interpreting the results of social cognition.

In itself, the value approach is inherent not only in social cognition, the "sciences of culture", but also in all cognition, including the "sciences of nature".

Thus, the value side of social cognition does not at all deny the possibility of scientific cognition of society and the existence of social sciences. Moreover, it contributes to the consideration of society, individual social phenomena in different aspects and from different positions. Thus, a more concrete, multilateral and Full description social phenomena and hence a more scientific explanation of social life. The main thing is that, on the basis of different points of view and approaches, positions and opinions, to reveal the inner essence and pattern of development of the social sciences.

The ontological, epistemological, and value aspects of social cognition are closely interconnected, forming an integral structure of people's cognitive activity.

2. The subject and functions of social philosophy

The object of social philosophy is social life and social processes. However, the term "social" itself is used in the literature in different senses. First of all, we note that, on the one hand, natural, and on the other hand, individual, personal phenomena are excluded from the concept of the social. That is, social phenomena are always social phenomena. However, under the concept of social phenomena fit and economic, and political, and national and many other phenomena.

The unevenness of this definition lies in the fact that the entire objective reality of society, which lies outside the world of concepts, falls out of the social sphere.

The main subject of social action and social relations is a social group or society as a whole.

Based on the above, the following definition can be given: social philosophy- this is a system of scientific knowledge about the most general patterns and trends in the interaction of social phenomena, the functioning and development of society, the integral process of social life.

Social philosophy studies society and social life not only in structural and functional terms, but also in its historical development. Of course, the subject of its consideration is the person himself, taken, however, "by himself", not as a separate individual, but as a representative of a social group or community, i.e. in his social network.

Social philosophy studies the laws according to which stable, large groups of people, relations between these groups, their connections and role in society. In addition, she studies the features of the cognition of social phenomena at the socio-philosophical level of generalizations. In other words, social philosophy analyzes the holistic process of changing social life and the development of social systems.

The subject and specificity of social philosophy as a science cannot be revealed without touching upon the question of its functions. Let's highlight the main ones.

epistemological the function of social philosophy is related to the fact that it explores and explains the most general patterns and trends in the development of the whole society and social processes at the level of large groups.

Methodological the function of social philosophy lies in the fact that it acts as a general doctrine of the methods of cognition of social phenomena, the most general approaches to their study. It is at the socio-philosophical level that the general formulation of this or that social problem and the main ways to overcome them. Within the framework of the methodology, a certain way of practical assimilation of reality is also developed. Along with this, social philosophy also acts as a special theory that has its own categories, laws, and principles of research. The socio-philosophical theory, due to the great degree of generality of its provisions, laws and principles, acts at the same time as a methodology for other social sciences. However, these two interdependent qualities of social philosophy should not be confused.

In the same row there is also such a function as integration and synthesis of social knowledge, establishment of universal ties of social life. Here it is also necessary to highlight the prognostic function of social philosophy, its formulation in the framework of hypotheses about the general trends in the development of social life and man. In this case, the degree of probability of the forecast, of course, will be the higher, the more social philosophy relies on science.

It should also be noted worldview function of social philosophy. Unlike other historical forms of worldview, social philosophy is associated with a conceptual, abstract-theoretical explanation of the social world.

critical the function of social philosophy - the principle of "questioning everything", preached by many philosophers since antiquity, indicates the importance of a critical approach and the presence of a certain amount of skepticism in relation to existing social knowledge and sociocultural values. This approach plays an anti-dogmatic role in the development of social knowledge. At the same time, it must be emphasized that only constructive criticism based on dialectical negation, and not abstract nihilism, has a positive meaning.

WITH critical closely related is the value function of social philosophy. Any socio-philosophical concept contains the moment of evaluating the object under study from the point of view of a variety of social values. This function is especially acute in transitional periods of social development, when the problem of choosing the path of movement arises and the question arises of what should be discarded and what of the old values should be preserved.

Social the function of social philosophy is quite multifaceted in its content and covers various aspects of social life. In the broadest sense, social philosophy is called upon to perform a dual task - to explain social being and contribute to its material and spiritual change. Before you try to change the social world, you need to explain it well. If we talk about the key moment of the task, then we should pay attention, first of all, to the role of social philosophy in the integration and consolidation of human society.

theoretical function social philosophy lies in the fact that it allows you to penetrate deep into social processes and judge them at the level of theory, that is, a system of views about their essence, content and direction of development. At the theoretical level, we can talk about trends, patterns of development of social phenomena and society as a whole.

predictive function social philosophy lies in the fact that its provisions contribute to the prediction of trends in the development of society, its individual aspects, the possible immediate and long-term consequences of people's activities. On the basis of such foresight, it becomes possible to build forecasts for the development of certain social phenomena and the whole society.

These functions of social philosophy are manifested in the thinking of a person if he masters the philosophical worldview, theory and methodology of philosophy. In this case, he acquires the ability to think systematically, dialectically, to consider social phenomena in their interaction, change and development. As a result, a certain methodological discipline of thinking is formed, making it strictly logical and clear, which is an indicator of the culture of thinking.

The relationship of social philosophy with other social sciences is dialectical in nature, due to their mutual connection and interaction. The influence of social philosophy on such a science as economics is due, first of all, to the fact that social philosophy considers social life in a more high level generalizations than other social sciences, in accordance with this, it formulates its conclusions in a more abstract form. Because of this, social philosophy acts as a general methodology for the cognition of social phenomena for more specific social sciences, considering the most general laws and trends in the development of society.

Social philosophy has big influence to the development of other social sciences. It should be borne in mind that the nature of the impact of social philosophy can be of different quality. It all depends on what social philosophy itself relies on - science or mystical ideas.

We also note that social philosophy, while formulating the most general laws, inevitably penetrates into the very fabric of other social sciences and helps them in formulating specific categories and methods of research.

And here we are faced with the interaction of social philosophy and private social sciences.

The influence of specific social sciences on social philosophy lies primarily in the fact that it generalizes the data of the social sciences and develops on this basis. Thus, there is a constant pulsation, a mutual transition from the general to the particular, and vice versa.

3. "Object" and "subject" of social cognition. Their specific historical character and dialectic of interaction

The specificity of social cognition lies, first of all, in the fact that the object here is the activity of the subjects of cognition themselves. That is, people themselves are both subjects of cognition and real actors, in addition to this, the interaction between the object and the subject of cognition also becomes the object of cognition. In other words, in the very object of social cognition, its subject is also initially present.

To the difficulties of social cognition, explained by objective reasons, i.e., reasons that have grounds in the specifics of the object, there are also difficulties associated with the subject of cognition. Ultimately, such a subject is the person himself, although involved in public relations and scientific communities, but having his own individual experience and intellect, interests and values, needs and passions. Thus, when characterizing social cognition, one should also keep in mind its personal factor.

Finally, it is necessary to note specifically the historical nature and dialectics of their interaction.

Each new generation of people, entering into life, does not start history anew, but continues what was done by their predecessors. Consequently, people's activity to a certain extent is already set by objective conditions that do not depend on their consciousness and will and determine mainly the nature and method of people's activity, the direction and forms of their social activity. These conditions include, first of all, material and technical realities. They act for each generation as the real basis of what constitutes the starting point of its life activity. Thus, the objective factor of history is, first of all, labor, production and forms of social relations, which to a large extent is a crystallization of the previous activities of people.

But each new generation does not just repeat what was done by its predecessors, but realizes its own needs and interests, realizes its own goals. The diverse activities of people, their living labor is what constitutes the essence of the subjective factor of history. The subjective factor is called that because it reveals the activity of the subject of history, which are the masses, social groups and individuals.

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