The concept of "society" is used in a narrow and broad sense. In a narrow sense, a society is understood as a group of people (an organization) united by some characteristics (interests, needs, values, etc.), for example, a society of book lovers, a society of hunters, a society of war veterans, etc. In a broad sense, under society is understood as the totality of all methods of interaction and forms of uniting people on a certain territory, within a single country, a single state. However, it should be borne in mind that society arose long before the emergence of the state. Therefore, a tribal (or clan) society exists in the absence of a country and state.

Society is a historically developed system of relations and forms of human life in a certain territory. Society consists of separate individuals, but is not limited to their sum. it systemic education, which is a holistic, self-developing social organism. The consistency of society is ensured by a special way of interaction and interdependence of its parts - social institutions, social groups and individuals.

The main features of society are:

• the presence of a common area;
• the presence of a social structure; autonomy and self-sufficiency;
• a certain socio-cultural unity (community of culture).

Let's consider each of the listed signs.

1. Territory- this is a certain physical space on which connections, relationships and interactions between individuals and social communities are formed and developed. The territory with its geographic and climatic conditions has a significant impact on social relations, on the ways and forms of people's life, on customs, traditions, value orientations cultivated in society.

It should be borne in mind that the territory was not always one of the main features of society. In search of food, primitive society often changed its territory of residence. But each modern society as if forever "spelled out" on its historical territory. Therefore, the loss of their territory, their historical homeland is a tragedy for every person, every social community.

2. Social structure(from Lat. structura - structure) - a set of interrelated and interacting social communities, social institutions and relations between them.

Social community- large or small social group with common social characteristics. For example, workers, students, doctors, pensioners, the upper class, the middle class, the poor, the rich, etc. Each social community has its own "individual" place in the social structure, has a certain social status and performs its inherent functions in society. For example, the main functions of the working class are in the production of industrial products, the functions of the students are in the acquisition of knowledge in a particular area, the functions of the political elite are in the political management of society, etc. Relations between social communities are regulated by social institutions.

Social Institute- historically established stable norms, rules, ways of organizing joint activities in a particular sphere of society. The most significant from the point of view of the functioning of society are: the institutions of property, state, family, production, education, culture, religion. Each social institution regulates the relationship between social communities and individuals in a certain area of ​​society. For example, the institution of the family regulates family-marriage relations, the institution of the state regulates political relations. Interacting with each other, social institutions create a single multifunctional system.

Social communities and social institutions support the division of labor, socialize the individual, ensure the continuity of values ​​and cultural norms, and contribute to the reproduction of social relations in society.

Social relationships- the relationship between social communities and social institutions. The nature of these relations depends on the position that this or that social community occupies in society, and on the functional significance of this or that social institution. For example, in a totalitarian society the institution of the state occupies a dominant position and imposes its will on everyone, while the ruling elite pursues primarily its own personal interests, trampling the interests of other social communities.

Social relations are relatively stable (stable). They are a reflection of the social position of interacting social communities (the alignment of class forces) and change as the position (social statuses) of certain social communities in the social structure of society changes.

3. Autonomy and self-sufficiency... Autonomy means that a society has its own territory, its own history, its own control system. Autonomy is also the ability of a society to create, within the framework of its functional system, relatively strong social ties and relationships capable of integrating all social communities that make up it.

Self-sufficiency is the ability of society to self-regulation, that is, to ensure the functioning of all vital spheres without outside interference, for example, to reproduce the size of the population, socialize each new generation, ensure the continuity of its culture, and satisfy the material and spiritual needs of all members of society.

The autonomy and self-sufficiency of society are not abstract concepts. If a society is unable to satisfy certain vital needs of its members, then it loses its autonomy and cannot avoid unwanted outside interference.

4. Sociocultural unity... Some researchers denote this feature by the term “community of culture”. However, it should be borne in mind that in complex social systems consisting of different ethnic, confessional and other communities (for example, Russia, the United States, etc.), the term “cultural community” does not quite accurately reflect the phenomenon under study. Therefore, in our opinion, the concept of "socio-cultural unity" is more acceptable in this case. It is much broader than the concept of "community of culture" and embraces (unites) various subcultures common for the whole society with social relations and integrates them into a single community.

The main factors of the socio-cultural unity of society are:

• commonality of basic social institutions (state, family, education, finance, etc.),
• common language (in multinational societies, as a rule, there is a language interethnic communication- Russia, India, USA, etc.),
• awareness of people's belonging to a single society (for example, we are all Russians),
• unity of basic moral values ​​and patterns of behavior.

The socio-cultural unity of society has a great integrating power. It promotes the socialization of each new generation on the basis of generally accepted values, norms, rules of behavior and social consciousness.

SOCIETY

SOCIETY

in a broad sense - a part of the material world isolated from nature, which is a historically developing form of human life. In the narrow sense, it is defined. stage human. stories (socio-economic formations, interformational and intraformational historical stages, ex. precapitalistic. O., an early feud. O.) or, individual O. (organism), ex. French O., ind. O., owls. O.

In the history of philosophy and sociology, O. is often understood as the totality of the human. individuals uniting to satisfy "social instincts" (Aristotle), control over your actions (Hobbes, Russo) and T. The understanding of O. as based on a convention, a contract, the same orientation of interests was characteristic of bourgeois. philosophy 17 - early 19 centuries However, at 19 v. there is a "contractual" theory of society. Comte saw the origins of O. in the action of some abstract law of the formation of complex and harmonic. systems. Hegel contrasted the “contractual” theory with the interpretation of “citizen. society "as a sphere of economic. relationships where everyone is comprehensively intertwined from everyone (cm. Cit., T. 7, M.-L., 1934, with. 223) ... V modern bourgeois. sociology of O. as a set of abstract individuals is replaced by understanding it as a set of actions of the same abstract individuals (social action - cm. Social).

Marxism-Leninism in the understanding of O. proceeds from the fact that the fact of human existence cannot reveal the essence of O. Abstract, isolated from the course of history, is just a product that thinks. process, the signs of such a person are, at best, signs of a "kind". Rejecting the abstract, extra-istorich. man, K. Marx wrote: "Society does not consist of individuals, but expresses the sum of those connections and relationships in which these individuals are to each other" (K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., T. 46, h. 1, with. 214) ... Define. O. there is also a definition. the nature of societies. a person, and, conversely, “... Society, - Marx concretized, - i.e. the man himself in his social relations " (ibid, T. 46, h. 2, with. 222) .

Societies. relationship is something specific that distinguishes social formations from all dr. systems of the material world. But this does not mean that society is only societies. relationship. Marx defined O. as "a product of human interaction" (ibid, T. 27, with. 402) and attributed to him produces. strength and production. relations, societies. system, the organization of the family and classes, political. system, societies. ...

Characteristics of O. through the totality of societies. relations highlights and fixes its specificity. nature. Establishing the determinism of all societies. production relations. relations and the discovery of their dependence on the level of development produces. forces allowed Marx to penetrate into societies. life. It was not only what was found that distinguishes the structure of societies. life from natural, but also open changes of one way of society. life to others. “Production relations,” Marx emphasized, “in their totality form what is called social relations, society, and, moreover, form a society that is at a definite level historical development, a society with a peculiar distinctive character» (ibid, T. 6, with. 442) .

Introducing the concept of socio-economic. formations, Marx discarded reasoning bourgeois. sociologists about “O. in general ”, but this did not at all mean that Marx abandoned the concept of O. Marx showed that to start“ O. in general ”until the true foundations of societies were discovered and cognized. life means to start not from the beginning, but from the end. On reasoning bourgeois. sociologists about “0. in general "," ... reasoning, - noted V. I. Lenin, - meaningless ... certain forms of the structure of society were presented " (PSS, T. 1, with. 430) ... This allowed Marx to distinguish not only specific, but also general features that characterize O., regardless of its form. Alternative concepts "O." and "socio-economic. formation "in this case is pointless, t. to. the first is generic to the second. Category "O." reflects here the qualities. certainty of societies. life when compared with nature, "socio-economic. formation "- qualities. the certainty of various stages of development of O.

K. Marks, Letter to P.V. Annenkov, 28 Dec 1846 K. Marx and F. Engels, Works, T. 27; his e, Salaried and Capital, in the same place, T. 6; him, Economich. manuscripts 1857-1859 biennium, in the same place, T. 46, hours 1-2; Lenin V.I., What are "friends of the people" and how do they fight against the social democrats ?, PSS, T. 1; him, Economich. populism and its criticism in the book G. Struve (Reflection of Marxism in bourgeois. literature), ibid.

Yu. K. Pletnikov.

Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary. - M .: Soviet encyclopedia. Ch. edition: L. F. Ilyichev, P. N. Fedoseev, S. M. Kovalev, V. G. Panov. 1983 .

SOCIETY

a group of people created through purposeful and reasonably organized joint activities, and the members of such a group are not united by such a deep principle as in the case of a genuine community. Society rests on a convention, a contract, and the same orientation of interests. Individuality an individual much less changes under the influence of his involvement in society than depending on his involvement in. Often, society means the sphere that lies between the individual and the state (for example, when it comes to orienting the goals of education to the "social" will of a certain era), or romantics, or in the sense. the concept of societe-corps social - all human. After attempts to explain the essence of the concept of "society" in antiquity (Aristotle) ​​and in the Middle Ages (Augustine and Thomas Aquinas), this became, especially since the 18th century, a political and philosophical problem, which Comte tried to give exhaustive in his sociology; therefore society has become a subject of consideration and a central point new science – sociology.

Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary. 2010 .

Society- a form of uniting people with common interests, values ​​and goals. Human societies are characterized by a model of relations (social relations) between people, which can be described as a set of such relations between its subjects. V social sciences, society as a whole often exhibits stratification. Society is a supra-individual, supra-group and supra-institutional association of people, which is inherent in different kinds social differentiation and division of labor. Society can be characterized by many characteristics: for example, by nationality: French, Russian, German; state and cultural; by territorial and temporal; by production method, etc.

Society is often identified with sociality in general and is reduced to forms of communication and joint activities of people; from another point of view, people themselves who are in communication and are engaged in joint activities, including the distribution of a jointly produced product, do not yet constitute society in the sociological understanding, since they remain the same people included in group (including collective) forms of life. If naturalism claims that society is reduced to its material carriers, then in its phenomenological interpretations society refers to the types of consciousness and forms of communication.

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Society as an object of research

In sociology

Society in the phenomenological sense is mens intensas(mind, thought, as it were, in itself) - a multitude of social worlds of our mentalities, worlds imprinted in our consciousness.

Society with a naturalistic approach is res extensas(extended things) - a set of bodies, physical and biological, which are in real objective relationships to each other.

The generic concept in relation to the concept of "society" is "community of people." Social community is the main form of human life. At the same time, society is not reduced to a social community, that is, this concept is much broader in scope and contains, first of all, the social mechanisms of its own reproduction, which are not reducible to biological ones. This means that it is not a community that is secondary to society, but that society grows out of a social community. In his work of the same name, F. Tönnis, relying on the analysis of the works of K. Marx, showed the primacy of the community in relation to society.

Historically, the tribal community was the first form of existence of the human race as a community of people. “On closer examination of the term community,” writes F. Tönnis, “it can arise 1. from natural relations, since they have become social. Here, kinship relations always turn out to be the most common and most natural ties that bind people. " In the process of the historical development of society, first of all, the basic forms of the community of people changed - from the clan and neighboring communal, estate and social-class to modern socio-cultural communities.

Sociological relationalism considers society through the interrelationship of all elements and their mutually substantiating significance within a certain system, essential only for a certain historical type of being, with a change in which the system itself changes. This definition of relationalism is given by K. Mannheim in Ideology and Utopia (1929). Society in a relationalist interpretation is relationibus inter res(relationship between things).

Over time, some societies have evolved towards more complex forms of organization and management. The corresponding cultural evolution had a significant impact on social models: tribes of hunters and gatherers settled around seasonal food sources, transforming into villages, which, in turn, grew and turned into cities of one size or another, and then evolved into city-states and national states. associations. As society develops, various phenomena characteristic of human collectives are institutionalized, and certain norms are developed to be followed.

For many forms of society, the same phenomena are characteristic: cooperative activity, avoidance, scapegoating, generosity, risk-sharing, reward, etc. A society, for example, can officially recognize the merits of an individual or group, giving them a certain status if they perform some desired or approved action. In almost all communities, selfless actions are observed in the interests of the group, etc.

In anthropology

Human communities are often classified according to the way in which they provide their livelihoods. Researchers distinguish between hunter-gatherer societies, nomadic, pastoral, simple and complex agricultural societies (the first type is characterized by crop production, the second - full-fledged intensive agriculture), as well as industrial and post-industrial societies (the latter two are often viewed as qualitatively different in comparison with the previous ones) ...

In political anthropology

Societies can also be classified in terms of their political structure. In order of increasing size and organizational complexity, such forms as clan, tribe, chiefdom, and state are distinguished. The strength of political power in these structures varies depending on the cultural, geographical and historical environment with which these societies have to interact in one form or another. Accordingly, with a similar level of technological and cultural development, a more isolated society has a greater chance of survival than a society located in close proximity to others that could encroach on its material resources. Failure to fight back other societies usually ends up swallowing up a weaker culture.

Paradigms of interpretation of society

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

An open society - according to K. Popper - is a type of society characterized by a dynamic social structure, high mobility, the ability to innovate, criticism, individualism and democratic pluralistic ideology (here a person is given the opportunity to choose his worldview, moral values. There is no state ideology, and at the level of the constitution the principles of spiritual freedom are consolidated, which a person really uses, that is, he himself tries to find the basic values).

The term "society" has several definitions.

In the broadest sense of the word, society

The concept of society

Signs of society:

Society functions:

Society and nature are closely interconnected with each other.

Culture - all transformative human activity.

Society is a dynamic system.

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

Social progress criteria:
progressive development of production
degree of development of science
standards of living
the level of protection of the honor and dignity of the individual
level of morality

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

Founder Auguste Comte considered it about society, the space in which the life of people is carried out. Life is impossible without it, which explains the importance of studying this topic.

What does the concept of "society" mean? How does it differ from the concepts "country", "state", used in everyday speech, often as identical?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Recognizing the approach to society as the relationship of individuals, K. Marx, having analyzed the connections and relationships between them, introduced the concepts of "social relations", "production relations", "socio-economic formations" and a number of others. Relations of production shaping public relations, create a society, located at one or another definite stage of historical development. Consequently, according to Marx, production relations are the primary cause of all human relations and create a large social system called society.

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

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

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

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

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

An important role in systemic studies of society was played by A. Malinovsky... He believed that society can be viewed as a social system, the elements of which are associated with the basic needs of people for food, shelter, protection, sexual satisfaction. People come together to meet their needs. In this process, secondary needs for communication, cooperation, control over conflicts arise, which contributes to the development of the language, norms, rules of the organization, and this, in turn, requires coordination, managerial and integrative institutions.

Society life

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

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

Social sphere represent people (clan, tribe, nationality, nation, etc.), different classes (slaves, slave owners, peasants, proletariat, bourgeoisie) and other social groups that have different material conditions and attitudes towards the existing social order.

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

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

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

In sociology, there are different approaches to search for reasons choice of priorities in the social life of people(the problem of determinism).

Even Aristotle emphasized the extremely important state structure for the development of society. Identifying the political and social spheres, he viewed man as a "political animal." Under certain conditions, politics can become a decisive factor that completely controls all other spheres of society.

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

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

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

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

The unity will weaken - the efficiency of the life of society will decrease, up to a change in its essence or even disintegration. As an example, we will give the events recent years XX century, which led to the defeat of socialist social relations and the collapse of the USSR.

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

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

Society is an integral social organism and system

They likened society to a social organism, all parts of which are interdependent, and their functioning is aimed at ensuring its life. All parts of society perform their assigned functions to ensure its life: procreation; ensuring normal conditions for the life of its members; creating opportunities for production, distribution and consumption; successful activity in all its spheres.

Distinctive features of society

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

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

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

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

Part and whole as components of a single system connected with each other by inseparable ties and support each other. At the same time, both elements have relative independence in relation to each other. The stronger the whole in comparison with its parts, the stronger the pressure of unification. Conversely, the stronger the parts are in relation to the system, the weaker and stronger is the tendency to separate the whole into its component parts. Consequently, for the formation of a stable system, it is necessary to select the appropriate elements and their unity. Moreover, the greater the discrepancy, the stronger must be the bonds of adhesion.

The formation of a system is possible both on the natural foundations of attraction, and on the suppression and subordination of one part of the system to another, that is, on violence. In this regard, various organic systems are based on different principles... Some systems are based on the dominance of natural relationships. Others are based on the domination of force, others seek to hide under the protection of strong structures or exist at their expense, the fourth unite on the basis of unity in the struggle against external enemies in the name of the highest freedom of the whole, etc. There are also systems based on cooperation, where force is not plays an essential role. At the same time, there are certain limits, outside of which both attraction and repulsion can lead to the death of this system. And this is natural, since excessive attraction and cohesion threaten the preservation of the diversity of systemic qualities and thereby weaken the system's ability to self-develop. On the contrary, strong repulsion undermines the integrity of the system. At the same time, the greater the independence of the parts within the framework of the system, the higher their freedom of action in accordance with the potentialities embedded in them, the less their desire to go beyond its framework and vice versa. That is why the system should be formed only by such elements that are more or less homogeneous with each other, and where the tendency of the whole, although it dominates, does not contradict the interests of the parts.

By the law of every social system is an hierarchy of its elements and ensuring optimal self-realization by the most rational construction of its structure in the given conditions, as well as the maximum use of environmental conditions for its transformation in accordance with its qualities.

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

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

Like any organic system in difficult conditions society donates a part for the sake of the whole, the main and the indigenous... In society as an integral social organism, the common interest under all conditions is in the foreground. However, social development can be carried out all the more successfully, the more the common interest and interests of individuals will be in harmony with each other. Harmonious correspondence between general and individual interests can be achieved only at a relatively high stage of social development. Until such a stage is reached, either public or personal interest prevails. The more difficult the conditions and the greater the inadequacy of social and natural components, the stronger the general interest manifests itself, realized at the expense and to the detriment of the interests of individuals.

At the same time, the more favorable conditions that have arisen either on the basis of natural environment, or created in the process of production activities of the people themselves, all other things being equal, the general interest is to a lesser extent carried out at the expense of the private.

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

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

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