The question of what society is is one of the most difficult questions of social science. All sciences that study society have made their own specific contribution to a single piggy bank about it. So how do you define society?
Instructions
Step 1
The definition of society can be given both in a broad and in a narrow sense.
In a broad sense, society is a separate part of nature, which is a historically changing form of development of human life.
Step 2
In the narrow sense of the word, this is a certain stage in the development of mankind.
Step 3
In its original meaning, society is a community. Community is defined as a form of coexistence or interaction, cooperation of people connected by a common language, origin, destiny. A striking example is family or people.
Step 4
There are several different approaches by which a society can be defined.
- naturalistic
Society is seen as a natural continuation of the laws of nature, the world, animals and space. From these positions, the type of social structure and the course of history are determined by the rhythms of the solar system, the activity of cosmic radiation. L. Gumilev and A. Zhevsky adhered to these views.
- idealistic
According to this approach, the essence of the connections that unite people into a single whole is the basis of certain beliefs, ideas, myths and legends.
- atomistic
Society is the sum of individuals bound by this or that mutual agreement.
- organic
Society is a single whole - it is a specific system, divided into several parts. A person here realizes himself not through a contract, but through the consent of the rest of society members to certain actions. such agreement is called consensus.
- materialistic - the most famous approach.
It was developed by K. Marx. The essence of this approach lies in the fact that in society such relations of production and such a mode of production are formed, which does not depend on the will of people. He believed that people in society are connected not by a common idea, contract or god, but by the mode of production.
Step 5
Based on the foregoing, we can conclude that society is a complexly organized system with a high level of self-sufficiency, in a state of unstable equilibrium and obeying the objective laws of functioning and development.
