Classical sociological theories. Major sociological theories of personality

Sociology as a science of society dates back to the middle of the 19th century. The foundations of sociology were laid in the works of authors such as Marx, Spencer, Weber, and Durkheim. The classical theories of sociological thought took shape towards the end of the First World War.

Marxism
Many of the ideas of Karl Marx (1818–1883) are fundamental to sociology. The main goal of social progress, in his opinion, is to create conditions for the formation of a multidimensional person, a rich personality. The cause of social differentiation, social confrontation in society, according to Marx, is private property. Marx's main achievement in social science is that he applied Hegel's dialectic to analyze historical development, characterizing society as a dynamically developing structure in historical time. He showed the causes of social inequality, social conflicts in social development.

Structural functionalism
In the direction of structural-functional analysis in sociology, Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) left a noticeable mark. Spencer put forward three main ideas of structural-functional analysis: the functional unity of society, that is, the coherence of functioning; universal functionalism, that is, the usefulness of all social phenomena, and functional necessity. Society, from his point of view, is an evolving living organism. Societies can organize and control the processes of adaptation, then they develop into militaristic regimes; adaptation can also be free and plastic - and then societies turn into industrialized states. One of the main postulates of Spencer's social philosophy is this: "Every person is free to do what he wants, if he does not violate the equal freedom of any other person."

Sopial Darwinism
A. Gumplovich, L. Small and W. Sumner are considered the main representatives of social Darwinism. According to this doctrine, the laws of the animal and plant worlds operate in society, and therefore conflicts between social groups are natural.
Albion Small (1854–1926) argued that social life is the result of the interplay of people's natural interests.

Ludwig Gumplowicz (1838-1909) viewed history as a "natural process" and social laws as a kind of laws of nature. He considered economic motives, the desire of people to satisfy material needs, as the main causes of social conflicts.

William Sumner (1840-1910) proceeded from two main principles: 1) natural selection and the struggle for existence are of decisive and universal importance in the development of society, therefore social inequality is a normal state; 2) social evolution is automatic and steady.

Psychologism
Psychologism is a set of sociological concepts based on the recognition of the primacy of the role of the individual psyche in the development of social processes. The main representatives of psychologism are G. Tarde, L. Ward and F. Giddings.

Franklin Giddings (1855–1931) viewed society as a physical and mental organism with a "social mind". According to Giddings, "all ... social facts are mental in nature," so society is "a mental phenomenon due to a physical process."

Lester Ward (1841-1913) put forward a proposition about the active nature of social evolution and the determining impact on it of various mental forces, primarily volitional impulses associated with the need to satisfy hunger and thirst (to maintain life) and sexual needs (to procreate).

The French sociologist Gabriel Tarde (1843-1904) saw the main task of sociology in the study of the laws of imitation, the psychology of the crowd, and the mechanisms of group suggestion. Tarde compared society to the brain, the cell of which is the consciousness of an individual. In contrast to Durkheim, Tarde considered society to be the product of the interaction of individual consciousnesses. He saw the task of sociological science in studying the laws of imitation, thanks to which society, on the one hand, maintains its existence as an integrity, and on the other hand, develops as inventions arise and spread in various areas of social reality. According to Tarde, publicity is closely associated with imitativeness. The basic law of all that exists is universal repetition, which takes the form of an undulating movement in inorganic nature, heredity in the organic world, and imitation in the life of society.

Durkheim's Sociologism
Émile Durkheim (1858–1917), the founder of the French sociological school, believed that the existence and patterns of development of society do not depend on the actions of individual individuals. From his point of view, each social unit must perform a certain function necessary for the existence of society as a whole. Uniting in social groups, people obey the general rules and norms - "collective consciousness".

According to Durkheim, sociology is based on social facts. Their main features are an objective existence independent of the individual and the ability to exert pressure on the individual. Durkheim subdivided social facts into morphological (population density, frequency of contacts or intensity of communication between individuals; the presence of communication routes; the nature of settlements, etc.) and spiritual (collective representations that collectively constitute collective consciousness). Social facts must be investigated by objective methods, i.e., the principles of the natural (positive) sciences must be followed.

Durkheim substantiated the idea of ​​solidarity of societies. There are two types of solidarity: mechanical, which dominated archaic society and was based on the underdevelopment and similarity of individuals and their societies and functions, and organic, which is characteristic of modern societies and is based on the division of labor.

Weber's "understanding sociology"
The name of Max Weber (1864-1920) is associated with the creation of the methodology of social cognition. One of the main provisions of Weber's theory is the selection of the most elementary particle of an individual's behavior in a society of social action, which forms a system of relationships between people. Society itself is a collection of acting individuals, each of which strives to achieve its own goals.

The social philosophy underlying Weber's historical sociology was most clearly embodied in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Here the idea of ​​the economic rationality of modern capitalist society is expressed with its rational religion (Protestantism), rational law and administration (rational bureaucracy), rational money circulation, etc., which provide the possibility of the most rational behavior in the economic sphere and allow achieving maximum economic efficiency. The main methodological requirements in Weber's theory are "reference to values" and "freedom from evaluation".

Empiricism
Empirical sociology is a complex of sociological research focused on the collection and analysis of social data using the methods, techniques and techniques of sociological research. Empirically oriented schools take shape in the 1920s-1960s. Among them, the Chicago school (F. Znanetsky, R. Park) stands out in the first place, within which an approach called symbolic interactionism has developed.

Florian Znaniecki (1882–1958) put forward the requirement for the sociologist to take into account the "human factor" - the requirement to take into account the point of view of individuals participating in the social situation, their understanding of the situation, and also to consider social phenomena as the result of the conscious activity of people. Znaniecki was the first to apply the empirical method of personal documents (biographical method).

Robert Park (1864-1944) believed that sociology should study the patterns of collective behavior that are formed in the course of the evolution of society as an organism and a "profoundly biological phenomenon." According to Park, in addition to the social (cultural) level, society has a biotic level, which underlies all social development. The driving force behind this development is competition. Society is "control" and "consent", and social change is associated with a change in moral norms, individual attitudes, consciousness, "human nature" as a whole.

Topic 3. Essence and structure of society

1. Sociological theories of society.

2. Typology and evolution of societies.

3. World community world system.

4. Modernization and globalization of society.

Sociological theories of society.

Throughout the history of sociology, scientists have been looking for scientific approaches and methods for constructing a theory of society that reflects the actual realities of social life. During the formation and development of sociology as a science, various conceptual approaches to the category of "society" were developed. Let's consider some of them.

"Atomistic" theory. According to this theory, society is understood as a set of acting individuals or relationships between them. Within the framework of this concept, Georg Simmel developed his theory, who believed that society in general is an interaction of individuals. These interactions are always formed as a result of certain drives or for the sake of certain goals. For example, a game or entrepreneurship, the desire to help, learn, as well as many other motives encourage a person to work for another, with another, against another, to combine and harmonize internal states, i.e. to influence and perception.

All these mutual influences mean that a society is formed from individual carriers of stimulating impulses and goals.

In modern sociology, this concept is known as "network" theory, the basic principles of which were formulated by R. Burt. The main element in it is acting individuals who make socially significant decisions in isolation from each other. In other words, according to this theory, the personal attributes of acting individuals are put in the center of attention.

Theories of "social groups". Within this theory, society was interpreted as a collection of various overlapping groups of people who are varieties of one dominant group. In his concept, F. Znanetsky spoke about the people's society, meaning all kinds of groups and aggregates that exist within the same people or the Catholic community.

If in the "atomic", or "network" concept, the type of relations is an essential component in the definition of society, then in the "group" theories - human groups. Considering society as the most general set of people, the authors of this concept essentially identify the concept of "society" with the concept of "humanity".

There is a group of definitions of the category "society", according to which it is system of social institutions and organizations. Society is a large collection of people who share a social life within a range of institutions and organizations.

According to this concept, a systematic presentation of which is given in the works of T. Bottommore and S. Lipset, social institutions and organizations guarantee the stability, constancy of relations between people, establish a stable structure for all kinds of forms of collective life, just as without them it would be impossible to meet needs, guarantee an organized process of collective activity, conflict regulation, etc. Such definitions are called "institutional" or "organizational".

E. Durkheim was one of the first (after O. Comte) made an attempt to interpret society as something of a kind . Arguing with G. Spencer and F. Tönnies, he argued that modern society, based on an ever-increasing division of labor, cannot be understood as a mere collection of isolated individuals, a collection of contracts based on self-interest. It represents an organic unity no less than previous forms of society.

functional concept. Within the framework of this concept, the concept society is treated as a group of human beings representing a system of action.

On the basis of various conceptual definitions in sociology, another ("analytical") definition – society as a relatively self-reliant or self-supporting population characterized by "internal organization, territoriality, cultural differences and natural reproduction". Depending on what content is invested in the concepts of "self-sufficiency", "organization", "culture" and others, and what place is given to these concepts in a particular theory, this definition takes on a different character.

A common shortcoming of both analytical and conceptual definitions of the concept of "society" is that they identify the concept of "society" with the concept of "civil society", omitting the material basis on which "civil society" arises and develops.

Based on the above, we can give the following definition. Society is understood as a relatively stable system of social ties and relations of both large and small groups of people, determined in the process of the historical development of mankind, supported by the power of custom, tradition, law, social institutions, etc. (i.e. civil society), based on a certain method of production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material and spiritual goods.

Consequently, social relations permeate the entire society.

Public relations - these are diverse forms of interaction and interconnections that arise in the process of activity between large social groups (ethnos, class, organization, community, etc.), as well as within them.

Exist three main approaches which allow us to give our understanding of the term society based on the explanation of these relations.

As part of naturalistic approach society is considered by analogy with nature, as the highest stage in the development of nature, although not its most perfect education. From these positions, society and the type of social structure are determined by:

Force interactions (a variant of classical mechanism - T. Hobbes, P. Holbach);

Features of the geographical and climatic environment ("geography" - C. Montesquieu, I. I. Mechnikov);

The specificity of man as a natural being, his genetic, sexual and racial characteristics (representatives of sociobiology - E. Wilson, R. Dawkins, etc.);

Rhythms of solar activity and cosmic radiation (A.L. Chizhevsky, L.N. Gumilyov);

Features of society as a living organism (the organist version, which goes back to the works of G. Spencer);

The special status of the economy, which is recognized as decisive in the development of history, and people turn out to be a passive "element" of the productive forces, "products" of production.

The crisis of the naturalistic approach and the formation cultural and historical(culture-centric) approach to explain the patterns of development of society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. were associated with the awareness of the differences between nature and culture, the difference between natural objects and social objects, the development of the sciences of man and society, such as anthropology, history, art, cultural studies, ethnology, psychology, etc.

Within the framework of this approach, the study of society is considered as a reality that embodies the world of moral, aesthetic, spiritual values ​​and cultural meanings and patterns that determine the course of world history and the activities of individuals (I. Kant, G. Hegel, I. Herder, G. Rickert , F.Taylor and others).

Since people who are biosocial beings act in society, it seems natural to strive to understand and explain social life based on the influence of psychological factors on human behavior.

Psychological approach involves an explanation of the meaning of social relations from the point of view of the determining role of the psychology of the individual, his emotional and volitional components, the sphere of the unconscious, the social psychology of interpersonal relations. The most famous representative of this trend was Z. Freud.

Naturalistic, cultural-historical and psychological approaches in the explanation of society, as a rule, are not found in their pure form. They complement each other, emphasizing the objective complexity of the study of society and relations between people, and, consequently, the emerging social relations.

Society, with all its intellectual power and relative independence, cannot exist and develop outside of nature. Nature for modern man and society as a whole continues to be the basis of life.

The idea of ​​society and nature as an ordered, holistic, harmonious cosmos was formed in the era of antiquity. In the XIX-XX centuries. The problem of the systematic nature of society has become the subject of a special study (O. Comte, G. Spencer, K. Marx, M. Weber, P. Sorokin, T. Parsons, etc.). In the late 60s - early 70s of the twentieth century, the ideas about society as a single, integral organism received a rational justification in such an interdisciplinary direction as synergetics (G.Hacken, I.Prigozhin, etc.). YOU are translating from Greek. synergy- cooperation, commonwealth. In terms of these approaches, society is characterized as a complex self-developing open system, which includes individual individuals and social communities, united by various connections and processes of self-regulation, self-structuring and self-reproduction.

Society as a system has the following features:

1. Territory. This is the basis of the social space in which relations and interactions between people are formed and developed.

2. Society distinguishes great integrating force. It socializes each new generation of people, includes it in the existing system of relations, subordinates it to generally accepted norms and rules. Thanks to this quality, society is receptive to innovations, because it organically absorbs new social formations, institutions, norms, thereby ensuring renewal and continuity of development. And the people themselves, connected with society by invisible threads of common language, culture, origin, gravitate towards it. It gives them the opportunity to use the usual patterns of behavior, follow established principles, creates a unique atmosphere of spiritual unity.

3. The ability to maintain and reproduce a high intensity of internal relationships. These interconnections ensure the stability of society - the state of the system in which it can function and change, while maintaining its resistance to social influences from outside and from within.

4. Autonomy and a high level of self-regulation.

Society is a self-organizing system, that is, a system that is characterized by: 1) the ability to actively interact with the environment, change it, ensuring its own more successful functioning; 2) the presence of a certain flexibility of the structure or an adaptive mechanism developed in the process of evolution; 3) spontaneity of behavior of a self-organizing system; 4) the ability to take into account past experience and the possibility of learning. According to synergetics, the main thing in managing such systems is not to impose development directions on them, but to promote their own tendencies of self-organization.

The autonomy of society is achieved by its multifunctionality, that is, the ability to create the necessary conditions to meet the various needs of individuals and provide the latter with ample opportunities for self-affirmation and self-realization. Only in society can a person engage in narrow professional activities, knowing that he can always satisfy his needs for food and clothing. Only in society can he acquire the necessary skills and get acquainted with the achievements of culture and science. Only society can give him the opportunity to make a dizzying career and rise to the top of the social hierarchy. In other words, society has that self-sufficiency that allows it to without outside interference fulfill its main purpose to provide people with forms of life organization that make it easier for them to achieve their personal goals.

Speaking about self-regulation, it should be noted that the autonomy and self-sufficiency of a society are manifested precisely in the absence of external managerial impulses. A society is regulated and managed exclusively by those institutions and organizations and on the basis of those norms and principles that arise and are created within itself. Self-regulation is an important property of a society that ensures its independence, regardless of size.

So, a society is an association of people that has certain geographical boundaries, a common legislative system and a certain national identity, as well as established connections and interactions between individuals.

An important task of sociology is to explain the causes of changes in society and comprehend it as an integral system.

Society is in a state of continuous development and change. Any development is a two-way process. Progress(from Latin moving forward; success) is a direction of development, which is characterized by a transition from lower to higher, from simple to more complex, moving forward to a more perfect, advanced, change to a new, better one.

The opposite of progress "regression"(reverse movement) is a type of development that is characterized by a transition from higher to lower, processes of degradation, lowering the level of organization, loss of the ability to perform certain functions. Regress always has a spatial and temporal at th characteristic (country, civilization, etc., duration of decline, since everything has its end). Humanity as a whole has never regressed, but its progress could be delayed and even stopped for a while - this is called stagnation.

Scientists approached the criteria for progress in different ways. French Enlightenment Philosopher Jean Antoine Condorcet considered the criterion of progress mind development. Utopian socialists put forward moral criterion progress. Saint-Simon argued that society should adopt a form of organization that would lead to the implementation of the moral principle that all people should treat each other as brothers. According to the German philosopher Schelling, progress in science and technology is rather a regression, and the source of progress is gradual approach to the legal system. G. Hegel saw the criterion of progress in the mind of freedom: as the consciousness of freedom grows, the progressive development of society takes place. In the 19th century more complex concepts of social development appeared. In particular Marxism saw progress in transition from one socio-economic formation to another, higher. Some sociologists considered the essence of progress the complication of the social structure, the growth of social heterogeneity. In the sociology of the twentieth century historical progress contacted modernization progress, i.e. transition from an agrarian society to an industrial one, and then to a post-industrial one. In the 21st century, the vector of social progress is directed towards humanistic values ​​and priorities. As humanistic criteria, such fundamental indicators of the development of society as:

The average life expectancy of a person;

Child and maternal mortality;

Health status;

Level of education and upbringing;

Development of various spheres of culture and art;

Interest in spiritual values;

Feeling of satisfaction with life;

Degree of observance of human rights;

The need for communication, relation to nature, etc.

Consequently, the criterion of progress should be the measure of freedom that society is able to provide to the individual for the maximum development of its potentialities.

There are two forms of social progress: revolution and reform.

The revolution- this is a complete or complex change in all or most aspects of public life, affecting the foundations of the existing social order. A revolution is always an active political action of the popular masses and has as its first aim the transfer of the leadership of society into the hands of a new class. The social revolution differs from evolutionary transformations in that it is concentrated in time and the masses directly act in it.

Much more often, changes in society occurred as a result of reforms. Reform- this is a transformation, reorganization, a change in any aspect of social life that does not destroy the foundations of the existing social structure, leaving power in the hands of the ruling class first of all.

The concepts of "revolution" and "reform" are connected with the concept "modernization"- adaptation to new conditions. This concept is often used in characterizing social development.

In modern society, the concept is increasingly used "innovation", which is understood as an ordinary, one-time improvement associated with an increase in the adaptive capabilities of a social organism in given conditions.

SOCIAL SYSTEM

LECTURE 7

SOCIO-ECONOMIC SCIENCES:

1. Social system.

2. Basic concepts of sociology.

3. Basic socio-economic theories.

System- (from the Greek systema - a whole made up of parts; connection), a set of elements that are in relationships and connections with each other, which forms a certain integrity, unity. Having undergone a long historical evolution, the concept of "system" from the middle of the 20th century becomes one of the key philosophical, methodological and special scientific concepts. In modern scientific and technical knowledge, the development of problems related to the study and design of systems of various kinds is carried out within the framework of a systems approach, general systems theory, various special systems theories, in cybernetics, systems engineering, systems analysis, etc.

social system- a complexly organized, ordered whole, including individuals and social communities, united by various connections and relationships that are social in nature.

Social systems are groups of people who have been in direct contact for quite a long time; organizations with a clearly defined social structure; ethnic or national communities; states or groups of interconnected states, etc.; some structural subsystems of society: for example, economic, political or legal systems of society, science, etc.

Each social system to some extent determines the actions of the individuals and groups included in it, and in certain situations acts in relation to the environment as a single whole.

From the standpoint of a materialistic understanding of history, the emergence, functioning, development and change of social systems is seen as a natural historical process.

The initial connections of social systems are relations of production; as historical development develops, other types of social relations (political, ideological, etc.) are formed, which increases the quantity and enriches the content of social ties between people, and also serves as the basis for the formation of new types of social systems.

In the course of historical development, with the intensification of trade, economic, political, cultural relations between individual countries and regions, a gradual and contradictory process of the formation of the world social system takes place.

Sociology(from French sociologic, from Latin societas - society and Greek logos - word, doctrine; literally - the doctrine of society), the science of society as an integral system and of individual social institutions, processes and groups considered in their connection with the public whole.

A necessary prerequisite for sociological knowledge is a view of society as an objectively interconnected whole., "... and not as something mechanically linked and therefore allowing all sorts of arbitrary combinations of individual social elements .." (Lenin V.I.).

Sociology as an independent science developed in the 19th century(the term was introduced by the French philosopher O. Comte) as a result of concretization of the problems of traditional social philosophy; specialization and cooperation of social sciences; development of empirical social research.

A revolution in the science of society that laid the foundation scientific sociology , was carried out by K. Marx: “Just as Darwin put an end to the view of animal and plant species as unrelated, random, “created by God” and unchangeable, and for the first time put biology on completely scientific ground ... so Marx put an end to the view of society as a mechanical unit individuals, allowing all sorts of changes at the will of the authorities (or, anyway, at the will of society and the government), arising and changing by chance, and for the first time put sociology on scientific ground, establishing the concept of a socio-economic formation as a set of data of production relations, establishing that the development of such formations is a natural-historical process” (Lenin V.I.).

bourgeois sociology developed in the 19th century in two (at first almost unrelated) directions - theoretical sociology and empirical social research.

Theoretical sociology has tried to reconstruct the main phases of historical evolution and at the same time to describe the structure of society. However, the development of society was presented to positivist sociologists as a more or less straightforward evolution, and the structure of society was reduced to a mechanical subordination of various "factors". Depending on which particular side of social life was given the greatest importance, in the sociology of the 19th century. there are several different directions.

There are different schools in sociology.

Geographic School emphasized the influence of the geographic environment and its individual components (climate, landscape, etc.). The demographic school considered population growth to be the main factor in social development.

Racial Anthropological School interpreted social development in terms of heredity, "racial selection" and the struggle between "superior" and "inferior" races.

bioorganic school considered society as a semblance of a living organism, and the social dismemberment of society as a similar division of functions between various organs. Social Darwinism saw the source of social development in the "struggle for existence".

At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. various varieties are widely used psychological sociology – instinctivism ; behaviorism ; introspectionism (an explanation of social life in terms of desires, feelings, interests, ideas, beliefs, etc.. Along with attempts to explain social life in terms of individual psychology, theories have appeared that highlight the collective consciousness, as well as the processes and forms of social interaction.

Psychological sociology contributed to the study of such issues as public opinion, the specifics of collective psychology, the ratio of rational and emotional moments in societies. consciousness, mechanisms for the transfer of social experience, psychological foundations and conditions for the formation of social self-consciousness of an individual and a group. However, the reduction of sociology. to psychology led to ignoring the material social relations, their structure and dynamics.

The second line of development of sociology in the 19th century was empirical social research. The need for information about the population and material resources necessary for the needs of government, caused the emergence of periodic censuses and government surveys. Urbanization and industrialization also gave rise to a number of new social problems (poverty, housing, etc.), the study of which as early as the 18th century. began to engage public organizations, social reformers and philanthropists. The first empirical social studies (the work of the English political arithmeticians of the 17th century, the French government surveys of the 17th and 18th centuries) were not systematic. In the 19th century Quetelet developed the foundations of sociology. statistics, Le Play - a monographic method for studying family budgets. The first centers of social research appeared (the London Statistical Society, the Society for Social Policy in Germany, etc.).

MAIN DIRECTIONS AND CONCEPTS

THEORETICAL SOCIOLOGY

2.1. The problem of classification of sociological theories and concepts

By the middle of the XX century. In sociology, two trends of development have been outlined. On the one hand, the number of philosophical reconstructions of social development continued to grow (objectively idealistic, positivist, antipositivist, orthodox Marxist, anti-Marxist, neo-Marxist, etc.). On the other hand, there has been a sharp increase in the volume of purely empirical research. All this led to the fact that in sociology a kind of divergence began to appear between theory (more precisely, philosophy) and empiricism. The first was reproached for abstractness and speculative approach to social phenomena, the second - for the fetishization of factual material. Indeed, it was rather difficult to reconcile the abstract philosophical and theoretical schemes of social structure and development with the new empirical data obtained in the course of concrete sociological research. During this period, in sociology, they even started talking about the crisis of theoretical knowledge, which was used by Soviet specialists as evidence of the general crisis of bourgeois sociology. However, the latter quickly began to emerge from this crisis, having formulated the ideology of the theories of the middle level, i.e. such theories that focused their attention not on the development of society as a whole, but concerned only its individual key fragments, so to speak, phenomena of the middle level. The author of this idea is the American researcher R. Merton, who in his work "Social Theory and Social Structure", published in 1957, introduced the concept of sociological knowledge of "average value", which

lower (empirical) and higher (philosophical-theoretical) knowledge. At the same time, socio-philosophical theories were not complained about by researchers and, one might say, were even expelled from sociology as excessively ideologized, which was generally characteristic of the positivist tradition. Only theories of the middle level could claim the role of socio-theoretical knowledge. However, as sociology itself developed, another extreme emerged. Like a snowball, the number of branch and special sociological theories began to increase. At present, there are more than a hundred of them, and they already need their own generalization, which again returns sociology to the bosom of philosophical understanding of social reality, because without an integrating principle it is difficult to understand the boundless sea of ​​sociological concepts here. At a minimum, a distinction must be made between general, sectoral, and special theories. In addition, a number of sociological theories of the middle level (for example, the theory of stratification and social mobility) lose this status over time, acquiring the character of socio-philosophical knowledge. The presence of such general and sectoral theories makes it necessary to carry out an appropriate differentiation within theoretical knowledge both in terms of subject and methodological basis.

At present, attempts are being made in sociological methodology to typify socio-theoretical knowledge. For example, they single out theories of macro- and micro-sociological levels or talk about sociological theories of socio-ethical, group and personal levels; theories also differ in subject-methodological basis, then in sociology there are such areas as naturalism, biologism, psychologism, structuralism, functionalism. In a word, ordering all the existing sociological theories, typologizing and classifying them in a certain way, seems to be a very difficult task. This complexity is aggravated by the fact that there is no linear progress in the development of socio-theoretical knowledge, when one theory smoothly replaces another. Rather, there is a whole fan of theories. At the same time, one and the same theory can contain not one, but several concepts; its core belongs to one class of theories, and its periphery touches several other classes. Freezing for some period, the theory can be reborn again; several theories, having arisen simultaneously

namely, they can compete or complement each other; the same author at the beginning of his work can defend one position, and then move on to another, and so on.

For the most part, theories traditionally regarded as sociological actually have a broader theoretical context, since represent a complex combination of sociological ideas with the ideas of social psychology, social ecology, social anthropology, personality theory, political and cultural theories. Therefore, many of these theories are not only related to the history of sociological thought, but can equally well be attributed to the history of other social sciences. For example, theories of social action have both purely sociological and psychological, political, cultural, anthropological, etc. character, which gives them a broader philosophical meaning, although the authors themselves most often deny such a meaning.

To this should be added the need to distinguish between the theories of ontological and methodological plans, which are so closely intertwined by individual authors that it is difficult to separate them from each other, which creates additional difficulties in the typology of socio-theoretical knowledge.

However, for all the diversity and diversity of sociological theories, they have something in common, namely, the desire to explain three main questions: 1) how society works (what is its structure); 2) how it functions as a whole or how its individual subsystems function (what functions perform); 3) how and in what direction society develops (evolves, progresses). At the same time, the units of the social structure for some authors are macro-objects (classes, layers, communities, population, crowd, mass, elite, organization, institutions, elements of culture, etc.), for others - micro-objects (personality, group, action, interaction ), and others have various combinations of these objects.

Proceeding from the foregoing, all sociological theories can be divided, with varying degrees of accuracy, into two main blocks. The first block is theories, the authors of which, analyzing the macrostructural subsystems of society, seek to reveal its structural and dynamic characteristics, to answer the question of how society evolves, in what direction it develops. The second block is theories aimed at analyzing the function

the rational characteristics of the elements that make up society, through an analysis of the structure of action and interaction. Despite the proximity of these concepts, there is still a big difference in their application to macro- and micro-social objects. Therefore, the second block can, in turn, be divided into two types of sociological theories: 1) the theory of social action (when, through the analysis of action and interaction, they seek to reveal all the richness of social phenomena); 2) the theory of social interaction (when theoretical analysis is aimed at identifying those connections and relationships that are established between people within small associations and groups).

Thus, all sociological theories of the ontological plane can be considered in three main varieties: 1) the theory of social dynamics (or the theory of social evolution, development and progress); 2) theories of social action; 3) theories of social interaction.

2.2. Theories of social dynamics: evolution, development, progress

2.2.1. general characteristics

The idea of ​​social change and development is as old as humanity itself. Questions about where a person came from, how he builds his life, and what awaits him in the near and distant future, were already of interest to primitive people, who imprinted their answers to these questions in the form of mythological tales and legends. This was followed by theological concepts with the ideas of creationism and providentialism. In general, they could be defined as attempts at a supernatural explanation of history.

Since the dawn of philosophy, these attempts have been opposed by the concept of a natural explanation of history, i.e. such concepts that sought to find the source of social development in the nature of man himself, in the natural laws of his being. Of course, such laws by no means immediately revealed their essence, many of them themselves were deified, but the essence remains that both in the past and in the present, the ideas of a natural and supernatural explanation of the world, including social being, fought among themselves. Traditionally

these approaches are defined as the theological and scientific explanation of the world. Philosophy in this confrontation had to split into two branches: one became the servant of theology, the other moved to the position of scientism, although the idea of ​​God as a general, universal concept was not alien to the latter.

The idea of ​​a rational interpretation of the development of nature and society has become a key one in the philosophical and scientific understanding of the world. Many thinkers contributed to it, among which are Plato, Aristotle, Lucretius, Vico, Hobbes, Rousseau, Turgot, Condorcet, Herder, Hegel, Darwin, Comte, Spencer, Marx, Durkheim and other researchers. For a long time, the concept of evolution was considered as an expression of natural development. Only with the emergence of Marxism and especially Leninism did the concept of evolution begin to be regarded as an expression of bourgeois ideology, distorting the picture of the natural development of society, since the latter became more and more associated with revolutionary transformations. The idea of ​​progress based on revolution began to compete with the idea of ​​evolutionary change. Nevertheless, even today the idea of ​​social evolution continues to exist as one of the main sociological concepts that describe social development as a natural process of changing society, and Marxism in the West is considered as one of such concepts.

Over the years of its existence, numbering hundreds and even thousands of years, the idea of ​​social evolution has been embodied in a huge variety of different theoretical constructions and concepts, most often competing with each other. The differences concerned mainly the origins and mechanisms of social development. The ideas of external or internal determination, necessity or chance, necessity or free will, spiritual or material factors of development, influence on the development of the whole or part, i.e. competed here. the society or individual itself, etc. Of great importance was the class position of the author, his ideology of improving social relations, revolutionary or evolutionary paths of development. The revolutionary path is justified in Marxist philosophy, the evolutionary path in the theories of bourgeois ideologists. It was believed that only the former could claim the status of scientific knowledge, while all the others were regarded as frankly apologists. And it is impossible not to admit that Marxism really played the role of a kind of catalyst for many social phenomena of the 20th century. AT

at the present time, when the ideas of socialism began to gradually soften and give way to the ideas of market relations, Marxism did not die, but took its niche in the structure of Western sociological teachings, representing one of the most popular theories of social development, which attracts the attention of various layers of modern society. society.

If we ignore the political aspects of sociological teachings, then we can say that the founders of theoretical sociology had a general tendency - to give their own picture (their own interpretation) of the structure of society, its change, functioning and development.

Let us consider what is the specificity of the theories of this class.

2.2.2. Social dynamics, or the concept of social progress by O. Comte

A special place in the development of theoretical sociology is occupied by the work of O. Comte (1798-1857), who laid the foundations of a new philosophical direction - positivism, within which he formulated the main ideas of theoretical sociology from the structure and development of society to a detailed description of the methodological foundations of the new science of society, as sociology was conceived.

Having criticized previous philosophy and social thought for being abstract and speculative, Comte proclaimed the need to create "social physics", sociology, or a new science of society that would use the same methods as the natural sciences. His teachings were based on the ideas of positivism, organicism, evolutionism and the spiritual prerequisites for social progress. He proposed his own classification of sciences, the law of three stages of development, the concept of the social structure of society (social statics) and its development (social dynamics), advocated the creation of positive politics and positive religion as conditions for achieving social peace and a harmonious combination of various class interests.

According to his teaching, the human spirit goes through three stages of its development: theological, metaphysical and positive. At the first stage, which is characterized by the dominance of the clergy and the military, people explained the phenomena of nature and society with the help of supernatural causes. This stage has

three stages of development (fetishism, polytheism, monotheism) and chronologically covers the period from ancient times to the early Middle Ages (1300) - At the second stage, the world is explained using metaphysical concepts of final causes and imaginary entities. The dominant position here is occupied by philosophers and jurists. The chronological period of this stage is determined by the years from 1300 to 1860. At the third, positive stage, the consciousness of people turns to exact, scientific, or positive, knowledge, which is based on the observation of phenomena, their generalization and the derivation on this basis of general laws that help to foresee the future and to avoid all sorts of mistakes, both in knowledge and in practical activities. Comte expressed this goal of cognitive activity in his aphorism: "To know in order to foresee, to foresee in order to avoid," which became the motto of positive philosophy and science. At this stage, the following change: the ruling elite (scientists replace the clergy and philosophers), economic activity (agricultural and handicraft activities are transformed into industrial and industrial activities), moral norms (selfishness gives way to altruism), social feelings (individualism is replaced by collectivism), social peace and harmony. To strengthen all these positive changes, a new religion is also needed, as which Comte proposed using his philosophy, for which he even took a number of practical actions. These are the main points of Comte's doctrine of social development. For all its naivety, expressed in attempts to combine philosophy, science and religion into a single whole, to cleanse society of contradictions and struggle, the idea of ​​positive knowledge (which was being developed at that time by representatives of other philosophical trends) turned out to be in line with the spirit of the times and became quite widespread in Western philosophy.

2.2.3. Marxist theory of the structure and development of society

The materialistic explanation of history proposed by K. Marx (1818-1883) and F. Engels (1820-1895) differs from the idealistic one in that the basis of social development is seen in the natural, objective, mainly economic prerequisites of social life. The role of human consciousness (spiritual, mental) is not denied here, but

acquires a secondary, dependent character, although, of course, the reverse influence of spiritual phenomena on objective processes is recognized. This theoretical reorientation is formulated as the main philosophical thesis of Marxism: "It is not consciousness that determines life, but life determines consciousness." It follows that there are their own objective laws of development of the sphere of material production (basis), their own laws of organization of the social structure (classes and class relations), their own laws of organization of the political and ideological sphere (superstructure), the combination of which determines the integral structure of society, the laws of its functioning. and development. Consciousness as an element of social life performs two main functions: on the one hand, it reflects objective phenomena and, as it were, states everything that happens in society, on the other hand, it projects the future, forms goals and means for their implementation; in this respect, it anticipates the future; consciousness simultaneously acts both as a mirror and as a generator of new ideas. That is why one should not confuse the concepts of basis and social being. The last broader concept, which does not exclude, but presupposes all manifestations of the spiritual life of society.

It is on this theoretical basis that the eternal problem of human existence is solved in Marxism (it is solved in its own way in mythology, religion, philosophy and science) - the problem of the correlation of historical necessity (divine predestination) and the conscious activity of people (their free will). Of course, it is very important to take into account the scale of social phenomena: whether the researcher is dealing with the action of a single individual or with a broad popular movement; with a single historical event or with a major civilizational phenomenon. The Marxist approach helps to overcome the extremes of subjectivism, voluntarism, providentialism and fatalism in the views on the problem of social development. Considering what has been said, one can understand and correctly evaluate the meaning of the Marxist doctrine of the structure and progressive development of society. The system-forming concept not only in Marxism, but also in sociological theory in general, is the concept of property. Property is the cornerstone around which the entire social structure is built in its economic, social, political and spiritual foundations. Property is something that a person possesses (and can dispose of at his own discretion). The object of ownership is

maybe everything - from objects of nature (the earth, its bowels, mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, wild and domestic animals, and even man himself) to the products of labor of a physical and spiritual nature. Property has its own quantitative parameters, ranging from the ownership of large factories, mines, land plots to the miserable knapsack of a beggar. In this regard, all people are owners, but not all of them are equal in this indicator. And Diogenes could consider himself the owner of that abandoned pithos (or, as they say now, a barrel) in which he had to live, and a lantern with which he searched for his truth during the day. It is clear that the social division of people into rich and poor is determined primarily by the amount of property. However, of particular importance is a type of property that allows this property to increase. This type includes tools and means of production: land, industrial enterprises, means of transport and communications, etc. But we should not forget that all these objects are nothing without a human worker, whose labor (together with the tools of labor and means of production) creates that surplus product, which allows increasing the size of property, enriching some and ruining other owners. Thus, the right of some people to dispose of the fruits of labor activity of other people, established either by force (slave ownership), or traditional law (feudal system), or economic laws of the division of labor (capitalist system) determines the social class structure of society. For Marx and Engels, the selection of polar opposite classes became the main characteristic of the social structure of society, the relationship between which, from their point of view, made it possible to reveal the true causes of social phenomena and the progressive development of society. Focusing their attention on the analysis of the socio-economic and political processes taking place in the most developed capitalist countries of Europe, the founders of Marxism, like many other theorists of that time, tried to rethink the entire course of previous history from the standpoint of their vision and predict the immediate and distant prospects for social development.

Proceeding from the materialist philosophy of history and summarizing the empirical data of contemporary history and anthropology, Marx and Engels came to the conclusion about the formational development of society. The concept of "formation" ("system"), in contrast to

such concepts as "epoch", "civilization", "culture", "step", "stage", etc., were intended to express a holistic view of society at a certain stage of its historical development. All history and social progress began to be viewed (at least in relation to European society) as a consistent change in socio-economic formations (primitive society, slavery, feudalism, capitalism and communism). The socio-historical concept of Marx and Engels made it possible, on a strict theoretical basis, to consider those turbulent processes of an economic and socio-political nature that the advanced countries of Europe experienced in the 19th century, and to develop a theoretical scheme for the transition to a new communist society, devoid of private property, exploitation and social inequalities. The only condition for such a transition was the socialist revolution and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. And although the founders of Marxism warned that a new society could not arise until all the necessary economic prerequisites for it were created, calls for a class struggle, for the need to make a new revolution, for the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat were taken too literally by some social circles and political leaders. parties, which led to innumerable victims not only in the camp of the exploiters, but also in the ranks of the very initiators of the revolutionary reorganization of society. The world was brought to the brink of some general apocalypse. Naturally, many contemporaries of Marx and Engels, and even more so subsequent social theorists, sought to propose other scenarios for social development, while not denying either the fact of social inequality, or the fact of the class division of society, or the fact that there is exploitation and subordination in society, denying only the need violent reorganization of society and the abolition of private property.

2.2.4. The classical theory of evolutionism and social progress by G. Spencer

The idea of ​​development (change, evolution, progress) has never left people's consciousness. From antiquity to our time, only different interpretations of this process fought among themselves. It can be said that as people become aware of

century of its own history, with the successes of natural science, only the pictures of the social and natural world, the concepts of their structure and development, changed. Neither theology, nor science, nor philosophy abandoned attempts to construct such pictures, appealing now to natural laws (understood in different ways), now to supernatural causes. The 19th century, which breathed a new stream into the positive knowledge of nature, gave the idea of ​​natural development a new philosophical and methodological impetus. Many scientists began to use this idea as a methodological principle in their fields of study (astronomy, geology, biology, civil history, etc.), and philosophers began to conceptualize this idea (Kant, Hegel, Comte, Marx, etc.) . The English philosopher G. Spencer (1820-1903) also proposed his concept of development.

As befits a philosopher, Spencer first developed a general concept of evolution (it should be noted that for this thinker the concepts of "evolution", "development" and "progress" are quite close in meaning and complement each other), and then, using this concept, he tried to recreate a picture of the development of society both as a whole and in its individual fragments. Therefore, his teaching can be divided into two main parts: 1) the general concept of evolution; 2) the concept of the development of society and social structures.

The idea of ​​development (evolution) was quite popular in the enlightened circles of England. As a child, Spencer was introduced to this idea during his domestic upbringing. As the philosopher himself notes in his Autobiography, the whole intellectual atmosphere of the family was conducive to the adoption of evolutionary views. From that moment on, he begins to reflect on this idea, trying to find its logical justification and reveal the internal mechanisms of evolutionary processes. He found such a justification in the works of K. Baer, ​​who argued that both plant and animal organisms change in the process of development and move from a homogeneous (uniform) to a heterogeneous (diverse) state. Spencer tried to give a general philosophical meaning to this idea, expanding the scope of its manifestation, that is, extending them, on the one hand, to objects of inanimate nature, and on the other hand, to social structures. Thus, in Spencer's interpretation, evolution, along with movement, space and time, began to be considered as an attribute of matter. The processes of its differentiation and

integration, that is, transitions from a state of indefinite unrelated homogeneity to a certain structural heterogeneity, began to be understood as a general interpretation of evolution. Of course, reverse, regressive processes were also allowed here, but the general trend was conceived as a progressive movement: in nature as a transition from inanimate to living and further to social matter, in society from simple (mechanical) forms of sociality to complex (organic) forms.

The second part of Spencer's teaching is devoted to the evolution of society. If in the first part sociality appears as if the goal of universal evolution, then here the continuity and organic connection of social phenomena with the previous stages of evolution is proved. This emphasizes the natural (natural, real) basis of social phenomena and processes.

Development in society, from Spencer's point of view, as a transition from homogeneity to heterogeneity, is confirmed by the transition from a tribal community, similar in all its parts, no matter what region of the world we take, to a civilizational community, distinguished by its diversity. With the progress of social integration and heterogeneity, connectedness grows, creating more complex social aggregates. At the beginning of the story, a fairly diffuse association in the form of a nomadic group comes to the fore; then a tribe, parts of which are connected by subordination to the leader, then the union of tribes with a common leader, until this process ends with the emergence of a civilization with national associations of the state type with fairly strong social ties. Therefore, the social organization, at first very vague, gradually acquires more and more stable forms; special social institutions and institutions are formed that give this connection a very stable character, transforming the primary community of people into a truly social organization. At the same time, both society as a whole and its individual parts are progressing. “The transition from the homogeneous to the diverse,” writes Spencer, “is found equally in the progress of civilization as a whole, and in the progress of each tribe; moreover, it is still taking place with ever-increasing speed. Starting with a barbarian tribe, almost, if not completely, simultaneously according to the functions of its members, progress has always striven and still strives for the economic aggregation of the human race.

Having given a general interpretation of social progress, Spencer further fills it with concrete content, speaking of the progress of language, science, art, and literature; considering quantitative (population growth, increase in the territory of civilized states) and qualitative indicators of this progress. Thus, the idea of ​​progressive development received a new impetus and inspired many researchers to substantiate it deeper, in some cases this depth was determined only by the strengthening of biological reductionism.

2.2.5. Social Darwinist concepts of social development

The strengthening of biological reductionism was especially clearly manifested in the concepts of the social Darwinist persuasion. The latter represent an attempt to transfer biological laws (in particular, natural selection and the struggle for existence) to explain social phenomena (competition, class struggle, wars, revolutions, etc.). Social development is presented as a struggle for the existence of social groups. The origins of this concept can be traced in the work of Spencer. The classic representatives of the liberal wing of this theory are the Polish-Austrian sociologist L. Gumplovich (1838-1909), the Austrian sociologist G. Ratzenhofer (1842-1904), the American researchers W. Sumner (1840-1910) and A. Small (1854-1926) .

L. Gumplovich outlined his ideas in the works "Racial Struggle" and "Fundamentals of Sociology". The movement of L. Gumplovich's methodological thought is directly opposite to Comte's understanding of the tasks of sociology. If O. Comte, attributing the theoretical status of sociology, sought to bring it out from under the auspices of philosophy, then L. Gumplovich. on the contrary, it emphasizes its philosophical status, believing that sociology is the philosophical and methodological basis of all social sciences, since it studies the general laws of social development. These laws themselves are conceived by the researcher as a direct continuation of the laws of nature, which act inexorably as an absolute necessity. In this case, a person is assigned the role of a passive participant in the historical process. As the basic unit of social structure, L. Gumplovich proposes to consider not classes, but groups. At an early stage in the development of society, groups are thought of as hordes, or as ethnic groups.

sky education. Struggle between hordes leads to the formation of states. The emergence of states does not reduce the intensity of the social struggle, but, on the contrary, intensifies it, since the groups here become more numerous and diverse. Within states, a struggle begins between classes, estates, political parties and associations. Intrastate struggle is supplemented by struggle between states, while it is assumed that the main cause of all social conflicts is economic interests, interpreted as purely biological needs. Thus, the Hobbesian thesis of "wars all against all" here receives, as it were, a new sound.

We can say that the idea of ​​class struggle, which became very popular in the XIX century. in Europe, received here a naturalistic-biological interpretation. The concept of class was replaced by the concept of a group (most often understood as an ethnic and sociocultural formation), the class struggle was replaced by the concept of racial struggle, acquired a vulgar materialistic character, obscured by general arguments about the struggle of all living things for survival. At the same time, it should be noted that the concepts of "conflict" and "group" turned out to be very popular for Western sociologists and formed the basis of many subsequent theoretical developments.

2.2.6. Psychological-evolutionary concepts of social development

Man, as a natural biological being, of course, fell under the biological models of understanding his essence, and science for the time being quite legitimately used these models to describe social phenomena. But in the second half of the XIX century. the limitations of biological borrowings in sociology became evident. The search for social nature began to be directed towards the finer structures of human nature. By this time, the achievements of biology and physiology began to be significantly supplemented by the achievements of psychology, which began to intensively master experimental techniques. On a new basis, both the psychology of the individual and the psychology of the collective begin to be built; both conscious acts of the human psyche and manifestations of the unconscious are studied. It is clear that these achievements could not remain outside the field of view of social scientists: historians and sociologists. With ve-

visibility is the turn of sociological thought from purely biological models to the human psyche in its various manifestations. One of the first attempts to synthesize psychological and sociological ideas was the concept of psychological evolutionism.

Its main representative is the American researcher L.F. Ward (1841-1913), who in his works "Psychological Factors of Civilization" and "Essays on Sociology" outlined the ideas of a new vision of social evolution. Natural evolution, from the point of view of this researcher, takes place spontaneously, unconsciously, as a game of chance, while social evolution is based on the conscious activity of people. A conscious goal and plan are, as it were, the hidden spring of social evolution. The goal becomes the cause of the action. To designate social evolution, the concept of telesis is introduced. Natural evolution, according to the author, is expressed by the traditional concept of "genesis". The goal is formed as an awareness of the primary desires (needs) of a person, such as, for example, hunger and thirst, sexual needs associated with procreation, etc.

On the basis of simple desires, more complex or secondary desires of an intellectual, moral and aesthetic nature appear, which are the direct stimulus of social evolution. This system becomes more complicated as we move from individual desires to collective desires, which are expressed by a public organization - the state. In order to achieve personal happiness, a person needs society. The desire for the satisfaction of desires is ultimately the cause of the emergence of society. Thus, the state, as a spokesman for collective public interests, becomes the main factor in social development. But at the basis of this development lies the individual will, the ability to act, the ability of people to realize their desires.

The second representative of this direction (at the first stage of his work) was the American researcher F.G. Guidedings (1855-1931). In his works "Foundations of Sociology" and "Theoretical Study of Human Society" he formulated his vision of social structure and social evolution. The specificity of this vision is determined by the following main theses: firstly, the human body is understood not just as a physical or purely biological principle, but

as a special holistic formation in which physical elements are complemented by mental ones; secondly, consciousness (psyche) is considered not only as a property inherent in the individual, but also in the collective and society as a whole, which is reflected in the concept of "kind consciousness"; thirdly, social phenomena are not always clearly understood and people often act spontaneously, unconsciously, obeying the general development trends.

Before talking about evolution, Giddings seeks to model a general idea of ​​the structural organization and organization of society, using three key concepts for this: class, group, association.

The concept of a class was widely used in science, which was faced with the need to classify the objects of its study. Astronomy, chemistry, biology, geology, as well as all other sciences, had pronounced periods of classification of their objects. Therefore, in the social sciences, the concept of class originally had a purely scientist (classification) meaning (until it acquired a pronounced political character). It is through this concept that Giddings seeks to consider the structure of society.

From his point of view, society is made up of classes. But in contrast to the Marxist interpretation of this concept, classes in Giddings represent not so much an economic as a purely social meaning. He refers to them: the class of individuals, life classes and social classes.

The first is characterized by the individual qualities of a person (physical and mental). Life classes are such social substructures that are formed on the basis of the innate inclinations and abilities of people. Social classes, on the other hand, are such formations that are formed in the process of human socialization, reflecting the unequal abilities of people to adapt, to fulfill those requirements that are dictated by the community or society as a whole. Here, both the natural inclinations of a person and the functioning of the social environment itself, in which the personality is formed, are realized.

An important element of the social structure in the concept of Giddings is the group that characterizes the social composition of the population. The group is the immediate social environment in which a person lives and functions;

It is through this environment that society influences the formation of personality. Small groups are formed on the basis of natural signs and needs of people. Large groups are structural formations, peculiar organs of the social organism, which absorb the individual and require him to adapt to himself. Ethnic and national formations, as well as the state as a factor of international unity, play a special role in this regard, which was of particular importance for the United States during the period of consolidation of American society and its establishment on the world stage.

The next structure-forming element in Giddings is an association, which is a social entity that unites people to achieve common social goals. Each association is associated with a certain type of activity in the division of labor system. At the level of associations, the personal initiative, the creative spirit of the individual, is manifested to the greatest extent. From the examples of associations that Giddings gives, it is easy to recognize the main social institutions (church, school, government, industry). At the same time, they also have a historical meaning. It is in the evolution of associations that the historical perspective of society is revealed, i.e. social evolution is interpreted by the author as a transition from "zoogenetic association" to "anthropogenetic association" and further to "ethnogenetic association". At the same time, the analysis of physical aspects is constantly accompanied by an analysis of the corresponding mental (conscious) structures.

In general terms, social evolution appears in the interpretation of this author as the interaction of conscious motives, volitional actions, manifestations of collective consciousness (kind consciousness) and objective physical forces of the natural and social environment. In Giddings' concept, the desire to harmonize the social and the individual, the structural and the functional in the overall picture of social development clearly emerges.

Similar information.

Many sciences, in addition to the theoretical development of the tasks facing them, solve problems related to practice; usually the directions involved in this are called applied . There is also an applied sociolinguistics. The term "sociolinguistics" appeared not so long ago. For the first time, the term "sociolinguistics" was introduced into scientific circulation by an American sociologist Herman Curry in 1952. However, this does not mean that the science of the social conditioning of language was born in the early 1950s. Sociolinguistic studies, like those conducted under the name "sociology of language", deal with the relationship between language and society.

Functionalism by Robert King Merton(1910 - 2003) is based on the analysis of social reality. The attractive points of his functional theory are that it allows you to preserve the theoretical scientific nature, reflects the pressing problems of individuals, this is an understandable theory, it can be easily conveyed to all subjects who are not professionally involved in sociology, as it is a good tool in managing social processes.

The main concepts of Merton's theory of structural functionalism are "function" and "dysfunction". Functions- according to Merton, those observable consequences that serve the self-regulation of a given system or its adaptation to the environment. Dysfunctions- those observable consequences that weaken the self-regulation of a given system or its adaptation to the environment. Three conditions included in the requirements of R. Merton's functional analysis: functional unity, functional universality, functional obligation (coercion). R. Merton placed the concept of "functionality" in the basis of his theory of the middle level.

Structuralism in sociology- the concept of applying structural analysis to social phenomena, mainly cultural phenomena. The most widespread structuralism was in the 60s. 20th century in the works of French researchers Levi-Strauss, Fuchs, M. Locan and others.

Proponents of the theory of structuralism claim the possibility of building a new model of social reality. Such a model for the structuralists was language as an initially and transparently structured entity. This determined the methodological apparatus of structuralism as a mechanism associated with the structural properties of sign systems (natural, colloquial language, programming language, etc.), with the involvement of some methods used by the exact and natural sciences.

Somewhat earlier than functionalism in the United States, a different approach to the study of society began to develop - structural-functionalist, reached its greatest influence in the 1950s and 60s. Society is considered as an integral system, the study of which takes place on the structural division of its social integrity. Each element should be given a specific functional purpose. The concept of a function was given two meanings: a service role, i.e. the appointment of one element in relation to another or to the system as a whole; the role of dependence, in which changes in one part are derived from changes in its other part. According to the structural-functionalist approach, the main task of sociology is to study the mechanisms and structures that ensure the stability of the social system. The author of the theory is Talcott Parsons(1902-1970), who called his theory "systemic functionalism". The main thing for T. Parsons was the principle of the systemic structure of society. He argued that all social systems perform four basic functions: adaptation, when the system adapts to any internal and external changes; goal achievement- the system sets and achieves the goal; integration- the system connects all its elements and functions; sample hold- the system creates, preserves, improves patterns of behavior of subjects, their motivation and cultural rules. The key to the whole concept of T. Parsons is the category of equilibrium. Society, in his opinion, can only exist in equilibrium. Its violation leads to destabilization of the system and its death. The main task of sociology is to give recommendations for maintaining the balance of the system, society. Equilibrium is provided by social action. The starting points of social action are: the actor, the situation, the orientation of the actor to the situation.

The general theory of action should serve as the basis for the codification of social scientific knowledge, as a guide for research, and as a basis for the socialization of the social sciences. A general theory of action is a conceptual framework, a coherent schema of concepts whose starting point is the actions of people. The fundamental concepts of Parsons' theory are as follows: Action - purposeful, normatively regulated and motivated behavior in situations, which consists of the surrounding world (objects) and the situation (actors and objects). organism – biophysical foundations of behavior as activities that are associated with objects outside the body = behavioral organism. Doer – as Ego – Alter, as an empirical system of actions = personality system, part of the social system. Situation - a part of the external world, significant for the figure being analyzed at this moment; part of the world from the Ego's perspective. Orientation to the situation - the significance of the situation for the actor for his plans and standards. Motivational Orientation - those aspects of the actor's orientation to the situation that are associated with the expectation of reward and deprivation, depending on the needs of the actor. Value Orientation - aspects of the actor's orientation in situations that are characterized by compliance with norms and standards; three ways of orientation: cognitive, aesthetic, moral and value orientation. social system - a system of actions with one or more actors (individuals or collectives), and for each actor the situation is determined by the existence of other actors and interdependent actions occur that "concentrate" depending on how great the agreement is regarding common goals, values, normative and cognitive expectations. Personality system - a system consisting of a set of actions of an individual actor, and the actions of an individual are determined by the structure of his needs and the organization of goals and values. Culture system - the organization of values, norms and symbols that determine the actions of actors; it is not an empirical system, like a person or a social system, but a kind of abstraction of their elements; cultural patterns are made up of interrelated elements that form value systems, belief systems, and symbol systems. They are institutionalized in social systems and internalized in personality systems. personality, the social system and the system of culture is the perspective and object of sociological analysis. At the center of this is the orientation of actors = experiential systems of action, which can be individuals and groups, in a situation that involves a large number of participants. The conceptual scheme deals with the connections between the "components" of action in an interactive situation, emerging structures and processes. For actors, the situation consists of "objects of orientation", which can be divided into: social objects; physical objects, which are means and conditions for action (social objects can be individuals and collectives); cultural objects. Actions include a motivational component, i.e. the actor always relates the situation to his own needs and goals. The agent wants to receive a “reward” in the situation. The motive for the theory of action is not of paramount importance. Much more significant is the experience of the actor in defining situations, in organizing his actions. This experience determines that the actor does not just react, but develops a system of expectations regarding the elements of the situation. However, in social situations, possible reactions of other participants in the situation - groups and individuals should be taken into account, and they should be taken into account when choosing their own alternatives to action. Signs and symbols that carry a certain meaning play an important role in social interaction; they become means of communication between actors in a given situation. The experience of social action thus includes cultural symbolism as well. motivational and cultural elements are brought into order, the structure of which is formed by the personality systems of the individuals involved, the system of culture that permeates their actions, and the social system of interactive processes between actors.

Thus, T. Parsons' model of the action system assumes four subsystems: social, cultural, personal, and organic. He believed that social systems have certain levels. The higher level consumes the "energy" of the lower level. For example, a person can exist only on the basis of the energy of a biological organism. The higher levels of the system control the lower ones. At the highest level (indicated by the vague concept of "higher reality") are the ideals and humanity of society. This level seems to be devoid of physical energy, but, nevertheless, exercises the most effective control. A social system integrates the actions of many individuals; culture contains the most common patterns of action, values, beliefs, mania, choice of goals. The development of society and humanity in T. Parsons is evolutionary in nature. The forces of differentiation (heterogeneity within the system is growing) and integration (there is an increase in the integrity of the system as a result of the emergence of new complementary connections, their strengthening and coordination of parts) act more in it. In order for systems to function successfully, according to T. Parsons, a high degree of their organization, compatibility with other systems, mutual support is necessary; the system should satisfy most of the needs of those subjects who support it to the maximum with their participation in it; the system must have control over the behavior of its elements; if a conflict situation arises and can destroy the system, then it must strictly control it; to function, the system must have a common language and rules of communication (communication).

In the concept of T. Parsons, three types of society are identified and developed: primitive (there is no differentiation in it), intermediate (when writing appears, social stratification, culture is separated into an independent sphere of human activity), modern (its main feature is the formation of a legal system from a religious, emergence of bureaucracy, market economy, democratic electoral system). Towards the end of his life, T. Parsons argued that the creation of a general theory of the processes of change in social systems is impossible with the existing level of knowledge.

In the 20th century, it develops phenomenological sociology. Its founders: Edmund Husserl (1859 – 1938), Alfred Schutz(1899 - 1959). They argued that a phenomenon is something that is observed and described, but about which it is necessary to refrain from making unreasonable judgments. There are many worlds of human experience - the worlds of dreams, mental illness, games and fantasies, scientific theories, religious belief, art, to call them finite areas of meaning. Everyday life is just one of these "spheres of reality", which is distinguished by special characteristics. The social world of an individual is a certain semantic space, which is formed by his social actions. In this world, there is not only the individual himself, but also other people with whom his social actions are related. But this social space is centralized, it is his space that he constructs, and not the universal space in which he is placed. Typification of the perception of other people, their movement to the center or horizon of his space depends on the meaning of the individual's actions, on his goals.

Within the framework of this concept, a theory was developed ethnomethodology, based Harold Garfinkel(born in 1917). He shares many of the ideas of symbolic interactionism and phenomenological sociology. The very name "ethnomethodology" comes from the words "ethnos" (people, people) and methodology (the science of rules, methods) and means "the science that studies the rules of everyday life of people." In ethnomethodology, we are talking, first of all, not about the methods of science itself, but about the methods of describing and constructing social reality that are used by people in their daily routine. Moreover, ethnomethodologists especially emphasize the fact that the description of social reality is identical to its construction.

Garfinkel clarifies, central theme of ethnomethodology, considering its three, as he calls them, “components of a problematic phenomenon. When it comes to practical thinking research, they include the following:

The unfulfilled program of distinguishing between objective (context-free) and indexical expressions and replacing the latter with the former;

- "uninteresting" essential reflexivity of descriptions of practical actions;

Analyzability of actions in the context as a practical implementation.

Along with the theoretical procedure of phenomenological reduction, G. Garfinkel comes up with experimental situations in which the usual definition of situations is destroyed, exposing expectations that correspond to common sense. If the phenomenological reduction allows you to mentally abstract from common sense, then the experiments of G. Garfinkel allow you to really look at it from the outside. For example, G. Garfinkel recommended, as an experiment, to behave at home as if you were visiting: ask for permission to wash your hands, praise excessively everything that is served at the table, etc. Another experimental technique is to pretend that you do not understand the meaning of the simplest everyday appeals. For example, the experimenter is asked: “How are you?”, and he clarifies: “What are you doing? What does how mean? Which of my cases are you interested in specifically?" Another trick is that during a conversation with a person, the experimenter brings his face closer to him, without explaining anything.

Such behavior destroys the usual situation, reveals the features of behavior, which, being everyday and habitual, is far from always realized, being a kind of background against which our interactions unfold. A set of habitual, not always conscious ways (methods) of behavior, interaction, perception, description of situations is called background practices. The study of background practices and their constituent methods, as well as an explanation of how ideas about objective social institutions, hierarchies of power and other structures arise from these practices, is the main task of ethnomethodology.

In themselves, human interactions and the resulting social reality can be not only subjective, but also irrational. However, the methods of their interpretation used by people, the language of description are such that the properties of objectivity and rationality are inevitably introduced into them. Participating in the interaction, the individual inevitably analyzes everything that happens and expresses the results of his analysis in generally understandable terms. The features of social reality that we take as objective are objective only because we express them in terms of their general properties. These general properties are not necessarily inherent in the objects themselves, but are attributed to them in the course of their description. Verbal expression gives the described experience a rational, coherent and systematic character, makes it meaningful and rational. Social order therefore arises only situationally, as a result of the described elementary interactions.

In everyday life, we treat the social world not just as common to all of us, but also as independent of our ideas. However, from a phenomenological and ethnomethodological point of view, social institutions and other social phenomena are "real" only insofar as we organize our activities in such a way that we constantly confirm their real existence.

Symbolic interactionism- arose in the 20s of the XX century and determined the emergence of many modern sociological schools. The category "symbolic" means that this concept focuses on the "meaning" that subjects put in when they enter into interaction ("interaction"), i.e. this theory considers society in terms of people's behavior during interaction. The founder of symbolic interactionism is George G. Meade(1863-1931) American sociologist. He proceeded from the fact that by considering the basic rules of human behavior, it is possible to explain the principles of the functioning of society.

Social exchange theory- a direction in modern sociology that considers the exchange of various social benefits (in the broad sense of the word) as the fundamental basis of social relations, on which various structural formations (power, status, etc.) grow. Its prominent representatives are George Homans and Peter Blau. The essence of this theory is that people interact with each other based on their experience, weighing possible rewards and costs. A person's behavior is determined by whether his actions were rewarded in the past. This approach to explaining social interaction is also called behavioral. Reward in the process of social interaction can be social approval, respect, status, as well as practical assistance.

Behaviorism(from English - behavior, literally - the science of behavior) - a direction in positivist sociology, which is based on the understanding of human behavior as a set of long-term reactions to the influence of the external environment (stimuli). The basic formula of behaviorism is: stimulus-response. This trend originated in American psychology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. and reached its peak by the middle of the 20th century. As the main method, behaviorism uses the description, registration and measurement of external manifestations of behavior in controlled conditions. Behaviorism absolutizes the direct connection between stimulus and response, considering it as a universal explanatory principle.