Control tests in social studies. The idea of \u200b\u200bsocial progress is affirmed in the Age of Enlightenment
Against the Brahminist ideology and the varna system, it was directed in the VI century. BC e. the teachings of Siddhartha, nicknamed the Buddha (the Enlightened One). Dharma for Buddhists acts as a regularity governing the world, a natural law. For rational behavior, the knowledge and application of this law is necessary: \u200b\u200bthe path of legality is at the same time the path of justice and wisdom. The main thing is that, unlike Brahmanism, Buddhism proclaimed an orientation towards an individual path of salvation.
Certain rationalistic interpretations of state and law are observed in "Arthashastra" (IV-III centuries BC), the author of which is considered to be Kautilya (Chanakya), adviser and minister to King Chandragupta I. In addition to moral and ethical norms, the emphasis was on practical benefits (arthe) and the resulting political events and administrative-power institutions.
The great thinker of Ancient China Confucius (VI-V centuries BC) recognized the divine origin of the emperor's power, but rejected the divine origin of the state. According to his teachings, it arose from the unification of families. That is, the state is a large patriarchal family, where the emperor is a strict but fair father, and his subjects are his obedient children. Relations in the state should be regulated primarily by morality. The welfare of the people is one of the central points of the political part of its doctrine. A wise administrator should know well what people love and what they hate; he must always strive for good, and then people will follow him. Following these principles means "Tao" (the right way). Confucius himself did not make much progress in trying to put his ideas into practice. However, his doctrine became that starting point, that standard "measuring scale" of political culture, against which the thinkers and reformers of subsequent generations checked their theories.
Within the framework of Taoism, of which Lao Tzu is considered the founder (VI century BC), the correct path (Tao) was considered not as a path in accordance with the requirements of the gods, but as a natural necessity. That is, according to Lao Tzu, the laws of nature are higher than the laws of the gods and carry the highest virtue and natural justice. Thus, he was one of the first to criticize the social and political structure of China. His calls for abstinence, a return to communal life in its patriarchal nature did not receive wide public support.
The founder of Moism Mo-tzu (5th century BC) substantiated the idea of \u200b\u200bnatural equality of people. For this, he interpreted the concept of "will of heaven" in a new way, considering it as universality, that is, an equal attitude towards all people. Hence his sharp criticism of the existing order. Mo Tzu was one of the first founders of the contractual concept of the origin of the state. He argued that the lack of governance and a common understanding of justice determined the state of enmity and chaos in society. To eliminate them, people chose the most virtuous and wise person and called him the son of heaven.
The legists of Ancient China, represented by one of the prominent representatives of this school, Shang-Yang (IV century BC), criticized the views of Confucius for idealism in relation to moral and ethical standards for the ruler, by which he should be guided. Shang-Yang believed that it is possible to govern not with the help of virtues, but with the help of strict laws, which people must obey under pain of punishment and violence. For this, the legists substantiated the principle of collective responsibility on the basis of mutual responsibility (five-yard and ten-yard) and introduced the idea of \u200b\u200btotal denunciation. These ideas played a significant role in the further development of the system of government in Ancient China and neighboring countries, and later, through the Mongol conquest, in Russia.
Thus, the first attempts to comprehend the socio-political structure within the framework of a religious-mythological worldview consisted in considering earthly orders as an inseparable part of cosmic orders that had a Divine origin. Thus, the superiority of order over chaos was affirmed.
Question 8. Political thought of ancient Greece and Rome
In the 1st millennium BC. e. as society developed, there was a leap in spiritual culture and humanity took the first steps towards rational self-consciousness within the framework of philosophy. The true peak of the political thought of the Ancient World is rightfully considered the political philosophy of Ancient Greece. It initially developed as an ideology of free people, so its main value is freedom. The peculiarities of the geographical position of Hellas made it possible for the close coexistence of various forms of government, the variety of interstate relations, cultural styles gave the true richness of political life. In many city-states, citizens actively participated in political life, the power was not religious, the whole Hellas was an arena for the struggle for power not by priests, but by ordinary citizens. That is, the development of political science reflected the objective needs of social life.
One of the first attempts to consider the emergence and formation of man and society as part of a natural natural process, as a result of adaptation and imitation, were the ideas of Democritus (460-370). That is, the policy and laws are artificial formations, but created in the course of the natural evolution of man and society as part of nature. Hence follows the criterion of justice for society: everything that corresponds to nature (a sense of proportion, mutual assistance, protection, brotherhood, etc.) is fair. Democritus was one of the first to substantiate the idea of \u200b\u200ba democratic social order based on the principles of equality and justice. At the same time, he cannot be presented as an unconditional supporter of the mandatory participation of all citizens in the management of the policy. He, like many others, selects the best people for this, the most capable of managing.
Another direction that substantiates the democratic structure of the state was sophism (5th century BC). For example, Protagoras (481-411) substantiated this by the fact that the gods gave people the same opportunity to participate in wisdom, virtues and the art of state life. The main task of the policy is to educate citizens such virtues as justice, prudence and piety.
Socrates (469-399) was one of the first to form the basis of all subsequent political science with the idea that those who know should govern. Political knowledge is achieved by the hard work of a person worthy of this truth, moral and politically virtuous.
The political ideas of Plato (427-347) are most fully described in the dialogue "State". The participants in the dialogue are trying to simulate the appearance of an ideal state where true justice would reign. Plato believes that the motivation for the creation of the state is the diversity of human material needs, the inability to satisfy them alone. The guarantee of the stability of the state is the division of labor according to the inclination of the soul. Three principles of the human soul - reasonable, furious and longed-for - in the state correspond to three similar principles - deliberative, protective and business. These latter correspond to three classes: rulers, warriors and producers, who should not interfere in each other's affairs. The state should be governed by a special class of philosophers specially trained for this role.
Plato describes 7 types of government: one - described above - ideal, which was not in reality; two - correct (monarchy and aristocracy) and four imperfect political forms: timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny. Moreover, he calls democracy the main misfortune of politics, for it is not the power of the masses, which will inevitably lead to the tyranny of the majority. In democracy, in his opinion, moral corruption occurs, prudence is expelled, impudence and shamelessness are established. Democracy is short-lived, the crowd very soon yields power to the sole tyrant.
In the political ideal of Plato, personality, society and state are combined in the polis. He believed that true knowledge is not inherent in an ordinary individual, and sought to subordinate it to the state. For this, he introduces a strict hierarchy of estates: philosophers-rulers (upper class); guards and warriors; artisans and peasants (manual labor). The subjects have nothing of their own - no family, no property - everything in common. But the upper classes also have no right to appropriate state goods. "We sculpt the state," wrote Plato, "not so that only a few people in it were happy, but so that it would be happy in general" (see Plato. "The State"). In the political doctrine of Plato, many see the origins of totalitarianism.
Another prominent scientist of ancient Greece was Aristotle (384–322), who analyzed many political concepts. In his opinion, political science deals with the state, the policy. He argued that the state is a natural formation; the development of society proceeds from the family to the community (village), and from it to the state (city-policy). The natural origin of the state is due to the fact that "man is by nature a political being" and carries an instinctive desire for "cohabitation." However, the priority is given to the state - in its opinion, it is by nature ahead of the family and the individual. The state exists for the sake of a better life for its citizens. In his book Politics, Aristotle did not distinguish the state from society, emphasizing that "it is necessary that the whole should precede the part." The state should be the embodiment of justice and law, an expression of the common interest of citizens.
There are also totalitarian tendencies in the teachings of Aristotle: a person is a part of the state, his interests are subordinated to the public good. He called citizens free people, but he understood freedom only as the opposite of slavery: citizens are not slaves, no one owns them; they are engaged in military, legislative, judicial matters, and agriculture and industrial production are the lot of slaves.
"Social progress" - Progress. Social progress. Is social progress possible? Progress. Information flow. Different peoples develop at different rates. Social progress and development of society. A number of patterns. State of the art. Time. What is society. Uniform development.
"Development of society" - Numerous wars. Primitive communal system. Regressive role. Wars played a progressive role. Developed industrial society. Revolution. Citizens. Primitive system. The practical part. Reform. Computerization of schools. The law of acceleration of society. Social progress. Public phenomenon. The law of the development of society.
Sociological Research - Social System. Social contract theory. Works of the Antiquity period. Aristotle's theory. Sociology as a Science. Social organizations. Person. Types of sociological research. "State" of Plato. Sociology. Continuous survey. Content analysis. The functions of sociology. Telephone and postal survey.
"Society and public relations" - Society and nature. Functions of society. Society. Society and public relations. What is society? Public relations Spheres of public life Society is a dynamic system Society and nature. Spheres of public life. Society is a dynamic system.
"Social progress" - The process of inconsistency. Examples from Russian history. Humanity. The variety of ways and forms of social development. Progress. Georg Hegel. Progress and regression. Social development. Sociological theories. Two approaches to solving the issue of the direction of human history. Karl Popper. People's vision of the future.
"Discipline Sociology" - Methods of sociological research. Sociology textbook. Sociology cannot exist without obtaining empirical information. The system of sociological education in Russia. Experiment. Sociological phenomena. Sociological research. Theoretical section. Respondent. Study of documents. The system of scientific knowledge.
Lesson questions: What is the essence of the problem of social progress? How can you explain the diversity of views on progress? What is the contradictory nature of social progress? What are the criteria for progress? What is the universal criterion for social progress? What are the reasons for the variety of ways and forms of social development?
Inconsistency of progress: Human progress does not look like an ascending straight line, but as a broken line, which reflected ups and downs Progress in one area may be accompanied by regression in another Progressive shifts in one area or another can have both positive and negative consequences for society Accelerated progress was often paid for at a high price, when masses of people were sacrificed to progress
Criteria of progress: 1) A. Turgot, M. Condorcet and the enlighteners: the development of reason, enlightenment 2) A. Saint-Simon: the state of public morality, the principle of brotherhood 3) F. Schelling: a legal criterion, a gradual approximation to the legal structure 4) D .Hegel: the degree of consciousness of freedom 5) K. Marx: the development of production and production relations
Modern criteria of social progress: Growth in life expectancy Growth in the well-being of the population The degree of harmony between the interests of the individual and the state The degree of harmony between the interests of various groups and strata of society Reducing the degree of tension between different groups of society
Pitirim Sorokin (): "... all the criteria of progress, no matter how varied they are, in one way or another imply and should include the principle of happiness."
3. The French enlighteners referred to the criteria of progress as: a) the development of reason and morality; b) the complication of legal institutions; c) development of productive forces; d) the conquest of nature. 4. Revolution is: a) rapid, qualitative changes in the life of society; b) slow, gradual development; c) a state of stagnation; d) return to its original state.
5. Is the judgment correct? A. Progressive development of society is always an irreversible movement forward. B. Social progress is contradictory, does not exclude recurrent movements and regression. a) only A is true; b) only B is true; c) A and B are true; d) both are wrong. 6. Are the following judgments correct? A. Progress is characterized by a transition from the highest to the lowest. B. Progress is characterized by degradation processes, a return to lower forms and structures, a) only A is true; b) only B is true; c) A and B are true; d) both judgments are wrong.
7. The criterion for the development of society is not: a) the level of development of science: b) the degree of satisfaction of a person's needs; c) religious preferences of society; d) the state of the economy. 8. The thinker who called the development of morality the main criterion of progress: a) F. Schelling; b) G. Hegel; c) A. Saint-Simon; d) C. Fourier.
9. Reform is a transformation: a) changing the political structure of society; b) eliminating old social structures; c) changing any aspect of social life; d) leading to regression of society. 10. A necessary condition for a person's self-realization is: a) freedom; b) technique; c) morality; d) culture.
11. Complete change of all aspects of social life, including the foundations of the existing system - is: a) reform; b) innovation; c) revolution; d) progress. 12. One of the first to substantiate the idea of \u200b\u200bsocial progress: a) the ancient Greek poet Hesiod; b) French philosopher A. Turgot; c) German philosopher Hegel; d) the founder of Marxism K. Marx.
The criterion of progress is not derived from historical observations itself, but is the measure with which the historian approaches the analysis of historical reality. Therefore, the criterion of progress is a priori and belongs not to history itself, but to the philosophy of history. Different concepts of the philosophy of history put forward different criteria for progress. For the enlighteners, the main criterion for progress was the development of reason and its implementation in life. They saw the ultimate goal of progress as a kind of complete triumph of reason and the embodiment of rational principles in people's lives and social structure. For Hegel, the historical basis of progress and its criterion was freedom, or rather, a person's awareness of freedom. In the materialist understanding of history, the criterion of social progress is the level of development of the productive forces of society.
Social progress is understood as development for the better of society as a whole. It is in this capacity, first of all, that progress appears as the idea of \u200b\u200bhistory. However, the concept of progress is also used in science, technology, morality, religion, law, etc., using the concept of progress in relation to certain spheres of society. In this case, the problem manifests itself in the fact that progress in some areas of life may historically be combined with stagnation or regression in other areas... At the same time, progressive or regressive change in society is determined by the sphere of life that is taken as a priority in a specific philosophical concept.
The development of science and technology has always served as an indisputable evidence of progress for the enlighteners and their successors. The most obvious and rapid changes occur in political life - the periodic flowering and decline of great empires, the transformation of the internal structure of various states, the enslavement of some peoples by others - insofar as the first concepts of social development in antiquity seek to explain precisely the political changes that are given a cyclical nature. So, already Plato and Aristotle created the first cyclical theories of the development of society. As society developed, the cyclical nature of social change extended to other spheres of its life. World history was perceived as the history of the heyday, greatness and death of great empires. C. L. Montesquieu "Reflections on the causes of the greatness and fall of the Romans" (1734); Giovanni Battista Vico (1668-1744) "Foundations of a new science [about the general nature of nations]" outlined historical cycle theory, consisting of three eras with corresponding cycles - divine, heroic and human, replacing each other in the process of a general crisis.
The minds of the Enlightenment (Turgot and Condorcet, Priestley and Gibbon, Herder, etc.) came to the conviction that the new era in the social development of Europe far surpassed antiquity and is a further stage of social development. The first theories of social progress in world history appeared, undermining the idea of \u200b\u200bits cyclicality and affirming the idea of \u200b\u200bthe progressive development of mankind... Was set out in the book J.A. Condorcet "A sketch of the historical picture of the progress of the human mind".
Theories of local civilizations. In the 19th century, the ideas of the civilizational path of development of society were born and widely disseminated, resulting in the concept of the diversity of civilizations. One of the first to develop the concept of world history as a set of independent and specific civilizations, which he called cultural and historical types of humanity, was the Russian naturalist and historian N. Ya.Danilevsky (1822-1885). In the book "Russia and Europe" he chronologically singled out the following types of organization of social formations that coexisted in time: Egyptian, Chinese, Assyro-Babylonian, Chaldean, Indian, Iranian, Jewish, Greek, Roman, New Semitic (Arabian), Romano-Germanic (European) ... To which he added two civilizations of pre-Columbian America, destroyed by the Spaniards.
The theory of socio-economic formations... Of the theories of social development in the mid-19th and late 20th centuries, the Marxist concept of social progress as a sequential change of formations was developed most thoroughly. Several generations of Marxists worked on the development and coordination of its individual fragments, striving, on the one hand, to eliminate its internal contradictions, and on the other, to supplement it. Marx and Engels strove to substantiate their concept of socio-economic formations by numerous references to historical sources, chronological tables and factual material; nevertheless, it mainly rested on the abstract, speculative ideas of their predecessors and contemporaries (Saint-Simon, Hegel, L.G. Morgan, etc.). The concept of formations is not an empirical generalization of human history, but a creative critical generalization of various theories and views on world history, a kind of logic of history.
In the 1st millennium BC. e. as society developed, there was a leap in spiritual culture and humanity took the first steps towards rational self-consciousness within the framework of philosophy. The true peak of the political thought of the Ancient World is rightfully considered the political philosophy of Ancient Greece. It originally developed as an ideology of free people, so its main value is freedom. The peculiarities of the geographical position of Hellas made it possible for the close coexistence of various forms of government, the variety of interstate relations, cultural styles gave the true richness of political life. In many city-states, citizens actively participated in political life, the power was not religious, the whole Hellas was an arena for the struggle for power not by priests, but by ordinary citizens. That is, the development of political science reflected the objective needs of social life.
One of the first attempts to consider the emergence and formation of man and society as part of a natural natural process, as a result of adaptation and imitation, were the ideas of Democritus (460-370). That is, the policy and laws are artificial formations, but created in the course of the natural evolution of man and society as a part of nature. Hence follows the criterion of justice for society: everything that corresponds to nature is fair (a sense of proportion, mutual assistance, protection, brotherhood, etc.). Democritus was one of the first to substantiate the idea of \u200b\u200ba democratic social order based on the principles of equality and justice. At the same time, he cannot be presented as an unconditional supporter of the obligatory participation of all citizens in the management of the policy. He, like many others, selects the best people for this, the most capable of managing.
Another direction that substantiates the democratic structure of the state was sophism (5th century BC). For example, Protagoras (481-411) substantiated this by the fact that the gods gave the same opportunity for people to be involved in wisdom, virtues
the art of state life. The main task of the policy is to educate citizens such virtues as justice, prudence and piety.
Socrates (469-399) was one of the first to form the basis of all subsequent political science with the idea that those who know should govern. Political knowledge is achieved by the hard work of a person worthy of this truth, moral and politically virtuous.
The political ideas of Plato (427-347) are most fully described in the dialogue "State". The participants in the dialogue are trying to simulate the appearance of an ideal state where true justice would reign. Plato believes that the motivation for the creation of the state is the diversity of human material needs, the inability to satisfy them alone. The guarantee of the stability of the state is the division of labor according to the inclination of the soul. Three principles of the human soul - reasonable, furious and longed-for - in the state correspond to three similar principles - deliberative, protective and business. The latter correspond to three classes: rulers, warriors and producers, who should not interfere in each other's affairs. The state should be governed by a special class of philosophers specially trained for this role.
Plato describes 7 types of government: one - described above - ideal, which was not in reality; two - correct (monarchy
aristocracy) and four imperfect political forms: timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny. Moreover, he calls democracy the main disaster of politics, for it
- not the power of the masses, which will inevitably lead to the tyranny of the majority. In a democracy, by
in his opinion, moral corruption occurs, prudence is banished, impudence and shamelessness are established. Democracy is short-lived, the crowd very soon yields power to the sole tyrant.
political ideal of Plato, personality, society and state are combined in the polis. He believed that true knowledge is not inherent in an ordinary individual, and sought to subordinate it to the state. For this, he introduces a strict hierarchy of estates: philosophers-rulers (upper class); guards and warriors; artisans and peasants (manual labor). The subjects have nothing of their own - no family, no property - everything in common. But the upper classes also have no right to appropriate state goods. “We sculpt the state,” wrote Plato, “not so that only a few people in it were happy, but so that it would be happy, everything as a whole” (see Plato. “The State”). In the political doctrine of Plato, many see the origins of totalitarianism.
Another prominent scientist of Ancient Greece was Aristotle (384–322), who analyzed many political concepts. In his opinion, political science deals with the state, the policy. He argued that the state is a natural formation; the development of society goes from the family to the community (village), and from it - to the state (city-policy). The natural origin of the state is due to the fact that "man is by nature a political being" and carries an instinctive desire for "cohabitation." However, the priority is the state - it, in its opinion, is by nature ahead of the family and the individual. The state exists for the sake of a better life for its citizens. In his book Politics, Aristotle did not distinguish the state from society, emphasizing that "it is necessary that the whole should precede the part." The state should be the embodiment of justice and law, an expression of the common interest of citizens.
aristotle's teachings also have totalitarian tendencies: a person is a part of the state, his interests are subordinated to the public good. He called citizens free people, but he understood freedom only as the opposite of slavery: citizens are not slaves, no one owns them; they are engaged in military, legislative, judicial matters, and agriculture and industrial production are the lot of slaves.
Comparing the forms of government, Aristotle divides them on two grounds: the number of rulers and the goal, that is, the moral significance of government. As a result, there were three "correct" (monarchy, aristocracy, polity) and three "wrong" (tyranny, oligarchy and democracy). He considered the best form of politics, which should combine three elements: virtue, wealth, freedom - and thus combine the interests of the rich and the poor.
A certain contribution to the interpretation of the state was made by the famous Roman orator and thinker Mark Cicero (106 -43 BC). For him, the state appears as a coordinated legal communication, he considered it the embodiment of justice and law. Plato and Aristotel considered natural law and the state to be inseparable. Cicero said that natural law arose before any written law, before the creation of the state. In this respect, Cicero stood at the origins of the understanding of the idea of \u200b\u200ba "rule of law". He considered the most reasonable a mixed form of the state, in which tsarist power, aristocracy and democracy would be combined.
Thus, the main problems of the political philosophy of antiquity were the forms of statehood, the nature of power, the position of the individual in the state.
N. A. Luchkov. "Answers to exam questions in political science"
