Is there a connection between various events and phenomena in the life of society? What gives stability and predictability to the development of society?

In the second part of the definition of the concept of "society", given in-1, the idea of ​​the relationship between people and the interaction of various spheres of social life is emphasized. In the philosophical literature, society is defined as a "dynamic system". The new concept "system" may seem complicated, but it makes sense to understand it, since there are many objects in the world that are covered by this concept. Our Universe, and the culture of an individual nation, and the activities of the person himself are systems. The word "system" of Greek origin means "whole, made up of parts", "totality". Thus, each system includes interacting parts: subsystems and elements, connections and relationships between its parts acquire the main importance. Dynamic systems allow for various changes, development, the emergence of new and the withering away of old parts and connections between them.

Features of the social system

What are the characteristic features of society as a system? How is this system different from natural systems? A number of such differences have been identified in the social sciences.

First, society as a system is complex, since it includes many levels, subsystems, and elements. So, we can talk about human society on a global scale, about society within one country, about various social groups in which each person is included (nation, class, family, etc.).

The macrostructure of society as a system consists of four subsystems, which are the main spheres of human activity - material-production, social, political, spiritual. Each of these spheres known to you has its own complex structure and is itself a complex system. Thus, the political sphere acts as a system that includes a large number of components - the state, parties, etc. But the state, for example, is also a system with many components.

Thus, any of the existing spheres of society, being a subsystem in relation to society, at the same time itself acts as a rather complex system. Therefore, we can talk about a hierarchy of systems consisting of a number of different levels.

In other words, society is a complex system of systems, a kind of supersystem.

Secondly, a characteristic feature of society as a system is the presence in its composition of elements of different quality, both material (various technical devices, institutions, etc.) and ideal (values, ideas, traditions, etc.). For example, the economic sphere includes enterprises, vehicles, raw materials and materials, manufactured goods, and at the same time economic knowledge, rules, values, patterns of economic behavior and much more.

Thirdly, the main element of society as a system is a person who has the ability to set goals and choose the means of carrying out his activities. This makes social systems more changeable and mobile than natural ones.

Social life is in constant flux. The pace and magnitude of these changes may vary; in the history of mankind there are known periods when the established order of life did not change in its foundations for centuries, but over time the rate of change began to increase.

From the course of history, you know that in societies that existed in different eras, certain qualitative changes took place, while the natural systems of those periods did not undergo significant changes. This fact indicates that society is a dynamic system with a property that in science is expressed by the concepts of “change”, “development”, “progress”, “regression”, “evolution”, “revolution”, etc. Consequently, a person is a universal element of all social systems, since he is certainly included in each of them.

Like any system, society is an ordered integrity. This means that the components of the system are not in a chaotic disorder, but, on the contrary, occupy a certain position within the system and are connected in a certain way with other components. Consequently, the system has an integrative quality that is inherent in it as a whole. None of the components of the system, considered in isolation, has this quality. It, this quality, is the result of integration and interconnection of all components of the system. Just as individual organs of a person (heart, stomach, liver, etc.) do not possess human properties, so the economy, health care system, the state and other elements of society do not have the qualities that are inherent in society as a whole. And only thanks to the diverse connections that exist between the components of the social system, it turns into a single whole, i.e. into society (as through the interaction of various human organs there is a single human body).

Various examples can be used to illustrate the connections between subsystems and elements of society. The study of the distant past of mankind allowed scientists to conclude that. that the moral relations of people in primitive conditions were built on collectivist principles That is, in modern terms, priority has always been given to the team, and not to the individual. It is also known that the moral norms that existed among many tribes in those archaic times allowed the killing of weak members of the clan - sick children, old people - and even cannibalism. Have these ideas and views of people about the limits of the morally permissible influenced the real material conditions of their existence? The answer is clear: undoubtedly, they did. The need to jointly obtain material wealth, the doom of a quick death of a person who has broken away from his family, and laid the foundations of collectivist morality. Guided by the same methods of struggle for existence and survival, people did not consider it immoral to get rid of those who could become a burden for the collective.

Another example would be the relationship between legal norms and socio-economic relations. Let's turn to the well-known historical facts. One of the first codes of laws of Kievan Rus, called Russkaya Pravda, provides for various punishments for murder. At the same time, the measure of punishment was determined primarily by a person's place in the system of hierarchical relations, his or her belonging to a particular social stratum or group. So, the penalty for killing a tiun (steward) was enormous: it was 80 hryvnia and was equal to the cost of 80 oxen or 400 rams. The life of a smerd or slave was estimated at 5 hryvnia, i.e. 16 times cheaper.

Integral, i.e. the general, inherent in the entire system, the qualities of any system are not a simple sum of the qualities that make up its components, but represent a new quality that has arisen as a result of the relationship, the interaction of its components. In its most general form, this is the quality of society as a social system - the ability to create all the necessary conditions for its existence, to produce everything necessary for the collective life of people. In philosophy, self-sufficiency is seen as the main difference between society and its constituent parts. Just as human organs cannot exist outside the integral organism, so none of the subsystems of society can exist outside the whole - society as a system.

Another feature of society as a system is that this system is self-governing.

The administrative function is performed by the political subsystem, which gives consistency to all the components that form social integrity.

Any system, be it technical (unit with an automatic control system), or biological (animal), or social (society), is in a certain environment with which it interacts. The environment of the social system of any country is both nature and the world community. Changes in the state of the natural environment, events in the world community, in the international arena are a kind of "signals" to which society must respond. Usually it seeks to either adapt to changes in the environment, or adapt the environment to its needs. In other words, the system reacts to "signals" in one way or another. At the same time, it realizes its main functions: adaptation; goal achievement, i.e. the ability to maintain its integrity, ensuring the implementation of its tasks, influencing the natural and social environment; maintaining the image. scha - the ability to maintain its internal structure; integration - the ability to integrate, i.e. to include new parts, new public formations into a single whole.

Are there random events in our Universe or is everything predetermined in advance? Are all coincidences in our life an accident or a pattern? I suggest trying to sort out these issues. I'll make a reservation right away that the article does not claim to be scientific and is just an attempt to comprehend reality using a mathematical apparatus. For those interested, read on.

If we consider the Universe as a nonlinear dynamic system, the state of which at the moment of time t can be described by a multitude of occurring events, and assume the presence of causal relationships between the events of the moment of time t and the events of the moment of time t-1 (in other words, the presence of a relationship between the current and previous states system), then we will be forced to come to the conclusion that some event (or a set of simultaneous events, which in fact can be considered as a single event that determines the initial state of the system) served as the beginning and cause of being. As a consequence, it gave rise to many other events, each of which is a multitude of subsequent ones, and so on up to the present moment.

Thus, the Universe can be represented as a system of nonlinear differential equations. The more parameters are taken into account, the more equations it will contain and the closer such a mathematical model will be to the real one. That is, with an increase in the number of parameters and equations of the system to infinity, we will receive a complete mathematical model of the Universe. Even simple nonlinear dynamical systems with three parameters exhibit very complex behavior that is practically indistinguishable from random. You can imagine how the system will behave with the number of parameters tending to infinity.

Wikipedia defines randomness as the manifestation of external unstable connections in reality, the manifestation of the result of the intersection (coincidence) of independent processes or events. In contrast to it, necessity is defined as a characteristic of a phenomenon that is uniquely determined by a certain area of ​​reality, predictable within the framework of knowledge about it. I think that the term is not chosen very well, so I will use predetermination instead.

Now you can try to understand the question of the existence of random processes and events in our Universe. A process is nothing more than a sequence of events, therefore, a random process will be called a sequence of random events (or a random sequence of events, the essence of this does not change). But, as can be seen from the above definition, randomness is possible only in the presence of independent processes or events, and this contradicts our model, in which all events and processes are interdependent. The interdependence is due to the initial state of the system, since in nonlinear dynamical systems even a small change in the initial state leads to unpredictable behavior of the system as a whole and of each of the parameters separately. Therefore, it is not possible to change only one of the parameters without affecting the rest, therefore, all subsequent states of the system depend on the previous ones. Thus, we come to the conclusion about the impossibility of the existence of independent events in our model. This means that there is no chance in it. And what exists? The system consists of a huge number of nonlinear elements, each of which has a freedom of choice and with a certain probability has a positive or negative effect on the system (in other words, it contributes to the growth of either entropy or negentropy). Thus, we can only talk about the likelihood of an event, based on the chain of previous causal relationships. And hello quantum physics and thermodynamics.

What was all this written for? This text is an attempt to comprehend life experience in the light of existing scientific theories. And experience, like the above reasoning, leads to the conclusion that nothing happens by chance in life. And to believe in His Majesty the case is as ridiculous as to worship stone idols.

Well, to finish a very lengthy reasoning with an illustrative example, consider the following situation. Everyone knows the number Pi. It is calculated according to clear and definite rules, which means that the sequence of decimal digits in it cannot be considered random. But what is the probability that the next calculated decimal digit in this sequence is 9? And what is the probability that you will choose 9 out of ten suggested digits? What is the probability that you will guess the next digit of Pi? If someone is interested, then he can try to find answers to these questions on his own, because I do not have them.

Thank you for the attention.

(1) Russia (and its successor, the USSR) since the time of Ivan the Terrible was distinguished from the countries of Europe - and at a later time from Japan - the unevenness of historical development, imbalance both in the spheres of public life and in the sense of different rates of development in certain time periods ...

(2) The history of Russia is remarkable and instructive in that all attempts by Russians to approach Europe in terms of civilization have always paid extremely high costs, but on the whole were unsuccessful. Short-term (sometimes, however, brilliant) successes were observed only in certain spheres of activity (military, art, literature and even science), but these successes were fragile. And at all times the economy was clearly lagging behind (in many parameters, except for the "shaft" - efficiency, technology level, product quality, etc.), everyday life culture and the quality of life and activities of the overwhelming mass of the population.

(3) Let us recall some facts confirming these provisions. Even during the reign of Catherine II, Russia came out on top in the world in iron smelting, but the smoke hut remained in a number of places until the end of the last century. Already in our time, the Union produced about a fifth of the world's total output at an unjustifiably low standard of living. The country that created perfect rocket and space technology (the first satellite and the first man in space), lacking modern technologies in industry and agriculture, could not ensure the proper quality of everyday items and other products. Moreover, the country accounted for a third of specialists with higher education of their total number in the world. Russia, which had played the role of the European gendarme after the victory over Napoleon for over thirty years, unexpectedly suffered a crushing defeat in the Crimean War. An analogy with the period after the victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 is possible here.

(4) The undoubted flourishing of spiritual life, priorities or, at least, advanced positions in various areas of life in the pre-revolutionary period. Let us recall the names of V. Vernadsky, A. Popov, K. Tsiolkovsky, V. Soloviev, V. Kandinsky, F. Chaliapin and others. And the complete domination of a single teaching, which was also poorly assimilated, but became the standard for evaluating everything - internal and external, general and special - after the revolutions.

(5) Since all these features of historical development are paid for with tears, sweat and blood, unheard-of suffering of several generations, one involuntarily asks questions: "Why are we not developing" normally "and what is" normal development "?" Can we reveal the reasons that determine the strangeness of our development, or with the fatal pride of the doomed to the end of the century, will we repeat: “Russia cannot be understood with the mind, cannot be measured with a common yardstick”? Maybe it's still worth looking for this "common yardstick"?

(6) In parallel with the peculiarities of our historical development, there is another curious phenomenon, namely the stereotype reflecting the national Russian character. It is quite remarkable that stereotypes concerning other European peoples carry some specific information in relation to the national character of any of them.

(7) The main property of the Russian national character is recognized as its indeterminacy, incomprehensibility for a European, since the expression "mysterious Russian (Slavic) soul" has become a commonplace. Sometimes the wording softens and speaks of the "breadth" of the Russian soul, but in fact this is also a characteristic of its uncertainty.

(8) If the features of the historical development of Russia, its historical events are associated, as one must assume, with the mystery of the Russian soul, with its specific features, then what are these features and what is the mechanism of this conjugation? Can I open it? Are these questions legitimate and what practical conclusions follow from the answers to them?

(9) It is possible that the search for answers to these questions may seem to someone pure scholasticism. However, if we proceed from the idea of ​​the formation of a single planetary civilization, in which unique and distinctive ethnic groups and social organisms must harmoniously unite, then such a search should be recognized as a matter of paramount importance.

(10) Thus, the problem of self-knowledge seems to be the most important for Russians, Russians (and partly all citizens of the CIS), because “for society, as well as for an individual, the first condition of any progress is self-knowledge” (F. I. Tyutchev. Letter to P.A.Vyazemsky). Unable to understand their own fundamental properties (properties of their national character), Russians, other Russians will not be able to use the experience of world civilization with the least cost. The attempts made so far to assimilate the achievements of Europe and its civilization were therefore not sufficiently successful, as F. Tyutchev believed, that these fundamental properties were not taken into account.

N. Sokolov. Russians: who are they? M .: Mega-Press, 1999.

Grade 10 textbook

§ 2. Society as a complex dynamic system

• Is there a connection between various events and phenomena in the life of society?
• What gives stability and predictability to the development of society?

In the second part of the definition of the concept of "society", given in § 1, the idea of ​​the relationship between people and the interaction of various spheres of social life is emphasized. In the philosophical literature, society is defined as a "dynamic system".

The new concept "system" may seem complicated, but it makes sense to understand it, since there are many objects in the world that are covered by this concept. Our Universe, and the culture of an individual nation, and the activities of the person himself are systems. The word "system" of Greek origin means "whole, made up of parts", "totality". Thus, each system includes interacting parts: subsystems and elements. The connections and relationships between its parts are of prime importance. Dynamic systems allow for various changes, development, the emergence of new and the withering away of old parts and connections between them.