Society and its Philosophical Analysis

Society as a System: The Spiritual Life of Society

Society is a complex, systemic, and holistic entity that organically integrates economic, social, political, ideological, and spiritual structures. These structures manifest in specific forms of social life as relatively autonomous spheres, differing from one another in the types of human activity they encompass.

If society as a whole is regarded as a large system, within this system exists a rather intricate hierarchy of subsystems (forms of social life), the most crucial of which are economic, political, and spiritual life. There are also other subsystems—social, ethnic, demographic, territorial, and so forth—which, in turn, encompass their own subsystems.

The economic life of society encompasses the sphere in which means of livelihood are created. Primarily, this includes the economy and its various branches. Economic relations (of property or distribution), economic institutions (management structures), and economic programs (ideas, government decisions) comprise this life. In economic life, material and ideological relations intertwine, as do the objective and the subjective.

The political life of society includes, first, the relations among social groups, peoples, and individuals regarding power, as well as the corresponding activities—political struggle or cooperation; second, the activities of political organizations and institutions, along with the system of their interrelations (the state, parties); and third, political ideas, theories, and programs.

In contemporary philosophical thought, there are ideas and problems that pertain to political philosophy. It is this branch that seeks to study the fundamental worldview aspects of the political realm, the peculiarities of political life, and the ideas of the state and power. Such a general approach necessitates the search for answers to a range of questions. What reasons allow for the political self-organization of society? How are various political systems created, maintained, transformed, and dissolved? What are the primary goals of the state, and are they compatible with the principles of freedom and justice? What underlies the right to power: divine law, the law of the strong, social contract, or some other principle? In essence, political philosophy entails reflections on the principles of political organization within society.

The spiritual life of society constitutes a realm of social existence and a mode of human activity, representing a distinct form of being that arises from the production, consumption, and transmission of spiritual values. This is the sphere where spiritual products are formed: science, art, education, and upbringing. The foundation of the spiritual life of society lies in spiritual activity—the activity of consciousness, through which particular thoughts and feelings arise, along with images and representations of natural and social phenomena. A unique form of spiritual activity is the dissemination of spiritual values. The result of this activity is the formation of the spiritual world for many individuals, enriching the spiritual life of society. Spiritual activity is mediated by spiritual relations within society—cognitive, moral, aesthetic, and religious—which manifest in everyday interpersonal communication (familial, professional, interethnic).

The spiritual life of society in the 20th century has been characterized by massification. The development of mass consciousness, as previously discussed, occurs under the influence of the "mass man." This individual is a product of mass society—a society with predominantly urban forms of life, mass production of standardized goods, and manipulation of taste and opinions, along with individual consciousness and psychology. In such a society, the individual becomes a helpless puppet with a "programmed" consciousness and behavior. They lose their creative essence and uniqueness, while their political behavior is characterized by apathy and conformism (agreement, reconciliation, adaptation to prevailing sentiments and opinions). The formation of conformism is influenced by fear, faith in norms of group solidarity, and thoughtless adherence to widely accepted standards.

Thus, the spiritual life of society is a complex social phenomenon, and its study is essential for understanding society as a whole.

Theoretically, it is important to note that there exists an equality among the various forms of social life, allowing for the abandonment of a one-sided deterministic philosophical approach to society and enabling a broader perspective on social interrelations and their mutual conditioning.

In the context of the spiritual life of society, let us examine the phenomenon of social consciousness and its primary forms. If the spiritual life of society is a form, a mode of human activity, and a particular way of being, which consists of the production, consumption, and transmission of spiritual values, then social consciousness is defined as the core of the spiritual life of society. Spiritual production is oriented towards the advancement of ideas, concepts, theories, programs, and so forth. This production occurs through social institutions of science, art, religion, and philosophy.

The starting point for analyzing social consciousness as an object of philosophical inquiry lies in the proposition that social being determines social consciousness. This idea forms an integral part of the concept of materialist understanding of history, alongside the ideas of the regularities of historical processes and the determining role of material production. From the formulation that "social being determines social consciousness," it follows that the analysis of consciousness is studied through the analysis of being, and spiritual activity is considered as a function of objective reality.

Social consciousness acts as a means of integrating individuals. This consciousness emerges as a reality of a particular kind, possessing its own logic of development, unique language, symbolism, and its own production. The products of this production (ideas, views, theories, etc.) provide a mechanism for uniting individuals. Social consciousness assumes the function of representing society and its interests, as well as shaping individual consciousness.

Social consciousness is a rather complex entity with its own structure, where all parts are interconnected. In the structure of social consciousness, researchers distinguish between everyday and theoretical consciousness, social psychology and ideology, as well as the forms of social consciousness.

Everyday consciousness reflects the entirety of life’s flow without any systematic categorization. This form of consciousness is based on daily life experiences, which contain much useful information for individuals’ navigation of the world. Nevertheless, everyday consciousness is replete with illusions, superstitions, and so forth. Theoretical consciousness represents a system of logically interrelated propositions that reveal the essence and regularities of social phenomena. Theoretical consciousness is developed by scholars and specialists across various fields of knowledge. Both everyday and theoretical consciousness interact with each other, playing their roles in human life and activity and in the development of society.

Social psychology comprises unsystematized notions, feelings, emotions, and impulses that directly reflect social reality. Through social psychology, mass consciousness manifests, alongside the moods and feelings of individuals, forming value orientations, attitudes, and behaviors of social groups, nations, and peoples. Through social psychology, most individuals become accustomed to widely accepted stereotypes and experience psychological discomfort when attempting to dismantle them.

The development of mass consciousness in the 20th century occurs under the influence of the "mass man." Such an individual enjoys feeling just like everyone else. The Spanish thinker J. Ortega y Gasset noted that the "mass man" demands little from themselves, does not strive for self-improvement, tends to go with the flow, successfully meets their material needs, and lacks an internal drive to measure their life against lofty spiritual values; the discipline of spirit and demandingness of oneself and others are alien to them.

In today’s world, social consciousness and the development of mass consciousness are intertwined with a mentality defined as a collection of certain inclinations among individuals and social groups toward specific modes of thinking and action.

As for ideology, within the structure of social consciousness, it represents a system of views and attitudes that reflect, at a theoretical level, the socio-political order of society, its social structure, and the needs and interests of various social forces. Ideology is shaped by all the objective and subjective conditions of societal development, including social psychology.

The development of social consciousness encompasses various forms: moral, aesthetic, and religious, which arose in primitive society; political, legal, philosophical, and scientific, which emerged alongside the division of society into classes. Each form is characterized by both everyday and theoretical levels. Political consciousness encompasses a collection of feelings, moods, traditions, ideas, and theories that reflect the interests of large social groups, their relationships to one another, and to the political institutions of society, primarily the state. Legal consciousness is a form of social consciousness that expresses knowledge and evaluations of the rights and duties accepted within that society, along with conceptions of what is lawful and unlawful. Moral consciousness serves as the primary value form of social consciousness, reflecting widely accepted norms and evaluations of social activity. It constitutes a system of "unwritten" laws that regulate human relationships, representing the oldest form of social consciousness. Aesthetic consciousness pertains to the awareness of social being in the form of concrete, sensory artistic images. Art represents a distinct activity centered on creating artistic values, along with the aggregate of the products of this activity. Religious consciousness encompasses conceptions of the existence of a supernatural reality (gods), from which, according to these beliefs, the fate of the world and humanity depends, dictating certain norms of human behavior in the form of religious commandments. Philosophical consciousness is a theoretically articulated worldview, comprising a system of generalized views of individuals on the world as a whole and their place within it. Science, as a form of social consciousness, reflects the natural, social, and internal worlds of humanity in concepts, laws, and theories, with the goal of obtaining objective knowledge about the world.