Since ancient times, man has tried to understand the structure of society and reproduce its structure on paper. However, society has a very complex organization, which is impossible to depict in the form of a single diagram. In this article we will talk about one of the classifications, which is based on the spheres of society.
Spheres of society
A person, being a member of society, interacts with its other representatives, entering into certain relationships with them: he sells and buys, marries and divorces, votes in elections and joins the ranks of public organizations. Such stable relationships are called spheres of social life.
According to the generally accepted classification, there are four main areas of society:
- political. Affects everything that has to do with politics: government structure, the formation of political parties, political processes taking place in the state;
- economic. It is a system of relationships associated with the production, sale and consumption of goods and services;
- social. Covers the division of society into nations, peoples, classes, social groups, etc.;
- spiritual. This area covers issues of morality, religion, art, education, science, etc.
The spheres of activity of society cover all processes that take place in the state, as well as the people who are participants in these processes. By buying groceries in a supermarket, you join the economic sphere of society, by getting married - by the social sphere, by going to a rally - by the political one, and by going to the Tretyakov Gallery - by the spiritual one.
Spiritual and social spheres of society
The debate about which sphere of society is dominant has been going on for a long time, but the answer has not yet been found. Karl Marx considered the economic sphere of activity to be decisive; in the Middle Ages, the spiritual sphere stood out as the main one. Let's look at each in more detail and decide which one is more important.
The spiritual sphere of society
The spiritual sphere of society's activity is a set of relationships that arise during the formation, transfer and development of intangible (spiritual) values. These include beliefs, cultural traditions, norms of behavior, artistic heritage, etc.
The spiritual sphere of society includes morality, science, art, religion, education and law. When a child is taught to respect elders in childhood, he is introduced to the spiritual sphere of society. By studying at school and university, visiting exhibitions and concerts, traveling around the world and studying the traditions of national culture, we become familiar with the spiritual sphere.
Social sphere of society
The social sphere of society is a set of relationships that arise as a result of human activity as a member of society. Each of us occupies a certain position in society, which is determined by our age, marital status, education, place of residence, gender, nationality and social status. All this characterizes the place of the individual in the social sphere of society.
For example, by registering a child at the place of residence, getting a job and retiring, we enter into social relationships, and, therefore, become subjects of the social sphere of society.
Economic sphere
The economic sphere of society is a huge layer of human relations associated with the creation and movement of material wealth. By working in production and producing products, providing paid services and consuming them, you become a participant in the economic sphere of society.
What about the children? - you ask. “They don’t work and don’t buy, so it turns out that children and schoolchildren fall out of this area of social development. No, they are also its participants. Parents buy clothes and food for them, pay for attendance at sports sections and clubs, and receive benefits and benefits for them. Thus, children also indirectly become involved in the economic sphere of life.
Political sphere
Everything that political science studies relates to the political sphere of society. The structure of the state and the functioning of local authorities, the holding of elections and the formation of parties, the formation of political movements and ideologies - all these are elements of the political sphere of society.
When do we become participants? By joining the ranks of a party, applying to the city administration for a certificate, casting a vote for one of the candidates in elections, changing citizenship, and even simply participating in surveys related to assessing the activities of political authorities, we come into contact with the political sphere of activity.
Interaction of various spheres of society
The question of identifying a priority sphere of society belongs to the category of rhetorical, although, as we wrote above, there have been attempts to answer it. This is reminiscent of a situation when you need to determine who is in charge in the family: the father who brings money into the house, the mother who buys food with this money, prepares food and feeds the household, or the child, without whom the parents do not understand their lives?
The spheres of social development are closely intertwined and cannot exist in isolation from one another. Judge for yourself: is it possible to conduct an election campaign without funding, without studying public opinion and without taking into account the traditional foundations of the residents of the area where it is taking place?
The life of each of us is a vivid illustration of the interpenetration of spheres of society: social, when we receive a citizen’s passport, economic when making purchases, political during elections and spiritual, when we educate our children to love the Motherland.
We live without knowing that various spheres of society have become an integral part of our existence. This is one of the rules of society that no one can break.
We invite you to watch a video on the topic “Spheres of life of society and directions of its development”:
Spheres of public life are a structure of society in which each part of it performs certain functions and is a separate area of people’s life.
The functions of the economic sphere are the creation of economic benefits, the spiritual sphere is the creation of intangible values, the political sphere is the distribution of power in society, the social sphere is the regulation of relations between social groups.
Each of the above areas consists of separate elements:
- Social groups (layers, peoples, nations, political parties);
- Intergroup relations;
- Public organizations (army, church, university, hospital, family).
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All 4 spheres of society influence each other.
Features of the social sphere
The social sphere of society is the daily relationships between people that arise in the process of their joint activities in society.
Society is a complex structure where each person has his own place and social role in the hierarchy. Depending on the profession, access to power, and financial status, a person occupies his niche in society and is assigned a social status.
Social status gives one individual many roles, responsibilities, privileges, and rights.
Examples of social statuses:
- Alexander Ivanov is a doctor. This social status gives him the following responsibilities: he must examine patients, provide first aid, and prescribe a course of treatment. He has the right to: give orders to nurses;
- Marya Ivanovna is a pensioner. Due to her social status, she may not work; the state pays Marya Ivanovna a pension. Its privileges include benefits on utility bills and free travel on public transport. Her responsibilities during her working life included paying taxes to the state, thanks to which she was able to receive a pension in the future;
- Vasya Sidorov is a student. Social status dictates that he do his homework, listen to teachers, and attend school. He has the right to housing, clothing, parental care until he reaches adulthood (18 years old);
- Tanya Melnichuk woman. Social status gives her responsibilities: cooking, cleaning the apartment, caring for children. As a woman, Tanya has a number of privileges: she does not have to serve in the army, she can not work and become a housewife.
One person can have many social statuses and, accordingly, roles performed in society.
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In addition, the role of the social sphere is to maintain a decent standard of living for all segments of society. First of all, the homeless, unemployed, large families, pensioners, and disabled people need support. The social sphere provides citizens with:
- housing;
- medical care;
- decent working conditions;
- clothes;
- getting an education;
- organization of leisure activities.
Thanks to the social sphere of society, people living in it do not feel disadvantaged and are able to satisfy primary needs (without satisfaction of which it is impossible to survive).
Political sphere: structure, functions
The political sphere of society is an area of people's lives associated with the conquest and use of state power. Politics governs other spheres of public life, maintains stability and law and order in society.
The political sphere of social life directly includes:
- State. Thanks to its creation, the political sphere exists;
- Laws;
- Government departments;
- Everyone who is a representative of government (deputies, officials, judges and others);
- Political parties;
- Political ideas.
Functions of the political sphere:
- Management of the population living on the territory of a given state;
- Prevention of social conflicts;
- Support for the unemployed, disabled, poor, pensioners and other vulnerable groups of the population;
- Defense of the country;
- Establishing profitable relations with foreign countries;
- State budget planning (state expenditures and revenues);
- Redistribution of values and benefits between members of society.
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A feature of the political sphere is the social structure, where power always belongs to a minority that controls the bulk of society (the majority). This is due to the fact that to manage society you need a lot of experience, an extraordinary mind, knowledge of economics, politics, and government laws. Therefore, not everyone can become a politician. The people elect their representatives - the President, Prime Minister, deputies, so that they realize their interests in society. Responsible, conscientious politicians use power to solve economic and social problems in society, but some use power to achieve exclusively their own goals.
This is interesting! False Dmitry II, an impostor who posed as the son of Ivan the Terrible, seized power in the Russian state and ruled it from 1607 to 1610. Over the years, he called a large number of Poles to Russia, who formed the basis of his army. With the permission of the ruler, the Poles robbed the local population and killed innocent people. The people could not stand the oppression of the king and overthrew him.
If people representing power in the state oppress the people, enrich themselves at their expense, and do not fulfill their promises, opposition arises in power. The opposition is a group of people opposing the government, the dominant political party. The opposition and state power are constantly fighting, sometimes it takes place in peaceful forms, sometimes in aggressive ones. This confrontation may end with the overthrow of state power, revolution.
The role of the economic sphere in the life of society
The economic sphere of society includes everything that is necessary for the production of economic goods and the satisfaction of people’s material needs. Its components are productive forces (that by which goods are produced) and production relations (the interaction of individuals in the process of creating goods).
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The elements of the economic sphere of society are:
- Production resources (land, minerals, property);
- Industrial enterprises;
- Firms;
- Money;
- People engaged in the production of economic goods (workers, entrepreneurs, inventors);
- Financial institutions (banks, exchanges);
- Market;
- Consumers.
Productive forces include:
- Information;
- Labor of workers;
- Science;
- Tools.
The basis of the economic sphere of society is industry. It includes all enterprises engaged in the extraction of natural resources and their processing. Thus, thanks to industrial enterprises, the riches of nature are transformed into material goods that satisfy the various needs of society.
Industry is divided into main sectors (groups of enterprises producing identical goods and services):
- Metallurgical;
- Mining;
- Energy;
- Chemical;
- Agricultural;
- Food;
- Fuel;
- Lesnaya;
- Mechanical engineering;
- Woodworking.
These and many other industries are the engine of economic development of society.
The spiritual sphere and its components
The spiritual sphere plays a big role in the development of society; without it, society cannot be called civilized. Just as the economic sphere produces material values, so the spiritual sphere of society’s life creates spiritual values. She also takes care of their safety, transmission from generation to generation, through the moral education of the individual.
The following values directly relate to the spiritual sphere of society’s life:
- traditions;
- language;
- morality;
- knowledge;
- worldview;
- rituals;
- moral;
- faith;
- art;
- ideas.
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Elements of the spiritual sphere of society’s life are:
- Morality, ethics, religion, science, art, education, culture;
- Spiritual values (traditions, language, knowledge, rituals, faith, etc.);
- Representatives of various professions involved in the production and preservation of cultural property. These include: artists, poets, directors, teachers, musicians, scientists, priests, museum workers;
- Cultural, educational, scientific and religious institutions (churches, theaters, schools, museums).
The structure of the spiritual sphere includes everything that is necessary to create the above values. Science is responsible for the production of knowledge, scientific ideas and theories. Education allows you to pass on this knowledge to the younger generation, to instill in children standards of morality and morality. Thanks to creative activity, works of art are created, which, along with language, customs, and traditions, are part of the spiritual culture of the country, the people, and all humanity. In an effort to comprehend the beyond, to establish contact with the Almighty, with our inner conscience, religion helps society.
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So gradually, as a person develops in society, thanks to the activities of the spiritual sphere, her worldview is formed. Worldview is a person’s ideas about the surrounding reality, about himself.
Dictionary
Hierarchy is a structure in which lower elements are subordinate to higher ones. Titles, positions, rights and responsibilities, and privileges are distributed among members of the hierarchy.
A revolution is a social upheaval that leads to the overthrow of government power.
As already noted, society is a systemic entity. As an extremely complex whole, as a system, society includes subsystems - “spheres of public life” - a concept first introduced by K. Marx.
The concept of “sphere of public life” is nothing more than an abstraction that allows us to isolate and study individual areas of social reality. The basis for identifying spheres of public life is the qualitative specificity of a number of social relations, their integrity.
The following spheres of society's life are distinguished: economic, social, political and spiritual. Each sphere is characterized by the following parameters:
This is an area of human activity necessary for the normal functioning of society, through which their specific needs are satisfied;
Each sphere is characterized by certain social relations that arise between people in the process of a certain type of activity (economic, social, political or spiritual);
As relatively independent subsystems of society, spheres are characterized by certain patterns according to which they function and develop;
In each sphere, a set of certain institutions is formed and functions, which are created by people to manage this social sphere.
Economic sphere of society - defining, named by K. Marx basis society (that is, its foundation, foundation). It includes relations regarding the production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material goods. Its purpose is meeting the economic needs of people.
The economic sphere is the genetic basis of all other spheres of social life, its development is the cause, condition and driving force of the historical process. The importance of the economic sphere is enormous:
It creates the material basis for the existence of society;
Directly affects the social structure of society (for example, the emergence of private property led to the emergence of economic inequality, which, in turn, caused the emergence of classes);
Indirectly (through the social-class sphere) influences political processes in society (for example, the emergence of private property and class inequality caused the emergence of the state);
Indirectly affects the spiritual sphere (especially legal, political and moral ideas), directly - on its infrastructure - schools, libraries, theaters, etc.
Social sphere of public life- this is an area where historical communities (nations, peoples) and social groups of people (classes, etc.) interact regarding their social status, place and role in the life of society. The social sphere covers the interests of classes, nations, social groups; relations between the individual and society; working and living conditions, upbringing and education, health and leisure. The core of social relations is the relationship of equality and inequality of people according to their position in society. The basis for the different social status of people is their attitude towards ownership of the means of production and the type of labor activity.
The main elements of the social structure of society are classes, strata (social strata), estates, urban and rural residents, representatives of mental and physical labor, socio-demographic groups (men, women, youth, pensioners), ethnic communities.
Political sphere of society– the area of functioning of politics, political relations, activities of political institutions (primarily the state) organizations (political parties, unions, etc.). This is a system of social relations regarding the conquest, retention, strengthening and use of state authorities in the interests of certain classes and social groups.
The specifics of the social sphere are as follows:
It develops as a result of the conscious activity of people, classes, parties seeking to seize power and control in society;
To achieve political goals, classes and social groups create political institutions and organizations that act as a material force of influence on the state, government, economic and political structures in society.
The elements of the political system of society are: the state (the main element), political parties, public and religious organizations, trade unions, etc.
The sphere of spiritual life of society - it is the sphere of production of ideas, views, public opinion, customs and traditions; the sphere of functioning of social institutions that create and disseminate spiritual values: science, culture, art, education and upbringing. This is a system of social relations regarding production and consumption spiritual values.
The main elements of the spiritual life of society are:
Activities for the production of ideas (theories, views, etc.);
Spiritual values (moral and religious ideals, scientific theories, artistic values, philosophical concepts, etc.);
The spiritual needs of people, which determine the production, distribution and consumption of spiritual values;
Spiritual relationships between people, exchange of spiritual values.
The basis of the spiritual life of society is social consciousness– a set of ideas, theories, ideals, concepts, programs, views, norms, opinions, traditions, rumors, etc., circulating in a given society.
Social consciousness is connected with individual(with the consciousness of an individual), because, firstly, without it it simply does not exist, and secondly, all new ideas and spiritual values have their source in the consciousness of individuals. Therefore, a high level of spiritual development of individuals is an important prerequisite for the development of social consciousness. Nevertheless , social consciousness cannot be considered as the sum of individual consciousnesses if only because an individual does not assimilate the entire content of social consciousness in the process of socialization and life activity. On the other hand, not everything that arises in the consciousness of an individual becomes the property of society. Social consciousness includes knowledge, ideas, perceptions, are common for many people, therefore it is viewed in an impersonal form as a product of certain social conditions, enshrined in language and works of culture. The bearer of social consciousness is not only the individual, but also the social group, society as a whole. In addition, individual consciousness is born and dies along with a person, and the content of social consciousness is passed on from one generation to another.
In the structure of public consciousness there are reflection levels(ordinary and theoretical) and forms of reflection of reality(law, politics, morality, art, religion, philosophy, etc.)
Levels of reflection of reality differ in the nature of their formation and by the depth of penetration into the essence of phenomena.
Ordinary level of social consciousness(or "social psychology") is formed as a result Everyday life people, covers superficial connections and relationships, sometimes giving rise to various misconceptions and prejudices, public opinion, rumors and sentiments. It represents a shallow, superficial reflection of social phenomena, therefore many ideas that arise in the mass consciousness are erroneous.
Theoretical level of social consciousness(or “social ideology”) provides a deeper understanding of social processes, penetrates into the essence of the phenomena being studied; it exists in a systematized form (in the form of scientific theories, concepts, etc.) Unlike the ordinary level, which develops mainly spontaneously, the theoretical level is formed consciously. This is the area of activity of professional theorists, specialists in various fields - economists, lawyers, politicians, philosophers, theologians, etc. Therefore, theoretical consciousness not only reflects social reality more deeply, but also more correctly.
Forms of social consciousness differ from each other in the subject of reflection and in the functions that they perform in society.
Political consciousness is a reflection of political relations between classes, nations, states. It directly reveals the economic relations and interests of various classes and social groups. The specificity of political consciousness is that it directly affects the sphere of state and power, the relationship of classes and parties to the state and government, the relationship between social groups and political organizations. It most actively influences the economy, all other forms of social consciousness - law, religion, morality, art, philosophy.
Legal consciousness– is a set of views, ideas, theories that express people’s attitude to existing law – a system of legal norms and relations established by the state. At the theoretical level, legal consciousness appears in the form of a system of legal views, legal doctrines, and codes. At the everyday level, these are people’s ideas about what is legal and illegal, fair and unfair, what is proper and what is not necessary in relations between people, social groups, nations, and the state. Legal consciousness performs a regulatory function in society. It is associated with all forms of consciousness, but especially with politics. It is no coincidence that K. Marx defined law as “the will of the ruling class elevated to law.”
Moral consciousness(morality) reflects the relationships of people to each other and to society in the form of a set of rules of behavior, moral standards, principles and ideals that guide people in their behavior. Ordinary moral consciousness includes ideas about honor and dignity, conscience and sense of duty, moral and immoral, etc. Ordinary moral consciousness arose in the primitive communal system and carried out function of the main regulator of relationships between people and groups. Moral theories arise only in a class society and represent a coherent concept of moral principles, norms, categories, and ideals.
Morality performs a number of important functions in society:
Regulatory (regulates human behavior in all spheres of public life, and, unlike law, morality is based on the strength of public opinion, on the mechanism of conscience, on habit);
Evaluative-imperative (on the one hand, it evaluates a person’s actions, on the other, it commands to behave in a certain way);
Educational (actively participates in the process of socialization of the individual, the transformation of “person into person”).
Aesthetic consciousness– an artistic, figurative and emotional reflection of reality through the concepts of the beautiful and the ugly, the comic and the tragic. The result and highest form of manifestation of aesthetic consciousness is art. In the process of artistic creativity, the aesthetic ideas of artists are “materialized” by various material means (paints, sounds, words, etc.) and are presented as works of art. Art is one of the most ancient forms of human life, but in pre-class society it was in a single syncretic connection with religion, morality, and cognitive activity (primitive dance is both a religious ritual that embodies moral standards of behavior and a method of transferring knowledge to a new generation).
Art in modern society performs the following functions:
Aesthetic (satisfies the aesthetic needs of people, forms their aesthetic tastes);
Hedonistic (gives people pleasure, pleasure);
Cognitive (in an artistic and figurative form it carries information about the world, being a fairly accessible means of enlightening and educating people);
Educational (impacts on the formation of moral consciousness, embodying the moral categories of good and evil in artistic images, forms aesthetic ideals).
Religious consciousness - a special type of reflection of reality through the prism of belief in the supernatural. Religious consciousness, as it were, doubles the world, believing that in addition to our (“natural” reality, subject to the laws of nature), there is a supernatural reality (phenomena, beings, forces), where natural laws do not operate, but which influences our lives. Belief in the supernatural exists in various forms:
Fetishism (from the Portuguese “fetiko” - made) is a belief in the supernatural properties of real objects (natural or specially manufactured);
Totemism (“to-tem” in the language of one of the North American Indian tribes means “his clan”) - a belief in supernatural consanguinity between people and animals (sometimes plants) - the “ancestors” of the clan;
Magic (translated from ancient Greek as witchcraft) is a belief in supernatural connections and forces that exist in nature, using which one can achieve success where in reality a person is powerless; therefore, magic covered all spheres of life (love magic, harmful magic, trade magic, military magic, etc.);
Animism - belief in disembodied spirits, in an immortal soul; arises in the later stages of the tribal system as a result of the collapse of mythological thinking, which has not yet made a distinction between living and nonliving, material and immaterial; ideas about the spirits of nature became the basis for the formation of the idea of God;
theism (Greek theos - god) belief in God, which originally existed as polytheism (polytheism); The idea of a single god - monotheism (monotheism) was first formed in Judaism, and was later adopted by Christianity and Islam.
Religion as a social phenomenon in addition to religious consciousness includes cult(ritual actions aimed at connecting with the supernatural - prayers, sacrifices, fasting, etc.) and one or another form of organization of believers(church or sect) .
Religion in the life of a person and society performs the following functions:
Psychotherapeutic – helps overcome feelings of fear and horror of the outside world, alleviates feelings of grief and despair, helps relieve feelings of helplessness and uncertainty in the future;
Worldview; like philosophy, it forms a person’s worldview - an idea of the world as a single whole, of the place and purpose of man in it;
Educational - influences a person through the system of moral norms that exist in every religion, and through the formation of a special attitude towards the supernatural (for example, love for God, fear of destroying an immortal soul);
Regulatory - influences the behavior of believers through a system of numerous prohibitions and regulations, covering almost the entire daily life of a person (especially in Judaism and Islam, where there are 365 prohibitions and 248 regulations);
Integrative-segregative - uniting co-religionists (integrative function), religion at the same time contrasts them with bearers of a different faith (segregative function), which is, to this day, one of the sources of serious social conflicts.
Religion, therefore, is a contradictory phenomenon and it is impossible to unambiguously assess its role in the life of a person and society. Since modern society is multi-religious, the basis for a civilized solution to the problem of attitudes towards religion is principle of freedom of conscience, which gives a person the right to profess any religion or be an unbeliever, prohibiting insults to the religious feelings of believers and open religious or anti-religious propaganda.
Thus, the spiritual life of society is a very complex phenomenon. By shaping the consciousness of people, regulating their behavior, political, moral, philosophical, religious, etc. ideas have an impact on all other spheres of society and on nature, becoming a real force that changes the world.
The complex nature of the development of society is determined by its very complex structure and the action of many heterogeneous factors in it. First of all, it carries out types of social activities that are different in nature and content: production and economic, social and everyday life, political, religious, aesthetic, etc., which seem to have their own social space. The latter is delineated by the corresponding type of social relations within the framework of which this or that social activity occurs. As a result, various spheres of social life. The main ones are economic, social, political, spiritual.
Economic sphere includes the production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material goods. This is the sphere of the functioning of production, the direct implementation of the achievements of scientific and technological progress, the implementation of the entire set of production relations of people, including relations of ownership of the means of production, exchange of activities and distribution of material goods.
The economic sphere acts as economic space, in which the economic life of the country is organized, the interaction of all sectors of the economy, as well as international economic cooperation, takes place. Here the economic consciousness of people, their material interest in the results of their production activities, as well as their creative abilities are directly brought to life. The activities of economic management institutions are also implemented here. In the economic sphere, the interaction of all objective and subjective factors of economic development takes place. The importance of this area for the development of society is fundamental.
Social sphere- this is the sphere of relationships between social groups existing in society, including classes, professional and socio-demographic strata of the population (youth, elderly people, etc.), as well as national communities regarding the social conditions of their lives and activities.
We are talking about creating healthy conditions for people’s production activities, ensuring the necessary standard of living for all segments of the population, solving problems of health care, public education and social security, observing social justice in the exercise by each person of his right to work, as well as in the distribution and consumption of created in a society of material and spiritual benefits, on the resolution of contradictions arising from the social stratification of society, on the social protection of the relevant segments of the population. This refers to the regulation of the entire complex of social-class, national and other relations relating to working conditions, living conditions, education and the standard of living of people.
As can be seen, the functioning of the social sphere is associated with the satisfaction of a special range of social needs. The possibilities of satisfying them are determined by the social position of a person or social group, as well as the nature of existing social relations. The degree of satisfaction of these needs determines the level and quality of life of a particular person, family, social group, etc. These are general indicators of the achieved level of people’s well-being and the effectiveness of the functioning of the social sphere. The state's social policy should be aimed at this.
Political sphere there is a space for political activity of classes, other social groups, national communities, political parties and movements, and various types of public organizations. Their activities take place on the basis of existing political relations and are aimed at realizing their political interests.
These interests concern primarily political power, as well as the implementation of their political rights and freedoms. In the interests of some subjects is the strengthening of existing political power. Others – its elimination. Still others strive to share political power with other entities. As a result, everyone wants to influence political processes in one form or another in their own interests.
To do this, each of the subjects operating in the political sphere, be it a class, a political party or an individual, strives to expand their political rights and freedoms. This expands the boundaries of their political activity and will create greater opportunities for the realization of their political interests and the embodiment of their political will.
Modern political processes significantly politicize the consciousness of many people and increase their political activity. This strengthens the role and importance of the political sphere in the life of society.
Spiritual realm- this is the sphere of relations between people regarding various kinds of spiritual values, their creation, dissemination and assimilation by all layers of society. Moreover, spiritual values mean not only, say, objects of painting, music or literary works, but also human knowledge, science, moral standards of behavior, etc., in a word, everything that constitutes the spiritual content of public life or the spirituality of society.
The spiritual sphere of public life develops historically. It embodies geographical, national and other features of the development of society, everything that has left its mark on the soul of the people, their national character. The spiritual life of society consists of the everyday spiritual communication of people and such areas of their activity as knowledge, including scientific knowledge, education and upbringing, manifestations of morality, art, and religion. All this constitutes the content of the spiritual sphere, develops the spiritual world of people, their ideas about the meaning of life in society. This has a decisive influence on the formation of spiritual principles in their activities and behavior.
Of great importance in this regard is the activity of institutions performing the functions of education and upbringing - from primary schools to universities, as well as the atmosphere of a person’s family upbringing, the circle of his peers and friends, all the richness of his spiritual communication with other people. An important role in the formation of human spirituality is played by original folk art, as well as professional art - theater, music, cinema, painting, architecture, etc.
One of the fundamental problems of the development of modern society is how to form, preserve and enrich the spiritual world of people, introduce them to genuine spiritual values and turn them away from false ones that destroy the human soul and society. Everything suggests that the importance of the spiritual sphere in the development of modern society, for the present and future, is difficult to overestimate. Scientists, philosophers, religious figures, and other representatives of spiritual culture are increasingly turning to the study of the processes occurring here.
Read the text and complete tasks 21-24.
The answer to the question about the prevalence of politics in society directly depends on its interpretation, as well as on specific types of social and political systems. From a broad understanding of politics as any activity and behavior related to power, authority, organization and management, it logically follows that it penetrates into all areas of public life: economics, culture, religion, science, sports, etc. As the famous American political scientist Robert Dahl writes, political associations include not only organizations such as the state and parties, but also trade unions, private clubs, business enterprises, religious organizations, groups of citizens, wild tribes, clans and even individual families...
At the same time, a broad interpretation of politics is fraught with the danger of obscuring its features, dissolving among phenomena close to politics in nature - power, social organization, management, the study of which is the subject of special sciences, respectively: sociology of power, sociology of organization, management theory.
More specifically, the criteria and boundaries of policy are defined by M. Weber. He writes: “An association can be called political if the execution of its orders is constantly carried out in a certain territory under threat or with the use of coercion from an administrative body.”
Thus, Weber limits the criteria of the political to the constancy of power, its distribution over a certain territory, and the presence of special coercive bodies. It is easy to see that Weber associates politics with the national (macro) level of its functioning...
Almost any public problem can become political if, in the opinion of political leaders, it affects the interests of the entire society and requires decisions that are binding on all citizens. Politics is an instrument of conscious self-regulation of society. Therefore, it can extend to a wide variety of social phenomena, both those that require constant government regulation (for example, protecting the safety of citizens, public order, the development of international relations, etc.), and those that temporarily acquire political significance ( for example, government assistance to the population in case of natural disasters).
Covering many economic, cultural, religious and other phenomena, politics does not replace them, but gives them a special aspect - making them the object of influence of public authority...
The multifaceted nature of various public associations is ultimately explained by the diversity of human qualities and social roles.
(V. P. Pugachev, A. I. Solovyov)
