Social progress from the forms of change in society. The impact of technological progress on society

The idea of ​​progressive development entered science as a secularized (worldly) version of the Christian faith in providence. The image of the future in the biblical stories was an irreversible, predetermined and sacred process of the development of people, led by the divine will. However, the origins of this idea are found much earlier. Next, we will analyze what progress is, what is its purpose and significance.

First mentions

Before saying what progress is, a brief historical description of the emergence and spread of this idea should be given. In particular, in the ancient Greek philosophical tradition there are arguments about the improvement of the existing socio-political structure that developed from the primitive community and family to the ancient policy, i.e., the city-state (Aristotle "Politics", Plato "Laws"). A little later, during the Middle Ages, Bacon tried to apply the concept and notion of progress in the ideological field. In his opinion, the knowledge accumulated over time is increasingly enriched and improved. Thus, each successive generation is able to see further and better than its predecessors.

What is progress?

This word has Latin roots and in translation means "success", "moving forward". Progress is a direction of development of a progressive nature. This process is characterized by the transition to the higher from the lower, from less to more perfect. The progress of society is a global, world-historical phenomenon. This process involves the ascent of human associations from savagery, primitive states to the heights of civilization. This transition is based on political and legal, moral and ethical, scientific and technical achievements.

Main Components

The above describes what progress is and when they first began to talk about this concept. Let's take a look at its components. In the course of improvement, the following aspects are developed:

• Material. In this case, we are talking about the most complete satisfaction of the benefits of all people and the elimination of any technical restrictions for this.
• social component. Here we are talking about the process of bringing society closer to justice and freedom.
• Scientific. This component reflects the process of continuous, deepening and expanding knowledge of the surrounding world, its development both in the micro and macro spheres; liberation of knowledge from the boundaries of economic expediency.

new time

During this period began to see progress in natural science. G. Spencer expressed his point of view on the process. In his opinion, progress - both in nature and in society - was subject to the general evolutionary increasing complexity of internal functioning and organization. Over time, the forms of progress began to be seen in literature, general history. Art has not been neglected either. In different civilizations there was a variety of social. orders, which, in turn, led to different types of progress. The so-called "ladder" was formed. At its peak were the most developed and civilized societies of the West. Further, at various stages, other cultures stood. The distribution depended on the level of development. There was a "westernization" of the concept. As a result, such types of progress as "americocentrism" and "Eurocentrism" appeared.

Newest time

During this period, a decisive role was assigned to man. Weber emphasized the trend towards rationalization of a universal character in the management of various types. Durkheim cited other examples of progress. He spoke of the trend of social integration through "organic solidarity". It was based on the complementary and mutually beneficial contribution of all participants in society.

Classic concept

The turn of the 19th and 20th centuries is called the "triumph of the idea of ​​development." At that time, the general belief that scientific and technological progress could guarantee the continuous improvement of life was accompanied by a spirit of romantic optimism. In general, there was a classical concept in society. It was an optimistic idea about the gradual liberation of mankind from fear and ignorance on the way to ever more refined and higher levels of civilization. The classical concept was based on the concept of linear irreversible time. Here progress was a positively characterized difference between present and future, or past and present.

Goals and objectives

It was assumed that the described movement would continue uninterruptedly not only in the present, but also in the future, despite random deviations. The belief was quite widespread among the masses that progress could be maintained at all stages, in every basic structure of society. As a result, everyone was to achieve full prosperity.

Main criteria

Among them, the most common were:

• Religious perfection (J. Buse, Augustine).
• The increase in scientific knowledge (O. Comte, J. A. Condorcet).
• Equality and justice (K. Marx, T. More).
• Expansion of individual freedom in combination with the development of morality (E. Durkheim, I. Kant).
• Urbanization, industrialization, improvement of technology (K. A. Saint-Simon).
• Dominance over natural forces (G. Spencer).

Controversy of progress

The first doubts about the correctness of the concept began to be expressed after the First World War. The inconsistency of progress consisted in the emergence of ideas about negative side effects in the development of society. F. Tennis was one of the very first to criticize. He believed that social development from traditional to modern, industrial, not only did not improve, but, on the contrary, worsened the living conditions of people. The primary, direct, personal social connections of traditional human interaction have been replaced by indirect, impersonal, secondary, exclusively instrumental contacts inherent in the modern world. This, according to Tennis, was the main problem of progress.

Reinforcement of criticism

After the Second World War, it became obvious to many that development in one area entails negative consequences in another. Industrialization, urbanization, scientific and technological progress were accompanied by environmental pollution. Which, in turn, provoked a new theory. The belief that humanity needs continuous economic progress has been replaced by an alternative idea of ​​"limits to growth."

Forecast

The researchers calculated that when the consumption levels of different countries approach Western standards, the planet could explode from environmental overload. The concept of the "golden billion", according to which only 1 billion people from wealthy countries can get a secure existence on Earth, completely undermined the main postulate on which the classical idea of ​​progress was based - orientation towards a better future for all living without exception. The belief in the superiority of the direction of development along which the civilization of the West proceeded, which dominated for a long period of time, was replaced by disappointment.

Utopian vision

This thinking reflected highly idealized ideas of the best society. This utopian thinking, it must be assumed, also received a powerful blow. The last of the attempts to implement this type of vision of the world was the world socialist system. At the same time, humanity at this stage does not have in reserve projects "capable of mobilizing collective, universal actions, capturing the human imagination", which could orient society towards a brighter future (this role was very effectively played by the ideas of socialism). Instead, there are either simple extrapolations of current trends or catastrophic prophecies today.

Reflections on the future

The development of ideas about upcoming events is currently going in two directions. In the first case, the prevailing pessimism is defined, in which gloomy images of decline, destruction and degeneration are visible. Due to disillusionment with scientific and technical rationalism, mysticism and irrationalism began to spread. Emotions, intuition, subconscious perception are increasingly opposed to reason and logic in one area or another. According to the statements of radical postmodern theories, reliable criteria have disappeared in modern culture, according to which the myth differed from reality, the ugly from the beautiful, virtue from vice. All this indicates that the era of "higher freedom" from morality, traditions, progress, after all, has begun. In the second direction, there is an active search for new concepts of development that can give people positive guidelines for the coming periods, save humanity from unfounded illusions. Postmodern ideas have mostly rejected the traditional version of developmental theory with finalism, fatalism and determinism. Most of them preferred other examples of progress - other probabilistic approaches to the development of society and culture. Some theorists (Buckley, Archer, Etzioni, Wallerstein, Nisbet) in their concepts interpret the idea as a possible chance for improvement, which may occur with a certain degree of probability, or may go unnoticed.

The principle of constructivism

Of all the variety of approaches, it was this concept that served as the theoretical foundation for postmodernism. The task is to find the driving forces of progress in the daily normal life of people. According to K. Lash, the solution to the riddle is provided by the certainty that improvements can occur solely due to human efforts. Otherwise, the task is simply unsolvable.

Alternative concepts

All of them, which have arisen within the framework of the theory of activity, are very abstract. Alternative concepts appeal to the "man as a whole" without showing any particular interest in cultural and civilizational differences. In this case, in fact, a new type of social utopia is visible. It is a cybernetic simulation of social cultures of an ideal order, viewed through the prism of human activity. These concepts return positive guidelines, a certain faith in a probable progressive development. Moreover, they name (albeit at a highly theoretical level) the sources and conditions of growth. Meanwhile, alternative concepts do not answer the main question: why humanity, “free from” and “free for”, in some cases chooses progress and strives for a “new, active society”, but often decadence and destruction serve as a guide for it, which , in turn, leads to stagnation and regression. Based on that, it can hardly be argued that society needs progress. This is explained by the fact that it is impossible to prove whether humanity will want to realize its creative ability in the future. There are no answers to these questions in cybernetics and systems theory either. However, they were analyzed in detail by religion and culture. In this regard, as an alternative to constructivist modernism in the theory of progress, sociocultural ethicocentrism can act today.

Finally

Modern Russian philosophers are increasingly returning to the "Silver Age". Turning to this heritage, they try again to hear the originality of the rhythms of the national culture, to translate them into a strict scientific language. According to Panarin, the biomorphic structure of cognition shows a person the image of the cosmos as a living, organic whole. Its space awakens in people a motivation of a higher order, incompatible with irresponsible consumer egoism. Today it is clear that modern social science requires a serious revision of the existing basic principles, priorities and values. It can suggest new directions to a person, if he, in turn, finds in himself enough strength to use them.

Are you already familiar with the concept of social dynamics? Society does not stand still, constantly changing the direction of its development. Is society really increasing the pace of its development, what is its direction? How to answer it correctly, we will analyze in task 25 after the topic.

"Progress is a movement in a circle, but faster and faster"

So thought the American writer Leonard Levinson.

To begin with, remember that we already know the concept and it and also worked out the topic

Recall that one of the signs is development, movement. The society is constantly in the process of change, the institutions it needs are developing, complicating Unclaimed institutions are dying off. We have already traced the development of the Institute

Let's look at other important institutions - we will present their development and social demand in them in the form of a table:

Social dynamics is expressed in various directions of development of society.

Progress- the progressive development of society, expressed in the complication of the social structure.

Regression– degradation of the social structure and social relations (reverse PROGRESS term, its antonym).

The concepts of PROGRESS and REGRESS are very conditional; what is typical for the development of one society cannot be acceptable for another. Recall that in ancient Sparta, weak newborn boys were simply thrown off a cliff, because they could not become warriors. Today this custom looks barbaric to us.

Evolution- the gradual development of society (reverse REVOLUTION term, its antonym). One of its forms is reform- a change emanating from and changing relations in one of the areas (for example, the agrarian reform of P.A. Stolypin). REVOLUTION in the sense comes from

Social dynamics is the subject of study of one of the sciences about SOCIETY - social. There are two main approaches to the study of society.

According to Marx, every society must go through all stages of development and come to (linear development). The civilizational approach provides for the alternative ways of each, the parallel existence of societies with different levels of development, which is more in line with modern realities. It is this approach that is most in demand in the context of USE assignments.

Let's try to compare the three types of companies in terms of various important parameters in the form of a table:

And we conclude that in the historical development there are three main types of society:

Traditional society - historical type of civilization based on both the predominance and

industrial society - a historical type of civilization based on the introduction of the liquidation of the monarchical political system of the Middle Ages.

Post-industrial (information) society - a modern type of civilization based on domination (computers in production, Result of the 20th century.

Thus, today we have worked on the following important topics from

• The concept of social progress;
• Multivariance of social development (types of societies).

And now WORKSHOP! REINFORCING THE KNOWLEDGE GAINED TODAY!

We carry out

exercise 25. What is the meaning of social scientists in the concept of "criterion of progress"? Drawing on the knowledge of the social science course, make two sentences: one sentence revealing the features of progress, and one sentence containing information about the criteria (s) for determining progress.

To begin with, do not make the most common mistake associated with this task. We are required not two sentences, but a CONCEPT and 2 SENTENCES (three in total!). So, we remembered the concept of progress - the progressive development of society, its movement forward. Let's choose a synonym for the word criterion - measure, yardstick. Respectively:
"The criterion of progress" is a measure by which the degree of development of a society is judged.

1. A feature of progress is its inconsistency, all criteria for progress are subjective.

And, remember that although the degree of development of society can be measured in different ways (there are many approaches - the level of development of science, technology and technology, the degree of democracy, a generally accepted single criterion - the humanity of society). So:

2. The universal criterion for determining progress is the degree of humaneness of society, the ability to provide maximum conditions for the development of each person.

So here's what our answer looks like:

25. "The criterion of progress" is a measure by which the degree of development of a society is judged.

1. A feature of progress is its inconsistency, all criteria of progress are subjective.
2. The universal criterion for determining progress is the degree of humanity of society, the ability to provide the maximum conditions for the development of each person.

Before studying social progress, it is necessary to clarify what the terms "progress" and "regression" mean. The concepts of "change" and "development" are the key to understanding the identified problem. Change means the transition of systems from one state to another. Changes are quantitative and qualitative, reversible and irreversible. Development on the other hand, it is only a qualitative, regular and irreversible change in systems.

So, three features reveal the essence of the concept of "development".

1. Development characterizes not all changes, but only qualitative ones.

2. Irreversibility is the most important characteristic of development. If any process is reversible, that is, its properties, qualities can appear, disappear and reappear, then this is a change, but not development.

3. Pattern . The absence of regularity is typical for random processes, for example, catastrophes. They cannot be considered development.

So: the proposed understanding of development characterizes not all types of quantitative and qualitative changes, but only those that result in regular, irreversible qualitative changes.

Development is a contradictory phenomenon and can be carried out both in ascending and descending lines - both progress and regression.

Progress- a form of development associated with the transition from a less perfect to a more perfect state, from a lower to a higher one.

Regression- the opposite concept is a form of development associated with the transition from a higher to a lower state. This is a backward movement, these are the processes of disintegration, destruction, loss of the system's ability to perform the necessary functions.

Social Progress- this is the upward, progressive development of mankind, associated with the transition from a less perfect to a more perfect state.

community development has a contradictory character: it is the unity of the progressive and the regressive. In this regard, the question arises, how to distinguish progressive development from regressive? In other words, what is the criterion, that is, the “measure”, the sign of progressive development?

The criteria for social progress are are common And private.

The general criterion for the progress of society can be seen as trinity the following indicators:

1. The degree of development of the productive forces of society - engineering, technology, science, transport, communications, and, finally, the most important thing - a person who knows how and wants to work.

2. Compliance degree economic, legal, political and other laws, operating in society, development needs productive forces .

3. Degree of social freedom working population and social security disabled population.

In addition to the general criterion of social progress, to assess the nature of the development of certain aspects of social life, private criteria.

Let us give some examples of particular criteria in various spheres of public life.

In the spiritual life, these will be: opportunities for creative self-expression of the individual; the quantity and quality of books, magazines, museums, libraries, theaters, other cultural institutions and their accessibility to the public; the availability and amount of free time, the quality of leisure.

In material life, technical progress is important; improvement of technology, technology, penetration of technology into the spheres of everyday life, culture, art.

Think about what scientific progress is, whether there is progress in morality, progress in the field of art.

Social Progress - the movement of society from simple and backward forms to more advanced and complex ones.

The opposite concept regression - the return of society to obsolete, backward forms.

Since progress involves assessing changes in society as positive or negative, it can be understood by different researchers in different ways, depending on the criteria for progress. As such, they distinguish:

development of productive forces;

development of science and technology;

increasing people's freedom;

improvement of the human mind;

moral development.

Since these criteria do not correspond, and often contradict each other, the ambiguity of social progress is manifested: progress in some areas of society can lead to regression in others.

In addition, progress has such a feature as inconsistency: any progressive discovery of mankind can turn against itself. For example, the discovery of nuclear energy led to the creation of the nuclear bomb.

P Progress in society can be carried out in various ways:

I .

1) revolution - forced transition of society from one socio-political system to another, affecting most areas of life.

Signs of a revolution:

a fundamental change in the existing system;

affects all spheres of social life sharp;

abrupt change.

2) reform - Gradual, successive transformations of certain spheres carried out by the authorities.

There are two types of reforms: progressive (beneficial to society) and regressive (having a negative impact).

Signs of reform:

a smooth change that does not affect the fundamentals;

affects, as a rule, only one sphere of society.

II .

1) revolution - abrupt, abrupt, unpredictable changes leading to a qualitative transformation.

2) evolution - gradual, smooth transformations, which are predominantly quantitative in nature.

1.17. Multivariate development of society

Society - such a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that it is impossible to unambiguously describe and predict its development. However, in social science, several types of classification of the development of societies have developed.

I. Classification of society according to the main factor of production.

1. Traditional (agrarian, pre-industrial) society. The main factor of production is land. The main product is produced in agriculture, extensive technologies dominate, non-economic coercion is widespread, and technology is underdeveloped. The social structure is unchanged, social mobility is practically absent. Religious consciousness determines all spheres of society.

2. Industrial (industrial) society. The main factor of production is capital. The transition from manual to machine labor, from traditional to industrial society - the industrial revolution. Mass industrial production dominates. Science and technology are developing, and they are improving the industry. The social structure is changing and the possibility of changing social status appears. Religion fades into the background, there is an individualization of consciousness, and pragmatism and utilitarianism are affirmed.

3. Post-industrial (information) society. The main factor of production is knowledge, information. The service sector and small-scale production dominate. Economic growth is determined by the growth of consumption ("consumer society"). High social mobility, the determining factor in the social structure is the middle class. Political pluralism, democratic values ​​and the importance of the human person. The importance of spiritual values.

Social Progress - it is a global historical process of the development of society from the lowest to the highest, from a primitive, wild state to a higher, civilized one. This process is due to the development of scientific and technical, social and political, moral and cultural achievements.

First theory of progress described by the famous French publicist Abbé Saint-Pierre in his book "Remarks on the Continuous Progress of the General Reason" in 1737. According to his theory, progress is laid down by God in every person and this process is inevitable, like natural phenomena. Further progress study as a social phenomenon continued and deepened.

progress criteria.

Progress criteria are the main parameters of its characteristics:

• social;
• economic;
• spiritual;
• scientific and technical.

social criterion - is the level of social development. It implies the level of people's freedoms, the quality of life, the degree of difference between rich and poor, the presence of a middle class, etc. The main engines of social development are revolutions and reforms. That is, a radical complete change in all layers of social life and its gradual change, transformation. Different political schools evaluate these engines differently. For example, everyone knows that Lenin preferred revolution.

Economic criterion - this is the growth of GDP, trade and banking, and other parameters of economic development. The economic criterion is the most important, as it affects the rest. It is difficult to think about creativity or spiritual self-education when there is nothing to eat.

Spiritual criterion - moral development is one of the most controversial, since different models of society are evaluated differently. For example, unlike European countries, Arab countries do not consider tolerance towards sexual minorities a spiritual progress, and even vice versa - a regression. However, there are generally accepted parameters by which one can judge spiritual progress. For example, the condemnation of murder and violence is characteristic of all modern states.

Scientific and technical criterion - it is the presence of new products, scientific discoveries, inventions, advanced technologies, in short - innovations. Most often, progress means this criterion in the first place.

alternative theories.

Concept of progress has been criticized since the 19th century. A number of philosophers and historians deny progress as a social phenomenon completely. J. Vico considers the history of society as a cyclical development with ups and downs. A. Toynbee cites as an example the history of various civilizations, each of which has phases of emergence, growth, decline and decay (Maya, Roman Empire, etc.).

In my opinion, these disputes are connected with a different understanding of the definitions of progress as such, as well as with a different understanding of its social significance.

However, without social progress, we would not have society in its modern form with its achievements and mores.