Reasons determining the specifics of social cognition. Features of social cognition
The sciences that study social phenomena are divided into two groups: the social sciences and the humanities. The social sciences include: history, political science, economics, sociology, and other sciences. The humanities include: philology, art history, ethnography, psychology, etc. Philosophy can equally be attributed to the social and humanities.
The social sciences are dominated by a sociological approach focused on the analysis of society, within which social ties and relationships are studied.
In the humanities, the humanitarian approach prevails, which focuses on the study of a person, his individual originality, the spiritual and emotional world, the meaning and meaning of life, and personal aspirations.
Social life is a specific part of nature. Man is not only a natural but also a social being. Social laws, in contrast to the laws of the natural world, are short-lived and manifest through the activities of people. This determines the specific social cognition.
The subject of social cognition are, firstly, the activities of people and the relations that develop between people in the process of activity, and secondly, the results of people's activities, that is, culture.
The subject of social cognition is a person or social group, society as a whole.
The specificity of the cognition of social reality is connected with the fact that the history of society is not only cognized, but also created by people. From this main characteristic of social cognition, all its other features follow:
1) the real phenomena of social life are included in the context of a particular era, country, nation;
2) the events taking place in one country or another are never exactly repeated anywhere;
3) due to the fact that social events are of great complexity and variability, it is impossible to identify constants similar to the speed of light in social phenomena;
4) social and spiritual processes cannot be studied in the laboratory;
5) social phenomena are the object of study of a socially interested subject, which determines the subjectivity of the results of cognitive activity;
6) cognizable social phenomena may not be mature enough, which prevents the identification of trends in the socio-economic and spiritual development society;
7) reflections on forms human being carried out
post factum, i.e. based on results community development;
8) the results of historical development acquire in the eyes of many people the only possible form of human life, as a result of which the scientific analysis of these forms of human life chooses the path opposite to their development;
9) the analyzed processes very soon become history, and the study of history is influenced by the present;
10) significant shifts in the development of human thought occur in those periods when a crisis of existing relations is brewing.
An important distinguishing feature of social cognition is that for it the direct observability of the studied events and facts is not essential. Therefore, the object of research in the process of social cognition can be documents, memoirs, and other information. Important sources for the social and human sciences are the results of non-scientific exploration of reality (works of art, political moods, value orientations, religious beliefs etc.).
Many works of artistic culture, due to their integral nature, contain more valuable information than scientific literature. Humanitarian knowledge requires from the cognizing subject the ability to take the position of an observer in relation to himself, to his feelings, motives and actions. The result of humanitarian knowledge is the world of the researched, in which the researcher himself is reflected. By studying others, a person studies himself. Knowing himself, a person looks at himself through the eyes of other people.
The study of society from the point of view of the sociological approach and the study of the inner world of the individual from the standpoint of the humanitarian approach do not exclude each other. On the contrary, they are deeply interconnected. This is due to the fact that in modern conditions, when humanity is faced with many global problems, the role of both social sciences and the humanities is increasing.
The knowledge of social phenomena has its own specifics, which necessitates the use of socio-humanitarian research methods.
Closest to natural scientific methods are the methods of economic research. In the field of economics, the abstraction method common to all sciences is used. In economic research, some properties and relations with
to simplify the situation.
Like any science, economics proceeds from facts, but these facts are so numerous that without their generalization it is impossible not only to predict new economic phenomena and foresee their development trends, but also to understand them.
The first step in studying economic facts should be to exact description. Then it is necessary to identify the links between these facts. And for this, they should be divided into groups, that is, classified and systematized. The more facts that support the generalization, the more reliable and reliable it will be.
The completeness and accuracy of the facts used makes it possible to put forward testable hypotheses.
Hypothesis testing allows the development of various economic theories. The most important economic theories are: labor theory (value theory), monetarist theory.
Along with these fundamental economic theories, there are many private theories that consider the problems of development of individual sectors of the economy: production and exchange, consumption and distribution. These sectors, in turn, have their own special theories, for example, the theory of pricing for factors of production within the theory of distribution or the theory of consumer demand within the theory of consumption.
Important means of obtaining information about social processes are sociological methods, which can be divided into two groups: theoretical and empirical. The empirical methods of sociology are very diverse, since sociology studies the most diverse aspects of human life.
The most popular method of sociological research is a survey, the representativeness (reliability of the results) of which depends on the representativeness of the sample, which should provide an adequate representation of the entire general population.
Important for obtaining reliable sociological information
is included observation, when the researcher directly participates in the work of a certain team and as a member of it, performs the duties assigned to him and simultaneously conducts pre-planned observations. Such observations provide more reliable information than from outside, especially if the researcher is introduced into the team anonymously, and therefore the people around him do not change their behavior, as is often the case with external observation.
To obtain information, sociologists often resort to a social experiment. Conducting social experiments is associated with a number of difficulties, which include:
They are carried out with social groups, which, in the course of observing them, can change their behavior and thereby affect the purity of the experiment;
Such experiments are difficult to reproduce and thus verify by other researchers;
The measurements of social variables themselves are difficult to quantify, since it is difficult to abstract from subjective factors;
The variables themselves can change independently of each other and therefore only correlations, not causal relationships, can be established between them.
All of these difficulties present obstacles to the widespread use of the experimental method in sociology.
Humanitarian methods of research include methods for studying the spiritual activity of a person. The initial basis of humanitarian methods of cognition are the principles of interpretation and understanding of the phenomena and processes of cultural and historical activity.
The field of humanitarian research includes such branches of humanitarian knowledge as literary criticism, art history, literary and art criticism, theory and practice of translation.
Basic concepts: reflection, consciousness, ideal, social consciousness, individual consciousness, ordinary consciousness, theoretical consciousness, cognition, scientific knowledge, methods of cognition, observation, experiment, analysis, synthesis, idealization, abstraction, modeling, induction, deduction, hypothesis, concept, social cognition.
1. The subject and object of knowledge are the same. Public life is permeated with the consciousness and will of a person, it is, in essence, subject-object, represents a subjective reality as a whole. It turns out that the subject here cognizes the subject (knowledge turns out to be self-knowledge).
2. The resulting social knowledge is always associated with the interests of individuals-subjects of knowledge. Social cognition directly affects the interests of people.
3. Social knowledge is always loaded with evaluation, this is valuable knowledge. Natural science is instrumental through and through, while social science is the service of truth as a value, as truth; natural science - "truths of the mind", social science - "truths of the heart".
4. The complexity of the object of knowledge - society, which has a variety of different structures and is in constant development. Therefore, the establishment of social patterns is difficult, and open social laws are of a probabilistic nature. Unlike natural science, predictions are impossible (or very limited) in social science.
5. Since social life is changing very quickly, in the process of social cognition, we can talk about establishing only relative truths.
6. The possibility of using such a method of scientific knowledge as an experiment is limited. The most common method of social research is scientific abstraction; the role of thinking is exceptionally great in social cognition.
To describe and understand social phenomena allows the correct approach to them. This means that social cognition should be based on the following principles.
– consider social reality in development;
- to study social phenomena in their diverse connections, in interdependence;
- to identify the general (historical patterns) and the special in social phenomena.
All human knowledge of society begins with the perception real facts economic, social, political, spiritual life - the basis of knowledge about society, people's activities.
Science distinguishes the following types of social facts.
For a fact to become scientific, it must be interpret(lat. interpretatio - interpretation, clarification). First of all, the fact is subsumed under some scientific concept. Further, all the essential facts that make up the event, as well as the situation (environment) in which it occurred, are studied, the diverse connections of the studied fact with other facts are traced.
Thus, the interpretation of a social fact is a complex multi-stage procedure for its interpretation, generalization, and explanation. Only an interpreted fact is a truly scientific fact. The fact presented only in the description of its features is just the raw material for scientific conclusions.
FROM scientific explanation fact connected and its grade, which depends on the following factors:
– properties of the studied object (event, fact);
- correlation of the object under study with others, one ordinal, or ideal;
- cognitive tasks set by the researcher;
- the personal position of the researcher (or just a person);
- the interests of the social group to which the researcher belongs.
Job Samples
Read the text and do the tasks C1‑C4.
“The specificity of the cognition of social phenomena, the specificity of social science is determined by many factors. And, perhaps, the main among them is society itself (man) as an object of knowledge. Strictly speaking, this is not an object (in the natural-scientific sense of the word). The fact is that social life is permeated through and through with the consciousness and will of a person, it is, in essence, subject-object, representing, on the whole, subjective reality. It turns out that the subject here cognizes the subject (knowledge turns out to be self-knowledge). Natural-scientific methods, however, cannot be done. Natural science embraces and can master the world only in an objective way (as an object-thing). It really deals with situations where the object and the subject are, as it were, on opposite sides of the barricades and therefore are so distinguishable. Natural science turns the subject into an object. But what does it mean to turn a subject (a person, after all, in the final analysis) into an object? This means killing the most important thing in him - his soul, making him some kind of lifeless scheme, a lifeless structure.<…>The subject cannot become an object without ceasing to be itself. The subject can only be known in a subjective way - through understanding (and not an abstract general explanation), feeling, survival, empathy, as if from the inside (and not detachedly, from the outside, as in the case of an object).<…>
Specific in social science is not only the object (subject-object), but also the subject. Everywhere, in any science, passions boil, without passions, emotions and feelings there is not and cannot be a human search for truth. But in social science their intensity is perhaps the highest ”(Grechko P.K. Social science: for applicants to universities. Part I. Society. History. Civilization. M., 1997. P. 80–81.).
C1. Based on the text, indicate the main factor that determines the specifics of the knowledge of social phenomena. What, according to the author, are the features of this factor?
Answer: The main factor that determines the specifics of the cognition of social phenomena is its object - society itself. Features of the object of cognition are associated with the uniqueness of society, which is permeated with the consciousness and will of man, which makes it a subjective reality: the subject cognizes the subject, i.e., cognition turns out to be self-knowledge.
Answer: According to the author, the difference between social science and natural science lies in the difference between the objects of knowledge, its methods. So, in social science, the object and subject of cognition coincide, but in natural science they are either divorced or differ significantly, natural science is a monological form of knowledge: the intellect contemplates a thing and speaks about it, social science is a dialogic form of knowledge: the subject as such cannot be perceived and studied as a thing, for as a subject it cannot, while remaining a subject, become mute; in social science, cognition is carried out, as it were, from within, in natural science - from the outside, detached, with the help of abstract general explanations.
C3. Why does the author believe that in social science the intensity of passions, emotions and feelings is the highest? Give your explanation and give, based on the knowledge of the social science course and the facts of social life, three examples of the “emotionality” of the knowledge of social phenomena.
Answer: The author believes that in social science the intensity of passions, emotions and feelings is the highest, since there is always a personal relationship of the subject to the object, a vital interest in what is known. As examples of the "emotionality" of the knowledge of social phenomena can be given: supporters of the republic, studying the forms of the state, will seek confirmation of the advantages of the republican system over the monarchical one; monarchists will pay special attention to proving the shortcomings of the republican form of government and the merits of the monarchical; The world-historical process has been considered in our country for a long time from the point of view of the class approach, etc.
C4. The specificity of social cognition, as the author notes, is characterized by a number of features, two of which are disclosed in the text. Based on the knowledge of the social science course, indicate any three features of social cognition that are not reflected in the fragment.
Answer: As examples of the features of social cognition, the following can be given: the object of cognition, which is society, is complex in its structure and is in constant development, which makes it difficult to establish social patterns, and open social laws are of a probabilistic nature; in social cognition, the possibility of using such a method of scientific research as an experiment is limited; in social cognition, the role of thinking, its principles and methods is exceptionally great (for example, scientific abstraction); since social life changes rather quickly, then in the process of social cognition one can speak of the establishment of only relative truths, etc.
Social cognition is one of the forms of cognitive activity - knowledge of society, i.e. social processes and phenomena. Any knowledge is social insofar as it arises and functions in society and is determined by socio-cultural reasons. Depending on the basis (criterion), within social cognition, cognition is distinguished: socio-philosophical, economic, historical, sociological, etc.
Indeed, as the French thinker O. Comte noted in the first half of the 19th century, society is the most complex of objects of knowledge. His sociology is the most difficult science. It turns out that in the field of social development it is much more difficult to detect patterns than in the natural world.
Peculiarities:
1) In social cognition, we are dealing not only with the study of material, but also with ideal relations.
2) In social cognition, society acts both as an object and as a subject of cognition: people create their own history, they also cognize and study it. There appears, as it were, the identity of the object and the subject. The subject of knowledge represents different interests and goals. The subject of social cognition is a person who purposefully reflects in his mind the objectively existing reality of social life.
3) Socio-historical conditionality of social cognition, including the levels of development of the material and spiritual life of society, its social structure and the interests that dominate it. Social cognition is almost always value-based. It refers to the acquired knowledge, since it affects the interests and needs of people who are guided by different attitudes and value orientations in the organization and implementation of their actions.
4) The variety of different situations in the social life of people. That is why social cognition is largely probabilistic knowledge, where, as a rule, there is no place for rigid and unconditional statements.
All these features of social cognition indicate that the conclusions obtained in the process of social cognition can be both scientific and non-scientific. The complexities of social cognition often lead to attempts to transfer the natural science approach to social cognition. This is connected, first of all, with the growing authority of physics, cybernetics, biology, etc. So, in the XIX century. G. Spencer transferred the laws of evolution to the field of social cognition. It is impossible to underestimate and completely deny the significance of natural science methodology for social cognition. social philosophy cannot but take into account the data of psychology and biology.
In social science there are main components : knowledge and means of obtaining it . First component- social knowledge - includes knowledge about knowledge (methodological knowledge) and knowledge about the subject. Second component These are both individual methods and social studies.
This is a description and generalization of facts (empirical, theoretical, logical analyzes with the identification of the laws and causes of the phenomena under study), the construction of idealized models (“ideal types” according to M. Weber), adapted to the facts, the explanation and prediction of phenomena, etc. The unity of all forms and types of cognition presupposes certain internal differences between them, expressed in the specifics of each of them.
Methods:
Methods in social science are the means of obtaining and systematizing scientific knowledge about social reality. They include the principles of organizing cognitive (research) activities; regulations or rules; a set of techniques and methods of action; order, scheme or plan of action.
used in social cognition general scientific methods(analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction, analogy) and private scientific methods(e.g. survey, case study). A technique is an implementation of a method as a whole, and, consequently, of its procedure.
In social cognition, the following aspects can be distinguished: ontological, epistemological and value (axiological).
ontological side social cognition concerns the explanation of the existence of society, the laws and trends of functioning and development. It also affects such a subject of social life as a person. Especially in the aspect where it is included in the system of social relations.
The question of the essence of human existence has been considered in the history of philosophy from various points of view. Various authors for the basis of the existence of society and human activity accepted such factors as the idea of justice (Plato), divine providence (Aurelius Augustine), absolute reason (G. Hegel), the economic factor (K. Marx), the struggle between the “life instinct” and the “death instinct” (Eros and Thanatos) ( Z. Freud), “social character” (E. Fromm), geographical environment (C. Montesquieu, P. Chaadaev), etc.
epistemological The side of social cognition is connected with the peculiarities of this cognition itself, primarily with the question of whether it is capable of formulating its own laws and categories, does it have them at all? In other words, can social cognition claim to be truth and have the status of science?
The answer to this question depends on the position of the scientist on the ontological problem of social cognition, on whether he recognizes the objective existence of society and the presence of objective laws in it. As in cognition in general, and in social cognition, ontology largely determines epistemology.
The epistemological side of social cognition includes the solution of the following problems: - how the knowledge of social phenomena is carried out; - what are the possibilities of their knowledge and what are the boundaries of knowledge; - what is the role of social practice in social cognition and what is the significance of the personal experience of the cognizing subject in this; - what is the role of various kinds of sociological research and social experiments.
Axiological the side of cognition plays an important role, since social cognition, like no other, is associated with certain value patterns, predilections and interests of subjects. The value approach is already manifested in the choice of the object of study. The separation of scientific theory and axiology, truth and value, led to the fact that the problem of truth, associated with the question "why", was separated from the problem of values, associated with the question "why", "for what purpose". The consequence of this was the absolute opposition of natural science and humanitarian knowledge. It should be recognized that value orientations operate in social cognition in a more complex way than in natural science cognition.
In his value way of analyzing reality philosophical thought seeks to build a system of ideal intentions (preferences, attitudes) to prescribe the proper development of society. Using various socially significant assessments: true and false, fair and unfair, good and evil, beautiful and ugly, humane and inhumane, rational and irrational, etc., philosophy tries to put forward and justify certain ideals, value attitudes, goals and objectives of the social development, build the meanings of people's activities.
Ticket number 16
Questions - tests
1)“Virtue is knowledge. Evil deeds are generated by ignorance, ”he believed:
a) Plato
b) Seneca
c) Epicurus
d) Socrates
2)One of the central medieval philosophy problems was the problem of the relationship of faith and:
a) mind
b) feelings
c) intuition
3)Basic concepts in Kant's philosophy: the categorical imperative and pure reason.
4)A philosopher in whose ontology the key role is played by the concepts of “will to live” and “will to power”:
a) popper
b) Nietzsche
5) Neopositivism is a philosophy in the 20th century, connecting the main principles of positivist philosophy with the use of mathematical logic.
a) gnosticism-agnostism
b) cause and effect
c) determinism-indeterminism
d) necessity and chance
7) The highest form of organization of scientific knowledge is:
a) guess
b) scientific theory
c) hypothesis
d) scientific program
8) Forms of the rational stage of knowledge:
a) judgment
b) concept
c) presentation
d) inference
9) The main coordinates of the human life world (choose the wrong one)
a) the meaning of life
b) death
c) profession
d) happiness
10) Philosophical doctrine about morality:
b) etiquette
Sharing the features characteristic of all sciences, Social sciencies, however, have their own characteristics, associated primarily with the specifics of social cognition.
14.10.1. First of all, in the field of social cognition researcher myself is part of the studied reality, whereby social cognition is not the study of an object external to man, but a special form of self-knowledge. In other words, unlike the natural and technical sciences, the cognizer himself is initially present in the very object of social research. subject. From this feature, it follows that research results in this area are inevitably influenced by both the general worldview of the era and the ideas of those social groups and classes to which the researcher himself belongs. This fact determines the fundamental problem of the possibility of objective knowledge in the field of social science, which is debatable to this day.
14.10.2. Since every historical event is unique and unique, within the framework of social cognition, we are faced with the problem the possibility of multiple observation of the same type of events. Moreover, in this area it turns out to be fundamentally impossible to set up a potentially unlimited, as in natural science, quantity experiments(the fall of a ball under the action of gravity, for example, we can observe a potentially infinite number of times, while it is fundamentally impossible to repeat the capture of Rome by the barbarians or the October Revolution). Proceeding from this feature, many scientists generally deny the applicability to the study of society of methods similar to the methods of the natural sciences, aimed at identifying certain universal, stable patterns.
14.10.3. In social research we are always dealing with historically variable object research, and, therefore, must study not only the laws of its functioning, but also the laws development.
14.10.4. In the field of social cognition, we are dealing with an object that has a special structural complexity which, in particular, explains the relatively recent emergence of scientific knowledge about society.
14.10.5. Finally, when studying society, the researcher always deals with the activities of conscious, free subjects, which makes it very difficult to clearly identify and justify the area of objective laws, the operation of which would not depend on the will and desire of individual people.
14.10.6. Social cognition, like any scientific cognition in general, begins with facts. However, facts by themselves do not yet represent knowledge. necessary condition its occurrence is a certain explanation of the facts, that is, their interpretation. However, since the studied social phenomena have a certain significance for a person, the researcher develops his own, positive or negative, attitude towards these facts, called evaluation. Although the assessment expresses the subjective attitude of a person, however, if in its formulation he relies on socially significant values, the assessment can claim some universally valid status.
Social Philosophy.
Topic 14.
The process of social cognition, in contrast to the cognition of nature, is closely connected with the cognition of the activity of a person who sets himself certain goals. The social qualities of people, their spiritual and psychological state (needs, interests, goals, ideals, hopes, doubts, fear, knowledge and ignorance, hatred and mercy, love and greed, deceit, etc.) can have a significant impact on the functioning of social laws, their modification, the form of manifestation, the content aspect of the analysis and explanation of certain events and facts.
If in natural science one can initially consider objects in themselves, moving away from their connections and from the cognizing subject, then in social cognition we are from the very beginning not dealing with objects or their systems, but with a system of relations, feelings of subjects. Social being is an organic unity of the material and the spiritual, the objective and the subjective.
Social being is an objective reality. Depending on what part of this reality is included in the immediate sphere of practical, and consequently, cognitive interaction of people, it becomes an object of social cognition. Due to this circumstance, the subject of social cognition has a complex systemic character.
The success of social cognition depends on many factors - firstly, on the degree of maturity of each of the constituent elements of the subject of cognition, in whatever form it appears; secondly, from the degree of consistency of their unity - the subject is not the sum of the elements, but the system; thirdly, on the degree of activity of the character of the subject in connection with the assessment of certain social phenomena that a person encounters, and the actions taking place in connection with this assessment.
Marx formulated one of the basic principles of social cognition: social cognition is not a passive contemplation of an object, but acts as an active activity of the cognizing subject. However, in the relationship of the subject to the object, one cannot exaggerate the activity of the subject, because in practice this leads to subjectivist-voluntaristic methods.
It should be noted another extreme - objectivism, leading to the denial of the need for vigorous activity of the masses, individuals
Because of the originality and uniqueness historical events repeatability in public life is much more difficult to identify than in nature. However, due to the repeated implementation of certain actions by previous generations, invariant, essential connections are revealed, while the subjective side is activated. Laws are formed that do not depend on the consciousness of the next generations, but on the contrary, the laws of society that determine their activity manifest themselves in a peculiar way, the correlation of historical necessity and conscious activity of people is always specific. This determines the characteristics of society as an object of cognition and the specificity of social cognition.
The diversity of social life determines the diversity of types of knowledge about society. Among them stand out as the main humanitarian, socio-economic and socio-philosophical knowledge.
The backbone of all social knowledge is socio-philosophical knowledge. They arise on the basis of a generalization of the culture and practice of their era and are focused on developing the most general ideas about the natural and social existence of a person, the laws of his practical, ethical and aesthetic relationship to the world. They single out the main forms of human activity, the basic laws of their functioning and development as social systems, analyze their interconnection and subordination.
The foundation of social knowledge is social facts, which must be considered not just as a "world of things", but, first of all, as a world of subjective essences and human values. Unlike natural phenomena, all social facts are a unity of material and spiritual, subjective and objective. Interpretation of facts can be as true and false.
The most important method of theoretical study of social facts, its principle is historical approach. It requires not just a statement of events in chronological order, but also consideration of the process of their formation, connection with generating conditions, i.e. revealing the essence, objective causes and connections, patterns of development.
The inclusion of interests in social cognition does not deny the existence of objective truth. But its comprehension is a complex dialectical process of the relationship between adequacy and illusory nature, absoluteness and relativity of social truth and politics.
Thus, the cognitive possibilities of society are formed as a result of its practical-cognitive activity and change with its development.
2. Society: fundamentals of philosophical analysis.
In order to live, people must recreate their life in all its scope and content. It is the joint activity on production of their life brings people together. The objective world becomes the world of man only if he is involved in human activity.
The binding means are objects and phenomena of the material and spiritual world: tools, natural environment, knowledge, ideals, etc. These connections are generally called social relations; they form a stable system - society.
Society arises and exists, thus, with the interaction of two factors: activity and social relations.
Social relations are diverse. Allocate economic, socio-political, legal, moral, aesthetic, etc.
Defining society as a whole, we can say that it is a dynamic, historically self-developing system of social relations between people, between a person and the world. Society is "the man himself in his social relations" 1 .
There are many philosophical concepts society, but each of them is more or less limited, schematic in comparison with real life. And none of them can claim a monopoly on the truth.
