Questions and Tasks for Self-Control:

1. Give your reasons for the subject and tasks of social philosophy.

2. Describe the classical approaches to the consideration of society.

3. Give your account for basic spheres of society’s life.

4. What are the basic elements of the social structure of a society?

5. Prove that society is self-developing and self-organizing system.

6. Clear out basic differences between people and nation.

7. Describe the civilization approach of the development of society.

8. Name the main features of postindustrial society.

Basic concepts and categories:

Society’s basic spheres are basic units of society as a social organism. These include material social, political, spiritual and cultural spheres.

The subject of social philosophy is the study of society’s most general principles, laws of functioning and development.

Social being is a material natural-historical process, in which natural conditions are transformed into social.

Social consciousness is the spiritual component of the historical process, an integral spiritual phenomenon that includes various forms of consciousness.

Social relations are various relations that arise between the subjects of social interaction; they characterize a society or community, which includes these subjects as integrity.

Society is a system of concrete historical forms of social activity of individuals and groups of individuals.

The social structure of society is an established relationship and interaction between individuals, groups of individuals in society; it is the concrete historical expression of the system of social relations as a product of individuals and groups of individuals’ social activity.

Literature

Basic:

Alexander Spirkin. Fundamentals of Philosophy / Alexander Spirkin. — M. : Progress Publishers, 1990. — 423 p.

Mastering Philosophy / Anthony Harrison-Barbet. — London : PALGRAVE, 2001. — 196 p.

Noel Brooke Moore. Philosophy: The Power of Ideas / Brooke Noel Moore, Kenneth Bruder. — Boston : McGraw-Hill, 2008. — 618 p.

Philosophy: The Quest for Truth / Louis P. Pojman. — New York : Oxford University Press, 2006. — 655 p.

Real philosophy: An Anthology of the Universal Search for Meaning / Jacob Needleman and David Appelbaum. — New York, N.Y., USA : Arkana, 1990. — 347 p.

The Encyclopedia of Philosophy / Donald M. Borchert. — New York : Macmillan Reference USA, Simon & Schuster Macmillan, 1996. — 775 p.

The Shorter Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy / Edward Craig. – New York : Routledge, 2005. — 1077 p.

Suplementary:

Philosophy and Choice: Selected Reading from around the World / Kit R. Christensen. — Mountain View, Calif. : Mayfield Pub., 1999. — 621 p.

Theories of Modernity and Postmodernity / Bryan S. Turner. — Newbury Park, Calif. : Sage Publications, 1990. — 184 p.

Primary sources:

Arnold Joseph Toynbee. A Study of History / Arnold Joseph Toynbee. London : Oxford University Press, 1961. − P. 123−125.

Herbert Marcuse. One-dimensional Man : Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society / Herbert Marcuse. — Boston : Beacon Press, 1991. — 260 p.

Jose Ortega y Gasset. The Revolt of the Masses / José Ortega y Gasset. — New York : Norton, 1957. — 190 p.

Oswald Spengler. The Decline of the West / Oswald Spengler. — New York : Oxford University Press, 1991. — 414 p.

P. Kozlowski. The Postmodern Culture / P. Kozlowski. — M. : Republic, 1997. — 236 p.

S. Frank. The Spiritual Basis of the Society / S. Frank. — M. : Mir. Rogers K., 1995. — 155 p.

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