Философия. Учебное пособие (практикум) на английском языке

Philosophy ●

yond which nothing can be cognized any more. The development of science can be presented as a series of consecutive approximations to absolute truth, each of which is more precise than the previous ones.

The term “absolute” is also applied to any relative truth: inasmuch as it is objective, it contains something absolute as one of its elements.

Any truth may therefore be said to be absolute-relative.

The concreteness of truth. Concreteness is the property of truth based on a knowledge of real connections, on the interaction of all the aspects of the object, of the principal and essential features of it, of its tendencies of development. Thus the truth or falsity of given statements cannot be established unless we know the conditions of place, time, and so on, under which they are formulated. A statement correct- lyreflectinganobjectundergivenconditionsbecomesfalseinrelation to the same object under different conditions. A correct reflection of some element of reality may become its opposite, an error, unless we take into account definite conditions of place, time, and role of what is reflected in the composition of the whole.

The criteria of true knowledge. The criterion of truth cannot be found in thought itself, neither does it exist in reality considered re- gardless of the subject. The criterion of truth lies in practice. One of the fundamental principles of scientific thought is that a statement is true if it can be proved that it is applicable to a given situation. This principle is expressed by the term “realizability”. Through the realization of an idea in practical action, knowledge is measured against its object revealing the true measure of its objectivity or the truth of its content. That part of knowledge that is directly or indirectly confirmed by practice, i.e. effectively realized in practice, is true.

As a criterion of truth, practice “works” not only in its sensuous

“nakedness”, as an object-related physical activity, in particular in experiment. It also appears in mediated form – as logic tempered in the crucible of experience. Logic may be said to be mediated practice. The degree of perfection of human thought is determined by the measure of the correspondence of its content to the content of objective reality.

Our reason is disciplined by the logic of things reproduced in the logic of practical actions and the entire system of spiritual culture. Given the authenticity of the initial propositions, the logic of thought is to

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a certain extent a guarantee not only of its correctness but also of its truth. Therein lies the great cognitive strength of logical thought. The ultimate foundation of the reliability of our knowledge is the possibility of practical creative work on its basis.

Practice is many-sided, ranging from empirical everyday experiences to the most rigorous scientific experiments. The practice of primitive man obtaining fire by means of friction is one thing, and quite another, the practice of mediaeval alchemists seeking for ways of transforming various metals into gold. Contemporary physical experiments involving equipment of tremendous resolving power, and computer calculations – these are also practice. In the course of the development of true knowledge, and of increasing its volume, science and practice form an ever closer unity.

As part of preparation for the fourth question it is important to understand that Practice as the Basis and Purpose of Cognition.

The unity of theory and practice. The principal form of the man- ifestation of human life is activity – sensuously objective, practical, and intellectual, theoretical. Man is an active being rather than a pas- sive spectator at the “pageant” of life. He continually influences things around him, lending them forms and properties necessary to satisfy the historically evolved social and personal needs. It is in the transformation of the world that man lends definiteness to his way of life.

Practice is the material, sensuously objective and goal-directed activity of men intended to master and transform natural and social objects, and constituting the universal basis, the motive force of the development of human society and knowledge. Practice designates not only, and not so much, the sensuously objective activity of a separate individual as the total activity and experience of the entire mankind in its historical development. Practical activity is social both in its content and in the mode of its realization. Contemporary practice is a result of world history, a result that embodies infinitely varied relations between men and nature and among men in the process of material and non-ma- terial production. Being the principal mode of man’s social existence and the decisive form of his self-assertion in the world, practice acts as a complex integral system incorporating such elements as need, goal, motive, separate actions, movements, acts, the object at which activ-

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ity is directed, the instruments of achieving the goal, and finally the result of activity. In practice, somebody always does something to create something out of something with the help of something for some purpose.

Social practice forms a unity with cognitive activity, with theory. It performs three functions in relation to the latter.

First, it is the source and the basis of cognition, its motive force; if provides the necessary factual material for it, subject to generalization and theoretical processing. It thus feeds cognition as soil feeds trees, and does not let it become divorced from real life.

Second, practice is a mode of application of knowledge, and in this sense it is the goal of cognition. Scientific knowledge has a practical meaning only if it is implemented in life: practice is the arena in which the power of knowledge is applied. The ultimate goal of cognition is not knowledge in itself but practical transformation of reality to satisfy society’s material and non-material needs through harmonizing its relationship with nature.

Third, practice is the criterion and measure of the truth of the results of cognition. Only that knowledge which has passed through the purifying fire of practice can lay claims to objectiveness, reliability, and truth.

We can thus say that practice is the basis for the formation and development of cognition at all its stages, the source of knowledge and criterion of the truth of the results of the cognitive process. Man first cognizes the world to the extent to which he himself acts practically and issubjecttotheactionoftheexternalworld.Practiceformspartofthe definition of the object in the sense that the object is separated off by the subject, with a definite purpose, from the infinite tangle of things, or else it is modified or created anew.

The history of knowledge indicates that the realization of some discovery in practical life is followed by an efflorescence of the corresponding field of theory: the development of technology revolutionizes science. Practically applied, natural and social disciplines create the mechanism of feedback between theory and practice which becomes the determinant factor in the choice of many directions of research.

The feedback mechanism permits the implementation of cor- rective influences of theoretical and practical activity on each other,

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which ensures the role of practice as the criterion of truth. In the Hegel’s philosophy, practice is the “volitional activity of the idea”. Subjective idealists interpret practice as activity conditioned by will and intuition, or the subconscious.

Test questions and tasks

1.Explain the etymology of the concepts of “gnoseology” and “epistemology”. Show the inextricable connection between ontology and epistemology.

2.What directions and concepts in the doctrine of knowledge do you know? What are the main doctrines of sensualism and rationalism and what is their limitation?

3.What forms of sensual and rational cognition do you know?

Comment briefly on each of them. What is the result of creative, men- tal activity of a person?

4.What is truth? How do you understand the objectivity and sub- jectivity of truth? What is the specific, absolute and relative truth?

5.Prove that the practice puts the knowledge of the purpose, forms his social problems. What is delusion and how does it differ from lies?

6.What is the role of intuition in the process of cognition? What is your attitude to the problem of intuitive knowledge?

7.What types of knowledge do you know? What are the distinctive features of everyday, artistic and scientific knowledge?

8.What knowledge can be characterized by consistency, validity, logic? What is subject and object of cognition?

9.Why the process of scientific research has always been carried out on the basis of historically developed methods? What is the distinctive feature of philosophical methods?

10.What general scientific methods are the most common in natural science research? Give an example. What is the role of modeling in modern science?

11.What is the criterion of truth? Prove that the practice puts the knowledge of the purpose, forms his social problems.

13.What knowledge can be characterized by consistency, validity, logic? What is the difference between knowledge and opinion?

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14.How do you understand the method of cognition? What are the general scientific philosophical methods of cognition.

15.Task № 1. Prepare a summary on the topic: ”The problem of cognition of the world and its solution in the history of philosophy”.

17.The task №2. Prepare an essay on the following topics: “What is the role of intuition in the process of cognition?”, “What is the role of modeling in modern science?”

Literature

Basic: 1–2.

Additional: 1–4.

Internet-resources: 1–5.

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8. Society and its Structure

The aim: to reveal the basic concepts of social philosophy, to analyze the approaches to the study of society; to identify the relationship between society and nature; to consider the historical types of development of society; to identify the criteria of social progress; to reveal the main areas of society.

The formed competences: ОК-1,ОК-5.

Knowledge and skills which the students acquire as a result of mastering of the theme, the formed competences or a part of it.

As a result of mastering the theme, students acquire:

•knowledge of the basic content of social philosophy, including philosophical theories and approaches to understanding society, the emergence and development of society, the structure and scope of society;

•skills to use the social philosophical knowledge in professional practice;

•ability of critical analysis of the main problems and contradictions of modern society.

The actuality of the theme is conditioned by the importance of social

philosophy for the study of modern socio-cultural reality.

Plan

1.The main Approaches to the study of Society in Philosophy.

2.Society as a System.

3.Formation and Civilization Approaches in researching of Society. The problem of the development of society.

Theoretical part

As part of preparation for the first question it should be kept in mind that social philosophy as a theoretical system of philosophical opinions on the existence and development of society appeared in the XVIIIth century.

1.At that time, the problems of society developed O. Kont and

H. Spencer, the representatives of Positivist approach to the society.

O. Cont argued against the society to be a simple sum of individuals. He underlined that the development of society depended on the

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abilities of individuals, which are connected with production, spiritual, political, moral other activities.

The central problem of Kont’s positivist philosophy is the problem of objective nature of the development of society and of its foundation. He formulated the law of intellectual evolution of humanity. This law is defined as follows: the cognitive activities of people, their social consciousness and human history have gone through theological, metaphysical and positive stages of their development. The knowledge of these laws is necessary to foreknow their actions.

In the study of the social dynamics Kont described the development of the society as a natural and progressive process. In this process he pointed to the important role of social division of labor.

Herbert Spencer developed the principles of organicizm in the study of society. He distributed his own evolutionary law not only on living organisms, and on society. Hence the name “organicizm”.

The most significant results in the study of society, were the following:

•Spencer grounded the criteria of social progress, which is the connection of socio-economic progress with the development needs of the individual;

•Spencer created the base of a typology of social systems. It is the voluntary nature of cooperation of people to achieve common goals. Hence the types of society – military or industrial;

•The scientist defined the structure of a social system. According to Spencer, the elements of the social structure are: regulatory, the structure manufacturing facilities, distributive;

•Spencer analyzed the problem o of State and the authorities, the correlation of war and peace and also the problems public order.

In addition, the problems of politics, religion, family, stratification, social knowledge are in focus of the scientist.

2. Marxist approach to the society.

In XIXth century the Marxist approach to the study of society was formed. Its main feature was the transfer to the materialistic understanding of society.

The basic ideas are:

•Progressive change of forms of social life takes place on the basis of developing the productive forces and production relations;

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•The using the category of socio-economic formation allows us to consider the development of society as a natural historic process of changing of formations. The base of socio-economic formation makes the mode of production of material goods.

Marx grounded the following social problems: the doctrine of class struggle and socialist revolution, the doctrine of dictatorship of the proletariat and democracy. The main importance has the theory of alienation of personality and ways to overcome it.

The core of Marxist social theory was the concept of socio-eco- nomic formation as a particular mode of production and organization of social life. It reveals the history as progressive changing of the various stages of the society.

1. Psychological approach to the society.

Psychological approach in social philosophy is represented by the works of L. Yord, G. Tard and V. Pareto. The leading representative is Tarde.

The fundamental problem, which Tard solved was the problem of individual and society. Every person lives and works close to many other people. The result of the interaction is the formation of a group of people with their inherent group psychology.

2. The structural-functional approach to the society.

The representative of the structural-functional approach Talcott Parsons investigated not only the factors of the development and stability of the society, but also those that prevented this process. The important issues are connected with the values that contribute to the functioning of society, as well as those that contribute to the deviation from normal development.

T. Parsons tried to create a theory of the functioning of society as a whole social system. He considered that the system of theoretical con- ceptsshouldmoreorlesscorrectlyreflectthefeaturesoftherealworld or the processes taking place in the world.

In the second half of the XXth century the sociobiology acquired wide popularity. The founder of the sociobiology was Sigmund Freud and his followers. Freud maintained that Sexy-biological energy is the basis for the development of human culture and society.

The second question should be devoted to the analysis the Society as a system.

Philosophy ●

The society is a system of vital activity of people, united by the territory of living, epoch, traditions and culture. The society is the ob- jective reality, the form of existence of life, with its internal structure, its wholeness, laws, the way of development. In the various social theories are determined the basic units that make up the society. They are: individuals, associations, social connections, which are expressed in the form of social institutions or organizations, and also certain types of social interaction.

In modern philosophy the systematic approach to the analysis of the society is widely spread. According to this approach, society is considered as a system and as a process. In the other words, society is a separate holistic organism. Such explanation of society was the result of a long development of philosophic thought.

In ancient Greek society was understood as an organized wholeness, consisting of separate parts. A systematic approach to the study of society was formed in the second half of the XIXth century and became widespread by the middle of the XXth century. The representatives of the systemic approach were: O. Conte, K. Marx, E. Durkheim, M. Weber, T. Parsons and other scientists.

The basic principles of the systematic approach are the following. Firstly, the main feature of the system is its integrity. It means that the characteristics of the system are not limited to a simple sum of the characteristics of its separate elements. Characteristics of system have special qualities. These qualities are not so much the properties of individual elements as properties of the structure, that is, the order and content of links between elements. In other words, a systematic approach to the study of society focuses not on the study of the prop-

erties that make up society, but on the study of the structure. Secondly, the elements of the system, also called the subsystems

themselves can be considered as a system.

Thirdly, the systematic approach means the consideration of society as an open system, the system that interacts with the environment. The environment is the set of external conditions of existence of the system.

Fourthly, the systemic approach admits the focused development not only of the system as a whole, but also of its separate elements. It

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meansthestudyofthesocietyanditsmajorcomponents is carried out from the point of view of its core functions.

The main spheres of society are: economic, social, political, and spiritual.

Economic sphere is an area of economic activity of society, an area of the production of material wealth. The economic sphere includes such important components as: production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of material wealth.

Social sphere is the area of the relations between social groups. A social system consists of social groups (social communities), social relations, social institutions (forms, in which the most significant social communication are realized), social norms (rules of social behavior) values of social culture.

The essential element of the social system of the society is the social group (social community).

Political sphere is an area of human relations concerning to power and subordination, it is the scope of management. The main elements of the society’s political system are political organizations and institutions, the State, political parties, social organizations, Mass Media, norms of political behavior, political culture, political ideologies. The main element of the political system is the State.

Spiritual sphere is the area of the establishment and development of spiritual values. The elements of the spiritual sphere are spiritual needs as a source of spiritual activity, spiritual values, means of spiritual production and also subjects of spiritual activity (individuals, social groups, society in General).

The main elements of the spiritual spheres are the spiritual values that exist in the form of ideas and receive its material embodiment in the form of language, art, etc.

Economic, social and political sphere of society are studied by accordingly economics, sociology, political science. Spiritual sphere is studied within the framework of philosophical disciplines (ethics, aesthetics, religious studies, science studies), or humanities (arts, science of law, history, literature, etc). The main forms of spiritual life of society are moral, law, religion, science, art.

It is also necessary to consider particularities of philosophy of history.