Talking about society is both easy and difficult. On the one hand, every person has been familiar with this concept since childhood, on the other, it’s very difficult to figure out for themselves what this complex system is, how it functions and what tasks it solves. To begin with, it should be remembered that scientists share the concepts of society in the broad sense of the word and in the narrow.
The second definition is quite simple. In this case, society is understood as a dynamically developing system, the main elements of which are people, social groups and social institutions connecting them. It is with this concept that sociologists mainly work.
Society in the broad sense is a category, first of all, philosophical. People began to turn to it from ancient times when philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle first stated that the ability to organize themselves in society is the most important sign of the difference between a person and an animal.
However, society in a broad sense became a truly political-philosophical problem in the Enlightenment. It was during this period that it began to be regarded as a certain mediation mechanism between an individual person and the state, as an important social institution directing the general development of each individual. In addition, it was in France of the 18th century that the idea was first voiced that society in the broad sense is all of humanity as a whole, which is a special part of the material world.
A significant contribution to the study of this problem was made by domestic scientists. First of all, this concerns philosophers such as N. Berdyaev, V. Soloviev, S. Frank. They in their works focused on the spiritual essence of man, his constantly arising desire to search for himself in this world and self-improvement.
Each philosophical trend somehow raised the problem of society, sought to interpret it in line with its own concept. Moreover, the farther, the more the deterministic tendency began to slip: some scientists put the economic essence of this mechanism at the forefront, others spiritual. At present, society is broadly regarded as, on the one hand, the driving force behind the development of human civilization, and on the other, as the inevitable result of this process. With this approach, the dynamic nature of this system is involuntarily emphasized, which does not remain unchanged, but develops along with human development.
Looking at society in a broad sense, scientists recognize that its direct impact on each individual person is much less noticeable than, for example, in the case of a social group, and the connections within it are noticeably less durable. At the same time, it is at the level of all mankind that those necessary spiritual and material components are preserved that allow each particular person to realize themselves, allow themselves to feel that part of the world that this world can noticeably change and use in its interests.
