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Nekrasov S.I., Zakharov A.M.

Philosophical understanding of the categories of necessity and chance began in antiquity and has retained its relevance to the present day. Analysis of the development of ideas about these philosophical categories confirms the fruitfulness of considering them as dialectically interconnected.

An expected event can be assessed from the position of confidence that it will happen, while an accomplished event can be assessed as a fact that could not fail to happen. This is exactly how the categories of necessity and chance are found in thinking: with positive confidence in the situations described above, events are called necessary, otherwise - random.

In ordinary thinking, the belief that necessary events exist plays an important role. Their presence “confirms” the organization of the surrounding reality and makes advance planning and calculation expedient. Accident is usually thought of as something that might not have happened, disorganizing the “correct” course of events. The applicability of these categories to determine the future is their cognitive meaning.

Being not only a form of being, but also of thinking, the category of necessity contains a certain layer of the everyday. Thus, the need is “felt” by the researcher primarily where there is repetition, even if the causes of the event are not known.

One-time and non-recurring events are initially identified with disorganization, and only in exceptional cases are attempts subsequently made to understand the causes that determined them. The search for these causes often degenerates into a simple statement of their presence, assigning them fatality and unknowability.

If the question about the causes of an event that has violated the usual order is raised, and they cannot be determined, then, considering the event to have no basis, it is defined as “random.”

The obvious (or non-obvious) necessity for the implementation of events, consequences, correlation effects, on the one hand, and the presence of the factor of chance, on the other, led in the history of philosophy to the birth of diametrically opposed concepts.

Until the 19th century, as Russell noted, the prevailing view among physicists was that all matter is homogeneous. On theological grounds, human bodies were often freed from the mechanical determinism to which the laws of physics led. “If, as some thought, miracles sometimes happen, then they are outside the scope of science, since they are not by their nature subject to law.”

In philosophy, both paradigms have been created in which the role of necessity is absolute, and randomness is only a consequence of the temporary unknown of objects, and systems in which, on the contrary, spontaneity and randomness prevail over conditionality. Extreme modifications of the second option led, among other consequences, to the denial of the knowability of the world.

Philosophical understanding of these categories began in antiquity, dividing into two directions. The first direction is an attempt to comprehend the nature of the necessary and the accidental, do they have causes, how do they and their causes differ?

The second direction - the general worldview - consisted of discussing the question: is the world necessarily organized, is what happens in it subject to a certain order and law, or is there also an accident in it that is not part of the order?

On this general worldview issue, in general, the thinkers of antiquity took the position of organizing the world. Researchers note the special role of myth as the initial stage of development ancient ideas

about the world. The original rationality, revealed in the establishment of relationships between the natural and the supernatural in myth, on the one hand, affirms causality, and on the other, predetermination. Ancient myth is not a world of chaos and elements; here are the recognizable actions of a supernatural being, and man himself is in the chain of events described by the myth.

From this point of view, the myth reflects the struggle of chaos with the “divine” order, protecting the world from the onslaught of the elements. At the same time, the spatial continuum protected by myth is characterized by universal determinism and interconnectedness, and the noted continuity leads to the need to indicate the universal meaning of any event.

The knowledge of causality, thus, came through an appeal to the cosmic order, which seemed possible in the presence of a volitional act, an action that was essentially causeless. Myth becomes an interpretation of causality.

Democritus defended the extreme position that chance is only subjective opinion. In this regard, the ideas of Democritus were the beginning of the coming rationalistic tradition, opposing the determinism of myth. The subsequent denial of the mythological vision of the integrity of the world by philosophical rationalism was pointed out, in particular, by P. A. Florensky.

On this issue, O. Spengler formulated the following generalization: “Due to the fact that human thinking, invariably organized according to causal principles, tends to reduce the picture of nature to simpler quantitative units of form, allowing cause-and-effect comprehension, measurement and calculation, in short, mechanical distinctions , in ancient, Western and generally every other possible physics, the doctrine of atoms inevitably arises.”

Considering Democritus the forerunner of causal determinism, researchers note that atomism was “an attack by common sense on the theoretical consistency” of pre-theoretical knowledge, realized in myth.

A diametrically opposed attitude to necessity, which affirmed the high importance of chance, was expressed by Epicurus. However, both of these points of view had one thing in common: the assignment of a special status to one of these two dialectically related categories.

For Plato, the “arbitrary necessity” characteristic of myth also does not agree with the ideas of rationality and philosophy in general, which is knowledge and education that does not accept reconciliation with the reality constructed by myth. At the same time, Heraclitus’ idea of ​​continuous movement and change, which was more of a mythological orientation, was no longer consistent with Plato’s positions, since here causality was associated with the world of ideas. Believing causality in the material world to be deceptive and projecting the causality demanded by rationality into the ideal world, Plato does not deny ontologically randomness, but rather affirms knowledge as a way to achieve stability through conditionality.

The dual position, considering necessity and chance as equivalent characteristics of reality, was already formulated by Aristotle. Despite the fact that the Cosmos is governed by the Logos, the random is present in the world, but in certain cases it is accidental: we cannot cognize it by examining the phenomenon itself. Reasons here coexist with the concept of goal, acting as intermediaries between it and the initial impulse to move.

I. Kant defined chance logically: it is something whose contradictory opposite is possible. The idea of ​​“free cause”, formulated by him, was partly a refraction of the Aristotelian interpretation, which defines chance as the spontaneous appearance of further necessity, which itself has no cause. Like Aristotle, I. Kant essentially pointed out the accidental nature of the random, while transferring the functioning of free causality from the world of phenomena to the world of things in themselves.

G. W. F. Hegel noted that necessity and chance cannot be thought of separately, because these categories presuppose each other, defining them ontologically relative. If Aristotle identified both necessary and random events, then G. W. F. Hegel noted that they are necessary and random at the same time. On the other hand, what fundamentally distinguishes his position is that necessity here is not reducible to causality.

From the perspective of dialectics, within the framework of a holistic development process, chance and necessity seem interconnected. In the absence of chance, existence becomes predetermined and essentially static, acquiring a self-contradictory character.

We can say that the dialectical conclusion about the need for randomness follows from the fact that the development taking place in the real world is influenced by both internal and external causes. In this regard, randomness reflects the multifactorial nature of development, within which patterns can be realized precisely due to the presence of a whole set of opportunities and ways of their implementation.

Despite the achievements of the dialectical approach, a return to the fragmentation of the spheres of manifestation of necessity and chance and the associated opposition between them was noted in the 20th century.

Thus, E. Husserl’s phenomenology was based on the fundamental fact of human interaction in empirical experience not with objective being, but with a construct created by consciousness. The work of consciousness common to individuals forms individual existence, which, according to E. Husserl, is accidental, as opposed to essence, in the sphere of which accidentality does not exist. This concept still contains a hidden dialectic, since fact is inseparable from essence.

Initially, the positivist attitude of L. Wittgenstein’s “Logical-Philosophical Treatise” led to the affirmation of logical necessity as the only possible one.

However, upon in-depth study, this approach turned out to be applicable only to the sphere of theoretical constructions, when randomness already loses its ontological meaning due to the “non-randomness” of the events specified in the logical construction. When a logical structure is destroyed, randomness arises along with the total transformation of logical objects into random ones. In this regard, this position echoed Aristotle's thoughts on necessity and contingency in the realm of the intentional.

Completing this idea leads not only to the denial of objective necessity, but also to the actual impossibility of scientific research in general. Eliminating the category of necessity from thinking deprives the researcher of the most important linguistic construct.

Science of the 20th century was of great importance for the recognition of the fundamental role of chance. Its basic significance in the structure of existence manifested itself through the increasing frequency of natural sciences turning to the study of stochastic processes. The peculiarity of the probabilistic style of thinking was its operation with stochastic laws. The development of this trend resulted in the emergence of synergetics, which developed a mechanism for the birth of order in an array of randomness.

Placing chance as the basis of being, despite the practical and theoretical achievements associated with it, closes the path to logical comprehension of this category. In addition, the equality of the ontological significance of these categories, despite their different functionality, follows from their logical inseparability.

From Hegelian dialectics it follows that the world cannot have an external cause, since even under the assumption that the world was created by God, it degenerates into being-for-one. If the existence of the world is infinite, then it and its properties are not described in the categories of necessity and chance, since they are not events.

From the above arguments it follows that considering the emergence of the world as accidental, from the point of view of philosophy, is not correct. Along with this, philosophers point out that it cannot be necessary, in the sense of dynamic causality. Neither God nor “spontaneous chance” has complexity. She is a characteristic that will distort their very idea. The categories of chance and necessity therefore characterize exclusively intra-world relations, correlating only dialectically with ontology, which, within the framework of these discussions, has a rather supra-world character.

At the ordinary level, the categories of necessity and chance appear to be associated with the idea of ​​fate. The concept of fate provides for the conditionality of events in the life of a particular person, which necessarily lead to a predetermined outcome. In the history of philosophy, several positions on this issue have existed and coexist to this day, which are unique additions to the understanding of the categories of randomness of necessity, on the one hand, and the concepts of time and Eternity, on the other. Two basic directions of these arguments have emerged. The future either already exists and, along with the present, is in Eternity, or it does not yet exist, and everything that happens later is on this moment does not exist. Both positions are formally possible, since they themselves are internally consistent.

The achievements of science and philosophy have demonstrated the inconsistency of separating human free behavior from natural necessity, which I. Kant insisted on. This approach contradicts, on the one hand, the ideas about the integrity of the random and necessary, and the possibility of evolutionary changes, on the other. Laws, both natural and social, are only a reflection of the universal dialectics of development. At the same time, I. Kant’s indication of the existence of internal determination, associated with morality and self-determination of a person, only testifies to the greater accessibility to human understanding of laws that are internal and personal in nature, rather than external and global. In this case, the category “law,” without losing its global significance, functions in the sphere of moral and value choice.

Researchers also point to the existential nature of the dialectic of necessity and chance. Following some necessary moral principles implies the ability to creatively apply them in each specific situation, that is, make adjustments for the random nature of circumstances and the nature of the people with whom life brings you together. Such behavior just shows that a person has worthy principles, and that he himself is wise and endowed with dialectical reason.

The interpretation of necessity and chance through expectation or surprise, respectively, emphasizes this existentiality, since life existentially includes expectation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1. Bondarenko N. G. The principle of determinism in the communicative theory of society: Dis. Doctor of Philosophy Sciences: 09.00.11 Rostov n/d, 2004.
2. Ivanov A.V., Mironov V.V. University lectures on metaphysics. - M., 2004.
3. Knigin A. N. The doctrine of categories. - Tomsk: TSU, 2002.
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5. Spengler O. Decline of Europe: In 2 vols. / Transl. with him. I. I. Makhankova. - M.: Iris-press, 2003.t. 1.

Bibliographic link

Nekrasov S.I., Zakharov A.M. FORMATION OF PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPTS ABOUT NECESSITY AND CHANCE // Contemporary issues science and education. – 2007. – No. 1.;
URL: http://science-education.ru/ru/article/view?id=295 (access date: 03/09/2020). We bring to your attention magazines published by the publishing house "Academy of Natural Sciences"

Very often people ask the question: how does this or that event happen - by chance or by necessity? Some argue that only chance reigns in the world and there is no place for necessity, while others claim that no chance exists and everything happens out of necessity. However, in our opinion, it is impossible to answer this question unambiguously, because both chance and necessity have their share of the “right” to being. What is meant by both concepts?

Let's start with the concept of “randomness”. Randomness is a type of connection that is caused by unimportant, external, factors incidental to a given phenomenon. As a rule, such a connection is unstable. In other words, chance is a subjectively unexpected, objectively incidental phenomenon; it is something that, under given conditions, may or may not happen, may happen one way or another.

There are several types of randomness:

External. It is beyond the power of this necessity. It is determined by the circumstances. A man stepped on a watermelon rind and fell. The reason for the fall is obvious. But it does not at all follow from the logic of the victim’s actions. Here there is a sudden invasion of life by blind chance.

Internal. This randomness follows from the very nature of the object; it is, as it were, “swirls” of necessity. Randomness is considered internal if the situation of the birth of a random phenomenon is described from within any one causal series, and the cumulative effect of other causal sequences is described through the concept of “objective conditions” for the implementation of the main causal series.

Subjective, that is, one that arises as a result of a person having free will when he commits an act contrary to objective necessity.

Objective. The denial of objective randomness is false and harmful from both a scientific and practical point of view. Recognizing everything as equally necessary, a person turns out to be unable to separate the essential from the inessential, the necessary from the accidental. With this view, necessity itself is reduced to the level of chance.

So, to put it briefly, random is possible under appropriate conditions. It opposes the natural as necessary under appropriate conditions. Necessity is a natural type of connection between phenomena, determined by their stable internal basis and the set of essential conditions for their occurrence, existence and development. Necessity, therefore, is a manifestation, a moment of lawfulness, and in this sense it is a synonym for it. Since a pattern expresses the general, essential in a phenomenon, necessity is inseparable from the essential. If the random has a cause in something else - in the intersection of various series of cause-and-effect relationships, then the necessary has a cause in itself.

Necessity, like chance, can be external and internal, that is, generated by the own nature of an object or a combination of external circumstances. It can be characteristic of many objects or only of a single object. Necessity is essential feature law. Like the law, it can be dynamic and statistical.

Necessity and chance act as correlative categories in which it is expressed philosophical understanding the nature of the interdependence of phenomena, the degree of determinism of their occurrence and existence. The necessary makes its way through the accidental. Why? Because it is realized only through the individual. And in this sense, randomness is correlated with singularity. It is accidents that influence the course of the necessary process: they accelerate or slow it down. So the randomness is in diverse connections with necessity, and the boundary between chance and necessity is never closed. However, the main direction of development is determined precisely by necessity.

Taking into account the dialectics of necessity and chance is an important condition for correct practical and theoretical activity. The main goal of cognition is to identify what is natural. In our ideas, the world is revealed as an endless variety of things and events, colors and sounds, other properties and relationships. But to understand it, it is necessary to identify a certain order. And for this we need to analyze those specific forms of chance in which the necessary is manifested.

IN in a broad sense words by reality is understood entirely objectively existing world, objective reality in all its concreteness, the entire totality of existing phenomena, taken in unity with their essence. Hegel paid special attention to the last point in characterizing the category of reality, noting that “reality is the unity of essence and existence, or internal and external, that has become immediate.” In a narrower and more specific sense of the word, reality is understood as the specific existence of a separate object at a certain time, under certain conditions; the reality of an individual concrete material object is its actual existence. In this meaning, the category of reality is compared with the category of possibility.

Opportunity is a state (or situation) when one part of the determining factors is present, but another part is missing, or when the determining factors are not mature enough for a new phenomenon to arise.

Possibility also means something that has tendencies for the emergence and development of which already exist in reality, but which has not yet become a reality.

If reality is actual being, then possibility is potential being, this is the future contained in the present. The category of possibility reflects the prerequisites for the emergence of a new reality, which already exist in existing existence. The antonym of the concept of possibility is the concept of the impossible, i.e. such events and phenomena, the occurrence of which is excluded by the laws inherent in reality.

The dialectical relationship between possibility and reality is manifested in a number of relationships. First of all, they presuppose each other. Every concrete reality contains within itself the possibility of its further change and development, and every concrete reality arose as a result of the realization of previously existing possibilities. In the categories of possibility and reality, the world is characterized primarily from the point of view of its formation, change, development

Real opportunities are those opportunities that are determined by the necessary aspects and connections of the object.

Abstract possibilities are possibilities for the implementation of which the appropriate conditions cannot exist at a given stage; these opportunities can appear only when material education reaches a higher stage of development.

A specific opportunity is an opportunity for the implementation of which, at a given stage of development of a material system, appropriate conditions may arise

In different concepts of determinism, one of the central places occupy the categories of necessity and chance.

Necessity is something that follows from the very essence of material systems, processes, events and what should happen (or happens) in the main one way and not otherwise.

Accident is that which has a basis and cause primarily not in itself, but in another, which follows not from the main connections and relationships, but from secondary ones, which may or may not happen, may happen like this, but may happen and in a different way.

Random In science, events that arise when conditions vary are also considered. Accordingly to necessary These include events that arise from significant connections and that take place in stable conditions

Generally speaking, the dialectical relationship between necessity and chance is rooted in the very process of development of material systems and is associated with the dialectic of turning possibility into reality during this process. Each actually realized stage of the development process of a particular material system gives rise to a whole range of possibilities for its further development. Potentially, the realization of any of these possibilities in the future is a random event. But in fact, only that possibility is realized for the implementation of which the necessary conditions are available. In relation to these specific conditions, the realized possibility turns out to be necessary, although initially it was only accidental. The transformation of one of the possibilities into reality gives rise to a new spectrum of possible paths for further development, and so on ad infinitum. In such a representation of the development process, both the transformation of chance into necessity and the manifestation of necessity through a mass of chance occur simultaneously.

87. What is technology? Problems of humanization and humanitarization of technical education. Prospects and boundaries of modern technogenic civilization.

Technology (from the Greek téchne - art, skill, skill), a set of means of human activity created to carry out production processes and serve the non-productive needs of society. T. materializes the knowledge and experience accumulated by humanity during the development of social production. The main purpose of technology is partial or complete replacement of human production functions in order to facilitate labor and increase its productivity. Technology allows, on the basis of knowledge of the laws of nature, to significantly increase the efficiency of a person’s labor efforts and expand his capabilities in the process of purposeful work activity; with its help, they rationally (comprehensively) use natural resources, develop the bowels of the Earth, the World Ocean, air and outer space. Often the term "T." They are also used to collectively characterize the skills and techniques used in any business or art (for example, the technique of office work, the technique of dance, the technique of playing the piano, etc.).

As production develops and new tools of labor are created, technology frees people from performing various production functions associated with both physical and mental labor. T. is used to influence objects of labor during the creation of material and cultural values; for receiving, transmitting and converting energy; research into the laws of development of nature and society; movement and communications; collection, storage, processing and transmission of information; household services; management of society; ensuring defense capability and waging war. Based on their functional purpose, they distinguish between production, including energy, and non-production - household, scientific research, education and culture, military, medical, etc.

In terms of the scale of application, the main part of the technical means is production technology: machines, mechanisms, tools, control equipment for machines and technological processes, industrial buildings and structures, roads, bridges, canals, means of transport, communications, communications, etc. The most active part production T. - machines, which can be divided into several main groups: technological machines - metalworking, construction, mining, metallurgical, agricultural, textile, food, paper-making, etc.; transport vehicles - cars, diesel locomotives, electric locomotives, airplanes, ships, etc.; transporting machines - conveyors, elevators, cranes, lifts, etc.; control and computer machines (including centralized control and management, information, etc.); energy machines - electric, internal combustion engines, turbines, etc. Among the technical means of modern production, the most important role belongs to energy technology, which serves to obtain and convert energy.

The technogenic type of development was preceded by the traditionalist one. In the modern era, it is implemented in all regions of the planet. Modern Japan, China, South Korea, the USA, the countries of Western and Eastern Europe belong to the technogenic civilization. The term “ technogenic civilization” expresses the essential characteristics of these societies, since the constant search and application of new technologies (both production and social management) plays a decisive role in their development. Technogenic societies Having arisen, they immediately began to influence traditional society. The dynamism of technogenic civilization contrasts with the conservatism of traditional societies, where types of activities, their means and goals change very slowly, sometimes reproducing themselves over the course of centuries.

For a long time, the system of basic values ​​of technogenic civilization was dominated by the understanding of nature as an inorganic world, which represents a special naturally ordered field of objects, acting as materials and resources for human activity. Among the advantages, we highlight the fact that technogenic civilization has given humanity many achievements, and among the disadvantages - global crises (ecological, anthropological, etc.).

Post-industrial society in the context of the “information revolution” characterizes the concept of information society. This term was proposed by the Japanese theorist K. Koyama. The essence of the concept of the information society was that to the traditional division of the economy into primary, secondary and tertiary sectors in the theory of post-industrialism, another one was added - the information sector, which is the system-forming one for the information society. Information is a key factor of production, surpassing in importance all types of material production, energy production and services. Information technologies lead to qualitative changes. At the same time, a distinctive characteristic of the information society is the change in the nature of interpersonal relationships, which are becoming less and less stable. Of the three types of connections: long-term (family), medium-term (friendly), short-term contacts, it is the latter that receive a dominant position. In addition, in the political sphere, a weakening of the role of the national state, a decisive decentralization of management structures, the collapse of hierarchical management structures, and a strengthening of the role of ethnic, religious and other minorities are predicted. Information technologies lead to qualitative changes. There is decentralization and de-urbanization of production. Mass production is being replaced by flexible, small-scale production of products that require highly skilled labor and significant research costs. A new consumption culture is also being formed—an attitude toward purchasing “disposable things” and a radical renewal of goods traditionally considered “durable goods.”

Conclusion: From the analysis it follows that civilization arises at a certain stage of development of society and represents an aspect of human activity that ensures self-organization, self-regulation of the social organism, carried out by regulating the relationships between social subjects on the basis of norms, laws, social institutions and institutions that ensure functioning and development of society.

Limit level of typing historical process is world civilization. This concept includes the entire set of universal human achievements and values ​​that affect the interests of all humanity, regardless of their formational, racial, national, class and other differences.

88.Plato “State” (Structure and main ideas).

The state, according to Plato, arises from the natural need of people to unite in order to ease the conditions of their existence. According to Plato, the state “arises... when each of us cannot satisfy himself, but still needs much. Thus, each person attracts one or the other to satisfy one or another need. Feeling the need for many things, many people gather together to live together and help each other: such a joint settlement is what we call a state...” Developing the concept ideal state, Plato proceeds from the correspondence that, in his opinion, exists between the cosmos as a whole, the state and the individual human soul. In the state and in the soul of every individual there are the same principles. Three principles human soul, namely, reasonable, furious and lustful, in the state there correspond three similar principles - deliberative, protective and business, and the latter in turn forms three classes - philosopher-rulers, warrior-defenders and producers (artisans and farmers). A state, according to Plato, can be considered fair only if each of its three classes does its own thing and does not interfere in the affairs of others. In this case, a hierarchical subordination of these principles is assumed in the name of preserving the whole.

The state may have three main forms of government - monarchy, aristocracy and democracy. In turn, each of them is divided into two forms. A legal monarchy is the power of an enlightened king, an illegal one is tyranny; the power of the enlightened and the few - aristocracy, the power of the few who think only about themselves - oligarchy. Democracy as the rule of all can be legal and illegal. Plato's sympathies are clearly on the side of the royal power. Each form of state, according to Plato, perishes due to internal contradictions. Therefore, in order not to create preconditions for unrest in society, Plato advocates moderation and average wealth and condemns both excessive wealth and extreme poverty. Plato characterizes government as a royal art, the main thing for which will be the presence of true royal knowledge and the ability to manage people. If rulers have such data, then it will no longer matter whether they rule according to laws or without them, voluntarily or against their will, whether they are poor or rich: taking this into account will never and under no circumstances be correct.

89.Structural connection of being. Whole and part. Cause and investigation.

In colloquial language, the term "being" has three main meanings. Being means objective reality, existing independently of our consciousness. The word “being” is used to summarize the conditions of the material life of people and society. Finally, being is a synonym for another word - “existence”. To be means to exist.

In philosophy and some other sciences, the concept of being is also multi-valued and represents an important ideological problem. The understanding of being is historically connected with one or another orientation of a person and social communities regarding the internal and external world of people’s lives. Depending on the choice, which may be based on science, religious faith, mysticism, fantasy, practical life, and being is determined. Philosophy as a science considers the problem of being as the basis of the theory of a general and specific type of worldview, the main part of metaphilosophy.

The structure of material existence can be represented by the unity of three elements: the microworld, the macroworld and the megaworld. The microworld is the world of “elementary” particles, atoms, molecules. The macrocosm includes fairly large material objects. The Earth, the Earth's population, elements of the culture of society are phenomena of the macrocosm. The megaworld characterizes objects in space.

The structure of material existence is also made up of the unity of its specific forms (subspecies), which differ significantly from each other: the existence of nature, the existence of man, the existence of society.

The existence of nature represents the existence of inanimate and living nature. It obeys physical, chemical, geological, biological and other laws. The existence of nature is the Universe, space, the habitat of humanity. The presence of the Sun and solar system, one of the planets of which is the Earth with its biosphere and other features, formed a set of conditions that made possible the existence of living things, life. Representatives of living things are humans, animals and plants.

Space is still little explored. Many of its processes and conditions are incomprehensible to people, but have a systemic impact on earthly life, on the functioning of the Earth as a planet. The nature of the Earth has been studied in more detail. Humanity actively uses for its life activity natural conditions and resources. Sometimes environmental management takes on predatory, barbaric forms, stimulating the emergence and aggravation of environmental problems.

Human existence represents the life cycle of each individual, as well as the existence of man as a living species in relation to the life of plants and animals. The nature of man indicates his inseparability from natural nature, the cosmos. Even ancient thinkers formulated the position: man is a microcosm, the cosmos in miniature. It has all the basic characteristics and processes typical of nature. It cannot exist outside the nature of the Earth. Moving into space, a person must reproduce or maintain the basic conditions of earthly life: air, water, food, temperature, etc. In this regard, man acts as a link between natural (first) nature and artificial (second) nature, created by people themselves and their culture.

Human existence takes place not only in the natural world, but also in society. The social existence of man distinguishes him from the existence of other living species. In society, a person is socialized, that is, he acquires economic, political, legal, moral, spiritual and other qualities. Thanks to them, he carries out communication, behavior and activity, participates in the reproduction, distribution and consumption of material and spiritual goods. Possessing consciousness and worldview, social qualities, a person becomes a personality. He is comprehending the world and himself purposefully, expediently, actively and creatively manifests himself, satisfies his needs and interests.

Thus, human existence is an inextricable unity of the biological, mental and social. The actual life of each individual represents the functioning and manifestation of his body, nervous activity and social qualities, spirituality. The unity of the physical and mental, bodily and spiritual, biological and social existence of a person is unique, it is not observed in any other objects and phenomena of existence.

The existence of society represents the joint life activity of people who have a certain organization - social institutions, material and spiritual benefits, as well as norms and principles, a system of social (public) relations. In society, as an isolated part of natural existence, not only universal, but also general sociological laws, as well as laws of a more specific nature, operate. Progressive and regressive development is quite clearly manifested in society.

The main factor in the progressive advancement of society and the way of life of its subjects is human activity. The activity approach to understanding the historical process allows us to find the main motives and driving forces social development, determine the role and place of various subjects in the creation and use of goods, in the transformation of life itself.

The existence of society is also carried out through the method of culture: in the process of emergence, development and change of socio-historical formations, stages, periods and eras; in the approval of the signs and processes of civilized development. An important feature of social existence is the system of social relations. They act as communication relations, behavioral relations and activity relations. Public relations extremely diverse. The main types of relations in society are environmental, economic, social, political, legal, moral, artistic and aesthetic, relations of freedom of conscience, informational, scientific, family and others.

Unlike the existence of nature, the existence of man and society is carried out on the basis of goal-setting, expediency, social activity, creativity, foresight, although spontaneous, self-realizing processes without the participation of consciousness also take place. The meaningfulness of human existence and society is associated with individual and social consciousness.

The existence of consciousness represents a subjective-ideal form of existence. The consciousness of an individual as a special element of his psyche and a property of the brain (higher nervous activity) is ideal. It manifests itself through objectification and disobjectification. Ideal images arising in consciousness on the basis of knowledge of the material world constitute the process of deobjectification of consciousness. The embodiment of ideal images in practice means objectification or objectification of consciousness. Thanks to consciousness, an individual can carry out conscious, that is, sensually reproduced in consciousness and understood mental and practical activity, control himself, other people, processes, and carry out other actions. With the help of consciousness, choices are made, goals are set and tasks are defined, plans are outlined, and means and methods for their implementation are selected. Possession of consciousness gives a person the ability to carry out constructive and creative activities, to create a “second nature” as the main element of culture.

The consciousness of social groups and communities is generally designated by the terms “social consciousness” or “consciousness of society.” Despite all the conventions of this designation, it allows us to correlate social consciousness with individual consciousness, to identify common features and differences. Social consciousness manifests itself as a collective spiritual property of social communities, which does not have a material carrier of the social brain. Consciousness as a property of the human brain is always individual. But people find some common ideas, knowledge, ideals, jointly develop various plans, and carry out specific actions based on them. What is common in the consciousness of many people, expressed with varying degrees of completeness and depth, forms social consciousness.

The existence of the individual and public consciousness is also carried out through the functioning of its main content - worldview. The existence of a worldview is associated with the formation and implementation of a picture of the world, as well as the subject’s positions in relation to himself, other people, and the surrounding reality.

Necessary is such a uniquely conditioned connection of phenomena in which the occurrence of an event-cause necessarily entails a very definite phenomenon-consequence.

Accident- concept, polar necessity. Random is such a relationship of cause and effect in which the causal grounds allow the implementation of any of the many possible alternative consequences. At the same time, which particular communication option will be realized depends on a combination of circumstances, on conditions that cannot be accurately taken into account and analyzed. Thus, a random event occurs as a result of the influence of some of the uncertain large number various and completely unknown reasons. The occurrence of a random consequence event is, in principle, possible, but not predetermined: it may or may not occur.

In the history of philosophy there is a widely represented point of view according to which random really no, it is a consequence of things unknown to the observer necessary reasons. But, as Hegel first showed, a random event, in principle, cannot be caused by internal laws alone, necessarily inherent in a particular process.

A random event, as Hegel wrote, cannot be explained from itself.
The unpredictability of accidents seems to contradict the principle of causality. But this is not so, because random events and causal connections are consequences, although unknown in advance and thoroughly, but still really existing and fairly certain conditions and causes. They do not arise chaotically and not from “nothing”: the possibility of their appearance, although not rigidly, not unambiguously, is naturally connected with causal grounds. These connections and laws are discovered as a result of studying a large number (flow) of homogeneous random events, described using the apparatus of mathematical statistics, and therefore are called statistical.

Statistical patterns are objective in nature, but differ significantly from the patterns of individual phenomena. The use of quantitative methods of analysis and calculation of characteristics that obey the statistical laws of random phenomena and processes has made them the subject of a special branch of mathematics - probability theory.

Probability is a measure of the possibility of a random event occurring. The probability of an impossible event is zero, the probability of a necessary (reliable) event occurring is one.

The probabilistic-statistical interpretation of complex cause-and-effect relationships made it possible to develop and apply in scientific research fundamentally new and very effective methods of understanding the structure and laws of development of the world. Modern successes of quantum mechanics and chemistry, genetics would be impossible without understanding the ambiguity of the relationship between the causes and effects of the phenomena being studied, without recognizing that subsequent states of a developing subject cannot always be completely deduced from the previous one.

In technology, the statistical approach and the mathematical apparatus based on it ensured the development of reliability theory, queuing theory, qualimetry and a number of other scientific and technical disciplines. Thanks to this, the transition to the creation and use of multifunctional technical systems of high complexity, the reliability of which is described by probabilistic characteristics, became possible in the second half of the 20th century.

Real phenomena and connections between them are determined, as a rule, by rather complex causal foundations, including both internal (necessary), and external (random) causes. The multitude of interacting heterogeneous causes makes it possible to realize various variants of the consequence. The nature of the actual consequences depends on what type of causal connections turned out to be dominant in each specific case.

Knowledge of the relationship between the necessary and the accidental in social interactions is a condition for the practical application of knowledge about the objective laws of social life. This is explained by the fact that socio-historical laws are implemented as an objective trend of social development through the conscious activity of individuals and social groups pursuing their goals. Because public life In general, it is an extremely complex system of cause-and-effect relationships, necessary and random actions, actions and processes. Laws of this type may not be detected in many particular cases, but they correctly describe the dynamics social life as a holistic generalized process.

Chance and Necessity are relative: what is necessary in some conditions may appear accidental in others and vice versa. To distinguish them reliably, the specific conditions must be carefully taken into account each time. In a concrete analysis of causal relationships, necessity and chance turn out to be closely connected with the relationship between the possible and the actual, with the transformation of possibility into reality.

Cause-and-effect relationships that implement the principle of causality arise when a cause-phenomenon gives rise to a random or necessary consequence. If the phenomenon has not yet become, but can become a cause, they say that it contains the possibility of becoming an actual cause. In other words, possibility is a prerequisite for the occurrence of a particular phenomenon, process, its potential existence. Thus, possibility and reality are two successive stages in the development of a phenomenon, its movement from cause to effect, two stages in the formation of causal relationships in nature, society and thinking. This understanding of the connection between the possible and the actual reflects the objective continuity of the development process of any phenomenon.

In each specific process of transforming a possibility into reality, as a rule, both necessary and random cause-and-effect relationships are realized. It follows from this that reality embodies heterogeneous possibilities and contains a multitude of not only necessary, but also accidentally formed properties.

NECESSITY AND CHANCE– correlative philosophical concepts; necessary is a phenomenon that is uniquely determined by a certain area of ​​reality, predictable on the basis of knowledge about it and irreducible within its boundaries; random is a phenomenon brought into this area from the outside, not determined by it and, therefore, not predictable on the basis of knowledge about it. Usually necessity plays the main role, and chance plays a secondary role.

Necessity as a world principle is distinguished from necessity as a concrete object. It was already realized in religious myths - teachings about karma, Tao, fate, etc. With the emergence of science, necessity essentially merged with its subject: science is the knowledge of necessity.

“Necessity” and “accident” – relative concepts. They make sense if the scope of their definition is indicated - a fragment of reality in relation to which the object under study is identified as necessary or accidental. In everyday and scientific thinking, such a fragment is usually finite in both space and time. This gives rise to a difficulty fixed by I. Kant: unambiguous determination in itself does not make a phenomenon necessary: ​​the phenomenon that gave rise to it may itself turn out to be accidental, etc. There are two ways to overcome this difficulty. The first is to postulate an absolutely necessary first cause at the beginning of the causal series. The second is to carry out the transition to the limit, i.e. expand the scope of definition of necessity and chance to the infinite in space and time of the world as a whole. All events in such a world are thought of as uniquely determined (breaks in causal chains are excluded). Laplace described such a world on the basis of mechanism, but in principle it can be imagined on any other basis. T. Lipps, for example, defended it within the framework of idealism. Identifying the area of ​​definition of necessity and chance with the world as a whole leads to a radical change in these concepts. The interpretation of chance as something incidental here loses its meaning, because it has nowhere to come from. Since any phenomenon in Laplace's world is uniquely predetermined by its entire endless previous history, it cannot be different and, therefore, is necessary. In this case, universality ceases to be a sign of necessity: any phenomenon, including a unique one, is unambiguously determined and, therefore, irreducible. The third attribute of necessity, predictability, also disappears if we consider a person in the role of a predictor: he is not able to take into account all the infinite number of factors that make any phenomenon necessary. And since necessity is, first of all, predictability, and chance is unpredictability, it becomes practically impossible to distinguish between them.

But predictability is restored again if an omniscient being acts as a predictor (he is called Laplace's demon). For it it is necessary, i.e. any phenomenon is uniquely determined, irreducible and predictable. Laplace's demon is not a naked fiction, but an idealization similar to the idealization of movement without friction. The wider the scope of definition of necessary and random, the more determining factors are taken into account and the more objects are identified as necessary and the fewer - as random.

The question remains debatable whether dynamic laws apply and, therefore, whether there is a need in the Laplace sense at the quantum mechanical level. For example, A. Einstein claims that “God does not play dice,” i.e. that dynamic, not statistical laws are primary. From the principles of Laplace determinism it follows that randomness is a concept that reflects not the objective state of affairs, but the incompleteness of our knowledge about it. This view can be refuted only in one way: by postulating breaks in causal chains, i.e. moving from consistent determinism to indeterminism. This is how the idea of ​​a spontaneous, undetermined beginning of a causal series arises, a cause that is not anyone’s consequence. Kant called such reasons free. Not every one of them is random - God is considered a free, but not a random cause. But only among free causes can one find not a subjective, but an objective chance, unpredictable not due to the historical limitations of our knowledge, but by its nature.

Synergetics gave rise to new hopes for the discovery of objective randomness. She attached fundamental importance to the fact that at the point of transition of an object to a new quality (at the bifurcation point) there most often exists not one, but many possibilities. To turn one of them into reality it is necessary external influence, sometimes insignificant compared to the event that it gives rise to (even a loud sound can cause an avalanche in the mountains). Randomness performs two functions in this case; firstly, it “selects” one of the available possibilities and, secondly, it starts the process of turning it into reality. The incomparability of the scale of the “trigger” cause with the scale of the effect gives rise to the hope that it is here, at the bifurcation point, that the linkage of causes and effects is broken and an objective, genuine accident arises. But nothing gives us any reason to say this except the fact that we cannot predict the bifurcation. Synergetics only specifies the task of refuting Laplacean determinism, but does not solve it.

Not only objects that are uniquely determined by fixed conditions are called necessary in scientific and everyday knowledge, but also these conditions themselves. Necessity is something that is a prerequisite for obtaining the desired result, something without which this result is impossible. This understanding of necessity has a strict meaning in logic and mathematics, where it is paired with sufficiency. Cm. Accident .

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