At present, in philosophy, individual freedom is considered as a historical, social and moral imperative, a criterion for the development of individuality and a reflection of the level of development of society.

IN Everyday life a person is faced with the pressure of external circumstances for him. People are not free to choose the time and place of their birth, objective conditions of life, etc. A person is not free to change the social framework of choice; they are given to him, on the one hand, as a legacy of the entire previous history of the development of mankind, on the other hand, by the existence of a particular sociality in which the subject of choice exists. But the existence of a person is always alternatives, involving a choice, which is characterized by both different means of achieving the goals set, and different results of the implementation of the goals set.

Some modern philosophers believe that man is "doomed" to freedom, since the transformation of the world is a way human existence, and thereby creates an objective (independent of the will and consciousness of man) condition for freedom. The problem arises before him when he learns about the existence of others. life paths and begins to evaluate and select them.

Liberty- 1) this is a specific way of being a person, associated with his ability to choose a decision and perform an act in accordance with his goals, interests, ideals and assessments, based on the awareness of the objective properties and relations of things, the laws of the world around him; 2) this is the ability to recognize an objective necessity and, based on this knowledge, develop the right goals, make and choose sound decisions and put them into practice in practice.

Freedom core- this is a choice that is always associated with the intellectual and emotional-volitional tension of a person. The freedom of the individual in society is not absolute, but relative. Society, by its norms and limitations, determines the range of choice. This range is determined by: the conditions for the realization of freedom, the prevailing forms social activities, the level of development of society and the place of man in public system, goals human activity, which are formulated in accordance with the internal motives of each person, the rights and freedoms of other people.

In the history of social thought, the problem of freedom has always been associated with the search for different meanings. Most often, it boiled down to the question of whether a person has free will or all his actions are due to external necessity (predestination, God's providence, fate, fate, etc.). Freedom and Necessity – philosophical categories expressing the relationship between people's activities and the objective laws of nature and society.

Necessity- this is a stable, essential connection of phenomena, processes, objects of reality, due to the entire previous course of their development. Necessity exists in nature and society in the form of objective, i.e., laws independent of human consciousness. The measure of necessity and freedom in one or another historical era different, and it sets certain types of personality.

Fatalism(lat. fatalis - fatal) - worldview concept, according to which all processes in the world are subject to the dominance of necessity and exclude any possibility of choice and chance.

Voluntarism(lat. voluntas - will) - a worldview concept that recognizes the will as the fundamental principle of all things, neglects the need, objective historical processes.

Freedom as a recognized necessity interpreted B. Spinoza, G. Hegel, F. Engels. The interpretation of freedom as a recognized necessity is of great practical importance, since it presupposes the comprehension, consideration and evaluation by a person of the objective limits of his activity.

Freedom is inseparable from responsibility, from duties to oneself, to society and to its other members. Responsibility- a socio-philosophical and sociological concept that characterizes an objective, historically specific type of relationship between an individual, a team, society from the point of view of the conscious implementation of the mutual requirements placed on them. Personal responsibility has two sides:

– external: the ability to apply certain social sanctions to the individual (the individual is responsible to society, the state, other people, while observing the duties assigned to him; bears moral and legal responsibility);

– internal: responsibility of the individual to himself (development of a sense of duty, honor and conscience of a person, his ability to exercise self-control and self-government).

Types of responsibility:1) historical, political, moral, legal, etc.; 2) individual (personal), group, collective.; 3) social(expressed in the tendency of a person to behave in accordance with the interests of other people).

The relationship between the freedom and responsibility of the individual is directly proportional: the more freedom society gives a person, the greater his responsibility for the use of this freedom. Responsibility- a self-regulator of personality activity, an indicator of the social and moral maturity of the personality, can manifest itself in different characteristics human behavior and actions: discipline and self-discipline, organization, the ability to foresee the consequences of one's own actions, the ability to predict, self-control, self-esteem, a critical attitude towards oneself.

1.8. The systemic structure of society: elements and subsystems

Society– 1) in a narrow sense: the social organization of the country, which ensures the joint life of people; a circle of people united by a common goal, interests, origin (society of numismatists, noble assembly); a separate specific society, country, state, region; historical stage in the development of mankind (feudal society, capitalist society); humanity as a whole;

2) V broad sense: detached from nature, but closely related to it material world, which is a historically developing form of connections and relationships of people in the process of their life.

A country- This is a geographical concept denoting a part of the world, a territory that has certain boundaries.

State- the political organization of society with a certain type of power (monarchy, republic, councils, etc.), bodies and structure of government (authoritarian or democratic).

Development of views on society

1. Aristotle by society he understood the totality of individuals who united to satisfy their social instincts.

2. T. Hobbes, J.-J. Rousseau (XVII-XVIII centuries) put forward the idea of ​​a social contract, i.e., an agreement between people, each of whom has sovereign rights to control their actions.

3. Hegel considered society as a complex system of relations, highlighting as the subject of consideration the so-called civil society, that is, a society where there is a dependence of everyone on everyone.

4. O. Comte believed that the structure of society is determined by the forms of human thinking (theological, metaphysical and positive). He considered society itself as a system of elements that are the family, classes and the state, and the basis is the division of labor between people and their relationship with each other.

5. M. Weber considered society to be a product of the interaction of people, as a result of their social action in the interests of one and all.

6. T. Parsons defined society as a system of relations between people, the connecting beginning of which are norms and values.

7. K. Marx considered society as a historically developing set of relations between people, emerging in the process of their joint activities.

Society criteria: the presence of a single territory, which is the material basis of emerging within its boundaries social connections; universality (comprehensive character); autonomy, the ability to exist independently and independently of other societies; integrativity: society is able to maintain and reproduce its structures in new generations, to include more and more new individuals in a single context of social life.

Society properties: relative autonomy; self-sufficiency; self-regulation.

Society functions: production wealth and services; distribution of products of labor (activity); regulation and management of activities and behavior; human reproduction and socialization; spiritual production and regulation of people's activity.

Public relations - diverse forms of interaction between people, as well as connections that arise between different social groups (or within them). Society- a set of social relations.

material relations arise and develop directly in the course of practical activity of a person outside his consciousness and independently of him, these are: production relations, environmental relations, etc. Spiritual (ideal) relationships formed and determined by spiritual values, these are: moral relations, political relations, legal relations, artistic relations, philosophical relations, religious relations.

Sphere of social life (subsystem)- a certain set of stable relations between social subjects. Spheres public life are large, stable, relatively independent subsystems of human activity and include: a) certain human activities(eg educational, political, religious); b) social institutions (such as family, school, parties, church); V) established relationships between people(i.e., connections that have arisen in the course of people's activities, for example, relations of exchange and distribution in the economic sphere).

Main areas of public life

1. Social(elements - peoples, nations, classes, gender and age groups, etc., their relationship and interconnection).

2. Economic(elements - productive forces, production relations, the unity of production, specialization and cooperation, consumption, exchange and distribution) - ensures the production of goods necessary to meet the material needs of individuals.

3. Political(elements - the state, parties, socio-political movements, etc.) - a complex of relations between states, parties, public organizations, individuals regarding the exercise of power.

4. Spiritual(elements - philosophical, religious, artistic, legal, political and other views of people, their moods, emotions, ideas about the world around them, traditions, customs, etc.) - covers various forms and levels of social consciousness.

All these spheres of society and their elements continuously interact, change, but in the main remain unchanged (invariant), retain the functions assigned to them. In each of the spheres of society, corresponding social institutions- this is a group of people, relations between which are built according to certain rules (family, army, etc.), and a set of rules for certain social subjects (for example, the institution of the presidency).

The complex nature of social systems is combined with their dynamism, i.e., mobile, changeable character.

social system- this is an ordered whole, which is a collection of individual social elements - individuals, groups, organizations, institutions.

Society as a complex, self-developing system is characterized by the following specific features: 1. It is distinguished by a wide variety of different social structures and subsystems. 2. Society is a system of extra- and supra-individual forms, connections and relationships that a person creates through his active activity together with other people. 3. Self-sufficiency is inherent, that is, the ability to create and reproduce through active joint activity the necessary conditions own existence.

4. Society is distinguished by exceptional dynamism, incompleteness and alternative development. chief actor in the choice of development options is a person. 5. Highlights the special status of the subjects that determine its development. 6. Society is characterized by unpredictability, non-linearity of development.

Society can itself be considered as a system consisting of many subsystems, and each subsystem is a system at its own level and has its own subsystems.

A) From the point of view of the functional relationships of its elements, i.e., from the point of view of structure, the relations between the elements of the system are maintained by themselves, not directed by anyone or anything from outside. The system is autonomous and does not depend on the will of the individuals included in it.

B) From the point of view of the relationship between the system and the external world around it - the environment. The relationship of the system with the environment serves as a criterion for its strength and viability. The environment is potentially hostile to the system, since it affects it as a whole, that is, it introduces changes into it that can upset its functioning. The system is harmonious, has the ability to spontaneously restore and establish a state of equilibrium between itself and the external environment.

B) System can reproduce itself without the conscious participation of the individuals included in it.

D) The characteristics of the system also include ability to integrate new social education. It subordinates to its logic and forces to work according to its rules for the benefit of the whole newly emerging elements - new classes and social strata, new institutions and ideologies, etc.

Society is a dynamic system, i.e., it is in constant motion, development, changing its features, signs, states. The change of states is caused both by the influences of the external environment and by the needs of the development of the system itself.

Dynamic systems can be linear And non-linear. Changes in linear systems are easily calculated and predicted, since they occur relative to the same stationary state.

Society is a non-linear system. This means that what is happening in it in different time under the influence of different causes, the processes are determined and described by different laws. That is why social change always contains an element of unpredictability. A non-linear system is able to generate special structures to which the processes of social change are directed (new complexes of social roles that did not exist before and which are organized into a new social order; new preferences of the mass consciousness: new political leaders are put forward, new political parties, groups, unexpected coalitions are formed and unions, there is a redistribution of forces in the struggle for power).

Society is an open system, it reacts to the slightest influence from outside, to any accident.

Society can be represented as a multilevel system: first level - social roles that define the structure of social interactions; second level - institutions and communities, each of which can be represented as a complex, stable and self-reproducing systemic organization.

The social system can be considered in four aspects: as the interaction of individuals; as a group interaction; as a hierarchy of social statuses (institutional roles); as a set of social norms and values ​​that determine the behavior of individuals.

It is extremely important for each person to feel free and independent from external circumstances and from other people. However, it is not at all easy to figure out whether there is true freedom, or whether all our actions are due to necessity.

Freedom and Necessity. Concepts and categories

Many believe that freedom is the ability to always do and act as you want, to follow your desires and not depend on someone else's opinion. However, this approach to defining freedom in real life would lead to arbitrariness and infringement of the rights of other people. That is why the concept of necessity stands out in philosophy.

Necessity is some life circumstances that constrain freedom and force a person to act according to common sense and accepted norms in society. Necessity sometimes contradicts our desires, however, thinking about the consequences of our actions, we are forced to limit our freedom. Freedom and necessity in human activity are categories of philosophy, the relationship between which is the subject of dispute for many scientists.

Is there absolute freedom

Complete freedom means doing absolutely whatever he wants, regardless of whether his actions will harm or inconvenience anyone. If everyone could act according to their desires without thinking about the consequences for other people, the world would be in total chaos. For example, if a person wanted to have the same phone as a colleague, having complete freedom, he could simply come up and take it away.

That is why society has created certain rules and norms that limit permissiveness. IN modern world primarily regulated by law. There are other norms that influence people's behavior, such as etiquette and subordination. Such actions give a person confidence that his rights will not be infringed by others.

The connection between freedom and necessity

In philosophy, for a long time there have been disputes about how freedom and necessity are interconnected and whether these concepts contradict each other or, conversely, are inseparable.

Freedom and necessity in human activity are considered by some scientists as mutually exclusive concepts. From the point of view of adherents of the theory of idealism, freedom can exist only in conditions in which it is not limited by anyone or anything. In their opinion, any prohibitions make it impossible for a person to realize and evaluate the moral consequences of his actions.

Proponents of mechanical determinism, on the contrary, believe that all events and actions in a person's life are due to external necessity. They completely deny the existence of free will and define necessity as absolute and objective concept. In their opinion, all actions performed by people do not depend on their desires and are obviously predetermined.

Scientific approach

From the position scientific approach freedom and necessity in human activity are closely interrelated. Freedom is defined as a recognized necessity. A person is not able to influence the objective conditions of his activity, but at the same time he can choose the goal and means to achieve it. Thus, freedom in human activity is an opportunity to make an informed choice. That is, make a decision.

Freedom and necessity in human activity cannot exist without each other. In our life, freedom manifests itself as a constant freedom of choice, while necessity is present as objective circumstances in which a person is forced to act.

in everyday life

Every day a person is given the opportunity to choose. Almost every minute we make decisions in favor of one or another option: get up early in the morning or sleep longer, eat something hearty for breakfast or drink tea, go to work on foot or drive. At the same time, external circumstances do not affect our choice in any way - a person is guided solely by personal beliefs and preferences.

Freedom is always relative concept. Depending on the specific conditions, a person may have freedom or lose it. The degree of manifestation is also always different. In some circumstances, a person can choose the goals and means to achieve them, in others - freedom lies only in choosing a way to adapt to reality.

Connection with progress

In ancient times, people had rather limited freedom. The need for human activity was not always recognized. People depended on nature, the secrets of which he could not comprehend human mind. There was a so-called unknown necessity. Man was not free, for a long time he remained a slave, blindly obeying the laws of nature.

As science has developed, people have found answers to many questions. Phenomena that used to be divine for man received a logical explanation. The actions of people became meaningful, and cause-and-effect relationships made it possible to realize the need for certain actions. The higher the progress of society, the freer a person becomes in it. In the modern world in developed countries, only the rights of other people are the boundary of an individual's freedom.

News:

Human activity involves the choice of means, methods, techniques, desired results of activity. This right is a manifestation of human freedom. Freedom is the ability of a person to act in accordance with his interests and goals, to make his conscious choice and create conditions for self-realization.

IN philosophical science The problem of freedom has been discussed for a long time. Most often, it comes down to the question of whether a person has free will or most of his actions are due to external necessity (predestination, God's providence, fate, fate, etc.).

It should be noted that absolute freedom does not exist in principle. It is impossible to live in society and be free from it - these two provisions simply contradict each other. A person who systematically violates social regulations will simply be rejected by society. In ancient times, such people were subjected to ostracism - expulsion from the community. Today, moral (condemnation, public censure, etc.) or legal methods of influence (administrative, criminal penalties, etc.) are more often used.

Therefore, it should be understood that freedom is more often understood not as “freedom from”, but “freedom for” - for self-development, self-improvement, helping others, etc. However, the understanding of freedom has not yet been established in society. There are two extremes in understanding this term:
- fatalism - the idea of ​​the subordination of all processes in the world of necessity; freedom in this understanding is illusory, does not exist in reality;
- voluntarism - the idea of ​​the absoluteness of freedom based on the will of man; will in this understanding is the fundamental principle of all things; freedom is absolute and initially has no boundaries.

Often a person is forced to take actions out of necessity - i.e. due to external reasons (legislative requirements, instructions from superiors, parents, teachers, etc.) Is this contrary to freedom? At first glance, yes. After all, a person performs these actions in view of external requirements. Meanwhile, a person, by his own moral choice, understanding the essence of the possible consequences, chooses the way to fulfill the will of others. This, too, manifests freedom - in choosing an alternative to follow the requirements.

The essential core of freedom is choice. It is always associated with the intellectual and volitional tension of a person - this is the so-called. burden of choice. Responsible and thoughtful choice is often not easy. There is a famous German proverb - "Wer die Wahl hat, hat die Qual" ("Whoever faces a choice, he suffers"). The basis of this choice is responsibility. Responsibility - the subjective duty of a person to be responsible for free choice, actions and actions, as well as their consequences; a certain level of negative consequences for the subject in case of violation of the established requirements. There can be no responsibility without freedom, and freedom without responsibility turns into permissiveness. Freedom and responsibility are two aspects of human conscious activity.

Answers to questions and all the theory on them are at the end of the test.

1. Limiters of freedom in society are

1) behavior
2) feelings
3) duties
4) emotions

2. Which of the thinkers understood freedom as “the right to do everything that the law does not prohibit”?

1) Plato
2) Cicero
3) C. Montesquieu
4) J.-J. Rousseau

3. The independence of the individual, expressed in her ability and ability to make her own choice and act in accordance with her interests and goals, is

1) freedom
2) voluntarism
3) fatalism
4) responsibility

4. Absolutization of free will, bringing it to the arbitrariness of an unrestricted personality, ignoring objective conditions and patterns - this

1) freedom
2) voluntarism
3) fatalism
4) responsibility

5. The requirements for behavior developed by society and enshrined in the legal acts of the state are

1) fatalism
2) rights
3) duties
4) responsibility

6. Compliance with the rules traffic- This

1) patriotism
2) freedom
3) duty
4) voluntarism

Click to view answers to test questions▼

1 - 3. 2 - 3. 3 - 1. 4 - 2. 5 - 3. 6 - 3.

Theoretical material

Freedom and Necessity in Human Action

Liberty- the ability of a person to speak and act in accordance with his interests and goals, to make his conscious choice and create conditions for self-realization.

Self-realization- identification and development by the individual of personal abilities, opportunities, talents. The freedom of the individual in its various manifestations is the most important value of civilized mankind. The value of freedom for self-realization of a person was comprehended in ancient times. All revolutions wrote the word "freedom" on their banners. Freedom can be considered in relation to all spheres of society - political, economic, religious, intellectual freedom, etc.

Freedom is opposed necessity- a stable, essential connection of phenomena, processes, objects of reality, due to the entire course of their previous development. Necessity exists in nature and society in the form of objective laws. If this necessity is not comprehended, not realized by a person - he is its slave, if it is known, then a person acquires the ability to make a decision “with knowledge of the matter”. The interpretation of freedom as a recognized necessity presupposes the comprehension and consideration by a person of the objective limits of his activity, as well as the expansion of these limits due to the development of knowledge and the enrichment of experience.

The freedom of each member of society is limited by the level of development and the nature of the society in which he lives. In society, individual freedom is limited by the interests of society. Each person is an individual, his desires and interests do not always coincide with the interests of society. In this case, a person under the influence of social laws must act in individual cases in such a way as not to violate the interests of society. The boundary of such freedom may be the rights and freedoms of other people.

Freedom is a human relation, a form of connection between a person and other people. Just as it is impossible to love alone, so it is impossible to be free without or at the expense of other people. A person is truly free only when he consciously and voluntarily makes a sometimes painful choice in favor of the good. This is called moral choice. There is no true freedom without moral restraints. Freedom means the state of a person who is able to act in all important matters on the basis of choice.

A person is free when he has a choice, in particular

The goals of the activity;
the means leading to their achievement;
actions in a given situation.

Freedom is only genuine when the choice between alternatives is truly real and not entirely predetermined.

Freedom is understood in several senses. Let's consider some of them.

1. Freedom as a self-determination of a person, that is, when a person's actions are determined only by him and in no way depend on the influence of external factors.

2. Freedom as a person's ability to choose one of two paths: either obey the voice of his instincts and desires, or direct his efforts towards higher values ​​- truth, goodness, justice, etc. An outstanding philosopher of the 20th century. Erich Fromm noted that this form of freedom is a necessary stage in the process of becoming a human personality. In fact, this choice is not relevant for all people (most of them have already made it), but only for those who hesitate, i.e., have not yet fully decided on their life values and preferences.

3. Freedom as a conscious choice of a person who has finally embarked on the path of following the “human image”. This means in any conditions and under any circumstances to remain human, focusing solely on goodness and deliberately dooming oneself to the "unbearable burden of freedom."

In the history of philosophy there have been different approaches to the concept of "freedom". Ancient thinkers (Socrates, Seneca, etc.) considered freedom as the goal of human existence. medieval philosophers(Thomas Aquinas, Albert the Great and others) believed that freedom is possible only within church dogmas, and outside of them is only a grave sin. In modern times, the prevailing point of view was that freedom is the natural state of man ( Thomas Hobbes, Pierre Simon Laplace and others) * At the beginning of the 20th century, the Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev considered freedom primarily as creativity. As for modern philosophical concepts, then they pay considerable attention to freedom of communication, freedom of interpretation, etc.

Liberalism (from Latin liberalis - free) is based on the idea of ​​freedom - a philosophical and socio-political trend that proclaims human rights and freedoms as the highest value. According to liberals, this principle should underlie the social and economic order. In the economy, this manifests itself as the inviolability of private property, freedom of trade and entrepreneurship, in legal matters - as the rule of law over the will of the rulers and the equality of all citizens before the law. At the same time, the main task of society and the state is to encourage freedom, not allowing monopoly in any of the spheres of life.
According to one of the founders of liberalism C. Montesquieu, freedom is the right to do everything that is not prohibited by law. At the same time, many people believe that unlimited individualism is dangerous for humanity, so personal freedom must be combined

with the responsibility of the individual to society. After all, self-realization of a person is based not only on individual, but also on social experience, joint problem solving, and the creation of common goods.

For a better understanding of the essence of the concept of "freedom" it is advisable to consider two approaches - determinism and indeterminism. Determinists, who defend the idea of ​​the causality of human behavior, understand freedom as a person's following in his actions some objective necessity external to him. The extreme manifestation of determinism is fatalism, according to which there is a rigid predetermination of all events.

Indeterminists, on the contrary, do not recognize causality, to the point of asserting that everything that happens is random. This principle is denied by supporters of voluntarism, that is, the doctrine of absolute freedom based solely on the will of man as the root cause of all his actions. Thus, in extreme manifestations of determinism (all events are inevitable) and indeterminism (all events are random), there is virtually no room for freedom.

Modern ideas about freedom and necessity lie between these two extremes. Now it is believed that the need is not inevitable, but is probabilistic. A person, in his activity, chooses between various alternative options, based on his knowledge and ideas about the world around him.

Freedom is the most commonly used concept in everyday life. People go free after serving their sentence, or, as they say, "from places of deprivation of liberty." The fundamental laws of states speak of freedom of speech, assembly, and expression of will, thereby guaranteeing the constitutional rights of citizens. Economic freedom is the basis of a market economic system, on which the modern economy of almost all countries of the world is based. Freedom is sung by poets and artists, politicians and revolutionaries, calling on society to free itself from slavery, social, material and moral dependence. Artists, writers, designers often turn to the topic of freedom of expression.

Freedom, therefore, is a multi-valued concept, understood differently depending on the context. In everyday, everyday interpretation, freedom means the ability to do what you want. In a more precise formulation freedom is the ability of a person to vigorous activity in accordance with his intentions, desires and interests, during which he achieves his goals.

Distinguish between internal and outer freedom. Internal freedom means moral foundations and moral restrictions through which a person allows or does not allow himself to transgress in the course of movement along career ladder, in friendship, love, business, relationships with relatives, colleagues, strangers. Does a person's conscience, inner world, principles allow him to commit betrayal, use violence, deceive his parents or employer, appropriate someone else's property, eliminate competitors by any means? What are you ready for? free man”, freed by the leader from moral principles, saying that only people of your nationality should be treated properly, respecting their feelings and rights. If we respect the human rights of other people, regardless of our own right of the strong, then we limit ourselves internally, transforming permissiveness into relative freedom.

In addition to internal constraints, a person is influenced by external circumstances - legal norms, customs, traditions, good manners, labor regulations, social or criminal control. For violation of written or unwritten norms, each person bears responsibility- moral, administrative, criminal.

When a person realizes his inner or outer freedom, he inevitably faces choice- which of the available options for action to take, which alternative to implement. For example, is it worth giving way to an old woman in transport or pretending that you didn’t notice her? Should music be turned on loudly, knowing that it disturbs neighbors, among whom there are children and the sick? Analyzing such situations, we come to the conclusion that, living in a society, we cannot be free from it - our freedoms and rights are limited by the same rights and freedoms of other citizens. And if we ignore the rights of others, then they begin to act similarly. A situation is emerging that the English thinker Thomas Hobbes called "the war of all against all." From the foregoing follows the principle that freedom is “knowledge of necessity”, according to which freedom is not an imaginary independence from laws, but the ability to choose, to make decisions with knowledge of the matter.

Freedom and necessity occupy a special place in the religious systems of the world. Some of them teach that there really is no freedom of man and free will, it is nothing more than an illusion; manages all processes on earth fate, higher power. This doctrine is opposed by the belief that a person is responsible for his actions, he himself makes his choice. These two concepts are determinism And freedom of choice- form the basis of worldview in religious philosophy.

Virgo