5. Spiritual life of society
An important aspect of the functioning and development of society is its spiritual life. It can be filled with rich content, which creates a favorable spiritual atmosphere in people’s lives, a good moral and psychological climate. In other cases, the spiritual life of a society can be poor and inexpressive, and sometimes real lack of spirituality reigns in it. The content of the spiritual life of society reveals its truly human essence. After all, the spiritual (or spirituality) is inherent only to man, distinguishes and elevates him above the rest of the world.
Basic elements of the spiritual life of society. The spiritual life of society is very complex. It is not limited to various manifestations of people’s consciousness, their thoughts and feelings, although we can rightfully say that their consciousness is the core, the core of their personal spiritual life and the spiritual life of society.
The main elements of the spiritual life of society include the spiritual needs of people aimed at the creation and consumption of appropriate spiritual values, as well as the spiritual values themselves, as well as spiritual activities for their creation and spiritual production in general. Elements of spiritual life should also include spiritual consumption as the consumption of spiritual values and spiritual relationships between people, as well as manifestations of their interpersonal spiritual communication.
The basis of the spiritual life of society is spiritual activity. It can be considered as an activity of consciousness, during which certain thoughts and feelings of people, their images and ideas about natural and social phenomena arise. The result of this activity is certain people’s views on the world, scientific ideas and theories, moral, aesthetic and religious views. They are embodied in moral principles and norms of behavior, works of folk and professional art, religious rites, rituals, etc.
All this takes on the form and meaning of corresponding spiritual values, which can be various views of people, scientific ideas, hypotheses and theories, works of art, moral and religious consciousness, and finally, the very spiritual communication of people and the resulting moral and psychological climate , say, in the family, production and other teams, in interethnic communication and in society as a whole.
A special type of spiritual activity is the dissemination of spiritual values in order to assimilate them to the largest possible number of people. This is crucial for improving their literacy and spiritual culture. An important role in this is played by activities related to the functioning of many scientific and cultural institutions, with education and upbringing, whether it is carried out in the family, school, institute or in a production team, etc. The result of such activity is the formation of the spiritual world of many people, and therefore, the enrichment of the spiritual life of society.
The main motivating forces of spiritual activity are spiritual needs. The latter appear as a person’s internal motivations for spiritual creativity, for the creation of spiritual values and for their consumption, for spiritual communication. Spiritual needs are objective in content. They are determined by the totality of the circumstances of people’s lives and express the objective need for their spiritual mastery of the natural and social world around them. At the same time, spiritual needs are subjective in form, because they appear as manifestations of the inner world of people, their social and individual consciousness and self-awareness.
Of course, spiritual needs have one social orientation or another. The latter is determined by the nature of existing social relations, including moral, aesthetic, religious and others, the level of spiritual culture of people, their social ideals, and their understanding of the meaning of their own lives. Multiplied by the will of people, spiritual needs act as powerful motivating forces for their social activity in all spheres of society.
An essential aspect of the spiritual life of society is spiritual consumption. We are talking about the consumption of spiritual goods, i.e. those spiritual values mentioned above. Their consumption is aimed at satisfying the spiritual needs of people. Items of spiritual consumption, be they works of art, moral, religious values, etc., form corresponding needs. Thus, the wealth of objects and phenomena of the spiritual culture of society acts as an important prerequisite for the formation of various spiritual needs of a person.
Spiritual consumption can be to some extent spontaneous, when it is not directed by anyone and a person chooses certain spiritual values according to his own taste. He joins them independently, although this happens under the influence of the entire way of life of a given society. In other cases, spiritual consumption can be imposed on people by advertising, mass media, etc. Their consciousness is manipulated. This leads to a certain averaging and standardization of the needs and tastes of many people.
Rejecting any manipulation of personal and group consciousness, we must recognize the conscious formation of needs for genuine spiritual values - cognitive, artistic, moral and others - as expedient and, in principle, progressive. In this case, the consumption of spiritual values will act as a purposeful creation and enrichment of the spiritual world of people.
The task arises of raising the level of culture of spiritual consumption. In this case, the consumer needs to be educated by introducing him to a real spiritual culture. To do this, it is necessary to develop and enrich the spiritual culture of society, to make it accessible and interesting to every person.
The production and consumption of spiritual values is mediated by spiritual relationships. They really exist as a person’s relationship directly to certain spiritual values (whether he approves or rejects them), as well as his relationship to other people regarding these values - their production, distribution, consumption, protection.
Any spiritual activity is mediated by spiritual relationships. Based on this, we can distinguish such types of spiritual relationships as cognitive, moral, aesthetic, religious, as well as spiritual relationships that arise between a teacher and a student, an educator and those whom he educates.
Spiritual relationships are, first of all, the relationship of a person’s intellect and feelings to certain spiritual values and, ultimately, to all reality. They permeate the spiritual life of society from beginning to end.
The spiritual relationships established in society are manifested in everyday interpersonal communication of people, including family, industrial, interethnic, etc. They create, as it were, an intellectual, emotional and psychological background of interpersonal communication and largely determine its content.
Social and individual consciousness. As already mentioned, the central moment of the spiritual life of society (its core) is the social consciousness of people. So, for example, a spiritual need is nothing more than a certain state of consciousness and manifests itself as a person’s conscious urge to spiritual creativity, to the creation and consumption of spiritual values. The latter are the embodiment of the mind and feelings of people. Spiritual production is the production of certain views, ideas, theories, moral norms and spiritual values. All these spiritual formations act as objects of spiritual consumption. Spiritual relationships between people are relationships regarding spiritual values in which their consciousness is embodied.
Social consciousness is a set of feelings, moods, artistic and religious images, various views, ideas and theories that reflect certain aspects of social life. It must be said that the reflection of social life in the public consciousness is not some kind of mechanical mirror, just as the natural landscape located along its banks is reflected in the mirror surface of a river. In this case, one natural phenomenon purely externally reflected the features of another. The public consciousness reflects not only the external, but also the internal aspects of the life of society, their essence and content.
Social consciousness has a social nature. It arises from the social practice of people as a result of their production, family, household and other activities. It is in the course of joint practical activity that people comprehend the world around them with a view to using it in their own interests. Various social phenomena and their reflections in images and concepts, ideas and theories are two sides of the practical activities of people.
Being a reflection of the phenomena of social life, various kinds of images, views, theories are aimed at deeper knowledge by people of these phenomena for their practical purposes, including for the purpose of their direct consumption or other use, say, for the purpose of aesthetic enjoyment of them, etc. d. Ultimately, the content of social practice, of all social reality, comprehended by people, becomes the content of their social consciousness.
Thus, social consciousness can be interpreted as the result of a joint understanding of social reality by people practically interacting with each other. This is the social nature of public consciousness and its main feature.
One can, perhaps, agree to some extent with the proposition that, strictly speaking, it is not man who thinks, but humanity.
An individual person thinks insofar as he is included in the thought process of a given society and humanity, i.e.:
Involved in the process of communication with other people and masters speech;
Involved in various types of human activities and comprehends their content and meaning;
Assimilates objects of material and spiritual culture of past and present generations and uses them in accordance with their social purpose.
By assimilating to one degree or another the spiritual wealth of his people and humanity, mastering the language, and becoming involved in various types of activities and social relations, an individual masters the skills and forms of thinking and becomes a thinking social subject.
Is it right to talk about the individual consciousness of a person if his consciousness is directly or indirectly determined by the society and culture of all mankind? Yes, that's legal. After all, there is no doubt that the same conditions of social life are perceived by individual people in some ways more or less the same, and in others differently. Because of this, they have both general and individual views on certain social phenomena, sometimes significant differences in their understanding.
The individual consciousness of individual people is, first of all, the individual characteristics of their perception of various phenomena of social life. Ultimately, these are individual characteristics of their views, interests and value orientations. All this gives rise to certain characteristics in their actions and behavior.
In the individual consciousness of a person, the features of his life and activities in society, his personal life experience, as well as the features of his character, temperament, the level of his spiritual culture and other objective and subjective circumstances of his social existence are manifested. All this forms the unique spiritual world of individual people, the manifestation of which is their individual consciousness.
And yet, while giving due credit to individual consciousness and creating opportunities for its development, it should be taken into account that it does not function autonomously from social consciousness, and is not absolutely independent of it. We need to see his interaction with public consciousness. It is true that the individual consciousness of many people significantly enriches the social consciousness with vivid images, experiences and ideas, contributes to the development of science, art, etc. At the same time, the individual consciousness of any person is formed and developed on the basis of social consciousness.
In the minds of individual people, most often there are ideas, views and prejudices that they have learned, albeit in a special individual refraction, while living in society. And a person is richer in spiritual terms, the more he has learned from the spiritual culture of his people and all humanity.
Both public and individual consciousness, being a reflection of the social existence of people, do not blindly copy it, but have relative independence, sometimes quite significant.
First of all, social consciousness does not simply follow social existence, but comprehends it, reveals the essence of social processes. Therefore, it often lags behind their development. After all, a deeper understanding of them is possible only when they have taken mature forms and manifested themselves to the greatest extent. At the same time, public consciousness can be ahead of social existence. Based on the analysis of certain social phenomena, it is possible to detect the most important trends in their development and thereby predict the course of events.
The relative independence of social consciousness is also manifested in the fact that in its development it is based on the achievements of human thought, science, art, etc., and proceeds from these achievements. This is called continuity in the development of social consciousness, thanks to which the spiritual heritage of generations accumulated in different areas of public life is preserved and further developed. All this shows that social consciousness not only reflects the social life of people, but has its own internal logic of development, its own principles and its own traditions. This is clearly seen in the development of science, art, morality, religion, and philosophy.
Finally, the relative independence of social consciousness is manifested in its active influence on public life. Various kinds of ideas, theoretical concepts, political doctrines, moral principles, trends in the field of art and religion can play a progressive or, on the contrary, reactionary role in the development of society. This is determined by whether they contribute to his spiritual enrichment, strengthening and development, or whether they lead to the destruction and degradation of the individual and society.
It is important to take into account the extent to which certain views, scientific theories, moral principles, works of art and other manifestations of public consciousness meet the genuine interests of the people of a particular country and the interests of its future. Progressive ideas in all areas of public life are a powerful factor in development, because they contribute to a deep understanding of the present and anticipation of the future, instill confidence in people’s actions, improve their social well-being, and inspire new creative actions. They form the very spirituality without which society and individuals cannot live and act normally. Everything suggests that the role of social consciousness in the life of modern society is very significant and is constantly increasing.
The structure of social consciousness. Social consciousness is a rather complex phenomenon. It is possible to distinguish various sides, each of which represents a relatively independent spiritual formation and at the same time is connected with its other sides, both directly, directly, and indirectly. Ultimately, social consciousness appears as a kind of structural integrity, the individual elements (sides) of which are interconnected.
Modern social philosophy identifies such aspects (elements) in the structure of social consciousness as:
Ordinary and theoretical consciousness;
Social psychology and ideology;
Forms of social consciousness. Let's give them a brief description.
Ordinary and theoretical consciousness. These are, in fact, two levels of social consciousness – the lowest and the highest. They differ in the depth of understanding of social phenomena and processes and the level of their understanding.
Ordinary consciousness is inherent in all people. It is formed in the process of their everyday practical activities on the basis of their empirical experience or, as they also say, everyday everyday practice. This is largely a spontaneous (spontaneous, i.e. spontaneous) reflection by people of the entire, so to speak, flow of social life without any systematization of social phenomena and discovery of their deep essence.
In cases where people are deprived of a scientific understanding of some phenomena of social life, they talk about these phenomena at the level of their everyday consciousness. There are a lot of such cases in the life of every person and groups of people, because we do not think about everything scientifically.
The lower the level of education of people, the more they talk about the phenomena of social life at the level of ordinary consciousness. But even the most literate person does not think scientifically about everything. So the area of functioning of ordinary consciousness is very wide. It allows one to judge with sufficient reliability, at the level of “common sense,” about many phenomena and events of social life and make generally correct decisions at this level, supported by everyday experience. This determines the role and significance of everyday consciousness in people’s lives and in the development of society.
The everyday consciousness, based on everyday experience, contains a great deal of useful information that is absolutely necessary for people’s orientation in the world around them, for their production and other activities. This information concerns the properties of the natural world, labor activity, family and everyday life of people, their economic relations, moral norms, art, etc. Folk art to this day is almost entirely based on people’s everyday ideas about beauty. At the same time, one cannot help but say that ordinary consciousness is full of illusions, very abstract, approximate, and even simply erroneous judgments and prejudices.
In contrast, theoretical consciousness is the comprehension of the phenomena of social life by discovering their essence and the objective laws of their development. This applies to the economic, social, political and spiritual spheres of society. Because of this, it appears as a higher level of social consciousness compared to the ordinary one.
Theoretical consciousness acts as a system of logically interconnected positions, therefore, as a certain scientific concept relating to one or another phenomenon of social life. Not all people act as subjects of theoretical consciousness, but only scientists, specialists, theorists in various fields of knowledge - people who can scientifically judge the relevant phenomena of the development of society. It often happens that one or another person makes scientific judgments about a relatively limited range of social phenomena. He thinks about the rest at the level of ordinary consciousness - “common sense”, or even simply at the level of illusions and myths.
Ordinary and theoretical consciousness interact with each other, resulting in the development of both. In particular, the content of everyday consciousness is enriched, which includes more and more scientific information and judgments about various phenomena of social life. In this respect, the modern everyday consciousness of people differs significantly from what it was, say, one or two centuries ago.
Both levels of social consciousness - everyday and theoretical - play their role in the life and activities of people and in the development of society.
Social psychology and ideology. Social psychology and ideology are unique structural elements of social consciousness. They express not only the level of understanding of the existing social reality, but also the attitude towards it on the part of various social groups and national-ethnic communities. This attitude is expressed primarily in the needs of people, that is, in their internal motivations to master reality, to establish certain conditions of social life and to eliminate others, to produce certain material and spiritual values and their consumption.
The attitude towards the phenomena of social life contained in social psychology finds its expression not only in the needs and interests of people, but also in their various feelings, moods, customs, morals, traditions, manifestations of fashion, as well as in their aspirations, goals and ideals. We are talking about a certain mood of feelings and minds, which combines a certain understanding of the processes taking place in society and the spiritual attitude of subjects towards them.
Social psychology acts as the unity of people’s emotional and intellectual relations to the conditions of their lives, to their social existence. It can be characterized as a manifestation of the mental makeup of social groups and national communities. This is, for example, social-class and national psychology. The latter can be embodied in the national character of the people. The mental makeup of classes and other social groups is also expressed in their social class character, which largely determines their activities and behavior. Ultimately, social psychology manifests itself “in the form of beliefs, beliefs, social attitudes towards the perception of reality and attitudes towards it.”
Social psychology, like ordinary consciousness, is a manifestation of the consciousness of large masses of people, including classes, nations and entire peoples. In this sense, it acts as mass consciousness; all its properties are inherent in it.
Some basic functions of social, or social, psychology can be pointed out. We will call one of them value-oriented.
It lies in the fact that the established social psychology of classes, nations, peoples shapes the value orientations of people, as well as the attitudes of their behavior, based on the assessment by social groups of certain phenomena of social life.
Another function of public (social) psychology can be characterized as motivational and incentive, since it encourages masses of people and individual social groups to act in a certain direction, that is, it generates appropriate motivation for their activities. In this sense, influencing social psychology means promoting the emergence of certain motives for people’s activities and behavior, their volitional efforts aimed at realizing their social interests. Many of these motives arise spontaneously in the process of constant influence on the consciousness of people by the objective conditions of their lives.
Everything suggests that in the course of implementing public policy, whether it concerns the whole of society or some of its spheres, it is necessary to take into account the social psychology of various social groups and segments of the population. After all, the socio-psychological motives of their actions are a very significant factor facilitating or, on the contrary, hindering the implementation of this policy.
Ideology plays an important role in the mechanism of motivating people's social activities. It, like social psychology, expresses the objective needs and interests of various social groups, primarily classes, as well as national communities. However, in ideology these needs and interests are recognized at a higher, theoretical level.
Ideology itself acts as a system of views and attitudes that theoretically reflect the socio-political system of society, its social structure, the needs and interests of various social forces. It can clearly express the attitude of certain classes, political parties and movements to the existing political system of society, the state system, and individual political institutions.
The fact that ideology appears in the form of theoretical concepts indicates that it must scientifically illuminate the process of social development, reveal the essence of political, legal and other phenomena and the patterns of their development. However, this does not always happen.
To a greater extent, scientific content is filled with the ideology of those social subjects whose interests correspond to the main trends in the development of society and coincide with the interests of social progress. In this case, their interests coincide with the true interests of the majority of members of society. Therefore, they have no need to hide their interests, at the same time there is a need to understand the patterns of development of society, the interaction of objective and subjective conditions of its functioning. Hence the interest in the scientific analysis of social phenomena, in comprehending the truth. So if the driving force of ideology is social interest, then its cognitive guideline, in this case, is truth.
Not every ideology is scientific. In a number of cases, the ideology of certain classes hides their real interests, since they diverge from the interests of the progressive development of society. An ideology is created, the purpose of which is to paint a deliberately false picture of the processes taking place in society, the alignment of social-class forces, to distort the goals of their activities, etc. In other words, there is a conscious mystification of reality, social myths appear one after another, and then there are many of them in order to darken the consciousness of the masses and, under these conditions, to realize the interests of those forces that this ideology serves.
Ideology has a social-class nature. This does not mean, however, that it always expresses only the narrow system of views of a certain class. Firstly, in the ideology of a particular class there may be provisions shared by representatives of other classes and strata of society. Because of this, it becomes to some extent their common ideology. This expands its social base. Secondly, ideology expresses not only social class, but also national, as well as universal human interests, say, the interests of preserving universal peace, protecting the natural environment on our planet, etc.
Nevertheless, the core of ideology are its provisions; which express the interests of a particular class, consistent or divergent with the interests of other classes. Ideology can be scientific and unscientific, progressive and reactionary, radical and conservative. Everything depends on its social and class content, forms and methods of its implementation.
Unlike social psychology, which is formed more spontaneously than consciously, ideology is created by ideologists quite consciously. The role of ideologists is played by certain theorists, thinkers, and politicians. Then, through appropriate mechanisms (various systems of education and upbringing, the media, etc.), ideology is introduced into the consciousness of large masses of people. Thus, the process of creating an ideology and its dissemination in society is conscious and purposeful from beginning to end.
It can be considered normal if the ideology that meets the interests of the majority of society is more widespread. It happens, however, that ideology is imposed on the masses, even if it is alien to their true interests. Many individuals and groups of people can fall into error and be guided by an ideology that is objectively alien to them. Thus, they switch to the positions of other forces, often to the detriment of their own interests.
The strength of influence of a particular ideology is determined by the position in society of those classes and social groups whose interests it expresses, as well as the depth of its development, the forms and methods of its influence on the masses. Its influence is often more profound and lasting than that of social psychology. Expressing not only current, but also the fundamental interests of classes and broader masses of people, ideology is capable of having a long-term impact on the nature of their social activity.
Of course, ideology is formed under the influence of all objective and subjective conditions of the development of society, including social psychology. At the same time, it has a significant impact on social psychology.
Under the influence of ideology, the emotional mood of certain social groups and their state of mind, in a word, the entire system of socio-psychological motives for their actions, can change significantly. Ideology settings can fit into the socio-psychological motivations for the actions of social groups and give them a certain direction. As a rule, ideological attitudes encourage people to make serious social changes. Individual exceptions to this only confirm the general rule.
Forms of social consciousness, criteria for their delimitation. In modern social philosophy, such forms of social consciousness are distinguished as political, legal, moral, aesthetic, religious, scientific and philosophical consciousness. Each of them reflects the corresponding aspects of social life and, as it were, reproduces them spiritually. At the same time, the relative independence of all forms of social consciousness is preserved, which to one degree or another influence the political, economic and other processes occurring in society.
What are the criteria for identifying and distinguishing among themselves forms of social consciousness?
First of all, they differ in the object of reflection. Each of them primarily reflects one or another aspect of social life. This is the basis for their differentiation. Thus, in political consciousness more fully than in any other, the political life of society is reflected, the main aspects of which are the political activity of people and the political relations that arise between them. Legal consciousness reflects various aspects of the legal life of society associated with the development and practical application of certain legal norms and legislative acts. Moral consciousness reflects the moral relations existing in society. And aesthetic consciousness, one of the manifestations of which is art, reflects the aesthetic attitude of people to the world around them. Of course, each of the forms of social consciousness reflects, directly or indirectly, other aspects of the life of society, for they are all closely interconnected. However, she reflects “her” object and spiritually masters it more fully than others.
Forms of social consciousness differ and, therefore, are also differentiated from each other by the forms and methods of reflecting the corresponding aspects of social reality. Science, for example, reflects the world in the form of concepts, hypotheses, theories, and various kinds of teachings. At the same time, she resorts to such methods of cognition as experience, modeling, thought experiments, etc. Art, as a manifestation of aesthetic consciousness, reflects the world in the form of artistic images. Various genres of art - painting, theater, etc. - use their own specific means and methods of aesthetic exploration of the world. Moral consciousness reflects the moral relations existing in society in the form of moral experiences and views, which are expressed in moral norms and principles of behavior, as well as in customs, traditions, etc. Social life is reflected in its own way in political and religious views.
Finally, forms of social consciousness differ in their role and significance in the life of society. This is determined by the functions that each of them performs. We are talking about the cognitive, aesthetic, educational and ideological functions of various forms of social consciousness, as well as the functions of moral, political and legal regulation of people’s behavior and their social relations. It should also be said about such a function as the preservation of the spiritual heritage of society in science, art, morality, political, legal, religious and philosophical consciousness, as well as the predictive function of science, philosophy and other forms of social consciousness, their ability to foresee the future and predict the development of society in the near and long term. Each form of social consciousness is characterized by a certain set of the above functions. The implementation of these functions reveals its role and importance in the life of society.
All forms of social consciousness - political, legal, moral, aesthetic, religious and others - are interconnected and interact with each other, because those aspects of the life of society that are directly reflected in them interact with each other. Thus, social consciousness acts as a kind of integrity that reproduces the integrity of social life itself, which consists in the inextricable connection of all its aspects.
Within the framework of this structural integrity of social consciousness, the everyday and theoretical consciousness of people, their social psychology and ideology, as well as the above forms of social consciousness interact with each other.
Depending on the nature of the existing social relations at one time or another and the tasks being solved in society, first one or another form of social consciousness may come to the fore - political, legal, moral, scientific or religious.
Currently in Russia, in connection with the reform of the political system, the role of political consciousness has increased not only of state and other political figures, but also of the broad masses of the people. The role of legal consciousness has also increased in connection with the active process of lawmaking during the transition to new social relations and the general desire of the people to build a rule of law state. Religious consciousness is noticeably spreading among the masses of people, its peacemaking role and significance in achieving the spiritual unity of the people is growing. Objectively, the importance of moral and aesthetic consciousness, corresponding moral and aesthetic values, designed to enrich the spirituality of the people and humanize relations between people, is increasing. It is important that these urgent objective demands find their fulfillment.
The increasing complexity of social development processes and increasing their dynamism, the transition to new forms of life require increased creative activity of people. This activity must be deeply conscious, based on clear goals and beliefs. Thus, the importance of all forms of social consciousness increases, within the framework of which various phenomena and processes of social life are comprehended and ways of actively influencing them are developed.
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This is the activity of people associated with the production and consumption of spiritual (i.e., ideal, as opposed to material) values.
Culture is an essential characteristic of the life of society; it is inseparable from man as a social being. Culture is the main distinguishing feature that separates humans and the animal world. Culture is a specifically human sphere of activity. In the process of his life, a person is formed as a cultural and historical being. His human qualities are the result of his mastering the language, familiarizing himself with the values and traditions existing in society, and mastering the techniques and skills of activity inherent in a given culture. In this regard, it will not be an exaggeration to say that culture represents “the measure of the human in a person.”
Term "culture" comes from the Latin word cultura, which means cultivation, education, development. In the most general sense, culture is understood as the totality of types and results of industrial, social and spiritual activities of man and society. The science that studies culture is called cultural studies. As a rule, they distinguish material culture(something made by human hands) and spiritual culture(what is created by the human mind).
As a spiritual formation, culture includes several basic elements.
Cognitive, sign-symbolic element- knowledge formulated in certain concepts and ideas and recorded in language.
Signs and symbols act in the process of communication as substitutes for other objects and are used to receive, store, transform and transmit information about them. People acquire this meaning of signs and symbols in the process of upbringing and education. This is what allows them to understand the meaning of what is said and written.
Value-normative system. It includes social values and social norms.
Social values- these are life ideals and goals that, according to the majority in a given society, should be achieved. The value system of a social subject may include various values:
Social norms are formed on the basis of social values. Social norms recommend or require compliance with certain rules and thereby regulate the behavior of people and their life together in society.
There are informal and formal social norms.
Informal social norms- these are naturally occurring patterns of correct behavior in society, which people should adhere to without coercion (etiquette, customs and traditions, rituals, good habits and manners). Compliance with informal norms is ensured by the strength of public opinion (condemnation, disapproval, contempt).
Formal social norms- these are specially developed and established rules of behavior, for non-compliance with which certain punishment is provided (Military regulations, legal norms, rules for using the metro). State bodies monitor compliance with formal social norms.
Culture is a constantly evolving system. Each generation brings its own, new elements, both to the material and spiritual spheres.
The subjects (creators) of culture are:
society as a whole;
social groups;
individuals.
Highlight three levels of culture(Fig. 4.1 
).
Elite culture is created by a privileged part of society, or at its request - by professional creators. This is “high literature”, “cinema is not for everyone”, etc. It is aimed at a prepared audience - a highly educated part of society: literary critics, film experts, regulars of museums and exhibitions, writers, artists. When the level of education of the population increases, the circle of consumers of high culture expands.
Folk culture created by anonymous creators who have no professional training. These are fairy tales, legends, folk songs and dances, folk crafts, toasts, jokes, etc. The functioning of folk culture is inseparable from the work and life of people. Often folk art works exist and are passed down orally from generation to generation. This level of culture is addressed to broad sections of the population.
Mass culture created by professional authors and distributed through the media. These are television series, books by popular authors, circuses, blockbusters, comedies, etc. This level of culture is addressed to all segments of the population. Consumption of mass culture products does not require special preparation. As a rule, mass culture has less artistic value than elite or folk culture.
In addition to levels of culture, types of culture are also distinguished (Fig. 4.2 
).
Dominant culture- is a set of values, beliefs, traditions, customs that guide the majority of members of society. For example, most Russians love to visit and receive guests, strive to give their children a higher education, and are friendly and friendly.
Part of a general culture, a system of values, traditions and customs inherent in a certain group of people, for example, national, youth, religious.
A type of subculture that opposes the dominant one, for example, hippies, emo, the criminal world.
One of the forms of culture associated with human creative activity in creating an imaginary world is art.
Main directions of art:
-
painting, sculpture;
architecture;
literature and folklore;
theater and cinema;
sports and games.
The specificity of art as a creative activity is that art is figurative and visual and reflects people’s lives in artistic images. Artistic consciousness is also characterized by specific ways of reproducing the surrounding reality, as well as the means by which artistic images are created. In literature, such a means is the word, in painting - color, in music - sound, in sculpture - volumetric-spatial forms.
One of the types of culture is also mass media (media).
Mass media is a periodical printed publication, radio, television, video program, newsreel, etc. The position of the media in the state characterizes the degree of democratization of society. In our country, the provision on freedom of the media is enshrined in the Constitution of the Russian Federation. But the law imposes certain prohibitions on this freedom.
Prohibited:
1) the use of hidden inserts in programs that influence the subconscious of people;
2) propaganda of pornography, violence and cruelty, national hatred;
3) dissemination of information about methods of development and places of purchase of drugs and psychotropic drugs;
4) use of the media to commit criminal offenses;
5) disclosure of information containing state secrets.
Culture plays a huge role in social life. Its functions include:
Each society develops its own, unique culture. There are three approaches to the question of relations between different cultures:
The expansion of cultural contacts in the modern world, communication and knowledge contribute to the rapprochement of peoples. However, excessively active borrowing carries the danger of losing cultural identity. The openness of borders to cultural influence and expanding cultural communication can lead, on the one hand, to the exchange of positive experiences, enrichment of one’s own culture, raising it to a higher level of development, on the other hand, to its cultural depletion due to unification and standardization, the dissemination of identical cultural samples Worldwide.
The essence of morality
Morality arose in primitive society. Morality regulates the behavior of people in all spheres of public life: in work, in everyday life, in politics, in science, in family, personal, inter-class and international relations. In contrast to the special requirements placed on a person in each of these areas, the principles of morality have a socially universal significance: they apply to all people, capturing in themselves that common and fundamental thing that makes up the culture of interpersonal relationships and is deposited in the centuries-old experience of the development of society.
The concept of “morality” comes from the Latin word moralis, which means “moral”. A synonym for morality is the concept moral.
This is a set of principles and norms of behavior of people in relation to each other and to society as a whole. Morality is studied by a special science - ethics.
Moral standards- these are the beliefs and habits of people, the ideals of good, evil, justice, etc., based on public assessments. Moral norms regulate a person’s internal behavior and dictate an unconditional requirement to act in a specific situation “one way and not another.” Moral standards reflect the needs of man and society not within the boundaries of certain, particular circumstances and situations, but on the basis of the vast historical experience of many generations. Therefore, through moral standards, both the goals pursued by people and the means of achieving them can be assessed.
Secular and religious morality are distinguished.
Secular morality- reflects the needs of man and society based on the historical experience of many generations, it is a reflection of the traditions and morals of society as a whole.
Religious morality- a set of moral concepts and principles that develop under the direct influence of a religious worldview. Religious morality asserts that morality has a supernatural, divine origin, and thereby proclaims the eternity and immutability of religious moral institutions, their timeless, supra-class character.
Morality fulfills in society a number of important functions.
Regulatory function- regulates the behavior of people in society, controls the lower limit of human relations, beyond which comes responsibility to society. Moral regulation differs from legal regulation in that the influence of the former is determined by principles operating from within the person himself, while law is an external superstructure.
Educational function- prepares a person for life in society, acts as one of the types of socialization of the younger generation. Moral education continues throughout life from the moment of formation of a person’s consciousness through self-education in the period of maturity. If in childhood a child receives primary moral ideas, then later he independently develops them, turning them into his own moral world.
Communication function- creates a normative basis for human communication (etiquette, rules of communication, rules of decency).
Cognitive function- allows you to recognize and evaluate human qualities.
In this regard, we note that moral knowledge is knowledge about what is proper, what is fair, about what is absolutely prohibited, about good and evil.
Thus, morality is also a characteristic of a person, his main qualities. At the same time, this is a characteristic of relationships between people, the entire set of moral norms that guide people in their lives.
Religion as a cultural phenomenon
Religion is one of the oldest and main (along with science and education) forms of spiritual culture and the most important factor in human history.
The word “religion” comes from the Latin religio - piety, piety, shrine, object of worship. - this is a worldview and attitude that is based on the belief in the existence of one or more gods, i.e. such a beginning that is beyond natural knowledge and inaccessible to human understanding.
IN structure of religion can be distinguished the following elements.
Religion plays a huge role in public life. The functions of religion are understood as the various ways in which it operates in society. The most significant functions of religion are the following.
Worldview function - explains to a person the phenomena of the surrounding world and its structure, indicates what the meaning of human life is.
Compensatory function- gives people comfort, hope, support, reduces anxiety in various risk situations. It is no coincidence that people most often turn to religion during difficult moments in their lives.
Educational function- educates and ensures connection between generations.
Communication function- carries out communication between people, primarily in religious activities.
Regulatory function- religious morality regulates the behavior of people in society.
Integrative function- promotes the unification of people, uniting their thoughts, feelings and aspirations.
There are various forms of religious belief.
International, world, universal, monotheistic religions that have become widespread among different nations are Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. The emergence of world religions is the result of a long development of political, economic and cultural contacts between different countries and peoples. Ethnic and national partitions characteristic of ancient religions were replaced by religious partitions. The cosmopolitan nature of Buddhism, Christianity and Islam allowed them to transcend national boundaries, spread widely across the globe and become world religions.
In Buddhism there are: - man is inherently sinful, he can only rely on the mercy and will of Allah. If a person believes in God and follows the instructions of the Muslim religion, he will deserve eternal life in paradise. A characteristic feature of the Muslim religion is that it intervenes in all spheres of people's lives. Personal, family, social life of believers, politics, legal relations, court - everything must obey religious laws.
Characteristic of Islam and Christianity fatalism- the belief that the fate of a person and all his actions and deeds are predetermined by God and are written in the “Book of Fates.”
The Constitution of the Russian Federation, in Article 28, legislatively enshrines freedom of conscience and religion - a person has the right to choose his own religion or to be an atheist.
Control questions
Define the concept of “culture”.
Name the levels of culture.
What types of culture do you know?
What is meant by morality in social science?
What types of morality do you know?
Describe the concept of “religion”.
What forms of religious beliefs do you know?
Describe world religions.
Philosophy
Spiritual life of society
Introduction 3
The essence and content of the spiritual life of society 4
The phenomenon of social consciousness in the history of philosophy 15
The relationship between public and individual consciousness 18
Conclusion 21
References 22
Introduction
Society is a complex system of various social relations. Social relations are divided into material and spiritual. Material relations develop outside our consciousness and exist independently of it. Spiritual relationships are formed by first passing through the consciousness of people. The connection between them is indirect: material relations, reflected in the public consciousness, give rise to certain spiritual values, which are the basis of spiritual relations.
Spiritual life can be filled with rich content, which creates a favorable social atmosphere and a good moral and psychological climate. In other cases, the spiritual life of a society can be poor and inexpressive, and sometimes real lack of spirituality reigns in it.
The main elements of spiritual life are the spiritual needs of people, spiritual activities to create spiritual values, spiritual consumption and spiritual relationships between people.
The basis of the spiritual life of society is spiritual activity. It can be considered as an activity of consciousness, during which certain thoughts and feelings, images arise And ideas about natural and social phenomena. The result of this activity is certain people’s views on the world, scientific ideas and theories, moral, aesthetic and religious views.
A special type of spiritual activity is the dissemination of spiritual values with the aim of assimilating them to the largest possible number of people. The result of such activity is the formation of the spiritual world of people, and therefore the enrichment of the spiritual life of society.
The essence and content of the spiritual life of society
In spiritual life, there are structural elements that have specific properties and, because of this, guide social life in different ways. Every person, group or society has one or another supply of vital forces, which find expression in affective moods and actions. Passion for love or hatred, inspiration, anger or apathy, horror or a surge of disgust, engulfing the individual, become the source of corresponding actions. But society as a whole can fall into a state of enthusiasm or apathy, indignation or satisfaction, aggressiveness or fatigue. This depends on the current situation, on the challenges that he has to face and which in one way or another affect (or do not affect) his fundamental interests. An important characteristic of such moods is the need for immediate (or as quickly as possible) satisfaction of the passion possessing an individual or society, the desire to relieve tension or express it - through a rally, picketing, agitation, procession, strike, pogrom, voting, etc. 1 .
Of course, any full-fledged sociocultural system also includes a special sphere, allocated in time or space, where affective behavior that violates norms and values that are considered generally accepted and normal, but ordinary, is allowed and even encouraged. These, in particular, are many manifestations of festive culture, which, perhaps, receive their most vivid expression in carnivals and folk festivals common among all nations. These are also many manifestations of mass culture that have widely taken root in the modern world, but in areas clearly separated from production with its strict rationality and principles of efficiency. This topic will be discussed in more detail in the section on popular culture.
At the same time, the regulatory role of culture lies in the fact that it sets limits, limits the natural manifestations of human nature or a social group that does not fit within the normative framework. For many centuries, the main means of such regulation was religion, subordinating the behavior of a believer to values and norms that have an unconditional sacred sanction. Naturalness was sinful and was allowed in a limited form only at the lower levels of existence. A detailed analysis of such drives and states is the sphere of social psychology. Of course, both the sociology of culture and social psychology study to some extent the same field - the patterns of behavior and activity of people, determined by their inherent internal motivations, beliefs and habits. These internal motivations invariably correlate with some external spiritual factors, formed as a collective consciousness or as an unconscious principle. However, culture still embraces more permanent or long-term, stable and orderly ways of spiritual regulation. If psychology takes into account the states and movements of small groups, temporary associations, crowds or individuals, then culture determines the nature of social strata, ethnic or national groups or civilizations over longer periods of time.
Of course, personality is also an essential carrier of culture. Thus, the phenomenon of fashion undoubtedly contains a cultural component that determines the general style of fashion development and its national identity. But psychology determines the rhythms of change of details and ornaments, the degree of their distribution, slowed or accelerated variability in clothing and appearance.
Of course, the influence of culture is also reflected in the fact that the higher the degree of development of culture, the more differentiated all its elements and components become, including fashion. Ethnic cultures make do with a set of permanent clothing options, quite visible in a good ethnography museum. The capital usually hosts several fashion houses showcasing the new seasons.
Even M. Weber formulated his concept of the transformative impact of religion on human behavior as overcoming those ecstatic and orgiastic states that turn out to be temporary and transient and lead a person to a state of devastation, which in religious language is designated as abandonment of God , and in secular terms - the aimlessness and meaninglessness of existence 2.
P. Sorokin described this position in more moderate terms, stating that a person’s natural affective states reveal his changeable psychological characteristics, his immediate reactions to life influences, subject to situational and transient moods. However, culture transforms these affective states, regulates them and directs them to achieve significant and long-term goals of human existence. At different stages and levels of development of society, in its different spheres and structures, the ratio of affective and culturally regulated factors may be different. But they are certainly present in some combination as the cultivation of human material.
Following the process of “de-divinization” of the world and the decrease in the influence of religion, it was the turn of secular normative culture in its established, classical form. These shifts were explained and justified in the psychoanalytic direction, represented primarily by the works of Z. Freud and E. Fromm. They showed that the existing type of culture is largely repressive in nature, suppressing the individual “ego” in its very significant vital and personal manifestations. Curbing instincts, on the one hand, is a necessary principle, since otherwise their rampant behavior threatens society with self-destruction. Various forms of control, including morality, religion, social sanctions and the state, were seen by Freud as fundamentally the result of a compromise between spontaneous drives and the demands of reality. Being repressed into the sphere of the unconscious, these drives give rise to psychological neuroses and conflicts of the individual with himself and society. The sublimation of these instincts is the source of artistic and scientific creativity, which gives rise to high achievements of religious or secular culture. Developing these ideas in line with neo-Freudianism, E. Fromm deeply criticized those social and cultural mechanisms of capitalist society, primarily its extreme technicism, the cult of profit and success, which lead to the alienation of human essence, the loss of man himself in the process of social life activity.
However, the liberation of a person from a repressive culture is limited to certain sociocultural frameworks. Affective behavior that deviates from normative behavior can take on the character of deviant behavior with varying degrees of asociality and criminality. The study of such behavior is the predominant property of social psychology and sociology. But cultural studies cannot ignore such behavior, since it also has its own rather strict rules and principles governing the behavior of individuals in a criminal environment. As we will see, there is a complex interaction between normative culture and deviant options in society. The significant spread of such behavior requires a special consideration of the causes of disorganization of sociocultural regulation and degradation of the human community 3 .
The simplest types of behavior are formed primarily on the basis of holistic, habitual patterns of behavior performed for a set reason at a certain time and in a certain place. The pattern fits into some part of the activity, a segment of it that is not subject to clear division, change or reflection. The term “custom” can be identified with the terms “tradition”, “rite”, “ritual”, “mores”. However, tradition still applies to a wider range of phenomena and when applied to more differentiated forms of regulation of activity, although it receives a semantic overload (about which see Chapter VI). Rite and ritual are more formalized versions of habitual behavior adopted in certain parts of the overall cultural regulation. Rite and ritual are formalized behavior or action that has primarily a symbolic meaning, devoid of direct expediency, but helping to strengthen connections either between permanent members of the group or in interaction between groups, relieving tension, mistrust and increasing the level of communication. tee. Among the most important rituals that have a universal distribution in every culture are marriage and funerals.
The term “mores” usually expresses the established forms of regulation of mass behavior. However, in a cultural context, morals can denote a more mobile, changeable and not going far into the past layer of habitual behavior, subject to differentiation depending on the social environment, the psychological state of certain layers, the historical situation, etc. d. (“Oh times! Oh morals!”). War and peace, revolution, reforms, shock therapy, modernization, etc. - processes that imply large-scale changes in morals, which entail a gradual shift in broader spheres of culture, which does not mean the loss of its qualitative certainty 4.
Although custom acts as the main regulator of behavior only in primitive ethnographic societies, in stable living environments, and inert social groups, it is also present at all more advanced levels. Socially recognized patterns develop into customs, according to which accumulated experience is passed on from generation to generation and from individual to individual. Customs also include traditional work practices, forms of behavior, lifestyle, and upbringing. In everyday life, the usual rules of hygiene and established hostel options apply. Custom regulates the hours and conditions of eating and sleeping. The choice of food is not dictated only by the needs of the body. In Russia, for example, it is not customary to eat snakes, dogs, frogs, or cats. Hindus do not eat beef, and Muslims do not eat pork. In societies with a traditional nomadic culture, horse meat is eaten. The choice in this case is determined not by the nutritional value of the food, but by tradition. When entering a home, the first thing a European necessarily does is take off his headdress; an Eastern person first of all remembers his shoes. It is not always possible to directly correlate both with the situation, but this is the custom. Customs are generally recognized and approved by the power of mass habit. For the most part, they do not receive an explanation and may not be recognized by the members of the team themselves. To the question “Why are you doing this?” they answer: “That’s the way it is.”
The spiritual sphere of society’s life is a subsystem in which the production, storage and distribution of spiritual values of society (works of literature, painting, music, scientific knowledge, moral norms, etc.) are carried out, capable of satisfying the needs of the consciousness and worldview of subjects, reproducing and developing spiritual human world. Through this sphere there is an awareness of the surrounding world, the development of a deeper and more meaningful attitude towards it.
The spiritual life of society is represented by what constitutes the spiritual content of social life in a given era, reflecting the economic, historical, geographical, national and other features of the development of society.
In the course of the historical development of philosophical thought, two main approaches to its understanding have emerged: idealist philosophers(Plato, Hegel, French enlighteners, Kant, etc.) believed that the spiritual existence of people determines all aspects of their lives, incl. – material (“Ideas rule the world”); Marxist philosophy proceeds from the principle of the primacy of social existence in relation to social consciousness, relating spiritual phenomena to the sphere of the superstructure of society.
The latter approach allows us to understand that the genetically spiritual side of human existence arises on the basis of his practical activity as a special aspect of the reflection of the objective world, as a means of orientation in the world and interaction with it. Like objective-practical activities, spiritual activity generally follows the laws of this world.
At the same time, the ideal-spiritual world (of concepts, images, values) created by man has relative independence and develops according to its own laws. As a result, he can soar very high above material reality. However, the spirit cannot completely break away from its material basis, since, ultimately, this would mean the loss of orientation of man and society in the world.
At the same time, the spiritual life of society is in constant interaction with other aspects of social life. Its structure is very complex and includes the following interacting components:
spiritual needs of people– cognitive, moral, aesthetic, religious, etc.;
spiritual production– spiritual activity in various areas of culture related to the satisfaction of developing spiritual needs;
spiritual values– scientific ideas, artistic images, etc. as a result of various branches of spiritual production and a means of satisfying spiritual needs;
spiritual consumption– assimilation of the spiritual values of society through the system of upbringing, education, and spiritual self-development of a person;
spiritual relationships between people and large social groups (cognitive, moral, aesthetic, religious, relations for the exchange of spiritual values and experience);
social institutions in the field of spiritual culture that carry out the production, distribution and storage of spiritual values (art galleries, museums, scientific institutions, libraries, theaters, media institutes, etc.).
As a result of the functioning of all spiritual life, public consciousness- general mass consciousness of the spiritual experience of people of a given society, arising from their social practice.
Consciousness as the core of the spiritual sphere can be differentiated on various grounds.
According to its carrier, subject, consciousness is divided into individual And public(consciousness of society). Individual consciousness– the spiritual world of each individual person (feelings, knowledge, interests), the basis of which is individual self-awareness and which is formed on the basis of personal experience, the immediate conditions of a person’s life, as well as as a result of communication with other people, upbringing, education. Individual consciousness contains all the features inherent in a given person, and also includes that general (knowledge, ideals, assessments, stereotypes, etc.) that is characteristic of those social groups, the people as a whole, to which he belongs, and what is acquired by him in the process of socialization.
As a result, a social consciousness develops, which finds its expression in many individual consciousnesses, although it is not equal to their simple sum.
Social consciousness- a relatively independent spiritual reality that has a huge impact on every person. It is a kind of supra-individual collective mind that reflects reality much deeper and more comprehensively than individual individuals.
Social consciousness is that common thing that arises in the minds of many individuals, because they live in common social conditions and in the process of communication exchange ideas, opinions, and spiritual experiences. The ideas of an individual can become a fact of the consciousness of society when they acquire social significance.
Thus, social and individual consciousness are in dialectical interaction, exerting mutual influence and complementing each other.
Social consciousness is divided into two levels depending on the reflection depths reality and degree of systematicity– everyday and theoretical.
Ordinary consciousness- a spontaneous, unsystematic way for people to understand their experience of everyday life, which has a practical orientation, is emotionally colored and is formed under the influence of work and everyday life.
Theoretical consciousness– a systematic, rationalized reflection (explanation) of the phenomena of reality at the level of their deep essence and patterns, which is developed by professional scientists and social thinkers.
Partial analogues of everyday and theoretical consciousness are social psychology and ideology, which not only reflect the phenomena of reality, but also express an evaluative attitude towards them. The dominant element in the distinction is not the knowledge of reality itself, but the attitude to reality associated with the needs of specific social subjects (classes, nations, peoples) and types of social activity.
Social psychology- a set of feelings, moods, thoughts, habits, traditions that arise on the basis of social groups and society to which people belong. In its composition, various interests, value orientations, social attitudes, ideas about the future, the meaning of life, happiness, etc. are formed. The collective unconscious is also included in social psychology.
Social psychology is a form of so-called mass consciousness- a broad set of ideas, feelings, perceptions, illusions that are developed in the process of communication between people and reflect all aspects of social life that are accessible to the masses and capable of arousing their interest. Mass consciousness is expressed in various types of mass culture and media. Mass culture is mostly average, standardized, entertaining, oriented towards consumer consciousness and the immediate needs of people.
In general, social psychology is the emotional and experiential attitude of people towards their position in society, expressed in the form of their state of mind. It can be formed both spontaneously and purposefully, manipulating public opinion, which is used by some ideologists.
An important feature of theoretical consciousness is ideology: theoretical consciousness, in addition to it, also includes natural science knowledge.
Ideology is a set of theoretically developed views that provide an explanation and assessment of social phenomena, events, problems from the perspective of the interests of certain social groups (classes, layers, nations, political parties and movements). From these positions, ideology in theoretical form expresses the needs of social development, offers ways to resolve existing contradictions, expresses views on the meaning of what is happening, and denotes the ideals of society and ways to achieve them.
Ideologies differ in their role in society and in their forms. Religious, political and legal ideologies are especially significant. They are created consciously by theoretically trained and devoted representatives of social groups, their ideologists. At the same time, ideology can also reflect universal human interests, the interests of other strata, which expands its social base, allowing, among other things, to manipulate public consciousness and create a false image of reality. Therefore, it is necessary to distinguish between the concepts of “ideology” and “science”.
Influencing social psychology, ideology at the same time takes into account the mass mentality of the people of a given society.
Within the framework of the two levels of social consciousness discussed above, its forms are also distinguished: economic, political, legal, moral, religious, scientific, philosophical, etc. In modern society, new forms of social consciousness are constantly maturing, for example, environmental, show consciousness... Forms of social consciousness differ: by subject, by the method of reflecting reality, by the nature of its assessment; by the needs they satisfy, as well as by the role they play in the life of society.
The subject of our further consideration will be such forms of social consciousness as science, which plays a leading role in modern society, as well as morality, art and religion as the most important ways of spiritual and practical exploration of the world by man.
Adults often think about self-development and self-awareness, about issues of ethics and morality, spirituality and religion, about the meaning of life. What is spiritual? We can say that this is a accumulation of his impressions and experiences, which are realized in the process of life.
What is spirituality?
Issues of spirituality are dealt with by such sciences as philosophy, theology, religious studies and social studies. What is the spiritual life of a person? It is very difficult to define it. This is a formation that includes knowledge, feelings, faith and “high” (from a moral and ethical point of view) goals. What is the spiritual life of a person? Education, family, going to church and occasional alms? No, this is all wrong. Spiritual life is the achievements of the senses and mind, combined into so-called ones, which lead to the construction of even higher goals.
“Strength” and “weakness” of spiritual development
What distinguishes a “spiritually developed personality” from others? What is the spiritual life of a person? Developed, she strives for purity of ideals and thoughts, she thinks about her development and acts in accordance with her ideals. A person who is poorly developed in this regard is not able to appreciate all the delights of the world around him; his inner life is colorless and poor. So what is a person’s spiritual life? First of all, this is the progressive development of the individual and its self-regulation, under the “guidance” of high values, goals and ideals.
Worldview features
What is the spiritual life of a person? Schoolchildren and students are often asked to write essays on this topic, as this is a fundamental question. But it cannot be considered without mentioning such a concept. as a "worldview". That the term describes the totality of a person’s views on the world around him and the processes that occur in it. The worldview defines the individual’s attitude towards everything that surrounds him. Worldview processes determine and reflect the feelings and thoughts that the world presents to a person; they form a holistic idea of other people, nature, society, moral values and ideals. In all historical periods, the characteristics of people's views on the world were different, but it is difficult to find two individuals with the same views on the world. That is why we can conclude that the spiritual life of each individual person is individual. There may be people with similar ideas, but there are factors that will definitely make their own adjustments.
Values and guidelines
What is the spiritual life of a person? If we talk about this concept, then it is necessary to remember about the value guideline. This is the most precious and even holy moment for every person. It is these guidelines that collectively reflect the individual’s attitude to facts, phenomena and events that occur in reality. Value guidelines are different for different nations, countries, societies, peoples, communities and ethnic groups. With their help, both individual and social goals and priorities are formed. We can distinguish moral, artistic, political, economic, professional and religious values.
We are what we think about
Consciousness determines being - this is what the classics of philosophy say. What is the spiritual life of a person? We can say that development is awareness, clarity of consciousness and purity of thoughts. This is not to say that this entire process occurs only in the head. The concept of “awareness” implies some active actions along this path. It starts with controlling your thoughts. Every word comes from an unconscious or conscious thought, which is why it is important to control them. Following words come actions. The tone of voice and body language correspond to words, which in turn are generated by thoughts. Monitoring your actions is also extremely important, as they will become habits over time. But it is very difficult to overcome a bad habit; it is much better not to have it. Habits shape character, and this is exactly how other people see a person. They are not able to know thoughts or feelings, but they can evaluate and analyze actions. Character, together with actions and habits, shapes the path of life and spiritual development. It is constant self-control and self-improvement that form the basis of a person’s spiritual life.