Remember:
What is the structure of any activity? What is considered to be the spiritual culture of society? How are spiritual and material culture related?
Try conducting a little sociological research yourself. Ask different people about the meaning of the words “spirit”, “spiritual”. You will be surprised at the different meanings your interlocutors will put into these words. Some people will associate them with religion, church (for example, “spiritual music”). Professional cultural figures are likely to note that spirituality is synonymous with creativity for them. Most people associate the concepts of “spirit” and “spiritual” with ideas about the highest goals and meaning of human life, about the moral character of the individual. The ambiguity of interpretations, on the one hand, indicates the importance of these concepts, and on the other hand, complicates their scientific definition. In this paragraph we will try to consider the social meaning of the concepts “spiritual activity”, “spiritual values”, “human spiritual world”. We have to find out what place spiritual activity occupies in the general structure of activity, how scientists study various aspects of the spiritual life of society, how spiritual values influence the development of personality.
CREATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF SPIRITUAL VALUES
We will proceed from the definition of activity already known to you as the conscious, purposeful activity of people aimed at changing nature and society. As a result of social activities, objects are created that satisfy the various needs of people: tools, food and clothing, government and cultural institutions, works of art, architectural ensembles, scientific works. That side of human creative activity that is aimed not at processing the “stuff of nature”, but at processing “people by people”, that is, ultimately at changing the qualities of the social subjects themselves, is called spiritual activity, and its products are called spiritual values. A striking example of spiritual activity is the work of a teacher, as well as an artist, priest, and journalist. How do spiritual values differ from all others? Let's take a book as an example. It has all the signs of a material, sensory thing: it can be seen and touched, moved from place to place, even destroyed (which, however, should not be done). Valuable natural materials and a lot of living, animated labor were invested in the creation of the book. Finally, a book, like many other goods, has a market value. What specific properties give us the right to classify a book, as well as a national folk costume, an icon, a sculpture and much more, not as an object of the external world, but primarily as a spiritual value? The visible image and utilitarian practical functions do not exhaust the deep essence of these things. The American sociologist R. Merton called for distinguishing between explicit and latent, i.e., implicit, hidden from direct observation, functions of cultural objects.
Philosophers argue that the main distinguishing feature of spiritual phenomena is their ideality. The material material in which spiritual values are clothed acts only as a form of embodiment of supersensible content. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato created a unique doctrine of ideas, in which spiritual values, such as goodness, truth, beauty, were presented in the form of an autonomous ideal world, existing in parallel with the world of real things and determining the essence of the latter. German philosopher of the 19th century. G. Hegel believed that the main property of the spirit is reflection, that is, the ability to self-knowledge. In his general work “Phenomenology of Spirit” an attempt was made to present the entire history of world culture as a mirror of the development of the essential, spiritual powers of man. By creating works of culture and art, people objectify in them their knowledge, emotions, life experiences, their ideals, aspirations and hopes. By assimilating culture in the process of learning and self-education, people, on the contrary, de-objectify the spiritual values contained in it, while expanding their intellectual horizons, multiplying and developing individual creative abilities. Among the phenomena of spiritual life, Hegel especially singled out language, science, religion, morality, art, philosophy and law. Since the time of Hegel, the existence of people has changed greatly. The spiritual sphere of activity has been enriched by new phenomena, such as fashion and advertising, the media, and the Internet. In response to the increased demands of social practice and social cognition in the 20th century, a special philosophical science of values was created - axiology. The first thing that philosophers developing this direction emphasize is the social nature of spiritual values. For example, the language that we use to express our own thoughts, in essence, does not belong to us, but is the property of the entire people, society, and national culture.
Man is seen by representatives of modern philosophical thought as a multidimensional being, with each “measure” corresponding to a certain level of consciousness. Moreover, only the level of consciousness cannot limit human existence, since huge layers of this consciousness go beyond the limits of reason and intellect.
Scientific knowledge is characterized by rationality in its modern interpretation, which emerged simultaneously with the identification of scientific knowledge and a special form of activity for the production of this knowledge. Consequently, not all ways of comprehending and explaining man and the world are characterized by rationality. Nowadays, this is especially clearly manifested as a result of the crisis of scientific rationality and science in general. In this regard, recently many authors have especially emphasized the intellectual aspect of the spirit, when this spirit is endowed with specific capabilities, functions or properties characteristic of mental activity and the mind.
Based on this point of view, the spirit is conceived as a set of phenomena of rational thinking and, accordingly, this includes such phenomena as intellect, will, memory, and fantasy. Spirit can also be understood as “spiritualized being,” that is, as a certain attitude, principle or motive characteristic of certain views, opinions or actions that have a collective nature. Understanding the spirit in its objectified forms takes on a broader meaning, namely, the concept of objective spirit means the general state of cultural values, especially intellectual, moral and religious values.
But it would be wrong to equate spirit and spirituality, on the one hand, and the rational component of man, on the other. This rational part should be supplemented with other aspects of consciousness and thinking, such as will, emotions, which have the right to be included in the sphere of the spiritual world of man and his values. In the history of philosophy we come across various examples of comparisons of spirit. Thus, K. Jung contrasts spirit with matter in the same way as life opposes death. They see spirit as a dynamic, active, creative principle, while matter is static and inert.
However, matter, at the same time, is to a large extent connected with its attributes and manifestations, that is, with spirit. By contrasting spirit and matter in this way, Jung thereby eliminates the question of the origin of spirit and the entire problematic of self-organization and synergetics, which has become popular today. The concept of the soul has been of interest since time immemorial and, it should be noted, is filled with figurative content rather than scientific. The concept of soul has many meanings. It is used, firstly, for self-expression, and secondly, to assess the individual’s attitude towards others, and most importantly, the concept of “soul” is a reflection of that holistic approach to a person.
Therefore, the soul acts as a holistic self-awareness of the life process, as a certain state of a person’s inner world. The concepts of “soul” and “spirit” were interpreted in Russian philosophy either as part of idealistic philosophy, or as synonyms for the psyche, meaning consciousness. However, the psyche is not only a category of consciousness, but also the unconscious, and all the variety of forms of reflection. Consequently, one cannot equate the psyche with spirituality; the concept of spirituality is much broader and cannot be reduced only to consciousness, the basis of which is, first of all, knowledge. And the basis of spirituality is the desire not only for truth, but also for goodness, beauty, compassion and other characteristics of human existence.
There is no doubt that there is a connection between spirituality and consciousness, but we note that this connection is not fully realized. Spirituality is understood as the highest level of consciousness, upon reaching which a person penetrates into the sphere of transpersonal interests and values and acquires a special, unique personal coloring and focus on the highest manifestations of the human “I”. The domestic philosophical school is characterized by an appeal to the concepts of spiritual life and social consciousness, spiritual production and spiritual culture, the human factor in order to determine their content and correlation with each other.
The spiritual sphere (consciousness, activity, institutions) includes art, science, worldview, ideology, and education. First of all, they include in a specific form the psychological, everyday, and spiritual levels. Further, these types of social consciousness are characterized by their objects, forms and methods of cognition, and spiritual values. Compare, for example, a symphony, Einstein's theory, and O. Comte's sociology. And, finally, they act as forms of regulation of social existence through the corresponding types of spiritual and practical activities of people. For example, worldview regulates social existence indirectly, through art and science.
Art as the spiritual sphere of society includes: 1) the totality of artistic subjects (individuals, communities, institutions, organizations), their artistic consciousness, skills and techniques of artistic activity; 2) artistic activity and relationships between artists; 3) artistic goods (values - picturesque, musical, etc.).
As an artistic consciousness, art is considered without regard to its subjects as a set of artistic goods, methods of their perception, and methods of artistic activity. Thus, art is both a spiritual sphere, an institution, and social consciousness. Because of this, it has a unique direct and indirect influence on social life.
The science - This is both a sphere of society and a type of social consciousness. The scientific sphere of society includes: 1) the scientific community of scientists, laboratories, research institutes with their inherent consciousness (knowledge, thinking, memory, etc.); 2) scientific consciousness, reflecting this side of existence, and 3) spiritual and practical activity aimed at developing scientific consciousness and conducting experiments. Scientific consciousness in its most general form includes scientific knowledge, methods of scientific knowledge, scientific thinking, experiment, etc.
The scientific sphere also acts as an element of the economic sphere, when financing, construction of scientific facilities, etc. takes place. The development of science is determined by internal problems and contradictions that it tries to resolve. Its development is determined both by the interests of practice and by the funds (financial, human, material) allocated for its development.
As a result of the social division of labor, scientists from different scientific fields know predominantly their subjects. This prevents the integrated use of scientific knowledge in the implementation of complex projects. For example, Yeltsin's liberal economists did not know psychology, sociology, political science, or history when carrying out their liberal-capitalist reforms in Russia.
Worldview sphere includes a community of ideological subjects (philosophers, theologians, departments, churches, etc.), possessing a generalized form of spiritual consciousness, which is realized in the minds of their students and readers, controlling their spiritual and practical activities. Worldview consciousness exists in the form of mythology, religion, philosophy.
Ideology - This is an integral part of the spiritual sphere and consciousness of people. It includes an ideological community of subjects (people, communities, institutions, organizations), a system of views, concepts, hypotheses, theories, as well as skills inherent in these subjects and reflecting social existence through the prism of the interests of society, class, ethnic group and implemented in social life.
Social ideology- this is a system of ideas, theories, views in which the interests (main goals) of a social community, nation, elite, methods, and deadlines for their implementation are formulated. Ideology is a concretization of a certain worldview and a program of practical actions to change social existence in the interests of a class, nation, and elite.
Upbringing - the most important spiritual sphere of society and spiritual consciousness (pedagogy). It includes: 1) subjects of education (family, school, institute, etc.); 2) educational activity, the result of which is individual (and social) consciousness; 3) pedagogical (educational) relations between the subjects of education and the educated. With the development of humanity, the educational sphere of society is becoming increasingly important and requires more and more effort and time for its implementation. This is due to the colossal complexity of the human personality and the educational environment.
Thus, the spiritual sphere (life, system) of society is a relatively independent form of life activity of people (and special institutions) within the framework of the social division of labor. If social consciousness as the comprehension and creation of social existence is a function of the brain of social people, then spiritual consciousness is a function of the intelligentsia of society, who have made spiritual activity, the production of spiritual goods (values) their main professional activity.
We all have stereotypical ideas about familiar things imposed on us. We don't even think about the fact that some of them are universal misconceptions.
Let's see how the usual stereotypes of public opinion about what a spiritually rich person is work.
If a person strives for financial well-being, wants to have comfortable housing, a prestigious car, funds for travel, education, then society believes (and the person himself, in most cases, agrees with this!) that he is engaged exclusively in the base business of obtaining material wealth.
If a person strives to understand the laws of the universe, reads spiritual literature, attends seminars on personal development, works on developing his intuition, strives to serve people and treats money with contempt, he is considered to be engaged in spiritual development.
However, a contemptuous attitude towards money does not automatically make a person highly spiritual.And that's not even the main thing.
The main thing is that these concepts are opposed to one another.
It would be nice if this were a harmless delusion.
But many people, subconsciously wanting to remain spiritual, close their path to material well-being.
In fact, striving for the set material goals, a person performs enormous spiritual activities to acquire and improve new skills and abilities.
If a person does not just dream about something, but has set goals and takes steps every day to achieve them, then he is doing real work to overcome his own complexes and fears.
What should we call this process, if not what is now fashionably called spiritual development of personality?
- Business means crises every day, or, better to say, new challenges.
- Business is taking small or big steps outside your comfort zone every day.
- Because in business “ you have to run very fast just to stand still.” , as L. Carroll said in the unforgettable Alice.
Every day, can you imagine? New knowledge and skills. Which inevitably transform a person into a completely new personality.
I simply summarized and comprehended the previously acquired knowledge, verified by today’s business experience.
Business develops faster than personal growth seminars.
What qualities are being developed? Valuable from a spiritual point of view.
Business is great simulator for developing intuition. Because if you trust your inner instinct (subconscious, Universe, God) more, the less often you make mistakes. All great entrepreneurs trust their intuition.
Little by little you begin to understand that consciousness (mental) has very limited capabilities. The possibilities of the subconscious are endless. But these are no longer just words, but the acquisition of one’s own spiritual experience.
You learn in the process of DOING effective interaction with the Universe. Get into the flow.
It happens that the plan is difficult to achieve, some obstacles constantly arise... Subsequently it turns out that it was unnecessary to do what was given with such effort.
Thus you comprehend Counteraction Law.
When you suddenly realize that if something goes wrong, then everything is going as it should.
You're filming evaluative approach to people and events. Division by “ Badly" And " Fine“.
And suddenly you feel jump fall. And sometimes by flight.
Positive thinking- a prerequisite for a successful business.
If you have a negative attitude towards the World, it is unlikely that the Universe will allow you to create a serious business and achieve financial well-being.You don't believe what you can do, do you? That's why it doesn't work.
And it works for those who believe and do it.
So much for the materialization of thoughts.
The ability to listen is an important quality for business and for Personal development. After all, if you constantly talk yourself, then you are full and you have nowhere to let in new knowledge. If you listen and observe, you will definitely hear something important and necessary.
Finally, serving people. A business offering unclaimed goods or services cannot develop. It is obvious. One way or another, you act from an inner urge - to be useful to people.
Business is a spiritually practical activity.
Are you still arguing?
And Konosuke Matsushita agrees with me:
“Business is something that some people do to make others happy.
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A person in modern society is engaged in a variety of activities. In order to describe all types of human activity, it is necessary to list the most important needs for a given person, and the number of needs is very large.
The emergence of various types of activities is associated with the socio-historical development of man. The fundamental types of activities in which a person is involved in the process of his individual development are communication, play, study, and work.
- * communication - interaction of two or more people in the process of exchanging information of a cognitive or affective-evaluative nature;
- * game is a type of activity in conditional situations that imitate real ones, in which social experience is learned;
- * learning is the process of systematic acquisition of knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to perform work activities;
- * labor is an activity aimed at creating a socially useful product that satisfies the material and spiritual needs of people.
Communication is a type of activity consisting of the exchange of information between people. Depending on the age stage of a person’s development and the specifics of the activity, the nature of communication changes. Each age stage is characterized by a specific type of communication. In infancy, an adult exchanges emotional states with the child and helps them navigate the world around them. At an early age, communication between an adult and a child is carried out in connection with object manipulation, the properties of objects are actively mastered, and the child’s speech is formed. In the preschool period of childhood, role-playing games develop interpersonal communication skills with peers. The younger student is busy with learning activities, and communication is accordingly included in this process. In adolescence, in addition to communication, a lot of time is devoted to preparing for professional activity. The specifics of an adult’s professional activity leave an imprint on the nature of communication, behavior and speech. Communication in professional activity not only organizes, but also enriches it; new connections and relationships arise between people.
A game is a type of activity the result of which is not the production of any material product. She is the leading activity of the preschooler, since through her he accepts the norms of society and learns interpersonal communication with peers. Among the types of games we can distinguish individual and group, subject and plot, role-playing and games with rules. Games are of great importance in people's lives: for children they are mainly of a developmental nature, for adults they are a means of communication and relaxation.
Teaching is a type of activity, its purpose is to acquire knowledge, skills and abilities. In the process of historical development, knowledge was accumulated in various fields of science and practice, therefore, in order to master this knowledge, teaching became a special type of activity. Teaching influences the mental development of an individual. It consists of assimilation of information about the properties of surrounding objects and phenomena (knowledge), the correct choice of techniques and operations in accordance with the goals and conditions of activity (skill).
Labor is historically one of the first types of human activity. The subject of psychological study is not the work itself as a whole, but its psychological components. Typically, work is characterized as a conscious activity that is aimed at achieving a result and is regulated by the will in accordance with its conscious purpose. Labor performs an important formative function in the development of the individual, since it influences the development of his abilities and character.
Attitudes towards work are established in early childhood; knowledge and skills are formed in the process of education, special training, and work experience. To work means to express oneself in activity. Work in a certain field of human activity is associated with a profession.
Thus, each of the types of activity discussed above is most characteristic of certain age stages of personality development. The current type of activity, as it were, prepares the next one, since it develops the corresponding needs, cognitive abilities and behavioral characteristics.
Depending on the characteristics of a person’s relationship to the world around him, activities are divided into practical and spiritual.
Practical activities are aimed at changing the world around us. Since the surrounding world consists of nature and society, it can be productive (changing nature) and socially transformative (changing the structure of society).
Spiritual activity is aimed at changing individual and social consciousness. It is realized in the spheres of art, religion, scientific creativity, in moral actions, organizing collective life and orienting a person to solve problems of the meaning of life, happiness, and well-being.
Spiritual activity includes cognitive activity (gaining knowledge about the world), value activity (determining the norms and principles of life), predictive activity (building models of the future), etc.
The division of activity into spiritual and material is arbitrary. In reality, the spiritual and the material cannot be separated from each other. Any activity has a material side, since in one way or another it relates to the outside world, and an ideal side, since it involves goal setting, planning, choice of means, etc.
By spheres of public life - economic, social, political and spiritual.
Traditionally, there are four main spheres of public life:
- § social (peoples, nations, classes, gender and age groups, etc.)
- § economic (productive forces, production relations)
- § political (state, parties, socio-political movements)
- § spiritual (religion, morality, science, art, education).
It is important to understand that people are simultaneously in different relationships with each other, connected with someone, isolated from someone when solving their life issues. Therefore, the spheres of social life are not geometric spaces where different people live, but the relationships of the same people in connection with different aspects of their lives.
The social sphere is the relationships that arise in the production of direct human life and man as a social being. The social sphere includes various social communities and relationships between them. A person, occupying a certain position in society, is included in various communities: he can be a man, a worker, a father of a family, a city resident, etc.
The economic sphere is a set of relationships between people that arise during the creation and movement of material wealth. The economic sphere is the area of production, exchange, distribution, consumption of goods and services. Production relations and productive forces together constitute the economic sphere of society.
The political sphere is the relationship between people associated with power that ensures joint security.
The elements of the political sphere can be represented as follows:
- § political organizations and institutions - social groups, revolutionary movements, parliamentarism, parties, citizenship, presidency, etc.;
- § political norms - political, legal and moral norms, customs and traditions;
- § political communications - relationships, connections and forms of interaction between participants in the political process, as well as between the political system as a whole and society;
- § political culture and ideology - political ideas, ideology, political culture, political psychology.
The spiritual sphere is the sphere of relationships that arise during the production, transmission and development of spiritual values (knowledge, beliefs, norms of behavior, artistic images, etc.).
If a person’s material life is connected with the satisfaction of specific everyday needs (food, clothing, drink, etc.). then the spiritual sphere of a person’s life is aimed at satisfying the needs for the development of consciousness, worldview, and various spiritual qualities.
The inclusion of society is mass, collective, individual.
In connection with social forms of bringing people together for the purpose of carrying out activities, collective, mass, and individual activities are distinguished. Collective, mass, individual forms of activity are determined by the essence of the acting subject (a person, a group of people, a public organization, etc.). Depending on the social forms of association of people for the purpose of carrying out activities, they establish individual (example: management of a region or country), collective (ship management systems, teamwork), mass (an example of mass media is the death of Michael Jackson).
Dependence on social norms - moral, immoral, legal, illegal.
Conditions based on the activity’s compliance with existing general cultural traditions and social norms differentiate legal and illegal, as well as moral and immoral activities. Illegal activity is everything that is prohibited by law or constitution. Take, for example, the manufacture and production of weapons, explosives, drug distribution, all of this is illegal activity. Naturally, many try to adhere to moral activities, that is, to study conscientiously, be polite, value their relatives, help the old and homeless. There is a striking example of moral activity - the whole life of Mother Teresa.
The potential of new things in activity - innovative, inventive, creative, routine.
When human activity affects the historical course of events, with social growth, then progressive or reactionary, as well as creative and destructive activities are distributed. For example: The progressive role of the industrial activity of Peter 1 or the progressive activity of Peter Arkadyevich Stolypin.
Depending on the absence or presence of any goals, the success of the activity and the ways of its implementation, monotonous, monotonous, template activity is revealed, which in turn proceeds strictly according to certain requirements, and new things are most often not given (Manufacture of any product, substance according to the scheme at the plant or factory). But creative, inventive activity, on the contrary, carries with it the character of originality of the new, previously unknown. It is distinguished by its specificity, exclusivity, and uniqueness. And elements of creativity can be used in any of the activities. Examples include dancing, music, painting, there are no rules or instructions here, here is the embodiment of fantasy and its implementation.
Types of human cognitive activity
Teaching or cognitive activity refers to the spiritual spheres of human life and society. There are four types of cognitive activity:
- · everyday - consists of sharing experiences and the images that people carry within themselves and share with the outside world;
- · scientific - characterized by the study and use of various laws and patterns. The main goal of scientific cognitive activity is to create an ideal system of the material world;
- · artistic cognitive activity consists in the attempt of creators and artists to assess the surrounding reality and find shades of beauty and ugliness in it;
- · religious. Its subject is the person himself. His actions are assessed from the point of view of pleasing to God. This also includes moral standards and moral aspects of actions. Considering that a person’s whole life consists of actions, spiritual activity plays an important role in their formation.
Types of human spiritual activity
The spiritual life of a person and society corresponds to such types of activities as religious, scientific and creative. Knowing about the essence of scientific and religious activity, it is worth taking a closer look at the types of human creative activity. These include artistic or musical direction, literature and architecture, directing and acting. Every person has the makings of creativity, but to reveal them you need to work long and hard.
Types of human labor activity
In the process of work, a person’s worldview and his life principles develop. Labor activity requires planning and discipline from the individual. Types of work activity are both mental and physical. There is a stereotype in society that physical labor is much more difficult than mental labor. Although the work of the intellect does not appear outwardly, in fact these types of work activities are almost equal. Once again, this fact proves the diversity of professions that exist today.
Types of human professional activity
In a broad sense, the concept of profession means a diverse form of activity performed for the benefit of society. Simply put, the essence of professional activity comes down to the fact that people work for people and for the benefit of the whole society. There are 5 types of professional activities.
- 1. Man-nature. The essence of this activity is interaction with living beings: plants, animals and microorganisms.
- 2. Man-man. This type includes professions in one way or another related to interaction with people. The activity here is to educate, guide people, and provide them with information, trade and consumer services.
- 3. Man-technology. A type of activity characterized by the interaction of humans and technical structures and mechanisms. This includes everything related to automatic and mechanical systems, materials and types of energy.
- 4. Man - sign systems. Activities of this type involve interacting with numbers, signs, natural and artificial languages.
- 5. Man is an artistic image. This type includes all creative professions related to music, literature, acting, and visual arts.
Types of economic activities of people
Human economic activity has recently been fiercely contested by conservationists because it is based on natural reserves that will soon run out. Types of human economic activity include the extraction of minerals, such as oil, metals, stones and everything that can benefit humans and cause damage not only to nature, but to the entire planet.
Types of human information activities
An integral part of human interaction with the outside world is information. Types of information activities include receiving, using, distributing and storing information. Information activities often become a threat to life, since there are always people who do not want third parties to know and disclose any facts. Also, this type of activity can be provocative in nature, and also be a means of manipulating the consciousness of society.
Types of human mental activity
Mental activity affects the state of the individual and the productivity of his life. The simplest type of mental activity is a reflex. These are habits and skills established through constant repetition. They are almost invisible compared to the most complex type of mental activity - creativity. It is distinguished by constant diversity and originality, originality and uniqueness. That’s why creative people are so often emotionally unstable, and professions related to creativity are considered the most difficult. That is why creative people are called talents who can transform this world and instill cultural skills in society.
Culture includes all types of transformative human activity. There are only two types of this activity - creation and destruction. The second, unfortunately, is more common. Many years of human transformative activity in nature have led to troubles and disasters.
Only creativity can come to the rescue here, and this means, at a minimum, the restoration of natural resources.
Activity distinguishes us from animals. Some of its types benefit the development and formation of personality, others are destructive. Knowing what qualities are inherent in us, we can avoid the disastrous consequences of our own activities. This will not only benefit the world around us, but will also allow us to do what we love with a clear conscience and consider ourselves people with a capital “H.”