Social science as a science, society and nature. The problem of society and nature

Modern social philosophy relies in its understanding of society, first of all, on the thesis that society there is a part of the world that is inextricably linked with nature . This thesis is supported in particular by the following facts:

1) man, as well as society, come from nature;

2) man is not only a social, but also a biological being, subject to the laws of nature;

3) man is the highest stage in the development of living nature;

4) society cannot function and develop outside of nature, in isolation from it;

5) both nature and society are subject in their development to certain general fundamental laws.

However, on the basis of everything previously stated, it is impossible to excessively identify society with nature. Society is such a part of the world that has become isolated from nature, has acquired new qualities. It is known that a person is not only a biological being, but also a qualitatively new phenomenon with social properties inherent only to him, growing out of the interaction of people with each other; and the life of society is a qualitatively unique life, which is irreducible to biological life, where individuals who do not have social consciousness act. Human society acts as the creator of culture. By creating culture, society, as it were, creates a new, artificial environment for its life. Consequently, society and nature are two, qualitatively different forms of manifestation of a single world. They correspond in a single human knowledge to two main areas - social science and natural science.

Society and nature are in interaction, influence each other.

It is impossible to analyze a society without taking into account its interaction with nature, since it lives in nature. The impact of society on nature is determined by the development of material production, science and technology, social needs, and the nature of social relations. At the same time, due to the growing degree of society's influence on nature, the scope of the geographical environment is expanding and certain natural processes are accelerating: new properties are accumulating that are increasingly moving it away from its virgin state. If we deprive the modern geographical environment of its properties, created by the labor of many generations, and put modern society in the original natural conditions, then it will not be able to exist: man has so altered the world of the planet that this process is already irreversible.

But nature also has an important influence on the development of society. Human history is a clear example of how environmental conditions and the shape of the planet's surface contributed to or, on the contrary, hindered the development of mankind. If in the Far North a person earns his livelihood at the cost of painful efforts, then in the tropics the generosity of a wasteful nature makes life easier for a person.

It is known that human activity is the channel through which a constant "metabolism" between man and nature is carried out. Any changes in the nature, direction and scale of human activity underlie changes in the relationship between society and nature. With the development of practical, transformative human activity, the scale of his intervention in the natural connections of the geographical environment has also increased.

In the past, man's use of the forces of nature and its resources was predominantly spontaneous: man took from nature as much as his own productive forces allowed. But the scientific and technological revolution confronted man with a new problem - with the problem of limited natural resources,

possible violation of the dynamic balance of the existing system, and in connection with this, the need for a careful attitude towards it.

We must not forget that we live in a world where the law of entropy reigns, where the reserves of resources useful to us are "dispersed" or, in other words, are exhausted irretrievably. If, therefore, the past type of society's attitude to nature was spontaneous (irresponsible) in nature, then a new type should also correspond to the new conditions - the attitude of global, scientifically based regulation, covering both natural and social processes, taking into account the nature and limits of the permissible impact of society on nature in order not only to preserve it, but also to reproduce it.

It has now become clear that man's influence on nature should take place not contrary to its laws, but on the basis of their knowledge. Visible dominance over nature, acquired by violating its laws, can only have temporary success, resulting in irreparable damage to both nature itself and man: we should not be too deceived by our victories over nature, for every such victory she takes revenge on us.

Humanity is in close contact with global environmental issues that threaten its own existence: air pollution, depletion and deterioration of the soil cover, chemical contamination of the water basin. Thus, as a result of his own activity, man entered into a dangerous contradiction with the conditions of his dwelling.

We are often at war with nature, and we need to coexist peacefully with it. We are called not to rule over nature (and, of course, not to conquer it), but, on the contrary, we must protect it from rash actions and take care of it.

Community life includes:

The material sphere - the transformation of the materials of nature, which is carried out in specific historical forms of labor activity;
the spiritual realm - awareness of this process of transformation.

Both of these sides are inseparable unity. This unity ensures not only the life and functioning of society, but also its self-development. Any natural biological formation tends to improve the forms of life. The same tendency is inherent in society, but only in society does this become not a natural instinct, but a conscious goal.

When characterizing society as a part of the world isolated from nature, it is important to realize that the essence of the isolation of society from nature is as follows:

1. At the center of social development is a person with consciousness and will. Nature exists and develops according to its own laws, independent of man and society.
2. Society is subject to both common laws with nature and its own laws, which depend on the consciousness and will of people.
3. Society is a structurally organized system. It contains various forms of social relations, a developed social structure, established material and spiritual production, social and political organizations and institutions operate.
4. Society acts as a creator, reformer and creator of culture.

However, speaking about the isolation of society from nature, we mean its qualitative specificity, but not isolation from nature and the processes of its natural development. Society as a social organism interacts with its environment in the same way as any other. The basis of this interaction is the exchange of substances with the natural environment, the consumption of natural products, and the impact on nature. Nature influences and influences society. Nature creates favorable or unfavorable conditions for its development. Thus, the great civilizations of antiquity (Babylon, Egypt, India, China) arose at the mouths of rivers or in fruitful valleys. Favorable natural conditions gave impetus to the rapid development of a particular civilization. Landscape and climatic conditions contributed to the development of trade, navigation, intercultural relations. At the same time, the natural environment and natural disasters could not only slow down the development of society, but also cause its death. Tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods in ancient times led to the disappearance of entire tribes and peoples from the face of the earth. Society is inseparable from nature. Man, and therefore society, came out of nature, they are its continuation, part of it. But this part is special, it represents a second, artificially created nature. Nature has been and remains the foundation on which society is based.

Interaction of society and nature

Obviously, on average, the attitude towards nature of a resident of New York, London or Moscow will differ significantly from the attitude of the inhabitants of the indigenous tribes of North America or Siberian settlements.

In general, there are three main periods of interaction between society and nature. These are very large time intervals, the duration of which reaches 3.5 million years.

The first period is the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. During this stage, human life was completely dependent on natural conditions. At that time, people lived by gathering, hunting, fishing and did not have any tangible impact on nature.

The second period is the Neolithic or New Stone Age (began about 10 thousand years ago). During the long centuries of the Paleolithic, man improved physically and developed the skills of social interaction. As a result, the transition to the Neolithic was marked by a fundamentally new way of doing business - the productive economy. Now a person not only appropriated the end result of natural activity (already grown fruits, animals and fish), but he himself learned agriculture and cattle breeding. The degree of human impact on nature has increased significantly: he began to cut down forests, dig underground channels, build houses and entire cities.

The third period is the age of industry and technical discoveries. The transition to this stage is associated with the scientific and technological revolution of the 18th-19th centuries. Manual labor was replaced by machine labor, production reached a global scale, a person began to produce goods much more than he needs.

And, accordingly, to use natural resources much more intensively than would be acceptable for their natural recovery. The industrial revolution led to the fact that changes in natural conditions, which previously had a temporary local character, became more comprehensive and often irreversible.

The growth of industry and the discovery of new technologies work in two directions at once: they make a person more technically developed, allow them to master and discover even more opportunities, on the one hand, and deplete natural resources, worsen the ecological situation and tear a person away from nature, on the other. As a result, the relationship between society and nature in many countries has reached a critical point. Today on Earth there are many people who are so dependent on the benefits of civilization that this makes them incapable of living in direct contact with nature.

At the same time, the use of natural resources is only one of the forms of human interaction with nature. In addition, there is also environmental protection activities, including the organization of national parks, reserves, reserves and natural monuments, etc.

The attitude to nature in the case of each specific person is, first of all, a matter of values ​​and worldview. This is confirmed by a large number of "green" organizations, initiatives and communities that advocate for nature.

The technological revolution has opened up new horizons for us, allowed us to become more independent from natural conditions, allowed us to increase life expectancy and make it more comfortable. But it should be remembered that no matter how far a person steps along the path of technological progress, he remains completely dependent on the need to breathe, drink water and receive nutrients. That is, it is nature that provides us with something without which we cannot live for even a few minutes.

Development of the nature of society

Knowledge and observance of the laws of the development of nature in the activities of man and society is of decisive importance and is assessed as an imperative. The laws of development of nature, manifested in the interaction of society and nature, create the natural-scientific and philosophical foundations for various activities in nature management and environmental protection, including in the field of law.

Accounting for the laws of nature in the planning and implementation of environmentally harmful activities and their observance should serve as the main criterion for the environmental validity and admissibility of such activities. Their knowledge and consideration are especially important in the implementation of such legal measures of nature protection as the regulation of maximum permissible impacts on nature, assessment of the impact of planned activities on the environment, environmental expertise, planning measures for nature protection, etc.

The laws of the development of nature must also be taken into account when drafting bills on environmental protection. Ensuring accounting and compliance with the laws of nature when making economic, managerial and other environmentally significant decisions is one of the conditions, the methodological basis for overcoming the environmental crisis.

Dialectics (Greek: dialextice - to have a conversation, dispute) - the doctrine of the most general laws of the development of nature, society and knowledge and the universal method of thinking and action based on this doctrine.

Distinguish between objective dialectics, which studies the development of the real world (nature and society) and subjective dialectics - the laws of dialectical thinking (dialectics of concepts).

Law of biogenic migration of atoms (V.I. Vernadsky)

The migration of chemical elements on the earth's surface and in the biosphere as a whole is carried out either with the direct participation of living matter (biogenic migration) or proceeds in an environment whose geochemical features (O2, CO2, H2, etc.) are determined by living matter - as one that currently inhabits the biosphere, and those that have been on Earth throughout geological history.

According to this Law, which is of great theoretical and practical importance, it is impossible to understand the general chemical processes that have taken place and are taking place on the land surface, in the atmosphere and in the depths of the lithosphere and waters inhabited by organisms, as well as in the geological layers composed of the past activity of organisms, without taking into account biotic and biogenic factors, including evolutionary ones. Since people influence, first of all, the biosphere and its living population, they thereby change the conditions for the biogenic migration of atoms, creating the preconditions for even deeper chemical changes in the historical perspective. Thus, the process can become self-developing, independent of the desire of a person and practically, on a global scale, uncontrollable. Hence, one of the most urgent needs is the preservation of the living cover of the Earth in a relatively unchanged state. The same Law also determines the need to take into account the impacts on biota in any projects for the transformation of nature. In these cases, regional and local changes in chemical processes occur, leading, in case of any major errors, to environmental degradation - desertification.

Law of internal dynamic balance

Substance, energy, information and dynamic qualities of individual natural systems and their hierarchy are interconnected so much that any change in one of these indicators causes concomitant functional structural qualitative and quantitative changes that preserve the total amount of material-energy, informational and dynamic qualities of systems where these changes occur. , or in their hierarchy.

Empirically, a number of consequences of the operation of this Law have been established:

A) any change in the environment (substances, energy, information, dynamic qualities of ecosystems) inevitably leads to the development of natural chain reactions aimed at neutralizing the changes made or forming new natural systems, the formation of which, with significant changes in the environment, can become irreversible;
b) the interaction of material-energy ecological components (energy, gases, liquids, etc.), information and dynamic qualities of natural systems is not quantitatively linear, i.e. a weak impact or change in one of the indicators can cause strong deviations in others (and in the entire system as a whole);
c) the changes made in large ecosystems are relatively irreversible. Passing through the hierarchy from bottom to top - from the place of impact to the biosphere as a whole, they change global processes and thereby transfer them to a new evolutionary level;
d) any local transformation of nature causes responses in the global totality of the biosphere and in its largest subdivisions, leading to a relative invariance of the ecological and economic potential (“Trishkin’s caftan rule”), an increase in which is possible only through a significant increase in energy investments.

The law of internal dynamic balance is one of the key provisions in nature management. As long as the changes in the environment are weak and produced on a relatively small area, they are either limited to a specific place, or "extinguish" in the ecosystem hierarchy chain. But as soon as changes reach significant values ​​for large ecosystems, for example, they occur on the scale of large river basins, they lead to significant shifts in these vast natural formations, and through them, in accordance with corollary b), in the entire biosphere of the Earth.

The law of physical and chemical unity of living matter (V.I. Vernadsky)

All living matter of the Earth is physically and chemically one. A consequence naturally follows from the Law: what is harmful to one part of living matter cannot be indifferent to its other part, or: what is harmful to some types of creatures is harmful to others. Hence, any physical and chemical agents that are lethal to some organisms (for example, pest control agents) cannot but have a harmful effect on other organisms. The whole difference lies only in the degree of resistance of the species to the agent. Since in any large population there are always individuals of different quality, including those less or more resistant to physical and chemical influences, the rate of selection for the endurance of populations to a harmful agent is directly proportional to the rate of reproduction of organisms, the speed of alternation of generations. Based on this, with the growing impact of the physicochemical factor, to which the organism with a relatively slow change of generations is resistant, to a less stable, but faster reproducing species, their ability to resist the factor under consideration is equalized.

That is why the long-term use of chemical methods to control plant pests and pathogens of human and warm-blooded animals is environmentally unacceptable. With the selection of resistant individuals of rapidly breeding arthropods, the processing rate has to be increased. However, even these increased concentrations turn out to be ineffective, but they seriously affect the health of humans and vertebrates.

Law of ecological correlation

In an ecosystem, as in any other integral natural-systemic formation, especially in a biotic community, all living species and abiotic ecological components included in it functionally correspond to each other. The loss of one part of the system (for example, the destruction of a species) inevitably leads to the exclusion of all other parts of the system closely related to this part of the system and the functional change of the whole within the framework of the Law of Internal Dynamic Balance.

The law of ecological correlation is especially important for the preservation of living species, which never disappear in isolation, but always as an interconnected group. The operation of the Law leads to a spasmodic change in environmental sustainability: when the threshold of change in functional integrity is reached, a disruption (often unexpected) occurs - the ecosystem loses its reliability property. For example, a multiple increase in the concentration of a pollutant may not lead to catastrophic consequences, but then its negligible increase will lead to a catastrophe.

The influence of nature on society

The geographic environment includes:

1. The territory inhabited by a given ethnic or socio-political entity.

The concept of territory includes the following components:

A) Geographical location (remoteness of the area from the poles and the equator, being on a particular continent, island). A number of features of the country (climate, flora, fauna, soil) largely depend on its geographical location.
b) Surface arrangement, relief. The degree of ruggedness of the terrain, the presence of mountain heights and ridges, their direction and height, the presence of plains and lowlands, the type and nature of the coastline (if the area is on the seashore) - all this characterizes the features of the relief.
c) The nature of the soil - swampy, podzolic, chernozems, sands, weathering crust, etc.
d) The bowels of the earth - features of its geological structure, as well as fossil wealth.

2. Climatic conditions. The quantity and quality of radiant energy received by a given territory from the Sun, air temperature, its daily and seasonal course, air humidity, the amount and nature of precipitation and their distribution by season, the snow line and its height, the presence of permafrost in the soil, the degree of cloudiness, the direction and strength of the winds, the typical weather are the main elements of the climate.

3. Water resources - seas, rivers, lakes, swamps, mineral springs, groundwater. For many aspects of human life, the hydrographic regime of water is important: temperature, salinity, freezing, the nature of the bottom, the direction and speed of the current, the amount of water, the water balance, the quantity and quality of mineral springs, the type of swamps, etc.

4. Flora and fauna. This includes both organisms that permanently live in a given area (all plants, most animals, birds, microorganisms) and those that periodically migrate (birds, fish, animals).

Thus, the geographic environment is understood as the totality of the geographical location, surface structure, soil cover, fossil resources, climate, water resources, flora and fauna on a certain territory of the Earth, on which a certain human society lives and develops.

The unity of society and nature is realized in two ways:

1. genetic (historical). Human society, the social form of the movement of matter, arose on the basis of developing nature.
2. functional - the existence of society is impossible without a constant connection with nature.

There are 4 main influences of nature on the life of society:

1) Biological;
2) Production;
3) Scientific;
4) Aesthetic.

1) Biological influence.

The necessary prerequisites for the existence of society are natural conditions (geographical environment) and population. Moreover, the full life of people is possible only in adequate natural conditions. No one doubts the reality of the influence of weather conditions and the magnetic field of the Earth and the Sun on the aggravation of a number of physical and mental ailments of a person (society). And reports of temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity and geomagnetic situation have become mandatory in weather reports.

A person can exist only within a fairly definite framework of the natural environment, corresponding to the biological characteristics of his organism. He feels the need for the ecological environment in which the evolution of mankind took place throughout its history. Of course, a person has the ability to adapt to changing (within certain limits) environmental conditions. However, with all the mobility, the adaptive capabilities of the human body are not unlimited. When the rate of change in the natural environment exceeds the adaptive capabilities of the human body, then pathological phenomena occur, leading, ultimately, to the death of people.

Throughout previous history, people have been convinced that they are provided with air, water and soil in abundance at all times. Sobering up came only a few decades ago, when, due to the growing threat of an ecological crisis, the shortage of clean air, water and soil became more and more acute. A healthy environment is no less important than material and spiritual needs. In this regard, there is a need to correlate the rate of environmental change with the adaptive capabilities of man, to determine the permissible limits of their impact on the biosphere.

2) Industrial influence.

From time immemorial, in the views on society, concepts have been proposed that attribute a decisive role in history to the natural prerequisites for the existence of society. Already in antiquity, the foundations of the doctrine, which later received the name of geographical determinism, were laid. So, Hippocrates believed that the nature of people is determined by the characteristics of the climate. Aristotle stated: "The peoples of the cold countries of the North of Europe have great courage, but they have little intelligence and wit; therefore, although they remain independent, they do not have a political life and will not be able to dominate the neighboring peoples. The peoples of the hot countries of South Asia, although quite smart but they do not have courage and therefore forever remain in a subordinate position and in captivity.The Hellenes, living in a temperate climate, have the dignity of both: courage and a strong mind, therefore they are independent, willingly engage in political life and are able to dominate over others. mi.”

The geographical direction has been widely used since the beginning of the 18th century. The era of geographical discoveries, the development of capitalism, the need to use natural resources for the development of the economy - all this led to an interest in the geographical environment.

One of the major representatives of the geographical determinism of the 18th century was C. Montesquieu. In his book "On the Spirit of Laws," he says that geographical factors: climate, soil, terrain affect the morals and inclinations of people, and the social system of the people, its way of life, laws depend on them. The peoples of hot countries are as timid as old men, but the peoples of cold climates are as brave as young men. Where the climate is hot, there the people indulge in laziness and effeminacy. Fertile soil gives rise to effeminacy and unwillingness to risk life, paralyzes energy. Fear of punishment is necessary to force the people to work, so despotisms are more likely to take shape in the south than in the north. Barren soil, on the other hand, is conducive to freedom, since the people living on it must themselves obtain for themselves everything that the soil refuses them. Barren soil conditions make people hardened, warlike, inclined to defend their freedom. Montesquieu believed that mountains and islands are favorable conditions for freedom, since they block the conquerors from entering the country. The size of the state also plays a certain role. A small republic may perish from an external onslaught; a monarchy, which usually has a large territory, on the contrary, resists an external enemy much better. However, Montesquieu believed that the laws of the people should correspond not only to geographical factors, but also to the economic situation, the religion of the people and their political convictions.

The geographical direction in sociology concealed the possibility of inferring the inequality and inequality of races and peoples, the enslavement of the peoples of hot countries as a natural consequence of climatic and natural conditions. Proponents of geographical determinism usually derive differences in the economy, way of life, customs, and religious beliefs from differences in the natural conditions in which peoples live. It was said that peoples who lived in hot climates did not develop culture to the level that exists in temperate countries, since they do not have to work hard, they do not need warm buildings, they manage with simple clothes. In these countries the industry is not developed. People have a fickle character, with transitions from one extreme to another. On the contrary, they say, the northerners, who have to lead their lives in a harsh climate, work hard to make and improve tools, they develop a strong character, the ability to steadily go towards the intended goal. In a temperate climate, where you also need to constantly work, but where nature is more easily amenable to the efforts of society, complex technology is formed, culture develops. The peoples of these countries have a special character, different from both southerners and northerners. It was said that the climate of North Africa or Central Asia created nomadic inhabitants, while the climate of Greece led to pastoralism and agriculture.

Repeatedly there were assertions that differences in geographical conditions give rise to differences in the art of peoples. So, the Italians created cheerful, cheerful melodies, the Germans - an even, concentrated song, the Norwegians - a gloomy, strong one. The Russians in the North have mournful and drawn-out songs, in the South they sing dashingly, spaciously.

The geographical direction was continued in the works of L.I. Mechnikov (1838-1888). The scientist sought to prove that the geographical environment is the decisive force of historical progress, while emphasizing the special role of waterways. "From our point of view, the main reason for the birth and development of civilization are rivers. In any case, a river is, as it were, an expression of a living synthesis of the entire set of physical and geographical conditions and climate, and soils, and the relief of the earth's surface, and the geological structure of a given area" . It should be noted that our scientists did not draw extreme conclusions from geographical determinism. L.I. Mechnikov, in particular, said that all people, regardless of where they are, are capable of creating cultural values.

Geographic determinism in general has been criticized. Its main disadvantages are as follows:

He approaches the problem of the development of society one-sidedly, sees the driving forces of the development of society in external factors, actually downplaying or leaving aside the internal determinants of social development.
The natural rate of change in natural conditions is much slower than the rate of evolution of society. The assertion of the fact that an almost unchanged phenomenon is the cause of a change in another phenomenon contradicts the very concept of causality. Moreover, if we agree with geographical determinism, then how to explain that practically the same geographical environment in England brought to life the handicraft, then the manufacturing, then the industrial, then the post-industrial periods of her life? You can also pay attention to the fact that the USA, Britain and Japan are developed capitalist countries with different geographical environments.
Geographical determinism considers the degree of influence of the natural environment on the development of society as something invariable.
Geographical determinism poorly takes into account the reverse influence of human society on nature, without rising to a comprehensive analysis of the problem of interaction between society and nature.

3) Scientific influence.

The components of the geographic environment in natural conditions change slowly. Their changes occur at a much faster pace as a result of human impact on them.

Interest in the study of nature increased with the development of natural science in the Renaissance and the beginning of the New Age. F. Bacon believed that the knowledge of nature is necessary for the well-being of society. There is a conviction that the goal of science is the knowledge of nature and the provision of dominance over it. Changes in nature, which are the result of human activities, are increasing. Forests have been cut down over large areas and arable land has been created, dams and canals have been built, mountains have been dug with tunnels, mines have been built in the bowels of the earth, hundreds of millions of kilometers of roads have been built, and so on. Each new generation brings new changes to the geographical environment. Discoveries in science and technical innovations, one way or another, are reflected in one or another element of the geographical environment or in the entire geographical environment as a whole. Today it is impossible to find a place on Earth where nature has remained unchanged due to human activities. A person opens up more and more new opportunities for using the geographical environment for his own purposes.

The progress of the "society - nature" system is determined by the progress of social consciousness: the constant replenishment of the knowledge accumulated by society about nature, through cognition, the discovery by individual consciousness of the laws of the development of nature, the discovery of techniques and methods for using these laws in order to better meet the needs of man and society. All knowledge is accumulated in the form of scientific theories, production technologies, various products of production (in the form of products of the activity of all generations of individuals forming society, products that reflect the level and volume of knowledge about nature accumulated by society).

4) Aesthetic impact.

The geographical environment in a certain way affects the spiritual life of society. As an example of this, one can point to folklore, landscape painting, dances, etc. different peoples of different countries.

Society for the Conservation of Nature

The public environmental movement in Russia also has its own history, failures and quite concrete successes.

For almost a hundred years, the Russian intelligentsia has been continuously working to protect nature. Environmental ideas were developed by such outstanding scientists and organizers of science as V. I. Vernadsky, N. I. Vavilov, V. P. and A. P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, and I. P. Borodin. In the first years of Soviet power, environmental ideas were supported by A. V. Lunacharsky, P. G. Smidovich, F. N. Petrov, V. T. Ter-Ovanesov.

Central Bureau of Local History (CBK). The first mass organization engaged in historical, cultural and environmental education was the Central Bureau of Local Lore (CBK), created under the auspices of the Academy of Sciences and the State Committee for the Protection of Natural Monuments. At the end of the 1920s, this mass organization had 2,270 local branches, with almost 60,000 members. The state policy of the “rational” use of natural resources throughout the existence of the Soviet government was aimed at the goals of the industrialization of the country and the transformation of nature. With the onset of mass repressions in the 1930s, the environmental movement was practically liquidated and began to revive only at the end of the 1950s.

All-Russian Society for the Protection of Nature (VOOP). From the first days of Soviet power, nature protection was regarded as one of the most important state tasks and as the business of the whole people.

Therefore, on the initiative of prominent state and public figures of the young Soviet state A. V. Lunacharsky, N. K. Krupskaya, N. A. Semashko, F. N. Petrov, as well as famous scientists G. A. Kozhevnikov, S. A. Buturlin , N. M. Kulagina, V. I. Taliev, F. F. Schillinger and others On November 29, 1924, the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Nature was created. From the first days, the society developed as a democratic organization, in which various segments of the population were involved. Two years later, the society consisted of 490 Muscovites and more than 520 residents of other cities, among whom were employees and workers, teachers of schools and universities, and students. Members of the society carried out environmental propaganda work among the population, gave lectures. The society produced colorful posters, leaflets and brochures about nature conservation. In addition, members of the society carried out activities to protect birds, rescue young fish after spring floods, plant greenery in settlements, and organized public inspections to combat environmental pollution. Along with this, the society developed and submitted proposals to the state authorities to improve the cause of nature protection. The society was popular among the people, and less than a quarter of a century after its creation, branches of the society were created in all regions, territories and autonomous republics of Russia. Over time, nature conservation societies appeared in all republics.

Prior to the start of perestroika, this organization had a network of regional and district branches, to which the primary organizations that existed in almost all institutions were subordinate. About 30 million Soviet citizens were members of the VOOP. The activities of the primary VOOPs were reduced to collecting small membership fees, organizing events for planting greenery in settlements and planting trees along highways. Until now, this organization remains officially authorized. At present there are regional branches of the Society in about 45 subjects of the Russian Federation. The most active branches are Vladimir, Kamchatka, Karelian, Yekaterinburg. Some branches have developed commercial activities and become independent legal entities and have effectively lost contact with the VOOP. Nevertheless, the leadership of the VOOP believes that about 5 million Russians are currently members of the organization.

VOOP made a significant contribution to the protection of nature in the RSFSR. During the ninth five-year plan alone (1971-1975), under the leadership of the society and with the direct participation of its members, 335 million ornamental and 109 million fruit trees and shrubs were planted, 3 million hectares of forest and more than 770 thousand hectares of shelter belts were planted, about 18,000 hectares were planted lawns and squares, about 13 million artificial nests were made and equipped, more than 15 thousand tons of seeds of valuable trees and shrubs were collected and handed over to procurement organizations. The society did a great deal of work to identify, record and organize the protection of natural monuments. During the tenth five-year plan (1976-1980), about ten thousand unique geological, water, botanical, zoological and complex natural objects were identified and taken under protection. Society paid great attention to the organization of work with children and schoolchildren. Only in Russia there were about 5.5 thousand school forestries, which worked on more than 2 million hectares of state forests. More than 2 million "green patrols" stood guard over the forests and their inhabitants. Practically in all higher educational institutions, student teams for nature protection worked. And these are not only “inflated” statistics, these are data based on real facts, such as forty-year-old handsome poplars that stand on the sides of the Rostov-Taganrog highway, planted by students of universities in Rostov and Taganrog in the days of our youth.

Nature Conservation Teams (DOP). In the 1950s, a new stage in the struggle for the preservation of the historical appearance of Moscow and small towns of Russia, for the preservation of Lake Baikal, began. The new movement was led by many scientists and people of creative professions, including A. L. Yanshin, V. I. Belov and others. The environmental movement of the 1960s began with the creation in 1960 of a student nature protection team (DOP) at the Faculty of Biology and Soil of Moscow State University. Almost from the very beginning, the work of the DOP and nature protection was supervised by the agricultural department of the Central Committee of the Komsomol. DOP combatants were trained in the skills of professional work in the field and organization of work, the practice of interaction with the population and administrative bodies, legal norms and methods of combating poachers. The DOP remained an autonomous organization, although all its activities were controlled and directed by the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League and the Central Council of the VOOP. Due to the specifics of their activities and state organization, the leaders of the DOP had to constantly interact with the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, the State Planning Committee of the USSR, the Ministry of Public Order of the USSR and other state and political organizations. By the mid-1980s, the DOP movement had practically exhausted its organizational capabilities, could not get involved in solving urgent environmental problems, could not adapt to the new political and social situation, and practically ceased to exist.

Socio-Ecological Union (SoEU). By the mid-1980s, in the USSR, on the wave of perestroika, new social movements began to emerge - the Popular Fronts (NF). The NF is a mass legal movement that was the result of public discussions and rallies that were created in support of perestroika. In fact, their activities were directed against the resistance of the party-state system and pursued the development and promotion of new socio-economic programs for the transformation of the social structure. On this wave, a public environmental organization was created in Russia - the Social and Ecological Union (SoEU). SEU can be considered the direct heir of the DOP Movement in the ideological and organizational sense, since its organizers were active members of this movement. The emphasis in the activities of the SEC was placed on the collection of independent information on the state of the environment, which is necessary for the entire population, government organizations, political parties and social movements. The founders of SEU at the conference were legal non-political organizations of democratic orientation. The conference was attended by representatives of 130 non-governmental organizations from 89 cities and 11 republics of the USSR, and only 7 were of a non-environmental profile. More than 280 organizations and 500 individual members, which acted in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Norway, the USA and other countries, became members of the SEC. There are no central governing bodies in this organization. Protests organized by the Social-Ecological Union stopped the construction of the first plant for the destruction of chemical weapons in the city of Chapaevsk, Samara Region, prevented the laying of giant pits for the construction of new hydroelectric power plants, and suspended the implementation of the Moscow-St. Petersburg high-speed highway project. The Union, in cooperation with American organizations, provided a large part of its members with an electronic mail system. The Socio-Ecological Union created the first in Russia non-state natural park “Muravyevsky”, leasing for 50 years 5800 hectares of land in the Amur floodplain to protect the nesting sites of Japanese and white-naped cranes, Siberian roe deer and Manchurian pheasant, summing up the many years of efforts of the Moscow ornithologist Sergei Smirensky .

SEU has acquired an international status and is an international environmental non-profit association of citizens and their organizations. The SES Information Coordination Center has an extensive network of electronic communications, 7 independent news agencies disseminate information via the LineNet electronic communications network. With his support, 9 environmental newspapers and 4 magazines are published.

Widespread in the public education system of the Soviet Union was a network of organizations for extracurricular leisure and education of children, which included stations for young naturalists, young tourists, children's environmental clubs and circles. Now most of these organizations have passed into the status of non-governmental associations, although for many of them the main source of funding remains budgetary funds. On the basis of the Moscow station for young naturalists, the Ecosystem network arose, which unites about 2000 children's groups and is engaged in the publication and distribution of literature for young naturalists. According to our data, the number of children involved in the work of children's environmental centers, unfortunately, has decreased tenfold in recent years compared to what it was before.

In the wake of the liberalization of public life and increased public activity in solving environmental problems, after the UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, many environmental public organizations and academies have appeared in Russia.

V. I. Vernadsky Non-Governmental Ecological Foundation. One of these organizations was the V. I. Vernadsky Non-Governmental Ecological Foundation. The founders of the fund are the Russian Joint Stock Company Gazprom, the Russian Joint Stock Company for Energy and Electrification UES of Russia, the Union of Oil Exporters of Russia, the Joint Stock Company Oil Company Lukoil, the Joint Stock Company Yukos, the Savings Bank of the Russian Federation (Moscow Bank), the Ministry of Natural Resources resources of the Russian Federation, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Public Foundation "Holy Russia", Constructive and Ecological Movement of Russia "Kedr", State Committee for Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance of the Russian Federation, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation.

The main goal and task of the V.I. Vernadsky is to promote sustainable environmentally oriented development of the Russian Federation, protect and improve the health of Russians, create conditions for their harmonious spiritual and cultural development. At the same time, it should be noted that the management of the fund proceeds from the fact that the economy of our country is traditionally focused on the raw materials industries, and therefore highlights the development of a new strategy for the balanced (sustainable) development of industrial sectors related to the extraction and processing of natural resources, however, subject to the conservation and restoration of existing ecosystems. One of the priorities of the Foundation's activities is the promotion, study and development of the scientific heritage of the great Russian scientist Academician Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky, the founder of Russian geochemistry, biogeochemistry, radiogeology, the founder of his scientific school.

The Fund's activities are aimed at solving the problem of harmonizing the interaction between man and nature. At the same time, the priority tasks of the fund's activities are financial and economic analysis and evaluation of investment projects, environmental consulting and auditing, development, financing and lending of environmental programs and projects of gas and oil producing and processing enterprises, environmental monitoring. The implementation of the entire program of the Fund's activities allows minimizing losses, reducing environmental risks, increasing competitiveness through the production of environmentally friendly products, preventing and eliminating emergencies, and improving the management system in the field of nature protection.

Scientific societies of Russia have played and are playing an important role in the protection of nature. Among them, it is necessary to mention the Moscow Society of Nature Testers, the Society of Amateur Hunters and Fishermen, the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists, the Union for the Protection of Birds of Russia, the Radiobiological Society, the Biological Society, etc.

In the last decade, a number of new public academies of nature protection and ecological profile have appeared in Russia.

International Academy of Ecology and Life Safety Sciences. The Academy was founded on the initiative of Professor O. N. Rusak in St. Petersburg. The noospheric concept, focused on faith in the human mind, underlies the scientific activities of the Academy. Based on the noospheric concept, the main priority areas of the Academy's activities have been determined. Upbringing, enlightenment and education are the main prerequisites for creating safe conditions for the existence of human society. The activity of the Academy is aimed at finding new and developing existing forms and methods of education, enlightenment and education of all strata and all age groups of the population in the field of ecology, nature management, life safety, protection from extreme and emergency situations. In the field of scientific activity of the Academy, the priority areas are environmental security problems, protection of the air environment and water resources, environmental protection, radiation and nuclear safety, legal security problems, medical security problems, security of various areas of human activity, extreme and emergency situations. The Academy establishes links with national and international scientific and public organizations dealing with security, environmental protection, ecology, emergency situations. During the existence of the Academy, more than 20 scientific and practical conferences, seminars and congresses have been held, a publishing house has been established, the publication of the MANEB Bulletin and the periodical newspaper Ecology and Safety has been organized, research work has been carried out, dozens of textbooks and monographs have been published, and dissertation councils have been created. , awarding on the basis of the defense of the relevant dissertation the scientific degrees of candidate and doctor of environmental sciences, emergency situations, organized branches of the Academy in Belarus, Bulgaria, Vladivostok, Chita, Samara, Irkutsk, Voronezh, Tula, Kurgan, Norilsk and other cities. Scientific readings “White Nights” are held annually.

The Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (RANS) - The Russian Academy of Natural Sciences is an all-Russian creative scientific organization that unites natural scientists and humanitarians. Created by the founding congress. The organizer of the Academy was the Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, Professor of the State Geological and Exploration Institute. Sergo Ordzhonikidze Dmitry Andreevich Mineev. The founders of the Academy were prominent scientists of Russia, such as the Nobel Prize winner Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences A. M. Prokhorov, academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences G. N. Flerov, A. L. Yanshin, V. I. Gol'danskii and others. members. The Academy independently organizes and coordinates work in the field of fundamental and applied scientific research in 14 sections and 11 departments, including such sections as “Biology and Ecology”, “Noospheric Knowledge and Technologies” and the departments “Ecology, Hydrogeology, Engineering Geology, Geocryology” ”, “Environmental Sciences”, etc. The Academy has branches in 44 cities of Russia. The Academy has over 150 foreign members. The Academy actively cooperates with many state and public organizations in Russia and the CIS countries, as well as with international organizations.

The Russian Ecological Academy was established as an interregional ecological academy. By the decision of the Ministry of Justice, it was transformed into the Russian Ecological Academy. The founder of the Academy was the Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Chairman of the Problem Council of the Academy of Sciences "Man and the Biosphere" under the MAB program, for many years the permanent president of the Moscow Society of Nature Testers Academician Alexander Leonidovich Yanshin. The supreme governing body of the REA is the general meeting of the academy. The rest of the time the academy is managed by its presidium, which includes the president of the academy, vice-presidents, chairmen of regional departments and a number of prominent scientists and specialists. The Academy has the following sections: agroecology, biodiversity and nature protection, global environmental problems, engineering ecology and technogenesis, social ecology, sustainable development and noospherogenesis, environmental education and education, ecology and health, ecology and natural resources, environmental economics. The Academy has 46 regional branches in regional centers and autonomies of the Russian Federation.

Resource centers. The resource centers, the total number of which is 100-150, include the Center for Wildlife Conservation in Moscow, the Union "For Chemical Safety" in Moscow, the Association "Green Karelia", the Lipetsk Club "Ecolog", the Moscow Association "Ecohelp", the Joint Stock Company of the Closed type "Ekodom" in Novosibirsk and many others.

The most famous environmental international organizations have their representative offices in Russia.

The International Green Cross was created during the UN conference in Rio de Janeiro. Its branch was founded in Moscow, and currently there are about 10 regional branches.

environmental parties. With the beginning of the liberalization of Russian society, two environmental parties were organized. The Russian Green Party was registered, which, as a political party, unsuccessfully tried to participate in the elections to the State Duma. At the same time, the Ecological Party “Kedr” was created to participate in the elections. Both state and public organizations in Russia are doing a lot of work on international cooperation. Representations of major international environmental organizations such as Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the International Green Cross, etc. have been opened in Russia. Russia is an active member of many international organizations and a party to many conventions.

Laws of nature and laws of society

1. Matter is everything that really exists in the world.
2. Matter exists independently of human consciousness.
3. Matter is cognizable, as it acts on the sense organs.

Conventionally, matter can be divided into two types: matter and field:

Matter is a type of matter, consisting of particles that have a rest mass.
The field is a kind of matter, consisting of particles that do not have a rest mass, that is, they exist only in motion with a speed limit for our world of 300,000 km/s. All regularities of fields indicate that the field is a state of matter not of our world, but of a smaller microworld, the elementary particles of which are forty orders of magnitude smaller than the elementary particles of our world.

Matter properties:

1. The main property of matter is variability.

2. Matter exists only in space and time.

Space is the dimensions of matter. Space itself does not exist without matter. Time is the gap between cause and effect. Time always flows in one direction: from cause to effect, but the speed of the flow of time can be different and depends on the speed of movement. Space and time form the information field of matter.

3. Matter is an infinite set of nested worlds, therefore matter is infinite in space and time and continuous, that is, it completely fills the entire space. The speed of the flow of time in nested worlds is different.

Addition: On the infinity of matter.

The surrounding world is infinite, but it is infinite not only in the form that no matter where you move, you will not find the end. Matter is infinite because it is an infinite set of nested worlds. For example, our Universe is just an elementary particle of some larger world, and an elementary particle of our world is a gigantic universe of a microworld, which in turn consists of smaller particles, and so on ad infinitum.

You can describe it in another way. All the matter of our world, from elementary particles to superstars and galaxies, “floats in a broth” consisting of particles of a smaller microcosm with particle sizes 42 orders of magnitude smaller than our elementary particles. And all our particles are only “clots” from this “broth”. And in turn, this microcosm - the broth floats in the broth of even smaller particles, and so on ad infinitum. And our macrocosm is just an elementary particle of "broth" for a larger world than ours.

This law establishes a quantitative relationship between different types of matter.

“Energy and mass do not disappear and do not arise from nothing, but are only transferred from one body to another.”

“During the interaction of different types of matter, the total energy and mass of the system does not change.”

This law establishes the cause of the spontaneous change of matter.

“In any form of matter, there are necessarily two opposite qualities that are constantly fighting, and as a result of this struggle, matter changes.”

So, the main and only reason for the change of matter is the struggle of contradictions. Why did it happen? Most likely, the reason is that our world was originally composed of two opposites: particles and antiparticles.

In addition to the law of unity and the struggle of opposites, there are two additional laws:

1. The law of negation of negation.
2. The law of transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones.

These laws reveal the forms of the struggle of contradictions and the results of this struggle, but in very general terms and for practical purposes, as a rule, they are not used.

The presence and struggle of opposite qualities in any kind of matter and in any natural phenomenon leads to the fact that everything in nature is periodically repeated and all changes are an oscillatory process. Therefore, the struggle of contradictions can be represented in the form of a graph of oscillations, or it is possible to make a calculation using the formulas for oscillatory motion. But at the same time, it should be remembered that most often changes in nature are the result of the struggle of several pairs of contradictions at once, and the form of oscillations is always complex. It would seem that if there are two opposites, and equal in magnitude, then they should lead to equilibrium. But between two opposite qualities there is always a spatial and temporal difference, and the balance can only be temporary.

The main contradictions in inanimate nature:

1. Contradiction between kinetic and potential energy.

This contradiction appears in the interaction of individual objects and particles and explains the periodicity of all processes in nature.

2. The contradiction between chaos and order.

This contradiction manifests itself in the interaction of a large number of objects of the same type (for example, molecules in a substance or people in a society). Order and chaos are not the same. Order turns into chaos without additional external forces, spontaneously, and chaos can be turned into order only with the help of external forces. In terms of time, the mutual transformations of chaos and order are not equivalent, chaos turns into order slowly, and order turns into chaos abruptly, catastrophically.

Our universe is at the stage of transformation of chaos into order, at the stage of complication. For our world, the external force that transforms chaos into order is the force of electromagnetic and gravitational interaction.

The main features of living matter are the ability to support life, feed and multiply.

Living matter is divided into two types: plants and animals.

Plants feed on inorganic substances and directly absorb the energy of the sun.

Animals feed on organic matter of plant (and later animal) origin and use the energy accumulated by the plant world. Unlike vegetation, animals have a control system or brain. Animals are able to live, eat, reproduce and consume information.

All living beings form food chains, where each new species of living beings feeds on one of the previous species. The mechanism for the emergence of new types of living beings is purely energetic, that is, it depends on the amount of nutrition (that is, energy) created by the previous types of living beings. It is not the type of food, but only the method of obtaining food, that distinguishes living beings from each other.

The role of wildlife on Earth lies in the fact that wildlife is a store - an accumulator of the energy of the Sun on Earth. Plants absorb the sun's rays and convert the Earth's inorganic matter into organic matter - into protein - the most efficient energy accumulator. Herbivores by eating plants create a more concentrated, more energetic protein. Predatory animals, eating herbivores, create even more energy protein. And all this, ultimately, is deposited in the ground and gradually concentrated in the form of oil, gas, coal, peat, etc.

The main occupation for people (as well as for animals) is the extraction of livelihoods.

Society is an integral self-organizing system of interactions between people in the process of carrying out their specific life activity. The most stable and significant forms are social relations, in which the individual is reduced to the social.

The vital activity and development of society take place in organic unity with nature, of which it is a part:

Firstly, man and society are connected with nature by their origin, since they “came out” of nature as a result of its long evolution.
Secondly, having relatively separated from nature, they continue to depend on it, since their very existence is ensured by the exchange of substances and energy with the natural environment.
Thirdly, nature provides society with the forces and materials necessary for the implementation of production activities.
Fourth, as a habitat and a material basis for production activities, nature affects the pace of development of the productive forces of society, and in some cases the direction of this development.
Fifth, the entire history of society is ultimately the history of man's "conquest" of nature.
Finally, sixthly, the interaction of society and nature has not only industrial, but also moral, aesthetic and scientific significance for a person.

Man and society primarily interact with that part of nature that is directly involved in the process of human life. This part of nature is reflected in the concept of "geographical environment". At the same time, society (man), carrying out its historical life activity, constantly pushes the boundaries of its interaction with its natural environment, as a result of which the very concept of the geographical environment does not remain unchanged, constantly expanding.

The geographical environment affects society not only directly and directly, but, above all, indirectly, through social production, linking nature and society. At the same time, the influence of the geographical environment on society and its development is sometimes so great that a number of scientists in the 18th-19th centuries. (Ch. Montesquieu, G. Bockl, L.I. Mechnikov and others) developed theories that formed the direction in sociology called "geographical determinism". According to them, it is precisely the geographical conditions - climate, soil features, the presence of other natural resources - that have a decisive influence on the mental characteristics of people and even on the entire way of social life.

However, for all the great importance of the geographical environment for people's lives, its role in the development of society, firstly, is not decisive and, secondly, changes historically.

Analyzing this role, K. Marx singled out two groups of phenomena in the natural human environment:

1) natural sources of livelihood (wild plants, fruits, animals, etc.);
2) natural wealth of the means of labor (waterways, energy resources, natural resources, etc.). In the early stages of human development, when the productive forces were at a low level of development, people were more dependent on natural sources of livelihood. As tools of labor, knowledge and skills develop and improve, people's dependence on these natural sources of life weakens (although it never stops), while the role of the natural resources of the means of labor increases.

Interacting with the geographical environment, society to a greater or lesser extent changes, transforms it, adapting to its needs, thereby creating the so-called second, "humanized" nature, covering not only inanimate objects created by man, but also plants and animals bred by man through artificial selection or created by it through genetic engineering. In this regard, instead of the concept of the geographical environment, the broader concept of “environment” is now increasingly used, which includes not only the natural, but also the environment artificially created by people.

All human life and development take place in a certain habitat, that is, in a part of nature interacting with it. The nature and pace of human impact on nature are determined by the level of development of productive forces, the state of science and technology. At the present stage of the development of science and technology, human activity acquires the character of a geological and even cosmic force. At the same time, not only immediate consequences become extremely important, but also distant, difficult to foresee, and often even unforeseen results of environmental impact.

At present, it can be stated that human intervention in nature often leads to a violation of the natural balance and to those irreversible changes in the natural environment that adversely affect both society and every person. A global environmental problem has risen to its full height and become a global environmental problem. Its essence is that the violation of the natural balance, the poisoning of water and air resources with industrial waste, etc., has assumed alarming proportions and is becoming dangerous for human health and life.

In addition to constant interaction with the natural environment, the most necessary condition for the normal functioning and development of society is the population, because. population density, its structure, including age structure, its growth rates, and other factors that undoubtedly have a great influence on the development of productive forces and the course of the historical process as a whole. Some scientists even considered these factors determining social life, assigning them a progressive or regressive role in the development of society. So, for example, the English priest and economist Malthus, who discovered the law of outstripping growth in the number and density of population in relation to the growth of material goods necessary for people's lives, believed that the ever-growing overpopulation of the Earth threatens humanity with poverty and poverty. He and his followers see a way out in justifying various ways to reduce the population, especially in especially densely populated regions, including epidemics, natural disasters (floods, earthquakes), and even local wars.

The problem of society and nature

The number and density of the population play a certain role in the development of productive forces, but not the main one.

The human population is unevenly distributed on Earth: 7% of the land is occupied by 70% of the total population of the planet, and 10% of the land (mountains, polar regions, deserts) are completely uninhabited.

The problem of population over time becomes more and more acute. Its main aspect - population growth - leads to increased exploitation of nature; the population is approaching a quantitative threshold, technical progress does not keep up with the growth of the population and its needs, there are not enough material resources to ensure normal living conditions for members of society.

K.E. Tsiolkovsky said: "Humanity will not remain forever on Earth, but in the pursuit of light and space, it will first timidly penetrate beyond the atmosphere, and then conquer all the circumsolar space."

The solution of environmental problems is becoming increasingly important in the modern era. The term "ecology" is derived from the Greek okos - house, dwelling and logos - science; is used most often to refer to the science of the relationship between society and nature.

The relationship between society and nature is complex and contradictory. They have changed historically. At first, people simply used the nature around them, the gifts of the earth, forests, rivers, seas, etc. On this basis, hunting, fishing, domestication of animals, simple forms of cattle breeding and agriculture developed. Gradually, their influence on nature deepened and expanded. The material of nature was exposed to more and more fundamental influence in their production activities. More complex methods of soil cultivation were used, crop rotations, industrial methods of processing animal skins, and more developed forms of fishing were introduced. New types of plants and nature of animals were introduced. Woodworking, shipbuilding, the production of clothing and other products from linen, silk, cotton and leather, as well as the construction of roads, buildings, and all kinds of structures developed. In a word, as the productive forces developed - tools of labor, technology of various industries, knowledge and skills of people - their dominance over the surrounding nature increased more and more, due to which an increasing number of their needs were satisfied.

However, by increasing their power over nature, people became increasingly dependent on it. This dependence became especially strong with the development of industrial production. Having switched to the mass use of steam engines and internal combustion engines, people became directly dependent on the availability of minerals in their countries, primarily coal and oil. In the future, the increasing consumption of electricity for industrial, domestic and other purposes has greatly increased the dependence of people on the availability of so-called energy carriers - coal, oil, gas, water and other energy sources.

This is the dialectical-contradictory interdependence of society and nature: gradually increasing its power over nature, society at the same time becomes increasingly dependent on it as a source of satisfying the needs of people and production itself. We are talking, first of all, about the material support for the development of society and its culture.

The problem of the relationship between society and nature is a global, all-human environmental problem. It came to the fore long ago and became especially acute in the second half of the 20th century, when the scale and nature of human impact on nature became threatening to its very existence. The essence of the modern environmental problem lies in the global change in the natural environment for the existence of mankind, in the rapid decrease in its resources, in the weakening of the recovery processes in nature, which calls into question the future of human society.

The global environmental problem, the essence of which was defined above, has many aspects. Each of them is an independent, often large-scale environmental problem, closely related to others.

Currently, the following environmental problems are most often noted:

Rational use of non-renewable natural resources (minerals, mineral resources);
- rational use of renewable natural resources (soil, water, flora and fauna);
- combating pollution and other damage to the natural environment (toxic chemicals, radioactive waste, etc.);
- protection of nature from incompetent and irresponsible interference in its processes.

It must be said that human actions in relation to nature are becoming more and more uncompensated. So, for example, the natural process of coal, oil, gas and other minerals lasts millions of years. However, a huge part of them has been extracted from the bowels of the earth in just the last one hundred and fifty to two hundred years. Today, these resources are running out, at the same time their consumption is increasing many times over. There is a real danger of their complete exhaustion in the next few decades.

The ever-accelerating deforestation, including in Russia, Canada, Brazil and other countries, is also of an uncompensated nature. The forests of these countries are rightly called the "lungs of the planet", since they supply it with oxygen in large quantities. In addition, these and all other forests are of great importance for the normal functioning of soils.

It is important to carry out a comprehensive and at the same time scientific impact on soils. At the same time, forest plantations, irrigation, drainage, and the application of fertilizers, both organic and inorganic, are important, with strict observance of the norms. The main direction in the development of agriculture in the advanced countries of the world is intensification, which means its ever greater transformation into science-intensive production using new equipment, advanced technologies, modern agronomic science, etc.

All-round protection of the animal and plant world is necessary. It has become very complicated, in particular, with the introduction of intensive technologies in agriculture and the active use of chemicals in soil cultivation and plant cultivation.

In order to reproduce and improve the quality of the animal and plant world, it is necessary to carry out selection work to breed new plant species and livestock breeds, improve work in reserves, expand them, and improve their flora and fauna. Finally, it is extremely important to strengthen the protection of forests, rivers, lakes, seas and their inhabitants from all kinds of poachers, causing great harm to wildlife.

Of particular importance is the rational use of water resources, which are necessary: ​​for drinking, maintaining the life of people, animals and plants; for industrial production; for transport purposes; for watering and irrigation of arid lands.

Until now, humanity has been a consumerist attitude to water resources, which are rapidly declining. Especially acute is the problem of fresh water, which is taken from surface and underground rivers, lakes and other reservoirs.

Today, the question arises of protecting not only water bodies, forests, soils, flora and fauna of the Earth, but also the atmosphere and the nearest space, which is increasingly becoming the sphere of scientific and practical activities of people. It should be noted that more than 260 million tons of harmful substances are emitted into the atmosphere annually in the United States - this is about half of the world's emissions. In Russia, the emission of harmful substances into the atmosphere, water bodies and soils is several times less, but also quite large. They are also large in other industrialized countries, including Germany, Great Britain, France, Japan, etc. The main reason for this is the global increase in modern production, most often with the use of multi-waste technologies. The formation of a layer of carbon dioxide (CO2) around the Earth leads to climate change towards its warming. It is assumed that by the middle of the XXI century. the content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will double, and the average temperature on the planet will rise by 1.5-2 degrees. 13 These are the possible consequences of the so-called greenhouse effect. As a result, the level of the World Ocean may rise significantly, which will cause unpredictable consequences.

“Acid pollution of the lower layers of the atmosphere, rainwater and soil” poses a danger. No less danger lies in the "depletion of the ozone layer of the atmosphere, which protects all living things from hard cosmic radiation." Violation of the oxygen balance that has developed in nature, including due to the formation of "ozone holes", has a very adverse effect on the existence of the entire animal world.

The Russian public has repeatedly advocated and continues to advocate for the optimal solution of environmental problems. This is expressed, in particular, by such a deep and meaningful document as the "Memorandum for the Protection of Nature", signed by famous Russian writers, scientists, artists, and other representatives of culture.

Russia participates in the work of many international organizations for the conservation and protection of nature and the implementation of a number of environmental programs. In this area, agreements have been concluded with many countries, including the USA, France, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, etc.

The resolution of the UN Conference, dedicated to the problem of the relationship between human society and the biosphere, proclaimed that people are the most significant value, and every person has the right to a necessary standard of living and a healthy environment. Accordingly, each person is responsible for the protection and improvement of the environment. It is especially emphasized that the natural resources of the Earth should provide an improvement in the quality of life and the possibility of development for future generations. All these provisions remain relevant today.

The problem of population and the ecological problem has taken on a global, planetary character, having gone beyond state borders. According to the author of the control work, they cannot be solved one by one and within the framework of one state.

The impact of society on nature

The interaction of society with nature cannot be only positive or only negative. We are all well aware of the negative impact of human activity on the environment. Therefore, in more detail we will consider the positive impact of society on nature.

The positive impact of man on nature:

1. The creation of reserves and reserves began a long time ago. Today, however, world animal protection organizations are more actively solving the problem of the disappearance of various species of animals and birds. Rare animal species are listed in the Red Book. Many laws prohibiting poaching and hunting protect the animals of many countries.
2. In connection with the growth of the Earth's population, humanity needs to provide itself with a large amount of consumed resources. Therefore, it is necessary to take care of the expansion of agricultural land. But it is impossible to plow the whole Earth for agricultural work. Therefore, people came up with a positive solution to this problem - the intensification of agriculture, as well as a more rational and efficient use of farmland. For this, new varieties of plants have been bred that have a high level of productivity.
3. The consumption of the Earth's energy resources is growing every year tenfold due to the enhanced modernization of the modern world. Man takes virtually all resources from nature. However, they also have their limits. And here the activities of the society began to be directed in a positive direction. Mankind is trying to create a replacement for natural sources of resources, improving methods of mining, so as not to destroy the natural environment of deposits. Fossils began to be spent more economically and used only strictly for their intended purpose. Today, society is creating new ways to extract energy from wind, sun and water tides.
4. Due to the huge amount of industrial waste emissions into the environment, powerful self-cleaning facilities began to be created that process waste from factories and plants, leaving no opportunity for all harmful emissions to remain and decompose.

The negative impact of man on nature:

1. Environmental pollution by production waste products.
2. Poaching, hunting, catching immature fish species. As a result, certain species of fauna do not have time to replenish, and extinction or complete disappearance of animals is observed.
3. Devastation of the Earth's resources. Mankind draws all the resources from the bowels of the Earth, so there is a depletion of natural sources. Population growth is observed every year, and humanity needs more resources.

Today's task of mankind is to preserve the natural balance on Earth for further positive interaction with nature.

Significance of nature and society

An important issue of science and practice is the prediction of the environmental consequences of technogenesis as a result of a long-term transformational process in the natural environment. A reasoned scientific forecast is possible only with a historical approach to this problem, made on the basis of a deep analysis of the patterns of paleoecological materials and the historical development of nature and society in every locus of the globe.

The modern ecological instability of society is a natural result of the previous evolution of society and the environment. Man, thanks to his intellect, the ability to engage in economic activities, has mastered the ability to use natural resources in his own interests. It was constantly improved to normalize its relationship with the environment in different periods of transformation of the Earth's natural ecosystems. It should be noted that from the very beginning of the formation of the noosphere, man inefficiently used the potential of food resources and could not limit his needs. The progressive evolution of society was facilitated by the economic successes of mankind, but the result of the rise in the economy was environmental problems, and mankind constantly teetered on the brink of survival. The very existence of the biosphere is saturated with ecological crises that have contributed to and stimulated the growth of biological diversity. However, the anti-crisis mechanisms developed and regulated by nature itself were not sufficient for the survival of hominids, who were forced to produce artificial tools. Civilization, culture entered a crisis stage when the balance between the ecological culture of using natural resources and the economy of their consumption, including technological progress, was disturbed. The growth of the population, the improvement of production technologies, the growth of social tension, there is a dissonance between the old norms of activity and new forms of management. At the same time, pressure on the natural environment increases, and culture, destroying the conditions of its existence, disappears from the historical arena.

Mankind, despite all its current power and independence, is an integral part and continuation of the evolution of nature. Society is inextricably linked with it and is not able to exist and develop outside of nature, first of all, without the human environment.

The influence of the natural environment on the life of society is especially pronounced in the sphere of production. All material production, which allowed a person to stand out from nature, is based in its basis on the natural component. Minerals, energy sources, products of labor - all from nature.

In the production process, nature is used by man as an object of labor, an object of his transformative activity in the interests of society. Natural resources (primarily minerals) serve as the natural basis for material production and social life. Coming out of nature, humanity is no longer able to exist without the products of labor obtained as a result of material production, the “humanization of nature”.

Nature is the natural basis of human life and society as a whole. Man does not exist outside of nature and cannot exist. Even in space, at space orbital stations, people use the processed benefits of nature. In turn, nature and the cosmos as a whole may well exist without man, do without his presence and activity. This has been the case for many billions of years. Understanding this interrelationship and dependence of society on nature is an urgent need.

The dependence of material production and the life of society on nature, in turn, imposes certain restrictions on human activity. They relate primarily to the reasonable, rational impact of society on nature in the process of social life. The principle “Do no harm” should become integral here.

Natural and social sciences

The classical stage in the development of social and humanitarian knowledge begins from the 16th century to the second half of the 19th century. This stage is characterized by the fact that the development of mechanics and mathematics created the standard of scientific knowledge, the ideal towards which the humanities began to strive. This position in science is called naturalism. Its essence is that natural laws are taken as a universal principle for explaining all phenomena occurring in society and associated with human existence. All this gave rise to the principles of a strict causal relationship and quantitative assessment in the study of spiritual phenomena and the entire society, the desire to create the only true science of nature, man and society.

The non-classical stage (XIX - the beginning of the XX century) is characterized by the fact that in the social sciences and the humanities there is a transition from naturalism to anti-naturalism. In the social sciences, the focus of knowledge on the study of human life, and not the life of nature, began to dominate.

Social sciences and humanities at this stage use new methods of research, which were not at the stage of the classics. These are, first of all, philosophical and hermeneutical methods that are able to clarify the individual-personal, non-formalizable, intuitively expressed aspects of the social. To understand, to have common sense is sometimes more important than to know. The naturalist knows, but the philosopher understands.

The post-non-classical stage in social science falls on 50-70 years. twentieth century, which in the literature is called postmodernism. This stage is associated with the names of famous Western scientists (R. Barthes, J. Bataille, J. Deleuze, J. Dorrida, J. Lyotard, M. Foucault, etc.). The main features of post-non-classical social and humanitarian knowledge were: the idea of ​​the value of chaos and a disordered world; the world loses its core, loses its meaning, loses order and rationality; a new understanding of freedom as freedom from any norms and traditions in the life of society; deconstruction of all philosophical foundations and the introduction into culture of a certain hybridity, metaphor, eclecticism, uncertainty, etc., the creation of a “philosophy of singularity”, a “philosophy of desire”. However, the main idea of ​​post-non-classics - deconstruction did not lead to the creation of new positive ideas and degenerated into the destruction of various systems and structures for the sake of destruction itself. Today, the post-nonclassic has practically exhausted itself in the development of social and humanitarian knowledge.

The sciences of nature are called natural sciences, which explore the Universe, our Earth in the unity of their various subsystems and spheres, where laws and regularities that are independent of man reign. The social sciences are called social sciences (social and humanitarian sciences), which study society as a whole, its main components, driving forces and patterns of development, forms of social organization.

In the relationship between the sciences of nature and the sciences of society, it must be borne in mind that it is unlawful to reduce social science to natural science, they cannot be absolutized, but they cannot be considered mutually exclusive, discrediting both the social sciences and the natural sciences is unacceptable. Natural-science and social-humanitarian knowledge are "branches of one tree" - science as a whole.

The sciences of nature and the sciences of society have in common:

A) both sciences have the goal of knowledge - the truth;
b) the use of theoretical and logical analysis;
c) building idealized models;
d) the use of abstractions and general concepts.

Today, the question of the need for a synthesis of natural science and social science is acute. The basis of such a synthesis in the literature is the principle of global evolutionism, which rests on the theory of a non-stationary Universe; concepts of bio- and noosphere; on the ideas of synergy.

Stages of society and nature

First stage

The interaction of society and nature covers the period from the emergence of the species Homo sapiens to the emergence of agriculture and animal husbandry. This is the period when man was almost merged with nature and completely dependent on it. Man earns his livelihood here with the help of primitive tools, taking them ready-made from nature. He lives by hunting, fishing and gathering. Uses natural shelters as a dwelling. The impact of man on nature is very weak, although even then people were not "angels" in relation to nature. Using the available biological resources of the planet, our distant ancestors could cause certain damage to the natural environment, depleting the flora and fauna in a certain area. This historical stage in the interaction of society with nature is called the biogenic or the period of the “appropriating economy”.

Second phase

In the history of the interaction of society with nature, it is associated with the transition from gathering to agriculture and cattle breeding, i.e. to a productive economy. In different regions of the Earth, this process, called the "Neolithic revolution", proceeded differently, taking 3-4 thousand years in time. As a result of this revolution, there was a sharp increase in the productivity of social labor. Under such conditions, the whole way of life of a person changes. Actively transforming nature in the course of his material and production activity, a person develops new territories, cuts down forests for arable land, creates irrigation facilities, builds settlements for settled life, develops crafts, and improves tools for labor and everyday life.

At this stage, the muscular strength of humans and animals, as well as wind and water energy are used as energy sources. Here man is still organically connected with nature, subordinate to it. The well-being of a person, the provision of his necessary food and other means of life almost entirely depend on natural conditions, climate, soil fertility, animal productivity and other natural factors. The main and decisive condition for the wealth and power of some people over others is the property rights to the land and, accordingly, to what lives, grows, breeds or grazes on it.

The impact of man on the natural environment during this period noticeably intensifies and sometimes begins to acquire a destructive character. Intensive deforestation for arable land, breeding large numbers of domestic animals, the emergence of large human settlements - cities and their development led to climate change in certain territories, to the destruction of natural complexes that had developed on them and even turning them into deserts.

At the same time, for this period of human life, its impact on nature was still insignificant compared to the natural resources available on Earth to meet the growing needs of society. Man here strives to conquer the forces of nature, considering them as something alien and fraught with a threat to his existence. This opposition of man to nature was characteristic primarily of medieval Christianity, which formed an attitude towards nature as something vile and sinful in human life. A person had to direct all his thoughts not to the earthly, natural, but to the heavenly, to God.

This stage in the interaction of society with nature is called agrarian. The transition to this stage meant the birth of the technogenic organization of human life, which continues to exist on Earth at the present time, having acquired its new forms.

Third stage

The interaction of nature and society was called industrial, since the transition to it was associated with the industrial revolution that began in Western Europe in the 18th century. This is the period when there is a transition to the mass use of machines in industrial production. The sources of energy for human production here are not only the power of wind and water, but first of all the power of steam, and later electricity. The use of machines in production made it possible to drastically increase the productivity of human labor and expand man's impact on nature to unprecedented levels in the past.

A variety of mineral, organic and other resources began to be involved in the economic turnover in a constantly growing volume. The results achieved in the transformation of the natural environment, in the industrial use of its resources strengthened the conviction in the power of the human mind, in the unlimited possibilities of man to dominate nature in order to use it in his own interests.

A powerful technogenic impact on nature causes a number of negative problems: the growing pollution of the natural environment (soil, water, atmosphere) with industrial and agricultural waste, the emergence of a real prospect of exhaustion of the planet's raw materials and energy resources necessary to meet ever-growing human needs. There was an understanding of the ecological danger threatening the existence of man on Earth.

Fourth stage

In the interaction of society with nature, it begins (more precisely, its outlines are still being outlined) in our days - under the influence of the scientific and technological revolution that has been unfolding since the 50s of this century. The transformation of science into a direct productive force, on the one hand, raises human production capabilities to a qualitatively new level, and therefore leads to an increase in the consumption of natural resources, but, on the other hand, gives rise to fundamentally new science-intensive technologies that allow more rational use of natural resources without allow pollution of the natural environment by all kinds of industrial and domestic emissions, engage in its reconstruction and improvement.

At the same time, the cumulative negative impact on the Earth's biosphere of various anthropogenic factors, which owe their origin to human activity, continues to increase. The scale of society's impact on nature at the end of the 20th century clearly acquired a planetary character.

Mankind is faced with such global environmental problems as:

- "greenhouse effect" - a phenomenon caused by an increase in the concentration of gaseous substances in the Earth's atmosphere, including carbon dioxide, which was one of the factors in increasing the average temperature on the planet and global climate change;
- acid rain - a mixture of technogenic emissions with precipitation in the form of rain and snow, which leads to negative consequences for humans and individual elements of the biosphere;
- depletion of the "ozone layer" and the appearance of the so-called "ozone holes" - a significant space in the planet's ozonosphere with a markedly reduced ozone content. The depletion of the ozone layer leads to an increase in the flow of ultraviolet rays to the earth's surface, which creates a danger to all life on our planet. Scientists have found that the main reason for the depletion of the Earth's ozone layer is the presence in its atmosphere of a large amount of chlorofluorocarbons, which are widely used in modern production and everyday life;
- deforestation - a noticeable reduction in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bforests on our planet as a result of deforestation for harvesting industrial timber, clearing land for farmland and pastures, for fuel, and also due to environmental pollution with various chemical and other toxicants. Deforestation is one of the most serious environmental problems facing humanity. Deforestation disrupts the balance of oxygen and carbon in the atmosphere, increases soil erosion, disrupts the hydrological regime of rivers, etc.;
- desertification - a process leading to the loss of a continuous vegetation cover by a natural ecosystem with the further impossibility of its restoration without human participation;
- threatening pollution of the environment by various toxicants: hazardous to human health and the entire biosphere of the Earth, industrial and agricultural waste, household activities;
- the danger of exhaustion of the energy, mineral and raw materials that the Earth has.

The list of environmental problems faced by the world community on the threshold of the 21st century, unfortunately, can be continued. The presence of such problems indicates the emergence of an "environmental crisis". Of course, the understanding of the ecological danger hanging over mankind did not arise today. However, the severity of the environmental problems of recent decades is forcing the world community to treat them in a new way. The realization of this danger as real has forced the world community to look for ways to solve environmental problems. At the forum in Rio de Janeiro, documents were adopted in which a program of action was outlined to optimize the relationship of mankind with the natural environment. As the most acceptable strategy of the world community, the concept of sustainable development of civilization, based on the relationship between socio-economic development and the preservation of historically established ecological systems, has been put forward.

The transformation of ecology into one of the most important interdisciplinary sciences of our time can serve as evidence of the increased attention of mankind to the issues of relationships with nature. The term "ecology" itself comes from the Greek. the words "oikos" - house, dwelling or habitat and "logos" - teaching, science. It was first introduced into science by the German biologist E. Haeckel. Initially, ecology was the science of the relationship of organisms and the environment - a branch of biological science, which it continues to be. She is interested in the evolution of ecosystems and the biosphere as a whole. Since the mid-1920s, it has taken shape as the basis for rational environmental management and the protection of living organisms. And at the end of the twentieth century. social ecology is also taking shape, studying the patterns of interaction between society and the environment, as well as the practical problems of its protection. Ecological ethics occupies a special place among its main sections.

One of the first who realized the global scale of the environmental dangers threatening people and outlined possible ways to overcome them were domestic scientists - naturalists and philosophers - representatives of "Russian cosmism" (K.E. Tsiolkovsky, V.I. Vernadsky and others). With the name of K.E. Tsiolkovsky is connected with the development and substantiation of the space concept of the perspective positive development of human civilization. IN AND. Vernadsky proposed a number of conceptual solutions to the contradictions he identified in the world socio-natural system based on the synthesis of biospheric-cosmic concepts.

Forms of interaction between society and nature

If we turn to the theory of law, the subject of legal regulation is public relations. Public relations arise between their subjects - individuals, legal entities and the state.

Nature cannot be a party to a relationship. Material and non-material benefits, about which legal relations arise, are their object. Social relations are relations between people about the objects of the material world, and not the relationship of a person to things, objects of nature and other objects of the material world. This position is also supported by the current legislation.

So, in Art. 4 of the Law on Environmental Protection, components of the natural environment (lands, subsoil, soils, surface and underground waters, forests and other vegetation, animals and other organisms and their genetic fund, atmospheric air, the ozone layer of the atmosphere and near-Earth space) are defined as objects of protection environment. The environment, components of the environment are the objects of legal relations in the field of its protection.

The subject of environmental law is defined as environmentally significant behavior of people, as social relations arising from the protection of the natural environment from harmful chemical, physical and biological influences, ensuring the regime of specially protected natural areas, as well as the protection and use of wildlife.

Thus, the subject of modern environmental law is formed by social relations:

1. ownership of natural objects and resources;
2. on nature management;
3. to protect the environment from degradation;
4. to protect the environmental rights and legitimate interests of individuals and legal entities.

Form of interaction between society and nature

Life in harmony with nature is one of the main principles of life on Earth. At the present stage, the trends of this interaction can be characterized as anthropogenic ecocide - the destruction by people of ecological life on Earth, including the conditions of their own existence.

Until the middle of the XX century. nature was perceived as an inexhaustible resource, and environmental danger was considered unreasonable.

The term "ecology" (from the Greek oikos - house, dwelling, place of residence and logos - science) was introduced into scientific circulation by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel in 1869. Ecology was the science of the relationship of plant and animal organisms to each other and their environment environment.

Currently, ecology is understood as a system of scientific knowledge about the relationship between society and nature, living organisms and their habitat, and about the protection of the natural environment.

Summarizing the vast experience of mankind in its relationship with nature, it can be argued that at first it was complementary, and later became destructive.

The natural environment serves as a condition and means of human life, the territory on which he lives, the spatial limit of the exercised state power, a place for placing industrial, agricultural and other cultural and community facilities.

Thus, the natural environment forms a complex concept, within which two forms of interaction between society and nature have historically developed:

The consumption of nature by man, the use of nature to satisfy man's material and spiritual needs is an economic form of interaction;
protection of the natural environment in order to preserve man as a biological and social organism and his natural habitat - an ecological form.

There are several basic concepts of interaction between society and nature:

1. Naturalistic concept, when nature is considered as a deity, some kind of ideal, towering over society. This concept is manifested in the principle of non-interference in nature, under the motto "Back to nature!".
2. Consumer concept, the main idea of ​​which is the priority, the superiority of man and society over nature under the motto "Enough for our century!".
3. The concept of sustainable development is the most modern concept of protection and development.

The extreme manifestations of the first two named concepts are sometimes called the concept of alarmism (alarm - anxiety), when everything is considered either in black or in pink.

Modern concepts in ecology are characterized by the concept of limiting or limiting the growth of the development of the economy, population, scientific and technological progress, the concept of environmental revolutions (from the consumer approach to the conscious rational use of natural resources).

Basic principles of the concept of sustainable development:

Man (people) as the center of attention, the basis of all efforts, the preservation of the environment specifically for man;
the need to take into account the interests of not only the current generation of people, but also future generations, the awareness of the responsibility of the current generation to the future;
environmental protection is part of the progress (development) of mankind.

Factors of the concept of sustainable development

When implementing these principles, analyzing the concept of sustainable development, we can distinguish three factors that must be taken into account in order to achieve the main goals set in the framework of "sustainable development":

1. environmental factor (the state of the environment in which a person lives);
2. economic factor (transformation of the market system);
3. social factor (agricultural production, human rights, demography).

Together, these factors correspond to the idea of ​​complexity, since the interaction of these three factors is necessary to achieve environmental well-being, the omission of at least one will lead to the emergence of another problem instead of the old one.

The role of society in nature

Human society is part of nature. And it doesn't need much proof. After all, natural chemical, biological and other processes take place in the body of each person. The human body acts as a natural basis for its social activities in the field of production, politics, science, culture, etc.

As a rule, natural processes occurring in society acquire a social form, and natural, primarily biological, patterns act as biosocial ones. This can be said about the satisfaction of people's natural needs for food, warmth, procreation, and others. All of them are satisfied in a social form with the help of properly prepared food (almost every nation has its own "kitchen"), a built dwelling, most often meeting certain aesthetic criteria, and also with the help of socially organized family communication. Biosocial laws express the mutual influence of biological and social principles in the development of society.

The role of nature in the life of society has always been significant, because it acts as a natural basis for its existence and development. People satisfy many of their needs at the expense of nature, primarily the external natural environment. There is a so-called exchange of substances between man and nature - a necessary condition for the existence of man and society. The development of any society, of all mankind is included in the process of development of nature, in constant interaction with it, and ultimately in the existence of the Universe.

The organic connection between man and nature makes it necessary to fully take into account natural factors in the development of society. That is why nature has always been an object of attention.

Coming out of the bosom of nature, as its highest and specific manifestation, society does not lose its ties with it, although it significantly changes their character. The connections of people with nature are carried out mainly on the basis of and within the framework of their social activities, primarily production, related to the field of material and spiritual production.

Nature has been and remains a natural environment and a prerequisite for the existence and development of society. Its natural environment includes, first of all, the earth's landscape, including mountains, plains, fields, forests, as well as rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, etc. All this constitutes the so-called geographical environment of human life. However, the natural environment is not limited to this. It also includes the bowels of the earth, the atmosphere and outer space, and, ultimately, all the natural conditions for the life of people and the development of society - from the microcosm to the macro- and mega-world.

The importance for society of both inanimate and animate nature is increasing. Living nature makes up the biosphere of the Earth: flora and fauna, the existence of which is objectively necessary for the existence of man and society.

Assessing the importance of nature in the life of society, some thinkers came to the conclusion that it completely determines its development. Pointing to the harmony and beauty of nature, one of the representatives of philosophical romanticism, J.J. Rousseau, argued that the separation of mankind from nature and its transition to civilization (which he characterized as vicious) is the source of all the troubles and misfortunes of people. The preservation of organic unity with nature is the key to the well-being of society, each person. The truth and value of judgments about the unity of society and nature are especially clear to us today.

The decisive role of nature in the development of society was pointed out by the ancient thinker Herodoti, the thinkers of the New Age C. Montesquieu, A. Turgot and others. The latter developed views that were called geographical determinism. Its essence lies in the assertion that nature, which is interpreted as the geographical environment of the life of society, acts as the main cause of the phenomena occurring in society. It determines not only the direction of the economic life of people, but also their mental make-up, temperament, character, customs and mores, aesthetic views and even forms of government and legislation, in a word, their entire social and personal life. So, C. Montesquieu argued that the climate, soils "and the geographical position of the country are the reason for the existence of various forms of state power and legislation, determine the psychology of people and the warehouse of their character. He wrote that" the peoples of hot climates are timid like old people, the peoples of cold climates are brave like young men". In his opinion, the climate and geographical environment determine the "character of the mind and passion of the heart", which inevitably affects the psychology of people, the nature of their art, customs and laws.

Therefore, the role of nature are as follows:

1. Nature is, first of all, the environment of life.
2. Nature is also of economic importance. It is from nature that a person draws all the necessary resources for the development of his economic activity; to increase wealth.
3. The scientific significance of nature follows from the fact that it is the source of all knowledge.
4. The educational value of nature lies in the fact that communication with it has a beneficial effect on a person at any age, diversifies the worldview.
5. The aesthetic value of nature is enormous. Nature has always been the inspirer of art, occupying, for example, a central place in the work of landscape and animal painters. The beauty of nature attracts people and has a beneficial effect on their mood.

Man is part of nature and society

The long process of evolution of living matter was a process of adaptation, adaptation to changing environmental conditions. Acting by trial and error, nature sought to find an option corresponding to the best adaptation to environmental conditions. In the animal world, this process was carried out by mutations, culling out harmful and fixing beneficial changes.

In the course of human evolution, the mechanism of adaptation is increasingly moving into the social sphere. Human society as a whole can be seen as an adaptive system. The foregoing allows us to define the subject of human ecology as the study of social and biological mechanisms of adaptation of human society to the environment.

In order to better understand the problems of human ecology in the modern world and develop recommendations for the future, it is necessary to know how the relationship between man and nature developed in the past.

The history of the development of nature and its individual components (climate, vegetation, fauna, relief, etc.) is studied by a special science - paleogeography. Another science - archeology - has reliable information about the development of primitive society: its social structure, economy, material and spiritual culture. Comparison of the data of these two sciences makes it possible to reconstruct the interaction of nature and human society in the past, to identify some fundamental patterns of this process, which may be useful for predicting the behavior of the nature-man system in the future. At the junction of paleogeography and archeology, a new scientific direction is emerging - human paleoecology. The task of this direction is to restore the history of social and biological adaptation of mankind to the changing conditions of the natural environment.

The ancient natural environment began to be studied almost simultaneously with the discovery of the first reliable monuments of the Stone Age in Europe in the second half of the 19th century. In our country (taking into account the heritage of the USSR), comprehensive studies on human paleoecology have been carried out since the 20-30s of the current century, when numerous Stone Age sites were discovered in the Crimea, in the central regions and in the north of the European part of Russia, as well as in Siberia. In the late 40s in the 50s, the supporting monuments of the Stone Age on the Desna, Don, and Dniester were studied. At present, complex archaeological and paleogeographic studies have covered almost the entire country.

The main problems of normalizing the relationship between nature and man

First of all, we must clearly establish that man is a product of the evolutionary development of nature, this is the crown of its creation, this is the most perfect product of nature, that is, it is a part of nature.

Now the misfortune of mankind lies in the fact that it does not always seek to know the laws of nature and apply them correctly. As a result of this, more and more conflict situations arise between nature and society, entailing the degradation of the human environment - pollution of the Earth's biosphere, the growth of the world's deserts, the impoverishment of the planet's gene pool - the destruction of a number of plant and animal species, etc. We forget the prophetic words K. Marx that human projects that do not take into account the great laws of nature bring only misfortune. It should be answered that, outlining the works of Marx, V.I. Lenin underlined these words twice and repeatedly this idea, in one wording or another, is found in the works of Vladimir Ilyich.

The complexity of normalizing the relationship between nature and human society is determined by private ownership of natural resources in a number of countries around the world. There are known examples of the ugly attitude of the capitalist countries to nature. In Tokyo, 75 thousand pipes emit sulfur dioxide, nitrogenous compounds, carbon dioxide, etc. into the atmosphere. Mount Fuji is hidden in smog clouds for eight days out of nine. Some plants, including the famous sakura, are almost extinct. As a result of the discharge of untreated water from enterprises into the river. On the Hudson, oysters, most of the fish, disappeared in 300 years, it is not safe to swim in the river and it is called the "giant waste reservoir". In pursuit of super profits, capitalism unrestrainedly exploits natural resources, violates ecological systems and leads to the degradation of its environment.

Acute problems of the relationship between nature and society worry the majority of the population of our planet. The protection of nature is a universal matter, it requires the efforts of all mankind.

SOCIETY AND NATURE

Nature in philosophy is usually understood as everything that exists, the whole world, subject to study by the methods of natural science. Society is a special part of nature that stands out as a form and product of human activity. The relationship of society with nature is usually understood as the relationship between the system of human community and the habitat of human civilization. In the broad sense of the word, nature is understood as everything that exists, in the narrow sense it is perceived as something that gave rise to and surrounds a person, serves as an object of knowledge for him. Nature is an object of natural science, the scope of which is determined by the technological capabilities of mankind for the knowledge of the laws of the world and its change in accordance with human needs.

In philosophical terms, nature, first of all, correlates with society, since it is a natural condition for the existence of people. Society appears as a separate part of nature, a condition and a product of human activity.

The concept of ʼʼbiosphereʼʼ to denote the living shell of the earth was introduced in 1868 by ᴦ. French scientist E. Reclus. In the 20s. In the 20th century, V.I.Vernadsky developed the fundamental concept of the biosphere and introduced the concept of ʼʼnoosphereʼʼ, the sphere of the mind that transforms the planet. The constituent parts of the earth are: lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere.

The society also has its constituent parts:

■ troposphere- the sphere of life of people as biological organisms.

■ Sociosphere - area of ​​social relations between people.

■ Biotechnosphere - area of ​​distribution of the technical influence of mankind.

The relationship between nature and society is an eternal and always relevant problem of philosophy and all humanitarian knowledge. The most acute problem of our time is the ratio of humanity and the living and non-living spheres of our planet.

With the advent of human society, nature began to experience anthropological influence (the influence of human activity). In the 20th century, the impact of man on nature increased dramatically. Already at the end of the 19th century. the first signs of deterioration in the quality of the biosphere appeared due to the development of technogenic civilization. This was the beginning of the era of the conquest of nature. Nature began to be considered by man not as an independent reality, but as a source of raw materials in production activities. As a result of what happened in the 20th century. scientific and technological revolution, anthropogenic influence approached a catastrophic threshold.

The main problem of anthropological influence is the discrepancy between the needs of mankind and its influence on nature and the possibilities of nature itself. In this regard, an ecological problem arises - the problem of protecting the environment from the destructive influence of man.

The main problems of ecology: depletion of mineral resources, environmental pollution, destruction of flora and fauna. One of the components of the environmental problem - the problem of social ecology - the protection of man, his health, society as a whole from the influence of scientific and technological progress.

A special problem in the interaction of man and nature is the problem of population, which over time becomes more and more acute and becomes the main one for mankind. Its main aspect - population growth - leads to increased exploitation of nature; the population is approaching a quantitative threshold, technological progress does not keep pace with the growth in numbers! population and its needs, not enough material! means to ensure normal living conditions for members of society, there is a negative trend in population growth.

Most of these problems have taken on a global, planetary character, having gone beyond state borders. Οʜᴎ is a universal task. They cannot be solved one by one and within the framework of one state.

SOCIETY AND NATURE - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "SOCIETY AND NATURE" 2017, 2018.

1. In the 20th century, due to the sharp intensification of human impact on nature, the rapid development of science and technology, the increased need for minerals, especially energy resources, with population growth, the emergence of new types of weapons, including nuclear, has become relevant the problem of relations between society and nature.

concept "nature" has two main meanings. In a broad sense, this is the whole world around (including man, society), that is, the Universe. In a narrow sense - the environment in which the life of a person and society takes place (that is, the surface of the Earth with its various qualitative characteristics, climate, minerals, etc.).

Society- a set of forms of organization of life and activities of people, an integral system of the joint life of individuals (relationships, interaction, order, traditions, culture).

The relationship of society with nature is understood as the relationship between society - an integral system of human community - and nature in the narrow sense of the word, that is, the habitat of human civilization.

2. Nature is much older than society.

If the history of nature has several billion years, then the history of mankind is calculated only in millions of years, and organized human society has existed only for the last few millennia.

Nature is an essential condition for the life of man and society, since life itself can develop only in a special environment, and a unique(requires the presence of air, water, optimal temperature, nutrition).

Such unique conditions (set of conditions) met only on planet Earth. At present, a large number of planets have been explored in various star systems, and none of them not all the conditions for the emergence of life. Based on the assumption of the infinity of the Universe, it can be theoretically assumed that somewhere there are planets, like the Earth, that have all the possibilities for life, but the modern development of science does not allow them to be detected. (There is another theory, according to which life on Earth is a unique phenomenon.)

Earth Benefits (compared to other planets) for the emergence of life in that:

The Sun is the star around which the Earth and others revolve.

planets of the solar system - has an average size and

life force: life is impossible around too large ("hot") stars and too small ("cold");

The Earth is at the optimal distance from the Sun - 150 million km farther from the Sun, it would be covered with ice);

The Earth has a moderate size: too small planets (Mercury, Pluto) have too little attraction to create an atmosphere and other living conditions around them; on the contrary, the giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn) have supergravity, an impenetrable shell (like the atmosphere) around them, which suppresses the very possibility of the emergence of life;

The Earth has an atmosphere - a special gas-vapor shell, which, firstly, protects the Earth from solar and other radiation, other direct influence of space, and secondly, contains oxygen and nitrogen - substances necessary for breathing and the existence of living organisms; thirdly, it does not allow the Earth to quickly heat up and quickly cool down, maintains temperature equilibrium;

The earth has water - also a necessary element for life. 3. The constituent parts of the Earth (nature) are:

Lithosphere;

Atmosphere;

Hydrosphere;

Biosphere.

Lithosphere- (from Greek - stone shell) - the upper solid shell of the globe, which includes the earth's crust and the upper part of the mantle (molten layer inside the Earth). The lithosphere is essential to life because:

Creates a solid foundation for the surface (and life is possible only on the surface, since inside the Earth there is a molten mass - magma and in the center - an iron core);

Contains minerals;

It has a special organic layer - the soil, which creates conditions for the life of plant organisms, which, in turn, are food for humans and animals. Atmosphere- gas-vapor shell around the Earth, which:

Protects the Earth from the influence of outer space;

Prevents overheating and hypothermia of the Earth, creates a favorable temperature regime;

Contains nitrogen (about 80%) - a substance that is part of almost all living organisms, and oxygen (about 20%) - a substance (gas) necessary for breathing and, when combined with hydrogen, turns into water (that is, it serves as a constituent element of water - another essential natural element for life).

The atmospheric layer is very thin. 75% of its volume is located in the space from the Earth's surface to a height of 10 km. Above - the so-called rarefied layers of the atmosphere, containing only 25% of its volume and extending for 30 - 50 km, behind which is open space.

Hydrosphere- the water shell of the Earth between the Earth's surface (lithosphere) and the atmosphere. Water (in the form of salty oceans, seas, lakes, fresh lakes, rivers, ice) covers most of the earth's surface - about 70%, and only 30 percent of the earth's surface is land in the form of continents and islands.

Importance of the hydrosphere in that:

Thanks to it, the atmosphere and the lithosphere (their interaction) the water cycle in nature is carried out, which contributes to the normal development and life of plant and animal organisms;

Water is an integral part of plant and animal organisms (most - about 80% - of the human body is water);

Water (seas, oceans, rivers, lakes, etc.) is the habitat of underwater plants and animals, fish (which are no less than the inhabitants of the land surface);

There is a version that life originally originated in water and only then part of the living organisms of the seas and oceans moved to land.

Biosphere- the sphere of existence of living organisms ("the shell of the Earth, filled with life"). The biosphere covers:

the entire lithosphere and hydrosphere;

The lower layers of the atmosphere (about 10 km from the land surface);

Underground layers - up to 10 km deep, including 0.5 - 1 km under the ocean floor.

Only in this area is life possible.

Biosphere- a holistic interconnected organism that covers the surface and underwater flora and fauna.

At present, there are five hundred thousand species of plants and one and a half million species of animals, of which 160 thousand species of plants and animals are marine.

4. Not only nature, but also society has its constituent parts. As the main components of society modern scientists (Fersman, Plotnikov, Dyakonov, etc.) distinguish:

Anthroposphere;

the sociosphere;

Biotechnosphere.

anthroposphere- the sphere of life of people as biological organisms.

Sociosphere- the area of ​​complex social relations between people.

Biotechnosphere (technosphere)- the area of ​​distribution of the technical influence of man and mankind.

5. With the advent of man and society, nature entered a new stage of its existence - it began to experience anthropogenic influence(that is, the influence of a person and his activities).

Initially, the relationship between man and nature was a mutual influence on each other - man independently (without the use of complex technical means) benefited from nature (food, minerals), and nature influenced man, and man was not protected from nature (for example , various elements, climate, etc.), strongly depended on it.

With the development of society, the state, the growth of the technical equipment of a person (complex tools, machines), the ability of nature to influence a person decreased, and the influence of a person on nature (anthropogenic influence) increased.

Starting from the 16th - 19th centuries, when a large number of scientific discoveries and inventions useful for humans were made, production relations became much more complicated, human influence on nature has become systematic and ubiquitous. Nature began to be regarded by man no longer as an independent reality, but as a source of raw materials to meet human needs.

In the twentieth century, when systematic scientific and technological progress accelerated several times and grew into scientific and technological revolution anthropogenic impact approached a catastrophic level.

At present, the world of technology (the technosphere) has practically become an independent reality (supermodern technical discoveries that have made man’s ability to influence nature limitless, universal computerization, etc.), and nature is almost completely subordinate to man.

the main problem(and danger) of modern anthropogenic influence is ininconsistency of unlimited needs

human nature and almost limitless scientific and technical possibilities of influencing nature and the limited possibilities of nature itself.

In connection with this, there ecological problem- the problem of protecting the environment from the harmful effects of man.

by the most dangerous directions of the harmful influence of man on nature (and its consequences) are:

Depletion of the bowels - throughout its history, and especially in the twentieth century, mankind has been mercilessly and in unlimited quantities extracting minerals, which has led to the depletion (close to catastrophic) of the internal reserves of the Earth (for example, energy reserves of oil, coal, natural gas can be exhausted already in 80 - 100 years);

Pollution of the Earth, especially water bodies, the atmosphere with industrial waste;

Destruction of flora and fauna, creation of conditions under which technical development (roads, factories, power plants, etc.) disrupts the habitual way of life of plants and animals, changes the natural balance of flora and fauna;

Deforestation (while forests are an important factor in cleansing the atmosphere);

The use of atomic energy for both military and peaceful purposes, ground and underground nuclear explosions.

In order to survive and not bring the planet to man-made disaster humanity is obliged to reduce its harmful impact on the environment in every possible way, especially the above-mentioned most dangerous types.

6. Recently, among environmental issues, problem of social ecology- protection of a person, his personality, health, society as a whole from the consequences of scientific and technological progress. In particular, this issue was often touched upon in the works of modern existentialists ("philosophers of human life") - Jaspers, Heidegger, Camus, Sartre, etc.

Modern man (who has hardly changed biologically over the past millennia) is no longer influenced by nature, but massive influence of society and technology:

Modern man lives in a society oversaturated with information, under the merciless influence of the media (newspapers, television), and also becomes more and more dependent on cybernetics (computers, computer networks, numbers, virtual reality, etc.);

Urbanization is growing - most people now live in metropolitan cities, often in very large

large, numbering from 10 to 25 million people and saturated with high technologies (Mexico City, Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, etc.), completely obeys the rhythm, pressure of the metropolis, loses its individuality (the so-called "man-sand" problem) ;

A person is strongly influenced by a developed society and state - morality, traditions, laws, tax system, law enforcement system, political institutions. Thus, a person is "in the grip" of modern

highly organized and technogenic society, runs the risk of losing itself and turning into a "grain of sand", a "cog".

The task of social ecology is to protect a person as much as possible from the negative influence of society and scientific and technological progress. 7. A special problem in the relationship between man, society and nature in the modern era is population problem, which in the future will become more and more relevant and will eventually become the main problem of mankind.

This problem has several aspects:

Population growth leads to a quantitative increase in mankind, and, consequently, its needs, which leads to an even greater exploitation of nature;

With population growth, contradictions within society may aggravate, since progress may not keep up with population growth and benefits will not be enough for everyone (in this regard, among scientists it is discussed the question of "critical mass""threshold" of population, that is, what is the maximum number of the Earth's population, the excess of which will become dangerous for everyone?);

The problem of the quality of the population - will the society, the family (especially in underdeveloped countries where there is a high birth rate - 8 - 10 children in a family) have enough material opportunities to provide children with upbringing, education, treatment, attention from society?

The population problem also has a reverse side - in a number of countries there is a negative trend (decrease) in population growth. These are Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland, a number of states of the European part of the former USSR - Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, etc.

stand out There are two main reasons for this phenomenon:

A highly organized technogenic society requires a lot of strength from a person (getting an education, work) and does not leave them for the family and children; in many Western families it has become a tradition to get by with a minimum of children - two, often one;

Citizens of states that are in the process of establishing reforms, due to poverty, social insecurity, and the difficulties of life, try either not to have children at all, or to limit themselves to a minimum of them.

On the contrary, in many countries of Asia and Africa, often underdeveloped, there is a tendency for excessive population growth. China (1 billion 300 million), India (800 million), Indonesia (200 million), Vietnam (80 million), Pakistan (over 100 million), Bangladesh (over 100 million) were especially successful in this. , Brazil (over 100 million), Nigeria (over 100 million).

This trend is caused, on the one hand, by the lack of birth control (with the exception of China) and its impossibility, and on the other hand, by traditions, although such a population growth is obviously not justified given the economic underdevelopment of the country as a whole and the scarce material opportunities on the part of most families.

Such population growth in the countries of Asia and Africa leads to a sharp decline in the quality of life, the quality of the younger generation (lack of education, physical exhaustion, etc.), creates insoluble difficulties for both individual families and states.

The question arises: is there a certain threshold of the population of the Earth, overcoming which will become dangerous for all its inhabitants?

In this regard, it is interesting Malthus' law(Thomas Robert Malthus, 1766 - 1834). Back in 1798, Malthus in his book "The Experience of the Law of Population" proved that there is such a threshold and humanity is doomed to reach it. This is due to the fact that population growth occurs exponentially, and the development of scientific and technological progress - in arithmetic (that is, progress, the ability to provide for everyone does not keep pace with population growth). The dynamics of the Earth's population growth confirms this hypothesis:

At the time of the beginning of the new chronology from the birth of Christ - 230 million;

1000 - approximately 300 million (in a thousand years the population has not even doubled - it has increased by less than 1.5 times);

1850 - 1 billion;

1930 - 2 billion;

1976 - 4 billion;

1987 - 5 billion;

2000 - 6 billion;

2025 - 8 billion (expected).

Thus, if earlier it took 1000 years to double the population, then after 1850 it took 80, 46, 50 years, respectively - that is, at present

there has been a trend of doubling the population every 50 years (and this trend is likely to continue due to the uncontrolled and ever-expanding population growth from Asia and Africa).

According to scientists, the Earth is capable of feeding 60 billion people (that is, an amount that is 10 times the current population of the Earth - about 6 billion), after which people on Earth will become cramped.

If the current (especially Afro-Asian) population growth rates (doubling within 50 years) continue, the "critical" threshold can be reached by 2150-2200.

To avoid this, humanity must decide two Problems:

Slow down the population growth rate in Asia and Africa (since Western countries are experiencing a negative trend and, on the contrary, they need population growth), implement a state policy of birth control and encourage small families there;

Look for new ways to increase the Earth's ability to feed and provide for humanity, to move apart (push back) the "overpopulation threshold" (from 60 to 100 billion and beyond).

In general, the problem of the relationship between man, nature and society is becoming global.

To prevent a man-made disaster humanity, without wasting time must:

stop or reduce the dangerous anthropogenic impact on nature;

Engage in solving environmental problems;

Pay attention to social ecology - do not turn a person into a hostage of the information-technogenic society;

Find new means, resources for their existence, not related to the merciless exploitation of the Earth's resources;

Control the birth rate, solve the problem of population, maintain a balance between its quantity and quality.

Nature (from gr. physis and lat. natura - to arise, to be born) - one of the most general categories of science and philosophy, originating in the ancient worldview.

The concept of "nature" is used to denote not only the natural, but also the material conditions of its existence created by man - the "second nature", to some extent transformed and formed by man.

Society as a part of nature isolated in the process of human life is inextricably linked with it.

The separation of man from the natural world marked the birth of a qualitatively new material unity, since man has not only natural properties, but also social ones.

Society has come into conflict with nature in two respects: 1) as a social reality, it is nothing but nature itself; 2) it purposefully influences nature with the help of tools, changing it.

At first, the contradiction between society and nature acted as their difference, since man still had primitive tools of labor, with the help of which he earned his livelihood. However, in those distant times, there was no longer a complete dependence of man on nature. As the tools of labor improved, society exerted an increasing influence on nature. A person cannot do without nature also because the technical means that make life easier for him are created by analogy with natural processes.

As soon as it was born, society began to have a very significant impact on nature, improving it somewhere, and worsening it somewhere. But nature, in turn, began to “worsen” the characteristics of society, for example, by reducing the quality of health of large masses of people, etc. Society, as a separate part of nature, and nature itself exert a significant influence on each other. At the same time, they retain specific features that allow them to coexist as a dual phenomenon of earthly reality. This close relationship between nature and society is the basis of the unity of the world.

Job Sample

C6. Explain the relationship between nature and society using two examples.

Answer: As examples that reveal the relationship between nature and society, the following can be given: Man is not only a social, but also a biological being, and therefore, is a part of living nature. Society draws the necessary material and energy resources for its development from the natural environment. Degradation of the natural environment (air pollution, water pollution, deforestation, etc.) leads to a deterioration in people's health, to a decrease in their quality of life, etc.

Topic 3. Society and culture

The entire life of society is based on the expedient and diverse activities of people, the product of which is material wealth and cultural values, that is, culture. Therefore, certain types of societies are often called cultures. However, the concepts of "society" and "culture" are not synonymous.

The system of relationships is largely formed objectively, under the influence of the laws of social development. Therefore, they are not a direct product of culture, despite the fact that the conscious activity of people affects the nature and form of these relations in the most significant way.

Job Sample

B5. Read the text below, each position of which is numbered.

(1) In the history of social thought, there have been various, often opposing views on culture. (2) Some philosophers called culture a means of enslaving people. (3) A different point of view was held by those scientists who considered culture a means of ennobling a person, turning him into a civilized member of society. (4) This indicates the breadth, multidimensionality of the content of the concept of "culture".

Determine what provisions of the text are:

A) actual character

B) the nature of value judgments

Write under the position number the letter that indicates its nature. Transfer the resulting sequence of letters to the answer sheet.

Answer: ABBA.