Introduction to the social theory of probability

 Social development 

Problem of the social and social development. As known, the term “social” comes from the Latin word societas — society. The inclination to cognize and to comprehend a social essence accompanies the humanity during the whole history. This categorial universal pierces literally through the terminological hierarchy constructed by the socio-philosophical cognition of the objective reality.
Sociology as a science about society, first of all about the mechanisms of its

operation and development, also focuses its attention on the category of “social”.

Its numerous definitions evidence for the extraordinarily complicated nature of

this human formation. At the same time, while forming and developing in the

process of collective activity, this phenomenon has a wide variety of its specific

manifestations, because it is the most complicated from human formations.

Below, we consider some of the latter.

For example, K. Marx stated that the category of “social” is the totality of properties and relations appearing in the process of joint activity. This category materializes itself under specific historical conditions and appears in interpersonal relations and in the attitude of a person to oneself, his/her place in society, phenomena, and the processes of social life.

In this case, the specific character of the social is characterized by the following features:

• — general property which is intrinsic to a person and a group of persons and arises in the process of their integration with the formation of public relations;
• — expression of a certain position of persons conditioned by modern public relations (economic, political, socio-cultural, etc.);
• — clarification of the relations of persons between themselves and their attitude to a position in the society, phenomena, and the processes of social life;
• — the social is a consequence of the joint activity of various individuals which manifests itself in their contacts and interaction.

Public relations are a specific form of social relations which are induced by

the activity of persons conditioned by their unequal positions in the society and

roles in social life.

Thus, the society is, in essence, a complicated system of ties between individuals and groups of individuals which determine themselves through interrelations. It is clear that such a system can be static or dynamical. This quality conditions the process of permanent development of an externally given (material) social essence. The internal reflection (consequence) and, simultaneously, creative

origin (cause) of the social is the psychic process composing the developing

spiritual essence of a man.

The attributive qualities of the social are the interdependence of persons in the process of joint creation and the positive (ethic) attitude to a partner. On the

basis of this immanent ethicality of the social, one of the founders of 

contemporary sociology, the French philosopher A. Comte named sociology

by a form of positive religion.

In 1830s, A. Comte introduced the notion of “sociology” in the scientific turnover, i.e., a science about society. According to his thought, it should integrate, in itself, all the branches of knowledge about society. A. Comte believed that sociology as a positive philosophy has to realize the observation, description, and systematization of facts and the processes of social life.

Thus, sociology is a science about the formation, development, and operation

of the society, social communities, social relations and social processes, about the

mechanisms and principles of their interaction. Thus, sociology as a science

implements certain functions: cognitive-theoretic one which consists in the systematization and production of new knowledge, critical, socio-administrative,

outlook-ideological, humanistic, practical-transforming, informational, and

prognostic.