ESSAY

discipline: Culturology

Ideals in modern society

• INTRODUCTION
• 1. Ideals and values: a historical overview
• 2. Cultural space of the 60s and modern Russia
• Conclusion
• List of used literature
• INTRODUCTION
• The fundamental characteristic of the human environment in modern society is social change. For an ordinary person - the subject of social cognition - the instability of society is perceived, first of all, as the uncertainty of the existing situation. Therefore, there is a twofold process in relations with the future. On the one hand, in a situation of instability and uncertainty about the future, which exists even among the wealthy segments of the population, a person tries to find something that will give him confidence, support in possible future changes. Some people try to secure their future through property, others try to build on higher ideals. For many, it is education that is perceived as a kind of guarantee that increases security in changing social circumstances and contributes to confidence in the future.
• Morality is a way of regulating people's behavior. Other ways of regulation are custom and law. Morality includes moral feelings, norms, commandments, principles, ideas about good and evil, honor, dignity, justice, happiness, etc. Based on this, a person evaluates his goals, motives, feelings, actions, thoughts. Everything in the surrounding world can be subjected to moral evaluation. Including the world itself, its structure, as well as society or its individual institutions, actions, thoughts, feelings of other people, etc. A person can subject even God and his deeds to a moral assessment. This is discussed, for example, in the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "The Brothers Karamazov", in the section on the Grand Inquisitor.
• Morality is, therefore, such a way of understanding and evaluating reality, which can judge everything and can pass judgment on any event, phenomenon of the outer world and the inner world. But in order to judge and pass a sentence, one must, firstly, have the right to do so, and, secondly, have criteria for evaluation, ideas about moral and immoral.
• In modern Russian society, spiritual discomfort is felt, largely due to the moral conflict of generations. Modern youth cannot accept the way of life and style of thinking idealized by the elders, while the older generation is convinced that it used to be better, modern society is soulless and doomed to decay. What gives the right to such a moral assessment? Does it have a healthy grain? This work is devoted to the analysis of the problem of ideals in modern society and its applicability to the current situation in Russia.
• 1. Ideals and Values: A Historical Review
• Moral assessment is based on the idea of ​​how "should be", i.e. an idea of ​​some proper world order, which does not yet exist, but which nevertheless should be, an ideal world order. From the point of view of moral consciousness, the world should be kind, honest, fair, humane. If he is not like that, so much the worse for the world, it means that he has not yet grown up, has not matured, has not fully realized the potentialities inherent in him. Moral consciousness "knows" what the world should be like and thus, as it were, pushes reality to move in this direction. Those. moral consciousness believes that the world can and should be made more perfect. The current state of the world does not suit him, it is basically immoral, there is still no morality in it and it must be introduced there.
• In nature, everyone strives to survive and competes with others for the good things of life. Mutual assistance and cooperation are rare phenomena here. In society, on the contrary, life is impossible without mutual assistance and cooperation. In nature, the weak perish; in society, the weak are helped. This is the main difference between man and animal. And this is something new that a person brings into this world. But a person is not “ready” for this world, he grows out of the realm of nature and in it the natural and human principles compete all the time. Morality is the expression of the human in man.
• A true person is one who is able to live for others, help others, even sacrifice himself for others. Self-sacrifice is the highest manifestation of morality, embodied in the image of the God-man, Christ, who for a long time remained an unattainable ideal for people, a role model. From biblical times, man began to realize his duality: a man-beast began to turn into a man-god. After all, God is not in heaven, he is in the soul of everyone and everyone is capable of being a god, i.e. to sacrifice something for the sake of others, to give others a particle of yourself.
• The most important condition of morality is human freedom. Freedom means independence, autonomy of a person from the outside world. Of course, man is not God, he is a material being, he lives in the world, he must eat, drink, survive. And yet, thanks to consciousness, a person gains freedom, he is not determined by the outside world, although he depends on it. A person defines himself, creates himself, decides what he should be. If a person says: “What can I do? Nothing depends on me,” he himself chose unfreedom, his dependence.
• Conscience is indisputable evidence that a person is free. If there is no freedom, then there is nothing to judge for: an animal that killed a person is not judged, a car is not judged. A person is judged and, above all, he is judged by his own conscience, unless he has already turned into an animal, although this is also not uncommon. Free, according to the Bible, a person is considered even by God, who endowed him with free will. Man has long understood that freedom is both happiness and a burden. Freedom, identical to reason, distinguishes man from animals and gives him the joy of knowledge and creativity. But, at the same time, freedom is a heavy responsibility for oneself and one's actions, for the world as a whole.
• Man, as a creature capable of creativity, is similar to God or nature as a whole, to that creative force that creates the world. This means that he is able to either improve this world, make it better, or destroy, destroy. In any case, he is responsible for his actions, for his actions, big and small. Each act changes something in this world, and if a person does not think about it, does not track the consequences of his actions, then he has not yet become a man, a rational being, he is still on his way and it is not known where this path will lead.
• Is there one moral or many? Maybe everyone has their own morality? It is not so easy to answer this question. Obviously, in society there are always several codes of conduct practiced in various social groups.
• The regulation of relationships in society is largely determined by moral traditions, which include a system of moral values ​​and ideals. A significant place in the emergence and evolution of these ideals belongs to philosophical and religious systems.
• In ancient philosophy, a person realizes himself as a cosmic being, tries to comprehend his place in space. The search for truth is the search for an answer to the question of how the world works and how I myself work, what is good, goodness. The traditional notions of good and evil are rethought, the true good is singled out as opposed to the fact that it is not a true good, but is only considered as such. If ordinary consciousness considered wealth and power, as well as the pleasures they bring, to be good, philosophy singled out the true good - wisdom, courage, moderation, justice.
• In the era of Christianity, there is a significant shift in moral consciousness. There were also general moral principles formulated by Christianity, which, however, were not particularly practiced in ordinary life even among the clergy. But this in no way devalues ​​the significance of Christian morality, in which important universal moral principles and commandments were formulated.
• With its negative attitude towards property in any of its forms ("do not collect treasures on the ground"), Christian morality opposed itself to the type of moral consciousness that prevailed in the Roman Empire. The main idea in it is the idea of ​​spiritual equality - the equality of all before God.
• Christian ethics readily accepted everything acceptable to it from earlier ethical systems. Thus, the well-known rule of morality “Do not do to a man what you do not wish for yourself”, the authorship of which is attributed to Confucius and the Jewish sages, entered the canon of Christian ethics along with the commandments of the Sermon on the Mount.
• Early Christian ethics laid the foundations of humanism, preaching philanthropy, unselfishness, mercy, non-resistance to evil by violence. The latter presupposed resistance without causing harm to another, moral opposition. However, this in no way meant a rejection of their beliefs. In the same sense, the question of the moral right to condemnation was also raised: “Judge not, lest you be judged” must be understood as “Do not condemn, do not pass judgment, for you yourself are not sinless”, but stop the evildoer, stop the spread of evil.
• Christian ethics proclaims the commandment of kindness and love for the enemy, the principle of universal love: "You heard what was said:" Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you... for if you love those who love you, what reward have you?”
• In modern times, in the XVI-XVII centuries, there are significant changes in society, which could not but affect morality. Protestantism proclaimed that the main duty of a believer before God is hard work in his profession, and the evidence of God's chosenness is success in business. Thus, the Protestant Church gave its flock the go-ahead: “Get rich!”. If earlier Christianity claimed that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into the kingdom of heaven, now it is the other way around - the rich become God's chosen ones, and the poor - rejected by God.
• With the development of capitalism, industry and science develop, and world outlook changes. The world is losing its halo of divinity. God generally became superfluous in this world, he prevented a person from feeling like a full-fledged master of the world, and soon Nietzsche proclaimed the death of God. “God is dead. Who killed him? You and I,” says Nietzsche. Man, liberated from God, decided to become God himself. Only this deity turned out to be rather ugly. It decided that the main goal was to consume as much and as varied as possible and created a consumer society for a certain part of humanity. True, for this it was necessary to destroy a significant part of the forests, pollute the water and atmosphere, and turn vast territories into landfills. They also had to create mountains of weapons to defend themselves against those who did not fall into the consumer society.
• Modern morality has again become semi-pagan, reminiscent of pre-Christian. It is based on the conviction that we live once, so everything must be taken from life. As Callicles once argued in a conversation with Socrates that happiness lies in satisfying all one's desires, so now this is becoming the main principle of life. True, some intellectuals did not agree with this and began to create a new morality. Back in the 19th century an ethic of non-violence emerged.
• It so happened that it was the 20th century, which cannot be called the century of humanism and mercy, that gave rise to ideas that are in direct conflict with the prevailing practice of solving all problems and conflicts from a position of strength. Quiet, staunch resistance turned out to be brought to life - disagreement, disobedience, non-retribution by evil for evil. A person placed in a hopeless situation, humiliated and powerless, finds a non-violent means of struggle and liberation (primarily internal). He, as it were, assumes responsibility for the evil done by others, takes upon himself the sin of others and atones for him by his non-giving back of evil.
• Marxism defends the idea of ​​a gradual establishment of genuine social justice. The most important aspect of understanding justice is the equality of people in relation to the means of production. It is recognized that under socialism there are still differences in the qualifications of labor and in the distribution of consumer goods. Marxism adheres to the thesis that only under communism should there be a complete coincidence of justice and social equality of people.
• Despite the fact that in Russia Marxism gave birth to a totalitarian regime that denied virtually all fundamental human values ​​(although proclaiming them to be its main goal), Soviet society was a society where culture, primarily spiritual, was given a high status.
• 2. Cultural space of the 60s and modern Russia
• The heyday of Russian Soviet culture was the 60s, in any case, these years are often idealized in the memories of people who now talk about the decline of culture. In order to reconstruct the spiritual picture of the era of the 60s, a competition of the "sixties" was held "I look at myself as in the mirror of the era." From people who lived and developed under the shadow of the "thaw" one could expect detailed and detailed characteristics of the era, detailed and detailed characteristics of the era, descriptions of ideals and aspirations.
• This is how the era of the 60s looks like in the descriptions of educated participants in the competition: “for some time we believed that we were free and could live according to our conscience, be ourselves”, “everyone breathed freely”, “they began to talk a lot about the new life, there have been many publications”; “The 60s are the most interesting and intense: they listened to our poets of the sixties, read (more often secretly) “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”; “The 60s is the time when everyone squinted from the sun, as Zhvanetsky said”; “I consider myself among the sixties - those whose ideological formation on the basis of communist ideology took place after the death of Stalin, who experienced the cleansing influence of the 20th Congress”; “we felt the spiritual growth of society with our skin, despised the routine, rushed to interesting work”; “at this time, the exploration of space, virgin lands” took place; "a significant event - Khrushchev's report - comprehension began"; "moral code of the builder of communism", "nationwide state power", "worship of science".
• For poorly educated contestants, direct assessments of the era of the 60s are very rare. It can be said that in fact they do not distinguish this time as a special era and do not explain their participation in the competition from this point of view. In those cases when characteristics of this time nevertheless appear in their descriptions, they are concrete and “material”, and the era of the 60s is defined primarily as the time of Khrushchev’s reforms (“breaks in bread”, “instead of the usual crops in the fields of corn” , "the mistresses parted with their cows" ...). In other words, they do not record the 1960s as a “thaw”, as the liberation of the country and the individual, as a softening of the regime and changes in ideology.
• The concept of cultural capital as applied to the realities of life of a Soviet person can be viewed not only as the presence of the highest levels of education and the corresponding status of the parents of the narrator, but also as the presence of a complete and loving family, as well as the talent, skill, diligence of his parents (what in Russian culture is denoted by the word "nuggets"). This was especially evident in the life histories of the "peasant" generation, which realized the potential for the democratization of social relations, accumulated long before the revolution.
• For the educated participants of the "sixties" contest, it is essential in determining cultural capital that they belong to the educated strata of society in the second generation, that their parents had an education that gave them the status of an employee in Soviet society. And if the parents are educated people in this sense (there are also people of noble origin, who, of course, are very few, and “modest Soviet employees” of proletarian or peasant origin), then the cultural capital of the family, as the descriptions testify, necessarily affects the biography of children .
• A generalized picture of the biographies of those who belong to the educated strata of society in the first generation, and those whose parents already possessed cultural capital to one degree or another, is as follows. The first is characterized by a turbulent (student) youth with poetry reading, theatres, scarce books and cultural enthusiasm (that is, with the myths of their youth), which with the beginning of family life as a whole fades and becomes a pleasant memory. Their commitment to the cultural codes of the Soviet ideology, as a rule, was supported by active participation in public work associated with party membership. And in those cases when they are disappointed in the past, they define themselves as "naive simpletons", "hard workers, gullible by nature, who worked hard in the 60s, and in the 70s, and in the 80s."
• This shows that the ideals and culture of the sixties were still not a fairly common phenomenon, but rather the mindset of the elite. At the same time, in the post-Soviet period, this mindset has changed dramatically, and the mindset of the elite has also changed. At the same time, the value conflict in modern society is constantly present. This is - in general terms - a conflict between Soviet spiritual culture and modern material.
• Recently, among the post-Soviet intellectual elite, arguments about the “end of the Russian intelligentsia”, about the fact that “the intelligentsia is leaving” have become popular. This refers not only to the “brain drain” abroad, but mainly to the transformation of the Russian intellectual into a Western European intellectual. The tragedy of this transformation is that a unique ethical and culturological type is lost - "an educated person with a bad conscience" (MS Kagan). The place of a reverent, free-thinking and disinterested altruist who reveres Culture is occupied by prudent egoists-purchasers who neglect national and universal cultural values. In this regard, the revival of Russian culture, rooted in its Golden and Silver Ages, becomes doubtful. How justified are these fears?
• The cradle and abode of the Russian intelligentsia in the 19th and 20th centuries. was Russian literature. Russia, unlike European countries, was characterized by the literary centrism of public consciousness, which lies in the fact that fiction and journalism (and not religion, philosophy or science) served as the main source of socially recognized ideas, ideals, and poets, writers, writers and critics acted as rulers of thoughts, authoritative judges, apostles and prophets. Russian literature educated the Russian intelligentsia, and the Russian intelligentsia nurtured Russian literature. Since literature is one of the communication channels of book culture, we can conclude that there is a dialectical causal relationship "book communication - Russian intelligentsia".
• In order to interrupt the reproduction of the Russian intelligentsia, it is necessary to deprive it of nutritious soil, i.e. it is necessary that Russian literature that educates moral sensibility "gone away". At present, the crisis of Russian literature is evident: the general reader prefers entertaining bestsellers (most often by foreign authors) or does not read at all; books are becoming more expensive and circulations are shrinking; among modern writers, there are practically no names attractive to young people. Polls of St. Petersburg students showed that less than 10% have a "thirst for reading", while the rest are indifferent to the classics and modern fiction. Hence the narrow cultural outlook, often - elementary ignorance: to the question "What did Pushkin die of?", You can hear "from cholera." Thus, the indispensable condition for the “withdrawal” of the Russian intelligentsia from the coming century is fulfilled: book communication is of little demand to the younger generation.
• We are witnessing a natural change from book communication to electronic (television-computer) communication. Even in the middle of the XX century. they started talking about the "crisis of information" due to the contradiction between book flows and funds and the individual possibilities of their perception. The end result is the deadening of knowledge, we do not know what we know. The funds of Russian literature are constantly growing and becoming more and more boundless and inaccessible. It turns out a paradox: there are more and more books, and less and less readers.
• The steady decline of interest in literature, fiction and journalistic, creates the impression that post-Soviet students have decided to “write off” burdensome and archaic book communication into the archives of history in the name of multimedia communication. There is no reason to hope that classical Russian literature will take the form of multimedia messages: it is not adapted for this. This means that the ethical potential inherent in it will be lost. Undoubtedly, electronic communication will develop its own ethics and its educational impact will be no less than Chekhov's stories or Dostoevsky's novels, but it will not be intellectual ethics.
• Without affecting the social, economic, political arguments used by the authors of now very widespread publications about the end of the Russian intelligentsia, using only the communicative mechanism of its reproduction, we can come to the following conclusion: there is no reason to hope for the revival of "educated people with a bad conscience." The generation of educated Russian people of the XXI century. will be "educated" differently than their parents - the Soviet intelligentsia of the "disillusioned" generation, and the ideal of altruist in awe of Culture will attract few.
• O. Toffler, developing his theory of three waves in macrohistory, believes that the personality of the second wave was formed in accordance with Protestant ethics. At the same time, Protestant ethics was not typical for Russia. We can say that in the Soviet period there was an ethic of the Soviet person and, accordingly, modern youth, denying the ideals and ethics of the previous generation, remains inextricably linked genetically with previous generations. Toffler himself hopes for a change in the Protestant ethics of a new, informational one. In the light of the new cultural dynamics in Russia, one can express the hope that this process will be more dynamic and easier in our country than in the West, and opinion polls confirm this.
• Analyzing the data of sociological surveys, one can try to determine what personality traits are characteristic of modern youth in connection with the transition to the information society, which is based on information and communication. Based on the surveys conducted at MIREA in 2003-2005, the following can be noted. The very possibility of communication is a value for today's youth, so they try to be at the level of modern innovations and innovations. Higher education is still a weak help in this area, even in the field of information technology, so young people are actively engaged in self-education.
• At the same time, education is not a value in itself, as it was for the generation of the Soviet period. It is a means of achieving social status and material well-being. The ability to communicate using all modern means of communication is a value, with all this there is a tendency to unite in interest groups. Such a vivid individualization, which Toffler speaks of, is not observed. So far, it is difficult to talk about such a feature as an orientation towards consumption, since this feature was poorly expressed in Soviet society. In general, the presence of high interest in new computer technologies and selfless enthusiasm allow us to hope that the information society in Russia will nevertheless become a reality for the majority of the population when today's youth grows up a little.
• Conclusion
• The crisis in which Russia finds itself today is far more severe than a conventional financial crisis or a traditional industrial depression. The country is not just set back a few decades; all the efforts made over the past century to ensure Russia the status of a great power have been devalued. The country is copying the worst examples of Asian corrupt capitalism.
• The society of modern Russia is going through hard times: old ideals have been overthrown and new ones have not been found. The resulting value-semantic vacuum is rapidly being filled with artifacts of Western culture, which have covered almost all spheres of social and spiritual life, ranging from forms of leisure activities, manners of communication and ending with ethical and aesthetic values, worldview guidelines.
• According to Toffler, an information civilization generates a new type of people who create a new information society. Toffler calls this human type the "third wave", just as he considers the agrarian society the "first wave" and the industrial society the "second wave". At the same time, each wave creates its own special type of personality, which has an appropriate character and ethics. Thus, the "second wave" according to Toffler is characterized by Protestant ethics, and such features as subjectivity and individualism, the ability to think abstractly, empathize and imagine.
• “The third wave does not create some ideal superman, some heroic species that lives among us, but fundamentally changes the character traits inherent in the whole of society. It is not a new man that is created, but a new social character. Therefore, our task is not to look for a mythical "man", but for those character traits that are most likely to be valued by the civilization of tomorrow. Toffler believes that “education will also change. Many children will learn outside the classroom.” Toffler believes that "Third Wave civilization may favor very different character traits in the young, such as independence from peer opinions, less consumer orientation, and less hedonistic self-obsession."
• Perhaps the changes that our country is currently experiencing will lead to the formation of a new type of Russian intellectual - the information intelligentsia, who, without repeating the mistakes of the “disillusioned” generation, will overcome Western individualism, based on rich Russian cultural traditions.
• Listusedliterature
• 1. Alekseeva L. History of dissent in the USSR: The latest period. Vilnius-Moscow: Vesti, 1992.
• 2. Akhiezer A.S. Russia as a large society // Questions of Philosophy. 1993. N 1. S.3-19.
• 3. Berto D., Malysheva M. The cultural model of the Russian masses and the forced transition to the market // Biographical method: History, methodology and practice. M.: Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 1994. P. 94-146.
• 4. Weil P., Genis A. Country of words // New world. 1991. N 4. S.239-251.
• 5. Gozman L., Etkind A. From the cult of power to the power of people. Psychology of political consciousness // Neva. 1989. No. 7.
• 6. Levada Yu.A. The problem of the intelligentsia in modern Russia // Where is Russia going?.. Alternatives of social development. (International Symposium 17-19 December 1993). M., 1994. S.208-214.
• 7. Soviet common man. Experience of a social portrait at the turn of the 90s. M.: World Ocean, 1993
• 8. Toffler O. The Third Wave. - M., Nauka: 2001.
• 9. Tsvetaeva N.N. Biographical discourse of the Soviet era // Sociological journal. 1999. No. 1/2.

In the structure of morality, it is customary to distinguish between the elements that form it. Morality includes moral practice (expressed in behavior), moral relations, moral consciousness.

Moral norms, moral principles, moral ideals and values ​​are all elements of moral consciousness.
Moral norms are social norms that regulate a person's behavior in society, his attitude towards other people, towards society and towards himself. Their implementation is ensured by the power of public opinion, internal conviction on the basis of the ideas accepted in a given society about good and evil, justice and injustice, virtue and vice, due and condemned.
Moral norms determine the content of behavior, how it is customary to act in a certain situation, that is, the morals inherent in a given society, social group. They differ from other norms that operate in society and perform regulatory functions (economic, political, legal, aesthetic) in the way they regulate people's actions. Morals are daily reproduced in the life of society by the force of tradition, the authority and power of a universally recognized and supported by all discipline, public opinion, the conviction of members of society about proper behavior under certain conditions. Unlike simple customs and habits, when people act in the same way in similar situations (birthday celebrations, weddings, seeing off to the army, various rituals, the habit of certain labor actions, etc.), moral norms are not simply fulfilled due to the established generally accepted order, but find an ideological justification in a person's ideas about proper or improper behavior, both in general and in a specific life situation.

The formulation of moral norms as reasonable, expedient and approved rules of behavior is based on real principles, ideals, concepts of good and evil, etc., operating in society.
The fulfillment of moral norms is ensured by the authority and strength of public opinion, the consciousness of the subject about worthy or unworthy, moral or immoral, which also determines the nature of moral sanctions.
The moral norm is, in principle, designed for voluntary fulfillment. But its violation entails moral sanctions, consisting in a negative assessment and condemnation of human behavior, in a directed spiritual influence. They mean a moral prohibition to commit such acts in the future, addressed both to a specific person and to everyone around. The moral sanction reinforces the moral requirements contained in moral norms and principles.
Violation of moral norms may entail, in addition to moral sanctions, sanctions of a different kind (disciplinary or provided for by the norms of public organizations). For example, if a soldier lied to his commander, then this dishonorable act, in accordance with its severity, on the basis of military regulations, will be followed by an appropriate reaction.

Moral norms can be expressed both in a negative, prohibitive form (for example, the Laws of Moses - the Ten Commandments formulated in the Bible), and in a positive one (be honest, help your neighbor, respect elders, take care of honor from a young age, etc.). Moral principles - one of the forms of expression of moral requirements, in the most general form, revealing the content of morality that exists in a particular society. They express the fundamental requirements regarding the moral essence of a person, the nature of relationships between people, determine the general direction of human activity and underlie private, specific norms of behavior. In this regard, they serve as criteria of morality.
If the moral norm prescribes what specific actions a person should perform, how to behave in typical situations, then the moral principle gives a person a general direction of activity.
Moral principles include such general principles of morality as
humanism - the recognition of man as the highest value;

altruism - selfless service to one's neighbor;

mercy - compassionate and active love, expressed in readiness to help everyone in need of something;

collectivism - a conscious desire to promote the common good;

rejection of individualism - the opposition of the individual to society, any

sociality, and selfishness - preference for one's own interests over the interests of all others.
In addition to the principles that characterize the essence of a particular morality, there are values ​​- these are patterns of behavior and world relations, recognized as a guideline, which are approved in the norms. When they say "be honest", they mean that honesty is a value. Human values ​​are hierarchical, i.e. there are lower and higher values. In relation to all these levels, the supreme regulator is the concept of higher values ​​(value orientations) of morality (freedom, the meaning of life, happiness).

Moral ideals are the concepts of moral consciousness, in which the moral requirements imposed on people are expressed in the form of an image of a morally perfect personality, an idea of ​​a person who embodies the highest moral qualities.

The moral ideal was understood differently at different times, in different societies and teachings. If Aristotle saw the moral ideal in a person who considers the highest virtue to be self-sufficient, detached from the worries and anxieties of practical activity, the contemplation of truth, then Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) characterized the moral ideal as a guide for our actions, "the divine man within us", with which we compare ourselves and improve, never, however, being able to level up with him. The moral ideal is defined in its own way by various religious teachings, political currents, and philosophers. The moral ideal accepted by a person indicates the ultimate goal of self-education. The moral ideal, accepted by the public moral consciousness, determines the purpose of education, affects the content of moral principles and norms. One can also talk about the social moral ideal as an image of a perfect society built on the requirements of higher justice, humanism.

Values

and

ideals

Goals and objectives of the lesson:

• To introduce students to the concepts of ideal and value;
• To form the concept of conflict of values;
• Cultivate respect for elders, a sense of duty and honor.

• "A GOOD PERSON IS NOT THE ONE WHO IS ABLE TO DO GOOD, BUT THE ONE WHO IS NOT ABLE TO DO EVIL"

V.O. KLYUCHEVSKY

• "AN EVIL PERSON HARMS HIMSELF BEFORE HARMING OTHERS"

AUGUSTINE

Parable "Island of Spiritual Values"

• Once upon a time, there was an island on Earth where all spiritual values ​​lived. But one day they noticed how the island began to go under water. All valuables boarded their ships and sailed away. Only Love remained on the island.
• She waited to the last, but when there was nothing left to wait, she also wanted to sail away from the island.
• Then she called Wealth and asked to join him on the ship, but Wealth replied: “There are a lot of jewels and gold on my ship, there is no place for you here.” When the ship of Sadness sailed by, she asked to see her, but she answered her: "Sorry, Love, I'm so sad that I always have to be alone." Then Love saw the ship of Pride and asked for her help, but she said that Love would disturb the harmony on her ship. Joy floated nearby, but she was so busy with fun that she did not even hear about the calls of Love. Then Love completely despaired.
• But suddenly she heard a voice somewhere behind: "Let's go, Love, I'll take you with me." Love turned around and saw the old man. He took her to land, and when the old man sailed away, Love realized it, because she forgot to ask his name. Then she turned to Knowledge:
• - Tell me, Knowledge, who saved me? Who was this old man?
• Knowledge looked at Love:
• - It was time.
• - Time? Love asked. "But why did it save me?"
• Knowledge once again glanced at Love, then into the distance, where the old man had sailed:
• - Because only Time knows how important Love is in life.

I .

• Morality

3. Etiquette.

A) The doctrine of morality and morality

B) The norms that society has established.

C) Rules set by the state.

D) Rules for the behavior of people in society

II . Match the terms and concepts:

A) Conducts serious research, expanding ideas about the world.

B) understands the basics of science.

C) Understands not only the basics of science, but literature and art.

1. Literate person

2. Enlightened person

3. Learned man

Answers to the test:

I . A-4, B-1, C-2, D-3.

II . A-3, B-1, C-2.

What is an ideal?

Ideal - an example, something perfect, the highest goal of aspirations.

Idealist

Idealization - representing someone or

something better than the real thing.

Materialist - a person who seeks material gain.

What are values?

Values is the positive significance of something that is not questioned.

Moral values ​​serve as an ideal for all people.

Seven fundamental values: Truth, Goodness, Benefit, Domination, Justice, Freedom, Beauty.

Highlight the positions that are

valuable to you in life.

Homemade

animals

Faithful friends

Good studies

attitude

teachers

Sports

respect

visit

theaters and museums

Pocket

money for expenses

Understanding

parents

Write out what you can never forgive

a person with whom you are friends or whom you respect.

Explain why. Complete the list.

Greed

Coarseness

Weakness of character

meanness

Betrayal

Point out what you never allow yourself to

communicating with the person you love and cherish.

Explain why. Add your options.

Look untidy

Tell a lie

The most important value for any person is life.

but sometimes people take risks.

Read the texts and determine in the name of what values

people risked their lives.

In 1941 to the front

thousands of volunteers

to fight

with fascist troops

attacked our country.

During the epidemic

typhoid doctor helped

sick, although he knew

that this disease.

Suggest

situation.

Two climbing friends

collapsed in the mountains

stones. One seriously

suffered, and the second saved him,

risking your own life.

The "golden" rule of morality:

"Treat people like that.

as you want,

to be treated

Ideal- the highest example of something, worthy of respect, admiration, study, imitation. Ideal from the French word (idealis - view, image, idea). The ideal is the highest degree of positive quality in culture and art.

ethical ideals appear in various aspects of social life. Ideals are spiritual and material, subjective and objective, synthetic, man-made and natural origin, etc.

The concept of the ideal first arose in Christian morality as a result of the realization inconsistencies between what should be and what is :
human dignity and real life conditions;
the image of an earthly man and the image of Jesus Christ.
Christian morality as an ideal claimed the image of a martyr, an ascetic.
I. Kant wrote: "The ideal is what you have to strive for and what you will never achieve," it is "the necessary guide to the human mind." Ideal , according to Kant, it is unchanged for all times, divorced from real life. The ideal of freedom is the freedom of the spirit.
V.F. Hegel claimed that ideal:
is the opposite (?) of reality;
develops through this contradiction;
realized in the fruits of the activity of the world mind.
A. Feuerbach believed that ideal is a "whole, comprehensive, perfect, educated person."
utopian socialists, considered ideal the human right to free development, which is possible only as a result of the elimination of class inequality.
K. Marx and F. Engels determined moral ideal as a component of the social ideal "the liberation of the oppressed class in a revolutionary way." The founders of Marxism believed that the ideal reflects the developing reality: "History cannot receive its final completion in some ideal state ... it is ... movement ... with which reality must conform ".
Ideal is a value and imperative representation (asserts the unconditional, positive content of actions), which determines the content of good and evil, due, etc.
Modern ethics considers the ideal from the standpoint anthropocentrism. moral ideal - this is:
universal, absolute, moral idea of ​​the good, due;
image of perfect relations between people;
the structure of a society that ensures perfect relationships between people (social ideal);
the highest example of a moral person.
Personal moral ideal of a person - it is the pursuit of happiness, life satisfaction It must have social significance. Aspects of personal ideal:
sensual-emotional (ideas of personal happiness);
understanding the purpose and meaning of life;
motives of activity;
attitude towards other people.
Content ideal is determined by the social environment. The formation of an ideal is the process of transforming the environment into the inner world of the individual. AT basis the ideal may be an individual moral program, a positive example, etc.

Main ideal functions:
determination of the purpose of a person's moral activity;
motivation of a person to moral actions;
unification of due and existing;
definition of a person's moral character.
A moral ideal can be based on a social ideal. social ideal:
determines the way of life and activities of society;
includes moral attitudes;
morally orients society

Moral- there is an acceptance of responsibility for their actions. Since, as follows from the definition, morality is based on free will, only a free being can be moral. Unlike morality , which is an external requirement for the behavior of the individual, along with the law, morality - is the internal setting of the individual to act in accordance with his conscience.

Moral (moral) values - this is what the ancient Greeks called "ethical virtues". The ancient sages considered prudence, benevolence, courage, and justice to be the main of these virtues. In Judaism, Christianity, Islam, the highest moral values ​​are associated with faith in God and zealous reverence for him. Honesty, fidelity, respect for elders, diligence, patriotism are revered as moral values ​​among all peoples. And although in life people do not always show such qualities, they are highly valued by people, and those who possess them are respected. These values, presented in their impeccable, absolutely complete and perfect expression, act as ethical ideals.

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For several years now, discussions have been going on in our country on how to make Russia the most advanced country in the modern world. A number of authors emphasize the importance

the latest scientific developments and domestic achievements in fundamental sciences. Others point to the geopolitical and climatic features of Russia, which involve large additional costs for heat supply and laying other communications, overcoming significant distances, processing primary raw materials, etc. Still others rely on the special national spirit of the people, who can overcome any difficulties. Still others believe that the West will provide significant assistance in the technological and economic development of the country, guided by considerations of geopolitical stability.

What do you think of these positions? Which of the following is more in line with common sense? Which are originally unreal?

carried out by passing from generation to generation unchanged
values. Activities, their means and goals have existed for centuries
as sustainable traditions, models and social norms.
In modern conditions, the need for qualitatively different
ways of preparing and including the individual in society.
What type of society does the author mean by "modern conditions"?
Based on the knowledge of the social science course and personal social experience,
give two explanations of the author's point of view, why in modern
world “the need for qualitatively different methods of training and
inclusion of the individual in society.

There are various meanings of the term "society". Society is broadly understood to mean

1) the entire population of the Earth
2) the whole world in the variety of its forms and manifestations
3) the unity of animate and inanimate nature
4) a certain stage of historical development

The concept of "personality" is used to characterize
1) human activities
2) the unique originality of a person
3) a set of socially significant qualities of a person
4) a person as a single representative of the human race

Grandmother explains how to cook delicious borscht. What form of communication does this example illustrate?
1) exchange of views
3) transfer of experience
2) information exchange
4) expression of experiences

Are the following judgments about the relationship between society and nature correct?
A. The existence of society largely depends on the state of nature.
B. Society always negatively affects the natural environment.
1) only A is true
3) both statements are correct
2) only B is true
4) both judgments are wrong

Purposeful cognitive activity of a person to obtain
knowledge and skills is
1) creativity
3) socialization
2) education
4) labor

Are the following judgments about the role of science in the modern world correct?
A. Science explains the laws of development of the surrounding world.
B. Science reveals the possible prospects for the development of society.
1) only A is true
3) both statements are correct
2) only B is true
4) both judgments are wrong
Labor productivity is called
1) the amount of products produced per unit of time
2) the difference between the company's revenue and total costs
3) division of the production process into a number of separate stages
4) the process of production of goods and services

Citizen V., who returned from vacation, discovered that for a month the prices for
basic consumer goods increased. Subsequently, she noted
further price increases. Manifestations of what economic phenomenon noted
citizen V.
1) competition
2) inflation
3) suggestions
4) demand

In country Z there is commodity production and money circulation. Which
additional information would lead to the conclusion that the economy
country Z has a command (planned) character?
1) Retired workers receive an old-age pension.
2) Most workers work in industrial enterprises.
3) The state acts as a monopoly in hiring labor.
4) The state exercises control over the money supply.

Are the following statements about wages correct?
A. The salary of an employee depends solely on his personal qualities.
B. There are various forms of remuneration of workers.
1) only A is true
3) both statements are correct
2) only B is true
4) both judgments are wrong

socio-political organizations and movements d) all of the above 89. Task Mark the correct answer The form of organization of political power in society, which has sovereignty and manages with the help of special bodies, is: a) the political system b) the political regime c) the state 90. Task Mark the correct answer In the broadest sense, power is: a) the right to do something on behalf of the state b) the art of living together c) the ability of an individual or group of people to control, influence other people 91. Task Mark the correct answer Mark the type power refers to the power of the minister: a) to the executive b) to the legislative c) to the judicial of the signs listed below is not mandatory for the state? a) public authority b) constant government control over the daily life of people c) the presence of a certain territory d) the sovereignty and independence of the country in the international arena 94. Task Mark the correct answer Which of the following signs is not a sign of a presidential republic? a) the president is the head of state b) the president is elected by popular vote c) the leader of the party that won the election becomes the head of government 95. Task Mark the correct answer According to the Constitution, the Russian Federation is: republic 96. Task Mark the correct answer What is the rule of law? a) a state in which a constitution exists and actually operates b) a state whose main principle is the rule of law (law) c) a state with a republican form of government and judicial b) equality of all before the law c) the institution of presidential power d) mutual responsibility of the state and citizens influence is: a) the political regime b) the political system c) the state 99. Task Mark the correct answer The main functions of political parties are: a) organization of the electoral process b) ensuring communication between civil society and the state c) selection of candidates and nomination of political figures d) all of the above 100. Task Mark the correct answer The system of ways and methods of exercising power is : a) political regime b) political system c) state 101. Task Mark the correct answer Political scientists distinguish the following types of political regimes: a) democratic b) authoritarian c) totalitarian d) all of the above 102. Task Mark the correct answer Which document is recognized in the modern world "international standard of human rights and freedoms?" a) declaration of the rights of the peoples of Russia b) universal declaration of human rights c) declaration on the principles of international law

11. A holistic view of nature, society, man, which is expressed in the system of values ​​and ideals of the individual, social

groups, societies

1) nature centrism 2) science centrism 3) worldview 4) sociocentrism

12 . The process of mastering knowledge and skills, ways of behavior is called:

1) education 2) adaptation 3) socialization 4) modernization

13 . The form of interaction inherent only to man with the outside world is

1) need 2) activity 3) goal 4) program

14 . Definition by a person of himself as a person capable of making independent decisions, entering into certain relationships with other people and nature:

1) socialization 2) education 3) self-realization 4) self-consciousness

15. The form of interaction inherent only to man with the outside world is

1) need 2) activity 3) goal 4) program.

16 .The term "society" not includes the concept:

1) Form of association of people

2) Parts of the material world

3) Natural habitat

4) Ways of interaction of people

17 .The transition from slash-and-burn to arable farming is an example of the relationship:

1) Society and nature

2) Societies and cultures

3) Economy and religion

4) Civilizations and formation

18. All examples, except for two, refer to the concept of "social needs". Give extra examples.

Creation of cultural values, labor activity, communication, social activity,

participation in the game, sleep.

19. Complete the sentences:

1) According to the need for the reproduction of the genus, a social

institute - ... .

2) Man is a product of biological, cultural and social ... .

3) What is most precious is sacred both for one person and for all mankind

- this is … .

4) In accordance with social needs, social ... have developed.

5) The origin of man is called ....

6) Perfection, the highest goal of human striving is ... .

20. Spiritual and physical in man:

1) precede each other

2) Connected to each other

3) Oppose each other

4) Independent from each other

21. The hallmark of a person is

1)Satisfaction

2) Adaptation to the environment

3) Understanding the world and yourself

4) Use of tools

22 .Gennady has the knowledge and ability to protect personal rights, respects the rights of others, strictly fulfills his duties, and abides by the laws of the country. What qualities does Gennady have?

1) Citizenship

2) Conscience

3) Patriotism

4) Responsibility

23 .Are the following judgments about the social principle in man correct?

A. The social principle in man precedes the biological one.

B. The social principle in man is opposite to the biological

1) only A is true

2) only B is true

3) both statements are correct

4) both judgments are wrong

24. Are the following judgments about spirituality correct?

A. Spirituality is the highest level of development and self-regulation of a mature personality.

B. Spirituality is the morally oriented will and mind of a person.

1) only A is true

2) only B is true

3) both statements are correct

4) both judgments are wrong

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

1. Avicenna, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin - these are a few names of child prodigies whose genius has been revealed in full force over the years. 2. Ufologists believe the appearance of geeks is the intervention of aliens. 3. According to biophysicists, geeks "make" geomagnetic waves that affect the fetus. 4. The geomagnetic field of the Earth is different and its intensity depends on the Sun and other planets.

Determine which provisions of the text are: 1) Factual in nature 2) evaluative in nature

Write under the position number the letter that indicates its nature.

26 .Read the text below, where a number of words are missing. Choose from the proposed list of words to be inserted in place of the gaps:

“Society, state and culture are the means of organizing human _______________ (A), through which coordination is achieved between the actions of individuals / Coordination __________________ (B) of people simultaneously creates society and is created by it. People unite in order to achieve the __________ (C) facing them. Some researchers even expressed the opinion that the ability to create associations is a special form of _____________ (D) of a person to a dangerous ____________ (E). If animals change the form of their body or ________ (E), then the person combines his efforts with the efforts of other people. The words in the list are given in the nominative case. Each word, phrase can be used only once. Choose sequentially one word after another, mentally filling in each gap. Note that there are more words in the list than you need to fill in the gaps."

1) Environment

2) Culture

4) Activities

5) Interaction

6) Behavior

7) Tool of labor

8) Fixture

9) Generation

27 . You are invited to prepare a detailed answer on the problem of "Social progress". Make up complicated plan, according to which you will cover this topic.

>> Ideal and values

23. Ideal and values

What ideal?

In our behavior, we consciously or unconsciously follow some ideals, most often without even knowing it.

Ideal (from French ideal)- an example, something perfect, the highest goal of aspirations. It denotes what seems worthy of emulation. People have different ideals. One person considers the ideal of a respectable businessman driving a Mercedes (he is strict, efficient, secured). And the other is attracted by the romance of distant roads. He wants to know the world, visit different countries, cross the Arctic Ocean or the desert.

We advise you to remember

Ideal- something perfect, corresponding to the ideal.

Idealist- a selfless person striving for lofty goals.

Idealization- representation of someone or something better than he (it) is in reality; endowment with qualities corresponding to the ideal.

People who put material values ​​first, such as a luxurious mansion or a car, are called materialists.

And the other person is called an idealist. It is customary to refer to idealists as people who put spiritual values ​​and ideals (kindness, justice, honesty) in the first place. At the same time, in each person there are both
beginnings: material and ideal.

From the word "ideal" come concepts that you probably met more than once.

Heroes have always been the bearers and embodiment of the ideal. That is why they served as a role model, inspiring people to lofty moral deeds. The images of the heroes embody vivid, memorable manifestations of moral stamina, courage, and the greatness of the human spirit. Heroes
poets sing, their image is imprinted in immortal works by great artists and sculptors.

People strive for the ideal all their lives. With him we compare our actions and deeds.

Perhaps the most surprising thing lies in the fact that we want to see ideal not only ourselves, but also others, especially those close to us.

Let's try to think about who and why can become an ideal for others.

Probably, you have heard the phrase of young fans about some popular singer: “She is my ideal!” But what does this mean? Girls like the appearance of the singer, her manner of holding, speaking, laughing. I like the success that the singer has achieved. But after all, fans do not know anything about the singer's views on life, how she communicates with her family and friends. It is only about external imitation.

Each generation has its own ideals. Often they are connected with the events that the whole society is going through at this time. The military generation admired feats during battles, persistent behavior in captivity by enemies.

The new time and modern youth already have other role models that are closer and more understandable to them.

What are values?

What are values? These are those objects, phenomena (material and spiritual) that are most important for a person in life.

There are values ​​that are important at all times. They can be called universal. Such values ​​include truth, freedom, justice, beauty, goodness, usefulness.

The enduring values ​​of family life are considered to be loyalty and constancy, love for children, combined with exactingness, respect for a person.

But sometimes a person has a conflict of values. Imagine such a situation. A friend asked me to come support him at sports competitions, and at school by tomorrow we need to prepare a serious message, for which there are no materials at home. And the student faces a difficult choice: go to the competition to support a friend or prepare a message in the library? Any decision is unpleasant, because you want to be both a good friend and a successful student. In life, you will have to learn to make choices in many
situations.

What values ​​are today's teenagers guided by?

When scientists found out what books teenagers aged 10-13 read, what heroes they imitate and admire, it turned out that fictional heroes, who are characterized by a sense of collectivism, community with other people, hold the primacy. Each of them acted out of a moral need to care for others. The characters of the works could not remain indifferent to the pain and suffering of other people, they felt responsible for them. But the students in the first place were not fairy-tale heroes and not movie heroes, like teenagers, but real people who achieved success thanks to hard work and outstanding abilities.

It is difficult to determine the values ​​of teenagers. Some data suggests that they are mainly focused on material gains, without tormenting themselves with questions about the meaning of life. However, on the other hand, teenagers are interested in the life of their family, religion, and are not indifferent to the pain and suffering of other people.

Science has established that there are three stages in the moral development of a person.

The first stage is when a person does not commit evil deeds because he is afraid of punishment. If a person thinks that he can be caught stealing, then he is unlikely to steal.

The second stage is when a person values ​​the opinion of the group in which he is. The person does not steal for fear of expulsion from the group.

In the third stage, behavior is determined by principles that apply regardless of group authority. They are based on justice, mutual assistance and equality of human rights, respect for his dignity as a person. A person does not steal because he respects other people. Correct behavior is considered to be consistent with such principles.

This scientific theory is based on the belief that people are characterized by certain stages of moral development. But it turns out that most people rarely progress beyond the second level. The criminals stop at the first.

The principles of morality tell us what our relationships with people should be like, how we should treat people. The simplest form of their expression is this: treat people the way you want them to treat you. It is a form of relationship of equality between people.

Summing up

People's behavior is influenced by ideals and values. Ideals are role models, something perfect. The ideal can be real people or fictional characters, public ideas and values. Values ​​are all objects, phenomena (spiritual and material) that are important for a person in his life. There are universal human values ​​that have always been considered important.

Test your knowledge

1. What do the concepts mean: “ideal”, “idealist”, “idealization”?
2. List the character traits that you think an ideal person should have. Justify your choice.
3. How do you understand the expression "Every time has its heroes"?
4. Do you know works of art in which heroes are depicted, lofty ideals are shown? Name them.
5. Describe a situation that reflects a conflict of values.
6. Come up with sentences (phrases) with the words: “benefit”, “justice”, “beauty”, “freedom”, “honor”, ​​“responsibility”.

Workshop

1. The basis of the culture of Japan and China is the respect of children towards their parents.

It includes officially recognized duties, such as respect for parents, unquestioning obedience to them, care for father and mother.

The observance of this cultural value has so rebuilt relations in society that the Chinese and Japanese peoples today, perhaps, surpass all others in terms of respect for their elders.

And what about this cultural value in our country, in Russian society? Conduct your mini-research (use print, radio, television, your observations).

2. Complete the test task.

A. What would you be unable to forgive the person you are friends with?
1) Rudeness;
2) betrayal;
3) cowardice, greed;
4) weakness of character;
5) rudeness;
6) other.

B. What will you never allow yourself to communicate with your beloved and dear person?
1) look untidy;

2) to tell a lie;
3) to blunder or be embarrassed;
4) raise your voice;
5) other.

Conclude what is valuable to you in communicating with loved ones.

Kravchenko A.I., Pevtsova E.A., Social science: A textbook for the 6th grade of educational institutions. - 12th ed. - M .: LLC "TID "Russian Word - RS", 2009. - 184 p.

Lesson content lesson summary support frame lesson presentation accelerative methods interactive technologies Practice tasks and exercises self-examination workshops, trainings, cases, quests homework discussion questions rhetorical questions from students Illustrations audio, video clips and multimedia photographs, pictures graphics, tables, schemes humor, anecdotes, jokes, comics parables, sayings, crossword puzzles, quotes Add-ons abstracts articles chips for inquisitive cheat sheets textbooks basic and additional glossary of terms other Improving textbooks and lessonscorrecting errors in the textbook updating a fragment in the textbook elements of innovation in the lesson replacing obsolete knowledge with new ones Only for teachers perfect lessons calendar plan for the year methodological recommendations of the discussion program Integrated Lessons

Introduction

The fundamental characteristic of the human environment in modern society is social change. For an ordinary person - the subject of social cognition - the instability of society is perceived, first of all, as the uncertainty of the existing situation. Therefore, there is a twofold process in relations with the future. On the one hand, in a situation of instability and uncertainty about the future, which exists even among the wealthy segments of the population, a person tries to find something that will give him confidence, support in possible future changes. Some people try to secure their future through property, others try to build on higher ideals. For many, it is education that is perceived as a kind of guarantee that increases security in changing social circumstances and contributes to confidence in the future.

Morality is a way of regulating people's behavior. Other ways of regulation are custom and law. Morality includes moral feelings, norms, commandments, principles, ideas about good and evil, honor, dignity, justice, happiness, etc. Based on this, a person evaluates his goals, motives, feelings, actions, thoughts. Everything in the surrounding world can be subjected to moral evaluation. Including the world itself, its structure, as well as society or its individual institutions, actions, thoughts, feelings of other people, etc. A person can subject even God and his deeds to a moral assessment. This is discussed, for example, in the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "The Brothers Karamazov", in the section on the Grand Inquisitor.

Morality is, therefore, such a way of understanding and evaluating reality, which can judge everything and can pass judgment on any event, phenomenon of the outer world and the inner world. But in order to judge and pass a sentence, one must, firstly, have the right to do so, and, secondly, have criteria for evaluation, ideas about moral and immoral.

In modern Russian society, spiritual discomfort is felt, largely due to the moral conflict of generations. Modern youth cannot accept the way of life and style of thinking idealized by the elders, while the older generation is convinced that it used to be better, modern society is soulless and doomed to decay. What gives the right to such a moral assessment? Does it have a healthy grain? This work is devoted to the analysis of the problem of ideals in modern society and its applicability to the current situation in Russia.

Ideals and Values: A Historical Review

Moral assessment is based on the idea of ​​how "should be", i.e. an idea of ​​some proper world order, which does not yet exist, but which nevertheless should be, an ideal world order. From the point of view of moral consciousness, the world should be kind, honest, fair, humane. If he is not like that, so much the worse for the world, it means that he has not yet grown up, has not matured, has not fully realized the potentialities inherent in him. Moral consciousness "knows" what the world should be like and thus, as it were, pushes reality to move in this direction. Those. moral consciousness believes that the world can and should be made more perfect. The current state of the world does not suit him, it is basically immoral, there is still no morality in it and it must be introduced there.

In nature, everyone strives to survive and competes with others for the good things of life. Mutual assistance and cooperation are rare phenomena here. In society, on the contrary, life is impossible without mutual assistance and cooperation. In nature, the weak perish; in society, the weak are helped. This is the main difference between man and animal. And this is something new that a person brings into this world. But a person is not “ready” for this world, he grows out of the realm of nature and in it the natural and human principles compete all the time. Morality is the expression of the human in man.

A true person is one who is able to live for others, help others, even sacrifice himself for others. Self-sacrifice is the highest manifestation of morality, embodied in the image of the God-man, Christ, who for a long time remained an unattainable ideal for people, a role model. From biblical times, man began to realize his duality: a man-beast began to turn into a man-god. After all, God is not in heaven, he is in the soul of everyone and everyone is capable of being a god, i.e. to sacrifice something for the sake of others, to give others a particle of yourself.

The most important condition of morality is human freedom. Freedom means independence, autonomy of a person from the outside world. Of course, man is not God, he is a material being, he lives in the world, he must eat, drink, survive. And yet, thanks to consciousness, a person gains freedom, he is not determined by the outside world, although he depends on it. A person defines himself, creates himself, decides what he should be. If a person says: “What can I do? Nothing depends on me,” he himself chose unfreedom, his dependence.

Conscience is indisputable evidence that a person is free. If there is no freedom, then there is nothing to judge for: an animal that killed a person is not judged, a car is not judged. A person is judged and, above all, he is judged by his own conscience, unless he has already turned into an animal, although this is also not uncommon. Free, according to the Bible, a person is considered even by God, who endowed him with free will. Man has long understood that freedom is both happiness and a burden. Freedom, identical to reason, distinguishes man from animals and gives him the joy of knowledge and creativity. But, at the same time, freedom is a heavy responsibility for oneself and one's actions, for the world as a whole.

Man, as a creature capable of creativity, is similar to God or nature as a whole, to that creative force that creates the world. This means that he is able to either improve this world, make it better, or destroy, destroy. In any case, he is responsible for his actions, for his actions, big and small. Each act changes something in this world, and if a person does not think about it, does not track the consequences of his actions, then he has not yet become a man, a rational being, he is still on his way and it is not known where this path will lead.

Is there one moral or are there many? Maybe everyone has their own morality? It is not so easy to answer this question. Obviously, in society there are always several codes of conduct practiced in various social groups.

The regulation of relationships in society is largely determined by moral traditions, which include a system of moral values ​​and ideals. A significant place in the emergence and evolution of these ideals belongs to philosophical and religious systems.

In ancient philosophy, a person realizes himself as a cosmic being, tries to comprehend his place in space. The search for truth is the search for an answer to the question of how the world works and how I myself work, what is good, goodness. The traditional notions of good and evil are rethought, the true good is singled out as opposed to the fact that it is not a true good, but is only considered as such. If ordinary consciousness considered wealth and power, as well as the pleasures they bring, to be good, philosophy singled out the true good - wisdom, courage, moderation, justice.

In the era of Christianity, there is a significant shift in moral consciousness. There were also general moral principles formulated by Christianity, which, however, were not particularly practiced in ordinary life even among the clergy. But this in no way devalues ​​the significance of Christian morality, in which important universal moral principles and commandments were formulated.

With its negative attitude towards property in any of its forms ("do not collect treasures on the ground"), Christian morality opposed itself to the type of moral consciousness that prevailed in the Roman Empire. The main idea in it is the idea of ​​spiritual equality - the equality of all before God.

Christian ethics readily accepted everything acceptable to it from earlier ethical systems. Thus, the well-known rule of morality “Do not do to a man what you do not wish for yourself”, the authorship of which is attributed to Confucius and the Jewish sages, entered the canon of Christian ethics along with the commandments of the Sermon on the Mount.

Early Christian ethics laid the foundations of humanism, preaching philanthropy, unselfishness, mercy, non-resistance to evil by violence. The latter presupposed resistance without causing harm to another, moral opposition. However, this in no way meant giving up their beliefs. In the same sense, the question of the moral right to condemnation was also raised: “Judge not, lest you be judged” must be understood as “Do not condemn, do not pass judgment, for you yourself are not sinless”, but stop the evildoer, stop the spread of evil.

Christian ethics proclaims the commandment of kindness and love for the enemy, the principle of universal love: "You heard what was said:" Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you... for if you love those who love you, what reward have you?”

In modern times, in the XVI-XVII centuries, there are significant changes in society, which could not but affect morality. Protestantism proclaimed that the main duty of a believer before God is hard work in his profession, and the evidence of God's chosenness is success in business. Thus, the Protestant Church gave its flock the go-ahead: “Get rich!”. If earlier Christianity claimed that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into the kingdom of heaven, now it is the other way around - the rich become God's chosen ones, and the poor - rejected by God.

With the development of capitalism, industry and science develop, and world outlook changes. The world is losing its halo of divinity. God generally became superfluous in this world, he prevented a person from feeling like a full-fledged master of the world, and soon Nietzsche proclaimed the death of God. “God is dead. Who killed him? You and I,” says Nietzsche. Man, liberated from God, decided to become God himself. Only this deity turned out to be rather ugly. It decided that the main goal was to consume as much and as varied as possible and created a consumer society for a certain part of humanity. True, for this it was necessary to destroy a significant part of the forests, pollute the water and atmosphere, and turn vast territories into landfills. They also had to create mountains of weapons to defend themselves against those who did not fall into the consumer society.

Modern morality has again become semi-pagan, reminiscent of pre-Christian. It is based on the conviction that we live once, so everything must be taken from life. As Callicles once argued in a conversation with Socrates that happiness lies in satisfying all one's desires, so now this is becoming the main principle of life. True, some intellectuals did not agree with this and began to create a new morality. Back in the 19th century an ethic of non-violence emerged.

It so happened that it was the 20th century, which cannot be called the century of humanism and mercy, that gave rise to ideas that are in direct conflict with the prevailing practice of solving all problems and conflicts from a position of strength. Quiet, staunch resistance turned out to be brought to life - disagreement, disobedience, non-retribution by evil for evil. A person placed in a hopeless situation, humiliated and powerless, finds a non-violent means of struggle and liberation (primarily internal). He, as it were, assumes responsibility for the evil done by others, takes upon himself the sin of others and atones for him by his non-giving back of evil.

Marxism defends the idea of ​​a gradual establishment of genuine social justice. The most important aspect of understanding justice is the equality of people in relation to the means of production. It is recognized that under socialism there are still differences in the qualifications of labor and in the distribution of consumer goods. Marxism adheres to the thesis that only under communism should there be a complete coincidence of justice and social equality of people.

Despite the fact that in Russia Marxism gave birth to a totalitarian regime that denied virtually all fundamental human values ​​(although proclaiming them to be its main goal), Soviet society was a society where culture, primarily spiritual, was given a high status.

ESSAY

discipline: Culturology

Ideals in modern society

Introduction

1. Ideals and values: a historical overview

2. Cultural space of the 60s and modern Russia

Conclusion

List of used literature

The fundamental characteristic of the human environment in modern society is social change. For an ordinary person - the subject of social cognition - the instability of society is perceived, first of all, as the uncertainty of the existing situation. Therefore, there is a twofold process in relations with the future. On the one hand, in a situation of instability and uncertainty about the future, which exists even among the wealthy segments of the population, a person tries to find something that will give him confidence, support in possible future changes. Some people try to secure their future through property, others try to build on higher ideals. For many, it is education that is perceived as a kind of guarantee that increases security in changing social circumstances and contributes to confidence in the future.

Morality is a way of regulating people's behavior. Other ways of regulation are custom and law. Morality includes moral feelings, norms, commandments, principles, ideas about good and evil, honor, dignity, justice, happiness, etc. Based on this, a person evaluates his goals, motives, feelings, actions, thoughts. Everything in the surrounding world can be subjected to moral evaluation. Including the world itself, its structure, as well as society or its individual institutions, actions, thoughts, feelings of other people, etc. A person can subject even God and his deeds to a moral assessment. This is discussed, for example, in the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "The Brothers Karamazov", in the section on the Grand Inquisitor.

Morality is, therefore, such a way of understanding and evaluating reality, which can judge everything and can pass judgment on any event, phenomenon of the outer world and the inner world. But in order to judge and pass a sentence, one must, firstly, have the right to do so, and, secondly, have criteria for evaluation, ideas about moral and immoral.

In modern Russian society, spiritual discomfort is felt, largely due to the moral conflict of generations. Modern youth cannot accept the way of life and style of thinking idealized by the elders, while the older generation is convinced that it used to be better, about modern society - it is soulless and doomed to decay. What gives the right to such a moral assessment? Does it have a healthy grain? This work is devoted to the analysis of the problem of ideals in modern society and its applicability to the current situation in Russia.

Moral assessment is based on the idea of ​​how "should be", i.e. an idea of ​​some proper world order, which does not yet exist, but which nevertheless should be, an ideal world order. From the point of view of moral consciousness, the world should be kind, honest, fair, humane. If he is not like that, so much the worse for the world, it means that he has not yet grown up, has not matured, has not fully realized the potentialities inherent in him. Moral consciousness "knows" what the world should be like and thus, as it were, pushes reality to move in this direction. Those. moral consciousness believes that the world can and should be made more perfect. The current state of the world does not suit him, it is basically immoral, there is still no morality in it and it must be introduced there.

In nature, everyone strives to survive and competes with others for the good things of life. Mutual assistance and cooperation are rare phenomena here. In society, on the contrary, life is impossible without mutual assistance and cooperation. In nature, the weak perish; in society, the weak are helped. This is the main difference between man and animal. And this is something new that a person brings into this world. But a person is not “ready” for this world, he grows out of the realm of nature and in it the natural and human principles compete all the time. Morality is the expression of the human in man.

A true person is one who is able to live for others, help others, even sacrifice himself for others. Self-sacrifice is the highest manifestation of morality, embodied in the image of the God-man, Christ, who for a long time remained an unattainable ideal for people, a role model. From biblical times, man began to realize his duality: a man-beast began to turn into a man-god. After all, God is not in heaven, he is in the soul of everyone and everyone is capable of being a god, i.e. to sacrifice something for the sake of others, to give others a particle of yourself.

The most important condition of morality is human freedom. Freedom means independence, autonomy of a person from the outside world. Of course, man is not God, he is a material being, he lives in the world, he must eat, drink, survive. And yet, thanks to consciousness, a person gains freedom, he is not determined by the outside world, although he depends on it. A person defines himself, creates himself, decides what he should be. If a person says: “What can I do? Nothing depends on me,” he himself chose unfreedom, his dependence.

Conscience is indisputable evidence that a person is free. If there is no freedom, then there is nothing to judge for: an animal that killed a person is not judged, a car is not judged. A person is judged and, above all, he is judged by his own conscience, unless he has already turned into an animal, although this is also not uncommon. Free, according to the Bible, a person is considered even by God, who endowed him with free will. Man has long understood that freedom is both happiness and a burden. Freedom, identical to reason, distinguishes man from animals and gives him the joy of knowledge and creativity. But, at the same time, freedom is a heavy responsibility for oneself and one's actions, for the world as a whole.

Man, as a creature capable of creativity, is similar to God or nature as a whole, to that creative force that creates the world. This means that he is able to either improve this world, make it better, or destroy, destroy. In any case, he is responsible for his actions, for his actions, big and small. Each act changes something in this world, and if a person does not think about it, does not track the consequences of his actions, then he has not yet become a man, a rational being, he is still on his way and it is not known where this path will lead.

Is there one moral or are there many? Maybe everyone has their own morality? It is not so easy to answer this question. Obviously, in society there are always several codes of conduct practiced in various social groups.

The regulation of relationships in society is largely determined by moral traditions, which include a system of moral values ​​and ideals. A significant place in the emergence and evolution of these ideals belongs to philosophical and religious systems.

In ancient philosophy, a person realizes himself as a cosmic being, tries to comprehend his place in space. The search for truth is the search for an answer to the question of how the world works and how I myself work, what is good, goodness. The traditional notions of good and evil are rethought, the true good is singled out as opposed to the fact that it is not a true good, but is only considered as such. If ordinary consciousness considered wealth and power, as well as the pleasures they bring, to be good, philosophy singled out the true good - wisdom, courage, moderation, justice.

In the era of Christianity, there is a significant shift in moral consciousness. There were also general moral principles formulated by Christianity, which, however, were not particularly practiced in ordinary life even among the clergy. But this in no way devalues ​​the significance of Christian morality, in which important universal moral principles and commandments were formulated.

With its negative attitude towards property in any of its forms ("do not collect treasures on the ground"), Christian morality opposed itself to the type of moral consciousness that prevailed in the Roman Empire. The main idea in it is the idea of ​​spiritual equality - the equality of all before God.

Christian ethics readily accepted everything acceptable to it from earlier ethical systems. Thus, the well-known rule of morality “Do not do to a man what you do not wish for yourself”, the authorship of which is attributed to Confucius and the Jewish sages, entered the canon of Christian ethics along with the commandments of the Sermon on the Mount.

Early Christian ethics laid the foundations of humanism, preaching philanthropy, unselfishness, mercy, non-resistance to evil by violence. The latter presupposed resistance without causing harm to another, moral opposition. However, this in no way meant giving up their beliefs. In the same sense, the question of the moral right to condemnation was also raised: “Judge not, lest you be judged” must be understood as “Do not condemn, do not pass judgment, for you yourself are not sinless”, but stop the evildoer, stop the spread of evil.

Christian ethics proclaims the commandment of kindness and love for the enemy, the principle of universal love: "You heard what was said:" Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you... for if you love those who love you, what reward have you?”

In modern times, in the XVI-XVII centuries, there are significant changes in society, which could not but affect morality. Protestantism proclaimed that the main duty of a believer before God is hard work in his profession, and the evidence of God's chosenness is success in business. Thus, the Protestant Church gave its flock the go-ahead: “Get rich!”. If earlier Christianity claimed that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, now it is the other way around - the rich become God's chosen ones, and the poor - rejected by God.

With the development of capitalism, industry and science develop, and world outlook changes. The world is losing its halo of divinity. God generally became superfluous in this world, he prevented a person from feeling like a full-fledged master of the world, and soon Nietzsche proclaimed the death of God. “God is dead. Who killed him? You and I,” says Nietzsche. Man, liberated from God, decided to become God himself. Only this deity turned out to be rather ugly. It decided that the main goal was to consume as much and as varied as possible and created a consumer society for a certain part of humanity. True, for this it was necessary to destroy a significant part of the forests, pollute the water and atmosphere, and turn vast territories into landfills. They also had to create mountains of weapons to defend themselves against those who did not fall into the consumer society.

Modern morality has again become semi-pagan, reminiscent of pre-Christian. It is based on the belief that we live once, so we must take everything from life. As Callicles once argued in a conversation with Socrates that happiness lies in satisfying all one's desires, so now this is becoming the main principle of life. True, some intellectuals did not agree with this and began to create a new morality. Back in the 19th century an ethic of non-violence emerged.

It so happened that it was the 20th century, which cannot be called the century of humanism and mercy, that gave rise to ideas that are in direct conflict with the prevailing practice of solving all problems and conflicts from a position of strength. Quiet, staunch resistance turned out to be brought to life - disagreement, disobedience, non-retribution by evil for evil. A person placed in a hopeless situation, humiliated and powerless, finds a non-violent means of struggle and liberation (primarily internal). He, as it were, assumes responsibility for the evil done by others, takes upon himself the sin of others and atones for him by his non-giving back of evil.

Marxism defends the idea of ​​a gradual establishment of genuine social justice. The most important aspect of understanding justice is the equality of people in relation to the means of production. It is recognized that under socialism there are still differences in the qualifications of labor and in the distribution of consumer goods. Marxism adheres to the thesis that only under communism should there be a complete coincidence of justice and social equality of people.

Despite the fact that in Russia Marxism gave birth to a totalitarian regime that denied virtually all fundamental human values ​​(although proclaiming them to be its main goal), Soviet society was a society where culture, primarily spiritual, was given a high status.

The heyday of Russian Soviet culture was the 60s, in any case, these years are often idealized in the memories of people who now talk about the decline of culture. In order to reconstruct the spiritual picture of the era of the 60s, a competition of the "sixties" was held "I look at myself as in the mirror of the era." From people who lived and developed under the shadow of the "thaw" one could expect detailed and detailed characteristics of the era, detailed and detailed characteristics of the era, descriptions of ideals and aspirations.

This is how the era of the 60s looks like in the descriptions of educated participants in the competition: “for some time we believed that we were free and could live according to our conscience, be ourselves”, “everyone breathed freely”, “they began to talk a lot about the new life, there have been many publications”; “The 60s are the most interesting and intense: they listened to our poets of the sixties, read (often secretly) “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”; “The 60s is the time when everyone squinted from the sun, as Zhvanetsky said”; “I consider myself one of the sixties, those whose ideological formation on the basis of communist ideology took place after the death of Stalin, who experienced the cleansing influence of the 20th Congress”; “we felt the spiritual growth of society with our skin, despised the routine, rushed to interesting work”; “at this time, the exploration of space, virgin lands” took place; "a significant event - Khrushchev's report - comprehension began"; "moral code of the builder of communism", "nationwide state power", "worship of science".

For poorly educated contestants, direct assessments of the era of the 60s are very rare. It can be said that in fact they do not distinguish this time as a special era and do not explain their participation in the competition from this point of view. In those cases when characteristics of this time nevertheless appear in their descriptions, they are concrete and “material”, and the era of the 60s is defined primarily as the time of Khrushchev’s reforms (“breaks in bread”, “instead of the usual crops in the fields of corn” , "the mistresses parted with their cows" ...). In other words, they do not record the 1960s as a “thaw”, as the liberation of the country and the individual, as a softening of the regime and changes in ideology.

The concept of cultural capital as applied to the realities of life of a Soviet person can be viewed not only as the presence of the highest levels of education and the corresponding status of the parents of the narrator, but also as the presence of a complete and loving family, as well as the talent, skill, diligence of his parents (what in Russian culture is denoted by the word "nuggets"). This was especially evident in the life histories of the "peasant" generation, which realized the potential for the democratization of social relations, accumulated long before the revolution.

For the educated participants of the "sixties" contest, it is essential in determining cultural capital that they belong to the educated strata of society in the second generation, that their parents had an education that gave them the status of an employee in Soviet society. And if the parents are educated people in this sense (there are also people of noble origin, who, of course, are very few, and “modest Soviet employees” of proletarian or peasant origin), then the cultural capital of the family, as the descriptions testify, necessarily affects the biography of children .

A generalized picture of the biographies of those who belong to the educated strata of society in the first generation, and those whose parents already possessed cultural capital to one degree or another, is as follows. The first is characterized by a turbulent (student) youth with poetry reading, theatres, scarce books and cultural enthusiasm (that is, with the myths of their youth), which with the beginning of family life as a whole fades and becomes a pleasant memory. Their commitment to the cultural codes of the Soviet ideology, as a rule, was supported by active participation in public work associated with party membership. And in those cases when they are disappointed in the past, they define themselves as "naive simpletons", "hard workers, gullible by nature, who worked hard in the 60s, and in the 70s, and in the 80s."

This shows that the ideals and culture of the sixties were still not a fairly common phenomenon, but rather the mindset of the elite. However, in the post-Soviet period, this mindset has changed dramatically, and so has the mindset of the elite. However, the value conflict in modern society is constantly present. This is - in general terms - a conflict between the Soviet spiritual culture and modern material.

Recently, among the post-Soviet intellectual elite, arguments about the “end of the Russian intelligentsia”, about the fact that “the intelligentsia is leaving” have become popular. This refers not only to the “brain drain” abroad, but mainly to the transformation of the Russian intellectual into a Western European intellectual. The tragedy of this transformation is that a unique ethical and cultural type is lost - “an educated person with a bad conscience” (M.S. Kagan). The place of a reverent, free-thinking and disinterested altruist who reveres Culture is occupied by prudent egoists-purchasers who neglect national and universal cultural values. In this regard, the revival of Russian culture, rooted in its Golden and Silver Ages, becomes doubtful. How justified are these fears?

The cradle and abode of the Russian intelligentsia in the 19th and 20th centuries. was Russian literature. Russia, unlike European countries, was characterized by the literary centrism of public consciousness, which lies in the fact that fiction and journalism (and not religion, philosophy or science) served as the main source of socially recognized ideas, ideals, and poets, writers, writers and critics acted as rulers of thoughts, authoritative judges, apostles and prophets. Russian literature educated the Russian intelligentsia, and the Russian intelligentsia nurtured Russian literature. Since literature is one of the communication channels of book culture, we can conclude that there is a dialectical causal relationship "book communication - Russian intelligentsia".

In order to interrupt the reproduction of the Russian intelligentsia, it is necessary to deprive it of nutritious soil, i.e. it is necessary that Russian literature that educates moral sensibility "gone away". At present, the crisis of Russian literature is evident: the general reader prefers entertaining bestsellers (most often by foreign authors) or does not read at all; books are becoming more expensive and circulations are shrinking; among modern writers, there are practically no names attractive to young people. Polls of St. Petersburg students showed that less than 10% have a "thirst for reading", while the rest are indifferent to the classics and modern fiction. Hence the narrow cultural outlook, often - elementary ignorance: to the question "What did Pushkin die of?", You can hear "from cholera." Thus, the indispensable condition for the “withdrawal” of the Russian intelligentsia from the coming century is fulfilled: book communication is of little demand to the younger generation.

We are witnessing a natural change from book communication to electronic (television-computer) communication. Even in the middle of the XX century. they started talking about the "crisis of information" due to the contradiction between book flows and funds and the individual possibilities of their perception. The end result is the deadening of knowledge, we do not know what we know. The funds of Russian literature are constantly growing and becoming more and more boundless and inaccessible. It turns out a paradox: there are more and more books, and less and less readers.

The steady decline of interest in literature, fiction and journalistic, creates the impression that post-Soviet students have decided to “write off” burdensome and archaic book communication into the archives of history in the name of multimedia communication. There is no reason to hope that classical Russian literature will take the form of multimedia messages: it is not adapted for this. This means that the ethical potential inherent in it will be lost. Undoubtedly, electronic communication will develop its own ethics and its educational impact will be no less than Chekhov's stories or Dostoevsky's novels, but it will not be intellectual ethics.

Without affecting the social, economic, political arguments used by the authors of now very widespread publications about the end of the Russian intelligentsia, using only the communicative mechanism of its reproduction, we can come to the following conclusion: there is no reason to hope for the revival of "educated people with a bad conscience." The generation of educated Russian people of the XXI century. will be "educated" differently than their parents - the Soviet intelligentsia of the "disillusioned" generation, and the ideal of an altruist reverent for Culture will attract few.

O. Toffler, developing his theory of three waves in macrohistory, believes that the personality of the second wave was formed in accordance with Protestant ethics. However, Protestant ethics was not characteristic of Russia. We can say that in the Soviet period there was an ethic of the Soviet person and, accordingly, modern youth, denying the ideals and ethics of the previous generation, remains inextricably linked genetically with previous generations. Toffler himself hopes for a change in the Protestant ethics of a new, informational one. In the light of the new cultural dynamics in Russia, one can express the hope that this process will be more dynamic and easier in our country than in the West, and opinion polls confirm this.

Analyzing the data of sociological surveys, one can try to determine what personality traits are characteristic of modern youth in connection with the transition to the information society, which is based on information and communication. Based on the surveys conducted at MIREA in 2003-2005, the following can be noted. The very possibility of communication is a value for today's youth, so they try to be at the level of modern innovations and innovations. Higher education is still a weak help in this area, even in the field of information technology, so young people are actively engaged in self-education.

However, education is not a value in itself, as it was for the generation of the Soviet period. It is a means of achieving social status and material well-being. The ability to communicate using all modern means of communication is a value, while there is a tendency to unite in interest groups. Such a vivid individualization, which Toffler speaks of, is not observed. So far, it is difficult to talk about such a feature as an orientation towards consumption, since this feature was poorly expressed in Soviet society. In general, the presence of high interest in new computer technologies and selfless enthusiasm allow us to hope that the information society in Russia will nevertheless become a reality for the majority of the population when today's youth grows up a little.

The crisis in which Russia finds itself today is far more severe than a conventional financial crisis or a traditional industrial depression. The country is not just set back a few decades; all the efforts made over the past century to ensure Russia the status of a great power have been devalued. The country is copying the worst examples of Asian corrupt capitalism.

The society of modern Russia is going through hard times: old ideals have been overthrown and new ones have not been found. The resulting value-semantic vacuum is rapidly being filled with artifacts of Western culture, which have covered almost all spheres of social and spiritual life, ranging from forms of leisure activities, manners of communication and ending with ethical and aesthetic values, worldview guidelines.

According to Toffler, an information civilization generates a new type of people who create a new information society. Toffler calls this human type the "third wave", just as he considers the agrarian society the "first wave" and the industrial society the "second wave". At the same time, each wave creates its own special type of personality, which has an appropriate character and ethics. Thus, the "second wave" according to Toffler is characterized by Protestant ethics, and such features as subjectivity and individualism, the ability to think abstractly, empathize and imagine.

“The third wave does not create some ideal superman, some heroic species that lives among us, but fundamentally changes the character traits inherent in the whole of society. It is not a new man that is created, but a new social character. Therefore, our task is not to look for a mythical "man", but for those character traits that are most likely to be valued by the civilization of tomorrow. Toffler believes that “education will also change. Many children will learn outside the classroom.” Toffler believes that "Third Wave civilization may favor very different character traits in the young, such as independence from peer opinions, less consumer orientation, and less hedonistic self-obsession."

Perhaps the changes that our country is going through now will lead to the formation of a new type of Russian intellectual - the information intelligentsia, who, without repeating the mistakes of the "disillusioned" generation, will overcome Western individualism, based on rich Russian cultural traditions.

1. Alekseeva L. History of dissent in the USSR: The latest period. Vilnius-Moscow: Vesti, 1992.

2. Akhiezer A.S. Russia as a large society // Questions of Philosophy. 1993. N 1. S.3-19.

3. Berto D., Malysheva M. The cultural model of the Russian masses and the forced transition to the market // Biographical method: History, methodology and practice. M.: Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 1994. P. 94-146.

4. Weil P., Genis A. Country of words // New world. 1991. N 4. S.239-251.

5. Gozman L., Etkind A. From the cult of power to the power of people. Psychology of political consciousness // Neva. 1989. No. 7.

6. Levada Yu.A. The problem of the intelligentsia in modern Russia // Where is Russia going?.. Alternatives of social development. (International Symposium 17-19 December 1993). M., 1994. S.208-214.

7. Soviet common man. Experience of a social portrait at the turn of the 90s. M.: World Ocean, 1993

8. Toffler O. The Third Wave. - M., Nauka: 2001.

9. Tsvetaeva N.N. Biographical discourse of the Soviet era // Sociological journal. 1999. No. 1/2.

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ESSAY

discipline: Culturology

Ideals in modern society

Introduction

1. Ideals and values: a historical overview

2. Cultural space of the 60s and modern Russia

Conclusion

List of used literature

The fundamental characteristic of the human environment in modern society is social change. For an ordinary person - the subject of social cognition - the instability of society is perceived, first of all, as the uncertainty of the existing situation. Therefore, there is a twofold process in relations with the future. On the one hand, in a situation of instability and uncertainty about the future, which exists even among the wealthy segments of the population, a person tries to find something that will give him confidence, support in possible future changes. Some people try to secure their future through property, others try to build on higher ideals. For many, it is education that is perceived as a kind of guarantee that increases security in changing social circumstances and contributes to confidence in the future.

Morality is a way of regulating people's behavior. Other ways of regulation are custom and law. Morality includes moral feelings, norms, commandments, principles, ideas about good and evil, honor, dignity, justice, happiness, etc. Based on this, a person evaluates his goals, motives, feelings, actions, thoughts. Everything in the surrounding world can be subjected to moral evaluation. Including the world itself, its structure, as well as society or its individual institutions, actions, thoughts, feelings of other people, etc. A person can subject even God and his deeds to a moral assessment. This is discussed, for example, in the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "The Brothers Karamazov", in the section on the Grand Inquisitor.

Morality is, therefore, such a way of understanding and evaluating reality, which can judge everything and can pass judgment on any event, phenomenon of the outer world and the inner world. But in order to judge and pass a sentence, one must, firstly, have the right to do so, and, secondly, have criteria for evaluation, ideas about moral and immoral.

In modern Russian society, spiritual discomfort is felt, largely due to the moral conflict of generations. Modern youth cannot accept the way of life and style of thinking idealized by the elders, while the older generation is convinced that it used to be better, about modern society - it is soulless and doomed to decay. What gives the right to such a moral assessment? Does it have a healthy grain? This work is devoted to the analysis of the problem of ideals in modern society and its applicability to the current situation in Russia.

Moral assessment is based on the idea of ​​how "should be", i.e. an idea of ​​some proper world order, which does not yet exist, but which nevertheless should be, an ideal world order. From the point of view of moral consciousness, the world should be kind, honest, fair, humane. If he is not like that, so much the worse for the world, it means that he has not yet grown up, has not matured, has not fully realized the potentialities inherent in him. Moral consciousness "knows" what the world should be like and thus, as it were, pushes reality to move in this direction. Those. moral consciousness believes that the world can and should be made more perfect. The current state of the world does not suit him, it is basically immoral, there is still no morality in it and it must be introduced there.

In nature, everyone strives to survive and competes with others for the good things of life. Mutual assistance and cooperation are rare phenomena here. In society, on the contrary, life is impossible without mutual assistance and cooperation. In nature, the weak perish; in society, the weak are helped. This is the main difference between man and animal. And this is something new that a person brings into this world. But a person is not “ready” for this world, he grows out of the realm of nature and in it the natural and human principles compete all the time. Morality is the expression of the human in man.

A true person is one who is able to live for others, help others, even sacrifice himself for others. Self-sacrifice is the highest manifestation of morality, embodied in the image of the God-man, Christ, who for a long time remained an unattainable ideal for people, a role model. From biblical times, man began to realize his duality: a man-beast began to turn into a man-god. After all, God is not in heaven, he is in the soul of everyone and everyone is capable of being a god, i.e. to sacrifice something for the sake of others, to give others a particle of yourself.

The most important condition of morality is human freedom. Freedom means independence, autonomy of a person from the outside world. Of course, man is not God, he is a material being, he lives in the world, he must eat, drink, survive. And yet, thanks to consciousness, a person gains freedom, he is not determined by the outside world, although he depends on it. A person defines himself, creates himself, decides what he should be. If a person says: “What can I do? Nothing depends on me,” he himself chose unfreedom, his dependence.

Conscience is indisputable evidence that a person is free. If there is no freedom, then there is nothing to judge for: an animal that killed a person is not judged, a car is not judged. A person is judged and, above all, he is judged by his own conscience, unless he has already turned into an animal, although this is also not uncommon. Free, according to the Bible, a person is considered even by God, who endowed him with free will. Man has long understood that freedom is both happiness and a burden. Freedom, identical to reason, distinguishes man from animals and gives him the joy of knowledge and creativity. But, at the same time, freedom is a heavy responsibility for oneself and one's actions, for the world as a whole.

Man, as a creature capable of creativity, is similar to God or nature as a whole, to that creative force that creates the world. This means that he is able to either improve this world, make it better, or destroy, destroy. In any case, he is responsible for his actions, for his actions, big and small. Each act changes something in this world, and if a person does not think about it, does not track the consequences of his actions, then he has not yet become a man, a rational being, he is still on his way and it is not known where this path will lead.

Is there one moral or are there many? Maybe everyone has their own morality? It is not so easy to answer this question. Obviously, in society there are always several codes of conduct practiced in various social groups.

The regulation of relationships in society is largely determined by moral traditions, which include a system of moral values ​​and ideals. A significant place in the emergence and evolution of these ideals belongs to philosophical and religious systems.

In ancient philosophy, a person realizes himself as a cosmic being, tries to comprehend his place in space. The search for truth is the search for an answer to the question of how the world works and how I myself work, what is good, goodness. The traditional notions of good and evil are rethought, the true good is singled out as opposed to the fact that it is not a true good, but is only considered as such. If ordinary consciousness considered wealth and power, as well as the pleasures they bring, to be good, philosophy singled out the true good - wisdom, courage, moderation, justice.

In the era of Christianity, there is a significant shift in moral consciousness. There were also general moral principles formulated by Christianity, which, however, were not particularly practiced in ordinary life even among the clergy. But this in no way devalues ​​the significance of Christian morality, in which important universal moral principles and commandments were formulated.

With its negative attitude towards property in any of its forms ("do not collect treasures on the ground"), Christian morality opposed itself to the type of moral consciousness that prevailed in the Roman Empire. The main idea in it is the idea of ​​spiritual equality - the equality of all before God.

Christian ethics readily accepted everything acceptable to it from earlier ethical systems. Thus, the well-known rule of morality “Do not do to a man what you do not wish for yourself”, the authorship of which is attributed to Confucius and the Jewish sages, entered the canon of Christian ethics along with the commandments of the Sermon on the Mount.

Early Christian ethics laid the foundations of humanism, preaching philanthropy, unselfishness, mercy, non-resistance to evil by violence. The latter presupposed resistance without causing harm to another, moral opposition. However, this in no way meant giving up their beliefs. In the same sense, the question of the moral right to condemnation was also raised: “Judge not, lest you be judged” must be understood as “Do not condemn, do not pass judgment, for you yourself are not sinless”, but stop the evildoer, stop the spread of evil.

Christian ethics proclaims the commandment of kindness and love for the enemy, the principle of universal love: "You heard what was said:" Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you... for if you love those who love you, what reward have you?”

In modern times, in the XVI-XVII centuries, there are significant changes in society, which could not but affect morality. Protestantism proclaimed that the main duty of a believer before God is hard work in his profession, and the evidence of God's chosenness is success in business. Thus, the Protestant Church gave its flock the go-ahead: “Get rich!”. If earlier Christianity claimed that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, now it is the other way around - the rich become God's chosen ones, and the poor - rejected by God.