Thinkers of the Twentieth Century: Society, a Democratic State and the Ways of their Formation

Abstract

The article discusses the general principles of society, a democratic state and the ways of their formation. The twentieth century can be defined as scientific progress, a time of humanism, democracy, and a period of human prosperity. But already at the beginning of the 20th century, many thinkers said that technical progress would bring humanity not only good, but also evil, moral principles would be replaced by material values and material principles, which, in turn, would lead to contradictions in society. Most often, the beginning of the 20th century is associated with the culmination of the values of Western spiritual culture. Concepts such as freedom, equality, law, which came in exchange for feudal relations, laid the foundation of European views. But there were philosophical schools that strongly criticized the society of the time: marxists, representatives of psychoanalysis, pragmatists and positivists. The reason for this was the lack of a common opinion about democracy and a dubious attitude to the changes taking place in society. The author emphasizes that society is a complex material world of nature, since it is the social environment in which people live together. Many thinkers from Aristotle to Hegel tried to determine what society is. This question was asked not only by individual thinkers, but also later formed scientific fields and schools, which were looking for answers to the following questions: based on what patterns the society develops, what is its structure, etc. For T. Hobbes and J.-G. Rousseau society is an agreement on social consent; for Hegel, who views society through the prism of civil society, it is a complex system of social relations; for O. Comte, society is a special form of human consciousness; for M. Weber, society is a relationship of people based on social action, where everyone is for everyone; for T. Parsons himself, society is a relationship of people based on norms and values.