The main trends in the development of historical science in the second half of the twentieth century. Second question
When approaching the question of the trend in the historical development of mankind, it is necessary, first of all, to recognize that historical development is not a straight and precisely observed line of development. Historical analysis, undeluded by patterns or political bias of any kind, points to a huge number of interacting factors. Monistic theories that attribute exclusive influence to any one factor, be it Rousseau’s theory of the social contract, or Marx’s economic relations, must, following Sorokin’s expression, be recognized “a regurgitation of the old philosophy, archived with its imaginary uniform laws...” [Sorokin, “System of Sociology”].
The affirmation of the multiplicity of factors of historical development - pluralism - determines the need for extreme caution in determining possible trends in historical development. In a very rough outline, we can only point out the following basic elements included in the process of social development: - family, clan, tribe, nationality, nation, and in the future, probably, all of humanity. These elements have been the main components of society throughout human history. They were not always located in the order of one after the other, since we sometimes see processes of disintegration of already established formations.
However, all social groups - family, clan, tribe, nation - have always represented not only a union by blood, but were united by common labor and everyday life. As these groups grow and move into more complex formations, a more complex process of development takes place within these formations. The process of division of labor begins, life ceases to be unified and common to the entire group, it acquires within the group itself various characteristic features, according to living conditions, traditions, customs, etc. If previously a small group, say a family, lived in a common life and common labor, earned their livelihood, now, for example, in a nation there is a whole series of diverse groups united according to various characteristics.
For clarity and completeness of our presentation, it is also necessary to introduce the concept of full and incomplete social groups.
An incomplete social group performs only one social function and captures only one side of the person included in it, thereby being only a part (organ) of a complete social group. This latter unites in itself all the functions, all the creative processes of the incomplete social groups included in it, already fulfilling, as a whole, a common creative task and satisfying both the creative and personal interests and demands of the people it covers.
Any labor group is always incomplete, since the team of any enterprise, or, say, Russian scientists, taken together, perform only certain functions of the general whole and cannot exist without this whole, without being supplemented by other, also incomplete, social groups. In the same way, any everyday group, say a family, is incomplete, since it does not capture a person entirely, but only in certain of his manifestations, in his personal life.
A complete social group can only be considered a group that unites the heterogeneous creative efforts of its organic parts - incomplete social groups and each individual person. The entire historical process of social development testifies to the fact that humanity continuously strives for solidarity into a complete social group, where human creative capabilities receive comprehensive development.
At the present stage, the highest form of human unification is the nation. A nation has all the characteristics of a social personality. She has a national identity, a national memory - history, spiritual heredity - tradition and national character, as an expression of her individual identity. In other words, a nation, as a social personality that organically unites people, creates a cultural-historical type that is universal in its influence and weight. Finally, a nation has its own national solidarity, which drives all forms of its social development and strengthens as the latter grow, and its own national egoism. And all this irresistibly leads the nation to even more free creativity, to cooperation and to the solidarity of all humanity. And one more main feature that characterizes a nation is a commonality of aspirations for the future. We have already said above that society is not an immutable quantity at any moment of its existence. And the closer the existing formation comes to its completion, the brighter and more persistently its tendencies towards solidarity are expressed at a higher level of human associations.
There are already trends towards the formation of supernations. A number of concepts have already gone beyond the framework of the nation, for example, culture. French culture, Spanish, Italian and others are now giving way to a new established concept - European culture. These trends are also expressed in the desire of humanity, in some areas, for even greater unification, for example, for global cooperation (congresses of scientists). Finally, thoughts about world government indicate the same thing.
With the development of national creativity, these trends are expressed more clearly and fully. This situation once again convinces of the correctness of the well-known statement of true nationalists: service to one’s nation is also service to all humanity through one’s nation, is the path of transition of all humanity to the highest stages of social development. This is all the more clear because the transition itself to numerically does not give anything to large associations if it is not accompanied by high quality strengthening solidarity creativity and the growth of all forms of social development. If numerical unification can sometimes be achieved artificially, or by force through, say, conquest, then organic fusion, qualitative change can be achieved only through the growth and development of every person and every association of people, through solidary creative work.
At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. complex Main institutions Characteristics of history as a science: methodology of history, the emergence of a textbook - how to write history (Langlois and Senobos). Developments in the field of source studies. Lappo-Danil., Freeman, Bernheim. The main building of the auxiliary history department was formed. disciplines; in all Europe Countries formed.national. associations of historians; national historical Magazines (Bulletin of Europe, Russian Antiquity). Functioning of history faculties, higher education.
In 1898 the 1st international took place. Congress of Historians. The final formation has occurred. History as science. Development of historical science in the 20th century. is divided into 3 stages: 1) 20-50 years. The period of dominance of the class.concepts of history. This period of IT science was defined. The origins of the first century, which was a shock to Western culture. In Spengler's "The Decline of Europe": History teaches what teaches nothing! A sharp decline in interest in history, a decline in the status of this science. Character. trait: severe ideologization. The main question: who is to blame for World War 1? The appearance of multi-volumes. collected works and sources. 1 m.v. Germans: England is to blame. Entente: Germany is to blame. During this period, the foundations of a deep critique of the Rankian model were laid, criticism presented by: Croci, Collingwood, Febvre, block. Concentration Focus on the cultural history of the social. Gives impetus to a husband-disciplinary approach. 2 m.v. became a crisis point in establishing a balance between old and new historiography.
2)60-80 years. The period of formation of the non-classical concept of history. 50 became a period of qualities. zap changes Civilizations. This is the time: the collapse of the colonial system of the world; the emergence of nuclear weapons, human flight. Into space, NTR Researcher Bel defined this period as the beginning of the post-industrial era.
At the turn of the 50-60s. there was a feeling of limitlessness. Human capabilities in cognition. This was a situation of pluralism of opinions, a search for new ways and approaches. This is the dominance of macrohistorical research: industrial theory. And post-industrial. generally, modernization theory (Black, Moore, Parsons), world-system analysis. The US government has invested huge amounts of money in social, historical, and political science. Research. The synthesis of history and sociology is evidence. on the formation of an interdisciplinary approach. Another manifestation of interdisciplinarity was the rise of poststructuralism. In the 60s. ideas of Sesur b. transferred from language to society. 1) Michel Foucault “Supervise and Punish” Show. How, using the example of prisons, the idea of punishment changed. In sser - Bakhtin, “François Ramble and the culture of laughter.” At this stage, political history has lost its monopoly in history. research, this has led to the dominance of an interdisciplinary approach. The ideas of Freud (Foucault, history of sexuality) became in demand.
Stage 3. K. 80-early XXI V. Post-non-classical stage. Determined by the epistemological revolution and the revolution in the theory of knowledge. The moment of crisis of macrohistorical research. This was determined by the collapse of the bipolar world, which led to a clash of civilizations. The theory of relativity has burst into social media. Science (how many historians - so many opinions). A universal history is being formed, i.e. association of natural And humanizes. Sci. Formation of a unified field.
This is the heyday of local history and family history. In the center of research interests: national. Mentality, picture of the world, system of ideas. In 2005, the 20th World Congress of Historians took place in Sydney, the domestic delegation headed by. Bibikov.
The main political, social, historical and epistemological trends of the era that influenced the development of historical science. Cliometric positivism (P. Chaunu, F. Furet). Development of logical positivism by K. Popper. Interpretation of the Marxist methodology of history by R. Aron. Post-war development of the “Annals School” and the identification of various directions from it. Influence on the methodology of the history of narratology and philological sciences. Development of social and economic history. History of culture and methodology of history. "New Intellectual History".
Civilizational approach to history (O. Spengler and A. Toynbee). Basic methodological principles of the civilizational approach to history. “The Decline of Europe” by O. Spengler. The concept of “morphology of world history”. Tables of “comparative morphology of world history.” Historical works of A. Toynbee. Scheme of the history of civilizations according to A. Toynbee. Genesis of civilizations according to A. Toynbee. The theory of “call and response”, “exit and return” The concepts of “split of civilizations” and “universal states”.
History of the origin and basic principles of the “New Historical Science”. M. Blok and L. Febr. Magazine "Annals". What did the representatives of the “new historical science” criticize? Basic principles of the “new historical science”. Concepts of historical synthesis, total history, temporal structure, macrohistorical and microhistorical approaches, multidisciplinary approach and interdisciplinary synthesis. Dialogue of cultures. Mentality.
"New historical science". Mark Block. M. Blok’s ideas about the place of history in humanitarian culture. Features of historical observation according to M. Blok. Types of historical evidence. Difference between documentary and narrative sources. M. Blok’s assessment of the method of “skeptical” attitude towards sources. Two types of deception in sources. M. Blok on historical terminology. Basic principles of M. Blok's critical method.
Historical anthropology. Main directions of development in the twentieth century. Basic methodological principles of historical anthropology. The concept of otherness and dialogue of cultures. The concept of mentality. Works of the classics of historical anthropology: F. Ariès, R. Darnton, J. Duby, F. Braudel, D. Levy. What is the “anthropological dimension” of history? The concept of “dense description” by K. Geertz. The influence of social anthropology on historical anthropology (C. Lévi-Strauss).
Historical anthropology. J. Le Goff. Le Goff's assessments of political history. What are the new approaches? Le Goff's suggestions for the study of political history? The book “The Civilization of the Medieval West”: Design, methodological principles, advantages and disadvantages of the approach. How does Le Goff propose to study mentality?
Historical anthropology. F. Braudel. The main works of F. Braudel. Main features of Braudel's structuralist method. What is Braudel's object of study? What is meant by “material life”? What is meant by “structures of everyday life”? The concept of “world-economy”.
History of private life and development paths of this scientific direction. The emergence of the history of private life as a special direction. The most famous works on the history of private life. Basic methodological principles of this scientific direction. Demographic behavior as an object of research.
Basic principles of the microhistorical approach. The emergence of microhistory. Basic principles of the microhistorical approach. K. Ginzburg. J. Levy. B. Haupert and F. Schafer. N.Z. Davis. Advantages and disadvantages of the microhistorical approach.
Microhistory. Carlo Ginzburg. How does Ginzburg formulate the research problems facing proponents of the microhistorical approach? How does he propose to solve them? K. Ginzburg’s book “Cheese and Worms”: content, methodological principles, advantages and disadvantages.
Postmodern challenge and historical science. What is postmodernism? The idea of history as an explanatory system, a metastory. Basic principles of postmodernist criticism of historical science. H. White. Postmodernists’ interpretation of history as an “operation of verbal fiction.” “Linguistic turn” (A. Danto). Development and rethinking of H. White's theory in the works of F. Ankersmit.
Reasons for rethinking the place and principles of historical knowledge in the second half of the twentieth century. Historical reasons. Political reasons. Epistemological reasons. Understanding history as a special “cultural practice”. The concept of postmodernism (J. Lyotard). The cognitive revolution and its impact on humanities. Development of philological sciences and their influence on humanities.
How did historical science respond to the postmodern challenge? Techniques and methods of denial of postmodernism by supporters of the positivist approach. The current state of historical postmodernism. “The third direction” in the criticism of historical postmodernism (L. Stone, R. Chartier, J. Iggers, G. Spigel, P. Bourdieu). Possible ways to criticize the postmodern approach to history.
"Postmodern challenge". Hayden White. "Metahistory" by H. White. The concept of tropology. Denotative and connotative signification. Metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche and irony. History and poetics. Verification. How does White define the principles of constructing a historical narrative? Explanation through plotting. Romance, Tragedy, Comedy and Satire. Explanation through evidence. Modes of Formism, Organicism, Mechanism and Contextualism Explanation through ideological subtext. Tactics of Anarchism, Conservatism, Radicalism and Liberalism.
Historical hermeneutics: History of origin. What is hermeneutics? Concepts of interpretation and understanding. Hermeneutics in ancient and medieval science. The emergence of historical hermeneutics. Y.M. Cladenius. G.F. Mayer.
Historical hermeneutics. Friedrich Schleiermacher. Wilhelm Dilthey, Hermeneutics as the “universal art of understanding” by F. Schleiermacher. The scientific and creative act of the author of the work. Comparative and divinatory methods of understanding. Hermeneutics and psychological interpretation. The principle of congeniality of V. Dilthey.
Historical hermeneutics. Martin Heidegger. Hans Gadamer, Paul Ricoeur, The concept of the hermeneutic circle in M. Hadegger. “Sketching meaning”, pre-concepts and the problem of interpretation. Understanding and interpretation in G. Gadamer and P. Ricoeur.
Application of the method of historical hermeneutics I.N. Danilevsky.
The concepts of centon and bricolage. The method of stable semantic keys by R. Picchio and the centon-paraphrase method by I.N. Danilevsky. Genetic criticism of the source and the problem of interpretation. Advantages and disadvantages of the method.
Semiotics and history. Basic principles of semiotics. The concept of semiotics. What and how does semiotics study? Concept of a sign. Signifiers and signified signs. Figurative signs, indices and diagrams. The concept of signification. The process of semiosis. Paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations between signs. Synchrony and Diachrony. Paradigmatics and syntagmatics.
Development of semiotics in the twentieth century. Classics of semiotics: C. Pierce, F. De Saussure, C. Morris, R. Barth. Moscow and Prague linguistic circles. Identification of different directions in semiotics: linguistic semiotics, semiotics in literary criticism, semiotics of art, logical semiotics, psychological semiotics, social semiotics, visual semiotics, historical semiotics.
Semiotics in Russia. Yuri Mikhailovich Lotman. The emergence of the Moscow-Tartu semiotic school. Yu.M. Lotman, B.A. Uspensky, B.M. Gasparov: main works and ideas. Concept of the text by Yu.M. Lotman. The concept of semiosphere. Theory of the poetic word M.M. Bakhtin. "Proceedings on sign systems." Features of the cultural-semiotic approach to history.
The concept of historical memory and its development in the works of French researchers. The relationship between the concepts of history and memory. Project of “places of memory”: structure, principles of construction, advantages and disadvantages.
The theory of “places of historical memory” by P. Nora. The concept of “place of memory”. Examples of “places of memory” from the French project. The possibility of applying this technique to Russian history.
Theories of nations and nationalism in the twentieth century. B. Anderson. “Imaginary Communities” by B. Anderson: structure and main ideas of the book. Why does B. Anderson define nations as “imagined communities”? How does he interpret the origins of nationalism? Concepts of symbols and memory of the nation. Nation Building Toolkit according to B. Anderson.
Theories of nations and nationalism in the twentieth century. Hans Kohn. G. Kohn's interpretation of the nation as a “historical and political concept.” The concept of the origin of nationalism by G. Kohn. Ways of forming nations according to G. Kohn.
Edward Said and his analysis of “Orientalism” as a way for the West to assimilate a foreign culture. The concept of orientalism. Techniques and methods by which the West identifies the East. The concept of imaginative geography – using the example of Orientalism. The methods by which Orientalism opened the East to the West. The image of the “White Man” as a colonial style of the West’s relationship to the East. The current state of Orientalism.
Models of reading one culture by another using the example of Larry Wolf's research. Principles of “discovery” of another world according to L. Wolf. Cultural stereotypes and myths used in this. Historical stereotypes and myths used in this case. The concept of “mental geography”. Possibilities of overcoming cultural stereotypes in historical writings.
Prosopography. The concept of prosopography. School of Elite Studies. School of Statistical Mass Studies. The concept of social mobility. Advantages and disadvantages of the prosopographic method.
Gender studies. The concept of gender. Joan Scott and her article: “Gender: a useful category of historical analysis.” Differences between the gender approach and historical feminology. Methodological principles of gender history. Gender studies and visual culture. Gender studies and the history of everyday life.
"New demographic science". Historical demography. The emergence of a “new demographic history.” Method of “restoring family history” by L. Henri. Statistical and mathematical methods and computer techniques used in historical demography. The concepts of population reproduction mode and type of population reproduction.
Questions for the test and exam:
1. Main trends in the development of historical science in the first half of the twentieth century.
2. Main trends in the development of historical science in the second half of the twentieth century.
3. Civilizational approach to history (O. Spengler and A. Toynbee).
4. History of the emergence and basic principles of the “New Historical Science”.
5. “New historical science.” Mark Block.
6. Historical anthropology. Main directions of development in the twentieth century.
7. Historical anthropology. J. Le Goff.
8. Historical anthropology. F. Braudel.
9. History of private life and development paths of this scientific direction.
10. Basic principles of the microhistorical approach.
11. Microhistory. Carlo Ginzburg.
12. Postmodern challenge and historical science.
13. Reasons for rethinking the place and principles of historical knowledge in the second half of the twentieth century.
14. How did historical science respond to the postmodern challenge?
15. "Postmodern challenge." Hayden White.
16. Historical hermeneutics: History of origin.
17. Historical hermeneutics. Wilhelm Dilthey, Friedrich Schleiermacher.
18. Historical hermeneutics. Hans Gadamer, Paul Ricoeur, Martin Heidegger.
19. Application of the method of historical hermeneutics by Igor Nikolaevich Danilevsky.
20. Semiotics and history. Basic principles of the semiotic approach in historical science.
21. Development of semiotics in the twentieth century.
22. Semiotics in Russia. "Moscow-Tartu School". Yuri Mikhailovich Lotman.
23. The concept of historical memory and its development in the works of French researchers.
24. The theory of “places of historical memory” Pierre Nora.
25. Theories of nations and nationalism in the twentieth century. Benedict Anderson.
26. Theories of nations and nationalism in the twentieth century. Hans Kohn.
27. Edward Said and his analysis of “Orientalism” as a way for the West to assimilate a foreign culture
28. Models of reading one culture by another using the example of Larry Wolf’s research
29. Prosopography.
30. Gender studies.
31. “New demographic science.”
Problems of periodization. The period from the end of the 15th to the middle of the 17th century. according to one of the traditions that has developed in domestic science, it is called the late Middle Ages, according to another, also characteristic of foreign historiography, it is called the early modern time.
Both terms are intended to emphasize the transitional and extremely contradictory nature of this time, which belonged to two eras at once. It is characterized by profound socio-economic shifts, political and cultural changes, a significant acceleration of social development, along with numerous attempts to return to outdated relationships and traditions. During this period, feudalism, while remaining the dominant economic and political system, was significantly deformed. In its depths, the early capitalist structure was born and formed, but in different European countries this process was uneven. Along with changes in worldview associated with the spread of humanism, the rethinking of Catholic dogma during the Reformation, and the gradual secularization of social thought, there was an increase in popular religiosity. Outbursts of demonomania at the end of the 16th - first half of the 17th centuries, bloody religious wars revealed the close connection of this historical stage with the past.
The beginning of the early modern period is considered to be the turn of the 15th-16th centuries - the era of the Great Geographical Discoveries and the heyday of Renaissance culture, which marked a break with the Middle Ages in both the economic and spiritual spheres. The boundaries of the ecumene known to Europeans expanded sharply, the economy received a powerful impetus as a result of the development of open lands, a revolution took place in cosmological ideas and in the public consciousness, and a new, Renaissance type of culture took hold.
The choice of the upper chronological edge of late feudalism remains debatable. A number of historians, relying on economic criteria, are inclined to extend the “long Middle Ages” to the entire 18th century. Others, citing the first successes of the global capitalist system in individual countries, propose to take as a conditional boundary the major socio-political cataclysms associated with its growth - the liberation movement in the Netherlands in the second half of the 16th century. or the English Revolution of the mid-17th century. It is also widely believed that the Great French Revolution of the 18th century. - a more justified starting point for new times, since by this moment bourgeois relations had already triumphed in many European countries. However, most historians tend to consider the middle of the 17th century. (the era of the English Revolution and the end of the Thirty Years' War) as a watershed between the early modern era and the beginning of modern history itself. In this volume, the presentation of historical events is brought to the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, which summed up the results of the first major pan-European conflict and for a long time determined the direction of the political development of Europe.
Main trends in economic development. The coexistence of the new and the traditional was clearly manifested in the sphere of economic life and economic processes of the early modern period. Material culture (tools, techniques and skills of people in agriculture and crafts, technology) generally retained a medieval character.
The 15th-16th centuries did not know truly revolutionary changes in technology or new sources of energy. This period marked the last stage of development of pre-industrial agrarian civilization in Europe, which ended with the advent of the industrial revolution in England in the 18th century.
On the other hand, many socio-economic phenomena contained new features: certain areas of the economy emerged, in which technical development proceeded at an accelerated pace; important shifts occurred thanks to new forms of organization of production and its financing. The progress of mining, metallurgy, a revolution in shipbuilding and military affairs, the rapid rise of book printing, the production of paper, glass, new types of fabrics, and the development of natural sciences prepared the first stage of the industrial revolution.
B XVI-XVII centuries Western Europe is covered with a fairly dense network of communications. The progress of trade and communications contributed to the development of internal and pan-European markets. Global changes followed the Great Geographical Discoveries. The emergence of settlements of European colonists and a network of trading posts in Asia, Africa, and America marked the beginning of the formation of the world market. At the same time, the formation of the colonial system took place, which played a huge role in the accumulation of capital and the development of capitalism in the Old World. The development of the New World had a profound and comprehensive impact on the socio-economic processes in Europe; it marked the beginning of a long struggle for spheres of influence in the world, markets and raw materials.
The most important factor in economic development in this era was the emergence of the early capitalist structure. By the end of the 16th century. he became a leader in the economy of England, and later the Netherlands, and played a prominent role in certain industries in France, Germany, and Sweden. At the same time, in Italy, where elements of early bourgeois relations arose in the 14th-15th centuries, by the beginning of the 17th century. their stagnation began due to unfavorable market conditions. In Spain and Portugal, the cause of the death of the sprouts of a new way of life was mainly the short-sighted economic policy of the state. In the German lands east of the Elbe, in the Baltic states, Central and South-Eastern Europe, early capitalism did not spread. On the contrary, the involvement of these grain-producing regions in international market relations led to the opposite phenomenon - a return to the domain economy and severe forms of personal dependence of peasants (the so-called second edition of serfdom).
Despite the uneven development of the early capitalist structure in different countries, it began to have a constant impact on all spheres of economic life in Europe, which already in the 16th-17th centuries. was an interconnected economic system with a common market for money and goods, as well as the established international division of labor. And yet, orderliness remained the most important characteristic of the economy.
The general trend of historical development is the transition from systems with a predominance of natural determination to systems with a predominance of socio-historical determination, which is based on the development of productive forces. Improving the means and organization of labor ensures an increase in its productivity, which in turn entails the improvement of the labor force, brings to life new production skills and knowledge and changes the existing social division of labor. Simultaneously with the progress of technology, science is developing. At the same time, the composition and volume of necessary human needs are expanding and the ways of satisfying them, lifestyle, culture and way of life are changing. A higher level of development of productive forces corresponds to a more complex form of production relations and social organization as a whole, and an increased role of the subjective factor. The degree of mastery by society of the spontaneous forces of nature, expressed in the growth of labor productivity, and the degree of liberation of people from the yoke of spontaneous social forces, socio-political inequality and spiritual underdevelopment - these are the most general indicators of historical progress. However, this process is contradictory, and its types and rates are different. Initially due to the low level of development of production, and later also due to private ownership of the means of production, some elements of the social whole systematically progressed at the expense of others. This makes the development of society as a whole antagonistic, uneven, and zigzag. The disproportion between the progress of technology, labor productivity and the growth of alienation, exploitation of workers, between the material wealth of society and the level of its spiritual culture is especially noticeable in the 20th century. It is reflected in the growth of social pessimism and numerous philosophical and sociological theories of the 20th century, directly or indirectly denying progress and proposing to replace this concept either with the idea of cyclical circulation or with the “neutral” concept of “social change”. The place of liberal-progressive utopias was taken by the concepts of the “end of history” and pessimistic dystopia. In the same spirit, many global problems of modern civilization are interpreted - environmental and energy, the threat of nuclear war, etc. The question of the criteria for progress in relation to the highest spheres of spiritual activity, for example, art, where new trends and forms, arising on the basis of old ones, is also very complex. do not cancel or stand “above” the latter, but coexist with them as autonomous, alternative and complementary ways of seeing and constructing the world.
Although the theory of progress is often formulated in objective and impersonal terms, its most important driver, ultimate goal and criterion is man himself. Underestimation of the human factor and the false idea that socialism will automatically resolve all social contradictions led to a whole series of economic, socio-political and moral deformations that were overcome in the process of perestroika. The formation of a new civilization is impossible without the free and harmonious development of the individual. The concept of progress is only one element of historical consciousness; understanding the development of society as a natural historical process does not exclude the fact that it is also a world-historical drama, each episode of which, with all its participants, is individual and has its own value. An important feature of the modern era is the transition from an extensive type of development, leveling out social and individual differences and based on the principle of domination and subordination, to an intensive one. Humanity will not be able to survive and resolve its global environmental, energy and other problems without learning to manage social processes. This presupposes a rejection of technocratic thinking, the humanization of progress, and the highlighting of universal human values, to which class, state, national and other more private interests should be subordinated. To do this, it is necessary to reduce the unevenness of objective opportunities to use the material and cultural benefits of civilization. At the same time, the new world civilization will not be a uniform monolith; it involves an increase in the variety of types of development and diversity of forms of socio-political, national and spiritual life. Hence the need for tolerance of differences and the ability to overcome the conflicts and difficulties associated with them peacefully, through increased cooperation and cooperation. New political thinking - a global environmental imperative (demand, order, law, unconditional principle of behavior).
Having arisen on the basis of social history, the concept of progress was transferred to the natural sciences in the 10th century. Here, as in social life, it has not an absolute, but a relative meaning. The concept of progress is not applicable to the Universe as a whole, since there is no clearly defined direction of development, and to many processes of inorganic nature that have a cyclical nature. The problem of criteria for progress in living nature causes controversy among scientists.
Any person even slightly familiar with history will easily find in it facts indicating its progressive progressive development, its movement from lower to higher. Homo sapiens (reasonable man) as a biological species stands higher on the ladder of evolution than its predecessors - Pithecanthropus and Neanderthals. The progress of technology is obvious: from stone tools to iron ones, from simple hand tools. To machines that enormously increase the productivity of human labor, from the use of the muscular power of humans and animals to steam engines, electric generators, nuclear energy, from primitive means of transportation to cars, airplanes, and spaceships. The progress of technology has always been associated with the development of knowledge, and the last 400 years - with the progress of primarily scientific knowledge. Humanity has mastered, cultivated, adapted almost the entire earth to the needs of civilization, thousands of cities have grown - more dynamic types of settlements compared to the village. In the course of history, forms of exploitation have been improved and softened. Then the exploitation of man by man is completely eliminated.
It would seem that progress in history is obvious. But this is by no means generally accepted. In any case, there are theories that either deny progress or accompany its recognition with such reservations that the concept of progress loses all objective content and appears as relativistic, depending on the position of a particular subject, on the system of values with which he approaches history.
So, the highest and universal objective criterion of social progress is the development of productive forces, including the development of man himself.
It is important, however, not only to formulate a criterion for social progress, but also to determine how to use it. If it is applied incorrectly, then the very formulation of the question of an objective criterion of social progress can be discredited.
It should be taken into account that productive forces determine the development of society: a) ultimately, b) on a world-historical scale, c) in the most general form. The real historical process takes place in specific historical conditions and in the interaction of many social forces. Therefore, its pattern is by no means determined uniquely by productive forces. Taking this into account, social progress cannot be interpreted as a unilinear movement. On the contrary, each achieved level of productive forces opens up a range of different possibilities, and which path the historical movement will take at a given point in social space depends on many circumstances, in particular on the historical choice made by the subject of social activity. In other words, the path of progress in its specific historical embodiment is not initially set; various development options are possible.
