The unconscious of the species and collective consciousness. Social collective consciousness: concept and role Collective consciousness who coined the term

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“The totality of beliefs and feelings common on the average to members of the same society forms a definite system that has its own life; it can be called collective or common consciousness.”

Religion is “a coherent system of beliefs and practices relating to sacred, that is, separate, forbidden things; beliefs and rituals that unite into one moral community called the church all who are their supporters.”

Totemism is an animal or plant, a symbol of a certain group of people. According to Durkheim, the totem is sacred because it symbolizes the group, acting as its most important value.

Anomie is a state of value-normative vacuum, characteristic of transitional and crisis periods in the development of society, when old values ​​and norms cease to apply, and new ones have not yet been internalized.

Types of suicides:

§ Selfish. The reason for such suicide is the breakdown of social networks. Connections between the individual and the group;

§ Altruistic (opposite to egoistic) happens when social life completely, completely absorbs individuality;

§ Anomic. This type of suicide is caused by anomie, social. Disorganization, as a result of which people lose their usual way of life and cannot adapt to new social networks. Conditions.

§ Fatal.

E. Durkheim is considered one of the founders of sociology as a science and a subject of teaching.

Lecture. Understanding sociology.

Max Weber (1864- 1920)

Main works:

"The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism"

"Economy and Society"

Factors in the development of capitalism

The basis of capitalism, more fundamental than the economy, turned out to be science and bureaucracy. Science has shaped modern technology and will shape it in the future. In turn, bureaucracy is considered an efficient way of organizing large groups of people, and therefore it inevitably increases with economic and political growth. Weber describes the emergence of science, modern technology and bureaucracy as rationalization.

In his work “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism,” M. Weber shows the relationship between Protestant religious values ​​and the development of the “spirit of capitalism,” arguing that in countries where these values ​​dominated, capitalist relations were established faster and easier.

Protestant ethics.

§ Feeling of the profession as a “calling” determined by God.

§ Wealth is not for pleasure, but as an indicator of successful activity in one’s field;

§ High-quality work, honesty in business are part of the ethics of Protestantism.

The Protestant ethic led to the formation of Western-style capitalism.

§ The best “document” of the “spirit” of capitalism is the philosophy of Benjamin Franklin;

§ “Remember that time is money; he who could earn ten shillings daily, and yet spends half the day walking and being lazy at home, must, if he spends only sixpence on himself, not only take into account this expense, but consider that he has spent, or rather thrown away, more that's five shillings more."

“Remember that money is by its nature fertile and capable of generating new money... He who wastes one five-shilling coin kills (!) everything that it could produce: whole columns of pounds.”

“Remember the proverb: to that. Who exactly pays, the wallet of others is open. A person who pays exactly by the due date can always borrow money from friends that they do not need at the moment... Therefore, never delay the money you borrowed by one hour beyond the due date, so that your friend’s anger does not close his wallet for you forever "

“It should be borne in mind that the smallest actions have an impact on credit. The sound of your hammer, which your lender hears at 5 o'clock in the morning and at 8 o'clock in the evening, gives him peace of mind for a whole 6 months; but if he sees you at billiards or hears your voice in a tavern during the hours when you should be at work, then the next morning he will remind you of the payment and demand his money at the moment when you don’t have it.”

All of Franklin's moral rules have a utilitarian basis: honesty useful, for it brings credit, the same is the case with punctuality, diligence and moderation - all these qualities are precisely why they are virtues. From this we can conclude that where the appearance of honesty achieves the same effect, it can easily replace genuine honesty. The efficiency of a person following his own vocation, constitutes the alpha and omega of Franklin's morality.

Social action

2 signs of social action:

§ The presence of subjective meaning;

§ Orientation towards the “other”.

Types of social action.

§ Purposeful (goal + means);

§ Value-based – rational (value in itself, regardless of the result);

§ Affective (emotional);

§ Traditional (due to custom or habit)

Sociology studies the social actions of individuals.

The most understandable is goal-oriented action.

“Sociology is the science that seeks, through interpretation, to understand social action, and thereby causally explain its process and impact.”

§ Three conclusions can be drawn from this formulation:

§ 1. Sociology must concentrate its attention on explaining the facts of action, that is, it must reveal its certain regularities and patterns.

§ 2. The explanation of this action must occur through understanding, which means identifying its semantic significance.

§ 3. This action must be interpreted, that is, its subjective meaning must be represented through a system of concepts. These postulates, which still cause controversy in sociology, should be examined sequentially.

Ideal type

This is a theoretical construction that correlates with empirical reality (and is not extracted from it), and is not identical to reality.

Ideal type of bureaucracy

§ Hierarchy of authority, in which tasks in an organization are distributed as “job responsibilities;

§ Established rules determine the behavior of officials at all levels of the organization;

§ Officials are employed full time and receive an official salary;

§ There is a separation between the responsibilities of an official within the organization and life outside it;

§ None of the members of the organization owns the material resources that they manage.

Types of Domination:

§ Rational (legal)

§ Traditional

§ Charismatic.

A fragment of the Second Level summary on the topic “The fate of the universe in the tension between sound and smell”:

We are how we show up. Feeling our own uniqueness, we contradict the whole. And if we realize ourselves among people, then we do not contradict the species. We need to learn this. Start with at least emotional empathy for your neighbor.

Either we ourselves choose to feel like we are part of the species, or we are pushed: through loss, suffering, in a gentle way. There is always freedom not to escape from the whip (suffering), but to express yourself by your choice. Nature saves us. We don’t understand nature, but it’s time to understand it!

All we can do is push ourselves outward as much as possible. Freedom of choice is the realization of one’s desires not for the benefit of one selfish particular, but for the benefit of the entire human species. We are how we show up. We create our own actions. Our fate depends on our actions.

Now we are unmistakably living in the collective unconscious. We are not given a collective consciousness so that we don’t do bad things. You can’t give a small child strength like his dad. Let's do this! Therefore, consciousness is individual, and it is erroneous. We have problems because each individual consciousness has its own contradiction to the collective unconscious.

The child feels suffering when the mother takes care that he does not get sick and does not allow him to eat ice cream in the cold. This is how we go through the stage of growing up as humanity, not understanding what can harm us. And nature does not allow us to do this, it preserves us.

No evil was created. A stick is a lack of a carrot. Our suffering is solely due to our actions. Nature has created a balance, and we ourselves bring all the bad things when, due to erroneous individual consciousness, we come into conflict with the interests of the species.

With your consciousness you need to fit into the development of the species, and not contradict it. Express yourself as much as possible among other people. It is important to understand that we cannot do anything just for ourselves. Realization occurs exclusively among other people. Even if I am a brilliant artist, but no one has ever seen it, I am not a realized person.

We cannot feel the integrity of the species with our bodies, but with our souls we can. This is done by awareness, by focusing on something else. As we move into the urethral phase, we will begin to collectively acquire some elements of collective consciousness. It will expand further. Unity of thought. Collective decision. Collective consciousness.

- this is the conscious inclusion of another into oneself through awareness of its mental nature.

The ability to recognize the internal mental characteristics of another person is what system-vector psychology gives us. By including the psychic other into ourselves, we lose the feeling of our own uniqueness. And just as we are unable to harm ourselves, we become unable to harm him because he is included in us. He is not him, he is a part of me that I cannot harm, because I was created in such a way that I cannot harm myself.

Our fate does not depend on mom, dad and bad neighbors. We live one life. At a time when freedom of choice became possible...

Continuation of the summary on the forum:

A comprehensive understanding of this and other topics is developed during a full oral training in system-vector psychology

He made it clear that he does not spiritualize or sacralize this concept; for him, “collective” is simply something that is common to many people, i.e. social fact. And social facts exist objectively and do not depend on the subjective desires of individuals.

Durkheim's theory

The concept of “collective consciousness” was introduced into scientific circulation by Durkheim in his books “On the Division of Social Labor” (1893), “Rules of Sociological Method” (1895), “Suicide” (1897) and “Elementary Forms of Religious Life” (1912). In The Division of Labor Durkheim argued the following. In traditional/primitive societies (based on clan, family or tribal relationships), totemic religion played an important role in uniting members by creating a collective consciousness. In societies of this type, the content of the individual’s consciousness is largely shared with all other members of society, creating mechanical solidarity in mutual similarity.

In Suicide, Durkheim developed the concept of anomie to refer to social rather than individual causes of suicide. This relates to the concept of collective consciousness: if there is a lack of integration or solidarity in a society, then the suicide rate will be higher. At one time, this theory was disputed by many, but time has shown that it still works.

How collective consciousness holds society together

What unites society? This was the central question Durkheim posed when he wrote about the new industrial societies of the 19th century. By looking at the documented habits, customs and beliefs of traditional and primitive societies and comparing them with what he saw around him in his own life, Durkheim created one of the most important theories in sociology. He concluded that society exists because individuals feel a sense of solidarity with each other. That is why we can create teams and work together to build an effective and comfortable society. The source of this solidarity is precisely the collective consciousness or “collective conscience,” as he wrote in French. Its influence is inevitable, and it is impossible to hide from it in any society.

Durkheim coined "collective consciousness" in his 1893 book On the Division of Social Labor. He also later drew on it in other books, including Rules of Sociological Method, Suicide, and The Elementary Forms of Religious Life. However, in his first book, he explains that this phenomenon is a set of beliefs and feelings common to all members of society. Durkheim observed that in traditional or primitive societies, religious symbols, discourse, beliefs and rituals contributed to the emergence of a collective consciousness. In such cases, where social groups were fairly homogeneous (for example, of the same race or class), this phenomenon led to what Durkheim called “mechanical solidarity” - essentially the automatic binding of people into a collective through their common values, beliefs and practices.

Durkheim observed that in the modern industrial societies that characterized Western Europe and the fledgling United States, which functioned through the division of labor, an "organic solidarity" emerged, based on the mutual dependence that individuals and groups felt towards each other, which enabled industrial society function. In such cases, religion still plays an important role in creating a collective consciousness among groups of people associated with different religions, but other social institutions and structures will also work to create it.

The role of social institutions

These institutions include the state (which promotes patriotism and nationalism), the popular media (which disseminates all sorts of ideas and practices: how to dress, who to vote for, when to have children and get married), education (which instills in us basic social standards and ties to a particular class), as well as the police and judicial system (which shape our ideas of right and wrong and guide our behavior through threat or actual physical force). Rituals serve to affirm a collective conscious range from parades and holiday celebrations to sporting events, weddings, grooming according to gender norms, and even shopping. And there is no way to get away from this.

The team is more important than the individual

In any case, it does not matter whether we are talking about primitive or modern societies - the collective consciousness is something “common to all,” as Durkheim put it. This is not an individual condition or phenomenon, but a social one. How it “spreads throughout society” and “has a life of its own.” Thanks to it, values, beliefs and traditions can be passed on through generations. Although individuals live and die, this set of intangible things and their associated social norms are embedded in our institutions and therefore exist independently of individuals.

The most important thing is to understand that collective consciousness is the result of social forces that are external to the individual. The individuals who make up a society work and live together, creating the social phenomenon of a shared set of beliefs, values ​​and ideas that permeate society and are its very essence. We as individuals internalize them and make collective intelligence a reality.

Other meanings

Various forms of what might be called collective consciousness in modern societies have been identified by other sociologists such as Mary Kelsey, who has explored a wide range of issues from solidarity and memes to extreme forms of behavior such as groupthink, herd behavior or collectively shared experiences in time for joint rituals or dance parties. Mary Kelsey, a sociology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, used the term in the early 2000s to describe people in a social group, such as mothers, who are aware of their commonalities and circumstances and, as a result, achieve a sense of collective solidarity.

Coding type theory

According to this theory, the nature of collective consciousness depends on the type of mnemonic coding used within the group. A particular type of encoding has a predictable impact on group behavior and collective ideology. Informal groups that meet infrequently and spontaneously tend to represent significant aspects of their community as episodic memories. This usually results in strong social cohesion and solidarity, a forgiving atmosphere, and the emergence of shared ideals.

Public collective consciousness

Society consists of various collective groups, such as families, communities, organizations, regions, countries, which, as Burns argues, “may have common abilities to think, judge, decide, act, reform, conceptualize themselves and other subjects, and also interact with ourselves, reflect.” Burns and Egdahl note that during World War II, different nations treated their Jewish populations differently. The Jewish populations of Bulgaria and Denmark survived, while the majority of Jewish communities in Slovakia and Hungary did not survive the Holocaust. It is assumed that these different forms of behavior of entire nations differ depending on the different collective consciousness, individual for each people separately. These differences, as can be seen in this example, can have practical implications.

Sports and national pride

Edmans, Garcia, and Norley studied national sports losses and correlated them with declines in stock prices. They analyzed 1,162 football matches in thirty-nine countries and found that those countries' stock markets fell an average of 49 points after they were excluded from the World Cup and 31 points after they were excluded from other tournaments. Edmans, Garcia, and Norley found similar but smaller effects associated with international tournaments in cricket, rugby, hockey, and basketball.

– People often use the concept of “collective consciousness.” Does it really exist and why do separate groups of people, united by a common profession, a common cause or goal, think similar to each other? Is it because a group of such people begins to unite a collective consciousness, or some common egregor?

– In fact, the kind of egregors that a person imagines, namely, some plasma volumes of independently thinking matter, do not exist. Collective consciousness can be called that common computer to which this or that group of people is connected. So, for example, artists associated with music are connected to one computer, artists to another, poets to a third, traders to a fourth, politicians to a fifth, and so on.

– And if an artist or poet works on his own, is he connected to this computer?

– No, someone who works on his own and is not associated with any specialized societies is not connected to a common computer that unites, for example, all members of the “union of artists” or “union of writers.” Only those individuals who unite in some kind of public organizations are connected to the computer.

– So the fact that groups of people begin to think like each other is explained by their joining a common computer?

– Are football fans also starting to have a collective consciousness working from their common computer?

– Now it’s clear why each of them individually thinks interestingly and, it would seem, correctly, but when they are all together, they begin to create outrages. And their collective actions may contradict their internal beliefs.

– Their collective consciousness is just a common computer. Whatever he leads them to, those ideas they will defend together. The process of managing them and the program of this layer of people are located in the computer.

– Or take merchants, entrepreneurs - they are all united by one idea: how to profit as much as possible from the needs of the lower strata. While they were not associated with trade, each of them was moderately honest and decent. And when they came to trade, they began to “grab” money. Are these ideas being instilled in them through a computer?

– “Grabbing”, naturally, is not suggested. They already have such a “disease”, these are their character traits and future karma. And through the computer they are instilled with a program of actions that they must implement.

– What happens when an individual connects to a shared computer? Why does a person change the principles of his behavior?

– When a person enters a society, he is directly connected to a public computer that expresses the program of this group. The general computer, which is controlled by a higher Determinant, is more important than the computer of a person’s personal Determinant, therefore the order from Above is more important (see diagram 1).

Scheme No. 1

Explanation of the diagram: The “o” connection remains constant throughout a person’s life.

The connection of “a” (to social consciousness) changes depending on the level of development of a person and his hobbies (this is a school - a class; a group - a factory: a work team; a writer - a writing organization, etc.).

– What is the mechanism of this collective suggestion?

– All those members of a particular society who obey the general suggestion enter a given computer, forming a collective consciousness. And those who do not obey the idea sent to them and put their own higher, they leave this social consciousness, that is, they disconnect from the computer. But, as a rule, they are a minority. The collective consciousness and the program of the collective consciousness always win.

– How does collective consciousness, that is, a common computer, work? Does he drop some kind of force field on the collective under his care, uniting people together, so that they begin to create or steal everything?

– The field for theft is not excluded. This is a personal matter.

- And for creation?

- Yes. More precisely, this is not a field, but also the action of one computer. Everyone who creates something specific is related to one computer, just as those who destroy it are to another. And all the threads from creative people lead to one place. There is no field. “Field” is a figurative concept. Specifically, there is a connection, in your opinion – a thread connection, between each person and the computer. These are a kind of “wires” that conduct signals from the Determinant to a person and back.

– Is there some kind of collective consciousness among the Determinants?

– For Determinants it’s completely different. Collective consciousness, as a rule, is present in material ones: people and all living things (birds, herds of animals, insects, etc.).

– So there is no Higher?

– Other laws apply above. There are Levels. And the Essences that belong to them are united precisely by their Levels. They are united stepwise according to the Levels of their consciousness. And people, even in terms of development levels, are all different. Therefore, on Earth, all kinds of associations are required according to interests, and, consequently, according to Levels of consciousness. However, we can say that the Absolute is also a collective consciousness for everyone, because It gives a program to all lower Levels of the Hierarchy and unites with this orientation. This is the pyramid of the Hierarchy of collective consciousness.

Social solidarity is the main force that cements and unites society, creating a social whole. It arises as a logical consequence of the social division of labor, i.e. specialization and distribution

division of people by profession. Individuals connected by labor functions into a unified system of social relations become not just holders of professional roles, but also socially mature individuals

Studying the evolution of human society, Emile Durkheim(1 856-191 "\ encountered a special phenomenon, which he called collective, or general, consciousness. The French sociologist meant by it “a set of beliefs and feelings common to members of the same society, which forms a certain system that has its own life” 1 . One's own life, a certain system, indicate here the ontological status of collective consciousness. It has a special, “separate reality”, in other words, it exists objectively, regardless of our will and consciousness, although such a reality cannot be photographed or measured with any physical device.

Collective consciousness is “something completely different from private consciousness, although it is realized only in individuals. It is a mental type of society, a type that has its own way of development, its own properties, its own conditions of existence,” explains Durkheim 2 . To designate a special reality, a special term is needed.

Collective consciousness has real power to influence individual behavior. The group and collective act and feel completely differently from individual, isolated individuals. We are all built in such a way, Durkheim argues, that at any time - in hard times or days of triumph - we love the company of those who think and feel like us. Citizens prefer the company of their compatriots, especially when they find themselves in a foreign land. Individuals are attracted to each other due to common beliefs and similar feelings, which constitute the conditions of existence of the collective, the most important prerequisite for their spiritual existence.

For society, collective consciousness has a special and preferable value. If common beliefs, ideals and traditions dear to everyone are threatened, then everyone defends them together. Common values ​​and feelings can be destroyed as a result of the invasion of enemies or the crimes of their compatriots themselves. Insulting common beliefs is regarded as a grave crime and is punished especially severely. In this way, the collective protects itself from the attacks of an aggressive personality who does not take into account laws and customs, gaining even greater unity in this struggle.

The more the collective consciousness, as a unique voice of public conscience, regulates the social life of society, the closer and stronger the connection between the individual and the group. The fabric of social relations is compacted thanks to collective consciousness, i.e. the presence of common interests and beliefs, beliefs and aspirations. The division of labor and the specialization of individuals to perform a specific function introduce diversity into society. But the greater the diversity, the stronger the desire in people for unity and exchange of activities. A symbol of exchange, its legal

1 Durkheim E. On the division of social labor. Odessa. 1900. P. 63.

2 Ibid. P. 63.

What form does the contract take in Durkheim? Exchange involves taking on mutual obligations. From this comes cooperation and collaboration. “Cooperating really means sharing a common activity among ourselves. If this latter is divided into activities that are qualitatively similar, although related to each other, then we have a division of labor of the first degree, or simple. If they are of a different nature, then we have a complex division of labor, or actual cooperation” 3.

A developed form of cooperation is expressed by agreement. Agreements between buyer and seller, entrepreneur and workers, lending and borrowing, principal and attorney represent a well-known form of interaction and cooperation. Their relations are regulated by law or law, on which the social institutions of society are based. We can say that such relations are already somehow organized. Although these are not yet labor organizations in the strict sense. In a strict sense, cooperation and labor organizations are not cells or a mirror of collective life, collective consciousness. The relations between the employer and the workers are too special to be the subject of general feelings or ideas. Citizens do not always have to act as a creditor, guardian, entrepreneur, etc. Here we are talking about special groups, the relationships in which are regulated by technical rules, i.e. administration. Violation of the rules in these groups does not cause general indignation or condemnation, and does not threaten the integrity of society. Few people worry about the ruin of this or that entrepreneur, only people close to him.

Small parts of society, organized within themselves, also strive for integrity and solidarity, just like society as a whole. They also develop a collective, or rather, group consciousness. The relationship between group and collective consciousness is as complex as between social and individual.