A person cannot sit in one place. We are constantly doing this. This may seem like something impossible, but this is the reality.
general information
Initially, it is necessary to give a designation to the word “activity”. This is the name given to the type of human activity that is aimed at cognition, as well as further creative transformation of the surrounding world (including oneself). When social transformative activity is mentioned, this means that people create conditions that are convenient for society and adjust them to suit themselves. But first, let's focus on general information. So, human activity can take on the following character:
- Conscious. During this activity, a person consciously determines the goal and foresees the possible result of the decisions made.
- Productive. Human activity is aimed at obtaining a certain result.
- Transformative. During the process of activity, a person changes the world around him and himself.
- means that the process of activity implies the presence of communication and the establishment of various relationships with other people.
Other classification
There are also other types of representation of human activity. Thus, it can be divided into practical and spiritual. To complete the comparison, we will consider not only the social-transformative one, but this will also allow us to better understand this topic. The first refers to the practical direction, and the second to the spiritual.
What are social transformative activities?
This is a question for which there is no universal answer. So, it can be creative or destructive - depending on the final result. As social practice shows, it is possible to judge the impact of a certain activity only after a significant amount of time. After all, paradoxically, even certain disasters can have a beneficial effect in the future. Let's take the French Revolution and the storming of the Bastille as an example. After these events, the Jacobin Terror unfolded throughout the country, when a very significant number of people laid their heads on the chopping block. But at the same time, positive trends were launched, thanks to which France is now a developed, advanced power.
Activities are also influenced by whether they are creative or reproductive. In the first case, something qualitatively new is created. As a rule, this happens slowly. But the end effect will be amazing. During reproductive activity, something is re-created according to existing patterns and ideas. This process usually proceeds quite quickly. But the palm and the pioneer effect are lost in that case. Identification of activities is also highlighted separately. In this case they can be external or internal. The former refers to activities aimed at interacting with someone or something. Whereas internal revelations are thought processes.
Let's say a word about cognitive activity...
It includes everything related to understanding the principles of functioning of the environment and recognizing something new. Several directions can be distinguished here. Among them: sensual, rational, artistic, everyday, personal, religious activity. It should be separately considered. Thanks to this, a person can be guided by the principle of objectivity, obtain substantiated and systematic knowledge, which, moreover, can be double-checked. In this case, cognitive activity is also a way of developing society. It is aimed at improving his way of life.
Practice
Social transformative activity is an element of interaction in society that cannot do without communication. After all, it is a way of interconnection between different people. If we talk about cognitive activity, then it represents the so-called subject-object process. That is, a person performs certain actions aimed at understanding some thing or process. An example is the transformation taking place in society. Whereas social transformative activity is a process that cannot occur without contact between different people.
Features of communication
Very often this process is identified with communication. But these concepts should be separated. Thus, communication can be understood as activity that is spiritual and material in nature. But communication is a purely informational process. As an example, we can use the example of interaction between humans and animals (dogs, rats, etc.). Agree, communication with other people cannot be compared with communication with animals. As an analogy, we can say that the first type of interaction is based on dialogue, while the second is based on monologue. Social practice can provide countless evidence that this is exactly what happens. One conclusion can be drawn from all this. Social objects are exclusively people.
Implementation
So, we already know what social transformative activity is. Examples of this mechanism for changing society will be able to consolidate the information received. First, let's start with the lowest possible level. Let's imagine that a particular person is not satisfied with the educational level at school. Then he works on creating children's summer camps. They will promote science. There they will show exciting things from the physics/chemistry section, explain the great importance of knowledge and so on. This will be, albeit not very large-scale, but nevertheless a socially transformative activity. And children, instead of going to potentially bad companies, will be engaged in education.
An example can be given on a larger scale. Let's imagine that a person decided to establish a public organization that will popularize the scientific approach and the principle of rationalism within one particular country or even the whole world. Here everything depends solely on ambitions and goals. Social transformative activities can be carried out with varying levels of success and on different scales. But it should be understood that it can only be carried out by a group of people. In a modern state, changing, say, the amount of maternity capital is beyond the power of one person. Even if we consider the example of the people most vested with power - government ministers, then even their decision depends on the current state of affairs and the huge apparatus of officials. Even in this case, it cannot be said that everything can be implemented simply and without problems.
Activity- this is a specifically human activity, regulated by consciousness, generated by needs and aimed at understanding and transforming the external world and the person himself.
The main feature of activity is that its content is not determined entirely by the need that gave rise to it. Need as a motive (motivation) gives impetus to activity, but the very forms and content of activity determined by public goals, requirements and experience.
Distinguish three main activities: play, learning and work. Purpose games is the “activity” itself, and not its results. Human activity aimed at acquiring knowledge, skills and abilities is called teaching. is an activity whose purpose is the production of socially necessary products.
Characteristics of activity
Activity is understood as a specifically human way of actively relating to the world - a process during which a person creatively transforms the world around him, turning himself into an active subject, and the phenomena being mastered into the object of his activity.
Under subject Here we mean the source of activity, the actor. Since it is, as a rule, a person who exhibits activity, most often it is he who is called the subject.
Object call the passive, passive, inert side of the relationship, on which activity is carried out. The object of activity can be a natural material or object (land in agricultural activities), another person (a student as an object of learning) or the subject himself (in the case of self-education, sports training).
To understand an activity, there are several important characteristics to consider.
Man and activity are inextricably linked. Activity is an indispensable condition of human life: it created man himself, preserved him in history and predetermined the progressive development of culture. Consequently, a person does not exist outside of activity. The opposite is also true: there is no activity without a person. Only man is capable of labor, spiritual and other transformative activities.
Activity is a transformation of the environment. Animals adapt to natural conditions. A person is capable of actively changing these conditions. For example, he is not limited to collecting plants for food, but grows them in the course of agricultural activities.
Activity acts as a creative, constructive activity: Man, in the process of his activity, goes beyond the boundaries of natural possibilities, creating something new that did not previously exist in nature.
Thus, in the process of activity, a person creatively transforms reality, himself and his social connections.
The essence of the activity is revealed in more detail during its structural analysis.
Basic forms of human activity
Human activity is carried out in (industrial, domestic, natural environment).
Activity- active interaction of a person with the environment, the result of which should be its usefulness, requiring from a person high mobility of nervous processes, fast and accurate movements, increased activity of perception, emotional stability.
The study of a person in the process is carried out by ergonomics, the purpose of which is to optimize work activity on the basis of rational consideration of human capabilities.
The whole variety of forms of human activity can be divided into two main groups according to the nature of the functions performed by a person - physical and mental labor.
Physical work
Physical work requires significant muscle activity, is characterized by a load on the musculoskeletal system and functional systems of the body (cardiovascular, respiratory, neuromuscular, etc.), and also requires increased energy costs from 17 to 25 mJ (4,000-6,000 kcal) and higher per day.
Brainwork
Brainwork(intellectual activity) is work that combines work related to the reception and processing of information, requiring intense attention, memory, and activation of thinking processes. Daily energy consumption during mental work is 10-11.7 mJ (2,000-2,400 kcal).
Structure of human activity
The structure of an activity is usually represented in a linear form, with each component following the other in time.
Need → Motive→ Goal→ Means→ Action→ Result
Let's consider all components of the activity one by one.
Need for action
Need- this is need, dissatisfaction, a feeling of lack of something necessary for normal existence. In order for a person to begin to act, it is necessary to understand this need and its nature.
The most developed classification belongs to the American psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) and is known as the pyramid of needs (Fig. 2.2).
Maslow divided needs into primary, or innate, and secondary, or acquired. These in turn include the needs:
- physiological - in food, water, air, clothing, warmth, sleep, cleanliness, shelter, physical rest, etc.;
- existential— safety and security, inviolability of personal property, guaranteed employment, confidence in the future, etc.;
- social - the desire to belong and be involved in any social group, team, etc. The values of affection, friendship, love are based on these needs;
- prestigious - based on the desire for respect, recognition by others of personal achievements, on the values of self-affirmation and leadership;
- spiritual - focused on self-expression, self-actualization, creative development and use of one’s skills, abilities and knowledge.
- The hierarchy of needs has been changed many times and supplemented by various psychologists. Maslow himself, in the later stages of his research, added three additional groups of needs:
- educational- in knowledge, skill, understanding, research. This includes the desire to discover new things, curiosity, the desire for self-knowledge;
- aesthetic- desire for harmony, order, beauty;
- transcending- a selfless desire to help others in spiritual self-improvement, in their desire for self-expression.
According to Maslow, in order to satisfy higher, spiritual needs, it is necessary to first satisfy those needs that occupy a place in the pyramid below them. If the needs of any level are fully satisfied, a person has a natural need to satisfy the needs of a higher level.
Motives for activity
Motive - a need-based conscious impulse that justifies and justifies an activity. A need will become a motive if it is perceived not just as a need, but as a guide to action.
In the process of motive formation, not only needs, but also other motives are involved. As a rule, needs are mediated by interests, traditions, beliefs, social attitudes, etc.
Interest is a specific reason for action that determines. Although all people have the same needs, different social groups have their own interests. For example, the interests of workers and factory owners, men and women, youth and pensioners are different. So, innovations are more important for pensioners, traditions are more important for pensioners; Entrepreneurs' interests are rather material, while artists' interests are spiritual. Each person also has his own personal interests, based on individual inclinations and likes (people listen to different music, play different sports, etc.).
Traditions represent a social and cultural heritage passed on from generation to generation. We can talk about religious, professional, corporate, national (for example, French or Russian) traditions, etc. For the sake of some traditions (for example, military ones), a person can limit his primary needs (by replacing safety and security with activities in high-risk conditions).
Beliefs- strong, principled views on the world, based on a person’s ideological ideals and implying a person’s willingness to give up a number of needs (for example, comfort and money) for the sake of what he considers right (for the sake of preserving honor and dignity).
Settings- a person’s predominant orientation towards certain institutions of society, which overlap with needs. For example, a person may be focused on religious values, or material enrichment, or public opinion. Accordingly, he will act differently in each case.
In complex activities, it is usually possible to identify not one motive, but several. In this case, the main motive is identified, which is considered the driving one.
Activity goals
Target - This is a conscious idea of the result of an activity, an anticipation of the future. Any activity involves goal setting, i.e. ability to independently set goals. Animals, unlike humans, cannot set goals themselves: their program of activity is predetermined and expressed in instincts. A person is able to form his own programs, creating something that has never existed in nature. Since there is no goal-setting in the activity of animals, it is not an activity. Moreover, if an animal never imagines the results of its activity in advance, then a person, starting an activity, keeps in his mind the image of the expected object: before creating something in reality, he creates it in his mind.
However, the goal can be complex and sometimes requires a series of intermediate steps to achieve it. For example, to plant a tree, you need to purchase a seedling, find a suitable place, take a shovel, dig a hole, place the seedling in it, water it, etc. Ideas about intermediate results are called objectives. Thus, the goal is divided into specific tasks: if all these tasks are solved, then the overall goal will be achieved.
Tools used in activities
Facilities - these are techniques, methods of action, objects, etc. used in the course of activity. For example, to learn social studies, you need lectures, textbooks, and assignments. To be a good specialist, you need to receive a professional education, have work experience, constantly practice in your activities, etc.
The means must correspond to the ends in two senses. First, the means must be proportionate to the ends. In other words, they cannot be insufficient (otherwise the activity will be fruitless) or excessive (otherwise energy and resources will be wasted). For example, you cannot build a house if there are not enough materials for it; It also makes no sense to buy materials several times more than are needed for its construction.
Secondly, the means must be moral: immoral means cannot be justified by the nobility of the end. If goals are immoral, then all activities are immoral (in this regard, the hero of F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov” Ivan asked whether the kingdom of world harmony is worth one tear of a tortured child).
Action
Action - an element of activity that has a relatively independent and conscious task. An activity consists of individual actions. For example, teaching activities consist of preparing and delivering lectures, conducting seminars, preparing assignments, etc.
The German sociologist Max Weber (1865-1920) identified the following types of social actions:
- purposeful - actions aimed at achieving a reasonable goal. At the same time, a person clearly calculates all the means and possible obstacles (a general planning a battle; a businessman organizing an enterprise; a teacher preparing a lecture);
- value-rational- actions based on beliefs, principles, moral and aesthetic values (for example, a prisoner’s refusal to transfer valuable information to the enemy, saving a drowning man at the risk of his own life);
- affective - actions committed under the influence of strong feelings - hatred, fear (for example, flight from an enemy or spontaneous aggression);
- traditional- actions based on habit, often an automatic reaction developed on the basis of customs, beliefs, patterns, etc. (for example, following certain rituals in a wedding ceremony).
The basis of activity is the actions of the first two types, since only they have a conscious goal and are creative in nature. Affects and traditional actions are only capable of exerting some influence on the course of activity as auxiliary elements.
Special forms of action are: actions - actions that have value-rational, moral significance, and actions - actions that have a high positive social significance. For example, helping a person is an act, winning an important battle is an act. Drinking a glass of water is an ordinary action that is neither an act nor an act. The word "act" is often used in jurisprudence to denote an action or omission that violates legal norms. For example, in legislation “a crime is an unlawful, socially dangerous, guilty act.”
Result of activity
Result- this is the final result, the state in which the need is satisfied (in whole or in part). For example, the result of study can be knowledge, skills and abilities, the result - , the result of scientific activity - ideas and inventions. The result of the activity itself can be, since in the course of the activity it develops and changes.
In the history of Russian philosophy, a person is considered as the only subject of culture, creating a living environment for himself and being formed under its influence. This means that the formation of the cultural world is the result of a long process of mutual influence of biological and social evolution. The following key points can be highlighted here:
1) the ability of a social person to produce culture is the result of the interaction of biological and social evolution, which includes the evolution of tools, as a result of which a person is not only the creator of culture, but is also formed on the basis of labor and culture;
2) the transition from the pre-human stage to the human stage occurred gradually and in a progressive manner over a long period of time.
Today we are living witnesses to how modern civilization is rapidly transforming the environment, social institutions, and the life of millions of people. At the same time, culture acts as a factor in creative life, an inexhaustible source of innovation in society. That is why today there is a growing desire to identify the potential of culture, its internal reserves, and find opportunities for its further activation.
Culture- these are phenomena, properties, elements of human life that qualitatively distinguish man from nature. This qualitative difference is associated with the conscious transformative activity of man.
The role and place of culture in human activity can be very clearly understood on the basis of the idea that human activity is ultimately reproductive in nature. Social reproduction includes the reproduction of the individual, the entire system of social relations, including technological and organizational ones, as well as culture. The essence, main content and purpose of the cultural sphere is the process of social reproduction and development of man himself as a subject of diverse social activities and social relations. Culture, taken as a necessary element of social reproduction and at the same time as the most important characteristic of the subject of activity, develops in unity with the reproductive process as a whole in all its historical specificity.
The objective activity of man is the basis, the true substance of the real history of the human race: the entire totality of objective activity is the driving prerequisite for human history, the entire history of culture. And if activity is a way of being for a social person, then culture is a way of human activity, the technology of this activity. We can say that culture is a historically and socially conditioned form of human activity, that it represents a historically changing and historically specific set of those techniques, procedures and norms that characterize the level and direction of human activity, all activity taken in all its dimensions and relationships. In other words, culture is a way of regulating, preserving, reproducing and developing all social life.
Conversion peace. In previous discussions it was already said that with the appearance of man in the world, a special factor of change and transformation of the world appears. After all, this process is impossible without the appearance of materialized results of human activity, say, the invention of the wheel or printing. Although these inventions do not and cannot go beyond the laws of nature and radically change the world, these changes could not happen by themselves, on the basis of the corresponding laws of nature. In the same way, when a person sets goals that go beyond purely material needs, something comes into the world that could not appear “by itself.” At the same time, the prerequisites are created for more complete satisfaction of material needs. Let us note in this regard that the history of mankind shows that not a single culture that set material well-being as its main goal ultimately achieved this material well-being. On the contrary, cultures that set themselves the goals of spiritual improvement, goals that were essentially “transcendent” for the material world, achieved both progress in a person’s personal qualities and material well-being.
Let's read the information
.
Activity human - a type of human activity aimed at cognition and creative transformation of the surrounding world, including oneself and the conditions of one’s existence.
Human activity is:
- conscious - a person consciously determines the goal and foresees the result.
- productive - a person directs activity towards obtaining a result (product).
- transformative - a person in the process of activity changes the world around him and himself.
- social - in the process of activity, communication occurs, and various relationships arise with other people.
I. Depending on the characteristics of a person’s relationship to the world around him (or according to objects and results):
1.Practical (material) activities- activity that is associated with the creation of things and material assets necessary to meet people's needs.
- material and production - activities to transform nature.
- social-transformative - activities to transform society.
A) educational- activities related to the reflection of reality in artistic and scientific form, in myths and religious teachings.
Cognitive activity includes all types of human knowledge:
- sensory - cognition through sensation, perception, representation.
- rational - knowledge associated with forms of rational knowledge (concept, judgment, inference).
- scientific knowledge is knowledge that is guided by the principle of objectivity, validity of knowledge, systematic knowledge and verifiability of knowledge.
- artistic - knowledge through art (associated with the use of artistic images).
- everyday (ordinary, practical) - knowledge that is acquired in everyday life and activity.
- personal - knowledge that depends on a person’s abilities and on the characteristics of his intellectual activity.
- mythological - knowledge, which is a fantastic reflection of reality, is an unconscious artistic processing of nature and society by folk fantasy.
- religious - knowledge, which is determined by the direct emotional form of people’s relationship to the earthly forces (natural and social) that dominate them.
- parascientific - knowledge that does not meet generally accepted criteria for constructing and justifying scientific theories, as well as the inability to give a convincing rational interpretation of the phenomena being studied.
IN) prognostic- activities related to planning or anticipating possible changes in reality.
II. Depending on the results obtained, the activity can be characterized as
- creative - activity that brings positive results.
- destructive - activity that brings negative results
- reproductive - an activity in which an already known result is obtained or reproduced using known methods and means.
- productive (creative) - activity that is aimed at developing new goals and new means and methods corresponding to them, or at achieving known goals with the help of new, previously unused means.
- economic - activities associated with the processes of production, distribution, exchange and consumption of material goods - production and consumer activities.
- political - 1. Activities of government bodies, political parties, social movements in the field of relations between social groups, aimed at integrating their strengthening with the aim of strengthening political power or seizing it.
- spiritual - activities related to the creation of spiritual values, their preservation, dissemination and development - scientific, educational, leisure.
- social - activity related to transformation, expedient change in society and one’s social essence.
- external - activity that manifests itself in the form of movements, muscle efforts, actions with real objects.
- internal - activity associated with mental (mental) operations.
Let's look at examples material and production activities .
- mining and transportation of minerals
- production of ferrous and non-ferrous metals
- mining and beneficiation of ferrous metal ores
- production of chemical and petrochemical products
- production of reinforced concrete products
- production of steel and cast iron pipes
- repair of gas field and linear equipment
- construction of new facilities: railways, housing, schools, hospitals, cultural institutions and consumer services
- production of machinery and equipment
- production of building materials
- production of light and food industry products
- production, transmission and sale of electricity
- wood harvesting and processing
- production of pulp, paper, cardboard
- production of consumer goods from various types of raw materials
- food production
- animal meat processing
- extraction and processing of fish and other seafood
- processing of plant, animal, artificial and synthetic fibers into yarn, threads, fabrics
- production of clothing and other garments
- shoe making
- production of fine ceramic products
- growing grain, fodder, technical plants
- raising large and small livestock
Used Books:
1. Unified State Exam 2009. Social studies. Directory / O.V. Kishenkova. - M.: Eksmo, 2008. 2. Social studies: Unified State Exam-2008: real tasks / author-comp. O.A.Kotova, T.E.Liskova. - M.: AST: Astrel, 2008. 3. Social science: a complete reference book / P.A. Baranov, A.V. Vorontsov, S.V. Shevchenko; edited by P.A. Baranova. - M.: AST: Astrel; Vladimir: VKT, 2010. 4. Social studies: profile level: academic. For 10th grade. general education Institutions / L.N. Bogolyubov, A.Yu. Lazebnikova, N.M. Smirnova and others, ed. L.N. Bogolyubova and others - M.: Education, 2007. 5. Social science. 10th grade: textbook. for general education institutions: basic level / L.N. Bogolyubov, Yu.I. Averyanov, N.I. Gorodetskaya and others; edited by L.N. Bogolyubova; Ross. acad. Sciences, Ross. acad. education, publishing house "Enlightenment". 6th ed. - M.: Education, 2010.
Internet resources used:
Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia
This type of activity can transform various objects: nature, society, humans. The transformation of nature can be not only destructive, as some philosophers emphasize, not only the “remaking” of nature for oneself, but also “The life flow of nature is the movement for a person of the harmonics of all things, which he can disrupt, or can optimize.” During the transformation of society, which can act both in revolutionary destructive forms and in creative ones, social objects change: relationships, institutions, institutions, and the person himself changes. Transformative activities provide conditions for the general life of people and an infrastructure corresponding to their quality of life. In terms of human transformative activity, I would like to dwell on the case when transformative activity is directed by an individual towards himself, towards his “I”, for the purpose of physical or spiritual improvement. “Human self-development is associated with the discovery of ever-deeper opportunities for understanding oneself and influencing (interacting) with ever-increasing volumes of reality.” The same person appears here both as an object and as a subject.
The main types of transformative activity, due to the difference in its subjects, are, firstly, activities of an individual nature (the work of an individual, sports, etc.), and secondly, activities directly carried out by one or another group (military, collective activity) , thirdly, the activities of society taken as a whole.
Transformative activity can be carried out at two levels, depending on the real or ideal change of the subject. In the first case, there is a real change in existing material existence (practice), in the second case, a change in the object occurs only in the imagination (in the words of K. Marx, “practical-spiritual”).
Transformative activity can act both in the form of production and in the form of consumption. In both cases, the subject takes possession of the object, only the ratio of the destructive and creative sides of human activity is different.
Another plane of differentiation reveals the difference between creative and mechanical activities (productive and reproductive). Creative activity can exist both in the material sphere and in the consciousness of a person, when he activates the physical capabilities of his body, develops spiritual powers, his capabilities. Consumption can also be creative, original, discovering new ways of using production products, and mechanical, passively reproducing existing forms of consumption.
By improving and transforming the world around them, people are building a new reality, breaking through the horizons of existing existence. However, emphasizing the actively transformative beginning of human practical activity, it is necessary to remember that in a certain way it inscribes a person into the material reality that embraces him and always goes beyond the actual possibilities of its practical development. A person, with all the prospects and possibilities of his active transformative activity, remains within the limits of existence and cannot help but conform his activities to its objective laws. Creative constructive possibilities of transformative activity in the real world are always based on the use of objective laws. In other words, the true effectiveness of human activity is not only associated with the satisfaction of subjective interests or needs, but also involves solving problems determined by the internal laws of the reality to which this activity is aimed. Understanding the dialectic of human activity in relation to the surrounding world and a person’s dependence on this world, his inscription in this world, his conditioning by the world is a necessary condition for understanding the responsibility of a person in his practical activities to the surrounding world and to himself that follows from this dialectic.
