МЕНТАЛЬНЕ ОСНАЩЕННЯ СУСПІЛЬНОГО РОЗВИТКУ ЯК СВІТОГЛЯДНИЙ ФЕНОМЕН

Abstract

Social development has all the features of the system object that consists of many elements. The hierarchy of these elements is a transhistorical constant that during the historical development is undergoing significant reflows. In our time, the role of intellectual provision of social development significantly increases, or rather the level and quality of such provision. The basis of human mentality is the ability to generate ideal images borrowed from the fields of social consciousness and collective unconscious. The mentality is a reflection of generalized approaches to the perception of the world and ways of thinking that are inherent to people of a particular era. This semantic matrix determines the semantic hierarchy among the actors of culture. Unlike the doctrines of conceptual and ideological structures that have specific features of closed systems, a common characteristic feature for mentality is openness, incompleteness, duration, equivalent dispersion throughout the area of culture and everyday consciousness. І. Wallerstein believes that the reasons of social changes may be in either external factors (e.g., invasion from outside), or internal processes of the society itself. The whole scope range of opinions on the causes of social changes may be classified in two major kinds: internal and external. The former emerge as a result of the very functioning of the social system; while the latter – due to the interaction between the social system and the environment. Reforms are, normally, initiated “top-bottom” by the ruling elite, which is under the pressure of the opposition, lower social strata and/or external circumstances. The aim of the reforms is in partial changes in the social system to keep their leading social status. Revolutionary changes are bottom-top. The essential reason for these changes is in the unwillingness of the masses to live under the current conditions. Their goal is to replace the ruling elite and quickly enforce radical changes in all areas of social life. The social system functions and develops as long as it is able to solve its internal controversies and meet external challenges. Keywords: social development, a system object, the determinant, evolution, hierarchy, intellectual provision.