Historical Laws in the System of Modern Knowledge about the Past of Human Society

Abstract

This article examines the question of the existence of specific historical (general sociological) laws that operate throughout all stages of human history and differ from other laws of social existence. The authors have attempted to formulate the most obvious basic historical laws based on the available scientific developments, methodological approaches and ideas of researchers from both the distant and very recent past. The authors define the following list of historical laws: the law of cyclicity; the law of civilizational, event-based and personal uniqueness of the historical process; the law of balance and struggle of personal, group, corporate, state and civilizational interests; the law of cause-and-effect relationships; the law of unrealized alternatives; the law of unintended consequences. They reflect in the most concentrated form the current level of knowledge about the world historical process. They relate to the entire array of the past of human society. They are synthetic, complex, multidimensional and all encompassing. They manifest themselves in all periods of human history without exception. Therefore, they open up the possibility of a more conscious perception of the present and the formation of general scientific ideas about the deep mechanisms of the future development of society.