Activity as a valuable quality of a self-determining personality

Levels and criteria

There is not and cannot be a single system for assessing social activity and its significance in the sphere of interpersonal and social relationships.

Nevertheless, we can evaluate the role of the result of an individual’s activity and the degree of its significance for others at a particular stage of development of society.

So, any result could be:

creative, that is, reproductive, innovative, aimed at creating something new or improving the known,
conservative, that is, not of particular value to the contingent that it can influence, but also not having a destructive impact,
destructive, that is, negatively affecting the material world and/or the system of norms, values, foundations and rules existing in a social group.

A conservative result is more theoretical than a practical phenomenon, because, one way or another, any activity entails changes. And what they will be like determines the significance of motives and goals, as well as the choice of ways to achieve them.

Classification of activities

According to the participating entities, activities are divided into

Individual - the activity of individual individuals. Such activities include self-employment, sole proprietorships and private family businesses.
Collective - the activity of groups of individuals. Such activities include limited liability companies, joint-stock companies, concerns and cooperatives.

By the nature of the goals achieved

Reproductive - an activity characterized by the acceptance and processing of what is already ready, repeating what has been created at the moment.
Productive - creating something new that has never existed before.

According to moral standards

Moral - activity that exists as the implementation of moral norms, characterizing the individual as a bearer of moral culture.
Immoral - an activity characterized as contrary to moral standards.

Legally

Legal
Illegal is an activity that has no right to exist in general or in a given situation.

By influence on world progress

Progressive - promoting social progress.
Regressive - going against social progress.

By impact on society

Creative - activity, the result of which is culture aimed at good.
Destructive - activity that results in the destruction of social structures and values (the result of war, irresponsible farming, etc.)

According to the characteristics of activity manifestations

External - activity manifested in the form of movements and actions with real objects.
Internal - occurring through mental activity, from the psychological traits of a person.

By area involved

Economic activity is activity related to the economy. Includes:
Production
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Distribution (sharing of economic benefits)
Exchange
Consumption

Economic activity is carried out by individuals or social groups through factories and firms, exchanges, etc.

Social activity is the activity of the state aimed at ensuring social guarantees; activities of individuals and social groups aimed at building relationships between them.

Human social activity is represented by communal, health and social systems and services.

Political activity is the activity of the state aimed at changing the lives of citizens, activities related to the establishment of the state system and the system of relations between man and the state.
Spiritual activity is activity aimed at creating spiritual values and their dissemination. Characterized by social consciousness.
Material activity is activity aimed at changing the surrounding nature or the structure of society.

Associating an activity with an activity category

The theory of V.A. has become widespread. Petrovsky, who considered the individual as a genuine subject of activity. The author identifies three successive stages in the process of activity formation:

Stage 1 – the functioning of the individual as a prerequisite for activity. At this stage, functioning presupposes the simplest manifestation of life, that is, the possibility of direct interaction of the subject with his environment.
Stage 2 - activity acts as a condition for the survival of the subject. With the help of this or that activity, the subject can achieve a necessary object that was previously inaccessible, but is necessary for functioning.
Stage 3 – activity as the highest form of development of activity. The process of human development is accompanied by the emergence of new, auxiliary forms of interaction with the world. They are aimed at ensuring and maintaining the very possibility of the subject’s activity.

Main activities in human life

Science identifies four main types of activity: play, study, work, communication and creativity.

A game

A game

- an activity whose goal is the process itself, and not obtaining a specific result. The game is always aimed at relaxation and entertainment, that is, at satisfying spiritual needs.

Role-playing games

- games in which the participant limits his behavior to a specific role chosen by him.

Characteristic features of the game:

The game situation is always conditional and can change at any moment
Aimed at satisfying the interests of participants
Characterized by knowledge of the surrounding objective and social reality
Develops personality traits such as morality, intelligence, etc.
Simulates real life, but is a more simplified format
Is a prerequisite for training
Contains elements: role, situation, game actions.

Types of games by number of participants

Individual
- activities related to one individual
Group
- brings together several individuals.

Types of games by purpose

Functional
- a game that involves obtaining new information about the properties of objects and ways of interacting with them.
Constructive
- a game that involves creating something, understanding the functions of objects.

Studies

Studying is a type of purposeful activity that involves acquiring improved knowledge, skills and abilities. Can be expressed as self-education.

Organized
- carried out in special institutions, also called training.
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Unorganized
- being a side activity parallel to other activities.
Self-education
- independent learning, stimulated only by personal interest and, as a rule, having a specific direction

In the course of educational activities, the following are developed:

Knowledge
— information necessary for carrying out activities
Skills
- elements of activity, human abilities that increase the quality of the product of activity
Skills
- skills realized unconsciously, automated elements of activity.

Work

Labor is a human activity aimed at obtaining economic benefits and socially useful products, giving a person the opportunity to satisfy his needs.

Labor always requires qualifications, that is, special skills, knowledge and abilities of a person that are necessary to carry out a particular activity.

Labor is characterized by:

Having a goal
Availability of tasks and expected results
Qualification
Practical usefulness, production of economic benefits
Changes in the material world
Development of human abilities and characteristics

Parameters of work activity

Performance
- the amount of goods produced per unit of time
Efficiency
- the ratio of the volume of costs and the volume of results
Level of division of labor
— distribution of functions between participants in the activity

Components of labor

The subject of labor is everything that is transformed as a result of activity (raw materials, products, services)
Means - tools (tools, machines, etc.).
Technologies - ways of carrying out activities, methods.
Organization is the order in which the labor process is carried out.
Feasibility

Communication

Communication -

a type of activity in which individuals exchange information, that is, thoughts and feelings.

Communication structure

Subject
- the one with whom communication is carried out: individuals or groups of individuals
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Target
- what communication takes place for: transmitting and receiving information
Content
- ideas and feelings conveyed during communication
Facilities
— methods of transmitting information:
Sense organs
Oral speech
Written speech
Technical means

Communication functions

Perceptual
- affective and communicative. The manifestation of a person’s feelings and emotions towards his communication partner and the world around him.
Information and communication. Transfer of information.
Interactive
- regulatory and communicative. Creating a communication strategy and structure.

Types of communication by content

Material
- exchange of material assets
Cognitive
- information exchange
Air-conditioned
- exchange of emotions and feelings
Motivational-
exchange of goals and interests
Activity
- exchange of skills and abilities

Assessment of social activity

As an example, we can recall factories and the wage systems that exist there, where people are paid for the quantity of products created that is not lower than a certain level of quality. If diligence is brought up from an early age, then initiative begins in childhood and gradually develops. It reaches peak values in adulthood, when a person creates the largest number of different ideas. All of them are assessed by the quality of development, social value, direction of the initiative, responsibility of the performer, duration, sustainability and frequency of manifestations. Also, those in which a person acted as an organizer or performer can be considered separately. There are, of course, other assessment indicators, but these are the most universal. Let's look at a small example. In it we will combine the information presented earlier.

Structure and components

Independent sources provide a variety of theories about the structure of social activity, but they all agree on one thing: this structure is based on two fundamental criteria: practical and spiritual.

They complement and stimulate each other and determine the components of any human activity. As a rule, the role of these components is played by:

Motive. The primary motive for any activity of living beings is the preservation, maintenance and reproduction of life. With the development of human thinking and self-awareness, deeper motives, self-expression, self-realization, and social significance appeared.
Target. It represents a specific image, a mental model of the desired result, towards which human activity is aimed. Based on the significance of specific actions and deeds for society, goals are conventionally divided into constructive and destructive; the role of their qualitative indicator is played by the so-called value meaning.
Productivity. Takes into account all the means used by a person to achieve a goal. The productivity stage ends with a result that may or may not meet the goal. In the second case, activity often takes on a cyclical nature.

It is noteworthy that these components of activity were formed at the dawn of civilization; in many ways, they became the catalyst for the processes of creation and development of society.

All social transformations that have taken place in human history are based on motives, goals and productivity.

Concept of activity

Activity is considered the basis for the development of a person as an individual, the main factor in his existence as a social being. Mastering an activity, its complication, and improvement is an important condition for the development of the human nervous system. To solve educational problems, it is necessary to be based on psychological patterns and the dynamics of human activities. When carrying out educational actions, it is necessary to take into account the nature of various types of activities, their features, meaning, content and volume.

The concept of personality and activity in Russian psychology are considered as interconnected phenomena. When developing the problem of activity and activity of the individual, modern psychology is based on the idea of the functional nature of reflection, the origin of consciousness from work activity, and the leading role of work in human behavior and activity. The source of activity is called, first of all, needs. It is needs that push a person to search for means to satisfy it, which entails active activity.

Based on their origin, needs can be divided into natural and cultural, and are characterized by the following indicators:

any need has its own object, that is, it is continuously an awareness of the need for something.
any need receives a certain content depending on the criteria and methods of its satisfaction.
the need has the ability to be reflected.
needs are expressed in motives, that is, in some incentives for activity.

Each type of activity has its own special motives.

Activity as a valuable quality of a self-determining personality

Bibliographic description:

Kanaeva, N. A. Activity as a valuable quality of a self-determining personality / N. A. Kanaeva. — Text: immediate // Psychological sciences: theory and practice: materials of the I International. scientific conf. (Moscow, February 2012). - Moscow: Buki-Vedi, 2012. - pp. 102-104. — URL: https://moluch.ru/conf/psy/archive/33/1856/ (access date: 07/09/2021).

The problem of personality activity is not fundamentally new for psychological science, but its relevance is beyond doubt.

Concept

What is social activity?

In a general sense, activity is any action aimed at changing the surrounding world, both material and spiritual.

The object of activity can be any object, process or idea, and its result is the transformation of this object or the creation of new objects.

For example, professional activity in any craft is the creation of a complete object from a group of materials using the tools, means and knowledge that the master possesses.

The concept of social activity is somewhat deeper. It takes into account the relationship of this process with society, indicates the significance of human activity in the system of foundations and values of a certain group of people.

The following goals of social activity are distinguished:

satisfying a person’s vital needs, obtaining material or ideal (non-material) values,
construction of a subjective image of the surrounding reality, stimulation of thinking,
transformation of reality within the entire society or its individual group,
psychological development and self-realization of a person.

Ultimately, for every mentality, character and way of thinking, one of the goals becomes the main one, and the others only complement it.

However, these goals are closely interrelated; by excluding one from the overall system, a person destroys the rest.

His actions take on a destructive nature, resulting in the cessation of development or degradation of thinking, abilities and skills.

For example, artists, deprived of the opportunity to develop creatively, experience difficult internal experiences, apathy and loss of strength, which prevents them from achieving other social goals.

Characteristics of motor activity

Types of motor activity, the physiology of which can be very different depending on the final goal of a person, can be classified according to certain criteria. They have quantitative and qualitative characteristics. These two characteristics are considered initial. Everything else flows from them. Quantitative characteristics take into account spatiotemporal indicators. This is the number of movements, their volume and the number of repetitions. Qualitative characteristics are aimed at showing the functional changes that occur in the body during physical activity. These indicators include the energy costs incurred by the body when performing exercises or engaging in physical activity in general.

Competitions and training represent the primary terrain for physical activity. Their practical value is very great, while their efficiency also reaches the highest limits. During competitions, a person experiences an adrenaline rush and the body works at the peak of its capabilities. Regular and frequent competitions are not always beneficial for the body, but more rare “extreme” moments will be very useful and will serve as a kind of release. We can talk about the benefits of training for a very long time. This is a truly effective method of working with your body and health, which is aimed at maximizing the benefits of intense physical activity.

An example of growth in social activity

To model the conditions, let’s imagine that the actions will take place in the socio-political sphere. So we have a human individual. He does not take any active actions and is an ordinary ordinary man in the street. At one certain moment, the insight “descends” on him that something is going wrong in the social or political life of the state. He begins to collect information, attend various conferences, communicate with representatives of organizations that operate in this area. Thus, the individual person becomes a passive participant in public life: he participates in it, but his ability to influence it is close to zero. He is socially active, but is not yet a more or less significant participant; his social “weight” is very low. Over time, the individual begins to participate more actively in various events. Perhaps he even establishes his own public organization. This requires him to devote more time and effort to the matter. Thus, social activity will increase. Moreover, this will not be work in vain, but to achieve certain goals pursued by a person.

Activity value

Definition

Activity is a universal feature of all living beings, their personal dynamics, which serves as a source of transformation and maintenance of vital connections with the environment. The vital activity of an organism is not just balancing with the environment, but actively overcoming it. Activity is built in accordance with the probable forecast of the development of events in the environment and the location of the organism in it.

Activity appears in correlation with activity, revealing itself as a dynamic condition of its development, embodiment and modification, as a property of its own movement. It is characterized by:

the conditionality of the actions performed by the specific internal states of the subject at the moment of action - in contrast to reactivity, when actions are determined by the previous situation;
arbitrariness – i.e. conditioned by the subject’s present goal;
supra-situationalism – going beyond the initial goals;
significant sustainability of activity in relation to the adopted goal.

Even while still in the mother’s womb, the child actively reacts to external influences. Its activity is manifested in movements that guarantee life, force the body to work, act, strengthen it and improve its health. Without active activity there could be no full-fledged life, there could be no development of a person and his formation as a person.

But activity doesn't just mean movement. It would be wrong to reduce all human activity only to its physical side. Activity also manifests itself in learning about the world, expanding the horizons of one’s knowledge, skills and abilities. It is impossible to teach a person something if he does not learn himself. Only conscious activity leads to the formation of personality, enrichment of personality and its growth.

Cognitive activity is also initially life-sustaining in nature, as it contributes to the child’s orientation in a new world. Emotional activity is a fundamental facet of personality activity. A child learns a lot over a very long period at the level of feelings, and not consciousness. He responds to actions, through psychological activity he lets those around him know about his condition. It is activity that allows the baby to master actions with objects.

Thus, activity as a quality of a living organism is a necessary condition and prerequisite for development, an integral part of the life processes of the organism, the result of which is the overall progress of development. Activity is a factor in successful social adaptation and helps a person understand his place in society and the world around him.

Signs of physical activity

It is known that correctly selected types of physical activity have a beneficial effect on the human body. But what signs do all types of activity have, what do they have in common? So, let's highlight the main ones:

types of exercises;
type of exercise;
form of conducting classes;
social orientation.

According to these signs, the following types of physical activity are also distinguished:

Physical activity.
Sports activity.
Physical education and gaming activities.
Sports and gaming activities.

Modern physical education uses all of the above types of activities, which we will consider in more detail.

Physical activity is not a sport, but a purposeful impact on a person. His goal is the harmonious development of his natural and spiritual powers. Physical culture is an important condition for a person’s general culture. This activity has several directions:

Educational and developmental. Aimed at teaching important motor skills, development of all organs and systems of the body. In this case, general strengthening exercises are used that a person can perform independently.
Sports and recreational. Aimed at improving the health of the whole body, instilling independent skills and physical education skills, and developing certain physical abilities.
Professionally oriented. Aimed at improving existing physical skills through special training programs.
Corrective. Aimed at eliminating deficiencies in the figure or body structure.

Sports activity is characterized by a person’s personal focus on development in a particular sport. Its important advantage is that it guarantees the development of not only physical, but also personal qualities of a person. Sports activities can be characterized as follows:

desire to achieve maximum results in the chosen sport;
great physical activity;
awareness of the social importance of sports activities.

The main types of physical activity include a small branch - competitive activity. It is carried out to the limit of the mental and physical capabilities of athletes in order to set record achievements.

Sports and gaming activities are aimed at achieving significant results as a team. A very important point is the ability to work in a team and act according to a well-thought-out plan. The main features of such activities:

the presence of rapidly changing situations;
conflict with other teams;
the emergence of problems that require a team approach;
awareness of oneself as a member of the whole and indivisible;
a wide variety of feelings experienced during the game.

Physical education and play activities are very similar to sports and sports and play activities, but there are a number of differences. They lie in the nature of the exercises. Such a load is very effective at the initial stage of the formation of a person’s personal and physical traits, so it is often used in preschool age. The main features of such activities are as follows:

the presence of imitation moments;
the ability to change the structure and purpose of the game to develop creativity;
the original plot of the game and distribution of roles is possible;
The initial goal is variety of gameplay, not achievement of certain results.

Activity Components

Considering activity as a form of activity, one should note its components, which are similar to the process of activity. These include:

goal or purpose
motivation,
ways and techniques by which activities are carried out,
awareness and emotions.

Note 1

A goal implies a focus on something, that is, the presence of a meaning-forming component. Any human activity implies the presence of motives: external and internal. They determine the direction of activity, turning into its goal. However, some motives are not recognized by a person. As a rule, they appear in the form of emotions. The latter are associated with various events in a person’s life and always characterize the attitude towards them. Methods and techniques for carrying out activities will allow you to draw up a scheme of actions to achieve your goal.

Activity levels

The more attractive a person’s goal is, the more energy he spends to achieve it. The highest level of activity is observed in people with a harmonious personality type: they have highly developed both responsibility for the task and the desire to obtain the greatest internal satisfaction from its results.

Individuals of the productive type also have high results of actions, however, they achieve them because of their passion for their ideas, and not because of a high level of responsibility.

The reflexive type is distinguished by heightened consciousness and hypercontrol, but these qualities, combined with self-criticism, make him unsure of himself and his initiatives. Therefore, he is ready for their active implementation only with outside moral support.

People of the performing and functional type show lack of independence in achieving the goals set for them. Having taken responsibility, they strictly follow third-party directions and instructions, use ready-made solutions, without using their own initiative.

Contemplators can put forward complex business and creative proposals, but in the foreground they put forward the promotion of their own “I”, and not the activity of implementing their ideas. Lack of responsibility and independence, aggressiveness are characteristic features of people of this type.

Thus, what level of activity he has (high, medium or low) depends both on the person’s natural personal qualities (temperament, abilities), and on those brought up in him by his parents and social environment.

Activity concept

Activity as a category is affected in various spheres of scientific thought. However, there is no complete coverage of it in any of them.

Definition 1

Activity is a universal property that is characteristic of all living things.

Different concepts relate activity to other processes in different ways. In some cases it is considered as a component of behavior.

Definition 2

Personal activity is a person’s ability to carry out socially significant transformations in the world based on the appropriation of the wealth of material and spiritual culture, which manifests itself in creativity, acts of will, and communication.

According to the position of other authors, activity is compared with activity. Proponents of the third point of view view activity based on its constituent elements. In psychology, activity is considered as a reflection of three phenomena:

Individual activity.
The opposite of passivity (not only the activity itself, but also the desire to implement it and the readiness for this).
Initiative.

Manifestations

What are its manifestations? Having analyzed the above, we can come to the conclusion that activity is, first of all, change, transformation. Any social activity is based on four components:

a person’s attitude to the totality of surrounding objects of the material world,
a person’s attitude towards other people, the group and society as a whole,
attitude towards events and phenomena,

attitude towards oneself.

Despite the fact that any change occurs simultaneously in the entire complex of these components, the degree of its influence is not the same.

Thus, activity directed at a material object is called an action, and activity directed at a person, group or society is called an act.

Internal changes, the subject of philosophy and psychology, are expressed in the thoughts and feelings of a particular person.

And only events and phenomena that play the role of an external factor cannot be influenced by a person.

Social experience

Any active interaction in a social environment entails the formation of specific experience. In interpersonal relationships, it manifests itself in the form of sympathy or antipathy; when interacting with a social group, the experience is reflected in the person’s acquired position and the nature of his communications.

Social experience is reflected in the individual’s way of thinking, participates in the formation of his worldview, attitude towards certain processes, phenomena, actions and actions. The following components of social experience are distinguished:

knowledge, information received about the world around us, current problems and ways to solve them,
practice, skills that take into account accepted norms, rules, intellectual characteristics in a specific niche,
creative practice, the ability for self-realization, a creative approach as a consequence of self-educational and self-educational social activity,
practice of feelings, emotional and value perception of the stage of productivity and results.

Contrary to popular belief, social experience is not the sum of information received, but the result of its analysis and transformation. It drives the progress of social relationships, as it leads to the modernization of social activity, the transformation of forms of human activity and communication.

Activity is not an innate, but an acquired property. The ability for it is developed in the process of personal development, and character is determined by the internal qualities of a person and the influence of the external environment.

Therefore, to ensure the full constructive activity of all members of society, the commonality of their value system, a healthy psychological, intellectual and emotional environment within individual groups is important.

What is social activity and why is it important:

Forms of human activity

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Activity in the broad sense of the word is a concept that characterizes an object from the point of view of the relationship and dynamics of processes of stable functioning and changes in it. An active system is characterized by a high rate of metabolic processes in relations with the environment, due to which energy and information are converted into new forms, and the object develops. In nature, examples of such objects are spiral galaxies, hydrogen reactions, and in society - industrial-urban cultures.

Human activity manifests itself in both physical and social forms and is a condition for the development and stability of society. It should be so high as to transform vital energy into socially significant forms, but should not exceed a person’s adaptive capabilities. The most important forms of human social activity include: activity, creativity, freedom, spirituality, communication, love.

Activity is a philosophical category to reflect human activity associated with the development and transformation of nature, culture and man himself. The source of activity is the material and spiritual needs of man. An activity consists of a set of actions and operations. Actions are determined by human goals, and operations are determined by the need and capabilities of the technological process. The interconnection of actions and operations requires the cooperation of people, technological planning and division of labor. As a process, activity represents individual acts, each of which consists of the following elements:

– subject of activity – professionally oriented groups of people with certain knowledge, skills, experience;

– the object of activity is that fragment of reality that is subject to transformation: nature, culture, society. In relation to a person, they do not speak about a radical transformation, but about adapting him to modern conditions of activity;

– means of activity – technological base, represented by technical systems, industrial and military-industrial complexes, equipment, educational technologies;

– target and value settings, motivational bases of activity;

- product of activity.

The activity is a complex multifunctional system, which includes the following subsystems:

production – it creates material goods;

scientific research – it ensures the progressive development of production activities based on scientific discoveries;

socio-political – guarantees the stability and sustainability of the development of society as a whole, regulates the relationship between individual, group and state interests;

spiritual – forms value orientations, worldview, ethical and aesthetic foundations of activity.

Activities are closely related to the development of man and society. From this point of view, two types of activity are distinguished - reproductive and creative. Reproductive activity ensures the continuity of social experience; it is based on the reproduction and improvement of existing technological techniques and operations. Creative activity leads to qualitative changes in the reality surrounding a person.

Creativity is a philosophical category to reflect human activity aimed at obtaining new knowledge and creating previously non-existent objects. Creativity in general provides diversity of social existence.

Main types of creativity:

– scientific – is associated with the discovery and explanation of existing, but previously unknown to man, objects and patterns. The product of scientific creativity is discovery;

– technical – associated with the creation of qualitatively new or improvement of existing technical systems. Its products are invention;

– artistic – reflects a person’s desire to find new aesthetic forms of presenting traditional themes related to the inner world of man, his understanding of good and evil, love and hate, the beautiful and the ugly, the sublime and the base. Its product is a work of art based on a system of artistic images;

– spiritual – is to find effective forms of satisfying spiritual and moral needs. Expressed in the creation of ideas, substantiation of cultural ideals and values.

Creativity as an attribute of human existence can manifest itself actually and potentially, i.e. accept specific forms of expression or not be realized. This depends both on the personal qualities of the person and on social conditions. Society cannot abolish or prohibit this form of human activity, but it can regulate the creative process. At the same time, society pursues two tasks: 1) to ensure such an intensity of the creative process that would satisfy material and spiritual needs; 2) maintain the stability of the social system, protect it from too drastic innovations and qualitative changes. Thus, society can both stimulate and limit creativity. In specific cultural and historical conditions, these tasks are manifested and combined in different ways, giving originality to a particular social system.

By studying creativity, philosophy explores such problems as the essence and nature of creativity, the stages of the creative process, the role of intuition in creativity, the relationship between personal motives and social demands in the realization of human creative potential. These and other problems were studied both in classical (R. Descartes) and modern philosophy (A. Bergson).

Freedom is a philosophical category that reflects the degree of human activity, his ability to self-realization and responsibility in social life.

The realization of freedom is based on a person’s capabilities in receiving and processing information, on his experience and knowledge of the laws of development of the world. Being an integral property of a person, freedom at the same time is always specific, associated with a certain cultural tradition, real conditions and forms of life of society.

In Eastern cultures, freedom involves awareness of ancient traditions, adherence to ethical standards, and following the experience of ancestors (China). It can be based on mastering the culture of the spiritual world, at the center of which is the desire for liberation from the hustle and bustle of life and achieving complete peace (India). In Russian culture, the understanding of freedom is associated with a person’s volitional effort in overcoming dependence, often of a social nature. The phenomenon of Russian anarchism is indicative in this regard. Western European culture interprets freedom from the point of view of a person’s possibilities for realization in activity, creativity, and communication. It is important for a subject of this culture to have an idea in advance about the boundaries of his efforts, so European society quite early began the practice of strictly ranking free action and legally fixing ideas about freedom. Thus, articles regulating freedom of creativity, thinking, economic activity, and political freedom appeared in legislation, and then in constitutions.

Thus, in interpretations of freedom there are always questions: “Why am I free?” and “What am I free from?” One of these issues may be the main one, and the other may be secondary, which gives each culture its originality.

The philosophical study of freedom as a form of human activity began during the emergence of industrial culture, therefore it was associated with the study of human capabilities in activity. B. Spinoza was one of the first to formulate this problem. He showed that a person, as a subject of activity, has a will, has goals, motives and forms of realizing his activity. In realizing their plans, the subject of the activity faces difficulties and obstacles of both a cultural, social and natural nature. B. Spinoza designated these boundaries of freedom with the concept of “necessity” and concluded that personal freedom depends on the degree of mastery of necessity. Mastering necessity means discovering the laws of the world and rationally assessing your capabilities.

In the works of I. Kant, the analysis of the problem of freedom receives further development. The philosopher introduces the idea of theoretical and practical freedom and their boundaries. Theoretical freedom is a cognitive action, its limits in the abilities and functions of the mind. Practical freedom is freedom of activity, communication and behavior. It is limited by duty and ethical standards. The most important condition for the realization of freedom is the ability of a person to comprehend his actions.

Hegel, based on this approach, gave a clear definition of freedom as a conscious necessity. He emphasized that recognizing the need does not mean blindly following it. If the need is theoretically understood, then the subject of the activity, in principle, has the right and opportunity to overcome it in practice. By connecting the stages of understanding and realizing freedom, Hegel for the first time not only pointed out the admissibility of changing necessity, but also substantiated the right of a person to realize his goals. Consequently, if I. Kant identifies the regulatory function of freedom, then Hegel identifies the goal function.

Marxist philosophy, developing the Hegelian interpretation of freedom, emphasized the right of the subject to transform both natural and social necessity on the basis of scientific theory.

As a result, classical philosophy substantiated the focus of modern European culture on understanding and transforming the world. The concept of freedom was associated with specific programs of activity.

In non-classical philosophy (from the second half of the 19th century), new approaches to the problem of freedom are being formed. The philosophy of life, existentialism, neo-Marxism considers such aspects as freedom and responsibility, freedom and will, freedom and norms of communication, freedom in totalitarian, authoritarian, democratic societies, mechanisms and reasons for the refusal of freedom.

Thus, European philosophy has developed a fairly objective conceptual image of freedom. Its main provisions are as follows:

– freedom is a characteristic of a person who is able and willing to actively reveal his capabilities in activity;

– freedom is a process, the initial units of which are man (subject) and necessity;

– the realization of freedom consists of two stages: theoretical and practical, i.e. conceptualization, cognition and action;

– the main regulators of freedom are duty and responsibility.

Spirituality is a philosophical category that reflects a person’s involvement in the most important problems of existence, the experience of which is associated with the formation of images, their expression and the practice of following them.

In modern conditions, the problem of the spiritual foundations of existence is very acute, so there is a need to study various forms of spirituality. In specific historical conditions, spirituality can acquire peculiar features. Thus, in ancient culture, spirituality was expressed in the idea of aestheticism, in an orientation toward beauty, in the search for ideal forms of being. But aesthetic ideals could not resist the immoral lifestyle of the late Roman period. The inconsistency of various spiritual attitudes has led to the search for ethical mechanisms for regulating people's behavior. They formed the basis of religious spirituality.

At the heart of religious spirituality were the connections between the concepts of “spirit,” “soul,” and “God.” The concept of “spirit” reflects strength, will, intellectual and conscious energy, and a person’s ability to identify individual qualities. The concept of “soul” captures a person’s emotions, feelings, characteristics of his psyche, humane principles, and personal qualities. God is a concept denoting a supreme personality, a sacred person, an absolute in theistic religions. The attributes of God are: unity of essence and existence, supreme intelligence, supernatural power, absolute perfection. Faith in God as a special authority turned human life into a kind of exam, the positive result of which made it possible to solve the problem of death. Religious spirituality formed powerful mechanisms of moral influence on people's behavior, but it was not free from shortcomings. Asceticism, oblivion of physicality, contempt for material life and practical activity deprived the culture of further incentives for development, giving rise to famine, epidemics, and mass death of people.

The emergence of industrial culture has brought new accents to the understanding of spirituality. Work ethics, education, science, and rationality have become important values in the spiritual life of modern European people.

Communication (from the Latin communicatio – message, transmission) is a concept that reflects the process of transmitting and consuming information through signs recorded on material media.

Information (from the Latin informatio - familiarization, explanation, message) is a concept to denote a set of signals that reflect the essential characteristics of reality and ensure that the subject of activity makes adequate target and motivational decisions.

Communication satisfies the human need for communication. A special place in it is occupied by the affirmation of socially significant values, ideals, norms, traditions, moral, religious, aesthetic precepts. Forms of communication can be monologue, dialogue, hermeneutic experience of symbolic forms of culture. The ability to understand and interpret information plays an important role in human communication and behavior. This role is increasing due to the expansion of the sphere of influence of mass culture and its characteristic images of violence, aggression, hypertrophied sexuality, and nihilism. Dialogue between different cultures also requires the ability to understand one's own and respect other people's values.

Love is a concept that reflects a person’s ability to express himself at the level of intimate, moral and aesthetic experience. Love is expressed in various forms depending on the object to which this feeling is directed: spiritual-cosmic love is associated with the experience of God, patriotic love forms special feelings for the Motherland, personal love for another person.

Love is at the core of family and marriage. A family is a group of people living together, united by common activities, interests and functions. The family consists of husband, wife, children and other close relatives.

Social functions of the family: continuation of the human race, raising children, caring for elders, running a joint household, spending leisure time.

Historical family forms: consanguineous, paired, monogamous.

Marriage is a legally formalized union of a man and a woman, a marriage.

Forms of human activity are of significant interest to philosophy. They are historical, and new forms may appear, reflecting the dynamics of social development. In specific cultures, unique ensembles and individual interpretations of these forms are formed.

Exercise

1. What caused the “anthropological turn” in the philosophy of the twentieth century?

2. How to understand the expression of Zh.P. Sartre: “By choosing myself, I choose others”?

3. Illustrate the relationship between the categories of existence, essence and being of a person.

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Researchers' opinions

The methodological conclusion of V. G. Mordkovich is also interesting. He considers activity as an essential feature of the subject. If someone else’s will is imposed on a person, then he becomes a carrier of activity. In other words, the individual turns from a subject into an object that performs other people's tasks for which he has no need. To designate people of this type, the concept “socially passive” was introduced. At the same time, it is noted that not all needs have a driving influence on activity, but only those whose satisfaction has social significance or affects certain public interests. The structure of the behavioral model in this case depends on the goals pursued by the subject and the preferred levers of influence.

Types and forms

The concepts of types and forms of social activity are not synonymous.

The type indicates the nature of the relationship between a person and the object of activity, and the form specifies this nature, taking into account the method of achieving the goals.

As a rule, there are six main types of social activity:

material-transformative, aimed at creating objects of labor as necessary benefits of the material world,
scientific-cognitive, consists of conducting research and experiments, creating concepts, theories and models, developing and specifying means or methods of work and knowledge,
artistic and aesthetic, satisfies the spiritual needs of both the subject of the activity and other people,
value, leads to changes in the existing system of moral, social, political and other values,
communicative, reflected in the interaction of a person with individuals and society, the exchange of culture and worldviews, the modernization of society,
healthcare, aimed at preserving and maintaining the life and health of people.

If the boundaries between types of social activity are strictly defined, then its forms have neither an exact number nor clearly expressed external restrictions.

This or that form becomes a derivative of the experience of generations and has specific features determined by the conditions of its formation in each specific social group. The most typical forms of social activity are:

Cognitive and labor. Reflects a person’s readiness and ability to accumulate professional knowledge in his field of activity, improve skills and abilities to carry out material-transformative or scientific-cognitive activities. This form of social activity satisfies not only material needs, but also the need for self-actualization.
Self-educational and self-educating. They serve as a projection of personal motivation in satisfying intellectual needs. Often, the incentive for such activity is a person’s involvement in social life, his interaction with society.
Contact.
It is explained by a person’s desire to belong to a certain social group, to communicate and interact with others. It is decisive in areas of activity based on a team approach to solving problems and achieving set goals. The contact form of activity develops a person’s communication skills, stimulates cognitive and labor activity, self-education and self-education.
Educational and educational. Satisfies the individual’s need for information or his desire to share acquired knowledge and experience with others. Includes a complex system of communicative interactions, including educational institutions, libraries and databases, and the media.

Socio-cultural. It has much in common with the contact form of activity, but takes into account another criterion for the formation of social groups, cultural and historical. Such activity is built on an array of moral values, norms of behavior, laws and rules. A striking example of socio-cultural activity is youth subcultures.

Social and organizational. It is based on a community of interests and needs, and in a more global sense, a community of origin, territorial and cultural proximity of people. The most significant component of social and organizational activity is civic activity, which is a way of self-realization of an individual as a full member of civil society, a participant in political and social life, having his own worldview and defending certain social institutions.

In an ideal society, each individual harmoniously combines all forms of social activity, contributing not only to personal development, but also to the development of society as a whole.

In practice, such a situation is rarely encountered; most often a person concentrates on one or several forms, and the rest are developed only to an extent sufficient to realize the main goal of social activity.

Personal activity is a special type of activity or special activity, characterized by the intensification of its main characteristics (purposefulness, motivation, awareness, mastery of methods and techniques of action, emotionality), as well as the presence of such properties as initiative and situational awareness.

Approaches to defining the concept of personal activity

The term activity is widely used in various fields of science, both independently and as an additional term in various combinations. Moreover, in some cases it has become so familiar that independent concepts have formed. For example, such as: active person, active life position, active learning, activist, active element of the system. The concept of activity has acquired such a broad meaning that, with a more careful approach, its use requires clarification.

The Russian language dictionary gives a commonly used definition of “active” as active, energetic, developing. In literature and everyday speech, the concept of “activity” is often used as a synonym for the concept of “activity”. In a physiological sense, the concept of “activity” is traditionally considered as a universal characteristic of living beings, their own dynamics. As a source of transformation or maintenance of vital connections with the outside world. How is the property of living organisms to respond to external stimuli. In this case, activity is correlated with activity, revealing itself as its dynamic condition, as a property of its own movement. In living beings, activity changes in accordance with evolutionary development processes. Human activity acquires special significance as the most important quality of personality, as the ability to change the surrounding reality in accordance with one’s own needs, views, and goals. (A.V. Petrovsky, M.G. Yaroshevsky, 1990).

Great importance is attached to the “principle of activity”. N.A. Bernstein (1966), introducing this principle into psychology, represented its essence in postulating the determining role of the internal program in the acts of vital activity of the organism. In human actions, there are unconditioned reflexes when movement is directly caused by an external stimulus, but this is, as it were, a degenerate case of activity. In all other cases, the external stimulus only triggers the decision-making program, and the movement itself is to one degree or another connected with the person’s internal program. In the case of complete dependence on it, we have so-called “voluntary” acts, when the initiative to begin and the content of the movement are set from within the body.

In sociology, the concept of social activity is used. Social activity is considered as a phenomenon, as a state and as an attitude. In psychological terms, it seems essential to characterize activity as a state - as a quality that is based on the needs and interests of the individual and exists as an internal readiness for action. And also as a relationship - as a more or less energetic initiative aimed at transforming various areas of activity and the subjects themselves.

In psychology, within the framework of the activity approach, there is also some unprincipled discrepancy in the interpretation of activity. The psychological theory of activity considers the macrostructure of activity in the form of a complex hierarchical structure. It includes several levels, including: special types of activities, actions, operations, psychophysiological functions. Special types of activity in this case act as a set of actions caused by one motive. These usually include gaming, educational and work activities. They are also called forms of human activity. (Y. B. Gippenreiter 1997).

B. G. Ananiev, in addition to the above, also includes combat and sports activities, cognition, communication, managing people, and amateur performances among the many “active forms of a person’s relationship to the world.” (L.I. Antsiferova, 1998). Activity, in this case, corresponds to a special form of activity or special activity.

According to K. A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya (1991), through activity, a person solves the issue of coordinating and measuring objective and subjective factors of activity. Mobilizing activity in the necessary, and not in any forms, at the right time, and not at any convenient time, acting on one’s own impulse, using one’s abilities, setting one’s goals. Thus, assessing activity as part of activity, as its dynamic component, implemented situationally, that is, at the right moment in time.

Another interpretation of the concept of activity is proposed by V. A. Petrovsky (1996), who proposes to consider the personality as a genuine subject of activity. Tracing the history of the forms of activity of the subject, he identifies three successive stages in the history of the formation of activity. 1) The functioning or vital activity of an individual as a prerequisite for activity; Functioning - the first and simplest manifestation of life - can be described in terms of the interaction of a subject with an object, during which the integrity of the bodily structures inherent in the subject is ensured. Functioning is based on the possibility of direct interaction between the subject and his environment. The separation of living bodies from the sources of their existence turns out to be disastrous, since the ability to function is not yet sufficient to overcome the barriers that have arisen. 2) Activity as a condition for the survival of the subject. Activity removes the limitations inherent in the previous stage of development. Through activity, the subject gains the opportunity to reach an object that was previously remote from him, but necessary for functioning. 3) Activity as the highest form of development of activity. In the process of human development, new, auxiliary forms of interaction with the world arise, aimed at ensuring and maintaining the very possibility of the subject’s activity. These forms of movement develop within previous activities and, developing into activity that is self-subordinate in nature, they become what can be called the activity of the subject.

Activity and activity, correlation of concepts

One of the main theoretical problems when considering the concept of personal activity is the correlation of the concepts of “activity” and “activity”. The difficulty is that in a large number of cases these terms act as synonyms.

Based on the analysis of specialists’ positions, a number of common essential signs of personality activity are identified. These include ideas about activity as:

form of activity, indicating the essential unity of the concepts of activity and activity;

activities to which a person has his own internal attitude, which reflects the person’s individual experience;

personally significant activity: a form of self-expression, self-affirmation of a person, on the one hand, and about a person, as a product of active and proactive interaction with the surrounding social environment, on the other;

activities aimed at transforming the world around us;

quality of personality, personal education, manifested in internal readiness for purposeful interaction with the environment, for self-activity, based on the needs and interests of the individual, characterized by the desire and desire to act, purposefulness and perseverance, energy and initiative.

The idea of activity as a form of activity allows us to assert that the main components of activity should be inherent in activity (V.N. Kruglikov, 1998). In psychology, these include: purpose or focus, motivation, methods and techniques by which activities are carried out, as well as awareness and emotions. Speaking about a goal, it is meant that any activity is carried out for something, that is, that it is aimed at achieving a certain goal, which is interpreted as a conscious image of the desired result and is determined by the motivation of the subject of the activity. A person, being under the influence of a complex of external and internal motives, chooses the main one, which turns into the goal of activity aimed at achieving it. Therefore, the goal can also be considered as the main conscious motive. From this it becomes clear that productive activity is motivated and conscious. However, not all motives, unlike goals, are realized by a person. This does not mean, however, that unconscious motives are not represented in human consciousness. They appear, but in a special form, in the form of emotions, as an element of the emotional component of activity. Emotions arise about events or the results of actions that are associated with motives. In activity theory, emotions are defined as a reflection of the relationship between the result of an activity and its motive. (Y. B. Gippenreiter, 1997). In addition, they act as one of the evaluative criteria for choosing a course of action. Methods and techniques act as an element of activity, but not simply as a means for carrying out an action to which movements adapt, but as an element of the action scheme, as a tool that enriches the latter with an orientation towards the individual properties of the object-tool (D. B. Elkonin, 1987). When defining activity as a special form of activity, it is necessary to be aware of its differences and its features. As distinctive features, it is proposed to consider the intensification of the main characteristics of activity, as well as the presence of two additional properties: initiative and situationality (V.N. Kruglikov, 1998).

Intensification reflects the fact that in all characteristics of activity elements of qualitative and quantitative assessments are clearly visible. There is an increase in the severity and intensity of its components, namely, increased awareness, subjectivity, personal significance of goals, a higher level of motivation and mastery of the subject in methods and techniques of activity, and increased emotional coloring.

Initiative is understood as initiative, internal motivation for activity, enterprise and their manifestation in human activity. It is obvious that initiative is closely related and acts as a manifestation of motivation, the degree of personal significance of an activity for a person, is a manifestation of the principle of activity, indicating the internal involvement of the subject in the process of activity, the leading role of the internal plan in it. It testifies to the strong-willed, creative and psychophysical abilities of the individual. Thus, it acts as an integrative indicator of the correlation between personal characteristics and activity requirements.

The situational nature of activity can be considered as a characteristic indicating the transition of activity to a different quality - the quality of activity in the case when efforts aimed at achieving a goal exceed the normal level of activity and are necessary to achieve it. In this case, the level of activity can be considered from two positions - external in relation to the subject and internal. In the first case, activity can correspond to a normatively defined goal or exceed it. To characterize such activity, the concepts of “supra-situational” and “extra-normative activity” are used (A.V. Petrovsky, M.G. Yaroshevsky, 1990, V.F. Bekhterev, 1996, R.S. Nemov, 1985) by which we mean the ability of the subject rise above the level of the requirements of the situation or, accordingly, the normative requirements officially presented by society. In the second case, activity is considered from the point of view of the subject and is correlated with an internally determined goal that corresponds not to external, socially determined, but to his personal internal goals. For an individual, activity is always “normative”, since it corresponds to the set goal, if it is achieved, the activity loses its energy basis - motivation and obviously cannot develop to the level of supra-situationalism. An activity that did not allow the subject to achieve the set goal is traditionally considered insufficiently active or “passive”, that is, in principle, cannot be called activity.

The level of activity, its duration, stability and other indicators depend on the consistency and optimal combinations of different components: emotional, motivational, etc. In connection with this, depending on the method of connection between mental and personal levels of activity, it can acquire an optimal or suboptimal character. For example, you can maintain a certain level of activity in two ways: by overexerting all your strength, which leads to fatigue and a drop in activity, and through emotional and motivational reinforcement. (K. A. Abulkhanova-Slavskaya, 1991). It is these two approaches, for example, that distinguish traditional teaching in higher education, based on lectures and innovative forms of teaching based on active learning methods (active learning).