Faced with any natural phenomena, we give them an estimate, somehow characterize. Here, the process of cognition manifests itself, without it, we simply could not know the nature of things, but would confine ourselves to a simple description of what our senses perceived. In communicating with people, the process of cognition of social reality, which has its own peculiarities and characteristics that do not apply to its other forms, is also included.
What are the characteristics of cognition of social phenomena?
This question is really difficult, because the place of man in the surrounding world and its interrelations reasonings have been very long. The philosophers of the East, China, Ancient Greece fought over this question, the ancient European philosophers continued the deeds of the ancient, but modern science made the human problem central at all. In this regard, the question may arise, why have the best minds of mankind so far not been able to expand everything on the shelves? The point here is the peculiarities of cognition of social reality, which greatly complicate the description of the process and the classification of the techniques used for it. In addition, we must not forget about the constant development of human society, opening up new horizons, inaccessible to its predecessors. At this stage, highlight the three main features inherent in modern social knowledge.
- First, the complexity of the process in the need to take into account such factors as will, interests, goals and motives of human actions. But this already presents a serious complexity, we do not always understand the motives of our own activity, what to say about other people. To properly understand the intentions of a person, it is necessary to remember that everything around us is the result of our activity (physical or mental). The way an object or phenomenon looks is determined not so much by its essence, as by our attitude towards it. And the perception of an event depends on the level of development of the person who evaluates it. Therefore, to understand another person, to explore the inner world of the subject, is not possible without literature, psychology and art.
- Another nuance of social cognition is its historicity. Every person from the very beginning touches the society, accepting or rejecting the values and culture that is accepted in it. We can say that consciousness is the processing of history, knowledge accumulated by mankind. But here there is complexity, the whole historical heritage can not fit into one human consciousness, therefore, the absolute completeness of information on the Earth is not possessed by anybody. A person constantly receives new data, reinterprets some events, finds new moments and facts. Therefore, the process of cognition is infinite. Also it is necessary to take into account the discovery of K. Jung about the archaic forms, ready at the right moment to emerge from the subconscious. It often happens that traditional values conflict with realities of life, and then the search for troublemakers begins to bring the situation to the familiar
denominator. - The third feature is the complexity and variability of social reality. Thunder and lightning are exactly the same as they were 1000 years ago, we can only discover new facts, and moral values are constantly being revised. We can not give an exact definition of such concepts as "nobility" and "kindness", it all depends on the specific situation.
Having found the answer to the question, what are the characteristics of social cognition, it becomes clear that this process is not as simple as it might seem at first. Therefore, it is very difficult to reach an agreement with people because of the obstacles created by our consciousness.