Categories, attribute and basic modes of social reality

Abstract

This article analyzes the dialectic of central concepts in the social philosophy – «society» and «social reality» in their ontogenesis and phylogenesis, and the identification of the content of social reality as a social and philosophical category and finding the theoretical and methodological bases of its definition, because the content of this category is a subject area as social philosophy so the specific social sciences. The author traces the theoretical reflection of social reality in social search to find the common denominator for its adequate understanding. Particular attention is given to identifying the defining characteristics of social reality as a form of society existence. The article clears up the question why social reality is described by ten categories: social essense, material and ideal, objective and subjective, organized, ordered, structured, dynamic, stratified, communicative, institutionalized, and it is necessary to consider the essence of the first of them. The author argues the position that social reality exists only in the specific historical forms, and all historical humanity is the first level of its implementation. This, in turn, allows us to trace the meaning of «society» at different levels of abstraction and to identify the attribute and main modes of social existence.