(1914-1975) Abbot of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery (1959-1975) March 15, 1975...
Ovseytsev A.A.
Structural-Functional Construct (SFC)
Constructive display of structure
labor process as a special form
subject – object relationship in the system
public relations.
- “... the method of presentation cannot, from a formal point of view, differ from the method of research. The study must become familiar with the material in detail, analyze the various forms of its development, and trace their internal connections. Only after this work is completed can the actual movement be properly depicted. Since this has been achieved, and the life of the material has received its ideal reflection, it may seem that we have before us an a priori design.”
K.Marx “Capital” vol.I.
Labor is, first of all, a process that takes place between man and nature (subject and object), a process in which man, through his own activity (spiritual and biological), mediates, regulates and controls the exchange of substances between himself and nature. In this process, a person actualizes the potential capabilities of nature and subordinates the forces awakened by him in the process of influencing nature to his goals.
The main points of the labor process, which we will consider as components that ensure its implementation, are:
- subject of labor
- means of labor, incl. and a person with his ability for purposeful activity,
- labor (the process of purposeful activity itself),
- the result of labor (product).
The labor process loses all meaning if at least one of these components is missing.
In the process of labor, a person, using means of labor, makes a predetermined change in the object of labor. Then the labor process seems to fade away into its final result, into the product, which is immediately included in the consumption process. In this process, the result of labor (product) acquires the value of use value. The result of labor (product) also loses all meaning if it is not included in the consumption process.
In the process of consumption, the product of labor turns into either an object or a means of labor of the next labor cycle, and, therefore, every object or means of labor that is supplied to the input of this next cycle bears the “imprint” of the previous labor process.
Thus, the labor process and the consumption process are two interdependent processes that determine the structural feature (logical figure) of human activity in the system of social relations.
Taking into account the fact that use value in the process of labor and consumption can perform one of three functions: an object, a means or a product, we introduce the concept of a “functional block” and “direct and feedback”, which, in fact, determine the structure and direction of these processes in a generalized form.
Subsequent consideration of these specific functional blocks will allow us to expand and deepen the analysis by moving from a generalized consideration of processes to an active consideration, highlighting special moments that characterize human activity. Mnemonic diagram 1 will serve as a visual support in this analysis.
The process of labor and consumption, presented in a generalized form in the form of an abstract flow chart, in actual conditions usually unfolds in real space and time. This is due to the territorial location of workplaces in the process of collective labor, where operations are carried out to influence the means of labor on an object, with the sequence of these operations (in the process of giving the product the specified final consumer properties) and, accordingly, the receipt of the results of one operation as a means or object labor for another (their consumption).
Each functional block of the considered production process diagram (as a dialectical analysis of the unity of the labor process and the consumption process) has its own structure, each of which is invariant to the structure of the generalized labor process. This feature of functional blocks is due to the fact that each of them, being the result of a labor process implemented according to a single structural and functional logic, is simultaneously deployed on the time axis: “past-present-future”. So, from the position of the current moment of the labor process (the present), the products and means entering its input are previously materialized processes, the features of which are manifested when consuming their results at each given moment. In the future, they must acquire the form of a product with certain consumer properties.
This circumstance allows us to present the mnemonic diagram 1 we are considering in the form of mnemonic diagram 2.
In this scheme, each of the presented blocks, repeating the structural feature of the simplest moments of labor, simultaneously includes all possible variations of specific types deployed in real space and time. Thus, the functional block of the formation of the object of labor (P) includes all the features of labor to “snatch” the object from its direct connection with the surrounding nature. These features are usually associated with such types of labor as trade (hunting, fishing), extraction of natural resources (ore, oil, coal, gas, forest), agriculture and livestock raising (grain, vegetables, fruits, meat, milk).
The functional block for the formation of means of labor (C) includes all the features of the labor process of creating tools of labor intended to perform certain operations (relative to the subject of labor) aimed at obtaining a result (product) with given properties. These usually include tools, mechanisms that expand the physical capabilities of a person, machines that can replace a person when performing certain operations, as well as the person himself with his motor and intellectual strength that underlie (T) the processing of an object (a product of previous labor process) coming from block (P).
If in the functional blocks P and S labor processes are implemented to create the entire variety of objects and means of labor necessary as a whole for the activity of the social organism, then in the functional block of the labor process (T) at each considered moment of its continuous implementation only a certain operation is implemented on the selected object and only by a means that is capable, in the process of their interaction through a person, of acquiring the properties necessary for the subsequent process of consuming its result at the next moment of the continuously ongoing labor process.
The functional block for implementing the result of labor (P) includes all subsequent operations of the labor process, in which the result of the previous process is consumed by subsequent processes as an object or means. (in block P two contradictory moments collide: the desired and the actual).
As we see, in all four functional blocks (mnemo-diagram 2.) the process of changing the form of a substance of nature is carried out in order to adapt it to human needs, realized as an object of labor, a means of labor, a product of consumption in a single system. However, when considering the structure of the means of labor, which is the person himself according to the scheme we have established, we come across a certain contradiction.
So, if, in a certain sense, a person is the result of the “processing” of a certain “biological substance” in order to impart to him by a social organism the corresponding “human properties”, expressed in specific motor and intellectual strength, then this point does not cause any contradiction. A contradiction does not arise as soon as we move on to consider the labor process itself (functional block T), in which a person as a means of labor is realized as a motor and intellectual force, without which the labor process is not able to take place. The motive force purposefully brings into interaction the object and the means, as a result of which the object undergoes the necessary changes. However, any motor force is necessarily preceded by an intellectual process that determines the feasibility and necessity of performing certain operations.
“The spider performs operations reminiscent of those of a weaver, and the bee, with the construction of its wax cells, puts some human architects to shame. But even the worst architect differs from the best bee from the very beginning in that before he builds a cell of wax, he has already built it in his head. At the end of the labor process, a result is obtained that was already in the person’s mind at the beginning of this process, i.e. perfect. Man not only changes the form of what is given by nature; in what is given by nature, he at the same time realizes his conscious goal, which, like a law, determines the method and nature of his actions and to which he must subordinate his will.”Thus, in the general structure of the labor process, we did not take into account the fact that before receiving a product with the given properties, a person must carry out some work to create an ideal image of this product and, accordingly, determine the sequence of technological operations that will allow him to achieve the desired result .
To take this circumstance into account, we will make the appropriate transformation of mnemonic diagram 1, the result of which is shown in mnemonic diagram 3.
Now from this diagram it is clear that in order to carry out the labor process, not only the object of labor and the means of labor must be submitted to its input, but at the same time an operational image of the future result must be formed, i.e. a list of operations must be determined (selected) that will actually lead the process to the desired result, aimed at satisfying the corresponding need. The formation of an operational image in an ideal form is carried out on the basis of practical connections and relationships of a person with the objective world included in the process of labor and consumption. This connection is shown in mnemonic diagram 3 as dashed and dotted.
The indicated scheme can be simplified if we keep in mind that the object of labor and the means of labor have the same basis, namely: the product of previous labor, i.e. both of these input elements act as a previously materialized result of labor and can be designated, as shown in a simplified version of mnemonic diagram 4, “material support for the labor process.”
An operational image, which, as a certain mental product of the mental process, is also a product of labor, like all its other moments. Labor created man as a thinking being. In this regard, the operational image as a necessary functional element in the general structure of labor can be presented in the form of a functional block, the structure of which (as well as other blocks) is invariant to the structure of the labor process as a whole due to the fact that the thought process as a specific active form of reflective a process that characterizes the internal state of the human body and, accordingly, the social “organism”, must carry within itself the form of external processes that are realized in the conditions of direct interaction between humans, means of production and means of consumption.
Taking into account this circumstance, mnemo-diagram 4 will again be presented in the form of interconnected functional blocks (mnemo-diagram 5), where the structure of each of them repeats the structure of the process as a whole, including the block in which the thought process that precedes the process of directed physical influence is implemented person on the corresponding object with the help of tools.
In the new version of mnemonic diagram 5, the functional block (0), while retaining the structure of the labor process (just like it), includes certain actions (operations) subordinated to a conscious goal, as well as certain means that ensure the implementation of these actions ( operations). For example, logical. The functional block (O) carries out, as it were, the objectification of ideas that encourage and regulate the activity of a person (subject) in relation to an object (interacting object and means). In the final product of the labor process, mental processes seem to acquire a new form of existence in the form of external, sensually perceived objects, the ideal existence of which is expressed in the correlation of ideas and the actually manifested properties of the object and means in the process of their consumption by labor. As a rule, the result of such a correlation leads to the determination of meaning, which takes the form of a sign or word (language), which determines the specifics of information processes in the system of the social organism.
Thus, “behind verbal meanings lies the social activity crystallized in them, in the process of which only objective reality is revealed to man.” Together with that “...they still boastfully flaunt only what production owes to science, but science owes infinitely more to production” .
The thought process, the end result of which is an operational image of the product of labor, is a type of purposeful actions and logical operations, the structure of which must be adequate to the following three tasks that underlie purposeful human activity:
- analysis that serves as a prerequisite and determines the choice of goals;
- synthesis, which determines the logic of technological processes for obtaining a product with given properties (the logic of achieving the goal);
- management, which determines the conditions for the coherence of actions of a team of people in conditions of cooperation of labor conditions aimed at objects, the scale of which, the existence in space and time, significantly exceeds the capabilities of an individual.
One of the ways to eliminate this shortcoming is the path of research (analysis and generalization) of the structural features of modern scientific and production systems, characterized by a wide variety of elements of modern production: scientific research, technical developments, equipment, technology, main and auxiliary production, management practices, in which all the features of the forms of human activity (forms of subject-object relationship) aimed at obtaining and continuous reproduction of a socially useful necessary product are realized in the greatest completeness.
A similar analysis and relevant research were carried out at one of the modern enterprises in the period 1970-1975. As a result of these studies, a generalized structural and functional diagram was obtained that defines the main generalized components of production activity in their interrelation and interdependence (The structural and functional diagram is presented in the form of a mnemonic diagram 6).
Comparison of the resulting generalized structure of the labor process (mnemo-diagram 6), reflecting the real conditions of human production activity in modern conditions, carried out within the framework of the subject-object relationship, and mnemo-diagram 4 and 5, allows us to make clarifications and show them in a more complete and logically completed form (see mnemonic diagram 7). 
From the comparison it is clear that the intellectual ability of a person as part of a social organism, which we designated in mnemonic diagram 5 as a functional block (O), breaks down into four blocks: - Control block,
- synthesis block,
- analysis block,
- block defined as “Bringing into correspondence the ideal and material aspects, the desired and the actually achievable” i.e. block of overcoming dialectical contradiction.
If the functional blocks for identifying problem situations determine the direction of the analysis, on the basis of which data for decision-making is generated in the structure of the “Management” block in relation to the “Synthesis” and “Reconciliation of the ideal and the real” blocks, then Ko, K1, K2, K3 ,K4 determine the standards (adequate to the goal) within the framework of which these decisions must be implemented. With respect to these standards, in the functional blocks Ko, K1, K2, K3, K4, control is carried out, which is based on a measurement process that ensures the proportionality of different quality means, the formation of different quality means for the formation of a given property and, accordingly, an adequate reflection of these properties in thinking during design (synthesis).
From the point of view of the established everyday (rational) concept, this refined version of the flowchart in the modern language of industrial relations can be simplifiedly interpreted as follows.
In accordance with the technical specifications (K1), the design (R) of the product is carried out. A project describing the design of a product and the method of implementing this design, having passed standard control (Ir.K2), enters production (P). Simultaneously with the development of the project, production preparation is carried out, during which the starting material and technological equipment that meet the requirements (K4), determined by the technical specifications and the project, are supplied from the functional block (M). Then, according to the technological documentation established by the project, the product is manufactured in the functional block (P).
The manufactured product undergoes technical control (K3) for compliance with technical specifications that meet the consumer’s requirements, and then goes into operation to the consumer (E). During operation, the consumer carries out a qualitative assessment of the product. If the product for some reason does not meet the requirements of the specifications, the consumer submits a complaint to the manufacturer (A3). And if the characteristics that meet the requirements of the specifications cease to satisfy the consumer for some other reason, then he puts forward new requirements (To), which are taken into account when drawing up a new technical specification.
The complaint (A3) submitted to the manufacturer is subject to analysis (vvA) to determine the causes of poor quality manufacturing. The analysis of the reasons is carried out on the basis of a simultaneously carried out analysis of the reasons for the formation of defects in production, technological losses and failures that occur during the production process and during acceptance tests (A1, A2).
The results of the analysis and proposals for eliminating deficiencies in the project or in the production process itself are sent to the control unit (vA). The management team reviews proposals at a joint meeting of developers and manufacturers (RP), where the results of the analysis are discussed from the point of view of the project's compliance with the production capabilities of its implementation. After that, an action plan is formed to eliminate the causes of the complaint and then the work of both (R) and (P) is restructured in accordance with the established action plan.
Endowing the block (vvA) with the functional features of science allows, in comparison with other functional blocks, to highlight the special aspects of science, expressed (primarily) in its analytical and explanatory functions.
In the considered variants of schemes corresponding to the structural and functional features of human activity in the structure of the social organism, the most significant and difficult point is not the interpretation of certain schemes in terms of “everyday” representation, but the disclosure of structural features and the “mechanism” of action, interaction and mutual transition of functional blocks filled with a certain material content, taking into account the characteristics of the subject-object relationship. These features (essence) of the subject-object relationship are usually characterized by a certain system of concepts that reflects the spatio-temporal (historical) development of the accumulated experience of human activity in a generalized form (at the general level) in the corresponding field of activity. For example:
- in the field of analysis (science, research);
- in the field of creativity (synthesis, design, construction, planning);
- in the field of production (equipment, technology, product manufacturing);
- in the sphere of consumption (economics, distribution, life support);
- in the field of computer science (communication, data processing);
- in the field of education (training, upbringing, transfer of experience);
- in the field of regulation and standardization (metrology),
- in the field of management (policy, organization, automation);
- in the field of cultural development of the individual and society as a whole (culture, socio-cultural restructuring).
Notes
Ovseytsev A.A. Structural-Functional Construct (SFC) // “Academy of Trinitarianism”, M., El No. 77-6567, pub. 10635, 08.18.2003
He free for real, if free not only from, but also For something.
The goal of socialism, according to Marx, is the liberation of man, and liberation, emancipation corresponds to the self-realization of man within the process of production relations and the unity of man with nature. The goal of socialism for him is the development of each individual as a personality.
About a system like Soviet communism, Marx expressed his judgment in the words “crude communism.” This “crude communism” manifests itself in two images: firstly, the dominance of material property here obscures the view so much that people are ready to destroy everything that is not subject to socialization. They. want to forcefully discard such factors that do not fit into the concepts of real property (for example, talent etc.). Physical, direct possession is the goal of existence for them; the concept of “worker” is not abolished, but is extended to everyone; relations of private property are replaced by relations of public property, which extends to the whole world, right up to the socialization of women...
The kind of communism that denies everything personality, human individuality, is the result of the consistent holding of social property.
“Crude communism” is the implementation of ordinary human envy, which is the other side of the coin called habsucht (greed, hoarding), which does not allow the other to be richer, and therefore calls for equalization.
An extreme form of such egalitarianism can be achieved by moving from culture and civilization back to the community, where everyone works and everyone is equal.
Marx's concept of human self-realization can only be understood in connection with his concept of "labor." For Marx, labor and capital were not only economic categories. They were there for him. largely anthropological and determined by his humanistic values.
The accumulation of capital represents the past; labor, on the other hand (subject to its liberation, i.e. free labor), is an expression of the present and the future.
Marx wrote that in a bourgeois society the past dominates the present, in a communist society the present dominates the past. In bourgeois society, capital has personal freedom and independence, while the active individual in himself is neither a person nor free.
Here Marx follows the idea of Hegel, who understood labor as “a process of self-creation, self-realization.” For Marx, labor is an activity, not a commodity. At first he called work the word “activity” (Tatigkeit) rather than the word labor (Arbeit) and spoke of the abolition (Aufhebung der Arbeit) of labor as the goal of socialism. Later, when he began to draw the line between free and alienated labor, he began to use the concept of “emancipation of labor” (Befreiung der Arbeit).
ON THE ISSUE OF STUDYING THE CONCEPT OF “LABOR”
Khoroshkevich Natalya Gennadievna
Ural Federal University
Associate Professor of the Department of Sociology and Social Technologies of Management, Candidate of Sociological Sciences
annotation
The article examines the interpretation of the concept of “labor”. The analysis of interpretations was carried out mainly on the basis of dictionary sources, because they usually present this concept. To study the concept, explanatory and dictionaries of various disciplines (both humanities and non-humanities) were used, where definitions of this concept are presented.
Most definitions of labor are presented in explanatory, philosophical, economic and sociological dictionaries. The article notes the features of the definition of the phenomenon being studied in each of the disciplines within which the definitions of labor are given.
During the study, the characteristics of labor given in the literature used for analysis were identified, namely: labor is one of the main types of activity, the basis for the emergence and existence of society; depends on the level of development of social relations; depends on the level of technical development of society; expedient activity; carried out for the purpose of creating objects; labor is the process of creating material and spiritual values; objects are created to satisfy needs; objects are created using tools; human development occurs; it is the process of interacting with objects.
The article highlights two approaches used in interpreting the phenomenon under study. In the first group of definitions of labor, its historical aspect is not noted, in the second, it is shown how labor develops throughout social development. The author proposes two interpretations of the concept of labor in accordance with both approaches.
ON THE NOTICE OF "LABOUR"
Khoroshevich Natalia Gennadievna
Ural Federal University
Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Techniques of Control, Candidate of Sociological Sciences
Abstract
The paper studies representations of the notion of “labor.” The interpretations are analyzed based primarily on dictionary sources as such sources usually contain this notion. Explanatory dictionaries and dictionaries of various branches (of both liberal arts and sciences), which provide definitions of this concept, are used.
Labor is mostly defined in explanatory, philosophical, economic and sociological dictionaries. The paper describes specifics of the subject’s definitions in each of the branches where the definition of “labor” is given.
During the research, characteristics of labor are marked out as specified in the literature used for the analysis, specifically: labor is one of the main activities, the basis of origin and existence of the society; depends on the state of social-relations development; depends on the state of the society’s technical development; reasonable activity performed with the purpose of creating objects; labor is the process of creating material and spiritual values; objects are created in order to satisfy needs; objects are created using tools; a person develops; this is a process of interaction with objects.
The paper describes two approaches used for interpretation of the subject at hand. The first group of “labor” definitions does not take into account its historical aspect, whereas the second one demonstrates the evolution of labor during the society’s development. The author proposes two treatments of the notion of “labor” in accordance with both approaches.
Labor is one of the main types of human activity. Currently, representatives of various sciences are studying it. Despite the fact that this phenomenon is studied from the perspective of different disciplines, its study remains constantly relevant, because the labor process is constantly changing under the influence of events occurring in society.
Sociology, a science that studies interaction in society, also studies this phenomenon. Today in sociology there is a separate direction that studies labor - the sociology of labor. But, as noted above, changes constantly occur in the labor process, so it is necessary to replenish and update knowledge (even already studied aspects of a given industrial sociology) in this industrial sociology.
This article presents an analysis of the concept of “labor”, carried out mainly on dictionary literature. Here we consider modern interpretations of labor, proposed in explanatory dictionaries, dictionaries in various disciplines, including dictionaries on sociology. And, although this is dictionary literature (an extensive study of the phenomenon under study is not intended here), nevertheless, these definitions were developed by well-known specialists in these sciences.
All definitions of the concept “labor” given in the dictionary literature can be divided into two groups. These are definitions presented in explanatory dictionaries, where this concept is given in the most general interpretations, and interpretations of this phenomenon - in dictionaries for a particular discipline, where work is considered from the point of view of a particular science, in the plane in which it deals research of this phenomenon.
Definitions of labor are usually present in all dictionaries of the first group. The earliest of them are presented in V.I. Dahl’s explanatory dictionaries. Here labor is understood as “work, occupation, exercise; everything that requires effort, diligence and care; any tension of bodily and mental strength; everything that tires." Only in V.I. Dahl’s dictionaries, along with other interpretations, work is also considered as something that tires.
In later dictionaries, if such an understanding of this phenomenon is given, it is always emphasized that this is an outdated interpretation. But this interpretation is given quite rarely in Soviet and post-Soviet dictionaries.
In the 1947 edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, labor is understood as “... a process taking place between man and nature, in which man, through his activity, mediates, regulates and controls the exchange of substances between himself and nature.” In the same encyclopedia, but published in 1956, labor is considered as “a purposeful human activity, during which, with the help of tools of labor, he influences nature and uses it to create consumer values necessary to satisfy his needs.” The last of these definitions emphasizes that work is performed in order to satisfy needs.
The largest number of interpretations of labor are presented in dictionaries of the Soviet period, where the interpretations of labor are the same as in the post-Soviet period, but one of the outdated interpretations of labor is also used - difficulties, hardships. In the Dictionary of the Modern Russian Literary Language, 1963. here labor is considered as 1. “The process of human influence on nature, human activity aimed at creating material and cultural values..; 2. Work that requires physical or mental energy...; 3. Effort, diligence aimed at achieving something; 4. The result of activity, work; work; 5. Outdated Difficulties, hardships; 6. Academic subject.
In modern dictionaries (post-Soviet period) there are from three to five interpretations of the concept of labor. In the interpretations of this period, there is no emphasis on the fact that labor is an interaction between man and nature. This is quite justified, because labor can be carried out both in relation to the “second nature” and in relation to man and man. In one of the interpretations of labor, this phenomenon is considered as a purposeful human activity. However, here they stop noting that this activity is aimed at satisfying needs, which is an important fact. In the Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language Ozhegova S.I., Shvedova N.Yu. five interpretations of the concept of “labor” are given. Labor is 1. “Practical and socially useful human activity, requiring mental and physical stress; 2. Occupation, work; 3. Effort aimed at achieving something; 4. The result of activity, work, work; 5. Instilling skills in some professional activity as a subject of school teaching.” The same interpretations of the concept of “labor” are given in a number of other explanatory dictionaries. In dictionaries, where fewer interpretations of labor are given, the first three or four interpretations are most often given, as in the definition presented above.
So, work is characterized as: a) activity, b) it has a goal, c) it is aimed at creating material and spiritual values, d) values serve to satisfy needs, e) it involves a result, f) it requires effort.
If we consider the interpretation of labor within the framework of scientific disciplines, they can also be divided into two groups. These are interpretations of labor from the perspective of non-humanities and humanities.
If we consider the concept of “labor” within the framework of non-humanitarian sciences, it can be noted that in the natural sciences it is considered quite widely. Starting from the definition of work as “the process of overcoming resistance along a certain path”, and ending with the consideration in its definitions of the constitution of the body and the workplace. In the natural sciences, labor is understood not only as human activity, but also as the activity of animals and natural forces. Changes in nature are noted here, but without taking into account the meaning of this change, without taking into account the specifics of labor.
Physiology emphasizes the physiological stress in the labor process, that this process requires energy when performing various physiological functions. Labor is a necessary human need. If an individual's organs do not function for a long time, they atrophy.
Quite often you can find definitions of the concept “labor” in economic dictionaries. Definitions of types of labor can also be given here.
In economics, labor is viewed from the point of view of obtaining benefits, an element of the production process. Very often, work is understood as “the purposeful activity of people to create material and spiritual goods necessary to meet the needs of an individual, enterprise, people or society as a whole.” Sometimes work is not only characterized as a purposeful activity, but it is also given other characteristics. For example, according to the Modern Economic Dictionary, labor is “a conscious, energy-intensive, generally recognized as expedient activity of a person, people, requiring the application of effort, the implementation of work; one of the four main factors of production."
Thus, labor is a) one of the main factors of production, b) an activity aimed at producing material goods, c) carried out in order to satisfy needs, d) energy-consuming, e) conscious, f) requiring effort.
From the point of view of the humanities, work is always meaningful. In philosophy, work is always a purposeful activity, where there is an active subject striving to achieve a goal. For example, labor is “the purposeful activity of people, which has as its content the transformation, mastery of natural and social forces to satisfy the historically established needs of man and society; it is “...first of all, a process taking place between man and nature, a process in which man, through his own activity, mediates, regulates and controls the exchange of substances between himself and nature. He himself opposes the substance of nature as a force of nature. In order to appropriate the substance of nature in a form suitable for his own life, he sets in motion the natural forces belonging to his body: arms and legs, head and fingers. By influencing and changing external nature through this movement, he at the same time changes his own nature. He develops the forces dormant in her and subordinates the play of these forces to his own power.” This is the most complete interpretation of labor in philosophical dictionaries. Most often, only the definition of labor is given there.
Some philosophical dictionaries define labor in several senses. Thus, in the New Philosophical Encyclopedia, work is “a purposeful human activity, considered 1) from the point of view of the exchange of man with nature - in this case, in work, a person, with the help of tools, influences nature and uses it to create objects necessary to satisfy his needs ; 2) from the angle of its socio-historical form. In this case, it appears in social utopias as a transitory form of activity.” Or, labor is “the process of people creating conditions and means of subsistence; embodiment of human strength, skill and knowledge; transformation and adaptation of natural material to human needs. Labor is a way of reproduction and accumulation of human experience; in a narrower sense - a way of multiplying benefits, wealth, capital. In a philosophical sense, labor “is characterized as an aspect of activity in which human forces and abilities are objectified, taking on the form of appearance, materiality, objectivity, independent of the individual who created it, at the same time suitable for its appropriation by other people, for moving it in the space and time of society” .
Quite rarely, but you can find other definitions where work is considered most of all from some angle. Thus, work can also be understood as “an ethical phenomenon is the same as participation, expenditure, application: the individual finds application for himself, expends strength, gives his energy.” Here we take a more detailed look at what happens to an individual during the labor process. In this definition, labor is considered where the starting point is the individual. In other definitions, the starting point is reality, which includes the individual, nature, and other objects.
If we analyze the philosophical interpretations of the concept of “work”, then this phenomenon can be characterized as: a) purposeful activity, b) impact on nature, c) activity aimed at satisfying needs, d) activity requiring tension, e) human experience, f) objectification of human forces in the labor process.
In other dictionaries of the humanities (except sociology), definitions of labor are quite rare. However, they most often present fairly similar interpretations in comparison with those discussed above, although they are also supplemented by differences due to the angle of consideration of certain processes inherent only to these disciplines.
Also, in some dictionaries, such components of labor are distinguished as a) purposeful activity, b) motives for this activity, c) objects, d) tools, e) results of labor. Sometimes in the definition of labor, in addition to the above interpretation, you can find other interpretations of the concept. For example, labor is 1) purposeful human activity aimed at creating, using the means of labor, material and spiritual values necessary for people’s lives; 2) work, occupation; 3) effort aimed at achieving something; 4) the result of a person’s activity or work.”
In social studies dictionaries you can find similar definitions, where work is considered as a purposeful activity of people aimed at creating material and spiritual values. But there are other definitions. For example, labor is “a purposeful human activity. According to the evolutionary point of view, cosmic evolution led to the emergence of terrestrial life, the biosphere as a whole; the evolution of the latter ultimately “created man; in the course of social (and cultural) evolution, the development of man and society took place from primitive times to our scientific and technological age.”
Quite rarely, but definitions of labor can be found in dictionaries of other sciences. For example, in the Dictionary of Social Pedagogy, labor is understood as “the purposeful activity of people aimed at creating consumer values; one of the main types of human activity, along with play, cognition, and communication.” Or, work can be considered as “a human activity that meets the requirements of the following principles: awareness (means that a person, before starting the labor process, is aware of the result of the upcoming work); expediency (a person thinks through an algorithm of actions before proceeding with the implementation of his intentions."
Thus, examining the concept of “labor,” we can identify the following characteristics of labor: a) purposeful activity, b) aimed at creating material and spiritual values, c) these values are necessary for the process of life, d) one of the main types of human activity, e) this activity, f) effort, g) work is always conscious, h) presupposes a goal and result.
From the standpoint of sociology, work is studied as a social phenomenon, the interaction between people in the labor process, and a person’s attitude to work are studied.
Typically, in sociological dictionaries, the definition of labor is considered as “expedient, meaningful activity, during which a person, with the help of tools of labor, masters, changes, adapts natural objects to his goals.” In dictionaries on the sociology of labor, labor is interpreted as “the purposeful activity of a person, during which he, with the help of tools of labor, influences nature and uses it to create objects necessary to satisfy his needs.” They also note that labor “represents the unity of three moments: 1. Purposeful, purposeful human activity or labor itself; 2. Objects of labor; 3. means of labor."
Labor is characterized quite fully in the work of D. Markovich “Sociology of Labor”. Labor is “a conscious, universal and organized human activity, the content and nature of which are determined by the degree of development of the means of labor and the characteristics of social relations within the framework of which it is carried out; a person asserts himself in it as a genetic being, creating material and spiritual values that serve to satisfy his essential needs.” needs". This is a very broad definition. The development of labor throughout the existence of society is noted here. It can be noted that definitions can be divided into two groups: these are more “capacious”, but more universal, where the historical aspect of the development of the phenomenon is not considered; and more “expanded” definitions, which talk about changes in the phenomenon during the development of society. The above definition belongs to the second group of definitions.
In some of the above definitions (not only sociological), work is considered as a process of interaction between man and nature. But it should be noted that work can also be performed in relation to another person. Today, the service sector is also developed, where labor activity is also expected, but not related to the transformation of natural resources, but related to the provision of services. For example, the provision of medical services to a patient is a service sector. Here, an object of labor is not created from natural resources. However, the health worker also works in relation to the patient. In this case, the subject of labor can be not only what something can be made from, but also some qualities, characteristics, etc. man, and the object of labor is man.
It should also be noted that in the process of work a person develops, new conditions appear that determine new needs.
So, in sociology, work is characterized as:
This is one of the main types of activity, the basis for the emergence and existence of society;
Depends on the level of development of social relations;
Depends on the level of technical development of society;
Expedient activity;
Carried out for the purpose of creating objects;
Labor is the process of creating material and spiritual values;
Items are created to satisfy needs;
Objects are created using tools;
Human development occurs;
This is the process of interacting with objects.
Studying the definitions of labor, we can distinguish two approaches to its interpretation. For example, work – This is one of the main types of human activity, conscious, purposeful, requiring effort and involving the creation of material or spiritual values with the help of tools in the process of interaction with other objects.
Or - from the standpoint of the second approach: work – this is one of the main types of human activity, conscious, determined by existing social relations and the level of technical development of society, during which the development of the person himself occurs, requiring effort, and involving the creation of material or spiritual values with the help of tools in the process of interaction with other objects, aimed at meeting people's needs.
In the first case, the influence of social relations on this type of activity is not noted and the fact that these actions are carried out in order to satisfy needs is not emphasized. The second version of the interpretation of labor is more complete. The above-mentioned features of this type of activity that are absent in the first version of the definition are noted here. These are not unimportant characteristics, although it is well known that human activity, directly or indirectly, is always carried out in order to satisfy his needs and is determined by objective factors. And it would be more appropriate to note these features of the phenomenon under study.
3.1. Economic relations in social production
The fundamentals of the market mechanism of a socially oriented economy include the conditions and mode of existence of social production. At the same time, the structure and parts of social production represent the conditions, and the method of their interrelation, as a set of economic relations, is an objective part of the content of the market mechanism. Therefore, it is necessary to begin the study by determining the content of social production.
The market economy represents a form of manifestation of social production. The latter consists of two concepts “social” and “production”, which together reflect the process of interaction between people regarding the production, exchange, distribution, consumption of products and goods. The interaction of people presupposes their relationship to each other. The relationship involves the opposition of parties, subjects in the implementation of a common goal. Therefore, social production “...contains some unity and some separateness,” as G. Hegel wrote, “and thereby a contradiction.”
In social production there are contradictions between subjects, where relations are represented as content, and the production process is a means of realizing relations, because relationships contain the interests of the subjects, as well as a common goal.
Production is the activity of subjects aimed at creating or transforming material or intangible goods into a product or commodity. A product is created on the basis of labor, which manifests itself in the form of production. “Labor,” noted K. Marx, “is, first of all, a process that takes place between man and nature, a process in which man, through his own activity, mediates, regulates and controls the exchange of substances between himself and nature.” Labor seems to be a general concept in relation to production, i.e. the first expresses purposeful activity in general, while the latter - to create a product, a commodity.
The structure of social production includes components: subjects, economic relations; objects, means of production - means of labor, objects of labor; productive forces, consumer forces, aggregate supply, aggregate demand, material production, intangible and spiritual production. Subjects include employees, entrepreneurs, owners, firms, corporations, as well as sub-sectors, branches, divisions of social production, if they represent a relatively separate entity in social reproduction.
The content of the subjects expresses socio-economic relations, because the individual as a person represents the totality of social relations. The content of personality is derived from G. Hegel’s statement: “... the endless relation of me to me, as a person, is a repulsion of me from me and in the existence of other persons, in my relation to them, and in the fact of recognition of me by them, which is mutual, I have existence my personality." Also, firms and corporations comprise relationships between people in the organization of joint activities. These relations develop at the micro level, and the relations expressing the content of the industry, sub-sector and division of social production function at the meso level.
The objects of social production include the means of production, which consist of means of labor and objects of labor. “If we consider the entire process from the point of view of its result - the product,” as K. Marx writes, “then the means of labor and the object of labor both act as means of production...” Further, you can find in K. Marx’s definition of the means of labor. He notes that “a means of labor is a thing or a complex of things that a person places between himself and the object of labor and which serves for him as a conductor of his influence on this object. He uses the mechanical, physical, and chemical properties of things in order to use them, in accordance with his purpose, as instruments of influence on other things.” K. Marx takes this idea from G. Hegel, who states that “reason is as cunning as it is powerful. The trick generally lies in mediating activity, which, by determining the mutual influence and mutual processing of objects according to their nature, without direct intervention in this process, achieves its goal.”
Objects of social production are “dead” and have no value without people and economic relations. The means of production create the conditions for the development of subjects, economic relations and the mechanism of their interrelation. “...In a broader sense, the means of the labor process include all the material conditions necessary in general for the process to be carried out.”
Modernization of the means of production determines the development of economic relations, which, in turn, requires the improvement of the content of subjects. The level of development of means of production is one of the important indicators of human development. “Economic eras differ not in what is produced,” as K. Marx emphasized, “but in how it is produced, by what means of labor. The means of labor are not only a measure of the development of human labor power, but also an indicator of the social relations in which labor is performed.” Economic relations are objectified in the means of labor, and more fully in the means of production, therefore the level of development of the latter can be characterized as an indicator of relations in social production.
Subjects, through socio-economic relations, interact with objects - means of production. These organically interconnected components of social production represent the already integrated categories of “productive forces” and “consumer forces”.
Productive and consumer forces arose in conditions of expansion of the number of subjects and the functioning of relations between them. At the dawn of human development, consumer forces dominated, but with the development of means of production in civilized countries today, the relationship between productive forces and consumer forces has changed significantly in favor of the former.
The term “consumptive forces” seems to be the opposite of “productive forces”. They are dialectically interconnected and appear to be opposites of the unity of social production. “Production”, as a moment of social production, does not exist without another moment of “consumption”, hence it is impossible to consider productive forces without the existence and recognition of consumer forces, which have a single structure, but perform different functions in social production.
Measuring the relationship between productive forces and consumer forces can be done on the basis of determining and comparing total satisfied demand and total unsatisfied demand or total supply and total demand. A change in the ratio of productive forces and consumer forces in the direction of preponderance of one over the other above the maximum values has always led to economic crises in the national economy. Therefore, establishing correspondence between productive forces and consumer forces should be one of the important tasks in the development of social production.
The content of productive forces and consumer forces can be divided into components: active and passive. The active part includes subjects and economic relations, and the passive part includes means of production. The interaction of the active and passive parts leads to the functioning and existence of the economic phenomena “productive forces” and “consumer forces”.
In the economic literature since the Soviet era, there has remained a clearly established position that productive forces and economic relations are opposites in both content and forms of manifestation. The content includes productive forces, and the forms of manifestation include economic relations. For example, A.D. Smirnov wrote that “...relations of production are a form of development of productive forces...”. The source of such a judgment is the statement of K. Marx: “In the social production of their lives, people enter into certain, necessary, relations independent of their will - relations of production that correspond to a certain stage of development of their materially productive forces.” Further, this idea was generalized by I.V. Stalin to the level of the law of correspondence of production relations to the nature of the productive forces. Hence the following conclusion is drawn that “there is always a contradiction between the productive forces and the relations of production.” Currently, the above provisions have the power to influence the minds of economic theorists. For example, U. Aliyev writes: “We must first note that this conclusion about the dialectical relationship between productive forces and production relations, which dates back to the classics of Marxism, is in principle correct...”.
It should be noted here that, for a number of reasons, the judgments of the above authors regarding the designation of the opposite categories “productive forces” and “relations of production” as content and form are not entirely correct.
Firstly, productive forces are opposed by consumer forces, as pairs, at the same-order category level, and not by production relations.
Secondly, economic (production) relations are components of the productive forces, which include both the means of production and subjects. If K. Marx meant by materially productive forces of people and means of production, then here we can unequivocally say that the generalized category “productive forces” cannot exist without the third component - economic relations, because the latter unite subjects (people) and means of production into a single integrity of a new generalized order - productive forces and consumer forces, as a unity of opposition.
Thirdly, economic relations, appearing to be an integral part of the content of productive forces, cannot serve as their form of manifestation, since the form of manifestation of productive forces is the total supply of goods, i.e. An integrated, generalized category of a higher abstract order must correspond to an aggregated form of its manifestation - “total social product”, “total supply of goods”.
Fourth, “economic relations” are opposed to “subjects” and “means of production,” but not to productive forces. Since the above categories exist in a single, one-order level of interaction, as the opposite of active and passive parts, and material (subjects, means of production) and intangible (economic relations) parts of integrity.
Consequently, here we need to talk about the task of bringing the level of economic relations into line with the level of development of subjects and means of production, as well as the level of development of subjects and economic relations with the level of means of production, and vice versa; but there is no need to pose the incorrect problem of bringing economic (production) relations in line with the level (nature) of development of the productive forces.
The level of development of productive forces must be compared and commensurate with the paired one-order category “consumption force”. At the same time, it is impossible to determine the level of development of paired categories separately. Only a comparison of productive forces and consumer forces makes it possible to determine their level of development. Such a comparison can be made through aggregated indicators and their ratios. Comparisons of total satisfied demand to total unsatisfied demand or total supply of goods to total demand for goods express the levels of development of both productive forces and consumer forces.
Determining the levels of development of productive forces and consumer forces is not an empty abstraction, but is of direct practical value in identifying the state of the national economy. By the ratio of the levels of development of productive forces and consumer forces, one can also judge the degree of correspondence of the level of development of productive forces to the scale of social production, where the equilibrium ratio of productive forces and consumer forces indicates the correspondence of the level of development of productive forces to the scale of social production; those. this suggests that society controls the economy, and not spontaneous forces dominate the economy and society.
The interaction of productive forces and consumer forces manifests itself in aggregate forms and predetermines their development: the relationship between aggregate supply and aggregate demand or aggregate satisfied demand and aggregate unsatisfied demand. The ratio of aggregate supply and aggregate demand expresses the state of social production. The latter includes generalized economic categories of a higher order: “material production”, “immaterial and spiritual production”.
Thus, from all the previous proposals it is possible to create a general model of social production and identify the place, role and significance of economic relations in the structure of social production. For clarity, let's look at Figure 2.
Figure 2 shows that the structure of social production includes conditionally 7 sectors. The main sectors are numbered 1, 2, 3, their interaction determines the existence and functioning of subsequent sectors 5, 6, 7. These sectors represent generalized higher order economic categories, including all previous ones in order as constituent parts.
Economic relations are presented in sector 2 between subjects and objects. Subjects without economic relations are not able to influence the means of production, since only economic relations are capable of uniting subjects (people) in the functioning of the means of production on the scale of social production. Economic relations permeate and are present in all subsequent sectors, as one of the components of the main parts in their structures.
Subjects, economic relations and objects constitute productive forces and consumer forces that reproduce the total supply of goods and the total demand for goods within the framework of material production and immaterial, spiritual production, where the latter in unity represent social production. It should be noted here that with the increasing level of development of social economics, spiritual production in its integrity plays an increasingly important role. So, for example, in highly developed countries the share of intellectual labor, that is, the product of spiritual production, in the gross domestic product is about 60 percent, while in most CIS countries, including Kazakhstan, it is up to one percent.
Rice. 2. Model of the structure of social production
Through economic relations, interconnection, mutual influence and interaction between sectors are carried out. Thus, changes in the content of objects can affect the positive and negative course of development of economic relations and entities, and vice versa.
Figure 2 shows that the core of the integrity of the existence of social production is the first three sectors, where the following elements are located: subjects, economic relations and objects - means of production. At the same time, social production determines their development. Social production as a certain integrity influences its elements and parts (sectors 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) through economic relations.
Economic relations are the main means that covers all parts (sectors) and creates integrity as social production. Therefore, economic relations are a means or mechanism for the existence of one or another type of social production and its study must be carried out in the study of the structure of economic relations. This is a separate next question that goes beyond the scope of our study on this material.
Social production represents the generic production of humanity, since it consists of material production, immaterial and spiritual production.
Man consists of spirit and matter. Without spirit there is no man; spirit will not be manifested without matter in the earthly environment. The absolute spirit unfolds, expands and “returns to the depths of itself,” forming for itself a similar multitude of parts of the essence. They are conditioned to exist in interconnection and relationship. Thus, relationships and interconnections are predetermined by the Absolute Spirit and relate, first of all, to the nature of the spirit. Therefore, G. Hegel wrote about this that “... negation, contradiction, division - all this belongs... to the nature of the spirit.”
The spirit belongs to the subtle world, if we say conventionally, from which the material world essentially arises. The dialectics of knowledge of G. Hegel is built on the study of the laws of development of the spirit, the subtle world, through which the material world. K. Marx considered himself a student of G. Hegel: “I ... openly declared myself a student of this great thinker and in the chapter on the theory of value in places I even flirted with Hegel’s characteristic manner of expression. The mystification that dialectics underwent in the hands of Hegel did not at all prevent the fact that it was Hegel who was the first to give a comprehensive and conscious image of its universal forms of movement. Hegel has dialectics on his head. We need to put her on her feet in order to reveal the rational grain under the mystical shell.”
In this case, in the last lines, K. Marx hastened to correct G. Hegel. It is in G. Hegel that dialectics flows from the subtle world, essence, moving on to material forms of manifestation. Consequently, K. Marx’s criticism of G. Hegel’s dialectics raises a big question and it is believed that he was too categorical.
Some deviation from the topic is necessary to identify an unconventional approach to gaining a deeper understanding of the ongoing processes and the essence of social production. The essence of man, defined as spirit, is the starting and ending points in the system of generic production of humanity (social production). However, to directly establish equality between man in the traditional, materialistic understanding and social production, as U. Aliyev so straightforwardly concludes, seems somewhat incorrect. This author writes that “...man is the same as social production, but only social production “folded into itself,” and social production, in turn, is the same as man, but only “unfolded” into in all its expressions and manifestations...”
Social production is a way of unfolding the Absolute spirit in the material world, the earthly environment. Therefore, the essence of man as a spirit is the starting and ending points in the system of generic production of humanity (social production). If we switch to the scientific language of G. Hegel, then social production represents a synthesis of the subtle (spirit) and material (body) world. Consequently, in the functioning of social production, not only the laws of the material world, but also the spiritual (subtle) world, the laws of morality, humanism, the principle of benefit for oneself and justice for all, etc. must be observed.
In the proposed general scheme of social production, U. Aliyev shows mainly the structure of economic relations, thereby leaving the main parts of the structure of social production in the shadows. In the general scheme of social production of the above author, productive forces, as an integral part, are found as the content of economic relations. In this case, productive forces, as a generalized economic category, are unable to function and exist, since in its structure there are no economic relations between people, subjects uniting them into an aggregated phenomenon, a concept expressing this integrity at a higher level.
The proposed scheme for the structuring of social production seems to be the main one, since objectively necessary components are identified that predetermine the functioning of the integrity. A derivative scheme is the structuring of social production into industries, divisions, and sectors that perform specific tasks of determining the proportional development of the component parts of the system.
Social production represents the generic production of humanity, since it consists of material production, immaterial and spiritual production. The study of social production showed that its essence is expressed in the generic production of humanity. This should aim at the formation and development of a socially oriented economy, through the creation of an adequate market mechanism. The development of the components of social production determines, and the totality of economic relations, as a way of existence of integrity, represents the objective basis of the content of the market mechanism.
The formation of a socially oriented economy is predetermined by the functioning of the market mechanism. It is aimed at creating conditions for proportional and balanced development of the components of the economic system, harmonizing the relationship between the goal and methods of achieving it, labor and capital, individual benefit and social justice, economic growth and improving the well-being of the country's population, in conditions of bringing the level of development of productive forces into line the expanding scale of social production.
So, economic relations are a unifying environment of subjects (people) and objects (means of production) in the functioning of productive and consumer forces. The results of the development of the latter express the total supply of goods and the total demand for goods that are formed in material production, intangible and spiritual production. Material production, intangible and spiritual production seem to be organically interconnected components of social production, predetermining the conditions for the formation of the foundations of a socially oriented market mechanism.
Concepts and terms
Market economy; social production; production; product; work; subjects; objects; socio-economic relations; means of production; means of labor; objects of labor; productive forces; consumption forces; aggregate supply; aggregate demand; material production; intangible production.
Issues covered
1. The essence and structure of social production.
2. Subjects and objects of social production.
3. The role of economic relations in the development of social production.
Questions for seminar classes
1. Labor in creating a product and goods.
2. Forms of the subject and features of their functioning.
3. Active and passive components of social production.
4. Economic relations in the existence of aggregated categories and phenomena.
Exercises
Answer the questions posed and determine the type of problem (scientific or educational), justify your point of view, identify a system of problems on the topic.
1. What contradictions operate in the structure of social production?
2. Why should the relationship between man and the generic production of humanity be considered as the unity and opposition of the individual and the universal?
3. On what basis are economic relations determined by the content of social production and other aggregated phenomena and categories?
Topics for essays
1. The role of K. Marx’s work “Capital” in revealing the content of social production.
2. Economic relations as a way of existence and development of social production.
3. Dialectics of consumer and productive forces in the national economy.
Literature
1. G. Hegel. Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences. T.3. Philosophy of spirit. - M., 1977.
2. K. Marx. Capital. T.1. Book 1. - M., 1983.
3. Hegel. Encyklopdie. Erster Theil. "Die Logic" - Berlin, 1840.
4. Political Economy/Ed. E.Ya. Bregel and A.D. Smirnova. - M., 1972.
5. K. Marx and F. Engels. Works, 2nd ed. T.13. - M., 1958.
6. I.V. Stalin. Economic problems of socialism in the USSR. - M., 1952.
7. U. Aliev. Basic methodological principles of subject specificity of theoretical economics as a science / Bulletin of the University “Turan” No. 3-4(4). pp.167-182. - Almaty, 1999.
8. U. Aliev Social production is the ultimate object of theoretical economics as a science / Bulletin of the University "Turan" No. 3-4(8). pp.167-179. - Almaty, 2000.
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PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WORK Work as a whole is not a psychological, but a social category. In its basic social laws it is a subject not of psychology, but of the social sciences. Therefore, the subject of psychological study is not work as a whole, but only the psychological components of work activity.
In his classic description of labor, K. Marx highlighted its most important psychological features: “Labor is, first of all, a process taking place between man and nature, a process in which man, through his own activity, mediates, regulates and controls the exchange of substances between himself and nature. he himself opposes as a force of nature. In order to appropriate the substance of nature in a certain form suitable for his own life, he sets in motion the natural forces belonging to his body: arms and legs, head and fingers. Through this movement, influencing external nature and changing it , he at the same time changes his own nature. He develops the forces dormant in the last and subordinates the play of these forces to his own power. We will not consider here the first animal-like instinctive forms of labor... We assume labor in the form in which it constitutes the exclusive property of man.The spider performs operations reminiscent of the operations of a weaver, and the bee, with the construction of its wax cells, puts some human architects to shame. But even the worst architect differs from the best bee from the very beginning in that, before building a cell of wax, he has already built it in his head. At the end of the labor process, a result is obtained that was already in the human mind at the beginning of this process, i.e. ideal. Man not only changes the form of what is given by nature, he at the same time realizes his conscious goal, which, like a law, determines the method and nature of his actions and to which he must subordinate his will." Marx thus characterizes labor as a conscious, purposeful activity, the result of which is contained in the imagination of the worker and is regulated by the will in accordance with the goal.
Directed in its main focus on production, on the creation of a certain product, labor is at the same time the main way of personality formation. In the labor process, not only is this or that product of the subject’s labor activity produced, but the subject itself is formed in labor. In work activity, a person’s abilities develop, his character is formed, his worldview principles are strengthened and transformed into practical, effective attitudes. The uniqueness of the psychological side of labor activity is primarily due to the fact that, in its objective social essence, labor is an activity aimed at creating a socially useful product. Labor is always the completion of a specific task; the entire course of activity must be subordinated to achieving the intended result; work therefore requires planning and control of execution; it therefore always involves certain obligations and requires internal discipline. The entire psychological attitude of a worker is fundamentally different from that of a person playing. The fact that in work activity all links are subordinated to its final result already gives a specific character to the motivation of work activity: the purpose of the activity lies not in itself, but in its product. Due to the social division of labor, the situation becomes more and more specific. Since no one person produces all the objects needed to satisfy his needs, the motive of his activity becomes the product not of his activity, but of the activity of other people, the product of social activity. Therefore, in work there develops the characteristic human ability for long-range action, indirect, distant motivation, in contrast to the short-circuit short-circuit motivation that is characteristic of the animal, for reactive, impulsive action, conditioned by the momentary situation.
Labor activity is carried out primarily not because of the attractiveness of the activity process itself, but for the sake of its more or less distant result, which serves to satisfy human needs. The labor process itself can be, and usually is, to one degree or another, in one part or another, more or less difficult, requiring tension, effort, and overcoming not only external, but also internal obstacles. Therefore, labor has developed and labor requires the will and voluntary attention necessary to focus on the directly unattractive parts of the labor process. Whether labor, due to the fact that it is recognized as a duty, will require tension, effort, overcoming obstacles, will be experienced as a yoke, as a burden, as a curse of a person, depends on the social content that labor acquires, i.e., on objective social conditions. These objective social conditions are always reflected in the motivation of work activity, because work always involves not only a person’s relationship to a thing, to an object - the product of labor, but also to other people.
In work, therefore, not only the technique of work is important, but also the person’s attitude towards work. It is this that usually contains the main motives for a person’s work activity.
Normally, work is the most urgent need of a person. To work means to express oneself in activity, to translate one’s idea into action, embodying it in materialized products; to work means, objectifying in the products of one’s labor, to enrich and expand one’s own being, to be a creator, a creator - the greatest happiness that is generally available to a person. Labor is the basic law of human development.<. . . >For the psychological analysis of work activity, in addition to motivation, the psychological nature of those processes or operations through which it is carried out is essential. In any work, including physical work, mental processes are also involved, just as in every work, including mental work, certain movements are also involved (at least those movements of the writing hand that are necessary for writing this book). In work, as a person’s real activity, all aspects of his personality participate to one degree or another. But the differences in objective nature and the organization of various types of labor lead to the fact that in psychological, and in particular intellectual, terms they turn out to be heterogeneous. Each type of work has its own, more or less complex, technique that must be mastered. Therefore, knowledge and skills always play a more or less significant role in work. Without knowledge and skills, no work is possible. Knowledge plays a particularly significant role in more complex types of labor; skills play a particularly significant role in the most mechanized industries and types of labor, where the main actions are partly standard, monotonous and can be easily automated. However, in every work one always has to take into account changing conditions, show a certain initiative and, when faced with certain unexpected circumstances, solve new problems. Therefore, all work includes, to one degree or another, intellectual, thought processes of a more or less high level. And finally, to some extent, the moment of invention and creativity is always represented in work.
*Human consciousness arose and developed during the social period of its existence, and the history of the formation of consciousness probably does not go beyond the framework of those several tens of thousands of years that we attribute to the history of human society. The main condition for the emergence and development of human consciousness is the joint productive instrumental activity of people mediated by speech. This is an activity that requires cooperation, communication and interaction between people. It involves the creation of a product that is recognized by all participants in joint activities as the goal of their cooperation.
The productive, creative nature of human activity is of particular importance for the development of human consciousness. Consciousness presupposes a person’s awareness not only of the external world, but also of himself, his sensations, images, ideas and feelings. The images, thoughts, ideas and feelings of people are materially embodied in the objects of their creative work and with the subsequent perception of these objects precisely as embodying the psychology of their creators they become conscious.
At the beginning of its development, human consciousness is directed towards the external world. A person realizes that he is outside of him, thanks to the fact that, with the help of the senses given to him by nature, he sees and perceives this world as separate from him and existing independently of him. Later, a reflexive ability appears, i.e., the awareness that a person himself can and should become an object of knowledge. This is the sequence of stages in the development of consciousness in phylo- and ontogenesis. This direction can be designated as reflexive.
The second direction is associated with the development of thinking and the gradual connection of thought with words. Human thinking, as it develops, penetrates more and more into the essence of things. In parallel with this, the language used to denote the knowledge being acquired is developing. The words of the language are filled with ever deeper meaning and, finally, when sciences develop, they turn into concepts. The word-concept is the unit of consciousness, and the direction in which it arises can be designated as conceptual.
Each new historical era is uniquely reflected in the consciousness of its contemporaries, and with changes in the historical conditions of people’s existence, their consciousness changes.
Joint activity of people and the emergence of consciousness.
Making, using and preserving tools - all these actions lead to greater independence of a person from the influence of the environment. From generation to generation, the tools of ancient people become more and more complex - from well-chosen fragments of stones with sharp edges to tools made collectively. Such tools are assigned constant operations: stabbing, cutting, chopping.
The tools created by people are the material carriers of the operations, actions and activities of previous generations. Through tools, one generation passes on its experience to another in the form of operations, actions, and activities.
In work activity, a person’s attention is directed to the tool being created and to his own activity. The activity of an individual person is included in the activity of the whole society, therefore human activity is aimed at satisfying social needs. Human activity becomes conscious activity.
In the early stages of social development, people's thinking is limited in accordance with the still low level of people's social practice.
The higher the level of weapon production, the higher the level of reflection. At a high level of tool production, the integral activity of tool making is divided into a number of units, each of which can be performed by different members of society. The separation of operations pushes the ultimate goal - getting food - even further. So, high but level the production of tools is the most important condition in the formation of conscious activity.
By influencing nature, changing it, man at the same time changes his own nature. For example, under the influence of labor, new functions of the hand were consolidated: the hand acquired the greatest dexterity of movement. However, the hand developed not only as a grasping tool, but also as an organ of cognition of objective reality.
