Society: “human ant-hill” or socium?

The relevance of the topic of the article is determined by the connection with the anniversary of A.A. Zinoviev and the debatability of the discourse on the essence of the social beginning. The novelty of the work lies in the polemical opposition of reduction to the biological or cultural factor in the way society exists. The aim of the work is to substantiate the fundamental difference between the social system and natural systems, the opposite of their specific features. It is revealed that the likening of humanity to animal communities is mechanistic, and that community does not express the specificity of society. An attempt is made to substantiate the version according to which human society is fundamentally opposed to animal communities due to the creation of a new material reality -an artificial habitat. Diachronic analysis as a reference to the works of predecessors is used, as well as the dialectical method as a synthesis of different positions and determination of the limits of divergent versions; the study of the problem is carried out in the historical aspect.