Ontology of social life: main approaches to the problem of the city and village

The article analyses the main approaches to the problem of the city and the village within the ontology of social life. Emphasizing that the methods of analysis developed in the natural sciences are also applicable to social research, the authors have chosen to develop a system of empirical justifications for the development of territories and to make forecasts of social phenomena as their aim in studying society. It is noted that the village, unlike the city, is characterized by a slower pace of socio-economic development, which affects its social structure and lifestyle of the population. Critical analysis of the concepts of M. Weber, G. Simmel, as well as domestic philosophers allowed the authors to identify fundamental differences in the lifestyles of urban residents (the phenomenon of urbanization, rationalism) and rural citizens (reliance on tradition). Conclusions are that the phenomenon of urbanization is fundamentally disrupting centuries-old patterns of human behavior by replacing them with rational and modern ones, thus “tearing” the rural way of life out of its age-old value system.