Socialand economic: ontological differences and interactions

The article actualizes the problem of the correlation between social and economic being as two independent spheres of the social system. Noting the tendency of a certain “seizure” of social components by the information and communication space, the author sees the cause of the instability of the social in modern society in its erroneous inclusion in the general and unified algorithm of social reproduction of the subject environment and social relations that arose since the17th century, which does not allow us to single out its own specifics. The social in its basis is subjective, not substantive, it has its own space and time, and therefore its being tied to those accelerating rates of production, which are based on the growth of scientific knowledge, new technologies, on the continuous growth of the population, information, etc., is inadequate to its essence. The social cannot be a simple product of productive activity, since it constitutes an essential condition for the realization of production itself. The social reveals its own time and space, which have a subjective basis, its content is distinguished by cultural forms, symbolic systems that ontologically isolates the social sphere and ensures its links with other spheres of the social system. In the author’s opinion the main feature of the social is that in its content “primary” and immediate “manifestation” is the cultural-semantic, value-normative and sign-symbolic environment that form that special space in which directly general (within a given culture, society or epoch) reality - for people opens external - social and natural - and the inner reality. In this symbolic environment, people live, act, communicate, experience their interactions, achievements and failures, etc. The hypothesis on the cultural basis of social production, on the subjectivity of the social as a necessary form of integration of the general and individual in the real experience of people, is grounded, the features of communication and interaction of social and economic spheres of the social system are revealed.