The Substantial Foundations of the Polysemantic Concept of “Interest” in the Sociological Understanding

The study examines the concept of “interest” through the lens of the complexity of its content and multiplicity of meanings. The aim of the research is to describe the achievements of socio-psychological, socio-economic, and philosophical-sociological approaches regarding the essential foundations of this concept. The analysis provided on the practices of utilizing the polysemic concept of “interest” for elucidating the processes of social reality development has allowed for the identification of the content foundations of this notion and the determination of the contradictory positions in its application. Particular attention is paid to the socio-psychological approach, which delineates the interconnections between the category of “interest” and the concepts of “need”, “aspiration”, “desire”, “motive”, among others. In the context of the socio-economic approach, the study defines its correlation with terms such as “benefit”, “utility”, “rationality”, and others. Using the philosophical-sociological approach, the relationship between the category of “interest” and the concepts of “value”, “social relations”, “distribution relationships”, “power”, and “social institution” was analyzed.