Distinctive features of the social organism: a socio-philosophical analysis

In the framework of social philosophy, the paper considers the use of biological external analogies in relation to society. The author departs from the abstract approach to society as a social organism in order to identify specific features of society as an organic whole in comparison with real life forms. An attempt is also made to concretize the analogy between society and a living being. The morphology, various manifestations of vital activity and forms of relations between social organisms are analyzed. As a result of the comparative analysis, it was found that society in the broadest sense in terms of morphology is similar to a developed animal-type organism. The presence of a special “social consciousness” leads to the idea that the social organism has a similarity with the human being. However, a more detailed examination reveals that the society is characterized by distinctive features that are either characteristic of other living beings or have no relation to living organisms at all. As a result, it is concluded that the social organism is better than biological in several features and in general and it presents the next stage of evolution of life on Earth.

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