Society

Human community established on the basis of the practice of material production. The English word society originated from the Latin word socius, meaning friend, partner and companion. Japanese scholars use “community/society” to translate society, which is also generally accepted by Chinese scholars. Historically, there have been two understandings of society, nominalism and realism. Nominalism holds that society is an empty name without substance, and that it is only the individuals who really exist. Realism holds that society is a real substance, made up of various norms and systems, external to and forced upon the individuals. Nominalism attaches importance to individuals at the micro-level, while realism attaches importance to the social structure at the macro-level. Neither of them could comprehensively grasp the essence of society.

Marxism holds that society is “the product of man’s interaction upon man”. In order to produce, men enter into definite connections and relations to one another, and on the basis of the relations of production, various other relations are formed. Marx said: “The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation, on which arises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness.” The fundamental structure of society consists of three levels: productive forces, relations of production and superstructure. In the social production of their existence, men inevitably enter into definite relations, which are independent of their will, namely relations of production appropriate to a given stage in the development of their material forces of production. The totality of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, on which arises the superstructure, consisting of the political and legal system, institutions and ideology. Social development is a dialectical historical process that unites objective conformity to laws and people’s conscious activity. The history of society consists of the activities of people pursuing conscious ends, but social development has its objective laws. The contradiction between the productive forces and the relations of production, between the economic foundation and the superstructure, is the fundamental contradiction of society that pushes forward the development of human society. The contradictory movement of the productive forces and the relations of production is the fundamental driving force of social development, among which the development of productive forces is the ultimately determining force of social development. In class society, the fundamental contradiction of society manifests itself as class relations, i.e., class contradiction and class struggle, and class struggle is the immediate driving force of the development of class society. Different social formations are formed on the basis of different modes of production. Primitive society, slave society, feudal society, capitalist society and communist society (socialist society is its primary stage) are the five social formations in the evolution of human society. According to the degree of development of man, societies can also be divided into three social formations: society of personal dependence, society of material dependence and society of free and full development of man.