The connecting factor of social life in Western European philosophical and social thought

Abstract

In the article, on the basis of the thorough analysis of historical and philosophical mate­ri­al, the ques­tion of the connecting factor of po­litical com­mu­nities (both state and supra­na­tio­nal and in­ter­state structures) is considered. In Euro­pean philosophical reflection, the problem of the con­necting factor of political com­mu­ni­ties has a centuries-old tradition of searching for its theo­­retical formulation and practical applica­tion. The approaches to the above ques­tion pre­sen­ted and studied in this article demonstrate that everything that can be perceived as useful, desirable, ob­li­ga­tory, or important for the destinies of people, nations, and states has a unifying potential. It is underlined that the same factors can either unite people or separate them, causing conflicts. The peculiarities of the under­standing of the connecting factor are claimed to depend on the concept which underlies this understanding: anthropological (per­son), political (state), or social (society). The author of the article concludes that the con­necting factor can be either anthropological, or institutional and procedural, it can be constant and have an integration potential. The most im­portant for the European philosophical and social thought concepts of connecting factor are mentioned and considered in the article: the teachings of Protagoras, Socrates, Aristotel, Cicero, Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Jürgen Habermas.