Barinov, D. N. Social Fear as the Phenomenon of Public Conscience

Abstract: The article is devoted to social fear as the phenomenon of public conscience. The purpose of the research is to define the place and role of social fear in the structure of public consciousness. The researcher reveals peculiarities of social fear as a spiritual phenomenon and a social and psychological state that may create grounds for the development of activity of a public conscience actor. The analysis performed by the researcher is based on a traditional theoretical model of public conscience typical for Russian social studies. This model allows to define all levels and forms as well as relations between social conscience and other phenomena of social life. The analysis is based on the social philosophical concept of the spiritual sphere of society and social conscience which created the conceptual model of studying social fears in the spiritual sphere of society. At the end of the article the author makes a conclusion that social fears reflect regular patterns of the balance of emotional and rational, theoretical and common aspects in social conscience as well as spiritual and other spheres of social life. Repertoire and hierarchy of social fears are defined by the hierarchy of forms of social conscience during this or that period of social development.

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