On the subject of social philosophy: the experience of synthesis of phenomenological and system theories of society on the basis of the communicative theory of mind by J. Habermas

The article deals with the problem of the emergence of new meanings in mankind in the conditions of the global crisis. This refers to the aggravation of problems in the development of society asa whole due to the destructive influence on the life world of the social system, leading to the subordination of public life to the one-sided logic of economic efficiency. To solve this problem, the methodology of synthesis of phenomenological and system theory of society is developed. Society is understood as intersubjectivity, which has reached the self-awareness. Society is able to realize itself just through the search for collective meanings of social life. These meanings then become guidelines for collective activity on material and symbolic reproduction of society. Therefore, society is the unity of the system and the world of life, in which the system provides material reproduction of society, and the world of life – a symbolic reproduction. New meanings of social development are considered from the pointof view of the system theory (as guidelines of collective activity) and from the position of the phenomenological theory. Within the framework of the system theory, new guidelines for collective activity are necessary to overcome the crises of system integration, and within the framework of the phenomenological theory, new meanings allow to fill the fundamental value of freedom for modernity with concrete content. It follows that the phenomenological and systemic theory of society itself is not sufficient to define these new meanings, they can be developed only on the basis of the synthesis of these theories based on the consideration of social evolution on a global scale as the interaction of the system and the life world.