Ontology is a philosophical science about the being of a particular individual and society as a whole.

From the very beginning, it should be noted that people who are not professional philosophers and are far from this science may not understand what an ontology is studying and what kind of science it is. It is so complex and confusing in it language. But in the philosophical sciences, to which one can include such discipline as ontology, it is not uncommon. In addition, each philosopher stubbornly insists on his understanding of the system, his findings, often ignoring the rest. We add that the philosophers themselves argue, is there any benefit from ontology. What is usually understood by ontology? The science of being, of existence, of the eternal, of abstract and most general principles of being, absolute, unchanging, etc. What does ontology study? If ontos in translation from Greek is real, then ontology is the science of existence? As it seems, everything is simple. But is it possible to determine the subject of science from its name?

In textbooks on philosophy, ontology is a division of philosophy, considering universal, from man independent, principles and bases of being. What could this mean? What is being? What can it have universal principles and foundations? How can they not depend on a person? It seems that the whole point is that without a detailed study of the subject of ontology, that is, without an answer to the question "What does ontology study?" Without examining those principles that distinguish it from other fields of knowledge, any definition of ontology Will be nothing more than a set of meaningless words, no more than expressing the personal opinion of its author. But in this short article we do not set such a task. Therefore, we confine ourselves to more or less formal points of view.

Ontology is a branch of philosophy that studies being. In the classical sense, ontology is knowledge about the ultimate common. One of the main questions of ontology is: what is there? The main concepts in this science are: being, movement, time, space, form of being (existential, ideal, material), properties, structure. , The ontology tries in the most general form to describe the universe of the existing one, not limited to the data of concrete sciences and, possibly, not reducible to them. The questions posed by ontology are a very ancient theme of philosophy that dates back to Parmenides and other doses Colorants. An important contribution to the development of the problems of ontology was made by Aristotle and Plato.

In the philosophy of the Middle Ages , the ontological problem was central, whether there exist abstract objects (universals). In the philosophy of the 20th century , the following philosophers dealt specifically with ontological problems: Nikolai Hartman, Martin Heidegger, etc. In modern philosophy, the problems of the ontology of consciousness are of particular interest. What does ontology study? The subject of this science is being, defined as the unity and completeness of all types of reality: objective, virtual, social, subjective, physical.Reality we are traditional We associate it with matter (the material world) and spirit (the spiritual world, including the concepts of souls, God) and subdivide (materialists) into living, inert and social matter (which entails formalism and a view of personality as an impersonal person in general). To being is that which one can think. Its opposite is an unthinkable nothing, and (in the philosophy of Aristotelianism) is still a non-being possibility. In the past century in existentialism and phenomenology, being was identified with man as the only being who has the ability to think and ask the question of being.

However, classical metaphysics understood God under being. People, like being, have the will and freedom. Social ontology is the doctrine of the existence of society. In modern interpretation - the doctrine of the existence of society, which includes the doctrine of man, of individuals, mutually conditioned in their self-expression.