The term "organic theory" is rather ambiguous. Most often, it is attributed to two teachings related to completely different disciplines - political science and chemistry. In the first case, we are talking about the origin of the state, in the second - about the properties of organic substances. Although the authors of these concepts (Herbert Spencer and Alexander Butlerov) acted on opposite fronts of science, they used approximately the same logical and research principles.
Rise of the State
In the 19th century, an organic theory of the origin of the state appeared in political science. It has been building up over a long period of time. Its first premises can be found in the documents of antiquity. Organic theory boils down to the fact that the state is considered a kind of likeness of the human body.
This idea was promoted by some ancient Greek thinkers. For example, Aristotle thought so. His organic theory of the origin of the state was an argument in favor of the fact that the state and society are inseparable - they are a single whole. So Aristotle argued that mana social being who cannot live in isolation from the outside world.
Spencer's Teachings
The key adept of this theory in the 19th century was Herbert Spencer. It was he who became the founder of the modern interpretation of the organic idea in sociology. The English thinker considered the state, first of all, from a public perspective. He generalized the ideas of his predecessors and formulated a new theory. According to it, the state is a social organism, consisting of many parts. These "details" are ordinary people.
Thus, for Spencer, the organic theory of the state is proof of the idea that the state will exist as long as human society exists. These two phenomena are by nature inseparable from each other. A huge set of people cannot get along without the organization of power, which could regulate relations within this seething mass. In other words, human existence has two most important principles of existence - social and natural.
Power and society
Spencer's organic theory of the state says that the state dominates people, as a whole dominates its constituent parts. At the same time, the government has obligations that it must fulfill. In order for cells to function normally, a he althy body is needed. And it depends only on the authorities whether the living environment in the country will have a productive and happy life.
The organic theory of origin says that in the event of a disease of the state, the disease is transferred to all its functions. For example, the economy suffers from corruption. Then its collapse is reflected in people's lives. The decline in well-being leads to social tension and other phenomena dangerous to stability. The state and society form a system in which absolutely everything is interconnected. This principle is the reason that the shortcomings of power are reflected in the lives of citizens.
The Next Stage of Human Development
It is curious that the organic theory in political science is rooted in the evolutionary teachings of Darwin. At one time, a British scientist made a real scientific revolution, suggesting that all biological species appeared as a result of the struggle for survival and gradual development from generation to generation.
Darwin explained that man evolved from apes. Supporters of the organic theory of the state used this thesis. They wondered what is the next stage of human development? Organic theory offers its own reasoned answer. The development of people has led to the fact that they have united within the framework of a state institution. It is he who is the next stage of evolutionary progress. In this organism, the power (state) performs the function of the brain, while the lower classes of society ensure the vital activity of the entire system.
Organic chemistry
In science, there is not only an organic theory of the origin of the state. Thisthe concept belongs to political science and sociology. However, there is a theory with a similar name in another scientific discipline. This is chemistry. In the same 19th century, within its framework, a theory of the structure of organic substances was formulated. The laurels of the discoverer this time went to the Russian scientist Alexander Butlerov.
The preconditions for the appearance of the theory that immortalized the name of the chemist evolved over many years. First, the researchers noticed that groups of atoms can pass from one molecule to another unchanged. They were called radicals. However, chemists could not give any explanation for this anomaly. In addition, there were still critics of the theory of the atomic structure of substances. These contradictions hindered the development of science. She needed a big push to move forward.
Prerequisites for a new theory
Gradually, more and more interesting facts about carbon accumulated in organic chemistry. Also in the 19th century, isomers were discovered, but not explained - substances that had an identical composition, but at the same time exhibited different properties. Friedrich Wöhler (a famous chemist of his time) compared organic chemistry to a dense forest, thus honestly admitting that it remains one of the most difficult scientific disciplines to understand.
Some developments began in the 1850s. First, the British chemist Edward Frankland discovered the phenomenon of valency - the ability of atoms to form chemical bonds. Then in 1858 an important discovery was made simultaneously and independently by Friedrich August Kekule andArchibald Cooper. They found that carbon atoms can connect with each other and form different chains.
Butlerov's discoveries
In the same 1858, Alexander Butlerov was ahead of many of his colleagues. His theory of organic compounds had not yet been formulated, but he already spoke with confidence about the grouping of atoms in complex molecules. Moreover, the Russian scientist was able to determine the nature of this phenomenon. He believed that the grouping of atoms is due to chemical affinity.
Thus, Butlerov was outside the theoretical system that was built by other more eminent chemists (first of all, Charles Gerard). For a long time he acted alone. And only after several important theoretical successes Butlerov decided to share his thoughts with colleagues.
A little-known researcher in Europe first announced himself at a meeting held by the Paris Chemical Society. On it, Butlerov formulated many of the principles that the theory of organic substances later absorbed. In particular, he suggested that, in addition to radicals, there are functional groups. So soon the structural fragments of organic molecules that determined their properties were named.
Theory of a Russian researcher
By the middle of the 19th century, chemical science absorbed many facts that did not add up to a logical concept. It was she who was proposed by Alexander Butlerov. In 1861, while onconference in the German city of Speyer, he read out a report, revolutionary in its significance, "On the chemical structure of substances."
The essence of Butlerov's speech was as follows. Atoms inside molecules are connected to each other according to their own valency. The properties of substances are affected not only by their quantitative and qualitative composition. They are determined both by these regularities and by the order of connection of atoms in molecules. These smallest particles affect each other and change the properties of the substance as a whole. After that speech by Alexander Butlerov, a theory of the structure of organic substances appeared in science. She successfully answered all those questions that had accumulated over several decades of disparate discoveries.
Importance of organic theory
There is much in common between Butlerov's chemical theory and Spencer's political science theory. In both cases, we are talking about a single whole (substance and the state), consisting of many small elements (atoms and people). This relationship determines the properties of the studied phenomena. With all this, both teachings appeared at about the same time.
The concept, according to which the properties of matter depend on the properties of constituent elementary particles, later formed the basis of the entire classical and generally accepted theory of chemical structure. However, Butlerov's merits did not end there. Among other things, his ideas formed the basis of the rules by which scientists later learned to determine the structure of substances.
The Russian chemist preferred to carry out artificial synthetic reactions and use them to investigate in detail the qualitiesradicals. The researcher left behind a rich written heritage. He documented every experiment in detail. It was thanks to this habit of his that the theory of the structure of organic chemistry appeared. Butlerov's rich experimental experience was its basis.
Origin of substances and isomerism
Only over time it became clear how important the organic theory formulated by Alexander Butlerov was. With the help of his teaching, he outlined the paths for further research for his successors and ideological followers. For example, a Russian chemist paid much attention to decomposition reactions. He believed that with the help of experiments with them, one can make the most accurate conclusions about the structure of chemicals.
Using the provisions of his own organic theory, Butlerov studied in detail the phenomenon of isomerism, the principle of which was described above. Then it excited the minds of many progressive scientists. Conducting experiment after experiment, Butlerov was able to obtain tertiary butyl alcohol, describe its properties and prove the existence of isomers of this complex substance. The research of the outstanding chemist was continued by his students: Vladimir Markovnikov and Alexander Popov.
