Анотація:
The sense-forming potential of sociological theory is viewed in the context of self-organization. The proposed explanation of social crises, unforeseen historical transformations, revolutions, especially the ethnic ones with their paradoxicalities, etc., is in accordance with the non-linear pattern of social changes. Analysing personality as a socio1ogical object, the author reveals the determinants of social behavior from the point of view of rational and irrational individualism and collectivism, the problem of alienation and sense-forming functions of culture.