The article examines terrorism as an object of social and philosophical understanding. The work is based on the analysis of the ideas of thinkers of the past and present. There are presented various concepts of understanding terrorism through the underlying conflict relationships. Depending on these, ways of effectively countering terrorism are proposed. For example, the origins of terrorism can be traced through the internal conflict of the personality, when external factors are only of secondary importance. Another defining conflict is opposition caused by economic inequality. In this case, terrorism appears as a weapon of the poorest segments of society against capitalism. An important place is given to the consideration of terrorism through a religious conflict: not only as a confrontation between representatives of different religions but, in many respects, as a clash between the secular and the religious. Of course, the conflict between society and the government, which gives rise to terrorism, has not been ignored. In this context, are considered both the role of society, which resists pressure on it from the state and the role of the authorities in modeling the terrorist threat. At the same time, the article focuses on the relationship between terrorism and democracy. One of the modern approaches to understanding terrorism lies in the plane of conflict between states. It can also be understood as a confrontation between different forms of state structures. Finally, terrorism can be an attribute of the clash of civilizations. Each of the approaches has a right to exist and implies its own recipes for solving the problem of this phenomenon. Being an ambiguous and multifaceted concept, terrorism requires a comprehensive study of its genesis, including through socio-philosophical understanding.
terrorism; conflict; philosophy; countering terrorism.