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Abstract (of the 1st Section)

Content

Intro

Nowadays, interest in the theoretical study of culture has increased dramatically. This is evidenced by the emergence of a number of scientific disciplines that make culture the subject of special consideration.

Culture as a system of diverse traditions, patterns of behavior, norms and results of activity, the constant reproduction of which makes a person as a person with language, consciousness, art, science, modern technology, is an absolute value that sets the main guidelines for all spheres of human activity.

1. Theme urgency

The emergence of the Sciences of culture demonstrates its exceptional importance, its huge role in the life of man and society. All social processes, in fact, are determined by the peculiarities of culture.

It is impossible to abstract from the issues of culture, trying to understand the essence of social life. To study the complex and ambiguous phenomenon of culture in its entirety, first of all, it is important to consider the process of formation of the idea of culture.

2. Goal and tasks of the research

The goal of the research is to analyze the evolution of the idea of culture.

Tasks: to consider the General features, to identify patterns in the development of the idea of culture at certain stages of historical time, to highlight the main theories about culture in the socio-philosophical thought of the period under consideration.

3. Understanding the idea of culture before the 19th century

The emergence of Culturology, which was formed as a science only in the 20th century, was certainly preceded by the ideas of thinkers of the earlier period...

Even in antiquity, there're two extreme semantic poles, two limiting meanings of the term culture, from the very beginning as if delineating the boundaries and the possible range of future meanings, which in the future will enrich the term culture and which will be, in fact, intermediate between these extreme values[5, p. 11]. At the same time, it is important to understand that the philosophical thought of antiquity wasn't considered culture as a separate object of knowledge. Growing out of a single social and historical practice, philosophy and culture are immersed in this practice, form together with it an inseparable whole. Moreover, it is only in practice that culture finds itself. Culture is perceived by antique authors as something complex, in constant motion, as a phenomenon that reveals itself in relation to its opposite. However, the juxtaposition of culture and barbarism isn't easy. Civilization, from the point of view of antique authors, doesn't coincide with culture. The mastery of agriculture or aqueduct construction doesn't mean that society or the individual person has attained the heights of culture, cuz perfect mastery of technology doesn't always go hand in hand with the perfection of the soul. Only when a man in his actions rises to the heights of morality, only then he becomes a cultured being.

In the Middle ages, the phenomenon of culture was the result of divine providence and practically not investigated. In the Renaissance, culture is interpreted as something created and creative, as the result of purposeful educational influence. The question of what culture is was posed as a scientific problem during the Renaissance. Culture in this period began to be comprehended as an ontological reality, developing according to its own laws, which don't coincide with the laws of development of society and nature. It was realized that cultural progress isn't like a straight line connecting two points in historical time and space, that it is a more complex process, where there isn't only forward movement, but also rollbacks. It was during these years that the concept of culture turned into a scientific category filled with a fairly definite meaning, which continued to develop and rethink in the New time. Of course, not all the ideas of the thinkers of the New time were in demand by their heirs. However, they were able to lay the Foundation on which the majestic building of the European Enlightenment was later erected.

In the age of Enlightenment, the human mind is exalted and many hopes are expressed for a quick deliverance from religious and social oppression, fierce criticism is poured on the church and the institution of absolutism. Understanding of the problem of culture can be traced in the works of Rousseau. Especially, of all his rich ideological heritage, three works are of interest to us: Reasoning, whether the Revival of the Sciences and Arts Contributed to the Improvement of Morals?, Letter to d'Alembert on the Spectacles and Experience on the Origin of Languages, and on Melody and Music. It is in them that Jean-Jacques Rousseau demonstrates examples of the application of the cultural approach, acting as a critic of Western European civilization, who clearly sees the contradictions of the movement of human society along the path of progress. The significance of these works is difficult to overestimate, suffice it to say that they relied on such outstanding representatives of philosophical thought as Kant, Hegel, Schiller, Nietzsche, Spengler, Ortega y Gasset and many others who've made a significant contribution to the understanding of the crisis of European culture. Criticizing Western European civilization, Rousseau contrasts the depravity and moral depravity of the so-called cultural nations with the simplicity and purity of the morals of peoples at the patriarchal stage of development. In this he follows in the footsteps of Montaigne, who in his Experiments erected on a pedestal natural man living in harmony with nature and not affected by the corrupting influence of civilization. The reason for this sad state of affairs Rousseau sees primarily in the development of science, which, in his opinion, is the most negative impact on the minds. From his point of view, it was the corrupting influence of science that caused the death of the Egyptian and Greek civilizations, the fall of Rome and Constantinople. Rousseau states: Peoples! Know once and for all that nature wanted to protect you from the Sciences, just as a mother snatches a dangerous weapon from the hands of her child. All the secrets it hides from you are the evil from which it protects you, and the difficulty of learning is one of its many blessings. People are corrupt, but they'd be worse off if they had the misfortune to be born scientists [9, p. 52]. Many-knowledge, Rousseau believes, doesn't teach, and he who multiplies knowledge multiplies sorrow. Moreover, truth in science is achieved at the cost of many errors, a hundred times greater than the benefit of these truths. So it is not surprising that luxury, depravity and slavery at all times became the retribution for our arrogant desire to get out of the happy ignorance to which we doomed eternal wisdom [9, p. 53]. Rousseau is equally negative about the arts, believing that their impact has the most negative impact on public morality. From his point of view, the main reason for all the shortcomings is social inequality and the underlying private property. An economy that functions not for the benefit of all but for the income of a few is, in Rousseau's view, absurd, because it undermines society from within, creating inequality and, as a consequence, hatred of the poor for the rich. Thus, Rousseau gives a kind of social anatomy of Western civilization, critically comprehending the processes taking place in all spheres of society from the economy to the arts. It shows the inconsistency of social progress, as a result of which there's not only the introduction to the benefits of civilization of a wide range of people, but also growing poverty and wealth at different poles, increasing the alienation of man from himself and the results of his work.

The Classics of German idealism laid the foundations of the philosophy of culture. So, the main thing that excites Kant is the place of man in the world. And if we sum up Kant's statements about culture and bring them into a certain system, we will see what with some degree of conditionality can be called Kant's philosophy of culture. A person, Kant believes, can have many goals that can replace each other in the process of ontogeny and phylogeny. But he must also have an ultimate goal that gives meaning to his being. Such an ultimate goal, from Kant's point of view, is culture. Only culture, writes Immanuel Kant, can be the last goal that we've reason to attribute to nature in relation to the human race [4, p.464]. Kant believes that culture exists in the form of culture of skill and culture of education. If the first of them allows you to achieve goals, the second gives you the opportunity to choose them. Morality, according to Kant, isn't a product of culture, but its goal. The way of mankind, he believes, is the way from civilization to culture. If the first essence is inferior, then the second is the highest stage of the historical development of mankind. The transition to it will mean the achievement of universal harmony and peace, the establishment of a new system of relations not only between states but also between individuals. As we can see, the German philosopher proceeds from the fundamental opposition of nature and culture, necessity and freedom. Nature is all that exists in space and time, where cause and effect prevail, it is the world of existence. Unlike nature is a world of freedom, culture is a world of due, what should be [5, p. 30]. In fact, culture in Kant turns into a means of moral self-improvement of man, where the problem of freedom as the essence of culture is brought to the fore. Schelling, on the assumption that the natural world and world of cultures are two different worlds, notes that the world of nature, although there's the result of the creative spirit, however, is qualitatively different from the world of culture, where the spirit acquires the ability to self-knowledge and self-realization himself. The world of nature differs from the world of culture in that true beauty is an attribute exclusively of the world of culture. The world of culture, according to Schelling, is a world of philosophical, scientific, but above all aesthetic values. This is due to the fact that only in artistic creativity the principle of identity is realized, the absolute harmony of the subjective and objective, conscious and unconscious is achieved, the last and deepest contradiction in us is resolved [11, p. 379].

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) went much further in understanding the phenomenon of culture, In the Phenomenology of the Spirit he also gives the definition of culture as the otherness of the absolute idea and reveals its genesis as a process of self-alienation of the world spirit's forms. Hegel developed this idea by taking as a starting point Kant's thesis on the creative function of the mind. He brought it to its logical conclusion, postulating the existence of the world's spirit, which, repeatedly alienating itself, creates the natural world, society and various forms of culture, including morality, law, religion, art, philosophy. In other words, culture is generated by both the subjective and the objective and absolute spirit. This gives grounds to talk about its different types, which, in fact, makes Hegel, highlighting as structural elements of culture primarily high and low culture. Based on the fact that the possession of truth expands the field of human freedom, the mastery of cultural values makes a person free. Culture doesn't exist without freedom, just as freedom doesn't exist without culture. It is only in culture that man finds himself, realizes who he is, just as the realization of the absolute idea takes place. Hegel also connects culture with morality, thus continuing the tradition laid down by ancient authors who praised virtue as one of the most important signs of the individual's culture. In the works of the last period of his work, Hegel comes to the idea that, unlike all other phenomena, culture has an absolute value.

The classics of German idealism laid the foundations of the philosophy of culture. Culture, in their opinion, is the main goal of man, only in it man finds himself. Culture, according to Kant, turns into a means of moral self-improvement of man, where the problem of freedom as the essence of culture is put to the fore. Hegel also linked culture with morality, in fact, realized such important ideas as the progressive and contradictory development of culture, the understanding of cultural progress as progress in the development of human individuality and freedom.

Sum

Having considered the evolution of the idea of culture up to the beginning of the 19th century, we can draw the following conclusion:

The philosophical thought of antiquity didn't consider culture as a separate object of knowledge. Culture is perceived by antique authors as something complex, in constant motion, as a phenomenon that reveals itself in relation to its opposite. Culture in this period is considered mainly along with such terms as morality and education. If in the Middle ages the phenomenon of culture was the result of divine providence and was practically not investigated, then in the Renaissance culture is interpreted as something created and creative, as a result of purposeful educational influence. It was only in the age of Enlightenment that the question of what culture is was posed as a scientific problem. Culture began to be understood as an ontological reality, developing according to its own laws, far from coinciding with the laws of development of society and nature. It was at this time that it was realized that cultural progress doesn't resemble a straight line connecting two points in historical time and space, that it is a more complex process, where there isn't only forward movement, but also rollbacks. It was during these years that the concept of culture turned into a scientific category filled with a fairly definite meaning, at the same time a division was made between culture and civilization, which began to be considered as the result of mutational changes in culture. The foundations of the philosophy of culture were laid by the classics of German idealism. Culture, in their opinion, is the main goal of man (Kant) and only in it man finds himself (Hegel).

Ref

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