See what a postal code is. Postal code is important! What happens if the index is written incorrectly

Origin and meaning of the term "culture"

The concept of “culture” (comes from the Latin culture - to cultivate, cultivate the soil, engage in farming) was born in Ancient Rome as the opposite meaning of the concept of “nature” - nature. Consequently, initially the term “culture” was used in relation to human activities aimed at transforming the “natural”, “natural”, namely the cultivation and cultivation of land, caring for animals, and farming.

Over time, the word “culture” began to encompass an increasingly wider range of objects, phenomena, and actions, the common property of which was their human-made origin. Accordingly, man himself, to the extent that he was considered as the creator of himself, fell into the sphere of culture, and it acquired the meaning of “education”, “upbringing”, i.e. nurturing, cultivating, caring for a person, during which something is supplemented and is corrected in human nature.

Linguists note that until the 17th century the term “culture” did not have independent use. It was used only in phrases, meaning improvement, improvement of what it was combined with: “culture juries” - - development of rules of behavior, “culture lingual” - improvement of language, etc.

The German thinker S. Pufendorf was the first to give a clearer meaning to the term “culture”. He used this term in relation to “artificial man”, brought up in society, as opposed to “natural” man, uneducated.

In the 18th century, continuing the ancient tradition, ideologists of enlightenment, using the term “culture,” expressed the idea of culture as a sphere of development of “humanity,” “human nature,” “the human principle in man,” as opposed to the natural, elemental, animal. Thus, in the era of enlightenment, culture was interpreted as a means of elevating man, improving the spiritual life and morality of people, and correcting the vices of society. Here culture acquires the meaning of “true humanity”, “truly human existence”. It includes only that which expresses the dignity of a person and contributes to his development. Consequently, not every result of the activity of the human race deserves to be called cultural property. But, on the other hand, culture was also considered as a truly existing and historically changing way of life of people, the specifics of which are determined by the achieved level of human intelligence, science, art, upbringing, and education. From this point of view, not only the positive achievements of mankind, but also the negative manifestations of human activity (religious strife, wars, crime, etc.) should be recognized as cultural phenomena.

Subsequently, a broad interpretation of culture was established: culture covers everything that distinguishes the life of human society from the life of nature, all aspects of human existence. It includes not only the result of human spiritual activity, but also changes in the surrounding nature, creation of an artificial habitat, technology, forms of social relations, social institutions, etc. in the narrow sense culture is the level of relationships that have developed in a team, those norms of behavior that are sanctified by tradition and are mandatory for representatives of a given ethnic group and its various social groups. Culture here acts as a form of translation of social experience through the mastery by each generation of not only the objective world of culture, skills and techniques of technological relationship to nature, but also cultural values and patterns of behavior. Moreover, this role of culture regulating social experience is such that it forms stable artistic and cognitive canons, the idea of beauty and ugliness, good and evil, attitude towards nature and society, what is and what should be, etc.

In another sense, the concept of culture reveals the essence of human existence as the realization of creativity and freedom. Of course, here it is necessary to distinguish between, firstly, freedom as an integral spiritual potency of a person and, secondly, awareness and conscious social realization of freedom. Without the first, culture simply cannot appear, but the second is achieved only at relatively late stages of its development. Next, when we're talking about about culture, then what is meant is not some individual creative act of a person, but creativity as a universal relationship of a person to the world. In this understanding, culture denotes a person’s relationship to the reality around him, through which a person creates the world and himself. Thus, every culture becomes a way of human creative self-realization. Therefore, understanding other cultures enriches us not only with new knowledge, but also with new creative experience.

Nowadays, the word “culture” is one of the most used both in everyday language and in many scientific definitions, which speaks of both the polysemy of the term and the diversity of the phenomenon of culture itself. In the 60s of our century, there were 237 interpretations of “culture”; today there are about 400 different scientific definitions of this phenomenon.

From a substantive point of view, culture is understood as a set of biologically non-inherited material objects artificially created by people, ideas of images, technologies for their production and operation, stable connections between people and ways of regulating them based on evaluative criteria existing in society . For each society, all these components in their specific historical form form its sociocultural complex, or the culture of a given society.

In everyday life, the term culture is used either to denote the optimal functioning of social institutions (“everyday culture”, “work culture”, “political culture”, etc.), or is associated with politeness and education (“culture of behavior”, “culture of thinking” ", "culture of feelings", etc.). In journalistic clichés (“science and culture”, “culture and economics”, “news of cultural life”) the area of culture is limited to the sphere of art and morality. Thus, in ordinary consciousness, culture is perceived as a sum of values, a certain historically established standard of perfection to which society should strive.

The problem of the relationship between culture and civilization

The concepts of culture and civilization are closely related to each other, often do not differ, and are perceived as identical. They really have a lot in common, however, there are also differences between them.

In terms of time, the word “civilization” arose much later than the word “culture”, only in the 18th century. Initially, it emphasized the superiority of developed European countries over other nations. In this sense, civilization was opposed to savagery and barbarism, meaning the highest stage of human development. The most stable use and widespread use of the concept of civilization was in France, where it was used in two senses. The first meant a highly developed society based on the principles of reason, justice and religious tolerance. The second meaning was closely related to the concept of culture and meant the totality of certain human qualities: extraordinary intelligence, education, refinement of manners, politeness.

All the diversity of points of view on the relationship between culture and civilization ultimately comes down to three main ones.

1. The concepts of civilization and culture act as synonyms; there are no significant differences between them. As an example, we can point to the concept of the famous English historian A. Toynbee, who considers civilization as a certain stage of culture, focusing on its spiritual aspect and considering religion to be the main and defining element.

2. There are both similarities and important differences between culture and civilization. A similar view, in particular, was held by the French historian F. Braudel, a representative of the Annales school, who considered civilization to be the basis of culture. The focus of his attention is civilization, viewed through the prism of spiritual phenomena, the main of which he considers mentality.

3. Culture and civilization are opposed to each other. The most striking example in this regard is the theory of the German philosopher O. Spengler, outlined by him in the book “The Decline of Europe.” According to this theory, civilization is a dying, dying and disintegrating culture. Civilization follows culture, writes Spengler, “as what has become behind becoming, as death after life, as immobility after development, as mental old age and the petrified city behind the village and intimate childhood.” Culture, in his opinion, is a living and growing organism; it provides scope for the development of art and literature, for the creative flowering of a unique personality and individuality. There is no place for artistic creativity in civilization; it is dominated by technology and soulless intellect; it levels people, turning them into faceless creatures.

Spengler's book was a huge success. However, the concept itself, based on the complete opposite and incompatibility of culture and civilization, aroused well-founded and convincing objections. The idea of the inevitable and imminent destruction of the West was particularly criticized.

The first two approaches to understanding the relationship between culture and civilization seem more acceptable. There really is a lot in common between these phenomena; they are inextricably linked, mutually intertwined and transform into each other. The German romantics were among the first to draw attention to this, who noted that culture “grows” into civilization, and civilization turns into culture. Therefore in Everyday life we have good reason not to distinguish them too much. Those scientists who look at civilization through the prism of culture or vice versa have the same grounds. At the same time, some of them seem to dissolve culture in civilization, while others do the opposite, giving preference to culture.

However, with a more rigorous approach, culture and civilization can be considered as relatively independent phenomena, since in each of them it is possible to identify specific elements, features and characteristics that belong only to it. In particular, it is more correct to refer to language and knowledge as culture, and writing and science as civilization. This gives rise to the existence of two separate scientific disciplines - cultural studies and civilization studies, each of which has its own subject of study. It is this approach that is becoming dominant in modern literature.

Although many elements of culture and civilization arose already at the stage of savagery and barbarism, their emergence as special phenomena was completed at different times. Culture was formed earlier; it is older than the civilization that replaced the era of barbarism. Civilization arose as a result of the Neolithic Revolution, which brought about profound changes in human evolution. The main one was the transition from an appropriating economy (gathering and hunting) to producing technology (agriculture and animal husbandry).

The evolution of civilization allows us to distinguish two main stages in it: 1) agrarian-traditional, characteristic of slave-holding and feudal societies; 2) industrial, associated with capitalism. In modern literature, the third stage of civilization – post-industrial – is actively studied. It arose in the second half of the 20th century. under the influence of the scientific and technological revolution and high technology, bringing to life a post-industrial information society.

There are also other classifications. Thus, depending on the scale of consideration, civilization can be global, i.e. world, continental (for example, European), national (French), regional (North African). Some Orientalist scholars believe that civilization initially split into two “trees” - the West and the East, which had their own unique paths of development. Of these, the eastern path is considered natural and normal, while the western one is considered a mutation and deviation. Other scientists also propose dividing all civilizations into two types, but give them a different interpretation: one civilization - technogenic - is declared characteristic of the West, and the second - psychogenic - characteristic of eastern countries, an example of which is the Indian civilization of the past. Finally, sometimes material culture is referred to as civilization, and by culture itself they mean spiritual culture.

Despite the existing diversity of points of view on civilization, they coincide with many of its essential features. The most important signs and features of civilization are the following: formation of the state; the emergence of writing; separation of agriculture from crafts; stratification of society into classes; emergence of cities. Moreover, the presence of the first two signs is usually considered mandatory, while the necessity of the others is often questioned.

In civilization, technology plays a special role, with the help of which society establishes relationships with nature. Civilization is characterized by stable organization, inertia, order, discipline, etc. It strives for universality and universality, which is especially evident in the modern period, when before our eyes a single universal civilization is being created on the basis of the latest information technologies.

As for culture, national identity and originality, originality and uniqueness, variability and novelty, dissatisfaction with oneself, critical and creative principles, self-worth, the desire for a sublime ideal, etc. are of paramount importance.

The relative independence of culture and civilization and at the same time their close interaction can lead to imbalance and contradiction between them. The predominance of civilization and the reduction of culture to it would mean stagnation of social development, weakening and extinction of the spiritual and moral principles in it. This is precisely the situation observed in modern society, when civilization increasingly dominates culture.

term "culture"? a) religious cult, prayer; b) cultivation, cultivation... A. Chekhov and A. Ostrovsky; c) A. Chekhov and K. Balmont. Topic 9. ORIGIN AND PAGAN BELIEFS OF THE EASTERN SLAVS Tests...

The word "culture" is on the list of most used in modern language. But this fact does not indicate that this concept has been studied, but rather the polysemy of meanings hidden behind it, used both in everyday life and in scientific definitions.

Most of all, we are accustomed to talking about spiritual and material culture. At the same time, it becomes clear to everyone that we are talking about theater, religion, music, gardening, agriculture and much more. However, the concept of culture is not at all limited to these areas. The versatility of this word will be discussed in this article.

Definition of the term

The concept of culture includes a certain historical level in the development of society, as well as human abilities and powers, which are expressed in the forms and types of organization of life. By this term we also understand spiritual and material values created by people.

The world of culture, any of its phenomena and objects are not the result of natural forces. This is the result of the efforts made by a person. That is why culture and society must be considered inextricably linked. Only this will allow us to understand the essence of this phenomenon.

Main components

All types of culture that exist in society include three main components. Namely:

Concepts. These elements are usually contained in language, helping a person to order and organize his own experience. Each of us perceives the world around us through the taste, color and shape of objects. However, it is known that in different cultures reality is organized differently. And in this regard, language and culture become inseparable concepts. A person learns the words that he needs to navigate the world around him through the assimilation, accumulation and organization of his experience. How closely language and culture are connected can be judged by the fact that some peoples believe that “who” is only a person, and “what” is not only inanimate objects of the surrounding world, but also animals. And here it is worth thinking. After all, people who evaluate dogs and cats as a thing will not be able to treat them in the same way as those who see animals as their smaller brothers.
Relationship. The formation of culture occurs not only through the description of those concepts that indicate to a person what the world consists of. This process also involves certain ideas about how all objects are interconnected in time, in space, according to their purpose. Thus, the culture of the people of a particular country is distinguished by its own views on the concepts of not only the real, but also the supernatural world.
Values. This element is also inherent in culture and represents the beliefs existing in society regarding the goals that a person should strive for. Different cultures have different values. And it depends social structure. Society itself makes the choice of what is considered valuable for it and what is not.

Material culture

Modern culture is a rather complex phenomenon, which, for the sake of completeness, is considered in two aspects - static and dynamic. Only in this case is a synchronous approach achieved, allowing for the most accurate study of this concept.

Statics gives the structure of culture, dividing it into material, spiritual, artistic and physical. Let's look at each of these categories in more detail.

And let's start with material culture. This definition refers to the environment that surrounds a person. Every day, thanks to the efforts of each of us, material culture is improved and updated. All this leads to the emergence of a new standard of living, changing the demands of society.

The peculiarities of culture of a material nature lie in the fact that its objects are means and tools of labor, life and housing, that is, everything that is the result production activities person. At the same time, several of the most important areas are highlighted. The first of these is agriculture. This area includes animal breeds and plant varieties developed as a result of breeding work. This also includes soil cultivation. Human survival directly depends on these links of material culture, since from them he receives not only food, but also raw materials used in industrial production.

The structure of material culture also includes buildings. These are places intended for human life, in which various forms of existence and various human activities are realized. The field of material culture also includes structures designed to improve living conditions.

To provide all the variety of types of mental and physical labor, a person uses various tools. They are also one of the elements of material culture. With the help of tools, people directly influence processed materials in all sectors of their activity - communications, transport, industry, agriculture, etc.

Part of the material culture is transport and all available means of communication. These include:

bridges, roads, airport runways, embankments;
all transport - pipeline, water, air, rail, road and horse-drawn vehicles;
railway stations, ports, airports, harbors, etc., built to support the operation of the vehicle.

With the participation of this area of material culture, the exchange of goods and people between settlements and regions. This, in turn, contributes to the development of society.

Another area of material culture is communication. It includes post and telegraph, radio and telephone, computer networks. Communication, like transport, connects people with each other, giving them the opportunity to exchange information.

Another essential component of material culture is skills and knowledge. They represent technologies that find application in each of the above areas.

Spiritual culture

This area is based on a creative and rational type of activity. Spiritual culture, unlike material culture, finds its expression in subjective form. At the same time, it satisfies the secondary needs of people. The elements of spiritual culture are morality, spiritual communication, art (artistic creativity). Religion is one of its important components.

Spiritual culture is nothing more than the ideal side of human material labor. After all, any thing created by people was initially designed and subsequently embodied certain knowledge. And being called upon to satisfy certain human needs, any product becomes valuable to us. Thus, the material and spiritual forms of culture become inseparable from each other. This is especially evident in the example of any of the works of art.

Due to the fact that the material and spiritual types of culture have such subtle differences, there are criteria for accurately assigning a particular result of activity to a particular area. For this purpose, items are assessed according to their intended purpose. A thing or phenomenon designed to satisfy the secondary needs of people is classified as spiritual culture. And vice versa. If objects are necessary to satisfy the primary or biological needs of a person, then they are classified as material culture.

The spiritual sphere has a complex composition. It includes the following types of culture:

Moral, which includes ethics, morality and ethics;

Religious, which includes modern teachings and cults, ethnographic religiosity, traditional denominations and confessions;

Political, representing traditional political regimes, ideology and norms of interaction between political subjects;

Legal, which includes legislation, legal proceedings, law-abiding and the executive system;

Pedagogical, considered as the practice and ideals of upbringing and education;

Intellectual in the form of science, history and philosophy.

It is worth keeping in mind that cultural institutions such as museums and libraries, concert halls and courts, cinemas and educational establishments, also relate to the spiritual world.

This area has one more gradation. It includes the following areas:

Projective activity. It offers drawings and ideal models of machines, structures, technical structures, as well as projects for social transformation and new forms of the political system. Everything that is created has the greatest cultural value. Today, projective activity is classified in accordance with the objects it creates into engineering, social and pedagogical.
The totality of knowledge about society, nature, man and his inner world. Knowledge is the most important element of spiritual culture. Moreover, they are most fully represented in the scientific sphere.
Value-oriented activities. This is the third area of spiritual culture, which is in direct connection with knowledge. It serves to evaluate objects and phenomena, filling the human world with meanings and meanings. This sphere is divided into the following types of culture: moral, artistic and religious.
Spiritual communication between people. It occurs in all forms determined by the objects of communication. The spiritual contact that exists between partners, during which information is exchanged, is the greatest cultural value. However, such communication occurs not only on a personal level. The results of the spiritual activity of society, constituting its cultural fund accumulated over many years, find their expression in books, speech and works of art.

Communication between people is extremely important for the development of culture and society. That is why it is worth considering in a little more detail.

Human communication

The concept of speech culture determines the level spiritual development person. In addition, she talks about the value of the spiritual wealth of society. Speech culture is an expression of respect and love for one’s native language, directly related to the traditions and history of the country. The main elements of this area are not only literacy, but also compliance with generally accepted norms of the literary word.

Speech culture includes correct use and many other means of language. Among them: stylistics and phonetics, vocabulary, etc. Thus, truly cultural speech is not only correct, but also rich. And this depends on a person’s lexical knowledge. In order to improve the culture of speech, it is important to constantly replenish your vocabulary, as well as read works of various thematic and stylistic directions. Such work will allow you to change the direction of thoughts from which words are formed.

Modern speech culture is a very broad concept. It includes more than just a person's linguistic abilities. This area cannot be considered without the general culture of the individual, which has its own psychological and aesthetic perception of people and the world around them.

Communication for a person is one of the most important moments of his life. And to create a normal communication channel, each of us needs to constantly maintain the culture of our speech. IN in this case it will consist of politeness and attentiveness, as well as the ability to support the interlocutor and any conversation. A culture of speech will make communication free and easy. After all, she will allow you to express your opinion without offending or offending anyone. In well-chosen, beautiful words contains power stronger than physical strength. Speech culture and society are in close relationship with each other. Indeed, the level of the linguistic spiritual sphere reflects the way of life of the entire people.

Art culture

As mentioned above, in each of the specific objects of the surrounding world there are simultaneously two spheres - material and spiritual. This can also be said about artistic culture, which is based on the creative, irrational type of human activity and satisfies his secondary needs. What gave rise to this phenomenon? A person’s ability to be creative and have an emotional and sensory perception of the world around them.

Artistic culture is an integral element of the spiritual sphere. Its main essence is to depict society and nature. For this purpose, artistic images are used.

This type of culture includes:

art (group and individual);
artistic values and works;
cultural institutions that ensure its dissemination, development and preservation (demonstration sites, creative organizations, educational institutions etc.);
spiritual atmosphere, that is, society’s perception of art, government policy in this area, etc.

In a narrow sense, artistic culture is expressed by graphics and painting, literature and music, architecture and dance, circus, photography and theater. All these are objects of professional and everyday art. Within each of them, works of an artistic nature are created - performances and films, books and paintings, sculptures, etc.

Culture and art, which is its integral part, contribute to the transfer by people of their subjective vision of the world, and also help a person to assimilate the experience accumulated by society and the correct perception of collective attitudes and moral values.

Spiritual culture and art, in which all its functions are represented, are important part life of society. So, in artistic creativity there is transformative human activity. The transmission of information is reflected in culture in the form of human consumption of works of art. Value-oriented activity serves to evaluate creations. Art is also open to cognitive activity. The latter manifests itself in the form of a specific interest in works.

Artistic forms also include such forms of culture as mass, elite, and folk. This also includes the aesthetic side of legal, economic, political activity and much more.

World and national culture

The level of material and spiritual development of society has another gradation. It is identified by its carrier. In this regard, there are such main types of culture as world and national. The first of them is a synthesis of the best achievements of the peoples living on our planet.

World culture is diverse in space and time. It is practically inexhaustible in its directions, each of which amazes with its richness of forms. Today, this concept includes such types of cultures as bourgeois and socialist, developing countries, etc.

The pinnacle of world civilization is the achievements in the field of science developed Newest technologies, achievements in art.

But national culture is the highest form of development of ethnic culture, which is appreciated by world civilization. This includes the totality of the spiritual and material values of a particular people, as well as the methods of interaction they practice with the social environment and nature. Manifestations of national culture can be clearly seen in the activities of society, its spiritual values, moral standards, lifestyle and language characteristics, as well as in the work of state and social institutions.

Types of crops according to the principle of distribution

There is another gradation of material and spiritual values. According to the principle of their distribution, they are distinguished: dominant culture, subculture and counterculture. The first of them includes a set of customs, beliefs, traditions and values that guide the majority of members of society. But at the same time, any nation includes many groups of a national, demographic, professional, social and other nature. Each of them develops its own system of rules of behavior and values. Such small worlds are classified as subcultures. This form can be youth and urban, rural, professional, etc.

A subculture may differ from the dominant one in behavior, language, or outlook on life. But these two categories are never opposed to each other.

If any of the small cultural layers is in conflict with the values that dominate society, then it is called a counterculture.

Gradation of material and spiritual values by level and origins

In addition to those listed above, there are such forms of culture as elite, folk and mass. This gradation characterizes the level of values and their creator.

For example, elite culture (high) is the fruit of the activities of a privileged part of society or professional creators who worked on its orders. This is the so-called pure art, which in its perception is ahead of all artistic products existing in society.

Folk culture, in contrast to elite culture, is created by anonymous creators who have no professional training. That is why this type culture is sometimes called amateur or collective. In this case, the term folklore is also applicable.

Unlike the two previous types, mass culture is not the bearer of either the spirituality of the people or the delights of the aristocracy. Greatest development This trend began in the mid-20th century. It was during this period that the penetration of funds began mass media to most countries.

Mass culture is inextricably linked with the market. This is art for everyone. That is why it takes into account the needs and tastes of the entire society. The value of mass culture is incomparably lower than elitist and folk culture. She satisfies the immediate needs of members of society, quickly responding to every event in the life of the people and reflecting it in her works.

Physical Culture

This is a creative, rational type of human activity, expressed in bodily (subjective) form. Its main focus is improving health while simultaneously developing physical abilities. These activities include:

culture of physical development from general health-improving exercises to professional sports;
recreational culture that supports and restores health, which includes tourism and medicine.

Culture (from Latin - agriculture, education) is a term that denotes many concepts from various spheres. Most often, culture is understood as an area of human activity that is associated with human self-expression. Culture reveals a person’s subjectivity, his characteristics, character, abilities, knowledge and skills.

Also in Ancient Greece a term such as “paideia” was widespread, which denoted internal culture, culture of the soul, upbringing and education. In Ancient Greece, the concept of “culture” was directly related to education, good manners and love of agriculture. But over time, the term “culture” has significantly expanded and changed, acquiring many shades and areas (including legal, corporate, and organizational culture). So what is culture in all the diversity of this word?

What is physical culture

Physical culture is an area of culture aimed at strengthening and maintaining health, developing a person’s abilities and improving his activity. At the same time, physical culture is a set of knowledge, norms and values that have been created by society over many centuries for the comprehensive development and improvement of a person, for his physical training and the formation of his healthy image life.

Physical culture is a part of society, which includes centuries-old experience of physiological, moral, psychological and mental development of a person. IN modern society this area of culture includes concern for:

the degree of widespread use of physical culture: in everyday life, in the sphere of production, education and upbringing;
level of human health and development.

What is spiritual culture

Spiritual culture is a system of knowledge and ideas that relates to all of humanity or to any cultural and historical unity: a people (Russian culture), a nation, a religious movement. The origins of spiritual culture lie in man. It arises because a person in life does not limit himself only to what he learns every day, but absorbs spiritual experience from which he evaluates everything around him, from which he loves and believes in something.

Spiritual culture, in contrast to material culture, arose and exists due to the fact that a person is not limited to some everyday needs, but recognizes spiritual experience as the main thing. Because of this experience, he lives, loves, appreciates all the things around him.

Spiritual culture is an area of human activity that covers various areas spiritual life of man and society. Spiritual culture unites forms of social consciousness (art, science, morality, legal consciousness, religion, ideology) and their embodiment in architectural, literary, and artistic monuments.

What is the culture of society

Culture in terms of social expression usually means the following:

the totality of human achievements in different areas public life (personal culture);
way and method of organizing social relations using the example of social institutions;
the degree of development of the individual in society, his involvement in the achievements of art, law, morality and other forms of social consciousness.

Culture and society are very close systems, which, however, do not coincide in meaning; they develop and exist according to their own separate laws.

What is artistic culture

Artistic culture includes all artistic values, as well as the historically established system of their reproduction, creation and functioning in society. The role of artistic culture both for civilization and for the individual is enormous. Art, which represents artistic culture, affects the inner world of a person, his mind, feelings and emotions. Thanks to this, a person recognizes in the images some fragment of reality embedded by the artist in his work. Artistic culture involves both preserving the best elements of the old and creating new ones, enhancing the cultural heritage of mankind.

What is mass culture

Mass culture, also called “pop culture” or majority culture, is a culture that has become widespread among segments of the population in a particular society. Mass culture is subordinate to the life and needs of the majority of the population (or mainstream), it includes entertainment, music, literature, sports, cinema, art and other manifestations of culture. Mass culture is contrasted with elitist, “high culture”. Also, mass culture is included in the concept of folk culture and is its component.

As an opposition to the concept " nature" (nature). " Cultural" meant - processed, cultivated, artificial as opposed to natural, pristine, wild.

Initially the concept culture used to distinguish plants grown by humans from wild plants. Gradually it began to acquire a broader and more generalized meaning. Cultural began to name objects, phenomena, actions that were above natural, against natural, i.e. everything that was not of divine (natural) origin, but was created by man. It is natural that man himself fell into the sphere of culture, since he created himself and turned out to be the result of the transformation of natural (God-given) material.

However, before the appearance Latin word culture there was a concept close to it in meaning. This is an ancient Greek word techne , literally translated as craft, art, craftsmanship(from here - technique). Techne did not have such a broad generalizing meaning as the Latin culture, but in meaning it was close to him: this word in Ancient Greece meant human activity that changes the shape of natural objects and transforms the material world.

Examples of this type of activity many, starting from ancient times (handprints on the walls of caves, engravings on rocks, various signs on objects and bodies, etc.). The main meaning of these drawings is to indicate the presence of man, his invasion of the natural world, this stamp of human, This signs of the separation of man from nature into culture.

On philosophical level understanding of culture began in the 17th and 18th centuries.(J. Vico, C. Helvetius, B. Franklin, I. Herder, I. Kant).

Man begins to be understood as a being endowed with reason, will, and the ability to create, as an “animal that makes tools,” and the history of mankind is understood as the self-development of man.

Existence, world, reality are understood as two-part: including nature And culture. Nevertheless, for a long time culture was considered not in its integrity, not as a complexly organized system, but in one or another of its specific manifestations (religion, ethics, aesthetics, language, etc.). Hence the almost limitless plurality of approaches, interpretations, and definitions of culture that still persists (there are about 900, but even this figure does not reflect reality).

2. Modern interpretations of the concept of “culture”

- “a concept that reveals the essence of human existence as the realization of creativity and freedom” (N. A. Berdyaev);

- “culture (from Latin сultura - cultivation, processing) is a historically certain level of development of society, creative powers and abilities of a person, expressed in the types and forms of organization of people’s lives and activities, as well as in the material and spiritual values they create. The concept of “culture” is used to characterize historical eras, specific nationalities and nations, areas of activity (physical education, political culture, etc.). In a narrow sense, the sphere of people’s spiritual life” (Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionary);

- « universal method creative self-realization of a person through positing the meaning of his life and correlating it with the meaning of Existence, this is a semantic world that is passed on from generation to generation and determines the way of being and worldview of people, uniting them into certain communities - a nation, religious or professional group"(Radugin V.P.),

- “a complex that includes knowledge, beliefs, art, laws, morals, customs and other abilities and habits acquired by a person as a member of society” (E. Tylor),

- “the unity of artistic style in all manifestations of the life of the people” (F. Nietzsche),

- “the unity of all forms of traditional behavior” (M. Mead),

- “the cultural aspect of the superorganic universe, covering ideas, values, norms, their interaction and relationships” (P. Sorokin),

- “the social direction that we give to the cultivation of our biological potentialities” (H. Ortega y Gasset),

- “forms of behavior habitual for a group, community of people, society, having material and intangible features” (K. G. Jung),

- “the organization of various phenomena - material objects, bodily acts, ideas and feelings, which consist of symbols or depend on their use” (L. White),

- “that which distinguishes a person from an animal” (W. Oswald),

- “system of signs” (C. Morris),

- “the process of self-progressive self-liberation of a person; language, art, religion, science - different shapes this process" (E. Cassirer),

- “the general context of the sciences and arts, correlated categorically with language, is a structure that pushes a person above himself and gives his nation value” (R. Tshumi),

- “characteristic of the entire set of achievements and institutions that separated our life from the life of our bestial ancestors and served two purposes: protecting man from nature and regulating people’s relationships with each other” (S. Freud),

- “this is the goal of the transformation of Eros, the sublimation of the sexual instinct” (J. Roheim),

- “the totality of intellectual elements available to this person or among a group of people and having some stability associated with the “memory of the world” and society - memory materialized in libraries, monuments and languages” (A. Mol),

- “realization of supreme values through the cultivation of the highest human virtues” (M. Heidegger),

- “in a broad ethnographic sense, this is knowledge, beliefs, art, morality, laws, customs and some other abilities and habits acquired by a person as a member of society” (E. Tylor),

- “a socially inherited set of modes of activity and beliefs that make up the fabric of our lives” (E. Sapir),

- “forms of habitual behavior common to a group, community or society; these forms consist of material and intangible elements” (K. Young),

- “a certain degree of education; another, broader usage gives culture the meaning of everyday life in general (in the case of primitive culture or the culture of such eras and peoples, which, when using the word in the first meaning, should be called uncultured..." (Encyclopedic Dictionary of F. A. Brockhaus and I. A. Efron ).

Analyzing the entire range of definitions presented, we can conclude that there are some essential features of the phenomenon of interest to us that combine the above options.

So, the general point is the following:

Culture is what distinguishes man from the natural environment (culture is called “second nature”), it is a characteristic of human society;

Culture is not inherited biologically, but involves training, education, cultivation;

Culture is a historically emergent phenomenon; it appears along with human society and develops with it in time and space.

Let's focus on one of the possible options for determining the essence of culture: culture is a specific way of organizing and developing human life, presented in the products of material and spiritual labor, in the system of social norms and institutions, in spiritual values, in the totality of people’s relationships to themselves, to society and nature.

In Russia the term “culture” used in accordance with the German tradition, the French and English prefer the term “civilization”. There are a lot of different judgments in modern cultural studies regarding the distinction between these concepts. As an illustration, here is a quote from an interview with A. I. Solzhenitsyn: “Culture is the cultivation inside a person’s life, his soul, while civilization is the cultivation of the external, material side of his life.”

There is an assertion that “culture” is a word that is both too broad and too narrow to be of any use. Margaret Archer notes that “of all the key concepts” in socio-humanities, the concept of culture has demonstrated “the weakest analytical development and played the most ambiguous role in theory.”

In the 1970s, the semiotic direction in the humanities was very popular. In the light of this theory, culture began to be viewed as practices signification. Clifford Geertz spoke of “the web of signification in which humanity is suspended.” Raymond Williams wrote about "a system of signification through which...social order is communicated, transmitted, reproduced, experienced, and studied."

All social systems involve signification. Housing is a matter of need, but it is included in the system of signification as soon as social differences begin to appear within this need. Lunch in a luxury restaurant cannot be reduced to satisfying the basic need for food, this is already a realm of signification, etc.

Terry Eagleton proposes to describe culture "as the complex of values, customs, beliefs and practices that make up the way of life of a specific group." The famous formulation of E.B. Tylor, proposed to anthropologists in his "Primitive Culture", states that "culture is composed as a whole of knowledge, beliefs, art, morality, laws, customs and some other abilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society."

Stuart Hall: culture is everything that is not transmitted genetically; they are “lived practices” or “practical ideologies that enable a society, group or class to experience, define, interpret and make sense of the conditions of existence.”

The definition given to culture by Raymond Williams (an outstanding theorist of the second half of the twentieth century) reveals its dual nature - material reality associated with lived experience: “culture is a structure of feeling.” In his different jobs The following definitions are found: standard of perfection; mental habit; art; general intellectual development; holistic lifestyle; signification system; the relationship of elements in a lifestyle.

T. Eagleton notes that the conflict between the broad and narrow meaning of the term “culture” today has led to the fact that the expansion of this concept has no boundaries. We hear about “culture of service”, “culture of pain”, “culture of football”, “culture of drinking beer”... Exactly the same is true with the term “philosophy”: “philosophy of photography”, “philosophy of fishing”, “philosophy of war”...

Broad understanding of the term is based on the recognition of the universal nature of culture as a form of subjectivity (the subject is understood broadly - from the individual to the nation). In this sense, culture means the field of values in which people exist and which they share by virtue of their human nature. Culture-as-art is a concentrated form of this field. “High culture has a position like that of the Almighty - it looks from everywhere and from nowhere.”

Eagleton suggests separating Culture And culture . The essence of Culture is that it is devoid of culture: its values relate not to any specific form of life, but to human life in general. Because the values of Culture universal, but not abstract(!), it requires a local refuge for it to flourish. Can't be special Korean version Kant's categorical imperative. Culture is ironic about its historical environment: if it needs precisely this scene for its own fulfillment, it is Culture precisely because it overcomes this environment in the movement towards the universal. Just as form binds the elements of a work into a coherent whole, culture denotes the connection between a particular civilization/culture and universal humanity.

Culture as a universal form of human existence gravitates toward the individual, and culture as identity gravitates toward a particular collectivity, no matter how paradoxical it may sound. It is in uniqueness that the universal potential is revealed, and it also interferes with conventional agreements within a particular community. Eagleton: “Culture is the spirit of humanity, which has found concrete expression in specific works, its discourse connects the individual “I” and the truth of the Human without the mediation of the historically particular. Particulars - pure chance, combinatorics, contingency.

So, the main term of the 18th century was NATURE, of the 19th - SOCIETY, HISTORY. In the 20th-21st centuries - CULTURE.

Pushkin had no words“culture” (hereinafter - K.), there was only civilization (hereinafter - C.). Society turned to the sciences of culture as a special type of knowledge in earnest only in the twentieth century. Cultural studies, philosophy of culture, cultural anthropology, and the culture of everyday life have emerged. All these are separate disciplines.

The main discovery of all these disciplines- there is no one culture for everyone. There are universals, but they work differently in every context. For example, in Europe there was not one Renaissance, but at least two (Italian and northern).

Claude Lévi-Strauss has a job“Three Humanisms”, where he highlights: 1st Renaissance - the legalization of pagan antiquity in Europe; 2nd - metaphysical discovery of the East by Europeans (18th century); 1871 - Taylor’s book “Primitive Culture” was published (primitiveness was legalized as a full-fledged part of the culture system). Now this is obvious, but then it was an important revolution in consciousness.

And if there are many “cultures”, then knowledge about K. and existence/being in K. do not coincide. Just because I KNOW about Taoism does not mean I belong to it. Therefore, in the process of studying the discipline “Theory and History of Culture”, it is important not only to gain KNOWLEDGE about culture/cultures, but to form CULTURAL SELF-AWARENESS (the process takes a lifetime).

Cultural studies gives knowledge about culture and different cultures, and philosophy/theory of culture answers the questions - where am I in this diversity? What do you consider yours? The task of a cultural theorist is to see today’s day from the perspective of the WHOLE HISTORY OF CULTURE and “count” the meanings.

The sciences of culture took shape in contrast to the “natural sciences”. The problems of cultural theory are addressed to one degree or another by: history, philosophy, anthropology (social, cultural), psychology, sociology, ethnography, archeology, linguistics, art history. Thus, the APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF CULTURE is interdisciplinary.

AN OBJECT- culture in all its diversity, in the unity and uniqueness of the processes occurring in it.

SUBJECT FIELD OF DISCIPLINE- forms and types of culture; ways of its existence; historical dynamics of culture.