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What is culture and its development. Types of culture

What is culture and its development. Types of culture

23.02.2019

The word "culture" is in the lexicon of almost every person.

But this concept has a very different meaning.

Some under culture understand only those values of spiritual life, others narrow this concept even more, refer to it only the phenomena of art and literature. Others generally understand culture as a certain ideology, designed to serve, to ensure "labor" accomplishments, that is, economic tasks.

The phenomenon of culture is extremely rich and diverse, truly all-encompassing. It is no coincidence that culturologists have long been at a loss to define it.

However, the theoretical complexity of this problem is not limited to the ambiguity of the very concept of culture. Culture is a multifaceted issue historical development, and the very word culture will unite a variety of points of view.

The term culture goes back to the Latin word "cultura" which meant the cultivation of the soil, its cultivation, i.e. a change in a natural object under the influence of a person, his activity, in contrast to those changes that are caused by natural causes. Already in this initial content of the term, language expressed an important feature - the unity of culture, man and his activities. The world of culture, any of its objects or phenomena are perceived not as a result of the action of natural forces, but as a result of the efforts of the people themselves, aimed at improving, processing, transforming what is given directly by nature.

At present, the concept of culture means a historically defined level of development of society, the creative forces and abilities of a person, expressed in the types and forms of organizing the life and activities of people, as well as in the material and spiritual values \u200b\u200bcreated by them.

Therefore, it is possible to understand the essence of culture only through the prism of the activities of man, the peoples inhabiting the planet.

Culture does not exist outside of man. It is initially associated with a person and is generated by the fact that he constantly strives to seek the meaning of his life and work, to improve himself and the world in which he lives.

A person is not born social, but only in the process of activity becomes one. Education, upbringing is nothing more than the mastery of culture, the process of passing it on from one generation to another. Therefore, culture means the introduction of a person to society, society.

Any person, growing up, first of all masters the culture that has already been created before him, masters the social experience accumulated by his predecessors. Mastering culture can be carried out in the form of interpersonal relationships and self-education. The huge role of funds mass media radio, television, print.

Mastering the experience accumulated earlier, a person can make his own contribution to the cultural layer.

The process of socialization is a continuous process of mastering culture and, at the same time, individualization of the individual, the values of culture fall on the specific individuality of a person, his character, mental warehouse, temperament-mentality.

Culture is a complex system that absorbs and reflects the contradictions of the whole world. In what way do they appear?

In the contradiction between socialization and individualization of the individual: on the one hand, a person inevitably socializes, assimilating the norms of society, and on the other hand, he seeks to preserve the individuality of his personality.

In the contradiction between the normativity of culture and the freedom that it provides to a person. Norm and freedom are two poles, two fighting principles.

In the contradiction between the traditional culture and the renewal that takes place in its body.

These and other contradictions are not only the essential characteristics of culture, but are also the source of its development.

Culture is a very complex, multi-level system.

It is customary to subdivide culture according to its carrier. Depending on this, it is quite legitimate, first of all, to single out world And national culture.

World culture is a synthesis of the best achievements of all national cultures of various peoples inhabiting our planet.

national culture, in turn, acts as a synthesis of cultures of various classes, social strata and groups of the corresponding society. The originality of the national culture, its uniqueness and originality are manifested both in the spiritual and in the material spheres of life.

In accordance with specific carriers, there are also culture of social communities, family, individual. It is generally accepted to distinguish folk And professional culture.

Culture is divided into certain types and genera. The basis for such a division is the consideration of the diversity of human activity. This is where the material and spiritual culture stands out. But their division is often conditional, since in real life they are closely interrelated and interpenetrating.

Important feature material culture- its non-identity neither with the material life of society, nor with material production, nor with materially transforming activity.

Material culture characterizes this activity from the point of view of its influence on the development of a person, revealing to what extent it makes it possible to apply his abilities, creative abilities, talents.

material culture- this is the culture of labor and material production; culture of life; topos culture, i.e. living place; culture of attitude to one's own body; Physical Culture.

Spiritual culture acts as a multi-layered formation and includes: cognitive and intellectual culture, philosophical, moral, artistic, legal, pedagogical, religious.

According to some cultologists, certain types culture can not be attributed only to the material or to the spiritual. They represent a "vertical" section of culture, "penetrating" its entire system. This is an economic, political, ecological, aesthetic culture.

Historically, culture is associated with humanism. Culture is based on the measure of human development. Neither the achievements of technology nor scientific discoveries in themselves determine the level of culture of a society if there is no humanity in it, if culture is not aimed at the improvement of man. Thus, the criterion of culture is the humanization of society. The purpose of culture is the all-round development of man.

There is a division according to one more sign - relevance.

Actual is the culture that is in mass use.

Each era creates its own actual culture, which is well illustrated by fashion not only in clothing, but also in culture. The relevance of culture is a living, direct process in which something is born, gains strength, lives, dies.

The structure of culture includes substantial elements that are objectified in its values and norms; functional elements that characterize the process itself cultural activities, its various sides and aspects.

The structure of culture is complex and multifaceted. It includes the education system, science, art, literature, mythology, morality, politics, law, religion. At the same time, all its elements interact with each other, forming single system such a unique phenomenon as culture.

The complex and multi-level structure of culture also determines the diversity of its functions in the life of society and man.

Culture is a multifunctional system. Let us briefly characterize the main functions of culture. The main function of the phenomenon of culture is human-creative, or humanistic. All the rest are somehow connected with it and even follow from it.

The most important function of the translation of social experience. It is often called the function of historical continuity, or information. Culture, which is a complex sign system, is the only mechanism for the transfer of social experience from generation to generation, from era to era, from one country to another. Indeed, besides culture, society does not have any other mechanism for transmitting all the richest experience accumulated by mankind. Therefore, it is no coincidence that culture is considered the social memory of mankind. The break in cultural continuity dooms new generations to the loss of social memory, with all the ensuing consequences.

Another leading function is cognitive (epistemological). It is closely connected with the first and, in a certain sense, follows from it.

A culture that concentrates the best social experience of many generations of people immanently acquires the ability to accumulate the richest knowledge about the world and thereby create favorable opportunities for its knowledge and development.

It can be argued that a society is intellectual to the extent that it uses the richest knowledge contained in the cultural gene pool of a person. The maturity of a culture is largely determined by the measure of mastering the cultural values of the past. All types of society differ significantly primarily on this basis. Some of them demonstrate an amazing ability through culture, through culture, to take the best that people have accumulated and put it at their service.

Such societies (Japan) demonstrate tremendous dynamism in many areas of science, technology, and production. Others, unable to use the cognitive functions of culture, are still reinventing the wheel, and thereby condemn themselves to backwardness.

The regulatory function of culture is associated primarily with the definition of various aspects, types of social and personal activities of people. In the sphere of work, life, interpersonal relations, culture in one way or another influences the behavior of people and regulates their actions, actions, and even the choice of certain material and spiritual values. The regulatory function of culture is based on such normative systems as morality and law.

The semiotic or semiotic function is the most important in the system of culture. Representing a certain sign system, culture implies knowledge, possession of it. It is impossible to master the achievements of culture without studying the corresponding sign systems. So, language is a means of communication between people, literary language is the most important means of mastering national culture. Specific languages are needed for knowing the special world of music, painting, theater. The natural sciences also have their own sign systems.

The value or axiological function reflects the most important qualitative state of culture. Culture as a system of values forms a person's well-defined value needs and orientations. By their level and quality, people most often judge the degree of culture of a person.

Moral and intellectual content, as a rule, acts as a criterion for an appropriate assessment.

How often in life do we hear and use the word "culture" in relation to the most different phenomena. Have you ever thought about where it came from and what it means? Of course, immediately come to mind such concepts as art, rules good manners, politeness, education, etc. Further in the article we will try to reveal the meaning of this word, as well as describe what types of culture exist.

Etymology and definition

Since this concept is multifaceted, it also has many definitions. Well, firstly, let's find out in which language it happened and what it originally meant. And it arose back in ancient Rome, where the word “culture” (cultura) called several concepts at once:

1) cultivation;

2) education;

3) veneration;

4) education and development.

As you can see, almost all of them still fit under general definition this term. In ancient Greece, it was also understood as education, upbringing and love for agriculture.

As for modern definitions, in a broad sense, culture is understood as a set of spiritual and material values that express one or another level, that is, an era, of the historical development of mankind. According to another definition, culture is the area of spiritual life human society, which includes a system of upbringing, education and spiritual creativity. In a narrow sense, culture is the degree of mastery of a certain area of knowledge or skills of a particular activity, thanks to which a person gets the opportunity to express himself. He develops a character, a style of behavior, etc. Well, the most used definition is the consideration of culture as a form social behavior individual in accordance with the level of his education and upbringing.

The concept and types of culture

Exist various classifications of this concept. For example, culturologists distinguish several types of culture. Here are some of them:

mass and individual;
western and eastern;
industrial and post-industrial;
urban and rural;
high (elite) and mass, etc.

As you can see, they are presented as pairs, each of which is an opposition. According to another classification, there are the following main types of culture:

material;
spiritual;
informational;
physical.

Each of them can have its own varieties. Some culturologists believe that the above are forms rather than types of culture. Let's look at each of them separately.

material culture

The subordination of natural energy and materials to human purposes and the creation of a new habitat by artificial means is called material culture. This also includes various technologies that are necessary for the preservation and further development of this environment. Thanks to material culture, the standard of living of society is set, the material needs of people are formed, and ways to satisfy them are proposed.

spiritual culture

Beliefs, concepts, feelings, experiences, emotions and ideas that help establish a spiritual connection between individuals are considered spiritual culture. It also includes all products of intangible human activity that exist in an ideal form. This culture contributes to the creation of a special world of values, as well as the formation and satisfaction of intellectual and emotional needs. She is also a product community development, and its main purpose is the production of consciousness.

Part of this type of culture is artistic. It, in turn, includes the totality of artistic values, as well as the system of their functioning, creation and reproduction that has developed in the course of history. For the whole civilization as a whole, as well as for a single individual, the role of artistic culture, which is otherwise called art, is simply enormous. It affects the inner spiritual world of a person, his mind, emotional state and feelings. Types of artistic culture are nothing more than different types of art. We list them: painting, sculpture, theater, literature, music, etc.

Art culture can be both mass (folk) and high (elitist). The first includes all works (most often - single ones) by unknown authors. Folk culture includes folklore creations: myths, epics, legends, songs and dances - which are available to the general public. But the elite, high, culture consists of a set of individual works of professional creators, which are known only to the privileged part of society. The varieties listed above are also types of culture. They simply refer not to the material, but to the spiritual side.

information culture

The basis of this type is knowledge about the information environment: the laws of functioning and methods of effective and fruitful activity in society, as well as the ability to correctly navigate in the endless streams of information. Since speech is one of the forms of information transfer, we would like to dwell on it in more detail.

A culture of speech

In order for people to communicate with each other, they need to have a culture of speech. Without this, mutual understanding will never arise between them, and hence interaction. From the first grade of school, children begin to study the subject "Native speech". Of course, before they come to the first grade, they already know how to speak and express their children's thoughts with the help of words, ask and demand that adults meet their needs, etc. However, the culture of speech is completely different.

At school, children are taught to correctly formulate their thoughts through words. This contributes to their mental development and self-expression as individuals. Every year the child has a new vocabulary, and he is already beginning to think differently: wider and deeper. Of course, in addition to the school, factors such as family, yard, group can also influence the culture of a child’s speech. From his peers, for example, he can learn words that are called profanity. Some people own very little for the rest of their lives. vocabulary, well, and, of course, have a low culture of speech. With such baggage, a person is unlikely to be able to achieve something big in life.

Physical Culture

Another form of culture is physical. It includes everything that is connected with the human body, with the work of its muscles. This includes the development of a person's physical abilities from birth to the end of life. This is a set of exercises, skills that contribute to the physical development of the body, leading to its beauty.

Culture and society

Man is a social being. He constantly interacts with people. You can better understand a person if you consider him from the point of view of relationships with others. In view of this, there are the following types cultures:

personality culture;
team culture;
the culture of society.

The first variety refers to the person himself. It includes its subjective qualities, character traits, habits, actions, etc. The culture of the team is formed as a result of the formation of traditions and the accumulation of experience by people united by a common activity. But the culture of society is an objective integrity cultural creativity. Its structure does not depend on individuals or groups. Culture and society, being very close systems, however, do not coincide in meaning and exist, although next to each other, but on their own, developing according to separate laws inherent only to them.

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What is Culture? The meaning and interpretation of the word kultura, the definition of the term

1) Culture- (from lat. cultura - cultivation, upbringing, education, development, veneration) - eng. culture; German culture. 1. The totality of material and spiritual values, expressing a certain level of history. development of a given society and individual. 2. The sphere of the spiritual life of society, including the system of education, upbringing, spiritual creativity. 3. The level of mastery of a particular area of knowledge or activity. 4. Forms of social. human behavior, due to the level of his upbringing and education.

2) Culture- (from lat. cultura - cultivation, upbringing, education, development, veneration) - specific. way of organizing and developing people. 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 relations to nature, to each other and to themselves. In the concept of K. is fixed as general difference human life from biological. forms of life, and the qualitative originality of the historically specific forms of this life activity in various ways. stages of society. development, within certain eras, social-economic. formations, ethnic and national communities (for example, ancient K, K. Maya, etc.). K. also characterizes the characteristics of the behavior, consciousness and activity of people in specific areas of society. life (K. labor, K. life, artistic K., political. m In K., the way of life of an individual individual (personal K.), social group (for example, K. class) or the whole society as a whole can be fixed Lit .: Self-consciousness of European culture of the twentieth century. M., 1991; Culture: theories and problems. M., 1995; Morphology of culture: structure and dynamics. M., 1994; Gurevich P.S. Culturology. M, 1996; Culturology 20th century Anthology, Moscow, 1995. V. M. Mezhuev.

3) Culture- - a set of traditions, customs, social norms, rules that regulate the behavior of those who live now, and transmitted to those who will live tomorrow.

4) Culture- - a system of values, life ideas, patterns of behavior, norms, a set of methods and techniques of human activity, objectified in subject, material carriers (tools, signs) and transmitted to subsequent generations.

5) Culture- - some complex whole, including spiritual and material products that are produced, socially assimilated and shared by members of society and can be passed on to other people or subsequent generations.

6) Culture- - a specific way of organizing and developing human life, represented in the products of material and spiritual production, in the system of social norms and institutions, in spiritual values, in the totality of people's relations to nature, to each other and to themselves. In culture, first of all, the general difference between human life activity and biological forms of life is embodied. Human behavior is determined not so much by nature as by upbringing and culture. Man differs from other animals in his ability to collectively create and transmit symbolic meanings signs, language. Outside of symbolic, cultural meanings (designations), not a single object can be included in the human world. In the same way, no object can be created without a preliminary "project" in the head of a person. The human world is a culturally built world, all boundaries in it have sociocultural character. Outside the system of cultural meanings, there is no difference between king and courtier, saint and sinner, beauty and ugliness. The main function of culture is the introduction and maintenance of a certain social order. Allocate material and spiritual culture. Material culture includes all spheres of material activity and its results. It includes equipment, dwellings, clothing, consumer goods, way of eating and settlements, etc., which together constitute a certain way of life. Spiritual culture includes all spheres of spiritual activity and its products - knowledge, education, enlightenment, law, philosophy, science, art, religion, etc. Outside of spiritual culture, culture does not exist at all, just as not a single type of human activity exists. Spiritual culture is also embodied in material media (books, paintings, diskettes, etc.). Therefore, the division of culture into spiritual and material is very conditional. Culture reflects the qualitative originality of historically specific forms of human life at various stages of historical development, within various eras, socio-economic formations, ethnic, national and other communities. Culture characterizes the features of people's activities in specific social spheres ( political culture, economic culture, culture of work and life, culture of entrepreneurship, etc.), as well as features of life social groups(class, youth, etc.). At the same time, there are cultural universals - certain things that are common to everything. cultural heritage elements of humanity (age gradation, division of labor, education, family, calendar, decorative arts, interpretation of dreams, etiquette, etc.). J. Murdoch singled out more than 70 such universals. Modern sense The term "culture" acquired only in the 20th century. Initially (in Ancient Rome, where this word came from), this word denoted cultivation, "cultivation" of the soil. In the 18th century, the term acquired an elitist character and meant civility opposed to barbarism. However, in Germany in the 18th century, culture and civilization were opposed to each other - as the focus of spiritual, moral and aesthetic values, the sphere of individual perfection (culture) and as something utilitarian-external, "technical", material, standardizing human culture and consciousness, threatening the spiritual world. human (civilization). This opposition formed the basis of the concept of cultural pessimism, or criticism of culture, in fact - criticism of modernity, allegedly leading to the collapse and death of culture (F. Tennis, F. Nietzsche, O. Spengler, G. Marcuse, etc.). In modern science, the term "civilization" remains ambiguous. The term "culture" has lost its former elitist (and generally any evaluative) connotation. From the point of view of modern sociologists, any society develops a specific culture, because it can exist only as a socio-cultural community. That is why the historical development of a particular society (country) is a unique sociocultural process, which cannot be understood and described using any general schemes. Therefore, any social change can be carried out only as sociocultural changes, which seriously limits the possibility of direct borrowing of foreign cultural forms - economic, political, educational, etc. In a different socio-cultural environment, they can acquire (and inevitably acquire) a completely different content and meaning. For the analysis of cultural dynamics, two main theoretical models have been developed - evolutionary (linear) and cyclic. Evolutionism, at the origins of which were G. Spencer, E. Taylor, J. Fraser, L. Morgan, proceeded from the idea of the unity of the human race and the uniformity of the development of culture. The process of cultural development seemed to be linear, general in content, passing general stages. Therefore, it was also possible to compare different cultures as more or less developed, and to single out "reference" cultures (Eurocentrism and, later, Americanocentrism). Cyclic theories represent cultural dynamics as a sequence of certain phases (stages) of change and development of cultures that naturally follow one after another (by analogy with human life - birth, childhood, etc.), each culture is considered as unique. Some of them have already completed their cycle, others exist, being at different phases of development. Therefore, one cannot speak of a common, universal history of mankind, one cannot compare and evaluate cultures as primitive or highly developed - they are simply different. In modern science, the ancestor of cyclical theories that arose in antiquity was N.Ya. Danilevsky ("Russia and Europe", 1871). He was followed by O. Spengler, A. Toynbee, P. Sorokin, L. Gumilyov and others. Both evolutionary and cyclic theories emphasize and absolutize only one of the aspects of the real process of cultural dynamics and cannot give an exhaustive description of it. modern science offers fundamentally new approaches (for example, the wave theory of culture, put forward by O. Toffler). Now humanity is experiencing, perhaps, the most profound in content and global in scale technological, social and cultural transformation. And culture is at the center of this process. Is born fundamentally new type culture - the culture of the post-industrial, information society. (See postmodernism).

7) Culture- - a system of specifically human activities that create spiritual and material values, and the resulting set of socially significant ideas, symbols, values, ideals, norms and rules of behavior, through which people organize their life.

8) Culture- - a system of values, life ideas, patterns of behavior, norms, a set of methods and techniques of human activity, objectified in subject, material carriers (tools, signs) and transmitted to subsequent generations.

9) Culture- (lat. cultura - cultivation, upbringing, education) - a system of historically developing supra-biological programs of human activity, behavior and communication, acting as a condition for the reproduction and change of social life in all its main manifestations. The programs of activity, behavior and communication that make up the body of K. are represented by a variety of different forms: knowledge, skills, norms and ideals, patterns of activity and behavior, ideas and hypotheses, beliefs, social goals and value orientations etc. In their totality and dynamics, they form a historically accumulated social experience. K. stores, broadcasts (transmits from generation to generation), and generates programs for the activity, behavior, and communication of people. In the life of society, they play approximately the same role as hereditary information (DNA, RNA) in a cell or a complex organism; they ensure the reproduction of the diversity of forms of social life, types of activities characteristic of a certain type of society, its inherent objective environment (second nature), its social connections and types of personalities - everything that makes up the real fabric of social life at a certain stage of its historical development. The concept of "K." developed historically. It initially denoted the processes of human development of nature (cultivation of the land, handicraft products), as well as education and training. As a term, it has been widely used in European philosophy and historical science since the second half of the 18th century. K. begins to be considered as a special aspect of the life of society, associated with the way in which human activity is carried out and characterizing the difference human being from animal existence. There are several lines in the development of the problems of culture. In the first of them, culture was considered as a process of development of the human mind and intelligent forms of life that oppose the savagery and barbarity of the primitive existence of mankind (French enlighteners); as the historical development of human spirituality - the evolution of moral, aesthetic, religious, philosophical, scientific, legal and political consciousness, ensuring the progress of mankind (German classical idealism - Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel; German romanticism - Schiller, Schlegel; German enlightenment - Lessing, Herder). The second line focused not on the progressive historical development of culture, but on its characteristics in various types of society, considering various cultures as autonomous systems of values and ideas that determine the type social organization(Neo-Kantianism - G. Rickert, E. Cassirer). O. Spengler, N. Danilevsky, Sorokin, Toynbee adjoined the same line. At the same time, the understanding of K. was expanded by including in it the entire wealth of material K., ethnic customs, diversity of languages and symbolic systems. At the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. The achievements of anthropology, ethnology, structural linguistics, semiotics, and information theory began to be actively used in the study of the problems of anthropology (cultural anthropology, Taylor and Boas; social anthropology, Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown; structural anthropology and structuralism, Levi-Strauss, Foucault, and Lacan; neo-Freudianism, etc.). As a result, new prerequisites for solving the problem of society and culture arose. On the one hand, culture and society are not identical, and on the other hand, culture permeates all areas and states of social life without exception. The problem is solved if K. is considered as an informational aspect of the life of society, as socially significant information that regulates the activity, behavior and communication of people. This information, acting as a cumulative historically developing social experience, can be partly realized by people, but very often it functions as a social subconscious. Its transmission from generation to generation is possible only through its consolidation in iconic form as the content of various semiotic systems. K. exists as a complex organization of such systems. Any fragments can act as their role. human world, acquiring the function of signs that fix programs of activity, behavior and communication: a person and his actions and deeds when they become models for other people, natural language, various types of artificial languages (the language of science, the language of art, conventional systems of signals and symbols that provide communication, etc.). Objects of a second nature created by man can also function as special signs that reinforce the accumulated social experience, expressing a certain way of behavior and activities of people in objective world. In this sense, one sometimes speaks of tools, technology, and household items as material art, contrasting them with the phenomena of spiritual art (works of art, philosophical, ethical, political teachings, scientific knowledge, religious ideas, etc.). However, this opposition is relative, since any phenomena of K. are semiotic formations. The objects of material communication play a dual role in human life: on the one hand, they serve practical purposes, and on the other hand, they act as means of storing and transmitting socially significant information. Only in their second function do they act as K. phenomena (Yu. Lotman). Programs of activity, behavior and communication, represented by a variety of cultural phenomena, have a complex hierarchical organization. They can be divided into three levels. The first is relic programs, fragments of past K., who live in modern world having a certain effect on a person. People often unconsciously act in accordance with programs of behavior that were formed in the primitive era and which have lost their value as a regulator that ensures the success of practical actions. This includes many superstitions, such as signs among Russian Pomors that sexual relations before going out on a fishing trip can make it unsuccessful (a relic of the taboo of the primitive era that really regulated sexual relations primitive community during the period of the group family, thus eliminating clashes motivated by jealousy in the community, which violated joint production activities). The second level is a layer of programs of behavior, activity, communication that provide today's reproduction of one or another type of society. And, finally, the third level of cultural phenomena is formed by programs of social life addressed to the future. They are generated by K. due to the internal operation of sign systems. Theoretical knowledge developed in science, causing a revolution in the technique and technology of subsequent eras; ideals of the future social structure that have not yet become the dominant ideology; new moral principles developed in the field of philosophical and ethical teachings and often ahead of their time - all these are examples of programs for future activities, a prerequisite for changes existing forms social life. The more dynamic the society, the more valuable this level of cultural creativity, addressed to the future, acquires. In modern societies, its dynamics is largely ensured by the activities of a special social stratum of people - creative intelligentsia, which, according to its social purpose, must constantly generate cultural innovations. The variety of cultural phenomena of all its levels, despite their dynamism and relative independence, are organized into an integral system. Their system-forming factor is the ultimate foundations of each historically defined conception. They are represented by ideological universals (categories of conception), which, in their interaction and linkage, define an integral generalized image of the human world. Worldview universals are categories that accumulate historically accumulated social experience and in the system of which a person of a certain K. evaluates, comprehends and experiences the world, brings into integrity all the phenomena of reality that fall within the scope of his experience. Categorical structures that provide rubricification and systematization of human experience have long been studied by philosophy. But she explores them in a specific way, as extremely general concepts. In real life, however, they act not only as forms of rational thinking, but also as schematisms that determine the human perception of the world, its understanding and experience. It is possible to single out two large and interconnected blocks of K universals. The first category includes categories that fix the most general, attributive characteristics of objects included in human activity. They act as the basic structures of human consciousness and are universal in nature, since any objects (natural and social), including symbolic objects of thought, can become objects of activity. Their attributive characteristics are fixed in the categories of space, time, movement, thing, relationship, quantity, quality, measure, content, causality, chance, necessity, etc. But in addition to them, special types of categories are formed and function in the historical development of culture, through which the definitions of a person as a subject of activity, the structure of his communication, his relationship to other people and society as a whole, to the goals and values of social life are expressed. They form the second block of universals K., which includes the categories: "man", "society", "consciousness", "good", "evil", "beauty", "faith", "hope", "duty", " conscience", "justice", "freedom", etc. These categories are fixed in the most general form historically accumulated experience of including the individual in the system of social relations and communications. There is always a mutual correlation between the indicated blocks of universals K., which expresses the connections between the subject-object and subject-subject relations of human life. Therefore, the universals of K. arise, develop and function as complete system, where each element is directly or indirectly related to others. The system of universals of culture expresses the most general ideas about the main components and aspects of human life, about the place of man in the world, about social relations, the spiritual life and values of the human world, about the nature and organization of its objects, and so on. They act as a kind of deep programs that predetermine the cohesion, reproduction and variations of the whole variety of specific forms and types of behavior and activities characteristic of a certain type of social organization. In the ideological universals of K., one can single out a kind of invariant, some abstractly universal content that is characteristic of various types of K. and forms the deep structures of human consciousness. But this layer of content does not exist in its pure form by itself. It is always connected with the specific meanings inherent in culture of a historically certain type of society, which express the peculiarities of the methods of communication and activities of people, the storage and transmission of social experience, and the scale of values adopted in this culture. It is these meanings that characterize the national and ethnic characteristics of each culture, its understanding of space and time, good and evil, life and death, attitudes towards nature, labor, personality, and so on. They determine the specifics of not only distant, but also related Chinese - for example, the difference between Japanese and Chinese, American from English, Belarusian from Russian and Ukrainian, etc. In turn, the historically special in the universals of K. is always concretized in a huge variety of group and individual world perceptions and world experiences. For a person formed by the corresponding world view, the meanings of its ideological universals most often act as something taken for granted, as presumptions, in accordance with which he builds his life activity and which he often does not realize as its deep foundations. The meanings of the universals of K., which form a categorical model of the world in their connections, are found in all areas of K. of one or another historical type in everyday language, phenomena moral consciousness, in philosophy, religion, the artistic exploration of the world, the functioning of technology, political politics, and so on. Philosophers, culturologists, and historians have noted the resonance of various spheres of culture during the period of the formation of new ideas that have ideological meaning when analyzing various stages in the development of science, art, political and moral consciousness, and so on in a synchronous cross-section. (Spengler, Cassirer, Toynbee, Losev, Bakhtin). It is possible, for example, to establish a kind of resonance between the ideas of the theory of relativity in science and the ideas of the linguistic avant-garde of the 1870-1880s (J. Winteler and others), the formation of a new artistic concept world in impressionism and post-impressionism, new to the literature of the last third of the 19th century. ways of describing and comprehending human situations (for example, in the works of Dostoevsky), when the author’s consciousness, his spiritual world and his worldview concept do not stand above the spiritual worlds of his characters, as if describing them from the absolute coordinate system, but coexist with these worlds and enter into a dialogue with them. The transformation of society and the type of civilizational development always involves a change in the deep meanings of life and values enshrined in the universals of K. The reorganization of societies is always associated with a revolution in the minds, with criticism of previously dominant worldview orientations and the development of new values. No major social change are impossible without changes in K. As a social individual, a person is a creation of K. He becomes a personality only through the assimilation of social experience transmitted in K. The very process of such assimilation is carried out as socialization, training and education. In this process, there is a complex docking of biological programs that characterize his individual heredity, and suprabiological programs of communication, behavior and activity that make up a kind of social heredity. Getting involved in activities, thanks to the assimilation of these programs, a person is able to invent new patterns, norms, ideas, beliefs, etc., which can correspond to social needs. In this case, they are included in K. and begin to program the activities of other people. Individual experience is transformed into social experience, and new states and phenomena appear in the culture that reinforce this experience. Any changes in K. arise only thanks to creative activity personality. Man, being the creation of K., at the same time is also its creator. See also: Categories of culture. V.S. Stepin

10) Culture- (culture) - the creation of man and the use of symbols, crafts. Culture can be understood as the "lifeline" of an entire society, and this will include norms of customs, dress, language, rituals, behavior and belief systems. Sociologists emphasize that human behavior is, first of all, the result not so much of nature (biological determinants) as of upbringing (social determinants) (see Disputes about nature and upbringing). Indeed, his being differs from other animals in the ability to collectively create and transmit symbolic meanings (see Language). Knowledge of culture is acquired through a complex process that is essentially social in origin. People act on the basis of culture and are exposed to its feedback, as well as give rise to its new forms and meanings. Therefore, cultures are characterized by historical character, relativity, and diversity (see Cultural relativism). They are influenced by changes in the economic, social and political organization of society. In addition, people are culturally transformed due to the unique ability to be reflective (see Reflectivity). In many societies, there is a belief that culture and nature are in conflict with each other; that the former should strive to conquer the latter through the process of civilization. Such a representation can be found in the natural science traditions of Western societies, as well as in the theory of Freud, who sees a culture that arises outside the containment and sublimation of the motives of human behavior (Eros and Thanatos). Many, however, regard given relation not as a contradiction, but as a complement. In feminist works recent years it is suggested that belief systems that advocate an antagonistic relationship between nature and culture have proven to be ecologically destructive. After all, people are nature and have a consciousness of nature (Griffin, 1982). They are not only able to create cultural forms and in turn be supported by these forms, but also to theorize about culture as such. Hidden in many sociological approaches were ideas about the relative merits of certain life paths and cultural forms. For example, cultural theorists, both within and outside their discipline, have distinguished between "higher" and "lower" cultures, popular culture, popular culture, and mass culture. The latter concept has been used by both radical and conservative critics to express dissatisfaction state of the art art, literature, language and culture in general. Belonging to very different political ideologies, both groups argue that the culture of the 20th century has become impoverished and weakened. The independent, knowledgeable, and critical public has been replaced by an unstructured and largely indifferent mass. Radical theorists see a threat to the quality of culture not from this mass, but from the said public. This is most clearly expressed in the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory's definition of "capitalist cultural industry", for the capitalist media have the ability to manipulate the tastes, shortcomings and needs of the masses. However, conservative and elitist cultural theorists, led by Ortega y Gasset (1930) and T.S. Eliot (1948) take the opposite view: through the rise of power, the masses endanger the culturally creative elites. Human behavior actually cannot exist outside the influence of culture. What initially seems to be a natural feature of our life - sexuality, aging, death - has been meaningful culture and its transformative influence. Even food consumption, with obvious naturalness, is permeated cultural significance and customs. See also Anthropology; Mass society; Subculture.

culture

(from lat. cultura - cultivation, upbringing, education, development, veneration) - English. culture; German culture. 1. The totality of material and spiritual values, expressing a certain level of history. development of a given society and individual. 2. The sphere of the spiritual life of society, including the system of education, upbringing, spiritual creativity. 3. The level of mastery of a particular area of knowledge or activity. 4. Forms of social. human behavior, due to the level of his upbringing and education.

(from lat. cultura - cultivation, upbringing, education, development, veneration) - specific. way of organizing and developing people. 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 relations to nature, to each other and to themselves. In the concept of K., it is fixed as a common difference between human beings. life from biological. forms of life, and the qualitative originality of the historically specific forms of this life activity in various ways. stages of society. development, within certain eras, social-economic. formations, ethnic and national communities (for example, ancient K, K. Maya, etc.). K. also characterizes the characteristics of the behavior, consciousness and activity of people in specific areas of society. life (K. labor, K. life, artistic K., political. m In K., the way of life of an individual individual (personal K.), social group (for example, K. class) or the whole society as a whole can be fixed Lit .: Self-consciousness of European culture of the twentieth century. M., 1991; Culture: theories and problems. M., 1995; Morphology of culture: structure and dynamics. M., 1994; Gurevich P.S. Culturology. M, 1996; Culturology 20th century Anthology, Moscow, 1995. V. M. Mezhuev.

A set of traditions, customs, social norms, rules that regulate the behavior of those who live now and are passed on to those who will live tomorrow.

The system of values, life ideas, patterns of behavior, norms, a set of methods and techniques of human activity, objectified in subject, material carriers (tools, signs) and transmitted to subsequent generations.

Some complex whole that includes spiritual and material products that are produced, socially assimilated and shared by members of society and can be passed on to other people or subsequent generations.

- a specific way of organizing and developing human life, represented in the products of material and spiritual production, in the system of social norms and institutions, in spiritual values, in the totality of people's relations to nature, to each other and to themselves. In culture, first of all, the general difference between human life activity and biological forms of life is embodied. Human behavior is determined not so much by nature as by upbringing and culture. Man differs from other animals in the ability to collectively create and transmit symbolic meanings - signs, language. Outside of symbolic, cultural meanings (designations), not a single object can be included in the human world. In the same way, no object can be created without a preliminary "project" in the head of a person. The human world is a culturally built world, all boundaries in it have a socio-cultural character. Outside the system of cultural meanings, there is no difference between king and courtier, saint and sinner, beauty and ugliness. The main function of culture is the introduction and maintenance of a certain social order. Allocate material and spiritual culture. Material culture includes all spheres of material activity and its results. It includes equipment, dwellings, clothing, consumer goods, way of eating and settlements, etc., which together constitute a certain way of life. Spiritual culture includes all spheres of spiritual activity and its products - knowledge, education, enlightenment, law, philosophy, science, art, religion, etc. Outside of spiritual culture, culture does not exist at all, just as not a single type of human activity exists. Spiritual culture is also embodied in material media (books, paintings, diskettes, etc.). Therefore, the division of culture into spiritual and material is very conditional. Culture reflects the qualitative originality of historically specific forms of human life at various stages of historical development, within various eras, socio-economic formations, ethnic, national and other communities. Culture characterizes the features of people's activities in specific public spheres (political culture, economic culture, culture of work and life, culture of entrepreneurship, etc.), as well as the features of the life of social groups (class, youth, etc.). At the same time, there are cultural universals - certain elements common to the entire cultural heritage of mankind (age gradation, division of labor, education, family, calendar, decorative arts, interpretation of dreams, etiquette, etc.). ). J. Murdoch singled out more than 70 such universals. The term "culture" acquired its modern meaning only in the 20th century. Initially (in Ancient Rome, where this word came from), this word denoted cultivation, "cultivation" of the soil. In the 18th century, the term acquired an elitist character and meant civility opposed to barbarism. However, in Germany in the 18th century, culture and civilization were opposed to each other - as the focus of spiritual, moral and aesthetic values, the sphere of individual perfection (culture) and as something utilitarian-external, "technical", material, standardizing human culture and consciousness, threatening the spiritual world. human (civilization). This opposition formed the basis of the concept of cultural pessimism, or criticism of culture, in fact - criticism of modernity, allegedly leading to the collapse and death of culture (F. Tennis, F. Nietzsche, O. Spengler, G. Marcuse, etc.). In modern science, the term "civilization" remains ambiguous. The term "culture" has lost its former elitist (and generally any evaluative) connotation. From the point of view of modern sociologists, any society develops a specific culture, because it can exist only as a socio-cultural community. That is why the historical development of a particular society (country) is a unique socio-cultural process that cannot be understood and described using any general schemes. Therefore, any social changes can be carried out only as socio-cultural changes, which seriously limits the possibility of direct borrowing of foreign cultural forms - economic, political, educational, etc. In a different socio-cultural environment, they can acquire (and inevitably acquire) a completely different content and meaning. For the analysis of cultural dynamics, two main theoretical models have been developed - evolutionary (linear) and cyclic. Evolutionism, at the origins of which were G. Spencer, E. Taylor, J. Fraser, L. Morgan, proceeded from the idea of the unity of the human race and the uniformity of the development of culture. The process of cultural development seemed to be linear, general in content, passing through common stages. Therefore, it was also possible to compare different cultures as more or less developed, and to single out "reference" cultures (Eurocentrism and, later, Americanocentrism). Cyclic theories represent cultural dynamics as a sequence of certain phases (stages) of change and development of cultures that naturally follow one after another (by analogy with human life - birth, childhood, etc. ), each culture is considered unique. Some of them have already completed their cycle, others exist, being at different phases of development. Therefore, one cannot speak of a common, universal history of mankind, one cannot compare and evaluate cultures as primitive or highly developed - they are simply different. In modern science, the ancestor of cyclical theories that arose in antiquity was N.Ya. Danilevsky ("Russia and Europe", 1871). He was followed by O. Spengler, A. Toynbee, P. Sorokin, L. Gumilyov and others. Both evolutionary and cyclic theories emphasize and absolutize only one of the aspects of the real process of cultural dynamics and cannot give an exhaustive description of it. Modern science offers fundamentally new approaches (for example, the wave theory of culture, put forward by O. Toffler). Now humanity is experiencing, perhaps, the most profound in content and global in scale technological, social and cultural transformation. And culture is at the center of this process. A fundamentally new type of culture is emerging - the culture of the post-industrial, information society. (See postmodernism).

A system of specifically human activities that create spiritual and material values, and the resulting set of socially significant ideas, symbols, values, ideals, norms and rules of behavior through which people organize their life.

- a system of values, life ideas, patterns of behavior, norms, a set of methods and techniques of human activity, objectified in subject, material carriers (tools, signs) and transmitted to subsequent generations.

(lat. cultura - cultivation, upbringing, education) - a system of historically developing supra-biological programs of human activity, behavior and communication, acting as a condition for the reproduction and change of social life in all its main manifestations. The programs of activity, behavior, and communication that make up the K. corpus are represented by a variety of different forms: knowledge, skills, norms and ideals, patterns of activity and behavior, ideas and hypotheses, beliefs, social goals and value orientations, etc. In their totality and dynamics, they form a historically accumulated social experience. K. stores, broadcasts (transmits from generation to generation), and generates programs for the activity, behavior, and communication of people. In the life of society, they play approximately the same role as hereditary information (DNA, RNA) in a cell or a complex organism; they ensure the reproduction of the diversity of forms of social life, types of activities characteristic of a certain type of society, its inherent objective environment (second nature), its social connections and types of personalities - everything that makes up the real fabric of social life at a certain stage of its historical development. The concept of "K." developed historically. It initially denoted the processes of human development of nature (cultivation of the land, handicraft products), as well as education and training. As a term, it has been widely used in European philosophy and historical science since the second half of the 18th century. K. begins to be considered as a special aspect of the life of society, associated with the way in which human activity is carried out and characterizing the difference between human existence and animal existence. There are several lines in the development of the problems of culture. In the first of them, culture was considered as a process of development of the human mind and intelligent forms of life that oppose the savagery and barbarity of the primitive existence of mankind (French enlighteners); as the historical development of human spirituality - the evolution of moral, aesthetic, religious, philosophical, scientific, legal and political consciousness, ensuring the progress of mankind (German classical idealism - Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel; German romanticism - Schiller, Schlegel; German enlightenment - Lessing, Herder). The second line focused attention not on the progressive historical development of culture, but on its features in various types of society, considering various cultures as autonomous systems of values and ideas that determine the type of social organization (neo-Kantianism - G. Rickert, E. Cassirer). O. Spengler, N. Danilevsky, Sorokin, Toynbee adjoined the same line. At the same time, the understanding of culture was expanded by including in it the entire wealth of material culture, ethnic customs, and a variety of languages and symbolic systems. At the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. The achievements of anthropology, ethnology, structural linguistics, semiotics, and information theory began to be actively used in the study of the problems of anthropology (cultural anthropology, Taylor and Boas; social anthropology, Malinowski and Radcliffe-Brown; structural anthropology and structuralism, Levi-Strauss, Foucault, and Lacan; neo-Freudianism, etc.). As a result, new prerequisites for solving the problem of society and culture arose. On the one hand, culture and society are not identical, and on the other hand, culture permeates all areas and states of social life without exception. The problem is solved if K. is considered as an informational aspect of the life of society, as socially significant information that regulates the activity, behavior and communication of people. This information, acting as a cumulative historically developing social experience, can be partly realized by people, but very often it functions as a social subconscious. Its transmission from generation to generation is only possible due to its consolidation in sign form as the content of various semiotic systems. K. exists as a complex organization of such systems. Any fragments of the human world can play their role, acquiring the function of signs that fix programs of activity, behavior and communication: a person and his actions and deeds when they become models for other people, natural language, various types of artificial languages (language of science, language arts, conventional systems of signals and symbols that provide communication, etc.). Objects of a second nature created by man can also function as special signs that reinforce the accumulated social experience, expressing a certain way of behavior and activity of people in the objective world. In this sense, tools, technology, and household items are sometimes spoken of as material art, contrasting them with the phenomena of spiritual art (works of art, philosophical, ethical, and political teachings, scientific knowledge, religious ideas, and so on). However, this opposition is relative, since any phenomena of K. are semiotic formations. The objects of material communication play a dual role in human life: on the one hand, they serve practical purposes, and on the other hand, they act as means of storing and transmitting socially significant information. Only in their second function do they act as K. phenomena (Yu. Lotman). Programs of activity, behavior and communication, represented by a variety of cultural phenomena, have a complex hierarchical organization. They can be divided into three levels. The first is relic programs, fragments of the past K., which live in the modern world, exerting a certain influence on a person. People often unconsciously act in accordance with programs of behavior that were formed in the primitive era and which have lost their value as a regulator that ensures the success of practical actions. This includes many superstitions, such as the sign among Russian Pomors that sexual relations before going fishing can make it unsuccessful (a relic of the taboo of the primitive era that really regulated the sexual relations of the primitive community during the group family, thus eliminating clashes based on jealousy in community that violated joint production activities). The second level is a layer of programs of behavior, activity, communication that provide today's reproduction of one or another type of society. And, finally, the third level of cultural phenomena is formed by programs of social life addressed to the future. They are generated by K. due to the internal operation of sign systems. Theoretical knowledge developed in science, causing a revolution in the technique and technology of subsequent eras; ideals of the future social order, which have not yet become the dominant ideology; new moral principles developed in the field of philosophical and ethical teachings and often ahead of their time - all these are examples of programs for future activity, a prerequisite for changes in existing forms of social life. The more dynamic the society, the more valuable this level of cultural creativity, addressed to the future, acquires. In modern societies, its dynamics is largely ensured by the activities of a special social layer of people - the creative intelligentsia, which, according to its social purpose, must constantly generate cultural innovations. The variety of cultural phenomena of all its levels, despite their dynamism and relative independence, are organized into an integral system. Their system-forming factor is the ultimate foundations of each historically defined conception. They are represented by ideological universals (categories of conception), which, in their interaction and linkage, define an integral generalized image of the human world. Worldview universals are categories that accumulate historically accumulated social experience and in the system of which a person of a certain K. evaluates, comprehends and experiences the world, brings into integrity all the phenomena of reality that fall within the scope of his experience. Categorical structures that provide rubricification and systematization of human experience have long been studied by philosophy. But she explores them in a specific way, as extremely general concepts. In real life, however, they act not only as forms of rational thinking, but also as schematisms that determine the human perception of the world, its understanding and experience. It is possible to single out two large and interconnected blocks of K universals. The first category includes categories that fix the most general, attributive characteristics of objects included in human activity. They act as the basic structures of human consciousness and are universal in nature, since any objects (natural and social), including symbolic objects of thought, can become objects of activity. Their attributive characteristics are fixed in the categories of space, time, movement, thing, relationship, quantity, quality, measure, content, causality, chance, necessity, etc. But in addition to them, special types of categories are formed and function in the historical development of culture, through which the definitions of a person as a subject of activity, the structure of his communication, his relationship to other people and society as a whole, to the goals and values of social life are expressed. They form the second block of universals K., which includes the categories: "man", "society", "consciousness", "good", "evil", "beauty", "faith", "hope", "duty", " conscience", "justice", "freedom", etc. These categories fix in the most general form the historically accumulated experience of including the individual in the system of social relations and communications. There is always a mutual correlation between the indicated blocks of universals K., which expresses the connections between the subject-object and subject-subject relations of human life. Therefore, the universals of K. arise, develop and function as an integral system, where each element is directly or indirectly connected with others. The system of universals of culture expresses the most general ideas about the main components and aspects of human life, about the place of man in the world, about social relations, the spiritual life and values of the human world, about the nature and organization of its objects, and so on. They act as a kind of deep programs that predetermine the cohesion, reproduction and variations of the whole variety of specific forms and types of behavior and activities characteristic of a certain type of social organization. In the ideological universals of K., one can single out a kind of invariant, some abstractly universal content that is characteristic of various types of K. and forms the deep structures of human consciousness. But this layer of content does not exist in its pure form by itself. It is always connected with the specific meanings inherent in culture of a historically certain type of society, which express the peculiarities of the methods of communication and activities of people, the storage and transmission of social experience, and the scale of values adopted in this culture. It is these meanings that characterize the national and ethnic characteristics of each culture, its understanding of space and time, good and evil, life and death, attitudes towards nature, labor, personality, and so on. They determine the specifics of not only distant, but also related Chinese - for example, the difference between Japanese and Chinese, American from English, Belarusian from Russian and Ukrainian, etc. In turn, the historically special in the universals of K. is always concretized in a huge variety of group and individual world perceptions and world experiences. For a person formed by the corresponding world view, the meanings of its ideological universals most often act as something taken for granted, as presumptions, in accordance with which he builds his life activity and which he often does not realize as its deep foundations. The meanings of universals of culture, which in their connections form a categorical model of the world, are found in all areas of culture of one or another historical type in everyday language, in the phenomena of moral consciousness, in philosophy, religion, in the artistic exploration of the world, in the functioning of technology, in political culture, and so on. .P. Philosophers, culturologists, and historians have noted the resonance of various spheres of culture during the period of the formation of new ideas that have ideological meaning when analyzing various stages in the development of science, art, political and moral consciousness, and so on in a synchronous cross-section. (Spengler, Cassirer, Toynbee, Losev, Bakhtin). One can, for example, establish a kind of resonance between the ideas of the theory of relativity in science and the ideas of the linguistic avant-garde of the 1870s-1880s (J. Winteler and others), the formation of a new artistic concept of the world in impressionism and post-impressionism, new to the literature of the last third of the 19th century. ways of describing and comprehending human situations (for example, in the works of Dostoevsky), when the author’s consciousness, his spiritual world and his worldview concept do not stand above the spiritual worlds of his characters, as if describing them from the absolute coordinate system, but coexist with these worlds and enter into a dialogue with them. The transformation of society and the type of civilizational development always involves a change in the deep meanings of life and values enshrined in the universals of K. The reorganization of societies is always associated with a revolution in the minds, with criticism of previously dominant worldview orientations and the development of new values. No major social changes are possible without changes in K. As a social individual, a person is a creation of K. He becomes a person only through the assimilation of social experience transmitted in K. The very process of such assimilation is carried out as socialization, training and education. In this process, there is a complex docking of biological programs that characterize his individual heredity, and suprabiological programs of communication, behavior and activity that make up a kind of social heredity. Getting involved in activities, thanks to the assimilation of these programs, a person is able to invent new patterns, norms, ideas, beliefs, etc., which can correspond to social needs. In this case, they are included in K. and begin to program the activities of other people. Individual experience is transformed into social experience, and new states and phenomena appear in the culture that reinforce this experience. Any changes in K. arise only due to the creative activity of the individual. Man, being the creation of K., at the same time is also its creator. See also: Categories of culture. V.S. Stepin

(culture) - the creation of man and the use of symbols, crafts. Culture can be understood as the "lifeline" of an entire society, and this will include norms of customs, dress, language, rituals, behavior and belief systems. Sociologists emphasize that human behavior is, first of all, the result not so much of nature (biological determinants) as of upbringing (social determinants) (see Disputes about nature and upbringing). Indeed, his being differs from other animals in the ability to collectively create and transmit symbolic meanings (see Language). Knowledge of culture is acquired through a complex process that is essentially social in origin. People act on the basis of culture and are exposed to its feedback, as well as give rise to its new forms and meanings. Therefore, cultures are characterized by historical character, relativity, and diversity (see Cultural relativism). They are influenced by changes in the economic, social and political organization of society. In addition, people are culturally transformed due to the unique ability to be reflective (see Reflectivity). In many societies, there is a belief that culture and nature are in conflict with each other; that the former should strive to conquer the latter through the process of civilization. Such a representation can be found in the natural science traditions of Western societies, as well as in the theory of Freud, who sees a culture that arises outside the containment and sublimation of the motives of human behavior (Eros and Thanatos). Many, however, regard this attitude not as a contradiction, but as an addition. Recent feminist writings have suggested that belief systems that advocate an antagonistic relationship between nature and culture have proven to be ecologically destructive. After all, people are nature and have a consciousness of nature (Griffin, 1982). They are not only able to create cultural forms and in turn be supported by these forms, but also to theorize about culture as such. Hidden in many sociological approaches were ideas about the relative merits of certain life paths and cultural forms. For example, cultural theorists, both within and outside their discipline, have distinguished between "higher" and "lower" cultures, popular culture, popular culture, and mass culture. The latter concept has been used by both radical and conservative critics to express dissatisfaction with the current state of art, literature, language, and culture in general. Belonging to very different political ideologies, both groups argue that the culture of the 20th century has become impoverished and weakened. The independent, knowledgeable, and critical public has been replaced by an unstructured and largely indifferent mass. Radical theorists see a threat to the quality of culture not from this mass, but from the said public. This is most clearly expressed in the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory's definition of "capitalist cultural industry", for the capitalist media have the ability to manipulate the tastes, shortcomings and needs of the masses. However, conservative and elitist cultural theorists, led by Ortega y Gasset (1930) and T.S. Eliot (1948) take the opposite view: through the rise of power, the masses endanger the culturally creative elites. Human behavior actually cannot exist outside the influence of culture. What initially seems to be a natural feature of our lives - sexuality, aging, death - has been made significant by culture and its transformative influence. Even food consumption, while obviously natural, is permeated with cultural meanings and customs. See also Anthropology; Mass society; Subculture.

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American anthropologists A. Kroeber and K. Klakhohn in the book "Culture. A critical review of concepts and definitions" gave about three hundred definitions of culture, which they divided into six main types. Let us first give the definitions from this book as presented by L. Ionin.

Descriptive definitions. According to Taylor, "culture, or civilization, in the broad ethnographic sense, 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." .

Historical definitions. An example here is the definition given by the famous linguist E. Sapir: culture is "a socially inherited complex of modes of activity and beliefs that make up the fabric of our life." The lack of definitions of this type is associated with the assumption of stability and immutability, as a result of which human activity in the development and change of culture is overlooked.

Regulatory definitions. These definitions fall into two groups. The first of these are definitions that focus on the idea of a way of life. According to the definition given by the anthropologist K. Whisler, "a way of life followed by a community or a tribe is considered culture.; The culture of a tribe is a set of standardized beliefs and practices followed by a tribe." The second group is definitions that focus on ideas about ideals and values. Here we can quote two definitions: given by the philosopher T. Carver - "culture is the release of excess human energy in the constant realization of higher abilities", and proposed by the sociologist W. Thomas - "culture is the material and social values of any group of people (institutions , habits, attitudes, behavioral responses) regardless of whether we are talking about savages or civilized people" .

Psychological definitions. “Culture is a sociological designation for unscientific behavior, that is, behavior that is not given to man) from birth, is not predetermined in its germ cells like wasps or social ants, but must be assimilated by each new generation anew by learning from adult people” ( anthropologist R. Benedict). “Culture is “forms of habitual behavior common to a group, community, or society. It consists of material and non-material elements "" (sociologist K. Yang).

Structural definitions. The definitions given by the anthropologist R. Linton are characteristic here: "a) Cultures are ultimately nothing more than organized repetitive reactions of members of society, b) Culture is a combination of learned behavior and behavioral results, the components of which are shared and inherited by members of this society."

Genetic definitions. "Culture is the name for a special order or class of phenomena, namely: those things and phenomena which depend on the realization mental capacity, specific to the human race, which we call "symbolization". More specifically, culture is material objects- tools, devices, ornaments, amulets, etc., as well as actions, beliefs and attitudes that function in the contexts of symbolization. This is a subtle mechanism, the organization of exosomatic ways and means used by a special kind of animal, that is, man, to fight for existence or survival "(sociologist L. White).

L. Ionin finishes the presentation of the definitions of culture own understanding. “However,” he writes, “one can roughly imagine what the authors of literally all the above definitions would agree on. Without a doubt, they would agree that culture is what distinguishes man from animals, culture is a characteristic of human society.In addition, they would probably agree that culture is not biologically inherited, but involves learning.Furthermore, they would certainly recognize that culture is directly related to the ideas that exist and are transmitted in symbolic form(through language)" .

E. Orlova characterizes culture as follows: "Culture is defined as everything that is created by people; as a value education; as a set of norms; as a symbolic aspect modern life and activities of people; as a technology of human adaptation to the environment; as ways of broadcasting socially significant information; as communication systems in society, etc. Everywhere there is a desire to emphasize the specificity of the aspect of consideration public life; to differentiate the studied objects according to anthropogens (and not metaphysically) or natural grounds; build an integral picture of the studied area of phenomena as generated and maintained by people, and not just a conceptual integrity, identify it as a certain "type of culture"; use the principle of synchronous or diachronic comparison of objects for its construction. In other words, it can be stated that, with all the differences in approaches, cultural researchers work within approximately the same conceptual limits.

Although B. Erasov defines culture as a sphere of spiritual production, nevertheless, this is not about Marxism, but about a sociological approach. "In general and compressed form culture is a process and a product of spiritual production as a system for the creation, storage, dissemination and development of spiritual values, norms, knowledge, ideas, meanings and symbols. It forms the spiritual world of society and man, provides society as a whole with a differentiated system of knowledge and orientation necessary for the implementation of all types of activities that exist in society. It develops those ideas, norms, meanings and goals that guide society in regulating the diversity of its activities. At the same time, it contributes to the spiritual integration of society and its various groups. The products of this production exist not only in the sphere of consciousness - in the intellectual or art form. They are designated, i.e. acquire the properties of a sign or an entire sign system (language, religion, morality, ideology, styles of art and literature). Significant efforts of each generation are required to preserve, reproduce, maintain and select values, knowledge and orientations, to update them or to give them new interpretation and bring them into line with the changing conditions of life. This requires appropriate tools, personnel - everything that the education system, religious institutions and secular culture embody.

G. Drach in " training course in Culturology" (Rostov n / D, 1995, p. 53) characterizes culture as follows:

"Consequently, defining the essence of culture, three main areas can be distinguished. First, in the form of completed ones that have found their materialization in the objects of material and spiritual human activity. Here, in the results of human activity, the features of human activity in various types of culture, types of human society, at certain stages of its historical development.Secondly, in the form of subjects, creators and bearers of culture.Here cultural studies are based on ethnographic descriptions, ethnology (the doctrine of the people - ethnos), on the sociological dimensions of society.However, unlike social -philosophical consideration of society, the culturologist brings his research to the socio-psychological level, highlighting the national character of the people, the mentality (peculiarities of thinking), manifestations of morality.Thirdly, in the form of institutional ties, institutions that translate the subjective reality of individuals into an objective plane.Here it is not only about "what" the ethnos produces, and not only "who" produces, what is the cultural face (customs, mores and traditions) of the ethnos, and most importantly - "how they produce". And this "how" characterizes, first of all, the way of assimilation of reality, technological experience, techniques and methods of obtaining information and transmitting them from generation to generation.

Culture (from the Latin - agriculture, education) is a term denoting many concepts from various fields. Most often, culture is understood as the area of human activity, which is associated with the self-expression of a person. In culture, the subjectivity of a person, his characteristics, character, skills, knowledge and skills are manifested.

Even in ancient Greece, such a term as “paideia” was widespread, which meant internal culture, the culture of the soul, upbringing and education. In ancient Greece, the concept of "culture" was directly related to education, good breeding and love for agriculture. But over time, the term "culture" has significantly expanded and changed, acquired many shades and areas (including legal, corporate, organizational culture). So what is culture in all the variety of this word?

What is physical culture

Physical culture is a field 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 for many centuries for the comprehensive development and improvement of a person, for his physical training and formation of his healthy lifestyle life.

Physical culture is a part of society, which includes the age-old experience of physiological, moral, psychological and mental development 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;
human health and development.

What is spiritual culture

Spiritual culture is a system of knowledge and ideas that refers to all of humanity or to any cultural and historical unity: a people (Russian culture), a nation, 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 daily, but absorbs spiritual experience from which he evaluates everything around him, from which he loves and believes in something.

Spiritual culture, unlike 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 one. 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 combines forms of social consciousness (art, science, morality, legal consciousness, religion, ideology) and their embodiment in architectural, literary, artistic monuments.

What is the culture of society

Culture in terms of social expression usually means the following:

the totality of a person's achievements different areas public life (personality culture);
way and method of organization public relations on the example of social institutions;
the degree of development of the individual in society, familiarizing him with 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, 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 inner world man, on his mind, feelings and emotions. Thanks to this, a person cognizes in images some fragment of reality, laid down by the artist in his work. Artistic culture presupposes both the preservation of the best elements of the old and the creation of a new one, the enhancement of the cultural heritage of mankind.

What is mass culture

Popular 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 subject 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 opposed to elitist, " high culture". Also Mass culture included in the concept folk culture and is part of it.