Chapter Three The main stages of Russian emigration to Italy For Russians, Rome and Italy were of particular importance. Even before the revolution, many of our outstanding compatriots visited and lived here for a long time. For many of the post-October emigration, Italy became the second

Polischuk Viktor Ivanovych

TOPIC 6 The main stages of the formation of cultural studies The development of culture was accompanied by the formation of its self-consciousness. In the myths and traditions of peoples, in the teachings of individual thinkers, there are conjectures and ideas that express the desire to realize, understand and evaluate culture as a single

The etymology of the term "culture" goes back to the Latin cultura - processing, cultivation. Originating in the era of agriculture, the word cultura fixed the measure of human participation in the ennoblement of nature. For a long time, this concept was used to determine the influence of man on nature, to identify the results that a person achieved in mastering its forces. By the end of the 17th century, in the writings of the German scientist Puffendorf (1684), culture appears in a generalized form as a human act without taking into account the natural in it and the environment. There is a point of view that "culture" is a counterculture. Puffendorf gave the term "culture" a value coloring, pointing out that culture, in its purpose, in its significance, is what elevates a person, acts as a result of his own activity, complementing his external and internal nature. In this interpretation, both the phenomenon and the term "culture" approached scientific understanding. But nevertheless, as an independent phenomenon of social life, worthy and requiring scientific research, culture was recognized and considered in the second half of the 18th century. during the Age of Enlightenment. Enlighteners (in particular, Jean-Jacques Rousseau) singled out culture as something, as a phenomenon that opposes the natural environment, natural Nature. Rousseau interprets culture as something that alienates a person from natural nature. Therefore, the function of culture in Rousseau is destructive. Cultural peoples, in his opinion, are "spoiled", morally "corrupted" in comparison with "pure" primitive peoples. The German Enlightenment at the same time, on the contrary, emphasized the "creative", progressive nature of culture. In their opinion, culture is a transition from a more sensual and animal state to a social order. In the animal state, they believed, there is no culture. With its appearance, the transformation of humanity from the herd nature of the common existence to the public one, from the uncontrolled to the organizational and regulatory, from the non-critical to the evaluative-reflexive, is carried out. An important milestone in the formation of the concept was the ideas of the German educator Johann Gottfried Herder, who interpreted culture as a stage in the improvement of man and, above all, a stage in the development of science and education. In his interpretation, culture is what unites people, acts as a stimulus for development. Another German thinker, Wilhelm von Humboldt, emphasized that culture is the domination of man over nature, carried out with the help of science and craft. Both in the concept of Herder and in the concept of Humboldt, in fact, culture is considered as a content, a characteristic of social progress. The German philosopher Immanuel Kant associated the content of culture with the perfection of the mind, and therefore social progress for him is the development of culture as the perfection of the mind. Another German thinker, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, associated culture with spiritual characteristics: for him, culture is independence and freedom of the spirit. Thus, in the positions presented, culture is characterized as the spiritual side of social life, as a value aspect of the spiritual component of a person. At the end of the 19th century, inheriting enlightenment ideas about the progressive dynamics of social life, the German economist and philosopher Karl Marx, based on a materialistic understanding of history, put forward material production as the deep foundation of culture, which led to a division into the material and spiritual aspects of culture, with the former dominating. K. Marx expanded the content boundaries of culture, including in it not only spiritual, but also material formations. However, the merit of Marx also lies in the fact that he substantiated the connection of culture with all spheres of social life, showed culture in all social production, in all social manifestations. In addition, he saw in culture a functional ability to link the history of mankind into a single holistic process. The first attempt to define culture was made by the English ethnographer Edward Bernard Tylor, the founder of the evolutionist school, who understood culture as a complex whole, consisting of “knowledge, beliefs, art, morality, laws, customs, and some other abilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” His merit is that he gave a fairly broad understanding of culture, which covers a wide range of vital social manifestations. Culture in Tylor's understanding appears as a simple enumeration of heterogeneous elements that are not connected into a system. In addition, he argued that culture can be viewed as a general improvement of the human race. It was this idea and an attempt to transfer Charles Darwin's idea to social development that formed the basis of evolutionism. In the approach of E.B. Tylor to the definition of culture laid another milestone in the development of the concept of culture. This is a study of the relationship between the concepts of culture and civilization. Civilization sometimes acts as a level, a stage in the development of culture. Tylor does not distinguish between culture and civilization, for him culture and civilization in a broad ethnographic sense are identical concepts. This is characteristic of English anthropology. However, in the German (O. Spengler, A. Weber, F. Tennis) and Russian (N.A. Berdyaev) traditions, civilization and culture are opposed. Culture is understood as an "organic" state of society, which is characterized by spirituality and free creativity. Religion, art, morality lie in the field of culture. Civilization, using methods and tools, has no spiritual component, rational, technological. According to O. Spengler, this is the "dead time" of culture. One of the first to come close to understanding culture as a system was the English sociologist Herbert Spencer (1820 - 1903), who considered society and culture as an organism, which has its own organs and parts of the body. And what is essential here is not the identification of culture with the physiological nature of the organism, but the fact that different parts of society, having their own functions, are in unity. Also considering culture as a single organism, the German cultural historian Oswald Spengler takes it a step further by showing in his work The Decline of Europe that every cultural organism is not permanent, but dynamic. But this dynamics is within the boundaries of a certain cycle: birth, flourishing, death, as in any biological organism. It is especially important that Spengler saw the cultural essence of such an organism in the inner structure of the soul of this or that people. Thus, Spengler found himself within the framework of the interpretation of the psychological essence of culture. The names of the English anthropologists Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown and Bronislaw Malinowski are associated with a further stage in the scientific interpretation of culture. They were among the first to single out in the nature of culture its active essence. Radcliffe-Brown, understanding culture as a living organism in action, believed that the study of the structure of this organism includes the study of the functions of structural elements both in relation to each other and in relation to the whole. Malinovsky directly linked culture, its functioning with the satisfaction of activity needs. In the 50s of the XX century. comes the realization that culture is the content of social life, which ensures the integrity and viability of society. Therefore, each society has its own culture, which ensures reproduction and its vitality. Because of this, it is impossible to evaluate cultures according to the principle “worse - better”, more developed or less. This is how the theory of cultural relativism (M. Herskovitz) arises, within which the idea is formed that culture is based on a system of values ​​that determines the relationship "man - the world". The ideas about culture were expanded by the interest shown in it by the Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who linked culture with mental stereotypes. It is within the framework of psychological anthropology that the personality is included in culture. The next stage in the enrichment of the concept of culture is associated with the ideas of structuralism, which has become widespread both as a scientific direction and as a methodology for studying cultural phenomena (we will analyze this direction below). And so the main milestones in the history and logic of the formation of the concept of "culture": - the emergence of the term, its initial connection with the cultivation, processing, ennoblement of the land (ie nature); - opposition natural (natural) - cultural (created by man): the French educator J.J. Rousseau; - the spiritual side of social life, its value aspect: German enlighteners; - division into material and spiritual culture, dominance of material production, understanding of the history of culture as a single integral process: Marxism; - the first scientific definition of culture by listing elements of different orders that are not connected to the system: E.B. Tylor; - the relationship between the concepts of culture and civilization; - an analogy between culture and a living organism, all parts of which, performing their functions, are in a single dynamic system; - identification of the functions of the structural elements of culture in relation to each other and in relation to the whole: functionalism; - the relativity of comparing the values ​​of cultures due to their originality, integrity and viability: cultural relativism; - the inclusion of personality (with its consciousness and subconsciousness, rational and irrational moments) in culture: psychological anthropology, psychoanalysis; - spreading the method of structural linguistics to various areas of sociocultural reality, recreating a system of symbols that reflect the structure of culture: structuralism. From a completely limited, narrow understanding of culture, which has a romantic, subjective connotation, social thought has moved into the sphere of cognition of the whole world of a “second nature” created by man, using methods generally accepted in science in this cognition and being guided in evaluating the results by modern scientific criteria, such as logic, consistency, the possibility of experimental verification. Moreover, by now, the culturological method of analysis itself has been formed, which is used not only in specialized studies of culture, but also in other areas of knowledge. The foregoing does not mean that romantic ideas about culture have completely disappeared from public consciousness: in everyday life they certainly dominate (at least in the ideas that a “cultured” person should attend theaters, read books, etc.), narrow understanding of culture takes place in the media, exists among the technical intelligentsia, who believe that there is science, and there is culture. The culturological method of analysis is in its infancy, it is still quite difficult to fix with a maximum degree of certainty precisely the culturological aspect of the study of the phenomenon of culture, since culturology is an integrative knowledge that is formed in borderline, interdisciplinary areas, operates with material accumulated by the history of culture, relies on the results of ethnographic , sociological, psychological and other research. Cultural studies, which is in the field of tension between social-scientific and humanitarian approaches, has as an object the whole world of artificial orders (things, structures, cultivated territory, historical events, technologies of activity, forms of social organization, knowledge, concepts, symbols, languages ​​of communication, etc.). .p.), and as a special subject, it studies the processes of the genesis and morphology of culture, its structure, essence and meaning, typology, dynamics and language.

The structure of culture.

The word culture originated from the word cult (lat. Worship) - one of the main elements of religion, it can be actions, singing, reading, dancing, aimed at giving a visible expression to a religious bow or attracting divine forces. Cicero for the first time introduces the concept of culture - cultura anima - processing, cultivation, the work of a person on his soul. Culture is a collective image, includes both religion and art, etc. Culture is 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 the material and spiritual values ​​\u200b\u200bcreated by them . Culture is also a way of regulating the preservation, reproduction and development of all social life, culture is understood only through human activity in the dynamics of historical development. Two ways of mastering culture: interpersonal communication and self-education. Culture is subdivided: 1. according to its carrier. A - world (synthesis of the best achievements of various peoples). B - national (cultural synthesis of national layers, classes, and groups of any people). B - class (rural, urban). Mr. professional. D - youth. E - personal, it includes two concepts: culture - the ability to fit into society; spirituality - the desire of the soul to penetrate into the depths. 2. by types of activity A - material, B - spiritual. Material objects are physical objects created by human hands - "artifacts", the culture of labor and material supply, the culture of everyday life, topos. Spiritual culture - includes intellectual, moral, artistic, etc. It is also the result of activity, can be transmitted only through communication. The structure of culture in a broad sense: 1 - the material and spiritual values ​​of mankind. 2. Ways of his life. 3. The level of development of society. 4. a set of people, relationships to each other and the world around them. 5. The originality of life, science and peoples in a certain historical period. 6. Mythology. 7. Religion. 8. Politics. Cultural universals (J. Murdoch) for all peoples are characterized by common norms, values, rules and traditions. Culture is divided into: 1. Home (a set of values, traditions and customs that guide most members of society), 2. Subculture (this is part of a common culture , the system of values, traditions inherent in a large social group), 3. Counterculture (this is a culture that is in conflict with the dominant values, for example, the culture of the underworld). Culture Forms:

1. Elite - created by the privileged parts of society or by its order. It exceeds the level of perception of a moderately educated person (classical music); 2. Folk cultures (folklore) - anonymous creators, do not have professional training (amateur, collective), myths, fairy tales, legends, in execution it is always local and democratic; 3. Mass - this is the culture of today, this is a type of cultural product that is produced every day, presented to different audiences through different channels, designed to satisfy momentary needs. Reacts to any events, quickly dies. It can be national and international.

Functions of culture.

The role of culture in the life of a person and society can be reduced to several main functions it performs. human function. With the help of culture, a person becomes a real person. Culture provides the process of socialization, i.e. inclusion of a person in the system of social relations. Culture determines the content, means and methods of socialization. The transformation of a person into a full-fledged member of society proceeds through the development of the language, the adoption of norms and standards of behavior, values. Socialization, on the other hand, opens up the possibility for a person to become a person, to reveal his true essence. adaptive function. Culture adapts a person to the environment. Culture forms a way of life suitable for the geographical, climatic and other natural conditions of the existence of the people. The biological incapacity of man revealed the ability to flexibly master natural conditions with the help of cultural traditions. Among the peoples living in different conditions, specific ways of adapting to the natural environment are fixed by means of culture in the form of ways of making clothes, building housing, normative prescriptions, national traditions, etc. In the course of his adaptation to nature, man simultaneously transforms nature itself. Information function. Culture accumulates and preserves social information with the help of sign-symbolic means. It is a kind of non-genetic memory that stores ideas, knowledge, norms, values, social experience of both an individual and a people, and humanity as a whole. communicative function. Culture not only accumulates information, but also creates a single space for communication and dialogue between people. It creates the conditions and means of communication, various sign systems, among which the most important is language. Language conveys and stores common meanings and meanings that bind members of a society of the same culture. Thus, culture creates opportunities for the transfer of experience and knowledge from person to person, from generation to generation. Regulatory (normative) function culture is associated with the regulation of various aspects, types of social and personal activities of people. In the sphere of work, everyday life, interpersonal relations, culture determines the norms and framework of interaction, ways of communication. At the personal level, culture regulates human behavior through the assimilation of spiritual, moral, aesthetic values, which form certain needs and orientations. Integration and delimitation functions cultures are that each specific type of culture unites people into one national, ethnic or subcultural community, but separates different peoples or social groups.

The formation of cultural thought began in the ancient world, its development had its own characteristics in the Middle Ages and the New Age. In ancient times, for a person, real life was not something different from the mythological world. The ancient religions were polytheistic (polytheism is the belief in many gods). People communicated with the gods in the same way as with each other. Mythological thinking as a form of collective consciousness constitutes a huge layer of culture, is a cultural reality and, at the same time, contains an idea of ​​culture in the ancients. In this case, the perception of culture included worship, reverence, cult.

ancient greek philosophers Plato, Protagoras, Polybius and the Chinese philosopher Sima Qian considered culture to be part of the divine nature and its manifestation. The philosopher Ibn Khaldun argued that the full cycle of cultural development takes place over 120 years, after which the old culture is “defeated” by another, stronger culture (most often, the culture of nomads). This direction was called "cultural naturalism". It is characterized by: the transfer of features of nature to culture, the deification of culture in all its manifestations, including in the form of state power, the idea of ​​a cyclical development of culture.

Feeling the universe as the highest harmony, the ancient Greeks sought to create a fragment of perfection on earth. A living embodiment of their ideas about harmony, a cultural model was the policy - a city-state that forms a person of culture. Thus, Aristotle developed the idea of ​​a cultured person as a model citizen. That is, in general, the understanding of culture was of a humanistic nature.

In medieval Europe affirms Christianity - a monotheistic religion (monotheism - belief in one god). It combined the worldview, and philosophy, and ethics, and legal norms, subjugated science, education, and art. Accordingly, the problems of culture were covered in the works of philosophers and theologians. For St. Augustine "without faith there is no knowledge, no truth." The world history behind St. Augustine is the result of divine determination. He contrasts the “sinful” secular city with the “city of God”, thus asserting the priority of the church.

An attempt to combine Aristotelianism and Christianity will be carried out by the famous Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas. The main principle of his philosophy is the harmony of faith and reason, since reason is able to rationally prove the existence of God and defeat objections to the truths of faith.

Epoch Renaissance affirms the humanistic ideal. Culture is presented to the thinkers of the Renaissance as the result of the free creative activity of man. Freedom and creativity as the principles of human community are opposed to the medieval hierarchy, the subordination of the church.

Fundamentally in a new way cultural experience of the past and present, the causes of the emergence and development of culture are rethought in the XVIII century. Enlightenment. The era strives for a holistic perception of the culture of mankind, understanding it as a product of the activity of the human mind. In a number of works, the concepts of "culture" and "nature" are opposed. The works of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) are devoted to the elimination of the opposition "culture" - "nature", the search for ways of their harmonious combination. According to Kant, the cause of the emergence of culture is the social essence of man. The philosopher identifies two realities: the world of nature (animal nature, evil, cruelty) and the world of freedom (human, culture, morality). Two opposing principles intersect and reconcile in the ideas of beauty and in the creation of beauty, which in fact is the goal of cultural activity. In ethics, Kant introduces a categorical imperative, that is, an obligatory and unconditional moral rule, a universal law of behavior that overcomes and excludes any evil.

Until the second half of the XVIII century. includes the activities of the German philosopher and historian J. G. Herder. For Herder, culture is a consequence of a person's ability to creative and mental activity, which is expressed in language, science, craft, art, state, religion, family.

In the first half of the XIX century. the works of the Russian scientist N. Ya. Danilevsky appeared. In the book "Russia and Europe" he put forward the concept of "closed (local) development of cultures." Each nation, according to Danilevsky, creates a specific system of values. The culture developed by him has little contact with other cultures, counteracting the penetration of foreign elements into its "body"

Danilevsky's ideas subsequently strongly influenced the cultural studies of the twentieth century. The emergence of Ukrainian culturological thought is associated with the activities of the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood. In the Charter of the Brotherhood, in the appeals "To the Ukrainian brothers", "To the brothers of Russians", "To the brothers of the Poles", in the works of its founders - N. Kostomarov ("Thoughts on the history of Little Russia", "Two Russian nationalities"), P. Kulish ("The Tale of the Ukrainian People") - the ideas of the cultural identity of the Slavic peoples, their right to free development, guaranteed by the free federal union of the Slavic republics, are defended. M. Dragomanov (1841-1895) made a significant contribution to the development of cultural thought. -historical methodology M. Dragomanov spoke out against farmer ethnography, put forward the idea of ​​free development of folk culture into a national culture, saturated with universal values.

A holistic concept of the history of Ukrainian culture was put forward by M. Grushevsky (1866-1934). It was based on the theses of originality and independence of Ukrainian culture. He was one of the first to question and criticize the theory of a single monolithic culture of Kievan Rus, proving the existence of various ethnic tribes back in the era of Trypillia culture. Without opposing Ukrainian and Russian cultures, he nevertheless considered the former to be closer to European culture.

The structure of culture.

Culture is a very complex, multi-level system. It is believed that the structure of culture is one of the most complex in the world. On the one hand, these are the material and spiritual values ​​​​already accumulated by society, the layering of eras, times and peoples, fused together.

Today 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.

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

2. The national culture, in turn, acts as a synthesis of the cultures of various social strata and groups of the corresponding society (i.e., sub-ethnic groups, for example, Cossacks, youth, etc.). The originality of the national culture, its well-known originality and originality are manifested both in the spiritual (language, literature, music, painting, religion) and material (features of the economic structure, housekeeping, traditions of labor and production) spheres of life and activity.

In addition, 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 material culture and spiritual culture stand out. However, it must be borne in mind that their division is often conditional, since in real life they are closely interconnected and interpenetrate each other.

Material culture includes:

1. culture of work and material production;

2. culture of life;

3. the culture of the topos, that is, the place of residence (dwelling, houses, villages, cities);

4. culture of attitude to one's own body;

5. physical culture.

Spiritual culture acts as a multi-layered formation and excludes:

1. cognitive (intellectual) culture;

2. moral;

3. artistic;

4. legal;

5. pedagogical;

6. religious;

The structure of culture includes: substantial elements that are objectified in its values ​​and norms, and functional elements that characterize the very process of cultural activity, its various sides and aspects.

The substantive block makes up the "body" of culture, its substantive basis. It includes the values ​​of culture - its works that objectify the cultures of a given era, as well as the norms of culture, its requirements for each member of society. This includes the norms of law, religion and morality. norms of everyday behavior and communication of people (etiquette norms).

Only the strict fulfillment of these norms and regulations entitles a person to claim the title of cultural.

functional block. Reveals the process of movement of culture. In this regard, the substantial result of this process. The functional block includes:

o traditions, rituals, customs, rituals, taboos (prohibitions) that ensure the functioning of culture. In popular culture, these means were the main ones;

o with the advent of professional culture, there are also special institutions designed for its production, preservation and consumption (for example, libraries, theaters, museums, etc.).

Thus, the structure of culture is a false, multifaceted formation. At the same time, all its elements interact with each other, forming a single system of such a unique phenomenon as culture appears before us.

Functions of culture.

1. The main function is human-creative, or humanistic function.

All other functions are somehow connected with this one and even follow from it.

2. The function of translation (transfer) of social experience. It is called the function of historical continuity or information. Culture is a complex sign system. It acts as 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 the entire wealth of experience that people have accumulated.

3. The cognitive (epistemological) function is closely connected with the first (human-creative) and, in a certain sense, follows from it. Culture concentrates the best social experience of many generations of people. It (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 as intellectual as the richest knowledge contained in the cultural gene pool of mankind is used.

4. Regulatory (normative) function is associated primarily with the definition (regulation) 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 supported by such normative systems as morality and law.

5. 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. Without studying the corresponding sign systems, it is not possible to master the achievements of culture. Thus, language (oral or written) is a means of communication between people. The literary language acts as the most important means of mastering the national culture. Specific languages ​​are needed for understanding the special world of music, painting, theater (Schnittke's music, Malevich's Suprematism, Dali's surrealism, Vityk's theater). The natural sciences (physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology) also have their own sign systems.

6. The value or axiological function reflects the most important qualitative state of culture. Culture as a certain 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.

Cultural methods.

Culturology uses a system of methods, that is, various interconnected ways of studying cultural phenomena.

In their a number of comparative historical method. It allows for an essential comparison of fundamentally comparable objects belonging to different cultures. The extremely widespread rite of circumcision has a dissimilar symbolic load.

Structural-functional the method involves the division of the studied phenomenon of culture into its constituent parts and the identification of the relationship between them. As an example, let us point out the experience of studying by the culturologist B.A. Uspensky of such a peculiar phenomenon as the Russian mat.

Semiotic Method involves the use of semiotics as a science of sign and symbolic systems and is successfully used to understand, for example, the language of art of medieval Christianity.

biographical method involves an analysis of the life path of a cultural figure for a better understanding of his inner world, which reflects the system of cultural values ​​of his time. This method was successfully used by Plutarch (c. 46-120 AD), who lived in Ancient Greece and created Comparative Lives.

Modeling method involves the desire to create a model of a certain type of culture in order to identify its most significant features.

Such a method, in particular, was used by N. Danilevsky, the author of the book "Russia and Europe", O. Spengler, who wrote "The Sunset of Europe". Each of them lays in the model some essential foundation that allows one to perceive in a complex way all the cultural phenomena of a certain period.

psychological method involves the possibility of finding out through the analysis of memoirs, chronicles, myths, annals, epistolary heritage, treatises, the most typical reactions of people of a particular culture to the most significant phenomena for them: famine, wars, epidemics. Such reactions are manifested both in the form of social feelings and mentality in general. Under mentality, mentality is understood as a cause, that is, the socio-biological conditionality of spirituality, and a consequence, that is, a readiness for action, a psychological attitude.

Diachronic method involves the clarification of the chronological, that is, the temporal sequence of changes, the appearance and course of a particular cultural phenomenon.

Synchronous method consists in the analysis of changes in the same phenomenon (say, the phenomenon of Orthodoxy or the idea of ​​patriotism in Russian culture) at different stages of a single cultural process. In addition to the above, the synchronous method can also be understood (V.A. Saprykin) as a cumulative analysis of two or more cultures over a certain period of their development, taking into account existing connections and possible contradictions.

Introduction

The phenomenon of culture is a historical category that incorporates many meanings and meanings that have been formed and transformed over the centuries. Thanks to the achievement by mankind of a certain level of awareness and reflection of the surrounding reality, there is a need not only for knowledge of the world, but also for its transformation. Subsequently, all material and non-material transformations of the surrounding reality by a person are firmly fixed in world history, acquiring the generalizing meaning of "culture". It is important to note that any culture must be perceived only in the unity of its components, which are not only interconnected, but also interdependent, complementary. Culture, being primarily a social category, has its own characteristics, structure, and carries some social functions, which will be considered in this paper.

Cultural studies as a science. The main stages of the formation of cultural studies

Cultural studies is the science of culture. Culturology studies the most general patterns of development of culture, its essential characteristics that are present in all known cultures of mankind. Cultural studies considers its task to be the study of all processes of human interaction with the world of nature, the world of society and the world of physical and spiritual being of a person.

The term "culturology" itself has been used since the beginning of the nineteenth century. And at the beginning of the twentieth century, a prominent American culturologist Leslie White (1900 - 1975) made an attempt to substantiate the general theory of culture, introduced the concept of "culturology" into wide circulation.

The literature outlines a number of stages in the development of cultural studies as an independent discipline.

The first stage can conditionally be called philosophical. Here the very "idea of ​​culture" is constituted. Let us recall the statement of V. Mezhuev. Philosophers saw their task, he writes, in "the development of some general 'idea of ​​culture' that explains the meaning and direction of world history as a whole." By the way, many sciences and disciplines go through this stage.

The second stage is an empirical study of the phenomenon of culture. “The very first paradigm of the sciences of culture,” writes L, Ioni, “can be called empirical. This is the collection of information about different peoples, their customs, customs, way of life, its description and attempts to systematize. In textbooks, this period is usually referred to as prehistory, or prehistory, science. (Note that the empirical study of phenomena should hardly be considered a paradigm) It is clear that at this stage the idea of ​​culture and the ideas about culture that are formed on its basis and as a result of empirical research are used.

The third stage is the construction of cultural studies as a scientific discipline. Here the principles and criteria of cultural truth (explanation) are developed, ideal objects are created, cultural theories are built. It is at this stage that the dilemmas and paradigms of cultural studies are formed. Empirical research is widely used in the construction of cultural science.

At the fourth stage, along with the ongoing development of culturological science, applied culturological research is taking shape, on which culturological knowledge is increasingly beginning to focus.

At the present stage, philosophical and methodological reflection plays an important role in the development of cultural studies. And it's understandable why. The presence of dilemmas, different paradigms and partially intersecting cultural concepts and theories makes it necessary to critically analyze the foundations and values ​​of cultural studies.

One of the most important methodological principles of my approach is the transition from the discussion of individual concepts of culture to the analysis of practices within which different concepts of culture are formed, as well as to the analysis of various scientific strategies and approaches to the study of culture, primarily philosophical, natural sciences, humanitarian, sociocultural and historical . Let me explain. Mezhuev, analyzing what the idea of ​​culture was, writes that it was an evaluative concept of culture, which allowed "to comprehend the meaning and direction of human history as a whole", based on the conviction that it is European history and culture that are "the highest achievement of the spiritual development of mankind ". According to Mezhuev, the idea of ​​culture and the corresponding concept were a response (objectification) to the formation of a special practice - the self-consciousness of European humanity as a whole; further on this basis, other practices unfolded (enlightenment of the population, colonization of other, "less cultured" peoples, the practice of missionary work). Analyzing the concept of "culture" as a "diversity of cultures" and the concept of "mass culture", K. Razlogov, in fact, applies the same method of explanation: as the most important prerequisite for the formation of these concepts, he considers the relevant practices (the formation of national states and individual nations, the creation the sphere of sustainable mass cultural services and social management based on the media, television, and today the Internet). M. Foucault and modern methodological studies show that concepts such as "culture" appear in the course of the objectification of schemes that ensure the formation and functioning of certain social practices and related power relations. In such a context, primarily organizational, culture acts as an object posited by thought, and not an object of study; but then the culture thus isolated is begun to be studied.

On the contrary, in her recent works, E. Orlova comprehends different concepts of culture based on the analysis of various strategies of scientific knowledge (for me, this position has always been the starting point). When, she writes, the establishment of fundamental normative orders that separate the world of man from the rest of the world is considered the main thing in cognition, this can be done only by means of philosophy. If the emphasis in cognition is on the process of direct observation of artificial phenomena in the form in which they are given to people, in the specificity, uniqueness of their manifestations or an attempt to discover something in common behind outwardly different phenomena, the humanitarian type of cognition becomes indispensable. In the case of sufficient accumulated experience in the practical handling of certain cultural phenomena, the question arises of the possibility of their purposeful regulation, pragmatic use, etc. Accordingly, the scientific approach to these phenomena is updated.

True, Orlova actually does not classify the humanitarian type of cognition as scientific, which is not true, but in this case something else is important, namely, a comparison of cognition strategies and their correlation with different concepts of culture; culture is then understood as an object of study, shaped by appropriate strategies.

In my research, I try to combine an approach to the analysis of culture through the analysis of relevant practices with an approach that involves breeding types of cognitive strategies. The fact is that the concepts of culture carry the features of both.

Culturology is closely connected with a number of other sciences (philosophy, history, sociology, psychology, etc.) and is based on their achievements and experience. This is explained not only by the fact that it is a young, still emerging science, but also by the complex nature of culture itself as its subject.

As mentioned above, the subject of culturology is culture, and the object is the creators and bearers of culture - people, as well as various cultural phenomena occurring in society, institutions associated with culture, the activities of people and society as a whole.

Speaking about the structure of modern cultural studies, one can single out its semantic and structural parts: the theory of culture, the history of culture, the philosophy of culture, the sociology of culture.

The theory of culture, first of all, introduces cultural studies into the range of problems and gives an idea of ​​its conceptual apparatus; it studies the content and development of the main cultural categories, general issues of defining cultural norms, traditions, etc. The theory of culture reveals the patterns of human development of the surrounding world, covers the consideration of all aspects of its cultural existence. Within the framework of the theory of culture, such problems as the relationship between culture and nature, culture and civilization, the correlation of cultures and their interaction, the typology of cultures are considered; criteria are developed for understanding cultural phenomena.

The history of culture covers the origin and formation of culture, different historical epochs of its development and their inherent ways of reading the content of culture and understanding cultural ideals and values ​​(for example, beauty, truth, etc.) The history of culture helps to see the origins of many modern phenomena and problems, trace their causes, establish their forerunners and inspirers.

Philosophy of culture. Cultural studies, as already mentioned, is also a philosophical science. Since culture is a human creation and a human way of living in the world, cultural studies cannot in any way get around how the problems of meaning, purpose, and purpose of human existence are presented in culture. The philosophy of culture is essentially the ultimate version of human science, when a person is taken in the ultimate meaning and expression of his human nature and essence. Philosophy of culture formulates the problems of the relation of culture of man, man and the world, man and society. The philosophical view of the relationship between man and the world is the axis of cultural analysis.

The sociology of culture is a direction of theoretical and empirical research of all parts of the cultural process. Sociality is the initial characteristic of culture, because culture itself arises as a way of organizing a conflict-free existence of a person in society. The sociology of culture studies and analyzes the processes of spreading culture in a particular segment of the population, in a country, in the world, the nature of consumption of cultural products and attitudes towards them.

Culturology begins with the definition and explanation of culture, and first of all - the very category of "culture".

The first thing that fixes attention when considering the concept of "culture" is its ambiguity, its application in various ways.

Turning to the history of the word “culture” itself, we find out that it has a Latin origin. The ancient Romans called them cultivation, processing, improvement. And in classical Latin the word "cultura" was used in the meaning of agricultural labor - agricultura. Agricultura is protection, care, separation of one from the other (“grain from the chaff”), preservation of the selected, creation of conditions for its development. Not arbitrary, but purposeful. The main thing in this whole process is separation, preservation and systematic development. A plant or animal is withdrawn from natural conditions, separated from others, as it has certain advantages discovered by man. Then this selected is transplanted into another environment, where it is taken care of, cared for, developing some qualities and cutting off others. A plant or an animal is modified in the right direction, a product of purposeful human labor is obtained that has the required qualities. If you just transplant a wild apple tree into the garden, then its fruits will not become sweeter from this. Isolation from the natural environment is only the first step, the beginning of "cultivation", which is certainly followed by a long work of a gardener.

In the modern sense, the concept of culture was established in Germany. Already at the end of the 18th century, this word is found in German books, having two semantic shades: the first is domination over nature with the help of knowledge and craft, and the second is the spiritual wealth of the individual. In these two meanings, it gradually entered almost all European languages. V. Dal in his “Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language” gives the following interpretation of this word: “... processing and care, cultivation, cultivation; mental and moral education…”.

In modern cultural studies, there are more than 400 definitions of culture. This is explained both by the versatility and multidimensionality of the phenomenon of culture, and by the dependence of the results of studying research facilities. The main research approaches to explaining culture are:

• 1. Anthropological, in which culture is understood as an expression of human nature.
• 2. Another approach to culture can be called philosophical-historical. Another name for it is activity. "Action" here is understood as a prudent, planning change in reality, history. The most common is the idea of ​​culture as a result of human activity. There is a point of view that culture includes only creative activity, other authors are convinced that all types of reproductive activity (reproduction, repetition of what has been achieved) should also be considered as cultural.
• 3. Another approach to the interpretation of culture: sociological. Here culture is understood as a factor in organizing the life of society. Society creates cultural values, and they further determine the development of this society: these are language, beliefs, aesthetic tastes, professional skills and all sorts of customs.
• 4. In addition, another approach to the study of culture is axiological (value-based), which defines culture as a set of certain values ​​that form its semantic core. The role of values ​​in the structure and functioning of culture is beyond doubt, since they streamline reality and introduce evaluative moments into its comprehension. They correlate with the idea of ​​the ideal and give meaning to human life.

Thus, in the axiological approach, culture is understood as a set of values ​​recognized by mankind, which it purposefully creates, preserves and develops.

So, culture is a multifaceted concept. It cannot be assigned an unambiguous meaning. One can only speak of a more or less universal approach in search of the essence of the term. This inexhaustibility of the phenomena of culture is a reflection of the nature of its bearer - man. If, however, the main thing in a person is singled out from the point of view of culture, this will be an active life position aimed at understanding and transforming the world, as well as spiritual and bodily improvement of himself.