How often in life we ​​hear and use the word “culture” in relation to a variety of phenomena. Have you ever thought about where it came from and what it means? Of course, such concepts as art, rules of good manners, politeness, education, etc. immediately come to mind. 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 a lot of definitions. Well, first of all, let's find out in which language it happened and what it originally meant. And it arose even in Ancient Rome, where the word “culture” (cultura) was used to name several concepts at once:

1) cultivation;

2) education;

3) reverence;

4) education and development.

As you can see, almost all of them are still suitable for general definition of this term... V Ancient Greece it was also understood as education, upbringing and love for agriculture.

As for modern definitions then in broad sense culture is understood as a set of spiritual and material values ​​that express a particular level, that is, an era, historical development humanity. According to another definition, culture is called the area of ​​spiritual life of human society, which includes the 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. A character, a style of behavior, etc. is formed in him. Well, the most used definition is the consideration of culture as a form of social behavior of an individual in accordance with his level of education and upbringing.

Concept and types of culture

There are various classifications of this concept. For example, culturologists distinguish several types of culture. Here is 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 in the form of 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 take a look at each of them separately.

Material culture

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

Spiritual culture

Beliefs, concepts, feelings, experiences, emotions and representations that help establish a spiritual connection between individuals are considered spiritual culture. It also includes all the products of the immaterial activity of people, existing 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 social development, and its main purpose is the production of consciousness.

Art is a part of this type of culture. It, in turn, includes the entire set of artistic values, as well as the system of their functioning, creation and reproduction that has developed in the course of history. For the entire civilization as a whole, as well as for an individual taken separately, 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. The types of artistic culture are nothing more than different types of art. Let's list them: painting, sculpture, theater, literature, music, etc.

Art culture can be both mass (popular) and high (elite). 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 accessible to the general public. But the elite, high, culture consists of a set of individual works of professional creators who are known only to the privileged part of society. The above listed varieties are also crop types. They just 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 the endless flows of information. Since one of the forms of transmission of information is speech, we would like to dwell on it in more detail.

A culture of speech

In order for people to be able to communicate with each other, they need to have a culture of speech. Without this, mutual understanding will never arise between them, and therefore 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 use words to express their children's thoughts, ask and demand from adults to satisfy 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 a person. Every year the child has a new vocabulary, and he already begins to think differently: wider and deeper. Of course, the culture of a child's speech, in addition to school, can also be influenced by such factors as family, yard, group. For example, he can learn from his peers such words, which are called profanity. Some people have a very poor vocabulary for the rest of their lives, and, of course, have a low culture of speech. With such a baggage, a person is unlikely to be able to achieve something great in life.

Physical education

Another form of culture is physical. It includes everything that is connected with the human body, with the work of his 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 physical development 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 of culture:

• personality culture;
• collective culture;
• culture of society.

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

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

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

What is physical culture

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

Physical culture is a part of society that includes centuries of experience of physiological, moral, psychological and mental development person. V modern society this area of ​​culture includes taking care of:

• degree of ubiquity physical culture: in everyday life, in the field of production, education and upbringing;
• the level of 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 some kind of cultural and historical unity: people (Russian culture), nation, religious movement. The origins of spiritual culture lie in a person. It arises because a person in life does not limit himself only to what he learns on a daily basis, but absorbs spiritual experience, from which he evaluates everything around him, from which he loves and believes in something.

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

Spiritual culture is an area of ​​human activity that covers various spheres of the spiritual life of a person and society. Spiritual culture unites forms of social consciousness (art, science, morality, sense of justice, religion, ideology) and their embodiment in architectural, literary, artistic monuments.

What is the culture of society

Culture in terms of public expression usually means the following:

• the totality of human achievements in different areas public life(personality culture);
• way and method of organization public relations on the example of social institutions;
• the degree of personality development in society, its introduction to 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

Art culture includes everything 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 an individual is enormous. Art, which represents artistic culture, affects the inner world of a person, his mind, feelings and emotions. Thanks to this, a person 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, augmentation cultural heritage humanity.

What is popular culture

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

Introduction

Culture as a multidimensional concept

Culture and cult

Conclusion

The study of the concept of culture is one of the most important and relevant topics today.

The concept of culture characterizes the specific side of human life. Specificity is determined by the dual nature of culture as an activity that is simultaneously social (generic) and individual (personal).

Any cultural phenomenon through training and education can be perceived and used (potentially) by any member of the human community.

The values ​​of culture are understood as the fundamental universal standards of generic human activity that permeate its ethical (in the aspect of good - evil), aesthetic (beauty - ugly), religious (thought about God), scientific (truth - delusion), legal and other aspects.

This topic is covered in sufficient detail in scientific works the following authors: Korolev V.K., Bakulov V.D., Drach G.V., Kruglov A., Martynov V., Okladnikova E.A. and etc.

The relevance of this study determined the purpose and objectives of the work:

The purpose of the work is to consider the concept of culture.

To achieve the goal, it is necessary to solve the following tasks:

1. Explore culture as a multidimensional concept;

2. Based on theoretical analysis, systematize knowledge about material and spiritual culture;

3. Consider the specifics of the concepts of culture and cult;

4. To systematize and generalize the approaches to this problem existing in the specialized literature.

5. Offer your own vision for this problem and find ways to resolve it.

For the disclosure of the set topic, the following structure is determined: the work consists of an introduction, three paragraphs and a conclusion. The title of the paragraphs reflects their content.

Culture is a multifaceted concept. First of all, culture is a tool necessary for the survival of humanity; a mechanism that allows people to cope with the circumstances in which they find themselves. In this sense, culture is communicated knowledge that is passed down from generation to generation to help group members live in a particular time, place or situation.

Culture is a phenomenon that sets the human species apart from other living things. In combination with biological evolution, culture not only did not help humanity to survive, but also to grow and develop on this planet and even in space.

Culture is also learned behavior and knowledge that is integrated by the group and shared by the members of the group. Group beliefs and practices become familiar, traditional and distinguish one group (civilization, country or organization) from another.

Some behaviors can be the result of specific specific circumstances of the group's life, depending on the climate, geographic location, to manifest itself at the moment of danger, opening. Often, group members persist in behavior that has long been forgotten. This behavior is also part of the culture.

According to F. Krober and F. Klukhon, culture is a distinctive feature of human groups and consists of explicit and implicit stable repetitive modes of behavior. The basis of culture includes traditional ideas that have a historically determined origin and the specifics of their applied use. Cultural systems can, on the one hand, be viewed as a product of human activity, on the other, as creating conditions for elements of future action.

Thus, culture is that:

Shared by all or almost all members of a certain social group;

Transmitted by senior members of the group to younger ones;

Forms behavior (morality, laws, customs).

In process human development societies and institutions were created around a dominant activity prevalent in a specific place in certain time... Early human culture, for example, was organized around hunting; there are still tribes still living in this way.

Then the mainstream of humanity was the stage of development of a working culture centered around Agriculture; this agricultural way of life exists in pre-industrial nations.

Over the past two to three hundred years, the industrial style has become the dominant style of work, centered around the factory system and urban lifestyle.

It is now believed that there is a transition to a post-industrial work culture centered on information processing and service delivery.

In addition to the norms accepted in society, each group of people, including the organization, develops its own cultural patterns, which are called business, or organizational, culture. Organizational culture does not exist on its own. She is always included in cultural context a given geographic region and society as a whole and is influenced by the national culture. In turn, the organizational, or corporate, culture influences the formation of the culture of departments, workers and management teams.

National culture is the culture of a country or a minority in a country; organizational culture - the culture of a corporation, enterprise or association; working culture - the culture of the dominant type of activity in society; team culture - the culture of a work or management team.

Culture through economics determines the value and necessity of work for a particular group. In some cultures, all members engage in desirable and noteworthy activities, but their membership is not measured by the monetary value of the work; instead, the role and importance of work in bringing together is emphasized. Culture determines the conditions, opportunities and segmentation of professional activities.

Material and spiritual culture

In general, approaches to the definition of culture can be divided into two large groups: culture as the world of accumulated values ​​and norms, as the material world outside of man and culture as the world of man. The latter can also be divided into three groups: culture - the world of an integral person in the unity of his physical and spiritual nature; culture the world of a person's spiritual life; culture is a living human activity, the method, technology of this activity. Both are true. For culture is two-dimensional: on the one hand, culture is the world of a person's social experience, accumulated enduring material and spiritual values. On the other hand, it is a qualitative characteristic of living human activity.

Already here it is difficult to distinguish material culture from spiritual culture. N. Berdyaev said that culture is always spiritual, but there is hardly any need to dispute the existence of material culture. If culture forms a person, then how can one exclude the influence on this process of the material environment, tools and means of labor, the variety of everyday things? Is it possible at all to form a person's soul apart from his body? On the other hand, as Hegel said, the very spirit is cursed to be embodied in material substrates. The most ingenious thought, if it is not objectified, will die along with the subject. Leaving no trace in the culture. All this suggests that any opposition of the material to the spiritual and vice versa in the sphere of culture is inevitably relative. The complexity of differentiating culture into material and spiritual is great, you can try to make it according to their influence on the development of the individual.

For the theory of culture, understanding the difference between material and spiritual culture - important point... In the sense of physical survival, biological needs, even in a purely practical sense, spirituality is redundant, superfluous. This is a kind of conquest of mankind, a luxury available and necessary for the preservation of the human in man. It is the spiritual needs, the need for the holy and the eternal, that affirm for a person the meaning and purpose of his being, correlate a person with the integrity of the universe.

We also note that the ratio of material and spiritual needs is rather complicated and ambiguous. Material needs cannot be simply ignored. Strong material, economic, social support can facilitate the path of a person and society to the development of spiritual needs. But this is not the main prerequisite. The path to spirituality is the path of conscious upbringing and self-education that requires effort and work. E. Fromm "To have or to be?" believes that the very existence of spirituality and spiritual culture depends primarily on the value setting, on life guidelines, on the motivation of activity. "To have" is an orientation toward material goods, toward possession and use. In contrast to this, “to be” means also to create, to strive to realize oneself in creativity and communication with people, to find a source of constant novelty and inspiration within oneself.

It is impossible to establish a clear demarcation line separating the material from the ideal in human life and activity. Man transforms the world not only materially, but also spiritually. Any thing has, along with a utilitarian and cultural function. A thing speaks about a person, about the level of knowledge of the world, about the degree of development of production, about his aesthetic, and sometimes about moral development... Creating any thing a person inevitably "invests" in it his human qualities, involuntarily, most often unconsciously, imprinting in her the image of her era. A thing is a kind of text. Everything created by the hands and brain of a person bears an imprint (information) about a person, his society and culture. Of course, the combination of utilitarian and cultural functions in things is not the same. Moreover, this difference is not only quantitative, but also qualitative.

In addition to influencing the spiritual world of a person, works of material culture are primarily intended to satisfy some other function. Material culture includes objects and processes of activity, the main functional purpose of which is not development the spiritual world a person for whom this task is a side task.

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The meaning of the concept of "culture".

Culture- (from the Latin verb colo), which means to cultivate, to cultivate the soil. Later, another meaning appeared - to improve, to read. Cicero became the author of the metaphor cultura animi, i.e. "Culture (improvement) of the soul", "spiritual culture".
V modern language the concept of culture is used in:
Broad sense- a set of types and results of the transformative activity of a person and society, transmitted from generation to generation using linguistic and non-linguistic sign systems, as well as through learning and imitation
Narrow sense- the sphere of social life, where the spiritual efforts of mankind are concentrated, the achievements of reason, the manifestation of feelings and creative activity
Since culture is the result of a creative, creative activity a person, the experience accumulated and passed on from generation to generation, its assessment and comprehension, this is what distinguishes a person from nature, moves him along the path of development. , then for healthy social and personal development it is necessary that a certain cultural environment, which will include a number of elements:
Work culture- a person's ability to show their Creative skills with maximum efficiency in the organization and implementation of their labor professional activities.
Culture of everyday life- a set of household items, their aesthetics, as well as relations between people in the sphere of everyday relations.
Communication culture- humane attitude of a person to a person, including observance of the norms of politeness, conditional and generally accepted ways of expression good attitude to each other, forms of greetings, gratitude, apologies, rules of conduct in in public places etc. Important elements of this culture are tact, the ability to understand the feelings and moods of the people around them, to put oneself in their place, to imagine the possible consequences of their actions, the manifestation of accuracy and commitment.
Culture of behavior- a set of forms of everyday human behavior, in which moral and aesthetic norms of this behavior find their outward expression.
Culture of education- the ability of a person to organize the process of education and self-education in order to acquire knowledge and skills in various ways.
Culture of thinking- the ability of individual thinking for self-development and the ability to go beyond the limits of the individual's forms and canons of thinking.
Culture of speech and language- the level of speech development, the degree of proficiency in the norms of the language, the expressiveness of speech, the ability to master the semantic shades of various concepts, the use of large vocabulary, emotionality and harmony of speech, possession bright images, persuasiveness.
Culture of feelings- the degree of emotional spirituality of a person, his ability to feel and capture the feelings of other people, tactful attitude to his own and other people's feelings.
Food culture- a person's awareness of the need for nutrition to continue life, the allocation of the necessary food for life and health, an understanding of the need healthy eating and the ability to organize your meals.

Forms and varieties of culture.

Classification criteria
1. By the nature of the needs being met:- Distinguish between material and spiritual culture. The main basis for distinguishing between material and spiritual cultures is the nature of the needs (material or spiritual) of society and man, satisfied by the produced values.
Material- everything that is created in the process of material production: technology, material values, production
Spiritual- a set of spiritual values ​​and creative activities for their production, development and application. (religion, art, morality, science, worldview)
2. In connection with religion:- religious and secular;
3. On a regional basis:- culture of the East and West;
4. By nationality:- Russian, French, etc .;
5. By belonging to the historical type of society:- culture of traditional, industrial, post-industrial society;
6. In connection with the territory:- rural and urban culture;
7. By the sphere of society or type of activity:- industrial, political, economic, pedagogical, ecological, artistic culture, etc .;
8. By skill level and type of audience:- elite (high), popular, mass
Elite culture- (from French elite - the best, selected) - a phenomenon opposed to mass culture. It is created for a narrow circle of consumers, prepared for the perception of works that are complex in form and content (literature: Joyce, Proust, Kafka; painting: Chagall, Picasso; cinema: Kurosawa, Bergman, Tarkovsky; music: Schnittke, Gubaidullina). For a long time, elite culture was understood as the culture of the spiritual elite of society (people with a high level of intelligence and cultural needs). It was believed that these cultural values inaccessible for comprehension by the majority of the population. From the middle of the XX century. elite culture is defined as creative, i.e. that part of the culture in which new cultural values ​​are created. Only 1/3 of these created cultural values ​​achieve public recognition. From this point of view, elite culture is the highest and main part of culture that determines its development.
Signs elite culture:
1) high level(complexity of content);
2) obtaining commercial benefits is not an indispensable goal;
3) readiness of the audience for perception;
4) a narrow circle of creators and audience;
5) a narrow circle of creators and audience;
Popular culture (pop culture)- focuses primarily on commercial success and mass demand. It satisfies the unassuming tastes of the masses, and its products are hits, whose life is often very short.
Signs of mass culture:
1) general availability;
2) entertaining (appeal to such aspects of life and emotions that arouse constant interest and are understandable to most people);
3) seriality, replicability;
4) passivity of perception;
5) commercial in nature.
"Screen culture"- is formed on the basis of the synthesis of a computer with video equipment. Personal contacts and reading books fade into the background.

Folk culture- the most stable part of the national culture, a source of development and a repository of traditions. This is a culture created by the people and existing among the masses. Popular culture is usually anonymous. Folk culture can be divided into two types - popular and folklore. Popular culture describes today's life, manners, customs, songs, dances of the people, and the folklore of its past.
Folk, or national, culture presupposes the absence of personified authorship, it is created by the entire people. It includes myths, legends, dances, legends, epics, fairy tales, songs, proverbs, sayings, symbols, rituals, ceremonies and canons.
Subculture and counterculture
Subculture- part common culture, the system of values ​​inherent in large social group... In any society, there are many subgroups with their own special cultural values ​​and traditions. The system of norms and values ​​that distinguish a group from the rest of society is called a subculture. One of the most common in modern world subculture is youth, distinguished by its language (slang) and behavioral features.
Counterculture- 1) a subculture that not only differs from the dominant culture, but opposes, is in conflict with it, seeks to oust it; 2) the system of values ​​of antisocial groups ("new left", hippies, beatniks, yippies, etc.). The elite culture has its own "counterculture" - the avant-garde.

Interaction of cultures

Dialogue of cultures- 1) continuity, interpenetration and interaction of various cultures of all times and all peoples, enrichment and development on this basis national cultures and common human culture; 2) the same as acculturation.
Acculturation- (English acculturation, from Lat. ad - to, and cultura - education, development) - 1) in the narrow sense: the processes of mutual influence of cultures, as a result of which the culture of one people fully or partially perceives the culture of another people, usually more developed; 2) in a broad sense: the process of interaction of cultures, cultural synthesis.
cultural contact- a precondition for intercultural interaction, which presupposes a stable contact in the social space of two or more cultures. Cultural contact is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the interaction of cultures. The interaction process involves enough high degree closeness and intensity of cultural contact.
Cultural diffusion- (from Latin diffusio - spreading, spreading, dispersing) - mutual penetration (borrowing) of cultural traits and complexes from one society to another when they come into contact (cultural contact). Channels of cultural diffusion: migration, tourism, missionary activities, trade, war, scientific conferences, trade exhibitions and fairs, student and specialist exchange, etc.
Globalization of culture- acceleration of the integration of nations into the world system in connection with the development of modern Vehicle and economic ties, the formation of transnational corporations and the world market, through the impact on people of the media. The globalization of culture has 1) positive (communication, expansion of cultural contacts in the modern world) and 2) negative sides. Overly active borrowing is dangerous by the loss of cultural identity. The younger generation adopts each other's fashion, habits, preferences, customs, as a result of which they become similar, and often simply faceless. The possibility of losing cultural identity lies in the growing threat of assimilation - the absorption of a small culture by a larger one, the dissolution of the cultural characteristics of a national minority in culture big nation, oblivion of paternal culture during mass emigration to another country and obtaining citizenship there.

Functions of culture

Culture performs a number of very important functions in the life of a person and society. At first, culture is the environment in which socialization and education of a person... Only through culture does a person master the accumulated social experience and become a member of society. Culture therefore really acts as a "social inheritance", which is no less important than biological inheritance.
Secondly, is important normative function of culture. Culture regulates relations between people through a system of norms of relationships between people, the principles of morality.
Associated with this and value function of culture. Mastering culture, a person acquires orientations that allow him to distinguish between good and evil, beautiful and ugly, high and vulgar, etc. The criterion for this is primarily the moral and aesthetic values ​​accumulated by culture.
It is also important, especially in modern society, entertaining or compensatory function of culture. In many types of culture, especially in art, there is an element of play, communication, psychological relaxation, aesthetic pleasure.
Another approach to the classification of the functions of culture is presented in the table "The main functions of culture"

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

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

However, before the Latin word appeared the culture there was a concept close to him in meaning. This is an ancient greek word techne literally translated as craft, art, skill(from here - technique). Techne did not have such a broad generalizing meaning as the Latin the culture, but in meaning it was close to him: this word in Ancient Greece meant human activity, changing the form of natural objects, transforming the material world.

Examples of this kind of activity many, starting from the deepest antiquity (handprints on the walls of caves, engravings on rocks, various signs on objects and bodies, etc.). The main meaning of these drawings is to indicate the presence of a person, his intrusion into natural world, this is human seal, this is signs of the separation of man from nature into culture.

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

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

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

2. Modern interpretations of the concept of "culture"

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

- “culture (from Lat. Cultura - cultivation, processing) is a historically determined level of development of society, creative forces and abilities of a person, expressed in the types and forms of organization of life and activities of people, as well as in the material and spiritual values ​​created by them. The concept of "culture" is used to characterize historical eras, specific nationalities and nations, spheres of activity (physical education, political culture etc.). In a narrow sense - the sphere of the spiritual life of people ”(Soviet Encyclopedic Dictionary);

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

- "a complex that includes knowledge, beliefs, art, laws, morality, customs and other abilities and habits acquired by a person as a member of society" (E. Taylor),

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

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

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

- "the social direction that we attach to the cultivation of our biological potencies" (H. Ortega y Gasset),

- "forms of behavior, habitual for a group, community of people, society, having material and non-material features" (C. G. Jung),

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

- "what distinguishes a person from an animal" (W. Oswald),

- "system of signs" (C. Morris),

- “the process of self-progressing self-liberation of a person; language, art, religion, science - different forms of this process ”(E. Cassirer),

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

- "a characteristic of the entire totality of achievements and institutions that separated our life from the life of animal-like ancestors and serve two purposes: protecting man from nature and regulating people's relations with each other" (Z. Freud),

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

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

- “realization of the supreme values ​​by cultivating the supreme human dignity"(M. Heidegger),

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

- "a socially inherited complex of ways of activity and beliefs that make up the fabric of our life" (E. Sapir),

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

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

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

So, the following provisions are commonplace:

Culture is what distinguishes a person from natural environment(culture is called "second nature"), this is a characteristic of human society;

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

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

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

In Russia, the term "culture" used in accordance with German tradition, French and British prefer the term "civilization". Regarding the distinction between these concepts, there are a lot of all kinds of judgments in modern cultural studies. As an illustration, we will quote from an interview with A. I. Solzhenitsyn: "Culture is the cultivation of the inner side of a person's life, his soul, while civilization is the cultivation of the outer, material side of his life."

It is argued that "culture" is a word that is both too broad and too narrow to be useful in any way. Margaret Archer notes that “of all key concepts"In socio-humanitarian studies, the concept of culture demonstrated" the weakest analytical development and played the most ambiguous role in theory. "

In the 1970s, the semiotic trend in the humanities was very popular. In the light of this theory, culture began to be seen as practices denotations... Clifford Geertz spoke of "the network of meaning in which humanity is suspended." Raymond Williams wrote of "a system of meaning through which ... a social order is communicated, transmitted, reproduced, experienced and studied."

Everything social systems suggest meaning. Housing is a matter of need, but it is included in the meaning system as soon as social differences begin to emerge within this need. Lunch in a fancy restaurant cannot be reduced to satisfying the basic need for food, this is already the area of ​​meaning, etc.

Terry Eagleton suggests describing culture "as a set of values, customs, beliefs and practices that make up the lifestyle of a specific group." The famous formulation of E.B. Tylor, proposed to the atropologist in his "Primitive Culture", says that "culture is composed in its entirety of knowledge, beliefs, art, morality, laws, customs and some other abilities and habits assimilated by a person as a member of society."

Stuart Hall: culture is anything that is not genetically transmitted; they are "living practices" or "practical ideologies that enable a society, group or class to experience, define, interpret and conceptualize the conditions of existence."

The definition given to culture by Raymond Williams (an outstanding theorist of the second half of the twentieth century) reveals its dual nature - material reality, coupled with the experienced experience: “culture is the structure of feeling”. In his different works there are the following definitions: standard of excellence; mental habit; art; general intellectual development; whole lifestyle; meaning system; the interconnection of elements in the way of life.

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

Broad understanding of the term relies on the recognition of the universal nature of culture as a form of subjectivity (the subject is understood broadly - from personality to nation). In this sense, culture means the value field in which people exist, and which they share by virtue of their human nature. Culture-as-art is a concentrated form of this field. "U high culture position like the Almighty - she looks from everywhere and from nowhere. "

Eagleton proposes to share Culture and culture ... The essence of Culture is that it is devoid of culture: its values ​​do not refer to any particular form of life, but to human life in general. Since the values ​​of Culture versatile, but not abstract(!), a local refuge is required for its flourishing. There can be no particular Korean version of the categorical Kantian imperative. Culture is ironic about its historical environment: if it needs this very scene for its own implementation, it is a Culture precisely because it overcomes the specified environment in the movement towards the universal. As form connects the elements of a work into a coherent whole, culture denotes the connection between a particular civilization / culture and universal humanity.

Culture as a universal form of human existence gravitates towards the individual, and culture as identity - towards particular collectivity, however paradoxical it may sound. It is in the uniqueness that the universal potential is revealed, and it also interferes with conventional agreements within a particular community. Eagleton: “Culture is the spirit of humanity, which has found concrete expression in specific works, its discourse connects the individual“ I ”and the truth of the Human without the mediation of the historically private. Particulars are pure chance, combinatorics, contingency.

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

Pushkin had no word"Culture" (hereinafter - C.), there was only civilization (hereinafter - C.). Society turned to cultural sciences as a special kind of knowledge only in the twentieth century. Culturology, philosophy of culture, cultural anthropology, and everyday culture have developed. These are all separate disciplines.

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

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

And if there are many "cultures", then knowledge about K. and existence / being in K. do not coincide. The fact that I KNOW about Taoism does not mean that I belong to it. Therefore, in the process of studying the discipline "Theory and history of culture", it is important not only to gain KNOWLEDGE about culture / cultures, but to form CULTURAL SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS (the process takes a lifetime).

Culturology gives knowledge about culture and different cultures, and philosophy / theory of culture answers the questions - where am I in this diversity? What to consider yours? The task of a cultural theorist is to see the present day from the standpoint of the WHOLE HISTORY OF CULTURE and "count" the meanings.

Cultural sciences evolved as opposed to "natural sciences". The problems of the theory of culture are addressed to one degree or another: history, philosophy, anthropology (social, cultural), psychology, sociology, ethnography, archeology, linguistics, art history. Thus, the APPROACH TO STUDYING CULTURE is interdisciplinary.

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

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