Culture as such becomes the subject of special study. Abstract: Culture as a subject of study

The concept of artistic culture and its characteristics

No matter how great the artistic value of a work of art may be, it will remain just a simple thing for a person who has no interest in it and no sense of beauty. Love for art or interest in artistic culture often decreases in modern society. However, today, without taking into account the traditions of national artistic culture, to form new ideals and values ​​in a changing Russian society impossible. At the beginning of the century, a person cannot live by economic and political knowledge alone. We must realize the importance of the phenomenon of artistic culture and not relegate it to a secondary role.

So what is it art culture? Definition of a concept is the most important direction in cognitive activity, since each concept must have its own meaning that distinguishes it from others.

Artistic culture most often means art, literature, artistic creativity. However, give precise definition not simple, because artistic culture is a very complex and ambiguous phenomenon.

Culture is a Latin word – culture. Originally it meant cultivating the land. But already in Ancient Rome a more capacious interpretation of this expression appeared - culture animi, translated as processing, improvement of the soul. Later, the word culture begins to be used among loved ones different meanings: upbringing, education, improvement, development. “And from here it is clear that culture is not a natural phenomenon, but created by man and each of its forms human activity relates to culture." Consequently, artistic culture embraces all human activity in the spheres of material and spiritual production and its roots go back to the origins of human civilization. As a subject, artistic culture will become a subject of study only in the century, “since it was by this time that European science it worked out general idea about culture and it was then that it became clear that different types arts are united in their essence and are capable of interacting, forming a relatively autonomous world within the culture of society” (64, p. 5). The term “artistic culture” itself will appear in use much later.

The nature of artistic culture is judged by the following criteria:

The degree of participation of the broad masses in the creation of new ones and the development of previously created ones artistic values.

The level of artistic values ​​created and their ideological content.

The structure of artistic culture is formed from the following norms:

A) general laws art (these are, first of all, the laws of art as a form of social consciousness, as well as the laws artistic creativity);

b) aesthetic principles and norms associated with a particular method;

c) aesthetic principles and norms, depending on the specific direction (within this method) to which the artist belongs."

Artistic culture has relative independence. It not only reflects socio-economic transformations in society, but also actively influences them. Artistic culture is one of the ways to transform and master the world, which is based on the laws of both material and spiritual production. This independence and its effective nature are realized through certain functions. According to the famous researcher of artistic culture M.S. Kagan, “the functions of artistic culture are determined by spatiotemporal parameters public life of people" . For example, in our country in the second half of the twentieth century, aesthetic, cognitive, ideological, communicative and educational functions were distinguished. Artistic culture has not lost its main functions even today. Let's look at these functions.

Researchers usually place the aesthetic function of artistic culture in the first place. It is associated with the emotional and sensual nature of art, since works of art are capable of delivering spiritual pleasure and excitement. The process of experiencing when perceiving any artistic work of art is based on the uniqueness of a person, on his individual characteristics and impressions in artistic perception.

The cognitive function of artistic culture helps to understand life and bring the past closer. Artistic culture is a purely individual source of knowledge, and therefore this knowledge is unique. No type of cognition can compare with artistic culture in the breadth, diversity and persuasiveness of conveying information. “Recognition of the cognitive function in art and in artistic culture in general has always served as a criterion for assessing artistic direction, the position of the artist or the ideological platform of certain theoretical schools” (62, p. 13).

Artistic culture, no matter what form it manifests itself in - be it the creation of works of art or the sphere of studying artistic values ​​- is always closely connected with ideology. The artist’s worldview includes a whole system of various assessments of social life and the phenomena of reality. By expressing his attitude to the depicted facts, the artist thereby becomes involved in ideological life society. In artistic culture, all elements serve as an expression of some ideology. It is impossible to name a single work of art or artistic movement that does not correspond to some ideas. This is the ideological function of artistic culture.

At all times, artistic culture has served as a means of transmitting not only knowledge, but also feelings; it is a means of spiritual communication between people. This is what it's all about communicative function artistic culture.

But artists and thinkers throughout the history of mankind have always put forward educational function artistic culture, because it is capable of shaping a person’s spiritual world, influencing his mind, feelings and will.

Each of the listed functions is characteristic of all spheres of artistic culture. However, not all functions are of equal importance in different areas. For example, in music and literature the central aesthetic function. In addition, there are functions of artistic culture that are characteristic only of certain types. For example, architecture also has functions of utility, economy and expediency.

The variety of functions of artistic culture allows it to respond to all changes occurring in society.

A distinctive feature of artistic culture is “recognition of beauty as the dominant category.” After all, beauty is a way of perceiving the world and recreating its picture based on ideal ideas about perfection, harmony and organization.

Thus, artistic culture turns out to be directly related to the affirmation of the values ​​of society. These values ​​are guidelines for people's behavior. Therefore, the study of artistic culture in school from this point of view will have a great impact educational value. Lessons in the study of artistic culture help to learn the language of art and the categories that guided the creator: good and evil, tragic and comic, love and hate, masterpiece and plagiarism, etc.

In the field of artistic culture research, the works of B.V. Astafiev, D.S. Likhachev, A.F. Losev, S.S. Averantsev, Yu.N. Davydov, A.V. Mikhailov, M.S. Kagan, G D. Gachev and many others, who were devoted to the study of various issues in the field of artistic culture. But all these researchers agree that the concept of “artistic culture” is immeasurably broader than the field of artistic creativity. IN general view it includes all social forms of existence of art from everyday artistic life, folk art to professional artistic creativity.

Currently, there are many definitions of the concept of “artistic culture” and each of them has its own compelling reasons. Here are some of them:

1. “We understand culture, taken holistically, as the total method and product of human activity. Therefore, artistic culture can be defined as the total product artistic activity of people. The term “total” means in this case that artistic culture covers all branches of artistic activity - verbal, musical, theatrical, visual, etc., and all processes occurring “around” art - creation, storage, distribution, perception, evaluation, study works of art, as well as processes that ensure the successful functioning, education of artists, the public, critics, art critics, organizers artistic life» .

2. “Artistic culture is a special area and specialized form of culture, the totality, correlation and structure of spiritual aesthetic ideals and values, various types creative activity, types of thinking and tastes functioning in this or that society.” But in our work we will adhere to the following definition of the concept of “artistic culture”: “Artistic culture is a set of processes and phenomena spiritually - practical activities on the creation, distribution, development of works of art or material objects that have aesthetic value» .

But, despite the emergence in Russian culture of the 19th century social thought and the first sprouts of philosophy, it, first of all, remained a culture artistic word. Literature became the leading area of ​​Russian artistic culture of the period under review. She was associated with liberation ideas and expressed them by discussing the pressing problems of our time. It “laid down those fundamental principles that determined its further development: nationality, high humanistic ideals, citizenship and feeling national identity, patriotism, search for social justice. Literature became an important means of shaping public consciousness” (23, p.242). It was during this period of the heyday of literature, which will be called the “golden age” of Russian culture, that the process of creating new literary forms, and there is also a rapid change of directions (sentimentalism, romanticism, realism). In addition to literature, this change of directions will occur in all types of art, and these directions will exist in parallel.

As we see, the artistic culture of the first half of the century strived for an unprecedented rise. It wasn’t enough for her to create masterpieces, she always tried to go beyond the genre, or understand it to highest peaks, or open up completely new paths and possibilities of art.

The external openness of the culture of this time was reflected, first of all, in its receptivity to the new things that world culture offered.

The pursuit of ideas and fashions of the century, the desire to master in a decade what took neighbors half a century to master, led to a flickering of styles and methods. Some of them, having barely gained their rights and not exhausting their opportunities, were forced to give way to others. These clashes of ideas and methods hampered artists, but they also opened up previously unknown prospects for using a mixture of styles and genres. Literature, architecture, painting, music, theater - each of these spheres of artistic culture experienced a period of maturity and prosperity in the first half of the century. Having examined and analyzed the features of its development, we can draw the following conclusions:

1. Artistic culture is a set of processes and phenomena of spiritual and practical activity in the creation, distribution, and development of works of art or material objects that have aesthetic value.

2. The artistic culture of the first half of the century was closely connected with world and Russian political events.

3. Literature became an important means of shaping social creation in the first half of the century; it laid down the fundamental principles that determined its further development: nationality, high humanistic ideals, citizenship, a sense of national identity, patriotism.

4. The artistic culture of the first half of the century is a complex phenomenon with a certain integrity. By the middle of the century, it experienced an unprecedented rise and acquired European and global significance.

Development of literature

But, despite the emergence of social thought and the first sprouts of philosophy in Russian culture of the 19th century, it, first of all, remained a culture of artistic expression. The leading area of ​​Russian artistic culture during the period under review was literature. She was associated with liberation ideas and expressed them by discussing the pressing problems of our time. It “laid down the fundamental principles that determined its further development: nationality, high humanistic ideals, citizenship and a sense of national identity, patriotism, the search for social justice. Literature became an important means of shaping public consciousness." It was during this period of the heyday of literature, which will be called the “golden age” of Russian culture, that the process of creating new literary forms ends, and a rapid change of directions also occurs (sentimentalism, romanticism, realism). In addition to literature, this change of directions will occur in all types of art, and these directions will exist in parallel. Let's take a closer look at this process.

The subject of cultural studies allows you to get acquainted with the history of the formation of problems of a cultural nature, to develop skills for applying them in life. categorical apparatus, gives necessary knowledge O cultural values, helps to understand one's cultural and national traditions.

Culture as a subject of cultural studies is considered from various positions, since it is a complex concept that includes both the artificial environment of human existence and his self-realization.

The subject and tasks of cultural studies lie in the transfer of accumulated cultural knowledge, and they also provide an opportunity to independently expand your horizons.

The term cultural studies was introduced into widespread use by the scientist L. White. It was he who first tried to create general theories of culture.

The subject of cultural studies is a complex socio-humanitarian discipline that strives to form a system of knowledge regarding culture, considering it as an integral phenomenon. The subject and tasks of cultural studies are studies aimed at describing culture, analyzing different cultures and their comparison, knowledge and also an explanation of the origins of the specific and general, changeable and stable in culture.

The subject of cultural studies is currently an integrative field of knowledge. The basis of cultural studies are individual sciences - history, archeology, art history, ethnography, etc. Cultural studies considers cultural studies as socio-humanitarian knowledge general meaning multifaceted cultural phenomenon, including methods of its research. Culture as a subject of cultural studies is the goal of research, leading to an understanding of one’s own and other culture, while the subject is the fullness of social life. Consequently, cultural studies is the interaction of various elements of traditions, customs, values, cultural codes, ideologies, technologies, etc.

Culturology is based on the unity of empirical and theoretical knowledge, since it considers not only specific cultural processes and phenomena, but also ultimate abstractions. The subject of cultural studies includes both applied and

Let us list the main tasks of cultural research:

Cultural analysis;

Study of the content of culture;

Determining the relationships between cultural elements;

Study of cultural units and typologies of cultures;

Resolving problems identified by ;

Studying cultural communications and codes.

In practice, cultural studies find their application in the field of management and mass communications.

The following methods are used in cultural studies:

Empirical - collection and description of factual material;

Comparative-historical - providing the opportunity to compare original phenomena cultural complex in a historical context;

Structural-functional - allowing you to decompose what is being studied cultural site into its component parts and identify their internal connections;

Genetic - allows you to understand the phenomenon being studied from the standpoint of its occurrence and subsequent development;

Semiotic - defined by the understanding of culture as a sign mechanism that allows the transfer of experience from generation to generation, as a symbolic system that ensures social inheritance.

Culturology includes several sections and is a complex science:

Philosophy of culture;

Theory of culture;

Sociology of culture;

History of culture;

Cultural anthropology.

Thus, cultural studies not only describes the accumulated knowledge of humanity, but also comprehends them.

IN modern social science The concept of “culture” is one of the fundamental ones. It is difficult to name another word that would have such a variety of semantic shades. In ordinary usage, “culture” serves as an evaluative concept and refers to personality traits that would be more accurately called not culture, but culture (politeness, delicacy, education, good manners, etc.). The concept of “culture” is used to characterize certain historical eras (ancient culture), specific societies, nationalities, nations (Mayan culture), as well as specific spheres of activity or life (work culture, political culture, artistic culture, etc.). By culture, researchers also understand the world of meanings, a system of values, a way of activity, symbolic activity, the sphere of self-reproduction of the individual, the way of development of society, its spiritual life, etc. According to some estimates, to date there are more than 500 definitions of culture.

What is the reason for such a variety of interpretations? First of all, that culture expresses the depth and immeasurability human existence. To the extent that man is inexhaustible, diverse, culture is multifaceted and multifaceted. In each of the above interpretations of culture, individual aspects of such a complex phenomenon as culture are recorded, although one-sided definitions often lead to very controversial conclusions when, for example, science, religion, and negative aspects of social life are excluded from the sphere of culture.

Attempts to understand culture were made long before the science of cultural studies emerged. The desire to understand and define the phenomenon of culture laid the foundation for the emergence of this science, or rather, it was the source that fed the search for its initial concepts.

The concept of “culture” (Latin - cultura) was born in Ancient Rome and originally meant “cultivation, cultivation of the land,” i.e. it was associated with agriculture, agriculture. The ancient Roman orator and philosopher Marcus Tulius Cicero in his work “Tusculan Manuscripts” (45 BC) used the concept of “culture”, meaning soil cultivation, in figuratively, as the cultivation of the human mind in the process of training and education. Believing that a deep mind arises through philosophical reasoning, he characterized philosophy as the culture of the mind. IN Ancient Greece The term “paideia” (Greek pais - child), close to the concept of “culture”, was also used, denoting the process of raising a husband from an unintelligent child, the process of training citizens in the ancient polis (city-state). It is noteworthy that already in these first interpretations of culture, its two-way functioning was noted: the focus of culture on the world (cultivation, humanization of nature) and on man (cultivation of all the properties of social man).

In the Middle Ages (V-XV centuries AD), culture began to be viewed as a “cult”, “veneration” (of God). The man of this era perceived culture as something eternal, given from the beginning, existing outside of time and space. Culture was understood as something that had become, as a result of activity, embodied in codes, embodied in public institutions, primarily in universities.

The word “culture” came into philosophical use only in the 18th century, ceasing to be a word of everyday speech, precisely because there was a need for an integrative definition of what and how a person does and how it affects him. In the teachings of S. Pufendorf, G. Vico, C. Helvetius, I. G. Herder, I. Kant, man is defined as a being endowed with reason and the ability to create, and the history of mankind is considered as its self-development, thanks to objective activity. It was during the Enlightenment that an awareness of culture was formed in its difference from nature and in its relationship with it. Culture is considered as a supernatural formation that characterizes the life of Homo sapiens, in contrast to the existence of an animal or savage.

Modern interpretations of culture, as already mentioned, can be very different. Thus, prominent domestic researchers in the 20th century defined culture both as a set of values ​​(V.P. Tugarinov), and as a way of society’s activities (E.S. Markaryan, E.S. Sokolov, Z.I. Fainburg), and as a system signs and symbols (Yu.M. Lotman, B.A. Uspensky), and as a lifestyle program (V. Sagatovsky), etc. At the same time, it is not difficult to notice that all these definitions of culture are the essence of definitions of human activity and the man himself as actor. The connection between activity and culture is the initial one, determining its explanation and study.

Human activity in this case is understood as a versatile, free activity of a person that has a certain result. Human activity is free in the sense that it goes beyond instinct. A person is capable of such activity that is not limited by nature, by the boundaries of the species, while the behavior of animals is genetically programmed. Thus, a bee will never be able to weave a web, and a spider will never be able to take nectar from a flower. The beaver will build a dam, but will never explain how he did it, and will not be able to make a tool. A person can move from one form of activity to another, creating himself and creating culture.

However, not every human activity leads to the creation of culture. Reproduction, copying of known rules, samples (for example, monotonous mass production, everyday Speaking) is also an activity, but it does not lead to the creation of culture, but creative activity a person, which is impossible without reason, without progress towards meaning, without creating something new.

The creative abilities of a person, being his essential forces, are not the same in the degree of development, since there are genetic differences between people and the conditions of their existence are different. Two levels can be distinguished creativity person.

The first level of creativity lies in the ability to improvise, to create new options based on already given elements and rules. This is inherent in every person, but to varying degrees. This level of creativity is realized, for example, in masterpieces of handicraft, folklore, exquisite literary speech, technical solutions such as rationalization proposals, etc. You can call this creativity within the tradition.

The second level of creative activity is manifested by updating elements and rules, expressing new content. It is inherent in a few individuals, although the number of people who have the potential ability to create radically new things is much greater than the number of people who get the opportunity to develop and realize it under the influence social conditions. At this level of creativity, fundamental scientific discoveries, technical solutions such as inventions appear, classical works art, religious doctrines are put forward, etc. In other words, we're talking about about creating something new not only for the individual, a particular society, but for all of humanity.

It is in creativity that the generic, socially active essence of a person is most fully and holistically revealed. In this regard, the figurative formula of culture proposed by B. Pasternak in response to the question “What is a person?” is quite productive. from the questionnaire of the German magazine “Magnum”: “Culture is a fruitful existence. This definition is sufficient. Let man change creatively over the centuries, and cities, states, gods, art will appear by themselves, as a result, with the naturalness with which fruits ripen on a fruit tree.”

As a way of realizing the essential powers of man, culture permeates all areas of human activity and cannot be reduced to just one of them. Culture (in the broadest sense of the word) is everything created by the hands and spirit of man (material and spiritual culture), that is, it is “second nature,” in contrast to the primordial nature.

Culturology is a young science (date of birth 1931) When the American professor Leslie White first taught a course on cultural studies at the University of Michigan. However, cultural studies became a subject of research long before this.

Since ancient times, philosophers have raised and discussed questions related to the study of culture, namely about the characteristics human image life in comparison with the way of life of animals, about the development of knowledge and arts, about the differences between the customs and behavior of people in a civilized society and in “barbarian” tribes, ancient Greek thinkers did not use the term “culture”, but gave a meaning close to it to the Greek word enlightenment . In the Middle Ages, culture was considered mainly under the name of religion.

The Renaissance was marked by the cultivation of culture into religious and secular ones. Understanding the humanistic content of culture, and especially art. But only in the 18th century. - During the Enlightenment, the concept of culture entered the language of science and attracted the attention of inheritors as a designation of one of the most important spheres of human existence. One of the terms “culture” was coined by Herder (1744 - 1803). In his understanding, culture contains as its parts: language, science, craft, art, religion, family and state. In the 19th century Gradually, the need to develop the science of culture as a special scientific discipline began to be realized. And in the first half of the 20th century. The German scientist and philosopher Wilhelm Oswald in his book “System of Sciences” suggests the word “culturology” to denote the doctrine of culture.

Currently, cultural studies is fundamental science And academic discipline, which has become one of the basic subjects of humanitarian education.

In a broad sense, cultural studies is now interpreted as a comprehensive humanitarian science, which covers the entire body of knowledge about culture and includes:

• · -philosophy of culture
• - theory of culture
• -history of culture
• -cultural anthropology
• - sociology of culture
• · -applied cultural studies
• · -history of cultural studies students.

IN in the narrow sense culturology is understood as a general theory of culture, on the basis of which culturological disciplines are developed that study individual forms of culture such as art, science, morality, law, etc. Particular culturological sciences also relate to it as separate physical sciences, for example thermodynamics with general physics.

Every science has philosophical problems. They concern its ideological foundations and methodological principles scientific knowledge. Philosophy of culture is the sphere philosophical problems culturologists, which includes questions about the essence of culture, prospects, goals and fate of its development, its role in society. Life and historical progress of mankind, etc. Cultural history studies the cultural-historical process in different countries and regions of the world. She describes cultural achievements peoples, clarifies the uniqueness of their cultures, collects, analyzes and summarizes the factual material on which researchers rely when developing the history of culture.

Cultural anthropology examines human life in a particular cultural environment and examines its impact on the formation and development of personality. The focus is on the dependence of the psyche and spirit of people on the characteristics of the culture in which they live.

Sociology of culture brings to the fore issues related to the analysis of the relationship between culture and social, economic, political life society. Culture is practiced as a system of means by which people are organized and regulated. living together and human activities. As one of the most important factors in the organization and migration of social groups existing in society and society as a whole.

Applied cultural studies is distinguished by its practical orientation. She deals with the work of cultural institutions (museums, libraries, clubs) and organizational cultural events(festivals, holidays), management problems in the field of culture and cultural policy state

History culturologist. Teaching is important as a source of knowledge about the process of developing knowledge about culture. Know their history code. A revolution is necessary in order to assess the current state of cultural development. Summarizing what has been said, it is worth noting that cultural studies is:

• 1. Science, which sees culture as the subject of scientific analysis - unique complex object, a global phenomenon that has no localization in time and space.
• 2. Integrative science or meta-science, which systematizes and integrates the knowledge about culture that has been accumulated by various special sciences about culture: art history, literary criticism, etc. and comprehends the position of knowledge about culture on more high level compared to private sciences.

Yu.M. Reznik

1. Differentiation of approaches to the study of culture

Diversity of cultural knowledge

There is perhaps no other phenomenon that is so often discussed by scientists and philosophers as culture. IN scientific literature There are many definitions of the concept “culture”. It’s even difficult to list them all.

If we ignore the philosophical and scientific definitions of culture, we can highlight several aspects of culture as a way or sphere of human existence.

1. Culture appears where and when people, acquiring human traits, go beyond the limits of natural necessity and become the creators of their lives.

2. Culture arises and is formed as a set of answers to many questions and problem situations social and natural life of people. This is a common “storehouse” of knowledge, tools and technologies developed by people to solve generally significant problems.

3. Culture generates and “serves” many forms of organization of human experience, providing them with the necessary resources and “channels” feedback. Such diversity does not lead to blurring the boundaries of culture, but, on the contrary, makes social life more stable and predictable.

4. Culture represents a conceivable and inconceivable horizon of possibilities and alternatives for the development of man and society. As such, it determines the context and specific content of people's activities at each given moment of their existence.

5. Culture is the method and result of the symbolic and value-normative construction of reality, its cultivation according to the laws of the beautiful/ugly, moral/immoral, true/false, rational/supernatural (irrational), etc.

6. Culture is the method and result of self-generation and self-comprehension of a person, the existing world of his abilities and generic forces. A person becomes a person thanks to and through culture.

7. Culture is the way and the result of a person’s “penetration” into other worlds - the world of nature, the world of the divine, the worlds of other people, nations and communities within which he realizes himself.

One can continue listing the characteristics and qualities of culture without fully exhausting all the richness of its content.

We will try to highlight and justify the systemic definitions of culture that have developed today in various areas of social knowledge. In this case, several approaches should be distinguished - philosophical, anthropological, sociological and complex, or “integralist” (general theory of culture). /1/

(As symbol we will consider an “integrative” approach to the study of culture general theory culture (OTK), or cultural studies in our understanding. With this approach, culture is considered as a system, that is, an integral set of phenomena and objects)

The difference between them can be summarized as follows (see Table 1).

Table 1.

The relationship between all of the above approaches should be considered, as in the case of a systematically complex study of personality, from the point of view of the relationship between the universal, the particular and the individual. /2/

(See: Reznik Yu.M. Man and Society (experience comprehensive analysis) // Personality. Culture. Society. 2000. Vol. 3–4.)

The difference between these approaches to the study of culture as a system can be reduced to the following: philosophy places emphasis on comprehending universal (generic) principles cultural system; social Psychology considers culture as an individual (that is, as an individual phenomenon), possessing signs of the universal and special ( cultural styles); Anthropology studies the individual and individual in culture through the prism of the universal or generic development of humanity ( cultural traits and universals); Sociology, on the other hand, pays main attention to the manifestations of the special (typical) in culture, taking into account its individual/individual and universal development ( cultural norms and values).

Philosophical approach

This approach has the broadest panorama of vision of culture. As is known, the philosopher considers any phenomenon from the point of view of integrity and existence, universal and value-rational (or subjectively meaningful). Philosophical analysis in contrast to scientific knowledge, it includes mental procedures that make it possible to express the subject under study in extremely broad categories, as well as through the prism of dichotomies - “ideal-real”, “natural-artificial”, “subjective-objective”, “structure-activity” and etc.

Philosophers and thinkers of all times have tried to determine the meaning or main purpose of culture, and only a few of them, in our opinion, have come close to its true understanding. For some, culture is the known in the world of the unknown, “a ray of light in dark kingdom" For others, its meaning lies in endless self-improvement human nature, continuous equipping of people with material, intellectual and spiritual means.

In the history of world philosophy of modern times, the concepts of culture are most fully represented in the philosophy of I. Kant, G. Herder, G. F. Hegel, the philosophy of life (A. Schopenhauer, F. Nietzsche, W. Dilthey, G. Simmel, etc.), philosophy of history (O. Spengler, A. Toynbee, N.Ya. Danilevsky, etc.), neo-Kantian tradition (G. Rickert, W. Windelband, E. Cassirer, etc.), phenomenological philosophy (E. Husserl, etc.) , psychoanalysis (Z. Freud, K. Jung, etc.). These and other concepts are described in detail in a number of textbooks on the philosophy of culture and cultural studies and therefore there is no need to consider them in detail.

In modern Western philosophy, cultural studies are continued by M. Heidegger, representatives of structuralism and post-structuralism (M. Foucault, J. Lacan, J.-F. Lyotard, R. Barthes, etc.).

Here are just some of the most known definitions cultures found in modern philosophical literature: a common and accepted way of thinking by all (K. Jung); the process of progressive self-liberation of a person (E. Cassirer); what distinguishes humans from animals (V.F. Ostwald); a set of factors and changed living conditions, taken together with the means necessary for this (A. Gehlen); part of the environment created by man (M. Herskovich); system of signs (C. Morris, Yu. M. Lotman); specific method thinking, feeling and behavior (T. Elliot); a set of material and spiritual values ​​(G. Frantsev); “a single cross-section passing through all spheres of human activity” (M. Mamardashvili); method and technology of human activity (E.S. Markaryan); everything that a person creates, mastering the world of objects - nature, society, etc. (M.S. Kagan); socially significant creative human activity, taken in a dialectical relationship with its results (N.S. Zlobin); the production of man himself in all the richness of his connections with society (V.M. Mezhuev); the sphere of realization of ideal-value goals, the implementation of the ideal (N.Z. Chavchavadze); spiritual existence of society (L.Kertman); system of spiritual production (B.S. Erasov), etc./3/

(A detailed systematization of philosophical definitions of culture is given in the book by M.S. Kagan “Philosophy of Culture” (St. Petersburg, 1996).

Attempts by individual philosophers to reduce culture to “external” goods and conditions of people have yielded nothing. It “cultivates” not only physical nature, but also man from the inside, albeit with the help of material or symbolic intermediaries. In this sense, culture is the self-manifestation and self-disclosure of human nature in objects of material and spiritual world. Without this, it is difficult to understand the essence of culture.

As domestic researchers show, the philosophical study of culture presupposes striving for the fundamental foundations of human existence, for the depths of the people’s self-awareness.

(See: Culturology: Tutorial/ Ed. G.V.Dracha. Rostov-on-Don, 1999. P. 74)

Within the framework of the philosophical approach today there are several positions that express various shades and semantic meanings of the concept “culture”./5/

(We will dwell in more detail on the characteristics of the positions of domestic researchers who have made a significant contribution to the development of the philosophy of culture)

1. Culture is “second nature,” an artificial world, that is, created by man in his own image and likeness or for his own needs, not clearly dictated by natural necessity (as opposed to everything natural) and the power of instinct.

In the philosophical literature, attempts are made to indicate essential features that make it possible to record the qualitative difference between culture and nature. Its emergence was facilitated, according to P.S. Gurevich, by the use of fire and tools, the emergence of speech, methods of violence against oneself (taboos and other restrictions), the formation of organized communities, the formation of myths and images./6/