What do we mean by culture? Definitions of culture

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Modern interpretations of the concept of “culture”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- “system of signs” (C. Morris),

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

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

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

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

- “a set of intellectual elements available to a given 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 supreme values ​​through the cultivation of the highest human virtues” (M. Heidegger),

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

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

- “forms of habitual behavior common to a group, community or society; these forms consist of material and non-material 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 primitive culture or the culture of such eras and peoples that, when using the word in the first meaning, should be called uncultured..." ( encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron).

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

So, the general point is the following:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Broad understanding of the term relies on recognition universal character culture as a form of subjectivity (the subject is understood broadly - from the individual to the 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 the position is like that of the Almighty - she looks from everywhere and from nowhere.”

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

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

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

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

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

Claude Lévi-Strauss has a job“Three Humanisms”, where he highlights: 1st Renaissance - the legalization of pagan antiquity in Europe; 2nd - metaphysical discovery of the East by Europeans (18th century); 1871 - publication of 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. Just because I KNOW about Taoism does not mean I belong to it. Therefore, in the process of studying the discipline “Theory and History of Culture”, it is important not only to gain KNOWLEDGE about culture/cultures, but to form CULTURAL SELF-AWARENESS (the process takes a lifetime).

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

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

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

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

Introduction

Culture as a multifaceted concept

Culture and cult

Conclusion

Studying the concept of culture is one of the important and relevant topics today.

The concept of culture characterizes a specific aspect of human life. Specificity is determined by the dual nature of culture as an activity that is both social (tribal) 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, permeating its ethical (in the aspect of good - evil), aesthetic (beauty - ugly), religious (the thought of God), scientific (truth - error), legal and other aspects.

This topic is covered in sufficient detail in scientific works. 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 multifaceted 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. Systematize and summarize existing approaches to this problem in the specialized literature.

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

To address the topic at hand, the following structure is defined: the work consists of an introduction, three paragraphs and a conclusion. The title of the paragraphs reflects their content.

Culture is a multifaceted concept. Above 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 the communicated knowledge that is passed down from generation to generation to help members of groups live in a particular time, place or situation.

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

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

Some types of behavior may be the result of specific specific circumstances in the life of a group, depend on climate, geographical location, appear at the moment of danger, discovery. Often group members persist in behavior whose cause has long been forgotten. This behavior is also part of the culture.

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

Thus, culture is that:

Shared by all or almost all members of some social group;

Passed on by older members of the group to younger ones;

Forms behavior (morals, laws, customs).

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

The dominant trend of humanity then became a 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 dominant work style has become industrial, centered around the factory system and urban lifestyle.

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

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

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

Culture through the economy determines the value and necessity of work for specific group. In some cultures, all members participate in desirable and worthwhile activities, but their membership is not measured by the cost of working in in monetary terms; instead, the role and significance of work for unification is emphasized. Culture determines the conditions, opportunities and segmentation of professional activity.

Material and spiritual culture

In general, approaches to defining culture can be divided into two large groups: culture as a world of accumulated values ​​and norms, as a material world located outside a person, and culture as a human world. 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 human spiritual life; culture is living human activity, method, technology of this activity. Both are true. For culture is two-dimensional: on the one hand, culture is the world of human social experience and the enduring material and spiritual values ​​he has accumulated. On the other side - quality characteristic living human activity.

Even here it is difficult to distinguish material culture from spiritual culture. N. Berdyaev said that culture is always spiritual, but it is hardly worth challenging the existence of material culture. If culture shapes a person, then how can one exclude the influence of the material environment, tools and means of labor, and the variety of everyday things on this process? Is it even possible to form a person’s soul in isolation from his body? On the other hand, as Hegel said, the spirit itself bears the curse of being embodied in material substrates. The most brilliant thought, if it is not objectified, will die along with the subject. Without leaving any trace on the culture. All this suggests that any opposition between the material and the spiritual and vice versa in the sphere of culture is inevitably relative. The difficulty of distinguishing culture into material and spiritual is great; you can try to do it by their influence on the development of personality.

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 humanity, a luxury that is accessible and necessary for the preservation of the human in man. It is the spiritual needs, the needs for the holy and eternal that affirm for a person the meaning and purpose of his existence, and correlate a person with the integrity of the universe.

Let us also note that the relationship between material and spiritual needs is quite complex and ambiguous. Material needs cannot simply be ignored. Strong material, economic, and social support can facilitate the path of a person and society to the development of spiritual needs. But this is not the main premise. The path to spirituality is a path of conscious education and self-education, requiring 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 system, on life guidelines, on the motivation of activity. “To have” is an orientation toward material goods, toward possession and use. In contrast, “to be” means to become and 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 its aesthetic, and sometimes about moral development. When creating any thing, a person inevitably “puts” his human qualities into it, involuntarily, most often unconsciously, imprinting in it the image of his 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.

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

The word “culture” is in the vocabulary of almost every person.

But this concept has very different meanings.

Some people understand by culture only those values ​​of spiritual life that others - more This concept is narrowed down further and only phenomena of art and literature are included in it. Still others generally understand culture as a certain ideology designed to serve and ensure “labor” accomplishments, i.e., economic tasks.

The phenomenon of culture is extremely rich and diverse, truly comprehensive. It is no coincidence that cultural scientists have long found it difficult to define it.

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

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

Currently, the concept of culture means a historically certain level of development of society, creative powers and abilities of a person, expressed in the types and forms of organization of people’s lives and activities, as well as in the material and spiritual values ​​they create.

Therefore, it is possible to understand the essence of culture only through the prism of human activity and the peoples inhabiting the planet.

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

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

Any person, growing up, first of all masters the culture that was already created before him, masters the social experience accumulated by his predecessors. Mastery of culture can be carried out in the form interpersonal relationships and self-education. The role of the media—radio, television, and print—is enormous.

By mastering previously accumulated experience, a person can make his own contribution to the cultural layer.

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

Culture is a complex system, absorbing and reflecting the contradictions of the whole world. How do they manifest themselves?

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

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

In the contradiction between the traditional nature of a culture and the renewal that occurs in its body.

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

Culture is a very complex, multi-level system.

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

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

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

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

Culture is divided into certain species and genera. The basis for such a division is to take into account the diversity of human activity. This is where material and spiritual culture stand out. But their division is often conditional, since in real life they are closely interconnected and interpenetrated.

An important feature of material culture is its non-identity with either the material life of society, or material production, or materially transformative activity.

Material culture characterizes this activity from the point of view of its influence on human development, revealing to what extent it makes it possible to use his abilities, creative potential, and talents.

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

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

According to some culturologists, certain types of culture cannot be attributed only to material or spiritual. They represent a “vertical” section of culture, “permeating” its entire system. This is economic, political, environmental, aesthetic culture.

Historically, culture is associated with humanism. Culture is a measure of human development. Neither advances in technology nor scientific discoveries by themselves do not determine the level of culture of a society if there is no humanity in it, if culture is not aimed at improving man. Thus, the criterion of culture is the humanization of society. The purpose of culture is the comprehensive development of man.

There is another division based on relevance.

Relevant is the culture that is in mass use.

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

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

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

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

Culture is a multifunctional system. Let us briefly describe the main functions of culture. The main function of the cultural phenomenon is human-creative, or humanistic. Everything else is somehow connected with it and even follows from it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The semiotic or sign function is the most important in the cultural system. Representing a certain sign system, culture presupposes knowledge and mastery of it. Without studying the corresponding sign systems, it is impossible to master the achievements of culture. So, language is a means communication between people, the literary language is the most important means of mastering national culture. Specific languages ​​are needed to understand the special world of music, painting, and theater. Natural sciences also have their own sign systems.

The value or axiological function reflects the most important qualitative state of culture. Culture as a value system forms in a person very specific 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 appropriate assessment.

The concept of culture is central to cultural studies. In his modern meaning it entered the circulation of European social thought from the 2nd half. 18th century

Culture is an integral part of human existence and one of the fundamental characteristics used to study certain countries, regions, and civilizations. Having emerged together with man, culture evolved along with him, within its framework original and often contradictory ideas and trends were born, flourished and declined, but it itself always remained relatively monolithic.

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 totality of people’s relationships to nature, among themselves and to themselves.

Culture characterizes the characteristics of consciousness, behavior and activity of people in specific areas public life(work culture, political culture and others).

The word “culture” comes from the Latin, meaning the cultivation of the soil, its cultivation, i.e. a change in a natural object under human influence, as opposed to those changes caused by natural causes. Already in the initial content one can highlight an important feature - the unity of culture, man and his activities. For example, the Hellenes saw their upbringing as their main difference from the “wild”, “uncultured barbarians”. In the Middle Ages, the word “culture” was associated with personal qualities, with signs of personal improvement. During the Renaissance, personal perfection began to be understood as conformity to the humanistic ideal. And from the point of view of the enlighteners of the 18th century. culture meant "reasonableness." Giambattista Vico (1668-1744), Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803), Charles Louis Montesquieu (1689-1755), Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) believed that culture is manifested in the rationality of social orders and political institutions, and is measured by achievements in the field of science and art. The purpose of culture and the highest purpose of reason coincide: to make people happy. This was already a concept of culture, called eudaimonic ( direction that considers happiness, bliss supreme goal human life).

From 2nd half 19th century The concept of “culture” acquires the status scientific category. It only ceases to mean high level development of society. This concept increasingly began to intersect with such concepts as “civilization” and “socio-economic formation”. This concept was introduced into scientific circulation by Karl Marx. It forms the foundation of a materialistic understanding of history.

In the 20th century In scientific ideas about culture, the touch of romanticism, which gave it the meaning of uniqueness, creative impulse, and high spirituality, finally disappears. French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980) noted that culture does not save or justify anyone or anything. But she is the work of man, in her he looks for his reflection, in her he recognizes himself, only in this critical mirror can he see his face.

In general, there is no single answer to what culture is. Now, according to some researchers, there are about a thousand definitions of culture.

The concept of “culture” is noted in philosophical dictionary, - means a historically certain level of development of society, creative powers and abilities of a person, expressed in the types and forms of organization of people’s lives and activities, as well as in the material and spiritual values ​​they create.

Therefore, the world of culture is the result of the efforts of people themselves, aimed at improving and transforming what is given by nature itself. One can cite as an example a poem by Nikolai Zabolotsky (1903-1958):

Man has two worlds:

One who created us,

Another who we are from time immemorial

We create to the best of our ability

That. It is possible to understand the essence of culture only through the prism of human activity and the peoples inhabiting the planet. Culture does not exist without people.

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

Any person, first of all, masters the culture that was created before him, thereby mastering the experience of his predecessors, but at the same time he makes his own contribution, thereby enriching him

Culture as a world of human meanings

Culture is a special sphere of social life in which the creative nature of man is most fully realized, and first of all it is art, education, and science. But only such an understanding of culture would impoverish its content. The most complete understanding of culture is one that reveals the essence of human existence as the realization of creativity and freedom.

A person’s relationship to the world is determined by meaning; in turn, meaning relates any phenomenon, any object to a person. If something is devoid of meaning, it, as a rule, ceases to exist for a person. Meaning is, as it were, a mediator between the world and man. The meaning is not always realized by a person and not every meaning can be expressed rationally. To a greater extent, meanings are hidden in the human unconscious. But the meaning can also become universally significant, uniting many people. It is these meanings that form culture.

Thus, culture is a way of human creative self-realization through meaning. Culture appears before a person as a world of meaning that inspires and unites people into a community (nation). Culture is a universal way by which a person makes the whole world “his own,” i.e. turns it into a “house of human existence”, into a bearer of human meanings.

When did the birth of a new culture take place? In order to be born new culture, it is necessary that new meanings be fixed in symbolic forms and be recognized by other people as a model, i.e. became semantic dominants.

Dominant is the dominant idea, the main feature.

Culture is the result of free human creativity, but it also keeps it within its semantic framework. In eras of cultural transformation, old meanings do not always satisfy people. New semantic paradigms are created, according to the Russian philosopher Nikolai Aleksandrovich Berdyaev, by individual creativity.

Culture structure

For culture as a social phenomenon, the concepts of cultural statics and cultural dynamics. The first characterizes culture at rest, immutability and repeatability, the second considers culture as a process in movement and change.

The main elements of culture exist in 2 types - material and spiritual. The totality of material elements constitutes material culture, and intangible elements constitute spiritual culture.

An important feature of material culture is its non-identity with either the material life of society or material production.

Material culture includes the culture of labor and material production, the culture of everyday life, the culture of topos, i.e. place of residence (home, house, city), culture of attitude towards one’s own body, physical culture.

The totality of intangible elements forms the spiritual side of cultural statics: norms, rules, patterns, ceremonies, rituals, myths, ideas, customs. Any object of intangible culture needs a material intermediary. For example, books are such a mediator for knowledge.

Spiritual culture is a multi-layered formation and includes cognitive, moral, artistic, legal, pedagogical, religious and other cultures.

According to many cultural scientists, there are types of culture that cannot be unambiguously attributed only to the material or spiritual sphere. These are, for example, economic, political, aesthetic cultures.

In cultural statics, elements are delimited in time and space. Thus, part of the material and spiritual culture created by past generations, which has stood the test of time and is passed on to subsequent generations is called cultural heritage. Heritage is an important factor in the unity of a nation, a means of uniting society in times of crisis.

In addition to cultural heritage, cultural statics also includes the concept of a cultural area - a geographical area, within which different cultures show similarities in the main features.

Globally cultural heritage express the so-called cultural universals– norms, values, rules, traditions, properties, which are inherent in all cultures, regardless of geographical location, historical time and social structure of society.

As already noted, culture is a very complex, multi-level system. It is customary to divide culture according to its carriers. Depending on this, world and national cultures are distinguished.

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

National culture, in turn, is a synthesis of the cultures of various classes, social strata and groups of the corresponding society. The uniqueness of national culture, its uniqueness and originality are manifested both in the spiritual (language, literature, music, painting, religion) and material (features of the economic structure, traditions of labor and production) spheres of life and activity.

The set of values, beliefs, traditions and customs that guide the majority of members of society is called the dominant culture. But since society will break up into many groups (national, social, professional, etc.), gradually each of them will develop own culture, i.e. system of values ​​and rules of behavior. So small cultural worlds are called subcultures. They talk about youth subculture, subculture of national minorities, professional subculture, etc.

The subculture differs from the dominant one in its language, outlook on life, and manners of behavior. Such differences may be strong, but the subculture is not opposed to the dominant culture.

And the subculture that opposes the dominant one, i.e. is in conflict with dominant values, called counterculture.

The underworld subculture confronts human culture, and the “hippie” youth movement, which became widespread in the 60s and 70s. in Western Europe and America, denied the dominant American values: social values, moral standards and moral ideals consumer society, political loyalty, conformism and rationalism.

Conformism (from Late Lat. Conformis - similar, conformable) - opportunism, passive acceptance of existing orders, prevailing opinions, lack of one’s own positions.

The prerequisites on the basis of which the first theoretical ideas about culture emerged arose in the early stages of the existence of civilization and became entrenched in the mythological picture of the world. Already in antiquity, people realized that they were somehow different from animals, that there was a clear line separating the natural world from human world. Homer and Hesiod - famous historians and systematizers ancient myths- saw this line in morality. It was morality that was initially understood as the main thing human quality, which distinguishes people from animals. This difference would later be called “culture.”

The word “culture” itself is of Latin origin; it appeared in the era of Roman antiquity. This word comes from the verb “colere”, which meant “cultivation”, “processing”, “care”. In this meaning it was used by the Roman politician Marcus Porcius Cato (234-149 BC), who wrote the treatise “De agri cultura”. And these days we talk about cultivating plant varieties, for example, we use the term “potato culture,” and among the farmer’s assistants there are machines called “cultivators.”

However Starting point in the formation scientific ideas The treatise of the Roman orator and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) “Tusculan Conversations” is considered to be about culture. In this work, written in 45 BC. e., Cicero used the agronomic term “culture” metaphorically, i.e. in another, figuratively. Emphasizing the difference between human life and biological forms of life, he proposed to designate with this word everything created by man, in contrast to the world created by nature. Thus, the concept of “culture” began to be contrasted with another Latin concept - “nature” (nature). They began to name all objects of human activity and the qualities of a person capable of creating them. Since then, the world of culture has been perceived not as a consequence of the action of natural forces, but as a result of the activities of people themselves, aimed at processing and transforming what was created directly by nature.

The concept of “culture” is interpreted in domestic and foreign scientific literature ambiguous. Knowledge of the possible uses of this concept in history will help us understand its many shades of meaning and definitions, as well as understand what culture really is.

• 1. More than 2 thousand years have passed since the Latin word “colere” was used to denote cultivation of the soil. But the memory of this is still preserved in the language in numerous agricultural terms - agriculture, potato culture, cultivated pastures, etc.
• 2. Already in the 1st century. BC e. Cicero applied this concept to man, after which culture began to be understood as the upbringing and education of a person, an ideal citizen. It was believed that the signs cultured person- this is a voluntary limitation of one’s desires, spontaneous actions and bad inclinations. Therefore, the term “culture” then denoted the intellectual, spiritual, aesthetic development of man and society, emphasizing its specificity, distinguishing the world created by man from the natural world.
• 3. In everyday life, we usually attach approval to the word “culture”, understanding this word as a certain ideal or ideal state with which we compare the facts or phenomena being evaluated. That's why we often talk about professional culture, about the culture of performing a certain thing. From the same positions we evaluate people's behavior. Therefore, it has become customary to hear about a cultured or uncultured person, although in fact most often we mean well-educated or poorly educated, from our point of view, people. Entire societies are sometimes assessed in the same way if they are based on law, order, and gentleness of morals, as opposed to a state of barbarism.
• 4. We should also not forget that in everyday consciousness the concept of “culture” is mainly associated with works of literature and art. Therefore, this term denotes the forms and products of intellectual and, above all, artistic activity.
• 5. And finally, we use the word “culture” when we talk about different peoples in certain historical eras, we point to the specifics of the way of existence or way of life of a society, group of people or a certain historical period. Therefore, very often you can find phrases - the culture of Ancient Egypt, the culture of the Renaissance, Russian culture, etc.

The ambiguity of the concept of “culture”, as well as its various interpretations in various cultural theories and concepts, greatly limit the ability to give its only and clear definition. This has led to the multiplicity of definitions of culture, the number of which continues to grow steadily. Thus, in 1952, American cultural scientists A. Kroeber and K. Kluckhohn first systematized the definitions of culture known to them, counting 164 of them. In the 1970s. the number of definitions reached 300, in the 1990s - more than 500. Currently, the number of definitions of culture has probably exceeded 1000. And this is not surprising, because culture is called everything created by man, the entire human world.

Of course, it is impossible and not necessary to list all known definitions of culture, but they can be classified by highlighting several important groups.

In modern domestic cultural studies, it is customary to distinguish three approaches to defining culture - anthropological, sociological and philosophical.

The essence of the anthropological approach is the recognition of the intrinsic value of the culture of each people, which underlies the way of life of both individuals and entire societies. This means that culture is the way of existence of humanity in the form of numerous local cultures. This approach equates the culture and history of the entire society.

The sociological approach considers culture as a factor in the formation and organization of social life. The organizing principle is the value system of each society. Cultural values are created by society itself, but then they also determine the development of this society. What begins to dominate a person is what he himself created.

The philosophical approach seeks to identify patterns in the life of society, to establish the causes of the origin and features of the development of culture. In line with this approach, not just a description or enumeration of cultural phenomena is given, but an attempt is made to penetrate into their essence. As a rule, the essence of culture is seen in the conscious activity of transforming the surrounding world to satisfy human needs.

However, it is clear that each of these approaches, in turn, offers very different definitions of the concept “culture”. Therefore, a more detailed classification was developed, which is based on the very first analysis of definitions of culture carried out by A. Kroeber and K. Kluckhohn. They divided all definitions of culture into six main types, some of which were in turn divided into subgroups.

In the first group they included descriptive definitions that focused on listing everything that the concept of culture covers. The founder of this type of definition, E. Tylor, argues that culture is a set of knowledge, beliefs, art, morality, laws, customs and some other abilities and habits acquired by a person as a member of society.

The second group consisted of historical definitions that emphasized the processes of social inheritance and traditions. They emphasize that culture is a product of the history of society and develops through the transfer of acquired experience from generation to generation. These definitions are based on ideas about the stability and immutability of social experience, losing sight of the constant emergence of innovations. An example of such definitions is the definition given by the linguist E. Sapir, for whom culture is a socially inherited complex of modes of activity and beliefs that make up the fabric of our life.

The third group combines normative definitions that assert that the content of culture consists of norms and rules governing the life of society. These definitions can be divided into two subgroups. In the first subgroup, definitions focus on the idea of ​​lifestyle. A similar definition was given by the anthropologist K. Whisler, who viewed culture as a way of life followed by a community or tribe. Definitions of the second subgroup pay attention to the ideals and values ​​of society; these are value definitions. An example is the definition of sociologist W. Thomas, for whom culture is the material and social values ​​of any group of people (institutions, customs, attitudes, behavioral reactions).

The fourth group includes psychological definitions that emphasize the connection of culture with the psychology of human behavior and see in it the socially determined features of the human psyche. The emphasis is on the process of human adaptation to environment, to his living conditions. This definition was given by sociologists W. Sumner and A. Keller, for whom culture is a set of ways of adapting a person to living conditions, which is achieved through a combination of techniques such as variation, selection and inheritance.

Attention is drawn to the process of human learning, i.e. receipt by a person necessary knowledge and skills that he acquires in the process of life, and is not inherited genetically. As an example, we can cite the definition of the anthropologist R. Benedict. For her, culture is a sociological designation for learned behavior, i.e. behavior that is not given to a person from birth, is not predetermined in his embryonic cells, like in wasps or social ants, but must be acquired anew by each new generation through learning.

A number of researchers talk about the formation of habits in humans. Thus, for sociologist K. Young, culture is forms of habitual behavior common to a group, community or society and consisting of material and intangible elements.

The fifth group consisted of structural definitions of culture, placing emphasis on structural organization culture. This is the definition of anthropologist R. Linton: culture is the organized repeated reactions of members of society; a combination of learned behavior and behavioral outcomes, the components of which are shared and inherited by members of a given society.

The last, sixth, group includes genetic definitions that consider culture from the point of view of its origin. These definitions can also be divided into four subgroups.

The first subgroup of definitions proceeds from the fact that culture is the products of human activity, the world of artificial things and phenomena, opposed to the natural world of nature. Such definitions can be called anthropological. An example is the definition of P. Sorokin: culture is the totality of everything that is created or modified by the conscious or unconscious activity of two or more individuals interacting with each other or influencing each other’s behavior.

The definitions of the second subgroup reduce culture to the totality and production of ideas and other products of the spiritual life of society, which accumulate in social memory. They can be called ideational definitions. As an example, we can cite the definition of the sociologist G. Becker, for whom culture is a relatively permanent intangible content transmitted in society through the processes of socialization.

The third subset of genetic definitions places emphasis on symbolic human activity. In this case, culture is considered either a system of signs used by society (semiotic definitions), or a collection of symbols (symbolic definitions), or a set of texts that are interpreted and made sense of by people (hermeneutic definitions). Thus, culturologist L. White called culture a name for a special class of phenomena, namely: such things and phenomena that depend on the implementation of a mental ability specific to the human race, which we call symbolization.

The last, fourth, subgroup consists of a kind of negative definitions that represent culture as something originating from non-culture. An example is the definition of the philosopher and scientist W. Ostwald, for whom culture is what distinguishes humans from animals.

Almost half a century has passed since the work of Kroeber and Kluckhohn. Since then, cultural studies has come a long way. But the work done by these scientists has still not lost its significance. Therefore, modern authors who classify definitions of culture, as a rule, only expand the given list. Considering modern research, you can add two more groups of definitions to it.

Sociological definitions understand culture as a factor in the organization of social life, as a set of ideas, principles and social institutions providing collective activity of people. This type of definition focuses not on the results of culture, but on the process during which a person and society satisfy their needs. Such definitions are very popular in our country. They are given in line with the activity approach. These definitions can be divided into two groups: the first focuses on social activities people, and the second - on the development and self-improvement of a person.

An example of the first approach is the definitions of E.S. Markaryan, M.S. Kagan, V.E. Davidovich, Yu.A. Zhdanova: culture is a system of extra-biologically developed (i.e., not inherited and not embedded in the genetic mechanism of heredity) means of carrying out human activity, thanks to which the functioning and development of people’s social life occurs. This definition captures the need for a person’s upbringing and education, as well as his life in a society within which he can only exist and satisfy his needs as part of social needs.

The second approach is related to VM names. Mezhueva and N.S. Zlobina. They define culture as historically active creative activity man, the development of man himself as a subject of activity, the transformation of wealth human history in inner wealth man, the production of man himself in all the diversity and versatility of his social connections.

Thus, in all the considered definitions there is a rational grain, each pointing to some more or less significant features of culture. At the same time, one can point out the shortcomings of each definition, its fundamental incompleteness. As a rule, these definitions cannot be called mutually exclusive, but simply summing them up will not give any positive result.

Nevertheless, it is possible to identify a number of the most important characteristics of culture, with which, obviously, all authors would agree. Without a doubt,

culture is essential characteristic man, what distinguishes him from animals that adapt to the environment, and do not purposefully change it, like humans.

There is also no doubt that as a result of this transformation an artificial world is formed, an essential part of which are ideas, values ​​and symbols. He is opposed to the natural world.

And finally, culture is not inherited biologically, but is acquired only as a result of upbringing and education taking place in society, among other people.

These are the most general ideas about culture, although any of the listed definitions can be used to answer certain questions that arise when studying some aspect or sphere of culture.