Cultural phenomenon
"Every person is a philosopher at heart" - this almost rhetorical statement nevertheless has a deep meaning. Since imagining or thinking about things that are contained beyond the boundaries of direct perception, beyond the phenomena of the surrounding world, is an undeniable property of human nature, independent of its will. However, this process of thinking about the world, its phenomena, the basis of the existence of things can be not only spontaneous, but also controlled. And if spontaneity here, chaoticity is the basis of everyday philosophizing, then controlled thinking, an attempt to know the world and the place of man in it, the relationship between man and the world - the prerogative of philosophy itself as a science. The main task of studying which is to make an attempt to enter the field of thinking, to understand the objective and subjectively - human foundations and the internal necessity of the historically developed forms and directions of philosophizing that induce this field. However, just as in the individual life of each individual person the process of forming worldview ideals and the search for ways to achieve them is complex and contradictory, so in the general historical and evolutionary development of humanity the most diverse trends in the development of philosophical thought are traced. Therefore, philosophy cannot be studied by focusing only on the content of one or another philosophical concept. After all, concepts are not philosophy, as Plato already knew, they are the product of philosophy, which, in turn, is an activity, an activity for creating this product. It is this activity, activity that should be mastered.
So, philosophy teaches in a spiritually - active way to know the world in all its multifacetedness and integrity, as well as the relationship between man and the world. Comparing this conclusion with one of the definitions of culture, from a philosophical point of view, namely: "...culture is a special, active way of mastering the world by man, including both the external world, nature and society, and the inner world of man himself in the sense of its formation and development." - it is impossible not to notice the close connection between the concepts of philosophy and culture.
The complex and unique phenomenon of culture has focused the attention of many scientists. Domestic and European science has achieved significant success in studying the history and theory of culture of specific eras, regions, the specifics of its structural elements, the methodology of studying culture as the social memory of mankind. But, unfortunately, there is no conceptual unity in approaches to the holistic process of human development. Therefore, in modern cultural studies, there is a tendency to organically combine the study of certain historical processes with the clarification and identification of general processes of the movement of culture, with the aim of creating it as a complex, dynamic system, with its inherent dialectics of progress and regression. It is important not only to find out what culture is, but also what significance it has for humanity, how a person should organize his socio-cultural life in order to create a world of Harmony and Beauty.
PHENOMENON OF CULTURE
Culture is the worship of light, love for man...
Culture is salvation. Culture is the heart.
If we collect all the definitions of culture, we will find a synthesis of effective Good, a focus of Enlightenment and Beauty.
Nicholas Roerich
"Culture - (Latin cultura - cultivation, upbringing, education, development, honoring) is a historically determined level of development of society, creative forces and abilities of man, expressed in the types and forms of organization of life and activity of people, as well as in their creation of material and spiritual values.
The concept of "culture" is used to characterize historical eras (ancient culture), specific societies, peoples and nations (Mayan culture), as well as specific spheres of activity or life (work culture, political culture, artistic culture); in a narrower sense - the sphere of people's spiritual life. It includes the objective results of human activity (machines, structures, results of cognition, works of art, results, norms of morality and law, etc.), as well as human forces and abilities that are realized in activity (knowledge, skills, habits, level of intelligence, moral and aesthetic development, worldview, ways and forms of communication of people)". Such polysemantic nature of the concept of "culture" and the depth of content gave rise to many scientific definitions. The breadth of phenomena covered by culture affects the consolidation of many semantic shades for this concept, which in turn contributes to its variable interpretation, understanding and use by different disciplines. The worldview function (A. Schweitzer), value-spiritual (M. Chovgavadze), activity (V. Davydovich, Yu. Zhdanov, M. Mamardashvili, E. Markaryan), subject-content (A. Kogan, V. Mezhuyev), regulating relations between people (Z. Freud), life-creating (O. Losev) - with all these fluctuations, the most important role was most often assigned to the spiritual and practical function, to culture as the foundation of human understanding, as a universal property of social life, turned towards the personal formation of man.
The philosophical and anthropological orientation in the definitions of the concept of culture is not accidental. After all, man himself is the subject and bearer of culture. The existence of culture is possible only in human society and serves human needs. A vivid illustration of this is the "poetic" version of culture by Nicholas Roerich, according to which culture is considered "as love for man, as a synthesis of effective good, a center of enlightenment and beauty".
The connection between man and culture cannot be groundless. The basis of this connection is nature, in the broad sense of the word. Therefore, in order to master the phenomenon of culture in its essential and historical manifestations, it is necessary to clarify the relationship between natural and cultural in the sphere of human life.
The concept of "nature" is one of the broadest. First of all, nature encompasses everything that has arisen and exists on its own, regardless of the will and desire of man. As a result of generalization, the concept of "nature" encompasses everything that exists, the whole world in its variety of forms, and is close to the concepts of matter, the universe, the universe. But this definition is more characteristic of nature as a material reality in its existence without man. Reality, where man appears as a natural but at the same time a socio-cultural factor, is characterized by the concept of "nature", which presupposes the entire set of natural conditions for human existence. And as such "nature" fixes a certain limit of human life, the difference between the external objective circumstances of human existence and the internal features of human life itself. Man is forced to adapt his needs to natural opportunities, both his own and those of the surrounding its surrounding world. Therefore, nature is an objective, independent reality that precedes human socio-cultural existence, even man himself, as his organism or anthropological characteristics.
The concept of "culture", as already mentioned, is of Latin origin and was originally used to define the process of soil cultivation. Even in this narrow meaning, the presence of changes in a natural object depending on human actions is emphasized, in contrast to changes under the influence of natural causes. The concept of "culture" in this meaning encompasses everything that is cultivated, transformed by man (society), which carries a human origin.
So, such an analysis of the concepts of "nature" and "culture" reveals their difference: culture should be understood as something created by man, that is, artificial; natural - everything natural that exists according to the laws of the universe that are independent of man. But is it possible to agree with such a purely mechanical coexistence of nature and culture? Only by abstracting from reality. After all, the objective-historical existence of nature, culture and society represents an indissoluble unity, integrity, developing as a natural-historical and culture-forming process of the life activity of society. The connection between culture and nature is manifested not only in the prior existence of the second for culture, but also to a greater extent in what presupposes its (nature) constant and necessary condition for its existence and development. These are objective natural conditions as a general subject of labor, thanks to which human life itself is realized; this is also an objective material principle in man himself, his bodily and generic organization. Thus, the possibilities of the existence of culture are given by nature. Even at the empirical level, it can be stated that the natural is not indifferent to those forms in which culture is created and lives. Nature in one interpretation or another is reproduced in culture. Evidence of such dependence can be found at all levels of the existence of different cultures: from the manufacture of tools and the development of labor technology to the features of everyday life and phenomena of spiritual life.
Human dependence on nature has not only biological grounds. The process of human existence increasingly requires a relationship with nature as a necessary prerequisite. After all, only by living in harmony with the laws and principles of nature will a person not harm his existence. However, the content of human existence is cultural liberation from a state of direct dependence on nature, the subordination of this dependence to human reason and will. Therefore, being in an objective, independent connection with nature, a person produces subjective means and creates conditions for mastering this connection. Thus, a "second nature" is created, which is created by man in the process of labor and objectively introduced into the sphere of social relations, humanized, socialized nature. Culture as a way of human existence, being a supernatural phenomenon, shows that man is still a significant driving force of many processes of the biosphere. For example, in the process and as a result of human activity, the form of natural landscapes, vegetation, animal world, as well as changes in the human organism undergo changes. True, the question - how good or bad is this? - remains open. Many needs are dictated to the individual by his natural necessity - physiological needs, needs for procreation, etc. Similarly, people see a natural necessity in cognitive activity, in communication, in artistic creativity, in the formation of value orientations. However, in reality, the origin of human needs, aspirations, goals is not natural, but cultural in nature.
The physiological unadaptability of man to the environment, compared to representatives of the plant and animal worlds, is compensated by his ability to comprehend the world in a special spiritual way and adapt to it (the world) by cultivating the relations between nature and humanity. Thus, culture, being a specific way of man's existence in nature, nevertheless does not nullify the significance of the latter in human existence, but itself is a means of interconnection, the principle of human unity with nature. But to natural forces, man opposes the already tamed forces of nature, the already known laws of natural processes. Culture contributes to the separation of man (society) from nature, its relative liberation in relation to the natural-necessary by mastering it. At the same time, culture is a means of combining man with nature. And the more harmonious the interaction of man and nature, the better his life is from the point of view of cultural development.
Thus, the relationship between nature and culture reveals all the complexity and ambiguity of this problem. It is impossible to comprehend the essence of a cultural phenomenon without seeing the dialectical nature of its unity with nature. In this case, it should be taken into account that "nature as a set of properties of external material reality, revealed and generalized in the process of interaction with collective generic life activity, is the objective basis of human existence as culture, its general and necessary prerequisite. Culture is a socially developed general form of connection that characterizes the unity of man with nature and acts as a necessary means of human existence in the natural universe." As we can see, with all its originality, culture is in organic unity with nature, actively influencing the latter in accordance with human needs.
Having briefly clarified the essence and interrelation of the concepts of "nature" and "culture", it is necessary to dwell somewhat on the activity aspect of culture. As already mentioned, in one of the definitions, culture is understood as "a special, active way of mastering the world." Here, conscious human activity is taken into account, including creative activity. If human activity is the process of forming an object, then creativity is the formation of meaning in activity. Thus, social problems, reflected in consciousness, are embodied in the actions of people, who, in turn, create cultural values - material and spiritual.
The cultural value of the object of human labor lies not so much in its utilitarian purpose as in the form through which the object receives social significance. The subject forms of culture also reflect the relationships of people. A person is realized as an active subject who develops and as an object, the result of activity. In the sphere of culture, a person is formed as a social subject and at the same time creates an objective world through his activity. Culture here appears as the world of a person, where a person doubles himself intellectually (in consciousness) and really (in activity). Culture as a self-reproduction of man is carried out in his material and spiritual activity.
Material culture is the objective form of spiritual culture, and spiritual culture acquires its real existence only as the content of material culture. Beyond theoretical abstraction, material and spiritual culture exist in social reality and are two sides of a holistic phenomenon, the essence of which lies in the self-affirmation of man.
Being in close socio-historical connection with man, culture also "represents a concrete-historical stage of the development of society." Here is how the concept of "culture" is interpreted from this point of view by the encyclopedic dictionary: "The development of material and spiritual culture, which are in organic unity, is based on the development of material production. Each socio-economic formation is characterized by a certain type of culture, which is carried out with the transition from one formation to another, while inheriting everything valuable in the culture of the past." In general, this is true, however, as the world history of culture shows in the light of social progress and regression, not everything valuable in the culture of the past is inherited. Often, one value is replaced by others. Humanity is constantly in a state of searching for new ways of harmonious coexistence with the surrounding and inner world of man. The sphere of this search and formation of spiritual and moral values is culture.
The phenomenon of culture shows that in the most general terms, culture represents material and spiritual progress, both of individuals and of society. The universal (universal) and the personal-individual are combined in culture, which encompasses all spheres of human life, being in dialectical interrelation with them.