Early stages of the formation of cultural knowledge. Section I

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The etymology of the term "culture" goes back to the Latin cultura - processing, cultivation. Originating in the era of agriculture, the word cultura fixed the measure of human participation in the ennoblement of nature. For a long time, this concept was used to determine the influence of man on nature, to identify the results that a person achieved in mastering its forces.

By the end of the 17th century, in the writings of the German scientist Puffendorf (1684), culture appears in a generalized form as a human act without taking into account the natural in it and the environment. There is a point of view that "culture" is a counterculture. Puffendorf gave the term "culture" a value coloring, pointing out that culture, in its purpose, in its significance, is what elevates a person, acts as a result of his own activity, complementing his external and internal nature. In this interpretation, both the phenomenon and the term "culture" approached scientific understanding.

But nevertheless, as an independent phenomenon of social life, worthy and requiring scientific research, culture was recognized and considered in the second half of the 18th century. during the Age of Enlightenment. Enlighteners (in particular, Jean-Jacques Rousseau) singled out culture as something, as a phenomenon that opposes the natural environment, natural Nature. Rousseau interprets culture as something that alienates a person from natural nature. Therefore, the function of culture in Rousseau is destructive. Cultural peoples, in his opinion, are "spoiled", morally "corrupted" in comparison with "pure" primitive peoples.

The German Enlightenment at the same time, on the contrary, emphasized the "creative", progressive nature of culture. In their opinion, culture is a transition from a more sensual and animal state to a social order. In the animal state, they believed, there is no culture. With its appearance, the transformation of humanity from the herd nature of the common existence to the public one, from the uncontrolled to the organizational and regulatory, from the non-critical to the evaluative-reflexive, is carried out.

An important milestone in the formation of the concept was the ideas of the German educator Johann Gottfried Herder (1744 - 1803), who interpreted culture as a stage in the improvement of man and, above all, a stage in the development of science and education. In his interpretation, culture is what unites people, acts as a stimulus for development.

Another German thinker Wilhelm von Humboldt (1769 - 1859) emphasized that culture is the domination of man over nature, carried out with the help of science and craft. Both in the concept of Herder and in the concept of Humboldt, in fact, culture is considered as a content, a characteristic of social progress.

The German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) associated the content of culture with the perfection of the mind, and therefore social progress for him is the development of culture as the perfection of the mind. Another German thinker Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762 - 1814) associated culture with spiritual characteristics: for him, culture is the independence and freedom of the spirit.

Thus, in the positions presented, culture is characterized as the spiritual side of social life, as a value aspect of the spiritual component of a person.

At the end of the 19th century, inheriting enlightenment ideas about the progressive dynamics of social life, the German economist and philosopher Karl Marx (1818 - 1883), based on a materialistic understanding of history, put forward material production as the deep foundation of culture, which led to the division into material and spiritual aspects. culture under the dominance of the former. K. Marx expanded the content boundaries of culture, including in it not only spiritual, but also material formations. However, the merit of Marx also lies in the fact that he substantiated the connection of culture with all spheres of social life, showed culture in all social production, in all social manifestations. In addition, he saw in culture a functional ability to link the history of mankind into a single holistic process.

The first attempt to define culture was made by the English ethnographer Edward Bernard Tylor (1832 - 1917), the founder of the evolutionist school, who understood culture as a complex whole, consisting of "knowledge, beliefs, art, morality, laws, customs and some other abilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society." His merit is that he gave a fairly broad understanding of culture, which covers a wide range of vital social manifestations.

Culture in Tylor's understanding appears as a simple enumeration of heterogeneous elements that are not connected into a system. In addition, he argued that culture can be viewed as a general improvement of the human race. It was this idea and an attempt to transfer Charles Darwin's idea to social development that formed the basis of evolutionism.

In the approach of E.B. Tylor to the definition of culture laid another milestone in the development of the concept of culture. This is a study of the relationship between the concepts of culture and civilization. Civilization sometimes acts as a level, a stage in the development of culture. Tylor does not distinguish between culture and civilization, for him culture and civilization in a broad ethnographic sense are identical concepts. This is characteristic of English anthropology. However, in the German (O. Spengler, A. Weber, F. Tennis) and Russian (N.A. Berdyaev) traditions, civilization and culture are opposed. Culture is understood as an "organic" state of society, which is characterized by spirituality and free creativity. Religion, art, morality lie in the field of culture. Civilization, using methods and tools, has no spiritual component, rational, technological. According to O. Spengler, this is the "dead time" of culture.

One of the first to come close to understanding culture as a system was the English sociologist Herbert Spencer (1820 - 1903), who considered society and culture as an organism, which has its own organs and parts of the body. And what is essential here is not the identification of culture with the physiological nature of the organism, but the fact that different parts of society, having their own functions, are in unity.

Also considering culture as a single organism, the German cultural historian Oswald Spengler (1880 - 1936) takes it a step further by showing in his work The Decline of Europe that each cultural organism is not permanent, but dynamic. But this dynamics is within the boundaries of a certain cycle: birth, flourishing, death, as in any biological organism. It is especially important that Spengler saw the cultural essence of such an organism in the inner structure of the soul of this or that people. Thus, Spengler found himself within the framework of the interpretation of the psychological essence of culture.

The names of the English anthropologists Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown (1881 - 1955) and Bronislaw Malinowski (1884 - 1942) are associated with a further stage in the scientific interpretation of culture. They were among the first to single out in the nature of culture its active essence. Radcliffe-Brown, understanding culture as a living organism in action, believed that the study of the structure of this organism includes the study of the functions of structural elements both in relation to each other and in relation to the whole. Malinovsky directly linked culture, its functioning with the satisfaction of activity needs.

In the 50s of the XX century. comes the realization that culture is the content of social life, which ensures the integrity and viability of society. Therefore, each society has its own culture, which ensures reproduction and its vitality. Because of this, it is impossible to evaluate cultures according to the principle “worse - better”, more developed or less. This is how the theory of cultural relativism (M. Herskovitz) arises, within the framework of which the idea is formed that culture is based on a system of values that determines the relationship "man - the world".

The concept of culture was expanded by the interest shown in it by the Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1936), who linked culture with mental stereotypes. It is within the framework of psychological anthropology that the personality is included in culture.

The next stage in the enrichment of the concept of culture is associated with the ideas of structuralism, which has become widespread both as a scientific direction and as a methodology for studying cultural phenomena (we will analyze this direction below).

And so the main milestones in the history and logic of the formation of the concept of "culture":

- the emergence of the term, its initial connection with the cultivation, processing, ennoblement of the land (i.e. nature);
- opposition natural (natural) - cultural (created by man): the French educator J.J. Rousseau;
- the spiritual side of social life, its value aspect: German enlighteners;
- division into material and spiritual culture, dominance of material production, understanding of the history of culture as a single integral process: Marxism;
- the first scientific definition of culture by listing elements of different orders that are not connected to the system: E.B. Tylor;
- the relationship between the concepts of culture and civilization;
- an analogy between culture and a living organism, all parts of which, performing their functions, are in a single dynamic system;
- identification of the functions of the structural elements of culture in relation to each other and in relation to the whole: functionalism;
- the relativity of comparing the values of cultures due to their originality, integrity and viability: cultural relativism;
- the inclusion of personality (with its consciousness and subconsciousness, rational and irrational moments) in culture: psychological anthropology, psychoanalysis;
- spreading the method of structural linguistics to various areas of sociocultural reality, recreating a system of symbols that reflect the structure of culture: structuralism.

From a completely limited, narrow understanding of culture, which has a romantic, subjective connotation, social thought has moved into the sphere of cognition of the whole world of a “second nature” created by man, using methods generally accepted in science in this cognition and being guided in evaluating the results by modern scientific criteria, such as logic, consistency, the possibility of experimental verification.

Moreover, by now, the culturological method of analysis itself has been formed, which is used not only in specialized studies of culture, but also in other areas of knowledge.

The foregoing does not mean that romantic ideas about culture have completely disappeared from public consciousness: in everyday life they certainly dominate (at least in the ideas that a “cultured” person should attend theaters, read books, etc.), narrow understanding of culture takes place in the media, exists among the technical intelligentsia, who believe that there is science, and there is culture.

The culturological method of analysis is in its infancy, it is still quite difficult to fix with a maximum degree of certainty precisely the culturological aspect of the study of the phenomenon of culture, since culturology is an integrative knowledge that is formed in borderline, interdisciplinary areas, operates with material accumulated by the history of culture, relies on the results of ethnographic , sociological, psychological and other research. Cultural studies, which is in the field of tension between social-scientific and humanitarian approaches, has as an object the whole world of artificial orders (things, structures, cultivated territory, historical events, technologies of activity, forms of social organization, knowledge, concepts, symbols, languages of communication, etc.). .p.), and as a special subject, it studies the processes of the genesis and morphology of culture, its structure, essence and meaning, typology, dynamics and language.

The development of culture was accompanied by the formation of its self-consciousness. The myths and traditions of peoples, and the teachings of individual thinkers contain conjectures and ideas expressing the desire to realize, understand and evaluate culture as a single process. Guesses, ideas, teachings were not just a parallel process of registering certain achievements in the cultural development of mankind - they were also part of the cultural process and could not but influence it. They should not be regarded as dispassionate observations. Even the chroniclers expressed their attitude to the events described. This is all the more true for representatives of certain cultures who experienced both anxiety and confusion, who wanted not only to understand, but also, to the best of their ability, somehow influence the development of culture.

The process of development and expression of the spiritual, intellectual and emotional attitude to culture can be called the formation of cultural studies. There are several stages in this process: pre-scientific, scientific-historical and scientific-philosophical.

The pre-scientific stage contains early spontaneous guesses and ideas about the logic and relative completeness, the cyclical nature of the cultural-historical process. It can be defined as the end of the emergence of modern science.

The scientific and historical stage continued until the middle of the 19th century. At this stage, there is still no clear distinction between the development of history and culture. It is characterized by the desire of scientists to understand culture as a holistic phenomenon, to build a unified picture of the cultural development of people, to find a common foundation for history.

Scientific and philosophical stage. Here the historical approach to culture is preserved and deepened, but the difference between historical and cultural development becomes apparent. In general, this difference consists in the extent to which the intentions and ideals of people coincide with the results of their activities.

During the first, mankind accumulated knowledge about itself, trying to explain where everything that we today call culture came from. In antiquity and the Middle Ages, the greatest interest for Europeans was the life and way of life of the peoples of distant countries. That is why the stories of merchants and travelers who visited India, China, and Africa were perceived with great interest. Thus, empirical material about the customs, religion, and art of various peoples and countries gradually accumulated. The Great geographical discoveries of the 15th-17th centuries played a particularly important role here, which expanded the horizons of ideas about the world, led to a revolutionary change in geography and other sciences.

With regard to the stage of the emergence of culturological knowledge, it is impossible to talk about sustainable areas of knowledge of culture, because the idea of culture itself has not been singled out yet. Of course, both in antiquity and in the Middle Ages, there is a distinct interest in evaluative concepts (“good”, “beautiful”, “noble”, etc.). Even attempts are being made to determine the spiritual and value principles of human life, but they are considered as a natural continuation of the cosmic, divine order. Ideas about culture as specifically human, different from natural and divine, begin to take shape only in the Renaissance. Although the Roman term "cultura" contains some semantic opposition to the natural (natura), it is not the subject of special and systematic consideration.

In the XVIII century. the accumulated knowledge made it possible to proceed to their generalization and the construction of theoretical structures on their basis. Special sciences began to form, studying certain areas of the material, social and spiritual life of mankind. Ethnography appeared - the science of the culture and life of the peoples of the world. The object of the main interest of ethnographers was the "uncivilized" tribes that Europeans encountered on newly discovered lands - Indians, Polynesians, etc.

In connection with the beginning in the middle of the XVIII century. The excavations of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii began to form archeology - a historical science that reconstructs the past of mankind according to the material remains of its activities. Art history (the theory and history of various types of art), folklore studies appeared. In the 19th century even religion has become the subject of scientific study.

In the late XIX - early XX centuries. one could already speak of cultural studies as a special branch of knowledge, separated from philosophy and sociology and generalizing information about culture obtained by other sciences.

Thus, from the 18th century the scientific period of the study of culture begins, within which modern cultural studies have been formed.

The theoretical foundations of cultural studies were laid by L. White, in his work “The Concept of Culture. The evolution of culture. The science of culture. White considered cultural studies as a special stage in the comprehension of man and predicted a great future for it.

But this term has not taken root in Western science. It includes cultural studies and social anthropology, history, sociology, semiotics. In our country, culturology is very actively developing in the late XX - early XXI century.

Thus, in the positions presented, culture is characterized as the spiritual side of social life, as a value aspect of the spiritual component of a person.

And so the main milestones in the history and logic of the formation of the concept of "culture":

The appearance of the term, its initial connection with the cultivation, processing, ennoblement of the land (i.e. nature);

Opposition natural (natural) - cultural (created by man): the French educator J.J. Rousseau;

The spiritual side of social life, its value aspect: German enlighteners;

The division into material and spiritual culture, the dominance of material production, understanding the history of culture as a single integral process: Marxism;

The first scientific definition of culture by listing elements of different orders that are not connected in a system: E.B. Tylor;

Correlation between the concepts of culture and civilization;

An analogy between culture and a living organism, all parts of which, performing their functions, are in a single dynamic system;

Identification of the functions of the structural elements of culture in relation to each other and in relation to the whole: functionalism;

The relativity of comparing the values of cultures due to their originality, integrity and viability: cultural relativism;

The inclusion of personality (with its consciousness and subconsciousness, rational and irrational moments) in culture: psychological anthropology, psychoanalysis;

The extension of the method of structural linguistics to various areas of socio-cultural reality, the reconstruction of a system of symbols that reflect the structure of culture: structuralism.

Moreover, by now, the culturological method of analysis itself has been formed, which is used not only in specialized studies of culture, but also in other areas of knowledge.

Mikhailov Yuri Innokentievich

Literature

- * "Culturology" ed. Sadukina

Aud. 2405 - methodical office, 2402 - department

09/08/2011 Lecture 1 "Culturology as a system of knowledge"

Culturology- a discipline that studies all issues related to culture (Leslie White, " Classification of kinship systems» 1939)

Main sections of science

Philosophy of culture: questions related to the origin of culture as a universal form of human practice. He studies the conceptual apparatus of cultural studies. Culture is studied on the basis of the general patterns of human thinking.

“My world ends where my language ends” L. Wittgenstein

Sociology of culture: the role of culture and features of its functioning in the system of social relations, the role of culture in the organization of social relations. The immediate subject of study is the cultural characteristics of individual social groups and society as a whole.

History of culture: the origin and historical development of cultural types. In general, culture is considered as a sign system. It comes from the fundamental multiplicity of cultures, cultural diversity from the earliest moments of human existence.

Anthropology of culture ( cultural anthropology): Cultural anthropology as a new scientific direction was formed at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. The subject of its study is the ways of obtaining, storing and transmitting information from generation to generation. Until the middle of the 19th century, the axiological method dominated: comparison of cultures was carried out on a scale of values. In practice, cultures were compared according to the highest achievements, and this created the ground for the concepts of cultural superiority (16-17 centuries, Europe - America, Asia, Africa). Therefore, cultural anthropology proceeds from the fundamental equivalence of all cultures, and cultures are compared according to the ways of handling information.

4 main areas of cultural studies:

Social: mechanisms of sociocultural organization.

Humanitarian: forms and processes of self-knowledge of culture, which are expressed in various "texts". In these "texts" culture describes itself.

Fundamental: develops a categorical apparatus and research methods.

Applied: uses fundamental knowledge about culture to solve practical problems, and is also engaged in forecasting and regulating cultural processes.

Diatropics is the science of the complexity of the world.

The law of transitive polymorphism is the secret transfer of traits (in living organisms).

The subject of cultural studies- this is the content, structure and dynamics of the functioning of sociocultural experience. Based on this, the main method of cultural studies is unity of explanation and understanding. Culture is a hierarchically organized system. This system is based on logical principles of construction (otherwise the system is impossible), therefore, culture lends itself to understanding and logical explanation.

The main stages in the development of cultural knowledge.

pre-scientific stage. It begins in the ancient period, continues until the emergence of modern European science. At this stage, there were intuitive ideas about the laws of cultural development. These ideas were based on the cyclical model of time (the repetition of events in social and cultural life) at an early stage in the development of cultural ideas.

At the next stage, ideas about culture began to be determined by the linear model of time, the spread of which is associated with Christianity.

World creation – Nativity – Apocalypse (Last Judgment)

Thanks to this model of time, an idea of history arose, i.e. every event is unique. The main method of cognition of culture at this stage is axiological. Each culture knew itself in comparison with another, alien culture, but used its own scale of values for this. (eg: The Greeks refused to accept non-democratic cultures, and the Romans considered all peoples to be barbaric if their way of life differed from that of the Romans.)

Scientific and historical. At this stage, they sought to discover general laws in the development of nature, society and culture. European scientists, recognizing historical changes in society, associated cultural changes with them. The development of society and culture synchronized.

Scientific and philosophical. It was recognized that the pace of development of society and culture may not coincide (eg: serfdom in Russia).

Philosophical - arises in the 7th century BC. e. (7-6th century), As is known, within the framework of philosophy, the very general idea of culture was developed, and questions were raised that today constitute the actual cultural theme. At 19, the German philosopher A.G. Muller introduced the concept of "cultural philosophy2", understanding it as an independent section of philosophy that comprehends culture - Empirical (Ethnographic) - Arises in the second half of the 19th century. At that time, the colonization of various peoples by European countries begins. The culture of these peoples is being studied with the aim of further skillful management of them. Studied: myths, legends, legends. In ethnography, culture becomes the object of special study, where there is a tendency to understand culture as a complex dynamic system that performs specific social functions. Scientific schools have been formed within the framework of ethnography.

1) School of Evolutionists. Representatives: L. Morgan, E. Taylor, Frazor. Evolutionists believed that all peoples go from savagery to barbarism and the final stage of development is civilization.

2) School of social anthropology. Formed in England. Representative B. Malinovsky.

3) School of cultural anthropology. Formed in the USA at the beginning of the 20th century. Representatives6 A, White, A Boas-Theoretical stage is formed in the early 30s of the 20th century. Culturology is becoming an independent culture. Representatives: Leslie White.-applied stage (modern)

2. Subject, basic concepts and structure of cultural studies

Culturology is a system of knowledge about the essence, patterns of existence and development, the meaning and ways of comprehending culture. Culturology studies the genesis, functioning and development of culture as a whole.

The word “Kulturologie” was first used by the German scientist W. Oswald in 1913, the term “kulturologie” was first used by the anthropologist L. White in 1949.

Culturology seeks to study culture in the fullness of its manifestations and in its essence. Culturology summarizes the achievements of philosophy, history, linguistics, archeology, ethnography, religious studies, the history of science, sociology, art history and other disciplines that study various aspects of human existence and society. Culturology is aimed at determining the most general patterns of formation, development and functioning of culture.

Currently, there are several approaches to defining the essence of cultural studies.

The first one considers cultural studies as a complex of disciplines that study culture in its historical development and social functioning, as a result of which a system of knowledge about culture is formed.

The second - represents cultural studies as one of the sections of disciplines that study culture. In this regard, it is possible to identify cultural studies with such a discipline as the sociology of culture, etc.

The third - considers cultural studies as an independent scientific discipline.

The most acceptable is the view of cultural studies as a system of knowledge, as a relatively independent branch of social and humanitarian knowledge.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. Anthropological, in which culture is understood as an expression of human nature.

2. Another approach to culture can be called philosophical-historical. Another name for it is activity. "Action" here is understood as a prudent, planning change in reality, history. The most common is the idea of culture as a result of human activity. There is a point of view that culture includes only creative activity, other authors are convinced that all types of reproductive activity (reproduction, repetition of what has been achieved) should also be considered as cultural.

3. Another approach to the interpretation of culture: sociological. Here culture is understood as a factor in organizing the life of society. Society creates cultural values, and they further determine the development of this society: these are language, beliefs, aesthetic tastes, professional skills and all sorts of customs.

4. In addition, another approach to the study of culture is axiological (value-based), which defines culture as a set of certain values that form its semantic core. The role of values in the structure and functioning of culture is beyond doubt, since they streamline reality and introduce evaluative moments into its comprehension. They correlate with the idea of the ideal and give meaning to human life.

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

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

2. The structure of culture. Culture as a set of material and spiritual values expresses the level of historical development achieved by a person, and the cultural process includes ways and methods of creating tools, objects and things that a person needs. At the same time, the mastery of culture involves the development of skills and knowledge for work, communication and knowledge - the main components of the life of any society, as well as intellectual development and the formation of a humanistic worldview. It thereby reveals the unity of man with nature and society, being a characteristic of the development of the creative forces and abilities of the individual.

According to the two main types of production - material and spiritual - culture is usually divided into material and spiritual.

Material culture embraces the whole sphere of material activity and its results; the totality of material goods created by people. It characterizes the transformative activity of a person (in terms of its impact on human development), revealing to some extent his abilities, creative possibilities, talents. Material culture includes: 1) the culture of labor and material production (tools, technological processes, methods of cultivating the land and growing food); 2) culture of life; 3) topos culture, i.e. place of residence (dwellings, houses, villages, cities); 4) culture of attitude to one's own body, etc. According to the definition of the American sociologist W. Ogborn, the term material culture refers to all material objects, as well as inventions and changes in the development of technology. Material culture is studied by archeology, ethnography, history, economics, and other sciences.

Spiritual culture is a sphere of human activity, covering various aspects of the spiritual life of a person and society. It represents: the spiritual world of each individual and his activities to create "spiritual products" (creativity of scientists, writers, artists, legislators, etc.); the products of spiritual activity themselves - spiritual values, scientific results, books, canvases, laws, customs, etc. Spiritual culture manifests itself through public consciousness (political, legal, moral, aesthetic, religious, national, science and philosophy) and is embodied in art, literary, architectural and other monuments of human activity. The spiritual culture of society includes religion, science, education, art, language and writing, etc.

Spiritual culture can be characterized as a reflected humanity, as a collective history of the mind and feelings of mankind.

There is no rigid dividing line between material and spiritual culture. But priority in this unity, for example, Marxism gives the material basis, believing that it is she who plays a decisive role in the development of culture, ensuring the continuity of social evolution. However, excessive attention to the priority of material factors over spiritual ones had a negative impact on the development of culture as a whole.

Culture is characterized only by the fact that it is a product and result of human activity, but also by the fact that it is a person who occupies a central place in its value content. In all the diverse and often contradictory manifestations of culture, a person is invariably present: his culture develops its own vision, its own image and gives it a certain value status. Because of this, every cultural process simultaneously serves as a process of formation and development of man.

When applied to human society, the term "culture" emphasizes its proper human and not biological existence. Throughout his active life, through activity and communication, through self-awareness and reflection, a person carries out a cultural process that has clearly defined historical features. However, at all times, from pre-class communities to the modern era, humanity is revealed in three main areas of culture. It is the relationship of man with nature; human-to-human relations (public relations); man's relationship with himself. Each of these areas can be considered from the standpoint of Knowledge, Goodness and Beauty, i.e. from the standpoint of science, the laws of ethics and aesthetics. At the same time, the same objects, things, symbols and cultural traditions can be assessed differently by representatives of different research schools.

This feature is typical for the study of any field of culture, therefore, in the study of culture, and more broadly - in the study of the social form of being, there is not and cannot be a single point of view, a variety of views and opinions should dominate and fruitfully develop here. It is from a multicolored palette of opinions that the cultural and intellectual process of cognition of the spiritual world is formed.