Philosophical Notes. Learning the world through philosophy. Andrei Tikhomirov
but there are significant differences. Therefore, philosophy cannot be unambiguously ranked as a science, and vice versa its scientific nature cannot be denied. Philosophy is a separate form of cognition that has scientific foundations, which manifests itself in those moments and in those areas of scientific knowledge when the theoretical potential in these areas is either small or even absent. Bertrand Russell on this occasion said that all exact knowledge belongs to science, all the dogmas of inaccurate knowledge are religion, and between them is «nobody’s land», which is attacked from all sides. This is philosophy.
Meanwhile, the question of the relationship between philosophy and science cannot be resolved unambiguously. The fact is that in modern public consciousness, complex relationships have been established between philosophy and science, in which, on the one hand, an equal sign is not placed between them, and on the other, an impenetrable barrier is not placed.
Also, one cannot strictly distinguish between the aesthetic and moral orientations of philosophy. They fit together and coexist in a cultural context. Culture as a phenomenon of social life is an object of study for many sciences. It is explored by history and aesthetics, psychology and sociology, archeology, ethnography. Each science realizes its specific interest in the study of this complex phenomenon. Philosophy also studies culture, but not its individual manifestations. She considers culture as an integral and multidimensional phenomenon of social life. Philosophy seeks to answer questions about what culture is, what place it occupies in the historical process, and what role it plays in the socialization of man. Philosophy is interested in the most common problems concerning the essence of culture and its role in public life.
The term culture is very ambiguous. In special and fiction literature, many dozens of his interpretations can be found. So, in everyday life, culture is usually understood as the level of education and upbringing of a person, in contrast to non-education and lack of education. For aesthetics, culture is the numerous productions of professional art and folk art. For the first time this term was used by the Roman orator and philosopher Cicero. By culture, he understood the positive impact of philosophy on the human mind. In his opinion, philosophy is a «culture of the mind,» a subtle tool for understanding the world and man in it.
In Russian philosophy, the concept of culture has traditionally had primarily a high moral content. This manifested the spirit of Orthodoxy with its ideas of goodness, mercy and justice, solidarity between all people and nations. Evil is that which destroys world harmony. On the contrary, Good is the creation of life and harmony in it. This is the main purpose of human culture as a bunch of morality and wisdom. In Russian philosophy, the originality of Russian culture in all its manifestations was emphasized – a way of life and tradition, a form of economic life. In the culture of Russia, a very important role is played by the spiritual principle, the cult of good and justice. Russia is at the intersection of two streams of world history and culture – East and West. That is why it is «doomed» to dialogue with other cultures and has the richest opportunities for spiritual enrichment through such a dialogue.
As you can see, in the history of philosophy, various aspects of culture were highlighted and studied. Summarizing all of the above, we will answer the question about the essence of culture from the perspective of philosophy.
The term «culture» is translated from Latin as «cultivation», «care», «cultivation», «reverence», etc. The basis of culture is human activity as the main way of its existence in the world. This activity is very diverse in form and in the areas of its manifestation, and therefore, culture is also multifaceted. However, culture is not only a living activity of man, but also its substantive manifestations, as well as relations between people as its creators. Culture is a complex social organism that is born, lives and dies, giving way to new cultural phenomena.
Culture is a philosophical concept for characterizing the development of the forces and abilities of a person as an actor. In reality, it includes the essential forces of man; the process of their application (labor, activity); objective embodiments of this activity (ideas, things); relations between people as members of society (traditions, traditions, etc.). Culture is everything created by the hand and thought of man, the world created by man. This is the «second nature», existing along with ordinary nature. In its reality, it is a complex of achievements of mankind.
From the point of view of its internal structure, culture has two layers. Firstly, it is the material culture of mankind – tools and equipment, housing, communications and appliances, food, the very skills of people’s labor. Secondly, it is a spiritual culture that includes aggregate knowledge and methods of cognition, forms of thinking. This also includes public consciousness, the system of education and upbringing of a person, language, law, etc. There are also such forms of culture that are, as it were, at the junction of these two layers (layers) and represent their organic synthesis. They can be attributed to political culture as a unity of political consciousness and political activity. This is artistic culture as the world of works of art, each of which carries one or many artistic images that have found their substantive embodiment in books, paintings, sculptures.
The spiritual layer in culture plays a particularly important role. By definition, S.L. Franka, culture is «the sediment of the spiritual life of mankind».
Each national culture always has its spiritual core, a kind of core, around which the whole system of culture is formed. Throughout the past millennium for Russia, Orthodoxy as a worldview and morality as a way of life has been such a core. It left a huge imprint on art (for example, icons as a genre in fine art), on the life of people and their traditions, on political life and statehood, on forms of economic activity and labor morality, on other aspects of culture.
The multidimensionality of culture as a social phenomenon is also manifested in its functions. First of all, it performs a cognitive function, which allows you to get knowledge about the world and the person in it. This role is played primarily by science and other forms of knowledge – myths, art, religion.
The practical function suggests that culture serves the purpose of transforming nature through knowledge and tools. This function symbolizes the isolation of man from the rest of the animal world and his elevation above him as an active and creative being.
The axiological function means that culture is a «receptacle» of values, i.e. positive products of a person’s spiritual activity – ideas, ideals, images, etc. For centuries, society has accumulated universal values expressed in the moral ideas of goodness, justice, conscience and others.
Finally, the socializing function indicates the role of culture in the formation of the human in man – high needs and noble deeds. Without familiarization with culture (science and art, the traditions of society), there cannot be and cannot be a man brought up. A cultural person, from the point of view of philosophy, is a person who has mastered all the wealth of human culture.
Very often in philosophy, along with culture, the concept of civilization is also used. Not infrequently, these concepts are applied in the same sense. But, although these concepts are somewhat close, such an application is incorrect. Civilization is a definite major epoch in the history of mankind, a step in the development of man as an agent and creator. Culture is the content of a particular historical era, expressed in the totality of spiritual and material values. Each civilization has its own specific culture.
In the cultural aspect, it is also necessary to say about the interaction of philosophy and religion. Today, the issues of religion, its place in modern society, its role in it, its amazing «vitality» are attracting universal attention and make us take a fresh look at our history. Culture and religion are historically determined social phenomena. We can say that religion has some very deep roots and is not a «delusion» with which science can easily cope. Religion is closely related to the extra-logical form of consciousness; it is involved in the formation of the extra-logical knowledge of man. However, religion is not at all limited to the knowledge of the world; the range of its tasks is much wider. The behavior of a person in the world is based on knowledge