Culture and civilization: the problem of relationship. Historical and theoretical and methodological aspects

Philosophy

Abstract

The subject of paper is relationship between culture and civilization and functions of civilization. The relevance of the article is determined by the peculiarities of modern civilization and remaking of moral values and attitudes. Meanwhile, the concepts of «civilization» and «culture» are the most complicated and controversial in modern humanities, and methodological distinction of these concepts would help in revealing of many socio-cultural phenomena and processes. The paper’s author uses historical and comparative research methods, which, in the opinion of the author, help to get the most adequate results. The author gives views of famous philosophers and highlight five key differences between the concepts of «civilization» and «culture». Culture and civilization are not opposite towards each other, but they are different in nature. Culture is a creation, it’s basically individual; civilization is a transition from the creation (culture) to the acquisition and conservation of cultural results for everybody. Without culture there is no civilization, which is its natural and necessary extension, it allows to replicate cultural patterns and to create conditions for further creation in the form of stabilization of social relations for future generations. So, civilization as a sustainable socio-cultural formation realizes various functions. The author defines the following functions of civilization, such as: adaptive, regulatory, unifying, repressive. If we compare functional features of civilization, peculiarities of culture and civilization we come to the conclusion that civilization influences on the person externally. In civilization a person is an object, individual, one among many people. Culture influences on a person also, but a person is not only an object in it, it’s a subject, which creates through his internal potential and contrary to existing civilizational norms. A struggle between external influence on a person expressed in various regulations, and his internal potential contribute to the development of a man. In the context of functional characteristic features of civilization civilization is a necessary condition for the development of culture and human development.