Essay on the topic of culture around me. Essay on the topic "Mass culture - for and against

The word "culture" comes from the Latin word colere, which means to cultivate, or cultivate the soil. In the Middle Ages, this word began to denote a progressive method of cultivating grain, thus the term agriculture or the art of farming arose. But in the 18th and 19th centuries they began to use it in relation to people, therefore, if a person was distinguished by the elegance of manners and erudition, he was considered "cultural". Then this term was applied mainly to aristocrats to separate them from the "uncivilized" common people. In German, the word Kultur meant a high level of civilization. With regard to our today's life it can be said that the totality of material and spiritual values, as well as the ways of their creation, the ability to use them for the progress of mankind, to transfer from generation to generation, constitute culture. The initial form and primary source of the development of culture is human labor, methods of its implementation and results.

Culture is a combination of all those spiritual achievements of mankind, which, even having arisen as individually subjective and historically specific, with the course of history have received the status of socially objective and, as it were, transtemporal spiritual phenomena, forming a universal cultural tradition that is continuous and beyond the control of an individual individual.

Culture covers not only the past and present, but also extends into the future.

Material culture includes, first of all, the means of production and objects of labor. Material culture is an indicator of the level of practical mastery of nature by man. Spiritual culture includes science and the degree of implementation of its achievements in production and everyday life, the level of education, the state of education, medical care, art, moral standards behavior of members of society, the level of development of the needs and interests of people. Spiritual culture is deposited in a "material" form. All this lives and cooperates with modern generation and is a culture only in relation to a living mind.

In front of a person is a whole ocean of cultural values ​​created world history, as well as the innumerable values ​​of nature, which he constantly uses and enjoys to the extent of his talent, education and good breeding.

The assimilation of culture is carried out with the help of learning. Culture is created, culture is taught. Since it is not acquired biologically, each generation reproduces it and passes it on. next generation. This process is the basis of socialization. As a result of the assimilation of values, beliefs, norms, rules and ideals, the formation of the child's personality and the regulation of his behavior take place. If the process of socialization were to stop on a massive scale, it would lead to the death of culture.

Culture forms the personalities of the members of society, thereby it largely regulates their behavior.

How important culture is for the functioning of the individual and society can be judged by the behavior of people who are not covered by socialization. The uncontrolled or infantile behavior of the so-called children of the jungle, who were completely deprived of human contact, indicates that without socialization, people are not able to adopt an orderly way of life, master the language and learn how to earn a livelihood. By observing several "creatures that showed no interest in what was going on around them, who rhythmically swayed back and forth like wild animals in a zoo", scientists realized that these wild children did not develop the personality that requires communication with people. This communication would stimulate the development of their abilities and the formation of their "human" personalities.

If culture regulates people's behavior, can we go so far as to call it repressive? Often culture does suppress a person's motives, but it does not exclude them completely. Rather, it determines the conditions under which they are satisfied. The ability of culture to control human behavior is limited for many reasons. First of all, the limitless biological capabilities of the human body. Mere mortals cannot be taught to jump over tall buildings, even if society values ​​such feats highly. In the same way, there is a limit to the knowledge that the human brain can absorb.

Factors environment also limit the impact of culture. For example, drought or volcanic eruptions can disrupt the established way of farming. Environmental factors may prevent the formation of some cultural patterns. According to the customs of people living in the tropical jungle with a humid climate, it is not customary to cultivate for a long time certain areas land, because it is impossible to get high grain yields for a long time.

On the other hand, maintaining a stable social order helps to increase the influence of culture. The very survival of society dictates the condemnation of acts such as murder, theft and arson. If these practices were to become widespread, it would be impossible for people to cooperate to collect or produce food, provide shelter, and carry out other essential activities.

Other an important part culture is that cultural values ​​are formed on the basis of the selection of certain types of behavior and experience of people.

Each society has made its own selection cultural forms. Each society, from the point of view of the other, neglects the main thing and engages in unimportant matters. In one culture, material values ​​are hardly recognized, in another they have a decisive influence on people's behavior. In one society, technology is treated with incredible disdain, even in areas essential to human survival; in another similar society, constantly improving technology meets the requirements of the time. But each society creates a huge cultural superstructure that covers the whole life of a person - both youth, and death, and the memory of him after death.

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SMOLENSKY INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Essay on cultural studies on the topic:

Correlation between the concepts of "culture" and "civilization"

Completed by: group student

Smolensk

The essay will focus on the conceptual and semantic correlation of the concepts of culture and civilization. It is important for cultural studies, since these concepts in the process of use have acquired many meanings.

Throughout the history of mankind, a large number of cultures and civilizations have appeared. Some disappeared without a trace, while others survived. However, some of them, under the influence of the development of technologies and social relations, have acquired new form and meaning in modern world.

Undoubtedly, civilization and culture are concepts that are inextricably linked. But what are they and how do they interact with each other?

Both independent concepts are formed on the ideas of the Enlightenment: the concept of culture - in Germany, the concept of civilization - in France. The term "culture" enters German literature thanks to Pufendorf (), who wrote in Latin, but it owes its wide use to another German educator, Alelung, who popularized it by introducing it twice (1774, 1793) into the dictionary of the German language he compiled, and then and in the title of his main work "Experience in the history of culture human race". The term "civilization" came into being with the completion of the French "Encyclopedia" ().

The terms "culture" and "civilization" began to denote a special state of society associated with vigorous activity man to improve his own way of being. At the same time, both culture and civilization are interpreted as the result of the development of reason, education and enlightenment.

Culture (from the Latin cultura - cultivation, upbringing, education, development, veneration), a historically defined level of development of society and man, expressed in the types and forms of organization of life and activities of people, as well as in the material and spiritual values ​​\u200b\u200bcreated by them. The concept of culture is used to characterize the material and spiritual level development of certain historical eras, socio-economic formations, specific societies, nationalities and nations (for example, ancient culture, Maya culture), as well as specific areas of activity or life (culture of work, art culture, culture of life).

The word civilization comes from the Latin civilis - civil, state, in the Middle Ages it had a legal meaning, relating to judicial practice.

Then its meaning expanded. "Civilized" began to be called a person who knows how to behave well, and "civilize" meant to make well-bred and polite, sociable and amiable.

The closeness of these concepts was manifested in the fact that they, as a rule, were used in a very wide, historical context- in abstract reasoning about the goals and meaning of human history. Of course, there were differences related to the differences between the German and French traditions, the specifics of the use of these terms by individual authors, but they are very difficult to isolate and systematize, although such attempts were made, for example, in the work of the French historian Lucien Febvre “Civilization: the evolution of the word and group ideas." In general, these concepts carried the same cognitive, worldview and ideological load.

This led to the fact that very soon a relationship of identity was established between them. The use of the terms "culture" and "civilization" throughout 19th century bears the imprint of this identity. What the French call civilization, the Germans prefer to call culture. In English-language literature, where the concept of civilization appeared earlier, very soon, thanks to German influence, relations of their interchangeability are established.

The German philosopher Immanuel Kant was the first to distinguish between the two concepts, and at the beginning of the 20th century, another German philosopher, Oswald Spengler, in his famous work “The Decline of Europe” completely opposed them. Civilization appeared to him as the highest stage of culture, on which its final decline takes place. “Culture is a civilization that has not reached its maturity, its social optimum and has not ensured its growth,” wrote the famous French cultural historian F. Braudel, as if agreeing with the statements of O. Spengler.

Gradually, the idea of ​​civilization as the pinnacle of human technical achievements associated with the conquest of space, the introduction of computer technology and unprecedented energy sources was established in the European mind.

Civilization is associated with material success, and with culture - spiritual world person. Russian ethnographers, in particular, believe that the signs of the transition to civilization are: in the area material culture- the appearance of monumental stone or brick buildings (palaces, temples), in the field of spiritual culture - the emergence of writing.

Civilization began in the era of writing and agriculture. It was the pinnacle of human social progress. Outside of civilization, in particular, are the primitive societies of Polynesia and Oceania, where a primitive way of life still exists, there is no writing, cities and states. It turns out a kind of paradox: they have a culture, there is no civilization (where there is no writing, there is no civilization). Thus, society and culture arose earlier, and civilization later.

Civilization is a certain part or degree of development of culture. Civilization is first and foremost an achievement of culture. And culture is capable of outliving states and dynasties. Sometimes different states that succeeded each other for millennia are attributed to one civilization, as was the case with the civilizations of Western Asia. Civilization can spread, capturing more and more peoples and states. Civilization, as a certain society with a certain system of elements of culture, can disappear, transferring its cultural achievements to other civilizations. Sometimes two civilizations, different from the point of view of some researchers, are combined into one single civilization (for example, into the Greco-Roman civilization). Civilizations can exist in parallel, simultaneously, and can arise one after another. But in any case, the history of civilizations is the history of culture. The study of a civilization is the study of its culture.

Bibliography

1. Polishchuk: Textbook. – M.: Gardarika, 1998 – 446 p.

2. Culturology: Textbook for higher students educational institutions(third edition). - Rostov on / D: "Phoenix", 2002. - 608 p.

3. Culturology: Proc. Allowance for universities. Ed. Prof. - 3rd ed. - M.: UNITI - DANA, 2003. - 319 p.

Material civilization, economy and capitalism, XV-XVIII centuries. T.1. Structures of everyday life: possible and impossible. M., 1996. S. 116

Semenov of ethnography (ethnology) and the problem of its relationship with the subject of social anthropology//Science of culture and social practice: Anthropological perspective: Sat. scientific Readings / Under the general editorship. . - M.: IKAR, 1998. S.7-39

Main types independent work students without the participation of teachers are:

– the formation and assimilation of the content of the lecture notes on the basis recommended by the lecturer educational literature, including information educational resources (electronic textbooks, electronic libraries, etc.);

- writing essays;

preparation for seminars, taking into account textbook material (excerpts from research texts);

– compiling an annotated list of articles from relevant journals in cultural studies;

- preparation of reviews for an article, a book;

- compiling a summary.

creative homework- one of the forms of independent work

students, contributing to the deepening of knowledge, the development of sustainable

independent work skills.

Tasks creative type

1. Compilation - compose a dictionary, crossword puzzle, game, quiz, etc.

2. Manufacturing - to make a craft, model, layout, newspaper, magazine,

video film.

3. Study guide - develop your plan for the study guide.

Tasks of organizational and activity type

1. Performance - make a demonstration performance, competition,

concert, quiz, crossword, lesson.

2. Evaluation - write a review of the text, film, work of another student,

prepare a self-assessment (qualitative characteristic) of your work on

certain topic for a certain period.

Read the text carefully. Check in the reference literature for unfamiliar words. When recording, do not forget to put reference data in the abstract margins;

· Highlight the main thing, make a plan;

Briefly formulate the main provisions of the text, note the author's argument;

· Outline the material, clearly following the points of the plan. When taking notes, try to express your thoughts in your own words. Records should be kept clear and concise.

Write down quotes correctly. When quoting, consider the conciseness, the significance of the thought.

· In the text of the abstract, it is desirable to provide not only thesis provisions, but also their evidence. When compiling a summary, it is necessary to strive for the capacity of each sentence. The thoughts of the author of the book should be stated briefly, taking care of the style and expressiveness of what is written. Number additional elements the abstract should be logically justified, the records should be distributed in a certain sequence that corresponds to the logical structure of the work. For clarification and addition, it is necessary to leave the fields.

Essay writing

Essay - a type of independent research work students, in order to deepen and consolidate theoretical knowledge and master practical skills. The purpose of the essay is to develop independent creative thinking and a written presentation of one's own thoughts.

The word "essay" came into Russian from French and historically goes back to the Latin word exagium (weighing). The French "essai" can be literally translated by the words experience, trial, attempt, sketch, essay.

An essay is a prose essay of small volume and free composition, expressing individual impressions and thoughts on a specific occasion or issue and obviously not claiming to be a defining or exhaustive interpretation of the subject.

Some features of an essay:

the presence of a specific topic or issue. Analysis work a wide range problems, by definition, cannot be performed in this genre.

Expression of individual impressions and considerations on a specific occasion or issue. Obviously does not claim to be a defining or exhaustive interpretation of the subject.

As a rule, it implies a new, subjectively colored word about something, such a work can have a philosophical, historical-biographical, journalistic, literary-critical, popular science or purely fiction character.

This genre became popular in last years. The creator of the genre is M. Montaigne ("Experiments", 1580). The purpose of the essay is to develop skills such as independent creative thinking and writing your own thoughts.

Writing it is extremely useful, because it allows the author to learn how to clearly and competently formulate thoughts, structure information, use basic concepts, highlight cause-and-effect relationships, illustrate experience with relevant examples, and argue their conclusions.

In terms of essay content, there are:

philosophical;
- literary-critical;
- historical;
- artistic,
- artistic and journalistic;
- spiritual and religious, etc.

In literary form they appear as:

Reviews;
- lyrical miniature;
- notes;
- pages from the diary;
- letters, etc.

There are also the following types of essays:

descriptive;
- narrative;
- reflexive;
- critical;
- analytical, etc.

· An essay usually consists of the following items:

1) thesis statement

2) interpretation of the thesis

3) argumentation of the thesis.

· As a rule, the greatest difficulty is the formulation of the thesis of the essay (that is, the position that should be substantiated). For example, “why I love cinema”, or “Christianity and Islam: common and different” are not essay theses. They are more likely to serve as a topic for an essay, but not a thesis. The thesis must state something that can be discussed and explained. For example: “Rock culture never existed in the USSR or in post-Soviet Russia,” or “Cinema cannot be considered art, it’s kitsch.” As you can see, there is room for explanation in such judgments.

Each concept used in the thesis should be explained. So what do you mean by cinema? Maybe you only mean art films, or documentaries? What do you mean by art and nothing? This stage of the essay is called interpretation of the thesis, it allows you to understand the content of your judgment, to understand your thought. To reveal the content of concepts, you can use reference literature(dictionaries, reference books, textbooks, encyclopedias).

After formulating the thesis, argumentation. Here you must substantiate not only the truth of the thesis, but also the expediency of accepting it, show the significance of your thought, its advantage over others. The form of argumentation includes not only the proof of one's thesis, but also the refutation of the antithesis of a possible opponent. That is, dialogue is introduced into the argument. At this stage, the question may arise: where to find counterarguments? There are several options. First: these may be some ordinary ideas based on life experience, tradition, prejudice. Second: it may be the established opinion of a certain humanitarian school, of which you are not a supporter. Third: it can even be your personal opinion, which you changed while working on an essay (this method is the most interesting, a kind of internal dialogue )

· Essay formatting.

· It should not exceed two or three handwritten or printed sheets of format A 4 in volume. If you use quotes in the text, then you should do it in good faith: clearly separate your text from the quoted one, provide links, that is, where exactly this quote is taken from. A mandatory requirement is to provide a list of used literature. If you do not know how to format literature correctly, then turn to the second page of the book, or the last page. There is usually given the full title of the book, its author with imprint (city, publisher, year and number of pages). Rewrite this information, retaining all punctuation marks.

Essay Topics in Cultural Studies

Rationality as fate European culture

· Nationalism as a phenomenon of the modern socio-cultural situation.

· Elite culture as an antipode to mass culture.

Statehood as humanity in Confucianism.

Can there be a "holy" war?

Detective - a specific genre popular literature and cinema of the twentieth century.

· Modern subcultures: cultural diversity or marginalization of culture?

· Cinema is a phenomenon that created the image of the twentieth century.

What is popular culture for?

· Fashion phenomenon: social, economic and aesthetic origins.

The phenomenon of beauty in medieval culture.

· The theme of love in the culture of the 19th-20th century.

Islam and European civilization: dialogue or clash?

· Perspectives of modern European culture.

Modern cultured person

2014 has been declared the Year of Culture in Russia. In the course of studying culturology, ISUE students wrote an essay on the problems of defining the concepts of "culture" and "modern cultural person".

We bring to your attention the most interesting works.

Student Scientific Historical Society "CLIO"

Guseva Nina, 1-4:

Culture is aspiration

to perfection through knowledge

what concerns us the most,

what they think and talk about...

Matthew Arnold.

What does it mean to be cultured person? In my opinion, a cultured person is an educated, well-mannered, tolerant, intelligent, responsible person. He respects himself and those around him. A cultured person is also distinguished by creative work, the desire for high quality, gratitude and the ability to be grateful, love for nature and the Motherland, compassion and sympathy for one's neighbor, goodwill.

A cultured person will never lie, he will retain self-control and dignity in any life situations He is a person who has a clear goal and achieves it.

D.S. Likhachev wrote: "What is the most big goal life? I think: to increase the good in those around us. And good is, first of all, the happiness of all people.

It is made up of many things, and every time life sets a task for a person, which is important to be able to solve. You can do good to a person in small things, you can think about big things, but small things and big things cannot be separated ... ".

But one cannot rely on goodness, education, and “correct” behavior. In our time, people pay too little attention to culture, and many do not even think about it throughout their lives, thereby showing ignorance, laziness, selfishness, hypocrisy.

It is good if a person has a process of familiarization with culture, that is, inculturation, as well as familiarization with cultural property and knowledge through social institutions, that is, socialization, occur from childhood. The child joins the traditions that pass from generation to generation, absorbs the positive experience of the family and the environment. After all, in life than more experienced person, the more competitive he is, and if he has where to get this experience, then he has advantages.

In conclusion, it should be noted: no matter how much is said about culture, but "a person is known only by deeds."

The ideal of a cultured person is nothing but the ideal of a person who, under any conditions, retains true humanity.

Galkin Oleg, 1-4:

IN explanatory dictionary S.I. Ozhegov, the concept of culture is interpreted as follows: "This is a combination of industrial, social and spiritual achievements of people;" cultured person - "is located on high level culture and corresponding to it”, as well as “relating to educational or intellectual activity”.

This definition is vague and not very clear. Let's try to speculate on the topic: “What kind of person is considered to be cultured? How do education and culture relate? Russian philosophers (for example, Ivan Ilyin), writers, publicists: (D.S. Likhachev, D.A. Granin, V.A. Soloukhin, L.V. Uspensky, etc.) have repeatedly argued on this topic in discussions, essays and articles.

We find interesting reflections on traditions in culture in Ivan Ilyin. He believes that the future of culture is in the ability to be grateful for the past, that is, to absorb everything that has already been created, but not cold and prudent, "the response of the heart to the good deed already done to you."

One cannot but agree with this opinion. A cultured person is capable of knowing the world in its past, present and future (this is the cognitive function of culture), such a person is able to perceive everything that is created by another person, his mind and hands. But do not envy, and even more so "blacken", but perceive it as interesting phenomenon, to appreciate and, perhaps, to know more deeply.

Education and culture are related concepts, but far from being unambiguous. What does education mean? This is a collection of specific knowledge from any area. By the way, who is more educated? Who has in-depth knowledge of a certain science or has broad ideas from a whole range of knowledge about the world? Undoubtedly, education and knowledge nourish human culture, but this is only part of it. D.S. said it well. Likhachev “A cultured person is an intelligent person. And intelligence is not only in knowledge - it is in the ability to understand another and respect his Self.

A cultured person is able to absorb the good and resist the bad. There are many disputes, for example, about the culture of the language. A cultured person is not capable of clumsy speech, rude words in everyday life, they disgust his nature. He will still strive for knowledge, how it is more correct, better to say, write, conduct a dialogue. The ability to communicate, logically and convincingly of one's opinion is one of the abilities of a highly cultured person. A cultured person is a person open heart able to rejoice and marvel at the beauty of the world. It does not matter whether it is the wonders of the world, or a modest chamomile meadow, Niagara Falls or a quiet forest lake. A cultured person is capable of experiencing and mercy.

So, "cultural person" is a rather broad concept. Such a person owns a communicative, educational, cognitive culture, respects traditions, a person open to the world.

Blechenkova Anastasia, 1-4:

“Culture is the essence of the organism. History of culture and their biography. Culture is born at the moment when a great soul awakens and emerges from the primitive mental state of eternally childish humanity” (Oswald Spengler).

Based on this quote, I would like to speculate from the point of view of a civilizational approach to the history of the development of culture. I believe that culture is determined by time and society. That is, a person must correspond to the time and the public idea of ​​a cultured person. In most cases, this implies a certain level of intelligence, knowledge of etiquette, the ability to correctly and competently express thoughts, be objective, and keep your emotions under control.

Man is the creator of culture. But it all starts with him. He goes through inculturation in childhood, then socialization through such social institutions as family, school, university, etc. From this we can conclude that the formation of a cultured person largely depends on external factors.

Let's remember the story of Mowgli. Small child ends up in the jungle, in a wolf family that lives in a pack and lives by the law of the jungle. Naturally, when he gets to the village, it is unusual for him to live by human rules.

In the modern world cultural space a person is mainly shaped by various media. Television and the Internet are being squeezed out of cultural needs modern man visiting theaters, libraries, museums. And it's sad to realize. After all, everything that exists now, everything that we study, was created by people. Music, literature, great scientific discoveries, created several centuries ago, allowed us to live in such a world, this is the base, without which a person cannot be considered cultural if he does not know the elementary.

The modern socio-cultural situation, which determines the formation of a cultured person and the requirements for him in the modern world, is characterized by richness and diversity of dynamic processes. The pace of modernization covers an increasing number of existing cultural forms. Blurring the lines between different ethnic cultures, national entities. historically shaped cultural tradition loses priority in social processes. Professional activity of any kind becomes the main form of individual self-expression.

Culture is the realization of human creativity and freedom, hence the diversity of cultures and forms cultural development. On the example of a subculture, we can clearly see how a person can create, bring something new inside his social group. Also, in each country we observe our own religion, architecture, language, dances, traditional clothes. And when a person moves to another country, he often tries to adapt to this culture, which once again shows how social environment affects a person.

From all this, we can conclude that a cultured person in the modern world can be called someone who knows and understands the culture of the past, who observes the norms and rules of behavior of the present time, and who makes a contribution to modern culture thinking about the future.

The information was provided by A.G. Goryunova