Civilizations tend to appear, reach the peak of their development and disappear. Some formations are completely forgotten in the pages of history, others exist today. Such civilizations are called cultural-historical types. This is the basic concept of the philosophical-historical doctrine, and today we will consider it in more detail.
Basic knowledge
The cultural-historical type is a separate concept of political science, philosophy and history. It defines the historical process as the coexistence of various types of civilization. In simpler words, this means that as a result of certain socio-political processes, societies can be created that, in the course of their development, create a new culture, norms, rules, etc. Such societies grow over time and begin to be called civilizations. Each of them lives according to its own unique laws.
For example, if we consider the Egyptian civilization and the Mayan civilization, it is almost impossible to find the same characteristics, even they built the pyramids in different ways. Each of them has its own sources of development, and mutually beneficial exchange relations rarely develop between them. The cultural-historical type is an "organism" that exists on its own.
Russia and Europe
A great contribution to the study of distinctive civilizations was made by N. Ya. Danilevsky. He wrote about cultural-historical types in the book “Russia and Europe”, where he fully stated the principles of philosophical and historical doctrine.
Danilevsky believed that the cultural-historical type consists of organic matter and the morphological principle. Under the principles are meant original formations that are embodied in the sphere of nationality. These features cannot be transmitted to other cultural-historical types. Other civilizations can borrow only those principles that do not belong to the sphere of nationality. For example, technology or science. But if many “non-folk” features are adopted from one cultural-historical type, then we can talk about a successive cultural-historical type.
The basics of cultural types
The cultural-historical type of civilization, depending on the level of development of the foundations of cultural activity, can be divided into one, two, three, and four main ones. The historical dynamics here are indicated by natural and cultural foundations. The cultural-historical type is a civilization's reasonable passage through the stages from birth to old age and death.
During this period, civilizations manage to pass the stage from pre-state to state and the heyday of culture (growth, flowering and fruiting).
Typology
In his work, Danilevsky identified ten types of full-fledged states:
- Egyptian civilization.
- Chinese
- Assyrian-Babylonian-Phoenician-Haddean (it is also an ancient Semitic civilization).
- Indian.
- Iranian.
- Jewish
- Greek
- Roman.
- Arabian (she is a Novosemitic civilization).
- European or German-Romanesque.
In addition to them, he identified two more types of civilizations: Mexican and Peruvian. They formed in America and died before the completion of their natural cycle of development. However, despite such a variety, Danilevsky in detail explores only Slavic and German-Roman civilization.
In addition to the cultural-historical types, he considered such a thing as peoples unable to form their own unique culture, and peoples that deny the cultural formation as such. For example, nomadic warriors, etc.
Laws of development
In general, scientists identify five laws of the historical development of civilizations. The first of them speaks of linguistic kinship. An original civilization must have ways of communication. According to the second law of the theory of cultural-historical types, civilization can develop only if it has political independence.
The third law states that cultural-historical types cannot transmit their origins to other civilizations. That is, each of them is unique, respectively, should have its own beginnings. In the fourth law of the theory of cultural-historical types, Danilevsky indicated that civilization would only reach its diversity and wealth when its elements constitute a federation or political system, and are not absorbed by the political body.
The fifth law considers the period of development and decline of the cultural-historical type. Civilizations are believed to be similar to plants that grow for a very long time, but their flowering and fruiting period is very short. Once it ends, civilization will forever lose its strength. After a while, the cultural-historical type will disappear, and a new one will appear in its place, and it will be completely different from the previous one.
Danilevsky’s theory of civilizations was the first among other similar concepts. We can say that the Russian thinker was the founder of the doctrine of cultural-historical types. His works served as the basis for the creation of the teachings of O. Spengler, A. Toynbee, K. Leontiev and others. I wonder how they looked at the concept of cultural-historical types.
Jambattista Vico
Vico studied philosophy, history, he said that the main task of understanding historical development should be to identify the law, according to which it is possible to say exactly how and why different nations exist in history, what became the reasons for their emergence and decline.
In The Eternal Ideal History, Vico considered three cultural-historical types that were not characteristic of specific civilizations, but rather for some eras:
It is customary to characterize each such era as an integral historical and cultural formation, which goes through a complete cycle from “birth” to “death”. The specifics of the historical development of a particular era depends on morality, traditions, economics, politics and stereotypes of thinking. These factors in history are represented by such a concept as the confrontation of estates, that is, the struggle of aristocrats and ordinary people was the driving force that changed the course of events.
Konstantin Leontiev
In turn, Leontyev put forward a mystical-naturalistic concept of the development of society and civilizations as a whole. For him, as well as for Danilevsky, it consisted in the history of the development and decline of individual organisms. Such a historical organism goes through the same stages of existence as representatives of the organic world. That is, it emerges from a simple formation, which eventually turns into a complex formation, and then again simplifies and disintegrates.
The time when civilization begins to grow and develop is certainly accompanied by a cultural awareness of the inseparability of human destiny from divine destiny. The simplification of the cultural-historical type is associated with the development of democracy and the blurring of spiritual culture. Free will, individual comprehension and awareness are replaced by the principles of atomic individuality, which seeks to free itself from spiritual duties in order to satisfy its own needs. It is at the stage of secondary simplification, when humanity is turning away from the spiritual and striving for the material, is modern European civilization.
Oswald Spengler
Spengler's “Sunset of Europe” had a profound influence on the modern theory of the “civilization process”. When writing the book, he relied on the works of Nietzsche, Simmel, Dilthey, as well as Danilevsky. Spengler believed that history should be understood as an endless process of the emergence, growth and death of unique cultures. Simply put, he did not consider civilizations, but cultural-historical types.
Spengler believed that culture is an internal closed organism, the through structure of which ensures its uniqueness and vitality. Historical knowledge should focus on understanding its structural stability. Spengler sees the only solution to this problem in the division of different cultures according to "age." Thus, he got eight cultural types:
- Egyptian.
- Indian.
- Babylonian.
- Chinese.
- Apollonian.
- Mayan.
- Magical.
- Faustovsky.
According to the teachings of Spengler, each cultural organism lives about 1300 (in some cases 1500) years. As they grow older, culture as a structural basis gradually loses its flexibility and turns into a value system. As a result, it transforms into a civilization, which has its own distinctive features.
Arnold Toynbee
Also, the civilizational approach in history was considered by A. Toynbee. In his twelve-volume work, “Comprehension of History,” he examined the systematic comprehension of material in order to establish the laws of historical development. According to his teachings, each civilization has its own system of values, which form the direction of development of everyday life from basic, vital manifestations to higher creative impulses. Such a system is determined by the conditions in which a person organizes his activities in accordance with changes in socio-cultural entities. A huge role in historical development is played not so much by an established cultural structure as by a person’s free choice. That is, how individuals respond to the “challenge” of social circumstances.
Thus, the whole history of mankind can be considered as a set of development and withering of individual historical formations, which are represented in the forms of cultures and civilizations. Each scientist considered these formations in their own way, but they were sure of one thing: each historical period tends to end, and it is replaced by a new, more perfect education.