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In the book ‘A Study of History’ British historian A. Toynbee (1889-1975)
considered that conditions of hardship or adversity are the real causes which
brought into existence superior cultures. Such conditions constitute a ‘challenge’ to
stimulate people to try to overcome it and to generate additional energy for new

achievements. The challenge may be in the form of a desert, a jungle area, rugged
topography, or a grudging soil. The challenge must not be so difficult as to be
insurmountable or even so difficult that the society does not have sufficient human

resources and energy to take on new challenges.
The scientist formulated a complex theory of the growth and demise of
civilizations (distinguished 23 civilizations). Toynbee argued that a society

develops into a civilization when it is confronted with a challenge which it
successfully meets in such a way as to lead it on to further challenges. The ideas
and methods for meeting the challenges for a society come from a creative

minority and are later copied by the majority. Thus there are two essential and
separate steps in meeting a challenge: the generation of ideas and the
imitation/adoption of those ideas by the majority. If either of those two processes
ceases to function then the civilization breaks down.

If the creative minority fails to command the respect of the majority through
the brilliance of their solutions to the problems and challenges of the society then

the minority becomes merely a dominant minority. In the breakdown of a
civilization the society splits into three parts: the dominant minority, the internal
proletariat (the working masses which are part of the civilization) and the external
proletariat (the masses which are influenced by the civilization but are not

controlled by it.
The disintegration of a civilization involves a time of troubles, such as a time
of wars between the nations which are parts of the civilization. This time of

troubles is followed by the establishment of a universal state, an empire. According
to Toynbee, civilizations start to decay when they lose their moral fiber and the
cultural elite turns parasitic, exploiting the masses and creating an internal and

external proletariat. The existence of a universal state such as the Roman Empire is
evidence that the civilization has broken down.

Questions

1. Define the term of ‘culture’.

2. What is the material and spiritual culture?
3. What is the essence of the culturology as a science?
4. What are the stages of formation of the culturology as a science?
5. Describe the concept of ‘civilization’.

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