Page 4 - 6241

Lecture І
CULTUROLOGY AS A SCIENCE

Plan

1. Formation and basic concepts of the culturology as an independent

branch of humanitarian knowledge.

2. Subject, purpose and tasks of the course ‘Culturology’.

3. Structure of cultural knowledge. Methods of the culturology.

4. Definition of culture. Functions of culture.

5. Correlation between the notions ‘culture’ and ‘civilization’ in the

culturological concepts.

1. Formation of the culturology as an independent branch of

humanitarian knowledge

Philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, historians were always interested in
culture as a phenomenon of social life revealing the peculiarities of behavior,
consciousness and human activity in specific forms of life (the culture of work,

culture of life, art culture, political culture) as well as a way of life of a human,
group of people and society as a whole.
Culture is an integrated sphere of knowledge resulting from a broad

multidimensional dialogue between the philosophy, history, psychology,
linguistics, ethnography, religious studies, sociology and art studies. Separate
sciences of culture investigating certain cultural phenomena constitute the basis of

cultural knowledge. Thus, the culturology belongs to social humanities though it
actively uses both the methods of natural sciences and special research methods in
the social sphere. A special feature of cultural studies is its complex nature, focus

on the existence and activity of an individual and society as an integrated
phenomenon.
The culturology is a relatively young science. Its formation as a specific
sphere of humanitarian knowledge dates back to the Modern History and is

associated with the philosophical concepts of G. Vico, J. Herder and G. Hegel. As
a separate branch of knowledge the culturology emerges in the late nineteenth
century. A concept of the ‘culturology’ was used for the first time by American

anthropologist Leslie White (1900-1975).

3