Phases of civilization development. Stages of development of civilizations

In the development of any civilization, A. Toynbee identified four stages: 1) the stage of genesis (origin), at which the community of people is challenged, 2) the stage of growth, 3) the stage of breakdown, and 4) the stage of decay.

1) the stage of genesis (origin), at which the community of people is challenged. (The mechanism of the birth of civilizations is the interaction of challenge and response). The emergence and development of civilizations occurs under the influence of external factors,

Toynbee explains the emergence of new civilizations using the concept of challenge. Toynbee calls a challenge a certain event or change in the external environment of civilization, which casts doubt on its continued existence. Toynbee indicates that there is five main incentives that have an impact on the emergence of civilization:

1) the stimulus of the natural environment, which consists in the fact that civilization lives on a barren land;

2) the stimulus of a new land that civilization is forced to master;

3) a blow to civilization from the outside, an attack by the enemy;

4) stimulus pressure;

5) incentive of infringement (poverty, slavery, national discrimination)

The most stimulating effect is a challenge of medium strength, because a weak challenge cannot force the system to move to a qualitatively new level, and an overly strong challenge can simply destroy it.

Challenges can be both external (incentives necessary for the genesis of civilization) and internal (creative impulse of genius, development of science). The system requires only the initial presence of external stimuli, which then, as the system develops, turn into internal challenges. If civilization is able to respond to this challenge, it survives and moves to a new stage of development. If this does not happen, civilization will perish.

Not every civilization is capable of responding to the challenge of the environment. For the answer to be successful, the following factors are required:

a) there should be people in society who are able to understand the challenge and give an answer to it ( creative minority);

b) the majority should be ready to accept this answer, that is, in other words, “ ripen "for an answer.

2) Stage of growth.

The stage of genesis is followed by the stage of growth, at which a civilization develops from an embryo into a full-fledged social structure.

In an effort to define where growth is manifested, Toynbee writes: “Growth means that a growing personality or civilization seeks to create a troublemaker. V At the beginning of the development of civilization, a person has to mainly respond to the challenges of Nature, but as development progresses, social contradictions become the main ones, that is, the Man-Man contradiction. Such confrontation can be attributed to the struggle between classes, religious, national issues. The more the importance of moral, moral, social problems grows, the more active is the growth of civilization.

During the growth of civilization, the danger of transition to the stage of breakdown constantly lies in wait.

3) Stage of fracture

Breaking can happen for a variety of reasons.

1) the ruling minority isolates itself or isolates itself from society, and therefore turns out to be far from its needs and cannot act adequately;

2) the creative minority, capable of bringing the culture out of the state of breakdown, makes a mistake, expressed in passivity after a series of their own victories ( Creative minority "is a collection of people elite, which hears the “challenge” before anyone else, develops adequate responses to it, puts forward new ideas for the “answer” and implements them, leading the passive “majority”. Gradually, the elite loses their creative potential, retaining their dominance only by force of arms) ;

H) the majority refuses to believe in the ideals of the minority. The feeling of injustice and dissatisfaction with life is growing. Old values ​​are forgotten or rejected, the search for new ideals begins. Society finds itself in a "suspended" state, which inevitably leads to chaos.

4) The conflict between the elite and the driven masses is becoming irreversible. The creative minority, or even society as a whole, can abandon lofty, universal goals and values, turning its face to what is momentary, transitory. A "breakdown in civilization", a cultural crisis is coming.

4) stage of disintegration. Civilization is dying. The decline of civilization occurs under the influence of internal factors ... A civilization in decay, or disappears from the face of the Earth ( as happened with the Egyptian civilization and the Inca civilization), either gives life to new civilizations(Hellenic civilization, which gave birth to Western and Orthodox Christianity through the universal church).

According to Toynbee, Decay awaits only a civilization that is incapable of responding to a challenge from outside. The stage of decay is a series of unsuccessful responses to the same challenge that led to the breakdown of civilization. In social terms, at the stage of disintegration, society splits into three components:

1) the ruling minority, which is no longer the creative force of society. The ruling minority is strenuously clinging to power, although in reality it can no longer possess it, since power is received only by those who are able to save society, direct it along the path of development. In order to retain power, it creates a universal state;

2) an internal proletariat that does not trust the more ruling minority. His response is to create a universal church;

Toynbee's consistent, deep, well-reasoned criticism of Western civilization resulted in an active search for means of spiritual renewal not only in the West, but throughout the world. Model suchrenewal Toynbee considered Russia , where, as he believed, many peoples speaking different languages, inheriting such different cultures, are united on the basis of social, political, economic ties, being a "model of the world as a whole."

The dynamics of the development of civilization, the stages of its development on a historical example.

Of course, any civilization is a dynamic phenomenon. It is constantly evolving, passing through certain stages. Any civilization over time either changes, giving rise to a new, different from the previous civilization, or becomes relict - that is, it dies.

In the history of mankind, the following global civilizations are distinguished: neolithic, early class, antique, medieval, industrial and finally post-industrial civilization.

Conditions for the formation of ancient civilization

Ancient civilization falls on the peak of the first civilizational wave of human development. It originated on the periphery of the influence of two local early class civilizations - Egyptian and Mesopotamian. Of course, their legacy had a certain impact on the formation of ancient civilization, however, the antique period in the history of mankind gave birth to completely new economic, political and spiritual institutions. This is due to a combination of the following factors.

At first, geographic factor... The formation of the ancient civilization took place within the framework of a flat, plateau area, divided by mountain ranges (Ancient Greece), and in close proximity to the ocean - on the territory of the Balkan (Ancient Greece) and Apennine (Ancient Roman Empire) peninsulas, within the Mediterranean basin. Secondly, the economic factor played an important role. The transition to the Iron Age took place, which to a certain extent can be called a technological revolution. This led to the final separation of handicrafts from agriculture, which gave rise to a further division of labor and specialization of industries.

The main stages of the development of ancient civilization.

The chronological framework of ancient civilization covers a really impressive time period - thirteen centuries, from the VIII century BC up toVcentury AD Within the framework of ancient civilization, two local ones are distinguished - the civilization of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, as well as the relatively short-lived empire of Alexander the Great.

    The origin of the ancient civilization.

This period was characterized by the formation of autonomous urban civic communities through the transformation of associations of rural and tribal communities into the same type of civic collectives. This complex and lengthy process lasted for VIII-VI centuries. BC. and falls on the Archaic period of ancient Greece. At this time, there is:

- formation of the foundations of commodity production;

- the spread of elements of private property;

- the transition from the aristocratic system of society (the so-called early Greek tyranny) to democracy (polis republic);

- the great Greek colonization caused by demographic growth, the development of trade and the exacerbation of socio-political struggle.

    The first rise of ancient civilization.

The first climb falls on for the Classical period of the history of ancient Greece... Its time frame VIVcenturies BC. At this time, there is:

- the final formation and rooting of the ancient Greek polis;

- the victory of the Greeks in the Greco-Persian wars (500 - 449 BC) and, as a result, the rise of Athens;

Observed general economic recovery, stabilization of the political system and unprecedented flourishing of culture(this is especially noticeable during the reign of Pericles with 443 to 429 BC.).

    The first crisis of ancient civilization.

The first crisis is caused the crisis of the polis system of ancient Greece and the loss of its independence... This is due to the sharp contrast caused by the development of commodity-money relations and, as a consequence, sharp social differentiation... This results in:

TO internecine Peloponnesian war (431 - 404 BC), which caused enormous damage to agriculture, depleted finances and caused a crisis in the political system;

TO general decline in culture;

TO increased fragmentation of policies and, as a result, the impossibility of unifying the internal structure and creating a single state;

To loss independence under the rule of Alexander the Great.

    The second rise and period of maturity of ancient civilization.

The framework of this period can be designated as follows: IVc. BC. - I century. AD

In 334, the conquests of Alexander the Great begin(the landing of his troops in Asia Minor). Gradually, Alexander subjugates the whole of Asia Minor, conquers the Achaemenid state and subjugates all territories up to the western regions of India, while under his rule the entire Aegean Sea basin and a significant part of the Balkan Peninsula are under his rule.

Despite the fact that in the organization of governance of the empire elements of oriental despotism are mixed with elements of the political system of the Greek city-states, his empire is deliberately unviable. After his death, begin internecine wars that lead to the collapse of the empire.

Nevertheless, Alexander the Great laid down the main economic, political and cultural features of the Hellenistic states:

Creation of fortified, relatively autonomous urban centers that did not enjoy independence;

- exploitation of agricultural civilizations outside the city;

Gradual the introduction of the royal cult;

Conducting programs aimed at economic, agricultural development.

Shattered Hellenistic states did not put up worthy resistance to the new player in the ancient arena - the Roman Empire.

753 BC considered the year of the founding of Rome. Ancient Rome goes through the era of the Republic, characterized by:

Military conquests, widespread expansion (the establishment of Roman rule in the Mediterranean as a result of the Punic Wars - 246 - 146 BC);

The formation of a civic community called civitas focused on the use of foreign slaves.

In 27 BC. Rome is proclaimed an empire and the period of the republic is replaced by the era of the Empire. During the Early Empire period or Principata(30 BC - II century AD) ancient Roman local civilization reaches its peak and this the same period, it seems to me, can be considered a peak development of ancient civilization. This stage is characterized by:

Comprehensive, that is, not only territorial, but also spiritual union ancient Rome, which is confirmed assimilation of conquerors and conquered;

Precedent establishment of public administration, which made it possible to effectively distribute resources between the center and the provinces, and, as a result, led to economic development;

- the formation of Roman citizenship and the system of Roman law.

    A period of decrepitude of ancient civilization, the second crisis and a gradual transition to the Middle Ages.

The crisis is already outlined during the reign Diocletian (since 284 AD) which introduces tetrarchy (quadruple power), and, despite the fact that the emperor Constantine abolished it in 324, this gives the first prerequisites for the division of the Roman Empire into western and eastern, for separatist, centrifugal currents. The empire is finally divided into two parts after the death of Theodosius between his two sons... The crisis reaches its peak on September 4, 476, when the commander of the imperial army overthrew the juvenile emperor. It is this event that is considered the borderline separating the ancient world from the medieval era. The Eastern Roman Empire continues to exist for a thousand years, its main distinguishing feature can be called predominance of Greek heritage.

The main achievements of ancient civilization.

    In the economic sphere - formation of a diversified economy, in which the proportion of each of the structures changes over time and depending on the characteristics of the local civilization.

    In the political sphere - shaping democracy(certainly not in our modern understanding, but democracy for the elite, excluding women, slaves, foreigners), working out in Rome a complex mechanism for the functioning of the state system, which in various modifications has survived to our time.

    In the spiritual realm - priority of the human person, its emancipation, the formation of abstract sciences (such as philosophy, history, law), the emergence of a theoretical basis for the natural sciences, the development of art in the field of sculpture and architecture, poetry, drama, the development of the spiritual sphere, the ordering of the ideological sphere, the transition from polytheism to monotheism.

CONCLUSION

Ancient civilization is one of the brightest periods in the history of mankind. It seems to me that of all the achievements of this global civilization, the most significant are reaching the spiritual realm, since the spiritual world (or public consciousness) is at the very top of the structural pyramid of civilization. Economic development and the emergence of a surplus product gave a strong impetus to the development of the spiritual world of the people of that era. The influence of ancient art and philosophy, to one degree or another, is felt at all stages of the further history of mankind. Many ideas have come down to us, albeit in a modified form, and formed the basis of modern culture.

Civilization- an ambiguous concept that takes on diverse shades in different contexts. Here we will consider the actual sociological approaches.

1) American anthropologist L.G. Morgan subdivided the entire history of mankind (any society) into three stages:

Wildness- a kind of "childhood of the human race." This stage is divided into three stages - inferior, average and the highest... Each of the subsequent stages is shorter in duration in comparison with the previous one.

Barbarism, which is also divided into three stages according to the same principle. Wherein lower stage everywhere begins with the emergence and development of pottery, and the highest - the development of technology for the production of metals and products from them, as well as construction and architecture.

Civilization replaces barbarism after the invention and introduction into permanent use writing .

You can try to compare the formational approach with Morgan's concept and make sure that they do not contradict each other at all. Let's take the total duration of the development of human society as such for 100 thousand years. Then, moving from the present time to the past, we will receive the following ratio of time periods falling on various socio-economic formations. Capitalism finally took shape as the dominant mode of production about a quarter of a millennium ago (1764). Feudalism has as its starting point the year of the Nativity of Christ (in the form of a widespread ideology that recognizes all human beings as human beings, including slaves), therefore, the duration of the domination of this formation is less than two thousand years. If we take as a starting point slavery the beginning of civilization in the Morganian sense, you will have to remember that the age of the oldest written monuments is estimated at 6-7 thousand years BC. Thus, about 90 thousand years falls on the primitive formation. Comparing Morgan's arguments with those of the Marxist approach allows them to be juxtaposed as shown in Figure 5.1.

The main trend, which can be seen from Figure 5.1, each subsequent period proceeded faster, and most importantly, led to more significant social changes in comparison with the previous periods. Here is manifested history acceleration law:

Each subsequent historical stage takes less time than the previous one, however, at each subsequent stage, the volume social change(not only quantitatively, but most importantly - in quality sense) turns out to be larger and stronger than at the previous stage of social development.




Time scale of development of human society.

P - slave, F - feudal, K - capitalist formations

The concepts of primitive, traditional, industrial and post-industrial societies used in this figure will be discussed in detail below.

2) Concepts local civilizations .

N. Ya. Danilevsky in his book “Russia and Europe” (1869) proposed to consider and analyze the process of the history of human society by analogy with “natural history”. At the same time, “the natural system of history should consist in distinguishing cultural and historical types of development”.

This idea was fruitfully developed by the German philosopher Oswald Spengler. He argued that any "local culture" can develop with all its characteristic features only on the soil of a strictly limited geographic area, to which it remains attached like a plant; it cannot be transplanted into another soil - as a result of such transplantation, it will inevitably die or lose its characteristic features. The life time of any civilization, Spengler argued, is subject to a rigid rhythm: birth, childhood, youth, maturity, old age, sunset. The first two phases make up the ascending stage, the second - the top, the last two form the descending stage.



The ideas of Danilevsky and Spengler were developed and empirically substantiated by the English historian Arnold Toynbee. Based on the most recent and complete achievements of historical and archaeological science, he singles out more than two dozen civilizations that have developed throughout human history. Moreover, only 8 of them have survived to this day: Western, Byzantine-Orthodox, Russian-Orthodox, Arab, Indian, Far Eastern, Chinese, Japanese-Korean. As the main stimulus for the development of any civilization, A. Toynbee considers the action of the the law of challenge-and-response... The growth and progress of civilization is assessed, firstly, by increasing power over the environment, increasing the degree of independence from its variability and whims, secondly, by increasing power over the human environment.



3) Cyclic theory of P. Sorokin.

Civilization (supersystem), according to Pitirim Sorokin, is a stage in the development of human society, which is based on a certain type of worldview, inherent not in any particular person, class or social group, but dominating in the given period in the minds of huge masses of people, society generally. The worldview is nothing more than an established system of values... Sorokin distinguishes three such supersystems, permeated by one or another type of worldview:

(1) Religious worldview associated with ideational supersystem.

(2) Sensitive superculture associated, on the contrary, with the dominant materialistic worldview.

(3) Idealistic superculture, which is a state of transition from an ideational superculture to a sensitive one, or vice versa - from a sensitive to an ideational one.

There are three main stages in the history of civilization.

1. Agrarian, or traditional, which lasted for about 5 thousand years.

2. Industrial, or technogenic. It has existed for about 300 years and is characterized by the technocratization of consciousness and the fetishization of science (belief in its boundless power). Today, the development of industrial civilization is increasingly threatening the culture and survival of mankind.

3. A number of scientists (D. Bell, M. McLuhan, A. Masuda, O. Toffler and others) believe that humanity has come close to the third stage of civilization. This is a postindustrial, or informational, society in which information is a product no less important than land, raw materials, labor and capital, and the production of information is a leading factor in social development.

Post-industrial society is portrayed as a fundamentally new organization of the economy and everyday life of people, allowing them to reach a new level and quality of their life. It is said that, along with the post-industrial, industrial societies based on traditional techniques and technologies, as well as pre-industrial ones, continue to exist. They correspond to industrial and pre-industrial forms of organization of social life and culture.

Post-industrial society is characterized primarily as a society of knowledge, high technologies and services aimed at satisfying a wide range of material and spiritual needs of people, radically changing the conditions of their work, life and rest. The service industry includes numerous industries, businesses and organizations. Along with the system of material and spiritual values, this area is becoming the most important component of the national heritage.

Universal computerization, the ability to switch to different types of activities, aversion to violence and responsibility for the future of humanity - this, in general terms, is the vision of the future information society. Its prospects today, when the total amount of information in the world doubles in less than a year (against 60 years in the 19th century), is attracting the most attention.
The herald of this society is the Internet (worldwide information and computer network).

The problem of direction and criteria of social development

The question of the direction of human history is one of those that have been and remain the subject of very heated discussions. This is natural, since public life testifies to the fact that irreversible changes are taking place in the world; the question of the nature of these changes has never been indifferent to people: the answer to it introduces into the understanding of history that value dimension that distinguishes the philosophical vision of history proper. The development of certain methods for orienting a person in the world, the practical behavior of people depends on the answer to this question. In the history of philosophy, there have been several options for resolving the issue of the direction of human history:

1. Historical changes are regressive.

2. History is a cyclical cycle.

3. Historical changes are progress.

So. Ancient Greeks attributed to stories cyclical form of development ... Human being is understood as a set of eternally repeating phases. For example, according to Polybius (2nd century BC), the forms of government are repeated: monarchy, oligarchy (from the Greek - a little), democracy.

V Middle Ages Augustine puts forward the idea of ​​the beginning and end of history (eschatology), i.e. arrow of time idea ... The earthly history of mankind began after the Fall. But one must come to the kingdom of God. History is subject to Divine Providence. However, at that time, agriculture was the main source of prosperity, and it obeyed natural rhythms, and the idea of ​​an arrow of time was not in demand by culture.

In the 18th century, the idea of ​​the arrow of time is transformed into the idea of ​​progressive development of society... She was offered Voltaire and Condorcet... History is the endless progress of society. (?).

However, idea of ​​gyres was not forgotten and developed, for example, by the Italian philosopher Vico.

(And in the 20th century there was a circulation of the theory of equilibrium, which believed that revolutions are some deviations, history itself is characterized by a striving for balance, stability ...)

Late 18th - early 19th centuries first Hegel and then Marx put forward spiral development idea . There is a forward movement in history and there are moments of cycles, even rollbacks, regression. Those. history is a complex, contradictory process.

Marxism spoke about the inconsistency of progress, about the change in revolutionary and evolutionary periods of development and at the same time about its direction. The ultimate goal of the development of society- communism. Progress criteria, first of all, economic, the source of progressive development is the contradiction of productive forces and production relations. But since the main productive force is man, the goal is also all-round human development, satisfaction of all his needs ("from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs"). Material needs are the cause of progress.

Types of social dynamics

Cyclic the idea of ​​the development of society is the most ancient. For primitive man, time is closed in a circle of eternally repeating cycles - seasons, sunrises, phases of the moon. Everything is repeated in social life: the laws of a traditional society are aimed at maintaining stability, and the way of life of an ancient person has hardly changed over the centuries.

Theories about linear the nature of the development of society first appear in the Middle Ages. It is then that ideas about the past, which will no longer be repeated (the creation of the world) and the future, which have not yet existed (the Last Judgment), arise. Development acquires direction and receives a goal (the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth) - the circle straightens into a straight line. Ideas appear about the purpose of the story, it takes on meaning.

Helical the development model was proposed by the German philosopher Georg Hegel (1770-1831). The spiral combines the properties of a line and a circle. In history, everything repeats itself, but each time - at a qualitatively new, more perfect level. As with the linear model, history has a purpose. As a goal, various researchers suggested: building an ideal state, achieving social justice, organizing society on a reasonable basis, establishing a "kingdom of freedom", etc.

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Introduction

1. The appearance of the term

2. Civilization as a stage of social development

3. Types of civilization

4. Cycles of civilizations

Conclusion

List of literature

civilization society society development

Introduction

Civilization includes the system-forming components of social life: technical and technological, socio-economic, political, material and household.

Civilization is the material and technical, technological, material and everyday basis of society and its culture, the degree of complexity, perfection, qualitative uniqueness of the economic, social, political (state and legal) institutions of a given society.

The word "civilization" (from Lat. Civilis - civil, belonging to a citizen) in the dictionary of V. Dahl is interpreted as "community, civic consciousness, awareness of the rights and responsibilities of man and citizen. To civilize the people - to convert from a wild, rough way of life to a civil one ”.

One of the first to introduce the concept of "civilization" into scientific circulation was the philosopher Adam Ferguson, who meant by the term a stage in the development of human society, characterized by the existence of social classes, as well as cities, writing and other similar phenomena.

The aim of this work is to characterize the concept of "civilization".

1. The emergence term

An attempt to establish the time of the appearance of the term was one of the first undertaken by the French historian Lucien Febvre. In his work "Civilization: the evolution of words and a group of ideas", the scientist came to the conclusion that for the first time the term in printed form appears in the work "Antiquity exposed in its customs" by the French engineer Boulanger.

However, this book was published after the death of the author and, moreover, not in the original version, but already with significant corrections made by Baron Holbach - the author of neologisms known in that era. The authorship of Holbach seems to Fevre even more probable in light of the fact that Boulanger mentioned the term once in his work, while Holbach repeatedly used the concepts of “civilization”, “civilize”, “civilized” in his works “The system of society” and “The system of nature”. Since that time, the term has been included in scientific circulation, and in 1798 it first entered the Dictionary of the Academy.

The Swiss cultural historian Jean Starobinsky does not mention either Boulanger or Holbach in his research. In his opinion, the authorship of the term “civilization” belongs to Victor Mirabeau and his work “Friend of Humanity”.

Nevertheless, both authors note that before the term acquired socio-cultural significance (as a stage of culture opposed to savagery and barbarism), it had legal significance - a court decision that transfers the criminal process into the category of civil processes - which was eventually lost.

French linguist Emile Benveniste also gave the palm in the use of the term to the Marquis de Mirabeau and, following Febvre, noticed that the noun civilization appeared relatively late, while the verb civiliser (“to soften morals, to enlighten”) and the adjective from the participle civilisé (“well-bred , enlightened ") were used by that time for a long time. The scientist explained such a phenomenon by the weak (at that time) productivity of the class of abstract nouns of a technical nature: words ending in -isation were not widespread and their number increased slowly (there were only the words fertilization "soil fertilization", thésaurisation "accumulation of money", temporisation "waiting , gaining time ”, organization“ organization. ”Of this small amount, only the words organization and civilization had a transition to the meaning of“ state ”, while the rest retained the meaning exclusively of“ action ”).

Benveniste's research indicates that the appearance of the word civilization (one letter difference) in Great Britain was almost synchronous. It was introduced into scientific circulation by the Scottish philosopher Adam Ferguson, where on the second page he noted:

And although Benveniste left open the question of the authorship of the term, of Ferguson's possible borrowing of the concept from the French lexicon or from the early works of his colleagues, it was the Scottish scientist who first used the concept of "civilization" in the theoretical periodization of world history, where he contrasted it with savagery and barbarism. Since that time, the fate of this term has been closely intertwined with the development of historiosophical thought in Europe.

2. Civilization how stage public development

The periodization proposed by Ferguson continued to enjoy great popularity not only in the last third of the 18th century. but throughout almost the entire 19th century. It was fruitfully used by Lewis Morgan ("Ancient Society") and Friedrich Engels ("The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State").

For civilization as a stage of social development, the separation of society from nature and the emergence of contradictions between natural and artificial factors in the development of society are characteristic. At this stage, social factors of human life prevail, rationalization of thinking progresses. This stage of development is characterized by the predominance of artificial productive forces over natural ones.

Also, signs of civilization include: the development of agriculture and crafts, class society, the presence of the state, cities, trade, private property and money, as well as monumental construction, "sufficiently" developed religion, writing, etc. Academician B. S. Erasov identified the following criteria that distinguish civilization from the stage of barbarism

1. The system of economic relations based on the division of labor - horizontal (professional specialization) and vertical (social stratification).

2. The means of production (including living labor) are controlled by the ruling class, which centralizes and redistributes the surplus product withdrawn from primary producers through quitrent or taxes, as well as through the use of labor for public works.

3. Existence of a network of exchange, controlled by the professional merchants or by the state, which supplants the direct exchange of products and services.

4. A political structure dominated by a stratum of society that concentrates executive and administrative functions in their hands. Tribal organization based on descent and kinship is replaced by coercive power of the ruling class; the state, which ensures the system of social-class relations and the unity of the territory, constitutes the basis of the civilizational political system.

3. Types of civilizations

It is necessary to distinguish between modern and historical types of civilizations, without separating them from each other.

Modern types of civilizations. Among the modern types of civilizations are national and national, regional and super-regional, as well as world civilization, which has a rich experience of historical development. The latter develops in the areas of mutual intersection of local civilizations. It represents the general achievements, standards of different-scale local civilizations, as well as the processes of balanced globalization (technical and technological, socio-economic, institutional and political) covering these civilizations.

The main factors of self-preservation of a particular national or national civilization are, respectively: preservation and adjustment of the character of the titular nation; enrichment of national or international socio-economic and political mentality; strengthening the integrity of the national culture; continuity and modernization of the historically established style (uniting the components of culture and civilization); rational use of energy; positive dynamics of economic development; growth in the quality of consumption; improvement of a nationally defined socio-economic, state-political system on the basis of a socially rallying mentality and a multivariate strategy of systemic development. According to the point of view of one of the representatives of the historical school "Annals" A. Buro, mentality provides an optimum (sometimes only a minimum) of social solidarity in a particular society, forming joint "diagonal" values, common consolidating beliefs of ethno-social strata, preventing antagonistic discourses.

Paraphrasing the well-known statement of Karl Marx, we can say that the level of well-being and general culture of a particular society is determined by the degree to which women can participate in its progressive transformations; the humanity of society depends on the celebration of the feminine principle in it, traditionally revered in the Slavic world.

Historical types of civilizations. Among the historical types of civilizations are:

a) preserved, internally transformed civilizations (India, China, Western Europe, Russia, etc.);

b) assimilated civilizations buried by history (Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, etc.).

A.J. Toynbee divides civilizations into independent and connected.

a) Independent civilizations: Egyptian, Sumerian, Minoan, Chinese, Mayan, Andean.

b) Associated civilizations have (very conditional) subdivisions:

Bound by the external proletariat: Indian, Hittite, Syrian, Hellenic (the conquerors and destructive wars had a strong imprint on the course of their development and the processes of disintegration);

Affiliated by the internal proletariat (producing goods by the majority of the population) and having someone else's creative source: Far Eastern (main), Far Eastern (in Korea, Japan), Western, Orthodox Christian (main), Orthodox Christian (in Russia);

Affiliated with the internal proletariat and having their own creative source: Hindu, Iranian, Arab;

Bound by the dominant minority (the authoritarian ruling quasi-elite): Babylonian, Yucatan, Mexican.

Any classifications of historical types of civilizations are limited. It is important to pay attention to the signs of the vitality of some civilizations (their historical time is practically unlimited) and the reasons for the extinction of others. Culture and civilization survive if they maintain an impulse towards mental identification and spiritual self-determination, the ability to preserve and enrich their style as “a kind of moving whole”, “general configuration and relationship of separate parts” (A. Kroeber). Continuity and progressive development of the style of creative traditionalism constitute the most important condition for the self-preservation of national culture and civilization. Cultures and civilizations die, which lose the ability to manifest such aspirations, when the process of decay becomes irreversible.

The priorities of spiritually united and stylistically unified national cultures and civilizations with the growing importance of growing international bodies in regulating relations between states and unions of states will remain and will never be transferred to an artificially formed non-national "superstate", no matter how beautifully it is called. In particular, idle talk about the coming "United States of Europe" is being conducted by people who have not sufficiently studied the pages of history (Ancient Rome and the Holy Roman Empire) and ignore the conclusions of cultural studies, humanitarian anthropology and mentology.

4. Cycles of civilizations

At the present stage, scientists distinguish the following cycles of civilizational development: origin, development, flourishing and extinction. However, not all local civilizations go through all stages of the life cycle, unfolding in full scale in time. The cycle of some of them is interrupted due to natural disasters (this happened, for example, with the Minoan civilization) or collisions with other cultures (pre-Columbian civilizations of Central and South America, Scythian proto-civilization).

At the stage of inception, the social philosophy of a new civilization appears, which appears at the marginal level at the end of the pre-civilization stage (or the heyday of the crisis of the previous civilization system). Its components include behavioral stereotypes, forms of economic activity, criteria of social stratification, methods and goals of political struggle. Since many societies were never able to overcome the civilizational threshold and remained at the stage of savagery or barbarism, scientists for a long time tried to answer the question: “if we assume that in a primitive society all people had more or less the same way of life, which corresponded to a single spiritual and material environment, why have not all these societies developed in civilization? " According to Arnold Toynbee, civilizations give birth, evolve and adapt in response to various “challenges” of the geographic environment. Accordingly, those societies that found themselves in stable natural conditions tried to adapt to them without changing anything, and vice versa - a society that experienced regular or sudden changes in the environment inevitably had to realize its dependence on the natural environment, and to weaken this dependence to oppose it with a dynamic transformation process.

At the stage of development, an integral social order is formed and develops, reflecting the basic guidelines of the civilization system. Civilization is formed as a specific model of the social behavior of the individual and the corresponding structure of social institutions.

The flourishing of the civilizational system is associated with the qualitative completeness in its development, the final folding of the main systemic institutions. The flourishing is accompanied by the unification of the civilization space and the intensification of imperial politics, which accordingly symbolizes the halt of the qualitative self-development of the social system as a result of the relatively complete implementation of basic principles and the transition from dynamic to static, protective. This constitutes the basis of the civilization crisis - a qualitative change in dynamics, driving forces, and basic forms of development.

At the stage of extinction, civilization enters the stage of crisis development, extreme exacerbation of social, economic, political conflicts, and spiritual rift. The weakening of internal institutions makes society vulnerable to external aggression. As a result, civilization perishes either in the course of internal turmoil, or as a result of conquest.

Conclusion

Let's summarize. First, civilization is the proper social organization of society.

Secondly, civilization from the very beginning is characterized by a progressive social division of labor and the development of information and transport infrastructure. Of course, we are not talking about the infrastructure inherent in the modern wave of civilization, but by the end of the barbarism, the leap from tribal isolation was already completed. This allows us to characterize civilization as a social organization with a universal connection between individuals and primary communities.

Thirdly, the goal of civilization is the reproduction and augmentation of social wealth. As a matter of fact, civilization itself was born on the basis of the surplus product that appeared (as a result of the Neolithic technical revolution and a sharp increase in labor productivity). Without the latter, the separation of mental labor from physical labor, the emergence of science and philosophy, professional art, etc. necessary for the individual and society as a whole for their all-round development. Social wealth also includes the culture of social relations.

Summarizing the selected features, we can agree with the definition according to which civilization is the material and technical, material and everyday basis of society and its culture, the qualitative uniqueness of the economic, social, political institutions of a given society.

Bibliography

1. Kuzyk B. N. , Yakovets NS. V. Civilizations: theory, history, dialogue, future: In 2 volumes. M .: Institute for Economic Strategies, 2006. p. 47-48.

2. Ponomarev M. V., Smirnova WITH. NS. New and recent history of the countries of Europe and America: Textbook. manual for stud. higher. study. institutions: At 3 o'clock. M .: Humanit. ed. center VLADOS, 2000. 28.

3. Repina LP History of historical knowledge: a manual for universities / LP Repin, VV Zverev, M. Yu. Paramonov. 2nd. M .: Bustard, 2006. p. 219-220.

4. Semyonov Yu.I. Philosophy of history. (General theory, main problems, ideas and concepts from antiquity to the present day). M .: Modern notebooks, 2003. p. 114-115.

5. Febvre L. Civilization: the evolution of words and groups of ideas // Fights for history / Febvre, Lucien, Bobovich, AA, Gurevich, A.Ya., USSR Academy of Sciences. Moscow: Nauka, 1991, p. 239-249.

6.http: //www.istorya.ru/referat/referat2/25601.php.

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