Savchenko, I.A. (2024). The dichotomy of culture and civilization in Turkish sociology. The Digital Scholar: Philosopher’s Lab, 7 (3): 137-148. DOI: 10.32326 ...

Текст статьи на сайте журнала URL: http://www.digital-scholar.unn.ru/files/2024/12/DS-2024-3-9.pdf (дата обращения 27.12.2024)

Abstract

The dichotomy of culture and civilization was substantiated at the beginning of the last century by O. Spengler and N. Berdyaev. But on a global scale, not all sociological traditions have developed the idea of contrasting culture (everything unique, organic, connected with human inspiration) and civilization (formulaic, inorganic, consumer). The concept was quite popular in the Russian emigrant scientific community and, since the late 1980s, has been the subject of scientific discussions in Russia. At the same time, it is revealed that the idea of the dichotomy of culture and civilization, since the middle of the XX century, has been extremely popular in Turkish sociology. As a source base, the work uses review articles by Gurjan Shevket and Celaleddin Çelik, which set out the views of the most famous Turkish sociologists (M. Eröz, I. Baltacıoğlu, Z. Gökalp, E. Güngör) on the dichotomy of culture and civilization. By culture, these sociologists understand precisely Turkish culture, and unlike O. Spengler and N. Berdyaev, they see in civilization not so much an inevitable evil as a set of useful Western technologies that the Turkish people can adopt during the transition to a modern formation (according to Marx's idea, the proletariat should have done this). Turkish sociologists call a culture armed with Western achievements "modernity" with the light hand of Z. Gökalp. Thus, Turkish sociologists, in fact, argue the position according to which civilization (with all its achievements) is assimilated by a modernized culture (modernity within one nation), and not vice versa. As with N. Berdyaev, culture and civilization correspond respectively as an end and a means (E. Güngör). Unlike N. Berdyaev, Turkish authors treat "means" pragmatically: as tools for the development of a modern, but at the same time distinctive national culture. The dichotomous method and elements of systems theory are used as the main tools in the article.