The civilizational approach

The civilization approach to studying history is one of the methods that scientific minds resort to to clarify important questions of the course of events in the historical process of different eras. A huge influence on this method was provided by the works of such historians as A. Toynbee, K. Jaspers, N.Ya. Danilevsky and many others.

Studying the course of historical events of a global scale makes it possible to trace and understand how diverse this process is, and how many variants of the formation of society differ not only in virtues but also in shortcomings.

The civilizational approach exists along with a formational one, the main difference of which is that the basis of its study is social and economic relations independent of the will of man. They exist because of objective circumstances. Civilized at the head of all ongoing processes puts a person, taking into account his norms of conduct, aesthetic and ethical views.

The concept of "civilization" appears even in ancient times, but in the XVIII century it was thoroughly part of the historical vocabulary. It is from this time that it is actively used by representatives of science. In addition, for this period , the emergence of various theories of civilizations. I want to note that the concept of "civilization" in ancient times was contrasted with another Latin concept, meaning "savagery". Already in those distant times, people saw the difference between a barbaric and civilized society and life in general.

Returning to theories, the two main ones are stadial and local. In accordance with the first, civilization is a process of development at certain stages. The initial it can be considered the moment of disintegration of the primitive society, as a result of which humanity has passed into the stage of the civilized world. Such civilizations can be attributed to the primary, because they did not have the opportunity to use the civilizational traditions that developed at a later time. They created them on their own, giving fruits to subsequent formations. The local civilizational approach studies the historical aspects of the emergence of a community in a certain territory, for which its own socio-economic, cultural, and political characteristics are characteristic. Civilizations of a local character can exist both within the framework of a certain state, and when several states are united.

Civilization of a local species is a system that consists of various interrelated components: a political structure, an economic situation, a geographical position, a religion, and many others. All these components perfectly reflect the uniqueness of a particular civilization.

The civilizational approach, as well as the stadial approach, helps to look at the historical course of events from different angles. The stadial approach is characterized by consideration of the development of mankind in accordance with common and general laws. The theory of local civilization is based on the individuality and diversity of historical processes. Therefore it is very difficult to say which theory is better or worse. They both have the right to exist, since they are complementary to each other, having their own advantages. Historians have repeatedly attempted to unify both methods of study, but so far this has not happened, and no common system has been developed that would unify both theories.

To summarize, it should be noted that the civilizational approach helps to understand the basic laws and directions of the formation and formation of the world civilization, the specificity of individual civilizations, and also makes it possible to compare the development processes of various civilizations.