The level of culture and its concept

The complexity of certain terms is a huge number of interpretations, each of which to some extent true, but does not reflect the general picture. This is what happens to culture - this word is used to such an extent that an illusion of absolutely transparent understanding arises. How to determine the level of culture, so that you can recognize it as sufficient or, on the contrary, recognize the need for careful work to improve it? If you leave academic definitions to culturologists, then any person can name certain general concepts that relate specifically to this life sphere.

Origin and interpretation of the term

If we study the linguistic structure of the word "culture", then we can safely say that it is a system of removing all unnecessary things, prohibitions and restrictions. The Latin word culter, which underlies the concept itself, is translated as a "knife" or any other instrument that cuts off excess. It turns out that the level of culture is something that is rid of unnecessary, unnecessary and even dangerous, some ideal or approximate to the ideal phenomenon.

Cultivation - bringing from a wild state to a refined, comfortable, pleasant and beautiful. Cultivation (a related term from agriculture) is the purposeful cultivation of something useful in the required quality and quantity. Consequently, the levels of development of culture - is the desire to improve the person and ennoble his life by creating rules, eliminating unnecessary. It is necessary to recognize that culture in the broadest sense of the word makes life safer, more convenient and more pleasant. In a domestic application, for example, it is much calmer to coexist with people who mutually follow the rules of communication, are attentive to the interlocutor, do not allow themselves wild tricks, untidiness and so on.

How to determine your level of culture in the domestic sense?

If you consider that the phrase "cultural person" itself has a positive emotional color, you really want to meet high standards in order to receive the accompanying social bonuses. How to determine if you are decent enough in this sense to be proud of yourself and consider worthy of communication with other, no less cultured people? Here we fall into the standard trap, because the objectively high level of culture includes a huge number of factors that can be subject to subjective assessment with great difficulty. Nevertheless, everyone considers himself entitled to declare his personal value judgment as a benchmark.

How in the household sense to determine the level of human culture? You need a full set of cutlery, a fork and a knife, you can not lick your fingers, sniff, sneeze, without covering your mouth with your hand. And it's better not to sneeze at all. Therefore, young people who are concerned with their own reputation have quite reasonable questions regarding etiquette. Is it possible, for example, to blow your nose in a handkerchief while being in a company? The question is not idle and complex enough, because you can not sniff with your nose, you can not wipe it with your hand, you can not undo the rhinitis by the magic wand. And to publish physiological sounds in a handkerchief, too, seems indecent.

Different levels of culture in society often come into contact precisely with etiquette, the ability to behave according to the rules established in this particular meeting of people. This is also based on the phenomenon of subcultures. It turns out that the same actions can be declared uncultured, permissible (exculpatory) or approved, depending on the age, professional, leisure or philosophical orientation of the members of the group.

Main types of culture

This concept is divided into two main categories - material and spiritual. In this case, it is hardly possible to severely separate them, because there is interpenetration in them. For example, material culture includes all kinds of material objects that constitute a person's life, from home, transport and clothing, to all sorts of professional and craft industries. But by the presence of a material unit it is difficult to confine oneself, so spiritual culture inevitably seeps into all these spheres of life.

If we are talking about housing, we strive to make it beautiful and attractive with the help of various techniques that awaken positive emotions. The design of rooms can to some extent be considered a part of spiritual culture, because in this case the artist-designer creates a certain image and perception of space, using material objects of utilitarian purpose. A remarkable example can be considered a high fashion, which seems to many people strange, incomprehensible and completely impractical. However, high fashion does not really aim to give the world a new kind of skirt or costume. These are artistic images and emotional spiritual cultural phenomena, embodied with the help of clothing, as well as the painter paints paints or pencils.

The level of culture in the spiritual sense is a complex combination of intangible works, which, naturally, are created with the help of material auxiliary means. Music is completely devoid of material embodiment, it can not be felt, weighed and measured, but to write, perform and let listen to others, it is necessary to use instruments appropriate to the technique.

Social life

In society, a well-bred person is often called a person who respects the requirements of etiquette. Indeed, what qualities characterize the level of general culture in society? If we take as an example modernity, then this is spirituality, tolerance and lack of bias, responsiveness and empathy towards other people, honesty, responsibility and other positive universal qualities that caring parents try to instill in their children literally from the first years of life. Remember: you can not throw sand, take sovochk and bucket ugly, beat girls and fight - in general, it's terrible.

A brief encyclopedia of social culture can be called Mayakovsky's poem "What is good, and what is bad." Simple rhymed lines perfectly explain what should be considered acceptable, and what qualities are unequivocally blamed by well-bred people and can not be considered a subject of imitation.

How to raise the social level of culture, if it is most often formed at the expense of the bulk of the population? It turns out that the public opinion as a whole becomes the determining factor, and if the majority decides that some phenomenon does not meet the requirements of spirituality, then it is subject to eradication. The society can take up arms on anything, as aggressive persecutors are most often skillful manipulators, followed by the masses, who do not take the trouble to think independently. Objectivity and impartiality in this case, unfortunately, do not work, because they contradict the primitive desire to protect "their" from "outsiders".

Physical Culture

Perhaps, by chanting a healthy trained body we owe to Ancient Greece. One way or another, the physical culture is the desire for harmonious development by the method of active pastime. Lessons from the school curriculum should be aimed at this - the children form a correct posture, moderate physical activity helps to absorb new knowledge, promotes a more complete rest. It is worth noting that now many people try to replace the level of physical culture with sporting achievements, but sport in itself is considered a separate category. There is too much focus on pure results, competitiveness, records, and if we take into account the commercial component, then we have activity exclusively for the sake of activity as a closed system.

Well-known slogan "In a healthy body - a healthy mind" can be considered somewhat outdated, especially if you take into account all kinds of physical culture. You can have an ideally healthy body, lose legs or arms, but still have an indomitable spirit. There is a curative and corrective physical education, which allows people with disabilities to first of all prove to themselves that they can fully enjoy life. Moreover, Paralympic games have become a source of inspiration for many perfectly healthy people. The tremendous power of motivation arises from those who admire the sports achievements of those who are considered to be disabled - they were able to overcome their problems, achieve impressive results. The motivational effect in this case is blurring the boundaries that differentiate between sport and physical culture, and passes into the category of real values that inspire achievement and spiritual growth, among other things.

Professional Ethics

In any sphere of human activity there is a set of ethical and spiritual qualities that must be observed. Often speak about the levels of professional culture of teachers, as the exactingness to the representatives of this profession increases every year. This is not surprising, because some one and a half centuries ago, children were a value of another order. The teacher could resort to physical punishments, he was recognized as the right of moral pressure. By and large, the credibility of the teacher was considered indisputable and unattainable, especially against the backdrop of a low level of education of the population. Now the possibilities are much broader, like the rights of the child. It is impossible to consider a professional teacher who allows himself to hit a student.

We can say that with this are closely connected levels of legal culture, that is, the degree of understanding of their rights. The professional ethics of one group of people will always border on the ordinary level of another, for example, as teachers and students in the example described above, physicians and patients, sellers and buyers.

Culture as a symbiosis of art trends

Perhaps the most extensive and familiar meaning of this term is art: music, painting, sculpture, dance, literature, and so on. The variety of beauty creates a certain aura of inaccessibility, however even in art there are levels of development of culture.

First of all, this is, of course, a mass or popular direction. "Pop star" is a concept just from this area. Popular culture in the vast majority of cases has a commercial direction, needs the support of the media and is, in fact, a profitable enterprise. But the elite level implies the development of fundamental art forms - academic vocal, ballet, symphonic music. That is the direction of traditional classical arts. There is an opinion that this direction can only be free or very expensive, because it is impossible to "do on the knee" high art, diluting crumbs. This should be done either professionally for a lot of money, or at the dictates of the soul and talent, while one does not exclude the other.

Finally, there is also folk art, which also can not be discounted. It is difficult to popularize, while it refers more to the fundamental part. There is also a certain level of culture, which is an antagonist of the generally accepted canons. This is the so-called counter culture, which includes, for example, the underground.

The counterculture opposes itself to the dominant direction, and in the course of time can gently interweave into it, thus enriching the common intellectual and spiritual baggage of mankind. All kinds of subcultural currents, denying, rebellious and even frankly aggressive, can completely disappear or change direction. This happened, for example, with hippies or punks. All the unstable and temporary was eliminated, and now these subcultures enriched us, adding new facets of perception.

The destructive currents that preach the destruction of cultural values can not exist long enough. Firstly, man is by nature a creator, and only he can not destroy. Secondly, all created of course - when there is nothing more to destroy, it is necessary to create, even on the rubble. The desire to "destroy to the ground" was traced in the Bolshevik morals, and from the point of view of the preservation of cultural values, this was, of course, a destructive course of a temporary nature.

Raising the level of culture of society

When analyzing some negative phenomena, one can hear as an explanation such an argument as "a low level of society culture". And indeed it is. In pursuit of economic development, many areas simply lost funding, and this entailed quite logical consequences. A high level of culture does not get by default, it needs to be worked on, promoted, literally taught to citizens. In the Soviet Union there was such a phenomenon as the cultural and educational department, which was engaged precisely in the promotion of all kinds of art to the masses. Now this is not so noticeable, and many creative people sincerely believe that they are given insufficient opportunities for development, hence, and society has less chance to raise its cultural level.

It is also tragic that people prefer entertaining art, popular, while not paying attention to the fundamental, which requires comprehension, reading, disclosing the subtext. There is no balance, and therefore the cultural level of the average person begins to form on entertainment content. Nevertheless, with age, many discover the fundamental direction, and they are genuinely surprised that it is not so boring as it seemed under the fashionable rhythms of popular songs.

Cultural values

This common expression in most cases combines all kinds of works of art, from architectural monuments and jewelry to songs, dances and literary works. This is the totality of everything that affects the level of general culture, which forms a standard of perception. In this case, some one value can not be considered an absolute standard, so it is about perception, about the feelings it causes. It is believed that culture should evoke a spiritual uplift, which at the same time can be colored by different feelings and sensations - sadness is just as equal to an emotion as joy. You can not demand that a work of art evoke only positive emotions, otherwise inevitably there will be a skew that gives artificiality and insincerity.

It is the ability to perceive and feel the message and determine the level of upbringing and education of a person. The absence of an unambiguous template gives an opportunity to develop, new cultural values appear that can contradict each other. The desire to be known as a sublime by the specified parameter can lead to the desire to pretend to be understanding, but it is worth remembering that any work of art is ambiguous, because it acts on the emotional part of the person, and perception is individual, up to misunderstanding and rejection.

Independent education

It is not necessary to carefully study cultural studies, so that you can rightly consider yourself educated in this sense as a person. This is precisely the sphere of life in which it is possible and necessary to engage in self-education. Increasing the level of culture is not only to study and fulfill the requirements of etiquette. It is necessary to remember the subjectivity of perception, and if something does not seem to correspond to the standard, but does not violate the generally accepted rules, then you should not immediately declare the phenomenon blatant.

A healthy society can not rely solely on material values, otherwise it will be followed by inevitable decline and chaos. Spiritual growth of each individual person ultimately helps to form a strong and fruitful civilization in which the level of education, culture and traditions does not contradict economic growth and material well-being. The path of each person can be different from one another: all kinds of art or religion, as spiritual values, or a material culture, without which it is very difficult to create something ephemeral, affecting emotions and awakening wonderful spiritual impulses.