Introduction

In ancient times, two main (global) types of civilization were determined: Western, including European and North American, and Eastern, absorbing the civilization of Asian and African countries, including Arab, Turkic and Asia Minor. The ancient states of the West and East remained the most powerful active historical associations in international affairs: foreign economic and political relations, war and peace, establishment of interstate borders, resettlement of people on a particularly large scale, maritime navigation, compliance with environmental problems, etc. Modern historians agree that the characteristics of a particular type of civilization are determined by the unique interaction of such factors as the geographical environment, the spiritual foundations of the life of the community (religion, culture, mentality), farming system, social and political organization. At the same time, according to various estimates, humanity has existed from 200 thousand to four million years, while the history of civilizations totals only about five thousand years. This means that over a long period of history there was a process of transition from primitiveness (savagery and barbarism) to civilization.

History and society. The essence of the civilizational approach to history

The methodology of the formational approach in modern historical science is to some extent opposed to the methodology of the civilizational approach. The civilizational approach to explaining the historical process began to take shape back in the 18th century. However, it received its most complete development only in late XIX-XX centuries In Russian historical science, his supporters were N.Ya. Danilevsky, K.N. Leontyev, P.A. Sorokin.

The main structural unit of the historical process, from the point of view of this approach, is civilization. The term "civilization" comes from the Latin. the words “civil” - urban, civil, state. Initially, the term “civilization” denoted a certain level of development of society that occurs in the life of peoples after an era of savagery and barbarism. “Civil” was contrasted with “silvaticus” - wild, forest, rough. Distinctive features civilization, from the point of view of this interpretation, is the emergence of cities, writing, social stratification of society, and statehood.

In a broader sense, civilization is most often understood as a high level of cultural development of a society. Thus, during the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, civilization was associated with the improvement of morals, laws, art, science, and philosophy. In this context, there are also opposing points of view, in which civilization is interpreted as the final moment in the development of the culture of a particular society, meaning its “decline” or decline (O. Spengler).

However, for a civilizational approach to the historical process, the understanding of civilization as an integral social system that includes various elements (religion, culture, economic, political and social organization etc.), which are consistent with each other and closely interconnected. Each element of this system bears the stamp of the originality of a particular civilization. This uniqueness is very stable. And although certain changes occur in civilization under the influence of certain external and internal influences, there is a certain basis for them, their inner core remains unchanged. This approach to civilization is fixed in the theory of cultural and historical types of civilization by N.Ya. Danilevsky, A. Toynbee, O. Spengler and others . Cultural-historical types- these are historically established communities that occupy a certain territory and have their own characteristics of cultural and cultural social development. N.Ya. Danilevsky counts 13 types or “original civilizations”, A. Toynbee - 6 types, O. Spengler - 8 types. The civilizational approach has a number of strengths:

1) its principles are applicable to the history of any country or group of countries. This approach is focused on understanding the history of society, taking into account the specifics of countries and regions. This is where the universality of this methodology comes from;

2) orientation towards taking into account specifics presupposes the idea of history as a multilinear, multivariate process;

3) the civilizational approach does not reject, but, on the contrary, presupposes the integrity and unity of human history. Civilizations as integral systems are comparable to each other. This makes it possible to widely use the comparative historical method of research. As a result of this approach, the history of a country, people, region is considered not in itself, but in comparison with the history of other countries, peoples, regions, civilizations. This makes it possible to better understand historical processes and record their features;
4) highlighting certain criteria for the development of civilization allows historians to assess the level of achievements of certain countries, peoples and regions, their contribution to the development of world civilization;
5) the civilizational approach assigns a proper role in historical process human spiritual, moral and intellectual factors. In this approach, religion, culture, and mentality are important for characterizing and assessing civilization.

The weakness of the methodology of the civilizational approach lies in the amorphous nature of the criteria for identifying types of civilization. This identification by supporters of this approach is carried out according to a set of characteristics, which, on the one hand, should be of a fairly general nature, and on the other, would allow us to identify specific features, characteristic of many societies.

In the theory of cultural and historical types by N.Ya. Danilevsky, civilizations are distinguished by a unique combination of four fundamental elements: religious, cultural, political And socio-economic. In some civilizations the economic principle dominates, in others - the political, and in others - the religious, in others - the cultural. Only in Russia, according to Danilevsky, is a harmonious combination of all these elements realized.

Theory of cultural-historical types N.Ya. Danilevsky to some extent assumes the application of the principle of determinism in the form of dominance, the determining role of some elements of the civilization system. However, the nature of this dominance is difficult to discern.

Even greater difficulties in analyzing and assessing types of civilization arise for the researcher when the main element of a particular type of civilization is considered to be a type of mentality. Mentality, mentality(from the French mentalite - thinking, psychology) is a certain general spiritual mood of the people of a particular country or region, fundamental stable structures of consciousness, a set of socio-psychological attitudes and beliefs of the individual and society. These attitudes determine a person’s worldview, the nature of values and ideals, and form the subjective world of the individual. Guided by these guidelines, a person acts in all spheres of his life - he creates history. The intellectual, spiritual and moral structures of man undoubtedly play a vital role in history, but their indicators are difficult to discern and vague.

There are also a number of claims to the civilizational approach related to the interpretation of the driving forces of the historical process, the direction and meaning of historical development.

All this taken together allows us to conclude that both approaches - formational and civilizational - make it possible to consider the historical process from different angles. Each of these approaches has strengths and weak sides, but if you try to avoid the extremes of each of them, and take the best that is available in this or that methodology, then historical science will only benefit.

The origins of the first civilizations go back to the period of early agricultural societies. Thanks to the construction of irrigation structures that were grandiose at the time, productivity increased sharply Agriculture. In societies that have embarked on the path of civilization, crafts have separated from agriculture. Cities appeared - a special type of settlements in which residents, according to at least, were partially freed from agriculture. Monumental structures began to be erected: temples, tombs, pyramids, etc., which had a direct economic purpose.

Social stratification of society began. It appeared different social groups, differing from each other in professional characteristics, social status, financial situation, and the scope of rights and privileges. States were formed - systems of organs for organizing and managing the life of society, protecting the social interests of some groups and suppressing others. Writing was created, thanks to which people could record in material form the achievements of their culture: ideas, beliefs, traditions, laws and pass them on to posterity.

Social development is a complex process, so its understanding has led to the emergence of various approaches and theories that in one way or another explain the history of the emergence and development of society. There are two main approaches to the development of society: formational and civilizational.

1. Formational approach to the development of society.

According to the formational approach, whose representatives were K. Marx, F. Engels, V.I. Lenin and others, society in its development passes through certain, successive stages - socio-economic formations - primitive communal, slaveholding, feudal, capitalist and communist. Socio-economic formation- This historical type society based on a specific mode of production. Mode of production includes productive forces and production relations. TO productive forces include the means of production and people with their knowledge and practical experience in the field of economics. Means of production, in turn, include objects of labor(what is processed in the labor process - land, raw materials, materials) and means of labor(that with the help of which objects of labor are processed - tools, equipment, machinery, production premises). Relations of production- these are relations that arise in the production process and depend on the form of ownership of the means of production.

What is the dependence of production relations on the form of ownership of the means of production? Let's take primitive society as an example. The means of production there were common property, therefore everyone worked together, and the results of labor belonged to everyone and were distributed equally. On the contrary, in a capitalist society, the means of production (land, enterprises) are owned by private individuals - capitalists, and therefore the relations of production are different. The capitalist hires workers. They produce products, but the very owner of the means of production disposes of them. Workers only receive wages for their work.

How does society develop according to the formational approach? The fact is that there is a pattern: productive forces develop faster than production relations. The means of labor, knowledge and skills of people involved in production are improved. Over time, a contradiction arises: old production relations begin to hinder the development of new productive forces. In order for the productive forces to have the opportunity to develop further, it is necessary to replace old production relations with new ones. When this happens, the socio-economic formation also changes.

For example, under a feudal socio-economic formation (feudalism), production relations are as follows. The main means of production - land - belongs to the feudal lord. Peasants perform duties for the use of the land. In addition, they are personally dependent on the feudal lord, and in a number of countries they were attached to the land and could not leave their master. Meanwhile, society is developing. Technology is being improved and industry is emerging. However, the development of industry is hampered by the virtual absence of free labor (the peasants depend on the feudal lord and cannot leave him). The purchasing power of the population is low (mostly the population consists of peasants who do not have money and, accordingly, the opportunity to purchase various goods), which means there is little point in increasing industrial production. It turns out that for the development of industry it is necessary to replace old production relations with new ones. The peasants must become free. Then they will have the opportunity to choose: either continue to engage in agricultural work or, for example, in the event of ruin, take a job at an industrial enterprise. The land should become the private property of the peasants. This will allow them to manage the results of their labor, sell their products, and use the money received to purchase industrial goods. Production relations in which there is private ownership of the means of production and the results of labor, and wage labor is used - these are already capitalist production relations. They can be established either during reforms or as a result of revolution. Thus, the feudal one is replaced by a capitalist socio-economic formation (capitalism).

As noted above, the formational approach proceeds from the fact that the development of society, various countries and peoples proceeds along certain stages: primitive communal system, slave system, feudalism, capitalism and communism. This process is based on changes occurring in the production sector. Supporters of the formational approach believe that the leading role in social development is played by historical patterns, objective laws, within the framework of which a person acts. Society is steadily moving along the path of progress, since each subsequent socio-economic formation is more progressive than the previous one. Progress is associated with the improvement of productive forces and production relations.

The formational approach has its drawbacks. As history shows, not all countries fit into the “harmonious” scheme proposed by the supporters of this approach. For example, in many countries there was no slave-owning socio-economic formation. As for the countries of the East, their historical development was generally unique (to resolve this contradiction, K. Marx came up with the concept of the “Asian mode of production”). In addition, as we see, the formational approach provides an economic basis for all complex social processes, which is not always correct, and also pushes back the role human factor in history to the background, giving priority to objective laws.

2. Civilizational approach to the development of society.

The word “civilization” comes from the Latin “civis”, which means “urban, state, civil”. Already in ancient times it was opposed to the concept of “silvaticus” - “forest, wild, rough”. Subsequently, the concept of “civilization” acquired different meanings, and many theories of civilization arose. During the Age of Enlightenment, civilization began to be understood as a highly developed society with writing and cities.

Today there are about 200 definitions of this concept. For example, Arnold Toynbee (1889 – 1975), a proponent of the theory of local civilizations, called a civilization a stable community of people united by spiritual traditions, a similar way of life, and a geographical and historical framework. And Oswald Spengler (1880 – 1936), the founder of the cultural approach to the historical process, believed that civilization is the highest level, the final period of cultural development, preceding its death. One of modern definitions this concept is: civilization- is the totality of material and spiritual achievements of society.

There are various theories of civilization. Among them, two main varieties can be distinguished.

Theories staged development of civilization (K. Jaspers, P. Sorokin, W. Rostow, O. Tofler, etc.) consider civilization as a single process of progressive development of humanity, in which certain stages (stages) are distinguished. This process began in ancient times, when humanity moved from primitiveness to civilization. It continues today. During this time, great social changes occurred that affected socio-economic, political relations, and the cultural sphere.

Thus, a prominent American sociologist, economist, historian of the twentieth century Walt Whitman Rostow created the theory of stages of economic growth. He identified five such stages:

Traditional society. There are agrarian societies with rather primitive technology, the predominance of agriculture in the economy, a class-class structure and the power of large landowners.
Transitional society. Agricultural production is growing, the new kind activity – entrepreneurship and the new type of enterprising people corresponding to it. Centralized states are taking shape and national self-awareness is strengthening. Thus, the prerequisites for society's transition to a new stage of development are maturing.
“Shift” stage. Industrial revolutions occur, followed by socio-economic and political transformations.
“Maturity” stage. A scientific and technological revolution is underway, the importance of cities and the size of the urban population are growing.
The era of “high mass consumption”. There is significant growth service sector, production of consumer goods and their transformation into the main sector of the economy.

Theories local(local from Latin - “local”) civilizations (N.Ya. Danilevsky, A. Toynbee) proceed from the fact that there are separate civilizations, large historical communities that occupy a certain territory and have their own socio-economic, political and cultural characteristics development.

Local civilizations are a kind of elements that make up the general flow of history. They may coincide with the borders of the state ( Chinese civilization), and may include several states (Western European civilization). Local civilizations are complex systems, in which different components interact with each other: geographical environment, economy, political structure, legislation, religion, philosophy, literature, art, people’s way of life, etc. Each of these components bears the stamp of the originality of a particular local civilization. This uniqueness is very stable. Of course, over time, civilizations change and experience external influences, but there remains a certain basis, a “core”, thanks to which one civilization is still different from another.

One of the founders of the theory of local civilizations Arnold Toynbee believed that history is a nonlinear process. This is the process of the birth, life and death of civilizations unrelated to each other in different parts of the Earth. Toynbee divided civilizations into major and local. Major civilizations (for example, Sumerian, Babylonian, Hellenic, Chinese, Hindu, Islamic, Christian, etc.) left a clear mark on human history and indirectly influenced other civilizations. Local civilizations are confined within a national framework; there are about thirty of them: American, German, Russian, etc.

Toynbee believed that the driving forces of civilization were: a challenge posed to civilization from the outside (unfavorable geographical position, lagging behind other civilizations, military aggression); the response of civilization as a whole to this challenge; the activities of great people, talented, “God-chosen” individuals.

There is a creative minority that leads the inert majority to respond to the challenges posed by civilization. At the same time, the inert majority tends to “put out” and absorb the energy of the minority. This leads to cessation of development, stagnation. Thus, each civilization goes through certain stages: birth, growth, breakdown and disintegration, ending with death and the complete disappearance of civilization.

Both theories—stage and local—make it possible to see history differently. In the stage theory, the general comes to the fore—the laws of development that are common to all mankind. In the theory of local civilizations - individual, diversity of the historical process.

In general, the civilizational approach represents man as the leading creator of history, paying great attention to the spiritual factors of the development of society, the uniqueness of the history of individual societies, countries and peoples. Progress is relative. For example, it can affect the economy, and at the same time, this concept can be applied to the spiritual sphere in a very limited way.

Community development is a complex process, so its understanding has led to the emergence of various approaches and theories that in one way or another explain the history of the emergence and development of society. There are two main approaches to the development of society: formational and civilizational.

1. Formational approach to the development of society.

According to the formational approach, whose representatives were K. Marx, F. Engels, V.I. Lenin and others, society in its development passes through certain, successive stages - socio-economic formations - primitive communal, slaveholding, feudal, capitalist and communist. A socio-economic formation is a historical type of society based on a specific mode of production. The mode of production includes productive forces and production relations. The productive forces include the means of production and people with their knowledge and practical experience in the field of economics. Means of production, in turn, include objects of labor (what is processed in the labor process - land, raw materials, materials) and means of labor (what is used to process objects of labor - tools, equipment, machinery, production premises). Production relations are relations that arise in the production process and depend on the form of ownership of the means of production.

The formational approach has its drawbacks. As history shows, not all countries fit into the “harmonious” scheme proposed by the supporters of this approach. For example, in many countries there was no slave-owning socio-economic formation. As for the countries of the East, their historical development was generally unique (to resolve this contradiction, K. Marx came up with the concept of the “Asian mode of production”). In addition, as we see, the formational approach provides an economic basis for all complex social processes, which is not always correct, and also relegates the role of the human factor in history to the background, giving priority to objective laws.

2. Civilizational approach to the development of society.

The word “civilization” comes from the Latin “civis”, which means “urban, state, civil” " Already in ancient times it was opposed to the concept of “silvaticus” - “forest, wild, rough”. Subsequently, the concept of “civilization” acquired different meanings, many theories of civilization arose. During the Age of Enlightenment, civilization began to be understood as a highly developed society with writing and cities.

Today there are about 200 definitions of this concept. For example, Arnold Toynbee (1889 – 1975), a proponent of the theory of local civilizations, called a civilization a stable community of people united by spiritual traditions, a similar way of life, and a geographical and historical framework. And Oswald Spengler (1880 – 1936), the founder of the cultural approach to the historical process, believed that civilization is the highest level, the final period of cultural development, preceding its death. One of the modern definitions of this concept is this: civilization is the totality of material and spiritual achievements of society.

Theories of the staged development of civilization (K. Jaspers, P. Sorokin, W. Rostow, O. Tofler, etc.) consider civilization as a single process of progressive development of humanity, in which certain stages (stages) are distinguished. This process began in ancient times, when humanity moved from primitiveness to civilization. It continues today. During this time, great social changes occurred that affected socio-economic, political relations, and the cultural sphere.

Thus, the prominent American sociologist, economist, and historian of the twentieth century, Walt Whitman Rostow, created the theory of the stages of economic growth. He identified five such stages:

Traditional society. There are agrarian societies with rather primitive technology, the predominance of agriculture in the economy, a class-class structure and the power of large landowners.

Transitional society. Agricultural production is growing, a new type of activity is emerging - entrepreneurship and a new type of enterprising people corresponding to it. Centralized states are taking shape and national self-awareness is strengthening. Thus, the prerequisites for society's transition to a new stage of development are maturing.

“Shift” stage. Industrial revolutions occur, followed by socio-economic and political transformations.

“Maturity” stage. coming scientific and technological revolution, the importance of cities and the size of the urban population is growing.

The era of “high mass consumption”. There is a significant growth in the service sector, production of consumer goods and their transformation into the main sector of the economy.

Theories of local (local from Latin - “local”) civilizations (N.Ya. Danilevsky, A. Toynbee) They proceed from the fact that there are separate civilizations, large historical communities that occupy a certain territory and have their own characteristics of socio-economic, political and cultural development.

Local civilizations- these are a kind of elements that make up the general flow of history. They may coincide with the borders of the state (Chinese civilization), or may include several states (Western European civilization). Local civilizations are complex systems in which different components interact with each other: geographical environment, economy, political structure, legislation, religion, philosophy, literature, art, everyday life of people, etc. Each of these components bears the stamp of the originality of a particular local civilization. This uniqueness is very stable. Of course, over time, civilizations change and experience external influences, but a certain foundation, a “core” remains, thanks to which one civilization is still different from another.

One of the founders of the theory of local civilizations, Arnold Toynbee, believed that history is a nonlinear process. This is the process of the birth, life and death of civilizations unrelated to each other in different parts of the Earth. Toynbee divided civilizations into major and local. Major civilizations (for example, Sumerian, Babylonian, Hellenic, Chinese, Hindu, Islamic, Christian, etc.) left a clear mark on human history and indirectly influenced other civilizations. Local civilizations are confined within a national framework; there are about thirty of them: American, German, Russian, etc.

Toynbee considered the driving forces of civilization to be: a challenge posed to civilization from the outside (unfavorable geographical position, lagging behind other civilizations, military aggression); the response of civilization as a whole to this challenge; the activities of great people, talented, “God-chosen” individuals.

Both theories arestaged and local – provide an opportunity to see history differently. In the stage theory, the general comes to the fore—the laws of development that are common to all mankind. In the theory of local civilizations - individual, diversity of the historical process.

Today there are about 200 definitions of this concept. For example, Arnold Toynbee (1889 – 1975), a proponent of the theory of local civilizations, called a civilization a stable community of people united by spiritual traditions, a similar way of life, and a geographical and historical framework. And Oswald Spengler (1880 – 1936), the founder of the cultural approach to the historical process, believed that civilization is the highest level, the final period of cultural development, preceding its death. One of the modern definitions of this concept is: civilization- is the totality of material and spiritual achievements of society.

There are various theories of civilization. Among them, two main varieties can be distinguished.

Thus, a prominent American sociologist, economist, historian of the twentieth century Walt Whitman Rostow created the theory of stages of economic growth. He identified five such stages:

· Traditional society. There are agrarian societies with rather primitive technology, the predominance of agriculture in the economy, a class-class structure and the power of large landowners.

· Transitional society. Agricultural production is growing, a new type of activity is emerging - entrepreneurship and a new type of enterprising people corresponding to it. Centralized states are taking shape and national self-awareness is strengthening. Thus, the prerequisites for society's transition to a new stage of development are maturing.

· “Shift” stage. Industrial revolutions occur, followed by socio-economic and political transformations.

· “Maturity” stage. A scientific and technological revolution is underway, the importance of cities and the size of the urban population are growing.

· The era of “high mass consumption”. There is a significant growth in the service sector, production of consumer goods and their transformation into the main sector of the economy.

Local civilizations are a kind of elements that make up the general flow of history. They may coincide with the borders of the state (Chinese civilization), or may include several states (Western European civilization). Local civilizations are complex systems in which different components interact with each other: geographical environment, economy, political structure, legislation, religion, philosophy, literature, art, people’s way of life, etc. Each of these components bears the stamp of the originality of a particular local civilization. This uniqueness is very stable. Of course, over time, civilizations change and experience external influences, but a certain foundation, a “core” remains, thanks to which one civilization is still different from another.

One of the most important problems of the philosophy of history is the problem of the content and direction of the historical process; its essence lies in obtaining an answer to the question: human society is changing, and if “yes to”, then in what direction and what is the periodization of these changes?

This problem was of interest to ancient thinkers. They identified three most important directions in the linear philosophy of history: progressive, regressive and cyclical. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, the so-called nonlinear concept of historical development was substantiated. Let us consider these directions in more detail.

Most ancient thinkers, including Protagoras, Democritus, adhered to the point of view that society develops mainly in an ascending manner, from savagery to the “golden age”; they can be considered the founders of the progressive direction. Hesiod, Seneca, on the contrary, argued that the development of society should be a regressive direction from the "golden" age to the iron age, which is characterized by the complete degradation of society, the decline of its morality, etc. Plato, Aristotle, Polybius and others believed that society was moving in an upward direction, but vicious circle with a constant return back to the original stage, until the exit stage.

Philosophers of the Middle Ages, without rejecting the idea that history is a directed process, believed that its direction was set by God

One of the first researchers who in his works fully covered the problems of direction, as well as the relationship between unity and diversity in the historical process, was the Italian philosopher Giambatista Age (1668-1744) In his treatise "Foundations new science about the common nature of nations" he showed a secular concept world history as a historical cycle, common to all peoples. According to Vico, all peoples go through the same stages in their development - from primitive barbarism (\"age of the gods\") through feudalism (\"age of heroes\") to the era democratic republic or representative monarchy (\"age of civilization\") Each cycle ends with a general crisis and collapse of a given society. At the end of the cycle, development is restored and goes through the same stages, but at a higher level high level In this way, Vico’s ideas underlie theories of cyclicity in the development of cultures and civilizations (Danilevsky, Spengler, Toynbee of civilizations (Danilevsky, Spengler, Toynbee).

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