Keywords: the difference between civilization and culture
First, the basic connotation and characteristics of civilization
"Civilization" is an eternal and often new topic in human history, and different people have different interpretations of it, thus forming various theories of civilization. "Rousseau's theory of civilization criticism, Comte's theory of positive civilization, Morgan's theory of civilization origin, Fukuzawa Yukichi's theory of civilization evolution, Toynbee's view of civilization history, Marcuse's theory of civilization history criticism and Huntington's theory of civilization conflict." Civilization has the following three characteristics:
(1) As far as creativity is concerned, civilization symbolizes the imprint left by people in their activities of understanding and transforming nature and is the result of their own creative activities. Marx pointed out: "Civilization is a realistic thing and a social quality".
(2) As far as progressiveness is concerned, civilization, as the result of human creative activities, refers to a positive civilization achievement, which can promote the transformation of society and people themselves into positive aspects. If the achievements created by human beings are negative achievements to nature and people, it is not civilization.
(3) As far as variability is concerned, we say that civilization is a state of progress, that is, civilization is a process of continuous development and progress of human society, and this development is endless.
To sum up, civilization has three characteristics: creativity, progress and variability. It is these characteristics that promote the continuous progress and development of civilization, thus meeting the people's growing material and cultural needs.
Second, the basic connotation and characteristics of culture
Generally speaking, the word "culture" has broad sense and narrow sense. Culture in a broad sense refers to the mode of production of the whole human society and the sum of all the things produced from it. In other words, all natural phenomena and things, as long as they are recognized and created by people, that is, "humanization", are endowed with cultural connotation and significance. In a narrow sense, culture refers to the achievements of prosperity and civilization created by human beings recorded and preserved by words or other means.
After summarizing the basic connotation of culture, we can spy out three characteristics of culture:
(1) As far as its social historicity is concerned, culture is the product of social and historical development. In essence, it is not created by a single person, but the social wealth created by all people in complex social relations, and it is the sum of all people's hard-working social wealth.
(2) As far as inheritance is concerned, although culture is constantly changing with the development of society, this historical feature of culture has not completely divorced culture from the development path of human civilization. No culture is born out of thin air. It always develops on the basis of the culture accumulated by predecessors and produces on the basis of the cultural nutrients accumulated by predecessors. The latter culture is the inheritance and development of the former culture, and it is a new cultural form formed on the shoulders of the former culture.
(3) As far as its functionality is concerned, culture also has moral and educational functions. Because in the final analysis, culture is the concentrated expression of people's lifestyle and the sum of people's behavior norms. To sum up, culture is historic, inheritable and functional, and the functional performance of culture is historical and developmental, while the history of cultural development is based on the functional change and is historically developed.
Third, the relationship between civilization and culture.
(A) the link between the two
1. The subject of civilization and culture is people. Civilization and culture are closely related to human life, and the core of them is people. They are all symbols of social wealth formed by human beings in the process of understanding and transforming nature and themselves.
2. Civilization and culture are the products of social practice. Civilization and culture are the result of human adaptation and transformation of living environment, which contains material and spiritual wealth. Primitive practical labor produced man, and labor practice played a vital role in the process of ape-like transformation into man. On the basis of labor practice, human beings can constantly understand and transform nature and themselves.
3. Civilization is the intrinsic value of culture, and culture is the external expression of civilization. Generally speaking, the intrinsic value of civilization is expressed through the external form of culture, and the external form of culture is meaningful with the help of the intrinsic value of culture. Civilization is the historical accumulation of culture, and culture is the external expression of civilization. In a certain social sense, the higher the development level of a society, the higher the civilization level of this society. Of course, among all the cultural achievements created by human beings, only positive elements can be called civilization. Therefore, in this respect, civilization is subordinate to culture.
(B) the main differences between the two
1. From their sources, culture came into being earlier than civilization. Culture has existed since the birth of mankind. When human beings break away from the animal state through practical activities and carry out activities to understand and transform nature, when human beings endow natural objects with the symbol and concept of "purposefulness", primitive natural objects have cultural implications. It may become a cultural phenomenon. As a result, human activities entered the cultural field. It can be said that since human society broke away from the animal kingdom and used and transformed nature to create activities, there has been culture.
Generally speaking, civilization didn't begin until human culture developed into written records. In his book Family Private Ownership and the Origin of the State, Engels divided human society into: "The age of ignorance, the age of barbarism and the age of civilization, and culture has always run through the three times, keeping pace with human beings; Civilization began in the third era, that is, in slave society, and it has been continuously enriched and developed in feudal society, capitalist society and socialist society. " Visible, the difference between culture and civilization, from the perspective of genetics, there are successively.
2. From the definition of the two, the universality of culture is wider than that of civilization. Culture refers to all social achievements created by human beings in the process of understanding and transforming nature and themselves. Civilization is all positive achievements created by human beings in the process of understanding and transforming nature, as well as in the process of understanding and transforming themselves, which is the opposite of barbarism and ignorance. The cultural achievements created by human beings cover all the achievements in material, spiritual and other aspects. In these achievements, there are not only essence, progress and immortal contents that promote the continuous development of human society, but also dross and backwardness. These are all part of the culture created by human beings, which can be called culture. However, only outstanding cultural achievements that truly reflect the spirit of the times and promote human civilization can be called civilization. And those backward and decadent scum do not belong to the category of civilization. It can be said that culture is diverse, with essence and dross, advanced and backward, and civilization is the advanced and essential part of culture. So by definition, culture is more extensive than civilization.
3. The ways and means of communication are different. Civilization and culture, as the fruits of human practice, can be spread. We can learn from each other. But in a general sense, the spread of civilization has mandatory characteristics in a sense, and sometimes it is often unscrupulous. As we all know, it was quite prominent in the19th century. After several scientific and technological revolutions, western capitalist powers opened the door to backward countries and regions with strong naval interests under the banner of spreading advanced culture. Although this move promoted the civilization of backward countries and regions to a certain extent, his aggression against backward countries and regions was also one of the important reasons for its backwardness. The spread of culture is optional. In order to learn from each other, people can choose one culture or another. Therefore, the spread of civilization is mandatory, but the spread of culture is not.
References:
Wang Qi, Yang Haijiao. On civilization and culture. Learning and Exploration, 2006, (1): 66.
[2][ English] Summers, Zhu Yuan, etc. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Beijing: The Commercial Press, 2004.419.
[3] Fan Hu, Ma Yi. The definition of culture and civilization and their relationship. Learning and Exploration, 2006.