Polischuk, V. I. Measure in Culture: Development of the Category and Principle

Abstract: There have been many researches of all kinds of notions and categories analyzing the role of these notions and categories in cognition and practical activity. However, not so much attention has been paid to measure although the importance of measure and proportion were recognized by philosophers long time ago. Ancient philosophers associated measure with the hidden feeling of the singularity of all. In the 20th century philosophers studied measure and focused on the quality and quantity, similarities and differences between them and assumed that the quantity and quality constituted the measure. When the measure as itself was analyzed, it was mostly the measures of object but not the category ‘measure’ itself being studied. The present article provides the results of the historical and cultural research based on analytical, diachronic and comparative research methods. The measure has a double nature if we view it as the principle of human activity. On the one hand, measure is what is described by the quantity according to Aristotle. This is the metric function of measure. The other aspect of measure is the quality with reference to these or those features. This is the evaluation or axiatic function. Both of these functions, metric and evaluation ones, expressed different opinions of human on the surrounding world.

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