Yarkova, E. N. Post-Modern as the Culture of Trans-Civilization Epoch

Abstract: The subject studied is the culture of post-modern and the type of civilization it refers to. Modern social and humanitarian researchers have certain disagreements on the aforesaid matter. The author of the present article suggests that we should identify culture of post-modern as a phenomenon of trans-civilization as the period of transition from the industrial civilization to the post-industrial civilization. Trans-civilization epoch is defined by the author as the epoch when the old order declines and the new order of things is created. By analyzing the key principles of the culture of post-modern such as de-structurization, de-centration, de-realization and de-construction, the author describes the trans-civilization nature of the culture of post-modern as the culture of the destructive and constructive chaos. The research methodology includes the synthesis of hermeneutic, axiological and system approaches. The main theoretical base of the research is the inter-disciplinary theory of self-organization (synergetics) aimed at studying phase transitions of complex open systems of different nature from one steady state into another. The scientific novelty of these ideas is presented in the main conclusions that all come down to the statement that being a semantic expression of the destructive and constructive chaos, the culture of post-modern cannot be regarded as a ground of a particular civilization and therefore it is the culture of trans-civilization epoch. However, the culture of post-modern cannot be reduced only to transitional or palliative values and meanings of the receding and arriving cultures, it also has its own values and meanings that define its semantic and axiological singularity. The culture of post-modern is not a single example of the culture of destructive and constructive chaos. Similar principles and features can be found in other cultures of trans-civilization epochs. According to the author, these cultures should be called ‘liminal’. The synthesis of the terms ‘trans-civilization epoch’ and ‘liminal culture’ appear to be promising both in theoretical and particular historiographic aspects.

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