Paleeva N.N. The origins of the existential version of culture

Abstract: This article is dedicated to the emergence and development of the existential version of culture. The philosophy of culture as a specific sector of philosophical knowledge occurred in the pas millennium. Certainly a long period of the comprehension of culture as a peculiar phenomenon has preceded the emergence of the aforementioned discipline. The new direction of the understanding of culture originated the appearance of the philosophy of history. Having revealed the various opportunities of the cultural being, the historical knowledge contributed into the conception of adjacent area of philosophical reflection. The introduced into the discourse by Müller notion “Kulturphilosophie” has conclusively formed a new discipline. W. Windelband indicated that the academic philosophy of culture stood against positivism on one hand, and philosophy of life on the other. Nevertheless, it does not undermine the achievements in the area of understanding of culture that have established in positivism, as well as philosophy of life. As a result, the two different approaches towards comprehension of culture have formed. Neo-Kantians, having detected the multiplicity of cultures, turned the efforts towards the search of the universal foundations of culture. As far as the philosophy of culture and existentialism, the representatives of these directions based themselves upon the fact that the understanding of culture is impossible without submerging into the existential experience, as well as the roots of the inner world of a human as a creator of this phenomenon. The author uses the principle of historicism for comparison of the various approaches towards culture.  This allows observing not only the universalities of culture, but also the unusual versions of the cultural creativity. Many researchers believe that neither philosophy of life nor existentialism did not show interest towards culture. However, it is demonstrated that without revelation of the existential practice it is not possible no analyze the specificity of culture alongside the regularities of the historical-cultural process. These ideas are contained in the philosophical heritage of Søren Kierkegaard, whose views are being examined in this article.

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