Cultural Dimension of Modernity

Abstract

The purpose of the work is to study the cultural foundations of modernity. The methodology of the work is based on a combination of historical and logical approach to study the socio-cultural factors of the era, genetic approach to clarify the evolution of the ideological prerequisites for the formation of the worldview of modernity, and contextual and analytical approach to study the conceptual markers that embody the paradigmatic features of the modern era. Scientific novelty. For the first time, the author identifies, systematises, and analyses the socio-cultural factors that determined the peculiarities of the formation of the modern era. associated with the culture of court society, with the mechanisms of control over affects and drives developed by it. Conclusions. The article outlines the subject area of culture as an artificial environment of human existence created by specific human activity, which includes both the person and the world of symbolic meanings. It is pointed out that the culture of modernity in the process of its formation creates preconditions for the final emancipation of the human personality. It is emphasised that the focus on the individual, in turn, increases the role and importance of rational activity as a way of internalising generally significant cultural forms into the inner world of a person. The specifics of the modern worldview, the fundamental features of which are embodied in ‘exclusive humanism’, accompanied by a new sense of ‘I’, are pointed out. The author emphasises the concept of civility as efficiency, which covered the spheres of moral self-control, taste, and sophistication. The special role of neo-Stoicism ethics in shaping the worldview of a modern person is emphasised. On the example of Norbert Elias’s scientific work, the author demonstrates the peculiarities of the mentality of the court aristocracy; just as the modern state is the heir to an absolute monarchy, so Western European ‘civilization’ and rationality are genetically linked to the culture of court society, with the mechanisms of control over affects and drives developed by it.