Introduction to Cultural Studies 4206-AK12

Lecture consists of
introductory part, in which we analyse most popular definitions of culture and its colloquial understanding, as well as we explain accompanying terms such as nature, civilization, man, values, goods; we also discuss commonly used classifications of cultures, sciences dealing with culture (sociology of culture, cultural anthropology, culturology, study of civilizations, philosophy of culture, and theology of culture) and present most prominent scholars and philosophers who significantly contributed to the study of culture and philosophy of culture.
historical part, devoted to a detailed discussion of the body of work of chosen theorists of culture, such as Johann Herder, Mikołaj Danilewski, Bronisław Malinowski, Oswald Spengler, Pitirim Sorokin, Georg Simmel, Jose Ortega-y-Gasset;
hermeneutic part, in which on the basis of an unorthodox analysis of the Old Testament will be presented biblical archetypes of cultural orders, together with corresponding systems of values;
philosophical part, which situates culture in a metaphysical context, created by the author's concept of dialectical metaphysics of choice, and especially by its basic categories, such as metaphysical triangle, fundamental dualism, metaphysical experience and metaphysical choice, as well as the notion of value which is defined with the help of those categories and which is essential in understanding culture and in classification of cultures;
theoretical part, in which on the philosophical base mentioned above we construct the theory of cultural dominants and types of cultures created by them, presented both as ideal types in Weber's understanding and as empirical beings, which occur predominantly as components of a cultural conglomerate, dynamized by rivalry between the types;
descriptive part, in which we discuss basic parameters of archaic culture (I), traditional and neotraditional culture (II), liberal democrat culture (III) and consumptive one (IV), together with corresponding cultural dominants (magic, religion, totalitarian ideology, law and advertisement), as well as local and global aspects of conflict and cooperation of cultures.