Pub Date : 2009-01-01DOI: 10.3846/2029-0187.2009.1.57-63
W. Pawluczuk
In this paper the concept of the boundary of civilizations is discussed on the example of Polish‐Belarusian and Polish‐Ukrainian borderlands. The author starts from the assumption, shared by many historians and sociologists, that civilizations are real cultural entities based on certain long‐lasting patterns of symbolical order. Those patterns are closely related to respective religions like Catholicism and Orthodoxy, but they act even though people's religiosity is weak. The differences between Western Christian and Eastern Christian patterns remain important in a secularized world as well. The author analyses how these civilization differences influence both cross national and political identities in countries, situated on the boundary of civilizations. He shows, in particular, how symbolic patterns shape the identity of Catholic minority in modern Belarus and that of Orthodox minority in today's Poland.
{"title":"II. A borderland civilization?: The concept of civilizational boundary","authors":"W. Pawluczuk","doi":"10.3846/2029-0187.2009.1.57-63","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3846/2029-0187.2009.1.57-63","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper the concept of the boundary of civilizations is discussed on the example of Polish‐Belarusian and Polish‐Ukrainian borderlands. The author starts from the assumption, shared by many historians and sociologists, that civilizations are real cultural entities based on certain long‐lasting patterns of symbolical order. Those patterns are closely related to respective religions like Catholicism and Orthodoxy, but they act even though people's religiosity is weak. The differences between Western Christian and Eastern Christian patterns remain important in a secularized world as well. The author analyses how these civilization differences influence both cross national and political identities in countries, situated on the boundary of civilizations. He shows, in particular, how symbolic patterns shape the identity of Catholic minority in modern Belarus and that of Orthodox minority in today's Poland.","PeriodicalId":256919,"journal":{"name":"LIMES: Cultural Regionalistics","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131463933","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2009-01-01DOI: 10.3846/2029-0187.2009.1.48-56
Agnieška Juzefovič
The article goes deeper into the dialogue of inter‐cultural Chinese and Western civilizations. It is analyzed how the Westerners perceive Chinese civilization and culture. The methods used here are the comparative and hermeneutical ones, as it is aimed to compare two different cultures and to penetrate the problems of understanding. The problems of understanding are not new, they have been analyzed a lot. The novelty of this article is determined by the fact that these problems are investigated in the outlooks of the understanding of Chinese culture and, especially, landscape aesthetics. Thus, the objects of this research are an inter‐civilization dialogue and an inter‐civilization conflict. The author of this article discusses why often it is difficult to develop a meaningful cultural dialogue between China and Europe, why this dialogue is relevant and how it could help Europeans to understand the Other and themselves. The idea presented in the article is that the Westerners are often mislead by a Chinese traditionalism, which is ambivalent and closely related to creativity and constant change, thus it should not be identified with stagnation and dogmatism. One more aspect of Chinese culture, which Europeans find difficult to understand, is its unity, which has deep philosophical implications and ability to connect the opposites. The author assumes that Western‐Eastern Europe has many distinctive features, but the inhabitants of this region view classical Chinese culture and an art in a similar way as the inhabitants of the rest of Europe: all Europeans have similar stereotypes and difficulties to understand separate aspects. This allows us to speak about a common European approach.
{"title":"Borders between Europe and China: Why do Europeans (mis)understand Chinese culture?","authors":"Agnieška Juzefovič","doi":"10.3846/2029-0187.2009.1.48-56","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3846/2029-0187.2009.1.48-56","url":null,"abstract":"The article goes deeper into the dialogue of inter‐cultural Chinese and Western civilizations. It is analyzed how the Westerners perceive Chinese civilization and culture. The methods used here are the comparative and hermeneutical ones, as it is aimed to compare two different cultures and to penetrate the problems of understanding. The problems of understanding are not new, they have been analyzed a lot. The novelty of this article is determined by the fact that these problems are investigated in the outlooks of the understanding of Chinese culture and, especially, landscape aesthetics. Thus, the objects of this research are an inter‐civilization dialogue and an inter‐civilization conflict. The author of this article discusses why often it is difficult to develop a meaningful cultural dialogue between China and Europe, why this dialogue is relevant and how it could help Europeans to understand the Other and themselves. The idea presented in the article is that the Westerners are often mislead by a Chinese traditionalism, which is ambivalent and closely related to creativity and constant change, thus it should not be identified with stagnation and dogmatism. One more aspect of Chinese culture, which Europeans find difficult to understand, is its unity, which has deep philosophical implications and ability to connect the opposites. The author assumes that Western‐Eastern Europe has many distinctive features, but the inhabitants of this region view classical Chinese culture and an art in a similar way as the inhabitants of the rest of Europe: all Europeans have similar stereotypes and difficulties to understand separate aspects. This allows us to speak about a common European approach.","PeriodicalId":256919,"journal":{"name":"LIMES: Cultural Regionalistics","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133173858","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2009-01-01DOI: 10.3846/2029-0187.2009.2.153-171
Jovilė Barevičiūtė
The article deals with the conception of hypercivilization that was developed by contemporary French media philosopher Jean Baudrillard and discusses its originality, innovation and philosophical‐sociological validity. It is compared with the classical conception of Western civilization, highlighting their basic similarities and differences. The author investigates the relationships between classical Western civilization and traditional metaphysics and between contemporary hypercivilization and pataphysics. The first section of the article is introduced to the meaning and problematicity of the concept of civilization, analyzing the connections between the concepts of civilization and culture. The second section discusses traditional French concept of civilization. The third section analyzes and interprets the conception of hypercivilization of Baudrillard. The last one from a critical thinking perspective discusses the philosophical‐sociological validity of the conception of hypercivilization of Baudrillard, seeking for possible parallels with the conception of classical Western civilization.
{"title":"The conception of contemporary hypercivilization: J. Baudrillard","authors":"Jovilė Barevičiūtė","doi":"10.3846/2029-0187.2009.2.153-171","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3846/2029-0187.2009.2.153-171","url":null,"abstract":"The article deals with the conception of hypercivilization that was developed by contemporary French media philosopher Jean Baudrillard and discusses its originality, innovation and philosophical‐sociological validity. It is compared with the classical conception of Western civilization, highlighting their basic similarities and differences. The author investigates the relationships between classical Western civilization and traditional metaphysics and between contemporary hypercivilization and pataphysics. The first section of the article is introduced to the meaning and problematicity of the concept of civilization, analyzing the connections between the concepts of civilization and culture. The second section discusses traditional French concept of civilization. The third section analyzes and interprets the conception of hypercivilization of Baudrillard. The last one from a critical thinking perspective discusses the philosophical‐sociological validity of the conception of hypercivilization of Baudrillard, seeking for possible parallels with the conception of classical Western civilization.","PeriodicalId":256919,"journal":{"name":"LIMES: Cultural Regionalistics","volume":"123 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116062244","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2009-01-01DOI: 10.3846/2029-0187.2009.2.106-115
T. Kačerauskas
The article deals with the conception of Central Europe in the perspective of clash of civilizations. The author's major thesis is the following: Central Europe is central being the centre of fight for European values including Western Christianity, liberalism, democracy, justice, and historical memory. The minor theses are the following: 1) the very notion of Central Europe is inseparable from its moral content, i.e. from imagined values to be obliged as maximas of life in a certain life‐world; 2) Central Europe serves as the becoming of Europe's identity and vice versa, the identity of Central Europe depends on contrary parts of imagined Europe. The author considers Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) as a historical rim of European civilization and the area for the becoming of Central Europe.
{"title":"Central Europe as an imagined region","authors":"T. Kačerauskas","doi":"10.3846/2029-0187.2009.2.106-115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3846/2029-0187.2009.2.106-115","url":null,"abstract":"The article deals with the conception of Central Europe in the perspective of clash of civilizations. The author's major thesis is the following: Central Europe is central being the centre of fight for European values including Western Christianity, liberalism, democracy, justice, and historical memory. The minor theses are the following: 1) the very notion of Central Europe is inseparable from its moral content, i.e. from imagined values to be obliged as maximas of life in a certain life‐world; 2) Central Europe serves as the becoming of Europe's identity and vice versa, the identity of Central Europe depends on contrary parts of imagined Europe. The author considers Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL) as a historical rim of European civilization and the area for the becoming of Central Europe.","PeriodicalId":256919,"journal":{"name":"LIMES: Cultural Regionalistics","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124392642","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2009-01-01DOI: 10.3846/2029-0187.2009.2.140-152
Algis Mickūnas
The article is designed to demonstrate that the Western modern life world is constituted by the reconstruction of the natural environment in accordance with formal logical rules that are not derivable from contingent facts. Logical rules are selected as techniques in terms of their value to fulfill “needs” and hence to shape the environment into a “technical life world” that becomes globalized as “scientific” demanding that the life worlds of the others develop to become modern and technical. This means that the globalized technical life world is not a set of facts but signitive systems of logical, non‐temporal and non‐spacial vectors of “communication” taking precedence over the material‐productive levels of any society.
{"title":"III. From the eastern to the western civilization and beyond: Life world and global civilization","authors":"Algis Mickūnas","doi":"10.3846/2029-0187.2009.2.140-152","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3846/2029-0187.2009.2.140-152","url":null,"abstract":"The article is designed to demonstrate that the Western modern life world is constituted by the reconstruction of the natural environment in accordance with formal logical rules that are not derivable from contingent facts. Logical rules are selected as techniques in terms of their value to fulfill “needs” and hence to shape the environment into a “technical life world” that becomes globalized as “scientific” demanding that the life worlds of the others develop to become modern and technical. This means that the globalized technical life world is not a set of facts but signitive systems of logical, non‐temporal and non‐spacial vectors of “communication” taking precedence over the material‐productive levels of any society.","PeriodicalId":256919,"journal":{"name":"LIMES: Cultural Regionalistics","volume":"140 8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129070851","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2009-01-01DOI: 10.3846/2029-0187.2009.1.82-92
A. Sadowski
Current studies on the borderland territories suggest insufficiency of research tools, which, if applied, would improve the theoretical level of the conducted studies, particularly if that research would cover the borderlands of civilizations. Until now, the research on borderlands in Poland and elsewhere were dominated by the concepts of borderlands and trans‐borderness. In my opinion, to cover the full scope of social phenomena and processes, which appear on borderland and trans‐border territories, the new terms should be introduced: “borderlandness” together with the existing “borderland” and the “trans‐borderland” to complement with the “trans‐borderlandness”. In this paper I intend to present shortly the conception of the borderland applied in my research and, on this basis, I try to develop the concept of borderlandness as well as to stress its utility in the studies of borderlands, including the borders of civilizations.
{"title":"The borderland of civilizations as a research category in the sociology of borderland","authors":"A. Sadowski","doi":"10.3846/2029-0187.2009.1.82-92","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3846/2029-0187.2009.1.82-92","url":null,"abstract":"Current studies on the borderland territories suggest insufficiency of research tools, which, if applied, would improve the theoretical level of the conducted studies, particularly if that research would cover the borderlands of civilizations. Until now, the research on borderlands in Poland and elsewhere were dominated by the concepts of borderlands and trans‐borderness. In my opinion, to cover the full scope of social phenomena and processes, which appear on borderland and trans‐border territories, the new terms should be introduced: “borderlandness” together with the existing “borderland” and the “trans‐borderland” to complement with the “trans‐borderlandness”. In this paper I intend to present shortly the conception of the borderland applied in my research and, on this basis, I try to develop the concept of borderlandness as well as to stress its utility in the studies of borderlands, including the borders of civilizations.","PeriodicalId":256919,"journal":{"name":"LIMES: Cultural Regionalistics","volume":"483 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132649339","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2009-01-01DOI: 10.3846/2029-0187.2009.1.39-47
D. Boćkowski
The internet is one of the fastest developing media of today. It is through the internet that Islamic ideas spread throughout the world on a level that has never been reported before. Internet portals and web‐sites containing information about Muslim religion and culture can be accessed from the furthest corners of the world. They popularize Islam which for ages seemed to have been attributed exclusively to the Middle East, Northern Africa and South‐East Asia. Poland is located on the Islam's expansion route and takes an extremely important, if not strategic, position. Due to the position of the Catholic religion in our country, the development of Islam in Poland (an increasing number of converts) appears to be a fundamental factor in the growth of the Muslim world. Many believers do not conceal the fact that they dream of the European caliphate, which is an important step in the restoration of the world caliphate. “Religious fundamentalism” of Polish people, according to many Muslim clergymen and political activists, guarantees that Islamic believers obtained in our country as opposed to converts from the “lay West”, will be as active and religiously engaged as the believers of the Roman Catholic Church. Thus, in the following paper on the penetration of contemporary Islam into Poland, I will focus on this most dynamic instrument of the expansion of the Islamic world.
{"title":"Between the east and the west: The penetration of contemporary Islam into Poland","authors":"D. Boćkowski","doi":"10.3846/2029-0187.2009.1.39-47","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3846/2029-0187.2009.1.39-47","url":null,"abstract":"The internet is one of the fastest developing media of today. It is through the internet that Islamic ideas spread throughout the world on a level that has never been reported before. Internet portals and web‐sites containing information about Muslim religion and culture can be accessed from the furthest corners of the world. They popularize Islam which for ages seemed to have been attributed exclusively to the Middle East, Northern Africa and South‐East Asia. Poland is located on the Islam's expansion route and takes an extremely important, if not strategic, position. Due to the position of the Catholic religion in our country, the development of Islam in Poland (an increasing number of converts) appears to be a fundamental factor in the growth of the Muslim world. Many believers do not conceal the fact that they dream of the European caliphate, which is an important step in the restoration of the world caliphate. “Religious fundamentalism” of Polish people, according to many Muslim clergymen and political activists, guarantees that Islamic believers obtained in our country as opposed to converts from the “lay West”, will be as active and religiously engaged as the believers of the Roman Catholic Church. Thus, in the following paper on the penetration of contemporary Islam into Poland, I will focus on this most dynamic instrument of the expansion of the Islamic world.","PeriodicalId":256919,"journal":{"name":"LIMES: Cultural Regionalistics","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115252537","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2009-01-01DOI: 10.3846/2029-0187.2009.2.93-105
Vytautas Rubavičius
The level and scope of European Union (EU) integration activities are showing the aspects of civilizational development with a huge impact on the world system of civilizations and make more evident the fact that the future of EU depends on the attitude of European policy‐makers to the national, cultural, and political identities. Interest in the identities has been reinforced in recent years by the failure of EU Constitutional Treaty and further attempts to reach an agreament about the new Treaty. This failure stimulated cogitations on both the subject of Constitutional Treaty and the features of the European demos. Spirited discussions pointed to the so called “deficits” – “community deficit”, “legitimacy deficit” and, as a consequence, to the “democracy deficit”. Thus EU future can be seen as depending on the removal of these “deficits”. How can this be done under the prevailing political attitude of denationalization? The problem of European demos was aggravated by the enlargement of EU: new Member states are loaded with different historic experience and clearly visible features of national sense. National feelings have been the main force raising people for national liberation movement or national revival. This experience must be taken into account while discussing new political guidelines for the construction of European demos. The social content of demos, including identity, common history and the sense of “unity in diversity”, could be accumulated through the loyalties and bonds of affection to one's nation, culture, language, and historical myths; thus, the attitude of denationalization requires a modification.
{"title":"I. European civilization and its region(s): European demos: Democracy deficit and national feelings","authors":"Vytautas Rubavičius","doi":"10.3846/2029-0187.2009.2.93-105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3846/2029-0187.2009.2.93-105","url":null,"abstract":"The level and scope of European Union (EU) integration activities are showing the aspects of civilizational development with a huge impact on the world system of civilizations and make more evident the fact that the future of EU depends on the attitude of European policy‐makers to the national, cultural, and political identities. Interest in the identities has been reinforced in recent years by the failure of EU Constitutional Treaty and further attempts to reach an agreament about the new Treaty. This failure stimulated cogitations on both the subject of Constitutional Treaty and the features of the European demos. Spirited discussions pointed to the so called “deficits” – “community deficit”, “legitimacy deficit” and, as a consequence, to the “democracy deficit”. Thus EU future can be seen as depending on the removal of these “deficits”. How can this be done under the prevailing political attitude of denationalization? The problem of European demos was aggravated by the enlargement of EU: new Member states are loaded with different historic experience and clearly visible features of national sense. National feelings have been the main force raising people for national liberation movement or national revival. This experience must be taken into account while discussing new political guidelines for the construction of European demos. The social content of demos, including identity, common history and the sense of “unity in diversity”, could be accumulated through the loyalties and bonds of affection to one's nation, culture, language, and historical myths; thus, the attitude of denationalization requires a modification.","PeriodicalId":256919,"journal":{"name":"LIMES: Cultural Regionalistics","volume":"102 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116373910","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2009-01-01DOI: 10.3846/2029-0187.2009.1.26-38
Basia Nikiforova
The presumption of this paper is the view of multi‐culturalism as a concept grounded on an assumption, rather than data, and legitimized by proclamation, rather than legislation. Multi‐culturalism as a socio‐political construction is not only “a multi‐cultural and multi‐religious mosaic”, but it has its own values. The new borders inside the European Union (EU) are non‐territorial, which confirms the new paradigm about the weakening factor of territorial belonging as such. Nowadays, values become a more and more powerful source of demarcation. The aim of this article is to challenge the problem and its consequences for the identity and perception of values in the new European situation, in which borders are merely symbolic. Multi‐culturalism is the revalorization of ethnocentric tradition and the creation of post‐materialist values such as individual self‐expression, personal transformation, openness and solidarity to others, gender and racial equality, greater tolerance for an ethnic, cultural and religious diversity.
{"title":"Multi‐cultural values and borders","authors":"Basia Nikiforova","doi":"10.3846/2029-0187.2009.1.26-38","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3846/2029-0187.2009.1.26-38","url":null,"abstract":"The presumption of this paper is the view of multi‐culturalism as a concept grounded on an assumption, rather than data, and legitimized by proclamation, rather than legislation. Multi‐culturalism as a socio‐political construction is not only “a multi‐cultural and multi‐religious mosaic”, but it has its own values. The new borders inside the European Union (EU) are non‐territorial, which confirms the new paradigm about the weakening factor of territorial belonging as such. Nowadays, values become a more and more powerful source of demarcation. The aim of this article is to challenge the problem and its consequences for the identity and perception of values in the new European situation, in which borders are merely symbolic. Multi‐culturalism is the revalorization of ethnocentric tradition and the creation of post‐materialist values such as individual self‐expression, personal transformation, openness and solidarity to others, gender and racial equality, greater tolerance for an ethnic, cultural and religious diversity.","PeriodicalId":256919,"journal":{"name":"LIMES: Cultural Regionalistics","volume":"27 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133004076","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2009-01-01DOI: 10.3846/2029-0187.2009.2.116-125
M. Broda
An often underestimated reference point of great importance for understanding of the contemporary social and political consciousness is the rooting of such consciousness in the structures of archaic thinking. In this light, the experience of power becomes a component of a more universal experience of sacrum: the establishment of an order, a result of the invasion of holiness – the epiphany – is considered as simultaneous establishment of the world and the truth. Sacrum, power, leadership, order, identity, truth, authority and rightness remain integrally interconnected and only the power able to satisfy such total expectations receives the real legitimization. It does not become a party to “a contract” governing the rights and obligations of each side, but rather – in a manner typical for religious or quasi‐religious act, one unconditionally gives up to such power, commits to it. The contents rooted in the archaic experience of sacrum, disguised by the historically younger cultural layers are stemming from deep layers and structures of the social conscience. In particular, in the time of crisis they reveal their presence on multiple occasions, helping various Sons of Lights on their road to power. Such persons, in the eyes of their worshippers hold the monopoly for an alleged higher, exclusive and integral Truth. The authoritarian order, de facto excluding the possibility of an authentic dialogue, becomes an alternative for the democratic citizen society – resting upon the assumptions that the individuals are free, mature and independent, willing to take the responsibility for their own fate and for the matters of their communities.
{"title":"II. European civilization, the sacrality and secularity: Between sacrum and prophanum: Authority, knowledge, democracy","authors":"M. Broda","doi":"10.3846/2029-0187.2009.2.116-125","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3846/2029-0187.2009.2.116-125","url":null,"abstract":"An often underestimated reference point of great importance for understanding of the contemporary social and political consciousness is the rooting of such consciousness in the structures of archaic thinking. In this light, the experience of power becomes a component of a more universal experience of sacrum: the establishment of an order, a result of the invasion of holiness – the epiphany – is considered as simultaneous establishment of the world and the truth. Sacrum, power, leadership, order, identity, truth, authority and rightness remain integrally interconnected and only the power able to satisfy such total expectations receives the real legitimization. It does not become a party to “a contract” governing the rights and obligations of each side, but rather – in a manner typical for religious or quasi‐religious act, one unconditionally gives up to such power, commits to it. The contents rooted in the archaic experience of sacrum, disguised by the historically younger cultural layers are stemming from deep layers and structures of the social conscience. In particular, in the time of crisis they reveal their presence on multiple occasions, helping various Sons of Lights on their road to power. Such persons, in the eyes of their worshippers hold the monopoly for an alleged higher, exclusive and integral Truth. The authoritarian order, de facto excluding the possibility of an authentic dialogue, becomes an alternative for the democratic citizen society – resting upon the assumptions that the individuals are free, mature and independent, willing to take the responsibility for their own fate and for the matters of their communities.","PeriodicalId":256919,"journal":{"name":"LIMES: Cultural Regionalistics","volume":"527 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2009-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124260890","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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