Ecohumanistic aspects of the compensatory mechanism of culture

This article examines the compensatory mechanism of culture, which is formed objectively and provides the possibility of a “sustainable development” of society, culture and people in their individual existence in situations of significant socio-cultural transformations. The substantiations of the universality of this mechanism are presented; its action manifests itself variably, can be both spontaneous and consciously used. The mechanism is aimed at reducing or eliminating crisis phenomena and the effects of discomfort from all sorts of forms of sociocultural imbalance: the conflict of traditional orders and socio-cultural innovations, the values of preservation and change, the living and the materialized, the objectified and the non-objectified, the rational and the irrational, etc. The authors substantiate the idea that the action of the compensatory mechanism of culture can be carried out both according to the model of a pendulum-like transition from an effectively and radically acting innovation to the restoration of traditional cultural forms, and according to a model corresponding to the adaptive function of culture. The authors show the correlation of the compromise nature and methods of action of the compensatory mechanism of culture with the basic principles of the ecohumanistic approach, a specific setting of thinking and practical human activity focused on finding ways and means of achieving optimality in relations between various sides and trends in human life to ensure the possibility of their fruitful coexistence. Under the influence of the intensive development and widespread dissemination of modern techniques and technologies, the established habitual way of life of a human-in-the-world changes dramatically, causing the transformation and modernization of the traditional forms and values of culture. Defining the world of a modern person as techno-technologized, the authors identify the problem of the preservation and active reproduction of the “living principle” of humans, the integrity of their existence, as well as the problem of the possibility of achieving the full value of existence in a situation of socio-cultural dissonance. The authors show that, due to its universality and its inherent therapeutic function, the compensatory mechanism of culture is able to restore the optimal mode of human existence, to “serve” the needs of various kinds, including those that represent the natural properties of a person in “transformed” forms, in utopia and escapism. The authors come to the conclusion that the theoretical development of the concept of the compensatory mechanism of culture in its ecohumanistic interpretation will allow a more multifaceted study and analysis of phenomena of culture, both in its history and in its current state, to obtain a more accurate interpretation of the ways of human existence and cultural practices that provide the effect of the state of an “ecosystem” in situations of any intensive socio-cultural transformations.