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36Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences 2 (2009 2) 234-246
УДК 304.2
«Concept» Notion as the Base of Contemporary Culture Studies
Alexandra A. Semyonova*
Siberian Federal University, 79 Svobodny, Krasnoyarsk, 660041 Russia 1
Received 23.03.2009, received in revised form 30.03.2009, accepted 6.04.2009
The article is devoted to the topical notion of contemporary human science - «concept». The main aim of this research work is the problem of methodology of research on concepts at culture studies and discovery of mechanisms of concepts' studying. One part of the article is a survey of the contemporary tendencies of definition of «concept» term at discourse of the contemporary Russian human science. The sources referred are dictionaries of culture studies issued at different times andfixing both the tendencies of development in the attitude to «concept» term at science and important monographic research works devoted to concept. «Concept» notion of the discourse of the philosophy ofpostmodernism is left out of the bounds of this investigation.
The other part of the research work is devoted to the methods of exploration of the concept of culture studies. There are the following basic methods of exploration of concepts: etymological, historical, and sociological investigations, analysis of philosophical and artistic texts, philosophical and art critical analysis of a piece of art.
According to the suggested methods of exploration of concepts, the investigation of «state» concept in Old Russian culture of the boundary of the 15th-16th centuries is taken as an example in the article. In particular, there is an adduction of etymological history of «state» word in the Russian and European languages. The ideological and religious contradictions between the Josephists and the Judaizers, eschatological feelings of the epoch before 1492, and the theory «Moscow is the Third Rome» are considered as the basic determinants of historical formation of «state» concept. The architecture of the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin on the Red Square is examined as the piece of art representing «state» concept in Old Russian culture.
The conclusion of the article is reduced to a number of advantages of the methods of conceptual investigations at culture studies.
Keywords: Culture studies, methodology of culture studies, concept, definition of «concept» notion, methodology of conceptual researches, «state» concept, etymology, Old Russian history of the boundary of the 15th-16th centuries, the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin on the Red Square, «state» concept in Old Russian culture of the boundary of the 15th-16th centuries.
Corresponding author E-mail address: decanka@mail.ru
© Siberian Federal University. All rights reserved
Point of view Conceptual researches at contemporary human sciences
Topicality of «concept» notion
at contemporary human sciences
Concept is one of the basic notions at contemporary culture studies and, what is important to notice, at human science as a whole. Concept is already a key method of such sciences as culture studies, philology, philosophy, and psychology in the modern scientific world, and we can assume that very soon the use of this method will be the main base for other human sciences. J.S. Stepanov's investigation of «concept» notion (Stepanov, 2007) allows him to claim that concept is not a mere notion important for a few sciences already existing, but it is an object of a new just engendered science: «A universal human science or a new universal anthropology uniting different kinds of art and sections of sciences of art is being born before our eyes. It has some synonymous designations: «philosophical anthropology», «philosophy of science» and others. We reserve our mentioned term. That is a science uniting philosophy, logics, philology, poetics, painting, sculpture, architecture, and sciences of them, music and musical science» (Stepanov, 2007, p. 13).
The topical issue of conceptual researches is corroborated by a few simple facts. In the first place, at present a number of scientific researches on many «concepts» at different areas of knowledge, perhaps, exceed the part of other kinds of research. At the moment it concerns philology most of all. There can be given only a few examples of such investigations: «Immortality» concept at history and theory of culture» (Balashova, 2005), «Childhood» concept in scientific and artistic tradition of the 20th century» (Masvlova, 2005), «AIR» concept in the contemporary Russian language» (Bay Son Hen, 2006), «Hero» concept in historical
and philosophical process» (Loshmanova, 2006), «Sin» concept in the structure of a folk piece of art» (Brilyova, 2007), «Suicide» concept at Russian literature of 1920-1930s» (Kablukov, 2008), «Love» concept in the world culture» (Lukov and others, 2008), etc. The list can be filled with many more names. There is another fact of actualization of the notion of concept in contemporary science. The notion of concept is interpreted just in a few words in the dictionary of culture studies (2003): «Concept is a sense of a name (sign), i.e. content of a notion with its extent as an object (denotation) of that name» (Culture and culture studies: dictionary, 2003, P. 436). The definition of concept already takes few pages in the dictionary of culture studies (Mikeshina, Culture studies. Encyclopedia, 2007, P. 985-989).
It should be noted that until recently there is an increase of a number of researches concerning theoretical comprehension of concept - for instance, «Concept as a constituting element of culture» (Philatova, 2007) and «Concepts. Pellicle of civilization» (Stepanov, 2007).
Thus, contemporary scientific investigations convey that concept is one of the advanced methods of the humanities as a whole.
The aim of this investigation is a definition of specific features of concept as a method of contemporary culture studies and character of interaction between that method and methodology of other human sciences.
Definition of «concept» notion
at contemporary human science
The fact that the humanities adopt «concept» term from logics is well-known. But that adoption is not mechanical, and concept accepts another meaning. Concept is actually a synonym of «notion» term at logics. The problem of notion at logics consists of ascertainment of the scope and limits of a certain definition as well as common and specific features of the class of objects and
phenomena, which the definition covers; it means that every notion is supposed to have its volume and content at logics. «Concept» term primarily existed as a synonym of notion at logics, to be precise, the term is understood only as content, but not as volume of a notion.
«Concept» term comes to thesaurus of the humanities in the boundary of the 20th-21st centuries and its meaning starts changing. Thus, let us turn to the definition of «concept» notion, which doesn't have any contradictions; the only thing is that different researchers often point at supplementary aspects of comprehension of concepts.
In the first place, it seems to be logical to turn to the etymological investigation of concept carried out by philologist V.Z. Demyankov. (Demyankov, 2001). According to V.Z. Demyankov's investigation, «concept» word comes from the Latin participle «conceptus» and is used with «conception» and «embryo» notions in speech. It allows us to assert that concept in its nature always keeps the meaning of «embryo» of comprehension of things and objects. In such a case, let us assume that concept is actually presented as conceptive (primary) sense of phenomena, objects and things, which subsequently engenders existence of certain phenomena, objects, and things in mental and material culture. Besides, Demyankov discovers a considerable difference between notion and concept: «The distinction between «notion» and «concept» terms takes the following line: notions are something people arrange for; people construct them to have the common language they could discuss their problems; concepts exist on their own; people reconstruct them in a greater or lesser degree of confidence» (Demyankov, 2001). Such an approach allows us to distinguish the first characteristic of methodological investigation of concept - that is a way of reconstruction of «embryonic» and primary sense of the phenomena
observed in culture: «The sense of «concept» term has an idea of «embryonic» truth laid in Latin «conceptus» in such reconstructed and suggested interpretations. Concept is something obviously conceived, but actually we can make sure of of that only in the Result of reconstruction of «maieutic» procedure» (Demyankov, 2001). «Some kind of fashion after «concept» term at fiction and scientific literature of the end of the 20th-21st centuries points out the interest in reconstruction of the essences in human life we run across in our everyday life without any thought of their «true» and a priori sense. It has turned out that «arrangement» for notions is far from being always possible: sometimes it is more productive to reconstruct habitual senses or concepts and construct some new notions on the basis of the formed ideas and former concepts» (Demyankov, 2001).
The classical definition of concept of the contemporary humanities and, in particular, culture studies is suggested by J.S. Stepanov in the book «Constants. Russian Culture Dictionary» (Stepanov, 1997): «Concept is a basic item of the system of culture allowing us to describe a framework of the world as a whole. Concept is an item of historical, common cultural, ethical, social, and individual memory of a man and society. The sense is kept in memory. Concept is the sense a human being operates with in the processes of thinking. Concepts are kept in memory as some «quanta» of knowledge and they can be activated by a stimulus in memory» (Stepanov, 2007). The later researcher's definition seems to be no less capacious: «Concept is typical situations of culture» (Stepanov, 2007). The following significant and essential features of concepts are also revealed in Stepanov's monographs. Concept is to have its material realization. Concept doesn't exist without its material embodiment at all. The area of concepts is not merely a mental sphere, collective unconscious inaccessible to scientific
cognition, but the area of concepts is collective unconscious fixed in language and material objects and phenomena of culture (rites, rituals, and feasts). It means that the things and words existing in culture are the concepts, which are in the centre of research of the contemporary culture studies. The following important and subtle parameter of concepts' being is the fact that concepts are constantly developed and experienced, but not logically realized.
The context of this investigation also makes it important to turn to the contemporary definition of «concept» notion suggested by L.V. Mikeshina in the encyclopedia of culture studies (Culture Studies. Encyclopedia, 2007). «Concept is individual ideas of senses; it is «quanta» of knowledge on real and ideal worlds; it is a form of processing of subjective experience by means of classification of certain categories and classes. The universal concepts common to the all mankind are verbalized in many languages according to linguistic, pragmatic, and cultural factors, and they are organized in hierarchic, very often associative and semantic systems represented in different models of keeping knowledge in human memory» (Mikeshina, 2007). L.V. Mikeshina appeals to the research on development of the humanities and causes of greater actualization of the method of conceptual investigation. There is a following explanation of the interest in investigation of concepts in the humanities. Initially, the humanities were always competing with natural sciences, and for that reason the humanities used scientific methods of natural sciences. Pursuing for objectiveness cultivated by natural sciences, it was developed according to the way of exclusion of human (anthropic) factor of scientific cognition. E. Husserl's phenomenology became the culmination of development of this trend. Husserl suggested the method of stages of purification of the humanities and their objects of research from human subjective ideas. The
humanities gradually conceived that it was necessary to be developed in a quite contrary direction than that one of natural sciences. The humanities were created in order to study the interactions between the world and a human being, therefore deliverance from human factors is a deadlock for development of the humanities. Concept is such a notion that allows us to include human (anthropological) factors in its structure: historical and temporal development of concepts, correlation between concepts and human experience, subjective human feelings, etc. «Concept is extremely subjective, and it is formed by speech in the space of a soul and communication combining such mental abilities as memory, imagination, and judgment...» (Mikeshina, 2007).
We should distinguish verbalization of concept in linguistic culture as its special characteristic. A word is a material form of concept's existence in language. Thus, in the first place, investigation of concepts is possible simultaneously with investigation of the linguistic phenomena fixing that concept. And there is a separate sphere of philological knowledge - that is linguistic psychology studying the object of psychology (human mentality, emotions, and consciousness) with linguistic methods and ordinary language, which investigates linguistic phenomena for comprehension of conceptual sphere of human being. Let us remark that most of the latest investigations of the sphere of concepts are concentrated just on studying of different concepts from the point of their reflection in language. We can even assert that contemporary science succeeds in investigation of concepts in two trends - working out of a theory of conceptual knowledge and a research of concept on the base of the method of investigation of concept's linguistic realization with the purpose of reconstruction of its original and present sense actual for a certain area.
We should pay our attention to some assumptions and stipulations characterizing this investigation before we resume the results of consideration of the content of «concept» notion. In the first place, this research work considers «concept» notion in the discourse of Russian human science without consideration of foreign authors' research works. The foreign investigations remain out of the frames of this article because of the difficulty of correlation of «concept» term in Russian science with the same meaning of that one in foreign languages. For example, «concept» notion can be translated as «concept», «conception», «sense», «idea», etc. in the English investigations. Hence, a separate research work should be devoted to a discovery and review of specialized research works in the English language dealing with linguistic and cultural ideas of concept. We can mention the article «Concept» published in «Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy» (Margolis E., Laurence S., 2005) as one of the examples of the English scientific investigation devoted to concept as a form of thinking and process of «constitution of thoughts» («Concepts... are the constituents of thoughts»).
In this article, we also don't turn to the specific comprehension of concept in the discourse of the philosophy of postmodernism while this side deserves its special investigation no less. At present the philosophical models of G. Deleuze and F. Gvattari set forth in the book «What is philosophy?» (Deleuze, Gvattari, 1981) are of great scientific interest from the point of comprehension of concept in the philosophy of postmodernism.
Thus, the main meanings and essential features of concept should be fixed on the base of investigation of «concept» definitions:
1) Concept is sensibly represented realization of collective unconscious and mental sphere of human culture.
2) Concept exists as: a) names of concepts sensibly represented in language; b) verbal concepts fixed in mythological and religious systems; c) objects of material culture (objects of applied nature); d) pieces of art (literature, architecture, painting, sculpture, music, etc.) - material things of non-applied nature.
3) Investigation of concept is a reconstruction of a sense of sensibly represented concepts. There are to be distinguished a few levels of concepts' sense: original sense; sense actual for a certain space and group of people, chronological period, chosen area of use and existence of concept (for instance, «faith» concept in Russian culture; «fatum» concept in the Greek drama; «Old Russia» concept in Moscow state of the boundary of the 15th-16th centuries); present sense of a concept.
4) Concept is to be explored according to subjective and anthropic factors: concept is experienced by a human being, concept is developed in time, concept includes human experience, concept determines the specificity of human thinking, etc.
Methodology of investigation of concept
As far as concept is the notion uniting different human sciences, methodology of its investigation synthesizes methods of different sciences.
The first triad of sciences a researcher appeals to in his investigation of concept was worked out and established by J.S. Stepanov in his research work «Constants. Russian culture Dictionary» and article «Concept».
The principal and basic method of research on concept is etymological investigation. First of all, as concept is fixed in culture as a verbal expression (name), the first step of its cognition
is studying of a word's etymology and name in language, and that allows a researcher to restore the original, conceptive and «rudimental» sense of a concept. Etymological investigation can imply several directions of the research: a) research on word's etymology and reconstruction of concept's sense in a national language; b) comparative analysis of origin and existence of different words with a common sense in different languages (for example, the comparative analysis of the words «государство» in Russian, «state» in English, «civitas» in Latin, «Der Staat» in German, «L'Etat» in French, etc.) for establishment of general and distinctive features of concepts' existence in the world and national culture. The important aspect of etymological investigation is also fixation of the period of word's origin in a language, and that allows us to find out the origin of the very concept in human spiritual and mental culture. Etymological research is not to be based only on etymological investigations on words' origin, but, first and foremost, it is to be based on the key words of the existing texts. Thus, for instance, we can see that the very word «concept» is not used in scientific and philosophical texts at all or it is used out of its contemporary scientific meaning (P.Abailard, D. Scott, B. Spinoza). It comes to active use in its contemporary scientific meaning only in the scientific researches of the boundary of the 20th-21st centuries; accordingly, «concept» notion appears just at that period.
The other method of research on concept is a method of historical investigation allowing us to observe chronological transformation and development of comprehension of concept in culture. In this case, the most perspective thing is construction of historical ranges of various material realizations of concepts. We can turn to a short range from the ranges of changes of the words in language in the context of this research work: the word «land» designating Old Russia turns into the word «state» in the end of
the 16th century - such a change of the words signifying one and the same territory and social phenomenon points at the change of ideas of Russia of that period. There is a scheme of ranges of changes of material objects having one and the same function - for example, the popular scientific investigations of fashion and attributes of human way of life are structured according to such a scheme when there is an observation of historical development of the objects of human clothes, and we can find out development of the ideas of norms of behaviour in society through the ranges of pieces of art. For instance, we are able to observe historical development of «orthodoxy» concept by construction of a historical range of the orthodox churches: The Church of the Virgin's Assumption at the monastery in Daphni near Athens, Saint Sophia's Cathedral in Kiev, the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin on the Nerl River, the Church of Trinity at St. Sergey monastery, and Dormition Cathedral in the Kremlin. This range of pieces of art is able to display the transformation of «orthodoxy» concept from its comprehension in Byzantium to that one in Moscow Old Russia.
The third science with its methods, which are to be applied to research on concepts, is sociology, which allows us to study the contemporary way of comprehension of concept and investigate concept according to the all existing contemporary experience.
It is important to remark that the methods of other sciences should be also applied to investigation of concepts. Philology makes possible to study specific features of concepts in certain texts. The methods of art studies are necessary for research on concepts, for they allow to conceive the sensibly represented essence of a piece of art and, consequently, the nature of some concepts at one of the stages of formation of a religious artistic image. On the whole, we should notice that the methods of art criticism are
able to enlarge the idea of conceptual sphere of knowledge, for the contemporary investigations are concentrated more on the fact of verbal realization of concepts while it is known that verbal thinking is not the only way of human thinking. Therefore, concepts can be «hardened» in visual, audile, and kinesthetic images.
It seems to be necessary that we should also reveal the extent of research on concepts, but not the limits of their existence. On the one hand, concepts exist in different ways for every individual, but only the universal idea of concept is of importance for the research on concept as a display of collective unconscious. As a result, the research on concept is determined by its existence and importance for a social group of people (of any number) and is finished at the point where individual experience of concept appears.
Thus, there are the following methods of research on concepts: a) ethnological methods; b) the methods of historical research; c) sociological methods; d) linguistic methods; e) the methods of art criticism. This is an example of the most important sciences with their methods applied to the research on concepts, and the list of those sciences can be enlarged depending on every of the concepts to be studied.
EXAMPLE Concept as method of culture studies after the example of investigation of «state» concept in Russian culture
Etymology of the word «state» and its synonymous words «land» and «country»
The word «state» appeared in the Old Russian language in the 15th century, the official papers contained this word in the 16th century, and it has been used in its present meaning since the 17th century. «State» word is originated from the Old Russian word «sovereign», which had been in use since the 14th century. In its turn, the
word «sovereign» comes from the more ancient word «saviour», and the meaning of this word is a matter of discussion for many researchers. There are several versions: 1) «saviour» means master, dominus, sovereign; and there is a much rare connection with the Middle-Persian word «master of sheep» (pastor); 2) «saviour» word is connected with the word «Savor» and comes from it; 3) «saviour» is a derivative word from «justice» and «judgment» words in the Russian language - then in such a case «saviour» is a judge, a ruler of the judgment. «State» coming from «saviour» word has three meanings: the territory, which is under sovereign's and master's power; the territory, which is under the Lord's power through the sovereign's mediation; the territory where the sovereign has power to give his judgment.
It is also important to pay attention to the fact that the word «state» appears in the 15th century and starts to be used just in the 16th century. Therefore, this word wasn't used in the Old Russian state for a period of the first five centuries of its development at all. Let us turn to the names traditionally used for signification of the state by the Old Russian people - those are «land» and «country» words (the phrase «Russian land» is wide-spread in Ivan the Terrible's letters, the same phrase is also used by Joseph Volotzkyi and others).
The word «land» is of Slavonic origin. Primarily, land had «low» meaning, and, as J.S. Stepanov's etymological investigations demonstrate (Stepanov, 1997), the notions of «land» and «low» are always connected with the contraposition to «high», «heavens», and «gods» words. The word «land» had started to be widely used in «earth», «world», «country», «estate», and «property» meanings since the 11th century. Hence, the historical evolution of «land» word undergoes the following changes: «land» and «low» meanings as the sphere of human life in
contrast to the divine world of heavens turned into the meaning of the territory, which belongs to someone (besides its direct meaning «upper stratum of the soil»), after rejection of the pagan world outlook in the 11th century. In such a case, «the Russian land» is the territory, which belongs to the Russian people.
The Slavonic word «country» comes from the word «side», which, in its turn, is originated from the Old Slavonic «stoma», i.e. space. This Old Slavonic word is in close relation with the words of various origins - spaciousness, scope, stretch, spread, etc. Consequently, in this case, again we come across the word of spatial and territorial characteristic.
Thus, we can come to the following conclusion: first and foremost, the primary notion of the Russian state was connected with some territorial and spatial designations - space and land. But the word replacing the words of the Old Slavonic origin appeared in the Russian language in the 15th century - that is «state» word, which gave some new senses to «the Russian land» and accentuated them. Then the presence of a sovereign person was established, who possessed and owned the Russian land and the Russian people (like «sheep in a flock»); the Russian land became the territory where a sovereign could do his justice. As we are able to see later, this shade of meaning is not casual: the Russian sovereign of the 15th and 16th centuries bore the responsibility for the Russian people on Doomsday, and that's why he had his right to give his judgment on earth preventing the Judgment on heavens. The relation between the origin and phonetic form of «sovereign» and «saviour» words emphasizes the sense that henceforth a man being at the head of the Russian state is a mediator between God and people.
The comparison of the Russian word «state» with the same words in other languages shows the difference in formation of the West countries and
Russia. Thus, the words «state» in English, «Der Staat» in German, and «L'Etat» in French have the common origin from the Latin word «status» meaning position, posture, situation, standing, and civil position. This is an indication of the fact that the words «state», «Der Staat», and «L'Etat» are associated with the process of state's natural establishment and formation of its positions and institutions. The words concerned with the government of a state appeared in the European languages simultaneously with the process of formation of national states in the Middle Ages. For instance, the English words «state», «government», and «reign» came into existence in the period from 1066 to 1485, i.e. after the Norman Conquest of England and establishment of the state system. The comparative analysis of notions in various languages signifying state as an organism of social unity of a nation in some territory displays the specific character of the Russian concept «state» in contrast to that one in other languages supposing not status (as stature and dignity) of a state for other nations, but concentration of all the social unity in a person of sovereign.
Thus, in the first place, the Old Russian «state» presupposes a person as a mediator of carrying out of power in a certain territory while the European words imply the high rank and status of state's position (perhaps, among the other states). As a result, «state» concept etymologically demands compulsory personal realization of all state's forces in a person of a single ruler with his most essential function of ability to do justice over the people of the territory, which belongs to him. While our consideration of the historical situation, we can see the reason of inclusion of sovereign's judicial function as an important characteristic in the process of formation of «state» concept. «State» word hadn't been used in the texts until the 16th century: there were some other words for signification of Old Russia such
as «Russian land» and «side (country)». Thus, the 15th and 16th centuries can be considered as the period when Old Russia changes the name of its territory as «land» and «country» for the comprehension of it as «state». Primarily, the «name» of the state was connected with its territory and specific character of that territory as spacious, wide and spreading. Some changes have been taking place in this comprehension from the 15th century: sovereign's personality subduing the whole territory and people of the Russian state becomes determinative of signification of the Russian land.
Historical determinants of formation of «state» concept
There are to be distinguished the following determinants of formation of «state» concept in the historical situation of the epoch. Old Russia exists with serious religious contradictions in the boundary of the 15th-16th centuries. The most important religious trends of the epoch are the Judaizers and the Josephists. The Judaizers suggested Old Russia's development by a way of religiosity out of the Church where the base is a doubt in all the dogmata a priori of the Christian religion, and their doctrine represents an effort of rational explanation of being. But the Josephists with their doctrine formulated by Joseph Volotzkyi (1440-1515) suggested the conception of absolute monarchy - that means that a tsar was acknowledged as an owner and a person responsible not only for the human being on earth, but also for the spiritual being of a man on heavens and for his facing God on Doomsday. The Judaizers' conception was supported by the authorities, and later on Ivan IV the Terrible rested upon that very conception in his ruling the country. In the period considered, there was the formation of concept «Moscow is the Third Rome» with penetration of the Byzantine tradition of comprehension of a ruler chosen by God for
ruling the state. The eschatological feelings of the people of the 15th century expecting Doomsday in 1492 are of no less importance for the formation of «state» concept. Thus, the Russian people of the boundary of the 15th-16th centuries were ready for the Judgment Day, and the Doomsday, having not taken place, allowed the sovereign «endow himself with the right» to do justice on the people. The process of national self-identification of the Russian people as the only stronghold of the orthodox faith started from the end of the 15th century. And that was also the context of the fact that national unity is necessary for their presence on Doomsday when there will be judged not each single soul, but the nations on the whole.
Thus, the formation of «state» concept was influenced by the following historical determinants of development of Old Russia:
1) Conception «Moscow is the Third Rome» determined the development of Old Russia as the empire headed by the God chosen ruler. As a result, «state» concept signifying the social unity of the nation was formed as an idea of the possibility to carry out social unity of the nation in Old Russia only by the sovereign's personality heading the people and being a representation of the whole nation in the face of God.
2) The eschatological feelings of the boundary of the 15th-16th centuries brought to such an aspect of «state» concept as the necessity for the sovereign's personality in order to do earth justice, execute and encourage the Russian people.
3) The religious situation of the boundary of the 15th-16th centuries entailed specific features of formation of «state» concept in Old Russia. In the first place, the process of self-identification of the Russians as orthodox people brought the character of possibility of social
unity only on the base of the orthodoxy in the formation of «state» concept. The religious contradictions between the Josephists and the Judaizers and powerful repression of the possibility for the latter to exist gave «state» concept a character of intolerance to the inner contradictions, rational comprehension of the questions of religion and faith, and violent settlement of the inner contradictions.
Thus, the historical situation has formed «state» concept as follows. State is a model of social unity of the Russian people based on compulsory mediation of the sovereign's person in communication between the nation and God. In the first place, the mediation of a ruler consists of carrying out of the mechanism of punishment and encouragement for his people. Social unity is supported by the right of powerful and cruel suppression of some inner contradictions in the state, and the state is orientated by suppression of development of rational bases of thinking and appeals to the support of such people's qualities as obedience and faith.
Sensibly represented being of «state» concept in Old Russian culture
First and foremost, «state» concept presupposes a certain model of social unity. Pieces of art are able to visualize social unity on the level of socio-centric religiosity. The work of architecture of the 18th century - the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin on the Red Square (1555) - is able to be the representation of socio-centric religiosity of Old Russia and «state» concept as well. Investigation of the specific character of socio-centric religiosity visualized with the architectural forms of the church will allow us to enlarge the discovered ideas of «state» concept in Old Russia.
First of all, let us turn to the location of the church - on the Red Square in front of the walls of
the Kremlin in Moscow by the place of judgment and execution of those who broke the Russian state's law. The cathedral's position in front of the Kremlin's walls, inside which the architectural ensemble of the Kremlin in Moscow models the idea of the Russian state organization, gives us an opportunity to understand the explication of the idea of the Russian state organization. The situation of the cathedral by the place of execution on the ground floor allows us to assume that the church includes the idea of sacrifice of the Russian people for the sake of the orthodox religiosity on earth. The idea of nation's sacrifice for the sake of existence of the orthodoxy is also supported by the symbolism of building materials - red bricks, where each brick appears to be personification of many human beings united by the orthodox idea.
The character of socio-centric religiosity is modeled with the cathedral's architectural forms at the level of grouping of separate architectural blocks into one whole while eight separate dome-shaped churches are grouped on the one plinth around the highest central tent-shape church, and that means that something the one and the whole are comprehended as something central, cardinal, and unique.
The specific nature of Russian religiosity accentuates the use of forms of tent-shape type of architecture that appeared in the Russian land. The tent-shape architecture seems to be a representation of the Russian religious feeling of the 16th century, i.e. especially ardent human appeal to God. The elaboration of this architectural form emphasizes the right of Old Russia to be named the Third Rome, for Old Russia proceeding with the Christian history brought a new type of church in the history of the Christian religion like the first two Christian empires.
Thus, analysis of the pieces of art allows us to study the specific features of «state» concept in Old Russian culture of the 16th century. The architecture of the Church of the Intercession of
the Holy Virgin models «state» concept in the following way. «State» is a social whole where multitude is necessarily to be submitted to the central and unique thing relative to that multitude in order it could carry out the sacred mission of sacrificial continuity of the laws of the orthodox religiosity on earth.
Resume
In conclusion of this research, we should summarize the specific features of concept as a method of investigation of the problems of culture studies and we should also outline the advantages of use of the methods of investigation of concepts.
Concept is the human consciousness realized in a language or culture. The aim of investigation of concepts is a possibility to study typological structures of human consciousness, development of knowledge of a man and the mankind as a whole, and reconstruction of the forgotten senses of human culture. The research methods of concepts are etymological investigation of a «name» of a concept in its national language; consideration of historical determinants of concept's formation and historical development of ideas of a concept; sociological investigation, which allows to conceive the present content fixed in a concept; investigation of specific features of concept's existence in philosophical, religious, artistic and other kinds of text; analysis of a pieces of art as concept's representations.
The advantages of research on concepts at culture studies are the following:
1) Consideration of concepts allows us to distinguish the basic principles of human being as an object of knowledge;
2) Concepts study allows us to integrate methods of the humanities (etymology, history,sociology,psychology,philosophy, linguistics, philology, art criticism, etc.) as a whole to investigate the problems of culture studies;
3) Realization of concepts in names of a national language allows us to conceive the history of origin not only of a word in a national language, but the mental content of a word-concept in human culture;
4) Etymological analysis of names in a national language allows us to reconstruct the primary and long forgotten sense of objects and phenomena in culture. Thus, research on concepts is a scientific restoration of the sense of typical in a human life;
5) Historical science, philosophy, and philology help us find out the determinants, which formulated concept's content in a certain period of history;
6) Art criticism allows us to investigate a concept as sensibly represented artistic images;
7) The indissoluble connection of a concept and its sensibly represented realization in objects of culture allows us to consider concept's sphere not with abstract and theoretical notions, but with categories of concreteness and logics;
8) The fundamental comprehension of a concept as a developing phenomenon allows us to consider a concept according to human feelings, knowledge, experience, etc. and human factors influencing on concept's formation with a human being left inside scientific knowledge.
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