Some Key Concepts and Definitions in Civilization

Some Key Concepts and Definitions
Civilization
A civilization is a complex culture in which large numbers of people share a variety of
common elements. Historians have identified a number of basic characteristics, including the
following: 1. An urban focus 2. New political and military structures 3. A new social structure
based on economic power. 4. The development of more complexity in a material sense 5. A
distinct religious structure 6. The development of writing 7. New forms of significant artistic
and intellectual activity.
Culture
‘Culture’ is not easily defined, not least because it can have different meanings in different
contexts. However, the concept that lies at the core of cultural studies, it may be suggested, is
very much the concept that is found in cultural anthropology. As such, it avoids any exclusive
concern with ‘high’ culture. It entails recognition that all human beings live in a world that is
created by human beings, and in which they find meaning. Culture is the complex everyday
world we all encounter and through which we all move. Culture begins at the point at which
humans surpass whatever is simply given in their natural inheritance.
Counterculture
The term ‘counterculture’ was coined in the 1960s, largely in response to the emergence of
middle-class youth movements (such as the hippies), to refer to groups that questioned the
values of the dominant culture. While centering on an opposition to the Vietnam War, the
hippie counterculture also expressed its dissatisfaction with the values and goals of capitalism,
such as consumerism, the work ethic and a dependence on technology. In general, the concept
of counterculture may now be extended to the values, beliefs and attitudes of any minority
group that opposes the dominant culture, but more precisely, does so in a relatively articulate
and reflective manner. Thus, at its emergence, the Christian religion was a counterculture, in
opposition to the dominant Jewish and Roman cultures. In the early period of British
capitalism, the Quakers and the Methodists represented countercultures in opposition to the
dominant values of Anglicanism.
Historicism
A theory which holds that historical analysis of human beliefs, concepts, moralities and ways
of living is the only tenable means of explaining such phenomena. Thus, an historicist rejects
the belief that, for example, there are any a-historical, necessary truths concerning the
construction of human identity, on the grounds that such concepts are the result of historical
processes particular to specific cultures and cultural forms. Historicism therefore extols a
cultural relativism. Thinkers associated with the historicist approach include sociologist Karl
Mannheim, who (combining an epistemological relativism and a cultural relativism) argued
that all knowledge of history is a matter of relations, and that the perspective of the observer
cannot be excised from historical analysis.
Critical Theory
‘Critical theory’ is something of an umbrella term, and has come to be associated in the Anglo-
American academic world with a brand of textual analysis which has taken root predominantly
in university English literature departments. The term itself, however, was first linked to the
work of the Frankfurt School (e.g. Horkheimer, Adorno, Benjamin and Marcuse). In the hands
of these thinkers, critical theory was envisaged as a rigorous critical engagement with social
and philosophical issues which aimed at the cross-fertilisation of research methods derived
from the social sciences with a Marxist theoretical framework for conceptualising social
relations. However, as exemplified by Horkheimer and Adorno’s book Dialectic of
Enlightenment, there always existed in the work of the Frankfurt School a tendency to question
certain ideas that were central to Marxism (for instance, the traditional Marxist confidence in
the politicisation of the proletariat leading to revolution, or an unproblematic affirmation of the
Enlightenment ideal of rationality as providing the key to social progress).
Marxism
Marxism refers to those schools of social, economic, political and philosophical inquiry that
derive their approach from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. The interpretations
and developments of Marx’s work are extremely diverse. They share an approach to the
analysis of society that gives primacy to economic activity, although key debates within
Marxism centre on the degree to which the economic base determines the nature and structure
of the rest of society. Societies are understood as being structured according to the exploitation
of subordinate classes by a dominant class. Historical change is therefore typically analysed in
terms of developments within the economic base, that are manifest as class conflict and
revolution. As a political philosophy, Marxism remains committed to the realisation of a non-
exploitative society (communism), typically through the liberation of the proletariat, the
subordinate class within capitalism.
Liberalism
A key term within political philosophy, the word ‘liberalism’ is associated with a large number
of thinkers (including Locke, Adam Smith,Malthus, Condorcet, J.S. Mill, Rawls and, more
recently, Richard Rorty). The origins of liberalism can be traced back at least as far as the
writings of John Locke (1632–1704). Indeed, Locke’s work exhibits many of the key features
that have subsequently been used to define liberalism.
Hegemony
The term ‘hegemony’ is derived from the Greek hegemon, meaning leader, guide or ruler. In
general usage it refers to the rule or influence of one country over others, and to a principle
about which a group of elements are organised. In twentieth-century Marxism, it has been
developed by the Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci (1891– 1937) to explain the control of the
dominant class in contemporary capitalism.

Some Key Concepts and Definitions in Civilization

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Some Key Concepts and Definitions in Civilization

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Some Key Concepts and Definitions

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