INTRODUCTION.

Culture is essential to human existence. We cannot speak of the human being and his/her world in a comprehensive sense without culture. Doing philosophy of culture deals with the complex dynamics of human relationships within a given cultural community. Thus, we make a special focus on the complementariness of these relationships in our philosophical discourse. Here, we use the recent data of cultural anthropology as our material.

In our philosophical investigation, we consider philosophy of culture as an important compliment to the philosophy of the human being. It also relates to our course in philosophy of language.

We aim to have a deeper understanding of the human, his/her total behavior in the context of his/her complex internal reality and cultural environment. Our reflection will consider the various ways in which human existence is instantiated. The focus will be on the different basic instances in which the human being exercises his/her knowledge in order to fulfill his/her basic aspirations. These include his/her knowledge of nature, of society, of the other, of the self, and of the Transcendent Being. We will also deal with the reciprocity that occurs in the interpersonal and the societal relationships; also the human’s efficient use of technology; and also his/her relation with the Absolute Transcendent Being.

We will also reflect on how the individual human being is shaped by a culture and also how the human individual, inserted in a particular culture, modifies it on the process. Thus, we will determine what constitutes culture itself. And this comprises the reality as known, valued, symbolically and technologically modified, socially organized. All these are included in the concept of culture.

Reference to the human being renders value to culture. Thus, it presupposes our understanding or concept of the human being. Here, we take note that everything is somehow participated, received, and transmitted by more individuals. This makes culture, not as an individual enterprise, but is an achievement of a community in space and time. The concrete cultural changes manifest its temporal, dynamic and historical character.

All the elements in the concept of culture compliment our understanding of the philosophy of man. In fact, philosophy of man blossoms in philosophy of culture. The finality of culture is for the perfection of the human being. Thus, even if we recognize these two disciplines distinctly, however we cannot treat them separately. Nor can we view culture as a fixed picture of every human life. The recent studies of historical sciences and cultural anthropology have broadened our horizons in our understanding of human existence. This leads us to a total philosophical treatment of culture.

To deal with the interpersonal aspect in culture is to confront the problem of the knowledge of the other. This is fundamental to every philosophical discourse on culture. Knowledge of the other is the foundation of philosophy of culture. Any reflection and discourse on culture emerges from human interpersonal relationship. And this always implies the knowledge of the other.

Philosophy of culture departs from cultural anthropology. It takes the diversity of cultures, as affirmed by cultural anthropology, as our point of departure. However, the basic thrust is philosophical. As cultural anthropology presents to us in a descriptive way the extensive aspects of human existence, it assures us a universal content or intelligibility to our understanding. And, finally, the dynamic, changeable, temporal aspect of culture will also lead us to the philosophical interest of human history.

Therefore, the order of our course in philosophy of culture consists mainly of three parts: Part I -The Dialectics of the Human Being and the Other; Part II The Phenomenon of Culture; Part III – History (In reference to culture).

PART I           -           THE DIALECTICS OF HUMAN KNOWING AND THE OTHER

To study culture and history, philosophically, means to study human living in society and specifically the human environment, i.e. their being and their becoming. But, this presupposes that culture and history consist not simply a juxtaposition of individuals and series of events in time-space. There is inter-relatedness and reciprocity in the encounter. What makes man distinct from other animals is his intellective-volitive activity. This transcending activity is inserted profoundly in the context of his biological and psychical, or experiential activities. This implies a reciprocal relation, a reciprocal knowledge between human beings.

It is on the basis of the above, that the knowledge of the other presents itself as the foundation of philosophy of culture. Without knowledge of the other, it would be impossible to know culture and history. This is the Epistemological foundation. We consider this as the foundation, because to know the other or knowing oneself co-existent with other human beings opens the horizon in which culture and history constitute themselves. And it is in this context that questions concerning them are raised and answers are formulated. In short, the philosophical reflection on diversity of cultures and history starts from knowledge of the other. And it is also from knowledge of the other as the ground from which they bloom. This presupposes the critique of the value of human knowledge and philosophy of man, which present the fundamental structure of human operation and of being human.

Therefore, it is not simply a case of artificial abstraction, but rather of enjoying and fulfilling the philosophical vision of man that it aims to accomplish.

Through knowledge of the other, the human knowledge is understood in the full sense, the knowledge that completes and matures itself in judgement and responsibility. Sound epistemology tells us that that which is proper of man - the human activity as such - is evidently not attainable by a purely experiential, sensitive knowledge. Human cognitive activity is not only involved in the context of experience which is indispensable to it, but also the other who comes to us as data in the experience aside from the other animals and the rest of the sensibles.

To know the other as human cannot be studied independently from such experience. But how do we experience the other? This is one of the problematic in philosophy of man. How on the basis of experience do we judge the other as being endowed with psychic acts - as subject. In the following chapters, we will show how we know the other as a human subject and how, as proposition, it begins to be the problematic of Culture and History.

Here, our treatment of the problem of the knowledge of the other is not exhaustive. We limit our investigation on what is required of the general aim of the course and the function that it assumes.