PHILOSOPHICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS AND CIVILIZATIONAL INTERPRETATIONS OF THE CONCEPT OF MORAL CULTURE

Abstract

This article explores the philosophical and theoretical content of the concept of moral culture, its civilizational criteria, and its role in enhancing individual activity. The paper compares interpretations of the concept of "culture" in the thought of Eastern and Western peoples, analyzing its descriptive, historical, normative, and ideological types. In contrast to the intellectual and technological approach inherent in the Western worldview, the purely spiritual foundation of culture—conscience, virtue, and the law of the heart—is substantiated. Furthermore, factors internally governing the moral culture of an individual are revealed within the context of the German thinker I. Kant's idea of the "categorical imperative" and contemporary philosophical perspectives.