Re: Civilization?

In a message dated 5/29/2003 9:27:07 AM Eastern Daylight Time, seyedjavad@hotmail.com writes:

> Does anybody know what is the difference between 'Culture' and 'Civilization' within human sciences and social-cultural studies? Secondly, what is the most standard definition(s) of 'Civilization' in contemporary discourses?
>  Kind Regards


The difference of Kulture and Zivilization in German thought goes back to the nineteenth century and is dangerous terrain because the distinction foundered in a lot of Spenglerian and other phooey. The original idea (as I would construct it for myself) sprang from the sense that civilization is somehow one-dimensional, horizontal history, compared with the 'culture' emerging in relation to deeper consciousness. There is a lot more to it than that. Basically German culture was beset with a great flowering from the time of the German Enlightenement and within a few generations put Germany on the world  historical map, before its great twentieth century tragedy. 
How then account for that. To make a long story short.

My eonic model accounts for it nicely, but I stay away from the distinction of culture and civilization.

Note, if you like, my treatment of the 'fundamental unit of analysis' in my eonic model, which stands beyond the stream of civilization and shows the intersection of two levels of history. Armed with that we can see that Germany since the early modern, Thirty Years War notwithstanding, and up to the nineteenth century was a 'transitional zone' in the general eonic sequence.  The real issue is not just Germany but the takeoff created by, among other things, the Protestant Reformation, which created a barrier behind which a host of innovations appeared in the Germany, Netherlands, England, France, and to a lesser degree Spain (which was never Protestant). 
This in turn passed beyond the religious issue into the general secular culture of the Enlightenment, French, German, Scottish, etc.....
All these things are part of a more general 'eonic pattern' in my analysis.
So it is not surprising people should suddenly seem to see two layers emerging in these areas. 
Consult the eonic model. 
The more specific distinction of Kulture and Zivilazation has an extensive literature, but the ideas, as far as I know, aren't much in fashion at this point. 

In terms of the eonic model, why did all these flowerings occur with such exact timing. Why did Mozart and Beethoven, to take the most drastic example, not just appear in this era, but specifically in the period of the 'eonic divide' ca 1800? 
No other model except the eonic one can even notice that this is data to be explained. But we see that behind the horizontal layer the whole thing has a deep structure. 

John Landon
Website for
World History and the Eonic Effect
http://eonix.8m.com
Blogzone
http://www.xanga.com/nemonemini