This concept comes from the Latin word civis, which can be translated as “civilian” or “state”. In a more or less modern sense, it was first mentioned by the French enlightener Victor Mirabeau. According to his understanding, civilization is a set of certain social norms that distinguish
human society from animal existence: knowledge, courtesy, softening of morals, politeness and so on. This term is also mentioned in the work of another prominent philosopher of the era - the Scotsman Adam Ferguson. For him, civilization is a certain stage in the development of human society. Ferguson saw history as a consistent development of human culture (writing, cities, society) - from barbarism to a highly developed culture. In a similar vein, the idea of the subject developed in the studies of later philosophers, historians and sociologists. For all of them, civilization is a concept that is somehow related to human society and has a set of features that characterize this society. However, approaches have changed. For Marxists, for example, civilization is a stage in the development of the productive forces of society.
Arnold Toynbee's Historical Approach
An interesting model of the historical process was proposed by the English historian Arnold Toynbee. In his famous work “Comprehension of History”, consisting of several volumes, he considers the entire history of human societies as a non-linear collection of the origin, development and decline of civilizations that arise at different times and in different regions of the globe. Features of each
the civilizational community is explained to them by different environmental conditions: the climate of the area, historical neighbors, and so on.
Arnold Toynbee called this process the law of calling and answering. According to his theory, all sorts of well-known and secret civilizations arise from pracivilizational communities as a result of an answer to a certain external challenge. And in the course of their response, they either perish or create civilization. So, for example, the ancient Babylonian and Egyptian civilizations arose. In response to the aridity of land, local tribes needed to create a whole system of artificial irrigation canals to survive, which then required careful maintenance. This, in turn, caused the emergence of the apparatus of coercion of peasants, the emergence of wealth, and, consequently, the state, which took on a civilizational form dictated by external climatic features.
Christian medieval
civilization in Russia arose as a reaction to the constant raids of nomadic tribes, rallying disparate
East Slavic tribes. In the first volume of his Comprehension of History, Toynbee identifies twenty-one civilizations in the entire
history of mankind. Among them, besides those mentioned, are Ancient Chinese, Hellenic, Arabic, Hindu, Andean, Minoan, Mayan, Sumerian, Indian, Western, Hittite, Far Eastern, two Christian - in Russia and the Balkans, Iranian, Mexican and Yucatan. In later volumes, his views underwent changes, and the number of civilizations decreased. In addition, the historian noted some communities that had a chance to become civilizations, but could not successfully overcome their own challenges. Such were, for example, the Spartans, medieval Scandinavians, nomads of the Great Steppe.