Recognizing Crisis in Culture

Abstract

The main problem I will consider is the question of the possibility of recognizing a crisis in culture. By recognition I mean the cognitive intuition that paves the way for subsequent stages of knowledge, i.e., the distinguishing of a given phenomenon as different and separate and its identification as a crisis. Crisis here is to be understood as a transitional state, a dramatic upturn in axiological structure. Manifestations of crisis recognition were present already in Antiquity and I will discuss some examples in my talk. I will argue that such recognition is possible owing to the resonant structure between the goings on in culture and goings on within ourselves. The analysis of the phenomenon will be carried out on the basis of the ideas of two authors: Witkacy, an artist and philosopher, and Stefan Morawski, a philosopher of culture and aesthetician.