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13 Soc. Change 3 (1983)

handle is hein.journals/sclcnge13 and id is 1 raw text is: Social Change : March 1983: Vol. 13 No. I Creative Expansion of Culture and Sociability of the Man of the Future Maksymilian Pacholski** Abstract The paper discusses the problems of processes of assimilation, and conflict. It has been argued that the cultural ideal of the man of the future assumes that each individual. must know how to reconcile his membership to all the groups while preserving his own identity. *Paper presented to the Florian Znuniecki Symposium organised to comrmemorate the 100(1 anniverary orZnniecki's birth, Poznan, December 1982. **Academy of Economics, Institute of Sociology. Rakowicka 27, 35-510 KRAKOW, Poland Home Address Brzozowa 16 m 19, 31-050 KRAKOW, Poland. THE main thread of Znaniecki's work is ,he problem of the a ynanes of cultural systems (Cultural Reta/ilt .19 ; Introduction to Sociolog, 1922, in Polish). The problem, f'sciy posed as stability versus change may be by- passed by formulating data in terms of acticns understood as dynamic cultural systems of values. According to Znaniecki, the world of culture considered as a concrete multitude of active experiences of coundess numbers of human beings succeeding one another within thousands of generations is in a continuous and seemingly chaotic flux. The only form of stability of the social world is its relative organization which reveals ever present contradictions and tendencies to disorganization. One can speak of stability only considering dynamic orders which, within a certain scope, regulate and organize human experience and actions ; the orders themselves are undergoing continuous changes. The task of social sciences is to reconstruct, analyse, classify and explain those processes. Inasmuch as all sociological reflections of Znaniecki are filled with the idea of dynarnism, his conception of cultural development indicates certain helplessness when confronted with the postulate of dynamic approach. Development is something irreversible it is ,a series ofsystematicelogical cultural systems of different classes and not a historic cause series. Thus, there is no inevitable necessity to introduce the artifacts of culture into life. Once created values or the established schemes of actions are bound by neither time nor space; however, their updating or creating new ones may be performed by considerably diversified groups or individuals of society An objective share of Culture nay be continuously enriched while specified groups and individuals may every now and then become poor and less creative. The problems of development were discussed mainly in the following Znaniecki's works : Introduction to Sociology, 1922, The Mfethod of Sociology, 1934, Social Relations and Social Roles, The UJinileed Systematic Sociology, 1 965. Groups and individuals may contribute new achievements to the heritage of former generations only by concentrating their activity within a narrow, and ever narrower, scope. We cannot draw conclusions about the progress of that society, or even mankind, relying merely on the growth of culture and its differentiation within that society, or human culture in general. The above mentioned theoretical premises lie at the roots of the alternative which, according to Znaniecki, is being faced by all societies of the contemporary world. Beyond doubt, there are in the modern world incipients of a new civilization- not international but all-human which do not encompass nuclei common to all national civilizations but the ones that are most precious, combined in an unprecedented synthesis based on the forms of social inter-relations unknown in the past and developing into yet unpredicted direction on the other hand, we face equally indisputable yet more apparent symptoms of disintegration of national civilizations due to external conflicts, internal crises, artifacts outgrowing their makers. Either an all- human civilization emerges which will not only salvage all that is worth salvaging from among national civilizations but will also lead mankind to a level surpassing the boldest dreams of utopians, or national civilizations will perish which means that even though the world of culture will not be annihilated, its greatest systems, its most valuable models will lose their life-significance for many a generation''2 The first of the mentioned options poses for the theory of culture in general and sociology in particular, new and Digitized from Best Copy Available 3

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