MAN TOWARDS DEATH - THE ZYGMUNT BAUMAN CONCEPT OF CULTURE

• Authors: Musielak L.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The aim of this essay is to present Zygmunt Bauman's concept of the sources of culture, as described in his book 'Mortality, Immortality and Other Life Strategies', although that can also be found in other works. That concept incorporated in philosophical and anthropological reflections concerning people and their attitudes to death. In the Z. Bauman's opinion the source of culture and its development is that only people are aware of the possibility of death. This awareness means that to most people life is absurd, ambivalent and deprived of any sense. Thus, it imposes a need to create tools which allow that awareness to be stifled. Such an 'anti-mnemonic' tool is culture which ensures that life actually becomes worth living through. From that perspective mortality possesses an important role in the social structure and the establishment of a cultural order which also determines those aspects of life which seem to be only unrelated to death or dying.

Keywords

EN

BAUMAN ZYGMUNT; CULTURE; DEATH

Discipline

• SOCIOLOGY: SOCIOLOGY

• Publisher: Instytut Studiów Politycznych PAN
• Journal: Kultura i Społeczeństwo
• Year: 2007
• Volume: 51
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 133-149
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Musielak L.

• L. Musielak, Uniwersytet Zielonogórski, ul. Podgórna 50, 65-246 Zielona Góra, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

07PLAAAA03056264