DICHOTOMOUS THEORIES OF CULTURAL AND LEGAL SUPERSYSTEMS

Abstract

Among the modern theories of cultural systems and supersystems, dichotomous models occupy one of the most important places. Almost all recent theories of this kind represent variations and processing of the Marx-Engels division. The most important of these theories are those of A. Coste, Z. Weber, A. Weber, R. M. MacIver, W. Ogburn, F. S. Chopin, T. Veblen, M. Tugan-Baranovsky, and others. Even within the same culture, say sensitive, any of its main systems divides (sociologically) its own values into ‘values-purposes’ and ‘values-means’, into positive and negative, leading to a pyramid of values. In each class of sociocultural phenomena, not all its values are considered equal, but stratified in a hierarchical pyramid, starting with the negative and mediocre ‘values-means’ and ending with the final, supreme ‘means-purposes’. These authors support the dichotomous division of the total sociocultural world into two different supersystems. The common feature of all dichotomous theories is that, without any explicit distinction between sociocultural and conglomerate systems, they divide the total culture of all societies into two different classes, and claim that all phenomena, within each class, are interdependent and change within the same pattern, given that the patterns of change in each class are fundamentally different. All these considerations and empirical evidence show the injustice of dichotomous theories of progress and lagging behind. At best, they fall into the well-known mistake of elevating a particular fact to the rank of a universal rule.

Keywords

• society
• civilization
• sociocultural phenomena
• dichotomous theories
• cultural system
• legal system
• supersystem