Krize hodnot okcidentální kultury v postmoderní společnosti
The Crisis of the Values of Occidental Culture

Summary/Abstract: This article deals with a critical analysis of postmodern occidental society. Modern civilization in the late 19th century found itself in a state of anomie, a loss of a unified system of values when universal ethical rules and standards cease to apply. This process gradually led to the current situation where the values of Western civilization are in state of crisis. Metaphysical questioning about the meaning of life has completely disappeared; the society focuses exclusively on pragmatic issues related to its material existence. Previously we asked under the influence of religion why? and we expected a qualitative response, but today we ask how? and we content ourselves with a purely descriptive answer. Occidental society is individualistic – the transformation of the notion of duty is also related to this matter. In Western culture a duty is perceived only as a duty of an individual to himself. A key influence on the development and thinking of Euro-American society has been planetary tech-science. We are a society that puts emphasis on technical and technological progress and therefore we are de facto governed by an illegitimized power of technology. We are also a society that lives for the present time and thinks too less about the future – we think about it only if a huge environmental disaster endangers the survival of our living space. We live in the era of material surplus, we are a consumer society. However, the question remains whether non-Euro-American cultures will move in the same direction as the occidental culture or whether they will take a peculiar path (if at all possible) and what will this journey be like. It is likely that the masses, which have activated themselves in the recent years in Islamic world, will follow a different logic than the one with are familiar with from the Europeans and Americans.

• Details
• Contents