LIMITS AND METHODS

Abstract

The article discusses the methodological meaning of the concept of «border» to the knowledge of the socio-cultural reality. It is shown that the effective use of the concept of «border» applied in the study of spatial, temporal, value and existential and psychological dimensions of culture. Spatial interpretation of the boundary is revealed in the analysis of socio-political reality, for example, the state border is a mobile frontier pulsating «around» the center (capital). Culturological interpretation yields such «administrative units» as the region and region, presenting regional cultures and dialectically conducting borders (center vs province) within a larger civilizational whole. Social marking of culture involves the division of society into strata, classes, castes, estates, and fortunes. The temporal interpretation of the boundary is a condition for the irreversibility of processes, the discreteness of time. The value measurement of the boundary is reflected in the concepts of form, norm and canon. The existential-psychological significance of the border is manifested not so much in the «normal», as in the «ultimate», «transitional» and even «altered» states of consciousness. The conclusion of the article is the recognition that the «border» is not universal, that is common to the concept, and the concept of orientation that allows to think relationship, not the essence.