CIVILIZATION. - The idea of civilization refers to such a complex object, to the composition of which so many disparate elements of a diverse nature contribute, that the existence of often contrasting definitions can cause no surprise. In their formulation, in fact, ideological presuppositions play a preponderant role, from which one consciously or unconsciously proceeds to the analysis of the data, and which determine the choice of this or that element in preference to others. In order to succeed, therefore, in grasping the essence of civilization and simultaneously assigning a hierarchical order among the values of which it is composed, it is necessary to insist preferably on objective analysis, infusing into it that degree of rational speculation which helps facilitate the ascent from the purely empirical order to that of the most universal values.
If one considers the etymological genesis (from civis or civitas), the term expressly indicates an inescapable relationship of any form of progress with social man or with society, from which it unfolds and in which it resides. In this sense, civilization is equivalent to the condition of material and spiritual life achieved by man within collective coexistence in a given historical period, and is generically opposed to barbarism. It is not easy, however, to establish an exact line of separation between civilized and barbarian peoples, to determine where barbarism ceases and civilization begins, since it is undeniable that even among societies considered barbarian there are some elements, especially moral ones, which belong to the soul of true civilization. Upon this observation is founded the usage of ethnological sciences, which attribute the name of civilization, without distinction of concept or breadth, to the social state of peoples, distinguishing the various phases of their political and economic organization into primary, secondary, and mixed civilizations, according to the prevalence or otherwise of certain characters deemed original to a given culture. However, if adherence to the etymological sense can be useful for a classification of primitive peoples, according to an empirical criterion deduced from the development of their social institutions, it cannot suffice for the formation of an adequate concept, to achieve which it is necessary to refer to its proximate cause. Such a cause, as etymology itself suggests, is social man. The idea of civilization, in fact, has an essential relationship with the rational creature, insofar as it is ordered to carry out its own life within a collective organism, necessary for its full development. The end toward which the progress of civilizing tends is man: the subject upon whom the well-being of civilization is poured out is collective life, from whence it then flows back to its primary and original source, the human person. Such is the dependence of the concept of civilization on the person as part of a human aggregate, that progress cannot be conceived without stable relationships, nor can civilization be divorced from man. Social man is at once its producer and its bearer. Standing by this relationship, civilization could be defined with Sombart as "man's creation, which is contrasted with the divine creation of nature," or with Guizot as "the development of social and individual activity in the progress of society and humanity," or again with a more recent author, Maritain: "the organically determined whole, which has its own form and physiognomy, of social values communicable in themselves." These are very vague expressions, to which it is meanwhile possible to attribute a content insofar as they generically signify that civilization refers to social man, who evolves and fulfills himself through the conquests of science, the applications of technique, the creations of art, the formation of traditions, the construction of institutions, codes, and laws.
To succeed in obtaining a somewhat more determinate and at the same time gradual concept of civilization, according to a precise hierarchy of the values of which it is composed, it is necessary to refer to something more objective and scientifically analyzable. Keeping in mind that civilization indicates a relationship to collective coexistence, this element can be discovered in the common good, and then, with Taparelli, it will be said that civilization is nothing other than social perfection, that is, the perfection of the common good. The perfection of every entity consists in tending toward its proper end, in achieving it and actualizing it in itself, so that it will be all the more perfect the more integrally it has actualized the end toward which it naturally tends. Now the natural end of the social aggregate consists in the common good, and it therefore follows that social life can be said to be perfect only when it corresponds to all or almost all the demands of the common good. The common good then, insofar as it represents the end to be achieved, requires the union of the wills and efforts of individuals; insofar as it is a good already acquired, it postulates the maximum extension and expansion. A society will therefore be civilized, according to the accepted objective concept, when social unity is firm, activity effective, and progress natural and tranquil. This is essentially the conclusion reached by Romagnosi, who defines civilization as the best and most cultured coexistence acquired by a State.
To know the elements that add up to the composition of a cultured coexistence, it suffices to analyze the fundamental needs and requirements of human nature, to whose satisfaction society is ordered. Man moves naturally toward the good, in which the operative faculty finds its fulfillment and its rest. It will therefore assume different aspects according to the various human tendencies and faculties. In the spiritual order, intelligence tends toward the good under the aspect of truth, whereas the will regards the good, which is essentially human, namely the moral good. In the sensible order, the common object of the various faculties is the pleasurable good, toward which they tend without any further purpose than their fulfillment. The elements therefore that enter into the composition of civilization, understood as the perfection of the common good, are truth, moral good, and pleasurable good. A society can then be said to be civilized when within its sphere there have been realized the broadest expansion of truth in its multiple forms—religious, speculative, scientific, and practical—the most uncontested dominion of the moral good in private and public life, with the observance of the laws of nature and positive norms inspired by justice, and the broadest diffusion of material well-being, which simultaneously facilitates the search for truth and the triumph of morality. To these three orders of good—intellectual, moral, and material—can and must be reduced all other means that increase the splendor and well-being of associated life, all the varied forms of civil life in which the tendency toward society is actualized, according to the character, needs, and aptitudes of each people.
In civilization, constant elements and variable elements must be distinguished; upon the latter depends the particular physiognomy that it assumes with the changing of times and circumstances. The constant elements are represented by the aforementioned goods, which, being the essential components, must necessarily be found in any particular form of civil life. The variables depend either on the degree of perfection achieved in their possession by various peoples, or on accidental superstructures derived from the environment, character, and psychological aptitude of those who are their agents, or from cultural contacts with other peoples. Each people reacts differently to external stimuli and variously takes a stance in the expression of truth, the good, and the beautiful. Hence the great variety in the attitudes of thought, in art, in laws and customs, in traditions and institutions.
Thus there remains also implicitly determined the hierarchy among the values that compose civilization. At the highest degree stand the spiritual values, which constitute its soul, to the degree