Sociological turn in the science of arts of the XIXth century: the concept of H. Taine as an anticipation of the cultural turn
Methodological boom in the studies of arts, typical for the second half of the twentieth century - a consequence of the emergence of a large number of new sciences which enhanced research directions that have emerged since the beginning of the New Era. Originally it was a philosophical, guided by the practice of Encyclopaedists in France of the XYIIIth century. Then, one after another appeared such sciences as aesthetics, sociology, psychology, semiotics. Linguistics, philology and such traditional philosophical direction as hermeneutics became more active. Later there appeared growing interest in phenomenology. And finally, in the second half of the twentieth century the science of culture was born and has underwent rapid development, synthesizing previous sciences and scientific directions and in addition developing on their basis the new science, natural and human of special relations. Culture as a subject of scientific research is one of the most striking events in the history of science of the XX and XXI centuries. In the history of science this global turn has the prehistory in the form of the aesthetic and sociological turn. The article is devoted to one of these turns - sociological. This turn received its most complete expression in the works of the French researcher of the XIX century Hippolyte Taine devoted to arts. The author attempts to explain the nature of arts using not only those ideas that have developed by this time in aesthetics and in humanitarian sciences, but also with the help of methods of natural sciences. In other words, referring to the methodology of H. Taine the author tries to show the contribution of positivism to the knowledge of arts. The invasion of positivism in the processes of knowledge of arts does not characterize only this science of the XIX century. The activity of positivism was manifested in the middle of the twentieth century and became a tradition. Positivism influenced the formation of the science of culture too. P.A. Sorokin’s fundamental ideas have the most direct connection with this. This article is considered by the author as the part of a fundamental study, which the author entitles «the history of the history of arts», i.e. the history of the formation of the methodology of arts studies