Abstract

The various forms of human knowledge can be regarded as an integral, historically developing system. Universal cultural categories are a system-building factor. They form the core of the cultural and historical code by which a type of society is reproduced. The differences in the meaning of universals in traditional and technogenic cultures determine the difference in the organization of knowledge forms. The modern system of knowledge is developing under two general conditions: the search for a new worldview, as well as the intensification of cross-cultural dialogue. The transition to the technological mastery of complex, historically evolving systems forms new images of nature from the scientific perspective, as well as new strategies of activity. These new images of nature accord not only with the values of the European culture, but correlate with the worldviews of different Eastern cultures which had previously been rejected as unscientific.