本文试图概述文化这一概念——从18世纪末最初作为与社会相对的概念到以后“主要作为与民族相对的概念”(埃利亚斯语)——的历史演变过程。在这一演变过程中,相应出现了文化的阶级作用到国家作用的转变,以及作为与精英文化相对立的意识形态到民族国家出现的情况下作为动员群众的替代物,即宗教的转变。而且,我们还可以通过这一概念本身的变化(从文化的普遍意义到特殊意义的转变)找到这种阶级作用到国家作用的变化的原因。在社会理论中,普遍性常常与理性和公 This article attempts to outline the concept of culture - from the beginning of the eighteenth century as the concept of society as opposed to the concept of “mainly as a nation as opposed to” (Elias) - the historical evolution. In this process of evolution, there has been a corresponding shift in the role of culture from class to state, as a substitute for mobilizing the masses in the context of the emergence of a nation-state as the opposite of the elite culture, that of religion. Moreover, we can also find out the reasons for the change of the role of this class to the state through the change of the concept itself (from the universal meaning of culture to the change of special meaning). In social theory, universality is often associated with reason and justice