Civilization, Culture and History

Abstract

The theory of culture and civilization occupies a central position in Ziya Gokalps' thought. His explanations about culture and civilization are determined by two basic considerations: One of them is, to legitimize the choice of becoming part of the Western civilization by the help of a thesis about 'the changeability of civilizations'. The other basic consideration of Gokalp, is to preserve the national identity in spite of this inclusion into Western civilization. But, defining civilizations as 'interchangeable identities' and posing the possibility of 'abondoning the Ottoman/Islamic civilization', hardens the maintenance of culture/national identity. So we can say that, Gokalps' explanations about civilizations, creates serious problems about the production and reproduction of identity in relation with historical heritages. This article concentrates on the problems of identity production and tries to analyze these problems in a historical continuum.