Culture: the evolutionary causes and consequences of progress

Article 1. Culture has a double meaning

Culture has a double meaning: real and figurative. In its primitive, real sense, it is the work done to fertilise the earth and improve its productivity. In its figurative and secondary sense, it refers to all intellectual efforts and activities of the human being to cultivate his natural capacities, his creative potential and his moral and ethical qualities, in order to rise above his primitive and instinctive nature. Culture raises humanity, individually and collectively, to a higher state of consciousness and spiritual development.

Article 2. Individually, culture is

Individually, culture is the sum of knowledge and wisdom acquired over the ages, enriching the human spirit and advancing towards greater self-perfection. Culture has a general meaning when it refers to areas of application concerning the human race as a whole, apart from all trades and technical or professional specialisations.

Article 3. Culture is the concern of every civilisation

Culture is the concern of every civilisation. It includes collective and intellectual aspects inherent to the religious, moral, aesthetic, scientific and technical life of peoples in evolution.

Article 4. Meaning of Civilisation includes all

What we call civilisation includes all intellectual and spiritual characteristics common to the most advanced human societies in terms of religion, morality, aesthetics, science and technology.

Article 5. Religion is

Religion (from Latin religare = to link) is this feeling or awareness, by which or from which man feels connected to something larger than himself in the great universe, which allows him to recognize necessarily the existence of a Higher Principle, a Supreme Intelligence, an Absolute Presence, a Sublime Wisdom, who is both a transcendence and an immanence, from the nature and power of whom depends all destinies. This recognition of an absolute and supreme Initial Cause is what gives meaning and purpose to evolution. Otherwise, there is no real human morality or true collective ethic.

Article 6. Religion is generally

Religion is generally reduced to an intellectual attitude by which man adheres to certain ideas of morality and human behavior, from which results a system of specific beliefs and rituals for different social groups. All social life is necessarily given a rhythm by the principle of order. Order is a question of mastering oneself which is the basis of all real education, and not a moral or religious constraint. Any constraint leads to the many forms of dictatorship and despotism. The principle of love for others allows mankind to maintain peaceful relations with others. Practical goodness is the criterion for this philanthropic love.

Article 7. Religion is therefore based

Religion is therefore based on mystical faith, ideological belief, moral expectation and self-conviction in something higher, with a contribution of the depth of the intellect and feeling, what man calls spirit and heart, intelligence and love, reason and wisdom.

Article 8. Morality

Morality concerns specific manners of men, according to certain rules accepted by all members of a society, put into practice in certain habits whose good or bad nature is defined by uncertain criteria of which the standards vary from one period to another. We can say that morality is a philosophical trend which theorizes human action, subjecting it to the necessities of duty, of responsibility, or of goals that a society sets out to achieve. Duty and a sense of responsibility may in itself be a general moral obligation.

Article 9. Ethics

Ethics is nothing else than morality extended to the entire community and therefore can have a social and political character.

Article 10. To avoid any kind of erratic behavior

To avoid any kind of erratic behavior and promote a certain unified life in society and community, every nation, people, and group must define a line of moral conduct, based on knowledge and wisdom, and no longer on the admission of certain ancestral or traditional customs, or certain traditional usages. The construction or development of a moral or ethical system depends on the degree that men have achieved in the development of the higher consciousness of the world and the environment. The moral and ethical system is then codified and ratified by democratic laws and accepted by the citizens.

Article 11. To be valid

To be valid, any system of morality and ethics must take as a benchmark the unique reference that is the notion of public and individual wellbeing: of beauty, truth and justice. The Good, the Well, the Beautiful, the True and the Just are the general foundations of morality and ethics. We call evil everything that is contrary to morality and an ethics of the Good, the Well, the Beautiful, the Truthful and the Just: there, in those areas of permanent reference, must lie the moral obligations of individuals and the ethical obligations of societies.