Myhalevych V. Transformation of the Center Symbol in West European Culture

The thesis addresses culturologic analysis of the Center symbol transformation in West European culture. It is proved that in premodern culture the Center symbol constitutes the value hierarchy, connecting the empirical sensible reality located at the universe’s periphery with the Ideal and Universal located at center. It is grounded that in Antiquity the logocentric world’s picture is based on ideas-eidoses that act as symbols connecting physical world and its inner transcendental center–One (Good). In the context of the Middle Ages’ culture, Logos as impersonal law of the Universe transformed in Jesus Christ’s personality, the highest symbolization of which is human being. The secularization of understanding of Center and its symbols in New European culture is investigated. It is indicated that ideological directions of romanticism, irrationalism and psychoanalisys transfer the human center in sensible emotional and unconsciously spheres, which are expressed by traditional Center symbolism. It is defined that in the situation of postmodernism the inner and physical centers are absent and their symbols deteriorate in simulacrums.