As is well known, the word 'culture' derives from the Latin 'cultura,' which meant both 'to cultivate' (the land) and 'to perfect' and 'to venerate.' In later usage of the word 'culture,' these nuances were preserved, but it is curious that originally 'culture' meant the transformation of nature in the interests of humans — more precisely, the tilling of the land. And in parallel arises the metaphor 'cultura animi,' used by Cicero — 'the culture (perfection) of the soul,' 'spiritual culture.'
European culture, to which we all owe so much, is, in essence, the fruit of the self-awareness of the former provinces of the Roman Empire. It is not out of the question that a new Eurasian culture will take shape as a result of the development of the self-awareness of the former components of the secular empire. Perhaps a different understanding of the meaning of culture will emerge here, and hence a different culture — especially in the East. Eastern understandings of culture and Eastern cultural traditions unquestionably stand in opposition to what, in the 1920s, was called the 'mechanization of the human soul.'