Avant-garde as a general cultural phenomenon in the dynamics of European spiritual life: a philosophical analysis

The study discusses the avant-garde of the last third of the 19th - early 20th centuries as a general cultural phenomenon of European spiritual life. In the author’s opinion, it embodied such dominant cultural characteristics of transitional epochs as relativism, skepticism, eclecticism, pluralism, gamification, the break with the previous cultural tradition. From the perspective of Russian humanities, the avant-garde was traditionally interpreted as a phenomenon related to the art. The author analyzes the development of science, religion, and philosophy at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. Like art, these spheres are characterized by the new phenomena that have guided their development during the transitional period under consideration. The study reveals the reasons for the occurrence of the avant-garde and its manifestations in four spheres of culture: art, science, religion, and philosophy. Each of them reflected the social and cultural transformation in its own way. The study shows the importance of the avant-garde phenomenon for European (Euro-Atlantic) cultural dynamics in general.