Culture as a subject and metaphor of the "fate of culture"

The article is devoted to the consideration of the phenomenon of culture through the prism of its subjectivity and with the help of the metaphor of «the fate of culture». The types of theoretical understanding of culture, including evolutionist approaches and civilizational concepts, are considered. And it is precisely in civilizational concepts that culture is represented as a «subject». The origins of the concept of «fate» in its relationship with the concept of life path are reflected on the example of O. Spengler’s theory of the life cycles of cultures. The position of S.L. Frank, who polemicized with Spengler on the death of Western culture, is presented. The problem of the unity of humanity and different ways of cultures is posed. After all, different cultural communities, that is, different subjects, preserve the individual specifics of spiritual life and the difference in their destinies. But from the «destinies of different cultures» in all their richness, the common fate of mankind is formed.