Documentation of human life course: documents about a person

The paper document and documenting are presented as objects of specialized scientific, socio-humanitarian and philosophical knowledge. The main characteristics of the document relevant only for documentation research are described. So, a document scientific approach defines a document as some information with a particular set of details fixed in a tangible medium. Documenting, understood as an essential social and cultural phenomenon, is considered in the article, first of all, in the individual personality aspect and in connection with documents of a person. It provides a framework to transfer the understanding of the document, documenting and self-documentation from the sphere of specialized scientific knowledge to the field of humanities, including philosophy. In the article, the term "document" is considered from the perspective of historical research: why a document as an object of study is interesting to historians. The key components, attributes of documents relevant for historical research are outlined. A document from the perspective of cultural studies directs consideration of individual personal documents in different directions. In cultural studies the concept "document" is associated with such concepts as "artifact", "memory", "texts of culture" and others. Culture is a "living tissue" of human life. Culture performs a life-organizing function, give life scenarios, including childhood, adolescence, youth, maturity and old age. Cultural texts are references, samples, values that, when taking a real form, appear in real life in the form of various documents, forming a system of "culture life - documents - person's life". In the view of the authors, in a cultural sense, documenting is the process of creating documents which are forms of securing a living, direct socio-cultural experience. It is connected with culture texts existing at the time of this experience, and it reflects the attitude towards such texts. The possibility of philosophical interpretation of documenting and documents is detected, when they are viewed in the context of an important problem of philosophical anthropology: the problem of the human life. The authors of the article are interested in the semiotic, axiological, hermeneutic and communicative aspects of the personal document rather than in the information one. Autobiography, biography, photograph are the considered examples of personal documents. It is shown that the purposes of such documents can be self-presentation, self-organization, knowledge, understanding, genuine communication with oneself and the world around. The authors state that the question of which material evidence of the personal life of a modern person should be considered as documents remains controversial. There may be different attitudes to a document, its forms are diverse, yet it is always present in the culture and functions in the social and cultural space. Understanding of the methods and forms of documenting, features of documents as evidence of the modern person's way of life is one of the possibilities to understand people and to clarify their life priorities.

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