Reflection and identity of civilizations (notes to the "Challenge-and-Response” conception)

The subject-matter of the analysis is A. Toynbee’s challenge-and-response” concept which he used as an explanatory means for studying the interaction of civilizations. The paper provides arguments for its limitations and offers justification for a conception of reflection of civilizations with a better heuristic potential for solving this problem. It is shown that the discourse of reflection sets the grounds for defining civilizational identity.