Социальные ценности в системе современной культуры

This article examines current problems of the description of the category of value. The novelty of this approach lies in the fact that the value is considered from a semiotic point of view, namely, as a special kind of sign, which has formal, semantic and pragmatic properties. The analysis and comparison of different (ethnic, regional, religious, professional, class, gender, etc.) value systems shows that they differ in each of these aspects. From this perspective, the value categories were compared to one another in the Polish and Russian cultures. The author shows, on the example of the cultural perception of the Polish President's death in a plane crash in April 2010, how the distinction of cultural concepts affects intercultural communication.