Fred Nickols <nickols@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> There is no such thing as culture. It is a construct, a label,
> a name for vaguely perceived patterns in behavior and artifacts.
Hi Fred:
As defined by some, culture is exactly what your wrote down by definition:
learned perceived patterns of behavior based on deeper assumptions. See
Schein's "Organizational Culture and Leadership" for example.
So if one accepts that definition, culture exists -- at least for that
individual and with that meaning.
But let's take a deeper look at the problem. Remember Wittgenstein?
Everything is a tautology, and we are trapped by language and by the
meanings we give to the words we invent. Therefore a linguistic
philosopher would argue that the statement:
"There is no such thing as [your favorite word]."
can always be proved true. Because _all_ words are just abstractions that
help us communicate and express our thoughts. But words are _always_
incomplete abstractions, and in that sense, *nothing* really _is_ or
_exists_ exactly as a word describes.
To say this in other words, there are no absolute meanings; but rather,
meanings are _always_ contextual, and therefore cultural.
But if that is the case, how can we possibly argue then, right?
Well, we can if _we_ can agree a priori on the meanings of the language we
use, but the minute we do that we form -- by definition, a subgroup of
people with shared meanings, a sub-culture.
It is no coincidence that in History, cultures always develop around the
same time that their languages develop.
Language forms culture, and culture builds language. They are
inseparable, and together they build and feed from deep assumptions,
values and beliefs.
On a very twisted turn, perhaps one of the only non-cultural aspects of
humanity that is not a physical trait, is exactly our common ability to
parse language -- the deep structure that Chomsky proposes. All other
behavioral aspects of humans are mostly cultural according to most social
scientists: anthropologists, ethnographers, sociologists, linguists,
psychologists.
- Mike Beedle
Principal
Framework Technologies Inc.
http://www.fti-consulting.com
http://www.fti-consulting.com/users/beedlem/
--"Mike Beedle" <beedlem@fti-consulting.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>