World of Philosophy

SR No.: 007005
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan
Publication Year: 2011
Total Pages: 1002
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 30 MB

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Greeks for example distinguished between civilized peoples and bárbaros "those who babble", i.e. those who speak unintelligible languages. The fact that different groups speak different, unintelligible languages is often considered more tangible evidence for cultural differences than other less obvious cultural traits. Herder, Wundt and Humbolt, often saw language not just as one cultural trait among many but rather as the direct expression of a people's national character, and as such as culture in a kind of condensed form.
In 1860, Adolf Bastian (1826-1905) argued for "the psychic unity of mankind". He proposed that a scientific comparison of all human societies would reveal that distinct worldviews consisted of the same basic elements. According to Bastian, all human societies share a set of "elementary ideas" (Elementargedanken); different cultures, or different "folk ideas" (Volkergedanken), are local modifications of the elementary ideas. This view paved the way for the modern understanding of culture. Franz Boas (18581942) was trained in this tradition, and he brought it with him when he left Germany for the United States.
A culture could possibly be evaluated in three ways- Cognitive, Connotive and Normative. The cognitive aspect consists of the world view, the apparent plurality with internal coherence and identity and reflects a continuing conversation between its different traditions and strands of thought. Connotive means acting in certain way within the culture, a way of life with meaning and significance. Normative means judging or evaluating in terms of majority and minority, mainstream and subaltern, high and low, etc. with the view of apprehending the crisis. In a nutshell we can say that culture consists of the aspects of religion/dharma, spirituality, philosophy, ethics, aesthetics, archaeology and so on.
With science and its methodology, there can be an attempt to evaluate culture in terms of the content and the intent of culture, the universalistic character of culture, the hierarchical status of culture and the pluralistic features of culture. Since different cultures represent different systems of meaning and visions of the good life, each realizes a limited range of human capacities and emotions and grasps only a part of the totality of human existence. Suppose I say that 'Everybody has freedom to live a good quality of Life'. Now I split this statement into two parts- 'Everybody has freedom and 'to live a good quality of life'. So far as the first part is concerned, there is no contestation but the second part is extremely contested. One may ask the question is Christianity or Islam or Hinduism or Buddhism, etc. a good quality of life? Or is capitalism or socialism a good quality of life? Or is liberalism, conservatism, or nationalism a good quality of life? To answer this question, one culture needs other cultures to help it understand itself better, expand its intellectual and moral horizon, stretch its imagination, save it from nar
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