The Concept and Role of Culture in Socioscientific Systems

The term “culture” has two interesting connotations in social thought. Both carry important implications on the kind of social interrelationships that are generated by the preferences formed at the level of the individual. Since culture is an intermediate course for generating interrelationships, w...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Masudul Alam Choudhury
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
Publicado: International Institute of Islamic Thought 1998
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/4722c52de2924784af916d6dc9e91a5f
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
id oai:doaj.org-article:4722c52de2924784af916d6dc9e91a5f
record_format dspace
spelling oai:doaj.org-article:4722c52de2924784af916d6dc9e91a5f2021-12-02T19:41:23ZThe Concept and Role of Culture in Socioscientific Systems10.35632/ajis.v15i1.22142690-37332690-3741https://doaj.org/article/4722c52de2924784af916d6dc9e91a5f1998-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ajis.org/index.php/ajiss/article/view/2214https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3733https://doaj.org/toc/2690-3741 The term “culture” has two interesting connotations in social thought. Both carry important implications on the kind of social interrelationships that are generated by the preferences formed at the level of the individual. Since culture is an intermediate course for generating interrelationships, which in turn reinforce and continue the very meaning of culture, a cause-effect relationship must exist between social transformation and culture. In this, the formative basis of culture, the individual and groups must play a determining role. Such a social-political-institutional approach to the study of culture, though not prevalent in common literature, has played a central role in two opposing schools. The first school was generated from Ibn Khaldun’s concept of the “science of culture.”’ The second was given life by the ontological status given to culture by Hegel in his definition of the “world spirit,” which he associated with the heart of western civilization.2 (Weber, too, saw in culture the same characteristic?) These two perspectives have recently been invoked by Fukuyama to expound his own theory of the “end of hi~tory.”H~e sees the Hegelian dialectical process to be at the heart of an atomism of culture- the “isothymia,” as he calls it-and governing individualism. When viewed in light of a transmitting medium for social change against the perspectives of different worldviews, the role of culture has been construed in terms of “cultural pluralism.” But when this is taken up in the light of its transforming and cause-effect impact on social transformation, cultural pluralism is nothing less than the consequence of a particular political philosophy. Thus, an important causal nexus of “global” interactions emerges: First, there is a worldview that establishes a meaning of culture. Second, the meaning of culture so formed creates a ... Masudul Alam ChoudhuryInternational Institute of Islamic ThoughtarticleIslamBP1-253ENAmerican Journal of Islam and Society, Vol 15, Iss 1 (1998)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
topic Islam
BP1-253
spellingShingle Islam
BP1-253
Masudul Alam Choudhury
The Concept and Role of Culture in Socioscientific Systems
description The term “culture” has two interesting connotations in social thought. Both carry important implications on the kind of social interrelationships that are generated by the preferences formed at the level of the individual. Since culture is an intermediate course for generating interrelationships, which in turn reinforce and continue the very meaning of culture, a cause-effect relationship must exist between social transformation and culture. In this, the formative basis of culture, the individual and groups must play a determining role. Such a social-political-institutional approach to the study of culture, though not prevalent in common literature, has played a central role in two opposing schools. The first school was generated from Ibn Khaldun’s concept of the “science of culture.”’ The second was given life by the ontological status given to culture by Hegel in his definition of the “world spirit,” which he associated with the heart of western civilization.2 (Weber, too, saw in culture the same characteristic?) These two perspectives have recently been invoked by Fukuyama to expound his own theory of the “end of hi~tory.”H~e sees the Hegelian dialectical process to be at the heart of an atomism of culture- the “isothymia,” as he calls it-and governing individualism. When viewed in light of a transmitting medium for social change against the perspectives of different worldviews, the role of culture has been construed in terms of “cultural pluralism.” But when this is taken up in the light of its transforming and cause-effect impact on social transformation, cultural pluralism is nothing less than the consequence of a particular political philosophy. Thus, an important causal nexus of “global” interactions emerges: First, there is a worldview that establishes a meaning of culture. Second, the meaning of culture so formed creates a ...
format article
author Masudul Alam Choudhury
author_facet Masudul Alam Choudhury
author_sort Masudul Alam Choudhury
title The Concept and Role of Culture in Socioscientific Systems
title_short The Concept and Role of Culture in Socioscientific Systems
title_full The Concept and Role of Culture in Socioscientific Systems
title_fullStr The Concept and Role of Culture in Socioscientific Systems
title_full_unstemmed The Concept and Role of Culture in Socioscientific Systems
title_sort concept and role of culture in socioscientific systems
publisher International Institute of Islamic Thought
publishDate 1998
url https://doaj.org/article/4722c52de2924784af916d6dc9e91a5f
work_keys_str_mv AT masudulalamchoudhury theconceptandroleofcultureinsocioscientificsystems
AT masudulalamchoudhury conceptandroleofcultureinsocioscientificsystems
_version_ 1718376198518603776