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Kenn Cramer
Fledgling
11 Posts |
 Posted - Sep 29 2004 : 11:01:50 PM
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There has never been found a group of human beings anywhere that do not have any culture. For each culture, there is a view of life and the world—with variances on this from individual to individual—which determines how the individual’s perceptions are given meaning, how everything seen is perceived and interpreted. If I look to a hole in the plaster of my wall and say, "What does it mean?" there is really no answer to this question that is not culturally bound. It does not actually mean anything—it is not language, after all. But were I to bring a date in here, she would think perhaps it means I do not care about the state of my apartment; the owner of my building would think it means he will have to spend some extra money to fix it once I move out; it will mean different things to different people. The Existentialists look at everything people infuse with meaning this way and take away that "arbitrary", culturally bound meaning—and they are left with a life devoid of meaning. To them, this is the reality of life, which people hide from themselves by infusing everything with arbitrary and in a sense illusory meaning. This does not mean that the imposing of meaning on perceptions is conscious. When one walks into a new acquaintance’s apartment, and sees a cockroach, the very sight of the cockroach will be infused with emotion and meaning that is culturally bound. The lower class in the same society would not be bothered by just one cockroach; it would not be infused with the same meaning, and thus its very image would be different. It is a very difficult thing, in daily experience, to separate sight, the emotions associated with the images in it, and what they mean to us. On the conscious level, these are usually fused into a single experience, so that in a sense we "see" our emotions about the sight and its meaning all at once. Perhapes this is what human nature is???
The Rest is Silence... |
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Perception and — Dare I Say — Human Nature
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