Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T23:05:19.386Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Meanings of Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Robert Bierstedt
Robert Bierstedt*
Affiliation:
Harvard University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Few words appear more frequently in the literature of contemporary social science than “culture.” Not only does it occur frequently, but with such a multitude of meanings that a single definition of the term becomes almost impossible. Even a cursory examination of social scientific writing discloses that its signification varies with the contexts in which it appears and with most individuals who use it. As long as words are single exhibits of the versatility and variety of language, no fault can be found with a plurality of meanings which may come to adhere to them. But when words are designed for and used in discussions of a supposedly technical character in any of the social science disciplines, the time for literary and philological speculation has past. Words intended for such use must conform to certain standards of conceptual validity, must be used consistently in analogous contexts, and must never be torn from the universe of discourse of which they are a part.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , April 1938 , pp. 204 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1938

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1 A. Lawrence Lowell, from “Culture.” An address prepared for delivery at the University of North Carolina, April 28, 1915, but not delivered at that time. Reprinted in At War with Academic Traditions in America, Harvard University Press, 1934, p. 117.

2 R. M. MacIver, Society: Its Structure and Changes. New York: Ray Long and Richard Smith, 1931, p. 226.

3 E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture, Volume I. London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1872, p. 1.

4 W. D. Wallis, Culture and Progress. New York: Whittlesey House, McGraw-Hill, 1930, p. 11.

5 Wallis, Culture and Progress, p. 33. See identical assertion in Ruth Benedict, Patterns of Culture. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1934, p. 47.

6 Gardner and Lois Barclay Murphy, Experimental Social Psychology. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1931, p. 14.