Fundamentals ofCulture-Sociology

Alfred Weber

ID 501 Advanced Product Development in Industrial DesignSpring 2012-2013

Deniz Ertürk

Historical Event

CultureMovement

SocialProcess

CivilizationProcess

Historical Organism

“...the great geographic, cultural and dramatic units of mankind...”

Historical Organism

Social ProcessMass of historical eventsCorporeal

Evolution

Historical Organism

Civilizational ProcessThe functional and technical knowledgeUniversal, pre-existent, theoretically trueNecessary for historical organism to sustain its exitence,Transferible, expanding

Discovery

Historical Organism

Culture movementArt, religion, idea systemsSpecific for own historical organismNot neccessary for survivalNo gradual and rational development

Spirituality

• What is the motivation of cultural movement to expand beyond its own nature and its own historical organism?

• Example of Islamic and Arabian expansion and other religious expansions

Historical Process

HistoricalOrganism

CultureMovement

SocialProcess

CivilizationProcess

Civilizatonal Process

New Period, New Phenomenon

Cultural ProductivtyArt, religion, and idea system of the new period

• Altough civilizational process is always progressive, the cultural movement may be an barrier for civilization in some periods. Then, why we call it cultural development?

• Example of Medieval Europe• Example of Indian caste-system

Different approaches

Evolutionary Approach (progress as a whole)

• German Idealism (mind, mental development)

• Marxism (technical side of civilization)

• Positivism (mental and scientific development)

Different approaches

Morphological Approach (culture as the whole)

Culture movement is the main historical process.

Every historical organism has its own development path.

All cultural developments are unique symbols only valid for their own Historical organism.

The whole process of cultural development must be explained together with other fields of Human historical development.

The spiritual character of a certain historical organism should be examined wtih its superficial effects and the relations that create these effects instead of mere emphaty with that certain culture.

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