Thursday, January 17, 2008

Week 2 - Barker Chapters 3 & 4

I enjoyed how Barker described the inter-connectivity of thoughts, language, emotions and behavior. Barker seems to claim that culture pivots upon language because language gives us a "map of meaning". But this does not clarify the human experience and what culture is because meaning is an arbitrary notion often given different definitions by the user and receiver. I agree with Barker that such findings reveal that the human experience is not something static but evolving. If anything is clear about how we perceive the world and each other is that we are constantly changing. This is true biologically, emotionally and culturally. What is interesting to me is that the natural sciences are discovering the same kind of uncertainties. Discoveries in quantum physics and cosmology are saying that the universe is ultimately a strange and unknowable place. Most scientists now believe that our three pound box of brains is most assuredly unable to understand it all even if it all could be understood.

1 comment:

Taking a look around said...

http://bgvalentine.wordpress.com/

Hey man, thanks for your post, it helped me in thinking about some stuff.
-Ben