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UBC : IS+H : Lecture 17 : Dan Sperber

303 Views Length: 43:20 Dan Sperber, "Naturalizing culture : Two challenges and one solution" :

Most researchers intent on developing a naturalistic approach to culture focus on only only one the two challenges involved: that of identifying the natural causes of cultural… Dan Sperber, "Naturalizing culture : Two challenges and one solution" :

Most researchers intent on developing a naturalistic approach to culture focus on only only one the two challenges involved: that of identifying the natural causes of cultural phenomena (in opposition to the standard social science methods that aim at explaining social and in particular cultural phenomena in terms of one another). While they look for new naturalistic explanantia, these researchers tend to accept the standard social science characterisation of the *explananda*, that is, the standard ontology of collective beliefs, practices, groups, institutions, and so on. This standard ontology is blatantly non-naturalistic. In a true naturalistic explanation both the causes and the effects must be given a naturalistic description. Another naturalistic challenge then – one that is less well understood but not less important – is to that of developing a naturalistic ontology of culture. I discuss how an epidemiological approach may allow us to meet both challenges. More