Understanding Cultural Diversity and Human Identity

Posted on Nov 23, 2024 in Philosophy and ethics

In and Out of a Culture: Emic and Ethics

At sunrise, the subjects are white papers on the cultural context we are entering. To understand the process is to understand the world. This is called enculturación, the learning of culture. Learning a culture is to understand and interpret the world and the things that happen within it, based on the parameters established by that culture.

The term “emic” refers to the perspective adopted by the participants themselves. It consists of interpreting a ceremony, ritual, or other cultural practice within the parameters that the agent runs, taking into account the justification of their own culture. A perspective “ethical” is that of the outside observer, the point of view taken by the sociologist when trying to evaluate a cultural situation from their own ethical standpoint. This perspective remains rooted in an outside culture while keeping in mind another culture.

The Variety of Human Cultures

Explaining why, despite some biological characteristics being common, cultural expressions of human beings are so different:

1) Evolutionism: This theory states that all cultures go through the same stages in their development and will arrive at the same stage. Diversity is justified because each culture is at a separate step in the process. Comte outlines three points that all cultures have gone through in their history: theological thinking, metaphysical thinking, and finally, positive thinking. Marx establishes that the steps of cultural evolution are slavery, feudalism, capitalism, and communism. This is a unilinear scheme in which the process of evolution is unique.
2) Historical Particularism: As a reaction to evolutionism, some anthropologists have formulated another model to describe the diversity of cultures. Every culture has its own historical development. There is no progress, nor are some cultures more evolved than others.
3) Diffusionism: This school posits that the origin of cultural diversity lies in the confluence of specific cultural practices or cultural areas.

Human Cultural Diversity and Harmony Between Cultures

Multiculturalism: The assimilation and integration of elements from other cultures is called acculturation. This has been a normal procedure throughout all historical periods and places due to cultural mobility, meaning that cultures are not static entities but dynamic and open. Multiculturalism: In a society, people from cultures with very different attitudes coexist, with mixed customs in the same political space. This can lead to the rise of social movements advocating for the benefits of cultural mixing, while others seek to close borders in the name of preserving cultural identity.

The Attitude of Cultural Diversity

1) Cultural Relativism: This perspective holds that customs, values, and other cultural practices cannot be understood outside their context. It denies the validity of any ethical perspective, making sense only of the descriptions from an emic viewpoint. Various cultures are independent systems, and cultural relativism leads to the denial of a common standard for judging the correctness or wrongness of customs. It is not possible to compare cultures or consider some superior to others.
2) Ethnocentrism: This refers to the tendency to consider the features of one’s own culture as universal models for the rest of humanity. Other groups are judged as incorrect if they differ from one’s own culture. This attitude is the basis of racist movements, intolerance, and xenophobia.
3) Cultural Relationship: This position acknowledges the limited validity of culture. Each case must be focused on a single culture, but this does not mean that all practices must also be considered valid. This perspective retains the possibility of interculturalism, emphasizing that cultural exchange is positive and should not be avoided. A solution is to find certain universal values that are valid for all cultures, especially those that establish the foundations of a multicultural society.

The Cultural Identity

Cultural identity is a set of common features with which a human group identifies. These features can be categorized into two types: first, a series of shared material aspects (such as award ceremonies, art), and second, subjective components related to social groups and knowledge. Cultural identity does not uniquely correspond with national identity. There are two views on cultural identity:

1) Essentialist Conception: This view seeks to preserve customs, attitudes, etc., against other cultures. It presupposes a constituent element, a remote source, that is preserved generation after generation and is considered a common heritage by cultural members. This essentialist concept is exclusive.
2) Non-Essentialist Notion: This view considers cultural products as historical and subject to change. Cultural identity is seen as a project, a dynamic process that admits new elements while reproducing its own tradition.

Key Concepts

Acculturation: The process that occurs when cultures intersect, leading to the assimilation of other customs.
Xenophobia: An attitude of rejection and contempt for others or for foreign cultures.
Essentialism: This stems from the assumption that things have a set of defining traits that characterize them.
Culture: This is how human beings address their need for survival in relation to their environment.

Body and Mind

The body: living matter; we are a part of material nature. The human body is not inert matter, but living matter. We live, feel, and through the body, our body is an indispensable tool for living. The mind and brain: The human being is not just a body; we also have a mind. The term refers to the range of activities typical of human intelligence and affection, processing information from the outside world and managing vital functions. Discussions about the mind cannot be sustained without considering the brain, which is the most complex part of the human being and can act intellectually, affectively, and motorically in our lives.

Santiago Ramón y Cajal studied the originality of brain cells, or neurons, their connections, or synapses, and the surprising functions of the brain. Brain research is the subject of neuroscience, which examines how reasoning processes are produced by the brain.

The Relationship Between Body and Mind

The relationship between body and mind can be examined through three groups of responses:

1) Monism: This perspective states that mind and body are not separate realities but different aspects of the same reality. They can be of a material type or a mental/spiritual type.
2) Dualism: This view, rooted in Plato and Descartes, posits that mind and brain are two different realities, each with its own rules. Platonism has three ways to understand this relationship:
- Between the mind and body, there is a parallel action, meaning every physical act corresponds with a mental act.
- The mind and body are different realities that connect occasionally.
- The mind has no structural relation to the body; it is an epiphenomenon of the body with an independent reality and its own laws, different from the laws of the body.
3) Physicalism: This perspective asserts that mental activity depends on the brain and can be explained by physical causes. It does not accept the dualistic separation between mind and body, maintaining a relationship of dependence. Three ways to understand Physicalism include:
- The first posits an identity between mind and brain: mental activity is nothing but brain activity, which can be understood in two ways:
  - Theory of Brain Identity: There is a direct correspondence between mind and brain.
  - Theory of Identity Instance: Every thought corresponds to various brain states, not just one.
- Behaviorism: This position defends that all mental activities always translate into purposeful conduct.
- Functionalism: This approach investigates how a mental state is structurally related to other mental states and motivates a given behavior.

The Enigma of Consciousness

Consciousness allows us to conceive of ourselves as independent individuals, aware of who we are. It has a physiological basis in the brain and develops throughout our evolutionary life. It is influenced by the material conditions of our lives, language, and our relationships with other human beings.

Characteristics of Consciousness

Reflexivity: Consciousness is a mental activity that allows us to reflect on ourselves.
Two Forms of Consciousness:
- Immediate Consciousness: This appears without intermediaries. We can see ourselves as we are and think about our existence.
- Consciousness Requiring Intermediaries: This mediates external reality and other human activities, allowing us to think and judge the outside world and the consequences of our actions.

The Intentional Character of Consciousness

Consciousness is always directed towards something; it is intentional. Anyone who is conscious is always in relation to other things and beings. Consciousness includes the ability to create awareness of oneself in relation to others and the outside world.

The Death of One End Covered

Death is always present as the horizon of human life, raising endless questions about the meaning of life and the mystery of an afterlife. It is a biological fact that affects all living organisms and is also a cultural and social phenomenon. All societies view death as a key event in human life, surrounding it with rituals, customs, and beliefs. Philosophical reflection on death considers both its biological and cultural aspects, as well as the problems and questions it raises.

Questions Surrounding Death

1) Death is Always an End: It signifies the end of human life, which is limited and does not last eternally. However, death is a common destination for all humans, as it is something that reaches everyone.
2) Death is Unpredictable: Except in extreme cases like suicide or murder, death always comes, but no one knows for sure how.
3) Death is a Personal Act: No one can die for another. The profound loneliness of dying is often accompanied by the presence of relatives and friends.
4) Death Raises Fundamental Questions: These can be summarized in two: Is death the end and ultimate extinction, or does it announce a future life?

The Philosophy of Death as Meditation

Throughout history, philosophy has reflected on the meaning of death and offered two main answers:

1) Plato: He believed that to philosophize is to learn how to die. He posited that the soul is immortal and has a thirst for knowledge, making the practice of philosophy a means to release oneself from the sensible world and reach eternity.
2) The Stoics: They believed that life is a simple loan from the gods and that one should live each day as if it were the last.
3) Montaigne: He emphasized the need to think about death to understand and master its secrets, suggesting that philosophy is a meditation on death.
4) Heidegger: He argued that human beings are the only creatures aware of their mortality, and confronting this allows for radical projects that can qualify the entirety of life.
5) Unamuno: He believed that every human being desires immortality, leading to a tragic sense of life, as the desire for immortality is paradoxically tied to the knowledge of death.