An Analytical Approach to Culture. Issue 4 (July 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lizardo, Omar
• Is Part Of: Philosophy of the social sciences. Volume 53:Issue 4(2023)
• Page Start: 281
• Page End: 302
• Publication Date: 2023-07
• Subjects: culture -- mechanism -- cognitive science -- holism -- explanation; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Methodology -- Periodicals; Sciences sociales -- Périodiques; Sciences sociales -- Méthodologie -- Périodiques; 300.1
• DOI: 10.1177/00483931231169313
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0048-3931

Abstract

In this paper, I outline a general framework for cultural analysis consistent with an "analytic" approach to explanation in social science. The proposed approach provides coherent solutions to thorny problems in cultural theory. These include providing a coherent definition of culture (and the "cultural"), specifying the nature of cultural units (both simple and complex), and outlining the processes making possible episodes of cultural genesis, transformation, and reproduction within bounded units characterized as cultural causal systems.