The Full Scope of Culture

all right so uh picking up where we left off uh what I want to talk about now would be the distinction between uh good cultures and uh bad cultures so we have our general definition for what culture is and I guess I should say to just to recap a bit and uh maybe help you to see the significance of this and just the the extent really of the reality of culture uh I can't help but think of of uh one of my old professors at uh the center for turistic studies uh John Dey and uh

he he helped me a lot in this regard to flesh out exactly in my own thinking uh just how significant this really was but uh one of the things that he used to teach us about is uh he was critical of this kind of neomis reaction against modernity uh that he thought went too far in the direction of uh really highlighting um let's say the reality of the things themselves apart from the mind so I guess in our terms let's say highlighting objectivity uh per perhaps at the expense even of subjectivity as a a kind

of overcorrection of modernity to refocus on the the reality of being itself outside of the mind and and certainly there are good reasons to do this uh now as tomisic personalists this movement itself was also a reaction against that based basically that uh this kind of excess of uh this initial wave of neoism which um again sought to downplay subjectivity as a a response to overcorrect the modern errors of being overly subjectivist um Again by emphasizing reality that's independent from the human mind what we see with VOA and meritan is this attempt to bring the

two back together in this kind of synthesis between these two views not to sound to hegelian but uh that's effectively what we have that we're trying to restore on the one hand as the first neotomas did the first wave to restore our account or um encounter with reality itself outside of the Mind against modern thinking um and at the same time however we're trying to do that without uh simply doing away with the gains that we've made so far in our appreciation and understanding of human subjectivity through more contemporary lines of thinking and philosophy so

this is what we're trying to bridge together so uh going back to my old Professor uh likewise he was critical of that tendency with that first wave of Thomas and he said you know there's this kind of false dichotomy that these Tomas will place on uh what they call en reale which is uh real being um outside of the mind or independent from from the mind and Enz Ronis which is uh a being of reason so a mental being a being that's dependent like an idea essentially that's dependent on your mind so um this dichotomy

though with the language used there implies right off the bat that an En Ronis has no basis in uh reality that there's a distinction between again en reale real being and en Ronis mental being the implication being that en Ronis would be unreal and uh what I remember my professor saying is well this this doesn't really a better way to understand it would be that they're both real in so far as they're beings the difference is that one kind of being is is it exists independently from the mind so if you think for for example

that kind of joke that uh you might have heard um that philosophical joke of uh you know if a if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it does it emit a sound now of course the boring to Mystic answer to this which I think is the right answer is well yeah why wouldn't it uh this is what we would call mind independent being okay on the other hand uh enus would be mind dependent being so it's real uh it really is in your head uh and it makes sense

that it would be real because it of course shapes how you act let's say in the independent reality um but uh this would be an example he he would say say let's say think about the lore of The Lord of the Rings for example so this is a mental construct technically right uh it's an Enz Ronis uh this story is a creation in the mind of the author but nevertheless there's a true and a false with respect to that um if you let's say were tasked to give a summary of The Lord of the Rings

and you ended up just giving I don't know a plot summary of something like the Narnia stories if you mix them up then somebody say hey that doesn't sound right and just because of the fact that it's an Enz Ronis let's say a being of reason that doesn't mean that there's no right or wrong there uh within that sphere and uh it goes further than that so that's because you you would think okay well that's an example from literature but that doesn't seem like it's you know it doesn't matter if you get that wrong uh

well it would matter to an English teacher that's for sure but does it matter outside of that kind of academic context uh well maybe not but there are things that do and his favorite example uh of course being in Texas was um um if you don't know where let's say the border between the United States and Mexico is and you just cross that unknowingly maybe you don't care in that moment but the Texas Rangers might care so uh that's where these things end up being let's say more existentially relevant okay but here's the thing that

border while it may be based on a physical border like the Rio Grand there's nothing about the Rio Grand that makes it into this separation by necessity between these two countries that is a let's say inner subjective determination and by Inner subjectivity we're talking about basically something like language so these are things that are an unfolding of human subjectivity but that is shared Among Us so think about language too um there's nothing about let's say the sounds that I'm making right now that have to mean this or that they don't have to correspond the way

that they do to the ideas that I'm expressing and and yet they do and they they must otherwise we wouldn't be able to communicate with each other so that's basically what what I mean by Inner subjectivity is things that uh are technically speaking again these beings of reason that are products of human subjectivity but that nonetheless we share in community with each other and we all uh agree upon right um for the purpose of the common good and uh this sharing you know this it it's what enables us to live in community with with one

another so uh that goes to show you the the relevance of it but I remember that he went further than this uh and this this also helped he said you know it's not just these you know remote or isolated things really if you think about it if you think about all the things that are meaningful to us as human beings um honestly more of them fall into the category as far as our day-to-day experience goes uh in the moment it it falls upon what technically would be en ronas uh so his example I remember was

also I mean let's say we would have a class at a certain time that's a subjective determination the this small society that we have at the University of St Thomas uh the philosophy Department all of these things again are subjective Creations or or Creations from Human subjectivity uh that it's in this building at this time and also that that how well how would you get there that's the other thing he would say is if you're giving somebody directions what would you tell them you tell them well it's on uh Yokum Street and Richmond or something

like that right and again these are things that are subjective determinations that human beings have decided okay well this this street will be called this and again this is a con this is a matter of convention but it's important and uh and again our our language itself uh is a product of this our language of course being tied to culture as well so all of these things are matters of convention which are matters of culture and subjectivity but it just goes to show you really that the most interesting things to us let's say in our

day-to-day really depend fundamentally on these conventions and so uh while obviously uh we know at this point that we want to avoid the excesses of subjectivism you know we don't want to fall into that or conventionalism whatever you want to call it nevertheless we shouldn't downplay it either in the sense of we shouldn't downplay the reality and the importance of culture and convention uh as this really is what enables us this is now jp2 talking that culture is what enables us essentially to live a fundament mentally or essentially human life it's what allows human life

it gives it its character to be the way that it is and and we we live in and through culture and so that's that's uh why John Paul II also recognizing this um this was such a central point not just in his mind as a philosopher but then further uh as he matures right this is a central point in his papacy and his uh pastoral work um so again if you again think about it right if you think about just all the things that you interact with on a day-to-day basis of course you can't minimize

the importance of you know objective or independent reality but um but that's that's kind of like I guess it's it's like a boring Baseline it's it's important don't get me wrong like I'm not trying to downplay that either but uh that's just the foundation that's not really where things get interesting with us what really gets interesting with us is the edifices that we build on top of that Foundation through our subjectivity acting in this real world right that's basically what culture is and that's really uh where you know human life is is really found so

uh that's why this is s such a significant thing and like I said that's why when you consider this philosophically and all the pieces that have to go into making this work and to understand it it's a good Nexus point for all of these different things both on the ontological side of the fence and again on this practical side of the of the fence uh really bridging together um objectivity and subjectivity especially since with culture uh even though let's say it's Foundation it's it's an outpouring or unfolding as maritan says of human subjectivity nonetheless it's

something I mean we see it all around us right the fact that uh I'm in a house that's constructed and built in a certain way surrounded by Art and human artifacts I mean that's that's culture right and even uh what we're doing now right that you're listening to me speaking to you in a shared language through this medium that we've been able to achieve through technology and uh all of these rules that we've set up all these procedures right this is this is all culture this is all matters of convention this is all an unfolding

of the human act in subjectivity and that's again that's where things uh get really interesting so with all that said um let me talk real quick about uh what at its foundation a good culture would be versus a bad one now I think this is something that you know these are one of those things that we can continue to expand on but just to start out uh the simple way to approach this is now that we understand what culture is and how fundamental it is and and really focusing on that central point of Pope John

Paul II that we live in and through culture then culture he would say is what would enable us then to properly flourish as human beings as we exercise our human lives through that and let's say a good culture therefore would be one like a good political state in the common good it provides us with the means and context by which we uh uh can attain or it it kind of propels us leads us encourages us toward our proper true fulfillment in this more objective sense whereas a bad culture like a vice right that inhibits individual

human flourishing a bad culture is the same thing on this broader communal level uh like a tyrannical state where it's a context that inhibits you that that actually makes it it harder for you and that takes you away from reality and the good uh because with culture we are effectively trying to it it it starts out with an understanding of a worldview about what the good is and then the culture itself is all built around okay based on that how do we bring that in how do we instantiate these things based on how we understand

the good how do we build on top of that and so um the products of a good culture of course should be good things but um there's another aspect to this as well which jp2 talks about and emphasizes which is that um culture is also our first teacher in the world and shapes the way in which we think now we don't want to be um don't be deterministic about this again remember I cautioned you that we shouldn't fall back onto sophistry to think that we can't think outside this box or that uh or maybe in

this kind of conent sense that we would say well I guess everything is just colored by these kind of a priori structures that are imposed on us so that's all we can do and we have no access to reality because we're all thinking through culture no we don't have to go that far um we can affirm this kind of thinking through culture without having to do that so and what I mean by that is um culture we we are fluent in a particular language that language in the way that it's constructed and its Expressions uh

in the art that we have right all of these kind of images and sayings and so on these shape the way that we think now culture though is and this is how we avoid the content problem culture is something that's Dynamic and uh even though we have these kind of boxes that shape our thinking in a particular way of course we can interact with people from different cultures which will allow us to transcend uh you know whatever biases we may have uh but even from within the culture as it's dynamic as it's unfolding as it's

progressing um we can move in good directions and not just you know bad ones or just stay the course right it's it's always this everchanging thing um so that's the other side of culture that say is the kind of epistemology side of it that uh as we grow up within a particular culture it shapes the way that we look at the world and so it's it's a vehicle through which we therefore uh approach and understand the good and the true so again a good culture then would be one that gets us closer in that regard

in that respect and a bad culture is one that takes us away from that where rather than leading us toward what is true it it leads us away from that toward what is false and uh what would be morally evil okay so that's the um that's the important distinction between the two and uh and this of course uh we've been talking about the acting person but uh VOA in this reading also talks about human practice so of course again as with the concept of alienation you know VOA has marks in the back of his mind

as the adversary especially um given his historic reality of fighting against uh as as a pole you know totalitarianism in both the um um let's say the fascist uh form on the one hand and the Communist on the other and after the defeat of fascism in uh at the end of World War II uh communism is still lingering on right as this continuing threat and so this is politically speaking um the main adversary for John Paul II in his own time and so um let's say that in this regard uh Marx likewise has his own

kind of understanding of the acting person or the person in in practice like the The Working Man uh man is a Creator so Marx redefines human beings not So Much by their powers of of reasoning more but more so this kind of practical ability to uh create these systems and structures um this is something that VOA won't deny of course but that he's simply try trying to flesh out further and uh expand on culture but in this way that um again gets us back to this kind of traditional uh Catholic understanding of the good um

seen through this philosophical lens uh bringing in this harmony between faith and reason so that's that's going to be uh where VOA Falls in with that all right so that uh covers the whole scope of the philosophy of culture at least just to kind of lay out the the groundwork uh at the start uh and I should say that with that in mind by the way speaking of good and bad culture um there's one more sense that I should talk about here just to kind of Flesh this all out for you uh so so far

we've talked about the very definition of culture from the beginning uh why it's important um what it brings to the table let's say or what's involved in it from a philosophical perspective how much of reality it really covers over it's kind of existential importance to us dayto day um and now we've talked very generally about what um how to define a good culture versus a bad one so the last sense to talk about would be um this uh these two senses of culture just to keep in mind the kind of a different way of of

looking at this definition again to flesh this out further so there are these two aspects that you'll hear uh in our language you know we talk about culture in this again material sense which would refer to the the products of a culture so you can point to like a particular language so English arising from a particular culture or a painting arising from a particular culture and again we have to think these these are things that arise out of an understanding of the good so think about the way that these things are meant to to evolve

um we let's say let's say with art okay there are these conventions that arise over time in a particular culture with regard to uh the let's say the best ways to create art and this is this is cultural okay now the purpose of this the purpose of art just to stick with that example is to convey Beauty and so that means that as a transcendental uh as something that is you know the good the true and the Beautiful all these things uh really in harmony with one another um coextensive with one another uh you see

through your culture and your cultural understanding of the good this goes hand inand then with your understanding of beauty and so to create the best piece of art to convey Beauty uh that's that will be then the underlying reason why you have particular conventions it reflects the the culture's understanding of basically what the highest good would be in that capacity if that makes sense so uh this is the connection between the two but again the material aspect of it is really just the the thing itself that is the end product of this um so when

we speak about culture we can think about that we can point to those things the other aspect of this and this is I I think this is interesting too that we we can hear about the term culture in a normative sense okay and this would mean uh using it let's say like as an adjective to say that somebody is very cultured this gets us back to the good versus bad culture dichotomy but the interesting thing about this uh and TS Elliot is actually the one that talks about this but uh both both VOA and meritan

picked this up is that it seems like in our language we already have like this kind of this sense instinctively that there is this moral or normative Dimension to culture such that to be cultured means basically to be more human Okay uh and of course we call that the the Humane arts or the humanities that um it's to be more human if that makes sense uh and that's something that is it's elevating right but of course to be cultured in that sense we're presuming that it's this is a good culture okay because we don't use

that term uh in a negative sense we always use that term in a positive sense and so there's this understanding of what culture ought to be what it ought to do and that's that's basically what uh John Paul II especially is really trying to hone in on um so again that's the normative sense what it ought to be that we have again this sense uh of the trajectory of where these things should go and here's the other underlying sense that we get from our language uh Christopher Dawson is another one that talks about this um

the basis the the atmology of culture uh makes us think of two things one would be a cult like a religious cult and I'm not using that pejoratively but I mean just really just referring to religion itself um the link between this is because effectively what religion is for us is this link between man and the highest good and the understanding of the highest good and and the first cause right the essence the final object of wisdom or the let's say the proper object of wisdom itself so it's a recognition that the central basis the

initial creating point of culture begins with an understanding or an account of those things then out of which uh more will unfold okay so that's one aspect another thing that we think about in terms of culture would be like uh cultivating so the the act of cultivating a garden let's say and this is a good image to understand the reality of culture for the human being again this brings us back also to VOA talking about prais that uh culture in this sense of cultivating okay reflects the natural outpouring this unfolding as maritan said of human

subjectivity of proper human acts uh that is acts that are fundamentally human and uh when we think about this image of cultivating a field I mean again that that's a really good um metaphor for this whole thing that explains it all when somebody is gardening if if you're cultivating a garden what you are doing in that moment is you're interacting with a reality that is outside of the mind that is independent from the Mind existing in its own way you you're cooperating with nature to do this uh but what the human being is able to

do in this respect is uh understanding what uh those realities are let's say you take the the soil there you take the natural material components as your starting point and then you build on that and fashion that in this properly human way based on your conceptions of what is good be it if you're just thinking about food through taste nutrition so Health pleasure um or let's say gardening decoratively so as an artistic Endeavor of beauty all of these things kind of coming together right so you're you're fashioning the Garden in just such a way freely

so it's it's not like let's say uh a bird making a nest they're conditioned by nature to do this for survival reasons but it's all effective it's it's not not for the sake of beauty because there's no contemplation there it's it's all just tied instinctively to their survival but human beings aren't like that it's not simply for our survival that we would cultivate a garden but uh even more so than that we can fashion it out build it just so for aesthetic reasons for contemplation and there's there are these additional dimensions of it that are

possible precisely because of our personality of our personhood and here's the other thing it it's a reflection back so um when you see these kind of instantiations of culture they are a statement they reflect uh not perfectly of course but they reflect in some way the person who made it it it's a reflection of something that's internal so uh so far we've talked about about in this kind of self-giving of oneself you know we've talked about communication but let's say this also happens with these products of culture right that uh and this is this is

something that voy would give Marx credit for in recognizing the value of Labor that that there's something of the person himself that is poured into his Labor uh that reflects back onto the person who made it so there's a personal connection between the human object and the human uh which of course you don't have with something like a beehive and bees because there there's no personality there it's it's just the only thing that the Beehive reflects is this kind of static nature that you have with the be that is um irrational uh it's given it's

it's given by Nature it's applied by nature but that's what it is so it's a reflection of their Essence in that way whereas for us um we could say that yes our artifacts reflect our Natures but our Natures are precisely that we have personality that we're persons and so more than just reflecting in the abstract this kind of human nature on this horizontal level more importantly than that the artifact reflects the person who made in the first place the the the unique person uh it it goes back to that and and uh this is again

where things get more interesting so uh so that's how all these things come together all right so I think I'll leave you with that uh for this week I hope that uh that that helped to kind of pull all these different pieces together because like I said I know that for me this was not something that initially dawned on me I mean I I remember hearing that um you know this was a topic through tastic personalism but when I first heard about it I didn't fully get what exactly the importance was with culture I started

to kind of see okay well there's seems like there's something there but um but it took a bit more thinking thinking this through to then realize just how important and how significant this would be and just how how much goes into it but um it's uh of course a favorite topic of mine I mean of course it's it's my main area of of research but I hope that uh that was helpful for for you to be able to uh kind of see that for yourselves too and and hopefully you can appreciate then why you know

it's it would be interesting for a philosopher to develop these things and uh and I can tell you of course that this is a more contemporary line of thinking so there's still a lot that you can flesh out here you know so that's that's the other exciting aspect of it for our purposes let's say practically is that um you can expand as we've talked about before anistic personalism in general but this specifically this philosophy of culture is definitely something that uh deserves um more treat M but uh but yes we have the Legacy I would

say of of both maritan and John Paul II to uh to thank for this um pushing Us in this direction but I think ultimately and this is really why I went this direction too uh what we're going to find is that as we then critique modern culture especially from a Catholic perspective and come to appreciate the sort of crisis of modern culture that we are that we're in and you know we've touched on this before certainly we talked about this last week with alienation uh and how we can in understanding Al alienation understand some of

the problems in in extreme cases that we see in our own time um this kind of philosophical exploration of culture can take us further into addressing these matters I think and and even more broadly it's it allows us to move in this kind of genuinely postmodern direction as this is for maritan and jp2 this is where they thought the answer would lie in overcoming these problems and overcoming the crisis of modernity in this integral understanding of the human person through human culture uh or taking all of these things together so integral meaning this complete understanding

of the human person both uh objectively and subjectively and uh culture plays a massive role in uh in this endeavor so I look forward to reading your discussions uh let me know if you have any questions as always and uh um I'll see you on the discussion board God bless