Abstract
This paper incorporates a broad understanding of culture into Mario Bunge’s systemist philosophy. Cultures are viewed as semiotic systems. Semiotic systems are symbolic systems along with their users. This approach makes it possible to relate immaterial symbolic systems to real material social systems via semiotic systems, which are neither purely material nor purely ideal, but combine elements of both. The goal is to sketch an ontology of culture that is consistent with emergentist materialism, and useful for the integration of culture into social science analysis.
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Notes
- 1.
Bunge’s definition of the concept of a system is as follows: “Complex object every part or component of which is related to at least one other component. Examples: an atom is a physical system composed of protons, neutrons, and electrons; […] a valid argument is a system of propositions held together by the relation of implication and the rules of inference; a language is system of signs held together by concatenation, meaning, and grammar” (Bunge 2003, p. 282).
- 2.
“State-society” refers to modern societies contained in a territorial state, the standard sociopolitical system globally today.
- 3.
This problem of “institutional transfer” has been widely discussed in development and post-communist transformation debates.
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Pickel, A. (2019). Cultures as Semiotic Systems: Reconceptualizing Culture in a Systemic Perspective. In: Matthews, M.R. (eds) Mario Bunge: A Centenary Festschrift. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16673-1_25
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