Spring 2013 Philosophy of Culture Course Questions

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Major Course Research Questions

Here is a list of major course research questions. We will edit and refine these questions as we proceed.

1. What is culture and where does it come from?
2. How is culture related to biology and geography? In what ways is it independent of our natural history?
3. What are the challenges of seeing a culture from either a position inside of it or outside of it? What skills or techniques are involved in accurately describing cultural phenomenon?
4. Can cultures and cultural practices be critically evaluated? Against what criteria or standard?
5. What resources do we find in the history of anthropology for understanding culture?
6. How various anthropological and psychological theories comprehend culture?
7. How did Antonio Gramsci understand the relationship between intellectual and political culture in Italy?
8. What is consumer culture? How can it be critqued?
9. How do specific cultural domains, such as religion, morality, and art function?
10. How did the Italian neorealists approach and critique Italian culture of the mid-twentieth century?