Review by Choice Review
The study of culture is neither empirical nor theoretical but normative, in the way L. Wittgenstein says the study of language is: culture is not a set of objects or facts of experience-nor a construct of theory to explain such facts- but a body of rules and values and norms to be described in their meaning and logic, their role in a whole way of life. Yet we should not think of our own norms as right absolutely and universally, nor right relative to those who live by them as other norms are right for the people following them. Norms define what is right and real for us, though they may be critically compared with norms of other cultures. McDonald thus opposes Boas, Frazer, Tylor, and Spencer, comparing them to Hume and Kant. He contrasts these anthropologists with Wittgenstein, who he uses to criticize the dualisms of nature/culture, society/individual, value/fact, sacred/profane. He also considers the moral and religious dimensions of culture; the confusion of meaning with cause and with belief; and the clarification of cultural differences historically. This is an interesting and well-argued book that can be recommended for general readers as well as advanced students in the social sciences. Related studies have been developed by Peter Winch, The Idea of a Social Science (London, 1958); Rationality, ed. by Bryan Wilson (CH, May '71); Roy Finch, Wittgenstein: The Later Philosophy (CH, Dec '77); and Gary Madison, Understanding (CH, Nov '82).-M. Andic, University of Massachusetts at Boston
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
