Term Extensions

For me, the term culture makes the most sense as describing the art, progress, and lifestyle of people around the world. We travel in order to experience the culture of another place, to see what other people value, and how they live. When we read books, observe works of visual art, or discuss great philosophers, we say that we are becoming “cultured.”

Philosophy

This meaning of the world culture is what I want to investigate more fully. As I dove into Internet Invention, I was first drawn in by the writings of Plato that Ulmer uses to describe the shift from real-world objects to “things.” I was especially interested, because in my Philosophy class we are reading many works by Plato, which seem to encourage quite the opposite. In his Meno and Phaedo, Plato uses the character Socrates to teach an idea that may seem “counter-cultural” according to Ulmer’s argument. Plato argues that, before we are born, our souls already contain the concepts of equality, beauty, and logic. In the Meno, Plato asserts “there are always to be (these) true notions in (a man), both while he is and while he is not a man, which only need to be awakened into knowledge” (38). So, according to Plato, we really don’t learn anything, we just need to recall what we already knew. Plato invention of this shift of intangible “things” to real-world qualities, forms a surprising connection to my career of choice.

Plato’s “invention” of this way thinking brings new light upon my job as a music critic. When writing about something as fluid and hard to describe as music, oftentimes I get discouraged and question how exactly I am supposed to convey the beauty of the music using clunky words. As the great Elvis Costello said, “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture” (qtd. in Scott, par. 3).

But, as I thought more about what Plato is saying, it began to make more sense what exactly I was aiming for. People already inherently know what is beautiful and what they like; my job is to bring those feelings up from the depths of their soul, and match them with a real musical piece. I am only trying to stir up those “notions” that Plato spoke of, so they can become knowledge. I need to bring up the realization that a certain song or album fulfills the longing that has resided in their soul since they were born. I’m not making the music beautiful, but bringing the beauty of my audience to the music.

With this new way of thinking, the term culture or cultured, suddenly becomes not a person who has seen the most foreign places or thought the most profound thoughts, but the person who is most in touch with the knowledge inside themselves. So, I propose that the term culture is extended to include the act of becoming “in tune” with yourself.

Works Cited

Plato. “Excerpt from the Meno.” Human Knowledge: Classical and Contemporary Approaches. Ed. Paul K. Moser and Arnold vander Nat. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. 35-38.

Scott, Alan P. “Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.” 8 August 2006. <http://home.pacifier.com/~ascott/they/tamildaa.htm>.

Images From

First Image: Keeper380

Second Image: WayneMethod

Third Image: .sarah.kraly.

Fourth Image: matCHei