TITLE:
Anthropology as a Natural Science Clifford Geertz’s Extrinsic Theory of the Mind
AUTHORS:
Alphonso Lingis
KEYWORDS:
Geertz; Interpretative Anthropology; Symbol; Meaning; Perception
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Philosophy,
Vol.4 No.2,
April
2,
2014
ABSTRACT: Clifford Geertz set
forth interpretative anthropology as a natural science, based on “the extrinsic
theory of the mind”. Observation of the use of words and cultural symbols will
determine theory meaning. Symbols are models or templates, and enter into the
constitution of every perceived object or event we recognize or identify. We
do not perceive what others perceive, but what they perceive “with”, “by means
of”, or “through”. But the objects and events we or others perceive are already
and from the first symbolic. Thoughts and emotions are articulated, generated
and regenerated by words and other symbolic objects. Without, or before,
words and symbols, there is only general, diffuse, ongoing flow of bodily
sensation. This essay criticizes these theses in the light of the philosophy of
mind and the phenomenology of perception.