CreaSentisciente

They say that on one occasion Margaret Mead said something like this:

One thing is what people say. Another thing is what people do. And there is a third option, which is what people say they do.

Cultural Construction

Regarding cultural construction as a limit of Critical and Creative Thinking, it is worth emphasizing that it is and will be the one you will experience most clearly throughout your life. There is a second variant of egocentric thinking, which is ethnocentric thinking. It is advisable to address it separately, as it directly relates to the concept of culture.

I do not intend here and now to seek a definition or delimitation of the concept of culture, something that, on the other hand, can be an ungraspable task. I will only use two statements:

1. Culture acts as the axis of reality. Social changes are always cultural changes. Culture is «development of life» [action → social action → mode(s) of social action].
2. Culture is a factual plurality. There is no singular «culture»; rather, culture is multiple, varied, and diverse. There are as many cultures as humans have the capacity to create differences (and this is constant). And although humans are not the only «agents of culture,» we do have a unique capacity on the planet to create «differences.»

Etnocentrism is the tendency of thought to consider that the criteria with which we evaluate things or events (those related to our cultural tradition) are inherent to human nature. In other words, ethnocentric thought inclines us to believe that our culture is civilized and natural, while others are strange, rare, exotic, or savage. Just like egocentric and sociocentric thinking, ethnocentric thought also operates at an unconscious level. Therefore, we rarely perceive it unless we train ourselves to do so.

Let’s see what contradicts our ethnocentrism:

1. Humans are not biologically configured toward any particular culture. The most significant biological characteristic is their «plasticity.»
2. All cultures are, above all, human creations, and possess the same legitimacy and deserve the same respect.
3. A person’s identity is shaped through their social relationships within a specific culture. Individuals can modify or reconstruct their identity, but always in the exercise of their freedom.

[NOTE]. Identity is a cultural construct that arises, at least in part, and is recreated from the creativity of the mind, serving a functional purpose as it allows for social integration.

It is important to consider that, from the perspective of critical and creative thinking, the creation of culture understood as a way of life, or a way of representing the world, or as a transformation of nature is creative effort.

Culture is a multi-causal product. Within this characteristic, I want to highlight one: it is the result of the creative process of the mind, and once adopted and learned, one is no longer aware of its process. Therefore, this lack of awareness generates a limit to critical and creative thinking.

Moral Values and Ethics

For the ancient Greeks, ‘ethos’ was the «place where the soul resides.» And there is a substantial difference between ethics and morality. They are not the same thing. Morality is a set of tacit rules that respond to a cultural construct. Ethics is not.

Let’s take the case of a 13-year-old girl who is, from a biological standpoint, perfectly capable of being a mother. However, this is questionable for various reasons. The issue is that we will see it as morally reprehensible, while in other cultures it may be accepted as «normal.» In other words, morality can be right or wrong, it depends. It presents itself to us as something debatable.

While ethics, understood as a supreme good, tends to consider human beings as an end in themselves, rather than as a means to an end. For example, the act of rescuing human beings in the Mediterranean before they drown transcends law, jurisprudence, politics, or morality. It is simply an ethical duty. It is their lives that are at stake. Ethics is indisputable.

In this sense, over the years I have come to understand ethics much better if I consider it from a spiritual perspective:

The emergence of life on this planet is so highly improbable that its mere existence makes it the most precious thing there is. Nothing holds more value than the existence of life, even above my own survival.

However, both ethics and morality, despite their subtle differences, present themselves to us as narratives of a cultural construction that can lead to discussions or debates. Though personally, those relating to ethics seem useless to me.

The importance of moral values at the collective level can be clearly demonstrated in political practice. The fact that a political party represents hundreds of thousands, or millions of voters in a state is not because this political organization represents and defends the individual interests of each of those voters (which is practically impossible in practice). Rather, it is because those voters share, at that moment in the electoral process (regardless of its length), the same moral values. Adjusted, readjusted, and/or re-adapted to the dominant cultural context.

And this is important because let’s not forget that:

• Humans respond to a series of bio-psychological constants, among which we can interpret that we feel a need for acceptance.
• That sociocentric thinking has the same origin as egocentric thinking: our mind.
• And that social communication requires sharing criteria and values for it to be effective.

Other articles in this series on Complex Thinking