Cultural sociology within innovative treatise : Islamic insights on human symbols / by Mahmoud Dhaouadi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dhaouadi, Mahmoud, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Human beings.

Social evolution.

Civilization.

Culture--Origin.

Culture.

Islam and culture.

Physical Description:

xii, 172 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Maryland : University Press of America, 2013.

Summary:

This innovative book stresses the distinction of the human race from other species by using what the author calls Human Symbols (HS): language, thought, religion, knowledge/science, and cultural values and norms. Mahmoud Dhaouadi emphasizes the central position of HS in the creation of the identity of both the individual and society. That is, humans are Homo Culturus, a notion hardly found in social sciences like Marxism, behaviourism, structuralism, and psychoanalysis. This book explores the strong link between HS and the slow growth and development of the human body and claims that human duality is composed of the body and HS, not the body and the soul. HS explain some distinct human traits, such as why human babies learn to walk later than animal babies, the long human lifespan when compared with that of most animals' lifespan, the human mind, and the potential for the eternal survival of human thought. As such, HS constitute a cultural theory. Dhaouadi also asserts that HS have neither weight nor volume in the material sense of the words, as they are transcendental and spiritual. This new conceptualization of HS helps us understand the quick transmission of spoken and written words as well as how we can put enormous written material onto a few memory sticks. This innovative vision of the nature of HS is endorsed by a fresh interpretation of the verses of the Quran. Cultural Sociology within Innovative Treatise will be a significant contribution to the field of sociology, particularly to the sociological study of culture in both the Islamic and Western worlds. Book jacket.

Contents:

I New Conceptual Exploration into Cultural Sociology

1 The Search for Cultural Sociology 3

2 New Intellectual Concepts for Cultural Sociology 19

3 Social Sciences Need for HS Paradigm 31

4 Theory of HS and the Rules of Collective Behavioural Patterns of Influence on People's Behaviors 55

II Human Symbols in the Islamic Perspective

5 Culture Profile from a Different Islamic View 79

6 The Aql-NaqI Theory of Human Symbols and The Making of Cultural Sociology 97

III Three Case Studies within the HS Perspective

7 HS Behind Human Longer Lifespan 115

8 Social Science Illiteracy of the Other Underdevelopment in Post-Colonial Societies 137

9 The Arab Muslim World Set to Dialogue with the West: A Cultural Perspective 155.

ISBN:

9780761859222

0761859225

OCLC:

843809145