AN INDUCTIVE STUDY OF THE NATURE OF CULTURE.

For some years, there has been a growing realization among social scientists that the culture concept needs a careful reexamination. Any doubt about this need should have been removed by the recent analytical survey "Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions." The present paper is such a reexamination and is a sequel and clarification of an earlier analysis by the writer. The central analytical concept of this paper is indicated by the term symbolic ideas. The advantage of this concept is that it permits the solution of problems regarding the nature of culture which cannot be discovered, stated, or solved by means of any other concept. One of the principal reasons why many basic problems about the nature of culture have not been solved long ago is that analyzers have not been using the proper conceptual tools with which to state clearly the issues. This paper shows that the concept of symbolic ideas should be welcomed as a long-needed tool with which to do this important job.