By J.M. Balkin, Yale University Press (September 24, 2003)

According to J.M. Balkin, cultural evolution occurs through the transmission of cultural information and know-how-- "cultural software"--in human minds. Individuals embody cultural software and spread it to others through communication and social learning. Ideology, he contends, is neither a special nor a pathological form of thought but an ordinary product of the evolution of cultural software. Because cultural understanding is a patchwork of older imperfect tools that are continually adapted to solve new problems, human understanding is partly adequate and partly inadequate to the pursuit of justice.

Balkin offers many current and historical examples that demonstrate the causes of ideological effects and their contributions to injustice. He also enters the current debate over multiculturalism, applying his theory to problems of mutual understanding between people who hold different worldviews.

Cultural Software Official Site

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Cultural Software: A Theory of Ideology

Table of Contents and Preface (478 KB)

Chapter One: Tools of Understanding (2.3 MB)

Part I Culture

Chapter Two: Bricolage and the Construction of Cultural Software (2.3 MB)

Chapter Three: Memetic Evolution (4.0 MB)

Chapter Four: The Spread of Cultural Software (2.9 MB)

Part II Ideology

Chapter Five: Conceptions of Ideology (2.4 MB)

Chapter Six: Ambivalence and Self-Reference (2.4 MB)

Chapter Seven: Transcendence (3.4 MB)

Part III Metabricolage

Chapter Eight: Cultural Heuristics (1.8 MB)

Chapter Nine: Narrative Expectations (3.1 MB)

Chapter Ten: Homologies and Associations (3.0 MB)

Chapter Eleven: Metaphor, Metonymy and Cognitive Models (2.0 MB)

Part IV Understanding

Chapter Twelve: The Power of Understanding (2.8 MB)

Chapter Thirteen: Knowledge Made Flesh (908 KB)

Notes (3.1 MB)

Index (781 KB)

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