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.
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