How real is “culture”? A painful answer

Dr. Samuel Johnson is known for refuting Berkeley’s idealism by stomping his thumb against a solid stone. Whether this anecdote is historically grounded or not is of minor importance. The lesson, however, is extremely important. Some arguments and ideas are refutable or clearly confirmed when they come up against the solid rock of reality. While a naive materialist would consider stones as the hallmark of reality testing, cultural encounters may provide us with a painful experience that confirms the reality of “culture” no less than the reality of stones.

At this point you may intuitively sense my pragmatic approach: it is pain that defines our boundary in encountering reality. To say it differently, let me recall Terry Eagleton, a nonrepresentative of pragmatism, who in his book How to Read a Poem writes (2006, 8): “Reality is what turns its back upon us, resisting our infantile demand that the world should serve as our looking glass.” Well, as the following example teaches us, the world is not the looking glass of our fantasies.