Tradition and innovation : The idea of civilization as culture and its significance

By viewing Western civilization as a culture, this study puts the common perspectives of our major Western institutions in bolder relief. The author shows how the institutionalization of central modes of Western rationality - found in capitalism, industrialization, science, science-based technology, bureaucracy, the rule of law, the social and behavioral sciences has created a culturally and historically unique form of collective life: advanced industrial society. Indicative of this development is the nature and meaning of the so-called innovative society itself, where rationality is increasingly seen to repose in institutions and organized individuals. structures rather than in

Professor Wilson argues that this rationality is becoming traditionalized as a central artifact of our form of life, one which believes in the independent existence of 'facts of life. This is borne out by the increasing autonomy of what Professor Wilson calls 'disembodied disciplined observation', determined as it is to annihilate contemplation and reflection in its effort to reconstitute practice in its own image.