Object Thinking

3. From Philosophy to Culture

Philosophy provides roots, determines some values, and affects the design of some tools, but the fullness of the object thinking difference must be understood in terms of a broader context—as a culture. The cultural perspective suggests the need to look for the shared, socially learned knowledge (norms, values, worldviews) and patterns of behavior (individual actions and organizational relationships) that characterize a group of people. The philosophical positions discussed in the preceding chapter are part of the cultural knowledge shared by object thinkers as members of an object culture.

Robert Glass used the metaphor of culture to explain differences in how different groups of people conceive of and develop software ...