What does man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun mean?

Answer 1

Is a quote by Clifford Geertz via Max Weber from his book Interpretation of Cultures. Essentially, Geertz is referring to the influence of culture on human beings. Webs of significance could be taken to mean "culture." In this sense, Geertz is saying humans have the ability to create and modify their cultures, but that their cultures then serve to define the world around them through categorizations and methods of understanding enforced by cultural institutions. Humans cannot escape their cultures. They create them and are suspended in them. The world is defined through their cultures.

Heisenberg made a wonderful statement that is similar in meaning. To paraphrase, "We must remember that what we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our methods of questioning." Culture gives us these certain methods of questioning which we then use to construct our view of the world around us.

Answer 2

This phrase, coined by anthropologist Clifford Geertz, describes how humans are symbolic creatures who create meaning through language, culture, and perception. It emphasizes that humans interpret and assign meaning to their existence based on social, cultural, and personal constructs, rather than existing in a predetermined or objective reality.

Answer 3

I would assume that it refers to the fact that most of the objects and ideas in human culture have meaning because we give them meaning, not because they have meaning on their own.

It is saying that we are trapped socially, physically, maybe even spiritually by the traditions and rules we set up which have no grounding in any real truth.

That is what I get out of it; It seems to be annoyingly existential.