culture

The word may be used in a wide sense to describe all aspects characteristic of a particular form of human life, or in a narrow sense to denote only the system of values implicit in it.  Understanding culture in the wide sense is one typical concern of historical, anthropological and sociological studies.  The study of culture in the narrow sense is the province of the humanities, whose aim is to interpret and transmit to future generations the system of values in terms of which the participants in a form of life find meaning and purpose.  In either of its senses, culture may be thought of as a causal agent that affects the evolutionary process by uniquely human means.  For it permits the self-conscious evaluation of human possibilities in the light of a system of values that reflect prevailing ideals about what human life ought to be.  Culture is thus an indispensable device for increasing human control over the direction in which our species changes.      -Oxford Companion to Philosophy